NAIROBI, Kenya, July 14, 2020 — In July, the anti-epidemic materials donated by TCL to UN Habitat headquarters arrived in Nairobi. After the completion of customs clearance, the materials were delivered to UN Habitat headquarters.
The aid supplies arrived at the UN Compound in Nairobi
TCL Technology Corporation
By July 2020, the number of new cases of COVID-19 in Africa has reached 500,000, Africa is facing severe problems such as shortages of medical equipment and insufficiency of professional medical personnel. To cope with the epidemic situation, African countries urgently adopted prevention measures, and searched for the essential medical products in other markets.
TCL Charity Foundation immediately responded after recognizing the urgent needs for epidemic prevention materials at UN Habitat headquarters in Nairobi, Kenya. As a global enterprise, TCL has actively undertaken social responsibilities and contributes to the fight against the COVID-19 across the Americas, Europe, Africa, Asia, and Oceania.
TCL Technology Corporation
TCL Technology focuses on the semi-conductor display and materials industry, also setting foot in industrial finance & investment and venture capital investment. With the vision of “becoming a global leading intelligent technology company”, TCL Technology pursues a business strategy of clear technological leadership, efficiency, global operations, and groundbreaking reformations. As a subsidiary of TCL Technology, TCL CSOT ranked third globally in market share of TV panel in 2019 and second globally in market share for LTPS mobile phone panel.
Postmen, AfterShip’s global shipping API, allows companies to streamline and automate their e-commerce shipping process at scale
HONG KONG, June 24, 2020 — AfterShip, the leading shipping and tracking platform for online retailers, today announced the company is making Postmen, its e-commerce shipping API, completely free with no limit on shipping volumes. Postmen is a scalable shipping solution that allows e-commerce companies to automate and optimize their shipping processes with 60 couriers worldwide.
Because of COVID-19, businesses around the world have had to temporarily close their brick and mortar stores, forcing them to rapidly adjust operations. The shift away from in-person retail has led to unprecedented demand for e-commerce shipments, and many companies have needed to scale and adapt to a very different retail environment. AfterShip’s simple Postmen API helps companies of all sizes mitigate this challenge and reduce costs by seamlessly integrating courier selection, cost and delivery time estimates, and the printing of shipping labels into their existing shipping infrastructure at no added cost to the shipper. Since February 2020, AfterShip has seen an 85% increase in shipping volume, instead of the typical decrease in volume that occurs in the months after the holiday retail season.
“Many retailers and fulfillment providers are trying to simultaneously scale their shipping operations and manage costs as a result of safe-distancing requirements and other economic impacts of COVID-19,” said Andrew Chan, co-founder at AfterShip. “A user-friendly, efficient shipping tool is critical for survival both now and as we look ahead to an unpredictable future. Postmen offers an easy, free solution to quickly scale shipping processes to meet the heightened demand for e-commerce.”
With Postmen, shippers — whether they are a small, local retailer or a large fulfillment center — can quickly choose the best shipping and courier options and estimate delivery times and costs for each courier. The API is easy for developers to integrate into a retailer’s shipping operation and integrates with businesses’ existing shipping accounts so they can continue applying discounted rates they’ve negotiated with couriers. With the API, developers can integrate their shipping process with any courier Postmen supports, shortening their usual integration time — which can be months per courier — to two weeks for all couriers supported by Postmen. AfterShip’s integration with USPS provides customers access to a discounted USPS shipping rate, eliminating the need to negotiate with the courier.
Once a business chooses its preferred shipping method, Postmen generates and prints shipping and prepaid return labels in a PDF format. The labels are certified by couriers, and companies can print them in any desired size. Postmen can generate multiple labels using CSV upload to speed up the shipping process.
“Our postal shipping lead time used to be 7-14 days, but COVID-19 caused that lead time to balloon to as much as 60+ days. At the same time, our postal costs rose by almost 100%,” said Steven Suh, the co-founder of Floship, a global order fulfillment solutions provider for e-commerce businesses. “For our business to survive the pandemic, we need to offer express shipping with major carriers, and Postmen allows us to do so. Rather than building our own carrier integrations, we can go through Postmen’s catalog of existing carrier integrations and get express shipping up and running within 2-3 days. Without Postmen, we’d need to hire 3 additional full-time developers to manage and maintain our shipping process. Postmen has been a huge time-saver for us and has helped accelerate offering new and better solutions for our clients.”
AfterShip is committed to helping businesses grow and scale their shipping processes. Postmen is available for free to all interested companies. Learn more about the shipping API here.
About AfterShip AfterShip (aftership.com) is a shipment tracking platform for online retailers, supporting more than 683 couriers worldwide. AfterShip helps over 100,000 retailers improve their post-purchase experience by providing a branded tracking page and sending proactive delivery updates. AfterShip has 2 other products – Postmen (postmen.com) and Returns Center (returnscenter.com). Postmen provides a simple shipping application and API for retailers to ship easily with any couriers worldwide at the lowest shipping rates. AfterShip Returns Center enables retailers to provide a self-service returns experience to their customers. AfterShip partners with major shopping cart solutions, including Shopify, Magento, Squarespace, BigCommerce. AfterShip, headquartered in Hong Kong, has 130 employees globally. AfterShip was the winner of the 2011 Global Startup Battle and 2011 Hong Kong Startup Weekend.
