Tag Archives: STW

PR Newswire

Zhang Yu with Tencent Health: AI-Driven Customer Interaction Solution NGES Effectively Supports Pharmaceutical Enterprises’ Smart Operations

Leave a comment

SHANGHAI, Nov. 29, 2023 /PRNewswire/ — In recent years, the Chinese pharmaceutical industry has been undergoing significant changes in its operational methods, driven by improvements in national regulations and changes in user behaviors and attitudes. Traditional operational approaches and marketing techniques of pharmaceutical enterprises are experiencing diminishing marginal effects, prompting an increasing number of pharmaceutical companies to prioritize and upgrade their digital marketing strategies to adapt quickly to these changes.

Zhang Yu, Tencent Health
Zhang Yu, Tencent Health

As the interaction between pharmaceutical companies and domestic digital platform enterprises becomes more closely intertwined, digital platform companies, known for their rapid iteration and flexible adaptation to customer needs, are providing intelligent and customizable professional tools for pharmaceutical enterprises. In 2023, Tencent released NGES, a new-gen customer interaction solution catering to Health Care Professionals (HCP), marking another milestone in the digital practice of the pharmaceutical industry.

Several renowned pharmaceutical companies, including AstraZeneca and Eisai Co, have adopted NGES for digital innovation, reporting progress in compliant operations, precision marketing, and collaborative work. NGES makes communication between pharmaceutical sales representatives and healthcare professionals as smooth as daily conversations on WeChat, with the system automatically handling the materials and summaries required before and after communication. This allows both parties to focus their energy and time on academic efforts.  

What drives Tencent and numerous pharmaceutical companies into this digital innovation? Zhang Yu, Vice President of Tencent Health and the initiator of the NGES project, has witnessed all these changes. At the T-Inspire industry summit on November 17th, he publicly discussed the current needs and pain points in the pharmaceutical industry, as well as how he and his R&D team adopted innovative concepts and model innovation to promote the precise digital upgrade of medical care.

Pharmaceutical Industry amid Tremendous Changes

Previously, pharmaceutical companies focused on core markets in large cities and internal hospital markets, employing a large number of sales representatives for face-to-face communication with customers. They relied on graded questionnaires to gain insight into customer demographics. However, the profit margins of pharmaceutical enterprises narrowed by medical insurance Value-Based Purchasing (VBP) have necessitated cost reduction and efficiency improvement. Additionally, the crackdown on medical corruption has compelled enterprises to rely more on compliant academic promotion for marketing. The rapidly changing market environment has led to a continuous reduction in the number of offline sales representatives, requiring fewer personnel to engage with a larger number of doctors.

Market changes have also brought about a revolution in marketing strategies. Pharmaceutical companies are expanding their target markets from tier-one and tier-two cities to broader regions. Interaction with doctors is no longer confined to hospital departments, with online content marketing and academic conferences becoming increasingly important. In the post-pandemic era, there is a willingness to embrace new online methods such as virtual academic conferences, with AstraZeneca revealing that around 35,000 meetings per month in the Chinese market are held on Tencent Meeting.

The evolution of online communications has enabled pharmaceutical companies to comprehensively understand user behavior data, which is more objective than those from traditional questionnaires and offers a more diverse customer profile. Based on these data, pharmaceutical companies can implement data mining and label analysis. Utilizing the insights from user behavior data, pharmaceutical companies can recommend personalized content, resulting in a more precise marketing strategy.

Behind these needs of pharmaceutical companies, there is a requirement for comprehensive technological support, such as social contact, big data, artificial intelligence, cloud services, and security. Zhang Yu and his team at Tencent Health have astutely perceived that Tencent has the opportunity to excel in this untapped market space.

Tencent’s Vision: Facilitating Professional Interactions in the Healthcare Ecosystem

Tencent, with its rich experience in communication, social media, and online marketing, and boasting a national-level application—WeChat—with over 1.3 billion monthly active accounts, has been actively involved in the digital upgrade across various industries. When talking with pharmaceutical companies, Zhang Yu made it clear that at this pivotal moment in enterprise marketing, Tencent aims to leverage its products and technology to facilitate professional interactions between pharmaceutical enterprises and doctors.

