www.insightssuccess.com September 2018
Most 10 Disruptive The
Automation Companies to Watch
2018
Digi Connection BeneďŹ ts of Blockchain in the Making of Smarter Energy Grids
Tech Trend People Analytics: A Magical Crystal Ball for HR Fraternity
Chaney Ho Co-founder & Executive Director of Board
An Innovative Opportunity to Revolutionize the American Economy
Omnichannel Agent and Customer Engagement Solutions Simplify and personalize the customer experience, empower agents and achieve business success with one workspace for all channel interactions, application integrations, and CX reporting.
Modernizing Industrial Era through Automation
I
n the wake of industrial era, automation plays a vital role for revolutionizing industrial ages and manufacturing methodology. Through automation process, manufacturing industries are massproducing their products by incurring lower costs and ensuring high quality. It has recently notched up to push its limits from manufacturing operations with unified robotic tools which have modernizes the functionality of an organization. For instance, robotic solutions are used to automate an organization’s whole process and warehouse functionality by detecting inventory movements with automated alerts for procurement that adjusts new storage location. Robotic solutions are highly compatible, rapid and perform multiple repetitive tasks which results into more productivity. The new-age robots are combined with lighter, flexible, fast and can perform task on their own. Hence, today numerous organizations are making immense use of this automation solution to oversight its business processes. For future developments, the emphasis will be on harmonizing basic system structures, communications, and user-friendly manmachine interfaces, and on providing the appropriate engineering tools for developing, configuring and maintaining automation systems. Hence, Insights Success has nominated, “The 10 Most Disruptive Automation Companies to Watch, 2018" who are conventional industry leaders with dedicates automation solutions that helps industries to modernize its process globally. Our cover story features Advantech a US based leading brand in IoT intelligent systems, Industry 4.0, machine automation, embedded computing, embedded systems and many other core sectors
which are at the heart of the American economy. The firm’s corporate vision is – enabling an intelligent planet and toward the US market which can bring manufacturing back to America with the most advanced automation solutions in the world. Advantech uses a data-driven architecture incorporated with cloud platform service technologies as its core to create the WISE-PaaS industrial cloud platform. The issue also features Aerotech, a global leader in the design and manufacture of the highest performance motion controllers, positioning stages, and automation systems for its customers. The company offers its products to many industries including government, science, and research institutions around the world, PHOENIX CONTACT Middle East an established company in Dubai under TECOM in 2008 and a part of a network of global sales subsidiaries and distribution centers. The company’s reliable presence in the region brings its products and expertise into closer proximity to its clients and partners in the Middle East and Northeast Africa. Yazzoom, a European company that leverages its expertise in advanced data analytics and industrial process control to deliver immediate value to its customers by improving company processes. The software, data science and engineering firm is specialized in advanced control and artificial intelligence solutions for industrial applications, Franka Emika, a young hightech robotics company from Munich with a leading sensitive, easily programmable, learningcapable, and named for light-weight robotic solutions. Based on this technology, Franka Emika introduces the world’s first CE out of the box solutions for industrial applications and forms a strategic partnership with the technology company ’Voith’. Also, make sure to go through the articles, written by our in-house editorial team and CXO standpoints of some of the leading industry experts to have a brief taste of the sector. Happy reading!
Bhushan Kadam
Cover Story
Advantech: An Innovative Opportunity to Revolutionize the American Economy
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Tech Outlook The Evolution of Testing: Unmatched Acceleration with Fifth Generation Automation
Tech Evolution How VideoAmp Evolved The Company Culture And Process To Increase The Number Of Engineers EmployedBy Dave Gullo, Co-Founder & CTO, VideoAmp
Tech-Know Insights Minimize Risk of Digital Transformation Failure
Digi Connection
Tech Trend
Beneď€ ts of Blockchain in the making of Smarter Energy Grids
People Analytics: A magical Crystal Ball for HR Fraternity
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38 Reforming Benchmarks The Signiď€ cance of an Effective Marketing Strategy
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Aerotech: Strengthening Industries with Motion Control and Automation Systems
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Phoenix Contact: Empowering Electrical and Industrial Automation Technologies Globally
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Franka Emika: A Global Robotics Revolution
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Yazzoom: Leveraging Industrial Data
Editor-in-Chief Managing Editor Executive Editor Assistant Editors Contributing Editors Visualiser Art & Design Director Associate Designer Co-designer
Pooja M. Bansal Anish Miller Bhushan Kadam Jenny Fernandes Hitesh Dhamani Abhishaj Sajeev Shubham Khampariya David King Amol Kamble Shubham Mahadik Vanshika Mittal
Art & Picture Editors Paul Belin Jayant Khanna Senior Sales Manager Passi D. Business Development Manager Peter Collins Marketing Manager John Matthew Business Development Executives Steve, Joe, Alan, Jagdish Sales Executives David, Kevin, Mark, Omkar Technical Head Jacob Smile Technical Specialists Amar, Pratiksha Digital Marketing Manager Marry D’Souza Online Marketing Strategists Alina Sege, Shubham, Vaibhav K SME-SMO Executives Prashant Chevale, Uma Dhenge, Gemson, Irfan Research Analyst Patrik James Circulation Managers Robert, Tanaji Database Management Stella Andrew Technology Consultant David Stokes sales@insightssuccess.com
September, 2018 Corporate Ofces: Insights Success Media Tech LLC 555 Metro Place North, Suite 100, Dublin, OH 43017, United States Phone - (614)-602-1754 Email: info@insightssuccess.com For Subscription: www.insightssuccess.com
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Chaney Ho Co-founder & Executive Director of Board
The
Most Disruptive
0Automation
Companies to Watch 2018
“
“
We are the leader in providing trusted innovative embedded and automation products and solutions.
Advantech is a leading brand in IoT intelligent systems, Industry 4.0, machine automation, embedded computing, embedded systems and many other core sectors which are at the heart of the American economy. Since our inception we have believed in leading the world with innovation. Our corporate vision is simple – Enabling an Intelligent Planet and toward the US market we are keen is to bring manufacturing back to America with the most advanced automation solutions in the world. It is unfortunate that today the US is no longer the manufacturing powerhouse in the world that it used to be. It is discovered that there are only 250,000 total manufacturers in the US and the total manufacturers in China today stand at 6 million and around 3 million are based in Europe. McKinsey Global Institute recently conducted research pointed out only 50% of US manufacturers have adopted digitalization. This is really unfortunate as the American manufacturers stand to gain over 500 Billion dollars in revenues if they invest in the future. According to Mckinsey research there are signs of trouble in current manufacturing are already here. For example, an average service period of US factory is over 25 years. Similarly, the average age of equipment is 9 years. Hence, employees and equipment are a constant investment for companies in an extremely competitive world of manufacturing. We believe automation led by Industry 4.0 can become a golden bridge between manufacturing and delivering world-class products. How does Advantech go about implementing its vision? With the advantages of Advantech devices and solutions, we make it possible for companies all over the world to realize the potential and revolution that is Industry 4.0. To realize Industry 4.0, Advantech partners with its clients through three strategic phases. In the first phase of the implementation of equipment connectivity: devices, machines, production lines and factories are connected to a central system. Once this phase is implemented, executives could be sitting in an Airconditioned company headquarter in Chicago and get realtime efficiency update on each machine from their manufacturing plant in India. So, in the first phase, we provide data transparency as well as information visualization which is central to connecting disjointed arms of our client companies. In the second phase, data collection and integration, as well as value-added products and services are introduced for smart manufacturing services. For example, we have
provided innovative automation solution for hospitals wherein nurses can simply voice the name of a patient as a code to open software locked medicine box to provide the patient with accurate medicines on time. The final phase of intelligent innovative services is the enabling of intelligent machinery and big data analysis. In this phase, companies would truly realize the power of automation. Using the big data, companies can predict the failure rate of machines, products and build a true factory in the future which governs itself. To reach these goals, Advantech enables network-connected iFactories and iMachinery to boost the transformation of smart manufacturing. Could you talk briefly about one of your leading insight and solutions regarding the future IIoT World? According to Dr. Allan Yang, Advantech’s Chief Technology Officer, IIoT solutions must be able to integrate the collection of industrial equipment data based on a variety of standards with edge device management, wireless communication, and data analysis. Such solutions must also integrate the creation of visually intuitive reports on cloud platforms as well as the creation of AI models and their integration with expert knowledge. Other key areas include compliance with data storage location and management regulations established by each country, corporate policy and the construction of stringent and trustworthy platforms and data security mechanisms. Since the professional technologies and knowledge required must come from different domains, the co-creation model is truly an effective and mutually beneficial model for realizing these outcomes. Advantech uses a data-driven architecture incorporated with cloud platform service technologies as its core to create the
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We cooperate closely with our partners to help provide complete solutions for a wide array of applications across a diverse range of industries.
