Issuu

November2019

Most Valuable

Digital

Transformation Companies in

2019 Chalk-talk Network Security Threats and Solution

EDITOR’S NOTE Live the Future with Digital Transformation Companies

igital transformation is the integration of digital technology into all parts of the businesses that results in basic changes to how businesses function and how they deliver value to consumers. Above that, it’s a cultural shift that requires companies to continually challenge the status quo, experiment more often. In some cases, this mean that sometimes walking away from longstanding business processes that companies were initially built upon is in favor of relatively newer practices. Digital transformation includes a change in leadership, innovative thinking, new business models, incorporating digitization of assets and an increased use of technology to improve the overall experience of one’s organizations’ employees, suppliers, customers, stakeholders, and partners. Digital transformation expands beyond just businesses to society at large. Digital transformation represents the changes in relation to application of digital technology in literally every aspects of human society. In this digital era of Big Data, IoT, and AI, the market is rapidly expanding as companies across multiple verticals have recognized the need for connectivity and the potential transformation that can be enabled through connectivity. Greater business efﬁciency and smarter processes are obvious results of Digital Transformation like Automation and AI. End-users demand access to their data, business

Most Valuable

Digital Transformation Companies in

2019

applications, productivity applications, and collaboration applications in a secured manner. So, there arrives the need of a simpler way in order to address some of the key barriers in adopting digital transformation. One of the barriers in businesses’ is the ‘inability to experiment quickly’. Business Leaders now needs to ensure that the IT department must be connected with all other aspects of the business. Digital transformation doesn’t mean that just by updating technology and processes; it also includes revenue and shareholders. Many companies are not conﬁdent enough to invest in digital transformation because they are not sure whether investment will pay off or not. However, when implemented strategically and calculatively, digital transformation has the potential to improve stock prices and revenue in the future. Investing in digital transformation has the ability to make a large ﬁnancial impact over time. Businesses that are unable to keep up with these ever-advancing digital capabilities are getting left behind by their competitors. So, with the intent of recognizing companies who are working round the clock to bring digital transformation for better good, CIO Look has shortlisted some exceptional organizations in it’s special edition, Most Valuable Digital Transformation Companies in 2019. Also, make sure to go through the articles, written by our in-house editorial team as well as CXO standpoints of notable industry personalities to have brief insights of the sector. Enjoy the read..

Sourabh More

CONTENTS 10 Expertâ€™s View Coricraft Transforms Customer Delight and Delivery with Trackmatic Solution

32 Glimpse of Future Thoughts on AI

Articles

20 Chalk-talk Network SecurityThreats and Solution

AntWorksTM 36

A Global Leader in Intelligent Automation and AI

AOPEN Solutions Disrupting the Digital Landscape through Cross-platform Business Solutions

PubNub 40

Living the Future with Connected Experience Infrastructure

Tech Mahindra 28

Globally Riding the Technological Waves

Ynvisible A Global Leader in Electrochromic Displays

K. Roy Editor-in-Chief

CONTENT

Senior Editor Alan Swann Managing Editor Sourabh More Executive Editors Bhushan Ghate

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Senior Sales Manager Kshitij S. Customer Success Manager Jack Ryan Sales Executives John, Kane, Irfan, Jagdish TECHNICAL

Technical Head Aditya K. Technical Consultant Victor Collins

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November, 2019

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Coricraft Transforms Customer Delight and Delivery with Trackmatic Solution

We needed to refine our delivery element which is one of the most difficult things for a business to do successfully and profitably.”

oricraft, South Africa’s premium quality home furniture and furnishing design and manufacturing company, contracted with Trackmatic to help tackle the challenges it was facing around ﬂeet visibility and customer satisfaction. The company wanted to reignite the magic of the last mile, transforming how customers perceived their performance and delivery efﬁciency. Today, Coricraft has reduced its delivery window to less than two hours, reduced customer complaints to a record low, increased delivery drops per route, and has transformed the customer experience, all while cutting costs.

Prior to its implementation of the Trackmatic DriverLed Visibility® solution, Coricraft was experienced roughly 45 Hello Peter complaints a month. The complaints were all centered around one speciﬁc issue – customer service on delivery. The delivery window sat at a lengthy three hours and customers were left uncertain as to when their furniture would arrive, what service they would receive on delivery, and timing around the re-delivery of any incorrect or damaged items. In addition, it was impossible to proactively respond to failures in the ﬁeld in real time.

Last mile logistics is becoming increasingly difficult to perfect and is evolving at a rapid rate due to the growth of e-commerce. There is a growing need to get goods to customers faster and more cost effectively. Customers are willing to pay a premium for faster delivery fulfillment and companies like Amazon are raising the bar and raising customer delivery expectations. According to McKinsey, last mile logistics have been identified as the cornerstone to driving growth and profitability, and companies like Coricraft are under increasing pressure to create logistic strategies that align business and customer expectations.

“When we started working with Coricraft the first challenge was to address the visibility of their fleet,” says David Slotow, CEO, Trackmatic. “They needed a tool that would allow them to communicate more clearly with their customer service team by developing richer engagement with their operations team and their drivers.” For Coricraft, it was essential that delivery fulfillment be transformed in such a way as to revolutionize customer experiences. In addition, the company also faced challenges around address capturing. Customers often provided incorrect location details or left out critical delivery information. Coricraft needed technology that helped their drivers get to the right place at the right time. The solution had to ensure that when they delivered, the destination was locationperfect to meet faster, tighter delivery windows.

Last mile logistics are troublesome, especially in South Africa. There are challenges around infrastructure, addressing accuracy and security that impact on delivery timing, fuel costs and efﬁciency. This is further compounded by the complexity of delivering irregular size furniture items that requires skilled unpacking and assembly upon delivery. For Coricraft, these issues were affecting its customer relationships and brand reputation.

“We could not tell customers accurately when their deliveries would take place, especially as we didn’t have an accurate measurement to easily determine the time it would take between customer deliveries,” says William Webb, Operations Executive, Coricraft. “We needed to ﬁnd a way to manage the drivers to ensure that they adhered to the scheduled routes, stock on the

“In our industry, the journey doesn’t start and end in the store,” says Craig Schneeberger, Chief Operating Ofﬁcer of Coricraft. “The real magic is in the last mile when we deliver to your home. Purchasing furniture is a very emotive thing and, with us, you pay money and leave empty handed.

| November 2019 |

Expertâ€™s View

| November 2019 |

truck was secure and the customer experience was pleasurable.”

Validation Tool (AVT). This allowed for a dedicated Data Integrity Team at Trackmatic to process the addresses and resolve them into GPS coordinates in real time. Any conﬂicts of address would be ﬁltered through Google Maps and manually checked by a dedicated Data Integrity Agent who could shift the pin to a more accurate or relevant location, when required.

