Monday May 20 2013

Emkor Solutions aligns with Citrix  

To deliver desktop and application as a service to small and medium businesses in India and emerging markets in Asia.

Thesynergyonline Digital Bureau

NEW DELHI, MAY 20 :
EMKOR Solutions has entered a strategic alliance with Citrix® to deliver desktop and application as a service on Citrix platform that would offer Citrix XenApp® – an on demand application delivery solution, hosted shared desktop and virtual desktop infrastructure enabling emerging and midmarket businesses in India to execute cost and operational efficiencies and accelerate revenue growth. 

The new offering will strengthen Emkor growing portfolio of ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning), their Collaboration Product Suite, Office Productivity tools, Unified Communications and Business Intelligence tools. As a Citrix partner, Emkor currently will deliver these solutions to Small & Medium Businesses in India and the Middle East.

The company will enable enterprise mobility and cloud services to users anywhere, any time and on any devices through collaborative efforts with Citrix and other technology Partners.  Citrix XenDesktop® with custom made services will give customers solutions that will simplify and speed desktop virtualization deployments across their organization.

Today, cloud-based DR is poised to shake up legacy approaches and has offered IT infrastructure and operations professionals a compelling alternative, data center managers are expected to allocate nearly 50 percent of their budgets to running services in the cloud (public and private) by 2013.

Additionally, solutions provided through the Citrix XenServer® leads to creation of a virtual IT infrastructure which protects against disaster as well as has great usability features, like timely and regular up gradation, easy to integrate storage requirements, lower costs of shared infrastructure and power consumption.

“SMBs in fast-growing markets such as India and emerging markets in Asia are in need of alternative and flexible IT adoption models with the influx of trends such as mobility and cloud. We believe that our comprehensive virtualization solutions complemented by Emkor’s strengths of strong domain expertise and simple implementation model will augur well in meeting the demands of this segment.” said, Sanjay Deshmukh, Area Vice President, India Subcontinent, Citrix.

“Our tie up with Citrix will offer end to end virtualization solutions in India and Middle East. Our IT solutions and services to our customers aim to achieve maximum cost savings and profitability apart from flexible applications and usability features. This alignment will enable us tap into a rich ecosystem of partner technologies and deliver innovative & differentiated solutions to end customers” said, Vikram Dham, CEO & Co,

HCL Infosystems bags "Corporate - Best G2C Initiative of the Year" award

Thesynergyonline Digital Bureau 

The project has enabled the government of Maharashtra to modernize and expand its 22 BCPs with latest technology and brings three State Government bodies together – the Department of Transport, Department of Sales Tax and the Department of Excise. All three departments share a common ICT solution and use a single application simultaneously for their respective functional benefits.

As a part of modernization, all BCPs are connected to each other and equipped with weigh bridges, electronic payment and accounting, video cameras and radio frequency identification devices. The receipts for collecting taxes are being generated within minutes, facilitating smooth passage, monitoring and navigating visitors smoothly and efficiently, reducing processing time for commercial vehicles, and assisting the sales tax and excise department in collecting revenue at BCPs.

Mr Neeraj Jaitley, president – Enterprise Solutions, HCL Infosystems  said, “It has always been HCL Infosystems’ endeavour to bring value to customers by providing them world class services and fulfilling their requirements.”

Also speaking on the award, Mr Nitin Patel, Executive Director - Sadbhav Infrastructure Project Limited said, "I am very pleased to learn that HCL Infosystems has been awarded the Best Government to Citizens Initiative of the year 2013 by e-Governance Maharashtra for their contribution for the Maharashtra Border Check Post Project. This award brings honour and a sense of satisfaction not only to HCL Infosystems but to all the stakeholders that are a part of this project –

PayU India unveils online payment solution for consumers

Thesynergyonline Digital Bureau

NEW DELHI, APRIL 18 : PayU India, India's online payment company on Thursday launched PayUPaisa, a web- based product which empower buyers to pay and sellers to get paid online. It allows individual or a business to go online in a matter of few minutes and start collecting online payments.

The product is free for sellers and provides beneficial selling tools like a free webstore, free storefront and email invoicing. On the other hand, PayUPaisa has a strong dispute resolution centre to safeguard buyers and keep their money safe even when they have paid for a product or service, the company says.

Digitization to facilitate transparency ,says Manish Tewari

Thesynergyonline Digital Bureau

NEW DELHI, MARCH 13 :
THE Minister for Information & Broadcasting, Mr Manish Tewari has said that the ongoing digitization process would help in building transparency in the system. As a mechanism it would also enable the growth of revenue models in the broadcasting industry leading to the overall growth of the media and entertainment industry in India .

The process would also help broadcasters in identifying a balanced growth model through the increased share from the subscription revenues. The Minister stated this while delivering the key note address at the Seema Nazareth Award function for excellence in print media here today.

Elaborating further, the Minister said that there was an urgent need for key stakeholders within the media to introspect in view of the trends that had emerged as a result of corrosive discourse on one side and responsible discourse on the other. Referring to the challenges that had emerged due to the social media, the Minister said these tools had created an unprecedented potential to connect with target audience for the dissemination of news and information.

The impact of this medium was so profound that it had also integrated with the print media in the dissemination mechanism. The changing paradigm in the media landscape had resulted in creating opportunities for the journalistic fraternity.

Referring to the Seema Nazareth Award, MrTewari said that the institution of the award had provided an ideal platform to encourage and inspire young journalists in the print media.

The Minister conferred the Award to Ms.Sushmi Dey and also conferred two awards as a Special Mention to Ms.Shelly Walia and Ms.Debolina Sengupta. The Seema Nazareth Award has been instituted by Business Standard.

Web accessibility – good for society, good for business

Making the Web accessible to people with disabilities is the right thing to do. For a business, it can also mean added revenue and protection from lawsuits.

Thesynergyonline Economics Bureau

GENEVA : FOR most of us, surfing the Web has become almost second nature. But for millions of people with disabilities, the Internet remains inhospitable territory.

This does not need to be so.

Huge strides have been made in technologies that help provide web accessibility for everyone. And many of the major companies that have adapted their websites say it was well worth the effort, in terms of good publicity, increased web traffic and, on many occasions, additional profits.

An accessible website is often the easiest way to do business with people with disabilities – for example, those who find it difficult to get to a physical store or cannot read printed material.

This is a huge potential market, considering that about one billion persons worldwide live with a disability.

And there are plenty of success stories.

Tesco, for example, implemented a fully accessible version of its British online grocery store. It cost £35,000 (US$ 52,000) to develop and generates approximately £1.6 million in annual revenue, according to a case study cited by the Web Accessibility Initiative of the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C).

Another British company, the Legal & General Group, says that after implementing accessibility changes in 2005, its website received almost double the number of visitors seeking quotes or buying financial products. The changes also cut maintenance costs by two thirds, according to the company.

Some of the technologies that make the web more accessible include:
- Speech-to-text, which enables people who are hard of hearing to read audio output from the computer.
- Voice input as an alternative to a mouse for people with mobility impairments.
- Screen reader software and text-to-Braille hardware, which make it possible for blind people to operate computers.

“Access to technology and telecommunications is vital to our success as a society and as a country,” says Jennah Bedrosian, of the American Association of People with Disabilities (AAPD).

Long road ahead

Despite recent advances, there is still a long way to go before the Internet becomes a truly accessible place for everyone.

According to Nigel Lewis, CEO of AbilityNet – a UK-based charity that helps disabled people use computers and the Internet – “apart from a small number of good examples, many digital systems and content are inaccessible to the majority of disabled and older people.”

While accessible IT (information technology) and ICT (information and communication technology) are critical for people with disabilities to effectively use computers, they also benefit others.

As the population ages, for example, increasing numbers of people will need larger fonts on their laptops, tablets and smartphones.

Accessibility often overlaps with functions used by the general public. Magnifying, for example, is a function that is particularly useful for a person with limited eyesight, but also helps someone working with a handheld device, such as an airline maintenance technician.

A study conducted by Microsoft Research in 2003, showed that 57 per cent of US computer users in the 18 to 64 age group, or over 74 million people, were likely to benefit from accessible technology.

“Having accessible websites creates a level playing field for people with disabilities when it comes to information access, job-finding, social interaction and access to the marketplace --- to name a few crucial areas of online participation,” says Debra Perry, ILO Senior Specialist in Disability Inclusion. “Through accessible websites, companies demonstrate their commitment to equality and their understanding of the business case for accessibility in all realms.”

The ILO Global Business and Disability Network recently co-sponsored a webinar on the issue, in collaboration with the UN Global Compact and the Global Initiative for Inclusive ICTs (G3ict).

“Businesses can achieve greater scale and realize significant cost savings by shifting content and services to the Web. However, it is essential they do so in a way that ensures full accessibility to all of their customers – regardless of their age, ability or preferred device,” says Rob Sinclair, Chief Accessibility Officer at Microsoft. “In addition to considering the impact on their customers, businesses need to pay attention to increasing legislation, regulation and procurement requirements that can punish or reward businesses for their decisions in this area.”

In the United States and the United Kingdom, there have been several high-profile court cases against companies accused of failing to make their public websites accessible to people with disabilities.

For Nicola Palmarini, Europe Director of IBM’s Human Centric Solutions team, accessibility is not just about profits or the law. “The web is very much embedded in our daily lives. Making it accessible is like making our lives accessible.”

And it should not be an afterthought. “It’s not a tool you add on, it’s something that has to be embedded right from the start.

"Single window clearance" will be in place soon : Manish Tewari  

Thesynergyonline Economics Bureau

NEW DELHI, MARCH 09 :
THE ministry of Information and Broadcasting is setting up film promotion facilitation board (FPFB) mechanism for a “single window” clearance which will be put in place shortly, said Mr Manish Tewari, Minister of state, Information and Broadcasting at an Assocham event held here in New Delhi.

“To meet a long standing demand of circumventing barriers of multiple permissions mandatorily required at union and state level to shoot on India locations, a facilitation mechanism for a single window clearance will be put in place, giving strong fillip to creation of job and revenue generation through film tourism”, said Mr Manish Tewari at the Assocham -Infocom -Mets Forum.
 
He further said that the Ministry of Information & Broadcasting has been taking a number of initiatives for the promotion, growth and development of Indian Cinema.

“Large number of feature and non-feature films, our cultural legacy, is in danger of being permanently lost for want of inadequate preservation. The government is launching a ‘National Film Heritage Mission’ to embark upon conservation, restoration and preservation of this rare heritage”, quoted Mr Tewari.