StaffAny joins the fight against COVID-19 by waiving CICO Global’s download fees till end-2020
SINGAPORE, June 23, 2020 — Singapore start-up StaffAny, which offers workforce management tech solutions, has developed and launched a new mobile app, called CICO Global (Clock-in, Clock-out). As many regional economies are slowly emerging from lockdowns, businesses are carefully reopening. The app helps regional businesses and their employees reopen in an efficient and safe manner by leveraging digital solutions to encourage businesses to easily employ safety measures, such as contact tracing, safe distancing and staggered employee hours. CICO Global is ideal for businesses that require the recording of staff attendance (in particular, part-timers or hourly workers), such as F&B outlets, convenience shops, and retailers like supermarkets.
StaffAny CICO clock in and temperature logs mobile app flow
To help the Asia Pacific business community fight against COVID-19, StaffAny is waiving CICO’s download fees for regional businesses until the end of 2020[1]. CICO is also in line with Singapore’s recently announced Fortitude Budget as it helps businesses use digital solutions to reopen in a safe manner and encourages workers to comply with post-Circuit Breaker measures.
“We first developed CICO as the ‘lite’ version of our original StaffAny solution and launched it in Singapore to help businesses here reopen, providing employers with a peace of mind that their staff was complying with our local Circuit Breaker measures. We were greatly heartened by the number of sign-ups – hundreds in just a short period of time. We wanted to find a way to extend CICO and help the regional community to continue operations smoothly and safely, as we know many companies – especially SMEs – have been badly hit by COVID-19,” said Janson Seah, co-founder, StaffAny.
CICO Global is a workforce management mobile application that employees and their managers can use in the following ways:
Automated timesheets – Employees use CICO Global to verify when they enter and leave the business. After downloading CICO Global on their mobile phones, employees use the app to scan a QR code based at the work premise. CICO Global verifies the individual, time of arrival and departure, as well as the geo-location of their mobile. CICO Global then automatically tabulates the number of hours registered at work, including overtime. This removes the need for manual clock-ins (which can be easily mis-recorded) or outdated punch-cards. The contactless system also reduces the chances of any virus transmission. When employees clock in, they can also make a health declaration to confirm they have not travelled abroad recently or been in contact with a COVID-19 patient[2].
Dashboard for visibility – Managers no longer need to visit each outlet to verify staff have clocked in for work. Using the CICO Global dashboard, they can easily verify attendance and clock-in/out times. By tracking staff properly, managers can ensure staggered hours and that employees are not being cross-deployed to different outlets.
Notifications – When assigned staff does not clock-in, CICO Global notifies the manager so that necessary action can be taken. Notifications are also provided to employees to remind them of an upcoming shift. This helps prevent lateness and no-shows.
Record keeping – All records are within the app and can be easily exported. This eliminates time-consuming paperwork for multiple records, such as health declaration, temperature taking, or clock-in/out times.
“Clocking in for work was previously quite tedious – multiple clock-ins, signing many health declaration forms, and all the messy paperwork that comes with it. A couple of times, an employee would accidentally miss out on something and my team would need to constantly check. Now with CICO, things are simpler, faster, and neater. I have more time to focus on managing operations, in particular, sorting out deliveries and our new take-away initiative,” said Walden Ting, Operations Manager Brotzeit, a German bar and restaurant in Singapore.
See Annex A for details on some of CICO’s pioneering users.
Setting up CICO Global is simple, instant, and does not require any hardware. Businesses simply log on to CICO Global (https://www.staffany.com/cicoglobal) and sign up. Regional businesses that sign up by 31 July can access CICO for free till the end of this year (with StaffAny waiving the regular fee of S$39 per month). After signing up, businesses can start instantly by adding/importing their employees’ details in bulk. Employees will then receive an invitation from their employer via SMS to download the StaffAny CICO app and they would be able to clock in immediately. Businesses that continue using the app will pay the regular fee after the end of this year.
“As economies ease their lockdowns and businesses resume, we want to minimise chances of a surge in the number of cases of COVID-19. Because of this, it makes sense that some measures stay in place, including safe distancing, staggered working hours, no cross-deployment of staff, and contact tracing. This is why StaffAny will keep providing CICO Global for free to regional businesses until the end of the year. Hopefully, this will help everyone to stay safe and efficient at the workplace, as regional economies start to open up for business again,” explained Janson Seah.
Set up in 2018, StaffAny is a Singapore start-up company that aims to connect human resources and operations within organisations, for greater efficiency, productivity, and better communications among staff. The company is supported by NUS Enterprise, the entrepreneurial arm of the National University of Singapore, incubated at BLOCK71 Singapore, and founded by a team of alumni from the NUS Overseas Colleges programme.
[1] Waiver of CICO Global fees until end-2020 is done as long as businesses sign up before 31 July 2020.
