China’s ICBC collects credit risk technology implementation award from Asian Banker in 2020
BEIJING, Sept. 15, 2020 —
Highlights:
ICBC Credit Card Centre has been recognized for its credit risk technology implementation with a prestigious award from The Asian Banker in 2020.
Responsive, high-speed iteration of decision management strategies was key to gaining an edge over competitors.
As of the end of June 2020, ICBC has issued more than 160 million credit cards.
Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC), the world’s biggest bank and issuer of credit cards, has seen its innovative and extensive use of FICO decision management technology recognized with the Credit Risk Technology Implementation of the Year Award from The Asian Banker.
The award from Asian Banker is one of the most prestigious in the financial services industry for Asia-Pacific and acknowledges the bank’s industry leadership in the field of risk control.
"ICBC Credit Card has achieved some remarkable results using decision management technology in its business and we are thrilled they have been recognized in this way," saidSandy Wang, managing director of FICO China. "The team at Industrial and Commercial Bank of China has been focused on providing world-class customer-centric solutions for its credit card customers and they continue to be one of our most innovative and advanced clients in terms of their approach to analytics."
As of the end of June 2020, ICBC has issued more than 160 million credit cards and served more than 100 million customers, maintaining its position as the world’s largest credit card issuing bank with the largest number of customers. The bank has over 8 million corporate customers and 650 million consumer customers worldwide.
One of ICBC’s stated aims is to build "China’s No. 1 Credit Card Brand". After launching FICO® Blaze Advisor® decision rules management system, the bank successfully applied the technology to multiple decision-making areas of the credit card center and established a comprehensive intelligent risk control system.
To deliver on the demand for agile deployment of decision management across the business, ICBC Credit Card Center worked closely with FICO’s experts to establish a team to manage the rapid handling of production problems. ICBC also adjusted the development process and innovated a set of efficient working models to promote rapid strategy development as they saw responsive, high-speed iteration and continuous learning as key to gaining an edge on the competition.
"We are very honored to work with ICBC Credit Card and to have played a part in helping them to win this award," concluded Wang. "Decision management is both art and science and the team at ICBC has managed to combine both skills when deploying this technology. FICO’s decision management platform is being widely adopted in the finance industry, especially as banks look to the current and future digital transformation of their business."
About ICBC Industrial and Commercial Bank of China was established on 1 January 1984. On 28 October 2005, the Bank was wholly restructured to a joint-stock limited company. On 27 October 2006, the Bank was successfully listed on both Shanghai Stock Exchange and The Stock Exchange of Hong Kong Limited. Through its continuous endeavours and stable development, the Bank has developed into the leading bank in the world, possessing an excellent customer base, a diversified business structure, strong innovation capabilities and market competitiveness. The Bank regards service as the very foundation to seek further development and adheres to creating value through services while providing a comprehensive range of financial products and services to 8,098 thousand corporate customers and 650 million personal customers.
About FICO FICO (NYSE: FICO) powers decisions that help people and businesses around the world prosper. Founded in 1956 and based in Silicon Valley, the company is a pioneer in the use of predictive analytics and data science to improve operational decisions. FICO holds more than 195 US and foreign patents on technologies that increase profitability, customer satisfaction and growth for businesses in financial services, manufacturing, telecommunications, health care, retail and many other industries. Using FICO solutions, businesses in more than 100 countries do everything from protecting 2.6 billion payment cards from fraud, to helping people get credit, to ensuring that millions of airplanes and rental cars are in the right place at the right time.
HAYWARD, California, Sept. 15, 2020 — Ultra Clean Holdings, Inc. (Nasdaq: UCTT), today announced that its Service Businesses, QuantumClean and ChemTrace, will demonstrate how their ultra-high purity chamber tool part cleaning, proprietary coatings and micro-contamination analytical testing can help reduce Cost of Ownership (CoO) for wafer fabs and OEMs. QuantumClean and ChemTrace will showcase these solutions at booth I2130 at SEMICON Taiwan 2020 at the Nangang Exhibition Center in TaipeiSeptember 23 – 25, 2020.
"Customers are increasingly recognizing the advantage of our cleaning and analytical technology that optimizes productivity and helps to reduce total CoO throughout the product’s lifecycle," said Bill Bentinck, President, UCT Semiconductor Services Business. "We are excited to demonstrate how our differentiated service offerings can improve operations by solving critical semiconductor process chamber part-related manufacturing challenges at SEMICON Taiwan."
A series of presentations will be offered to IDMs, OEMs, OPMs and foundries on how they may increase productivity and reduce CoO for ALD, CVD, diffusion, etch, ion implant and PVD process tools. Booth staff will show how cleaner chambers start-up quicker, faster part turnaround times reduce inventory, longer MTBCs improve productivity and reduce PM costs, and how less aggressive cleaning methods and recoating can extend part life.
About Ultra Clean Holdings, Inc.
Ultra Clean Holdings, Inc. is a leading developer and supplier of critical subsystems, ultra-high purity cleaning and analytical services primarily for the semiconductor industry. Ultra Clean offers its customers an integrated outsourced solution for major subassemblies, improved design-to-delivery cycle times, design for manufacturability, prototyping and component manufacturing, and tool chamber parts cleaning and coating, as well as microcontamination analytical services. Ultra Clean is headquartered in Hayward, California. Additional information is available at www.uct.com.
Forward-looking Statements
The foregoing information contains, or may be deemed to contain, "forward-looking statements" (as defined in the US Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995) which reflect our current views with respect to future events and financial performance. We use words such as "anticipates," "projection," "outlook," "forecast," "believes," "plan," "may," "expect," "future," "intends," "may," "will," "estimates," "see," "predicts," and similar expressions to identify these forward-looking statements. Forward looking statements included in this press release include our expectations about the contributions of Ms. Seto to our Board of Directors. All forward-looking statements address matters that involve risks and uncertainties. Accordingly, the Company’s actual results may differ materially from the results predicted or implied by these forward-looking statements. These risks, uncertainties and other factors also include, among others, those identified in "Risk Factors," "Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations” and elsewhere in our annual report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 28, 2018 as filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission and subsequently filed quarterly reports on Form 10-Q. Ultra Clean Holdings, Inc. undertakes no obligation to publicly update or review any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future developments or otherwise unless required by law.
Solution delivers standard, out of the box integration to customers through interoperability with SAP® Solutions
LONDON, Sept. 14, 2020 — Earnd Pty Ltd today announced its Earnd 1.0.0 has achieved SAP certified integration with SAP NetWeaver and Earnd.APPtoECC.OnDemandPay 1.0.0 has achieved SAP certified integration with Cloud Solutions.
The solution has been proven to integrate with SAP® solutions, providing easier implementation for payroll and technology companies. The SAP certified solution includes a pre-built SAP dashboard to see how employees are using the Earnd app, and repayments can be automatically deducted from users’ payroll with no administrative work required.