Mr Tewari said, in the field of animation, the next frontier efforts at imparting job skills have been few and far in between. The government is setting, in 12th plan five year plan, a “National Center for Excellence in Animation, Gaming and Special Effects” to address the needs of this sector.

“The ministry if mindful of the fact that the role of central government regarding sanctioning at Cinematograph films needs to be examined so as to avoid a clash between center centre and state governments. The cinematographic Act of 1952 therefore needs to be revisited to ensure integrity certification decisions.

In this regard, the Ministry has constituted a panel to review the mandate and function of CBFC and recommend measures including statutory changes to enable CBFC to deal with contemporary requirements of certification and increased transparency and    efficiency”, said Mr Tewari.

Mr. Uday Kumar Varma, Secretary, Ministry of Information and Broadcasting said the piracy of films and music is a major concern, for it not only denies film artist and producers their legitimate share of revenue from sales, the money generated is also known to fund anti-national activities. The government is not only initiating a concerted anti-piracy initiative through audio-visual campaigns but evolving best practices, also to sensitize our youth.

Assocham - Infocom joint study on ‘From Silent to digital’ further highlighted that on an average, an Indian urbanite in the age group of 15-34 years typically, has access to three digital devices that are capable of showcasing film-related content , in addition to the TV screen.  Devices like smart phones and tablets provide a great medium for viewing film content at any time or place. Digital consumers have a typical  digital lifestyle, which is forcing film industry stakeholders to engage them on digital platforms.

Other who spoke at  the session were Mr Rajkumar Dhoot, president, Assocham , Mr D D Purkayastha, MD and CEO, ABP and Chairman, Infocom.

India takes steps on cyber security threat

Thesynergyonline Digital Bureau  

NEW DELHI, MARCH 06 :
THERE have been attempts from time to time to penetrate cyber networks operating in Government. These attacks have been observed to be originating from the cyber space of a number of countries including China.

The attackers are compromising computer systems located in different parts of the world and use masquerading techniques and hidden servers to hide the identity of actual system from which the attacks are being launched. Hence, it is difficult to attribute cyber attack to a particular country.

A sophisticated virus called as "Stuxnet" was reported to be spreading worldwide since July 2010. The virus targets Industrial Control Systems. The following specific steps were taken by the Government immediately after the threat was reported:

(i) Alerts and advisories about the Stuxnet threat were issued on website of the Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-In). Measures to be taken to detect infected systems, dis-infect the same and prevent further propagation were advised to all critical sector organizations in the country.

(ii) Government in association with Internet Service Providers (ISPs) and security vendors tracked the infected systems and advised the owners of the systems to dis-infect the same. Workshops were conducted by CERT-In and other government agencies jointly for critical sector organizations to create awareness and suggest steps to be taken to counter the threat.

Further, the government has taken the following measures to protect cyber networks:

• Department of Information Technology and Electronics has circulated Computer Security Guidelines and Cyber Security Policy to all the Ministries/ Departments on taking steps to prevent, detect and mitigate cyber attacks.

• All Central Government Ministries/ Departments and State/Union Territory Governments have been advised to conduct security audit of entire Information Technology Infrastructure, including websites, periodically to discover gaps with respect to security practices and take appropriate corrective actions.

• Setting up of Early Warning and Response to cyber security incidents through the Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-In) and to have collaboration at national and international level for information sharing and mitigation of cyber attacks. CERT-In regularly publishes Security Guidelines and advisories for safeguarding computer systems and these are widely circulated. CERT-In also conducts security workshops and training programs on regular basis to enhance user awareness.

• The 'Crisis Management Plan for countering cyber attacks and cyber terrorism' was prepared and circulated for implementation by all Ministries/ Departments of Central Government, State Government and their organizations and critical sectors.

• CERT-In is conducting mock cyber security drills to enable assessment of preparation of organizations to withstand cyber attacks.

• The Information Technology Act, 2000 as amended by the Information Technology (Amendment) Act, 2008 has been enforced on 27.10.2009. The Act provides legal framework to address the issues connected with security breaches of information technology infrastructure.

• National Informatics Centre (NIC) managing Govt. websites and providing e-mail service is implementing measures to secure the Govt. IT infrastructure from cyber attacks.

India has tough EMF Radiation Standards: Milind Deora

Thesynergyonline News Bureau

NEW DELHI, FEBRUARY 07 :
INDIA is one of the very few countries in the world having the toughest EMF Radiation Standards not only for Mobile Towers but also for Mobile handsets from 1st Septemebr'12. This was stated by Mr Milind Deora, Minister of State for Communications & Information Technology while addressing the consultative committee meeting of the ministry. The subject of the meeting was Electro Magnetic Field (EMF) radiation from mobile towers and handsets.

The Department of Telecom gave a presentation on the subject, through which members was informed that based on the recommendations of the Inter Ministerial Committee constituted by DoT in the year 2010, the limiting reference levels of Electromagnetic radiation from Mobile Towers has been reduced to 1/10th of the limit prescribed by the ICNIRP with effect form 01.09.2012.

The committee has also recommended adoption of Specific Absorption Rate (SAR) limit to 1.6watt/Kg (averaged over 1 gm of tissue). Thus, all new designs of mobile handsets are to comply with the SAR level of 1.6 Watt/Kg averaged over a mass of 1 gram tissue from September 1, 2012.

It was also stated that the issue of health hazards from the radiation of mobile phone towers/networks has been in the lime light for quite some time. In this regard, several studies have been conducted in different countries, under the aegis of World Health Organization (WHO).

There is no conclusive scientific evidence of adverse health effects due to RF emission from mobile phone towers. The scientific studies have been unable to find a direct link between exposure of Radio Frequency radiation and health related issues. Since the effects on human beings are to be studied over a long period of time, further studies are going on around the world.

Members of Parliament attending the meeting raised a number of issues. A large number of members were concerned with the health hazards of electro magnetic radiation from mobile towers and handsets, and also the effect on flora and fauna, especially birds. One member stated that some environmentalists are saying that the egg of the sparrow is not hatching due to this radiation.

It was also suggested that the ministry should have a study undertaken as to whether mobile networks and vanishing species of some birds are co-related. A member also enquired as to whether those operating walkie-talkies were taking clearances from the environment ministry. Members also suggested that the ministry must prepare a plan of study as to whether any mutations could occur as a result of these radiations. Concerns were also raised about radiation levels of imported sets, especially those coming in through the gray market.

This committee is to examine the harmful effects from Cell Towers on the population living in the vicinity and to develop frame of reference for calling REP for scientific assessment of health hazard and adverse impact on ecology in Indian Specific Context.

The following members of Parliament were present at the meeting: Mr Kunwar Rewati Raman Singh, Dr. Vinay Kumar Pandey, Mr PK Biju, Shri Shivraj Singh Lodhi, Mr SD Mandlik, Mr Balbir Punj and Mr Jai Prakash Narayan Singh. Also present were Secretaries for the Departments of IT, Posts and Telecom and other senior officers of the Ministry of Communications and IT.

Samsung surpassed Apple as the top
global semiconductor customer in 2012

Samsung and Apple together consumed 15 % of total semiconductor demand in 2012

 
Thesynergyonline Digital Bureau

NEW DELHI, JANUARY 23 :
SAMSUNG Electronics and Apple both dominated semiconductor demand in 2012, although Samsung overtook Apple as the top worldwide semiconductor customer, according to Gartner, Inc. Based on analysis of the design total available market (TAM), Samsung and Apple together consumed $45.3 billion of semiconductors in 2012, an increase of $7.9 billion from 2011, to represent 15 percent of total semiconductor demand, while the total semiconductor market decreased by 3 percent overall.
 
"Although Samsung and Apple continue to go from strength to strength, other leading electronic equipment makers fared less well, and six of the top 10 reduced their demand in 2012," said Masatsune Yamaji, principal research analyst at Gartner. "In addition to a weak macroeconomic situation, a dramatic change in consumer demand contributed to a reduction in semiconductor demand in 2012. The PC market still represented the largest sector for chip demand, but desktop and mobile PCs did not sell well, as consumers' interest shifted to new mobile computing devices like smartphones and media tablets. This shift caused a substantial decrease in semiconductor demand in 2012, as the semiconductor content of a smartphone or a media tablet is far less than that of a PC."
 
The top 10 companies demanded $106.4 billion of semiconductors in 2012, to account for 36 percent of total semiconductor vendors' worldwide revenue of $297.6 billion (see Table 1). Of the top 10 companies, Nokia's semiconductor demand contracted most. 

"While the growth of new mobile computing devices, notably smartphones and media tablets, has not fully compensated for the drop in the semiconductor demand from the PC market, the data center and communications infrastructure market will keep driving semiconductor demand. The limited computing and storage resources of new mobile computing devices will be compensated for by cloud computing services with light application software," said Mr. Yamaji.
 
"Price competition between smartphone and media tablet vendors was severe in 2012, as hardware differentiation was very difficult to achieve," said Mr. Yamaji. "Innovations in device hardware will soon be copied by competitors, as semiconductor vendors will soon provide commercial SoC (system-on-chip), software and reference designs to hardware vendors needing to catch up with innovative market leaders. Semiconductor vendors must aid, or at least monitor, the hardware innovations of the market leaders."
 
Design TAM represents the total silicon content in all products designed by a certain electronic equipment manufacturer or in a certain region. Design TAM is a useful index for semiconductor vendors when they are considering how to allocate their sales or field application engineer resources by customer or region.

Huawei partners with HCL Infosystems for product distribution in India 

Thesynergyonline Digital Bureau

NEW DELHI, JANUARY 21 :
HUAWEI Telecommunications and Digilife Distribution and Marketing Services (DDMS), a 100 per cent subsidiary of HCL Infosystems ., India’s services and ICT systems integration, distribution and hardware company, has entered strategic partnership for the distribution of Huawei’s entire product range and solutions in markets of India.

Digilife will distribute Huawei’s product range along with the associated services including enterprise network solutions, infrastructure, security, storage, data storage services, smart phones, tablets etc. The distribution tieup will establish Huawei’s ICT prowess and reach in India especially beyond tier-1 cities and propel its focus to target mid-market customers with open, easy to deploy and affordable solutions.

Aimed at promoting and extending businesses for both Huawei and HCL Infosystems, under this deal DDMS and Huawei will collaborate on marketing, sales and technical areas and overall go-to market activities. DDMS will also support in marketing activities for Huawei product range and further help promote, participate and extend the sale of the Huawei products through activities such as market research, advertising, trade shows, internet marketing etc.
           
