tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-72380522209077551602024-02-21T08:28:35.876-08:00Business Perspectives Suhrid Baruahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03819791229614170891noreply@blogger.comBlogger18125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7238052220907755160.post-21981523662687672792021-07-09T03:32:00.000-07:002022-01-27T02:35:03.811-08:00How Purpose-Driven Banking Can Drive Customer Trust<p><span style="font-size: large;">Over many decades banks and financial institutions have invariably focused on shareholder interest - they have considered 'Volume is King' as a success mantra but they now need to think beyond that. Banks are increasingly under the pump to respond to growing demands from customers and communities to think beyond profitability and come up with initiatives for the well-being of the society. This is where it makes sense for banks to hop on to the 'Doing Well By Doing Good'bandwagon. Banks are cognizant of the fact that merely helping customers take smart financial decisions cannot be their only prime focus in the long run. The global banking space is evolving at a fast clip, and want to bank with organizations that not just operate with the highest integrity but also infuse substantial socially responsive investments.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">Realization has dawned among banks that their business strategy must revolve around setting and attaining societal goals by driving convergence between their business performance and the larger interests of the society. Such an approach can help banks emerge as socially responsible organizations. 'Doing Well by Doing Good' isn't about banks doing the right things for the customer and the society - such purpose-led banking initiatives can enable banks to unlock substantial value and competitive advantage besides helping them secure their continued existense in an uncertain future. </span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">The importance of 'Doing Well by Doing Good' is not lost on banks but it cannot be denied that banks have made tardy progress in walking down the 'Doing Well by Doing Good' road. This is largely owing to their overwhelming focus on delivering shareholder interest. It is crucial to note that banks while adopting a purpose-driven banking approach need to rewire its entire business and there is a degree of reluctance among banks to take this route since it involves a large strategic transformation, espeically during pandemic times. According to a Deloitte survey, 87% of executives believe companies perform best over time if their purpose goes beyond profitability. Another research study revealed that 72% of consumers are more likely to be loyal to companies that lead with purpose.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">Banks are indeed taking purpose-driven banking seriously. Swedish automaker Volvo announced that it will phase out all petrol diesel, and hybrid options and only sell electric cars by 2030 in its quest to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Oversea-Chinese Banking Corporation (OCBC) framed a policy to stop funding coal-fired power plants owing to climate concerns and improve the society by donating money to philantrophies every year. Capital One, Ally Bank, and Alliant Credit Union waived overdraft fees - a move that is sense a huge sigh of relief for customers already bogged down pandemic-related challenges. Mascoma Bank also resorted to purpose-driven banking and provided its employees paid time-off for voluntering. </span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">Banks must not merely straitjacket themselves toward delivering financial services and must demonstrate committment to make a positive impact on the customers. Banks can do well by doing good by leveraging customer data and act as trusted advisors of their clients on budgeting and spending, helping them skirt detrimental spending habits and protecting them from bad actors. Of course, all of these can be achieved by banks by harnessing the power of Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, and cloud services. These emerging technologies aid banks to understand customer behavior and help them take smarter and safer financial decisions at all times, while providing cushion against any financial crime.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">The bottom line is banks must put their thinking cap beyond profitability and carve out initiatives for the betterment of the society. And by doing so banks can strengthen customer loyalty and accelerate their ROI. </span></p>Suhrid Baruahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03819791229614170891noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7238052220907755160.post-73460321116324889042021-06-01T07:33:00.011-07:002022-01-27T02:35:45.585-08:00 Robotic Process Automation: Driving Operational Efficiency and Improved Customer Experience for Banks<p><span style="font-size: large;">There is a heightened focus today across the global banking sector on leveraging new-age technologies to stay ahead in a highly competitive marketplace. This is largely because the banking sector has been under a great deal of stress to optimize costs, boost productivity, address the shortage of skilled resources as well as deal with the ever-increasing employee costs. Further, the sector is grappling with other issues such as payment of regulatory fines and slow working procedures that have resulted in a significant amount of customer dissatisfaction. All these have posed roadblocks for the banking sector to offer reliable and more secure banking services to its customers.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">The rapid shift from traditional banking to digital over the last few years or so has been accelerated by the growing need for banks to look for cost-effective and fast alternatives with their larger objective of accelerating operational efficiency through an improved customer experience. Robotics Process Automation (RPA) is being seen as the game-changer for the sector as it provides banks with the much-needed alternative to enhance their competitive edge.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">The Covid-19 pandemic may have thrown normal life out of gear but it has led to a proliferation of digital banking services, which is poised to be the future of the banking sector, wherein RPA is the enabler banks need to offer low-cost and high-quality services without compromising one bit on security. According to a study conducted by McKinsey, up to 25% of banking processes are expected to be automated over the next few years – what’s more, RPA software for the banking sector will post a business revenue of $900 million by 2022. These projections indicate the impact Robotics Process Automation will have on the sector and help banks not just augment their operational efficiency but also build goodwill among their loyal customers.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">So why has Robotics Process Automation generated so much buzz for the banking sector? Well, it can be attributed to the myriad benefits this automation technology offers. RPA has the potential to swiftly execute customer-facing as well as back-office tasks, ranging from sending emails, opening & closing applications, and transmitting information from one system to another. It obliterates manual, repetitive work that reduces the productivity of banks, minimizes the occurrence of risks, and engages customers with real-time scenarios, helping deliver an augmented customer experience. The best part about embracing RPA is that it requires minimal investment as banks do not need to modify their underlying legacy IT infrastructure.</span></p><p><b><span style="font-size: large;"><br />Challenges in Adoption of RPA</span></b></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">Of course, there are challenges that come in the way of RPA adoption such as resistance to change, process standardization & organization misalignment, compatibility with legacy infrastructure, and lack of legal regulations governing automation. But the benefits of RPA far outweigh these challenges.</span></p><p><b><span style="font-size: large;"><br />How Robotic Process Automation Can Drive Value for Banks?</span></b></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">Let us take a deep dive into how RPA can help scale up the efficiency of the banking sector.</span></p><p><b><span style="font-size: large;"><br />Driving Customer Service to the Next Level</span></b></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">A large chunk of customer grievances across various customer service centres is repetitive in nature. The sight of long wait times and delays on the part of banks to provide information can be frustrating for customers. RPA can help address customer queries with a quick turnaround time. It helps banks save time and effort and also provides customers with the best possible solution.</span></p><p><b><span style="font-size: large;">Improvement in Compilation Procedure</span></b></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">Banks typically have the onus to strictly adhere to the rules and regulations, monitor the activities of their staff, report issues, and initiate steps when needed to prevent money laundering. Adhering to every single rule can be a tedious exercise, but RPA drives a smooth process by collecting a large amount of data and compiling it automatically, aiding banks in saving time and freeing up employees who carry out such mundane tasks.</span></p><p><b><span style="font-size: large;">Efficient Report Automation</span></b></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">A key aspect of banking operations is to present an accurate and error-free report for all stakeholders. RPA enables efficient report automation by collecting information from multiple platforms, confirming their authentication, and then producing the information in a specific format as per the banks’ needs.</span></p><p><b><span style="font-size: large;">KYC (Know Your Customer)</span></b></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">The KYC compliance is a long-drawn-out process for banks and slow and delayed processes can leave scope for a high level of customer dissatisfaction. According to a study conducted by Thomson Reuters, banks shell out around $384 million annually on KYC compliance. This explains why banks are turning towards RPA that can aggregate customer data, evaluate and validate it, and helps banks wrap up the KYC process in a shorter duration with fewer errors.</span></p><p><b><span style="font-size: large;">Effective Fraud Detection</span></b></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">The arrival of RPA has led to a significant increase in fraud detection, which makes it exceedingly challenging for banks to keep a check on every fraudulent transaction. RPA bots are capable of identifying new frauds by effectively leveraging the ‘if-then’ algorithm. RPA software completes the overall review within a few minutes and can identify even a minute of fraud in the system. It can also assess customer risks and warns them via notification to prevent further fraud attacks on their banking services.</span></p><p><b><span style="font-size: large;">RPA Road Ahead</span></b></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">There is no denying the fact that Robotics Process Automation has driven a significant improvement in the services of the banking sector and enabling banks to deliver an experience that is high on customer satisfaction. Of course, RPA can be a costly investment initially but it offers great long-term value, enabling banks to effectively execute smart banking operations and achieve good ROI within a few months.</span></p>Suhrid Baruahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03819791229614170891noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7238052220907755160.post-79679682995069308882021-05-05T08:48:00.002-07:002022-01-27T02:37:52.625-08:00Organizations Must Accord High Priority to Effectively Handling Supplier Risks<p><span style="font-size: large;">The supplier universe has evolved over time with organizations sourcing goods and services from suppliers separated by geographies, different time zones, diverse cultures, different geopolitical situations, and regulations. </span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">The expansion of the supplier universe is a far cry from decades back when suppliers of various organizations were located in close proximity and working relations were based purely driven by trust. The rapid globalization over the years has made supply chains more interconnected, which has led to increasing complexities within the supply chain.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">Complexities across global supply chains have significantly enhanced supplier risks. Organizations are now wary about supplier failures as they can have major ramifications. Supplier disruptions such as natural disasters, economic crises, geopolitical risks unforeseen incidents at plants, labor disputes, etc. can not only hurt the profitability of organizations causing losses running into millions of dollars but also trigger reputational damage. The scourge of Covid-19 brutally exposed the vulnerabilities of suppliers and underpinned a pressing need for organizations to build agile, resilient, and future-proof supply chains.