Monthly Archives: July 2020

PR Newswire

Siemon Supports Single-Pair Ethernet with TERA® Cabling

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WATERTOWN, Connecticut, July 30, 2020 — Siemon, a leading global network infrastructure specialist, is pleased to announce that its TERA cabling system supports 10BASE-T1L single-pair Ethernet (SPE), providing an easily-deployed, Standards-based infrastructure that simplifies cable management, reduces costs, and enables more efficient use of pathway space. As explained in a new Tech Brief developed by Siemon’s Valerie Maguire, Distinguished Engineer and Chief Editor of the IEEE Std 802.3cg™-2019 10 Mb/s Single-Pair Ethernet project, 10BASE-T1L operation over TERA SPE cabling offers many advantages over traditional/proprietary operational technology for monitoring and controlling simple, low-speed devices in commercial enterprise environments. Download the Tech Brief 

Developed by the IEEE P802.3cg 10 Mb/s Single-Pair Ethernet Task Force and approved in November 2019, 10BASE-T1L supports 10 Mb/s transmission over balanced single–pair cabling for connecting a wide range of sensors, actuators, relays, contactors and other low-speed devices used for building automation applications such as HVAC, security/access and lighting control. Adoption of 10BASE-T1L is a milestone step in enabling interoperability and networking of smart industrial IOT devices. The standard also supports optional dc power delivery using IEEE 802.3 power over data lines (PoDL).

Siemon’s fully-shielded TERA SPE cabling solution offers the benefits of superior noise immunity, virtually zero emissions and superior transmission headroom to ensure guaranteed support of 10BASE–T1L over distances of up to 400 meters without the need for field testing. In addition, all system components are rated for current-carrying capacity up to 2 amps. By leveraging its versatile cable-sharing abilities, the standards-based 4-pair TERA outlet is uniquely capable of facilitating plug-and-play connections to 10BASE-T1L and 10/100/1000BASE-T Ethernet devices and equipment using 4-pair, 2-pair and 1-pair TERA plugs and 4-pair field terminated category 6A Z-PLUG™ connectors. Siemon’s innovative Z-PLUG offers best-in-class termination speed and a shorter plug design for easily making custom-length connections between SPE controllers and 4-pair Ethernet control systems and servers.

Siemon’s TERA SPE cabling solution is compatible with traditional 1-pair screw terminal interface connections commonly found on single-pair Ethernet equipment and devices. Siemon’s applications support specialists can also work with customers to support other SPE equipment interface types. TERA cabling may be deployed in conventional or zone cabling configurations to support both SPE and 4-pair Ethernet applications. Pre-cabling permanent links from patch panels in the mechanical/telecommunications room to Siemon zone enclosures housing TERA outlets enables more efficient use of pathways and facilitates rapid deployment of connections to devices or outlets serving devices when moves, adds, or changes are required.

“As an active contributor to the development of single-pair Ethernet standards and technologies, Siemon is in a unique position to understand the cabling infrastructure requirements to support emerging 10BASE-T1L applications,” explained  Maguire. “Our industry-leading TERA cabling system provides a full end-to-end channel solution that supports SPE applications and equipment at distances up to 400 meters while simultaneously eliminating the need for field testing and providing the efficiency of a single interface to support both 4-pair and single-pair Ethernet connections.”

To get the full details straight from the expert herself, download Valerie Maguires Tech-Brief: “Support of 10BASE-T1L with TERA® SPE Cabling  – Siemon’s Single-Pair Ethernet Solution is More than the Sum of Its Parts” https://www.siemon.com/en/home/forms/tb-10base-t1l 

About Siemon
Established in 1903, Siemon is an industry leader specializing in the design and manufacture of high quality, high performance IT infrastructure solutions and services for Data Centers, LANs and Intelligent Buildings. Headquartered in Connecticut, USA, with global sales, technical and logistics expertise spanning 100 countries, Siemon offers the most comprehensive suites of copper and optical fiber cabling systems, cabinets, racks, cable management, data center power and cooling systems and Intelligent Infrastructure Management solutions. With more than 400 patents specific to structured cabling, Siemon Labs invests heavily in R&D and the development of Industry Standards, underlining the company’s long-standing commitment to its customers and the industry. Through an ongoing commitment to waste and energy reduction, Siemon’s environmental sustainability benchmarks are unparalleled in the industry, including 179% global carbon negativity and zero-landfill status.

Siemon Interconnect Solutions (SIS) is a Siemon business unit comprised of a team of dedicated technical sales professionals supported by Siemon Labs, mechanical, electrical and signal integrity engineers committed to solving industry and customer driven interconnect challenges. We provide custom network infrastructure solutions to: OEM’s, Leading Manufacturers, Value-Added Resellers and System Integrators.

Contact Information
Brian Baum
Brian_Baum@siemon.com 
(860) 945-4325

PR Newswire

iiPay Opens Asia Pac Hub in Singapore

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Client Growth and Technological Innovation Accelerate Geographical Expansion

DALLAS and SINGAPORE, July 29, 2020 — iiPay, a market-leader in providing global payroll solutions to multi-national corporations, released details of the new office opening earlier this year in Singapore.  Singapore serves as the hub for the Asia Pacific operations and represents an exciting juncture of continued growth and investment in supporting global clients through service excellence and market leading technical innovation. iiPay continues to grow and partner with its existing clients while adding new clients at a rapid pace.  This focus on client service excellence and innovation has resulted in an average revenue growth rate exceeding fifty percent for the last three years. The Singapore office launch follows the previously announced launch of its Budapest Hungary hub earlier this year.

According to Absolute Reports, a research report company, the global Payroll and HR Software market is anticipated to rise at a considerable rate, during the forecast period, between 2020 and 2026. In 2020, the market was growing at a steady rate and with the rising adoption of strategies by key players, the market is expected to rise over the projected horizon. Clients in the fast-growing Asia Pacific region need increased payroll visibility and global reporting combined with compliance and accurate payroll delivery.

