Category Archives: Business

Business, Computers, Contributed, Mobile

Coronavirus Puts Remote Work Security to the Test

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*This article is contributed by Kevin Reed, CISO, Acronis*

As authorities worldwide work to contain the deadly coronavirus and try to keep it from spreading, the travel restrictions put in place are causing many organizations to rethink their operations. Rather than traveling to a region where their return flight might be at risk of being quarantined, many are turning to videoconferencing, file sync and share, and other remote work solutions to keep their businesses going. In China, where the disease started and where remote work policies are historically uncommon, the remote collaboration tool Zoom saw a single-day increase in downloads of 15%.

Source: Acronis

Remote work can certainly benefit a company, encouraging more collaboration and knowledge sharing. That’s why its adoption has grown significantly in the last several years. In fact, the global enterprise file synchronization and sharing (EFSS) market is expected to reach $24.4 billion by 2027, up from $3.4 billion in 2018.

Yet the wrong solution can put organizations at risk if they don’t address data security and privacy. To combat this predicament, businesses need to implement secure file sync and share technologies so that employees can work from home while also being able to access and transfer data in a manner that is both secure and safe.

What is file sync and share?

File sync and share technology is designed with the modern professional landscape in mind; a landscape where workforces rely on multiple devices and location flexibility in order to maximize productivity. File sync and share gives organizations the power to share files across multiple devices and with multiple people using file synchronization – allowing files to be stored in any approved data repository and accessed remotely by employees from any of their IT provisioned devices.

Security risks associated with remote work

Historically, remote work policies have been a sensitive topic for organizations. While some employers might fear that remote work creates a dip in employee performance, the larger concern is actually securing the proprietary and business-critical data modern companies rely on.

On a corporate network, IT teams can easily secure employee devices, but this becomes much more difficult to do once an employee accesses the system from outside the network.

Outside of the corporate network, devices are easily susceptible to attacks from third parties and cybercriminals. Attacking these unsecured endpoints can reveal the employee’s login credentials to cybercriminals so they can access the company’s system, or even use ransomware to lock company data – which happened to the NextCloud service last fall.

Benefits of secure file sync and share

Solutions that are built to deliver secure file sync and share give organizations the flexibility to enable employee collaboration and productivity while giving the IT department control over the protection of company data. Here are some of the ways that secure file sync and share technology protects and empowers businesses:

  • Secure File Sharing – It’s well known that when a file sync and share solution isn’t provided, employees will often resort to using their own personal devices and tools. Because these tools and devices exist outside of the control of IT departments, they’re inherently not secure and put sensitive company data at risk. With secure file sync and share, employees can easily share and access company files while IT maintains the privacy and security of the data.
  • Easy Anywhere, Anytime Access ­– Organizations are beginning to see the workday less as a clock-in/clock-out office environment, and have adopted an environment that supports the various schedules and lifestyles of their employees. With secure file-sync and share, employees are no longer constrained to a single corporate-owned device to be productive.
  • Data Loss Prevention and Disaster Recovery – When corporate data is centrally stored, it’s better protected against data leakage. This includes data lost to a cyberattack, employee error, or a lost or stolen device. With an enterprise-grade file sync and share solution, sensitive corporate data is kept secure and protected.
  • Easy Collaboration – File sync and share services are adapting to not only protect company data but to aid in remote workplace collaboration. Some file sync and share tools now provide users with tools to preview and edit files in-browser, search and find specific company documents and versions, and keep all employees on the same version of a document.

Final Thought

While global emergencies such as the coronavirus outbreak may highlight the benefits of having a secure remote work policy in place, the use of secure collaborative tools should be understood as part of a larger cultural shift. As more organizations adopt remote work policies, the IT teams, and MSPs that service these companies should adopt secure file sync and share solutions.

To help organizations introduce remote work policies in a way that is safe and secure, MSPs can offer their business customers Acronis Cyber Files Cloud, a secure enterprise file sync and share solution that features end-to-end encryption, user controls, and an audit trail.