Zhang Yu painted a scenario for executives of pharmaceutical enterprises, emphasizing that many successful stories of pharmaceutical companies demonstrate that WeChat is the most frequently used online tool by doctors. Through various channels on WeChat, pharmaceutical companies can reach customers comprehensively, forming a rich ecosystem for the pharmaceutical industry. He cited an example, “Doctors use WeChat Official Accounts to obtain medical information and knowledge. WeCom also provides a solid foundation for efficient internal collaboration within pharmaceutical companies. Pharmaceutical sales representatives and medical science liaisons can share information, leading to more targeted explanations and more efficient summaries after visits.”

“WeChat’s Official Accounts, applets, and Tencent Meeting provide a more convenient way for pharmaceutical sales representatives and doctors to interact online, with data fusion completed in the backend. We have always considered placing HCP at the center, helping pharmaceutical companies find the right audience, push the right content at the right time and in the right way. Ultimately, we have facilitated the integration and innovation of Tencent’s existing resources to create a brand-new NGES for pharmaceutical companies and doctors.” added Zhang Yu.

A multinational pharmaceutical company executive told Zhang Yu, “We really need this platform. After the pandemic, there is an urgent need for iteration in our external meeting systems. We have multiple candidate solutions, but we have found that the primary social tool for pharmaceutical sales representatives and doctors is WeChat. When it comes to non-professional meetings, the most widely used tool is WeChat Meeting. Can WeChat be developed into a professional communication platform that complies with the pharmaceutical industry’s regulatory requirements?”

With nearly 20 years of experience in the field, Zhang Yu, faced with the urgent need of pharmaceutical companies for a solution, showed a mix of optimism and a measured approach, “An ancient Chinese poem goes, ‘Moistening things quietly without making a sound,’ depicting the gradual and comfortable process of adaptation. We hope to adapt to the traditional habits and new demands of the pharmaceutical industry through a gentle and soft progressive approach.”

Innovative Customer Interaction in the Healthcare Sector

Over the past two years, Tencent Health has continuously upgraded NGES based on user feedback in the healthcare industry, creating an all-encompassing platform for customer interaction within the healthcare sector. The platform consists of three layers, with the top layer featuring a new generation of interactive scenes deeply integrated into the Tencent ecosystem. Leveraging widely-used Tencent products in doctors’ daily lives, such as HCP WeChat, Official Accounts, applets, Tencent Meetings, among others, this layer serves as a bridge connecting pharmaceutical enterprises and healthcare professionals. Through bidirectional interactions with doctors via WeCom, pharmaceutical companies can efficiently advance their digital operations, including customer classification, meeting execution applications, new customer requests, speaker management, offline and online visits, medical inquiries, and collection of doctor perspectives, making academic promotion in healthcare more efficient.

The digitized mid-layer of the platform assists pharmaceutical companies in uniformly recording doctors’ identities and behaviors across different channels, generating high-quality comprehensive data. The data are then mined to create a tag system, offering insights into business operations. The accumulated data in the mid-layer are further analyzed and learned by the underlying medical big model through AI, enabling functions such as automated content generation and intelligent customer service.

Eisai Co., Ltd.is one of the first users  of NGES, and a partner providing extensive feedback and industry insights. Faced with continuous improvement suggestions, Zhang Yu and his team have tried to release multiple versions in a day to meet customer demands.. “The medical industry has a very strong demand for timeliness, especially in the face of digital transformation today. We hope that the platform architecture can, from bottom to top, output complete solutions, reduce delivery thresholds, and shorten project timelines. Of course, we are open and cooperative towards industry partners and welcome reliable collaborators to join this ecosystem, serving customers together and achieving accelerated innovation.”

Three Distinct Features of Tencent NGES

Compared to similar digital tools, Tencent NGES boasts three major features.

Integrated All-Channel Marketing: Firstly, it integrates key modules such as CRM, Events, and MCM, completing all-channel marketing scenarios around doctors seamlessly. This integration breaks down data silos within enterprises, forming a unified and complete profile of doctors and representatives, thereby optimizing business operations. Notably, NGES helps address data fragmentation issues caused by using different systems during work, as reported by Eisai Co. Thanks to NGES, the operational maintenance, which previously involved four systems working in parallel, has now been streamlined to just one, leading to cost reduction and significant efficiency improvement.