“iiPay’s investment in the Asia Pac region represents a commitment to serve clients in an exciting growth market with tremendous opportunities to reduce complexities, ensure compliance, and provide a standardized approach to global payroll,” stated Curtis Holmes, Chief Operating Officer, iiPay. “Our clients expect operational excellence in their currencies, local language, and time zone while respecting cultural norms.  We expect to be our clients trusted payroll partner around the globe as they expand their business.”

iiPay provides a truly global payroll solution, with a single technology platform to underpin day-to-day service delivery and enable effective compliance management, payment disbursements, data analytics and a single, standardized, Employee Self-Service experience across the globe.

About iiPay: iiPay is a service-focused global payroll provider, driven by their innovative cloud-based technology. iiPay’s  technology solution empowers Payroll, HR and Finance professionals through advanced data management, analytics and business intelligence functionality, enabling the user to access and report on any global data at any time. Focused on outcomes, iiPay reduces complexity, centralizes and simplifies multi-country payroll processes, and ensures compliance in every country for their clients. iiPay are focused on being more than a payroll vendor; instead, they strive to be a true partner and an  extension of their client’s payroll team, rather than an external provider. iiPay currently provide fully managed global payroll services in more than 170 countries.  iiPay’s relentless focus on service and software enhancements and the continued expansion of their footprint reflects the vision of the company to simplify global payroll and the ambition to ‘Pay the Planet’.

PR Newswire

SOS Ltd. Announces its Plans After Settling on the West Coast of Qingdao

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QINGDAO, China, July 29, 2020 — SOS Limited, (NYSE: SOS) (formerly China Rapid Finance Limited, the “Company“) today announced its plans for the future after it has settled on the west coast of Qingdao.

SOS Limited, through its operating subsidiary, SOS Information Technology Co., Ltd. (“SOS“) is a high-technology company providing a wide range of services to its corporate and individual members, including marketing data, technology and solutions for emergency rescue services. SOS is focused on the research and development of big data, cloud computing, Internet of Things, blockchain and artificial intelligence. We have created a SOS cloud emergency rescue service software as a service (SaaS) platform with three major product categories, including basic cloud (medical rescue card, car rescue card, financial rescue card, mutual assistance rescue card), cooperative cloud (information rescue center, intelligent big data, intelligent software and hardware), and information cloud (News Today, E-Commerce Today). This system provide marketing-related data, technology solutions, and technology-driven big data to clients such as insurance companies, financial institutions, medical institutions, healthcare providers, auto manufacturers, security providers, senior living assistance providers and other service providers in the emergency rescue services industry. SOS has obtained a national high-tech enterprise certification, the title of “big data star enterprise” awarded by Gui’an New District Government, and has registered 11 software copyrights and 2 patents.

As previously disclosed, on July 17th, 2020, SOS officially entered into a cooperation agreement with Qingdao West Coast New District Management Committee, a branch office of the Qingdao government, for the relocation of the Company’s headquarters.

According to the cooperation agreement, SOS will invest in building a financial data cloud headquarters in Qingdao. The Company’s aim is to build a comprehensive main headquarters encompassing the fields of investment, health management, insurance, financial factoring, emergency rescue, and data cloud center. The total planned investment is estimated to be around US$1 billion, and the first phase of the investment will be around US$50 million. Present at the signing ceremony were Mr. Yonghong Sun, Deputy Mayor of Qingdao city, Mr. An Zhou, Mayor of the West Coast New Area, Mr. Yandai Wang, the CEO of the Company, and Messrs. Jonathan Zhang and Wenbin Wu, independent directors of the Company.

In the next five years, we aim to create a complete ecological rescue, insurance, and safety testing service system, and enter India, Europe, the United States and other populous countries to create an international rescue service. Through big data and cloud computing service platforms, we plan to improve the entire internationalized rescue service, insurance, security testing, intelligent software and hardware, big data, cloud computing and other intelligent service systems.

About SOS Limited

SOS Limited (NYSE: SOS) is a holding company providing marketing data, technology and solutions to the emergency rescue services in China. The Company provides a wide range of services to its corporate and individual members in China through its operating subsidiary, SOS Information Technology Co., Ltd. (“SOS“). SOS also provides various types of membership cards to individual members in large corporations as part of employee benefits. Its products include SOS Medical Rescue Card, SOS Auto Rescue Card, SOS Financial Rescue Card, and SOS Life Rescue Card. SOS utilizes cloud and other cutting-edge technologies to provide marketing solutions in a new fashion, including its app based mobile platform, cloud call centers and large data centers. SOS has contractual service agreements with major banks, insurance companies, internet companies, and telecom providers in China. 

Forward-Looking Statements

Certain statements made herein are “forward-looking statements” within the meaning of the “safe harbor” provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements may be identified by the use of words such as “anticipate,” “believe,” “expect,” “estimate,” “plan,” “outlook,” and “project” and other similar expressions that predict or indicate future events or trends or that are not statements of historical matters. Such forward-looking statements include timing of the proposed transaction; the business plans, objectives, expectations and intentions of the parties once the transaction is complete, and XRF’s estimated and future results of operations, business strategies, competitive position, industry environment and potential growth opportunities. These forward-looking statements reflect the current analysis of existing information and are subject to various risks and uncertainties. As a result, caution must be exercised in relying on forward-looking statements. Due to known and unknown risks, our actual results may differ materially from our expectations or projections. All forward-looking statements attributable to the Company or persons acting on its behalf are expressly qualified in their entirety by these factors. Other than as required under the securities laws, the Company does not assume a duty to update these forward-looking statements.

Additional information concerning these and other factors that may impact our expectations and projections can be found in our periodic filings with the SEC, including our Annual Report on Form 20-F for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2019. XRF’s SEC filings are available publicly on the SEC’s website at www.sec.gov. XRF disclaims any obligation to update the forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.