The SAP Integration and Certification Center (SAP ICC) has certified that the content package Earnd 1.0.0 integrates with SAP NetWeaver and Earnd.APPtoECC.OnDemandPay 1.0.0integrates with SAP Cloud Platform Integration Suite
"We are extremely pleased to announce the successful launch and SAP certification of our Earnd solutions. This solution will help streamline technical integration, enabling employees to use our on-demand pay solution even quicker than ever," said Josh Vernon, Head of Earnd. "We are excited to provide the thousands of companies using SAP technology with an option to easily integrate into the Earnd platform and begin offering the benefits to their employees," said Maex Ament, Vice Chairman, Product and Technology for Earnd’s parent company, Greensill.
In addition, Earnd continues to participate in the SAP PartnerEdge® program. Through the program, partners work closely with SAP to develop and certify the technical integration of their solutions with SAP software. Integrated partner applications extend, complement and add value to SAP solutions, thereby helping mutual customers more successfully meet business needs and drive strong results.
About Earnd Our mission is to help people take control of the money they’ve earned. Earnd is made possible by Greensill, who have been helping small businesses get paid quicker for almost a decade. From London to San Francisco to Sydney, we’re making real-time pay work for real people.
Earnd is a trademark of Greensill.
Any statements in this release that are not historical facts are forward-looking statements as defined in the U.S. Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. All forward-looking statements are subject to various risks and uncertainties described in SAP’s filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission ("SEC), including its most recent annual report on Form 20-F, that could cause actual results to differ materially from expectations. SAP cautions readers not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements which SAP has no obligation to update and which speak only as of their dates.
SAP and other SAP products and services mentioned herein as well as their respective logos are trademarks or registered trademarks of SAP SE in Germany and other countries. Please see https://www.sap.com/copyright for additional trademark information and notices. All other product and service names mentioned are the trademarks of their respective companies.
Jungle Scout’s Global Imports Report reveals international trade stats from 2015-2020, explores potential impact from COVID-19
AUSTIN, Texas, Sept. 14, 2020 — Today, Jungle Scout, the leading all-in-one platform for selling on Amazon, released a new report exploring the fast-changing landscape of global trade to the United States, and revealing the unprecedented drop in annual U.S. imports for 2020.
The 2020 Global Imports Report explores U.S. maritime import data from 2015-2020 from all countries and across all industries, and highlights major shifts in global leaders and how the international trade landscape has shifted during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Key insights include:
U.S. imports are projected to be down 5% for 2020.
Although imports to the U.S. have climbed steadily in past years, total 2020 imports are projected to be down 4.8% year-over-year by the end of 2020.
143 countries had reduced exports to the U.S. between the first half of 2019 to the first half of 2020, with an average drop of 21%.
China recovered from its February and March import drops and has dominated in 2020.
With 41% of the total share of U.S. imports, China maintains a massive lead on all 200+ countries exporting goods to the U.S. China is also the leader for every product category.
China had the most drastic year-over-year reduction in U.S. imports in February and March, but bounced back significantly in April to 40% year-over-year growth. In June, China was the only country to see positive year-over-year growth.
Vietnam has climbed the ranks of biggest suppliers to the U.S., rising from #6 in 2015 to #2 in 2020.
Vietnam’s total exports to the U.S. are up 72% and its share of U.S. imports increased 65% since 2015. For comparison, nearly all other top-10 U.S. suppliers’ shares dropped in the same time period, with the exception of small increases for China, Belgium, and Thailand.
Higher rates of COVID-19 are associated with reduced U.S. imports.
China, Vietnam, and Thailand all saw a stark reduction in COVID-19 cases and related deaths in April, May, and/or June, and were simultaneously among the few countries with positive year-over-year import numbers. Comparatively, in India, when COVID-19 cases began rising in March, India’s U.S. imports dropped drastically, and both trends continued through June.
Countries that recovered early from 2020’s economic disruption were more likely to "bounce back" — and all are in Asia.
During the first half of 2020, only five of 20 countries had net-positive growth over the same period in 2019, and all are in Asia: China, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam.
Although Vietnam, Malaysia and Singapore saw year-over-year growth of over 100% in February and March, their increases didn’t offset the massive share of imports lost from China during those months.
"Economic disruption is nothing new for 2020, but some of the effects of the year’s turbulence are only just starting to appear," said Greg Mercer, CEO of Jungle Scout. "American small businesses and enterprises alike depend on imports, so it’s critical to keep a close eye on changes in consumer demand and global supply chains to be able to adapt."
About the 2020 Global Imports Report All data represents United States maritime imports from January 1, 2015, to June 30, 2020 from 237 unique countries. Jungle Scout analyzed more than 63 million maritime U.S. import records, including information on the shipper and shipment, from which country and category are extracted.
About Jungle Scout Jungle Scout is the leading all-in-one platform for selling on Amazon. Founded in 2015 as the first Amazon product research tool, Jungle Scout today features a full suite of best-in-class business management solutions and powerful market intelligence resources to help entrepreneurs and brands manage their ecommerce businesses. Jungle Scout is headquartered in Austin, Texas and supports nine global Amazon marketplaces. Read more at www.junglescout.com.
HAIKOU, China, Sept. 14, 2020 — The construction of the Hainan free trade port has picked up steam since Chinese authorities drew up a plan for it three months ago, demonstrating China’s commitment to opening up amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
Aerial photo taken on April 3, 2020 shows a view of Hainan’s Boao Lecheng pilot zone of international medical tourism in south China’s Hainan Province.
With supporting policy packages, Hainan is becoming a popular destination for foreign investment and enterprises.
So far, the free trade port has landed a total of 94 major projects including 20 foreign-funded ones, covering sectors such as tourism, modern service and high-tech industries.
"The launch of these projects will bring new growth not only to the free trade port but also to global investors," said Han Shengjian, director of the Hainan International Economic Development Bureau.
On Sept. 3, the last day of a three-day promotional event in a duty-free shop in Hainan’s resort city of Sanya, Chu Yadong scurried back and forth in the shop, picking out skincare products and makeup for his relatives.
From July 1, Hainan has increased its annual tax-free shopping quota from 30,000 yuan (about 4,389 U.S. dollars) to 100,000 yuan per person.
According to official data, sales from four offshore duty-free shops in Hainan topped 5 billion yuan from July 1 to Aug. 18, an increase of 250 percent year on year, with an average daily turnover of over 100 million yuan.
The Boao Lecheng pilot zone of international medical tourism, a platform to explore the country’s development of international medical tourism-related businesses and services, launched a special type of drug insurance on Aug. 2.
It covers 70 anti-cancer drugs from around the globe for 35 common cancers, including 49 that have yet to be approved for sale in the Chinese mainland market. The annual premium for Hainan residents is only 29 yuan per person, while the insurance covers up to 1 million yuan in drug costs.
Yan Lukai, an official with the pilot zone administration, said as an innovation of the free trade port construction, the insurance enables Hainan residents to share the policy dividends.
"Hainan is building a people-centered free trade port, which will not only make Hainan people gain a strong sense of happiness, but also share the development opportunities with people across the country as well as enterprises and skilled workers from all over the world," said Liu Cigui, Party secretary of Hainan.