[2] The health declaration is optional. Should employees wish, the health declaration form can be removed.
About StaffAny
StaffAny is a workforce management solution for companies who engage hourly workers. The most common way to manage hourly workers today is to do it via clunky spreadsheets. The process is time-consuming and tedious and we believe more needs to be done.
At StaffAny, we make time for businesses to do what matters. We empower today’s connected workforce with a data-driven approach to managing hourly workers. We have brought smiles to hundreds of paying locations via our integrated scheduling and time tracking Software as a Service (SaaS).
Our job today is to connect HR and ops internally within organisations, and our vision is to enable businesses to be connected to the leaner workforce of tomorrow. For more information, please visit https://www.staffany.com/.
Annex A: Pioneering businesses using CICO
Juan Valdez Cafe
Juan Valdez Cafe, a global coffeehouse chain originally from Colombia, South America, has seven outlets with 30 employees in Kuala Lumpur (KL), Malaysia. Since Malaysia’s Movement Control Order (MCO) was imposed on 18 March 2020 to curb the country’s COVID-19 transmission, it has been tough on F&B businesses as they could only do takeaways and deliveries. Although Juan Valdez Cafe’s revenue took a hit, the restaurant adapted its business and took the opportunity to give back to the community. It swiftly got on food delivery mobile apps like Beepit, foodpanda, and GrabFood, expanded its menu offerings, and started its own initiative called “Support Our Local Heroes” to distribute free drinks to frontliners such as healthcare workers, delivery riders, and news reporters. It also launched local favourites at affordable prices to let Malaysians continue enjoying these dishes while supporting local businesses and micro-entrepreneurs during this period of social distancing.
“It is crucial to make sure that our employees comply with all safety measures and come to work healthily, as this in turn helps us fulfill our responsibility towards our customers whose safety is our top concern. Originally, we were using a manual clock-in system where employees had to record attendance, take and log their temperature on a separate form and declare health status manually on paper upon arriving at work. This was time-consuming, inefficient and not hygienic with unavoidable surface contact made. Keeping these paper records was bulky and in order to have full sight of employees’ attendance, we needed to visit each outlet. CICO Global has helped in consolidating real-time data logged from all seven outlets onto a single platform, and gives me full visibility over employees’ attendance and overtime. Furthermore, it digitalises temperature and attendance logs in a contactless manner. CICO Global has saved us time, allowed us to become more efficient and have better control over operations and staff allocation. Although COVID-19 has affected our business, being adaptable and open to innovation has allowed us to improve and keep operations smooth, even with the additional measures that we have to comply with, due to the lifting of the conditional MCO,” said Mr Khalip Latif, Director, Juan Valdez Cafe, Klang Valley, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
Starting in 2017 as a cafe based at the National University of Singapore (NUS), Foreword Coffee Roasters had grown to three outlets staffed by a team of 20. The company is a social enterprise, hiring individuals with disabilities and special needs, as the company recognises their potential and provides inclusive employment and training opportunities within the F&B industry. When the COVID-19 pandemic hit Singapore, Foreword Coffee Roasters was forced to close two of its outlets. The remaining cafe only handles take-away orders and is located at the Centre for Healthcare Innovation in Tan Tock Seng Hospital. To boost its business, Foreword Coffee Roasters has expanded its online shop which offers handcrafted bottled coffee and other products.
“Healthcare safety has always been paramount for the F&B sector. Previously, employees had to perform SafeEntry whenever they passed any of the entry points at Tan Tock Seng Hospital, log in again later when they reached work, and then log into SafeEntry which was a hassle. Because of this, using CICO was convenient in helping to save time and reduce stress. We have seen a significant increase in our online sales since Circuit Breaker measures came into effect. Due to the popular demand of our bottled coffees, we have just launched a new subscription model, which offers customers discounts when they purchase in bulk. So, using CICO has been a great help for me, as it allows me to monitor who is on-site preparing the drinks, even when I’m not at the cafe,” said Lim Wei Jie, Founder and Director, Foreword Coffee Roasters.
The COVID-19 pandemic has upended the F&B sector, and many companies have had to adapt quickly to the digital era to engage with their customers. Good Luck Beerhouse developed an online website, to allow customers to order take-aways from them, in particular their craft beers, which they sell in a 640ml take-away container. Owner Kevin Ngan realised that many of his F&B neighbours along Haji Lane would be in a similar predicament. He invited them onboard his online platform, and together they provide joint deliveries under the ‘Solidarity on Haji Lane’ campaign, so customers can enjoy a range of food items – from gourmet burgers to oysters, dim sum, and prawn mee – paired with their favourite craft beer.
“We’ve had to completely change our understanding of how the F&B environment operates. We kept our team lean, refined operations and spent hours designing new campaigns and fine-tuning our propositions, so the company could survive. And while the additional revenue generated from our ‘Solidarity on Haji Lane’ campaign has been marginal, the solidarity and support for one another is absolutely priceless! Because of this extra work required to keep the business running, we’re definitely grateful for the time saved with the integration of CICO and SafeEntry. Not only is this time saved, but there is greater peace of mind that we are complying with the various measures to stay safe, as we stay open,” said Kevin Ngan, Owner, Good Luck Beerhouse.