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C
an you tell us a bit about Advantech and its vision for the future?
WISE-PaaS industrial cloud platform. The platform can move across multiple clouds and it offers flexible expansion, multitenancy, superior reliability, multiple database services, AI model training and deployment framework services, visualization services for dashboards, and multi-level data security/management services. With the WISE-PaaS platform providing a foundation, Advantech and its co-creation partners will work together to rapidly deploy a range of IIoT solutions. By merging with the innovative industrial cloud service business model, the third wave of the digital revolution has officially kicked off to successfully transform our industries. We are in the process of announcing the co-creation of IoT Solution Ready Packages (SRPs) which involves cocreating with various domestic and international companies. Thirty sets of SRPs will be officially released this year. The key to success lies within platform technology suppliers, such as Advantech, as well as in working closely with industry professionals to integrate and form standardized and easily duplicated SRPs based on a combination of software and hardware products. These SRPs can then be installed by system integrators at the client site. Eventually,
IIoT industry chains will be formed as SRPs become established as comprehensive field solutions. What are your short-term business objectives? We see an enormous opportunity to bring the American economy back on track. For us ‘Make America great again’ is not just a slogan but we want to do everything we can to bring manufacturing jobs and processes back to the country. However, we also aren’t simply limited in our vision of innovation by a single market. Our growth in America has been phenomenal including the consecutive robust growth we experienced last year and the year before that. We also lead innovation globally. Today, we have over8,000 employees all over the world and our sales are also a reflection of our true strength. We are a Taiwan based company but only 7% of our sales are from Taiwan. We are in the top-league of companies in North America,
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To realize our corporate vision of Enabling an Intelligent Planet, Advantech will continue collaborating and Partnering for Smart city & IoT Solutions.
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however, we are relatively less known. Our biggest client base is based in leading manufacturing countries and continents on the globe including China and Europe.
every machine costs anything between a million or ten so a simple 6.7% is worth its weight in gold in real manufacturing terms.
How do your products help clients improve productivity and efficiency?
Where do you think the future of Automation is headed?
We are leading in the field of automation If you are a manufacturing company, you need to follow a few simple steps to remain competitive in the manufacturing world today. The first step is automation – wherein you adapt the robot, adapt the equipment, avail video inspection equipment and this will help you to reduce manual resources. The second step is to connect the machine to the cloud – real-time manufacturing status. Every machine is costly but by keeping track of machines, you can visualize the data. The third step is using the sensors and technology to perfect the final product. Data. These machines can help you predict the future of your manufacturing potential. We have implemented these steps in the manufacturing facilities of several clients and in our own plants well. We have documented proof that since 2016, our production value has increased by 16.9% and it has reduced energy consumption by 7.8%. Additionally, the innovative touch of automation has helped us increase the machine utilization in an average of 15%. It is not difficult to understand why. Let’s say you have to finish the 1,000 by tonight and you only have finished 200. It informs the worker by a certain time and tells him to speed up. We have two factories. One in Kunshan and one in Taipei. Both our factories have become a world-class manufacturing plant within a short time frame. In summary,
Because the technology is progressing day by day, in the future holds tremendous potential. For the applications of AI. In the future, we will be able to predict the failure time of the machine, the failure rate of products, after delivery and after consumption too. In the future, the IoT will help manufacturers connect to consumers. Once you deliver a machine, the customers will monitor the status of the machine and this will increase the value of machine to your consumers. With the integration of IoT, the machines will become more responsive in themselves and valuable as well. We want to be at the forefront of this innovation when it takes the world of manufacturing by storm. We are a visionary company. Our vision is based on our insight into the social, technology and science. Hence, we can position ourselves at the forefront of the technical revolution. This is also the reason why we have become a trusted partner of our clients throughout our journey. We believe in delivering results. We believe in benefitting our clients. What motivates you to go on every day? We started the company a long time back when we were young and we have grown in maturity today. We as a team of founders have worked very hard to create a value for our customers and humankind alike. When we roll our sleeves to work today, we ask ourselves ‘How can we help the US manufacturing won the crown back?’. The answer is simple. If America wants to bring iPhone, vehicle manufacturing back to the US again, Industry 4.0 is the answer.
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Company Name
Management
Brief
Advantech advantech.com
Chaney Ho Co-founder & Executive Director of Board
Advantech is a leading brand in IoT intelligent systems, Industry 4.0, machine automation, embedded computing, embedded systems and many other core sectors which are at the heart of the American economy.
Aerotech aerotech.com
Mark Botos President
Aerotech is a global leader in the design and manufacture of the highest performance motion controllers, positioning stages, and automation systems for its customers.
Agilent Technologies agilent.com
Mike McMullen President & CEO
Agilent is a leader in life sciences, diagnostics and applied chemical markets. The company provides laboratories worldwide with instruments, services, consumables, applications and expertise, enabling customers to gain the insights they seek.
AutomationEdge automationedge.com
Uday Birajdar Co-founder & CEO
AutomationEdge is the preferred IT automation and Robotic Process Automation (RPA) solution provider. AutomationEdge helps organizations automate their mundane ,repetitive rule based tasks across verticals.
Belden belden.com
John Stroup CEO
Belden produces and sells a comprehensive portfolio of connectivity and networking products into a variety of markets, including industrial, enterprise, and broadcast.
Dresser-Rand dresser-rand.com
Paulo Sternadt Ruiz CEO
The Dresser-Rand business, part of Siemens Power and Gas (PG), is a leading supplier of mission-critical, high-speed rotating equipment solutions to the worldwide oil, gas, petrochemical, and process industries.
Franka franka.de
Simon Haddadin Co-founder & CEO
Franka Emika is leading in the design and development of innovative, high-performance, self-learning and easy-to-use light-weight robots.
KUKA kuka.com
Till Reuter CEO
KUKA is world’s leading suppliers of intelligent automation solutions. It provides complete turnkey solutions for automation requirements.
Phoenix Contact phoenixcontact.com
Hugo Knuemann Founder
PHOENIX CONTACT is a leading manufacturer of electrical connection, electronic interface, and industrial automation technology.
Yazzoom yazzoom.com
Jan Verhasselt Founder & Managing Director
Yazzoom's mission is to help its customers create value from data by applying artiďŹ cial intelligence and advanced control to industrial applications.