Similarly, organizations that do not rely on an MSP can choose Acronis Cyber Files Advanced, an easy, complete, and secure enterprise file sharing solution that makes users more productive and gives IT complete control over business content to ensure security, maintain compliance, and enable BYOD.

Business, Editorial, Lifestyle, Social Media

Catching Up with Snap Inc.: The Big Comeback & Bitmoji TV

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A little while back, the team at techENT had the privilege of catching up with Nana Murugesan, Managing Director for International Markets at Snap Inc. and Ba Blackstock, CEO of Bitmoji at Snap Inc. The interview was done shortly after the launch of Bitmoji TV. Snap had acquired Bitstrips, the company that owned Bitmoji, back in 2016 for a healthy USD$64.2 million.

During this interview, techENT posed questions to Nana and Ba regarding Snapchat and also Bitmoji TV. In particular, how the new integration will benefit and change the scene for Snapchat. Here’s the full interview text.

techENT: Looking back a little bit, Snapchat had a boom in the social media space with its unique offering of creating “disappearing” content. When Facebook introduced its own with Stories across its apps, the drop in users on Snapchat was heavily reported. What has changed with Snapchat and how have users responded to this?

Nana Murugesan: First of all, Snapchat isn’t social media. From the very beginning we designed Snapchat to enhance your experience outside of the app and reflect the way that people have interacted with their best friends, long before the creation of the smartphone. To a certain extent, this was a reaction to what we were seeing on social media and the issues these platforms face. So just like in real life, your conversations with your friends disappear and your stories unfold in chronological order.

Bitmoji of Nana Murugesan

While other platforms may now have these features, their underlying philosophy is very different. On Snapchat, people are free to be themselves, with their real friends. There have never been likes or comments, so it feels like less of a competition. That way, Snapchatters aren’t pressured to be pretty, perfect or popular; and we don’t stockpile data so our community doesn’t have to worry that everything they send will be kept for eternity. Snapchat also opens directly to the camera and over 3.5 billion Snaps are created each day.

We’re focused on creating engaging experiences through which our community can stay close with their real friends and when not chatting or Snapping with those they love. For example, we introduced Snap Games last year and recently launched Bitmoji TV.

techENT: What is the user base for Snapchat now?

Nana Murugesan: We are really happy to see a continuous growth in our Daily Active Users. During our last earnings call (Q4, Feb 2020), we shared that there are 218 million people on average, globally using Snapchat every day. This is a 17% year over year growth (31M).

Bitmoji of Nana Murugesan

techENT: What are some of the new features that users are crazy about on Snapchat?

Nana Murugesan: Apart from Bitmoji TV, we’ve been finding all sorts of ways to let Snapchatters have fun with their Bitmoji. So far, Bitmoji Stories have been a hit amongst users, with an average of 18 million viewers per comic strip. Created as a personalised comic that features the Bitmoji of Snapchatters and their friends, it also eventually became the inspiration behind Bitmoji TV.

Bitmoji of Nana Murugesan

We’ve also since introduced several games that feature your Bitmoji such as Bitmoji Tennis, a battle-royale style game called Tiny Royale, and recently we released Ready Chef Go, a co-op cooking game played with your friends and Color Galaxy – where you can conquer the galaxy together. 

Adding to more shareable moments, Snapchat also launched Cameos in December which lets you put your face on animated memes and short GIFs that also feature you and your friends.

Introducing Cameos

While Lenses aren’t a new feature, both Snapchat’s internal team and Snapchat’s Official Lens Creators are constantly creating new, innovative and fun lenses that are loved by many Snapchatters. In fact, every day over 70% of Snapchatters play with AR Lenses, and over 600,000 Lenses have been created by our community through Lens Studio.

techENT: Snap Inc, Snapchat’s parent company, acquired Bitstrips back in 2017. What was the strategy behind the acquisition?

Ba Blackstock: In late 2014 Bitstrips launched Bitmoji, which surged in popularity in 2015, becoming a cultural phenomenon. It resonated with people because it gave them a way to represent themselves in their online interactions that felt more personal, authentic and fun.

Bitmoji of Ba Blackstock

The massive popularity of Bitmoji led to a conversation with Snap, in which we realised that our companies shared the same passion for creativity, self-expression and visual communication, so it seemed like a natural fit to join forces.