Like most businesses, Phoon Huat – a company that provides baking ingredients and supplies – has been impacted by COVID-19. However, in an unusual turn of events, it has actually led to an increase in B2C sales, as more people are choosing to bake as they stay at home. This has resulted in long queues for certain outlets, and Phoon Huat has had to deploy manpower to help out with queue management. The company currently has 380 employees and began using StaffAny’s enterprise solution mid- 2019 at one of their new outlets, to better manage staff rostering.
“Our employees – in particular their health and safety – are our utmost priority. When Singapore raised our risk assessment to DORSCON Orange, we rolled out StaffAny’s contactless time and attendance taking functions to our headquarters, which also includes our production and logistics operations, to reduce the need for staff to make physical contact when clocking in or out. StaffAny’s solution has been great – we can access all reports, and plan shifts more efficiently. Our original plan was to use StaffAny to get accurate timesheet data, but we are now using StaffAny for data analytics. This is especially useful, as we’ve had to adapt to a change in our business model, after seeing a significant increase in retail sales, and at the same time a drop in B2B sales. In addition, we’ve also had to put in place two teams working at different times in our production and logistics operations, as one of the safe distancing measures in the workplace. And because StaffAny integrates with SafeEntry, it has definitely made checking-in and out much more convenient for our staff. Together with StaffAny, we are doing our best to coordinate efforts, together with the whole nation, to combat COVID-19 together,” said Mr Lee Tjen Chew, CFO, Phoon Huat.
STOCKHOLM, June 9, 2020 /PRNewswire/ — The new report from TCO Development, the organization behind the global sustainability certification for IT products TCO Certified, explains how everyone who buys and uses IT products can implement circular and more sustainable practices.
New report with 33 expert tips on circular IT management
“Circular solutions are already available. We now need to use them,” says Clare Hobby, Global Purchaser Engagement Director at TCO Development.
The report, Impacts and Insights: Circular IT Management in Practice, sets out how the circular economy helps solve many of the most pressing sustainability challenges linked to IT products. Today’s linear consumption causes substantial carbon dioxide emissions. Natural resources are being rapidly exhausted and vast amounts of hazardous e-waste piles up, with more than 50 million metric tonnes being discarded every year, of which only 20% is being responsibly taken care of. The circular economy can help us reduce the pressure we’re putting on the planet.
As a pioneer of circular procurement, Aalborg municipality has seen the effects of acting with greater circularity.
“The amount of CO2 we can save by keeping IT products longer surprised me. Using laptops for another three years will save emissions equivalent to heating and powering all municipality buildings for a year,” says Birgitte Krebs Schleemann, project manager for sustainability procurement at Aalborg municipality.
The circular transition is a paradigm shift that will require both big and small changes. In the report, experts in the frontline of circularity and IT share 33 concrete tips.
“We want to go beyond theory — this report provides practical help for those who want to take the next step,” says Clare Hobby.
Some of the tips:
Use your IT-products longer — it’s the single most important thing you can do to save natural resources and cut greenhouse gas emissions.
Work to gradually implement circular practices, such as take-back programs.
Think circular when you’re purchasing IT products. Use circular criteria.
Give your IT products a second life by reselling them.
Acknowledge that circularity is a team effort and no one can do it alone. Both internal and external cooperation is key!
TCO Certified is the world-leading sustainability certification for IT products. Our comprehensive criteria are designed to drive social and environmental responsibility throughout the product life cycle. Covering 11 product categories, compliance is independently verified, both pre and post certification.
ISTANBUL, June 5, 2020 /PRNewswire/ — Adopting sustainability as a business model with its “Respecting the World, Respected Worldwide” vision, Arçelik published its 12th Sustainability Report, announcing short, medium, and long-term targets towards 2030.
Arçelik CEO Hakan Bulgurlu
Arçelik CEO Hakan Bulgurlu spoke about the company’s 12th Sustainability Report, commenting, “A sustainable world is possible in the future with the steps we will take today. Our ‘In Touch Technology’ approach is based on this point of view. With our global reach, broad network of stakeholders, and our technologies that improve our planet, lives and business, we strive to be a part of the solution in tackling environmental and social problems. The COVID-19 outbreak has affected the whole world in a short period of time, and it has once again reminded us that our most important responsibility is to protect our environment, the ecosystem, biodiversity and natural resources. We believe that all companies will adopt sustainability as their business model after the pandemic. People will also encourage companies to take responsibility for environmental and social problems with their purchase decisions.”
Energy and water consumption per product will decrease by 45%
Arçelik shared its solutions to combat the climate crisis and other environmental issues under the “In Touch with our Planet” section. By 2030, the company aims to establish 15 MW of renewable energy systems and reduce the energy consumption per product in its South Africa, Russia, Turkey, Romania, China, Thailand and Pakistan operations by 45% compared to the base year of 2015. In 2019, Arçelik reduced its energy consumption per product by 43.5% compared to 2010 in its Turkey, Romania, China, Russia, and South Africa operations. Now it aims to become a carbon-neutral company in its Turkish production plants by 2025 and reduce its water consumption per product by 45% by 2030 compared to the base year of 2015. The company also reached its 2020 targets by reducing its water consumption per product by 52% compared to the base year of 2012 in its Turkey, Romania, China, Russia, and South Africa operations.