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">Clearly, supplier risks are a critical issue that needs to be addressed by organizations. Over the years organizations owing to a lack of robust processes have been struggling to identify and successfully manage supplier risks. Over time organizations have counted on analytical models that leverage only historical data to assess supplier risks and failed to provide a warning about potential threats. This explains why organizations have not been able to effectively mitigate supplier risks. The need of the hour for organizations is to adopt a risk intelligent approach, wherein they proactively mitigate avoidable risks, and gear up with effective response strategies to counter unavoidable risks. </span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;"><br />Organizations will do a lot of good to themselves if they obtain accurate information about suppliers’ key performance indicators such as on-time delivery, uninterrupted supply of raw materials, supplier defect rate, compliance rate, purchase order accuracy, etc and accordingly, segment their suppliers based on various criteria. Such a threadbare supplier assessment exercise can help organizations come up with efficient supplier risk management strategies to minimize disruptions, as well as steer clear of monetary and reputational damages.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">An effective risk management strategy cannot be a way forward for organizations without leveraging analytics. Analytics help organizations anticipate a possible disruption. Even if any unforeseen event cannot be predicted, it can sound out the fastest possible alert for a company to initiate necessary action and cushion itself from a potential disruption. This is where Predictive analytics comes in handy for organizations – it analyses large volumes of data sourced from across the business by applying hundreds of variables. Predictive analytics enables organizations to take suitable decisions based on the potential scenarios offered by analytics and ensure that their supplier ecosystem stays healthy at all times.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">Effectively managing supplier risks is easier said than done. However, a proactive strategy well-armed with analytics-backed improved response measures can help organizations stay alert and skirt unforeseen supplier risks or at least minimize them.</span></p>Suhrid Baruahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03819791229614170891noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7238052220907755160.post-50017007600736752472021-04-12T09:41:00.001-07:002022-01-27T02:38:05.516-08:00Indian SAAS Ecosystem: Oodles of Promise<p><span style="font-size: large;">Cloud-based solutions are gaining increasing prominence among businesses across the globe. And among these cloud solutions, one that is emerging as a must-have solution for organizations is software-as-a-service (SAAS). The SAAS market has been witnessing exponential growth not just globally but across India as well and holds so much promise for the future. The software-as-a-service industry globally was valued at around $100 billion in 2019 and is expected to touch around $400 billion according to a recent study conducted by a prominent industry body. The increase in cloud consumption, growing need for scalability, and digital technology adoption will be the key growth drivers of the SAAS market. And to throw up an Indian perspective, one cannot deny the fact that software-as-a-service is witnessing soaring popularity among Indian companies. According to Bain & Co.’s India Private Equity Report 2020, along with the Indian Private Equity and Venture Capital Association (IVCA), the Indian SaaS market is forecasted to touch more than $20 billion by 2022 from $6 billion in 2019.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">Clearly, the Indian SAAS growth story is earning global attention – it is estimated that the country’s SAAS landscape comprises more than 1,000 companies – more importantly, SAAS funding in India has grown at 15% CAGR over the last 3 years. Interestingly, the Indian SAAS companies are developing and offering solutions that are not just catering to the domestic market needs, but also to the global business needs. This can be gauged by the fact that Indian SAAS firms are deriving 75% of their revenues from global sales – it only reinforces the point that these solutions are not made just for the Indian market but also for addressing the global business requirements. </span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">The country has as many as six SAAS unicorns (companies that have a valuation of more than 1 billion). Freshworks was the first Indian SAAS company to attain the unicorn status in mid-2018, followed by Zoho – one of the SAAS pioneers in India. The year 2019 saw enterprise contract management solution provider Icertis and data management company Dhruva enter the unicorn club. HighRadius became the first enterprise to achieve unicorn status in 2020 and the fifth Indian SAAS unicorn, and in mid-2020 Postman emerged as the six Indian SAAS unicorn.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">There is little doubt that the country will produce more Unicorns in the SaaS space. In the Indian context, it is a given that business-to-consumer (B2C) enterprises will continue to top the valuation charts, largely owing to the way software product enterprises function. The good thing about the Indian SAAS ecosystem is that Indian enterprises are carving out a presence across all levels. For example, Druva is serving large enterprises while Freshworks is catering to mid-sized enterprises, and then you have Zoho addressing the needs of less than mid-sized or smaller enterprises. And one thing that comes out to the fore is that the country’s SAAS ecosystem derives its strength from increased maturity, capital availability of capital, and abundant technical talent.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">It is important to note that Indian SAAS enterprises started off their journey targeting the US market but over the years our SAAS companies are also catering to small and medium businesses in India and this has been possible owing to an increasing willingness among Indian enterprises to hop on the technology bandwagon as well as pay for it. It is all about having a scale in the domestic market.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">There is a general line of thought that the Covid-19 will dent the current valuations of SAAS companies, which effectively means that every player will end up losing revenue and the market will witness consolidation over the long-term. There is another perspective thrown around that heavy investments made in cloud companies has led to inflated valuations. Clearly, there is a need to address this as overcapacity and overfunding in cloud companies could impact the business if it went unchecked. It is also observed that in the current Covid-19 environment enterprises with robust balance sheets and those that are free from too many cost overheads will stay well positioned in the long run.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">The Indian SAAS story has oodles of promises and many more frontiers are poised to be conquered notwithstanding the Covid-19 blues.</span></p><div><br /></div>Suhrid Baruahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03819791229614170891noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7238052220907755160.post-48261337646077096222021-03-01T00:58:00.005-08:002022-01-27T02:38:16.989-08:00How Low-Code/No-Code Can Drive Next Level of Engineering Efficiency<p><span style="font-size: large;"> </span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">The software industry is witnessing a never-seen-before demand to deliver mission-critical products at a breakneck speed as well as ensure such products are high on quality, cost-effective and can seamlessly integrate across multiple systems. Software organizations are challenged to meet the ever-evolving customer needs and see Low-Code/No-Code application development as a massive opportunity to simplify and streamline the software development process without the need for extensive manual coding. </span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">However, Low-Code/No-Code development has its share of implementation challenges - it lacks customization and has integration issues, especially with legacy systems. Further, security and reliability are other concerns with Low-Code as there is a degree of risk involved in working with Low-Code as you don’t have complete control or knowledge of the entire coding process. Despite these challenges, the potential upside makes it a go-to-option for organizations. Let us take a deep dive into how the Low-Code/No-Code movement is revolutionizing the software industry.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;"><b>Differences between Low-Code versus No-Code</b></span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">Low-Code is all about developing software, applications, or databases with the help of a graphical user interface (GUI) and can be fully customized with a minuscule amount of programming. Low-Code needs a visual integrated development environment (IDE) as the user simply has to leverage visual components to assemble their custom application. It offers the option to view or edit the source code and is cost-effective.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">No-Code development can be deployed by anyone without any programming knowledge. Unlike Low-Code, No-Code does not offer the option of viewing or editing the source code. The No-Code space brings into play ‘citizen developers’ who build functional but generally limited apps without having to write a line of code. By leveraging a GUI, users can utilize No-Code development platforms by dragging and dropping features straight into their application framework.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;"><b>Fast-Paced Software Development</b></span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">Organizations leveraging Low-Code/No-Code platforms can enable software development within a few days or weeks, unlike traditional application development that can take weeks or even months. This allows for rapid speed-to-market as well as ensure software updates are carried out regularly as anyone can make changes irrespective of their level of coding knowledge. The absence of code writing also frees up software developers to focus on other more critical development tasks or even to focus on improvements to products or new products altogether – driving potential revenue.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;"><b>Cross-Platform Compatibility</b></span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">Custom applications largely developed through traditional methods are built for one platform or another, e.g. Android or iOS. Such platforms have limitations owing to the costs involved in developing two different platforms. Certain Low-Code/No-Code development is cross-platform and can be deployed across multiple devices, but these are limited.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;"><b>Cost-Reduction</b></span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">Low-Code/No-Code serves as an enabler for building more applications/platforms in less time, which helps organizations reduce development costs. They also eliminate the need for hiring more software developers, thus helping keep a tight rein on staffing costs and improve productivity.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;"><b>Lower Maintenance Burden</b></span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">Software maintenance is a big responsibility for organizations. Low-Code reduces the software maintenance burden by reducing the plumbing work from day-to-day development. Since Low-Code ensures components are standardized, pretested and ready-made, organizations have to deal with fewer bugs and integration issues than in the past. It also ensures software developers spend less time on maintenance.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;"><b>No Need for Training In-House Talent</b></span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">Organizations can leverage Low-Code/No-Code to reduce time and effort in training their workforce. Such platforms do not need organizations to have developers trained in different programming languages. Often basic HTML knowledge is more than enough, which paves the way for organizations to deploy in-house IT professionals to execute their software development solutions.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;"><b>Conclusion</b></span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">Low-Code/No-Code is set for the long haul and not many would dispute that. According to a Forrester report, the Low-Code market is poised to touch an annual growth rate of 40%, with spending forecasted to hit a whopping $21.2 billion by 2022. By harnessing the power of Low-Code/No-Code, organizations can accelerate large-scale software development cost-effectively.