Screen time, eye fatigue and eye strain are phrases that are becoming increasingly common nowadays; more-so since the COVID-19 pandemic has forced many of us to work remotely. The increased screen time has cause many of us to feel the effects of eye fatigue and eye strain more intensely as we try to stay afloat during the pandemic.
Our eyes are something we commonly take for granted. However, they are one of our more important organs; particularly when it comes to navigating and contributing in the world we live in. You may be thinking, why is a tech website talking about our eye health? Well, the truth is, we should be talking about it more as we are, inevitably, interacting with technology on a daily basis.
So, let’s get down to it. Growing up, many of our parents and grandparents used to tell us to not sit too close to the TV. Back then, this was because the resolution of the idiot boxes were so low that going too close would cause eye strain. Nowadays, we’re interacting with screens at every corner from smartphones to laptops, to desktops, to televisions, and even billboards. These high-resolution screens aren’t as bad as the old televisions, but they pose an even challenge for our eyes; they are sharp, highly contrasted and bright. This combination produces an even more strenuous environment for our eyes. What’s more, we subject our eyes to these conditions for prolonged hours on a daily basis.
Dealing with Blue Light and Protecting Your Circadian Rhythm
Our eyes perceive light on a wide spectrum of light. That said, some portions of these spectra can influence other bodily functions; for example, the “blue light” spectrum which ranges from 410 – 430nm. This portion of the spectrum not only allows screens to be brighter but it also affects our circadian rhythm or sleep-wake cycle.
You may have read or heard a lot of people talking about the “harmful” affects of blue light; this is what they’re talking about. However, as Dr. Mike Varshavski points out in his YouTube video, the amount of blue light needed to adversely affect our circadian rhythm is huge. That said, we have to take into consideration the prolonged duration of exposure, especially if you’re working a desk job. So, what exactly happens? Well, as Dr Mike, aptly points out, blue light affects the production of melatonin, a hormone needed for sleep regulation. In fact, blue light down regulates or suppresses the production of melatonin which will make us feel more awake. To deal with this, a Harvard Medical study actually recommends reducing blue light exposure particularly before bed.
One way we can reduce blue light exposure is through the use of screens that are certified to have reduced emission of this spectrum – more commonly known as “eye comfort”. You can identify these screens by keeping a look out for certification by TÜV Rheinland. However, you give your eyes even more protection by using protective eye wear. You may think, “But… I don’t need spectacles.” . However, lenses like Essilor’s Crizal® line-up of lenses provide blue light protection for your eyes reducing eye strain. Essilor goes a step further to ensure that while they filter out harmful ultraviolet and blue light, their lenses with Crizal® technology still allow beneficial blue light to pass through. This helps minimise the effect on your sleep-wake cycle and also helps elevate mood.
That said, the best practice, in addition to using protective eye wear, would still be to reduce the time you expose yourself to screens all together. The Canadian Association of Optometrists recommends the 20/20/20 rule. The rule is pretty simple, for every 20 minutes you spend in front of a screen, you should look at something about 20 feet away for 20 seconds. This should not only reduce eye strain but help reduce your blue light exposure.
Reducing Eye Fatigue & Eye Strain
While it may seem like blue light is the one and only demon when it comes to protecting your eyes, the truth is that it’s not. We subject our eyes to a lot of strain over the course of our day. Think about it, your eyes are essentially muscles that are constantly contracting and relaxing on a constant basis to adapt to the ocular conditions so you can see. Even when you go to the gym, the repetitive movement of lifting weights causes fatigue, that is essentially what’s happening in your eyes.
This contraction and relaxation of your irises and ocular muscles is not something you can control. So, how can you be causing the strain? Well, for one, we’re constantly looking at things that are relatively close to our faces; monitors, smartphones and televisions are within 20 feet of our faces at any given time. In addition to proximity, these screens can have videos or pictures that have varying focal lengths or have items in them that require your eyes to refocus over and over and over again. This causes eye strain and fatigue. What’s more, when you go from looking at pictures or videos to reading, your eyes will need to readjust again. The same holds true when you’re driving.
Once again, the 20/20/20 rule is helpful here too. However, despite using these techniques, our eyes are still subject to quite a lot of strain. The best way to reduce the strain is to actually minimise our time doing activities that cause eye strain. However, in our modern world, we would be hard pressed to do so.
The question remains, how do we take better care? One way we can do it is to use eye wear with optimised lenses. While not all of us need to do so medically, wearing purpose-built eye wear is becoming increasingly common. Brands like MVMT and GUNNAR are some examples of these. Most of them use lenses like Essilor’s Eyezen™ or Crizal® which help reduce glare from bright screens and sources of light as well as reduce the need for your eyes to constantly correct its focus. The former is especially effective as it helps correct farsightedness and nearsightedness in a single lens. Transitions lenses help with glare particularly when moving between indoor and outdoor environments.
Generally, there is not much we can do to take better care of our eyes. But in the long run, small steps help preserve our ocular function and eyesight. Don’t wait until you need a pair of prescription glasses to take care of your eyes, take small steps including turning off screens 2 hours before sleep and following the 20/20/20 rule to help with ocular health. It’s something we need to start looking at everyday.
NEW YORK, Sept. 14, 2020 — Color Star Technology Co., Ltd. (Nasdaq CM: HHT) (the "Company", "we" or "HHT") officially broadcasted the Color World Online Concert to audiences around the globe via its official platform "Color World" at 9 pm Eastern Time on September 9th. The Color World Online Concert attracted over half a million viewers from mainland China and all over the world. Global Social media networks reached over 10 million hits.
More than ten international celebrities including Grammy-winning jazz guitarist Larry Carlton, "Pop Music Queen" Na Ying from mainland China, Hong Kong’s legendary singer George Lam, globally-renown pianist Wu Muye, R&B singer-songwriter Ashanti, among others, presented a music feast with remarkable international flavors. Combining showcase performances with proprietary tech tools, the event was equally memorable for moving vocals and masterful instrumentals as well as its sheer technological reach.
While the performers took center stage, investors saw yet another emergence of the future’s star economy of educational and entertaining content-sharing. Color Star is not only in the business of online concert promotions, it is a technology-driven company set to break past the boundaries between celebrity entertainment and online knowledge-sharing.
On its signature platform, Color World, international artists and celebrities have been assembled to produce content that extends beyond a show and more so a variety of courses. More than 40 industry leaders have transitioned from celebrities to celebrity tutors—with the service granting fans access built around mentorship, not just viewership. The courses include music and instruments, film and television, traditional and modern art, and sports, etc.
Through the app, developed by its subsidiary Color China, Color World is targeting a broader international market, having already covered more than 30 cities in 5 countries. With the continuous expansion and enrichment of the celebrity tutor library, the platform looks to become an integral part of the lifestyle and culture of its community—notably at its core is the self-improvement phenomenon that rose out of pandemic lockdowns. Color Star Technologies finds itself in step with users that want to connect with others, particularly those they look up to, while never leaving the comfort and peace of mind found at home.