Strong Social Attributes Based on Tencent Ecosystem: Secondly, NGES leverages the powerful social attributes of the Tencent ecosystem, enabling doctors to interact conveniently with sales representatives through popular applications like WeChat, Tencent Meeting, and applets. This natural fusion of daily communication and academic promotion enhances doctors’ enthusiasm for engagement, providing more diverse communication channels compared to traditional visits.

AI Empowerment from Tencent’s Large Model: Thirdly, NGES benefits from Tencent’s AI capabilities, making Tencent the only service provider in the pharmaceutical industry with self-developed large model capabilities. With the support of large models, more innovative methods can be proposed by enterprise managers, bringing about a revolution in the field of pharmaceutical marketing.

Tencent AI Empowering Innovative Healthcare Scenes

Not long ago, Tencent, in collaboration with the China Academy of Information and Communications Technology, released China’s first vector database standard. The vector database is a foundational component for training AI large models, signifying Tencent’s leading position in the industry. Zhang Yu mentioned that his team has explored the potential of products built with AI large models and listed several typical innovative scenes achieved by NGES through AI large models:

Personalized Material Generation: Through AI-driven interactive tools, NGES utilizes Tencent’s accumulated professional content in the medical industry, combined with compliant content from the enterprise’s material library, to achieve personalized material generation. In various scenarios, it completes professional Q&A, assists representatives in preparing topics and content before visits, and provides action recommendations. Eisai Co. revealed that the company is exploring the application of NGES’s AI technology to enable sales representatives to input different academic topics, allowing the backend to retrieve corresponding content from a vast amount of data, automatically filter and sort it before delivering refined academic presentation.

ASR Speech Recognition in Medical Conferences: In medical conferences, NGES utilizes Automatic Speech Recognition (ASR) technology to accurately convert speech into dialogic transcripts. After the conference, AI can quickly extract key information from the content, generate meeting summaries, offer questions and answers aimed at the meeting content, and even actively highlight compliance risks in the meeting content. Eisai Co. said that the audiences were afflicted with the regional accent of speakers during meetings, but now AI digital finds a way out.

Voice Recognition for Content Reporting: During meetings, NGES employs voice recognition technology to help sales representatives automatically fill in content, improving the efficiency of report submission and gather more valid data. Simultaneously, NGES collects authentic feedbacks from customers, quantifying sales representatives’ competences from multiple dimensions, such as academic capabilities, communication skills, and compliance performance. After a visit, NGES can quickly provide scores for sales representatives’ academic abilities, communication skills, and compliance performance, offering improvement suggestions to continually enhance sales capabilities.

Zhang Yu stated that Tencent Health has mapped out a well-defined plan for the future development of the NGES customer interaction management platform in three years to come. The goal for 2023 is to leverage Tencent’s experience and advantages in product design and user experience to create a product that pharmaceutical companies and doctors will love to use. By 2025, based on the accumulated real data, NGES will extend its empowerment from sales representatives to enterprise executives. Through big data analysis and mining, it will provide insights into business operations, optimize resource allocation and layout, and identify compliance and business risks to support high-quality decision-making.

PR Newswire

Fosun Group Implements CCH® Tagetik Expert Solution from Wolters Kluwer for integrated budget management and reporting

Leave a comment

SHANGHAI, Nov. 29, 2023 /PRNewswire/ — Wolters Kluwer, a global leader in professional information, software solutions, and services, today announced that Fosun Group has selected CCH Tagetik Corporate Performance Management (CPM) software to help drive the digital transformation of its group finance operations.

Established in 1992, Fosun has evolved into a global, innovation-driven family consumer industry group over three decades. Fosun Group encompasses four core businesses: Health, Happiness, Wealth, and Intelligence, all experiencing steady growth. Health specializes in pharmaceuticals, medical devices, diagnostics, and health services; Happiness focuses on brand consumption, tourism, and culture; Wealth includes insurance and asset management; while Intelligence encompasses mineral resources, oil and gas, intelligent manufacturing, and high-tech industry expansion.

In response to the company’s rapid expansion, and to further promote its industrial operation, investment and digital strategies, Fosun Group’s finance team is now working to streamline and digitally transform its accounting and budget performance management processes, with the use of CCH Tagetik. Fosun Group will use the CCH Tagetik CPM platform’s intuitive interface, built-in financial intelligence, and automated workflows to fulfill the following objectives: 

  • Establish a standardized financial framework through digital construction.
  • Deliver timely and precise information to support innovation, international expansion, and in-depth industrial operations.
  • Enhance the efficiency of asset management and group-level accounting services, while advancing digital intelligence in financial operations and financial management. 