Through the acquisition we were able to use Bitmoji to bring a new kind of visual identity and expression into Snapchat, and to grow Bitmoji to become bigger than ever before. Since joining Snap Bitmoji has been the iOS app in over 100 countries.

techENT: Have any of Bitstrip’s Bitmoji features been introduced in Snapchat? How popular/well-received is Bitmoji since their introduction?

Ba Blackstock: Bitmoji has transformed the experience within Snapchat by becoming Snapchatters’ visual identity in the app, as well as giving them lots of new ways to communicate and express themselves – from stickers in chat, to geofilters on Snaps, to 3D Bitmojis in AR lenses, to Bitmoji Stories in Discover. 

Bitmoji of Ba Blackstock

Bitmoji has proven to be incredibly popular and over 70% of Snapchatters now have a Bitmoji.

techENT: Tell us what is Bitmoji TV.

Ba Blackstock: Bitmoji TV is a fully animated show starring your own Bitmoji, that you can watch now on Snapchat – with new episodes coming out every Saturday morning.  Each episode is between 3-5 minutes long and makes your Bitmoji the main character, alongside celebrity guest stars like Andy Richter, Jon Lovitz and Riki Lindhome, to name a few.

Bitmoji of Ba Blackstock

The premise of Bitmoji TV is that you are the biggest new star on TV – you’ve been cast in every show, every movie, every commercial, and each episode is a fast-paced combo of very different scenes. One minute you’ll see yourself in an action movie, the next minute you’re in a soap opera, then you’re in a sitcom. We’ve created our own animation style that is an audiovisual feast for the senses, with you at the center.

techENT: What sets Bitmoji TV apart from other platforms such as IGTV and YouTube? / Why introduce another platform in a space that seems so crowded?

Ba Blackstock: Bitmoji TV represents the beginning of an entirely new category of entertainment – a personalized experience that is unique for every single viewer. It’s also one of the first fully animated shows that’s designed to be viewed on your phone, in the vertical format. We had to build our own experimental animation and rendering technology to make it possible for this show to exist. But more than that, it’s a new experience that you can share with your friends that doesn’t exist anywhere else.

Bitmoji of Ba Blackstock

Bitmoji TV represents the beginning of an entirely new category of entertainment – a personalized experience that is unique for every single viewer. It’s also one of the first fully animated shows that’s designed to be viewed on your phone, in the vertical format. We had to build our own experimental animation and rendering technology to make it possible for this show to exist. But more than that, it’s a new experience that you can share with your friends that doesn’t exist anywhere else.

techENT: What type of content can we expect from Bitmoji TV?

Ba Blackstock: Bitmoji TV makes you the star of just about every type of TV show imaginable – talent shows, cop shows, sitcoms, soap operas, action movies and more. Every episode is different and is a fast-paced collection of various shows, as seen through the lens of Bitmoji’s unique sense of humour. 

Bitmoji of Ba Blackstock

Business, Computers, Contributed, Mobile

How ethical hacking can improve your security posture

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*This article is contributed by Myles Hosford, Head of Security Architecture, ASEAN, AWS*

Cybersecurity professionals see some threat actors or outside-parties as the enemy. However, challenging this mindset is important; you can better protect your organization against outside-parties if you understand how they think and operate. With this in mind, businesses around the globe have turned to hackers to test security infrastructure and develop stronger, more robust security practices.

Before integrating penetration testing into your security policy, it is important to understand the different types of hackers that exist. Each group has differing motivations, and you must be clear on which of their skills can be used to your organization’s advantage.

Black hat

Photo by Luca Nardone from Pexels

Black hat hackers are cybercriminals motivated by personal or financial gain. They range from teenage amateurs to experienced individuals or teams with a specific remit. However, over recent years, several high profile blackhat hackers have refocused on using their cyber skills to protect organizations. An example is Kevin Mitnick aka Condor, who was just sixteen years old when he gained access to a Department of Defense computer.  Following this and numerous other hacks, Mitnick spent five and a half years in prison. Upon his release set up his own company, Mitnick Security Consulting, which now runs penetration tests for clients.