</span></p><p><br /></p>Suhrid Baruahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03819791229614170891noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7238052220907755160.post-37075322169015082782021-02-08T06:41:00.001-08:002022-01-27T02:38:49.321-08:00Importance of Augmented Reality for Supply Chain Resiliency<p><span style="font-size: large;">Organizations are increasingly adopting a customer-centric approach aimed at providing faster, reliable, secure, and accurate services across their supply chains. This is where Augmented Reality (AR) has emerged as a go-to-technology for organizations to optimize their supply chains.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">Augmented Reality can drive enhanced efficiency across supply chains by performing traditional tasks faster and more effectively by leveraging camera and sensor-enabled AR smart glasses and devices. This technology has the potential to address various supply chain pain points as well as streamline work processes at the individual and organization levels. Further, the physical restrictions imposed on account of Covid-19 are only going to accelerate the adoption of AR.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">According to a study conducted by MarketsandMarkets, the Augmented Reality market is estimated to grow from $10.7 billion in 2019 and is projected to reach $72.7 billion by 2024 at a CAGR of 46.6% over 2019-2024. These projections further drive home the importance of AR across industries.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">Let us understand how Augmented Reality can serve as an enabler for organizations to build resilient and cost-effective supply chains.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;"><b><br />Warehouse Optimization</b></span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">The biggest USP of Augmented Reality is in driving efficient warehouse management. According to a report released by DHL, warehouse activities (such as packing, storage, and put-aways) represent around 20% of all logistics costs. AR smart glasses and devices ensure a faster order picking process by enabling workers to adopt a heads-up approach while performing their tasks. Such an approach ensures that workers’ hands are free and they can stay focused on their tasks. The AR Vision picking software provides every piece of information needed by workers to carry out their jobs such as what items to pick next, how many items to pick, where to pack them in their fields of vision.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">AR enables remote users to have a glimpse of what the wearer is seeing, which effectively means that OEMs, consultants, repair experts, offsite managers, etc can extend their remote helping hand to any worker. This can help keep a tight rein on unnecessary travel and downtime-related expenses.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;"><br />The AR-enabled heads-up approach ensures enhanced safety – it can also play a crucial role in minimizing errors across warehouses. AR devices overlay virtual models and instructions on any user’s field of vision, which makes it possible to directly issue instructions to the task at hand and receive specific, visual feedback on how to complete the work. It is largely owing to the clarity of these instructions that workers are less prone to committing blunders.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;"><b>Transport Optimization</b></span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">Augmented Reality can pave the way for increased efficiency across logistics operations. AR-enabled scanners and sensors help logistics companies scan and document errors, damages, and product issues for regulations and compliance. The power of AR can be harnessed in optimizing container loading as well as it reduces the need for physical cargo lists and load instructions. It facilitates loading instructions on a heads-up display with step-by-step instructions on how to efficiently load a container.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;"><b>Maintenance & Repair</b></span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">Augmented Reality can be exceedingly handy in detecting machine breakdowns at warehouses. AR smart glass devices with their enhanced image recognition capabilities can identify any machine breakdowns in sorting and repackaging of goods. This technology also ensures timely maintenance of systems and is instrumental in preventing any major malfunctioning or delay in supply chains. Let’s cite an example of a forklift breakdown in a warehouse, wherein a worker can contact the concerned person over the phone, who can see the breakdown via the camera-enabled smart glasses and fix it in real-time.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;"><b>Training & Learning</b></span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">A key aspect of Augmented Reality technology is that it can quickly train new employees and even brush up skills of even seasoned employees to learn a new task, thus driving heightened worker productivity. AR smart glasses help workers in prompt and accurate identification of items through their various dynamic inspection functions. In case any worker is encountering any problem while performing a task, the worker can pull up information on the smart glasses to identify a solution instead of exiting the work area to find a helpful guideline, checklist, or diagram.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;"><b>Aftersales Services</b></span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">Augmented Reality drives higher efficiency in aftersales services. It provides a 3D imaging of the product and can map the defect – what’s more, customers can leverage the internet or database to fix the defect. This eliminates the need for organizations to have a sizeable number of skilled laborers to fix such issues as well as reduce repair costs and time for the customer as well as the company that provides repair services.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;"><b>Future of Augmented Reality</b></span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">The globalization of supply chain management and the inherent complexities associated with them have created a pressing need for technologies such as Augmented Reality. Organizations are starting to realize the importance of leveraging AR in supply chain management and although this technology is still in its nascent stages, there is no denying the fact that AR has a massive potential to enhance the sustainability of supply chain management.</span></p><div><br /></div>Suhrid Baruahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03819791229614170891noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7238052220907755160.post-25307603612276276322021-01-13T09:31:00.001-08:002022-01-27T02:39:35.227-08:00Demand Sensing - A Game-Changer for Forecast Accuracy<p><span style="font-size: large;">In a hypercompetitive marketplace, organizations are straining every nerve to keep up with evolving customer expectations, the rapid pace of innovation, and cut-throat competition. All these prevailing market challenges drive home the importance of accurate demand forecasting for organizations to drive business growth. </span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">Accurate demand forecasting methods hold the key for global supply chains to be agile, resilient, and future-proof. Traditional demand forecasting methods largely bank on historical sales data and a few seasonality variables and have obvious limitations in predicting demand. These long-standing demand forecasting methods leave out volumes of structured and unstructured data that may have an impact on demand as well as fall short of factoring in constantly changing consumer preferences and external market events. Traditional demand forecasting methods are not always 100% accurate, time-consuming, resource-intensive, and can be a costly exercise. Traditional demand forecasting methods are not considered adequate enough to predict demand, especially near-term demand. Such traditional demand forecasting methods result in frequent stock-outs, overstock, blocked working capital, and more importantly, an unhappy customer experience. </span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">The inherent shortfalls associated with traditional forecasting methods have brought on the need for a demand forecasting solution that can better grasp ever-evolving market changes and help predict demand with a substantial degree of accuracy. And this need for a high accuracy-focused demand forecasting solution can be addressed by the next-generation automated Demand Sensing solutions that are poised to transform the demand forecasting space in years to come.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">Automated Demand Sensing solutions are considered the next big thing for predicting demand. Unlike traditional forecasting methods, Demand Sensing leverages a wide range of different inputs that affect data and demand plans in the short term and breaks that demand plan into daily buckets so that forecast managers can take immediate decisions.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">Demand sensing is considered a more effective approach than traditional forecasting methods because the former counts on more up-to-the-minute information for forecast accuracy. It generates demand signals by monitoring customer sentiments and their conversations that enable organizations to meet consumer demand while driving the lowest cost possible across their supply chains. This much-hyped demand forecasting solution harnesses the power of emerging technologies such as Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning and analyzes real-time consumer demand information from point of sale systems, warehouses, and shipment locations as well as factors in weather, disruptions, etc to predict demand. Demand Sensing applies complex mathematical algorithms to automatically recognize demand patterns and spot complicated relationships in large data sets. </span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">Demand Sensing helps organizations to substantially enhance demand forecast accuracy resulting in higher levels of customer service, provides a more responsive framework for supply chains to fulfill demand near-term with precise execution, reduces overall inventory costs, enables organizations to gain a much leaner and efficient supply chain, and augment profitability. </span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">The true value of Demand Sensing can be realized in a well-integrated and synchronized supply chain. This demand forecast method will serve no purpose if supply chains are unable to quickly adapt and respond to anticipated fluctuations. </span></p><p><br /></p>Suhrid Baruahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03819791229614170891noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7238052220907755160.post-31020967827023215482020-12-08T05:06:00.000-08:002021-06-29T02:07:45.506-07:00Why Businesses Need to Leverage the Power of Digital Transformation? <p><span style="font-size: x-large;">In a rapidly evolving business landscape, organizations are pulling out all the stops to adapt to evolving customer needs as they are run the risk of being left out by newer, more nimble competitors. The fiercely competitive marketplace makes it imperative for businesses to embrace Digital Transformation (DX) to augment their operational efficiency and profitability.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: x-large;">Digital Transformation has moved way beyond being just a buzzword. DX is no more a matter of choice for organizations and has become a strategic priority to cope with evolving market dynamics. The significance of DX can be underpinned by the International Data Corporation (IDC) report that stated that worldwide spending on Digital Transformation is forecasted to touch $2.3 trillion by 2023, which drives home the point that enterprises are focusing on digital transformation as a long-term investment. </span></p><p><span style="font-size: x-large;">It is important to understand why Digital Transformation is imperative for organizations. DX if implemented appropriately, can provide businesses an enhanced customer experience, in terms of maintaining real-time communication with customers. Further, owing to its metrics-tracking and data analyzing capabilities, DX enables organizations to leverage data-based insights to rework their strategies and processes for delivering even better results as well as take better and faster decisions.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: x-large;">Digital Transformation also substantially enhances the business agility of businesses and positions them in the highest state of readiness to continuously improve and innovate its processes and operations. Data security is often considered a pain point for businesses, but a committed DX strategy can help businesses address such data security concerns. Digital Transformation can be handy in empowering the workforce and helps businesses drive productivity improvements among its employees. DX also eases collaboration challenges of enterprises (who work closely with various industry stakeholders) by facilitating a transparent workflow that enables them to achieve operational efficiency.