Tech Outlook
The
Evolution of
Testing: Unmatched Acceleration with Fifth Generation Automation Shoeb Javed CTO Worksoft
T
he Early Years of Packaged Applications
From the inception of packaged applications, companies of all sizes have taken advantage of the economies of building, maintaining, changing and deploying functionality through third party software providers. Why build a general ledger or payroll/human resources system when you can license it instead? Why not leverage out of the box functionality offered by third party software and rely on the vendor to
16
offer support and maintenance and stay current on regulatory, industry and process best practices. The first generation of mainframe software transformed quickly as the technology evolved, introducing client-server as the better, more cost-effective deployment platform. The applications themselves were still being developed and deployed in functional silos – their interaction with other critical functions of the business an after-thought. Although less than ideal, interfaces were developed to transport data
September 2018
from one system to the next – leading to the introduction of middle-ware as an economical means of “connecting” the silos. At that time, SAP emerged as the leader in delivering comprehensive, end-to-end business solutions on the most advanced platforms. They quickly captured the market and cross-industry adoption continued to deliver best in class results to their customers. PeopleSoft was also introduced to the market during this era, initially focusing on the payroll/human resources market. They ultimately started developing and delivering ERP and CRM systems as well. Change continued to accelerate as web-based systems were introduced which impacted the economic and technological dynamics of “user requirements,” development, deployment, and costs. Throughout this evolution, industries, companies and individuals not only developed an incredible reliance on the performance of their “systems,” but forward thinking organizations saw this as a quick path to competitive advantage. The Need for Speed The problem then as now – how do you accelerate the value of the technology investment to the business? The technology was purchased, licensed, and implemented to achieve a specific set of business benefits. When it comes to these large enterprise application investments, companies conduct in-depth evaluations and build business cases to map out exactly what results they expect to realize. This typically involves a look at what financial and human capital investments – time and money – will be needed to achieve success with a product as well as the financial, efficiency, and competitive gains that come with the ongoing use of the software. On one side of the equation, development methods have evolved to meet this need for speed. Waterfall methodologies are being replaced with Agile. DevOps has become the new buzz-word. But there’s something else to consider – the business side of things. There is an everincreasing reliance on packaged applications to execute and deliver critical business outcomes. It’s important that applications are developed and deployed quickly and changes can be made regularly, but how do you ensure that business processes are running flawlessly? Surprisingly, many companies are managing their enterprise application processes manually. This means hours of white-
September 2018
board meetings spent trying to understand existing business processes. Weeks during every project spent writing test scripts that break when something changes. Delays in delivery because manual testing can’t keep pace with business change. The implementation and ongoing management of enterprise applications is complex, and a crucial component is making sure that end-to-end processes work—every time, every day. Manual or first generation testing means system downtime, errors in production, wasted time and energy and companies left open to technology risk. The bigger picture is that those approaches are fundamentally standing in the way of achieving the results companies set out to achieve with packaged apps. How can you make the financial, productivity, and competitive gains
About the Author Shoeb Javed, chief technology ofcer, Worksoft, is responsible for the technology strategy, software development, quality assurance and customer support for all Worksoft solutions. As CTO, Shoeb also works with quality assurance and business leaders of some of the largest global Fortune 1000 corporations to help automate testing of complex packaged enterprise applications to speed up project timelines and improve operational efciencies. 17
that you were counting on if your processes aren’t performing flawlessly? The Evolution of Testing Thankfully, the answer is today’s fifth generation test automation that is enabling business users and organizations to adopt, accept, and utilize new applications faster. When processes across enterprise applications are executed seamlessly and as designed, companies can harness the potential of their enterprise applications to achieve strategic goals like entering new markets, increasing revenue, and maintaining a competitive advantage. Worksoft, the pre-eminent fifth generation automation platform, delivers unmatched speed in automating the identification of current business processes and automatically creating tests to ensure that each business-critical process works as required. An independent study of Worksoft customers by industry analyst IDC identified many unique benefits of Worksoft’s automation platform, but chief among them was accelerating delivery of these applications by an average of nearly
18
two months. Consider how much more you could accomplish if you could cut weeks and months from every project. Leaders across the globe have adopted Worksoft as their weapon of choice to improve their financial and operational positions in their respective industries. Lead the Way First to market with autonomous cars? Moving your business model from DVDs to online subscription services?
Evolving from an online bookstore to the world’s largest internet retailer? These companies didn’t simply try to keep up. They were determined to lead. Today’s digital economy brings massive opportunity to companies looking to disrupt the market. There has been a fundamental change to the business landscape and companies who are competitive innovators will win. About the Company: Worksoft provides the world's leading automation platform for enterprise applications. Companies worldwide rely on Worksoft's automated business process discovery, documentation, compliance, testing, risk analysis, and RPA to support critical packaged applications, including SAP, Salesforce, Oracle, Workday, SuccessFactors, ServiceNow and more. Our fifth-generation automation platform helps enterprises accelerate innovation and change, lower technology risk, and increase efficiency. Our ecosystem includes partnerships with Accenture, IBM, Cognizant, SAP and our Global 5000 customers include 3M, Intel, Microsoft, Siemens and more.
September 2018
Aerotech: Strengthening Industries with Motion Control and Automation Systems
Mark Botos President
Aerotech
N
o one can deny that the introduction of automation systems and controls exemplifies the biggest mechanization in manufacturing industries. Automation is the key to more accurate and quicker results.
Aerotech is a global leader in the design and manufacture of the highest performance motion controllers, positioning stages, and automation systems for its customers. The company offers its products to many industries including government, science, and research institutions around the world. Aerotech’s precision motion control products provide the critical performance for today’s demanding applications in medical device, life sciences, semiconductor, flat panel, optics, photonics, automotive, data storage, laser processing, military/aerospace, electronics manufacturing, test, assembly, research and development, and other markets. Aerotech invests in the business regardless of fluctuations in the business cycle. The company also places a strong emphasis on employee attraction, development, and retention to further bolster its long-term competitive position. A Leader with an Insightful Approach Mark Botos is the President of Aerotech. He has a unique vision towards industrial automation and has highlighted the company’s R&D efforts that address its customers’ current and future requirements. The company provides a strong value
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September 2018
“
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Motion control, positioning and automation systems manufacturer.
proposition to utilize an Aerotech solution. Mark’s focus also ensures all aspects of the operation are optimized to support its customers around the world.
that are already the best-in-class and specifically designed for high precision operation and optimized to work together. In the end, the result delivers unified systems with exceptionally robust, precise, and efficient operation.
