July 2019

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FOR THE CIOs. BY THE CIOs. J U LY 2 0 1 9

THE INTERPLAY OF RPA AND AI Robotics has been a game changer for the last decade or so. But with Artificial Intelligence in the picture, the revolution intensifies. /20

COGNITIVE COMPUTING: FOOT-STEP INTO

COGNITIVE CUMPUTING

P-33

EDITOR’S LETTER

CYBER SECURITY: A MENACE

Dear Friends.

You will be happy to know we have embarked upon our 2nd edition of 4 City CISO Events, the Security Symposium 2019. We started this endeavor in 2018 and received tremendous patronage from the enterprises and security professionals – specially the CISOs and CIOs. This has prompted us to do this event again this year and to your knowledge we are not only doing this series of events in India but also in other countries. Last year, we had taken this event to Dhaka and this year we are planning to take it to the city of Colombo or Dhaka.

As you know and DSCI says, “Cyberspace comprises IT networks, computer resources, and all the fixed and mobile devices connected to the global Internet. A nation’s cyberspace is part of the global cyberspace; it cannot be isolated to define its boundaries since cyberspace is borderless. This is what makes cyberspace unique. Unlike the physical world that is limited by geographical boundaries in space—land, sea, river waters, and air—cyberspace can and is continuing to expand. Increased Internet penetration is leading to growth of cyberspace,

COVER STORY

NEXT MONTH SPECIAL

Unified Communications

The next issue is dedicated to Unified Communications. India would see a lot of this in various sectors Therefore, we would like to take feedback from the CIOs and vendors and create our judgment on Unified Communications.

since its size is proportional to the activities that are carried through it.”

Nations are investing heavily in their ICT infrastructures with a view to providing higher bandwidths, integrate national economies with the global marketplace, and to enable citizens or “netizens” to access more and more e-services.

Along with the opportunity comes the challenges too. Today, with the liberalized economy and adoption of advanced technologies including IOT, security challenges have crossed the traditional boundaries of mere computing. Since IOT Sensors are coming embedded with all the end- point devices and machines, chances of security breach are becoming high. Therefore, there is a requirement of high-level awareness among the community about the trends and challenges of Information Security. Therefore, Enterprise IT World and InfoSec Foundation’s endeavor of connecting CISOs and senior security professionals in 4 Cities is a big milestone towards creating an inclusive awareness programme.

I expect cooperation and involvement from all our CIO and CISO friends.

Looking forward to meeting you.

S A N J AY M O H A PAT R A S A N J AY @ A C C E N T I N F O M E D I A . C O M

SUPPLEMENT

Enterprise Video Solutions

The supplement story of the magazine would be on Enterprise Video Solutions, which is going through a lot of innovation.

PLUS

Interviews and Case Studies

Catch interviews, guest articles and case studies of recent applications from the Industry stakeholders, IT/ITES Vendors and IT leaders and CIOs from the Enterprise IT World CIO Community.

Send in your inputs to sanjay@accentinfomedia.com JULY 2019 ENTERPRISE IT WORLD

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CONTENTS V O L U M E 0 4 | I S S U E 0 5 | JULY 2019 | W W W . E N T E R P R I S E I T W O R L D . C O M

FOR THE CIOs. BY THE CIOs.

Publisher: Sanjib Mohapatra Chief Editor: Sanjay Mohapatra Managing Editor: Anisha Nayar Dhawan Sub Editor: Pooja Jain Designer: Ajay Arya Assistant Designer: Rahul Arya Web Designer: Vijay Bakshi, Sangeet Technical Writer: Manas Ranjan Lead Visualizer: DPR Choudhary MARKETING Marketing Manager: Nidhi Shail nidhi@accentinfomedia.com SALES CONTACTS Delhi 6/102, Kaushalya Park, Hauz Khas

COVER STORY

New Delhi-110016

20 THE INTERPLAY OF RPA AND AI

Phone: 91-11-41055458 E-mail: info@accentinfomedia.com

Robotics has been a game changer for the last decade or so. But with Artificial Intelligence in the picture, the revolution intensifies.

EDITORIAL OFFICE Delhi: 6/103, (GF) Kaushalya Park, New Delhi-110016, Phone: 91-11-41657670 / 46151993 info@accentinfomedia.com

MORE INSIDE

COGNITIVE COMPUTING: /33

“Foot-Step Into Cognitive Computing”

Editorial~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 03 News~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 06

Printed, Published and Owned by Sanjib Mohapatra Place of Publication: 6/103, (GF) Kaushalya Park, Hauz Khas New Delhi-110016

Phone: 91-11-46151993 / 41055458

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All rights reserved. No part of this publication can be reproduced without the prior written permission from the publisher.

Subscription: Rs.200 (12 issues) All payments favouring: Accent Info Media Pvt. Ltd.

wth

18 TREND MICRO

26 ASPENTECH

30 30 36

28 SAS INDIA

XPAY.LIFE

3I INFOTECH

NILESH JAIN

RON BECK

KUNAL AMAN

BOHITESH MISRA

MOHUA SENGUPA

“Business Email Compromise – When Defying an ‘Executive’ is the Right Thing to do”

“Digitalization: A Bedrock for Growth”

“Understanding the Technological Behind the Growth of the Indian eCommerce Market”

“XIPHIAS holds the promise of transactional transparency!”

“AI To Empower Workforce And Drive Objectivity”

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ENTERPRISE IT WORLD JULY 2019

ITWORLD

ROUND UP

IBM Acquires Red Hat for $34 Billion B Y S A N J AY @ A C C E N T I N FO M E D I A . C O M

IBM has effectively acquired Red Hat. The acquisition redefines the cloud market for business. Red Hat’s open hybrid cloud technologies are now paired with the unmatched scale and depth of IBM’s innovation and industry expertise, and sales leadership in more than 175 countries.

Together, IBM and Red Hat will accelerate innovation by offering a next-generation hybrid multicloud platform. Based on open source technologies, such as Linux and Kubernetes, the platform will allow businesses to securely deploy, run and manage data and applications on-premises and on private and multiple public clouds.

Red Hat will continue to be led by Jim Whitehurst and its current management team. Whitehurst is

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ENTERPRISE IT WORLD JULY 2019

joining IBM’s senior management team, reporting to Ginni Rometty. IBM will maintain Red Hat’s headquarters in Raleigh, North Carolina, its facilities, brands and practices. Red Hat will operate as a distinct unit within IBM and will be reported as part of IBM’s Cloud and Cognitive Software segment. IBM and Red Hat also share a strong commitment to social responsibility and a sense of purpose for applying technology and expertise to help address some of the world’s most significant societal challenges. Together, the two companies have committed to expanding this longstanding commitment through new joint initiatives, addressing education and skills, civic and societal needs and Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) workforce development.

D ATA BRIEFING

The global market for robots is expected to grow at a CAGR of around 37.4 percent to reach just under 500 billion U.S. dollars by 2025.

Source: EY

ITWORLD // NEWS BRIEF

LogMeIn Launches AI-Powered Bold360 Suite

LogMeIn has introduced the new Bold360 family of products, enabling businesses around the world to create next-level CX wherever the customer needs it most. Bold360 Advise and Acquire join the flagship Bold360 Customer engagement platform to deliver purpose-built AI-powered solutions that help organizations deliver impactful customer experiences from the very first engagement throughout the customer lifecycle.

“Customer experience isn’t just about postsale support,” said Paddy Srinivasan, General Manager, Customer Engagement & Support Solutions at LogMeIn. “Companies have an opportunity to make a lasting impression at every point in the customer journey. We’re

expanding Bold360 to deliver the technologies needed to humanize every interaction and create a seamless experience across channels – both digital and physical. This new suite of solutions helps bring the best of AI powered bots and live agents to all the places customers need it most.”

The new Bold360 offers more streamlined integration between proactive sales, customer service and agent assistance, extending the impact of AI from the web and call center through to the front lines so both customers and employees are better supported whether online or in-person. The new suite includes Bold360 Service, Bold360 Advise and soon to be launched Bold360 Acquire.

HPE Delivers Edge Solutions

HPE has announced new edge solutions, research labs, and programs to simplify and accelerate Intelligent Edge adoption, enabling customers to create unique digital experiences and leverage analytics and machine learning to adapt to changes in real-time. The new offerings and programs include, major enhancements to Aruba Central, the only cloud-based platform that unifies network management, AI-powered analytics, user-centric service assurance and security for wired, wireless and WAN at the edge; Integrations and new turnkey edge-to-cloud solutions, delivered with ABB, Microsoft and PTC, enabling real-time intelligence and control in industrial environments; The Intelligent Edge and IoT Center of Excellence (CoE) and Labs, part of Hewlett Packard Labs, to develop and commercialize new capabilities and technologies that accelerate customers’ and partners’ Intelligent Edge journey.

“Today, we announce innovations that will enable our customers to capitalize on these experiences and opportunities by dramatically simplifying, securing and accelerating the deployment of the Intelligent Edge,” said Santanu Ghose, Director - India, Aruba, a HPE company.

infrastructure from potential threats.

CIO

EVENTS

16 JULY 2019

18 JULY 2019

27 JULY 2019

02 AUG 2019

CYBERSECURITY & HYBRID IDENTITY MANAGEMENT SEMINAR

DATACENTER DYNAMICS CONVERGED

SUPPLY CHAIN 4.0 CONFERENCE & AWARDS

DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION & EXCELLENCE FINANCE SUMMIT

Chennai The Seminar is an opportunity to learn how to manage, monitor & audit the Active Directory environment and secure the IT

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ENTERPRISE IT WORLD JULY 2019

Bengaluru An event focusing on Data Center scale IT infrastructure that supports transformation in Cloud, IoT, Smart Cities.

Mumbai The conference will deliberate on digital transformation in end-toend functions of supply chain management with innovative technologies like AI, IoT and Blockchain.

Bengaluru The summit discusses Process improvements, Operational Excellence, Automation, and DevOps and its application & impact on Digital Transformation.

ITWORLD // NEWS BRIEF

Synechron and Blue Prism Partner to Drive Automation for Financial Services

S/HE SAID IT

BILL GATES

CO-FOUNDER, MICROSOFT CORPORATION

“The first rule of any technology used in a business is that automation applied to an efficient operation will magnify the efficiency. The second is that automation applied to an inefficient operation will magnify the inefficiency.”

Synechron has announced a strategic partnership with Blue Prism. This partnership will help banks, asset managers and insurance companies define business cases where Blue Prism’s connected-RPA platform can help drive intelligent automation for increased productivity and enhanced Return on Investment (ROI).