Mr Eric Yu, president, Huawei Enterprise Business Group, India, said, “Indian market has a huge potential. With DDMS’s structured, robust distribution network, coupled with our broadened ICT product & solutions portfolio, we look at strengthening our presence across organized trade, Top 200 towns, tier 3 & 4 towns and  even rural markets. Through this valued partnership, we aim to connect with our end users and thus, deliver more value to their growing business.”

Mr Sanjay David, CEO Digilife Distribution and Marketing Services, a 100 per cent  subsidiary of HCL Infosystems said, “DDMS has been a pioneer in the telecom distribution market in India and has recently launched its new IT distribution vertical. With this partnership with Huawei DDMS has strengthened its portfolio in IT distribution. This exclusive partnership will not only enable DDMS to grow but, also allow Huawei to further reach out to the fast growing mid-market in India.”

The partnership will enable DDMS to supply the complete range of Huawei’s Products and Services.  HCL Infosystems widespread network of distributors will further ensure a robust channel to Huawei products and services. The Huawei products that are available through DDMS will be priced at par with similar products available directly from Huawei. This agreement will provide more partners the added flexibility in the way they procure Huawei products for the end-customer.

Digital technologies top priorities in 2013 : Survey  

Need for CIOs to set aside old
rules and adopt new tools

Thesynergyonline Digital Bureau

NEW DELHI, India , JANUARY 17 :
ENTERPTISES realize on average only 43 percent of technology's business potential, according to a global survey of CIOs by Gartner, Inc.'s Executive Programs. That number has to grow for IT to remain relevant in an increasingly digital world.

The worldwide survey was conducted in the fourth quarter in 2012 and included 2,053 CIOs, representing more than $230 billion in CIO IT budgets and covering 36 industries in 41 countries. The Gartner Executive Programs report, "Hunting and Harvesting in a Digital World: The 2013 CIO Agenda," represents the world's most comprehensive examination of business priorities and CIO strategies.

Over the last 18 months, digital technologies — including mobile, analytics, big data, social and cloud — have reached a tipping point with business executives. Analysts said there is no choice but to increase technology's potential in the enterprise, and this means evolving IT's strategies, priorities and plans beyond tending to the usual concerns as CIOs expect their 2013 IT budgets to be essentially flat for fifth straight year.

"Digital technologies provide a platform to achieve results, but only if CIOs adopt new roles and behaviors to find digital value," said Mark McDonald, group vice president and Gartner Fellow. "CIOs require a new agenda that incorporates hunting for new digital innovations and opportunities, and harvesting value from products, services and operations.

"In a world of change, it is concerning that around half of CIOs surveyed do not see IT's enterprise role changing over the next three years," Mr. McDonald said. "IT needs new tools if it hopes to hunt for technology-intensive innovation and harvest raised business performance from transformed IT infrastructure, operations and applications. Without change, CIOs and IT consign themselves to tending a garden of legacy assets and responsibilities."

The survey showed that CIO IT budgets have been flat to negative ever since the dot-com bust of 2002. For 2013, CIO IT budgets are projected to be slightly down, with a weighted global average decline of 0.5 percent.

Digital technologies dominate CIO technology priorities for 2013. The top 10 global technology priorities revealed by the survey reflect a greater emphasis on externally oriented digital technologies, as opposed to traditional IT/operationally oriented systems

CIOs see these technologies as disrupting business fundamentally over the next 10 years. When asked which digital technologies would be most disruptive, 70 percent of CIOs cited mobile technologies, followed by big data/analytics at 55 percent, social media at 54 percent and public cloud at 51 percent. The disruptiveness of each of these technologies is real, but CIOs see their greatest disruptive power coming in combination, rather than in isolation.

"As CIOs continue to amplify the enterprise with digital technologies while improving IT organizational structure, management and governance, 2013 promises to be a year of dual priorities," said Dave Aron, vice president and Gartner Fellow. "Key CIO strategies identified in the survey reflect the realities of these dual business priorities and confirm the need to expand IT's ability to hunt for new opportunities and harvest current business value. While CIOs recognize that IT's value contribution comes from delivering business solutions, they also recognize that the prioritization and delivery of specific results must change."

As needs and opportunities evolve, more CIOs will find themselves leading in areas outside of traditional IT. In addition to their tending role, they are starting to assume responsibility for hunting for digital opportunities and harvesting value. Sixty-seven percent of CIOs surveyed have significant leadership responsibilities outside of IT, with only 33 percent having no other such responsibilities. This situation contrasts sharply with 2008, when almost half of CIOs had no responsibilities outside of IT. Almost a fifth of CIOs now act as their enterprise's chief digital officer (CDO), leading digital commerce and channels. Although this nascent role varies in scope and style, it normally includes championing the digital vision for the business — that is, ensuring that the business is evolving optimally in the new digital context.

"IT cannot expect to secure additional funding without assuming new responsibilities or producing new results," said Mr. Aron. "Reacting to limited budgets by restructuring costs, outsourcing and doing more with less made sense from 2002 to 2011, when the supply of innovative technologies was scarce. Adapting to, and leading, in the digital world requires doing things differently, yet in ways consistent with the demands of digital technologies. CIOs need to make the case that mainstream emerging mobile, big data, social and cloud technologies justify revisiting IT budget and investment levels."

"CIOs knew that doing the right thing required tending to IT by delivering cost-effective quality services. CIOs and IT leaders managed cost, complexity and risk to enable business operations in a world of managed stability," Mr. McDonald said. "However, the world outside IT changed creating a quiet crisis for IT. Demands have increased in a world grown dynamic and digital. The harder CIOs work tended to current concerns, the less relevant IT became. CIOs know that the future rests in not repeating the past but in extending IT by hunting and harvesting in a digital world."

'Enterprise architecture practitioners influenced $1.1 tln of worldwide enterprise IT spend in 2012'

 
NEW DELHI, JANUARY 16 :
FIFTY percent of enterprise architecture (EA) practitioners have a significant impact on enterprise IT budget activities and decisions, according to a recent survey by Gartner, Inc. A July 2012 Gartner survey of EA practitioners found that half of EA practitioners have an influence over their organization's IT budget allocation that is either "final decision maker" or "great deal of influence."
 
Based on the EA survey results from Gartner events in North America and Europe, analysts estimate that EA practitioners have a "final decision-making" influence on $331 billion in worldwide enterprise IT spend and a "great deal of influence" on $774 billion in worldwide enterprise IT spending. Overall, EA practitioners have an influence that is either "final decision maker" or "great deal of influence" on $1.1 trillion in worldwide enterprise IT spending.
 
"Overwhelmingly we find EA practitioners focused on delivering on business value and strategic transformation," said Philip Allega, managing vice president at Gartner. "Gone are the days of just 'doing EA' with little value or impact. Sixty-eight percent of organizations surveyed stated that they are focusing their EA program on aligning business and IT strategies, delivering strategic business and IT value, or enabling major business transformation."
 Gartner is leading the way in defining and mastering a radical new approach to EA, which is business outcome-driven EA. Leading EA practitioners are focused on creating diagnostic deliverables to help business and IT leaders respond to business and technology disruptions.
 
"This new generation of EA practitioners offers technology and service providers (TSPs) with an opportunity as well as a threat," said Mr. Allega. "Technology and service providers should develop targeted marketing to this new generation of EA practitioner as they have a significant influence on their organization buying decisions. Those that fail to understand the priorities, strategic focus and impact of EA practitioners will jeopardize their ability to sell into an organization."
 
Gartner has identified the impact of EA trends on IT purchasing decisions, and has the following advice and recommendations to help TSPs target this audience more effectively:
 
In organizations supporting EA as strategic, and as collaborative between business leaders and IT, TSPs will increasingly find EA practitioners influencing IT spend.

EA practitioners have a high degree of influence over emerging technology purchases, with 52 percent of the EA practitioners surveyed reporting directly to a CIO or CTO. They are also "very involved" in integration consulting services (64 percent) and business applications (52 percent). As EA practitioners continue to focus on integrating and aligning with business priorities and actively working with business leaders, their degree of influence on business intelligence tools, workplace tools and business applications will likely increase as well.
 
Organizations starting, restarting or renewing their EA efforts present an opportunity for providers to market to and influence a new generation of EA practitioners.

The survey revealed that 77 percent of respondents were either restarting or renewing EA efforts (18 percent), initiating EA for the first time (34 percent) or taking EA efforts to the next level (25 percent). In organizations starting EA for the first time, EA practitioners have a significant influence on IT budget decisions, but significantly less have decision-making authority. These new and restarting organizations present an opportunity for TSPs to target a new generation of EA practitioners.
 
As organizations become more mature in supporting EA, they will have a greater degree of influence on IT budget allocations to products and services.
Many organizations begin their EA journey by focusing inside the IT organization on system consolidation, standardization and cost management. As they mature, this evolves into looking more closely at the "alignment" between the business strategy and IT strategy. From here the EA program evolves further to become "business outcome-oriented," such that in a mature EA program, other areas of decision making are guided and influenced by business outcome-driven EA.

 30 % of businesses will be monetizing their information assets directly by 2016

Thesynergyonline Economics Bureau

NEW DELHI, JANUARY 11 :
THE financial demands of storing and managing big data will lead 30 percent of businesses to directly or indirectly monetize their information assets by trading, bartering or outright selling them by 2016, according to Gartner, Inc.

Many enterprises are starting to appreciate the real market value that their harvested information assets have within their own industries or beyond. However, the lack of expertise in handling big data and developing information products will create an opportunity for the growth of specialist intermediaries, acting as information brokers or resellers.

"The need to justify the expense of accumulating and managing huge volumes of data has led many organizations to consider monetizing or productizing their information assets," said Doug Laney, research vice president at Gartner. "For example, several retailers are already generating millions of dollars per year in incremental revenue by placing online their point-of-sale and other data for business partners to subscribe to. Other individuals have launched ventures packaging and reselling publicly available data, or using it to launch new information-based products — such as in the insurance and financial markets."

Since many businesses are ill-equipped to develop and introduce information-based products, "information resellers" will arise to help organizations develop and execute information asset monetization strategies. Gartner anticipates the appearance of "information product managers" to lead these efforts internally.

The new opportunities for significant information-borne income will lead makers of web-connected products to ensure their offerings collect as much usage, location and system data as possible. To assist in these efforts, Gartner, as part of its "infonomics" research, has developed valuation models that help organizations gauge the potential and realized economic value of their information assets.