The female manager ratio will increase to 30% by 2030
Under the “In Touch with Business” section, Arçelik explained its employee-oriented targets focusing on being a source of inspiration for its stakeholders, to begin with its supply chain and dealers. The company increased its female manager ratio to 18.6% in 2019 and now aims to raise it to 30% by 2030. Arçelik also aims to ensure that over 50% of its employees participate in a minimum of one volunteering activity per year.
Arçelik will help 80 million people gain awareness on healthy living
Through “In Touch with Human Needs” approach, Arçelik, with its Beko brand, aims to raise awareness amongst 80 million people about healthy living by 2030 with ongoing programmes to contribute to healthy, future generations. Arçelik also joins Grundig in the fight against food waste to raise awareness amongst 3.5 million people about responsible consumption and provide 1 million meals to 500,000 people by saving 1,200 tons of food.
The Industry Leader in Sustainability
Arçelik reinforced its leadership in national and global platforms with its sustainability efforts in 2019. Arçelik has been selected as the Industry Leader for the “Household Durables” category in the Dow Jones Sustainability Index (DJSI). The index represents the gold standard in corporate sustainability and ranks the largest companies based on their sustainability performances. Arçelik has been the first and only industrial company from Turkey to be included in the DJSI Emerging Markets category for three consecutive years.
Arçelik maintained its achievements by being listed in the Borsa Istanbul (BIST) Sustainability Index, MSCI Sustainability Index, and FTSE4Good Emerging Markets Index, and by receiving the Zero Waste Private Sector Award from the Republic of Turkey, Ministry of Environment and Urbanization.
Arçelik has received A- in the 2019 Climate Program of the Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP), the world’s most respected environmental initiative with its campaigns against climate change and became one of the Turkish companies to earn the highest score in this program. The company also received B in the CDP 2019 Water Program.
You can download Arçelik’s 2019 Sustainability Report here.
JAKARTA, Indonesia, May 27, 2020 /PRNewswire/ — In order to help others during the COVID-19 pandemic, POP Domino, an Indonesian android game application, will hold a “Donasi Hati – Breathe The Same Air” campaign for the second time. The campaign which aims to help those whose lives are affected by COVID-19 will be held from 30 May to 12 June 2020.
Donasi Hati Event – Breathe The Same Air will be held on 30 May – 12 June 2020 by POP Domino
On April 26 to 2May 2020, POP Domino has conducted its first donation activity. In the previous activity, POP Domino distributed 60 food packages that consists of rice, oil, canned food, and various other food items to 60 underprivileges families in Jakarta and surrounding areas. This contribution has been given directly to family representatives to help them welcomed the fasting month.
“This pandemic has not only affected Indonesia but the whole world too. Everybody is going through a hard time. Therefore, through our previous donation activity, even just a little, we want to help and give hope to those who carry out the fasting month of Ramadan,” said POP Domino representative.
Not only accompanying players during this quarantine time, POP Domino wants to invite players to participate in “Donasi hati” event that will be held in the game to show their solidarity and care to the society. During the second event period, players can collect “Hearts” as donation items. “Hearts” can be collected by playing the game every day, then the collected “Hearts” will be put into “Heart Pool”. “Hearts” collected in the Pool will be donated in the form of basic needs to those in need.
This event is not only providing donations to those in need, but every player who participates in this event has the opportunity to get a variety of attractive prizes that have been prepared by POP Domino. The prize for the “Donasi Hati” are in-game special decoration items and game coupons. Game coupons can be exchanged for prizes such as in-game items, phone credits and smartphones.
“We hope we can all get together through difficult times during this pandemic. And of course, comply with physical distancing regulations, always wear a mask and keep your distance in public places, washing hands thoroughly, and avoid going out and gathering. May we always be healthy.”
For more info on “Donasi Hati” event, please visit POP Domino’s official Facebook fan page.
About POP Domino
POP Domino is a traditional Indonesian card game application that is popular among game lovers. Play with players from all over the world, show your analytical skills, win attractive prizes and be number 1 in the world. The total registered users of the POP Domino game have reached more than 10 million players, ranked 1st in the card game ranking and top 100 in the game ranking. Launched in 2018, POP Domino is developed by SEA GAMES.
ZHUHAI, China, May 21, 2020 /PRNewswire/ — In response to the COVID-19 outbreak in India, Pantum has sent critical medical supplies to local sales teams and is actively working with its local distributors to combat the challenges unleashed by the pandemic.
As brick-and-mortar stores are currently only open in certain regions, Pantum has mobilized its local sales staff to shift to working from home quickly. To further optimize its local services, Pantum is actively organizing online sales staff training, covering product, marketing, management, and company culture training. In doing so, Pantum seeks to ensure that business expansion and service improvement can swiftly pick up when the pandemic subsides.
