Innovation & Tech May 2017 - Issue 31

31

Cyber Security for Smart City

Mobile Innovation Wearable Tech 3D Printing Artificial Intelligence Internet Of Things Cloud Technology Smart City Big Data & Analytics Digital Ecosystem

Issue: 31 May 2017

www.innovationandtech.ae

.

Digital Trends and Drivers for 2017: MENA Overview

CYBER SECURITY FOR SMART CITY

.

Data is the New oil .

Paving the way for Digitization

Digital Trends & Drivers for 2017: MENA Overview Data is the New Oil

Paving the Way for Digitization –

www.innovationandtech.ae

The Future of On- Demand Healthcare

An Interview with Waled El Gebaly, Oracle Digital Tech Leader, MEA Strategic Alliance Partner

Sole Automotive Partner

Logistics Partner

Knowledge Partner

Global Innovation Summit 2017 The Future is Now!

Creative Innovator Awards 2017 27th September 2017 Jumeirah Beach Hotel, Dubai

Are you quietly brilliant ?

We are looking for creative innovators who want to change the world .

Award Categories Best Innovation in Sustainability

Best Innovation in Healthcare

Best Innovation in Education

Best Innovation for Public Good

Best Innovation for Business Growth

To send in your entries, visit www.innovationsummit.ae Eligibility Criteria • Only UAE-based enterprises are eligible for participation • You can participate as a start-up or as an established company (min. 3 years old) • Each enterprise is eligible to submit only a single entry • Entries should be submitted only through this page at innovationsummit.ae • The closing date for entries is 10th September, 2017 • The decision of the jury will be final

Submit your entry!

Jury Review On 18th September 2017, all entries will be presented to the panel of judges for evaluation. The judging panel will review the entries and propose the winners who will be recognized at the awards ceremony during Global Innovation Summit 2017.

Creative Innovator Awards is part of Global Innovation Summit 2017 27th September 2017 - Jumeirah Beach Hotel, Dubai

Innovation & Tech

The leading voice in enterprise innovation

SUBSCRIBE

Get More From Innovation & Tech

Subscription Enquiries % +971 4 2659704 response@ spiholding.net

Follow us on twitter @ITechReviewME

Editorial Enquiries & Contributions % +971 4 2659704, Fax: +971 4 2690566 auritri@spiholding.net Advertising Enquiries

Click the like button

% +971 4 2659704 response@spiholding.net

Innovation & Tech Review

SPI Publishing P.O. Box: 89735, Dubai, UAE Tel: +971 4 2659704 Fax: +971 4 2690566 response@spiholding.net

Visit our website to get the latest NEWS www.innovationandtech.ae

Disclaimer The publisher cannot accept responsibility for any unsolicited material lost or damaged in the post. All text and layout is the copyright of Imagine Publishing Ltd. and SPI Publishing, GMS Advertising UAE. Nothing in this magazine may be reproduced in whole or part without the written permission of the publisher. All copyrights are recognised and used specifically for the purpose of criticism and review. Although the magazine has endeavoured to ensure all information is correct at time of print, prices and availability may change. This magazine is fully independent and not affiliated in any way with the companies mentioned herein

Send us an email today with your thoughts auritri@spiholding.net

Supporting Business association partners

Be a Connector

4

Entertainment

Welcome to Innovation & Tech The leading voice in enterprise innovation

Publisher’s Note

O

n April 30, 2017, Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed Al Maktoum, Crown Prince of Dubai unveiled ‘Dubai Font’, the first typeface developed by Microsoft for a city. Dubai continues to create new innovations in the digital world in its desire to boost up its position as a hub for smart technology; and the ‘Dubai Font’ is another step in that direction. It fills a design gap between Arabic and Latin texts and presents harmonious typefaces combining the two.

Being coined as ‘Dubai’s gift to the world’, the launch of the ‘Dubai Font’ proves that innovation exists in the smallest and mostly, in areas overlooked. When brought forth, such innovation has the power to create something immensely beautiful, becomes a unique medium of expression and transcends borders.

The Smart Dubai Office Blockchain Challenge is another startling example of innovation in the city. Conducted in partnership with global innovation network 1776, the Dubai Blockchain Challenge will welcome 20 global startups to compete and pitch in their ideas to a discerning audience of investors, experts, private and public institutions. This amazing session, to be held on May 22, will not only fuel new ideas as to how startups can innovate across industries but will also contribute to the creation of a global and regional blockchain industry and its strategies.

As always, your inputs and feedback are extremely important for us. Let us know your thoughts and the topics you’d like us to cover next.

Happy Reading!

Shantanu Phansalkar, CEO & Publisher

5

Contents 28

16

Will AI and Automation Kill our Jobs?

20

Advancing Energy Innovation in the Cleantech Sector

CLOUD COMPUTING: Paving the Way for Digitization

An Interview with Waled El Gebaly, Oracle Digital Tech Leader, MEA

24

Data is the NEW OIL

38 The Future of On-Demand Healthcare

31

6

Digital Trends & Drivers for 2017: MENA Overview

www.innovationandtech.ae

The Future is NOW

SPI Group www.spigroup.ae www.robustrak.com www.theintelligentsme.com www.innovationandtech.ae www.innovationsummit.ae www.dubai-gbs.com

34

Cyber Security for SMART CITY

www.smeworld.ae www.makeinuae.ae Publisher & CEO : Shantanu A.P. Consulting Editor : Auritri Chatterjee Assistant Editor : Jinal Chheda Web Developer : Raj Shekar Reddy Creative Designer : Ratheesh Viswanath Distribution : Jerry P. Sam Writers Charlie Barlow

42

Is India Ready for a Cashless Digital Economy?

Dr. Steve Griffiths Jean-Luc Scherer Jayanth John Kazi Monirul Kabir Nadine Samra Raja Sharma Anshuman Nanda

49 Apps Review

45 APP Collaboration in the Workplace

www.innovationandtech.ae

7

Think Tank

Akshay Lamba CIO, Deloitte, Middle East Akshay is an industry leader in the technology arena and has been associated with innovative projects such as large IT outsourcing deal across multiple industries, extending enterprise data to mobile platforms and information security paradigms in a web 3.0 world. He is an alumnus of Harvard Business School, Boston and a revered speaker, invited to a number of international platforms, widely acknowledged as a next-gen technology expert.

His forte has been in the build-up of innovative business models, with a focus on creating sustainable competitive business advantage. He is well known for leveraging strategic partnerships for both— in-house services delivery and joint go-to-market constructs.

Anthony Sayers

Internet of Things, Business Developer & Strategist at Dell A leading technologist with over 25 years of industry experience, Anthony Sayers is the Strategist and Business Developer for the Internet of Things, Dell OEM Solutions EMEA, responsible for designing Dell’s business and technology strategy for the commercial OEM market. In his day to day work, Anthony meets with customers, partners and industry experts to research customer needs and drive the relevant market solutions. Anthony regularly represents Dell at industry forums as well as speaking and writing about the future of emerging technologies.

Haider Salloum

Director, Small & Medium Business (SMB) Segment at Microsoft Gulf Haider’s professional experiences are best described by his work over the last couple of years at Microsoft Gulf . As the Director for the Small and Medium Business (SMB) segment, Haider is tasked with helping SMEs realize their full potential, through the adoption of innovative technology and cloud transformation.

Working with SMEs across five countries, which were once emerging markets has provided Haider with significant scope and opportunity to learn, share and explore emerging trends in innovation within the SMB community .Whilst working with national governments, entrepreneurs and corporates, Haider seeks to continuously contribute to efforts to help SMEs thrive in their competitive landscapes.

Jean-Luc Scherer Founder, Innoopolis Telecommunications veteran with more than 18 years experience in the Mobile Industry, Jean-Luc Scherer’s expertise crosses multiple domains going from Mobile Application Development, to Social Media, Big Data, M2M & Internet of Things. Passionate about the Networked Society, Jean-Luc is a regular Blogger, Social Media content curator and is also a regular speaker at IoT & Smart City industry events. As an entrepreneur, innovation coach & start-up mentor, Jean-Luc can help startups from the initial concept development phase all the way to successful market introduction.

Kazi Monirul Kabir

CIO, Spider Digital Innovations Kazi Monirul is a powerful, passionate, entrepreneurial, innovative and objective-driven leader with global perspective and strong empathy for emerging market realities. He posseses extensive Marketing, Communication, Innovation, Strategic Design and Business Development experience across Internet, telecom and consumer goods industries. Monirul comes with a successful track record of excelling across global enterprise, multinational, social enterprise and start-up environments. He is a great believer in the transformative power of Strategic Innovation in driving the growth and development of emerging countries and has chosen the digital realm as his current playground.

8

www.innovationandtech.ae

Think Tank

Nadine Bitar

CEO, Placemaking.me Nadine Bitar is the CEO of Placemaking.me focusing on innovation in design for sustainability and Place sourcing – a social enterprise to design for liveability in the MENA region. She has led and participated in the design development of more than 30 large scale flagship projects including leisure and entertainment clusters, commercial complex, mixed use developments, golf and residential communities, hospitality projects and branded destinations in the Middle East and North Africa. She is active in Dubai community as the chairwoman of the Advisory Board– Interior design at the American University in Dubai, an Executive Council Member of Ellevate International and is an International Associate in the American Institute of Architects.

Roberto Ordonez

Managing Partner, AlunaCatalyst ME Roberto Ordonez, Managing Partner, Aluna Catalyst ME, is an influencer and change agent with over 20 years of industry experience in the energy sector (BP, Hess Corporation, and Occidental Petroleum). He has broad multidisciplinary expertise and has held senior management positions across the areas of Operations, Finance, Strategy, Planning, Business Development, Change Management, and Procurement.

He is a Board Member of the Kellogg GCC Alumni Association, and member of Kellogg Innovation Network (KIN). Roberto has a BS and an MS in Petroleum Engineering from Texas A&M University and an MBA from Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University.

Dr. Steve Griffiths Vice President for Research, Interim Associate Provost at Masdar Institute of Science & Technology

Dr. Griffiths holds a PhD in Chemical Engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and an MBA from the MIT Sloan School of Management. At Masdar Institute, Dr. Griffiths has the overall responsibility for research, including large-scale, collaborative research programs and centers, research development, sponsored programs, technology transfer, and research laboratories. He serves as an advisor to the UAE Research Program for Rain Enhancement Science and is a Zayed Future Energy Prize Selection Committee member. He is the Associate Editor and member of the Editorial Board of the International Journal Energy Strategy Reviews and author of various works in the energy policy and energy strategy fields.

Sulaiman Al Maazmi

Vice President, Information Communication Technology, Expo 2020 Dubai Sulaiman’s role at Expo 2020 Dubai is to align business requirements with various stakeholders, support departments in order to streamline their processes when dealing with technology solutions as well as sourcing IT solutions based on current and future needs of internal and external stakeholders. Sulaiman has considerable experience in managing critical information technology projects in the Arab Gulf region, with positions in the Dubai office of the UAE Prime Minister, Thuraya Satellite Telecommunication and the Dubai Municipality, where he began his career.

Shams Hasan

Infrastructure Marketing Manager, META Shams Hasan is the Infrastructure Marketing Manager for Dell EMC in Middle East, Turkey, and Africa (META). He is responsible for business and IT thought-leadership, product knowledge, and marketing programs around Infrastructure Solutions. Shams is an active industry spokesperson in many business forums and is most passionate about helping Customers drive innovative digital transformation strategies in their business. Prior to Dell EMC he has a decade of experience in digital technology leadership and strategy roles as a Customer and has worked in startup environments as an entrepreneur and large enterprises with multiple data centers. Shams has MBAs with honors and distinction from Columbia Business School and London Business School.

www.innovationandtech.ae

9

Entertainment

Innovation & Collaboration

Artificial Intelligence and LG’s Robotic Technologies are set to change the way we live and travel in 2017 President, LG Electronics Gulf.