"Consumers and businesses must recognize that their personal usage, location, profile and activity data has a tangible market value. They should guard it and ensure that when they do share it they receive ample services, products or cash for it," said Mr. Laney. "Businesses monetizing information assets need to be sensitive to the reputational risk of public backlash against such practices, that may in turn lead to a tighter regulatory environment." Recently, for example, the Federal Trade Commission issued subpoenas to major information brokers to disclose how they collect, use and protect personal information.

One issue arising from the trend toward monetizing information assets is that traditional database management system and business intelligence products and implementations are not well-suited to sharing data in a subscription-based manner. The implication is that new forms of the technology are emerging — focusing on cloud-based implementations that enable subscriber-based access and restricted access to segments of data. "A nascent crop of shared information hosting services already complements established syndicated data providers, and most vendors have taken steps to cloud-enable their technologies," concluded Mr. Laney.

India Media Tablets market sales
touch 1.1 million units in 3Q CY 2012 

Grow 99.3% q-o-q and 1,026.5% y-o-y

Thesynergyonline Digital Bureau

NEW DELHI, JANUARY 05 :
NEW DELHI, BANGALORE, MUMBAI,  JANUARY 04 :
THE  overall India Tablets market recorded sales of 1.1 million units in 3Q (July-September) 2012.  In the overall India Tablets market, Samsung led with a 23.9 per cent share, followed by Micromax at second position with 15.3 per cent  share and Datawind at third position with a 12.3 per cent  share, in terms of sales during 3Q (July-September) 2012.

The India Quarterly Media Tablets Market Review for 3Q 2012, December 2012 by premier IT, Telecoms, Semiconductor & Electronics, Government, Energy, Lifesciences and User research firm CyberMedia Research  said here  that in a very short span of time the India Tablets market has become one of the key drivers of data and content consumption in the country.

This is apparent from the fact that close to 135 vendors have launched their Tablets till 3Q 2012. The ASV (Average Sales Value) of Tablets in India during 3Q 2012 was approximately INR 13,200, while 63.5 per cent  of all sales were below the INR 10,000-mark.

According to Faisal Kawoosa, Lead Analyst, CyberMedia Research Telecoms Practice, "A majority of the Tablets currently on offer have built-in Wi-Fi connectivity with 3G access enabled through a USB dongle. However, going forward, increased penetration of 3G networks, declining ASVs of 3G-enabled Media Tablets and launch of BWA (4G / WiMax / LTE) services in the country is likely to see a rise in 3G-only Tablet devices with larger screen sizes.

“This trend is expected to give a fillip to new types of data services and content being demanded and consumed by subscribers, which in turn will drive a further increase in adoption of Media Tablets in India."

Tarun Pathak, Analyst, CyberMedia Research  Telecoms Practice said, “I expect this to be the last quarter that will show the kind of ‘stereotype’ ranking results typical to the India market. During  4Q 2012 and through 2013, we expect to see a change in the rankings, with global leaders like Apple and Google coming into their own, especially after the launch of the Apple Mini and Google Nexus range of Media Tablets, respectively.”

“These new devices closely match the Media Tablets already available from other leading OEMs in India, in terms of specifications and price levels. This is particularly true of Samsung. So it will be interesting to watch if potential buyers of Tablet PCs go for other MNC brands or whether Samsung is able to retain their loyalty,” Tarun further added.

Tablet PC market Outlook for 2013
The Tablet PC market is increasingly becoming one of the most dynamic consumer electronics product categories in India.  Year-on-year the form factor has surprised the industry with the highly visible adoption, uptake and usage. For the year 2013, CyberMedia Research (CMR) expects the following to be the highlights of the India Tablet PC market:
•           Windows 8 based Media Tablets will be the main highlight in the market. In 2013, India will witness Tablet PCs being made available on MS Windows 8 from all leading OEMs. This is expected to bring about several changes in market dynamics such as OS shares, ASVs etc.
•           Enterprises will see increasing adoption of Tablet PCs as part of the larger trend towards mobility. So far enterprises have been trying to understand the role of Tablets in the enterprise space. Through 2012, at different forums industry leaders were seen deliberating upon several industry vertical-focused use cases of Tablets and these are expected to be implemented in 2013. With BYOD an increasing reality, this implementation will very likely to gain an impetus across verticals.
•           At least a few OEMs are expected to announce LTE / LTE-ready Tablets for the India market in 2013. Though we haven’t seen many Tablets announced yet supporting LTE worldwide, but India, rightly poised at the juncture of an LTE 'big bang' can be an attractive destination for players who can meet the expectations of Indian customers across segments. Tablets are expected to gain traction as the preferred device for first time computing enthusiasts and for those seeking high data consumption applications over LTE networks.
•           There could be some cleansing in the market for sub-INR 5,000 Tablets. 2013 is likely to see some of the players in this segment closing shop due to lack of market acceptability and increasing expectations of consumers, where these devices are bound to fail.
•           2013 will see markets crystallise around three price points for the India Tablet PC market. These will be INR 5,000-10,000; INR 15,000-20,000 and over INR 35,000. Some vendors might have to undertake price corrections to fit their devices within these three price segments, to serve the market aptly and participate in these high-volume price levels.
•           According to CyberMedia Research estimates, total shipments for the India Tablet PC market are expected to close at 3 million units in 2012. Further, the market is expected to increase by at least 100% in 2013 (double the number of units sold in 2012). The key drivers for this are a large number of launches by OEMs eyeing the India consumer market for mobile computing and data communication products, as well as the demand expected to be generated via enterprise adoption of Tablets. In case large deals are announced by vendors for supplies to the central / state governments for distribution to university, college and high school students, the forecast number of Tablet sales for 2013 could easily exceed 6 million units.
Said Faisal Kawoosa, Lead Analyst, CMR Telecoms Practice commenting on the outlook of Media Tablets for 2013, “To my mind two key developments are going to change the India Media Tablets market significantly – one is the availability of Windows 8 based devices and the adoption of Tablets by enterprises for serious and real business applications.”

“The introduction of Windows 8 and its success, if any, will establish the availability of a second OS option for OEMs to develop new Tablet PCs on. The adoption of Tablet PCs by enterprises will change the way in which these devices are perceived at the moment. Tablets will most likely then come to be considered a mainstream device and be seen as much more than a novelty or for restricted use in the Education, Entertainment and Infotainment segments. This will signal the arrival of the Tablet as a mainstream business device,” concluded Faisal

HP unveils new lineup of flow multifunction printers , morphs office efficiency

Thesynergyonline Digita Bureau

BANGALORE , DECEMBER 26 :
HEWLETT Packard India, has unveiled a new class of flow multifunction printers with features and workflow abilities that enhance office efficiency and help businesses streamline their document workflows. With this latest printing innovation and solutions, HP will help enterprises and SMBs stay competitive and lean.

The new cloud-enabled printers are designed to change how businesses capture, digitize, manage, consume and share data.The high-performance, intuitive desktop MFPs feature a large touchscreen for easy task execution along with enterprise-class manageability, security features, and solution extensibility.

“With cloud-led business processes, document management is taking centre stage. Our customers need innovative technology tailored to their workflow that is simple, effective and helps them conduct business,“ said Nitin Hiranandani, Director-Printing, PPS, HP India.

HP unveils new lineup of consumer
PCs designed to work with Windows 8

Thesynergyonline Digital Bureau  

Popular VJ/DJ Nikhil Chinapa, director of English Vinglish Gauri Shinde and Rajiv Srivastava, VP and GM - Printing and Personal Systems Group, HP India at the launch of new lineup of PCs in New Delhi on Wednesday.

NEW DELHI, DECEMBER 19 :
HP on Wednesday unveiled a new lineup of consumer PCs designed to work with Windows 8, providing an opportunity to touch, feel and experience the products for the first time.

The new ultra stylish HP products, range from notebooks and desktops to a convenient hybrid, leveraging premium materials and a thoughtful design philosophy to deliver a distinct HP look and feel.

Unique form factors, including a hybrid notebook with a detachable screen and an ultrathin all-in-one (AiO) desktop—enable users to take advantage of Windows 8 along with HP innovations such as HP TouchSmart technology. They also offer HP Connected Photo powered by Snapfish by HP(1) and HP Connected Music powered by Meridian(2) for convenient access to photos and music.

The HP Windows 8 product line was introduced during “The Ace of 8” experiential launch in New Delhi with director of English Vinglish Gauri Shinde and  VJ/DJ Nikhil Chinapa – where the enhanced user experience,  designs and cutting-edge product features were brought to life.

At an event, HP demonstrated how users can experience the best of Windows 8 technology with HP products, aimed at making life more fun and efficient.

“HP’s portfolio of ultrathin notebooks, sleek all-in-ones and high-performance PCs is designed to meet the needs of customers who have been eagerly anticipating the release of the Windows 8 OS,” said Rajiv Srivastava, VP and GM - Printing and Personal Systems Group, HP India “Consumers now can choose from a broad range of HP PCs featuring multi-touch displays, versatile form factors, sleek designs or customizable solutions that address their needs.”

“Today’s hectic lifestyle demands products to simplify living while maintaining high performance on the go. The ENVY x2 - a notebook and tablet in one, certainly does that; and with its collection of features such as a 14 hour battery life, lightweight design and fantastic sound this product is a complete solution for professionals like me,” said Gauri Shinde, acclaimed director of English and Vinglish. It has so many more features than other hybrid devices – I especially like the HP TrueVision HD Webcam.”

“Technology can make a career in the music industry accessible and possible to anyone. Aspiring DJs and producers can learn how to create, mix, and perform their own music from their own bedr ooms. They can also learn how to share their sounds, market themselves, and build a career using the Internet. A machine that is powerful, portable, reliable, and stylish is all they need to begin, and a touch screen opens up a whole universe of creative possibilities,” said VJ and DJ Nikhil Chinapa.

The HP consumer notebook portfolio featuring Windows 8 includes a hybrid PC and notebooks with slim and sophisticated designs, multitouch display technology.

Slew of initiatives for development of electronics hardware manufacturing

NEW DELHI, DECEMBER 18 :
INDIAN electronics hardware production constitutes only around 1.3  per cent of the global hardware production and it is estimated that demand of electronics products and systems in India is expected to grow to US$ 400 billion by 2020. This was stated by Mr Kapil Sibal, Union Minister for Communications and IT, while addressing the Consultative Committee meeting of the ministry.

He pointed out that at the conventional rate of growth of domestic production, it would only be possible to meet demand of about US$ 100 billion by 2020. The Government recognizes that sustaining growth in IT and telecom is hugely dependent on our ability to foster Electronics System Design and Manufacturing (ESDM) in the country, he added.