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: x-large;">Although enterprises are aware of the importance of Digital Transformation initiatives, its implementation has not been on expected lines. According to a study conducted by Everest Group, 73 percent of organizations failed to deliver any business value from their DX efforts. This is largely owing to lack of strategic planning among businesses, resistance to change, absence of a customer-centric approach, reckless technology adoption, and focusing on agility without understanding it or being adequately prepared for the same.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: x-large;">So then, what do businesses need to come up with to ensure a successful Digital Transformation implementation? Firstly, organizations need to showcase an unflinching commitment towards ensuring a successful DX journey. It is generally observed that organizations achieve a fair amount of success in its phase I of DX implementation but somehow are not able to retain that focus in phase II to lack of adequate push from the top management. At times, enterprises find competing priorities a big roadblock in the smooth DX implementation. Businesses will stand to gain if they accord high priority to their DX initiatives through its entire phase. Further, organizations will be better off if they break the entire Digital Transformation initiative into small projects and goals that can deliver measurable goals aligned with their vision and strategic intent. Organizations need to focus on how their operations need to change to deliver improved experiences to customers as well as employees while focusing on implementing technologies. </span></p><p><span style="font-size: x-large;">There is no denying the fact that organizations cannot expect to survive without unlocking the power of Digital Transformation. DX has and will continue to remain an integral part of the day-to-day operations of organizations. </span></p><p><br /></p>Suhrid Baruahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03819791229614170891noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7238052220907755160.post-57871327884661657242020-11-02T12:50:00.000-08:002021-06-29T02:08:06.661-07:00Cloud Solutions Emerging as More Preferred Option over On-Premise Systems for Organizations<p><span style="font-size: x-large;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhjbca3pxGnWAjv6CEcepvZH3LRGA9nNOzjQcd9MPZbmYELMxOLLwLxzK6ISDqw2QhzWbU8o3u8qwIJeMOvSYdLvDx8WxKhkUyjdDG9HL-EDZh6ZipSyCJYAqfZiATHijG6u8E-6xMcny6-/s830/On-premise-and-private-and-public-cloud.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="553" data-original-width="830" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhjbca3pxGnWAjv6CEcepvZH3LRGA9nNOzjQcd9MPZbmYELMxOLLwLxzK6ISDqw2QhzWbU8o3u8qwIJeMOvSYdLvDx8WxKhkUyjdDG9HL-EDZh6ZipSyCJYAqfZiATHijG6u8E-6xMcny6-/s320/On-premise-and-private-and-public-cloud.jpg" width="320" /></a></span></div><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br />Organizations are increasingly looking at ways to stay ahead of the competition and see leveraging technology as one prime focus area as they strive to drive their business performance to the next level. Typically, for organizations embarking on business expansion, often grapple with roadblocks such as small team size, the unpredictability of demand, limited resources, etc. And to address these challenges, cloud computing solutions are considered the most preferred route for organizations in pursuit of business excellence. Let us try and understand all the buzz surrounding cloud computing and why companies are so excited about shifting to a cloud computing model from an on-premise model. Cloud-based services offer on-demand computing services over the Internet on a pay-as-you-go basis, which effectively means that organizations instead of having to manage their files and services in a local storage device, would be doing the same over the Internet in a cost-efficient manner.</span><p></p><p><span style="font-size: x-large;">An on-premise model has far too many limitations, in terms of scalability. Companies end up shelling out a lot for an on-premise setup and are also bogged down by lesser options. Further, organizations find it exceedingly challenging to scale down when a need arises in an on-premises model and are hit hard by lack of flexibility. This also has the potential to trigger heavy losses, in terms of infrastructure and maintenance costs. Cloud-based solutions enable organizations to avail the pay-per-use model, wherein they only pay for whatever service they leverage – not just that, cloud solutions provide easier and faster provisions for scaling up and scaling down. There are many other factors why an on-premise model is witnessing a steady decline. On-premise systems require a lot of space for storing servers not to speak of power and maintenance issues that go with it. Cloud computing solutions are offered cloud service providers who take the responsibility of managing and maintaining servers, thus driving significant savings, in terms of space and money for organizations. Dealing with the frequency of scheduling software releases can be a big task in an on-premise setup, but a cloud environment facilitates automatic software updates. </span></p><p><span style="font-size: x-large;">Data security is a big focus area for organizations, and this is where on-premise setups are losing out to cloud-based solutions. On-premise systems have lesser data security owing to the complicated combination of physical and traditional IT security measures. Cloud solutions offer better security as well as eliminate the need for constantly monitoring and managing security protocols. In scenarios of data loss, cloud computing has robust data recovery measures in place and can offer faster and easier data recovery unlike on-premise setups, where the data recovery chances are far lesser. In addition, data cannot be accessed remotely in an on-premise setup, while data can be accessed and shared anywhere over the Internet in a cloud environment. On the maintenance front, an on-premise system requires dedicated teams for hardware and software maintenance, thus loading up the cost of organizations substantially. Cloud solutions, on the other hand, are maintained by cloud service providers and thus saves your maintenance and resource allocation costs by a considerable degree.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: x-large;">Cloud-based solutions have three deployment models – Public Cloud, Private Cloud, and Hybrid Cloud. Public Cloud offers a cloud infrastructure to the public over the Internet and this infrastructure is owned by cloud service providers. Private Cloud refers to the cloud infrastructure being exclusively operated by an organization and it can be managed by an organization or a third party. A hybrid cloud is a combination of the functionalities of public and private clouds.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: x-large;">Cloud computing essentially offers three service models – Infrastructure-as-a-service (IAAS), Platform-as-a-service (PAAS), and Software-as-a-service (SAAS). IAAS is a cloud service model where users can access basic computing infrastructure – it is commonly used by IT administrators. IAAS will be the go-to-service model for any organization requiring resources such as storage or virtual machines. Under the IAAS service model, the onus is on organizations to manage the application, data, runtime, malware, and o/s, whereas components such as virtualization, server, storage, and networking are handled by cloud service providers. </span></p><p><span style="font-size: x-large;">Another cloud service model is Platform-as-a-service (PAAS) that provides cloud platforms in runtime environments for developing, testing, and managing applications. This service model enables users to deploy applications without the need to acquire, manage, and maintain related architecture. The PAAS service model will be the go-to-service model for any organization that needs a platform to create a software application. Under the PAAS model, you are required to handle the data and applications while cloud service providers handle the other components such as runtime, malware, o/s, virtualization, server, storage, and networking. </span></p><p><span style="font-size: x-large;">The third and most popular cloud service model is Software-as-a-service (SAAS) that offers cloud services for hosting and managing software applications. SAAS addresses all software and hardware requirements and saves you the hassle of owning IT equipment. Unlike the IAAS and PAAS services models, the SAAS service model handles all the components of the solution – data, applications, runtime, malware, o/s, virtualization, server, storage, and networking.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: x-large;">Clearly, the popularity of cloud-based solutions among organizations is immense and only indicates its significance in driving digital transformation among businesses. In fact, a recent study revealed that the global cloud computing market size is expected to grow from $371.4 billion in 2020 to $832.1 billion by 2025, at a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 17.5% during the forecast period. These projections sum up of the massive potential of cloud solutions going forward. </span></p>Suhrid Baruahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03819791229614170891noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7238052220907755160.post-59464906236908392222020-09-29T12:17:00.000-07:002020-12-03T04:21:56.459-08:00 How Organisations Can Leverage IAM Solutions to Steer Clear of Security Breaches<p><span style="font-size: x-large;">Organisations are increasingly grappling with challenges of ensuring their data and resources are secure and not exposed to security breaches such as identify theft, identity spoofing, etc through internal as well as external sources by grant of unmonitored access to applications and devices their users need. </span></p><p><span style="font-size: x-large;">Organisations are realising how a security breach of sensitive business data can have a massive negative impact and this precisely explains why organisations across the globe are substantially investing on resources to secure their company data. Broadly-speaking, companies face challenges of securing their company data against employee actions, securing company data against malware and finally the cost of implementing and maintaining robust secure measures. These security breach challenges have necessitated the need for providing organisations a safe and secure place to store identifiable information and ensure their assets are secure. And this is where digital identity and access management (IAM) comes in handy as it serves as a single pane of glass and helps easily mitigate security breach challenges.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: x-large;">It may be pointed out that in any typical IT architecture there are multiple identity data stores, multiple administrative points, multiple data synchronisations and replications, which result in data redundancies and where users have to get individually authenticated on all applications every time they access. </span></p><p><span style="font-size: x-large;">A close look at an IAM-enabled environment brings to the fore the fact that IAM has the capabilities to reduce multiple data identify stores to a single and centralised identify data source centre, which further eliminates the need for multiple data synchronisations and replications. Further, IAM also serves as a single administration point and more importantly offers a single sign-on (SSO) option to multiple applications </span></p><p><span style="font-size: x-large;">Identity and Access Management (IAM) is often misunderstood as having the same features as Privileged & Access Management (PAM). Both IAM and PAM are different. IAM takes care of business’ everyday users or customers, controlling the access and experience that those users are granted within an application, while PAM protects users with privileged access to sensitive data. There is little doubt that security threats are a big concern across organisations. A study conducted by Cybersecurity Insiders in 2018 revealed that 90 % of organisations feel exposed to internal attacks. What is more alarming is that another survey also indicated that 75 % of security incidents result from internal risks.