“But that has all changed in recent years with advances leading to the development of intelligent machines that can think a feat that was once only possible in the world of film and television.”

Robots and the futuristic home

W

ith GCC cities aiming to become smarter and more connected, and with airports expecting to become friendlier and less stressful for travelers, artificial intelligence and robotic personal assistants appear to be seamlessly entering public spaces and even the home, marking 2017 as the year consumers have begun embracing a future founded on smart technology.

LG has been at the forefront of

10

www.innovationandtech.ae

developing robotic technologies that incorporate deep learning for the smart city and home, ensuring usability is at its best and that the consumer continues to be connected.

“Once viewed merely as machines capable of performing automated work, robots were typically used to complete tasks that required incredible precision or were too dangerous for humans to do themselves,” said Yong Geun Choi,

Smart home advocates have praised the potential of this technology for years, but widespread adoption has lagged even the most pessimistic projections. So what has prevented IoT-powered smart homes from taking off?

One of the key obstacles to integration has been the challenges posed by incompatible networks and smart ecosystems. Though smart appliances are designed to make life easier for users, the reality is that competing systems actually multiply complexity and prevent the general public from seeing the appeal of smart homes.

LG’s Hub Robot addresses these concerns by tying the entire smart home together under a single-user friendly interface. Amazon Alexa’s

Innovation & Collaboration voice recognition technology easily allows the robot to connect to other smart LG home appliances, uniting them into a single streamlined ecosystem.

In addition, the Hub Robot keeps the family in sync by keeping track of all the activities occurring inside the home while simultaneously personalizing itself to each individual member of the household. By making the benefits of connected IoT technology more accessible than ever before, the Hub Robot is positioned to become the true centerpiece of the next generation of smart homes.

While humanoid robotic butlers are still beyond our capabilities, exciting strides are being made in applying the power of robotics to meet daily household needs.

Bringing the benefits of smart home technology to users with intuitive voice operation, the Hub Robot is able to fulfill the imagined role of robotic assistant despite its unorthodox shape and lack of mobility. Because the LG Hub Robot is stationary, it is compatible with the Hub Robot Mini.

These smaller robots interact with the primary Hub Robot to expand the power of IoT to the entire house.

In addition to instinctive voice control and seamless ecosystem integration, the Hub Robot utilizes advanced facial recognition software to provide a customized experience to each user. Responding to individual settings can provoke a variety a reactions from Hub Robot, and it is even capable of providing basic childcare.

Robots and the future airport For most travelers, flying is

extremely stressful. This is in no small part due to the hectic nature of airports. The world’s larger airports are incredibly complex and are constantly bustling with thousands of people traveling from one destination to another, scrambling to find their luggage, and waiting in never-ending lines.

Considering security and other hassles, most travelers arrive two hours early for domestic flights and three hours before an international flight.

robot can also speak four different languages (English, Korean, Chinese and Japanese) and is equipped with potent voice recognition technology.

LG’s Airport Guide Robot reduces the hassle of flying by providing travelers with all the information they need to get to their destination.

“With the amount of anticipation surrounding robots, users are already familiar with several of the benefits robots bring. In fact, smartphones and IoT have long employed voice control, making

LG’s Airport Guide Robot applies advanced technology to the problem of air travel to eliminate stress with its friendly design and convenient features. The robot steps right into the role of a human airport worker, albeit one that never tires and never loses its amiable demeanor.

The Airport Guide Robot is able to scan ticket barcodes to provide flight and gate information, as well as the time and weather of the traveler’s destination. The

them excellent examples that demonstrate what benefits new robots really offer. As LG introduces its latest robotic technology including the Hub Robot and others, and as the smart cities we live in continue to strive for connectedness, there is no doubt that this year marks a shift in how users accept, live with and experience robots in the home and beyond.”

www.innovationandtech.ae

11

Innovation & Collaboration

Mobile Doctors 24-7 introduces unique digital healthcare solution as part of Dubai Future Accelerators M obile Doctors 24-7, a stateof-the-art population health management control center available 24-7 at the click of a button, has announced a unique digital healthcare solution that combines tele-consultation, telemonitoring and home health to provide healthy, acute and chronic condition management for the UAE residents.

The service was introduced in the presence of HH Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Crown Prince of Dubai and Chairman of Dubai Executive Council, at the recently concluded the Dubai Future Accelerators (DFA) program in Dubai.

12

www.innovationandtech.ae

Mobile Doctors 24-7’s family medicine specialists and general practitioners, licensed by the Dubai Health Authority (DHA) and Dubai Healthcare City (DHCC), as well as wellness experts provide advice via voice or video calls, live chat, on-site corporate health and wellness as well as Johns Hopkins Hospital at Home Program at any time of the day or night.

Commenting on the initiative, Mr. Raouf Khalil, Founder and CEO of Mobile Doctors 24-7, said, “We are honored to have the opportunity to present this innovative project at the DFA program. At Mobile Doctors 24-7, we believe the only path to

a true healthcare solution is by aligning consumers/employees and payers/employers. The innovative service uses futuristic, cutting-edge technologies to foster change in the healthcare ecosystem.”

“Residents should have access to ethical and reliable healthcare round-the-clock. Our full-time doctors provide ethical medical advice to patients by telling them the truth about what they need, not just what they can afford. This is the only way to ensure a proper balance between quality and cost. Our solution to health care is changing consumer behavior by providing them 24-7 access to an

Innovation & Collaboration integrated delivery system that avoids unnecessary wastage of healthcare resources. Our aim to launch this initiative is to provide a real healthcare solution that works for both customers and payers,” he added.

Mr. Abdulla bin Touq, CEO of the Dubai Future Foundation, said, “These aren’t just challenges for Dubai, but for the whole world. The fate of our future is reliant on partnerships with innovative governments and new technologies. The history of our city and our people has been one of discovery and vision since our inception 45 years ago. Dubai is a platform for innovation, a place for the best minds to come together

with forward-thinking leadership to forge a better future for us all.”

The Mobile Doctors 24-7 service allows everyone – whether at home, work, on a business trip, or on vacation – to have immediate access to a licensed, western-trained doctor or wellness expert at any time, 365 days a year without the need to make an appointment or wait in an emergency room queue.

The Western-trained doctors practice evidence-based medicine adhering to the guidelines of Britain’s National Health Service (NHS) / National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE).

Services of Mobile Doctors 24-7 are provided at a cost that is a fraction of a traditional clinic or hospital visit,

making them highly cost effective for patients, employers, payers and governments.

The DFA program, with its second cycle taken place recently, was the world’s largest governmentsupported accelerator, which paired top startups with the Dubai Government entities allowing them to build, test and deploy solutions for 21st-century challenges. The second cycle of the DFA witnessed participation of government entities that set a series of challenges, as well as startups and companies that can provide innovative solutions.

Thirty-five companies were selected from over 1000+ applications from around the world.

A PICKUP TRUCK IS JUST A CLICK AWAY Yup! Easy and smart way to book a pickup truck Yup! You can pay with cash or credit card Yup! Businesses can track transactions, check account history, generate invoices and get progress reports

Yup! We can pick up immediately or at a convenient time of your choosing Yup! You can pin your location on the map (pick up / drop off) Yup! We have experienced drivers, waiting for your booking

DOWNLOAD THE APP & GET 10% OFF YOUR FIRST BOOKING

800-26963

YALLA-PICKUP.com

YALLAPICKUP

yalla_PICKUP

@yalla_PICKUP

yalla-PICKUP-FZE

Innovation & Collaboration

DC PRO Engineering CEO maps out plan for greener earth at the 2017 District Cooling Stakeholders Summit

T

owns, cities and individuals must be held accountable for the energy they consume and should be rewarded and penalized accordingly, George Berbari, one of the world’s foremost voices on district cooling technologies told the prestigious District Cooling Stakeholders Summit, in Dubai held on 18 April 2017.

Berbari, founder of UAE-based district cooling consultancy DC PRO Engineering, and author of the thought-provoking ‘The Energy Budget’ – which outlines a self-financing long-term solution to tackle climate change – outlined that with CO2 emissions expected to reach 43 billion tonnes globally by 2040, it is crucial that municipal official, government entities, the private sector and people around the world must work together.

Climate change strategist Berbari told the summit, taking place at Le Meridien Dubai until April 19, that the construction, industrial and transportation sectors are responsible for using the most energy. He also pointed out that the agriculture sector is has a huge responsibility when it comes to global warming with methane gas approximately 30 times more harmful than CO2 and estimated to account for 16% of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions, with livestock and rice farming the two biggest contributors.

“Global warming is affecting humanity and considered

14

www.innovationandtech.ae

its biggest failure; hence new approaches should be implemented.” Berbari told the summit.

“According to USA Energy Information Administration EIA, Energy-related CO2 emissions will increase, particularly in developed countries,” added Berbari, highlighting that energy-related CO2 emission reached 32 billion tonnes in 2012 and is expected to increase by 34% to 43 billion tonnes by 2040.

“Renewable energy is the superstar on the horizon and Hydrogen is the future and will play a key role in resolving the energy storage dilemma,” Berbari said.

He said that in today’s world, utility companies are directly billing the end-users without any “concern for

Innovation & Collaboration sustainability”, suggesting that any attempts to implement regulations to keep utilities in check are inadequate, as end-users should not be allowed to consume unlimited energy under the name of “paying the bills”.

The DC PRO Engineering CEO outlined his vision for the future in reducing energy-related CO2 emissions, which would see one intermediate private-sector firm responsible for all the utility meters including in billing and the collection of property tax in a jurisdiction.

“The firm would then report the collated figures to the local authorities concerned. Establishing such a structure will ensure transparency and a reduction in

costs”, said Berbari.

In his presentation, the climate change advocate suggested that the scenario of empowering cities, towns and even villages to take control of their own destiny to tackle global warming is the way moving forward. Cities should be allowed to measure the benchmark of energy consumed per person and per m2 of facility for a year and would set a target for reducing consumption by 20% in the subsequent year.

The city will then gradually increase the reduction target in a three-year cycle to further conserve resources. Residents, who consume at the reduced benchmark, or less, would benefit from minimum utility rates, which would cover energy

costs, while those who consume at a higher rate than the benchmark figure would be hit with much higher bills. The funds accrued through collecting penalties (higher rates) would be used to cover the costs the city or town incurred in establishing, operating and maintaining the distribution grid; the district energy piping network, the natural gas, water and sewer networks.

The ‘Energy Budget’ book is displayed at the ‘District Cooling Stakeholders Summit’, and can be purchased online at georgeberbari. com in three formats – e-book, hardback copy or paperback, or at Magrudy’s on Jumeirah Beach Road in Dubai.

FOR YOUR LEGAL SOLUTIONS Contact our Lawyers

Abdulla Al Suwaidi Advocates & Legal Consultants is a Law firm established in the United Arab Emirates with offices and affiliates offices across the Middle East, America, Europe and Asia. We offer the most efficient with affordable fees for your legal requirements for both corporate and individuals.

Our team of lawyers specializes on below areas: • Representation in all UAE Courts, Public Prosecution, Police Station, DIFC Courts & Arbitration.