The minister said that while there have been concerted efforts for rapid growth of the electronics (including telecom) hardware manufacturing sector in the past like 100% FDI permitted under automatic route, no Industrial license requirement, these efforts have not led to a substantial impact.

He also pointed out that given India’s growing strength in chip design and embedded software, the increasing importance of design in product development has the potential to make India a favoured destination for ESDM.

The minister went on to outline some of the initiatives that have been taken for the development of electronics (including telecom) hardware manufacturing in the country:

•           National Policy on Electronics (NPE) 2012

•           National Telecom Policy – 2012 (NTP-2012)

•           Electronics Manufacturing Clusters (EMC) Scheme

•           Modified Special Incentive Package (M-SIPS) Scheme

•           Setting up Semiconductor Wafer Fabrication Units

•           Preference to Domestically Manufactured Electronic Goods (Preferential Market Access)

•           Notification by the Department of Telecommunications (DOT) on 5th October 2012 for Government Procurement and Government funded projects

•           Electronics Development Fund (EDF)

•           Scheme for mandatory registration of identified Electronic Products for meeting specified safety standards

•           Export Promotion Scheme for ESDM Industry

•           According Priority Sector Status to IT purchases

•           Declaring Mobile phones as goods of special importance under the CST Act, 1956

•           Communication and Marketing

Members of Parliament attending the meeting raised a number of issues concerning posts, telecom and IT. Members underlined the need for adequate number of post offices. Some members also pointed out the problem of connectivity on BSNL, especially in rural areas and on highways. A member raised the issue of the difficult conditions of Dak Sevaks. A member raised the issue of inadequate handling of e-waste and desired a sysem be created for dumping of e-waste. A member welcoming the initiative to encourage ‘electronics manufacturing’, urged for strengthening the existent public sector industry

The following members of Parliament were present at the meeting: Shri PK Biju, Shri Sanjay Nirupam, SG Naik,  Shivraj Singh Lodhi and  Vinay Pandey. Also present were Minister of State for Communications and IT, Dr. (Smt.) Kruparani Killi, Secretaries for the Departments of IT, Posts and Telecom and other senior officers of the ministry of Communications and IT.

Hiring via social media comes of age

Shine.com partners with MyParichay

Thesynergyonline Digital Bureau
 

NEW DELHI, DECEMBER 10 :
SOCIAL media’s increasing role within the human resourcing landscape received further confirmation today with the news that Shine.com has announced a strategic partnership with social recruitment platform MyParichay, making Shine.com the first Indian job portal to integrate recruitment services through Facebook.

Hiring through social media, whilst once seen as nascent, has now reached mainstream recruitment as a credible tool in a savvy recruiter’s toolbox. 85% of Indian jobseekers use some or the other online social networking platforms for finding a job, and find both Facebook friends and LinkedIn connections useful in finding jobs.

The integration of MyParichay, a game-changing Facebook-based social recruitment platform, with Shine.com, the country’s leading online job portal, means that recruiters will now be able to connect with the largely untapped set of jobseekers, most of which fall in the junior to mid-level hires. Shine MyParichay enables a recruiter to be able to reach out to the personal networks of their employees, match the skills and requirements to those in the extended network, and use the referral feature to connect with potential candidates.

The recent Social Job Seeker Survey 2012, conducted jointly by Shine.com and MyParichay, presents some interesting facts highlighting the need for recruitment through Facebook, and more importantly, the immense opportunity that lies in this domain. The survey reveals that where 60 per cent respondents only have a Facebook profile, 32 per cent have both Facebook and LinkedIn, and a mere 8 per cent have only LinkedIn profiles. Further, it turns out that only 1 in 10 LinkedIn users are active, as opposed to a remarkable 3 out 4 Facebook users.

Mr.Amit Garg, Business Head, Internet Business, HT Media, said, “Being an online business, emerging platforms have always presented great opportunities to us. We have focused a lot on providing revolutionary recruitment solutions for the past few years, and this quarter, which also saw our candidate database cross the 1 crore mark, we are venturing into a new zone which will make us the first Indian job portal to integrate Facebook hiring solutions with our mainstream offer. "

"Seeing the results of our latest survey, where 65 per cent respondents say they are more likely to use Facebook over LinkedIn for job search, it makes sense for us to have the first-mover advantage and become industry leaders, providing our clients cutting-edge hiring solutions. We really look forward to integrating Shine.com and MyParichay, changing the landscape of social hiring in the near future,” he added.

The key trend seen across the recruitment industry is the focus on building relationships with candidates during the hiring process, in order to assess the best fit within the organization. A significant component of this new trend is the system of employee referrals, which ensures the continuity of company culture. The most talked about feature of the MyParichay platform is the Active Referral TM system that has impressed many top recruiters.

Monica Trehan, AVP – HR, Genpact, has spoken highly of the application, saying, “Shine MyParichay has helped digitize and socialize Genpact’s employee referral program on Facebook. We particularly like the active referral feature that allows recruiters to actively search and find suitable candidates who are connected to our employees on their Facebook network.” The platform can also be linked to a company’s Facebook pages, which will have information about jobs and will give a good insight into the company to the candidates, following which candidates can also check if a user in their network is an employee of the company, and request a referral for the particular job opening.

Mr.Ranjan Sinha, Chairman & Co-Founder, MyParichay, said, “MyParichay and Shine.com partnership creates an extremely compelling offering by combining a cutting edge social recruitment technology provider with a leading job board, to provide a comprehensive solution for employers as well as active and passive job seekers.”

With almost 65 per cent  respondents relying on Facebook for their next job search, the opportunities are endless and the landscape is set to change with the new development.

80 % of malware attacks in 2012 were redirects from legitimate sites : Sophos

Thesynergyonline Digital Bureau

NEW DELHI, DECEMBER 05 :
SOPHOS on Wednesday released its Security Threat Report 2013, a detailed and interactive assessment of what’s happened in IT security for 2012 and what’s expected for 2013–from the ever-growing bring your own device (BYOD) movement to the increasing adoption of (and uncertainty around) the cloud to countless other security challenges faced by organizations of all sizes. The full report is available for download here.

2012 was a year of new platforms and modern malware—what was once a homogeneous world of Windows systems, is now a landscape made up of diverse platforms. Modern malware is taking advantage of these trends, creating new challenges for IT security professionals.

The increasing mobility of data in corporate environments has forced IT staff to bcome even more agile. 2012 was also a retro year driven by resurgence in traditional malware attacks, specifically malware distributed via the web. For example, more than 80 percent of attacks were redirects, the majority of which were from legitimate websites that were hacked.

Shifting from enterprise-owned devices to BYOD

Gartner identifies 3 security hurdles  

Thesynergyonline Digital Bureau

NEW DELHI,India, DECEMBER 04 :
SEVENTY percent of respondents in a recent survey by Gartner, Inc. said that they have or are planning to have "bring your own device" (BYOD) policies within the next 12 months to allow employees to use personal mobile devices to connect to enterprise applications. Thirty-three percent of all organizations surveyed currently have BYOD policies in place for mobile devices, such as smartphones and tablets.
 
“Shifting from an enterprise-owned mobile device fleet to having employees bringing their own devices has a major impact on the way of thinking and acting about mobile security,” said Dionisio Zumerle, principal research analyst at Gartner. “Policies and tools initially put in place to deal with mobile devices offering consumer-grade security must be revised to deal with these devices being under the ultimate control of a private user, rather than the organization.”
 
Gartner believes that organizations must consider and take action on three major impacts when moving to a BYOD policy:
 
Impact 1 - The right of users to leverage the capabilities of their personal devices conflicts with enterprise mobile security policies and increases the risk of data leakage and the exploiting of vulnerabilities.

Outside the enterprise's premises, employees may define their own usage policy for personal devices. Users can, therefore, install apps and visit URLs of their choice, whereas enterprises can limit applications and Web access on enterprise-owned devices. Users can also decide the level of protection for their personally owned devices. When enterprise data is allowed on these devices, the risk of leakage increases for the enterprise, not just because of the rise of mobile malware, but also because legitimate but unsupported apps may inadvertently create security risks for the organization and, most importantly, because of device loss.
 
Using mobile device management (MDM) software is one way to enforce policy on mobile devices. Users should obtain access to enterprise information only after having accepted an MDM agent on their personal devices, and possibly a URL filtering tool, such as a cloud-based secure Web gateway (SWG) service, to safeguard and enforce enterprise policy on Internet traffic. Enterprises should consider using application whitelisting, blacklisting and containerization, as well as setting up an enterprise app store, or app catalog, for apps that are supported. 
 
Impact 2 - User freedom of choice of device and the proliferation of devices with inadequate security make it difficult to properly secure certain devices, as well as keep track of vulnerabilities and updates.

Allowing users, rather than the IT department, to select operating systems 1(OS) and versions of mobile devices opens the door to devices that are inadequate from a security standpoint. An essential security baseline should require enhanced password controls, lock timeout period enforcement, lock device after password retry limit, data encryption, remote lock and/or wipe. The enterprise mobility baseline must also express minimum requirements on hardware — OS versions will not be sufficient.
 
In alignment with the mobile security policy, network access control policies should be used — for example, to deny access to enterprise resources such as email and apps from devices that cannot support the security baseline. Preventive action should be taken to ban noncompliant devices or create an alert for them by using tools such as MDM software.
 
Nevertheless, excessively limiting the types of allowed devices eliminates the benefits of BYOD for users. There should be no compromise of security for the sake of device variety, but where it is possible to manage and secure a new device model, it should be done. The policies that are enforced will depend on the risk appetite of the organization and the sensitivity of data allowed to reside on the device.
 
Impact 3 - The user's ownership of device and data raises privacy concerns and stands in the way of taking corrective action for compromised devices.
Most people consider data on their personal devices as their property, and would strongly object to having it manipulated by the organization without their explicit consent. When shifting from enterprise to user-owned devices, "remote wipe," which is a fundamental security feature in a mobile security policy, becomes complicated from a legal and cultural point of view. Thus, sufficient attention should be paid to this issue to avoid repercussions. In practice, "selective wipe" is proving to be difficult in ensuring that all business data, and only business data, has been deleted from the device.
 
In this situation, it is recommended to liaise with the legal department to obtain advice, because there may be legal implications related to device wiping. Problems may arise if the user refuses a remote wipe. Time is of the essence when performing this task, and asking the user for permission after the compromise, when a remote wipe is considered necessary, will be impacted by message exchange delays that can be critical.  It is therefore advisable to obtain the explicit, written consent of users to delete their data in case of compromises, or the loss or theft of devices, at the time of the user's initiation to the BYOD program. 