</span></p><p><b><span style="font-size: x-large;">IAM Capabilities</span></b></p><p><span style="font-size: x-large;">• IAM offers complete identify lifecycle management like user creation, credential management, entitlement, provisioning management, compliance, auditing and reporting under one umbrella</span></p><p><span style="font-size: x-large;">• IAM facilitates access management – it ensures authentication, authorisation, single sign-on (SSO), password management are properly segregated as processes</span></p><p><span style="font-size: x-large;">• IAM enables role management wherein roles are created, fine-grained and managed</span></p><p><span style="font-size: x-large;">• IAM helps security leaders to define performance metrics as well as implement periodic or real-time automated audit to meet compliance guidelines</span></p><p><span style="font-size: x-large;">• IAM is of huge help in the area of distributed workforce, where providing remote access to corporate resources could lead to secutiy threats, if not handled well. A comprehensive and centrally managed IAM solution ensures high visibility and control needed for the distributed workforce to an enterprise IT administration team</span></p><p><span style="font-size: x-large;">• IAM can help administrators consolidate, simplify and control access privileges where critical applications are hosted in traditional data centres, private clouds, public clouds, etc</span></p><p><span style="font-size: x-large;">• IAM can consolidate and centralised corporate directories as well as streamline the synchronising process</span></p><p><span style="font-size: x-large;">• IAM enables dispensing with the manual provisioning and de-provisioning as it can fully automate the provisioning and de-provisioning process, thus providing IT full power over access rights of employees, partners, contractors, vendors and guests</span></p><p><b><span style="font-size: x-large;">IAM Benefits</span></b></p><p><span style="font-size: x-large;">• IAM helps organisations grow their business by adopting a holistic IAM strategy, wherein customers are managing their own identities and authorisation and organisations always have accurate and up-to-date customer info</span></p><p><span style="font-size: x-large;">• IAM can pave the way for an outstanding customer experience – a key element for achieving online service success – IAM can help improve customer experience, which in turn, improves loyalty and ensures repeat business and builds a positive business reputation</span></p><p><span style="font-size: x-large;">• IAM enables organisations to enhance their business agility. IAM with its single sign-on (SSO) provision and centralised authorisation management can always ensure secure access to systems without creating additional security siloes</span></p><p><span style="font-size: x-large;">• IAM can go a long way in trimming an organisation’s customer service-related costs. IAM enables customers to manage their own identities and authorisations, which eliminates the need to call customer support teams for activities such as customer registration, creating new identities, authorising and de-authorising employees, activating OTP services, resetting passwords, etc</span></p><p><span style="font-size: x-large;">• IAM also addressed the security breached caused by people inside organisations – IAM can limit damage caused by such insiders by ensuring these users only have access to system they work on and they cannot escalate privileges without supervision </span></p><p><span style="font-size: x-large;">• IAM plays its part in connecting people with application and devices - a key requirement for digital transformation but in doing so can trigger security threats. IAM can manage the complexities associated with connecting with people with various applications and devices by enforcing stringent security policies with strong authorisations. </span></p><p><span style="font-size: x-large;">It’s only fair to assume that Identity and Access Management (IAM) will have a critical role to play in organisations staying security breach-free. IAM will pave the way for organisations to not just enhance operational efficiency, but also augment their business growth. </span></p>Suhrid Baruahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03819791229614170891noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7238052220907755160.post-47375443409759376242020-09-14T04:39:00.000-07:002020-12-03T04:22:20.444-08:00Supply Chain Digitization No More An Option for Businesses<p><span style="font-size: x-large;">Supply chains serve as the backbone of the economy and play a pivotal role in the success and failure of any organization. The global supply grid is highly interconnected and any kind of disruption at one touchpoint has the potential to derail the entire supply chain and its operations.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: x-large;"><span><br />Global supply chains have always been grappling with various challenges and have </span><span>remained vulnerable to disruptions, demand-supply imbalances, and ever-evolving customer expectations. The scourge of Covid-19 has brutally exposed this fragility and</span><span> left enterprises with no option but to step into overdrive mode, and introspect their existing supply chain models.</span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-size: x-large;"><span>Clearly, there is a pressing need for </span><span>enterprises</span><span> to build an agile, robust and resilient supply chain. A resilient supply chain will enable </span><span>enterprises to weather the prevailing market challenges and thrive in the future. This brings into focus the strong need for enterprises to ride the digital transformation wave in their pursuit of staying relevant and competitive. </span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: x-large;">According to a study conducted by Gartner, only 21% of global CXOs believe that they have a resilient supply chain while 55% are still in the planning phase of building supply chain resiliency.</span></p><div><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></div><p><span style="font-size: x-large;">Enterprises need to accord high priority to risk management - they must focus on identifying risks and threats in their existing systems and put in place risk management tools and frameworks to avert any untoward situation. Further, organizations will be better served with developing a risk-awareness culture as well as a prompt and effective contingency plans. </span></p><p><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br />Enterprises would also do well to assess the risk profile of their suppliers and should chalk out adequate contingency plans for its high-risk suppliers. After all, a smart supplier management process shall stand businesses in good stead for the future.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: x-large;">Leveraging digital technologies is no more business differentiator but a business imperative for businesses to foster their future growth. Organizations can bank on advanced data analytics as the latter can provide real-time visibility into your supply chain activities. Enterprises by leveraging data analytics can anticipate future demand and can scale up or scale down their production accordingly.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: x-large;"><span>Organizations can use IoT to avail real-time shipment tracking and storage condition monitoring that </span><span>improves the forecast accuracy of shipment delivery, resulting in increased customer satisfaction, better warehouse planning and risk mitigation.</span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: x-large;"><span>Blockchain can also help business add value to their supply chains, in terms of driving </span><span>real-time load traceability, smart contracts, fraud detection, etc that can drive more trust, transparency and efficiency in the overall supply chain. Businesses can count on r</span><span>obotics and automation tools which can help streamline and accelerate tasks and processes that were once performed manually. This can significantly reduce worker fatigue, increasing efficiency and driving economic benefits.</span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: x-large;">There is an increasing focus among solution providers to build a reliable data pipeline for analysis instead of just focusing on new data gathering. These solution providers leverage analytical and statistical models to derive business insights and generate measurable benefits.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: x-large;">Businesses can make their supply chains more resilient by applying technology accelerators such as the Internet of Things (IoT), Big Data, Artificial Intelligence & Advanced Analytics, Robotic Process Automation, Distributed Ledgers, and Augmented & Virtual Reality. All these technology accelerators help organizations in attaining better demand forecasting, inventory management, capacity planning, and dispatch optimization.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: x-large;">Businesses are having to cope with ever-evolving customer expectations, the rapid pace of innovation, and cut-throat competition in pursuit of shaping up a resilient supply chain.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: x-large;">Clearly, supply chains have moved away from the long-held perception of being a back-office support function. It is no more about delivering a wow product or service but more about delivering a great customer experience that is more personalized and engaging.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: x-large;"><span>Digitizing supply chains is no more an option for organizations. It is a must-have for </span><span>organizations to stay relevant and competitive in a fiercely competitive marketplace.</span></span></p><p><br /></p>Suhrid Baruahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03819791229614170891noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7238052220907755160.post-45857699485081265092020-08-31T12:20:00.000-07:002020-12-03T04:22:36.968-08:00Potential of Different Battery Chemistries for Electric Vehicles<p><span style="font-size: x-large;"> The battery technology for electric vehicles (EVs) has substantially evolved over the decades and this evolution has been largely driven by a certain degree of deficiency in one battery technology that subsequently incentivised the development and deployment of newer battery chemistries aimed at overcoming those deficiencies. Typically, the strength of such batteries is measured on parametres such as energy density, faster charging, a large number of duty cycles and wide operating temperature range. Further, the operating environment can largely dictate which battery chemistry will gain prominence in a certain region or country.</span></p><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /><span>Lead acid was the first battery technology to be deployed in battery electric vehicles (BEVs) in the early nineties – a technology that has been consistently worked on for several years. These batteries lost out on popularity owing to deficiencies such as lower energy density and lower life. “Lead acid batteries witnessed a decline in adoption in EVs as it had issues such as low energy density to the tune of 30-50 Wh/kg coupled with a lower life cycle (in terms of charge and discharge cycles) on account of erosion of plate materials in an acidic electrolyte during change discharge cycles. Further, the higher charging time of 8-16 hours also limited their usage in EVs. More importantly, the lead acid technology has been in the market for a long time and there is limited scope for further optimisation as several threshold values have more or less been achieved,” explained Ashim Sharma, Partner & Group Head, Nomura Research Institute.</span><br /><br /><span>Around the nineties the nickel metal hydride (NiMH) battery technology also marked its arrival in the automotive space, but it was more widely deployed in hybrid vehicles. Typically, one of the critical battery requirements in a hybrid vehicle is longevity due to multiple change and discharge cycles during the course of operation, and this explains why NiMH batteries are deployed in hybrid vehicles. NiMH batteries did not quite gain market acceptance among battery electric vehicles because they have limited discharge current (0.2C-0.5C), limited lifecycle and generate heat during fast charging and discharging. These factors limited the performance of EVs, in terms of acceleration performance and fast charging capabilities that are considered crucial for battery electric vehicles.</span><br /><br /><span>Toyota has been at the forefront of deploying nickel metal hydride (NiMH) batteries in its hybrid vehicles in various models such as Prius and Camry Hybrid, etc. Vikram Gulati, Country Head & Senior Vice President, External Affairs, Public Relations, Corporate Social Responsibility & Corporate Governance, Toyota Kirloskar Motor, shared his perspective on NiMH batteries. “NiMH batteries have higher energy density and offers higher charge/discharge cycles resulting in high durability. Such batteries have no toxic content and can be efficiently recycled. Such batteries and lithium-based batteries have different advantages and are used based on criterion such as thermal management, energy density and specific application requirements,” said Gulati.</span><br /><br /><span>Over a period of time lead acid and NiMH battery technologies have had certain deficiencies that necessitated the need for a new EV battery technology. And such a scenario heralded the arrival of lithium-based batteries in the automotive space in the late nineties. Among lithium-based batteries lithium nickel manganese cobalt oxide (NMC) and lithium iron phosphate (LFP) have emerged as prominent lithium battery chemistries for EVs. The prominence of these battery chemistries can be attributed to their substantial production scale-up over other chemistries over the past decade. “NMC and LFP have gained market acceptance because their prices also dropped drastically, which triggered customer demand. These chemistries score high on the reliability front owing to its extensive use. NMC and LFP will remain fundamental battery families for EVs as their cells have witnessed significant cost reduction,” explained Nakul Kukar, Co-Founder & CEO, Cell Propulsion.