Pantum Assists Salespeople and Distributors in the Indian Market to Overcome COVID-19 Challenges
With its close attention to employee and partner health and safety, Pantum has sent masks to each local salesperson as they continue to actively seek bids and prepare themselves for the rapid resumption of work. In the meantime, Pantum has also ensured that their distributor partners are able to confront difficulties, and they have expressed their gratitude for the care that Pantum has shown them, as well as how Pantum products have helped them achieve impressive business results. Several partners have conveyed their appreciation of Pantum and its products.
“Pantum has cultivated a very positive brand image in the market,” said Mr. Umang Lalani, CEO of Lalani Infotech Ltd., a pioneer in IT, telecom, and home appliance distribution in India with a strong network of 5,000+ dealers. “Pantum printers are known for being cost-effective and easy to use without compromising on quality and efficiency, creating significant value for users.”
“Pantum is a fairly new name in the Indian market and in competition with brands like HP, Epson, and Canon,” said Mr. Munish Jain, CEO of Paramount International, a New Delhi-based distributor. “We are confident that we can create a good market share for their products. The customers who have been using Pantum have been recommending it to others.”
“Pantum offers an exciting range of laser printers, and their management and field team have a clear idea of how to address the Indian market, with lots of exciting plans in the works,” said Mr. Saikat Mahapatra, CEO of Laptop Forum, a leading distributor of IT equipment in India. “Customers understand that Pantum is the best value for money.”
Pantum has teamed up with 50 dealer partners for elevating national sales channels across 20 states in India, with 1,500 stores in first-tier and significant second-tier cities. In addition to continuously improving its distributor network, Pantum is committed to standing with its partners to combat the pandemic and leveraging its brand and product strengths to help them achieve continued business success.
About Pantum
Founded in 2010, Pantum is the original printer manufacturer, with its business covering printers, printing materials, and printing solutions and services. In 2011, Pantum began its overseas expansion and is currently active in more than 50 markets and regions across the world, including China, the US, Europe, the Middle East, and South Africa. Driven by its patented technology, Pantum is continuously innovating its office products so as to meet the evolving needs of customers, offering economical, user-friendly, and energy-efficient products as well as reliable printing solutions. Today, Pantum is now also bringing greater value to its Indian customers thanks to its cost-effective products, services, and sales policies.
For more information, please contact: Mr. Aaron Zhao Pantum India Sales Director Mobile: +86 18928036307 Email: Aaron.zhao@pantum.com
Mr. Abhra Das Pantum India Sales Head Mobile: +91 9831849971 Email: Abhra.das@pantum.com Website: www.pantum.in Facebook: Pantum India Service hotline: +91-1800-419-3160
SINGAPORE, May 21, 2020 /PRNewswire/ — Global tech companies UNL, Akoin and Venturerock have teamed up to launch Human Unlimited foundation to use #tech4good and fuel the fight against COVID-19, future pandemics and disasters.
UNL, Akoin and Venturerock Team Up to Launch Human Unlimited #tech4good Foundation
The foundation supports and accelerates initiatives and ventures that leverage technology as a catalyst to transform and elevate human reality within developing regions, starting with Africa, India and Southeast Asia. “Our focus is set on accelerating long-term tech solutions for battling the first, second and third waves of the virus, to bring back balance post COVID-19 and being ready for a fast, universal response when future disasters strike,” says Xander van der Heijden, CEO of UNL.
The human and economic costs of COVID-19 are projected to be most devastating for developing countries which lack the infrastructure to contain the spread and provide health security. In the short term, Human Unlimited is launching the Human Care app and the Human Frequency music relief campaign to empower people in developing countries to protect themselves and their communities.
“People suffering from COVID-19 and other pandemics need an ongoing end-to-end system to aggressively fight these human battles,” said Akon. “We created HUMAN CARE to map those in need of support during these trying times. Our HUMAN FREQUENCY music and awareness platform was built to raise the necessary funds to bring real relief to those directly in need,” – Akon
An estimated 4 billion people globally are unaddressed, making vital services like emergency help inaccessible and patients hard to reach. Powered by UNL’s smart addressing infrastructure, Human Care gives universal addresses to people anywhere to enable access to essential services like emergency and health responses, and navigation to bring people in need to important hubs, such as hospitals and relief centers, faster. The application promotes social responsibility practices through tools for self-identifying and self-monitoring symptoms, and encourages collaboration between people and local governments, contributing to safer public environments.
In future releases, Human Care will be introducing an incentive mechanism to stimulate positive behavior and self-monitoring. Powered by Akon’s Akoin, the application will be rewarding users for contributing their data and insights about new and developing cases, starting with Africa.
Through Human Care, individuals who have been affected by COVID-19 can self-identify in need, request relief in the form of food, medical supplies and other essentials and get it delivered even to the most remote locations in Africa, India and SEA.
Alongside the application, Human Unlimited is launching the Human Frequency campaign, a rolling series of at-home musical events to unite, invite and heal with the lyrics, beats and melodies of some of the world’s most-recognized musicians and new international artists, led by Akon. Funds raised during the Human Frequency series will go to COVID-19 relief for the ones identified in need via the Human Care app and to support the acceleration of new #tech4good solutions.