The Company’s CEO Biao (Luke) Lu commented, "The Color World Online Concert is just a way to let more people know who we are, to introduce them to our entertainment culture sharing platform the ‘Color World’ app. In the future, in addition to online concerts, we will also present more highlights from related fields such as celebrity management, entertainment courses, cultural projects, and industry trends. We plan to cast a larger and larger spotlight. And at each step of the way we look forward to the increased attention."
About Color Star Technology Co., Ltd.
Color Star Technology Co, Ltd. (Nasdaq CM: HHT) offers online and offline innovative knowledge-paid services for music and entertainment industries globally. Its official website is www.colorstarinternational.com. The Company routinely posts important information on its website. Its business operations are conducted through its wholly-owned subsidiaries Color China Entertainment Ltd. and CACM Group NY, Inc. The Company’s online education is provided through its Color World music and entertainment education platform. The Company also offers after-school entertainment tutoring in New York via its joint venture entity Baytao LLC.
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 the business plans, objectives, expectations and intentions of the parties following the completion of the acquisition, and HHT’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. The following factors, among others, could cause actual results to differ materially from those described in these forward-looking statements: there is uncertainty due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the impact it has had and will continue to have on HHT’s operations, the demand for the HHT’s products and services, global supply chains and economic activity in general. These and other risks and uncertainties are detailed in the other public filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission (the "SEC") by HHT. Additional information concerning these and other factors that may impact our expectations and projections will be found in our periodic filings with the SEC, including our Annual Report on Form 20-F for the fiscal year ended June 30, 2019. HHT’s SEC filings are available publicly on the SEC’s website at www.sec.gov. HHT disclaims any obligation to update the forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.
Color Star Technology Co., Ltd. Contact: Investor Relations FinancialBuzzIR™ info@FinancialBuzzIR.com Tele: +1-877-601-1879
The daddy of the modern Microsoft Windows based UltraBook that is supposed to compete with the likes of a MacBook Air was the ZenBook, if you can remember it. Asus introduced their first ZenBook line-up in 2012 to be ultra-efficient, ultra-long battery life, ultra-portable notebooks like a Windows PC never was. It brought out a whole slew of things that we thought we will never see from a Windows platform. It kick-started a few races toward the longest possible battery life, the smallest possible package, and even the lightest packages with different display sizes.
It was their most premium consumer product as well at that moment. A Windows notebook PC that would be as expensive as a MacBook was quite unheard of at that time. The ZenBook, in that sense, was a pioneer.
Fast forward to 2020 though and we have a new family of premium UltraBooks from ASUS, and it is the ASUS ZenBook 14 and 13. The numbers are an indication of sizes, technically. So the 14 refers to the 14-inch display while then 13 refers to the 13-inch, quite obvious really.
Like many of the manufacturers, ASUS likes to claim that their stuff, especially the ZenBook, is the thinnest or lightest at something. It is all sort of marketing gibberish to be honest. With the new classic ZenBook though, they claim that they have the thinnest 13-inch and 14-inch notebooks with full I/O ports.
While this is not the thinnest 13-inch or even 14-inch notebooks you can find in the market, there may be some truth to ASUS’ marketing blurb. In short, you cannot find an ultrabook today that has a full USB Type-A and full HDMI port. So, this claim of the thinnest with full I/O ports must be true right? It is true, but is this claim enough to win over your MYR 4,699? Is it enough to keep you away from other lighter, smaller, and more compelling ultrabooks in the market like the Acer Swift 5, for example? We find out.
Design
Like any other review, we start with the design. Yes, it is important, you are going to be looking at your notebook PC almost on a daily basis now that we are working from home on a near permanent basis. Okay, we are lying if we say our team is working from home full time. Most of us are already back in the office. But we have also always championed remote working and we rely on our notebooks plenty.
In that sense, we look at our notebooks on a daily basis no matter where we are. Because of that, we would want our notebooks to look pleasing too for us. Somehow it makes us feel good about what we do on a daily basis.
Back to the ZenBook 14 that we have here (not the 13). It is an MYR 3,999 full aluminium package that is way smaller than almost any 14-inch notebooks that I know of. It is not lighter than most ultrabooks though. It is quite hefty for its size, to be fair. Then again, full aluminium and metal construction does that to your notebook.
The ZenBook 14 still retains that swirling brushed aluminium look that made it so popular when it first launched in 2012. Instead of the swirl starting from the middle though, it is now pushed third away toward the right side, if you are viewing the notebook with the letters facing you. We admit that we said that the brushed aluminium was a timeless look. In this one, we do feel that it is getting a little aged. Even the colour feels quite old school, the Pine Grey colour option is quite a classic colour. We might prefer the Lilac Mist colour variant though, that looked good in photos and renders. Yes, we are men and we are proud of that colour choice.
We are not saying that you would not like the colours. Just because we do not like the colour, does not mean you would not like it too. It is just a matter of personal preference. We would appreciate a slightly different design and look from the ZenBook by now though. A little effort goes a long way, we are looking at you too, Porsche.
The ErgoLift hinge design that was championed again and again by ASUS these two years makes it into the design language of the ASUS ZenBook 14 here. We have mentioned that we are not ultimately fond of the ErgoLift design, but we also recognise the language and its benefits. At the right angles, it does help with typing comfort and fatigue. At some angles, it becomes kind of useless. It does benefit greatly on the cooling side though, we will talk about the ErgoLift more later on.
Hardware
The ASUS ZenBook 14 (UX425JA) you see here is not the lightest ZenBook you can get. That has to go to the 13-inch (UX325JA) variant of the ASUS ZenBook. There is also a variant of the ASUS ZenBook 14 (UX434FLC) where they fit a ScreenPad on the touch sensitive mousepad. Unfortunately, this is not that either.
The mousepad on this ASUS ZenBook 14 has a little trick up its sleeves too, just not in the way you think. It doubles as your numpad as well, which is a nice touch, since you are not getting a full-sized keyboard with numpad on it.
The variant we have for review packs a powerful 10th Generation Core i7-1065G7 processor clocked at 1.3GHz. While that may not sound like much, it is powerful enough for plenty of work that we are accustomed to. It does bump the price up to MYR 4,699 though if you opt for the Core i7 variant. At MYR 3,999, you get an Intel Core i5-1035G1 processor.
8GB of RAM for this thing is quite ample and you do not really need to add too much more to it. That is also because you cannot really add another RAM stick in there. It is an ultrabook, after all. At the same time, you should not expect to be using the ASUS ZenBook 14 as your main gaming rig or video editing rig; 8GB is enough. It does pack an SSD though, for that extra speed when you need it.
14-inch IPS (1920 x 1080) Anti-Glare NanoEdge 400nits
Memory
512GB NVME M.2 SSD 8GB DDR4 RAM
Networking and Connections (I/O)
1 x USB Type-A 2 x USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-C 1 x Standard HDMI 1.4 1 x MicroSD card reader Intel Wi-Fi 6 Gig+ (802.11ax) Bluetooth 5.0
Battery
67Wh 4-cell Li-Polymer 65W USB Type-C Charger
Operating System
Windows 10 Home (64-bit)
Miscellaneous
Harman Kardon Audio 3D IR HD camera with Window Hello
Features
Is it as thin as you think it is? Especially when they claim it to be the slimmest with a Full HDMI and USB port? This would beg another question that you have to ask yourselves. Have you seen the size of a full HDMI port? They are not that thick, but they are not exactly paper thin either.