</span><br /><br /><span>NMC is considered a good option for long-range EVs, especially passenger cars, sedans and SUVs. “You need to pack in more energy in each cell of your EV battery pack to effectively manage the battery pack size while delivering long vehicle range. NMC makes more sense for long-range EVs because you can pack in more energy in the same dimensions and same weight constraints,” Nakul pointed out.</span><br /><br /><span>NMC is also considered a good option for the Indian two-wheeler segment that grapples with space constraints to install the battery pack. NMC can pack in more energy using a lesser number of cells, thus resulting in small compact batteries that can fit easily in two-wheelers.</span><br /><span><br /></span><span>It is also observed that NMC works well in countries that have colder climates, but can have issues if used in hot weather conditions. This battery chemistry brings in much more complexity in hot weather conditions and can be a riskier option and will need a complex and extensive cooling system and the range benefit is not worth the effort, especially in the Indian context, noted Nakul.</span><br /><br /><span>Among other lithium-based battery chemistries, lithium iron phosphate (LFP) is touted as a good solution for the Indian three-wheeler segment, wherein cost is the most important consideration than volume or even performance. LFP works well for three-wheelers in India as it is cost-effective and more reasonably priced than other chemistries although it cannot provide a longer range. Further, if three-wheelers desire long range capability they can explore NMC but it will only augment the cost and therefore it won’t make any sense for three-wheelers.</span><br /><br /><span>LFP can work well with long-haul buses as the latter have adequate volume and mass margin for heavier battery packs and are built with lower energy density cells that can offer required range. “LFP is a desired solution for buses due to its inherent safety and lower cost even though its energy density is lower since there is enough volume in such vehicles and they can easily carry extra mass – even if you add one ton of extra weight, still the bus body and structure will be able to handle it”, opined Nakul.</span><br /><br /><span>It is pertinent to note that buses typically pack in far more number of cells than any other vehicle, which necessitates the need for a reliable thermal cooling system to protect the battery cells or else the probability of something going wrong in the battery could be many times more. It is largely owing to inherent safety attributes LFP has emerged as an attractive option for buses as compared to using a large number of NMC cells for bus battery packs. Like long-haul buses, LFP can be deployed for heavy duty trucks up to 40 tonne GVW. </span><br /><span><br /></span><span>Besides NMC and LFP, another lithium-based battery technology that is witnessing steady adoption is lithium titanate oxide (LTO). The biggest advantage of this battery technology is the very high cycle life of 10,000 plus cycles as well as extremely high temperature operating range. LTO is also not prone to thermal runaway and can support fast charging in high ambient temperatures. Besides this, LTO offers high discharge rates, which makes it ideal for high power applications. These characteristics make the battery ideal for applications such as hybrid vehicles (including PHEV), forklifts, tractors, mining and defense vehicles. However, the price of these batteries is on the higher side and the energy density is a bit lower. Efforts are being undertaken to improve the energy density and with scale prices of LTO should also come down.</span><br /><span><br /></span><span>According to Sharma, LTO can be good to use for intra-city cabs because it enables one to do fast charging and travel from point A to point B with lesser travel time. However, packing in a small battery means the battery range will not be very high but the charging time of 10-12 minutes is equivalent to a CNG refilling time, he observed.</span><br /><br /><span>Lithium nickel cobalt aluminum oxide (NCA) is another battery chemistry used in EVs but hasn’t gained much prominence. NCA shares similarities with NMC, in terms of offering high specific energy, good specific power and a long life span, but is costlier and is also regarded as a less-safer version of NMC.</span><br /><br /><span>At large, lithium-based batteries have several attributes that have enabled them to be a market mainstay but there is no denying the fact that there is a question mark over its long-term sustainability as some of the materials (lithium and cobalt) used for making such batteries are not widely available and are only confined to a few nations globally. There is a considerable amount of work happening to develop newer, viable battery technologies for EVs. One technology that appears promising and is tipped to be closer to commercialisation is solid-state batteries. This technology offers safety features more than what LFP can provide as well as provide energy density close to what NMC provides and also requires a lesser number of steps in production. “Solid state batteries are the best alternative to lithium batteries and should be commercially available over the next four-five years. In this Indian context, this technology can provide good range in hot conditions,” explained Nakul.</span><br /><br /><span>The sodium-ion battery technology is another technology that is considered a viable alternative to lithium-based batteries. This technology is similar to a lithium-ion battery, wherein only lithium compounds are replaced by sodium compounds. It may be noted that the development of sodium-ion batteries happened concurrently with lithium-ion batteries in the seventies but research on sodium-ion peaked from 2011. “The biggest plus point about this technology is that sodium is abundantly available across the globe unlike scarcely available lithium or cobalt and it can also be extracted from sea water, which thereby ensures adequate supply for all countries with a coastline, remarked Sharma.</span><br /><span><br /></span><span>Sodium-ion batteries offer several advantages such as low switching cost for manufacturers due to similarities in manufacturing processes/protocols between them and lithium-based batteries. This technology offers a lower pack cost due to use of cheaper materials (for example, aluminium is used in current collectors as opposed to copper being used in lithium-based batteries). The sodium-ion technology has the ability to ensure fast charging by leveraging a right combination of hard carbon anode and corresponding cathode to eliminate sodium plating as well as ensure easier transportation and storage as compared to lithium-based batteries, noted the senior Nomura Research Institute official. However, there are some challenges that have to be addressed before sodium-ion batteries can be ready for commercialisation – these challenges include development of an effective electrode & electrolyte material and improving the lifecycle, explained Sharma.</span><br /><br /><span>It is pretty clear that lithium-based battery chemistries will continue to hold relevance over the next decade or so. But there are reservations over long-term sustainability of lithium-based batteries owing to limited availability of lithium and cobalt as well as its vulnerability to warmer weather conditions. Various technologies such as aluminium air, zinc air, etc are in development stage, but only two technologies – solid state and sodium-ion battery technologies – appear closer to commercialisation. Of course, in an ever-evolving battery technology space, newer possibilities can never be ruled out.</span></span><br />Suhrid Baruahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03819791229614170891noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7238052220907755160.post-54977716887444785142020-08-20T03:44:00.000-07:002020-12-03T04:23:02.018-08:00How 5G Technology Can Propel Supply Chain Innovation!<p><span style="font-size: x-large;">The 5G technology has generated plenty of hype and hoopla. One wonders why the 5G has created so much buzz all around - well, it is largely because this technology is touted to be smarter, faster and more efficient than 4G. No wonder, 5G is being talked about as a potential game-changer across the global marketplace.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: x-large;">It is now without reason that 5G technology is being talking about glowingly. The technology offers differentiators such as ultra-low latency, faster data speeds, enhanced reliability, wider network capacity, increased availability, etc. 5G has the potential to offer speeds up to 100 gigabits per second and is set to be as much as 100 times faster than 4G. The fact that the technology has generated a lot of excitement among businesses and technology influencers is easy to understand.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: x-large;">This fifth-generation technology brings so much to the table for the supply chain space. 5's impressive speed as well as its capability to manage volumes of data will have a massive impact on supply chain management. In fact, if findings of a recent survey is anything to go by, 5G subscriptions are expected to hit 190 million by 2020-end and touch 2.8 billion by 2025.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: x-large;">5G is poised to drive large-scale innovation in the supply chain space and this will be spurred by embracing technologies such as the Internet of Things (IoT), robotics, and drones across the supply chain. IoT technologies can help accelerate supply chain management by identifying chips, sensors, communication devices, cloud computing networks, and data analytics engines all working together to drive better decision-making.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: x-large;">5G will help businesses bring about better end-to-end visibility across their supply chains, drive real-time data-sharing among all supply chain parties as well as enable organizations to streamline operations and scale up production. Further, 5G technology is expected to ensure substantial cost-savings as well as peace of mind for various supply chain stakeholders. Logistics companies can make the most of the 5G technology as they can label, track, and record all shipments automatically and deal with issues such as lost cargo, misplaced items, etc.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: x-large;">5G also help optimize another key area of inventory and warehouse management, wherein its high-speed network ensures a more transparent and efficient process of collection, delivery, and archiving of goods and products. The technology can also optimize critical processes as well as drive remote maintenance and control. It can be also handy in ensuring seamless fleet management operations. Owing to reduced latency 5g enables real-time vehicle status updates, collision avoidance, leveraging emergency services in the event of an emergency, etc.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: x-large;">There is no doubt about why enterprises are potty about jumping on to the 5G bandwagon. But they cannot cold-sholder the pressing need to reinvent some of their existing data infrastructure and embrace analytics solutions suited to the task ahead. This will ensure that their supply chains are better positioned to take advantage of the new opportunities.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: x-large;">Given the evolving market landscape, there is a crying need for businesses is to work closely with all their partners as one virtual organization with shared information, shared processes, and shared decision support. Businesses that adopt such a collaborative approach will stay relevant and competitive over the long-term.</span></p>Suhrid Baruahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03819791229614170891noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7238052220907755160.post-11426447773772320302018-02-28T10:34:00.000-08:002020-09-08T08:41:28.378-07:00 Will Artificial Intelligence remove the Human Factor from HR in Future Enterprises?<p><span style="font-size: x-large;">The changing market demands invariably create the ‘need’ for enterprises to look at enhancing their operational efficiencies and stay healthy on the profitability front. In a highly competitive marketplace where enterprises are looking at every possible opportunity of staying ahead of their competitors, it has become imperative for businesses to wear the ‘change jacket’ to stay competitive. </span></p><p><span style="font-size: x-large;">Given this scenario, the arrival of much-hyped artificial intelligence (AI) has set tongues wagging about its ‘deployment’ across various industries. It won’t be a far-fetched exaggeration if this machine learning technology is considered as an ‘extended helping hand’ to the existing processes of involving humans across diverse workflows. In fact, the layman’s version about artificial intelligence is that it can carry out tasks performed hitherto by humans, in terms of human intelligence such as visual perception, speech recognition, decision-making, and language translation.