Human Unlimited is not doing this alone. The #tech4good foundation has already partnered with global companies, organizations and charities, including HERE Technologies, UN Blockchain Commission, PVBLIC Foundation, WeGiveToCare – Red Cross, Akoin Foundation and the People’s Prize.
About Human Unlimited
Human Unlimited is a #tech4good foundation supporting and accelerating initiatives and ventures that use technology as a catalyst to transform and elevate human reality within developing countries.
UNL is a smart addressing platform that provides any location with a unique, universal location ID. Adding a programmable layer to real-life locations, UNL is building the Internet of Places, serving as an infrastructure for location-based economy. Powering services from ecommerce, delivery to smart city and autonomous solutions. Making any location a point of sale, delivery and payment.
Akoin is a blockchain ecosystem and cryptocurrency designed to fuel rising entrepreneurs in Africa and beyond. Akoin’s mission is to unlock the potential of the world’s largest growing economy by creating revenue-generating opportunities and stimulating innovation, entrepreneurship, economic stability, and growth across Africa and other lean economies.
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BEIJING, May 20, 2020 /PRNewswire/ — Meituan Dianping (HKG: 3690), China’s leading e-commerce platform for services, today released its 2019 Corporate Social Responsibility Report (or “the Report”) to demonstrate how the company has created value for users, industry and society through platform resources and technology innovation.
Meituan Dianping 2019 Corporate Social Responsibility Report
In 2019, Meituan further strengthened focus on its mission of “We help people eat better, live better.” Meituan enhanced its commitment to sharing its social responsibility philosophy across its whole ecosystem in order to promote development and progress and to create better lives, a prosperous industry, and a harmonious society.
Highlights of Meituan CSR Report 2019:
Services for seniors and children became new territories for service consumption growth. In 2019, the number of delivery orders from the elderly increased by nearly 30% over that of the previous year. Meanwhile, child-friendly hotels and restaurants, as well as education services, also saw a boost. In particular, the number of user reviews of “child-friendly hotels” on Meituan more than doubled in 2019.
Meituan provides its 6.2 million merchants with comprehensive support programs to help accelerate their digital transformation. About 49% of China’s “time-honored catering brands” now provide delivery services on Meituan.
3.99 million delivery riders obtained income through Meituan in 2019, an increase of 23.3% year-on-year, and 56.8% of riders were employed in their home provinces.
In 2019, among 257,000 delivery riders from state-registered poor households who earned income through Meituan, 98.4% helped their families out of poverty because of the increased income from their employment as delivery riders.
A better life for 450 million users
In 2019, the per capita service expenditure in China accounted for 45.9% of the total consumption. Meituan has made continuous efforts to meet the diversified needs for the quality life of 450 million users on its platforms through technology innovation, service innovation and product innovation.
The Report shows that services for seniors and children became new territories for service consumption growth. Meituan Waimai, the company’s on-demand food delivery business, has helped solve the difficulties in cooking and dining faced by the elderly. In 2019, the number of delivery orders from the elderly, people aged 60 or above, increased by nearly 30% over that of 2018. Meanwhile, for the younger generation, Meituan witnessed a sharp growth in transaction volume for child-friendly restaurants.
Based on deep consumer insights, Meituan provides users with convenient, quality and trustworthy consumption references. Meituan’s 2019 “Black Pearl Restaurant Guide” served as a credible reference for food lovers, while supporting the development of high quality restaurants by driving their number of online orders for set meals up 69% and the total online sales volume up 190% year-on-year.
At the same time, Meituan is committed to promoting a healthy diet and lifestyle. Its platforms witnessed rapid growth in demands for light, low-calorie, diet and healthy meals, sports and fitness activities and consumer medical and healthcare services in 2019.
The beginning of 2020 was marked by the outbreak of COVID-19, stalling a majority of in-store services. Delivery riders served as people’s lifelines while cities were under lockdown and people had to stay at home. Meituan statistics show that Meituan riders in Wuhan, Hubei province, delivered over 4 million orders during the 76-day citywide lockdown period and over 7,000 supermarkets, pharmacies and grocery stores on Meituan in Wuhan delivered groceries and medicines for residents. Meituan was as well the first in the industry to introduce a “contactless delivery” service to protect users and riders from the virus.
Empowering 6.2 million merchants on digitalization
In 2019, the number of active merchants on Meituan reached 6.2 million. Meituan provides diverse merchant support programs in marketing, delivery, IT support, supply chain, operation and financing, to help them lower costs and improve operational efficiency through digital transformation.
The Report shows that 49% of China’s “time-honored catering brands”, which operate about 3,100 restaurants in 246 cities nationwide, provide delivery services on Meituan, while 19.3% offer group purchase and reservation services and 23.5% use QR codes and other digital payment systems. Meituan’s digitalization support is driving a 23% revenue increase in new catering businesses.