The issue of whether to work with a previous black hat hacker is a contentious one. Some, including David Warburton, senior threat evangelist at F5 Networks, believe that hiring ex-hackers is critical in staying ahead of the threat landscape. However, others are concerned about allowing this group access to corporate systems and customer data. The latter group should, however, consider other approaches to working with hackers. 

White hat

Photo by Reza Rostampisheh on Unsplash

Often referred to as ethical hackers, white hat hackers are employed by organizations to look for vulnerabilities in security defences. Despite using the same tactics as black hat hackers, this group has permission from the organization making what they do entirely legal. While they use their knowledge to find ways to break the defences, they then work alongside security teams to fix issues before others discover them.

Many of the biggest organizations in the world, including General Motors and Starbucks, are turning to white hat hackers to help identify fault lines and proactively enhance security posture. White hat hacking can offer an interesting and lucrative career path for people with technical skills. Drawing attention to the important role white hat hackers play can encourage more talented individuals to take a positive path instead of becoming black hat hackers.

Nurturing talent

There are many programmes in place to find, encourage and support the next generation of white hat hackers. An example, supported by AWS, is r00tz Asylum, a conference dedicated to teaching young people how to become white-hats. Attendees learn how hackers operate and how cybersecurity experts defend against hackers. The aim is to encourage people with technical expertise to use it for good in their career.  By equipping aspiring cybersecurity professionals with knowledge and skills, they can bake security into infrastructure, from the ground up. AWS’s support for r00tz is our chance to give back to the next generation, providing young people who are interested in security with a safe learning environment and access to mentors.

Building on solid foundations

Photo by Ramin Khatibi on Unsplash

For those responsible for maintaining customer trust and protecting data, an end to end approach to security is critical. As we have seen, working with ethical hackers is a powerful way to view security posture from a cyber-criminal’s perspective to identify and tackle vulnerabilities. However, it’s also important to remember that security needs to be baked in throughout an organization’s infrastructure. This is where partnering with a cloud platform can be beneficial; the best of these are developed to satisfy the needs of the most risk-sensitive organizations. Cloud platforms also offer automated security services, which can proactively manage security assessments, threat detection, and policy management. In so doing, these platforms take on a lot of the heavy lifting for security professionals, including ethical hackers.

Business, Computers, Contributed, News

How blockchain technology is enabling new ways of doing business

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*This article is contributed by Myles Hosford, Head of Security Architecture, ASEAN, AWS*

As the world becomes more interconnected, opportunities for companies and individuals to interact and transact across borders, time zones, and channels grow quickly. To make sure that these transactions run smoothly, proactive management – specifically to ensure the minimization of cost, lowering of risk, and the elimination of inefficiencies – is needed.

Distributed ledger technology (DLT) such as blockchain helps simplify transactions and conduct efficient, secure interactions with multiple independent parties around the globe. All without the need for a third-party intermediary. These transactions can vary from sending anything from farm data, to banking and contract transactions.

Use case: Empowering farmers to sell field data transparently

Farmers collect large volumes of data with each step in the planting and harvesting process. Licensed data – data that qualifies as intellectual property of the farmer such as which crops to plant or how many seedlings – can be anonymized, sold to third parties and offer the agricultural industry with real-time insights on farms across the world. However, farmers are unsure how to monetize this crop data.

Photo by Tom Fisk from Pexels

As farmers are unsure how to monetize their crop data, Farmobile addresses these challenges through a blockchain-based exchange, built on AWS. The solution empowers farmers to licence data to approved buyers and includes account set up, creation, confirmation, execution of the offer, and delivery of the digital asset. They can seamlessly sell single-use licenses while keeping their farm’s identity completely anonymous. However, farmers have full visibility into the identities of potential data buyers, such as agronomists, equipment producers, and retailers, and are free to decline offers.

Use Case: Boosting financial inclusivity

Another case study for Blockchain technology is the financial sector in the Philippines. Here, rural banks lack the resources of larger banking institutions, making it nearly impossible for them to thrive or survive. This has left a large majority of rural-based Filipinos with little or no banking access.