Any failures on route resulted in delays further down the line. If a customer wasn’t home or if the driver took longer than planned to ﬁnd an address, the waiting times then had a knock-on effect until the last customer had waited for far longer than anticipated and the driver kicks into overtime. This often resulted in failed deliveries or high overtime expenditure for teams returning late.

“A great example of where this level of manual control excels is in gated estates,” explains Slotow. “The delivery entrance could be different from the visitor’s entrance and the vehicle has to then navigate back routes to get to the home. That level of discretion doesn’t come from GPS, it comes from human engagement, intellect and experience. We built an entire Address Validation Tool (AVT) for Coricraft and delivered a highly targeted and elegant solution without any delay in the delivery timeline.”

“Those challenges of wasted kilometers and frustrated clients were endemic, further impacted by unknown addresses, failed deliveries and drivers wasting time and fuel driving up and down a road looking for the right place,” says Slotow. “For a company as aspirational and professional as Coricraft, these delays and challenges were impacting on the way customers perceived their service and professionalism.”

The AVT solution is cloud-based and fully integrated, taking the address from point of sale to the front door. It provides an incredibly high level of accuracy and has transformed delivery operations. It has also changed the way the drivers engage with technology.

Coricraft wanted a white-glove delivery process that was as slick as its in-store experience. It needed the same efﬁciencies at the point of fulﬁllment as it had at point of sale. To start, Trackmatic integrated the Coricraft point of sale system into their Address

“Getting drivers to take their mobile device into the vehicle and navigate with trust and confidence was a major achievement,” says Slotow. “When the shift happened, it was magic. They felt empowered as they could now resolve issues independently without impacting on operations when there were delays on the customer side. The integrated voice solution allows them to contact customers and let them know they are outside or their estimated time of arrival. Trackmatic’s solution also stores all recordings in the cloud to use in the driver debrief process and in case of any issues. This process of continuous learning and improvement has had a significant and positive impact on results.” Trackmatic believes in empowering the drivers, providing them with the tools they need to deal with frustrated customers in real time. Using this level of engagement with the customer has meant that drivers can relay issues around damaged items or poorly filled orders and give the customer insight into when these issues will be resolved. This availability of information has seen a significant reduction in customer complaints

| November 2019 |

About

as most understand that there can be delays, but want these delays communicated clearly and on time.

Coricraft

For more than 20 years, Coricraft has been the easy choice for exceptional value on top-quality furniture. From just one store in Cape Town, we have grown to a chain of almost 50 stores in South Africa, Namibia and Botswana.

Creating a platform for real-time engagement and communication has enhanced Coricraft’s relationship with its customers as customers trust that they will be kept informed of the progress of their delivery. “Coricraft hasn’t done anything differently to achieve this goal, they haven’t changed their manufacturing process or their product range,” adds Slotow. “All it took was them knowing that a customer was unhappy and having a strategy in place to deal with them. This could be as simple as sending out a manager to look at the product or ensuring that any missing items were delivered straight away. This level of customer engagement has made an instant, massive difference.”

We have factories in Cape Town and Johannesburg, where we manufacture all our couches ourselves. Beyond this large manufacturing presence lies a sophisticated retail infrastructure, with Coricraft stores across all South Africa’s major towns and cities. For customers, this means there is always a Coricraft nearby.

Coricraft can better plan and fine-tune deliveries, optimize operations and redefine customer engagement. Each challenge around visibility, communication, control and timing has been addressed using Trackmatic’s innovative and disruptive technology solutions. “The results speak for themselves,” adds Slotow. “Customers have left positive feedback around the professionalism of the delivery service and Coricraft has grown their deliveries without having to expand on their fleet or their teams. They have created capacity to scale without increasing costs or infrastructure and, as benefits go, that’s one that hits the bottom line.”

chance, it takes the right client that is willing to collaborate, experiment and trust us with their business.” Trackmatic is currently working with Coricraft to expand its solution which includes the Trackmatic Insight analytic dashboards that will give Coricraft the means to measure key performance metrics and provide even more meaningful data for richer last mile and customer delight deliverables.

The company has seen delivery accuracies increase by 27%, the leave on time by 33%, (while shifting the start time by an hour earlier) return on time by 36% and overtime bills reduced by 15%. In addition, the time to delivery has been reduced from three hours to 32 minutes and there has been an 80% increase in customer service. Even more stats point to signiﬁcant increases in route efﬁciency (86%), turnaround adherence time (94%) and a rise from 34 to 43 trucks a day leaving the depots nationally each day.

Schneeberger concludes: “Trackmatic has given us visibility into driver behavior so we can ensure we are as efﬁcient as we can be in terms of delivering our furniture. Because we have this level of visibility, we can give our customers visibility, and this allows us to proactively engage with them and exceed their expectations.”

“We are proud of the work that has been achieved at Coricraft,” says Slotow. “Success does not happen by

| November 2019 |

Asheesh Mehra Co-founder & Group CEO

chieving truly “cognitive” and “intelligent” process automation is a critical milestone on the roadmap to straight-throughprocessing. To consider a process automated end-to-end (without human touchpoints) some genuine thinking and learning must take place inside the solution. But what exactly do we mean by the word intelligence? And how can users compare the “thinking/learning ability” or “IQ” of one platform over another? Luckily a solution does exist – AntWorksTM – a global, AI & intelligent automation company; creating new possibilities with data through digitization, automation, and enterprise intelligence. Led by Co-founders: Asheesh Mehra, Group Chief Executive Officer, and Govind Sandhu, Chief Operating Officer, and also by Dr. Venkat, Chief Technology Officer; who together continue to shape the company and set the course for the future.

| November 2019 |

AntWorksTM

A Global Leader in Intelligent Automation and AI Below is his story, Asheesh Merah and Govind Sandhu both founded AntWorks. Its proprietary platform - ANTsteinTM SQUARE is a full-stack solution that enables non-technical business users to automate end-to-end business processes quickly, easily and in a scalable manner. The industry’s first Integrated Automation Platform (IAP), powered by Fractal Science, ANTstein SQUARE is a multitenancy solution that allows for maximum bot utilization, understands all types of data, and provides customers with a one-stop solution for data curation and building, deploying and managing an AI-enabled smart digital workforce. Both gentlemen, together with CTO, Doc Venkatanathan Dwarakanathan, revolutionized the industry, bringing a new perspective on how business processes should be looked in as end-to-end and not as a single business process. ANTstein™ is the first and only enterprise Intelligent Automation Platform powered by fractal science principles and pattern recognition. AI and Automation could be a $ 5tn industry by 2025, but it can only be as good as the data it runs on. Today many organizations are not using AI and automation to realize its full potential. Most are using Robotic Process Automation (RPA) systems to analyze structured data in the form of standardized code or text or categorized fixed field text – data that generally isn’t difficult to analyze or process, but only makes up a small percentage of overall business data. They are unable to process crucial unstructured data, which includes anything from images, web pages, legal documents, and medical records to mobile content. ANTstein works with data from the beginning to the end. That means that it starts with the pre-processing phase, which auto inspects the data, moves on to identifying and classifying the data, digitises it, makes sure it’s all accurate, analyses it and then provides data enrichment, by doing the following: Ÿ