Camera, News

Sony’s A 7S III Is Launched – The New Low Light King

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It has been five years since the Sony Alpha 7S II launched, which also means the king of low-light photography and videography have stood the test of time. In that time, nothing came close to taking its throne as the best videography and photography tool when it comes to low-light scenes. The camera is the weapon of choice for plenty of aspiring videographers for obvious reasons. The new one has a lot to live up to.

There are a few similarities from the A 7S III and the A 7S II. For one, it records at 4K resolution 10-bit still. But instead of shooting at a measly 30 frames a second, the new A 7S III now records at 120 frames a second. That is a large improvement over the older A 7S II. It also outputs up to 4K 60p 16-bit output via a full-sized HDMI port.

Source: Sony

You might not want to put this beside the Canon EOS R5 though, it is more of a Canon EOS R6 contender, if you ask me. The A 7S III still shoots from a 12.1-Megapixel Full-Frame CMOS sensor with a small, but significant improvement. The new Exmor R technology means that the Rolling-Shutter problem that the A 7S II and A 7S had is now reduced to a barely noticeable level at the worst.

Better Pair of Eyes

Source: Sony

The A 7S II was known for its ability to “see” even better than our regular eyes. The A 7S III improved on that with an even bigger native ISO range at 40-409,600. There is no need to be afraid of noise too with about 1 more stop on noise reduction at highly sensitive ISO settings and 15 dynamic range stops. This will ensure that details do not get murky in low-light shoots. Even S-Log3 allows you to record from ISO as low as 160 if you really need to. Say goodbye to the ND filters you have bought for the A 7S II.

There was a small issue with Auto Focus when it comes to Sony cameras of old though. They have corrected that with the Sony A 7S III with their new Fast Hybrid Auto Focus system with 759 points of Auto Focus points covering 92% of the sensor. We have seen the technology implemented on Sony’s A 7R III and A 7 III.

Longer Shoots, Better Feel

Recording 4K videos for a long time creates plenty of heat. Sony devised a new heat dissipating mechanism to ensure that you an continue recording at 4K continuously for at least an hour. We suspect that contributes a little bit to the bigger overall package size. Of course, you still get the highly acclaimed 5-axis stabiliser within the compact body.

Source: Sony

A larger package also means that you can fit more things into it though. The A 7S III allows you to work with two memory cards now. You can either choose to work with two regular SD cards or two new standard CFexpress Type A cards for even higher speeds to work with. You need that for 100mb/s card write speeds when shooting at 4K resolution.

  • Source: Sony
  • Source: Sony
  • Source: Sony

In terms of ergonomics, besides the thicker body, there are a few changes to how the button layout and arrangement. For example, there is a new joystick at the back with a slightly different dial button. The record button has been moved yet again. It is in a much improved location though – near the shutter button. Even the mode select button is raised a little higher for better accessibility.

Instead of the limited flip out LCD display with limited play, Sony has finally adopted the vari-angle LCD that plenty of users prefer. This allows you to place the Sony A 7S III anywhere at any angle and you do not need a secondary monitor to see what the camera sees.

Availability

Source: Sony

If you are looking for a replacement of the aging Sony A 7S II, you may not have a fitting replacement until now. No, not the Canon EOS R5, the new Sony A 7S III. No, it does not shoot at 8K, but 4K is still plenty more than enough these days. With better colour science, higher ISO sensitivity, and better noise removal, this is the only way to beat the reigning king of low-light.

The Sony A 7S III will be available in Malaysia from October 2020 onward. There are no mentions on price just yet though. We are guessing that it would be priced slightly above the price of a brand-new A 7S II body (roughly between MYR 8,500 to MYR 9,000 for body only). Of course, there are still plenty of lenses for you to choose from with the new A 7S III.

PR Newswire

DriWay Technologies Commences Bomb Shelter Pilot Project with Korean Government

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The Daejeon City Government will use DriWay’s dehydration devices, starting in a key bomb shelter, to remove invasive moisture and improve air safety.

NEW YORK, July 29, 2020 — The Republic of Korea’s Daejeon City Government has commissioned DriWay Technologies to install its dehydration devices in the city’s bomb shelters, to reduce the invasive moisture within the structures. This partnership begins with a three-month pilot project in the Dunsan Fire Station bomb shelter, with installation to take place the first week of August 2020.

South Korea maintains approximately 19,000 bomb shelters throughout the country for civilian use in an emergency, such as potential missile attacks from North Korea. Many such shelters are located within structures like fire stations.

Daejeon, the country’s fifth largest metropolis, has declared its commitment to ensuring that the air quality in these bunkers is safe and healthy for its citizens. Upon encountering invasive building moisture that obstructed a summer 2020 renovation project in the Dunsan Fire Station, Daejeon city leaders initiated a partnership with DriWay to address the problem using DriWay’s dehydration devices.

DriWay’s patented technology naturally breaks the attraction that causes groundwater to rise into buildings, allowing a combination of evaporation and gravity to remove excess water from the walls. Without requiring any potentially hazardous chemicals or electrical power, it provides a sustainable, permanent, and environmentally friendly solution for building owners, managers, and occupants.

“The leadership of Daejeon, including Construction Department Chief Kim Jong Shin, have shown admirable dedication to the security and wellbeing of the people they serve. It is an honor for us to be entrusted with something as important as keeping the air within these bunkers safe and healthy for the city’s residents,” said Steve Kim, COO of DriWay Korea.

“We are proud to serve the city of Daejeon and help protect its residents by providing them with better air quality in its shelters,” said Roy Judelson, Global Chairman and CEO of DriWay Technologies. “These shelters are critical for keeping residents of South Korea safe from outside harm, and our priority is to support Daejeon’s leadership in also keeping residents safe from health hazards caused by invasive moisture inside the shelters.”