Photo by David McBee from Pexels

UnionBank, a pioneer in its use of blockchain technology, joined forces with ConsenSys, an AWS Partner , to build a blockchain solution that would resolve this issue. The new, blockchain-based solution created a decentralized, cost-efficient, and near real-time network, allowing for the execution of domestic payments without relying on existing banking infrastructure and intermediaries.

The blockchain solution introduced means that rural banks no longer have to shoulder the burden of manually processing back-office transactions, freeing up staff to serve more customers. As such, the technology not only increased banking access and inclusivity but drove sustainable, future banking practices.

Use case: Limiting contract disputes in the oil and gas industry

Another example comes from the oil and gas industry. Moving resources through the oil and gas supply chain involves many stakeholders, including landowners, governments, oil and gas company operators, surveyors, and financial institutions. One critical step occurs between those mining the oil and royalty owners on whose land the oil is mined. Checking royalty transaction payments is a lengthy, manual process where stakeholders must agree to contract terms upfront. However, those terms are often interpreted differently on either side, often leading to disputes.

GuildOne, believed companies needed more efficient, secure, and cost-effective ways to execute a royalty contract transaction. They developed a solution through which contract terms are capable of being replicated, and consensus agreed using blockchain technology. By doing so, they mitigated the possibility of disputes and eliminated a large chunk of the expense of contract administration.

To build its royalty ledger and to meet the stringent privacy and security needs of its stakeholders, GuildOne chose to use R3’s Corda — a blockchain platform built for business and longevity — on AWS. Believing that the security capabilities gained would be vital in enabling rapid adoption of the royalty ledger solution in the oil and gas industry.

The future of blockchain technology solutions

Blockchain solutions are transforming the ways companies and individuals do business, locally and globally, by simplifying transactions and increasing their efficiency. Those looking to take advantage of the technology should partner with cloud providers capable of scaling up while delivering cybersecurity controls and standards to protect from external attacks. With Amazon Managed Blockchain, it eliminates the overhead required to create the network and automatically scales to meet the demands of thousands of applications running millions of transactions. Once a network is up and running, Managed Blockchain makes it easy to manage and maintain the blockchain network by managing its certificates and letting customers easily invite new members to join the network.

Business, Lifestyle, News

Netflix Bringing You More Features To Keep You Binging

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Netflix has come a long way from just CD rentals to the biggest online streaming platform not only in the United States but across the entire globe. Netflix has been busy improving its services and features. So what does Netflix have up its sleeve this time to keep our butts stuck to our couch.

This time around, Netflix has added a top 10 list of what’s popular on Netflix in each country. This new label would be displayed on the top right corner of the show’s poster. Other than whats the most popular on the entire Netflix. Netflix has also separated what’s most popular based on whether it is a TV show or Movie. 

Its been a while since I have kept up with the latest offerings from Netflix but here are some of the TV shows that I feel are a must-watch. 

RIVERDALE

What started off as a murder mystery series quickly became a disturbingly addictive show. The spin-off of the Archie comic book series starts off with the mysterious murder of Jason Blossom, the popular kid in town. 

Viewers were strapped onto their seats through a multitude of plot twists throughout the first season. The first season finale ended with a cliffhanger, luring all of us gullible souls into the second season. This was where the writing went off the rails, venturing more so into the realm of teenage fan-fiction. But hey, who can resist the cliffhangers and the hilariously cringy writing?

CHILLING ADVENTURES OF SABRINA

As another spin-off of a well-known comic series from the good-old-days, the Netflix exclusive takes a darker turn in this witchy tale. The first season is essentially the coming of age story of Sabrina, where she has to choose between being a mortal and a witch. 

As it ruffled some feathers among the satanist community, it remains an interesting watch, especially if you like feeling like a badass when the show’s official soundtrack comes on. Though it seems to be going down the same route as Riverdale in terms of writing, it’s a nice, lighthearted show for lovers of the fantasy genre. 