UN Secretary General unveils
Aakash2 Tablet at the UN

Thesynergyonline Digital Bureau

UN Secretary General Mr Ban Ki-moon, unveiling the Aakash2 Tablet at the UN. Also seen alongside are Ambassador Hardeep Singh Puri, Permanent Representative of India to the United Nations in New York and CEO of Datawind, Mr Suneet Singh Tuli.

NEW YORK, NOVEMBER 29 :
ON the occassion of India's Presidency of the UN Security Council, the Permanent Mission of India to United Nations, New York hosted a special event to unveil and launch the world's most cost competitive tablet Aakash2 at the United Nations on Thursday.
 
Secretary General of the United Nations, Mr Ban Ki-moon, was the chief guest at the special event which was attended by a packed audience of more than 500 invitees, including 65 Ambassadors/PRs, media delegates, NGOs and select members of the Indian community.
 
In his remarks Secretary General Mr Ban Ki- moon congratulated India on its Presidency of the Security Council in an 'extremely challenging month' and emphasised that India was a critical player on security issues.

Terming India as a 'superpower on the information superhighway' he appreciated the launch of technologies such as the Aakash2, which helped bridge the digital divide. Calling them as 'great enablers' with potential to transform people's lives, he encouraged partners around the world to work with the United Nations to help young people reach for the sky and meet their dreams.  

Ambassador Hardeep Singh Puri, Permanent Representative of India to the United Nations in New York noted that the device represented the 'actualization the an idea of development innovation' which had the potential to fundamentally alter the development discourse.

He emphasised that by partnering with key initiatives such as these, the UN development system would be able to 'force multiply' to achieve the MDGs of universal education and global partnership.
 
CEO of Datawind, Mr Suneet Singh Tuli, who flew in from Canada for the launch at the UN also made a presentation and outlined that purpose of the device was not to create an 'Ipad killer' but to create a device for the most needy sections of society at costs that they could easily afford.

Terming it a product of 'frugal innovation', Mr Tuli outlined that the device incorporated that best of innovative hardware design with a unique business model, and reflected Government of India's commitment to eliminating illiteracy by equipping all 220 million students in India over the next 5 years with low cost computers and Iinternet.

80 % of current gamified applications will
fail to meet business objectives by 2014 

Thesynergtyonline Digital Bureau

NEW DELHI, India, NOVEMBER 27 :
AS gamification moves from the leading edge to more widespread use by early adopters, now is the time to understand and evaluate this important trend, according to Gartner, Inc.

Gamification is currently being driven by novelty and hype. Gartner predicts that by 2014, 80 percent of current gamified applications will fail to meet business objectives primarily because of poor design.

“The challenge facing project managers and sponsors responsible for gamification initiatives is the lack of game design talent to apply to gamification projects,” said Brian Burke, research vice president at Gartner. “Poor game design is one of the key failings of many gamified applications today.”

“The focus is on the obvious game mechanics, such as points, badges and leader boards, rather than the more subtle and more important game design elements, such as balancing competition and collaboration, or defining a meaningful game economy,” Mr. Burke said. “As a result, in many cases, organizations are simply counting points, slapping meaningless badges on activities and creating gamified applications that are simply not engaging for the target audience. Some organizations are already beginning to cast off poorly designed gamified applications.”

Gamification is the use of game design and game mechanics to engage a target audience to change behaviors, learn new skills or engage in innovation. The target audience may be customers, employees or the general public, but first and foremost, they are people with needs and desires who will respond to stimuli. It is important to think of the people in these target audiences as "players" in gamified applications.

While game mechanics such as points and badges are the hallmarks of gamification, the real challenge is to design player-centric applications that focus on the motivations and rewards that truly engage players more fully. Game mechanics like points, badges and leader boards are simply the tools that implement the underlying engagement models.

Gamification describes the use of the same design techniques and game mechanics found in all games, but it applies them in non-game contexts including: customer engagement, employee performance, training and education, innovation management, personal development, sustainability and health. Virtually all areas of business could benefit from gamification as it can help to achieve three broad business objectives 1) to change behavior; 2) to develop skills; or 3) to enable innovation. While these objectives are very broad, more opportunities may emerge as the trend matures.

Changing Behaviors - The most common use of gamification is to engage a specific audience and encourage them to change a target set of behaviors. By turning the desired behavior change into a game, people become engaged and encouraged to adopt new habits. For example:
•          Brands can leverage gamification to engage consumers to better understand their products, and become advocates for the brand to provide product endorsements, and drive customer loyalty.
•          Companies can use gamification to improve employee performance and to motivate adoption of new business processes.

Developing Skills - Gamification is increasingly being used in both formal education and in corporate training programs to engage students in a more immersive learning experience. While many approaches are being used, they can generally be divided into two categories:
•          Building a game layer on top of the lesson material, where competition and/or collaboration between students is encouraged with game mechanics such as points for actions, badges for rewards and leader boards for competition.
•          Turning the lesson into a game, where in addition to the game layer of points and badges, simulation and animation is used to immerse the studentS in the environment and allow them to practice new skills in a safe, virtual environment that provides immediate feedback.

Enabling Innovation - Innovation games are typically structured quite differently than games designed to change behavior or develop skills. Innovation games use emergent game structures that provide the goals, rules, tools and play space for the players to explore, experiment, collaborate and solve problems. Innovation games generally use game mechanics to create a more engaging experience, but the key is to engage lots of players, solving problems through crowd sourcing.

“As gamification moves from being leveraged by a limited number of leading-edge innovators to becoming more broadly adopted by early adopters, it is important that CIOs and IT leaders understand the underlying principle of gamification and how to apply it within the IT organization,” said Mr. Burke.

Logix Microsystems Q2 consolidated profit up 253 % at heady Rs 74.23 lakh  

Thesynergyonline Digital Bureau           

NEW DELHI, NOVEMBER 23 :
LOGIX Microsystems, a global software products company focused on automotive e-retailing solutions, has reported  253 per cent jump in consolidated profit at heady Rs 74.23 lakh in the second quarter ended September 30, 2012 (Q2FY13) as compared to Rs.21.03 lakh in the corresponding quarter of the previous year..
 
In the quarter the company’s standalone profits also increased 179 per cent at Rs.130.52 lakh as compared to Rs.46.82 lakh in the corresponding quarter of the previous year and standalone revenue increased 15 per cent y-o-y .
 
The company added 43 new clients in the US. including 3M, a Fortune 500 company, Route 44 Group, and Affinity Development Group, as well as 18 new clients in India.
 
 Mr. Sanjay Soni, Managing Director, Logix Microsystems , said, “Increasing profits by 253 per cent y-o-y while reducing expenditure is an outstanding feat in today’s market conditions. Our brand fundamentals and the positive response to Logix products and solutions in the US, EU and Indian automotive retail segments helped us move our performance trajectory further up.”

Gartner identifies four dominant opportunities for IT and CIOs

Thesynergyonline Digital Bureau

"We are witnessing the emergence of a new generation of CIOs, one that aims not so much to 'run' IT as to ensure that the business achieves strategic value from the use of technology," said John Mahoney, vice president and analyst at Gartner. "Although this isn't an entirely new development, the extent of the change is growing and a tipping point will be reached in the next five years."

Gartner has identified four dominant future opportunities for IT in the organization. They are not mutually exclusive and may exist in combination:
In this scenario, the IT organization is an expanded and integrated shared-service unit that runs like a business, delivering IT services and enterprise business processes. It is virtually or fully centralized, focuses on business areas and business value, adopts a marketing perspective, capitalizes on its internal position and delivers competitive services.

In this scenario, IT capabilities are delivered rapidly at market-competitive prices. The IT organization succeeds by monitoring technology and market developments, and building expertise in IT asset optimization, sourcing and vendor management, and IT financial management. It delivers ongoing cost improvements, looks for new ways to deliver the same IT capabilities for less, and is highly responsive to changing business needs.

Information is the business's explicit product or at least is inseparable from its product. The business is structured around information flow (not process or function) and the IT organization innovates within the value chain, rather than just enabling the supporting services found in every business.

Business leaders and individual contributors use information and technology aggressively to break through traditional business perimeters and drive ambitious collaboration. The focus is on information, rather than technology.

Highly mature businesses embrace this divergent model for its collaborative and innovative potential. While traditionalists may see anarchy in this type of approach, others see liberated creativity. For this reason, this model works in non-traditional situations such as dynamic businesses, startups and &D/entrepreneurial/community ventures. 

Gartner said that these new CIOs will play an important role in identifying the required future of the IT organization, and that they must ensure senior IT stakeholders are involved from the outset, so that their support is guaranteed. These CIOs will then be able to identify how their role will change and start planning a personal roadmap.

Religion-driven IT will create more than $40 bln software and service opportunities by 2017

Thesynergyonline Digital Bureau

"Religion has a great influence on high-growth regions such as Latin America, Africa, the Arab world and South Asia, thus compelling new entrants and incumbent IT providers to seek new opportunities with religious entities," said Asheesh Raina, principal research analyst at Gartner. "Direct IT spending by religious groups is small compared with the influence of religion on the IT spending of other industries and enterprises."

The convergence of religion and IT will present completely new ways of doing business and unconventional opportunities for IT entrepreneurs and innovators over an extended period of time.

"Religion-based banking, equity trading, mutual funds, financial services and so forth (including Islamic banking, takaful insurance and the Dharma Global Index) require new applications, products and heavy software customization, thus creating a role for religion domain experts. The number of people visiting religious places (such as temples and shrines during hajj and other religious pilgrimages/tours) is growing and hence increasing the need for religious bodies to attain automation through IT to provide safe, secure and faster religious services," said Mr Raina.

With the global slowdown and with new business opportunities drying up for the majority of organizations and enterprises (including IT providers) in mature economies, there is a need to explore new markets and opportunities. This has led to the shift of focus toward fast growing emerging markets to seek growth, which is a significant way to expand customers and markets — albeit within different business environments.

The high religiosity index in emerging markets, IT becoming mainstream, and increased spend on religion due to economic development will all lead to a gradual shift toward religion-driven IT. Religion-driven IT is becoming a crucial test model for IT providers to gain a larger presence in these markets. In the next five years, the list of emerging markets will include Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Poland, Turkey and Argentina (all with high religiosity), and IT providers' successful execution of this model within the current set of emerging markets is key for a sustainable presence.

The role of religion in generating new business opportunities for the IT industry will continue to evolve and will benefit from ongoing convergence of traditional and emerging trends, with added support and findings from religion experts and sociologists.