Tangchen Wu, Director of Financial Informatization Department, Fosun Group, said:
“CCH Tagetik is a powerful, strategic financial intelligence platform, which integrates budgeting and management reporting. CCH Tagetik will empower Fosun Group to collect, analyze and report budget management data, in a way that supports operational growth, internal collaboration and strategic planning.”

Fosun Group has chosen PwC, an internationally renowned financial consulting service provider, as the implementation partner for this project.

Michael Chung, Greater China Managing Director of CCH Tagetik at Wolters Kluwer, said:
“CCH Tagetik is the ideal platform to support Fosun Group’s continuous commitment to innovation, and will accelerate the company’s continued global expansion, by advancing the digital transformation of its business and finance processes. CCH Tagetik’s open architecture seamlessly integrates with Fosun Group’s existing business and finance applications, and will empower Fosun Group to flexibly customize the platform to fulfill its unique business requirements.”

About Wolters Kluwer
Wolters Kluwer (EURONEXT: WKL) is a global leader in professional information, software solutions, and services for the healthcare, tax and accounting, financial and corporate compliance, legal and regulatory, and corporate performance and ESG sectors. We help our customers make critical decisions every day by providing expert solutions that combine deep domain knowledge with specialized technology and services.

Wolters Kluwer reported 2022 annual revenues of €5.5 billion. The group serves customers in over 180 countries, maintains operations in over 40 countries, and employs approximately 20,900 people worldwide. The company is headquartered in Alphen aan den Rijn, the Netherlands.

For more information, visit www.wolterskluwer.com, and follow us on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and YouTube.

PR Newswire

ValueLabs Emerges as a Trailblazer in the Generative AI Space, Wins Prestigious Stevie International Business Awards® 2023

Leave a comment

HYDERABAD, India, Nov. 23, 2023 /PRNewswire/ — ValueLabs, a leading technology solutions provider, is celebrating the success of AiDE™, their proprietary enterprise Generative AI platform, with multiple awards at the Stevie International Business Awards® 2023.

AiDE™ empowers enterprises to leverage the potential of Generative AI in a secure manner, at scale, enabling them to drive productivity, process efficiency, customer experience, and loyalty and even redesign their business models – increasing their revenue and bottom line.

AiDE™ solutions cover product, design, development, quality engineering, analytics, security, and support needs. Three solutions, viz. AiDE SDLC™, AiDE xPerience™, and AiDE Chat™ were recognized at the Stevie International Business Awards® 2023:

  1. AiDE SDLC™, an enterprise Generative AI platform transforming product design and development processes, was conferred the Gold Stevie for ‘Technical Innovation of the Year’ among organizations with 1,000 or more employees.
  2. AiDE xPerience™, an industry-first conversational website and mobile UX platform, won the Gold Stevie for ‘Innovation of the Year’ within the Business Service Industries category.
  3. AiDE Chat™, an intuitive conversational AI text and voice assistant, secured the Bronze Stevie for ‘Customer Service Solution,’ owing to its unique business process reengineering capabilities.

In addition, ValueLabs received the Silver Stevie award for the ‘Most Innovative Tech Company of the Year – More Than 2,500 Employees’.

“Our approach to Generative AI, or any transformative technology for that matter, has always been to figure out how it improves the business goals of our clients. The main thing we want to accomplish with AiDE™ is to build high-quality custom solutions rapidly, at scale, and with the right security. The awards from Stevie validate the path we’re on and the approach we’ve taken to Generative AI so far. A lot of exciting stuff in the pipeline,” said Veda Reddy, CEO of Imagine, ValueLabs’ innovation arm.

Particularly impressed by ValueLabs’ thought leadership and approach towards Generative AI, almost all the existing clients at ValueLabs felt that the solutions built using AiDE™ are set to propel them to the forefront of technological advancements within their industry.

“Some of the custom solutions we’ve built for clients this year are stunning! We’re building this out into a platform offering so all our clients and prospects can leverage our components and capabilities in a plug-and-play manner,” said Arjun Rao, Founder and CEO at ValueLabs.