Document Pre-Processing: This feature auto inspects, detects, and enhances the quality of any image document. The inspector analyses and separates the images with defects and applies several techniques to increase the quality of an image. The defects include noise, slanting/misalignment, inverted images, text and pages, blurred text. Document Identification and Classifier: Identifies and classifies documents in different categories, removing the need for sorting

| November 2019 |

and prepping data. It also includes the ability to train the system to learn new patterns, variations, and document types

Digitization in the following ways:

Document type: Structured and Unstructured Documents Input Data Formats: PDF; TIFF; JPEG; PNG Data Type: Printed, Handwritten, Checkboxes, Signatures, Stamps Languages: English, all Latinscript based, Japanese and Thai

Ÿ Ÿ Ÿ

Data Certainty: Provides guaranteed confidence metrics for accuracy of data captured. It provides confidence metrics and colour codes for all extracted data, enabling the user to identify: Green: data is correct Red: data is not found and/or available Amber: seems correct but not 100% certain Data Contextualization and Sentiment Analysis: Captures content available in running text, which may or may not have labels, pivot points to infer context. The technique of inference is used to capture the decision points in binary classifications. Examples are Marital Status: Married / Unmarried, Employed / Unemployed, Male / Female, Pass / Fail Data Enrichment: Enables users to create business process rules and add logic to reconcile, validate, or enrich the data. It can apply rules within the available data set, look up external data sets for validation or enrichment, and then apply rules to the enriched data set. Maths Rule: arithmetic operations on amount and integer field types Special Rule: Special rule can be

applied only if-then conditions are satisfied or formatting rules for specific text patterns Concatenate Rule: Join two different fields together and have it in one field

“ANTstein SQUARE automates the entire business process – not just discrete tasks. The focus at AntWorks has always been to deliver straightthrough processing for clients, which then can deliver real and accountable business cases. That’s unlike what Gen 1 RPA promised,” said Asheesh Mehra, AntWorks Group CEO, and co-founder. “Our recognition as a Leader in IDP is a testament of our vision, strategy, and market success with enterprise Integrated Automation Platform (IAP), ANTstein™ with our proprietary industry-leading computer vision product - Cognitive Machine Reading (CMR). CMR provides superior results on data with small variances like business processes enabling higher straight-through processing results,” said Asheesh Mehra, Co-founder & Group CEO, AntWorks. AntWorks fundamentally believes that for a truly successful team environment, it must all treat its co-workers with care, empathy, compassion, and respect that the company would give to its own family, and it invests a lot of time and energy into ensuring that it practices what we preach. In the colony, the company follows a ‘People First’ culture — one that actively encourages every bright mind to explore new possibilities and ideas, free from the constraints of traditional corporate bureaucracy, and supported by ﬁrst-rate training and learning. By offering a safe and professional work ecosystem, the company promotes integrity and strong work ethics. In a short span of time, AntWorks has already made a global impact in the AI and RPA space as it is consistently benchmarked against competitors who have been in the

automation space far longer than the company. This reﬂects the company’s appetite for growth as it has managed to expand globally and has already opened new ofﬁces in USA, UK, Singapore, Bangalore, Chennai, Mumbai, Pune, Philippines, Dubai, Australia and Canada in the last 12 months. What’s more, there are already on-going plans to increase its presence in France, Germany, Sweden, among others in the next year. Since the company was founded in 2015, it has expanded exponentially in global headcount from 58 to 467 employees today. And this number continues to grow. This is a testament to the company’s ambitions to fast forward its plans to revolutionize the RPA and automation industry. As a testament to the company’s capability, HfS Research’s 2017 RPA Blueprint stated; “The combination of computer vision and pattern recognition allows AntWorks to provide one solution where many service providers have painstakingly integrated different toolsets.” It is envisioned to be the most admired, respected, and loved organization on planet Earth, guided by its philosophy of Fresh, Fearless & Fast. And, missioned To manifest the power of ethical AI while delivering the greatest value to its customers and its people. Testimonials- Rick Koo, the leader of digital works at Mercer, said, “AntWorks’ full-stack integrated automation platform is a compelling technology solution. While evaluating vendors for our digital transformation project, we were impressed with AntWorks’ capability and vision. They are great partners and are willing to go beyond in terms of commitment and effort and display total collaboration and transparency. We appreciate their strength and focus in using a businessled approach, instead of a technologyled approach, to problem-solving.”

| November 2019 |

â€œ

We do this with data curation, not data digitization and with Digital workforce management.

â€œ

| November 2019 |

NETWORK SECURITY Threats

Solutions

ovember 3, 1988, is considered as a turning point in the world of Internet. 25 Years ago a Cornell University graduate student created ﬁrst computer worm on the Internet, “Morris Worm.” The Morris worm was not a destructive worm, but it permanently changed the culture of the Internet. Before Morris unleashed his worm, the Internet was like a small town where people thought little of leaving their doors unlocked. Internet security was seen as a mostly theoretical problem, and software vendors treated security ﬂaws as a low priority.

Let’s Take a Look at Recurrent Security Threats Types-

Today, there is a paradigm shift, Morris worm was motivated more by intellectual curiosity than malice, but it is not the case today. According to a 2015 Report, 71% of represented organizations experienced, at least, one successful cyber attack in the preceding 12 months (up from 62% the year prior).

Brute Force Attacks

Denial of Service Attacks A denial of service (DoS) attack is an incident in which a user or organization is deprived of the services of a resource they would normally expect to have. These attacks are very common, accounting for more than one-third of all network attacks reviewed in the report. A standard approach is to overload the resource with illegitimate requests for service.

Brute force attack tries to kick down the front door. It’s a trial-and-error attempt to guess a system’s password. The Brute Force Attack password cracker software simply uses all possible combinations to ﬁgure out passwords for a computer or a network server. It is simple and does not employ any inventive techniques.

According to survey report, discloses that, among 5500 companies in 26 countries around the world, 90% of businesses admitted a security incident. Additionally, 46% of the ﬁrms lost sensitive data due to an internal or external security threat. On average enterprises pay US$551,000 to recover from a security breach. Small and Medium business spend 38K.

Identity Spooﬁng IP spooﬁng, also known as IP address forgery. The hijacker obtains the IP address of a legitimate host and alters packet headers so that the regular host appears to be the source. An attacker might also use special programs to construct IP packets that seem to originate from valid addresses inside the corporate intranet.