Enabling Precise Automation and Control Systems Aerotech’s controls and precise motion products continue to drive the ACS market to higher levels of throughput by enabling greater precision at faster speeds for today’s manufacturing and testing needs. The company is committed to advancing new products and pushing engineering limits. Mark states that, “The battle cry in today’s manufacturing environment is ‘faster, more efficient and with lower costs!’ We listen to our customers’ concerns, study the technical issues and requirements of each market, and develop ideal hardware and software solutions to address those needs.” A Journey Thriving with Lessons With nearly 50 years of history, Aerotech has seen many of the trends that have shaped the automation industry. Since 1970, Aerotech has designed and manufactured customengineered motion control solutions for some of the world’s most unforgiving environments and mission-critical applications. Aerotech offers unified product ranges that appeal to its customers and also follow customer requirements for new product development. A commitment to research and development allows the company to design and build products that advance the state of the art. Pre and post-sale support are also an important part of its value proposition. Building Superior Automation and Motion Control Systems
Compelling New Trends and Optimization for Customer Needs Aerotech always focuses on customer needs and desires. The company engineers its products and operational support to provide the ideal solution and support for the customer’s application. Often, this requires a custom or semi-custom approach. To be prepared for the latest technology and process execution trends, Aerotech continually searches for the most talented individuals globally to improve its team and invests continuously in R&D while constantly seeking to improve its production and support operations. The company stays close to its customers and understands all aspects of their applications. The whole process begins with a collaborative and open approach in the design process that leads to an ideal solution. The Future of the Automation Industry The future of the automation industry lies in full connectivity of all components and systems for both process monitoring and preventative maintenance. All areas of a business, including manufacturing, will be connected so that management can get instant feedback on the efficiency of their process, inventory and material control, areas of concern, maintenance schedules, deliveries, and accounting. Aerotech continues to invest heavily in technology development related to automation as a connected environment.
Aerotech’s philosophy of building superior automation and motion control systems starts with designing and manufacturing technically superior components. Other suppliers integrate general-purpose components into their motion systems and claim to sell a ‘superior’ system. An Aerotech system begins with Aerotech motion components
September 2018
21
Digi Connection
24
September 2018
H
uman beings have always looked up to nature and made efforts to learn from its basic principles. Sonars were inspired by dolphins, light bulbs by fireflies, suction cups by octopus and robots itself to replicate human beings. One such instance that has been enthused by microorganisms is distributed ledger technology (DLT), widely known as blockchain. “The blockchain is an incorruptible digital ledger of economic transactions that can be programmed to record not just financial transactions but virtually everything of value.” -Don & Alex Tapscott. It records transactions between two clients without any third party authentication which is an efficient process when it comes to stable data. Blockchain provides data management without the threat of unauthorized access or manipulations. It is proving to be a solution for frequent problems in various fields. Blockchain technology has the capability to disrupt approximately every industry ranging from finance, to education to power.
Smart Meters Smart meters are used to record electrical usage. These meters enable us to monitor our electrical consumption more precisely which will help consumers make better energy choices. Through blockchain, clients can directly get the amount spent which eradicates middleman thus saving money. This creates a more resilient network for gadgets to run on. Smart meters can also provide accurate data to the provider without needing a direct link to the meter of particular users. With the help of blockchain, producers of smart grids do not have to invest a humongous amount. Here the producers get paid instantly, which leads to less capital expenditure. Besides this, blockchain can play a serious role in adjusting power flows through the amalgamation and optimization of local grids measured by the public or consortium modes. It can aid in the maintenance of permanent records by servicers, giving a flawless view of a particular object or part of infrastructure at any given time. This information can be retrieved easily as the structure is built on a shared platform, while retaining the authenticity of the record.
Blockchain Technology in Smarter Grids One of the areas in the energy industry where blockchain technology can disrupt the market is smart grids. Lately, blockchain has been well-thought-out as one of the developing technologies that can be used for developing decentralized grid topologies and revising the distributed management of energy businesses. Blockchain database is shared by all the nodes in the system. A node is an active device which can be connected to internet and has an IP address. Examples of devices include computers, tablets, phones and even printers. The job of a node is to upkeep the network by maintaining a copy of the blockchain and process transactions. Benefits of Blockchain in Smarter Grids Blockchain can aid numerous utility industry requirements. It can act as a foundation stone with the possibility of disrupting the prevailing ecosystem. With the promotion for e-vehicles and individuals shifting to electric cars, supply and demand of energy needs to keep pace. Here blockchain comes in the scenario with its peer-to-peer interconnectivity and sharing. This balances the demand from several foundations and makes the grid smarter by directing sharing. As there are small and compact smart grids, consumers with the help of blockchain can simply trade energy with one another thus saving time and earning a few dollars. In the power industry, blockchain technology can ensure a 5D Impact: decentralization, digitization, democratization, distribution and deregulation.
September 2018
While the possible benefits of the Smart Grid are usually discussed in terms of renewable energy goals, economics and national security, it has the potential to help save money by managing your electricity usage and choosing the best times to purchase electricity. Consumers can save even more by generating their power with the help of blockchain. Lately, due to the speedy growth in the deployment of DEPs the smart grid organization problems can no longer be proficiently addressed using centralized approaches, thus, the necessity for visionary decentralized methodologies and architectures is widely recognized. It is assessed that the blockchain technology will add another $3.1 trillion by 2030. Lately, due to the speedy growth in the deployment of DEPs the smart grid organization problems can no longer be proficiently addressed using centralized approaches, thus, the necessity for visionary decentralized methodologies and architectures is widely recognized. Lastly, blockchain technology may eventually fast-track the evolution to what the power industry calls a “distributed world.” It is the sum of both small and large powergeneration structures for communities, businesses and home. To prosper in capitalizing the potential of distributed generation and supervising less foreseeable and more capricious renewable power sources, the trade's infrastructure must first become more agile and less centralized.
25
Tech Evolution
CXO 3
Dave Gullo
Co-Founder & CTO VideoAmp
26
September 2018
How VideoAmp Evolved the Company Culture and Process to Increase the Number of Engineers Employed
V
ideoAmp turns 4 years old this month. So many memories, and so much growth. Let’s reflect on some of the worst decisions and associated learnings that have been fundamental to our growth. Why the worst you say? Because when you accelerate your learning rate in a fail-fast environment, it then allows you to make fast decisions vs. the analysis paralysis predicament. Ref lection One of my favorite wildcard interview questions for managers is: “Describe the failure you’re most proud of.” This sometimes catches people off guard, so I’ll share mine first to get the conversation going. Inevitably it comes down to choosing because there are so many.
Ÿ
“Promoting out of hand” is another variation of this where you don’t put someone through the normal due diligence because they already present. In our case, individual contributor (IC) engineers don’t go through the rigorous reference checks that new managers do.
Ÿ
“Hiring under duress”, or lowering your bar simply to meet headcount goals. I strongly advise to hire fewer “full-full stack” senior engineers vs. a bunch of junior or mid-level career developers who require more time, nurturing and precious attention units from your senior staff.
Process You can’t talk about growth and success without talking about these failures. Unless you’re some kind of hybrid AI-robot-space-alien who’s absolutely perfect, there’s going to be mistakes. What’s important is that as a leader you own your mistakes and be transparent about them.
This is a moving target, and one which has definitely been an ongoing series of blogs. In the early stage, we “over prescribed scrum.” Something that a very early stage company can do, along with too much agile processes too soon.
Hiring Finding the right people is the single most important aspect of growing a startup. The biggest mistakes in hiring have been: Ÿ
“Hiring out of hand”, or short cutting the normal processes because the candidate is well known by other engineers in the group.
September 2018
For example, prototypes and proof of concepts should not have a rigorous definition of done, with endless unit, functional, and end-to-end tests because the product’s requirements will probably zig-zag wildly. Conversely, having too little process when you are supporting enterprise customers can also be a problem. I spent my prior days as an IC and
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contractor retrofitting and scaling CI/CD pipelines and training engineers how to write better tests. The challenge is right-sizing this all along the way, and the trigger points on when to change may not be obvious. I say this because we grew headcount by 22 engineers from Oct 2017 to Feb 2018, and in the process we did not modify our simplified Kanban approach to a prescribed Scrum process quickly enough. Growing pains emerged, to say the least. Now we’re in a spot where we can withstand a magnitude scale of growth with roughly the same squad and tribe-level process.