Building “new infrastructure” for digital life and a harmonious society
Meituan has been expanding the coverage and practices of social responsibility through programs in employment, poverty alleviation, and public welfare to help address social problems, leveraging its digital capabilities to build a dynamic, sustainable society with partners.
Delivery riders, which were recently added to the official national occupation list by China’s Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security, have become a “new infrastructure” for urban life. The Report unveiled that 3.99 million delivery riders obtained income through Meituan in 2019, an increase of 23.3% year-on-year, while 56.8% of delivery riders were employed in their home provinces. Among the 257,000 delivery riders from state-registered poor households who earned income through Meituan last year, 98.4% helped their families out of poverty.
Since late January, after the virus outbreak, Meituan has recruited over 950,000 new riders to join its delivery network.
Meituan Dianping (HKG: 3690) (the “Company” or “Meituan”) is China’s leading e-commerce platform for services. With the mission of “We help people eat better, live better,” the Company’s platform uses technology to connect consumers and merchants. Service offerings on the platform address people’s daily needs for food, and extend further to broad lifestyle and travel services. Meituan is the world’s leading on-demand food delivery service provider and China’s leading e-commerce platform for in-store dining services. Meituan helps consumers discover merchant information, make informed decisions, complete online and offline transactions and enjoy on-demand delivery. The Company currently owns several household brands in China, including Meituan, China’s leading online marketplace for services, Dianping, China‘ s leading online destination for discovering local services, Meituan Waimai for on-demand delivery services, and Meituan Bikes for bike-sharing services. Meituan has 450.5 million Annual Transacting Users and 6.2 million Annual Active Merchants as of December 31, 2019. The Company operates in over 2,800 cities and counties in China.
The “Global BIGOer One World Together” fundraising campaign witnessed 3.7 million viewers coming together on 14 May 2020 to support the fight against COVID-19.
US$100,000 was raised through a 24-hour campaign and all funds raised will be donated to the World Health Organisation’s COVID-19 Solidarity Response Fund
The fundraiser is part of a larger series of campaigns organised by Bigo Live to raise global awareness on COVID-19 while spreading positivity within the community
TAIPEI, May 18, 2020 /PRNewswire/ — Bigo Live, a global leading live streaming platform, has raised a total of US$100,000 in donations through its ‘Global BIGOer One World Together‘ campaign. All proceeds raised will be donated to the World Health Organisation (WHO)’s Solidarity Response Fund by BIGO Technology, the parent company of Bigo Live.
Bigo Live ‘Global BIGOer One World Together’ brings together 3.7 million people from 150 countries to raise funds for WHO Solidarity Response Fund
‘Global BIGOer One World Together‘ saw more than 3.7 million viewers across the globe tuning into Bigo Live’s music livehouse and participate in the fundraising. The livehouse featured performances by close to 100 broadcasters in over 20 countries.
Mike Ong, Vice President of BIGO Technology said, “Music is a universal language, it transcends cultures and borders to spread the message of comfort, hope and unity – something the world needs most during these trying times. We wanted to bring the world together to support each other through this crisis through ‘Global BIGOer One World Together’, and the response has been overwhelming. We are really heartened to see the global Bigo Live community rallying to contribute to the cause however they can. Every bit makes a difference and we are humbled to do our part.”
A global cast of talented singers and musicians from countries across Asia, Australia, Europe, Middle East and the United States performed in a 24-hour music livehouse. Broadcasters included (Bigo Live ID) amy0418, Huangchunchih and CaiZi.
Besides the live musical performances, the event also featured a #UnitedatBIGO, where tributes were paid to healthcare professionals and frontline workers who have led the fight against COVID-19. A specially commissioned music video with over 100 Bigo Live broadcasters performing a cover of the Michael Jackson hit “We are the world” was also released as part of the campaign.
Bigo Live ‘Global BIGOer One World Together’ brings together 3.7 million people from 150 countries to raise funds for WHO Solidarity Response Fund
“We are glad that Bigo Live is able to give back and support our frontline healthcare professionals and affected communities. As a global platform that connects and brings people together, it is part of our continued effort and commitment to contribute to the fight against COVID-19 while also bringing positivity and joy to our users around the world during this emotional period. We sincerely thank all participating Bigo Live broadcasters and our users for making this event a sounding success,” Mike added.
Since the start of the outbreak, Bigo Live has organised various efforts to raise awareness about COVID-19 and bring happiness to people around the world. Besides the ‘Global BIGOer One World Together’ campaign, Bigo Live has also launched a #STAYATBIGO campaign featuring sharing sessions with healthcare professionals, performances by local music DJs and workouts by fitness enthusiasts to help local communities stay fit and healthy at home. Additionally, Bigo Live was the first to launch cloud clubbing, a virtual live stream music experience, to communities in Southeast Asia, Australia and New Zealand.
About Bigo Live
Bigo Live is one of the world’s fastest-growing livestreaming social communities where users broadcast in real-time to share life moments, showcase their talents and interact with people from around the world. Bigo Live has around 400 million users in over 150 countries and is currently the market leader in the livestreaming industry. Launched in March 2016, Bigo Live is owned by BIGO Technology which is based in Singapore.