• Family Law • Aviation • Marine • Oil & Gas • Corporate Law • Civil / Criminal • Commercial disputes • Constructions disputes • Debt recovery • Intellectual Property • Company formation & Incorporations (Offshore & Onshore) • Drafting Agreements and Wills • 2nd Citizenship in EU / Cyprus

CONTACT US

Dubai Office Business Bay, Bay Square, Building #02, Office #704 P.O BOX: 96070 Dubai, UAE Phone No: +9714 554 7635, Mobile: +97155 9230221 http://www.awsuwaidi-advocates.com

info@awsuwaidi-advocates.com, aws@awsuwaidi-advocates.com

Internet of Things

Will AI and Automation Kill our JOBS? For the last 5 to 10 years, connectivity and mobility have been on top of the agenda for many industries, both are essential enablers for a digital transformation. But while mobility and connectivity continue to be important enablers to expand the internet of things, there is something much bigger at stake that starts to emerge now.

JEAN-LUC SCHERER explains more.

A

s more devices get connected you also start to collect more data and gain more insights and intelligence on how to optimize and automate tasks and processes. So here are a few questions related to the impact these changes could have on our society. How many of the tasks done today by various types of employees can be fully automated? How will that trend accelerate over the coming years? Do you remember this famous quote from former Ericsson CEO, Hans Vestberg few years back?

“Whatever can be connected will be

16

www.innovationandtech.ae

connected.�

I think this concept of a networked society is now slowly wearing out and it is time to start looking at what an autonomous society could become.

Right now homes are getting connected, and the hooks are built to create intimacy with users, but soon we will also see robots moving into our homes to perform more and more complex chores.

An autonomous society is a society where most functions and tasks run by companies or governments can be automated.

People start to become increasingly aware of this vision due to the industry buzz around self-driving cars and self-driving vehicles in general. These have generated some fears about job losses, but provide also great opportunities. Thinking a bit

Internet of Things

Jean-Luc Scherer Founder, Innoopolis Telecommunications veteran with more than 18 years of experience in the mobile industry, Jean-Luc Scherer's expertize crosses multiple domains going from Mobile Application Development to Social Media, Big Data, M2M & Internet of Things.

Google and Tesla are pioneering self-driving cars, but so are the majority of the automobile industry players. This is happening faster than what you might think, pilots are being done all around the world.

Self-driving cars promise a reduction in accidents on the roads and stress relief from time spent commuting.

At the same time there is also a fear that a lot of jobs will be lost in that process. Autonomous vehicles will impact public transportation, airlines, buses, taxis, trucks. Imagine a world with no more taxi drivers, no more bus drivers... no need even to own your car or to take an expensive driving license! You can just order a car to your home and use it as a service whenever you need it. But what else can be automated? And how will developments in Cloud, AI, Natural Language processing and robotics further speed up the automation of tasks and accelerate the elimination of jobs? broader we could ask ourselves: What else can be automated and how will that impact society? You will probably come-up with a lot of use-cases and scenarios. I strongly believe:

“Whatever can be automated will be automated�

I think we are at the beginning of a trend that will now accelerate as

everything is connected and cloud resources will continue to make processing and storage cheaper and cheaper. If we want to have a glimpse of the future we can have a look at what some of the industry giants are already doing today.

The gold rush toward autonomous driving

Robots could help us to age better...

Consider customer care or patient care, here we have interactions which typically follow certain patterns and can be learned by AI systems. If you add the progress

www.innovationandtech.ae

17

Internet of Things done in natural language processing and robotics, then you can start building smart robots that can offload some of the work done at the care centers. Toyota has for instance been developing robots that can help in tedious tasks like lifting patients. In Japan you will also find robots that can be help patients to stay fit both physically and mentally. Japan has been working with elderly care robotics for more than 20 years due to its aging population. The benefits of these robots are addressing the shortage of medical staff, but are also providing therapeutic benefits.... but the application of these robots could go beyond elderly care.

Can robots provide a better service experience?

We will soon know, as

experiments to introduce robots at customer service interaction points increase. In an effort to improve happiness and customer satisfaction Dubai Health Authority has recently introduced its first smart pharmacy run by a robot. It is deployed at Rashid Hospital in Dubai. The robot can dispense up to 12 prescriptions in less than one

18

www.innovationandtech.ae

minute, reducing customer’s waiting time. The dispensing process will be paper free as the robot will store the prescription as soon as the doctor documents it electronically. This process will allow the pharmacist to focus on giving the customers the correct instructions on taking the medication. Again pharmacies, very repetitive tasks, that can easily be automated, but so could customer care tasks at your communications service provider, right? Or at the petrol station? On the positive side, for customer care you will avoid having to deal with people making up answers because they are not trained well enough or they don’t know the answer, a robot cannot lie, right? I actually believe customer experience can be improved by technology: faster and better service.

Amazon, Facebook and others have eyes on our homes

Making our homes more comfortable, having happier lives where we spent time on things that matter is on everybody’s mind. Mark Zuckerberg for instance took on a personal project last year to work on this. He built a system inspired by the “Iron Man” film character Jarvis as a virtual assistant to help manage his household. Jarvis is an application Zuckerberg can access through his phone or computer to control lights, temperature, music, security, appliances and more. The software learns his tastes and patterns, as

well as new words or concepts, and can even entertain his one-yearold daughter. Natural language processing and facial recognition capabilities were built into Jarvis, enabling it to understand spoken or texted commands and recognize who is issuing them. Amazon has commercialized something similar but focusing primarily on the natural language processing and AI. The Amazon echo dot system is interesting in the sense that it provides an open system to learn new skills. It can today play your favorite music, book an Uber or order a pizza, but can incorporate new skills easily. Platforms like the Amazon echo could have a big impact on application development.

Who wants 100 different applications on their phone? Many of the mobile apps we find around us could quickly become obsolete.

Right now homes are getting connected, and the hooks are built to create intimacy with users, but soon we will also see robots moving into our homes to perform more and more complex chores. Check out for instance the Moley robotic kitchen! Your personal chef at your disposal! This innovation prepares fresh meals for you, like only a chef could do. The promise of this type of robot is a healthier living with less time spent in fast foods and also an opportunity to impress your guests when preparing dinner while still spending time with your guests.

Robots for cleaning, preparing meals, maybe taking care of the kids, who knows how far this can go.

So are you embracing these technology advances?

Skeptics and even analysts

Internet of Things

would probably predict that this will only lead to more and more people losing their jobs, and that

giants will become bigger and the richer will become richer. Yes, there is a risk for that. But maybe that means that we need to rethink our economic models and maybe our education system. Education needs to shift its focus from skills needed in the manufacturing era to skills needed in an age where creativity and entrepreneurship becomes increasingly important. It is also important to look at how resources are shared within a nation and how wealth is distributed; I am here thinking about nations like Finland who are already experimenting with a universal basic income. That type of initiative might reduce the

fear of technology taking over. As said I believe that whatever can be automated will be automated and it is key for us to prepare for that shift.

Now these are my views, based on a number of articles I read recently, but how do you see your industry impacted? Do you see more opportunities or threats? How will you stay relevant in this fastpaced environment? How will you innovate?

If you want to hear more about digital disruption and innovation you can contact me at jls@innoopolis. com or check our website www. innoopolis.com.

Internet of Things

Advancing Energy Innovation in the Cleantech Sector The power of innovation – driven by sustained research & development and adoption of clean energy solutions – has the potential to tackle climate change and disrupt the cleantech sector. In this article, Dr. STEVE GRIFFITHS expounds on the changing paradigm of the clean energy technology and its impact across the globe.

20

www.innovationandtech.ae

Internet of Things

Dr. Steve Griffiths Vice President for Research, Interim Associate Provost, Masdar Institute of Science & Technology At Masdar, he's responsible for research, including largescale, collaborative research programs & centers, research development, sponsored programs, technology transfer, and research laboratories.

T

hroughout history we’ve observed a very strong connection between energy systems and economic development. The first industrial revolution began in the middle of the 18th century and was driven by mechanical production enabled by water and steam energy. The second industrial revolution, also known as the technological revolution, was a period of rapid industrialization in the late 19th century that leveraged the availability of electrical energy and petroleum to grow industries and increasingly connect societies.

The 3rd industrial revolution, which began in the 20th century, has been characterized by new uses of energy in automation and is now evolving into what is being termed as the 4th industrial revolution, which is a revolution characterized by increasingly strong integration of computation, networks, and physical systems. In the clean technology (or cleantech) sector, the technology platforms of the 3rd and 4th industrial revolutions are creating entirely new ways of supplying, transmitting and consuming energy, thus changing how the sector fundamentally operates.

As an illustration of this trend, the 2017 Global Cleantech 100

ranking released by the Cleantech Group in early 2017 shows that companies involved in the Internetof-Things (IoT) are at the forefront of energy innovation. Simply put, IoT connects the physical world to the information world through the ability to collect vast amounts of data about people, places and things and then communicate these data to analytical platforms that support real-time actions based on the past as well as potential future states of a system. This cycle of “sense, analyze, actuate” is yielding unprecedented opportunities for cleantech innovation. In highlighting the role of IoT in cleantech, the Global Cleantech 100 report describes 14 cleantech companies that are considered part of the “internetof-everything” and are advancing cleantech through innovation in wireless communications, software analytics, intelligent buildings, lighting and smart homes. Sigfox (France), for example, is not an energy company but rather an innovator in IoT communications.

Specifically, Sigfox has created a proprietary, Low-Power Wide-Area Network (LPWAN) approach that provides the long distance and ultralow power mobile communication capabilities essential for connecting

www.innovationandtech.ae

21

Internet of Things millions of IoT devices across broad geographical areas. Actility (France), another company highlighted in the Global Cleantech 100 report, sits at the nexus of IoT and cleantech by leveraging of an LPWAN standard called LoRaWAN (Long-Range WAN) to provide products and services for machine-to-machine (M2M) and smart grid applications. Other companies highlighted in the report under the umbrella of the “internetof-everything” are Geli (United States), a provider of software solutions to design, automate and manage energy storage systems and Space-Time Insight (United States), a provider of situational intelligence via real-time visual analytics software that generates actionable insights from big data and IoT. Enevo (Finland) is recognized in the report for using IoT to provide waste logistics solutions for smart cities, Breezometer (Israel) is recognized for providing dynamic air quality data in real-time to support environmental sustainability in smart cities and tado (Germany) is recognized for providing software that allows users to control heating and cooling systems directly from their smart phones. These are just a few examples of the growing number of cleantech companies that are part of a “digital and distributed” paradigm that is shaping the global energy system.

At the Masdar Institute of Science and Technology, our research strategy reflects the inevitable impact of the 3rd and now

22

www.innovationandtech.ae

Simply put, IoT connects the physical world to the information world through the ability to collect vast amounts of data about people, places and things and then communicate these data to analytical platforms that support real-time actions based on the past as well as potential future states of a system.

4th industrial revolutions on the energy sector. Specifically, we have developed a strategy that focuses on solutions for energy and water through R&D and innovation in novel materials, intelligent systems and data science. In recognition of the importance of IoT in our future energy system, we have recently launched a Center of Excellence on Radio Frequency/5G Communications in collaboration with the Semiconductor Research Corporation (SRC) based in the US. The center is focused on developing transceivers equipped with integrated circuits embedded with hundreds of antennas capable of high-speed data transfer at the bandwidth frequencies being opened up for 5G networks, which are networks that will complement LPWAN technologies in pushing

forward IoT. Similarly, in January 2017 we signed an agreement with Huawei (China) to undertake IoT R&D that will provide real-time prediction and warnings for a variety of health risks for city occupants, thereby improving their overall health.