“why are you in market?” I have seen countless folks who are looking because their current management does not have their growth and career pathing in mind. In extreme cases, they can do a day’s work in four hours, feel like they are under-challenged, and have not learned anything in years. They work in an environment like the movie Office Space. Taking an opposite approach is to engage in the growth and pathing of every individual. We do this by: Ÿ
aligning the growth of the individual with the company’s growth.
Ÿ
having management check in frequently on the success of this, and
Ÿ
setting up formal quarterly check-ins on measuring these goals. Google adopted this early on from John Doerr in the form of OKRs, and there are great platforms out there which can formally measure and track these objectives.
Management Riffing off rapid growth of Brains in engineering, we didn’t scale management fast enough. Almost all startup engineering orgs start very flat, with all ICs and no management. You have “tech leads” who may split their time doing light managerial functions, but they all write code and dive into the operations. The biggest fail here in scaling the ICs was not scaling the org and management structure to follow. At ~44 engineers and data scientists, we have a duty to deliver on our mission to provide an environment where they have the opportunity to do the best work of their lives and be worth more in the marketplace. Without this vital management structure, there is a vacuum. Do not bolt this on later, build it as you go. We took inspiration from Spotify’s model of engineering organizational scaling. Growth & Career Pathing We’ve talked about all of these fails, how about something that has worked well for us? When doing initial contact with a candidate, I often ask
Career pathing is a longer-term concern. I ask candidates from the start “so what’s the next job after VideoAmp?” This often catches them off guard, then after careful thought most reply with a role 1-2 levels beyond where they’re at now. It’s our goal to help steer them in whatever path they currently see. Many earlier-career engineers think management is their ultimate path, but I have found that many will stay on a tract of engineering excellence. Whether it’s a Principal Engineer or a VP of Engineering, the goal is to orient the new challenges in a manner which grows them in that direction, even if we can’t fully realize their ultimate pathing goal while at the company. By paying careful attention to these details, we have found our annual retention rate in the high 90%.
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September 2018
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obotics had been a technology that was accessible to only very few due to enormous costs, difficult programming and the separation of humans and robots through safety cages. However, the robotics industry is being revolutionized at this moment, providing the biggest opportunities for today’s business leaders. Large enterprises and small-medium sized businesses (SMBs) are queuing up to get their hands on robotics systems in order to enhance their production capacities and to overcome the continuously rising work load and manufacturing demands. This shortage had been recognized by Franka Emika’s founding team more than a decade ago. Founded in 2016, Franka Emika GmbH is a young Bavarian high-tech company from Munich, Germany that envisioned the ideal robot of the future as a power tool which is accessible to everyone and which supports humans in carrying out unpleasant or even dangerous tasks. Consequently, in 2018 Franka Emika introduced the highly sensitive, easy-to-use, and learning-capable light-weight robotic system ‘Panda’. Based on this technology, Franka Emika introduced the world’s first CE out of the box solutions for industrial applications. To tackle
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the global market entry Franka Emika forms worldwide strategic partnerships to provide customers with lightrobots, robot apps and software solutions, as well as services and consulting as for instance the joint venture Voith Robotics with the global technology group ‘Voith’. CEO and Co-founder of Franka Emika Dr. Simon Haddadin stated, “By bringing together a young company with its unique product portfolio and an experienced, family-owned and world-wide engaged company with a global network, we are creating a role model for Industry 4.0”.Simon added, “We will be able to offer customers throughout the world a combination of exceptional services and support, based on unique technologies.” For the groundbreaking technology development, as well as the innovative commercialization of robot systems Franka Emika’s team received the German President’s Award for Innovation in Science and Technology 2017 (‘Deutscher Zukunftspreis’ 2017’). Panda from Franka Emika The company has introduced ‘Panda’ as the first system of an entirely new generation of tools, which are developed as research robots, as colleagues in factories, and as assistants in daily life for elderly or sick people. Inspired by human agility and sense of touch, it is a sensitive and extraordinarily versatile power tool. With torque sensors in all seven axes, the arm skillfully and delicately manipulates objects, flawlessly accomplishing tasks one programs it for. With this, one can easily predict the robot’s behavior. The robot is equipped with special controls that provide it human-like compliance and sensitivity. It responds instantly to the negligible point of contact with a human-like sense of touch and exhibits human-like reflexes that help to prevent humans from being injured during collision with the machine.
September 2018
This system can be operated via Apps on any device such as smartphones and be taught new tasks within a few minutes, without requiring any programming skills. At the same time the system is sensitive to such an extent, that it can work side by side with humans and easily take over assembling, testing or inspection tasks. And beyond that, the possibility to simply multiply existing solutions on an entire fleet of robots, an entirely new level of scalability becomes possible. An Innovative Entrepreneur Dr. Simon Haddadin, CEO and Cofounder of Franka Emika, is a 32 years old innovative entrepreneur who earned his doctorate in safe physical human-robot interaction. Simon received the Managers of the Year 2018 award from Markt&Technik Spitzentreffen 2018 magazine with over 7,000 readers. The winner was selected by the readers. Additionally, he has more than 15 national and international publications in journals and conference talks, and a multitude of national and international patents. Simon has a great educational and work experience including Military service with Air Transport Squadron 62 in session 2005-06. In 2006, he did Mathematics and physics studies at Leibniz University Hanover and from 2006 to 2012 he completed Medical studies from University Debrecen, Hungary. In between, in 2010, he participated in United States Medical Licensing Exam, and in 2012, he completed Dissertation to medical doctor with excellence at the Institute of Pathology and Neuropathology. From 2010 to 2013, he worked as research scientist at German Aerospace Center (DLR), Institute of Robotics and Mechatronics, and later, from 2012 to 2016, he was a PhD student at Technical University Munich,
September 2018
Graduate School of Bioengineering, and many more are queued further. Distinct Competency The thing that sets the robot Panda from Franka Emika GmbH apart from the competition is its manipulation skills. While some of its specs, means seven degrees of freedom, 80centimeter reach, 3-kilogram payload, and 0.1-millimeter accuracy, are comparable with those of other robots, Panda is designed to perform tasks that require direct physical contact in a carefully controlled manner which includes sensitive insertion, screwing, and buffing, as well as a variety of inspection and assembly tasks that electronics manufacturers in particular have long wanted to automate. Summing up, the distinction towards the state-of-the-art is: accessibility through safety and usability, flexibility in terms of easy-to-use in various scenarios and scalability of existing and novel solutions.
Future Endeavors Franka Emika is the bleeding-edge robot technology provider. Within the short future Franka Emika’s online platform, named Franka World, will go online as the center of the ecosystem, where the community will be able to exchange ideas and developers will get assigned to customers allowing them to deploy worldwide new solutions and applications. Besides that new mechatronic systems will be presented over the next years. Franka Emika’s aim is to deploy 1 million robots by 2025.
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Reforming Benchmarks
The
Significance
of
an
Effective Marketing
Strategy
M
arketing has been the real essence in the uplifting of any Organization in the long run. While there are a number of other parameters that foster a business, marketing certifies to be the base of it, upholding the awareness and reach it requires, printing its mark worldwide.
For all firms, whether any poor start-up or an MNC giant, an effective marketing strategy can serve as a pivotal roadmap for the entire business. By developing a coherent and well considered marketing strategy, organizations can promote their business, target the right types of client and allocate their resources correctly, all while safeguarding the reputation of the firm. Because one parameter of a marketing plan affects all of the others, synchronizing activities is critical to eliminate obstacles and maximize profits. A marketing strategy looks at all the areas of the sales activities and helps each one support the next. One of the most important aspects of any marketing strategy relates to recognizing growth opportunities. This can be efficiently done by using the SWOT analysis. Once an organization identifies its strength, weaknesses, opportunities and threats of any marketing scheme, it becomes easier to en-cash those opportunities and reconsider what course or action should be taken to eliminate prevalent threats.