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: x-large;">The deployment of artificial intelligence is well and truly underway across industries, but there is a great deal of buzz about how this machine learning technology will enhance the efficiency parameters of the human resources (HR) department.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: x-large;">There is little doubt that artificial intelligence will transform the way how HR departments function across the globe. For starters, artificial intelligence can play a big role in a candidate’s application screening process. There are various AI tools that can keep the candidate engaged after he/she has applied for a position in a company. There is a growing trend nowadays of asking candidates a set of questions pertaining to that position, which helps the hiring manager to get a deeper understanding of a candidate’s credentials for any position.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: x-large;">Artificial intelligence also ensures adequate candidate engagement. Sample this – a candidate applies for a job through the company’s website or through some job portal or recruitment consultants; it is only natural for companies to take time to respond, in terms of taking the process forward. Such a situation can leave a candidate impatient and clueless about the way forward. This is where artificial intelligence can optimize candidate engagement by sending out automated email or messages that the selection process is on and avoid any unwanted communication gaps.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: x-large;">Artificial intelligence can be of big help when it comes catering to unsolicited applications – a classic case of a candidate applying for a job after the job application process is closed. In such cases, AI can facilitate reengagement of such candidates by providing them an opportunity to update their individual records, which could have gotten updated from the last time they were engaged.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: x-large;">There is also talk that the HR department does not quite adhere to the follow-up process as seriously as desired. This is evident is cases when an offer letter is rolled out to a candidate and there is a time gap of one or two months for he/she to join depending on his notice period. It is increasingly seen that many candidates don’t turn up on the day of joining, thus defeating the whole exercise of a hiring team’s screening, interviewing and selection process. AI can help to substantially prevent ‘no-shows’ by engaging the soon-to-join candidates and ensure they are motivated to turn up on the day of joining. This area of focus is crucial because candidates at times, have multiple offers at hand and care little about adhering to promises of joining a company on a particular day, as monetary gains drive most, if not all, to resort to such tactics (of not taking up a job as promised with the acceptance of the offer letter).</span></p><p><span style="font-size: x-large;">Artificial intelligence can smoothen the existing onboarding process. Normally, a candidate goes through an induction programme, where a HR personnel introduces him to the company, company’s culture, policies, and processes. AI can minimise the physical presence of HR personnel by providing new candidates with required company information.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: x-large;">Artificial intelligence can also be handy in optimising the employee relationship management process. A lot of routine queries such as leave, salary, bonus payment, etc are addressed by HR personnel and AI can address these queries via a chatroom or emails. Of course, there will be queries that will demand human interaction and in such cases AI can set up meetings between a candidate and the HR personnel.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: x-large;">Deploying artificial intelligence across the HR department won’t come cheap. AI are highly complex machines and would entail high costs. Such machine learning technologies have software programmes that need regular upgradation to meet the needs of the changing environment. To top it all, such AIs requirement lofty repair and maintenance costs. Cost is not the only factor here – in the event of any severe breakdowns, the process of recovering lost codes and reinstating the system can also be a time-consuming exercise.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: x-large;">Artificial intelligence is seen as an answer to many corporate woes but it must be pointed out that it cannot probably replicate humans. It is important to understand that AI do not carry any emotions and moral values and performed their tasks in a ‘programmed’ manner with little or no scope of making the judgment of right or wrong. AIs are incapable of taking decisive decisions when a situation warrants if a complex scenario crops up.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: xx-large;">Humans deliver better productivity with experience but the same cannot be said about AI. In fact, artificial intelligence will only witness wear and tear with time. AI cannot be expected to work passionately as care or concerns are outside its purview. They not capable of distinguishing between a diligent worker and an inept worker.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: xx-large;">It will be too much to expect original creativity from artificial intelligence as it cannot match the thinking power of the human brain and lack emotions.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: xx-large;">Of course, the big talking point of artificial intelligence is centred on whether machines will replace humans and create large-scale unemployment. It could be true to some extent that robots will carry out the jobs until now performed by humans, but it is hard to see AI replace humans in all work streams of a company.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: xx-large;">The advent of artificial intelligence is seen by companies as a mechanism to not just up their performance efficiency parameters but also trim labour costs by getting things done through machines. It is also impractical to see that AI will entirely replace human personnel and that the HR department will functional through robots. Surely, AI will make the working of the HR department more efficient than ever before, but it will be inappropriate to suggest that AI will take away the jobs of HR personnel. The HR department across industries will embrace artificial intelligence going forward, but this is not to say that human intelligence will be wiped off from the corporate landscape.</span></p>Suhrid Baruahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03819791229614170891noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7238052220907755160.post-71006122750658620732017-12-05T10:55:00.000-08:002020-09-08T08:40:50.349-07:00Steady Acceptance of ‘Blockchain Technology’<p><span style="font-size: x-large;">The emergence of the ‘blockchain technology’ is poised to transform the way people transact online. No wonder, companies are hopping on to this break-through technology, which was first introduced by an unknown programmer or group of programmers known by Satoshi Nakamoto in 2008. Blockchain can be used to facilitate peer-to-peer exchange of assets, property, contracts, etc using cryptography. It is a distributed ledger which maintains a list of records called blocks, which comprise a time stamp. This time stamp contains information about a certain transaction taking place (its date and time). This information is subsequently linked to the previous block in the blockchain. Blockchain records are visible to all members of a network and can be easily monitored. These transaction records are protected by a groundbreaking peer-to-peer cryptographic validation. It’s important to mention that data once recorded in a block cannot be altered.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: x-large;">So why is blockchain such a big thing for corporate enterprises? This technology drives transparency in transactions and also provides security to people’s money and data. It also ensures speedier and tamper-proof transactions. Blockchain enables companies to be cost-efficient as they can trim down middle man costs. A report published in CB Insights stated that around $20 billion of middle-man costs is expected to be slashed going forward thanks to this technology. The efficacy of the blockchain technology can be best understood by the fact that it is being steadily embraced by global giants. It is true that the immense potential of blockchain is largely exploited by the financial sector. According to a Deloitte University Press report, 30 of the world’s biggest banks have joined a consortium to build blockchain solutions, and Nasdaq is working on a blockchain-powered private market exchange. We know for a fact that cash transfers can take days, often lack a “received” receipt, and come with fees. This blockchain technology can remove all these shortfalls in the banking system.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: x-large;">The significance of this technology is only accentuated by Nasdaq CEO Bob Greifeld. “Blockchain technology will not only redefine how the exchange system operates but also the global financial economy as a whole.” An IBM report only reinforces this thought. The report says 15% of the global banks will use blockchain by 2017 and another 66% will adopt this technology by 2020. A joint survey conducted by Synechron and TABB Group reveals that 55% of bankers expect blockchain to have a huge impact on the financial services industry over the next ten years.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: x-large;">Other industries are steadily adopting blockchain as well. Microsoft has deployed a cloud-based blockchain-as-a-service. IBM offered blockchain-as-a-service in logistics space, tracking food products as they move from farms and factories to store shelves. The blockchain ledger can record a product’s location, temperature, etc using tags and sensors. Blockchain can secure intellectual property and creative digital products like music and images. Further, IBM and Samsung have offered a proof-of-concept built partly using Ethereum, a blockchain-base framework, to demonstrate how blockchain can support Internet of Things (IoT) applications by supporting transaction processing devices. The distributed nature of the ledger can drive coordination among multiple devices. Even the government authorities are excited about this technology – the British government is even mulling incorporating blockchain into their student loan payments.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: x-large;">Interestingly, global players are upbeat about blockchain but investments in this technology have dipped this year. According to CoinDesk’s latest quarterly research report, $376 million were raised this year, which is 17% less than the amount raised in the year-ago period. It is possible that companies are not doubting the effectiveness of this technology but are only adopting a wait-and-watch approach, probably taking their own time to see where this technology can be of help in carrying out their day-to-day transactions.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: x-large;">Although the blockchain technology will go a long way in automating peer-to-peer value transfer, it is not free from vulnerabilities. Human fraud, double spending, compromise of wallets, servers, and even the possibility of an attack against the crypto are areas the blockchain application must address.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: x-large;">There is no denying the fact that blockchain is here to stay and will transform the way companies conduct day-to-day transactions. Companies are looking at ways to remain cost-effective and improve performance efficiency, and blockchain is an ideal application to cater to their needs.</span></p>Suhrid Baruahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03819791229614170891noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7238052220907755160.post-63419790538683578582017-07-11T11:30:00.000-07:002020-09-08T08:42:01.224-07:00 How can Blockchain Revolutionize Healthcare?<p><span style="font-size: x-large;">The blockchain technology has been generating plenty of buzz across industries even before its commercial rollout. This much-hyped technology has been grabbing newspaper headlines although it is still a long way from being ready for commercial adoption. In fact, a recent study by Infosys and LTP revealed that the commercial adoption of blockchain technology is unlikely to happen at least until 2020.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: x-large;">There is also confusion in some quarters, if not everywhere about what this technology is all about? Blockchain is a decentralized ledger that records and stores every transaction across a peer-to-peer network. It stands out for data integrity, networked immutability and for being tamper-proof.