"In the next four to five years, religion slowly but steadily will continue to drive and change the way IT is consumed today by generating a significant amount, and variety of, new IT opportunities and business models. A lack of standardization and nonavailability of skilled resources in this space will require IT to play a critical role, albeit while treading carefully," said Mr. Raina.

Google India announces the
12 finalists for Doodle4Google

Thesynergyonline Digital Buireau

The public will be able to vote for these shortlisted entries starting 5 November until 10 November by logging on to: http://www.google.co.in/doodle4google/. The final winner will be announced on November 12 at an event in New Delhi. The theme for 2012 is "Unity in Diversity".

As with past years, this year's D4G participants were grouped into three categories: Group 1 comprising students from class 1 to 3; Group 2 with students from class 4 to 6; and Group 3 with students from class 7 to 10.

The initial entries, more than two lakh in number, went through a round of preliminary judging by film and theatre actor Boman Irani and political cartoonist Ajit Ninan; as a second step, online public voting will be used to choose one winner from each group. Finally, the reputed jury, along with Google Doodler Dennis Hwang, will select the final winning doodle from all the finalists.

The winning doodle will be placed on the google.co.in homepage on November 14, National Children's Day, and will also be featured on a special colour pack and drawing book by Classmate. The top 3 winners will receive a merit certificate at the finale to be held in the capital.

Below is the list of the 12 finalists from across India!

Group 1: class 1 to 3
1. Vidhi Binwal - The Orchid School, Pune
2. Saubhagya Kalia - Sri Aurobindo School of International Education, Chandigarh
3. Vasuevan Deepak - Devigiri C.M.I Public School, Calicut
4. M. Pranshu Tanaya - D.A.V Public School, Balasore

Group 2: class 4 to 6
1. Kajal C.Soni - Queen Mary School, Mumbai
2. Samiksha Goel - Kendriya Vidyalaya No 1 Uppal, Hyderabad
3. Aditi Tiwari - Amity International School, Gurgaon
4. Gulafsha Bano - St. Anthony's Day School, Kolkata

Group 3: class 7 to 10
1. Arun Kumar Yadav - Kendriya Vidyalaya, Chandigarh
2. S. Preetham Paul - Sri Prakash Vidyaniketan, Vishakapatnam
3. Md. Aftab Alam - Albany Hall Public School, Kolkata
4. Prasun Jain - Anand Vikas Higer Secondary School, Bhopal

Dell partners with HCL Infosystems for distribution of enterprise products 

Thesynergyonline Infotech Bureau

NEW DELHI, OCTOBER 16 :
DELL India and Digilife Distribution and Marketing Services (DDMS), the distribution arm of HCL Infosystems , India's premier hardware, services and ICT systems integration and distribution company on Tuesday entered into strategic partnership for the distribution of Dell's enterprise class products to partner in emerging markets.

Digilife will deal in a wide array of Dell's Enterprise product categories including servers, storage and networking products in India. The partnership with DDMS will enhance Dell's Enterprise solutions reach beyond tier-1 cities and propel its focus to target mid-market customers with open, easy to deploy and affordable solutions.

The partnership is geared to promote and extend businesses for both Dell and HCL Infosystems; under this deal DDMS and Dell will collaborate on marketing, sales and technical areas and overall go-to market activities.

Digilife will take care of the marketing related activities for Dell Enterprise products and services, and further help promote, participate and extend the sale of the Dell products through activities such as market research, advertising, trade shows, internet marketing etc.

Dell's Global Commercial Channel (GCC) division retains around 19,000 commercial partners in the Asia Pacific region. The division takes care of programs and policies relevant to channels, which cover all types of business entities such as public companies and large-/medium-sized companies. In India, Dell currently engages with 1700 commercial channel partners, and this agreement will further strengthen the reach of its enterprise solutions to key markets.

Mr Sameer Garde, president and managing director, Dell India, said "India is the first market for Dell, to define and categorize the new market opportunity as the mid-market segment. DDMS's strong distribution network in mid-markets, coupled with our broadened product & solutions portfolio will surely help us strengthen our presence across these growth markets, moving beyond the top eight cities in India".

Mr Sanjay David, CEO Digilife Distribution and Marketing Services, a 100 per cent subsidiary of HCL Infosystems said, "This collaboration will gain robust traction with our channel and also achieve market leadership in this space. We believe this partnership will add a new dimension to our current offerings. With Dell's wide product and service portfolio and DDMS's extensive distribution network across the country, the engagement provides us an opportunity to address the needs of enterprises in diverse locations through our distributors in this segment."

The program further strengthens the point of Dell being a stable and a long term partner for their partner community. Mr Ajay Kaul, Director and General Manager, Global Commercial Channel, Dell India said, "Our partners are a very important part of Dell's overall growth strategy and we have always aimed at providing maximum value to our partner community. We realize the importance of our channel partners in the growth of our business, and hence we take utmost care to enable them to effectively meet the needs of their customers and deliver more value to their growing business. "

"This step again is an indication that we are listening to our partners and shifting our approach in making Dell solution available to them off-the-shelf and thus addressing the run-rate requirement of our customers," he added.

Report on cyber security released  

Urgent need to address risks
from cyberspace : Menon

'
Thesynergyonline Digital Bureau

NEW DELHI, OCTOBER 15 :
INDIA'S National Security Advisor Mr Shivshankar Menon released a report on the "Recommendations of Joint Working Group on Engagement with Private Sector on Cyber Security", in New Delhi on Monday.

Making public the report, Mr Menon said facing the challenges from cyber space requires both the government and industry to work together; the government cannot do this alone nor can the private sector do it on its own.

He said it is a delicate act, how to balance social media responsibility with democratic freedom. Mr Menon pointed out that the Report has been readied in a record time; work started on it only in July this year. He hoped that India would set new benchmarks for the world in cyber security.

The JWG was set up under the chairpersonship of Ms Latha Reddy, Deputy National Security Advisor to work out the roadmap for engaging the private sector in a Public Private Partnership (PPP) for strengthening the cyber security architecture in the country. It included representatives of both government and private sector.

Ms Reddy said, the recommendations are the outcome of extensive and in-depth discussions with the industry. She hoped that India could emerge as a global hub for developing cyber security products.

India's current economic, social & infrastructure development process is making greater use of ICT for bringing transformation. However, this dependence on ICT makes the country vulnerable to cyber attacks that can have serious implications for both, the nation and economy.

Given that the private sector leads the development and adoption of ICT, a need was felt that the government and private sector collaborate and work together to overcome the challenges of cyber security. The JWG had constituted Sub-Groups with representatives of government and private sector, to flesh out the details of such engagement. Based on the inputs from these Sub-Groups, the recommendations were finalised.

The JWG has identified the principles and objectives that would underpin the overall framework and roadmap for PPP on cyber security. It has recommended a "Roadmap" for PPP on Cyber Security which includes setting up of an institutional framework, Capacity-Building in the area of cyber security, development of cyber security standards and assurance mechanisms, augmentation of testing & certification facilities for IT products.

Institutional framework would include setting of a permanent JWG, with representatives of government and private sector, to coordinate and oversee the implementation of PPP on cyber security. A Joint Committee on International Cooperation and Advocacy (JCICA) will advise JWG in promoting India's national interests at various international fora on cyber security issues.

To take the collaboration efforts ahead, the report identifies four pilot projects- setting up of a pilot testing lab, conducting a test audit, study of a sample Critical Information Infrastructure and establishment of a multi-disciplinary Centre of Excellence (COE). The newly constituted JWG would work out the Action-Plan for implementation of the recommendations.

Some of the other key recommendations of the JWG include:

• Creation of Information Sharing & Analysis Centres (ISACs) in various industry verticals by the private sector which should coordinate with sectoral CERTs and CERT-In.

• Provide training to law enforcement agencies (LEAs) in cyber crime investigation and cyber forensics by establishing training facilities and developing training materials & investigation manuals.

• Promotion and dissemination of cyber security awareness among general public through mutual collaboration. • Establishment of an 'Institute of Cyber Security Professionals of India' for capacity building in security testing and auditing.

Mr J Satyanarayana, Secretary, Dept of Electronics & IT, Mr Asoke Mukerji, Special Secretary, Ministry of External Affairs, Mr Kiran Karnik, Chairman , National Committee on Telecom & Broadband, CII, Mr Rajendra Pawar Ex-Chairman NASSCOM & Chairman NIIT, and Mr Virat Bhatia, Chairman, Communication & Digital Economy Committee, FICCI also spoke on the occasion.

Albion InfoTel launches Albion
Secure and Albion DataSafe

Thesynergyonline Digital Bureau

NEW DELHI, OCTOBER 03 :
ALBION InfoTel, global IT enterprise and technology advisor on Wednesday launched Albion Secure (Anti Virus - Personal Security - Personal Firewall) and Albion DataSafe (24X7 Cloud Backup/Disaster Recovery Solution for Home and Business).

Albion Secure is an application-level firewall with further encompasses WEB-filtering (scanning of internet traffic), unique heuristic analysis algorithms, instant understanding of current level of protection and built-in tools for contacting. It works lightning-fast due to the lowest memory and processing usage.

Albion DataSafe is a full incremental or differential backup option with full and selective restoration option (File extension, mailbox). It runs in the background mode, without effecting users’ work and furthermore compresses files before backup to save internet bandwidth. It encrypt data using up to 4096-bit keys, ensuring absolute privacy and maximum security.

D Vasudevan, Executive Director, Albion said, at a media conference here , “Upholding to our highest quality standards, we are proud to launch Albion Secure & Albion DataSafe. Both our products sentinel for the toughest requirements for home and businesses. Secure is a premium product for personal security and DataSafe is ideal for backup solution in case of deleted data, disk cleanup or lost PC. With protecting more than half a million systems worldwide, we are positive that these solutions will get affirmative response.”

Albion Secure takes minimal system memory which is 50-100 per cent 0 less than other antivirus products yet produce better results. Its lightweight yet efficient scanning algorithms do not slow down even the performance-demanding tasks.

“Albion Secure’s database consists of more than 6 million unique malware footprints, and it is growing. Each day our analysts examine and add a hundreds of new entries to the database.” said Rajesh Maji, vice president of Albion InfoTel (Corporate Affairs).

Albion Datasafe works like industry standard backup software, but with one important difference. Instead of sending backups to a tape drive or other media attached to the computer, Albion Datasafe stores the backup over the Internet or other network connections to users online backup server safely offsite.

“For Windows Active Directory, it supports both 32 and 64 bit operating systems of the server and provides object level backup and restore option. It supports Windows 2000 Server, Windows 2003 Server, and Windows 2008 Server.” stated Zafar Saeed, vice president (Products).