Incidents involving the security failure of a third-party contractor, fraud by employees, cyber espionage, and network intrusion appear to be the most damaging for large enterprises, with average total losses signiﬁcantly above other types of the security incident.

Browser Attacks Browser-based attacks target end users who are browsing

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Chalk-talk

the internet which in turn can spread in the whole enterprise network. The attacks may encourage them to unwittingly download malware disguised as a fake software update or application. Malicious and compromised websites can also force malware onto visitors’ systems.

crime. Following are the methods used by security specialists to full proof enterprise network systemPenetration Testing Penetration testing is a form of hacking which network security professionals use as a tool to test a network for any vulnerabilities. During penetration testing IT professionals use the same methods that hackers use to exploit a network to identify network security breaches.

SSL/TLS Attacks Transport layer security (TLS) ensures the integrity of data transmitted between two parties (server and client) and also provides strong authentication for both sides. SSL/TLS attacks aim to intercept data that is sent over an encrypted connection. A successful attack enables access to the unencrypted information. Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) attacks were more widespread in late 2014, but they remain prominent today, accounting for 6% of all network attacks analyzed.

Intrusion Detection Intrusion detection systems are capable of identifying suspicious activities or acts of unauthorized access over an enterprise network. The examination includes a malware scan, review of general network activity, system vulnerability check, illegal program check, ﬁle settings monitoring, and any other activities that are out of the ordinary.

Network Security is an essential element in any organization’s network infrastructure. Companies are boosting their investments in proactive control and threat intelligence services, along with better wireless security, next-generation ﬁrewalls and increasingly advanced malware detection. The U.S. Federal Government has spent $100 billion on cyber security over the past decade, $14 billion budgeted for 2016.

Network Access Control Network Access Controls are delivered using different methods to control network access by the end user. NACs offer a defined security policy which is supported by a network access server that provides the necessary access authentication and authorization.

Increased use of technology helps enterprises to maintain the competitive edge, most businesses are required to employ IT security personnel full-time to ensure networks are shielded from the rapidly growing industry of cyber

Network Security is a race against threats, and many organizations are a part of this race to help enterprises to

| November 2019 |

secure their network systems. Organizations like IBM, Symantec, Microsoft have created solutions to counter the global problem of network security threat. These cutting-edge products show genuine promise and are already being used by enlightened companies. Good Network Security Solutions Traits A real security solution should have four major characteristics; Detect Threats Targeted attacks are multi-faceted and specially designed to evade many point technologies attempting to identify and block them. Once they are inside, the only way to find these cyber threats is to understand the behavior of the individual attack components and use analytics to understand their relationships. Respond Continuously Today it is not important that an organization will be attacked, but important and more crucial is to identify when and how much they can limit the impact and contain their exposure. This means having the capability to respond quickly once the initial incident has been discovered. Prevent Attacks Malware is gettings quick-witted day by day. They utilize heuristics to change their code dynamically. A capable solution should have an adaptive architecture that evolves with the changing environment, and threats today’s business faces. Integration Today’s threats have multiple facets, and a single software or solution is not sufficient. Protection system should have the capability to integrate with other security tools from different vendors to work together as a single protection system, acting as connective tissue for today’s disjointed cyber security infrastructure. Solutions in Market Like infectious diseases, cyber threats will never be eradicated entirely, but they can be better contained and understood, and their effects minimized. How can this be achieved? IBM has built an enterprise-level “immune system,” an adaptive security architecture to battle today’s cyber pathogens. IBM has developed a vast fleet of products, QRadar, X-Force Threat Intelligence, Trusteer Pinpoint Malware Detection, IBM Threat Protection System a dynamic, integrated system to meddle the lifecycle of advanced attacks and prevent loss. The IBM Threat Protection System integrates with 450 security tools from over 100 vendors acting as connective tissue for today’s disjointed cyber security infrastructure. Symantec is another major player in catering enterprise network security systems with Symantec Advanced Threat Protection. Symantec ATP operates via a single console and works across endpoints, networks, and emails, integrating with Symantec Endpoint Protection (SEP), and Symantec Email Security cloud, which means organizations do not need to deploy any new endpoint agents. Symantec says, ATP is the only threat protection appliance that can work with all three sensors without requiring additional endpoint agents. With ATP, Symantec’s goal is to deliver end-to-end threat protection, prevention, detection, and response in a single pane of glass, offering more value to businesses than individual point products can provide. Symantec Advanced Threat Protection combines multiple layers of prevention, detection, and response.

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Stephen Borg CEO AOPEN Solutions

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AOPEN Solutions

Disrupting the Digital Landscape through Cross-platform Business Solutions

he Internet of Things (IoT) market is growing, with the number of connected devices worldwide expected to grow to 64 billion by 2025 (CAGR of 21%). Despite such escalating market demand, the IoT space is marred by proprietary single-point solutions that do not consider ﬂexibility across multiple use cases or opportunities for customers & partners. There needed to be a simpler way to address some of the key barriers in adopting digital transformation or applied IoT. AOPEN Solutions’ vision is to be an enabler of growth for companies and organizations looking to embrace applied IoT and digital transformation. Its group comprises of two entities: AOPEN (devices) and meldCX (software platform), providing bundled end-to-end solutions for individuals and organizations looking for digital transformation. Positioned uniquely and strategically under ACER Group, the company has access to a multitude of

technology heavyweights companies such as Acer ($9 Billion market cap) & Wistron Group ($28.5 Billion Market Cap), giving itself the ability to grow and scale quickly. Below are the highlights of the interview conducted between CIO Look and Stephen Borg, the CEO of the company, in which he shares the key insights of how AOPEN drives the growth of businesses with its proven solutions: Describe AOPEN Solutions cutting edge solutions, which address all the needs of their customers. 60% of IoT projects stall at the Proof of Concept stage (2017, Cisco). Most companies are trying to innovate, facing obstacles and barriers along the way. Not many are in the business of trying to help those facing the obstacles and barriers. This is where we position ourselves. We are part of the ﬁrst wave of companies in the business of assisting others going through their digital journey.