In that case, it is not as thin as you think it should be. At 14-inch, it is not exactly the lightest notebook around either. But you have to appreciate the premium touch of the completely metal constructed body.
Full I/O Ports and an MicroSD slot
One thing that we hate about the more modern ultrabooks we use for work, especially in our line of work, is the fact that none of them comes with full USB ports anymore. In that sense, having a full-sized USB Type-A port is a breath of fresh air, something we can really appreciate. At the same time, there is only one full-sized USB port, which is occupied by a USB dongle for my wireless mouse most of the time.
Of course, because of that one USB port, you can put in normal sized thumb drives to work with. That also means you, or whoever you work with do not have to spend extra money just to buy a USB Type-C thumb drive or USB Type-C to USB Type-C cables. You do not need to spend on a USB Type-C dongle as well for that matter. Of course, if you already do have a USB Type-C dongle, you can use them still via the two Thunderbolt USB Type-C ports on the other side with the full HDMI port.
Full HDMI is a big welcome with any notebook, not because we thoroughly use them, just because it is nice to be able to go home and plug your TV to your notebook to watch Netflix or just work on a bigger display. In our line of work as well, we do travel to other parts of the world and work out of hotel rooms from time to time. In that case, having a full HDMI port that we can use to plug the provided TV in the room is nice as well.
There is also a MicroSD card reader that proved to be useful from time to time. We heavily rely on MicroSD cards in our work thanks to the compact camera we use. In that case, when we need to quickly transfer data, we simply pull out the MicroSD card from the Sony RX0ii that we heavily rely on for most of our production use case and just transfer out the data from the card to an external HDD we plug into the full-sized UBS port.
We would appreciate if they could fit another full-sized USB Type-A port though. Also, if they could include a 3.5mm audio in/out jack in the next iteration of the ASUS ZenBook 14, that would be great. We found this to be a little bit of an annoying pickle because of the lack of that audio AUX port.
We still do not agree with the decision of phone makers around the world when they decided that the 3.5mm AUX jacks are obsolete. Imagine our dismay then, when we found that we could not use our 3.5mm AUX earphones or headphones with this notebook. In that case, we have to dig up our bags for a USB Type-C earphone, or connect a Bluetooth enabled wireless earphone or headphone. With Bluetooth headphones, you might want to prepare to wrestle with Windows a little bit.
ErgoLift Comfort and Discomfort
The ErgoLift hinge that is championed by ASUS is technically nothing new. They introduced it a few years ago and the design is still stuck until this day. It is not exactly something that should win ASUS any style points though. In that case, while the design does create for some very interesting and seamless look on the outlook part, it serves a more practical purpose than you think.
Of course, every other person that has gone through the marketing blurb from ASUS knows that the ErgoLift hinge is designed for typing comfort. It raises the keyboards a little bit to make it a little more natural for you to type on. The angled keyboard is supposed to relieve some of the pressure on your wrists and ensure that you do not get fatigued while working on the notebook or even Carpal Tunnel syndrome. Trust me, it is not fun.
Thing is, the Ergolift hinge also means that the keyboard tends to sit at different heights in different angles. It is not that big of a deal in most cases, since the changes to the angle is quite minimal. But this also means that your viewing angle changes the way you work with the keyboard, which could very well be in a weird angle after you change your own seating position and then the display angle.
There are two rubberized legs on the ErgoLift hinge’s edge. That is to prevent the ASUS ZenBook 14 bodywork to be touching the surface it sits on and scratch itself to bits. It is also to prevent the notebook from slipping away from you while you type on it or work on it. It is to plant itself on that surface.
However, working with the ZenBook 14 on your thighs could be a small annoyance. That is because the naked parts of the hinge would be resting on your thighs. It might not be an issue if the notebook rests on your pants, but it might be a little annoying if the hinge rests on your bare thighs.
While they have managed to design an edge that is blunt enough that it does not dig into your skin, it is still a little uncomfortable as typing and resting your palms on the notebook means that you are still putting pressure on a smaller contact patch. In that sense, we do not recommend putting it on your lap when you are working, find a proper table. You would be more productive that way too. Of course, if you have no choice but to put your notebook on the lap, you are not going to bleed from the experience.
Blowing Hot Air, At the display
The ErgoLift had posed another problem for ultrabooks though. It has posed a cooling problem for ultrabooks. With the sides plugged up by plugs, the only way heat could travel out of the notebook is through the back. The ErgoLift hinge means that most of the heat is dissipated via fans blowing the display.
The cooling fans draw cool air from the bottom of the device. ErgoLift also means that there is a bigger gap at the bottom allowing for bigger airflow. The exhaust air is blown to the back of the device that is now part of the display, so hot air will travel on the display panel.
Thankfully, there is not that much heat that needs to be transferred out on normal use cases. You do not want to constantly blow hot air into the display else you might risk some damages from the display panel itself that might lead to discoloration or worse still, glue coming apart from the plastic panels, effectively disintegrating your notebook.
Backlit Keyboard for the Dark Times
There is no RGB here, thankfully. It is not a gaming device, after all, so why would you want RGB? But that also means that you can only get white colour backlighting on the ASUS ZenBook 14.
We do have to admit though that the keyboard on the ASUS ZenBook 14 is one of the best you can find on an ultrabook. It has enough travel and feedback for that extra smooth workbench feel. Typing on it is comfortable and typing fatigue is minimized with decently sized keys as well.
We do suspect that the extra thickness they had on the baseplate allows for better keyboard fitting and therefore slightly more key travels. That also means it does not feel like you are typing on a hardboard with ‘touch sensitive’ keys. Instead, you feel like you are typing on a keyboard, a proper keyboard.
We do find that we seldom put the illuminated numpad integrated in the touch sensitive mousepad to good use. It is a neat feature though to integrate a full keyboard into a form factor such as the ASUS ZenBook 14.
In a sense, working on the ASUS ZenBook 14 as a document, or email machine is a pleasure. The keyboard is silent even in the most silent working environment. It is not too mushy or too harsh on your fingers and every stroke of key feels properly solid.
Facial Recognition
Thanks to infrared sensors and webcam, the ASUS ZenBook 14 packs Windows Hello’s facial recognition. That is at the sacrifice of the good ol’ fingerprint sensor though. While it may seem counterintuitive to remove a secondary layer of security, the facial recognition of the ASUS ZenBook 14’s Windows Hello is what you need though. It is fast and accurate to the touch.
We did face some issues with facial recognition in our use, but that is more user error than the fault of the PC. You have to remember to take off your facemask before you start using the notebook. If you are wearing glasses, you should be fine. It is Windows Hello technology, which also means that it is a proven technology.
The lack of a fingerprint sensor is hardly missed though, since you still can use a pin number to secure your ASUS ZenBook 14. That is not to say that we dislike fingerprint sensors, or we do not want one. We do think that we should still have a fingerprint sensor just in case the webcam sensors failed to identify our faces when we need things done quickly.