About DriWay Technologies
DriWay Technologies is a building health technology company that addresses the environmental and health hazards caused by invasive moisture: mold-causing ground moisture that naturally enters building foundations, basements, and ground floors and can inflict health risks, structural damage, and increased thermal insulation costs. This problem plagues 10% of buildings in the US, and higher percentages in other regions of the world, according to a 2019 EY market study.

DriWay is headquartered in London, with subsidiaries in the US, UK, UAE, and South Korea. It is currently providing its services to the US Government and marquee clients such as Grosvenor Group in London, Nakheel Properties in Dubai, Olshan Properties in New York City, and Hyundai Corporation in South Korea. In the next year, DriWay will also be expanding its operations into India, Japan, Indonesia, Greece, and Cyprus after recently completing a Seed Round financing at a $100 million valuation.

For all media inquiries, please contact media@driway.com.

Accessories, Editorial, Reviews, Writer's Choice

Samsung Galaxy Buds Plus In-Depth Review – Hitting All the Right Notes

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True Wireless Headphones and earphones are all the rage right now especially since a growing number of smartphones are dropping the 3.5mm jack. Samsung’s first attempt, the IconX, was a pretty respectable attempt at offering a wireless earphone, they improved with the Galaxy Buds. What about the Galaxy Buds Plus? There’s a lot to go into but, in a nutshell, it’s got a lot going for it – with some room for improvement.

The Galaxy Buds Plus is Samsung’s third attempt at creating a compelling offering when it comes to true wireless earphones. While I would love to say that a lot has changed – that couldn’t be further from the truth. In fact, when it comes to the exterior design, you’d be hard pressed to tell the difference between the IconX, the Galaxy Buds and the Galaxy Buds+.

It has a lot going for it when it comes down to performance and some of its design, but before we get into the nitty gritty, let’s talk about the first thing you’d do when you get the Galaxy Buds+ – pair it. Compatibility with the Buds Plus isn’t much of an issue – the Buds+ is compatible with nearly all devices on the market; all you have to do with smartphones is download the app and pair the earphones with the smartphone. That said, I was also using the Buds+ with my laptop and pairing was pretty simple. All you have to do is open your casing and put one of the ear pieces in and add it like you would any other Bluetooth device. Of course, make sure no other known device is nearby or has its Bluetooth on. With Samsung devices, the Buds plus triggered a pairing notification when you open it nearby.

Design

Even though the look and feel of the Buds plus is reminiscent of its forerunners, Samsung has made a few small refinements which make a significant difference in how the Buds+ feels in the ears and the security it provides. The Buds+ feels lighter and puts less pressure in on the ear. I was able to wear them for extended sessions – in fact I was able to get to about 5 to 6 hours without getting fatigued. They fit pretty snugg and I had no fear of the Galaxy Buds+ falling out of my ears. The wings helped provide extra reassurance. Of course, Samsung’s decision to provide extra wings and tips of different sizes in the box helped – I opted for the largest size available for my ears.

The one thing I love abou the Buds+ this year is the slimmer silhouette of the casing. It fits in my pockets and is pretty compact – so, it doesn’t bulge obscenely when I put it in my jean pocket. However, the trade-off is a smaller battery capacity when it comes to the extra charge. But that didn’t affect my experience to much as you’ll see later in the review. The sleek, glossy finish also makes the true wireless earphones look a whole lot more premium.

Performance

Sound Quality

While the size of the ear pieces seems to have gotten a little smaller, the sound quality definitely has not. The Galaxy Buds plus has pretty decent quality out of the box. The overall sound was warm with clear mids and highs and punchy lows. In fact, I would say the Buds+ has a lot more boom than the Buds. It’s not a bad thing – it helps round out the sound pretty well. That said, unless your listening to things like EDM, Pop or some rock; you may not be looking to get too much bass in your sound.

Thankfully, Samsung’s wearables app comes with an equalizer which you can use to fine tune the sound to your liking. I found myself toning down the bass during my time with the Buds+. That said, Samsung’s adapt sound technology also made the experience better. However, if these options are too basic, the Google Play Store and Samsung’s own Galaxy Store have a wide array of apps you can use to tune the audio to your liking.That said, the overall sound quality of the Buds+ is definitely an improvement. In fact, it could be one of the best within its price range. The AKG tuning really makes a difference. The wholesome sound quality gives you a relatively large sound stage and audio clarity.

The mics on the Buds plus are also pretty impressive. The were able to pick up sound and eliminate ambient noise very effectively. In fact, some dedicated hands-free devices paled in comparison. Even ambient sound on the Buds+ is improved as well. The sound that you get through the earphone is less robotic and tinny. Samsung has made it a lot more natural sounding. That said, you still get bionic hearing with the Buds+. With ambient mode active you’ll be able to hear conversations from pretty far away. My only gripe with the Ambient Sound is that there was no intelligent mode for it – you’re triggering it via the Samsung Wearable app or through touch gestures.

The touch gestures on the Buds plus have gotten very limited, in my honest opinion. When I was reviewing the IconX and the Galaxy Buds, the versatility of the touchpad enhanced the experience of using the Buds. However, with the Galaxy Buds+ you’re relegated to using tap gestures with no options for swipe. The Buds+ only recognises single, double and triple taps which made using them a little less intuitive.

Battery Life

The battery on the Galaxy Buds+ is definitely something to sing about. A whopping 11 hours on a single charge! I only managed to drain the Buds+ completely once during my time with them. Even then, I was literally trying to figure out the actual battery life when I was using them. That said, the Buds+ lasted me about 10 hours on a single charge. This is discounting the recharge capacity of the case. I could have easily gotten more than 20 hours with the extra battery capacity in the casing.