Traditionally, AOPEN is a hardware business. Founded in 1996, AOPEN specializes in manufacturing cuttingedge commercial-grade hardware. Our devices have been tested through and through - its fanless and solidstate have been engineered to run in a variety of rough environments 24/7. Through years of expertise, devices innovation and partnerships, we are looking to disrupt the digital landscape and embrace the rise of Internet of Things (IoT). The meldCX platform was birthed two years ago, so that we could oﬀer not just IoT but applied IoT and stay true to our calling to disrupt the digital landscape. The perfect devices companion, the meldCX Platform and its Cloud Console allows users to build, manage, deploy, schedule and troubleshoot apps and multiple devices remotely through a single pane of glass. Ever since then, meldCX has expanded to oﬀer white-label SaaS modules, with a focus on applied IoT and | November 2019 |

What does this mean? Software-wise, there is no need for our customers to have their developers build infrastructure they can go straight to building custom experiences using the tools in our library, leverage one of our partner apps, use any CMS or utilize existing web assets. Most customers could simply retrofit new solutions on an existing infrastructure with little to no issue through the meldCX platform, enabling them to rapidly build, deploy and harness the power and capabilities of IoT. AOPEN hardware, combined with meldCX platform and software is truly the bundled plug-and-play applied IoT solution that is easy to deploy and use, efficient and costeffective. Have a POC idea in mind? Come speak to us! We have some great experience and the expertise to draw upon. Describe in detail about the work culture and the values that drive AOPEN Solutions. Happy people are more productive at

work. It’s a fact. This is why we’ve made culture a priority. We want to foster an environment that is open and relaxed - where people can speak up and be heard, and feedback given and received. We are like a startup within a large organization: strategically placed within the Acer Group, but nimble enough to innovate and cut through red tape for customers and propose solutions that adopt technology across the whole group. In our team, we know that customers are more

“

Beyond devices, the future of digitalization is in the solutions that bring hardware and software together.

“

frontline worker. The modules are m-intelligence (machine learning and artiﬁcial intelligence module), m-reception (visitor sign-in module), m-kiosk (self-service ordering module for hospitality and retail) and signCX ( a universal software player that can talk to any CMS and operating system allowing ﬂexibility digital content management module for signage).

easily attracted to great products and amazing people are more easily attracted to great culture. Culture happens whether or not you plan for it, so it is paramount that every team member participates to create a culture that they love. The key to every business is always two-pronged: a) it is about having a can-do attitude when providing customer service, ensuring that your work with the

customer is detail-oriented and of an exceptional standard; and b) elevating team members’ focus, helping them grow and understanding individual/ team drivers. At the end of the day, we are committed to our passion for delivering great experiences - not just for customers but also team members. We aim for employees to be more than just colleagues - but actual work friends. Work is a fundamental pillar and needs to be a place that you look forward to, by being welcomed for your individuality, thoughts and what you can achieve - why wouldn’t you make it fun? Our busy employee social event calendar lets our staff take a breather from the stress of work. Be it birthdays, cultural celebrations, company milestones, or just because - we like to celebrate life together. What technologies are you leveraging to make their solutions resourceful and bringing advancement in the industry? There’s a huge trend in machine learning and machine vision: applying artificial intelligence to IoT (as with our m-intelligence Smart Scale solution - now listed on Intel’s Solutions Directory). As an Intel Solutions Alliance partner, AOPEN Solutions utilizes powerful Intel technology, specifically Intel Openvino Toolkit for optimization across various | November 2019 |

About the Leader: formats and hardware outputs, as well as Intel Movidius Compute Stick for low power, high performance rapid inference on the edge. There is also increasing demand for gesture-based and facial recognition analytics. This tracking and analytics can be applied to digital signage, POS, Kiosk, any service environment with technology that can eyeball track, recognize age and gender, and dynamically serve up relevant content depending on who is actually viewing. We are currently working on a few POC projects for 2020 expected rollout. What are AOPEN Solutions future aspirations? What strategies are they undertaking to achieve those goals? As a team, we’ve made it our mission to: Democratise IoT and Digital Transformation by providing tools & services for easy adoption and use Ÿ Leverage our Global Expertise, providing access to a community of customers and partners. Ÿ Ensure any solution or service we provide is a building block for growth with open integrations, ﬂexibility and designed to unparalleled standards. Ÿ

Stephen Borg is a solutions-driven strategy development director specializing in identifying and creating opportunities in greenfield markets. His background is in capability development and research-led strategy with a particular passion for lateral problem solving and creating tailored results to satisfy partners and their customers. With key skills in strategy and design-led thinking, he has helped multinational companies expand markets, explore and pioneer new niches and introduce gamechanging technology into competitive spaces. His expertise spans technology and digital media, retail environments, customer experience, innovation, and building business partnerships. Stephen likes to walk the industries he is operating in, he has a strong background in retail innovation working both for retailers and Global ICT firms. He is the Chairman of a large Fin-Tech business called Remitter, and held board positions in two retailer payments companies, is also the Chairman of two affiliated group companies founded the software platform business meldCX and a dedicated AI, Machine learning business.

We have a three-tier Go-To-Market plan: SELL TO → Identify Greenﬁeld problems that we can work with select customers (through incubation) and create groundbreaking technologically-advanced use cases Ÿ SELL WITH → Engage together with partners to enable problem-solving and execution leveraging AOPEN solutions resources and expertise Ÿ SELL THROUGH → Leveraging channels to sell, reduce friction and overall TCO cost for the end customer.

This strategy allows us to implement new technologies and rapidly scale, whilst making sure customers and partners are looked after and nurtured.

Previously Stephen helped create the concept of Chrome for commercial devices, working closely with Google executives. Commercial Chrome has been widely adopted in the Kiosk and signage space and the range of devices are the fastest growing within the group. AOPEN is still the only provider of Commercial Chrome Devices. | November 2019 |

We believe that everyone and every product will be dramatically changed by our ‘always-on’ connection to the Internet, and through it to every other person and device in the world. The most exciting uses of our phones happens when we leverage that realtime connection to the Internet. People worldwide now use their phones to order taxis, track food delivery, control their lights, and have apps speciﬁcally for chatting with people around the globe. —Todd Greene CEO

| November 2019 |

PubNub

Living the Future with Connected Experience Infrastructure

PubNub is a platform for building and launching connected experiences at massive scale. Additionally, developers can take advantage of value-added features for application areas like chat, collaboration, IoT device control, and real-time updates to further accelerate build and release times. The PubNub DSN provides global cloud infrastructure and key building blocks for real-time interactivity and lets developers focus on customer innovation. Customers can build their modules from scratch, and also take advantage of several pre-built blocks created for features common to real-time applications; the growing BLOCKS catalog includes chat ﬁltering, language translation, geo-fencing, sensor aggregation, third-party API integrations, and more.

he world is moving towards being “always-on” and forever connected in real-time. 3 billion people across the globe now have access to smartphones, most with virtually unlimited data. Most people use their phones to read content, watch videos, and send emails. Yet the most exciting uses of the phone happen when people leverage that real-time connection to the Internet. The reason behind this is the Data Stream Network (DSN). DSN helps you build applications in a secure, reliable manner, connecting devices from anywhere in the world in real-time. It helps you build and scale always-on applications in a secure, reliable manner, connecting devices from anywhere in the world in real-time. In short, it will solve all the problems, and let developers do what they do best – develop applications. One such DSN is PubNub which takes care of everything from data streaming, security, datacenters availability, scaling, multiplatform support and also provide easy to use APIs to build applications on top. Today, PubNub powers thousands of real-time apps around the world, from innovative start-ups to globally recognized brands, like Adobe, eBay, and Samsung. And the company offers less than 250-millisecond latency around the world, through its 15 global Points of Presence.

