Avon Facility Management Services has announced a partnership with Helpr, a technology platform, that provides hassle free, on-demand household services via an app at the click of a button. The app is available on Google Play and App Store starting today. Using the Helpr app, consumers can avail cleaning services, plumbing services, electrical repairs, air conditioner maintenance, carpentry and pest control services from the convenience of their phone and at the time of the consumer’s choosing. Avon as the exclusive partner will ensure availability of well trained and most importantly background verified service personnel, something critical that is often overlooked by on-demand service providers.Helpr has launched its services in Bangalore and plans to expand to 22 cities in the next 12 months. Avon with its pan India presence and experience in facility management is well equipped to support Helpr in its journey through quick scalability.Vivek Arora, Chief Operating Officer, Avon Facility Management Services, said, “This partnership with Helpr will serve as a platform to create happy households while we continue to work with happy corporates. Avon comes with an experience of 26 years in the facility management space and we are proud of having consistently delivered quality services with the help of our well trained, diligent and trusted associates.”The app’s proprietary algorithm maps the best and top rated service provider for any selected service. Helpr also provides dedicated Android Apps to service providers to intelligently manage the communication between the customer and the service provider.“Helpr not only eases the booking process, the app also provides instant estimates, transparent pricing and easy payment options.” says Vijayramkumar Veeraraghavan, the CEO of Helpr. “Our exclusive partnership with a reputed service provider like Avon, helps in solving the problem of supply hence we are able to own the entire user lifecycle and provide the most premium experience at competitive prices.”(BW Online Bureau)
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Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), a leading global IT services, consulting and business solutions organisation, on Tuesday (15 Septemeber) announced that it has been recognised as the leading global financial technology provider in the 2015 IDC Financial Insights FinTech Rankings Top 100.TCS moved into the top position after being ranked second since 2012, and maintaining a top-ten ranking for the past eight years.K Krithivasan, President, Banking and Financial Services, TCS, said, “This is a result of our sustained investment and innovation focused on our customers’ business goals. We would like to thank our customers, who have continued to place their trust in TCS for all these years.”TCS’ banking, financial services and insurance services (BFSI) business represented 40 percent of the company’s overall FY15 revenue. The BFSI space continues to be an area of extensive growth for TCS as companies look to develop new operating models with a focus on rebuilding profitability, optimizing costs and improving efficiency. Emerging technology trends such as digital, channel, integration, big data, analytics, and social media continue to play a large part in the success of these new operating models.Jerry Silva, Research Director for global retail banking research at IDC. “Their continued presence in the top 10 on our rankings demonstrates their success and positive impact on financial services technologies globally.”TCS’ flagship product, TCS BaNCS, is a globally acclaimed software brand that enables transformation in financial services through a superior and holistic suite of solutions for banks, capital market firms, insurance companies, and other diversified financial institutions. Each solution in the TCS BaNCS family has been designed to fully integrate with existing business models, enterprise infrastructures and technology architectures. Adopted as a platform of choice by financial institutions around the world of all sizes, TCS BaNCS addresses critical industry needs and enables business transformation by providing customers with scalable, customizable, market-ready solutions.Now in its 12th year, the IDC Financial Insights FinTech Rankings is the industry standard to categorize and evaluate the top global providers of financial technology based on calendar year revenues from financial institutions for hardware, software and/or services. (BW Online Bureau)