Applications will be built on Huawei’s IoT Platform, which orchestrates the data collected from multiple types of sensors that measure occupancy patterns, human vital signs and body temperature and environmental data. We will grow these partnerships and develop new ones like them in order to advance not just cleantech, but the energy industry more broadly. In essence, it is our ambition to build partnerships and undertake R&D that is focused on the platform technologies that are at the heart of current and future generations of industrial revolution in the UAE and globally.

C

M

Y

CM

MY

CY

CMY

K

Data Management

Data is the

NEW OIL

JAYANTH JOHN writes on why the current digital economy is the right time for GCC members to form a positive outlook towards Data Management and embrace it as the next step to their organizational development and economic resurrection.

24

www.innovationandtech.ae

Data Management

Data management is the development, execution and supervision of plans, policies, programs and practices that control, protect, deliver and enhance the value of data and information assets.” – The DAMA Guide to the Data Management Body of Knowledge (DAMA-DMBOK), 1st Edition 2009, p.4

B

ig Data, Internet of Things, Data Analytics and the likes are all buzz words we come across often both in work and personal lives, constantly reminding us that we live in a digital era that warrants the need for the term ‘Digital Economy’.

The past decade, in fact much earlier, witnessed immense economic development throughout the GCC (Gulf Cooperation Council)

countries, positioning it amongst some of the fastest growing economies in the world. The GCC’s combined GDP crossed the USD 1 trillion mark around 2008 with the oil and gas boom contributing significantly to such strong economic conditions.

The cyclical nature of the oil and gas industry was experienced yet again with the 2014 crash in oil prices; low prices of which

lasted through till 2016 before stabilizing around the USD 50 mark in 2017. This ‘low price for long’ scenario pressurized the GCC and other oil dependent economies worldwide to cut back heavily on spending. Transformation initiatives undertaken by both public and private sectors should counter the current financial pressures, by pushing GCC member countries on a diversification path that is directed

www.innovationandtech.ae

25

Data Management away from its current state of overreliance on oil.

In contrast to the bleak recovery of oil prices, GDP growth for GCC is forecasted above the 2% mark for 2017. In turbulent times, organizations should strive and achieve operational efficiency by embracing flexibility and agility to respond to the market changes. This requires strong strategic planning that is backed with competences that are capable to translate the strategies to actionable outcomes.

Processes and technology must be in place to enable the workforce to have control and more importantly, visibility over their performance.

Ironically the phrase ‘Data is the New Oil’, believed to have been coined around 2006 by Clive Humbly, a UK Mathematician, seems to perfectly fit at a time when countries are forced to shift away from solely relying on the real ‘oil’. Although it is often argued that crude oil is worthless unless refined to its state of a final product, one should be reminded that in the absence of the raw material a final product of value is unattainable. The widely used price per barrel demonstrates the value tied to crude i.e. in its raw form, comfortably debunking the notion that crude is worthless unless refined. The same can be applied to Data whereby data in its rawest form has value. Through proper data management practices organizations can leverage data and position itself in a competitively advantageous path by improving revenue, controlling costs, managing risks and more.

At an enterprise level, organizations must mandate data as a strategic asset that needs

26

www.innovationandtech.ae

Jayanth John heads the Data Management Division at TechSutra FZ-LLC, a leading IT consultancy firm in the region. He has been working for the past 15 years with clients from various industries such as railways, power, oil and gas, telecommunications and property. He provides a broad range of data management consulting services with a focus on strategic consulting.

to be managed. The challenge in unlocking the value of data is mainly attributed to its intangible form, which unlike other physical assets such as property or equipment have widely accepted and practiced measure. This challenge is addressed through proper adoption of a comprehensive data management framework that measures the maturity of the organization. The organization’s long-term strategy can be derived from the framework with a clear roadmap outlined to steer the organization to levels of higher maturity.

Translating data management from theory to practice and deriving value from it requires a holistic approach that addresses the interaction between the foundational blocks of data/ information, business processes, technology and people in a harmonious fashion. There is no definitive or correct solution that ensures success for data management, rather a wellthought and thoroughly planned series of actions addressing all the foundational blocks in a balanced manner will be critical in propelling the organization up the maturity ladder.

A common pitfall in data management initiatives is when emphasis is given to selective

components, for e.g. technology.

Organizations that invest heavily in technology to manage data and in the hope of achieving excellence or solving data-related problems with such technology, will eventually reach a point where it becomes evident that technology is not aligned with business goals or its business processes. The Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) for technology could be greatly inflated, especially if multiple technologies with overlapping functions are purchased and deployed, resulting in administrative challenges, and training costs. These unnecessary spending during unfavorable economic environments must be avoided at all costs.

A holistic approach that adapts a maturity improvement principle will equip the organization to adapt to rapidly changing environments without compromising on its path towards achieving its business vision.

There has not been a better time than now, in the age of digital economy, when oil dependent economies are pushed to diversify to non-oil sectors to ensure long term sustainability that businesses should embrace and pursue to tap onto the opportunity of unlocking the potential of its newly found oil, i.e. Data.

Interview

CLOUD COMPUTING:

Paving the Way for Digitization • What is Oracle Digital?

How does it distinguish itself from its competitors?

Oracle Digital is a community of several sales organizations, all sharing a common goal – to make Oracle the world’s most trusted cloud partner for our customers.

Oracle Digital is clearly positioned to address the tremendous increase in demand for Oracle’s cloud solutions and to optimize the way we meet our customers’ needs, especially SMBs. 75% of our 400K+ customers are SMBs and we believe that they need access to Cloud technology at the lowest possible entry point.

We understand their needs and are hence able to adapt our enterprise-grade IT solutions which have helped so many big companies in their success, to the very stream-lined operations of SMBs. Our sales teams are located within nine modern Cloud Sales Centres across EMEA. They are digitally native with the ability to listen, engage and sell to customers using the most modern tools and channels.

28

www.innovationandtech.ae

WALID EL GELABY, Oracle Digital Tech Leader, MEA talks about the growing digitization in the UAE and how Oracle Digital is crucial for a successful business community in the region.

WALID EL GELABY, Oracle Digital Tech Leader, MEA

Interview

Oracle Digital’s enhanced approach to sales engagement allows us to better understand our customers and with modern communication tools, we are able to drive meaningful conversations anytime, anywhere and on our customers’ terms.

• How is UAE placed amidst this phenomenon of global digital disruption? How does Oracle Digital plan to contribute to the digitization of the region?

The UAE has continued to invest heavily in both IT and cloud deployment. Gartner estimates that Middle East and North Africa (MENA) IT spending is projected to reach $155.8 billion in 2017. Spending on cloud services and solutions

is growing rapidly, within which Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) is forecasted to be one of the fastest growth segments in the public cloud services market.

At Oracle Digital, we use nextgeneration technology, coupled with the latest communication techniques and collaboration tools, to facilitate knowledge and solution sharing. We can thus deliver an engaging customer experience, support a modern buying journey and more effectively lead our customers through their digital transformation.

• Which are the major SMB sectors that have the potential to get disrupted the most?

Mobility linked to retail; Healthcare in the field of medicine

linked to healthy lifestyle (e.g. your medical records recommending the right nutrition and sports for your best wellbeing); Financial Services Industry with disruptions from FinTech, which recommend you the best bank account types and credit card based on your spending patterns.

• One of the major outcomes of digital disruption has been a rise in platformbased ecosystems. Do you think SMBs in the MENA region are ready to handle this kind of work environment and competition?

Definitely, and many have already embraced it and operate in Platform-based ecosystems.

www.innovationandtech.ae

29

Interview

A reliable partner should offer alternatives to all scenarios and showcase how digitization can support your business output.

For example, the popular loyalty programs that act as a platform to up-sell and cross-sell experiences from movie tickets to a hotel stay and even a theme park.

• What are the major challenges for a company driving towards digitization and how should it address those issues?

Most SMBs have no idea about what IT can do for them. They believe it is very effort intensive or complicated. Or that they need big IT departments and in-house gurus. On the contrary, to simplify an organizations’ operation is the core objective of all good IT solutions.

The digital transformation process allows an organizations’ leadership team to concentrate on core business activities and not worry about IT processes.

My advice is to identify the right partner to drive your digitization.

A reliable partner should offer alternatives to all scenarios and showcase how digitization can support your business output.

30

www.innovationandtech.ae

• The emergence of Big Data and Internet of Things has captured the attention of most of the SMBs in the region. However, often these organizations aren’t aware of the prerequisites and required processes.

How does Oracle Digital plan to create this essential level of awareness across varied industries?

Our recommendation will be to first review other successful implementations. In our region, we can actually have the ‘second mover advantage’; by learning from other markets or from the implementation of other companies and the business benefits that they have achieved and then create your own version of it.

We give every customer the ability to design their own map to cloud

success—not just one map, not just our map, but almost limitless paths and roadways they can draw, then shape, then redraw again in new, powerful ways as their businesses grow. We built a cloud future that’s less about restrictions and more about re-imagining people, processes, and progress.

• How is Oracle encouraging innovation among the local business community?

At Oracle Digital, we provide a lot of information and free tools for SMBs to test our latest solutions during workshops and trial sessions.

We recently also organized an Application Development hands-on lab at our Oracle Digital offices in Dubai Internet City.

• Where does Oracle Digital see itself in the next two years?

The #1 Cloud provider in the midmarket.

Digital Edge

Digital Trends & Drivers for 2017:

MENA Overview

NADINE SAMRA writes about the key digital trends and driving forces that would overhaul the digital environment of MENA and impact communication.

F Nadine Samra Nadine Samra is the Head of Digital Business, Middle East at Zee Entertainment Enterprises Limited. She has over 13 years of experience in developing and delivering complex IT and digital solutions. She has completed her education from American University of Sharjah and is specialized in Digital Strategy, Operations Management, Team Coaching, Business Processes, E-commerce, Web & Mobile Technologies, Portfolio and Program Management, Agile Development and Metadata.

ew days ago I was in one of the digital media conferences.

During one of the sessions I was curious to look at the audience and see the percentage of people actually looking at the speaker during the session. I noticed that at least 80% of the people are on their mobiles! I am sure it is of no surprise to you! Many were on social media, tweeting, instagramming or sharing on Facebook some of the quotes or pictures from the event. The end user behavior and interaction with everything around them has changed dramatically in recent years. Being connected is a way of life.

We live in the fastest technology advancement era recorded in the history of mankind. New advanced technologies are created and shipped to the end consumer on a daily basis. These technologies replace older ones very quickly and create new consumer habits and digital trends. They also create a big gap in consumer behavior and expectation between the different age groups. Right now, there is a new generation every five years or so that is defined based on their

digital habits, expectations and interactions with the world around them.

Digital trends globally are driven by many factors such as demographics, technology trends, startup disruptors and new consumer behaviors and expectations. The MENA region shares the same drivers with the global economy. Here are some of these drivers: • The emergence of the millennials who are tech savvy and up to date with the latest trends has demanded the need for digital products that has great user experience and instant access to content. In addition, urbanization has increased the need for digital offerings that cater for people on the go and with busy lifestyle and frequent commute. • The consumer behavior and expectations have evolved over time with technical innovation.

Consumers are keen to consume content from around the globe.

Their expectation is to watch any type of content instantly,

www.innovationandtech.ae

31

Digital Edge

with high quality and in the best user experience possible. The differentiation between industries doesn’t take place here. In other words, no matter what industry you are coming from, your digital user experience is going to be compared to the best experiences online.

• The evolution of startup disruptors is a key driver for creating new digital trends. Talent access to technology and financial resources enabled young talents to create new innovative digital solutions that trend quickly and puts established traditional businesses at risk. Few examples are Uber, Careem, Airbnb, Souq, etc. These have started as startups and are currently large organizations.