THE GOOD PLACE 

If you like Parks and Recreation, Brooklyn Nine-Nine, and The Office, you’ll love The Good Place. The show is basically a take on the afterlife and morality. Though chock full of actual ethical philosophy, the show maintains its comedic tone throughout the seasons. 

The story starts with the main character, Eleanor Shellstrop being assigned to what seems to be the wrong afterlife she deserves. Eleanor alongside Chidi, Tahani, and Jason, the ethically confused quartet go on a journey of self-betterment so they can end up at The Good Place. 

Business, News

Qualcomm Outs Unreleased Phones in Snapdragon Announcement

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It’s not everyday you have confirmation of upcoming from smartphones from a source such as Qualcomm. The company inadvertently announced that a few yet-to-be-announced phones will be running on their Snapdragon 865 platform.

We already know that the Snapdragon 865 would be powering most of the year’s flagships including the recently announced Xperia 1 II, Samsung Galaxy S20 series and the Mi 10 series. However, in their release, the company unveiled a whole lot more including ASUS new flagships: the Zenfone 7 and the ROG Phone III; Lenovo’s Legion Gaming Phone, OPPO’s Find X2, Sharp’s AQUOS R5G, the Redmi K30 Pro, realme X50 Pro and Nubia’s Red Magic 5G.

The company notes that since its announcement of the Snapdragon 865 Mobile platform in December 2019, more than 70 designs have utilised the SD865. Some of which have yet to be released. In addition, the company boasted more 1,750 designs which have been based on the Snapdragon 8-series mobile platforms. Keep in mind, that they are mentioning 8-series and not the 865. This would include the Snapdragon 855. 855+ and its predecessors or possible unannounced successor.

So, we’re waiting with bated breath now as we now know about 16 devices are making its way to market with the Snapdragon 865 and possible 5G connectivity. These devices could possibly include Samsung’s Note20 series and even o

Business, News

More COVID-19 Casualties: Apple’s Q2 Earnings Taking a Punch

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The development on the Novel Coronavirus of 2019, now more commonly known as COVID-19, is on every headline for the past month or so. If you have not heard, the Mobile World Congress 2020 (MWC2020) that is supposed to open its doors soon was shut down due to the large health concerns. They are not alone though. The F1 GP to be held in China in about two months time has been cancelled via the request of the local organisers. If you missed our news, Acer’s Predator League 2020 set to happen at the end of this month is also cancelled due to health concerns.

All these are quite expected, to be fair. What is even worse is that plenty of factories in China had to close down or stop operating for the time being thanks to the vicious spread of the virus. One of those affected manufacturing plants are Apple’s contractor, Foxconn. That also means there is currently a global shortage of Apple iPhones. Of course, that is going to hit the market and Apple’s earnings a little bit.

For good measure, for their investors anyway, Apple just predicted that their Q2 revenue will be lower than the expected US$ 63 to 67 billion. If you are thinking that it cannot be that much lower for Apple to make an announcement like this, it looks quite bad from Apple’s side. Their prediction also says that they will not even make the lowest mark of the revenue estimates for Q2 of 2020.

At this time Apple is predicting up to a 36% difference between the expected shipment for Q2 2020 and the actual shipment number. Optimistically they are expecting a 29% difference. Still, that big of a difference in shipments is going to be quite a big hit to their revenue numbers.

Apple did not mention how big of an impact the plunge in shipment will make though. At this time we cannot comment too much into their reduced shipments or even predict how much they will lose in revenue for Q2 2020. To be fair, even our attention is mostly fixed on the development on COVID-19.

Sources: 9to5 Mac, Mac Rumors, Mashable

Business, Computers, Consumer Electronics, Contributed, Editorial, Lifestyle

Combining AI and Humans in the New Decade

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*This article is a contributed article by Ravi Saraogi, Co-Founder and President of Uniphore, APAC *

2020 marks the transition into the great unknown. With the emergence of new possibilities and challenges ahead of us, successful organisations must be quick to identify and take advantage of opportunities through the power of emerging technologies. Specific to the customer service industry, brands that utilise Conversational Artificial Intelligence (AI) technologies will improve business operations and customer experiences.