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Tech startup Zippr announced that it has partnered with CommonFloor.com to allow quick and seamless listing of properties. With this partnership, a user having Zippr code can list a property on CommonFloor via the Zippr app in less than a minute.All user has to do is select the Zippr code and provide basic information of the property he/she would like to list.Sumit Jain, Co-Founder & CEO, CommonFloor said, “The integration of Zippr with CommonFloor will provide customers a much faster and easier means to list properties. Our aim is to map every property in the country on our portal and such partnerships help us to offer customers to view wide variety of properties on our platform, and take an informed decision before buying or renting.”Zippr code is equivalent to house number and anyone with this code will see an option to quick-list their properties for rent or sale on the Zippr mobile app. With Zippr code, users will be able to list their properties on CommonFloor platform in lesser time, as all the details related to their property will already be available with Zippr. The move will accelerate CommonFloor listing process which already has 5 lakh active property listings from over 200 cities and has over 1 lakh residential projects listed with it.Aditya Vuchi, Founder & CEO, Zippr said “This service will augment many other services that we now offer within our mobile app. This is in addition to the rapid efforts to integrate with different municipalities and smart cities across India to replace the archaic house number with a smarter, shorter Zippr code.”(BW Online Bureau)
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Haider Ali KhanMicromax, India’s leading handset manufacturer, introduced two new smartphones in its Canvas Juice series, Canvas Juice 3 and Canvas Juice 3+ with 4000 mAh batteries to meet the ever increasing needs of the consumers on the go. Commenting on the launch, Vineet Taneja, CEO, Micromax said, “At Micromax, we have been committed to address smartphone user biggest need of long lasting batteries. With the introduction of two new smartphones in our Canvas Juice series, we aim to create a perfect value proposition enabling our highly mobile consumers to make the most of these heavy duty marathon batteries for work and entertainment requirements”. The smartphones are 1.3GHz quad core processor and a 2GB DDR3 RAM enabling seamless multi-tasking. Running on Android Lollipop 5.1 and Lollipop 5.0 respectively, the Canvas Juice 3 and Juice 3+ also offers 8GB ROM and 16GB ROM respectively and 4.79 GB internal memory which can be expanded up to 32GB. The Micromax Canvas Juice 3 has a 5-inch HD IPS display with Corning Gorilla Glass 3 protection and offers talk time of 14 hours and standby time 514 hours. Canvas Juice 3 comes with a pair of 96 dB speakers which deliver 3 times louder and improved sound quality than the Canvas Juice 2. The Micromax Canvas Juice 3+ comes with 5.5-inch HD IPS display which is also protected by Corning Gorilla Glass 3 shield ensuring fast response, superior graphic performance, scratch resistant and durable display. The Juice 3+ offers talk time of 12 hours in 2G, 8 hours in 3G and 500 hours standby time. The Canvas Juice 3 is priced affordably at Rs 8,999 and is available across online and offline stores while the Canvas Juice 3+ will be available by September end.
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Motorola just announced the Moto X Play today in India but the company did not reveal the larger version, the Moto X Style. Amit Boni, GM, Motorola India, did however confirm that the big brother of the Moto X Play will be announced probably by next month. Until then we have the Moto X Play, a handsome looking smartphone packing a huge 3,630mAh battery, a waterproof body, changeable back panels and a promising hardware.But how does the new Moto X Play stand up against the last year’s Moto X 2nd gen or for that matter the new Moto G 3rd gen? Comparing the new smartphone to its predecessor, the Moto X Play has a new design, but keeps some of Motorola’s design elements intact like the metal strips on the front that contain the speakers and the Motorola logo dimple at the back. Speaking of which, the back has been redesigned and has a removable rubber-textured back panel and a metal strip, both of which were also seen on the Moto G 3rd-gen. This metal strip also houses a new 21MP camera which is a significant update from last year’s Moto X, although it isn’t the best in class as Motorola still needs to improve their camera software. Since Motorola has made two versions of the Moto X this year, the Moto X Play has been placed as the more affordable version and justifies its price point. For the ones who want a more premium package, something that the last year’s Moto X offered, they can probably wait for the Moto X Style.The handset is targeted more towards consumers who want a slightly better experience than the Moto G without having to shell out a whole lot extra. Compared to the latest Moto G it is larger and has a 5.5-inch full HD display, a faster Snapdragon 615 octa-core processor, the better camera and of course that large 3,630mAh battery which is probably the biggest attraction of the Moto X Play.Here is a quick comparison of the smartphones on paper... Moto X PlayMoto G 3rd genMoto X 2nd gen Launch PriceRs. 18,499 (16GB) / Rs. 19,999Rs. 11,499 (8GB) / Rs. 12,999Rs. 31,999 (16GB) / Rs. 32,999 (32GB)Display5.5-inch 1080p FHD5-inch 720p HD5.2-inch 1080p FHDProcessorSnapdragon 615, 1.7GHz octa-coreSnapdragon 410, 1.4GHz quad-coreSnapdragon 801, 2.5GHz quad-coreRAM2GB1GB/2GB2GBStorage16GB/32GB expandable to 128GB8GB/16GB expandable to 32GB16GB/32GB Camera21MP rear, 5MP front13MP rear, 5MP front13MP rear, 2MP frontBattery3,630mAh2,470mAh2,300mAh