• Technology advancements are fueling on-trend digital services.

Internet and mobile penetration,

32

www.innovationandtech.ae

data analytics, cloud computing, artificial intelligence and Internet of Things are just few examples of the technology innovations directly impacting the digital trends globally and in the MENA region.

• Smart data and data analytics tools enable companies to understand their audience better and tailor experiences according to their expectations. Many companies have started to leverage the access to the user behavior data to deliver relevant content and meaningful experiences. Recommendation engines have advanced to predict the next content that you would most likely want to watch depending on your mood and state of mind at that exact moment.

Some of the digital trends that would continue to grow this year:

V

ideo Streaming and OnDemand. The thrive for content anywhere and anytime is continuing to grow in the region. Consumers have no patience to wait for the content to be available for them in a fixed time or platform. They want to view the content at their own pace, their convenient time and using their favorite device.

• With the internet penetration at 100% in UAE, 94% in Saudi and Qatar and 80% in Egypt, the access for online content is becoming easier.

• The smartphone penetration in MENA is between 85% to 95% depending on the country. (Source: Qatar Northwestern report).

S

ocial Media is continuing to grow at an incremental level in MENA

Digital Edge

T

he online gaming Industry is growing exponentially due to the rise of the smartphones and advanced image processing which allows the creation and use of great gaming experiences. The number of mobile gamers is increasing and developers are seeing an incremental increase in the games revenues. Augmented reality and virtual reality are trends that have begun to impact the gaming industry since 2016 and it is continuing this year too.

Combining the social media and the gaming industry create an unbeatable combination that increases engagement, conversion, and time spent.

• The market’s largest segment is the segment ‘Mobile Games’ with a market volume of US$291m in 2017.

• User penetration is at 10.8 % in 2017 and is expected to hit 32.9 % in 2021.

Digital transformation means to transform the organizational, technological, and operational traditional way of thinking into a dynamic, agile and a nonstop evolution. region. Digital marketing has been impacted directly by this continuous growth. New marketing strategies are being created and the use of influencers for branded content is continuing to grow.

Saudi Arabia 2:55 and Egypt 3:10.

• Saudi Arabia tops the chart of growth of social media users globally at 73%.

• Qatar and UAE are the highest in the social media penetration ranking at 99%.

• Time spent on social media daily per person in hours in UAE is 3:24,

2017-global-overview)

• Annual growth for active social media users in the Middle East has increased 47% since Jan 2016 to Jan 2017.

(Source: We Are Social digital-in-

• Revenue in the “Video Games” segment amounts to US$582m in 2017. (Source: Statista)

These digital drivers and trends are impacting all organizations across all industries, without any exception. Accordingly, digital transformation is a must for all organizations to sustain their businesses and revenue streams. It is not a wave that would leave, it is here to stay. It cannot be a one-time investment and a stand-alone project. Digital transformation means to transform the organizational, technological, and operational traditional way of thinking into a dynamic, agile and a nonstop evolution.

www.innovationandtech.ae

33

Cover Story

Cyber Security for SMART CITY Smart city is the future. With extensive research being carried out in information and communication technologies, smart city promises to deliver improved services with reduced environmental impact in an era of unprecedented urbanization. But the advent of such multifarious technology brings with it the risk of nefarious cyberattacks and raises grim security concerns. This article provides an overview of cyber security in a smart city context and the steps that would help organizations to manage their data in a smart environment. By AURITRI CHATTERJEE

T

he notion of smart city has captured the imagination of governments, city planners and technology honchos all around the world with numerous definitions trying to encompass the immensity of it all. Though there has been no single consensus definition of a smart city, the vision of a smart city includes both goals to be achieved and technology as part of the solution. According to the Institute for Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), “a smart city

brings together technology, government and society to enable the following characteristics: a smart economy, smart mobility, a smart environment, smart people, smart living and smart

34

www.innovationandtech.ae

governance.”

Then again, the Smart Cities Council, which includes technology companies such as Cisco, IBM, General Electric (GE), Microsoft, and Qualcomm among others, embodies three core values of a smart city – livability, workability and sustainability. Its About Us page reads: “We envision a world where digital technology and intelligent design have been harnessed to create smart, sustainable cities with high-quality living and highquality jobs.”

This implies that environmental sustainability along with a high quality of life are intrinsic to a smart city.

The smart city concept has seen exponential interest and growth in the last few years, with in-depth research being done in information and communication technologies (ICTs) and its integration with Internet of Things (IoT), Big Data, Cloud and other major innovations.

The integration between these fields of technology enables governments to accumulate enough data to build efficient infrastructures, manage the city’s assets such as schools, transportation, hospitals, power plants, waste management, and law enforcement among others, and enhance the quality, performance and interactivity of urban services for its citizens. It is

Cover Story

Just like its promises, the perils of ICTs are limitless; and just like any other tool, the data accrued through the smart city programs can be used to exploit the vulnerability of its owner.

www.innovationandtech.ae

35

Cover Story an undeniable fact that smart cities are set to fundamentally change our perception and experience of the world. According to Nicolas Reys, Consultant of Cyber Security Services at Control Risks, “In practical terms, these transformative effects will arise from the combination of three pieces of technology: inexpensive logic controllers, millions of sensors connected to devices dispersed across a city and a network that connects all of these nodes together and enables real-time communication.” Smart cities are on the way to becoming connected cities – an infrastructure where all relevant city systems like transportation, utilities, health care, education, employment, public safety and others – are capable of coordinating and communicating with each other while saving resources and minimizing waste.

And several countries, like UAE have already begun to enjoy the benefits.

However, increased connectivity also carries with it the potential for severe privacy and cyber security risks. Just like its promises, the perils of ICTs are limitless; and just like any other tool, the data accrued through

36

www.innovationandtech.ae

the smart city programs can be used to exploit the vulnerability of its owner. As cities initiate newer and advanced forms of smart city data collection programs, it is crucial that decision makers weigh the pros and cons of data collection and create policies and install securities in place to ensure that the data is never used to breach the privacy of its citizens.

Secondly, with the world becoming increasingly IoT-centric, cyber security concerns are even more serious than an individual’s privacy concerns. In spite of thorough and complete privacy regulations, security remains an issue as the proliferation of networked objects leads to vastly increased opportunities for hacking and other threats, possibly in places where they have never existed before.

Current IoT devices, such as ‘smart’ refrigerators, have been found to contain unsatisfactory software allowing outsiders to easily hack the device and gain entry into a secure home network. Other hardware such as home security cameras have been found to have no platform or interface for proper security allowing intruders to easily hack

into the unsecured video. A study by the University of Washington reveals that the software used in several common connected devices; such as in cars, medical devices and children’s toys made them vulnerable to hacking.

CYBER SECURITY GUIDELINES The following cyber security guidelines provide key practical recommendations for implementing, maintaining and disposing of smart technology solutions.

Implementation While implementing technology, it is important to deploy systems in a secure way. Organizations should ensure that: • The specific technology with the same model, version, etc. has passed security testing.

• The technology was securely delivered, binaries have been cryptographically signed and devices have not been tampered with.

Cover Story

• All communications have been properly protected against unauthorized interception and modification; and encrypted keys are secured and safe.

• There are multiple administrator usernames and passwords each with granular permissions.

• All access to administration interfaces, functionality, etc. has a user account with a strong password that uses strong authentication mechanisms (one-time password, multifactor authentication, certificate/bio-metric based authentication, etc.).

• All test/default accounts and passwords are removed.

• Unused functionalities and services are disabled to prevent possible attacks.

• Audit logs are constantly monitored to identify ongoing attacks and breaches.

• Anti-tampering and anti-vandalism mechanisms are in place against unauthorized physical access to devices.

Operation and Maintenance Once a solution has been implemented in a smart city, it is important to continuously support, track and monitor the technology.

The following list of requirements supports safe operation: • Monitoring – Organizations are expected to monitor the stability of the services, tracking any suspicious activity, abnormal behavior, performance hooks, or any

other service-threatening agents by regularly reviewing system audit logs and/or other available mechanisms.

• Patching – Patches should be deployed according to the organization’s patch management policies, taking into account the urgency of the patches. Make sure that the firmware update mechanisms deliver the updates in a secure manner with encryption and a digital signature.

• Regular assessment & auditing – Testing smart services is expected to run continuously to verify service compliance with the applicable standards and security policies (i.e. making sure encryption remains turned on, enabling authentication, setting strong passwords, unchanged security settings, etc.)

• Protection of logging environment – Logging should occur as close to the end-device as possible. In case of devices that are not equipped to protect log records, it is important to maintain situational awareness through data collection at IP propagators such as WiFi or other protocol routers, gateways, and standard network security devices should be evaluated.

• Access control – Diligently monitoring who, when, and how someone has access to smart service systems is crucial to prevent unplanned changes, tampering, or downtime that are unacceptable in smart city environments.

• Cyber-threat intelligence – Threat intelligence enables an organization to identify local and global occurrences, such as new, trending, and common attacks. Armed with this information, an organization

can update its security settings and parameters as required to thwart attacks before they happen.

• Compromise reaction and recovery – It’s important to create detailed procedure manuals or checklists that define what must be done if a smart city system is compromised.

This includes topics like certificate revocation, key zeroization, and systems isolation and clean up, as well as how to follow up on the incident in order to understand how the system was compromised and develop plans so that it will never happen again.

Technology Disposal Smart city technologies are complex. As important as it is to implement and maintain a technology, it is equally important to dispose that technology in a secured way.

• Avoid repurposing technology – It could leak sensitive design, client, password, or cryptographic information that could prove to be a threat to production services.

• Erase data securely – Delete data from system storage in a secured way. However, you might require to physically destroy the storage device to assure safe and quick disposal of critical data.

• Vendor replacement – Along with organizations, it is also important for vendors to repurpose the technology and dispose of them securely at regular intervals.

www.innovationandtech.ae

37

Digital Healthcare

The Future of On-Demand

Healthcare With on-demand services the current order of the technology-driven world, the healthcare sector in the GCC is gradually catching up too. In this article, CHARLIE BARLOW writes about the benefits and future of ondemand healthcare in the GCC region.

38

www.innovationandtech.ae

Digital Healthcare

Charlie Barlow is an investor in early stage technology businesses through his venture capital business Rockfirst Capital, and is also founder and CEO of Health at Hand - www.myhealthathand.com.

T

he global on-demand economy is growing at an astronomical pace, revolutionizing commercial behavior in cities around the world. And if you think it’s just a fad, think again.

It’s not just the millennial who are demanding immediate access to services like never before (although they do represent 49% of the on-demand economy according to Forbes). 30% of activity is coming from individuals aged 35 to 54, and 46% of the consumers have an annual household income of under $50,000. Use has penetrated every corner of society with businesses quick to respond to the need.

Tech startups like Uber and Airbnb are typical of on-demand companies. But major corporations are also entering the on-demand market as emphasized by Accor Hotel’s recent acquisition of Airbnb competitor Onefinestay and GM’s investment partnership with Lyft.

According to SmallBusiness. com, the on-demand economy workforce is growing at a 23% compound annual growth rate in the US and it will soon represent the fastest and most significant shift in spending since the birth of internet commerce.

In the Summer of 2016, the Middle East woke up to the on-demand

economy when Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund made its highest profile deal to-date, investing $3.5 billion into US rideshare company Uber Technologies Inc. as the country seeks to diversify its assets with more overseas acquisitions. If the Wall Street Journal is to be believed, this is far from the last activity we will see in this space from Saudi Arabia, who recently sent a senior delegation to Silicon Valley to meet some of the tech elite, including Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg, Apple’s Tim Cook, Microsoft’s Satya Nadella, and venture capitalists Marc Andreessen and Michael Moritz.