With my regular use, I was only charging the Buds+ and its casing once in 4 to 7 days. Typically, I used one side more than the other as it became my go to “hands-free” headset while driving. I was using it about 2 to 3 hours daily for music while working and also travel in the car. That said, the Buds+’s case is constantly charging the earpieces and we couldn’t verify whether battery life is affected by this over time. In general, constant charging can cause the battery to degrade over time.

That said, the Galaxy Buds+ comes with some pretty potent charging technology which makes charging the buds up simple and convenient. If you’re on an Android device which supports it, you can use the reverse wireless charging from your phone if you really need it or, if you’re like me, you’ll find yourself parking your Galaxy Buds+ on a wireless charger just to keep it topped up. If you need a quicker charging solution, you can use the USB-C charger which came with your smartphone to get the charge you need. Using wireless charging, the Galaxy Buds+ was fully charged within about 2 hours while wired charging was about 45 minutes.

A Budding Plus

The Galaxy Buds Plus is a definitely a step up overall from the competition and even compared to its previous iterations. Samsung has spent some time improving on some of the gripes users have highlighted in the past and improved on the must have features. The AKG audio tuning brings a premium touch to the rather affordable true wireless earbuds giving it warm, well rounded sound enhanced by Samsung’s Adaptive Sound and made even more personal with a robust equalizer that comes in the Samsung Wearables app. While the Buds+ does have all this, it is lacking when it comes to intuitive interaction via the touch pad; something we’re pretty sure that Samsung can fix with a small update. That said, it’s a near complete package with commendable sound.

PR Newswire

Envision Digital announces new management hires in ongoing global expansion

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Nine new senior executives signal Envision Digital’s rapid global expansion in key APAC and EMEA markets

SINGAPORE, July 29, 2020 — Global green tech, Artificial Intelligence and Internet of Things (AIoT) technology leader, Envision Digital International Pte Ltd (“Envision Digital”), today announced the appointment of nine new management hires as the company expands to deliver on its Net Zero Carbon and automation promises.  

The appointments follow the recent announcement of Envision Digital’s expansion into the German marketplace, which marks the 12th global office for the company. 

Envision Digital brings together AIoT to enable machine to machine, no human touch, real-time optimisation of key assets in the energy, building, manufacturing and city spaces. This includes solutions for solar or wind electricity generation, smart battery charging and load balancing, heating ventilation and air conditioning, field fault detection, predictive maintenance and asset optimisation, security and safety, as well as alerting.

Sylvie Ouziel, International President of Envision Digital International, says: “I am thrilled to welcome those new executives to our global team. We share the same vision and ambition towards a decarbonised and efficient world which reconciles performance and sustainability. Given the extreme economic and societal challenges the planet is facing, our corporate focus is to continuously support sustainable business growth while ensuring safe and efficient operations for public and private organisations. I am confident that our new colleagues will massively contribute to collectively reach those objectives.”

Five of the nine new hires serve global remits and three of them are based in San Francisco, California. They are the Global Chief Product Integration Officer (CPIO), Chief Information Security Officer (CISO), and Global Common Products Lead. Based out of Paris, France is the new Head of Global Digital Grid and Vehicle to Grid (V2G) Centre of Excellence (CoE). Based out of Singapore is the new Head of the Smart City and Decarbonisation domain.

Thomas Kiessling has been appointed as Global Chief Product Integration Officer (CPIO). Thomas will coordinate the architecture of Envision Digital’s offerings between the technology platforms and functional domains to maximise client value whilst fostering reusability and interoperability. He will also play a leading role in promoting Envision Digital’s solutions to key industry stakeholders, including industry analysts, software and system integration partners. Thomas has held various C-suite roles in the past, such as serving as the Chief Product and Innovation Officer of Deutsch Telekom. His most recent role was co-founder and Chief Technology Officer (CTO) of predictive IoT platform, AMPLY Power, Inc., specialising in electric vehicle (EV) smart charging systems.

Al Ghous joins as Global Chief Information Security Officer (CISO), bringing over 18 years of experience in cybersecurity strategy and operations, information and product security, and risk management. Al joins from his previous role as Chief Security Officer (CSO) at ServiceMax, a global asset-centric field service management company. He is also the co-founder of SVCI, a group of CISOs that operate as an angel investor syndicate.

Matthew Brocklehurst joins as the Global Common Products Lead for Envision Digital, leading new innovations, products and platform strategy, and enhancing existing offerings with a focus on renewables and energy storage. Matthew joins from his previous role as CTO at Power Factors, a performance optimisation platform for the renewable energy industry.

Xavier Becuwe joins as Head of Global Digital Grid and V2G CoE. He will lead a team of experts based in Paris and take responsibility of Envision Digital’s solutions in the Smart Grid and V2G Ecosystem. Xavier brings more than 13 years of experience in smart technologies, with a focus on smart grid and electro-mobility, developing innovations, building capacity and delivering solutions to major customers across Europe and Asia.

Ynse de Boer joins as the Smart City and Decarbonisation International Domain Lead, based out of Singapore. He will lead the development and deployment of Smart City, Smart Spaces and Corporate Decarbonisation programs. In his previous role at Accenture, Ynse built and led Accenture’s Strategy and Sustainability practices for Asia Pacific based in Singapore first, and more recently for a region comprised of France, Belgium, Luxemburg and the Netherlands.

The global hires will report to Sylvie Ouziel, International President of Envision Digital.

In APAC, Envision Digital has hired a Delivery Lead based in Singapore, Envision Digital’s global headquarters.

Saqib Khan joins the APAC team as Delivery Lead, directly reporting to Robin Li, head of the Global Solutions and Services Centre (GSSC) in Singapore. Saqib will ensure delivery excellence of client projects across the region. Beyond management duties, his role includes defining solutions and leading the implementation of large programs notably related to smart plans and assets management, where his personal expertise lies. Saqib has previously held roles as a Consulting Director at Deloitte and Principal Director at Accenture.

Complementing the Envision Digital leadership team, three new hires take various roles in Europe across operations and finance.