It is estimated that about 70% of organizations will integrate AI to assist employee productivity by 2021[1] to meet the high demand of delivering faster, relevant and holistic services to today’s customers. More often than not, customers today are frustrated that broken customer service systems and poorly equipped agents don’t understand their requests. To fix this, businesses must move away from a siloed experience and approach service holistically.

Photo by mahdis mousavi on Unsplash

In terms of the adoption of the adoption of AI in Malaysian businesses, it was revealed that only 26% of companies in Malaysia have actually begun integrating AI into their operations, according to a survey that was conducted in 2018. The low adoption rate is attributed to two key barriers that are related to organizational culture on AI and limited employee skill sets2. Thus, the time is now to blend the capabilities of people and AI and better understand conversations in real-time for businesses to stay ahead of the race.

New Power to Customer Voice

With technological capabilities, it’s about time we start hearing what customers really want. Customers today are time poor, distracted and empowered by lots of products and services to choose from. Instant gratification is their modus operandi. With other factors like price point and product quality being at par, superior customer service remains challenging and is often a deal breaker. In a competitive landscape, customers demand a seamless experience when interacting with a brand.

That said, poor customer experiences are not difficult to resolve at all, more so today due to machine learning, AI and automation. This is because AI is now helping brands to truly listen to the voice of the customer and understand their needs in order to quickly resolve customer queries, deepen customer engagement, and deliver superior customer experience at scale.  

Making Headway with Conversational Service Automation

Minister of Communications and Multimedia, Gobind Singh Deo emphasises Malaysia’s potential in the development of AI in both public and private sectors, and the importance of ensuring the local government and industries capitalise on the opportunities at hand.[2]

The use of AI is becoming more prevalent in the customer service industry as conversations become more complex. There is a small window of opportunity for brands to deliver personalised customer service, particularly when your engagement happens across diverse channels. Being equipped with an understanding of context, sentiment, behaviour and real intent, and being able to act on such insights in real-time becomes even more crucial.

Photo by Joseph Pearson on Unsplash

Conversational Service Automation is about enabling front office automation in contact centres. Consider this scenario: A customer starts a conversation with a chatbot for quick self-service. The bot is able to provide some quick and valuable updates based on the customer’s previous interactions. If the conversation gets more complex, the voice bot politely hands the call to a human agent via a live transfer. The agent is assisted through real-time analytics and chat transcripts to be able to make the next best offer which the customer gladly accepts.

This automation backed by real-time analytics is continuously self-learning, enabling real-time listening of conversations across channels and then converting them into actionable insights. As a result, a win-win situation is created where businesses can reduce work pressure on call center agents, improve accuracy of information and greater customer satisfaction.

Getting Ahead of the Race with Voice and AI

We are in the midst of a customer experience transformation and conversational AI technology is leading this change. There is a positive acceptance from both businesses and customers to adopt newer conversational AI technologies. This is driven by the try-before-you-buy and pay-as-you-go models offered, which enterprises find appealing and less risky. Brands can take smaller bets, test-and-learn and then scale up.

Automation has successfully allowed computers to respond to contexts within queries, monitor customer behaviour and improve overall customer service. Moreover, contact centre agents can now receive real-time alerts and recommendations for upsell and cross-sell. The time is now for companies to leverage conversational AI to deliver a quantum leap in customer service, in an industry that is full of potential. It is good to note that brands that embrace conversational service automation will be the ones who stay ahead of the competition and thrive in the new decade.

[1] https://www.gartner.com/en/newsroom/press-releases/2019-01-24-gartner-predicts-70-percent-of-organizations-will-int
2 https://www.stuff.tv/my/news/malaysian-companies-needs-build-ai-culture-it-too-late-microsoft

[2] https://www.malaymail.com/news/malaysia/2019/09/12/gobind-malaysia-well-positioned-in-se-asia-for-ai-research-and-development/1789773

Business, News

Mobile World Congress (MWC) 2020 is Cancelled!

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The biggest international conference about mobile technology has fallen to the Coronavirus outbreak. Mobile World Congress (MWC) is the largest congress held yearly in Barcelona. It brings together some of the biggest tech companies in the world for an intense week of announcements and unveilings.