At the same time, having a facial recognition webcam with Windows Hello also means that you have to keep the webcam free of tapes or webcam covers. Of course, you can leave a webcam cover in it. You Just need to remember to remove it or open it up every time you turn on your notebook.
Harman Kardon Audio
This ASUS ZenBook 14 comes with Harman Kardon tuned audio and speakers. That does not mean that it has all the bells and whistles that comes with certified sound bars. It is close though, without a sub-woofer that is.
Harman Kardon audio capabilities means that music sounds good. When we say good, we mean that its sound stage is nearly full and most frequencies are clear and crisp. Clear and crisp is what we will use to describe the top-end frequencies on the ASUS ZenBook 14. Since there is no sub-woofer elements packed into the compact body that is the ZenBook, low-end frequencies tend to be weaker.
That is not to say that it is a bad audio and music machine though. You still can appreciate good music through the speakers, just not something with a lot of low-end power. That also means EDMs might not cut it. Vocals do sound excellent on the speakers though, better than the ASUS ZenBook from before than does not come with Harman Kardon’s touch.
Performance
Of course, 10th Gen Core i7 that it packs comes with plenty of expectations from us. It is 2020 and we can expect modern notebook PCs to be powerful enough to work and game lightly at the same time; especially an Intel Core i7. Of course, we cannot have a thin and light that does everything under the sun without any compromises. In that sense, this is an ultrabook with nearly zero compromise.
The Extra and Subtle Workhorse
In any angle, the ASUS ZenBook 14 exudes ‘premium’. At any touch, that is also the word that comes to mind. ‘Boring’, is another, as we have said in the design section.
These are not the only words available for the ASUS ZenBook 14 though. When you talk about taking a workhorse out for a trip out of town, the ultrabook of choice with the best value and performance is the ASUS ZenBook ultrabook. So, there is ‘Reliability’ in their repertoire as well.
The ASUS ZenBook 14’s body may not be the slimmest notebook you can find in the market. It may not be the lightest too in the market. If you are looking for those, you should be looking elsewhere.
A workhorse should have as little compromise as possible for its purposes. An ultrabook today will not pack a full-sized USB port for normal thumb drives and external HDDs. It will not pack a full-sized standard HDMI port for easy presentation modes as well. The ASUS ZenBook 14 is a workhorse that does not compromise on those. Hence, its extra heft.
It is mostly made for document processing, web browsing, and even scrubbing through emails too, which also means that there are some compromises in terms of other performance. In that sense though, the ASUS ZenBook 14 is more than adequate to handle everything and more. We mostly used it to play Music while we are working, reading through emails, typing through long articles and web browsing.
When we say we are listening to music, we did not connect a Bluetooth earphone or connect an earphone at all with the notebook, most of the time anyway. Which also means we are using the built-in speakers most of the time. When we say web browsing too, there are times where there are about 40 tabs open in each of the three Mozilla Firefox web explorer windows we have open on the ASUS ZenBook 14. Oh yes, we even had Microsoft Edge open from time to time to access a completely different thing. With Chrome, the notebook might not fare so well.
In those operations, the ASUS ZenBook 14 performs as silky smooth as you expect it to. Windows load up quite instantly thanks to Intel’s Optane memory included in the notebook. Apps also open at a near instant speed thanks to the 512GB SSD.
Video Editing is Possible
Everything sort of falls apart a little bit in video editing though. Iris Plus does help a little in reducing load and rendering times compared to the older generation Intel Core processors. We were only editing a 15-second timelapse that was supposed to be produced in 4K though. To be fair, we are processing 45-Megapixel photos that was stitched together to be post-processed as an 8K video file first. We were scrubbing through 136 photos in total for the time lapse.
Once stitched though, it took up to 50 minutes for the stitching to be post-processed into a 4K video. Scrubbing through the individual frames also took some time for the ASUS ZenBook 14. We had to wait a second or two to check through each of the 136 frames of the video.
Still, if you work with Full HD videos, you should have not trouble scrubbing through the video with ease on Adobe’s Premiere Pro. You might want to look into other more powerful products for smooth and quick 4K video productions. Still, a 3-minute Full HD render from a Full HD source should be done in about 10-15 minutes.
Gaming
Really? Do you really have to ask about gaming on a notebook designed to accompany you for work purposes? Redundant question that you might already know the answer to.
Gaming performance on the ASUS ZenBook 14 is pretty much as expected. It is not a gaming machine, so it is never going to do well in that regards. It is acceptable with certain games though, if you do not mind letting it run a little hotter than usual that is.
You can still play Football Manager, or Motorsport Manager, or even Cities Skyline on it smoothly with the fans going a little crazier than usual. You could, technically, play DOTA 2 with it too if you are into MOBAs. You might not be as competitive as if you are playing on a proper gaming rig though. That could either be your excuse for underperforming in a ranked match or kicked for being too incompetent, you have been warned. It is smooth enough with DOTA 2 though, so you might still be fine with a little bit of skill. We are never good in DOTA 2 anyway.
Even if you are thinking of playing the latest indie games like No Straight Roads, you would still be fine. The game will still load up smoothly and surely. You might just want to keep in mind to not push the graphics all the way up.
We are not saying that you should be playing games on the device. We are saying that you can if you want to. You might not be able to touch full-fledged AAA titles, but plenty of indie games like This War of Mine or Motorsport Manager never needed ultra-powerful rigs to run properly anyway.
Battery
A heftier body also has some benefit to a notebook’s battery life. You could technically fit a bigger battery pack into the body of the ASUS ZenBook 14 at the cost of more weight on it. In the body of the ZenBook 14 is a 67Wh 4-cell battery that is quoted to be good for 22 hours on a single charge.
To be fair, we have never hit anything that is close to the 22 hours claim in our usage. You do have to keep in mind that battery life is very dependent on use cases though. Battery life is affected by the ambient temperature, operating temperature, amounts of processes within the PC, use cases with the PC, and much more.
In our use case, where we have at least 20 tabs open on a web browser at any time, we got about 18 hours of continuous use before the PC tells us that we need to start charging the notebook. That is also with some music listening included with a mix of work and standby time. At some point too, the ASUS ZenBook 14 did not need a charge for a whole week. Of course, we were not continuously using the notebook.
ASUS Battery management
Technically you can fully charge the 67Wh battery of the ASUS ZenBook 14 within 2 hours with the included 65W charger. They claimed a 49-minute charge time to 60% with an empty tank, with the PC turned off.
We believe them though. We have only charged the ASUS ZenBook 14 while working on it once and while we are editing and rendering the odd video. Most of the time, charging is done while it is turned off, and we never left it charged for more than two hours at a time before we get going again with a fully charged battery.
We left the power management to let the charger to fully charge the batteries though, because we are on the go most of the time. But if you are going to let it sit on your office desk all the time, you can choose to restrict the battery charge to only 60% to prolong the battery shelf life. If not, there is a balanced battery preservation mode too in MyASUS app.