PubNub APIs, running on its global network, helping thousands of customers ship real-time features faster, increase user acquisition & retention, and save on the cost of running massively scalable real-time applications. These apps are all powered by a new layer of technology, real-time technology. At the company, it is called Data Stream Network, and its tech is used by many of the apps already installed on customer’s phones, in homes, and on their browsers. These apps each blend chat, live notifications, geo-tracking, and real-time collaboration together to provide a completely new way of engaging online. Connected Experiences underpin the explosion of ridesharing & meal delivery apps, gaming, business collaboration, modern exercise equipment, and telemedicine, to name a few. Established enterprise apps, office suites, and graphics design software are quickly evolving to add chat, real-time mapping & live notifications.

Below is it’s story. People worldwide now use their phones to book cabs, track food delivery, control their lights and have a bunch of apps speciﬁcally for chatting with people. People can get medical help from experts halfway around the world. PubNub has pioneered the technology to create these Connected Experiences, and companies worldwide rely on them to power these capabilities. While the rapid rise of smartphones and real-time tech like, PubNub might make it feel like the company is already living in the future. The company is just embarking on a change that will affect every person worldwide in every aspect of their lives.

The main reasons why clients chose PubNub over others: The company, set out in 2009, to develop a Data Stream Network (DSN) for developers to build real-time apps as easily as building a web page, without worrying about security, reliability, or scalability. With

| November 2019 |

just 100 milliseconds or less. That reliability drives user satisfaction and retention and puts the company’s scale in a league of its own. The company offers a 5-9s reliability guarantee, which means no more than 26 seconds of downtime per month. Globally the company delivers the same speed and reliability of its service in the U.S. as it does in Japan, Australia, and Africa. The organization operates at the edge of the network to handle & apply logic to real-time data, thereby minimizing latency to 100 milliseconds or less world-wide, and guaranteeing reliability and scalability.

Stephen Blum CTO

PubNub, developers can quickly create and deliver any combination of Connected Experiences for their users, securely, reliably, and scalable. The company’s technology allows teams to build solutions using the company’s APIscombine in-app chat, live notiﬁcations, device control, and more, reliably and securely, on any device. Focus on security and compliance– Mission-critical applications are powered by the company. As a result, the company takes security incredibly seriously and have built several features into its network, and are certiﬁed for the most important compliances (GDPR, SOC 2, HIPAA, Privacy Shield), to keep their customers’ data safe and their apps secure. Security is unassailable and baked right in. The company also offers real-time infrastructure-as-a-service and provides enterprise-grade security, 99.999% SLAbacked reliability, and global scalability to support the largest real-time deployments, all via simple APIs and 70+ SDKs. The company knows that security, data ownership, and access control are critical to any realtime application – which is why the company has built the entire DSN around these core tenets.

People like actor/musician Jared Leto have performed in live streaming concerts where PubNub is used to provide a massive scale audience experience online. The organizations’ 75 SDKs means that the company has got you covered, no matter which devices you’re developing for. And, those redundant Points of Presence ensure that the app can survive the failure of a regional data center. The company is strategically placing its points of presence across the globe, making a truly global company, serving global applications. This also puts employees in a positive state of mind and empowers and supports them to do their best work. Todd Greene is the Founder and CEO at PubNub, he helps to shape the company’s vision of revolutionizing the way people interact online. He helped started as one of the two cofounders. It was a side project for him until 2012 but full-time for his co-founder, Stephen Blum, who ran the company. In 2012, they raised their first angel round. When Stephen first showed Todd PubNub in the early part of the decade, he immediately said, "I could have used this five or six times in the last five years." What he realized before others were that with the advent of always-on mobile and cheap bandwidth and IoT, these kinds of experiences on computers that would only be seen in movies, people are going to start to expect those experiences in their everyday lives. When they first started the company, it was hard to describe that. Testimonial “PubNub is reliable. It’s efficient. It’s fast. It’s everything we were looking for. In the EMS/911 space, efficiency is key because of how quickly the first responders and public safety agencies respond to determines life or death. PubNub has all of that.” — Jason Brock Director of Software Development @ZOLL

Traditional three-tier request/response architecture is failing to meet the scalability, latency, and reliability demands of modern data streaming applications. Reliability, security, scalability- PubNub reliably delivers 2 trillion messages a month to over 300 million devices, in

| November 2019 |

Glimpse of Future

t a DevOps conference in Helsinki, a very learned university Professor gave a great retrospective about how DevOps has transformed the IT-space into a high velocity, continuously improving environment for development, deployment and operations of digital products and services. He presented a whole bunch of empirical data, industry insights and backed it up with solid academic knowledge. It was by far the best keynote at the conference. But what made it stand out above all, was his closing remarks and question to the auditorium, with which he casted a searching question on the concept of automated, AI based systems and how we perceive them. It is perhaps the single question that challenges us the most on this subject. “What shall we do with all this speed?”

Which brings me back to my Professor in Helsinki, I believe he was implicitly asking the audience to selfreflect on the question of do we know when enough is enough? I don´t believe we are even conscious of this question, let alone able to answer it. We just don´t we even think about it? Fortunately there are people who do think about the question. Professor Kevin Warwick stated in his book “In the Mind of the Machine” (published in 1998) “within the next 10 to 50 years artificial intelligence systems will have been developed, that will not only be more intelligent than humans but also exhibit a significant number of advantages; they will be faster, more reliable, quicker to learn and more robust.” Within 10 years of that prediction stock market High Frequency Trading (HFT) was so fast that humans were no longer capable of monitoring the processes. We now know the consequences of uncontrolled speed in HFT in financial markets. Our pursuit of speed seems not to have considered social and ecological aspects. All that speed benefitted a few and all but destroyed much for the many.

Exactly! Should we be pursuing speed and if so for what reason? To have “speed” in your operations is to have an extra competitive advantage which is a means not an end. And means need utility, otherwise they are pointless. When we take the perspective from the late 1990´s it is truly amazing that products and services are now so well supported by IT-processes. Daily – even hourly –deployments, continuous integration etc. are now the norm and in retrospect this is an awesome achievement. Who doesn´t remember yearly releases, endless QA cycles, never ending rescoping of massive project plans, two thirds of investment locked into processes with low to zero market value? We are all glad to have left all that behind and yet we still fanatically push – myself included – for more process efﬁciency, faster time to market, more automation etc. Now we are expecting AI to enhance automation even further than we ever dreamed of 20 years ago. All this velocity is awesome!