Albion Secure is competitively priced at Rs. 699 per single PC use and Rs 1299 for three PC licence. In the international market it is priced at  $ 18.99 for single PC use and $ 49.90 for three PC pack.

Albion Datasafe has both consumer and enterprise versions: the consumer version price starts from   Rs. 99.99 per month for a 20 GB storage; the annual price will be less than Rs. 1000 ; For international market, the prices starts from $ 1.99 per month or $ 22.99 per annum.

Enterprise version of Datasafe for 100 GB of storage space starts with Rs 469 per month (Rs. 5499 per year) and the corresponding international prices starts at $ 7.99 per month or $ 95 per annum.

Albion Disaster Recovery for enterprises comes at a very competitive price of Rs. 2499 per month  (Rs. 24,999 per annum) giving a storage space of 500 GB. For international market, the prices are at  $ 49.99 per month ($ 499 per annum).

Ontario helps open IBM data centre

Ontario Government Marks Milestone in Partnership

Thesynergyonline Digital Bureau  

NEW DELHI, SEPTEMBER 27 :
ONTARIO'S technology industry is getting a boost with the opening of a $90-million data centre in Barrie, Ontario. The new IBM Canada Leadership Data Centre will support a landmark partnership between Ontario, IBM, and seven Ontario universities to create a world-class virtual Research and Development Centre in Ontario.

The new data centre allows IBM to provide advanced data storage space, security and disaster recovery services. In time, the centre will include 'cloud' computing capabilities to help support ongoing research initiatives at the IBM Canada Research and Development Centre.

The energy-efficient facility is expected to only require full power cooling 30 days per year.  The centre is constructed to use cold outdoor air and water evaporation to provide cooling, reducing electricity consumption. The IBM BlueGene/Q supercomputers installed are the most energy efficient in the world.

This project, which includes an investment of $15 million from Ontario, is another example of Ontario's continued success in attracting leading-edge innovation and R&D projects and reflects the province's draw as an investment destination for complex data centre infrastructure.

Brad Duguid, Minister of Economic Development and Innovation, said, "Canadian organizations are seeking more strategic ways to increase operational efficiencies and position themselves for sustainable growth. We continue to invest in smarter infrastructure within Canada because businesses can’t afford downtime with today’s economic pressures. This new facility provides a flexible foundation ingrained in best-practices so we can deliver essential services to help organizations and partners better manage data, reduce operating costs, improve productivity and gain competitive advantage."
 
According to John Lutz, president, IBM Canada, “The initiative has the potential to significantly improve how we address key challenges in health care, infrastructure and cities, energy, and water conservation while utilizing Ontario’s best resource — our people."

Godrej unveils exclusive brand store online with Indiatimes shopping  

Thesynergyonline Digital Bureau

(Far from left) Mr Tejinder Singh,GM, e-Commerce;Mr Saurabh Malik,Cluster Head-CDIT; Mr. Subhanker Sarker, COO, Indiatimes shopping;Mr. Kamal Nandi, executive VP, Sales and Marketing, Godrej Appliances and Mr Ramesh Chembath, Asst-VP , Marketing,Godrej Appliances, at the unveilin of the strategic tie up of Godrej Appliances with indiatimes.com shopping portal in New Delhi on Tuesday.

NEW DELHI, SEPTEMBER 25 : Against the backdrop of burgeoning online shopping portals for discreet consumers Godrej Appliances, on Tuesday unveiled an initiative of online shopping with Indiatimes.com for its consumers with the latest shopping options through the Godrej Appliances' exclusive online store.

The portal will offer the entire range of consumer durables from air conditioners and refrigerators to washing machine and microwave ovens. It will also act as an enabler for consumers to search for products by category and also look ‘Deals of the Week’, which offers select products at highly competitive prices.

Speaking on the occasion of the alliance, Mr. Kamal Nandi, exercutive vice president ,  Sales & Marketing, Godrej Appliances, said, “Given the increase in online shopping, Godrej was keen to reach out to its discreet customers on the online platform, With our expertise in the best in class products space and indiatimes.com’s expertise in the online retail space, we hope to bring greater value and opportunities right to the doorstep of our consumer looking for value options.”

“For past several years we have pioneered out of the box marketing initiatives which have placed Godrej Appliances amongst the leading brands in India. This association is yet another innovative marketing initiative by us which will change the way consumers shop in the future,” he added.

Added Mr Ramesh Chembath, Asst- VP, Marketing, “Godrej Appliances, said, “ With this strategic partnership, it will continue its legacy of providing the same to its customers by making available its appliances at the customers’ fingertips.”

On the tie-up, Mr. Subhanker Sarker, COO, Indiatimes shopping, said, " Indiatimes Shopping is geared towards bringing trusted and leading offline brands like Godrej Appliances onto the online platform.”

“We have invested in our warehouse, last mile logistics and CRM infrastructure to support brands across categories, to jointly provide a superlative consumer experience,"
he added.

“Given the huge potential of the e-commerce industry, Godrej Appliances are targeting to grow its online business at more than 150 per cent year- on- year,” he said.

Need to expand reach of ICT
to rural areas : Sachin Pilot 

Thesynergyonline Infotech Bureau

NEW DELHI, SEPTEMBER 20 :
THE reach of information and communications technology (ICT) must be extensively expanded to tier III-IV cities and the rural areas in an accessible and credible manner to enable the rural India be a part of our growth trajectory, minister of state for communications and information technology, Mr Sachin Pilot said at an ASSOCHAM event held at New Delhi on Thursday.

"The government along with all stakeholders including the private sector should expand the reach of information and communications technology to the tier III and tier IV cities and introduce them to a technology that is inexpensive, accessible, credible and has the potential to transform their lives," said Mr Pilot while addressing a conference on 'Digital Inclusion of Rural India' organised by The Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India (ASSOCHAM).

"Forget about high-end technology, the introduction of simple technology to rural areas can have a significant impact on farmers by providing them simple information on weather forecasts, access to credit, crop insurance and other such details to help them access a contingency plan in case of any calamity," said the minister.

Mr Pilot further said that by giving demonstrations on usage of technology to the youth in rural areas we can share with them our rich experience, abundance of resources, education, finances and all the power in this area as they can make the most of it. "Large city dwellers have access to all resources at their disposal, thus there is a need to devise a mechanism whereby all stakeholders can participate and contribute towards the success of ICT in rural areas."

"The government is mulling to introduce rural ICT projects to drive changes in the rural areas socially, economically and politically, currently we have over fifty grassroots projects in India using modern ICTs for the benefit of the citizens," said Mr Pilot.

The minister also said there is a need to take massive investments in capacity building of human resources and train rural communities in ICT. "Digital literacy must be made compulsory and integrated with the curriculum of elementary education to create informed citizens enabled to access information."

ICT can be further used to address discrimination related issues and can be aimed at empowering marginalized groups thereby reaching more remote areas. "Besides, the development of content in regional languages is inevitable for the success of ICT in rural areas and it can be addressed by developing systematic language converters," said Mr Pilot.

At the conference, Mr Pilot along with Ms Rita Teaotia, additional secretary, Department of Telecommunications (DoT), Mr M. Moni, DDG-agriculture, NIC, Mr M. N. Khan, chairman of ASOCHAM Council on Rural Development and Mr D.S. Rawat, secretary general also released an ASSOCHAM-TISS study titled 'Digital Inclusion of Rural India: Key to socio-economic change'.

"Telecommunication can be a key driver for India's economic growth," said Ms Teaotia. "There is an urgent need to address the connectivity issues and access of quality services as this is an issue where we are lacking and to address this the National Telecom Policy of 2012 has been envisaged as an integrated group of technologies including-electronics, information technology and telecommunications."

"With these three things coming together we will be able to achieve the goal of actual digital inclusion," said the additional secretary, DOT.
Talking about the inevitable role of private sector, Ms Teaotia said "There is also a need to create an environment where the private sector can actually flourish and push the agenda of digital inclusion in rural areas."

It is the marriage of the three policy pieces of – electronics, information technology and telecommunications and equal focus on each is what really is going to make it happen with the efforts of private sector to push the services, said Ms Teaotia.

HCL Infosystems unveils its Ultrasmart ME UltrabookTM

The HCL ME Series 3074 starts at a price point of Rs. 51990 MRP

Thesynergyonline Digital Bureau

NEW DELHI, SEPTEMBER 20 :
HCL Infosystems , India's premier hardware, services and ICT systems integration and distribution company, has launched its first HCL Ultrasmart ME UltrabookTM – the HCL Ultrasmart ME Series 3074. The HCL ME Ultrabook is powered by 3rd Generation Intel® Core™ i3 processors.

Starting at a price point of Rs 51990 MRP the HCL ME Series 3074 these lightweight ultrasmart devices offer a complete new insight to the future of computing technology.

Equipped with a responsive system- with an auto resume in less than five seconds the all new ultrabook series comes with a very long battery backup of upto seven hours. This is one of the first 3rd generation ultrabook devices from HCL and more such next gen devices will be launched soon.

This ultra sleek (less than 18mm with metal casing) but powerful device is also supported by HCL Advantage 39 months warranty. The HCL ME Ultrabook offers Hybrid Drive version that is a combination of SSD and SATAII HDD.

The ME device is also ultra versatile with 3 USB ports & 1 HDMI Port and also offers a great media and graphics performance and experience, along with DivX11 support for HD content playback.

The new-generation HCL Ultrasmart ME Series 3074 weighs an ultra light 1.7 kg, features a 14-inch WXGA, LED Backlit display with a 1366x768 HD resolution. Available in brilliant brush metal grey finish the device sports a 2x2W advanced sound system and a built-in multi -gesture touchpad.

"A combination of powerful processing and great designing has resulted in a device geared for exceptional performance at work or entertainment", said Mr. Princy Bhatnagar, vice president and head Consumer Computing, HCL Infosystems .

+Arabian Exhibition
Management WLL
+Bihar Staff Selection
Commission
+SSC Exam results
+ICAI Admit Card 2010
+Jamia admission related info
+New Saral - II form
notified for 2010-11 AY
+Check your passport
status
+Download I -T forms
+Right to Info portal
+Download forms
+Examination results
in India
+Railway Reservation
status
+Daily court orders
+International Jurists Conference
+Notifications
+Intellectual Property
related queries
+Foreign Trade Policy/Procedures
+Provident Fund forms
+PF rules
+WIPO conferences,
meetings and seminars
+Your conference
programme
+FAQ related to EPF