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Taxi aggregator app Ola will invest Rs 5,000 crore in the coming year to expand its newly formed cab leasing business. The Bengaluru-based firm has also roped in former LeasePlan India executive Rahul Maroli as Vice President (Strategic Supply Initiatives) to head the leasing business that will operate as a fully-owned subsidiary company. Details of the subsidiary were not disclosed. Under the programme, drivers can lease a car for a minimal initial deposit of Rs 35,000 and monthly lease payments (of about Rs 15,000) with an option to own the vehicle after a period of three years. "This will open up opportunity for hundreds of thousands of drivers to turn entrepreneurs in the long run while giving them instant access to a stable income," Ola said in a statement. It added that the programme has a dedicated capital of over Rs 5,000 crore that will be infused for scaling up the leasing programme in the coming year. "Up to Rs 5,000 crore of capital will be infused towards this programme in the coming year. Ola will be investing Rs 500 crore to begin with, and will raise funds independently for this subsidiary in the time to come," it said. Over 1,000 vehicles in Bengaluru, Chennai, Hyderabad and three other cities are already on road as part of the pilot, it said. "For the pilot, a majority of vehicles were sourced from Maruti Suzuki India. Ola is in advance talks with car manufacturers and financial institutions to enable this model for over a 100,000 driver partners by the end of 2016," it added. By December 2015, at least 10,000 cars are expected to be on-road under the leasing model, Ola said. "We believe that this first-of-its-kind leasing programme brings a unique benefit to driver partners to turn entrepreneurs. Rahul's rich experience shall help us scale this business rapidly and in making this programme an industry benchmark," Ola co-founder and CEO Bhavish Aggarwal said.
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Mobile advertising platform InMobi, on Monday (14 September) announced that it will further strengthen its partnership with by developing and customizing Dell hardware and software specific to the requirements of InMobi.This engineering partnership for a technology collaboration between InMobi and Dell will help expand the global alliance to improve enterprise efficiency. As part of the partnership, Dell will offer InMobi select Dell products for beta testing and customization.Alok Ohrie, President and Managing Director, Dell India said, “This relationship will provide InMobi with access to tailor-made solutions to help them engage global customers and drive better decision making. We look forward to a long-term relationship that will leverage the strengths and learnings of both organizations to provide improved enterprise efficiency and enhanced business value.”Through this agreement, InMobi will gain exclusive rights to select Dell products made available for beta testing and customization through the InMobi—Dell datacentre scalable solutions. Dell will leverage the partnership to draw insights into the customer needs of server, networking and storage for high computing needs and big data requirements. These insights are expected to become key inputs to design the Dell product roadmap and help build deeper level technology solutions for next-generation devices.The partnership will be an ongoing engagement to run InMobi’s enterprise IT with Dell’s server, storage, and networking solutions. There will be scope to further broaden this engagement in areas such as analytics, cloud infrastructure, security etc., where the entire Dell portfolio can be applicable to InMobi.(BW Online Bureau)
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Mobile technology brand Nimbuzz, a New Call Telecom Group Company, on Monday (14 September) has launched all new version of announced that it has adopted refreshed branding and a new look to better reflect its consumers’ needs and its own ambitions for growth.Vikas Saxena, CEO, Nimbuzz India said, “Our refreshed branding goes much deeper than just a makeover. It combines our consumer centric mindset with our commitment to technical excellence and innovation. Nimbuzz, a pioneer of mobile communication, evolves once more.”The list of Chats, Contacts & chatrooms now sport a trendy circular avatar with cleanly laid out items, which are really pleasant to look at & interact with. The new navigation tab buttons are fast, sleek and intuitive with a swipe action to move between tabs.In new Nimbuzz, each screen now has a cool blue floating button which makes the most commonly used functions available on a single tapNigel Eastwood, Group CEO, New Call Telecom, said, “I believe that the rebranding coupled with a refreshed business strategy will help in strengthening the relationship between Nimbuzz and its customers. This new brand reflects our enthusiasm and focus on connecting our customers' information silos and automating their processes.”(BW Online Bureau)
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