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The underlying focus of the organization’s marketing strategy should be based on the concept of developing and increasing awareness of the company’s brand, and also on developing trust assurance in that brand. A company’s credibility or service is its most important asset. Hence, attempts should be made to enhance and protect it during the course of the marketing process . Understanding how to create an integrated marketing strategy is the key help to make better individual decisions with respect to specific marketing tactics. In order to achieve this, organizations must implement robust and efficient marketing strategies as quickly as possible. All the key components of a marketing strategy, if catered and applied in the best manner, helps to design and manufacture successful business. Here are some of the crucial parameters that play a pivotal role in successfully implementing and nourishing effective marketing strategies. Goals and Objectives As with all the plans, goals and objectives are the origin of any target-oriented organization. Without a proper mix of these objectives according to the prevalent resources, a company proves to be inefficient in the long run. It can begin by thinking through goal-specific accomplishments, identifying basic marketing objectives, which may include some of the following aspects:
September 2018
Ÿ Ÿ Ÿ Ÿ
Increased brand recognition Growth in the market share Market to New Customer Segments Digitization
Ÿ
Constructing a big picture view and reviewing the key marketing thrust areas. Others parameters such as spend comparison, consumption of utilization channels, website optimization etc. should be fetched under consideration.
Investment, Budget and Revenue Once the objectives for the business are fully determined, the concept of On-margin investments, Budget and End revenue come into play. However, there is never enough budget to cover all the marketing ‘wish-lists’ adequately. The process of Investment is iterative and operates continually. It may be a function of: Coming up with budget to shelter all the marketing needs Ÿ Identifying the objectives that are more critical and inclined towards the success factor and reallocating budget meet top-priority objectives on a ‘first-serve’ preference. Ÿ Searching for innovating ways to stretch the marketing budget. For example, content development, low-cost crowd outsourcing etc. Ÿ
September 2018
As far as revenue is considered, a marketing strategy is used to determine the revenue that the campaign will deliver. All of the parts that go into determining revenue, including the budget allotted to the campaign, product cost, selling price and the life span of the product, should all be considered while developing the marketing strategy. The estimated End-Revenue can be measured against the actual revenue, and that information can be used to create future marketing strategies that are more successful. Target Audience and Buyer Journey Tracking and analyzing the dynamic and changing needs of the audience under radar is pivotal in effective marketing. Identifying the demographic and psychographic characteristics of the target audience aids to re localize the radius under consideration. Based on the available data,
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segmentation should be done to provide qualified and needbased resources. A buyer persona is a fictional representation of your ideal customer based on statistical market research and the prevalent data about your existing customers. After developing buyer personas, developing the Buyer Journey for each single persona and its interaction with the brand is considered to be the key to implement trust and satisfaction among the target audiences. Media and Messaging Messaging is a process which signifies the firm’s intentions, and informs the actual purpose of your business to the external world. Based on a detailed evaluation of how target is reacting with the various components of the brand, establish an apt messaging media, tone, selling propositions and key terms that are likely to resonate the most. Determining the Channel Mix Ÿ
Analyze and decide where the business would get the most Return on Investment (ROI). This can be done by echoing the channels around three road categories:
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Traditional marketing channels (TV, Radio, Newspaper, Direct Mail etc.) Ÿ Digital Marketing Channels (Website, Mobile applications, Social platforms, online advertisements etc.) Ÿ Content Marketing (Blogs, Newsletters, e-books, Infographics etc.) Ÿ
Competition Though the role of competition in devising an optimal marketing strategy is limited, it helps to draw comparisons among identical products and groups, providing scope for ‘brand-improvements’. In order to symbolize a powerful campaign, marketing strategy needs to offer a detailed description of the competition, according to the small business experts at the Center for Business planning. The objective of the marketing strategy is to provide historical information on how the competition has advertised products in the past, the target market the competition goes after and the product features that the competition offers. Some other factors include competition pricing, the competition’s distribution network and the sales strategies, which are also a part of the comprehensive marketing strategy.
September 2018
Phoenix Contact: Empowering Electrical and Industrial Automation Technologies Globally
P
HOENIX CONTACT, founded in 1923, with headquarters in Germany is a leading manufacturer of electrical connection, electronic interface, and industrial automation technology. The firm’s worldwide distribution activities are effected via a global network with 16,500 employees, 50 own subsidiaries and more than 40 subsidiaries in Europe and Overseas. Its production network includes five production sites in Germany and eleven production facilities in various parts of the globe. PHOENIX CONTACT Middle East, established in Dubai under TECOM in 2008, is also a part of a network of global sales subsidiaries and distribution centers. The company’s reliable presence in the region brings Phoenix Contact’s products and expertise into closer proximity to its clients
The best solutions integrated with unied electrical engineering for automation tasks.
and partners in the Middle East and Northeast Africa. The firm’s highly trained and qualified sales, marketing, technical support, logistics, and operational teams are available to support and accommodate the growing demand of our clients throughout the area. Phoenix Contact produces with a high vertical range of manufacture in twelve countries all over the world. The product range comprises components and system solutions
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for energy supply including wind and solar, device and machine building as well as control cabinet engineering. A diverse product range of modular terminal blocks and special-purpose terminals, printed circuit terminal blocks and plug connectors, cable connection technology and installation accessories offers innovative components. Electronic interfaces and power supplies, automation systems functions on the basis of Ethernet and wireless, safety solutions for man, machine, data, and also surge protection systems as well as software programs and tools provide installers and operators of systems as well as device manufacturers with comprehensive system solutions. A Forerunner of the Company Hugo Knuemann is the Founder of Phoenix Contact. In the early 1920’s, the journey of Phoenix Contact has begun; the company was founded in 1923 in Essen, Germany, as a commercial agency for electrical products. The core business at the beginning was for the contact wire terminals for streetcars and also the company has continuously grown over 90 years by people with ideas, drive and enthusiasm throughout Germany and in every continent. Phoenix Contact engaged with its key trends that were recognized early and served with the right products such as terminal blocks, electronics, fieldbus technology, and renewable energies. Advancing Automation Industry Space The products of Phoenix Contact are used in all types of applications in which processes need to be automated, where the flow of current and data has to be connected, distributed and controlled. The targeted application areas include industrial production sites as well as solar plants, building technology, tunnels, and energy or water supply systems. The benefits for the customer often go far beyond
September 2018
Executive Board 2018 - PHOENIX CONTACT
the mere function of the device, because Phoenix Contact helps them to design more efficient processes and to reduce costs.
electrical engineering and automation tasks”added Iyad.; the General Manager at Phoenix Contact Middle East.
Projecting Passion for Technology
Safeguarding Customer Involvement
Phoenix Contact’s history has been shaped by a passion for innovation and technology. For generations, the firm has been committed to offering its customers the best quality in every respect. This approach of ingenuity goes hand in hand with real attention to detail. In terms of the future, Phoenix Contact continues to invest in groundbreaking technology and in new products which will lead the industry in the upcoming times. The company is also focusing on process execution based on a truly unique component of the company’s passion for technology. Our mission statement is “To create progress with innovative and inspiring solutions while building trusting relationships with our customers and business partners and offering them the best possible solutions for their
At Phoenix Contact, the firm’s approach is based on a solid foundation of trust and partnership towards its customers. This factor motivates the company to take responsibility and gives it the needed freedom to come up with new ideas. Iyad also added that the Phoenix Contact team really enjoys working together to meet the objectives. In this way, they’re also safeguarding their economic success in the future and remaining a competitive and reliable partner for inspiring technology. Also, in order to work together as closely as possible with their customers, they have established reliable local structures, supported by trusted channel partners to support their customers in their business wherever they are in the Middle East and Northeast Africa.