In many ways, the residents of the GCC have been quick to

embrace the on-demand economy, with many such companies being well integrated into the regional fabric. The smartphone is the key catalyst for the convergence of new business models, and the GCC benefits from above-average mobile penetration, and a young, tech savvy population.

UK-based food delivery site Deliveroo launched in the UAE in late 2015; and according to a recent KPMG survey, as many as 60% of UAE residents order food at least once a week through Deliveroo and their competitor businesses.

Others like laundry app Washmen, delivery app Fetchr and of course homegrown driving app (and technology unicorn) Careem, have added considerably to the region’s ‘now economy’. According to Careem’s founders, they now have six million users, 150,000 captains, and offer services in 52 cities across 11 countries in the Middle East, North Africa, Pakistan and Turkey.

Surprisingly, the healthcare sector has been slow to catch-up, despite two healthcare companies (Teladoc and American Well) being in the top 10 of all time highest funded ondemand businesses globally.

To reform this sector in the GCC will require all stakeholders to make significant changes, be it the government, private sector, insurers or the healthcare consumers themselves.

www.innovationandtech.ae

39

Digital Healthcare

Top 10 funded on-demand companies Two of the Top 10 Focus on Healthcare Uber........................$7.8B

GetTaxi...........................$193M

Lyft..........................$1.0B

American Well................$141M

GrubHub................$277M

Postmates......................$138M

Instacart................$275M

Munchery........................$117M

TelaDoc..................$245M

Rent the Runway.............$116M

When compared with other sectors, healthcare is different. It’s quite literally about life and death.

In parts of rural Africa, there is 85% internet and mobile penetration yet primary healthcare can be accessed by less than 20% of the population.

In the so-called developed markets, the story is often equally alarming.

In Mississippi, USA, 37% of the population owed money to care providers in 2015 according to the federal government. And throughout much of the world, healthcare remains inefficient, expensive and hard to access.

Ironically, the GCC’s healthcare sector is set to benefit most from this new on-demand trend, despite the slow adoption of such

40

www.innovationandtech.ae

technologies. With alarming levels of chronic disease and obesity, a huge shortage of hospital beds, qualified physicians and nurses, not to mention a rapidly growing population, new and innovative ways to deliver healthcare cannot come quickly enough.

In February 2017, the Dubai Health Authority signed off on their long awaited Telehealth Services Regulation, paving the way for a proliferation of private sector players to enter the market. Finally there will be an alternative to late night drives to Emergency Rooms, as patients are able to access nonemergency healthcare from the comfort of their own homes.

2017 will see the launch of

the GCC’s first video consultation platform for healthcare sector, Health at Hand (www. myhealthathand.com). Health at Hand will allow patients to conduct secure video consultations with highly qualified doctors via their iOS and Android apps, while at the same time offering comprehensive doctor notes, medical recommendations, and in-time, e-prescriptions and drug delivery. With an ambition to democratize healthcare and put the power back into the hands of the patient, Health at Hand will present huge opportunities to regional governments and insurers.

An over-reliance on Emergency Rooms for minor, non-emergency medical issues is severely testing

Digital Healthcare the region’s health resources, while health insurers are under huge pressure to move from volume to value based reimbursement and reduce the amount of unnecessary diagnostic testing and corruption that occurs in the system.

The key driving force behind the on-demand economy is the consumer: me, you, everybody. As an entrepreneur, it is with some certainty that I can say that every truly successful innovative company can pinpoint the same single reason why their idea has succeeded over others: their product implicitly solves a real problem experienced by consumers. It is this highly effective problem solving that the on-demand economy delivers with more speed, efficiency and cost saving than the traditional paradigm. It’s about

making people’s lives easier and providing a higher level of convenience.

When it comes to healthcare, such a culture change may take time, but the US’s Teladoc claims that over 90% of walk-in doctor visits can indeed be treated through video. To reform this sector in the GCC will require all stakeholders to make significant changes, be it the government, private sector, insurers or the healthcare consumers themselves, but with an increasingly tech savvy regional consumer - who demand instant interaction and

highly individualized customer and employee experiences – and regional healthcare regulators who have an increasing appetite to modernize, it’s time for the healthcare sector to take center stage.

VAT CONSULTANTS • Trainings and awareness programs on VAT in the UAE • Consultancy Services for VAT implementation for Corporates & SMEs

OUR ACTIVITIES • • • • • • • • UAE • INDIA • UK www.emiratesca.com enquiry@emiratesca.com Call: +971 4 2500 290

AUDITING & ASSURANCE ACCOUNTING & BOOKKEEPING COMPANY FORMATION SERVICES BUSINESS VALUATION CORPORATE FINANCE TAX CONSULTANCY CFO SERVICES MARKET RESEARCH & BUSINESS PLAN

Group Entities Emirates Chartered Accountants Emirates International Chartered Accountants Co. United Auditing Emirates Accounts Services UK

Digital Economy

?

Is India Ready for a Cashless Digital Economy

In this article KAZI MONIRUL KABIR, talks about the post-demonetization situation in India and dwells if the country is actually ready for a cashless economy.

42

www.innovationandtech.ae

Digital Economy its economic growth. It is certainly a big experiment that the current incumbent government has taken which also puts them into a risky situation firstly with upcoming elections across five States; and then with their coming back in power in the 2019 Union Elections for another tenure. The objective of such a big move has been said to largely curtail the circulation of black money in India, and move towards a more progressive and digitized

for a long time now. Though India has a huge proportion of digital illiteracy, using debit card does not require much digital literacy. Many state governments are working hard to spread the awareness of digital transactions. The Indian Government rolled out incentives for going digital in financial transactions. It introduced daily and weekly lucky draws to encourage digital transactions.

This is a clear endeavor of the

The good thing that has happened is that this surprise demonetization has pushed millions of users on to the country’s digital economic grid by virtual authorization.

I

landed in Delhi on 8th November evening and didn’t know how the fate of the nation was changing right in front of me. I still remember the cover page of the 10th Morning’s Newspaper. I have returned to India few times since and have witnessed amazing and interesting developments around demonetization and how it’s changing everybody’s life. To an outsider this digital transformation has been inspiring as well as awestriking.

As the debate continues on demonetization of high denomination currency of 500 and 1000 Rupee notes in India, there is much to deliberate on where the country is heading in

economy.

With the launch of initiatives like Digital India, Jan Dhan Yojana, eMoney and Direct Benefit Transfer Scheme etc., the Centre has anyways been creating a big push on digitization and enabling online and card transaction driven economy

government to move India to a more digitally integrated ecosystem.

While it indeed should be the future, but the big question is whether the country is ready for this or not?

Most of the urban areas are already using e-formats for

Kazi Monirul Kabir CIO, Spider Digital Innovations Kazi posseses extensive Marketing, Communication, Innovation, Strategic Design and Business Development experience across Internet, telecom and consumer goods industries.

www.innovationandtech.ae

43

Digital Economy payments and it is a manageable transition for them. But the challenge is primarily being seen in geographies or segments of society which are largely cash driven. A report by Google India and Boston Consulting Group has shown that around 75 per cent of transaction in the country has been cash-based in comparison to other countries like US, France, Germany, Japan, where it was around 25 per cent. A large part of the country - which means small towns, rural areas and untapped markets, still do not have enough Point of Sale (POS) where cards can be used and e-transactions can be facilitated. Many do not have bank accounts and there is less broadband penetration which means lack of internet services.

Merely 26% of India has internet access, and there are only 200 million users of digital payment services. These are big issues that need to be quickly addressed.

But the good thing that has happened is that this surprise demonetization has pushed millions of users on to the country’s digital economic grid by virtual authorization. It has ensured a new paradigm of cashless economy where spends are happening via smartphones & e-wallets and we are witnessing a new stream of first timers entering the digital ecosystem paving a way for a solid cleaner and bigger digital economy.

But the country needs to show a lot of patience as change happens gradually. India is today the world’s fastest growing economy and that should certainly get some attention, especially when it comes to the “Internet-of-Things” and the tech revolution. One big point to remember is that India has the

44

www.innovationandtech.ae

world’s second largest population and the world’s seventh largest economy. In 2015, its economy was the same size as Brazil’s and was larger than Russia’s. So the pace with which the country is growing and transitioning towards a digital single market with is quite noteworthy.

From 35 crore Internet users in India at the end of 2015, the number has now reached approximate 45-50 crore, and is expected to touch 75 crore by 2020. In terms of smartphone users, India has already beaten US as 22 crore users benchmark has been breached this year. Now, only China is above us, in

per cent since November 8. This is excluding the transactions done through Visa and Master cards. So, it is safe to say that the average use of internet for digital transactions has also increased by 400% - 1,000%.

We have seen India move to a more digitized format with the telecom revolution, the industrial revolution, the implementation of UID and now towards a more tax friendly economy with GST. It has been rightly said that with great challenges comes big opportunities as well and the country has seen through it all. Unless the government does not enforce such strong steps and policies, I

terms of smartphone (and mobile internet) users in the world. If we believe Google, then India will have approximately 17 crore ecommerce shoppers by 2020, and e-commerce market will be worth Rs 1.34 lakh crore by that time.

According to Indian Law and IT minister Ravi Shankar Prasad, digital transactions have increased to the tune of 400 per cent - 1,000

personally believe, a developing country like India will not be able to drive itself to a cashless economy and with the pace that it requires.

While this happens and it is all for the good of the country, the next big challenge for the country will be cyber security. I hope the government is already aligned to this next bigger challenge!

Digital Edge

APP Collaboration in the Workplace

Workplace collaboration tools are increasingly becoming an integral part of an efficient and productive team. As the push towards virtual workplaces continues across industries, app collaboration is a step towards fulfilling the vision for a unified and a seamless work environment. RAJA SHARMA and ANSHUMAN NANDA outlines how app collaboration could further disrupt the modern workplace.

‘Gosh, why isn’t this working?’

Competition makes us faster; Collaboration makes us better!

- Fyrefly

my colleague and very dear friend Anshuman banged the table.

Pouring over our notes I took a sip of tea, which tasted weirdly bitter, as I gave a puzzled look to the diagrams and notes scribbled on the white-board. This was the year 2012 and both of us, graduates of Computer Science and Engineering

with a few years’ of industry experience under our belt and deeply passionate about mobile applications, were trying to make applications talk to devices and other applications. It was still early in the day for mainstream mobile applications and IFTTT, a platform that collaborates applications to bring the customer’s favorite services together, had just caught our fancy. Needless to say, it had just opened up a completely new dimension, which we vehemently believed was the future, the dawn of the era of App Collaboration. We had been trying, for days now, to replicate some of the most popular apps in a similar seamless (and bugfree!) platform which would allow users to get all what they intend to do, conveniently and with the click of a button.

Fast-forward to 2017, Anshuman and myself occupy credible IT leadership positions with a leading

www.innovationandtech.ae

45

Digital Edge

organization in the healthcare space. While we are still trying to figure out the missing pieces of EHR and digital health to make the organization ready for healthcare’s digital future, we pleasantly come across a new customer-centric application making waves- the Microsoft Flow. Blue chip tech major Microsoft has just launched Flow and a number of services (applications) which seamlessly integrate and are available to talk to each other. These apps range all the way from Project Management services (Trello, Asana) to Campaign Management (Mail Chimp), Code Management (Jira, GitHub), Cognitive (Luis, Text Analytics) and a host of other services which make the scope of this integrated platform enormous.