Synechron is accelerating digital initiatives for banks, asset managers and insurance companies, and as they continue on their digital transformation journeys leveraging RPA solutions is a key part of that strategy. Synechron will work with Blue Prism to help clients reap the benefits of scalable digital transformation, while gaining competitive advantage within the financial services industry. With Blue Prism’s solution approach focused on

QUICK BYTE ON

business-led transformation governed by IT, Synechron’s business consulting-led use case development and enterprise-scale technology delivery capability will allow us to accelerate our shared clients’ RPA initiatives. Synechron’s Digital capability will go beyond creating a digital workforce and move to advising clients on how to advance cognitive robotic process automation with advanced machine learning for additional value creation. “As we build our Blue Prism Center of Excellence, we look forward to contributing Synechron’s deep domain expertise in financial services, technology and digital innovation, to allow us to guide clients as they continue working on their digital transformation goals,” said Diana Kearns-Manolatos, Global Head of Marketing, Synechron.

“There is an explosion and tsunami of data that is sweeping us into the digital age. Data is our greatest asset and most important resource.

Data is unlike any other MICHAEL DELL C E O A N D C H A I R M A N O F D E L L T E C H N O LO G I E S

SECURITY

Trend Micro Strengthens Security Cameras by Blocking 5 Million Attack Attempts Trend Micro Incorporated has blocked 5 million attempted cyberattacks against IP cameras in just five months. The IP-based surveillance industry is fighting massive cyberattacks, but few countermeasures have been taken by the majority. As a step to mitigate this risk, Trend Micro’s IoT Reputation Service is embedded in VIVOTEK IP cameras, resulting in the world’s first surveillance devices equipped with hosted IPS and brute force attack protection.

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ITWORLD // NEWS BRIEF

Avaya and Afiniti Expand AI in the Contact Center

Netrix expands its India operations Netrix has confirmed to increase its workforce by about 20% across its offices in the country. Highly active in M & As in India, with recently acquiring four organisations, two in Kerala and one each in Pune and Mumbai, Netrix is creating more opportunities both in lateral and upward mobility within the organization.

Netrix having posted a strong year-over-year growth across the last decade has recently been chosen by AWS as the latter’s Advance Partner in Kerala. Being one of the Microsoft Top 10 Gold partner in the US, EXECUTIVE

Netrix looks forward to extending the same here too.

Netrix offices across Kochi, Pune and Mumbai will see the increase in hiring and ramping up its India presence. The corporate culture within the organization is based on the belief that the people who do the best work are those who are the most engaged. It continues to being the ‘partner of choice’ for global solution providers as Netrix provides value and empower its customers to equip themselves to the constant changes in the global marketplace, by providing customized solutions.

Avaya Holdings has expanded its integration with Afiniti to improve customer experience and contact center performance through new capabilities applying behavioral pairing AI to outbound campaigns and digital customer notifications.

The expansion of Avaya’s partnership with Afiniti, the world’s leading provider of AI-based behavioral pairing solutions, provides organizations with unique AI and machine learning technology natively integrated in Avaya IX Contact Center solutions, providing outbound contact center capabilities that strengthen customer experience and agent productivity.

“Building on our integration of Afiniti enterprise behavioral pairing into Avaya IX Contact Center, we are now enabling users to differentiate their brand experience with innovative SMS, email and phone based marketing and communications strategies that truly engage their customers with the right information at the right time. For customers, it is the promise of a more contextual end-to-end service experience that drives greater loyalty and satisfaction. For organizations, they can see increased revenue through improved conversion rates, improved agent satisfaction and reduced costs through improved business processes,” said Karen Hardy, Vice President, Product Marketing, Avaya.

MOVEMENT Alibaba Innovation Initiatives Business Group Appoints Huaiyuan Yang as Vice President of UCWeb Global Business.

Pegasystems appoints Carlos Fuentes as CISO.

Michael McLaughlin Joins FICO as Chief Financial Office.

Citrix appoints Srinivas Nadesan as Regional Channel Director for Asia (ASEAN & Korea).

Manish Sharma has joined in as Vice President of Partner Sales, Citrix for the APJ region.

Pegasystems appoints Claudia Rodriguez as Inclusion and Diversity Leader.

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NEWS BRIEF // IT WORLD

BOOK

SHELF

Robotic Process and Cognitive Automation: The Next Phase

GLOBAL UPDATE

BY

MARY LACITY AND LESLIE WILLCOCKS

Vertiv Data Center Survey Sees Edge Sites Tripling by 2025

PRICE

RS. 3,021.00 (HARDCOVER) WHERE:

AMAZON.IN

About The Book Vertiv released a mid-point update – Data Center 2025: Closer to the Edge – and it reveals fundamental shifts in the industry that barely registered in the forecasts from five short years ago.

The migration to the edge is changing the way today’s industry leaders think about the data center. They are grappling with a broad data center ecosystem comprised of many types of facilities and relying increasingly on the edge of the network. Of participants who have edge sites today or expect to have edge sites in 2025, more than half (53%) expect the number of edge sites they support to grow by at least 100% with 20% expecting

a 400% or more increase. Collectively, survey participants expect their total number of edge computing sites will grow 226% between now and 2025.

During the original 2014 research, the edge was acknowledged as a growing trend but merited just four mentions in the 19-page report. The industry’s attention at that point was focused firmly on hybrid architectures leveraging enterprise, cloud and colocation resources. Even in an industry that routinely moves and changes at light speed, the growth of the edge and the dramatic impact it will have on the data center is staggering.

This book examines real-world implementations of service automation technologies using Robotic Process Automation and Cognitive Automation tools.

Key Feature It includes interviews with major clients, providers and analysts, and a detailed analysis of the automation and future of work debate. It provides a compelling and incisive, evidence-based perspective on the direction and management of service automation, taking trends through to 2025.

VMware to Train Teams on VMware Cloud on AWS VMware introduces VMware’s Education offerings that include training on VMware Cloud on AWS in India. The three-day course will equip organizations with the necessary skills for deploying and managing a VMware Cloud on AWS infrastructure. VMware Cloud on AWS will deliver a ubiquitous digital foundation to support customers’ and partners’ digital transformation. With the addition of the AWS Asia Pacific (Mumbai) Region, VMware Cloud on AWS is now available in 14 regions globally.

VMware Education Services help customers quickly learn the best practices for implementing

the hybrid cloud platform and will be delivered via a mix of lecture and hands-on labs. The course is beneficial to anyone planning to migrate, build, or hybridize with VMware Cloud on AWS. Customers taking the VMware Education courses will be able to gain a better understanding and identify best practices for the security and maintenance of VMware Cloud on AWS. They will be able to discuss failure and troubleshooting scenarios with professionals and successfully deploy and manage VMware Cloud on AWS. They will also understand and leverage the use cases of other VMware and AWS solutions.

JULY 2019 ENTERPRISE IT WORLD

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ITWORLD // NEWS BRIEF

UiPath Named a Leader and Star Performer in RPA

DIGEST

For the third consecutive year, UiPath has been named a “Leader” and “Star Performer” in Everest Group’s 2019 RPA – Technology Vendor Landscape with Products PEAK Matrix Assessment, an accomplishment unique only to UiPath.

Leaders are measured based on market impact and the ability to deliver products successfully. Star Performers are selected based on the relative comparison of the vendor’s performance along both the market impact, and vision and capability dimensions between Everest Group’s previous and current PEAK Matrix Assessment. Vendors with the greatest yearover-year improvement are Star Performers.

Everest Group assessed UiPath’s capabilities as “high” for the categories of market adoption, value delivered to clients and product training and support. The report makes note that: “ease of use of the platform is one of UiPath’s key strengths, which resonates very well with its automation-first approach.” “Being named a Leader and Star Performer by Everest Group is important validation for the value that we’re delivering to our customers, and for our employees who are working hard to lead the automation first era. We’re proud to push the industry forward and enable more organizations around the world to gain a competitive edge with automation and AI,” said Guy Kirkwood, Chief Evangelist, UiPath.

STAQU UNVEILED AN AI-POWERED INTELLIGENCE PLATFORM FOR LAW ENFORCEMENT AGENCIES Marching strong on its agenda of enabling AI-enabled smart policing and intelligence services for law enforcement and corporate agencies, Staqu unveiled PINE, an opensource intelligence platform.

PINE accumulates data from different sources and perform language agnostic text analysis, more precisely natural language processing (NLP). PINE considers the semantically similar keywords while performing the news search. In addition, PINE also transliterates and translates the given English keywords in different Indian languages along with its context to sieve through all the news portals in real-time and populate the most relevant queries on PINE publishing platform. The news updates happen in real-time, aggregated from different sources predefined, in this scenario, by police. Furthermore, PINE also has the capability to extract the breaking news from predefined LIVE TV news channels and create the database for police intelligence which can later be used to alert or in-search purpose.

Huawei Established Industry Alliance and Industry Innovation with More Than 30 Industry Partners Huawei and more than 30 industry partners jointly established an industry alliance and an industry innovation base on 5G deterministic networking. The establishment is aimed at continuously promoting consensus on industry development and ecosystem building, and accelerating the development of the 5G industry.

By leveraging key technologies such as Cloud Native, distributed architecture, dynamic, intelligent Network Slicing, and heterogeneous ultra-performance MEC, the 5G deterministic networking adopts the “Single Cloud” to meet differentiated network requirements and deterministic SLA commitments across industries to ensure optimal user experience, promote industry innovation of applications, and enable thousands of industries.

Citrix appoints Savex as new distributor in India Citrix has expanded presence across the channel ecosystem in India, through the appointment of its third distributor in the region, Savex Technologies. Designed to drive deeper levels of reseller engagement across the region, the expanded distribution network aims to provide better partner access to secure workplaces, networking and cloud solutions, for their businesses and our mutual customers.

“Citrix is glad to welcome Savex Technologies on board and we are confident that 14 ENTERPRISE IT WORLD JULY 2019

our strategic partnership will enhance our presence in the region and help us reach new markets. Savex Technologies’ expertise makes them a natural fit to offer value-added Citrix solutions and services to our India reseller ecosystem. We look forward to a great partnership with them,” said Raghuram Krishnan, Director-Partner, Citrix India.

“We are pleased to collaborate with Citrix.

The Citrix portfolio greatly compliments ours, this strategic partnership will enable us to further deliver Citrixtechnologies into the channel, ultimately supporting our mutual customers and helping to ensure success in this fast-growing market, “ said Anil Jagasia, Founder and Chairman, Savex Technologies.