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: x-large;">There is a lot of talk and activity in the industry around the disruptive nature of blockchain and its possible impact on businesses. The big question is: How can blockchain revolutionize the healthcare industry? It is perhaps too early to make an emphatic statement but one cannot overlook the new possibilities this technology will present for the healthcare industry. Blockchain-powered health IT systems can facilitate health data interoperability, data integrity and security, portable user-owned data among others. What’s more, blockchain could ensure cryptographically secure and irrevocable data exchange systems. Leveraging such a technology will ensure seamless access to historic and real-time patient data and eliminate data reconciliation costs. A classic example of blockchain technology in the healthcare space could be the recent collaboration (on a trial basis) between data-centric security company Guardtime and Estonian eHealth Foundation to secure the health records of one million Estonian citizens. But such a model is unlikely to be replicated globally given the complexities surrounding data ownership and governance structure for health data exchange between public and private entities.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: x-large;">Claims adjudication and billing management is another area where blockchain can transform the operating ways of the healthcare industry. It is estimated that around 5-10% of healthcare costs are fraudulent owing to excessive billing or billing for non-performed services. One can recall the Medicare fraud in the US that caused around $30 million in losses in 2016. Blockchain-enabled systems have the potential to automate the majority of claim adjudication and payment processing activities and minimize these medical billing-related frauds. Not just that, blockchain systems could help to root out the need for intermediaries and trim administrative costs for providers and payers.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: x-large;">Pharmaceutical companies have been incurring an estimated annual loss of $200 billion owing to sale of counterfeit drugs. Blockchain can play a significant part in ensuring drug supply chain integrity. This technology can facilitate a chain-of-custody log, tracking each step of the supply chain at the individual drug/product level. Furthermore, add-on functionalities such as private keys and smart contracts could help build proof of ownership of the drug source at any point in the supply chain and manage the contracts between different parties. Take the case of iSolve LCC that is currently working with multiple pharma/biopharma companies to implement its Advanced Digital Ledger Technology (ADLT) blockchain solutions to help manage drug supply chain integrity.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: x-large;">This technology can be leveraged to cope with unreported clinical trials that can create patient safety issues and knowledge gaps for healthcare stakeholders and health policymakers. Blockchain-enabled, time-stamped immutable records of clinical trials, protocols and results could potentially address the issues of outcome switching, data snooping and selective reporting, thereby reducing the incidence of fraud and error in clinical trial records. Blockchain-based systems could help drive unprecedented collaboration between participants and researchers around medical research innovation in fields like precision medicine and population health management.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: x-large;">Health data breaches are a huge concern in the healthcare industry. According to the Protenus Breach Barometer report, as many as 450 health data breaches occurred in 2016, affecting over 27 million patients. The blockchain technology can avoid such breaches due to hacking and ransomware.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: x-large;">Given the current growth of connected health devices, the existing Health IT infrastructure and architecture will find it highly challenging to support the evolving IoMT (Internet of Medical Things) ecosystems. It is estimated that 20-30 billion healthcare IoT connected devices will be used globally by 2020. Blockchain-enabled solutions can bridge the gaps of device data interoperability and ensure data security, privacy and reliability around IoMT use cases. Companies such as Telstra (user biometrics and smart homes), IBM (cognitive Internet of Things) and Tierion (industrial medical device preventive maintenance) are actively working around these use cases.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: x-large;">One would stop short of suggesting that blockchain will revolutionize the healthcare industry but there is no denying the fact that this technology will drive enhanced operational efficiency of healthcare players. Bring on blockchain! The healthcare industry across the globe is excited to embrace it!</span></p>Suhrid Baruahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03819791229614170891noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7238052220907755160.post-38136135404407363002017-05-17T11:24:00.000-07:002020-09-08T08:42:43.199-07:00Will Automation Turn Out to be a Serious Worry for Indian IT Industry?<p><span style="font-size: x-large;">Automation is one thing that sets tongues wagging in the Indian information and technology (IT) industry – the big question that is asked: How much deeper will ‘automation’ penetrate the country’s lucrative IT industry? Well, the $160 billion Indian IT industry has witnessed ‘effective’ implementation of automation, which has paved the way for companies to not just scale up productivity but also to remain cost-efficient. A market replete with cut-throat competition, Indian IT companies are feeling the ‘pressure’ to protect their margins and are increasingly using automation platforms to improve their profitability.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: x-large;">The so-called ‘artificial intelligence’ based platforms are changing the way IT firms manage their day-to-day affairs. Wipro became the first Indian IT services firm to launch an artificial intelligence platform – Holmes – last year. TCS launched its artificial intelligence platform – Ignio – while Infosys rolled out its artificial intelligence platform – Mano. The objective of IT firms is to achieve non-linear growth – growing revenue at a much faster pace than the number of employees. Thus increasing both revenue per employee and profitability.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-size: x-large;">The effective use of automation is seen as a ‘big disruptive threat’ to the Indian IT industry’s pyramid model, where companies generate revenue in a linear manner by adding employees. And as the current trend suggests, non-linear growth will be the main focus area of IT companies.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: x-large;">The use of automation platforms has been yielding positive results for IT companies. The industry added 200,000 employees in FY16 as compared to 230,000 in FY15. This is an ample indication that automation is beginning to replace jobs that were earlier done by humans. It also tells something about the future. The industry expects to add around 200,000 employees for FY17 – precisely the same number of employees added in FY 16.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: x-large;">According to a report released by Centrum Broking, the country’s top five IT companies have substantially reduced their hiring in 2015 by ‘aggressively walking the automation path’. The report further revealed that the combined net additions of employees of IT behemoths like TCS, Infosys, Wipro, HCL Technologies and Cognizant during the October-December period stood at 28,182, down 38 per cent from the year-ago period.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: x-large;">There is no denying the fact that automating tasks previously done by engineers has caused jitters among the Indian IT workforce. The general line of thought is that automation will kill jobs done by humans. The Indian IT industry is expected to witness a dynamic shift over the next five to seven years. If experts are to be believed, the rapid adoption of artificial intelligence platforms will create higher demand for up-skilled engineers in niche areas. Industry watchers believe the need for up-skilled engineers will result in a steady decrease in demand for entry-level or lower-level engineers for tasks such as coding, back office maintenance and applications testing.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: x-large;">According to Malcolm Frank, executive vice-president of strategy and marketing at IT bellwether Cognizant, automation is yet unlikely to derail the traditional manpower-linked model of the IT sector, whose employee base touched 3.7 million in FY16. “To say that a significant portion of the industry will be automated, I think that’s more theory than reality. I can tell you this, it’s not gonna happen in the next three years,” he had said during an interview on the sidelines of the Nasscom India Leadership Forum in Mumbai.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: x-large;">One also has to understand that automation simply does not mean ‘sacking people and rendering them out of job’. The adoption of automation not only throws an opportunity for companies to optimize talent (within the organization) but also enables them to drive more innovation and to increase revenue per employee.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: x-large;">Automation is clearly the way forward for the Indian IT industry – the IT workforce will need to diversify beyond their ‘core skills’ and add new and ‘industry relevant’ skill sets.</span></p>Suhrid Baruahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03819791229614170891noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7238052220907755160.post-20339546671870388982017-01-09T10:16:00.000-08:002020-09-08T08:43:30.819-07:00Organizations Jumping on Analytics Bandwagon to Improve Worker-Manager Relationship<p><span style="font-size: x-large;">Improving worker-manager relationship is always an ‘everyday challenge’ for corporate enterprises. It is a ‘given’ that the all-out focus of companies across the globe is to optimise productivity of employees and in facilitating the same firms are willing to walk the extra mile to bring about a certain ‘desired’ level of worker-manager relationship without any trust deficit. No wonder, corporate enterprises are fast jumping on the analytics bandwagon to skirt any worker-manager confrontations or unease as one may call it.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: x-large;">Companies see analytics tools as the way forward, as they help mitigate potential worker-manager trouble. Many firms are using an assessment tool called Predictive Index (PI) that generates a behavioural profile and provides an accurate depiction of an employee’s work preferences among others. So how does this predictive analytics works? Predictive analytics conducts a psychometric test of an employee to assess his natural behaviour. The results of such a test are assessed by trained analysts and provide an overview of an employee’s behaviour patterns along with his management and influencing skills.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: x-large;">Predictive analytics has helped bridge any gaps between workers and managers. According to a leading Indian newspaper, a senior manager of a company was feeling tremendous work stress. Nobody would have known the stress levels of this manager but the company could initiate timely corrective measures thanks to predictive analytics. Predictive Index analysis revealed that the manager was increasingly under stress after his reporting manager was recently changed.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: x-large;">Similarly, predictive analytics again came in handy at a manufacturing company, where PI analysis revealed that the morale of a team was very low. The company carried out a probe and found that the team had issues with their manager.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: x-large;">These two incidents clearly bring to the fore corrective measures initiated by companies with help of predictive analytics. Such measures, if taken at the right time, can not only help companies retain their employees but also ensure employee productivity is optimised.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: x-large;">The Predictive Strategy Group – a company that conducts such analysis for companies – summed up fittingly, terming the Predictive Index as a human blood test. “"Predictive Index is like a blood test -getting to know about a disease even before the symptoms have become visible to all," the Predictive Strategy Group’s co-founder Vinaya Bansal once famously said.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: x-large;">It is abundantly clear that Predictive Index analysis helps minimise damage in worker-manager relationships. Such analysis is not just limited to improving worker-manager relationships – it also helps companies to zero in on a right candidate as well as in offering promotion to an employee.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: x-large;">The importance of analytics tools will only increase going forward and companies are going to richly benefit from it in their pursuit of facilitating a vibrant work environment coupled with optimising productivity of employees.</span></p><div><br /></div>Suhrid Baruahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03819791229614170891noreply@blogger.com0