Marc Chevenement joins as Operations Director of Envision Digital France. He will be responsible for end-to-end client and partner projects, developing new partnerships within various industry verticals, as well as supporting cross-entity battery and wind turbine projects. Marc brings experience in industrial operations and digital business transformation, previously holding a variety of roles in automotive, consulting, and insurance at PSA, Accenture and Allianz.

Matthias Felber joins as Head of Operations for Envision Digital’s Germany retail activities, coordinating and implementing Envision Digital’s EV charging solution. Matthias brings over 20 years of experience across a range of business verticals, most recently serving as Managing Director of strategic digital consultancy, Neusta Accelerate.

Sabine Moser joins as the Finance Director of Envision Digital in Germany. She joins from intelligent automation solution provider, KUKA, previously serving as the Director of Finance for the EMEA region.

Sabine and Matthias will report to the new Managing Director of Envision Digital Germany, Drazen Nikolic, who was appointed in May this year, while Marc will report to Sylvie Ouziel, International President of Envision Digital.

About Envision Digital

Envision Digital is a global AIoT technology leader headquartered in Singapore with over 500 employees across 12 offices in China, France, Norway, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom and the United States.   

Envision Digital owns EnOS™ – the world-class AIoT operating system which currently connects and manages over 63 million smart devices and 120GW of energy assets globally. Its monitoring, advanced analytics, forecasting and optimising applications provide insights to help clients better manage their assets and portfolio performance. Its offering extends to Smart Renewables (Solar, Wind); Smart Cities; Connected Energy; and Smart Plants; partnering governments and companies in their digital transformation journey. 

As a major player in AIoT operating systems, Envision Digital is growing an ecosystem of partners to enable energy and digital transformation globally. Its growing list of over 250 customers and partners spans across ten industries and includes: Accenture, Amazon Web Services, GovTech Singapore, Keppel, Microsoft, Nissan, PSA International, PTT, Sonnen, Tableau and Total. 

For more information, visit www.envision-digital.com

Related Links :

http://www.envision-digital.com

PR Newswire

IBM Report: Compromised Employee Accounts Led to Most Expensive Data Breaches Over Past Year

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Customer Personal Data Exposed in 80% of Breaches Analyzed; AI and Automation Significantly Reduce Costs

CAMBRIDGE, Mass., July 29, 2020 — IBM Security (NYSE: IBM) announced today the results of a global study examining the financial impact of data breaches, revealing that these incidents cost companies studied $3.86 million per breach on average, and that compromised employee accounts were the most expensive root cause. Based on in-depth analysis of data breaches experienced by over 500 organizations worldwide, 80% of these incidents resulted in the exposure of customers’ personally identifiable information (PII). Out of all types of data exposed in these breaches, customer PII was also the costliest to businesses studied.

Customer PII was the most commonly exposed type of data in a breach, according to IBM-Ponemon 2020 Cost of a Data Breach Report (PRNewsFoto/IBM)
Customer PII was the most commonly exposed type of data in a breach, according to IBM-Ponemon 2020 Cost of a Data Breach Report (PRNewsFoto/IBM)

As companies are increasingly accessing sensitive data via new remote work and cloud-based business operations, the report sheds light on the financial losses that organizations can suffer if this data is compromised. A separate IBM study found that over half of surveyed employees new to working from home due to the pandemic have not been provided with new guidelines on how to handle customer PII, despite the changing risk models associated with this shift.

Sponsored by IBM Security and conducted by the Ponemon Institute, the 2020 Cost of a Data Breach Report is based on in-depth interviews with more than 3,200 security professional in organizations that suffered a data breach over the past year.1 Some of the top findings from this year’s report include:

  • Smart Tech Slashes Breach Costs in Half: Companies studied who had fully deployed security automation technologies (which leverage AI, analytics and automated orchestration to identify and respond to security events) experienced less than half the data breach costs compared to those who didn’t have these tools deployed – $2.45 million vs. $6.03 million on average.
  • Paying a Premium for Compromised Credentials: In incidents where attackers accessed corporate networks through the use of stolen or compromised credentials, studied businesses saw nearly $1 million higher data breach costs compared to the global average – reaching $4.77 million per data breach. Exploiting third-party vulnerabilities was the second costliest root cause of malicious breaches ($4.5 million) for this group.   
  • Mega Breach2 Costs Soar by the Millions: Breaches wherein over 50 million records were compromised saw costs jump to $392 million from $388 million the previous year. Breaches where 40 to 50 million records were exposed cost studied companies $364 million on average, a cost increase of $19 million compared to the 2019 report.
  • Nation State Attacks – The Most Damaging Breaches: Data breaches believed to originate from nation state attacks were the costliest, compared to other threat actors examined in the report. State-sponsored attacks averaged $4.43 million in data breach costs, surpassing both financially motivated cybercriminals and hacktivists.

“When it comes to businesses’ ability to mitigate the impact of a data breach, we’re beginning to see a clear advantage held by companies that have invested in automated technologies,” said Wendi Whitmore, Vice President, IBM X-Force Threat Intelligence. “At a time when businesses are expanding their digital footprint at an accelerated pace and the security industry’s talent shortage persists, teams can be overwhelmed securing more devices, systems and data. Security automation can help resolve this burden, not only supporting a faster breach response but a more cost-efficient one as well.”

Employee Credentials and Misconfigured Clouds ­– Attackers’ Entry Point of Choice
Stolen or compromised credentials and cloud misconfigurations were the most common causes of a malicious breach for companies in the report, representing nearly 40% of malicious incidents. With over 8.5 billion records exposed in 2019, and attackers using previously exposed emails and passwords in one out of five breaches studied, businesses should rethink their security strategy via the adoption of a zero-trust approach – reexamining how they authenticate users and the extent of access users are granted.