A STRATEGIC ALLIANCE ANNOUNCED

BY MICROSOFT AND SERVICENOW Microsoft and ServiceNow announced a broader strategic partnership intended to significantly enhance the integration and optimization of the companies’ products, platform and cloud capabilities. Through this expanded partnership, the companies will enable enterprise customers in certain highly regulated industries as well as government customers, to accelerate their digital transformation and drive new levels of insights and innovation. Also, for the first time, ServiceNow will house its full SaaS experience on Azure in addition to its own private cloud. The expanded partnership will elevate ServiceNow to one of Microsoft’s strategic partners in its Global ISV Strategic Alliance Portfolio.

The expanded agreement builds on a partnership announced last fall by Microsoft and ServiceNow. As leading enterprise technology platforms, Microsoft and ServiceNow make it easier for customers to integrate and optimize across the two companies’ products and platforms.

By collaborating on next-generation experiences, Microsoft and ServiceNow will leverage technology to bring further cognitive services and intelligence to products across the Now Platform with Microsoft 365 and Azure.

NEWS BRIEF // IT WORLD

MANAGEMENT

MANTRA

“If you’re trying to create a company, it’s like baking a cake. You have to have all the ingredients in the right proportion.” — Elon Musk,

GajShield Forays into European Markets

Founder, CEO, Lead Designer of SpaceX

Tech Mahindra and SSH to Deploy Cutting Edge Cybersecurity Solutions

Tech Mahindra has entered into a strategic partnership with SSH to deploy cutting edge cybersecurity solutions to secure access control for enterprises. Through this partnership, Tech Mahindra will bolster its Identity & Access Management portfolio by adding two extensive enterprise solutions – Universal SSH Key Manager (UKM) and Privileged Access Management solution (PrivX). These cutting-edge solutions aim to protect enterprise businesses from unforeseen security breaches arising due to bypass of older solutions in the Privileged Access Management (PAM) space.

Based on this joint unique offering, Tech Mahindra is implementing a cyber security

solution for one of the largest European semiconductor chip makers by supplementing and providing an additional layer of security on top of its existing password vaulting system. With UKM, the customer can be assured of security and compliance in a critical part of its operation.

The SSH protocol, also known as Secure Shell, refers to a cryptographic network protocol is a method for secure remote login from one computer to another. The global gold standard for secure remote system administration, the SSH protocol is being widely used by data centers and large enterprises to mitigate security risks that could hamper growth as part of their digital transformation journey.

GajShield Infotech has announced its foray to Greece Markets, enhancing synergies with the existing European Countries. The Brand currently has established its strong business footprint in over 7 regions (apart from India) which includes Europe, United States, Middle East, Africa, Australia, New Zealand and ASEAN. Fuelled by the dynamic expansion strategy that focuses on meeting new market requirements, GajShield has a focused growth plan charted out. Expanding operations in Europe, GajShield reinforces its commitment to customers and dealers throughout the region. The move is meant to further drive the growth of the network security market and strengthen the Brand position in enterprise solutions.

Powered by its depth of security expertise and rapid pace of research and development, the brands long-standing mission has enabled, the only Indian Firewall Brand to reach International shores. With this move, the Brand shall consolidate its experience that GajShield has gained in Europe.

YES Bank implements Asia’s First Commercial Paper Issuance on Blockchain YES BANK, India’s fourth largest private sector bank, as an issuing and paying agent (IPA), facilitated the issuance of a Commercial Paper (CP) of INR 100 Crores using Blockchain technology for Vedanta Limited, a natural resources conglomerate.

This is the first time in Asia that a CP has been digitally issued using Blockchain technology.

The digital solution ensures an efficient, transparent and secure mechanism for CP issuance and redemption. This transaction was completed in partnership with MonetaGo, a leading provider of financial technology headquartered in New York, USA. MonetaGo built the solution using Corda

Enterprise, technology provided by R3, a leading enterprise Blockchain software firm.

Speaking on the implementation, Vinod Bahety, Head-Corporate Infrastructure Banking & Corporate Banking, YES BANK said, “We are extremely pleased to partner with Vedanta and this first of its kind transaction reaffirms YES BANK’s strong commitment to bringing customized financial solutions through innovative practices and knowledge banking approach to the infrastructure sector. We believe that such pioneering solutions will significantly ease the commercial paper issuance process for regular issuers.”

JULY 2019 ENTERPRISE IT WORLD

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ITWORLD // NEWS BRIEF

HPE Plans to Offer Entire Portfolio as a Service by 2022

Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) has announced plans to transition HPE into an as a Service company over time. This includes a commitment to provide its customers choice by offering its entire portfolio, through a range of subscription based, pay-per-use and as a Service offerings, by 2022. HPE will also continue to provide its hardware and software in a

capital expenditure and license-based model, ultimately giving customers choice in consuming HPE products and services in a traditional or as a Service offering.

Building on over a decade of leadership in pioneering a new model for delivering on-premise IT as a Service, HPE will continue to scale HPE GreenLake to reach new market segments, new use cases, and leverage its world class partner ecosystem to accelerate growth. This includes new HPE GreenLake offerings for the mid-market, new services for the edge, and new and expanded partnerships with CyrusOne, Equinix, and Google Cloud. In addition, HPE continues to invest and innovate in the company’s suite of software delivered via a subscription model, including HPE Aruba Central, HPE BlueData, HPE Cloud Volumes, HPE InfoSight, and HPE OneVie The HPE GreenLake portfolio spans a wide range of purpose built solutions, from HPE and HPE’s partners, giving customers choice in building the right digital foundation. In addition, HPE GreenLake’s powerful metering and governance capabilities allow businesses to monitor and adjust usage to ensure initiatives stay within budget and compliance.

Alaris E1000 Series Scanner Wins Better Buys Editors’ Choice Award Better Buys has recognized Alaris, a Kodak Alaris business, with its Editor’s Choice Award for 2Q 2019 in the document scanner category.

The Editor’s Choice Award is given to a select group of office equipment products as a sign of excellence in quality, performance and value. Winners are carefully reviewed and handpicked by product experts. The award provides third-party validation that the products selected are best in class.Each product is individually evaluated and compared against the competition on a range of criteria, including unique features, value to the customer and price.

Better Buys recognizes the E1000 Series Scanner for its one-touch scanning of up to nine different jobs; ability to scan and send documents to email, cloud and other applications and its wide range of imaging features.

Nihilent – The Winner For 2019 Microsoft Power BI Partner Of The Year Recently, Microsoft hosted its annual Windows Server Summit.

One of the major themes was “Innovations in Microsoft Hybrid Strategy: a deep dive into Microsoft’s hyper-converged technologies and how to add hybrid services from Azure.”

Dell EMC customers are using Azure Cloud Services to modernize core IT capabilities and to extend on premise data center capabilities with Azure cloud-based services.

Microsoft Azure Stack HCI is a hyper-converged Windows Server 2019 cluster that uses validated hardware to run virtualized workloads on premises, optionally connecting to Azure services for cloud-based backup, site recovery and more. Dell EMC’s Azure-dedicated portfolio today includes support for both Azure Stack and Azure Stack HCI. Azure Stack allows users to consistently build and run cloud applications anywhere across

16 ENTERPRISE IT WORLD JULY 2019

the Azure ecosystem, using the Azure Portal with Azure IaaS and PaaS services. With Azure Stack HCI, a BYO on-prem private cloud solution, users can run virtualized workloads in a familiar and flexible way – but with the efficiency of Dell EMC hyper-converged infrastructure – and connect to Azure public for hybrid scenarios such as cloud backup and cloud-based monitoring.

These two different offerings

provide the customers with the ability to choose how they achieve a hybrid cloud environment in Azure that addresses their unique goals. The new offering leverages the Windows Server Datacenter license to provide software defined storage, using Hyper-V virtualization down to the storage level. These multinode clusters provide cost effective volumes with high performance and low latency, using common management tools.

18 October 2019 Hotel Novotel Aero City New Delhi

A Confluence of India’s Best IT Minds Drawn from Across Leading Industry Verticals

FOR MORE INFORMATION, WRITE TO sanjay@accentinfomedia.com, sanjib@accentinfomedia.com

CYBERSECURITY // BEC

NILESH JAIN VICE PRESIDENT SOUTHEAST ASIA AND INDIA, TREND MICRO

“Businesses are advised to stay vigilant and educate employees on how not to fall victim

BY SANJAY@ACCENTINFOMEDIA.COM

to BEC scams and other similar attacks. It’s true that cybercriminals usually prefer big companies but there’s little guarantee that small and medium-sized enterprises won’t get hit. For one thing, smaller companies tend to have less robust security infrastructure in place.”

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BEC // CYBERSECURITY

BUSINESS EMAIL COMPROMISE – WHEN DEFYING AN ‘EXECUTIVE’ IS THE RIGHT THING TO DO Falling victim to a BEC scam has long been a problem that generally arises from human negligence and our natural inclination to do what someone in authority asks of us. Because these scams do not have any malicious links or attachments, they can evade traditional detections. These two factors make BEC a persistent threat for enterprises.

E

mail security is a top-of-mind concern for many organizations, with business email compromise (BEC) gaining prominence as one of the lethal tactics adopted by cybercriminals to attack enterprises. Law enforcement agencies worldwide have been keeping a close watch on BEC scams as a result of the increasing losses year on year. According to the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), BEC has incurred nearly $12.5 billion losses to companies as of 2018. On average, one successful BEC attack can cost the company $130,000. We reported the number of BEC attacks in 2018 increased by 28 percent globally.

Falling victim to a BEC scam has long been a problem that generally arises from human negligence and our natural inclination to do what someone in authority asks of us. Because these scams do not have any malicious links or attachments, they can evade traditional detections. These two factors make BEC a persistent threat for enterprises. Before we delve into what measures an enterprise need to take to mitigate risks associated with BEC, it is important to know how it works.

At the core of it, BEC is a form of spear phishing where an attacker, by pretending to be a highranking executive – usually the CEO, attempts to trick a victim – usually the CFO - into paying a fraudulent invoice. To do so, fraudsters carefully research and closely monitor the potential target victims – both the spooked executive and the one issuing the payment - and their organizations. The tone of the email is usually urgent.

It is also observed that most BEC attempts happen in countries with established business

hubs and those that see a lot of multinational business operations.

BEC PERSISTS AND NEW TRENDS ARISE In India, some 1.5 billion email threats were blocked by us in 2018.BEC, as a form of emailbased scam, remains a very potent and lucrative means of funneling money from companies.

As per our security predictions for 2019, BEC scammers will target employees further down the company hierarchy this year, for example, secretaries or executive assistants.