September 2018
Impelling Automation Industry for Forthcoming Future “This is an interesting time for our industry, as we see several changes in the way business is conducted. The trend of digitalization of the industry, also known as “Industry 4.0,” is a key focus for Phoenix Contact, and we are transforming our company so that we too are ready and actively involved in this new industrial revolution.” asserts Iyad Madanat. The aim is to always do things in a faster and more efficient manner, so that the growing needs of the population are always met in the best possible way. With our local presence and quality services that we are able to provide through our local teams, we will continue to be the partner of choice for our customers along their journey to a connected world.”, he continued.
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Tech Trend
T
“
he secret of my success is that we have gone to exceptional lengths to hire the best people in the world” - Steve Jobs
The said quote itself explains the power of recruiting ‘right’ candidate. A right candidate has the potential to transform an organization fortune to a new level. A right candidate brings quality and effectiveness that builds a brand and develops a unique customer experience, while a ‘wrong’ candidate can lead to a lot of extra stress and issues that can hinder the development of a business. But at the core, hiring right talent is important, and this is where HR personnel struggle the most. With the advent of an emerging technique known as “People Analytics”, hiring right candidate will get easy than ever before. Necessity of People Analytics Competition for onboarding top talent is getting fierce, especially in industries, like IT, financial service firms, healthcare sector, and manufacturing, that are going to witness a massive transformation. Ever growing numbers of job seekers, shaken economy and neck-to-neck ruthless competition are making HR’s job even more challenging to find right talent for the right job. One technique that is seen as a solution for the said problem is “People Analytics”. It is an emerging field that is pulling everyone’s attention due to its potential to assist HR people in recruiting the right talent.
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September 2018
Understanding People Analytics People analytics or HR analytics is the application of statistics, mathematics, and modeling which collects and process worker-related data to see and predict patterns. This technique assist organizations to predict whether a particular person fit for a given job or not. Due to its ability to boost hiring and retaining the right talent, some people have gone so far that they have even started calling it as a “crystal ball for HR”. How ‘People Analytics’ can help HR fraternity • Identifying the features or variables in jobs and employees that matter/counts most • Matching those important job variables with a pool of applicants or recruits • Predicting the likelihood of a worker to stay on the job for a long time or to “churn” • And recommending salaries and other compensation to bolster longevity Importance of Peoples Analytics There are lots of important questions that arise into the mind of management peoples like: How can we find more top performers? What do our most successful leaders do to excel at their work, and how can we replicate that across the organization? Which people are most likely to stay for long? Which employees are likely to leave? With the right analytical tool in hand, one can get the right and accurate answers to these vital questions which plays a pivotal role in shaping company’s fortune and can assist an organization to maintain a robust workforce. Popular HR Analytics Tools Power BI Power BI link multiple sources like SQL database with people’s data, live twitter feed, machine learning API’s and more. All these different data sources are then combined with an aggregation process to create one large database.
September 2018
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The consolidated data then can be used to create pivot table to let end user get a quick insight in the key areas of the workforce. And, all these meaningful insights then the end user can see in a user-friendly manner with Power BI’s dash boarding capacity. SPSS Dealing with analytics requires some sort of technical capability to make the most of it. But what if the end user is not a technical person but still want the same results which can be derived from the above tool. Answer to this said concern is ‘SPSS’ tool. Without having extensive statistical knowledge, an end user can do an exploratory correlation analysis or a quick regression analysis. This makes SPSS one of the most commonly used HR analytics tools in social sciences. Rstudio It is a people analytical tool which is best suited to process huge data sets. It provides valuable insights that can help an organization to maintain robust workforce. It’s potential to let end user visualize and statistically analyze candidate data with the help of user friendly interface is the prime reason behind its popularity. Interesting Research Finding Many recent studies even proved the effectiveness and productivity of People Analytics techniques. Recently, Deloitte’s Bersin found that organizations that use people analytics techniques at a sophisticated level reported 82 percent higher three-year average profits than corporations without properly-deployed people analytics methods. Over the world more number of schools, colleges, and universities are opening up than ever before. There is an increased awareness for education as well. More people want to get access to quality education to raise their living standards. All these are resulting into increased number of job seekers. With business competition going intense with each passing year, recruiting right talent has become the need of hour for HR personnel. The potential benefit of People Analytics will then definitely assist HR fraternity in recruiting and maintaining a robust workforce if applied meticulously.
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September 2018
Yazzoom: Leveraging Industrial Data
I
n today’s industrial landscape, the notion of “Data Analytics” is rapidly gaining popularity in every aspect of company processes. Data analytics helps industries increase productivity and thus ultimately profits by enabling better decisions and improved production processes. Yazzoom, a European company, leverages its expertise in advanced data analytics and industrial process control to deliver immediate value to its customers by improving company processes. The software, data science and engineering firm is specialized in advanced control and artificial intelligence solutions for industrial applications. Besides custom advanced data analytics software, Yazzoom has developed two standard products, a predictive modeling Software Suite and an AI-Powered Solution for anomaly detection on data of machines and production lines.
“There’s always an exchange of ideas and discussions between all team members around each of their projects. This leads to innovative solutions and faster development. For the data scientists and engineers of Yazzoom it also keeps things interesting with a lot of variation in the type of problems to be solved.”adds Jan about the company culture. Positioning Yazzoom in the Automation & Control Systems Market Yazzoom uses its expertise in advanced process control and machine learning to allow its customers to create more value out of process and machine data. The rare combination of skills enables a wide range of applications, for example auditing and improving industrial production processes or AI-powered anomaly detection for monitoring assets and production lines in order to enable predictive maintenance or assist remote service teams of machine manufacturers.
A Mentor with Engineering background Shaping Journey through Experiences Jan Verhasselt is the Founder and Managing Director at Yazzoom. Jan holds Engineering diplomas in Automation, and Physics and a Ph.D. in Applied Sciences with specialty in Automatic Speech Recognition. When Jan founded Yazzoom, he had sustainable growth in mind rather than the quick “sell and cash out” of many start-ups in this field. Jan believes in the use of revenues from projects to grow and invest it in the development of a standard product with the vision to transition later from a purely project-based company to a product-based one.
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“When you hear about companies in our field in the press, it’s usually focused about how much money has been raised rather than the product, service or customers but that’s not the way we want to grow at Yazzoom. Yazzoom is seven years old now, and we did this without external funding,” states Jan. The company now offers standard products and has expanded its international customer-base. “At the time [when Yazzoom only did custom projects - ED.], we invested time and resources to expand in the Middle-East
September 2018
improve “ We company processes by means of data processing.