The era of App collaboration is finally here and it’s breathtakingly disruptive!

One can aptly draw parallels

46

www.innovationandtech.ae

These are exciting times where applications intelligently collaborate like never before to completely change the dynamics of how we as humans interact with technology.

between the online world of App collaboration and the offline equivalent of people collaboration to decipher exactly how things might play out in the future.

Rewind to 2012: The rapidly increasing globalization effectively coupled with advancements in technology made employee collaboration seamless and easy.

Employees were able to transcend geographical boundaries and time zones to collaborate with coworkers on projects on a real time.

A Project Manager, based out of Atlanta would work real-time with an implementation expert in Tel Aviv and a Linux Server Expert based out of Bangalore. They would use the various tech enabled collaboration tools, popular ones being Skype and Web meetings, to accomplish the proposed task at hand. This, gradually over a period of time, became the new normal.

Let’s just quickly evaluate a task at hand was so successfully accomplished by different people having different skill-sets and working out of different parts of the globe. The motivation for all members of the team was to accomplish the given task at hand within the stipulated time-frame.

They were, obviously, limited by the fact that they were based out of different geographies and in different time-zones, however, they communicated in English, a language which was understood by everyone in the team.

The various team-members had different specializations which they brought on the project table - one of them was a Project Manager, the

Digital Edge What, in-effect, was being achieved was some of the best minds in their respective fields were coming together, despite all geographical and cultural boundaries, to collaborate on their efforts towards a particular

other an Implementation expert while the third one a Linux server professional. The collaboration channel they used was the technology-enabled Skype or WebEx to accomplish the task at hand.

task which met the strategic objectives of their employers.

The important take-away here, is that Generalization among their employees was not something which the management was looking at, Specialization was.

Files/Doc Mgmt Projects

KanbanFlow

TM

Project Projectplace Management

Active Collab

MS Dynamics

CRM

LiquidPlanner

Sugar CRM

Agile CRM

App Collaboration Platforms

in

Microsoft's Flow IFTTT Zapier

Stripe

Payment Processing

Social Media

Chargify Paypal

ECommerce

Communication

</>

N

ow compare it to the online world of App collaboration where we, like in our previous example of bringing people with different skill-sets together, are attempting to integrate different mobile applications performing varied functionalities, together. For example, we can weave together a Campaign Management app (like

Mail Chimp) with creating a new contact in Email (in Office-365) and help store details of members in a database (like in SQL Server). There are a number of popular platforms which would help us with our desired outcome, Microsoft Flow, Zapier and IFTTT being some of the ones which are easy to use. Drawing parallels to the above mentioned example of

language of communication which these apps used to communicate was JSON, the specialization of each app was varied - from Campaign Management all the way to Email and Database management. The collaboration channel they used, as suggested above was the recently launched Microsoft Flow or the popular IFTTT or even Zapier.

www.innovationandtech.ae

47

Digital Edge

Scenario: Notification to the HR Manager when an employee submits his/her Exit Interview from.

The form details should be saved in a common excel sheet on OneDrive along with Email Notification

Microsoft Flow When a response is submitted (Preview)

Zapier

IFTTT

TRIGGER

1. Exit Interview Form Subm...

Record Google Form to Excel in OneDrive OneDrive Excel for Data Collection ACTION

2. OneDrive Excel for Collect

Send Notification to HR

ACTION

3. Email Notification to HR

18k

works with

Send an email from your office 365 Mail Account when User Submits Exit From in Google Gorm

by Microsoft 18k

works with

Figure 2 - Scenario comparison across App collaboration platforms

M

Figure 1: App collaboration platforms

arissa Mayer, the former President and CEO of Yahoo famously quoted ‘When you need to innovate, you need collaboration.’

Popular application, in today’s day and age, could be collaborated in a jiffy and without much sweat. Would this, going into the future, be the new normal? Would applications just focus on what they do best

and collaborate with other similar applications to give users a complete wholesome experience? Would this be the dawn of an era of App specialization like we have never witnessed before?

Although I am tempted to say a resounding ‘Yes!’ to most of the enticing questions elucidated above, I would rather stick to a safer

Raja Sharma is currently heading the Application & Systems at Aster DM Healthcare in Dubai, has over 15 years of experience in the IT industry.

Most recently, he was with HCL Technology, as Business Unit Head, in the Healthcare Vertical, where he was driving projects related to digital transformation and operation excellence to bring value for the organization. Raja is an astute technologist with a futurist view point on areas of Healthcare digitalization, IOT, Automation, Enterprise Applications.

48

www.innovationandtech.ae

answer of suggesting that my guess is as good as yours. Only time would say how this space would eventually play out I the future.

These are exciting times where applications intelligently collaborate like never before to completely change the dynamics of how we as humans interact with technology.

Anshuman Nanda is currently heading the Enterprise Architecture division at Aster DM Healthcare in Dubai and has over 20 years of experience in the IT industry. Most recently, Anshuman was with HCL Technology, as Principal Architect, working across multiple verticals, where he was working with multiple clients in areas related to Microservices, IOT, Digital Transformation and Infrastructure Consolidation & Optimization. Anshuman is a hardcore technology person with a vision to look for simple solutions to complex problems.

App Review

APPS REVIEW 49

App Review Audible

Qello Concerts Qello Concerts is a unique streaming service for concerts and music documentaries that captures every genre and artist for the last several years. It boasts of an extensive catalog of music recordings, stage performances and epic commemorative shows for the musical soul. Qello comes complete with setlists; you can either watch a concert in its original sequence, or feel free to jump right into a setlist track.

Though the app has a 7-day free version, it’s worth buying the All-Access Pass for an all-encompassing uninterrupted musical experience.

Audible is an excellent app for those who prefer to hear stories rather than read them. Home to a library of over 180,000 audio books, podcasts and Audible Channels, you can customize Audible for the best listening experience. You can escape into your favorite books, explore popular fiction and non-fiction categories, sync across devices for easy and uninterrupted access, hear award-winning narrators bring the much-loved characters to life and even experience exclusive Audible Originals. You can also save your favorite books on your device and listen to it offline and save data, whether you’re commuting, at the gym, or relaxing at home.

Wojhati Wojhati is the RTA’s journey planning app. It includes a real-time map that uses GPS-based location tools and provides you with the necessary route information via metro, buses, taxi and marine transports, making travelling around Dubai seamlessly efficient. Along with routes, the app includes features such as stops, major landmark locations, and next departures at a stop. It also gives you an estimate should you decide to walk to a particular location, bookmark favorite locations and share route and travel information with family/friends via Whatsapp. You can also input the desired time of departure and access real-time public transport information.

Calorie Counter & Diet Tracker As the name suggests, the Calorie Counter & Diet Tracker app is designed to help you lose weight and track fitness goals. It has a huge database of food with calorie and nutrient information that makes you more aware of the food you consume.

You can input or edit your goals, enter your caloric intake (food) and output (exercise) on the go, and add new food data to the library if it doesn’t already exist. There’s also a progress screen that lets you track your weight and view a graphical representation of how well – or poorly – you’re doing.

50

www.innovationandtech.ae

App Review Coloring Book for Me & Mandala Coloring Book for Me is a beautiful coloring book for adults with unique designs and mandalas in all shapes and sizes. It is a perfect stress reliever with a rich collection of fascinating images of animals and birds, butterflies and flowers, people and places, mandala and geometric patterns, creating a harmony of colors on your Android. With more than 25 beautiful color palettes and eight colors in each palette to choose from, youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ll never be at a loss while showing off your creativity. You can even add post-editing effects like vignette or textures to add versatility to your art and share it on social networks.

Beam Wallet Beam is the leading secured mobile wallet app in the UAE and is much more than just a digital payment option.

Accepted at over 3000 stores, the app simplifies the shopping experience of its customers and makes it a rewarding experience for them. Be it at supermarkets, cafes, retail stores, restaurants or petrol stations, the Beam app is fitted with the latest Bluetooth Low Energy technology that enables customers to make contactless transactions and generates paperless receipts. With no brand restrictions and Beam rewards in dirhams, the Beam Wallet completely eliminates the need to carry credit cards and provides customers real value for money.

Makani The Makani app is a unique application for providing the official geographic addressing system adopted in the Emirates of Dubai, Ajman, Umm Al Quwain, Fujairah and Ras al Khaimah. This simple addressing system uses 10 digit numbers to uniquely identify each main entrance of an existing building with a precision level of one square meter. It aims to make it easy for all residents and tourists to search, define & locate places and enjoy navigating to desired destinations by using mobiles, tablets, desktop & GPS navigational devices accurately and quickly. You can even share your location with others through various communication channels.

Sehhaty Sehhaty is a bilingual DHA patient mobile app which aims to provide health services for patients and their families through their smart devices. It is available on multiple platforms and patients can log into the app using their health card, user-id/ password or through MyId. Some of its major features include a complete health profile of the patient with detailed information about upcoming and past appointments, laboratory results, prescriptions and admissions.

You can also reschedule or cancel an appointment through this app. And parents can synchronize their childrenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s vaccination schedule so that they get alerts and can keep track of their childrenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s vaccination schedule.

www.innovationandtech.ae

51

App Review Fetchr Fetchr is an on-demand delivery app that has revolutionized the package delivery industry in UAE. It doesn’t need the physical address of the recipient; instead it tracks down the GPS co-ordinates of the recipient’s location through their mobile number, thereby aiming to consistently deliver to the correct location. It also allows individuals to set up a scheduled pick-up of an item they want to ship. All they have to do is take a photograph of the item they wish to send and indicate a collection time within a 30-minute window – doing away with frustrating and confusing, landmark-based directions given over the phone.

Styck Styck is a unique fitness app that not only aims to make you healthy buy also gives you real-time rewards and incentives to push you further. Its primary objective is to motivate all to approach a healthier lifestyle not just through exercises but through sponsored prizes provided by cafes, hotels and fitness organizations across the city. The app allows you to set goals for the day, automatically tracks your movement and displays the progress towards achieving that goal. Each goal when achieved unlocks a prize and provides you further incentives to push your limits. Just keep your phone with you, and start moving.

Erudite Dictionary & Thesaurus Erudite is an outstanding combination of bilingual dictionaries, thesaurus, translator, flashcards, phrasebook and widget. This language learning app teaches 24 languages, which are English, Spanish, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Dutch, Greek, Russian, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Indonesian, Turkish, Arabic, Hebrew, Hindi, Thai, Vietnamese, Czech, Finnish, Swedish, Croatian and Serbian. The bilingual dictionaries are furnished with comprehensive definitions of words, examples of word usage and grammar. It is an excellent learning tool, especially for beginners of the English language, is handy for travellers to foreign countries, and even for language enthusiasts. You can memorize basic vocabulary, speak essential phrases, and learn a new word everyday – among its various other features.

52

www.innovationandtech.ae

Waze Waze is an excellent community-powered mapping and navigation app that gives you real-time traffic information and road alerts. Primarily used while driving, and not for walking and public transit directions, Waze is free, accurate and feature-packed with realtime information about traffic jams, accidents, re-routing, road closures and other hazards. Waze always focuses on getting you to your destination faster thus learning your frequent destinations, commuting hours, preferred routes and the cheapest gas station on the route for a complete enhanced performance. The app automatically goes into sleep mode if you don’t use it for a long time saving precious battery and data.

Growing trends in wearable technology

Infographic

ANALYSIS AND APPLICATION OF WEARABLE DEVICES SPORTS/INDUSTRIAL HELMET

1

5

2

6

Inbuilt earphones, microphone, GPS tracking & information display. Companies include DAQRL, LifeBEAM and Forcite Alpine

HEAD

ACTION CAMERA

Fixed to helmet or headband for extreme sports footage. Companies include Gopro, Polaroid & iON

GLASSES

3

Information display and basic smartphone applications, including GPS, camera & microphone.