In what appears to be a product of masterful social engineering, BEC scammers are also reportedly using domestic money mules recruited via confidence or romance scams. After grooming these victims, scammers will trick them into opening accounts that will only be used for short term, presumably to avoid being tracked by the authorities. Another phenomenon noticed is that some BEC victims are tricked to purchase gift cards. In this BEC variation, a cybercriminal posing as a person in authority may send a spoofed email, phone call, or text to a victim, requesting to buy gift cards for personal or business purposes.

GEARING UP AGAINST BEC THREATS Businesses are advised to stay vigilant and educate employees on how not to fall victim to BEC scams and other similar attacks. It’s true that cybercriminals usually prefer big companies but there’s little guarantee that small and medium-sized enterprises won’t get hit. For one thing, smaller companies tend to have less robust security infrastructure in place.

Here are some tips on how to stay protected and secure:

• Be wary of irregular emails that are sent from C-suite executives authorizing an urgent payment.

Look for discrepancies in the email address, the way it is written, the sign-off, and more. Review past emails that request transfer of funds to determine if this one is irregular.

• Cybersecurity awareness training and enforcing best practices against email threats can help employees stay alert and not fall prey to these attacks.

• Verify any changes in vendor payment details by using a secondary sign-off by company personnel.

• Stay updated on your customers and vendors’ habits, including the details, and reasons behind payments.

• Confirm requests for transfer of funds when using phone verification as part of two-factor authentication, use known familiar numbers, not the details provided in the email requests.

• If you suspect that you have been targeted by a BEC email, report the incident immediately to law enforcement or file a complaint with the cybercrime department.

Organizations should consider using a multilayered identification process for transferring resources and invest in smart email protection.

There are advanced security technologies available now that can prevent users and organizations from falling for BEC attacks. For example, by studying and learning the unique ways executives compose their emails, a new AI-based technology is able to pick up on tiny details that set authentic emails apart from fraudulent ones, leading to better detection of BEC scams.

BEC is here to stay, with Gartner predicting that through 2023, business compromise attacks will be persistent and evasive, leading to large financial fraud losses for enterprises and data breaches for organizations.

JULY 2019 ENTERPRISE IT WORLD

19

COVER STORY // ROBOTICS

THE INTERPLAY OF RPA AND AI

Robotics has been a game changer for the last decade or so. But with Artificial Intelligence in the picture, the revolution grows intense.

20 ENTERPRISE IT WORLD JULY 2019

ROBOTICS // COVER STORY

A

BY POOJA JAIN POOJA@ACCENTINFOMEDIA.COM

ccording to a report by International Federation of Robotics released earlier this year, the sales of Industrial Robots in India has reached the new record of 3,412 new units installed in 2017. This recorded a significant increase of 30 percent compared to the 2,627 new

units installed in 2016. These statistics demonstrate the growth of the Robotics market in India, wherein manufacturers, logistics, healthcare, are just some of the sectors that stand to gain from the upcoming automated revolution.

ROBOTIC PROCESS AUTO-

MATION AND ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE RPA is a Digital Transformational strategy that allows a business to automate its most basic, repetitive tasks so that it can be robotized, and the human workforce used where their discretion is more valuable. This arrangement

JULY 2019 ENTERPRISE IT WORLD

21

COVER STORY // ROBOTICS

RENJEEV KOLANCHERY SENIOR VICE PRESIDENT, HEAD AUTOMATION, MPHASIS

“Adopt and quickly advance to cognitive solutions across the enterprise to automate every aspect of the enterprise.

RAHUL SINGH THAKUR CTO AND CO-FOUNDER, ENRICH AI

“Indian enterprises are slowly but surely jumping onto the bandwagon of RPA. While new startups have been quick

to adopt it, legacy companies are also opening themselves for implementing RPA systems.

In terms of preparation, I feel that the market needs more maturity, handholding, infusion of patient capital, exposure to global practices, openness, forward thinking management, setting up of data collection and storage infrastructure and trust.”

accrues the usual benefits for the business, in terms of cost-efficiency, error-free work, and significantly faster deliverability. This frees up the manual workforce from being stuck in repetitive, mundane tasks. They can instead be used in other strategic assignments that require a higher degree of knowledge-based, creatively and innovatively inclined decisions to be made hands on.

Automation itself has been in the industry for the longest time. The journey that started in 1961, when the Unimate 1900 Series became the first mass produced Robotic Arm for Factory Automation, has evolved to the point in 2019 when the robot is not just able to do what it has been instructed to do. Artificial Intelligence infused with Robotics gives the system the data and internal processes it requires to contextualize and assess the problem. This cognitive ability significantly enhances the potential of the

22 ENTERPRISE IT WORLD JULY 2019

automation industry.

“RPA forms the foundation layer for other cognitive technologies like AI, ML, Edge Computing, Computer Vision among others.

All these technologies need vast amounts of structured as well as unstructured data to churn accurate results. RPA would help in the collection of these data points and when combined with these technologies result in creation of significant long-term value for all stakeholders in the business ecosystem,” Rahul Singh Thakur, CTO and Co-founder, Enrich AI. The thing about Technology is that it does not exist in vacuum. The different new age technologies are not compartmentalized into separate sections wherein each is operating in its own limited sphere. Instead, all these technologies from Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning to Internet of Things and Edge Commuting,

Look for RPA solutions only if your applications (in this fast paced agile, DevOps, next gen app development world) are not changing in next 18 months”

works on the fundamentals of the other. Their operability is intertwined to the extent that it becomes virtually impossible to deploy one without the other(s).

With respect to Robotics, the key trend in the market is the adoption of Artificial Intelligence in the automation processes.

“The convergence of RPA with AI and Machine Learning is paving the way for cognitive automation. With this, software robots would mimic human behaviour and handle complex use cases, which was not possible earlier, without human intervention,” said Raghu Subramanian, President and CEO, India, UiPath.

This convergence of RPA and AI results in, what is often termed as ‘Intelligent Automation’, ‘Cognitive Automation’ or most popularly ‘Cognitive Robotic Automation Process’. It not just serves to create massive growth potential for the businesses, but also offers highly cost-effective solutions. RPA and AI come together to provide an innovative, holistic approach to Workflow Management.

According to a NASSCOM research report titled, ‘Cognitive RPA – The Future of Automation’, “RPA adoption is driven by factors such as

ROBOTICS // COVER STORY

cost reduction, high accuracy, 24/7 availability, and revenue enhancement.” AI Technologies have the potential to extend RPA’s reach. These

technologies are Natural Language Processing, Recommendation Engines, Machine Learning, Speech Recognition, Image Analysis, Computer

Vision, Deep Learning and Predictive Analytics.

Equipping robots with Cognitive Technologies would qualify them to work within complex

JULY 2019 ENTERPRISE IT WORLD 23

COVER STORY // ROBOTICS

scenarios that would otherwise require human intervention.

JAYAKRISHNAN T IEEE MEMBER AND CEO, ASIMOV ROBOTICS.

WHAT ARE THE CHALLENGES? Speaking about his experience with the adoption of Robotics in his organization, Renjeev Kolanchery, Senior Vice President, Head Automation, Mphasis, said “The initial journey, from about three years ago, was filled with learnings- having the right infrastructure, the right ROI, post bot deployment Bot lifecycle, enterprise change management were the key learnings. We have grown and advanced in leaps and bounds from then on. Now the organization’s focus is in developing talent for AI based solutions.”

The biggest obstacle that is faced when it comes to the implementation of Robotic Process Automation is the resistance from employees. Their concern that the robots will ultimately put them out of circulation, is not an illegitimate concern.

It is true that a lot of jobs, albeit repetitive and

24 ENTERPRISE IT WORLD JULY 2019

“4.0 industrial revolution is the key driver for market growth which is a

new connectivity that combines and networks all of the advancements like intelligent machines, the Internet of Things (IOT), data analytics and cloud computing etc. to enable the digital labor.”

ROBOTICS // COVER STORY

GYAN PRAKASH VICE PRESIDENT – ENTERPRISE IT, SCADA GEOINFORMATICS PVT. LTD.

“New generation of industrial robots are intelligent and autonomous, robots

RAGHU SUBRAMANIAN PRESIDENT AND CEO, INDIA, UIPATH

“Today, CIOs want to adopt the automation-first approach. However, they should

first ask what can be automated. Thinking automation first would enable them to dominate the competition by moving faster, resulting in improved productivity and efficiency. Additionally, CIOs should understand the ROI of automation which makes budget allocations for RPA projects easier.”

unspecialized in nature, are slowly being taken over by the bots and are rendering a large chunk of the workforce obsolete, unless they upgrade their skills to something that has not (yet) been robotized. It will lead to a cycle of reskilling that will change the very nature of the specialized skill market. This will change the nature of the jobs available in the market and drive it towards a more specialized and skilled workforce.

Commenting on the challenges faced by the industry, Gyan Prakash, Vice President – Enterprise IT, SCADA Geoinformatics Pvt. Ltd. said “Despite strong interest in using Robotics by organizations, there is still perceived resistance holding back widespread adoption. Inevitability, much of the resistance is tied to cost, access to skills and a lack of understanding of how to produce attractive returns on investments; both up-front and ongoing through maintenance and programming of new tasks.”

Besides that, Jayakrishnan T, IEEE Member

and CEO, Asimov Robotics says that “The major challenges faced by the industry are the lead time to deployment, increased cost and high expectation of the customer.” Most of present-day requirements in robotizations are comprehensive solutions that involve various components as explained in the industry 4.0 revolution. Since these solutions have to be developed from scratch, the lead time to development is too high, he elaborates. With respect to the high cost, as these solutions are developed for the first time, the expenses include the both hardware cost as well as development expenses which often affects the affordability of the solution. Finally, unlike enterprise solution, B2C robotic products at present finds it very difficult to meet the expectations of the customer. Hence it is highly important to educate the customer on the usability and limitations when it comes to a practical application.

Commenting on the state of the Robotics Market in India, Jayakrishnan T, IEEE Member

whose improvements will be in the direction of : identifying specific objects, manipulation, knowledge, increase computing performance, numerically controlled remotely, working with miniature and complex products that require adjustment in the assembly, reliability and precision which exceeds human ability with the help of AI/ML & Edge Computing.”

and CEO, Asimov Robotics, said “Indian markets are not yet matured to include robotics as unavoidable part of the work force due to high initial cost and delay in identifying possibilities due to lack of knowledge. In fact, these two aspects are related since only volume can bring down the cost. Additionally, labour in India is not as expensive as in well-developed countries.

Hence ROI of robotisation takes long time.”

FINALLY...