“
Jan Verhasselt — Founder & Managing Director Yazzoom
without result. It was a lesson for us: in our custom project business, it’s really hard to find customers without a strong local presence. There are enough opportunities close to us to do the project, and new products are now creating a better opportunity to expand to more distant markets.” he continues. Offering Unique Industrial Analytics In the field of industrial analytics, there are two aspects that make Yazzoom unique. The early start seven years ago gives it more maturity and the capacity to evaluate if new developments in the field of AI and machine learning are reliable. The other unique thing about Yazzoom is its expert team. They are highly skilled in software development, data science and engineering, with diverse backgrounds ranging from industrial process control and physics to civil engineering and chemistry. Yazzoom is one of the few companies with top-level expertise in both AI and advanced control: the predictive models and real-time optimization software they develop changes the way the machines and production lines are running in real-time. Battling with Competition Based on knowledge of the market and its customers Yazzoom acquired over the years, the firm has thought its products around their customers. While many companies are coming up with IoT and data monitoring platforms that include everything from data acquisition
September 2018
and storage to some analytics capabilities, visualization and dashboards, Yazzoom chooses to focus on AIpowered anomaly detection. The system easily integrates with new and existing platforms but also more traditional SCADA systems and process historians. In Yazzoom’s fields of advanced control, AI and machine learning, the challenge is keeping up to date in a quickly evolving domain. The firm places a strong emphasis on continuous learning and regularly sends its datascientists and engineers for training, follow courses or attend academic conferences. Realizing the Digitalization of Automation Systems “Digitalization is changing automation, but this didn’t start with the internet of things and cloud platforms, it’s an evolution of industrial networks and process historians. It’s not an end in itself, but an enabling technology that opens the door to more advanced process control and monitoring of industrial assets.” asserts Jan further. Jan has also mentioned that “What you can do today with artificial intelligence is make software that assists humans in repetitive and boring tasks or have smart systems that detect or predict anomalies in how equipment works.”
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Tech-Know Insights
Minimize Risk of Digital Transformation Failure in place to accomplish a successful and smooth delivery on Digital Transformation promise, and to avoid loss of money and prestige. Every kind of transformation project comes across a certain resistance; a mobile application delivered with no issues will minimize this resistance. Better Application through Continuous Testing Most of our customers in Continuous Software are switching to agile project delivery in order to rapidly evaluate and provide for the internal and external demands. The traditional test processes, which are done at the end phase of a project, remain insufficient for the agile management. For better quality and a rapid outcome, testing and development has to be a continuous process of DevOps course. Thanks to test automation scripts throughout the whole development process, softwares and applications can be tested before going through end-user tests with minimum amount of problems.
Hakan Turgut Chairman
O
ne of the greatest agonies in test automation is the time and effort spent to continuously testing what has been developed. The simpler and the more straight-forward the mobile applications look to the customer, the more complex they are in the background. As the number of of mobile platforms and devices increases, enterprises need to provide their developers with effective way to test across the platforms — testing fast, verifying the code quickly. Why is it so important? Because continuous digital transformation is an inevitable part of growing the business. Often more than 60% of customer interactions happen through the smartphones. What is the number like at your business? Anyway, an effective mobile testing needs to be
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One of the key trends in the market is the increase of native application development, which enables the usage of mobile devices in a broader spectrum. With the increasing demand towards more complex, stronger functionalities and interface, the responsive design techniques are outdated. To provide an optimum result for mobile testing, conducting the tests with actual devices, a device lab, has a large importance. The problem here is how the manual testers and test automation systems will share devices. This is solved by creating a mobile device lab according to producers, models and operating systems. Renting a device lab on cloud, uploading your scripts and running your tests in a parallel execution costs you serious amount of money. We couldn’t ignore the fact that this method makes our customers’ apps less profitable every minute. If you create an actual device lab by purchasing every kind of smartphones out there, you still ned a web interface to run all those scenarios and scripts to manage your mobile device lab. Continuous Software developed an interface, where you can run your scripts on different devices with its own cloud
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device lab, observe text execution and integrate with source control systems. You can use it with your own mobile device server, or you can connect your device to your mobile lab with client integrations. As a result you’ll be able to observe your text execution in real time with detailed results, clickable stack trace exceptions and screenshots, and see how much of the resources (CPU, Memory, System Logs) your app consumes. No matter which language your scripts were written or no matter which tool was used to write them, by integrating with open source automation servers this interface allows you to include mobile testing to your continuous DevOps process. Continuous Software Our first business line is application testing. Today we offer a wide range of services such as Manual Sourcing, Test Automation, Performance Testing, Security Testing, Service and Network Virtualization and Mobile Application Testing and Mobile Device Lab Management. Our philosophy lies on the successful implementation of test automation frameworks, enabling the rapid creation of test automation scripts that are stable and easily maintainable. Our scalable test automation framework optimizes every level of application from network to code- speeding up he execution and reducing test maintenance. Our success comes from working together with organizations to optimize every level of application- from the network to the code. We have solved the complexities of software testing through our unique solutions and helped a multitude of enterprises in accomplishing desired results. We believe our Mobile Device Lab will be a game changer in the industry. Case studies One of Top 5 Banks in Turkey This bank has decided to make a transformation project with Mckenzie. Part of the transformation project they found out that one of the biggest bottleneck is Software testing. As they were planning to use Agile project management approach within this initiative; testing was becoming even more critical for the success of the project. That is why they have decided to implement Test Improvement Project. They have identified 5 areas and Continuous Software has been involved in all these five workgroups which are Functional Test Automation, Performance/Load Testing, Service Virtualization, Test Environment Management and Test Data Management. The project scope covered core banking, alternative channels, international banking and credit cards application suites, they all are in-house developed application based on Java, .NET and IBM Mainframe. This was a teamwork, which we have worked together with the bank’s testing team. Development team has also participated to the project when it was needed. We have identified sample applications,
September 2018
designed processes, decided on technologies that will be used and finally implemented the best practice within sample applications to prove the solution. We have guided the bank’s team and prepared documentation for them to continue after project has been finalized. During the project we have used HPE UFT, HPE Loadrunner, IBM Service Virtualization, CA Test Data Management and HPE Codar and OO solutions for respective areas. One of the Top 10 International Banks Entered to Turkey by acquiring an old bank, which was not able to invest in IT for a long time. After the acquisition, they have been audited by BDDK (Banking Regulation Authority) and BDDK gave them a deadline to resolve their compliance issues. Within a very limited timeframe to implement an end to end automated Devops process which starts from demand collection till deployment of the applications to production environment. The solution had to be fully automated, no human interaction other than development of the application and be traceable on each level of the process. Continuous Software delivered end-toend DevOps project to make sure to have a complete process from demand to production deployment. Created five different pipelines for core baking (oracle forms), alternative channels (java), credit cards (.NET) and ATMs (.NET). Jenkins, SVN, Nexus, HPE Codar, HPE ALM, HPE UFT, HP PM, HP SM are implemented in project scope. Thanks to Continuous Software, this bank passed the audit successfully and avoided to pay a big amount of penalty. Management Levent Ozalp is a serial entrepreneur and the Founder and CEO of OPTiiM. He created 3 startups in Turkey, 1 in Ireland and 1 in UK from military tech to system integration. Having launched Continuous Software now boasts 100+ employees and customers all over Turkey, Middle East, North Africa and Europe. Hakan Turgut is the Continuous Software Chairman. His 30 years career span took him to executive positions in IBM, CA and Nortel. He brings maturity and wisdom to the team. About the Author: Levent Ozalp is a serial entrepreneur. He created 3 startups in Turkey, 1 in Ireland and 1 in UK from military tech to system integration. Having launched OPTiiM now boasts 100+ employees and customers all over Turkey, Middle East, North Africa and Europe. Hakan Turgut is the OPTiiM Chairman. His 30 years career span took him to executive positions in IBM, CA and Nortel. He brings maturity and wisdom to the team.
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