USB Type-C Charger
Having a universal charger is a very sensible thing to do. It also means that ASUS saves a porting hole just for a proprietary charger. Which still begs the question of their exclusion of the 3.5mm jack or another USB Type-A port. They clearly have space for the two mentioned ports.
Modern USB Type-C cables can also support up to 75W in output. That also means that you can even fast charge an ultrabook with a proper USB Type-C cable. But that also means that you can buy a high-output power banks wit proper 65W output too to charge your PC when you have no access to a charging port.
Since modern smartphones and other gadgets are making USB Type-C as a standard port these days too, having a high-output power adapter is also a bonus. You do not need to bring three different adapters and cables anymore to charge your devices when you travel. You only need one of ASUS’ USB Type-C adapter, and you are good to go.
Display – IPS and Iris Plus
The IPS Full HD display is a pleasure to look at though. It may not be the most colour accurate display in the world, it does not need to be. But it is a great looking display with highly saturated and bright colours. It should be good enough for the occasional movies that you might want to enjoy on the ASUS ZenBook 14.
That said also, 60Hz is not encouraging for games either, especially when you consider more competitive games like Valorant, or DOTA 2. It still works with games like This War of Mine and such, but you might even want your No Straight Roads to run at higher frame rates when possible. Iris Plus is plenty more powerful than the UHD graphics GPU that came before, but it is not a discrete GPU like an NIVIDIA GeForce MX250.
Again, the notebook is not designed with gaming in mind though. It is designed with portability, productivity, and practicality in mind. The display is designed for that too, technically with some clever blue light filtering software (Windows standard these days too). At the same time, the modern display panel is highly efficient with a 1-watt power draw rating. It is not exactly bright enough placed under direct sunlight in Malaysia, technically with 400nits. If you sit in a naturally lit café though, 400nits is enough for you to work with.
In this case, for its purpose, the display of the ASUS ZenBook 14 is not the most brilliant or highest resolution you can find. It is quite brilliant on its own though and does hold itself against any other notebooks of its standard. It is a brilliant looking display for a working-class notebook.
The ASUS ZenBook 14 – So Much, yet So Little
The package that you see here will set you back MYR 4,699. That is not exactly a budget notebook price. It is not exactly a premium as a Dell XPS 13 though. For that price you still get a full-aluminium body, a clever touchpad, an innovative hinge, Windows Hello’s brilliant webcam facial recognition, super-long battery life, some clever software, and fully sized I/O ports.
You do not get a lot of things for that kind of money either though. You do not get a proper, physical numpad (although, at this form factor, it is kind of impossible). You do not get a 144Hz display, or anything close to a colour accurate display as well. You are paying for slightly more heft with the ASUS ZenBook 14 and you get no fingerprint sensor with that, or even a 3.5mm AUX jack. You cannot even expect it to come with a discrete GPU too for that money, or even a full-sized SD card slot.
We are annoyed at the fact that they chose to hang us dry when it comes to audio solutions. To be fair, we were really annoyed at the fact that there is no 3.5mm jack on this piece of kit. We found the Grey colour option to be a little boring too, while the Lilac Mist colour to be tantalizing, but not very professional. WE are not saying that it is badly designed, it still looks sharp and very distinctively ASUS.
It was not as light as we thought it should be with the 14-inch trim. On a bright side though, it is lighter than most 14-inch notebooks you can find in the market today. It is also quite a little bit smaller than most 14-inch notebooks today too. Maybe, just not that much thinner in terms of thickness.
That extra girth though gives way to a full HDMI port and USB 3.2 Type-A port, which is always a welcome in ultra-portable machines that we know as our workhorse today. The extra girth also allows for a bigger fan in a sense to cool the PC adequately, and even house a slightly larger battery than you can expect an ultrabook to ever have. That extra sized battery gives you a longer battery life expectancy compare to its competition, and in that terms, more confidence in making it through a day with no battery anxiety. It gives you peace of mind, is what I am saying.
If you want the ASUS ZenBook 14 to be your daily driver for the next five years or so, you will want to invest in the more expensive Intel Core i7 variant. If not, even the Core i5 variant at MYR 3,999 will do you some good for the coming few years. You could even opt for a smaller display and more compact packaging with the 13-inch variant, if you really want. We always appreciate a larger display though, so the 14-inch is the one we will go for.
The ASUS ZenBook 14’s closest competitor technically comes at about the same price. You are getting the exact same display size with very similar packages. The only thing that differs from each product, other than thickness and weight, is their security features and one RAM size difference. The competition packs twice the RAM that the ASUS ZenBook 14 can offer for the same price. The competition lacks Windows Hello’s webcam facial recognition though and does not come with a USB Type-C charger (proprietary charger).
So, which would we buy? It is a difficult choice, to be fair. Considering the convenience of the ASUS ZenBook 14, we are leaning toward the fully sized ports. In truth though, we would be a little more comfortable using the other product because of ZenBook’s lack of weight, and an extra 3.5mm AUX jack. Ports? The competition has all the other ports too. Although we really like the idea of only carry a single charger for all our devices in the bag. Now we are in a pickle.
Acquisition to augment Infosys Cobalt portfolio of cloud services and further strengthen nearshore delivery presence in Europe
BENGALURU, India and PRAGUE, Sept. 14, 2020 — Infosys (NYSE: INFY), a global leader in next-generation digital services and consulting, today announced a definitive agreement to acquire GuideVision, one of the largest ServiceNow Elite Partners in Europe. GuideVision is an award winning enterprise service management consultancy specialised in offering strategic advisory, consulting, implementations, training and support on the ServiceNow platform.
GuideVision’s end-to-end offerings, including SnowMirror – a proprietary smart data replication tool for ServiceNow instances – enables over 100 enterprise clients to simplify complex business and IT processes. GuideVision’s training academy and nearshore capabilities in Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, and presence in Germany and Finland will strengthen Infosys’ ServiceNow capabilities for its clients in Europe.
ServiceNow is one of the fastest growing enterprise software companies, and is becoming an ‘essential service’ and workflow standard for organizations. Infosys was recognized by ServiceNow as the 2019 and 2020 ServiceNow Global Service Provider Partner of the Year.
Ravi Kumar, President, Infosys, said, "This acquisition is an important milestone in our journey to build capabilities relevant to the digital priorities of our clients. This move reaffirms our commitment to the growing ServiceNow ecosystem. The combination of scalable and agile nearshore capabilities of GuideVision in Europe, and their unmatched delivery excellence, complements our own effort to help global enterprises navigate their next. We are excited to welcome GuideVision and its leadership team into the Infosys family."
Narsimha Rao Mannepalli, EVP and Head – Cloud & Infrastructure, Infosys, said, "GuideVision’s addition is another significant step towards strengthening our Infosys Cobalt offerings portfolio, bringing the combination of services, solutions and platforms, that acts as a force multiplier for cloud-powered enterprise transformation. Our recently announced Infosys Cobalt portfolio has a large repository of ServiceNow Industry Cloud solutions like ESM Café, and this will now be bolstered by GuideVision’s SnowMirror suite of Industry templates."