The Professor in Helsinki too, was questioning the motives for our continuous drive for velocity and by doing so he was subtely planting the thought in the minds of those who should be reflecting upon the question. Is speed the ultimate objective of DevOps and the like? If we can´t answer the question “what shall we do with all this speed?” – And I did not hear any answers from the auditorium – then velocity can´t really be the main goal. I believe “all this speed" is but a secondary benefit of what Lean Manufacturing states as “waste reduction”. If we instead switch our main focus of automation to the term “efficiency”, then the Professor

| November 2019 |

could have phrased the question as “what shall we do with all this efﬁciency?” then I am sure that answers would have been abundant.

About the Author

Efficiency has many factors, of which speed is just one and, in my opinion, secondary to waste reduction factors. When humans define objectives for the good of the many, then social and ecological factors – usually – inform those decisions, thus making them future oriented and sustainable. Reduction of waste, in a manufacturing context pays dividends in terms of reduction of time as a social factor and reduction of material as an ecological factor. The resulting strategies are in general preventative i.e. error avoidance and protection against anomalies. Combining the ecological and social factors into the decision-making process requires our unique form of emotional intelligence which is a significant driver of our behavior. Can this be said of AI neural networks running automated systems at speeds beyond our comprehension? Maybe someday, but I am a doubter and critic until fully convinced of the opposite.

In his last position, Mark Rees was Managing Director of E-POST Development GmbH in Berlin, a subsidiary of Deutsche Post. There, he led an international team comprised of several hundred employees in agile DevOps development teams, and was responsible for employee direction, as well as the entire budget in the areas of IT security, DevOps, quality assurance,

Lean Manufacturing focuses on waste reduction. Beneﬁts such as just in time supply chains, automation of repetitive tasks etc., all fall into the social ecological framework suggested above whereby is velocity a secondary beneﬁt, not the central objective. We currently hype machine learning and assume it to be “intelligence”. But what if these systems also learn to be stupid and irresponsible, such as the HFT systems that triggered massive sell offs that tanked stock markets. Is that intelligent in a social and ecological context? If humans were to behave this way on such a scale, we would all cry out stupidity and ignorance as suitable words to describe such behavior. We must adopt a critical approach as to where, when and how to utilize AI. I maintain it should not be just pure speed that we pursue, but waste reduction which applies a qualitative meaning to the extra velocity we might generate.

operations and user experience. In his work as COO at Secucloud, Rees applies his expertise in agile leadership and his many years of experience in interdisciplinary IT organizations in the Media and IT security industries.

If you identify an automation-case for waste reduction, i.e. error prevention, protection against outside inﬂuences, then proceed proceed cautiously with AI. If velocity is the only apparent beneﬁt, then before you implement, honestly ask yourself the question – and answer it – what are you going to do with all this speed?

| November 2019 |

Globally Riding the Technological Waves

‘Connected World, Connected Experiences’. Today, customer experience is driving and disrupting industries like never before. Our vision is to deliver seamless and integrated experiences across dimensions – digital, physical, and convergent.

n this digital era of 5G – Network of the Future, Blockchain, Big Data, IoT, and AI, the market is rapidly expanding as companies across multiple verticals have recognized the need for connectivity, and the potential digital transformation that can be enabled through connectivity. Greater business efﬁciency and smarter processes are obvious results of Automation and AI. However, end-users demand access to their data, business applications, productivity applications, and collaboration applications in a secured manner. So, Tech Mahindra was born with the focus on enabling clients to succeed in a digitally disrupted world. In an interview between CIO LOOK and CP Gurnani, the MD and CEO of Tech Mahindra has shared the critical journey of the company’s cutting-edge technology solutions with partners globally.

Describe Tech Mahindra’s cutting-edge solutions, which address all the needs of their customers? As part of TechMNxt* charter, we constantly invest in next-generation capabilities in consulting and technology, which we adapt to clients’ businesses through our digital themes: Digital Strategy & Design, Digital Customer, Intelligent Operations and Future Enterprise, driven by investments in analytics with Digital Insights and powered by Tech Mahindra IP in a Digital Foundation layer. Tech Mahindra IP comprises vertical industry solutions as well as platforms for the Internet of Things (IoT), Cybersecurity, Cognitive Technology, and Enterprise Gamiﬁcation.

Below are the highlights of the interview conducted between CIO LooK and CP Gurnani: Give a brief overview of Tech Mahindra, its uniqueness and its vision

We have identiﬁed RADIQAL (extensible Reality, Automation & AI, Distributed Ledger, IoT, Quantum Computing, All powered by 5G and next-gen networks) as our future technology focus.

Tech Mahindra is a global leading provider of digital transformation, consulting and business re-engineering services and solutions. Part of the Mahindra Group, Tech Mahindra is a USD 4.9 billion company with 125, 000+ employees across 90 countries. Tech Mahindra has 940 global clients, including Fortune 500 companies. It is the highest-ranked non-US company in the Forbes Global Digital 100 list (2018) and is in the Forbes Fab 50 companies in Asia (2018). At Tech Mahindra, we live by the philosophy of

For example, we are working with Rakuten in Japan to power the next generation networks, using IP from our joint investment in AltoiStar. This will enable industries as diverse as healthcare, manufacturing, and ﬁnancial services to unlock the power of 5G use cases.

| November 2019 |

Tech Mahindra

â€œ

Sustainability and Inclusivity drive the purpose of the organization

CP Gurnani CEO & MD

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Describe in detail about the work culture and the values that drive Tech Mahindra?

What are Tech Mahindra’s future aspirations? What strategies are they undertaking to achieve those goals?

Tech Mahindra’s culture is driven by the RISE philosophy of the Mahindra Group, which is based on the beliefs: “accepting no limits”, “alternative thinking”, and “driving positive change”. Sustainability and Inclusivity drive the purpose of the organization. We are focused on building a safe and sustainable environment for our employees by committing to fair, transparent, and inclusive work culture.

Tech Mahindra aims to be the digital transformation partner of choice for its clients globally. By focusing on business transformation enabled by digital technology, Tech Mahindra has transitioned from being a technology skills provider to a business provider. Combining business change capabilities, experience design, and technology has helped Tech Mahindra make this transition effectively.

We are also investing in futuristic technology to create a ‘workplace of the future’. For example, we have introduced a Facial Recognition Attendance System leveraging Artiﬁcial Intelligence, which is also equipped with a tool that helps us measure the mood of our employees through a mood meter. Such initiatives enable us to ensure we have a happy workforce.