Similarly, companies’ struggle with security complexity – a top breach cost factor – is likely contributing to cloud misconfigurations becoming a growing security challenge. The 2020 report revealed that attackers used cloud misconfigurations to breach networks nearly 20% of the time, increasing breach costs by more than half a million dollars to $4.41 million on average – making it the third most expensive initial infection vector examined in the report.

State Sponsored Attacks Strike Heaviest
Despite representing just 13% of malicious breaches studied, state-sponsored threat actors were the most damaging type of adversary according to the 2020 report, suggesting that financially motivated attacks (53%) don’t necessarily translate into higher financial losses for businesses. The highly tactical nature, longevity and stealth maneuvers of state-backed attacks, as well as the high value data targeted, often result in a more extensive compromise of victim environments, increasing breach costs to an average of $4.43 million.

In fact, the respondents in the Middle East, a region that historically experiences a higher proportion of state-sponsored attacks compared to other parts of the world3, saw over 9% yearly rise in their average breach cost, incurring the second highest average breach cost ($6.52 million) amongst the 17 regions studied. Similarly, businesses studied in the energy sector, one of the most frequently targeted industries by nation states, experienced a 14% increase in breach costs year over year, averaging $6.39 million.

Advanced Security Technologies Prove Smart for Business
The report highlights the growing divide in breach costs between businesses implementing advanced security technologies and those lagging behind, revealing a cost-saving difference of $3.58 million for studied companies with fully deployed security automation versus those that have yet to deploy this type of technology. The cost gap has grown by $2 million, from a difference of $1.55 million in 2018.

Companies in the study with fully deployed security automation also reported a significantly shorter response time to breaches, another key factor shown to reduce breach costs in the analysis. The report found that AI, machine learning, analytics and other forms of security automation enabled companies to respond to breaches over 27% faster on average, than companies that have yet to deploy security automation – the latter of which require on average 74 additional days to identify and contain a breach.

Incident response (IR) preparedness also continues to heavily influence the financial aftermath of a breach. According to the report, companies with neither an IR team nor testing of IR plans experience $5.29 million in average breach costs, whereas companies that have both an IR team and use tabletop exercises or simulations to test IR plans experience $2 million less in breach costs – reaffirming that preparedness and readiness yield a significant ROI in cybersecurity.

Some additional findings from this year’s report include:

  • Remote Work Risk Will Have a Cost: With hybrid work models creating less controlled environments, the report found that 70% of companies studied that adopted telework amid the pandemic expect it will exacerbate data breach costs.
  • CISOs Faulted for Breaches, Despite Limited Decision-Making Power: Forty-six percent of respondents said the CISO/CSO is ultimately held responsible for the breach, despite only 27% stating the CISO/CSO is the security policy and technology decision-maker. The report found that appointing a CISO was associated with $145,000 cost savings versus the average cost of a breach.
  • Majority of Cyber Insured Businesses Use Claims for Third Party Fees: The report found that breaches at studied organizations with cyber insurance cost on average nearly $200,000 less than the global average of $3.86 million. In fact, of these organizations that used their cyber insurance, 51% applied it to cover third-party consulting fees and legal services, while 36% of organizations used it for victim restitution costs. Only 10% used claims to cover the cost of ransomware or extortion.
  • Regional & Industry Insights: While studied companies in the U.S. continued to experience the highest data breach costs in the world, at $8.64 million on average, those studied in Scandinavia experienced the biggest year over year increase in breach costs, observing a nearly 13% rise. Responding healthcare companies continued to incur the highest average breach costs at $7.13 million — an over 10% increase compared to the 2019 study.

About the Study
The annual Cost of a Data Breach Report is based on in-depth analysis of real-world data breaches experienced by over 500 organizations worldwide taking place between August 2019 and April 2020, taking into account hundreds of cost factors including legal, regulatory and technical activities to loss of brand equity, customers, and employee productivity.

To download a copy of the 2020 Cost of a Data Breach Report, please visit: ibm.com/databreach

Sign up for the 2020 Cost of a Data Breach Report webinar on Wednesday, August 12, 2020 at 11:00 a.m. ET here: https://ibm.biz/BdqhMf

About IBM Security
IBM Security offers one of the most advanced and integrated portfolios of enterprise security products and services. The portfolio, supported by world-renowned IBM X-Force® research, enables organizations to effectively manage risk and defend against emerging threats. IBM operates one of the world’s broadest security research, development and delivery organizations, monitors 70 billion security events per day in more than 130 countries, and has been granted more than 10,000 security patents worldwide. For more information, please check www.ibm.com/security, follow @IBMSecurity on Twitter or visit the IBM Security Intelligence blog.

1 Report analyzes data breaches occurring between August 2019 and April 2020. Limitations of the report’s methodology can be found in the report.
2 The 2020 Cost of a Data Breach Report examines the cost of a mega breach, namely breaches involving the loss or theft of one million records or more, based on a separate analysis of a specific sample.
3 According to the IBM 2020 X-Force Threat Intelligence Index: https://ibm.biz/downloadxforcethreatindex

Press Contact:
IBM Security Media Relations
Georgia Prassinos
gprassinos@ibm.com 
(571) 365-6065

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CIGNEX Datamatics Honored With UiPath’s Partner Excellence Awards 2020

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The award celebrates the contributions of partners who made a difference by successfully customizing RPA solutions for customers with specific needs across industries and helping them drive business value

LIVONIA, Mich., July 29, 2020 — CIGNEX Datamatics, a leading provider of Digital Transformation through Open Source, Cloud and Automation technology solutions, was honored by UiPath, a leading enterprise Robotic Process Automation (RPA) software company with a coveted Partner Excellence Award for the Y2020 on July 28, under the category – India Regional Partner of the year – North.

 

This prestigious award was bestowed to partners based on their commitment, innovation, impact in the marketplace, ability to scale and capability & capacity building on UiPath hyperautomation platform. A total of 15 winners were selected across categories from UiPath’s extensive partner ecosystem comprising over 200+ organizations across South Asia.