About ValueLabs

ValueLabs is a leading global IT services & solutions provider with a strong focus on enabling clients to achieve faster time to market, improve quality, and optimize costs through next-generation Product Development, UX, Automation, and Analytics – powered by AiDE™. Over the last 26 years, the company has expanded to 28 locations, 7,000 associates, and 300 clients worldwide. Their focus on employees and clients has resulted in industry-leading Net Promoter Scores (NPS) of over 80 and 90, respectively. To learn more, visit www.valuelabs.com.

For more details, contact: Veda Reddy, https://www.valuelabs.com/business-form/ 

PR Newswire

Automation Anywhere Announces Strong Third Quarter FY24 Performance on Power of Generative AI-led deals, Large Enterprise Customers and Global Momentum

Leave a comment

Achieved Profitability a Quarter Ahead of Plan and Expects Strong Fourth Quarter

SAN JOSE, Calif., Nov. 21, 2023 /PRNewswire/ — Automation Anywhere, the leader in intelligent automation that puts AI to work across every aspect of an organization, today announced it delivered strong third quarter results, propelled by new generative AI-enhanced automation products, large enterprise customer deals and global sales execution. With its strong performance and momentum across global regions, the company reported that the dollar value of large deals increased by greater than 35 percent year on year, helping the company achieve profitability ahead of plan.

“Third quarter results exceeded goals across our key metrics, with large deal growth as a robust signal that customers are increasingly adopting our platform for business transformation,” said Mihir Shukla, CEO and Co-founder of Automation Anywhere. “Our GenAI-powered solutions and use cases contributed to 30 percent of the bookings, confirming that customers are looking for the powerful combination of AI and automation technologies to solve their complex challenges. The combination of strong revenue performance and disciplined cost control allowed us to reinvest in growth. Building an enduring ‘Rule of 40’ company is one of our goals and our financial results represent a tangible signal that we’re on the right track.”

Key Business Highlights

  • Large deals over $100,000 in annualized value contributed more than 50 percent of the bookings in the quarter.
  • Robust performance by the Enterprise business was led by strong bookings in North America, APJ, India and Middle East regions.
  • More than 50 percent of customers downloaded the company’s Generative AI automation packages and can securely develop next-generation automation solutions with enterprise-grade AI models from industry leaders including Anthropic, AWS, Google Vertex AI, Microsoft Azure OpenAI Service, and OpenAI ChatGPT Enterprise.
  • Large customer base, high customer retention and continued product leadership led to improved cash flow and a strong balance sheet.

“Improving productivity is a top area of focus for organizations adopting GenAI and a major driver in the rapid and accelerating investments in this technology,” according to Maureen Fleming, AI and Automation Research Vice President at IDC. “The convergence of cloud, automation, and GenAI to deliver advanced capabilities aimed at efficiency and productivity will drive performance in organizations — and growth for the providers of these converged services.”  

“We are in a once-in-a-generation opportunity to reimagine every aspect of a company’s business operations, where all departments and functions will benefit from automation and generative AI. We’re seeing clear signals that intelligent automation solutions are one of the best ways to deploy AI safely and securely in organizations and achieve significant ROI quickly,” Shukla continued.

Third Quarter Announcement Highlights

  • Automation Anywhere announced the largest expansion of its generative AI-powered automation platform to date, featuring a new Responsible AI Layer at the core of its platform. This foundational layer includes the first and only custom generative AI automation models developed on top of leading Large Language Models and trained with anonymized metadata from millions of automations. These models give companies the ability to develop and run complex processes and workflows automatically, first by understanding the work request, converting natural language into steps, and dynamically creating new process workflows. A large number of enterprise processes and workflows can be automated, creating a new system of work that fundamentally transforms organizations’ operating models to help them better manage business conditions and disruptions.
  • The Automation Success Platform also includes new high-trust AI tools and security and governance capabilities that are key to deploying AI-based automations at scale with access controls, data privacy, real-time monitoring for safe, flexible enterprise-wide deployments.
  • The company also announced four generative AI-powered automation products including Autopilot, which enables the rapid development of end-to-end automations using generative AI. The new products enable organizations to automate more complex processes and end-to-end business workflows and accelerate their results and ROI.
  • Gartner named Automation Anywhere a Leader for the fifth consecutive year in the 2023 Magic Quadrant for Automation. Automation Anywhere was recognized as a Leader for its Completeness of Vision and Ability to Execute.

Automation Anywhere’s third quarter ended October 31, 2023. As a private company, Automation Anywhere does not disclose detailed financial information.