Norbert Nagy, Co-Founder, GuideVision, said, "GuideVision’s exceptionally high customer ratings are the result of our continuous effort to deliver superior consulting and implementation services. Joining Infosys brings an extended portfolio of services we can offer to our customers on their digital transformation journey. The global Infosys footprint is an exciting opportunity for both GuideVision customers and employees."
Pavel Muller, Co-Founder, GuideVision, added, "We are happy to become a part of the Infosys family and we strongly believe that the shared underlying values are a great foundation for our common goals in the future. Our combined expertise will further drive our customers’ digital transformation in the European market."
The acquisition is expected to close during the third quarter of fiscal 2021, subject to customary closing conditions.
ServiceNow, Now Platform and others are among the trademarks of ServiceNow, Inc.
About Guidevision
GuideVision is a dynamic and progressive consultancy committed to enabling clients to reimagine and transform their enterprise service management with ServiceNow. GuideVision offers a unique combination of strategic expertise, innovative technological knowledge and agile methodology. Our mission is to make ServiceNow work for you and your goals. www.guidevision.eu
About Infosys
Infosys is a global leader in next-generation digital services and consulting. We enable clients in 46 countries to navigate their digital transformation. With nearly four decades of experience in managing the systems and workings of global enterprises, we expertly steer our clients through their digital journey. We do it by enabling the enterprise with an AI-powered core that helps prioritize the execution of change. We also empower the business with agile digital at scale to deliver unprecedented levels of performance and customer delight. Our always-on learning agenda drives their continuous improvement through building and transferring digital skills, expertise, and ideas from our innovation ecosystem.
Visit www.infosys.com to see how Infosys (NYSE: INFY) can help your enterprise navigate your next.
Safe Harbor
Certain statements in this release concerning our future growth prospects, financial expectations and plans for navigating the COVID-19 impact on our employees, clients and stakeholders are forward-looking statements intended to qualify for the ‘safe harbor’ under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, which involve a number of risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those in such forward-looking statements. The risks and uncertainties relating to these statements include, but are not limited to, risks and uncertainties regarding COVID-19 and the effects of government and other measures seeking to contain its spread, risks related to an economic downturn or recession in India, the United States and other countries around the world, changes in political, business, and economic conditions, fluctuations in earnings, fluctuations in foreign exchange rates, our ability to manage growth, intense competition in IT services including those factors which may affect our cost advantage, wage increases in India, our ability to attract and retain highly skilled professionals, time and cost overruns on fixed-price, fixed-time frame contracts, client concentration, restrictions on immigration, industry segment concentration, our ability to manage our international operations, reduced demand for technology in our key focus areas, disruptions in telecommunication networks or system failures, our ability to successfully complete and integrate potential acquisitions, liability for damages on our service contracts, the success of the companies in which Infosys has made strategic investments, withdrawal or expiration of governmental fiscal incentives, political instability and regional conflicts, legal restrictions on raising capital or acquiring companies outside India, unauthorized use of our intellectual property and general economic conditions affecting our industry and the outcome of pending litigation and government investigation. Additional risks that could affect our future operating results are more fully described in our United States Securities and Exchange Commission filings including our Annual Report on Form 20-F for the fiscal year ended March 31, 2020. These filings are available at www.sec.gov. Infosys may, from time to time, make additional written and oral forward-looking statements, including statements contained in the Company’s filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission and our reports to shareholders. The Company does not undertake to update any forward-looking statements that may be made from time to time by or on behalf of the Company unless it is required by law.
CodingRooms.com combines Zoom-like conferencing with a live coding environment in which teachers interact with students in real time
HONG KONG, Sept. 14, 2020 — Award-winning Hong Kong start-up EXL Inc, founded in 2017 after receiving seed funding from local venture capital fund Beyond Ventures, has reinvented the way computer programming is taught remotely, as well as in a conventional classroom.
The developer of intelligent learning technologies has unveiled the groundbreaking CodingRooms.com solution at a time when instructors worldwide have been struggling to teach programming remotely.
The result is the world’s first virtual classroom for teaching programming online and in socially-distanced schools.
Led by 20-year-old CEO and Co-founder Sasha Varlamov, EXL has already signed up more than a dozen top-tier universities, tutorial centers and schools that will now be using CodingRooms.com to teach programming in the 2020-21 academic year.
A single browser-based platform combines chat and direct messaging with Zoom-like video and audio-conferencing, as well as a presentation capability and multiple Google Doc-like interactive coding "notebooks".
CodingRooms.com enables instructors to teach a huge range of programming languages such as Python, C++, Java and JavaScript.
In the course of a typical class session, a teacher can stream and present, while students watch him/her actually coding in real time. Conversely, students have their own individual notebooks that the teacher can see and interact with. The entire class session is video recorded for later reference from the cloud, and can also be stored in a saved state.
A unified instructor dashboard can accommodate up to 500 students in a live class and enables a teacher to see every student’s code, answer questions and take control of each integrated development environment (IDE)– and all in real time.An IDE is an application that provides computer programmers with comprehensive facilities for software development. The CodingRooms.com IDE, however, has the intelligence to offer suggestions, while checking errors and documentation.
Sasha Varlamov said: "We hold years of experience in developing intelligent tools for computer science education, and now look forward to ushering CodingRooms.com into every programming classroom around the world. It wasn’t until COVID-19 hit that we, as educators, fully realised the challenge of teaching online, but the results of our efforts are now giving rise to new opportunities. For example, CodingRooms.com is being integrated into the new standard pedagogy as an enabling facility likely to endure long beyond the pandemic crisis."
He added: "As well as disrupting today’s economy, COVID-19 is changing the entire framework in which we will build the economy of the future. I’m talking about a future in which software and technologies such as artificial intelligence will dominate the global economy. In this regard, coding is becoming the new literacy, so I believe work being done today at EXL will become a foundational aspect of the educational experience of the future."
Aimed at university professors, lecturers, teachers and individuals engaged in teaching programming or computer science, CodingRooms.com is offered at US$49.99 per month for virtual classes involving up to 50 students, and US$199.99 per month for up to 500 students.
Since its inception in 2017, EXL’s vision has been to provide teachers with the most advanced tools to help students learn effectively and efficiently. The company won honours in the ATEC Startup Competition at last year’s Asia Technology Entrepreneurship Conference (ATEC), an entrepreneurship event organized by the Hong Kong alumni associations of Harvard, Columbia and MIT, as well as the South China alumni association of Stanford.
About EXL Inc
EXL Inc is a venture-backed EdTech start-up that aims to be the go-to platform for computer science and programming teachers and students. Since inception in 2017, our vision has been to provide teachers with the most advanced tools to help students learn most effectively and efficiently. Our team is laser-focused on delivering the most efficient, valuable and engaging learner experience possible, while maintaining a degree of scalability. The EXL Inc product roadmap religiously adheres to these principles, while facilitating interaction and adding functionality to increase engagement. For more information on EXL Inc and CodingRooms, please visit www.exlskills.com and www.CodingRooms.com respectively.