The Robotic revolution though slow, is picking up pace in the Indian market. With assistance from the technologies like Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning, Robotic Process Automation can evolve exponentially. Though the lack of regulation and standardization complicates the matter. With technologies like AI and Robotics, there is no way of knowing when or where to stop.

If we are not careful, we might just find ourselves in an apocalyptic Scifi movie.

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DIGITALIZATION // ASPENTECH

DIGITALIZATION: A BEDROCK FOR GROWTH AspenTech leaders write about how Digitalization is the bedrock for growth.

A

ccelerated digitalization is transforming the process industry – comparable to how the sharing economy has democratized access to jobs and income. Home grown Asian based mobile application heavyweights, such as Grab and Go-Jek, have shown how digital innovation has disrupted the land transport industry. These super platforms have democratized digital access to local populations and provided great value to customers while changing business models. At the industry level, accelerated digitalization is impacting capital intensive industries via increased productivity and sustainability in Asia.

Artificial intelligence (AI) gives process com-

panies a competitive market advantage to advance strategically. According to MIT Sloan Management Review (USA), about 60% of industry executives believe that it is urgent for companies to develop an AI strategy and 87% believe that AI will help build a competitive advantage. As investor guru Warren Buffett puts it, “If you’ve got a wonderful castle, these are people out there who are going to try and attack it and take it away from you. And I want a castle that I can understand, but I want a castle with a moat around it.” With the ability to transform businesses, AI will become essential to fending off competition.

Companies can also systematically increase profit and agility in a sustainable manner via the latest software – built upon existing technology infrastructure. Yet, digital transformation will

RON BECK

Director of Marketing Strategy, AspenTech

“Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence can help workers decipher a treasure trove of

BY SANJAY@ACCENTINFOMEDIA.COM

data streaming off sensors in smart plants.”

26 ENTERPRISE IT WORLD JULY 2019

remain elusive without critical changes in place.

Workers need to be flexible generalists with the ability to think critically. The process industry has a reputational challenge with the younger workforce, as technical graduates tend to shy away from the hydrocarbon industry. With greater use of exciting technology, companies can attract more millennial workers to address the current skills shortage situation. Workers can also be at safer, more centralized locations and be empowered to make more strategic decisions. AI will help organizations cope with their relative lack of experience.

DIGITAL INNOVATION IN FAST GROWTH ASIA According to Oxford Economics, most of the top

ASPENTECH // DIGITALIZATION

SUNIL PATIL

Business Consulting Director, AspenTech

“Prescriptive Analytics goes further than just accurately predicting outages but identifies the root cause. In doing so, it tells companies what to do, to avoid or mitigate the consequences of an impending event.”

ten fastest growing emerging market economies are in Asia – with Thailand in seventh place; Malaysia in fifth place; China in fourth place; Indonesia in third place; the Philippines in second place and India in the lead with 6.5% projected gross domestic product (GDP) growth. The caveat in this amazing race is the ability to transform digitally, with the economic engine in Asia at stake. Driven by demand from the burgeoning Asian middle-class populations, plastics and related chemicals are essential to increasing the production of end products. This makes the innovation of new sustainable materials a crucial element to success. A spate of new multi-billion dollars production complexes are nearing completion or being designed in Southeast Asia and India. This calls for an effective digital end-toend software environment to empower workers and allow them to make complex decisions as accurately as possible.

This is where digital transformation becomes an urgent priority. Knowledge captured in intelligent software will help new technical workers get guidance in decision making, as well as keep plants safe and sustainable. Machine learning and artificial intelligence can help workers decipher a treasure trove of data streaming off sensors in smart plants. Digital innovation can also help plants produce the right products at the right

time, while staying safe and profitable. Integrated enterprises across the value chain and companies will bring agility to Asia and strengthen their market positioning globally. With the use of low touch machine learning, companies can deploy business generalists to make the best decision possible. As such, the industry in a good position to tackle sustainability hurdles, which is the next big challenge for process companies.

PRESCRIPTIVE ANALYTICS – A KEY BUILDING BLOCK Industrial data continues to proliferate with the increasing use of intelligent sensors and the growing Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) market.

Research firm, Markets and Markets, expects the IIoT market to grow from USD 64 billion in 2018 to USD 91.4 billion by 2023, at a CAGR of 7.39%.

Companies need to improve asset reliability via predictive and prescriptive maintenance techniques. Prescriptive maintenance is well poised as an industry game changer in the energy sector where millions of dollars per asset of revenue are lost yearly due to unplanned downtime.

Prescriptive maintenance offers companies a disruptive solution to reduce downtime and gain competitive edge.

Prescriptive Analytics goes further than just accurately predicting outages but identifies the

root cause. In doing so, it tells companies what to do, to avoid or mitigate the consequences of an impending event. This works because in complex plants, processes, activities and systems are interconnected. Prescriptive analytics looks at millions of data points and pinpoints sophisticated signatures and patterns that can be detected well in advance of an event. With this approach, failure warning can be obtained up to 60 days in advance to tell the operator the root cause of the problem, pending problem and what actions can be taken to avoid it. The insight gained allows the operator to adjust its operating strategy and drive improvements in the plant or refinery. With more data gathered, the autonomous system learns on an ongoing basis.

In conclusion, the process industry needs to continue its journey of operational excellence and invest in solutions that incorporate AI, machine learning, visualization and prescriptive analytics built on domain knowledge. All of which, will form the agile foundation for the next stage of growth, as companies capitalize on investments made by the industry in the past three decades.

Disruptive technologies help revolutionize businesses and set in motion, future growth by capturing the benefits of digitalization today to be more sustainable businesses tomorrow.

JULY 2019 ENTERPRISE IT WORLD 27

ECOMMERCE // SAS

K U N A L

A M A N

Marketing Head, SAS India

“By leveraging the power of Cloud and Analytics, retailers can harness valuable insights from the data at their disposal, in turn, allowing them to react to bursts of demand in a far more responsive way.”

BY SANJAY@ACCENTINFOMEDIA.COM

UNDERSTANDING THE TECHNOLOGY BEHIND THE GROWTH OF THE INDIAN ECOMMERCE MARKET

Various studies point to the fact that the Indian e-commerce market reached approximately US$ 38 billion in 2018-19. Fueled by the surge in connectivity and a fast-growing economy, the eCommerce market in India is projected to grow at a rapid rate of 30-35% every year in the near future.

What is the market size of eCommerce in India?

Various studies point to the fact that the Indian e-commerce market reached approximately US$ 38 billion in 2018-19. Fueled by the surge in connectivity and a fast-growing economy, the eCommerce market in India is projected to grow at a rapid rate of 28 ENTERPRISE IT WORLD JULY 2019

30-35% every year in the near future.

What are the technologies that you are adopting to facilitate the core activities of eCommerce businesses?

At SAS, we enable omnichannel analytics which can help retailers & e-Commerce businesses optimize all

aspects of retail business. There are three broad ways SAS supports e-Commerce retailers: • By leveraging Artificial intelligence, we enable unified commerce and ensure a consistent, optimized customer experience across the entire customer journey.

• We help to adopt analytical merchandising,

SAS // ECOMMERCE

intelligent marketing and an integrated data strategy.

And most importantly, • We improve sales and boost margins by optimizing promotional and markdown pricing strategies.

Our solutions include: • The SAS platform that is cloud-ready and leverages Artificial Intelligence to optimize supply chain operations, increase conversions and help create customized shopping experiences • Data Management Software to go beyond managing data to unleashing its full potential.

• Merchandise Planning that enable retailers to create merchandise plans to ensure that the right merchandise is available when customers are ready to buy • Customer Intelligence that allows for customer insight & behavior-based marketing management & automation to invoke the right engagement strategy and drive profitable revenue growth.

• Revenue Optimization Suite that helps optimize lifecycle pricing strategies and corporate profitability with a comprehensive view of consumer demand.

• Intelligent Decisioning to enable analytically driven real-time customer interactions and automate operational business decisions at scale.

• Visual Analytics & Visual Statistics which helpvisually explore all data, discover new patterns, create predictive models and publish reports to the web and mobile devices.

What are the new technological trends in the eCommerce market?

Omnichannel & Phygital: Now this trend isn’t exactly new, but will continue to gain a lot more momentum in 2019-20 as customers expect more meaningful offers from retailers. More e-Commerce brands will look at a multi-channel approach to serve their customers to deliver a seamless shopping experience. While this has meant leveraging tech to provide for a unified and connected experience across platforms there are other considerations too. For example, pure play online retailers may increasingly consider going ‘Phygital’ (Digital presence married with classic brick and mortar retail). Lenskart has already done this with retail stores, Firstcry has 300+ stores and I am sure there are many others who will follow to drive more experiential marketing and build trust.

The Growth of AI in Retail: As Artificial Intelligence solutions mature and become more accessible, increasingly, retail and e-Commerce players will find themselves embracing AI and machine learning algorithms not just as part of their overall tech strategy but also as part of their business strategy – especially in the areas of delivering personalized customer experiences, chatbots, supply chain optimization, route planningand cross/ up-selling via recommendation engines.

AR & VR & Gamification: We have already seen the impact of gamification in edtech sector with the success of players like Byju.

Combined with AR & VR, this trend is likely to spill over to other industries such as travel and hospitality, fashion retail etc. see an uptick as it allows for eCommerce brands to create a more immersive and engaging experience for the customer. Designing of innovative content and new delivery mechanisms will continue to grow.

Social commerce: India is still in nascent stages when it comes to social commerce, but it does show great promise of growth with social platforms witnessing an exponential boom. Social commerce marries together social media and online shopping. The amount of time spent on social media platforms provides more opportunities for product discovery and the ability to create a more tailored experience. India has always been a content hungry nation and as this phenomenon continues, it only propels forward the need to innovative means of monetizing social media.

What steps do you take to accommodate the sudden rise in traffic during sales, for example?

Seasonality & festivals can significantly impact the eCommerce industry. A surge in shopping around signature events whether planned or unplanned, can mean immense variations in the volume of data needing to be processed. The larger the data volume, the higher the compute and storage resources required. That’s where cloud can come in. SAS Retail Analytics on Cloud allows retailers to scale their analytics up and out as their business climate evolves by automatically provisioning additional resources.

By leveraging the power of Cloud and Analytics, retailers can harness valuable insights from the data at their disposal, in turn, allowing them to react to bursts of demand in a far more responsive way. Our managed SaaS offerings are ready to use right out of the box and can be customized to meet changing requirements. SAS works with most major cloud infrastructure providers to streamline SAS deployments in public clouds. We also partner with a number ofmanaged analytic service providers (MASPs) that offer cloud-based solutions for specific industries, including ecommerce.

What are the challenges that you are facing in the implementation of the technologies?