Companies include Google

THROAT TATTOO

4

Inbuilt microphone communicates with other devises via voice commands.

Companies include Google

UPPER BODY

POSTURE SENSOR

WRIST.HANDS

Microphone, GPS tracking and workout monitor. Companies include LifeBEAM, Forcite Alpine & Skully AR-1

JEWELLERY Sends notifications from smartphone via vibrations. Companies include Ringly and Cuff

IMPLANTS

ANYWHERE FEET

Radio-frequency ID chips under the skin to control door locks, make purchase, access computers. Companies include BIONyfiken

PLASTER Worn on the left of your torso to measure heart rate.

Companies include FitLinxx

SOCKS/INSOLES Links to smartphone to monitor movement with GPS tracking, some with heating elements, Companies include Digistole, GTX Corp and Lechal

Completely wireless headphones with bluetooth & fitness tracking. Companies include Bragi

CONTACT LENS Measures glucose levels in tears to assist people with diabetes. Companies include Google

10

13

BRA Monitors heart rate & skin activity.

Companies include Sensilk & Sensoria

CLOTHING MEASURER Takes exact measurements to improve online shopping. Companies include Like A Glove

11

Wireless patient-monitoring & diagnostic imaging. Companies include Proteus

FITNESS/ACTIVITY TRACKER

EARPHONES

12

Monitors heart rate, GPS & movement including step-counting & cadence. Companie include Carre Technologies

GLASSES

8

AUGMENTED REALITY HEADSET Blends real life with virtual reality through projected display for gamingly/industrial applications. Companies include Microsoft

9

Inbuilt earphones, microphone, GPS tracking & workout monitor. Companies include LifeBEAM, Forcite Alpine & Skully AR-1

SPORTS CLOTHING

7

VIRTUAL REALITY HEADSET Allows users to interact with the virtual world; used mainly in gaming/entertainment.

Companies include Oculus and Sny

14

17

15 18 16

19

21

20 22

WATCH Wearable computer with voice activation, running mobile apps, activity monitors and GPS, Companies include Apple, Pebble and Sony

GLOVES Gesture-recognition controller for gaming and industrial applications.

Companies include peregrine and Fujistu

HEELS Change color when connected to a smartphone app. Companies include iShuu Tech

SHOES Include GPS tracking and vibrate to direct the user; allows the visuallyimpaired to navigate on their own.

Companies include Lechal

www.innovationandtech.ae

53

Infographic

WEARABLE REGIONAL MARKET SHARE

Percentage of total global share

Total number of wearable devices

29.7% 32.3m

NORTH AMERICA

17.9% 19.5m

WESTERN EUROPE

8.1% 8.8m

CENTRAL AND EASTERN EUROPE

5.5% 6m

LATIN AMERICA

4.5% 4.8m

MIDDLE EAST AND AFRICA

34.2% 37.2m

ASIAPACIFIC

QUARTERLY PRIVATE WEARABLE TECHNOLOGY FUNDING 2010-2015

GLOBAL ENTERPRISE AND INDUSTYRIAL WEARABLE REVENUE SHARE BY DEVICE

Funding in $m (left0hand axis) - Number of details (right-hand axis

Smartwatches Body sensors

700 600 -

100 -

500 -

90 -

Fitness trackers

Wearable cameras

Other Wearable

100 -

20

20 10 -Q 10 3 20 Q4 11 20 -Q1 11 20 -Q 11 2 20 -Q3 11 20 -Q4 12 20 -Q1 12 20 -Q2 12 20 -Q3 12 20 -Q4 13 20 -Q1 1 20 3-Q 13 2 20 -Q3 13 20 Q4 14 20 Q1 14 20 -Q2 14 20 -Q3 14 20 -Q4 15 20 -Q1 15 -Q 2

0

IMPROVED COMMUNICATION ABILITIES BETTER ORGANISATIONAL CAPABILITIES ENHANCED PRODUCTIVITY ABILITY TO BENEFIT FROM TESTING NEW PRODUCTS BETTER HEALTH AND/OR HEALTH AWARENESS BETTER CUSTOMER RELATIONS

www.innovationandtech.ae

60 50 40 30 20 10 0

TOTAL ESTIMATED SHIPMENT VOLUMES OF GLOBAL WEARABLES (IN UNIT SALES) 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019

27.9m 32.4m 38.5m 54.4m 88.8m 121.3m 150.2m 181.1m

Source: Future Consulting 2015

TOP BENEFITS OF USING A WEARABLE DEVICE IN AN ENTERPRISE

70 -

Source: Tractica 2015

200 -

Source: CB Insights 2015

300 -

Source: CB Insights 2015

Smartglasses

Smart clothing

80 -

400 -

54

Source: Cisco2015

213.2m

BIG DATA:

Infographic

HYPE & REALITY 90%

"BIG DATA" has only become widespread as of

of data available today was created in the

2011 2011

Business intelligence and analytics industry valued at

$16.9 B

last 5 years

2012

2013

2014

2015

2016

2017

However, Big Data remains a mystery to most organizations.

88% of all available data is dark

Big Data

Volume

"Digital Universe" to grow from 4.4 ZB to 44 ZB in 2020

Velocity

2.5 quintillion bytes of data are created everyday

Veracity

Poor quality data costs the US economy 3.1$ trillion annually

Variety

Structure - understructured: databases, texts, Messages, images and posts on social media networks

Continuous assessment feedback and refinement

The analytics value-chain: a continuous feedback loop

Manage data

Drive better decisions

Perform analytics Descriptive (low complexity) Predictive (medium-high complexity Prescriptive (very high complexity)

Examples of Big Data Applications

Agriculture

Entertainment

Healthcare

By acquiring data from seeds sensors trsctors & GPS, farmers are able to better monitor crop life, increase crop yields & optimize spending.

IBM scientist and the movie studio 20th Century Fox used machine learning and NLP to create a movie trailer based on past data

Development of a machine learning algorithm that predicted cardiac arrests based on cross-checked data of 133,000 patients and 72 medical parameters.

www.innovationandtech.ae

55

Infographic

The market-creating power of mobile The rise of mobile has paved the way for whole new markets, such as mobile payments, the Internet of Things, location-based advertising, and an entire ecosystem of apps including social media

Life's essentials:

Air, water, food and smartphones The speed in which we look at our phones in the morning is continuing to become faster and faster check 43% oftheirconsumers phones within

We check our phones approximately

47 times

a day

5 minutes of waking up

35%

Similarly, of consumers check their phones 5 mins before preparing to sleep

50%

of consumers check their phones in the middle of the night

After an explosive growth period, smartphone penetration increased only

7%

(70% to 77%) reaching saturated levels

56

www.innovationandtech.ae

Smart watches (12% vs 4% last year) and fitness bands (17% vs 10% last year) show higher growth percentages. VR headsets, a newer product in the market remains a niche product, with 8% of the consumers reportingh ownership.

The mobile devices landscape: where to from here?

Device penetration is naturally higher among

18-24 year

olds but most of the smartphone growth occurred in the 45+demographic

Mobile devices

They're in on the action

Infographic

mPayments

Staying on course

20%

while out shopping and while at work still rank as the #1 activities with 93% reported usage.

Spending leisurely time and watching TV follow closely at 90% & 89%

93%

5% 2014

In 2015 mPayments usage for in-store payments increased to 18% from 5% in 2014.

This year, the growth is plateauing at 20%.

2016

IoT: The (connected) lightbulb has turned on Car based IoT still ranks at #1 spot with 75% of consumers starting interest. Home-based IoT interest showed the largest increase from 53% in 2015, to 65% and taken over personal IoT (wearables) at 62% for the #2 spot.

62%

62% of the consumers would consider eventually owning or riding in an g autonomous car. 16% of those aged 25-34 uld consider riding and owning one now. would

75% 65%

Security and privacy

How aware are consumers?

52%

52% of the respondents are willing to share usage data with companies as long as they can choose what information to share

62% 63% 31% 63% of the respondents prefer to use PIN or passwords when unlocking a phone or authorizing mobile payments or other transactions.

Only 31% consumers prefer to use fingerprints for identification purposes, even though 48% have fingerprint readers.

www.innovationandtech.ae

57

Infographic

TOP 3

Challenges

2x2=

for IT in Education IT

The digital classroom of tomorrow promises an outstanding education. Is your network ready?

There are 3 major challenges IT Directors need to solve to support consistent, reliable connectivity to school networks for continuous access to digital resources.

The top priority for IT is broadband & Network Capacity. More devices are coming onto the network, stretching the limits of aging infrastructure.

ConnectEd recomends 1000 Mbps per 1000 Students by 2018

65%

expect their internet bandwidth demand to grow 50% or more within 3 years

22%

expect their internet bandwidth demand to grow DOUBLE within 3 years

2

Student Data Privacy

49 of 50 US states had draft legislation or enacted laws around the need to protect student data.

IT is under enormous pressure to ensure that student data is protected

64% 43%

Say privacy and security of student data is "more important" this year of all data breaches are internal, of those, 51% are accidental**

3

Network Availability for Digital Learning

The network is no longer a nice to have, but depended on to be always available.

90% 70%

of K-12 IT administrators expect their curricula to be at least 50% digital in the next 3 years* of Teachers surveyed report slow or unresponsive Wi-Fi as Challenging their instructional use of technology*

So how can you solve these challenges, and make sure your school district has the best network available?

Network Scaling - Implement a wireless & wired network that scales to handle devices growth & meets your district budget constraints - Provide the highest device density per AP - With a flexible management infrastructure, you can grow with your district needs without ripping wire

58

www.innovationandtech.ae

Protect Student Data - Implement your network and repositories to see where student data lives, whether it is on-prem, in the cloud, or on the fly - Implement secure device authentication and policy management - Encrypt sensitive data, set-up firewall protection, and secure all-connections

Network Availability - Make the network more adaptable to the needs and capabilities of the apps in use with SDN hardware and controllers - Build a network now, that will allow for 1:1 dedicated devices for students in the future - Install wired and wireless solutions that can handle 100% digital learning initiatives

*Source: CoSN 2016 IT Leadership Survey, CTO Priorities **Source: Edweek Research Centre Insight Series, Nov'15

1

Broadband & Network Capacity

Global Innovation Summit 2017

Sole Automotive Partner

Knowledge Partner

Lifestyle Partner

The Future is Now!

DON’T MISS THE BIGGEST INNOVATION CONFERENCE

To register, visit www.innovationsummit.ae

27th September 2017 Jumeirah Beach Hotel, Dubai

Social Innovations

Smart Cities

Internet of Things (IoT)

Digital Ecosystems

Disruptive Technologies

Why Attend?

Global Innovation Summit provides an unparalleled immersive experience and a knowledge sharing platform for networking, knowledge-sharing and discussion with senior decision makers. Bringing together key stakeholders integral to the business community, the summit provides you an opportunity to• Gain insight from industry experts as they deliver keynote addresses

• Exchange ideas, challenges and opportunities during panel discussions • Capitalize on the opportunity to make lasting connections, share best

practices and network with potential customers and suppliers during the breaks • Learn from industry stakeholders as they share their success stories

through case study presentations

For sponsorship & expo enquiries call us on 0504278287 or email us at

response@spiholding.net

• Access to a host of solution providers at the expo Strategic Alliance Partner

Conceptulized & Organised by

Supporting Partners

CLOUD SERVICES

Powered by