However, this year, amidst the panic surrounding COVID-19, the conference has been officially cancelled. In an official announcement from GSMA, the conference’s organisers, has announced that the current health climate has made it impossible for the conference to continue. It comes as a big blow to the industry as the event usually sees the likes of Nokia, HMD, Intel, LG and more make announcements for their new flagships.

With due regard to the safe and healthy environment in Barcelona and the host country today, the GSMA has cancelled MWC Barcelona 2020 because the global concern regarding the coronavirus outbreak, travel concern and other circumstances, make it impossible for the GSMA to hold the event.

John Hoff man, Cheif Executive Officer, GSMA

However, the cancellation of the event doesn’t come as a surprise. In the days and weeks prior to the announcement, some of the biggest names taking part in MWC 2020 announced that they would be pulling out of the conference over health and safety concerns surrounding the COVID-19 (Novel Coronavirus nCov-2019) outbreak. Ericsson, Intel, Sony, OPPO, Vivo, LG, NTTdocomo and more released statements in the days leading up to GSMA’s announcement.

While the cancellation is unfortunate, we have it on good authority that many of the announcements that were slated for MWC2020 will be made at a later date. So, do expect a trickle of announcements from companies that were slated for MWC in the coming weeks.

Business, Computers, News

2019-nCoV (Novel Coronavirus) Has Got Nothing on Samsung

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Yes, we are riding the waves of the top news today too. If you go on Twitter, there are two quite a number of things that are trending in Malaysia. As of this writing, the top trending topic in Malaysia has nothing to do with the subject. Look further down though and there it is. is number three in Malaysia’s trending topics. Following that is #2019nCoV. Both of these refers to the subject that is also commonly known as the Wuhan virus.

Due to the virus, plenty of life in Asia has grounded to a halt. The official death toll in China has climbed over 400 and will continue to do so. Beyond that, China has also confirmed more than 20,000 cases within their borders. There are reports coming out of the country itself that China has quarantined more than 30 million people and suspects that the confirmed case numbers are closer to 10 million.

In Malaysia itself, there are already 8 reported cases. All of them are now in quarantine though. Still, is the trending topic, not only on twitter but everywhere else too. Air travels has been suspended and trips cancelled left and right. Not to mention, you might not be able to obtain anymore hand sanitisers and face mask now.

The virus though, does not hinder the progress of humanity. Wait, no that is not right. The virus will not hinder Samsung’s progress in their digital conquest. That sounds about right.

Source: Business Korea

You would expect plenty of construction work, or any sort of work in China itself to slowdown. That is not the case with Samsung’s Xi’an plant though. The plant, that is to be operational in the mid of 2020 will be Samsung’s second manufacturing plant in Xi’an and will be focusing on making memory chips.

While that construction is going smoothly and on track, Samsung has not stopped their progress as the world’s most advanced memory chip maker too. They have just announced and introduced their brand new third generation HBM2E fondly named ‘Flashbolt’. HBM stands for ‘High Bandwidth Memory’.

Source: Samsung

The new Flashbolt chip has a capacity of 16GB that is combined through stacking eight 10nm 16Gb DRAM (that is Gigabit for you) dies on top of a buffer chip. A little technical? Quite a lot actually. While half of us may not understand that process, it is important to note that the HBM2E has an average transfer speed of 3.2Gbps. In some cases, the Flashbolt can hit 4.2 Gbps in transfer speeds.

The current high performance memory module, the Aquabolt has a bandwidth of 307 GBps. With the new Flashbolt, that number goes up to 410 GBps per stack or up to 538GBps, if you might. Technically this does not mean that much to us as consumers.

Thing is, research labs all over the world needs all these stuff in their super computers. Plenty of these highly advanced labs uses Artificial Intelligence (A.I.) or Machine Learning (M.L.). Those applications eventually reach us, the users. With the advanced of a high speed and bandwidth chip like this, A.I. and M.L. algorithms and application can be more powerful than ever before. In that sense, no one will argue for a more powerful Google Assistant or Siri then.