One of the most common challenges center around limited analytics skill availability.

It’s difficult to fully implement analytics-based improvement when you have limited analytics skill in-house or strained IT resources. But in today’s highly competitive environment, doing nothing is not an option. Hence, we now have SAS results-as-

a-service as an option for retailers to help overcome obstacles companies face when acquiring and using analytics, whether for a quick high-priority project or an ongoing enterprise initiative. You provide the data and business problem; SAS delivers the results.

As simple as that.

Let’s move on to some of the other challenges.

Lack of a holistic approach to managing Data: Data flowing in and out of organizations today, are not inherently organized or structured. And more volume and variety are not necessarily better.

For ex.: • Raw data collected from sensors throughout the supply chain may be incomplete, insufficient or inaccurate.

• Data can come in from various sources – for ex. structured data coming in from traditional ERP systems versus the unstructured data that comes from social media sources. These need to be treated differently.

• Data collected for analytics may also include sensitive customer information. That data should be treated like an asset – governed, secured and safeguarded for privacy • Retailers need to ask the fundamental questions on how they manage data distribution and access to different teams and business units that may create, use and manage the data.

All of these considerations have to be properly accounted for an eCommerce to make fast, wellinformed decisions, fix potential issues and capitalize on the data’s full value.

Executives sometimes mix up analytics initiative with a specific technology. So, they begin their analytics journey by procuring and implementing technology, which can lead to very disappointing results. It’s rarely the case you can implement a piece of software and be done. Moreover, different problems and use cases require very different types of data, tools, and methods. A more effective approach involves identifying up front the decisions or business processes an organization wants to improve, then asking: • What kind of model or data product can we build to improve those decisions?

• What data do we need?

• How do we convert the raw data into actionable insights or predictive model indications?

• And how do we get people to appropriately act on those insights?

If analytics is not pursued strategically, it can lead to missed opportunities or expensive distractions. A successful implementation has multiple considerations. Some of these may also necessitate you would need to go beyond your function and work with multiple stakeholders across business units to strategize, embed analytics in their business processes and eventually build a data driven culture within the organization.

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BLOCKCHAIN // BOHITESH MISRA

XIPHIAS HOLDS THE PROMISE OF TRANSACTIONAL TRANSPARENCY! For businesses, Blockchain holds the promise of transactional transparency – the ability to create secure, real-time communication networks with partners around the globe to support everything from supply chains to payment networks to real estate deals and healthcare data sharing.

an identical copy is stored on many computers. Based on a distributed, peer-to-peer (P2P) topology, blockchain or distributed ledger technology (DLT) allows data to be stored globally on thousands of servers – while letting anyone on the network see everyone else’s entries in real-time. That makes it difficult for one user to gain control of, or game, the network.

For businesses, however, blockchain holds the promise of transactional transparency – the ability to create secure, real-time communication networks with partners around the globe to support everything from supply chains to payment networks to real estate deals and healthcare data sharing.

XIPHIAS Software Technologies Pvt. Ltd. is a leading Touch Screen Kiosk manufacturing company in India that provides a turnkey solution to its users, including hardware and software as an embedded solution. The company works on AMBIC Model, which stands for Artificial Intelligence, Mobility, Blockchain technology, IoT and Cloud based solutions in the form of Infrastructure as a Service (Iaas), Platform as a Service (PaaS) and Software as a Service (SaaS). XIPHIAS is also a Fintech leader that simplifies the transaction and end-to-end customer journey through ‘one-click’ processing for transactions in digital channels.

Xpay.Life - Blockchain based Utility Bill Payment services The signature product of XIPHIAS is Utility Bill Payment through Touch Screen Kiosk, Web and Mobile App for iOS and Android and POS device using cash and online payment channels through Xpay.life.

Figure 1: Mobile POS for utility bill payment in rural areas Keeping up with technology in the industry, recently XIPHIAS has launchedBlockchain secure Payment Gateway, which ensures that comes with an enhanced security and faster settlement processes which further improves traceability and transparency in the payment.

BOHITESH MISRA,

BY SANJAY@ACCENTINFOMEDIA.COM

Co-founder and COO & CTO, Xpay.life

“Contrary to the most popular use case blockchain technologies don’t only secure financial transactions, – in fact, they

can be used to track and verify any kind of digital asset, as well as code or smart contracts such as medical records, and in our case examination records.”

Blockchains are the most important technological innovation since the internet or a solution looking for a problem, wherein the decentralized ledger consists of linked batches of transactions known as blocks and 30 ENTERPRISE IT WORLD JULY 2019

Figure 2: Blocakchain enabled Utility Bill payment gateway Xpay.life Needless to say, ubiquitous smartphone use has changed the way consumers engage with brands. Consumers are empowered to take their own journey through each shopping experience and transaction, all the way up to POS. Now, consumers have encountered self-checkout Kiosk in retail sector.To be in trend and serve the customers’ needs in a better way, XIPHIAS manufactures IOT based Self-Check-Out Kiosk and people are using it widely. These are huge numbers, and multiplied across the globe, it’s massive. XIPHIAS has installed many Self Check

out Kiosks at Praxi Retail.

Self-Check-Out Kiosk has become much popular due to its safe transactions. Digitisation of payments presents a large opportunity in the Indiancontext. As per Google – BCG Report, it is estimated that the total payments conducted via digitalpayment instruments will be in the range of USD 500 billion by 2020,which is approximately 10X of current levels. Person to merchant(P2M) transactions driven by digital payments at physical point ofsale, followed by business to business (B2B) and peer to peer (P2P)transactions are expected to be major contributors of growth.

BOHITESH MISRA // BLOCKCHAIN

XIPHIAS offers user-friendly interface of touch screen kiosk that enhances the experience of customers and they prefer it over the counter system. The kiosk is equipped with multiple modes of payments and also keeps a track of the customers’ previous purchases and preferred promotions using AI.

Figure 3: Blockchain based retail Self-checkout kiosk IoT based Self-checkout kiosk has emerged as an undisputed hero of the retail sector by not only offering the benefits to the retailers but also for providing enthralling shopping experience to the customers. IoT based self-check-out kiosk facilitates customers to select their own items, bags them and complete the transaction without any assistance from any sales person. This selfcheck-out kiosk has truly shine in managing the long queues efficiently.

Self-checkout kiosks have evolved tremendously and businesses are deploying it for billing, managing long queues, cash management and much more. Self-checkout kiosk is not only about handling transactions but nowadays, retailers are offering different modes of payments including mobile application-based payments through QR code embedded on the products, contactless payments through NFC or such other means. This AI based Self-Check-Out kiosk enables customers to check out as and when they want instead of waiting for their turn to come in a long queue.

BISET - Blockchain & IoT based Safety Training Kiosk Apart from Self Check Kiosk, XIPHIAS also manufactures Safety Training Kiosk called BISET (Blockchain & IoT based Safety Training Kiosk).

BISET is the world’s first Robotic Kiosk for Online Safety Training powered by Blockchain & IoT, which can be used by any organization where employee’s security know-how is of critical importance. The entire solution will be based on the most unique non-tokenized private Blockchain providing strong authentication and data encryption for the enterprises ensuring Cyber Security. Not only this, it will also issue a hashed certificate on passing the course using blockchain.

The concept is based on Blockchain Technology, whose distributed database is running on multiple servers that continually checks the security and integrity of each record. Blocks chained by hash values and incentivized proof of work provide a foundation for distributed trust in the blockchain. Each block is time stamped and linked to previous blocks, using cryptography to ensure the data is immutable and tampered -proof.

Contrary to the most popular use case, blockchain technologies don’t only secure financial transactions – in fact, they can be used to track and verify any kind of digital asset, as well as code or smart contracts such as medical records, and in our case examination records.

XIPHIAS addresses the basic problems of integrity, honesty, consideration, accountability

and transparency in the training and certification system. It redefines the way we take the online courses by providing a trusted mechanism of managing the details of the candidates as well as the examination. All the information is secured using cryptographic techniques and stored in a private blockchain which can be accessed only through a key thus ensuring that the data has not been tampered and is immutable.

By rendering a hashed certificate at the completion, we ensure that no one can make copies of the certificates and thus we safeguard the authenticity of the course and the organization.

This innovation will benefit many industries that would want to impart any training to their employees. To name a few, it can be any security training, management training, subject training, induction training, public speaking training, PR training which the organization wants the employees to undertake as per policies and industry standards.

BISET based solution is World’s First Robotic Kiosk for Online Safety Training powered by IoT, that addresses the basic problems of integrity, honesty, consideration, accountability and transparency in the training and certification system in an organization.

BISET redefines the way employees are taking the online courses by providing a trusted mechanism of managing the details of the candidates as well as the examination. All the information is secured using cryptographic techniques and stored in a private blockchain which can be accessed only through a key thus ensuring that the data has not been tampered and is immutable.

By rendering a hashed certificate at the completion, we ensure that no one can make copies of the certificates and thus we safeguard the authenticity of the course and the organization. It issues a hashed certificate on passing the course using blockchain.

Figure 4: BISET based safety training kiosk XIPHIAS has deployed BISET Kiosks in Coca Cola in different states such as Sanand, Pune, Goblage, Siliguri, and Bangalore.

JULY 2019 ENTERPRISE IT WORLD

31

ANALYTICS // GARTNER

DATA AND ANALYTICS TRENDS FOR MIDSIZE ENTERPRISES Embrace new data and analytics trends to deliver MSE business value.

ALAN D. DUNCAN

BY SANJAY@ACCENTINFOMEDIA.COM

VP Analyst, Gartner

Data and analytics can deliver profound benefits to midsize enterprises (MSEs) and are becoming critical for differentiation and even longterm survival.

MSE farming operations can drastically improve productivity, growth and margins by using analytics disruptively. Farmers can increase their ability to farm exponentially higher acreage with the same number of employees (or fewer). Video analytics and visualizations enable retailers to understand shopper profiles and shopping traffic patterns.

MSE financial services providers are working continuously to improve their risk models because the more accurate their assessment of risk, the better their chances of profitability. MSE manufacturers worldwide are increasingly looking into the causes of quality fluctuations by combining “what if?” analysis with sensitivity analysis and predictive models.

To cope with the innovation and change impacts of these projects, leading MSEs are preparing for expanded data science capabilities by drawing on new and simplifying technologies. These include supporting citizen analysts to deploy and derive value from augmented analytics, one of four major data and analytics trends MSE CIOs 32 ENTERPRISE IT WORLD JULY 2019

should be paying attention to.