Going forward, Tech Mahindra aims to increase its digital business through vertical solutions, platforms, and leading-edge business transformation enabled by technology such as AI, 5G, and quantum computing. About the leader CP Gurnani is the MD and CEO of Tech Mahindra. Living by the credo, ‘don’t work hard, work smart’, the leader brings an inimitable leadership style combined with a laser-sharp focus on customer experience. In 2009, he led the acquisition of Satyam, which helped the company diversify into other verticals, and brought in capabilities in analytics, engineering, consulting, etc. Gurnani understands that in this age of disruption, innovation cannot happen in seclusion, but rather, needs an ecosystem that supports collaboration. His focus is both on “Digital Outside”, as well as “Digital Inside”. He is proactive about nurturing a digital future-ready talent pool with emphasis on reskilling the workforce.

How do Tech Mahindra’s services differ from the other companies’ offerings? Tech Mahindra focuses on enabling clients to succeed in a digitally disrupted world. We collaborate with clients, academia, eco-system players & start-ups to create business solutions that can help our clients Run their business better; Change faster to adapt and Grow revenues by delighting their customers. Through its investments in organizations such as Pinnifarina, the BIO agency and Mad*Pow, Tech Mahindra has a unique ability to deliver digital transformation across the physical, and digital realm. This enables us to design “phygital” products, as well as POS (Point of Sale) experience in retail stores, banks, and stadiums.

Testimonials “Three things that stand out about Tech Mahindra; one is the competence of its management, second is the ﬁnancial strength and third is the scalability of the business model. This company has what it takes to go the whole way.” —Frank Hancock, Former Managing Director, ABN Amro

What technologies are they leveraging to make their solutions resourceful and bringing advancement in the industry? Tech Mahindra has deep expertise in cybersecurity, automation, customer experience, and content management, analytics, IoT, cloud, DevOps, microservices, and mobility. In addition, we are investing in the RADIQAL suite (extensible Reality, Automation & AI, Distributed Ledger, IoT, Quantum Computing, All powered by 5G and next-gen networks), as areas for the future.

“BT is the world’s leading telecom company and we depend on our development partners to help us achieve or targets. Most of our work is done offshore and it is done by TechMahindra.” —Martin Greenan, Offshore Co-Location centres, BT Director

| November 2019 |

A Global Leader in Electrochromic Displays

he emergence of the Internet of Things (IoT) is driven by embedding electronic functionalities into all types of objects and environments. The key technological enablers of the IoT are enhancements in cloud computing infrastructure, wireless communications, microelectronics, and notably low power electronics. A key concern for realizing a fullblown vision of the IoT is how this can be all done proﬁtably and sustainably. Conventional electronic components, production processes, and material sets are not suited for realizing this vision. Ynvisible aims to be a leading company in the emerging printed electronics sector, a key enabling set of technologies for the IoT. The company’s interactive printed graphics are produced using conventional printing and converting processes such as screen printing, coating, lamination, die-cutting, etc. The organization offers full system design, integration, and production services led by a multidisciplinary team of engineers, designers & experts. Together with a network of partners, Ynvisible offers everything needed to get clients started with electrochromic displays and other printed electronic components and technologies.

Increasing and further enhancing our company’s manufacturing capabilities is a central target, as we advance our growing base of prototyping client cases into high volume uses

Introduction of next-generation Functionalities The printing industry, on a global level, is close to 800 billion dollars annually. Printed graphics and surfaces are everywhere. People run into printed items thousands of times daily. The company is introducing printed electronics inks and displays to client bases in the label & RFID industry, in the healthcare sector, and then to certain premium consumer brands. It builds partnerships designed to accelerate the development and ultimate market introduction of next-generation functionalities for printed displays. That’s where Ynvisible is starting the business, and these are already items where the production volumes

| November 2019 |

Ynvisible

InĂŞs Henriques Co-founder & COO

| November 2019 |

are often in the tens or hundreds of millions of units per one single item on an annual basis. The positive workplace consists of employees who enjoy and are passionate about their work and who exhibit both personal and professional pride in the products and services the company provides to its customers. The company’s employees look forward to coming to work and are enthusiastic in creating new products and collaboratively interacting with co-workers, as it is creating history. Interaction with all types of Smart Objects The team is truly diverse, with locations in Portugal, Germany, Sweden, and Canada. Ynvisible’s interactive printed graphics technology offers a practical visual interface to all types of internet of things items and smart everyday objects. The company offers clients the full solutions to their smart product needs, from developing prototypes to full-scale production. There is a steady ﬂow of requests for the company’s interactive printed graphics solutions for smart labels and smart packaging. In labels, the request is most often for visual indicators combined with sensors. The company anticipates strong growth in smart labels and increased uses in higher-priced, premium products.

company works actively to enhance the performance of its technologies and products to build market leadership. The organization’s facilities are used to train outside design and production houses to work with the company’s proprietary technologies, in order to implement the ﬁrst technology transfer cases to outside production houses. Interactive printed graphics based on the company’s inks can be printed directly onto RFID labels and powered wirelessly over RFID reading. Therefore, the company sees additional potential in enabling RFID and

Performance Enhancing Technologies Ynvisible has developed a technology that allows for printing inks that change color in response to a small electrical current. In addition to the production scaleup and roll-out of the current generation of the company’s proprietary printed display solutions, the

| November 2019 |

NFC labels with additional features and functionalities. In terms of product authentication, there is a great demand for innovation as the solutions have to fit the product’s end-use, it’s packaging and supply chain. Creative and Responsible Leader Inês Henriques is a Co-founder and COO of Ynvisible. She was CEO of the company from the creation of the company to the closing of the RTO transaction with Ynvisible Interactive Inc. in January 2018. Inês led the founding of the company, designed the organization of the new commercial entity, was responsible for building a highly competent team and has also been actively involved in the development of the company’s core IP portfolio, and in establishing, the organization’s first manufacturing partnership and wider partner networks. She currently leads operations for the company. Inês has a degree in Environmental Engineering from the New University of Lisbon and Ph.D. in Civil Engineering from Virginia Tech. Building Visibility and Awareness Ynvisible is in the field of printed electronics, focusing on the space of the internet of things. A central theme in the company is to build visibility and awareness of its interactive printed graphics solutions beyond the printed and flexible electronics sector. As for other packaging integrated applications, the use cases for flexible and printed electronics are still more skewed to one-time promotional uses, but brand authentication is certainly another driver. Brand owner clients with

smart product initiatives targeting product launches in 2019 and 2020 are a priority for the team. During the year, the company expects to sell a growing number of product design, prototyping, and production projects within lead business arenas. As the next step to these projects, the company’s further aim is to sell ﬁrst volume production of printed displays from its sheet-based production line in Charneca de Caparica, Portugal, and its roll-based production line in Linköping, Sweden. TestimonialLeif Ljungqvist, the Acting CEO of Consensum: “We see a growing market for printed electronics worldwide and this acquisition is a next logistical development step for Ynvisible who has been one of our clients to develop and advance this technology.”

| November 2019 |