“We are extremely honored to receive this award from UiPath,” said Harish Ramachandran, CEO, CIGNEX Datamatics. “Our aim has always been to improve customer experience by adopting new digital technologies and it’s very rewarding to see our solutions bringing significant value to our customers and community members. This award is an acknowledgement to the amazing work our team has delivered that has benefited both UiPath and CIGNEX Datamatics’ customers,” he added

Manish Bharti, President, UiPath India and South Asia, said, “We are delighted to honour the winners for the UiPath Partner Excellence Awards. Over the last year, our partners have been instrumental in helping the customers start their RPA journey and ensure timely, high quality implementation. In recent times, they have stepped up and gone the extra mile in supporting government, public institutions, and enterprises in building new use cases to combat the current challenges. My heartiest congratulations to CIGNEX Datamatics Technologies.”

Murli Mohan, Vice-President, India Business, UiPath, said, “Our partners form the backbone of our ecosystem and support us in providing the best outcomes for our customers. These awards are our way of recognizing and celebrating the partners who have done innovative work this past year. We congratulate CIGNEX Datamatics Technologies for winning the India Regional Partner of the year – North award.”

UiPath has cultivated the world’s largest RPA community exceeding 7,000 customers, including more than 65 percent of the Fortune 500 and eight of the Fortune 10, as a result of UiPath’s ease of use, scalability and open platform.

Having invested in RPA since 2016, CIGNEX Datamatics has built an RPA Center of Excellence (CoE) with certified RPA professionals (over 150+ UiPath certifications accomplished by 60+ RPA experts), who are helping customers achieve their automation goals with quality RPA solutions.

More information on CIGNEX Datamatics’ UiPath Expertise can be found here.

About CIGNEX Datamatics ( www.cignex.com )

CIGNEX Datamatics, a subsidiary of Datamatics Global Services Ltd., is a Michigan based global consulting company offering solutions & services on Open Source, Cloud and Automation. Since 2000, CIGNEX Datamatics has been delivering enterprise class solutions built using leading platforms & tools, which can be integrated with existing systems to achieve unparalleled results.

About UiPath ( www.uipath.com )

UiPath has a vision to deliver A Robot for Every Person, one where companies enable every employee to use, create, and benefit from the transformative power of automation to liberate the boundless potential of people. Only UiPath offers an end-to-end platform for hyperautomation, combining the leading Robotic Process Automation (RPA) solution with a full suite of capabilities that enable every organization to scale digital business operations at unprecedented speed. The company has already automated millions of repetitive tasks for over 65% of the Fortune 500 and 8 of the Fortune 10.    

Named a 2020 CNBC Disruptor 50 company, UiPath was recognized as the fastest growing technology company in the Americas according to FT Americas’ Fastest Growing Companies 2020 and named the top company on Deloitte’s 2019 Technology Fast 500, a ranking of the fastest public and private technology companies in North America. 

Media Contact
Priyanka Sharma
Head of Marketing
CIGNEX Datamatics
priyankap.sharma@cignex.com
+91-07967010345

PR Newswire

Geek+ and Kuecker Logistics Group Announces Distribution Agreement

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Geek+ and Kuecker Logistics Group enter a distribution partnership to provide smart logistics robotics solutions to customers across North America

SAN DIEGO, California, July 29, 2020 — Geek+, a global AMR leader, announced a beginning of a new distribution partnership with Kuecker Logistics Group (KLG), a material handling systems integrator, to provide smart logistics solutions to customers across North America.

With an already extensive portfolio of successful cases across industries and a wide variety of AI-driven robotics solutions, Geek+ is partnering up with KLG, enabling an upgrade of the system integrators already broad range of services provided, from supply chain management and industrial automation to life cycle services and more.

Rick DeFiesta, Director of Business Development and Partnership at Geek+, said: “We are happy to be partnering up with an experienced integrator whose customer-first mentality has earned them a good reputation throughout North America, and are confident that the customized smart robotics solutions of Geek+ will leverage KLG’s know-how in the material handling industry.”

Jim Kuecker, Vice President of Systems at KLG, said: “We look forward to working together to offer our customers a flexible and robust portfolio of technologically advanced robotics solutions for logistics, and recognize the ability of Geek+ to design and build systems that, not only bring advantages of increased throughput and storage capacity, but reduces the overall reliance on labor, mitigating against various warehousing costs and logistics bottlenecks.”

The distribution agreement allows KLG to offer Geek+ robotics solutions so as to improve efficiency, provide flexibility, and reduce costs associated with warehouse and logistics operations, especially in regard to fast-growing industries, such as e-commerce and online retail, often subject to an overall need for solutions that can enable businesses to meet higher customer expectations, flexibly scale operations and meet fluctuations in demand. 

About Geek+

Geek+ is global technology company leading the intelligent logistics revolution. We apply advanced robotics and AI technologies to realize flexible, reliable and highly efficient solutions for warehouses and supply chain management. Geek+ counts 300 global customers and has deployed more than 10,000 robots worldwide. Founded in 2015, Geek+ has over 800 employees and is headquartered in Beijing, with offices in Germany, the UK, the US, Japan, Hong Kong and Singapore.

For more information, please visit https://www.geekplus.com/ 

About Kuecker Logistics Group

Since 1980, Kuecker Logistics Group has been an MHE integrator that has grown into an end-to-end provider of Supply Chain Solutions that range from Engineering Services, Systems Integration, to Life Cycle Services. They are a family-owned private company. Kuecker Logistics Group was founded with a customer-first focus and although they are growing, their focus remains the same. Kuecker Logistics Group is working with a wide portfolio of companies on their Distribution and Fulfillment Center needs.

For more information, please visit https://www.kuecker.com/ 

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http://geekplus.com.cn