Trends in data and analytics technology, including the rise of Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence, represent major developments that can’t be ignored. CIOs in midsize enterprises should embrace such trends as they strive to develop data-driven organizations that deliver new business value.

Deploy visual data discovery for better data-driven business decisions Traditionally, midsize teams view data in a few discrete platforms.

But over the past five years, technology has emerged that layers data from separate tools into a tightly coupled interactive visualization layer. Visual data discovery enables CIOs to blend data quickly, which means that they are able to diagnose business problems and regularly test whether current operations are effective.

These platforms are mostly cloud-based, offering flexibility and scalability alongside deeper diagnostic analytical capability.

These solutions offer MSE CIOs the maximum opportunity to engage with, and support, the business user community.

Use data preparation tools for more productivity and data governance Getting data ready to use can be time-consuming and difficult, and MSEs often lack the correct resources to do it well. Data preparation is an iterative, agile process that enables enhanced and streamlined data preparation efforts and improves data sharing, reuse and governance.

Data preparation tools give users the opportunity to see important connections within the data and share the findings. Emerging technologies such as augmented machine learning capabilities and data catalogues make it even easier to share business insights.

Enable more self-service

and automation with augmented analytics Data visualization simplifies some data and analytics challenges, but identifying insight and building the analytics models remains complex and time-consuming. Additionally, it’s difficult to know which insights to act on and which are significant. Augmented analytics uses artificial intelligence (AI) techniques to simplify analytical processes such as data preparation, insight discovery and insight sharing.

This enables business users and citizen data scientists to automatically find, visualize and narrate relevant analytical findings, such as correlations, exceptions, clusters, segments, outliers and predictions, without having to build models or write algorithms.

Implement predictive analytics to optimize and embed analytics in highvalue business scenarios Predictive analytics answer the question, “What is likely to happen?” Previously, marketers have used the technology to figure out what customers were likely to do, but predictive analytics are now being embedded in more business applications than ever. As enterprises using the technology continue to report good results, and as the amount and quality of data increases, so has interest in this technology.

Predictive analytics are also relatively easy to deploy for specific business functions. MSEs can implement packaged applications for most use cases, although these options can be limited in agility, customization and how much competitive differentiation they offer. The alternative is to task the IT team with improving its analytics skills and design thinking or partnering with an external data and analytics service provider.

COGNITIVE COMPUTING // GUEST COLUMN

FOOT-STEP INTO COGNITIVE COMPUTING

COGNITIVE COMPUTING

Three pillars of cognitive security are understanding and make unstructured data into natural language test, so that reason based on ability to interpret and organize information is rationale and learn from interactions.

adaptive

stateful

Combines machine learning, reasoning, natural language processing, speech, vision, human computer interaction

NAMRATA KHANNA, Senior Manager - Technology, Concentrix

BY SANJAY@ACCENTINFOMEDIA.COM

“Cognitive IT allows client to work on their essential capabilities at lower cost of IT for driving business growth by meeting business needs.”

Cognitive IT can provide elements of innovation from different type of information and work environment that is designed for cross skill development, which cannot be accomplished by lack of organizational support, time, encouragement for innovation and limited information.

Cognitive IT allows client to work on their essential capabilities at lower cost of IT for driving business growth by meeting business needs.

Cognitive assembles unstructured and structured data into information which enables continuous security and business improvement as these data have high level of accuracy. IT observes events, behaviours, block new threats and make security more effective and accelerating the response a high level of control.

Three pillars of cognitive security are understanding and make unstructured data into natural language test, so that reason based on ability to interpret and organize information is rationale and learn from interactions.

Cognitive computing can analyse gigabyte of medical information

interactive

contextual

iterative

human brain

to formalize special treatment plan for patient, manufactures for supply chain, banking, financial, insurance information and risk which were ignored due to lack of availabilities and platform. It can also analyse information from sensor networks, local weather stations, sky cameras, satellites to predict weather patterns for more effective and efficient way of reserving their energy.

Service deliveryis one which make full use of this system to achieve new levels of agility, productivity, and efficiency. By embedding cognitive capabilities into existing service management processes, we can transform the way agents deliver services.

• Agile: Complete tasks faster, improving productivity and agility across service delivery experiences.

• Efficient: Enhance the level of service and improve SLAs with reductions in cycle time.

• Scalable: Scale by automating repetitive and mundane tasks, freeing expensive resources for innovative and people-focused work.

Successful organization are creating captivating consumer experience that transform their interaction to support business at running peak performance.

Though traditional monitoring tool can track problem to improve mean time to repair, cognitive capabilities can improve mean time to know the root cause of the problem and action plan to stop it in future.

It can diagnose the problem, environment, receive notification and alert before services are interrupted. It would support in saving cost and resource time in resolving critical issue which could be skipped due to unavailability of details of information.

JULY 2019 ENTERPRISE IT WORLD 33

INTERNET OF THINGS // DELL TECHNOLOGIES CONSULTING

“After the last three decades of accelerated socioeconomic, growth

with science and technology, there is the next wave of disruption. Internet of Things (IoT) is changing the way we communicate with everyday things.”

ANANDH VENKATRAMAN

Chief Digital Officer, APJ, EMEA, Dell Technologies Consulting

BY SANJAY@ACCENTINFOMEDIA.COM

IOT AS A SERVICE WILL BE THE NEXT WAVE FOR BUSINESSES OF TOMORROW Internet of Things, Distributed Systems, advanced Data Engineering, Machine Learning and advancement in Application Development is changing the enterprise ecosystem.

T

here is no choice over where we will reach based on the road we choose. IOT as a service is one such path that exists for enterprises which are looking for one. After the 34 ENTERPRISE IT WORLD JULY 2019

last three decades of accelerated socio-economic growth with science and technology, there is the next wave of disruption. Internet of Things (IoT) is changing the way we communicate with everyday things. With real, practical products and

services gaining importance in our day to day activities starting from fitness trackers to automating homes, offices the wave is already there. 5G connectivity will soon enable new technologies on scale, such as connected vehicles and even connected healthcare. New technologies, new products and new connective potential is also enabling new business models. The next generation of products will need to connect (globally), interact with new partners and ecosystems, and may be available in as-a-service formats (made possible through real-time remote connectivity).

The lack of in-house expertise in an enterprise to manage these disparate layers is among the top reasons that have constrained the potential growth of IoT. With numerous protocols and standards out in the market, understanding interoperability of these disparate layers is what adds the most complication.

The business forecast of IoT market is already impactful at a global level. For the next, five to ten years Gartner estimates a benefit of USD 2 trillion in 2020, IDC Estimates USD 1.7 trillion in 2020, and McKinsey estimates growth to go around USD 4 trillion to USD 11 trillion. The clear statistic is the there is a growth and curve is steep. For catering this forecasted growth, Gartner

DELL TECHNOLOGIES CONSULTING // INTERNET OF THINGS

notes that IoT and the business models associated are not enterprise ready.

The platform of platforms approach towards designing, development, deployment, and operationalization of various IoT applications and business processes would be a solution for this.

VALUE PROPOSITION The Internet of Things has come a long way, from hacks to research projects to efficient, sustainable everyday products, services and applications capturing customer’s imagination and driving a technological revolution. While the industry is trying to realize the full benefits of this ecosystem, the enterprises should address the challenges faces by sensor hardware providers, big data platforms, service integrators, application developers and end users.

PLATFORM OF PLATFORMS There is a need to have a holistic solution, reference architecture to cater most of the enterprise IoT needs. This solution while handling most of the IoT solutions should also be flexible enough for handling cross industry applications, hence a platform of platforms. Our approach on the solution to this problem for applications in capturing from several enterprises and telemetry data sources, processing of petabytes of bytesized datasets originating from various sensors, advanced machine learning system for recommending actions based on real-time analysis and connecting the end user business systems

REFERENCE ARCHITECTURE Over the last few years, we have worked on developing several IoT ecosystems in energy, traffic, healthcare, and automotive. While designing, developing and creating market-ready architecture, we have developed a cohesive IoT PaaS solution keeping in mind rapid design, seamless integration and scalable deployment as the principle. The application pretext for this platform to have capabilities for data streaming, smooth ingestion, event processing, and analytics, elastic hardware and software computing, machine learning compatibility and end-user application integrations.

Various Components of a generic IoT System would be:

SENSOR COMMUNICATIONS AND CONNECTIVITY The platform must support multi-protocol com-

munications and connectivity support. Sensors are connected to the primary stream systems by either a direct internet connection if sensors are wifi enabled. Otherwise, a gateway like Dell Gateway 5100 acts like an edge server that communicates with sensors in various protocols. Edge nodes are responsible for the connections to any sensors, actuators, control systems and assets. For controlling the sensors too, the gateway acts as an interface. Hence a reliable and stable portal is the first touch point for this architecture.

EDGE DATA MANAGER The primary role of gateway software after connecting with sensors is to tag them through a sensor management layer. Registering of the sensors, creating specific IDs, and connection management is the core component of the edge sensor manager. Once the sensors are designated, the data from sensors will be normalized to a standard format like MQTT. Either the data in the sensors is stored for edge analytics or will be exposed as JDBC connections or HTTPS based REST calls for further processing.

EDGE ANALYTICS Analytics on edge systems becomes critical where the business-critical information needs information in low latency, for example, video analysis systems that need to do the analytics on real-time or healthcare systems that require to make calculations on the gateway. Hence, edge gateways also have an analytics component like EdgeXFoundry deployed to serve the edge analysis component.

PLATFORM DATA MANAGER Platform Data Manager is the data center component that acts as a backend platform service to handle: - Data Ingestion: Ingestion manager caters to both real-time and batch-processing needs of the sensor data, in the Lambda architecture, - Data Pre-processing: Standardization, Normalization, Verification, of the the data are done as part of the platform ingestion - Data Aggregations: Raw data is converted into aggregated data marts for analysis and analytics at data manager

PLATFORM ANALYTICS MANAGER Analytics Manager works on the information there in the data lake ingested and pre-processed through the data manager, and various analytics performed over the data in data lake like: - Correlation Analysis: E.g. how to change the

ambiance of the room according to the weather outside - Forecasting: E.g. Energy forecasting - Predictive Analysis - Prescriptive Analysis: E.g. Automatic Demand Response Systems

APPLICATION MANAGER AND BUSINESS LAYER From the data after analysis and analytics, the platform needs to support business needs with various end-user applications using these could be plugging using PaaS systems like Pivotal Cloud Foundry.

SECURITY LAYER At various system integrations security and encryption of data is very prominent, hence different touch points of data across the platform, a security protocol is enabled and logged for the understanding of further lineage and audit.