About Automation Anywhere
Automation Anywhere is the leader in intelligent automation solutions that put AI to work across every aspect of an organization. The company’s Automation Success Platform is powered with specialized AI, generative AI and offers process discovery, RPA, end-to-end process orchestration, document processing, and analytics, with a security and governance-first approach. Automation Anywhere empowers organizations worldwide to unleash productivity gains, drive innovation, improve customer service and accelerate business growth. The company is guided by its vision to fuel the future of work by unleashing human potential through intelligent automation. Learn more at www.automationanywhere.com.

Automation Anywhere is a registered trademark/service mark of Automation Anywhere, Inc. in the United States and other countries.

Source: Automation Anywhere, Inc.

PR Newswire

UL Solutions Announces First Demonstration of UL Procyon® AI Inference Benchmark for Windows at Snapdragon Summit

Leave a comment

The UL Procyon® AI Inference Benchmark for Windows helps the technology industry address consumer expectations for faster machine learning performance.

NORTHBROOK, Ill., Nov. 18, 2023 /PRNewswire/ — UL Solutions, a global leader in applied safety science, today announced that its UL Procyon® Artificial Intelligence (AI) Inference Benchmark for Windows demonstrated the AI inference performance of the Snapdragon® X Elite Platform during the 2023 Snapdragon Summit.

UL Solutions announced that its UL Procyon® Artificial Intelligence (AI) Inference Benchmark for Windows demonstrated the AI inference performance of the Snapdragon® X Elite Platform during the 2023 Snapdragon Summit.
UL Solutions announced that its UL Procyon® Artificial Intelligence (AI) Inference Benchmark for Windows demonstrated the AI inference performance of the Snapdragon® X Elite Platform during the 2023 Snapdragon Summit.

An inference engine comprises hardware and software that make decisions based on the rules and information stored in a knowledge base, and its performance can vary based on the device and other factors.

The UL Procyon AI Inference Benchmark for Windows compares multiple inference engines from different vendors, measuring the machine learning inference performance of Windows operating system devices using common machine vision models. These insights help technology companies evaluate inference performance and compare devices for AI use cases.

“With the unprecedented access to machine learning and artificial intelligence tools that consumers now have in their daily lives, technology vendors are utilizing performance insights to optimize inference engines for better performance with hardware and specific use cases,” said Jukka Makinen, managing director in the Software and Advisory group at UL Solutions. “Our UL Procyon AI Inference Benchmark for Windows empowers the technology industry with a performance measurement tool and insights that can assist in the development of faster AI-driven products and features. The close work between UL Solutions and Qualcomm Technologies helps enhance benchmark accuracy, relevancy and impartiality as AI continues to evolve at a rapid pace — particularly with the Snapdragon X Elite Platform.”

The AI workloads used in the UL Procyon AI Inference Benchmark for Windows are standard machine vision tasks, such as image classification, image segmentation, object detection and super-resolution. These tasks are executed using various neural networks and run on the device’s central processing unit (CPU), graphics processing unit (GPU) or a dedicated AI accelerator for comparing hardware performance.

“The insights gained from the UL Procyon AI Inference Benchmark for Windows enabled Qualcomm Technologies to optimize the performance of our machine learning tools and present data to highlight the new capabilities of our leading Snapdragon X Elite Platform,” said Surya Chittuluri, director of product management at Qualcomm Technologies, Inc. “We are pleased to be among the industry partners working with UL Solutions in the ongoing development of its AI benchmark in support of faster machine learning.”

Learn more about the UL Procyon AI Inference Benchmark for Windows.

About UL Solutions
A global leader in applied safety science, UL Solutions transforms safety, security and sustainability challenges into opportunities for customers in more than 100 countries. UL Solutions delivers testing, inspection and certification services, together with software products and advisory offerings, that support our customers’ product innovation and business growth. The UL Certification Marks serve as a recognized symbol of trust in our customers’ products and reflect an unwavering commitment to advancing our safety mission. We help our customers innovate, launch new products and services, navigate global markets and complex supply chains, and grow sustainably and responsibly into the future. Our science is your advantage.