END TO END IOT SOLUTION New IT revolution is underway, over the last few years, there have been advancements on scale-out architecture, distributed systems, cloud platforms and the end to end big data platforms and the next would be an IoT platform designed for enterprises.

This platform would need to comprise various paradigms for software advancements and cater to business functions and applications. Such platforms will have the capabilities from sourcing the sensor information, realtime ingestion in a distributed system-based hardware and software, data processing and normalization of the data, data science and insights, and lastly end user applications running on the platform as a service.

Conclusion Internet of Things, distributed systems, advanced data engineering, machine learning and advancement in application development is changing the enterprise ecosystem. There is machine generated, hence well-structured new petabytes of data that is arriving every second, machine runs. Applications on this data require a historical understanding of this data and real-time analytics for determining patterns and recommendations.

This ecosystem hence demands an enterpriseready end to end platform, covering systems from edge to on-premise systems to cloud application systems.

JULY 2019 ENTERPRISE IT WORLD 35

ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE // 3I INFOTECH

AI TO EMPOWER WORKFORCE AND DRIVE OBJECTIVITY AI happens to be the newest kid in the block, which is taking the recruitment processes by storm, as it is getting re-engineered every day, with more and more intelligent and repetitive work being replaced by AI

MOHUA SENGUPTA,

EVP and Global Head of IT Services, 3i Infotech

“The recruitment processes are, reviewed and reengineered to remove age old practices and made well

BY SANJAY@ACCENTINFOMEDIA.COM

suited for reaping maximum benefit out of AI.”

Corporate India is going through a defining time, with emerging technologies taking over many areas of business. Human resource is one such critical area, which is core to any business and has been going through rounds of revolution and transformation, both in terms of processes and technology.

AI happens to be the newest kid in the block, which is taking the recruitment processes by storm, as it is getting re-engineered every day, with more and more intelligent and repetitive work being replaced

by AI. Let’s look at some of the key areas where AI is being used to empower workforce: 1) Removing bias – Unconscious bias is a huge challenge that all corporates are trying to fight. Corporate India is no exception. When it’s a conscious bias, it’s easier to tackle but unconscious bias creeps in the most unexpected way. It can not only influence the choice of a 36 ENTERPRISE IT WORLD JULY 2019

candidate at the time of interview, but also the job description itself, making it a far more pervasive problem. AI can easily be used to remove this unconscious bias.

2) Evaluate profiles and first level interviews – Today sourcers and recruiters are spending a considerable amount of time in scanning, evaluating and shortlisting profiles and doing the first level interviews and the outcome of it is often very subjective, based on the emotional state of the recruiters. AI can easily take over these repetitive jobs, bring more objectivity to it and complete it much faster. There are quite a few AI-based platforms in the market today. According to a report by Forrester, by 2020, candidates applying to jobs at 20% of large global enterprises will interact with chatbots before recruiters.

3) Improved employee onboarding experience – Employee onboarding is the employee’s first experience with an organization and it’s the organization’s best opportunity to create an excellent first impression. Today, due to a resource crunch and subjectivity associated with people, onboarding experience tends to be random and unstandardized.

Using AI effectively can help new employees navigate their way into an organization more seamlessly, giving them an excellent onboarding experience.

4) Identifying the customised training requirement for employees – Mostly, people become redundant within an organisation because they lack relevant skills, but if we can train the employees in a timely fashion, then organizations can utilize its existing staff, without having to retrench and hire new employees.

AI can be used very effectively to match existing talent with the required ones and identify the gaps in skill set and also to do a fitment of who is best trained on which of the required skills.

5) Resource Management

function – People intensive businesses have a huge challenge of finding the right skilled people internally at the right time and often end up hiring people at a higher cost, when an equally skilled person is available within the company. AI can help with this function and in a very time effective manner, thus reducing the cost of hiring, training and keeping a skilled resource on the bench.

6) Identifying people who are looking out – Losing trained and experienced employees to competition is a huge loss to any organization. AI can easily track the employees keystroke patterns, idle time& internet checking patterns and predict whether the person is looking out for newer opportunities.

7) Smarter and better people analytics – AI-enabled employee analytics provide the necessary insight to ensure better employee experience. It ensures meaningful employee engagement, creating happier employees and increased employee retention.

And these are only a few of the core functions that AI can do immediately. However, there still exists a degree of apprehension amongst the human resource fraternity to totally embrace AI, for reasons unfounded. AI today is not just efficient, it is also inexpensive. Just one word of caution, it is imperative that the recruitment processes are reviewed and reengineered to remove age old practices and made well suited for reaping maximum benefit out of AI. Research from PWC shows that 63 percent of companies are rethinking the whole role of their human resources department in light of the impact AI will have on the business. Thanks to AI and RPA, human resource experts will be now able to focus on the core areas, which cannot be done by any technology. AI can help build a high-performance human resource team and as a result a high-performance workforce.

SYNOLOGY // CLOUD

WHY SHOULD YOU USE A BACKUP SOLUTION TO PROTECT YOUR CLOUD DATA?

SIMON HWANG

APAC President, Synology

“By backing up data from the cloud to on-premises, end users can save on cloud storage costs and only keep the most current

BY SANJAY@ACCENTINFOMEDIA.COM

data in their licensed cloud platforms.”

As a region, the Middle East has its own set of compliances and privacy requirements. One of the very stringent requirements is to keep its government, mission critical, public sector data resident within its areas of jurisdiction. For this reason, in the last few years a number of cloud and infrastructure vendors have initiated roll outs to host their local editions in the region.

Gartner has forecasted that Middle East and North Africa spending on public cloud services including software, infrastructure, platforms, and security, will cross the $2 billion mark by 2020.

Overall, the adoption, usage and spending on public cloud has seen a consistent double-digit growth in almost every region of the world. The primary reason for this is the switch-over from an asset-based capital expenditure model for IT spending to an operating expenditure, payas-you-use model, that is provided by a public cloud type of consump-

tion service. This reduces the burden of having a high initial expenditure outlay and a software vendor-based lock-in.

The consumerization of IT, which is so much a part of the public cloud platform, continues to be an enabler for the doubledigit growth of IT spending on this platform. On the flip side, it has opened the gates for a large number of users to come on board and use the platform.

While the number of cloudenabled users will definitely boost collaboration and workflow inside an organization, it exposes a wider segment of executives to the vagaries of an external environment.

Irrespective of the service level agreements of uptime provided by the cloud service providers, business organizations must have the complete copy of their cloud data accessible to themselves in the event of a wide spread operational failure or unexpected litigation or force majeure of any sort.

Recent global outages involving large cloud service providers, like the recent Google outage in April 2019, have led consultants to point out that losses from such prolonged incidents could run into tens of billions of dollars.

Migration of an organization’s employees to cloud platforms has meant they now have access to data stored on the cloud. Irrespective of how well security policies have been mapped into cloud application platforms, accidental deletion or malicious deletion of data by users is another unpredictable possibility for the loss of data in the cloud.

Consulting company, Aberdeen Group, points out that the most common reason for data loss in the public cloud, is end-user deletion, even when multiple confirmation steps are required. While such incidents are definitely not frequent, when they do occur, the financial losses could be devastating. In other words, the cloud platform does not offer a fool-proof plan for

data protection unless organizations actively build such a plan.

One of the best ways to build such a fool-proof plan is to invest in a data backup solution that can replicate and save data from the cloud to on-premises, irrespective of which cloud platform is being used by the organization.

Moreover, the best backup solution is one which allows data to be backed up from multiple cloud platforms and saved on-premises.

The reason for this is, most organizations are in a multi-cloud platform environment rather than a single cloud one.

Such a backup solution would work equally well whether the cloud platform was Microsoft’s Office 365, OneDrive or MyDrive, as common examples.

The backup solution would also offer multiple modes of backup operation, which could be a continuous mode process, scheduled process, or manual process.

With increasing prices of cloud storage services, as you include value added services such as security, backup and recovery, backing up data from the cloud to on-premises, is getting increasingly economical. This is more pronounced for large, sprawling, global enterprises.

By backing up data from the cloud to on-premises, end users can save on cloud storage costs and only keep the most current data in their licensed cloud platforms.

Lastly, the backup solution should offer the latest storage management features such as deduplication and single instance data management. This would bring cost and storage efficiency to the organization that has taken the initiative to backup cloud data into an on-premises data management platform. While innovative technologies may come and go, offering multiple opportunities for businesses to adapt and move efficiently forward, being able to successfully manage inherent risks is also part of the success.

JULY 2019 ENTERPRISE IT WORLD 37

THE STUFF // PRODUCTS & SERVICES

CIO TOYS DIGISOL’S GIGABIT ETHERNET SMART MANAGED POE SWITCH DIGISOL Gigabit Ethernet Smart Managed PoE Switch fulfils the networking demands of today’s SMEs. Designed with SMEs in mind, the DG-GS1510PL PoE switch offers the power, flexibility, and stability required to keep complex networks running smoothly.

With the increase in usage of IP applications like VoIP phones and IP cameras and WiFi by SMEs, there is a need for an intelligent switch that provides reliable connectivity, high bandwidth and simplifies the network infrastructure.

DG-GS1510PL is a next generation Ethernet intelligent access switch with 20Gbps switching capacity. It comes with 8 10/100/ 1000 Base-TX ports and 2 1000 Base-X SFP ports for high speed uplinks to servers or backbones with PoE. The existing Ethernet cables can be used to power up IEEE 802.3af & IEEE 802.3at compliant network devices. This eliminates the need of an external power source and power cabling for such devices. The switch provides flexibility to users for connecting a PoE or non PoE device.

D-LINK’S SMART WIRELESS SOLUTION

B Y S A N J AY @ A C C E N T I N FO M E D I A . C O M

D-Link’s new series of Access Point titled ‘Smart Wireless Solution’ are based on Point to Point & Multi-point application. These Smart Wireless Solution efficiently supports Wireless video surveillance, Wireless video/data transmission and Wireless backhaul network construction.

The Built-in “Smart Wireless Technology” in D-Link’s Smart Wireless Solution provides for noise immune, high performance, and carrier-class links. It also eliminates collision by polling every client and intelligently allocating time slots to each client. Further these Access Points incorporate a number of industry-leading core advanced wireless protocols and technologies to ensure high throughput and reliable wireless signal coverage.

D-Link Smart Wireless Solutions are designed to enable users to share Internet connection between two or more locations, share files and other types of data across the network efficiently. It is most suited for Wireless video/data transmission and wireless coverage in railway, electric power and other industries.

38 ENTERPRISE IT WORLD JULY 2019

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Date of Publication: 28 of Every Month Date of Posting: 1 & 2 of Every Month

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