Press contacts:
Tyler Khan
UL Solutions
ULNews@UL.com
T: +1 (847) 664.2139

Steven Brewster
UL Solutions
ULNews@UL.com
T: +1 (847) 664.8425

PR Newswire

AKA Bank Showcases DeepBrain AI’s Conversational AI Human Service at Euro Finance Tech Day 2023

Leave a comment

PALO ALTO, Calif., Nov. 18, 2023 /PRNewswire/ — DeepBrain AI, in collaboration with AKA Ausfuhrkredit-Gesellschaft mbH (AKA), introduced AI avatar technology to the European financial services sector at the Euro Finance Tech Day 2023. AKA led a panel discussion featuring DeepBrain AI’s conversational AI Human technology, showcasing the use of AI and AI avatars to modernize and transform 24/7 customer support in the financial services industry.

Euro Finance Tech Day 2023, organized by dfv Euro Finance Group, focused on topics related to digitalization, payments, and technology trends in finance and banking. The event this year delved into the central theme of “Could we handle artificial finance?” The agenda aimed to highlight the changes, opportunities, and risks associated with the use of artificial intelligence (AI) in the finance and banking industry.

Eric Jang, CEO of DeepBrain AI, expressed his excitement about the opportunity, stating, “DeepBrain AI is honored to have been represented by AKA at Euro Finance Tech Day. We know that AI will play a pivotal role in revolutionizing all aspects of future businesses. This partnership represents a significant milestone in our ambitions for AI and AI avatars, driving our expansion into the European market and paving the way for enhanced customer experiences and improved operational efficiency.”

Artificial Intelligence (AI) and AI Avatars are revolutionizing human-computer interaction. DeepBrain is well-positioned to enter the European market, building on the company’s successful track record of implementing AI and AI avatar technology in Asia-Pacific banking institutions. The company has established strong partnerships with leading financial institutions, including KB Kookmin Bank, Samsung Securities, Shinhan Bank, Woori Bank, Hana Bank, and AIA Life Insurance. Their patented AI avatar video and conversational AI Human technologies have played a crucial role in advancing video production, enhancing digital interactions, and delivering exceptional experiences for both customers and staff. DeepBrain AI sets itself apart as an industry leader by providing comprehensive support for all AI avatar formats, including both software and hardware products.

During the Euro Finance Tech Day 2023 exhibition, AKA showcased a prototype based on DeepBrain’s AI Human technology, demonstrating the company’s AI avatar’s ability to engage in human-like conversations. DeepBrain’s conversational AI model, which was developed in collaboration with AKA, utilized a fine-tuned large language model (LLM) to deliver personalized and informative responses that closely resembled natural human-to-human exchanges. Additionally, the AI human has a visually realistic appearance, creating a unique experience that combines the advantages of technology with the familiarity of human interactions.

“We are excited to be the first German company to present our AI avatar prototype “AMY” from DeepBrain AI live on stage at the Euro Finance Tech Day. Smart AI avatars will significantly alter customer experience in the near future and provide many opportunities for value-generating human-computer-interaction – available 24/7 in the language of the customer. DeepBrain AI’s AI Human technology is highly sophisticated and matches the expectation of our customers. I want to express my gratitude to the team, which basically worked 24 hours a day, distributed over three continents, in Palo Alto, Frankfurt and Seoul.” said Marck Wengrzik, CEO at AKA.

The collaboration between AKA and DeepBrain AI is rooted in the strong belief that the potential for AI in financial services is enormous. Following the exhibition at Euro Finance Tech Day 2023, AKA will evaluate the potential integration of DeepBrain AI’s AI avatar technology into their business services.

About AKA Bank: AKA Ausfuhrkredit-Gesellschaft mbH has specialized in international export and trade finance since 1952. AKA is headquartered in Frankfurt/Main. Together with its 17 shareholder banks such as Bayerische Landesbank, Commerzbank, Deutsche Bank, Deutsche Leasing, DZ Bank, Hamburg Commercial Bank, ING, KfW IPEX-Bank, Landesbank Baden-Württemberg and UniCredit, it works in partnership to finance German export transactions. In cooperation with exporters, importers, credit insurers and banks, AKA makes an important contribution to promoting the German export industry. The commodity-related nature of its activities ensures a reliable and resilient business model.

About DeepBrain AI:

DeepBrain AI humanizes digital interactions by utilizing real-time Artificial Intelligence (AI) and video synthesis solutions to generate the world’s fastest and most realistic human-like AI models. The company’s proprietary, patent-led technology adds a human touch to all digital content and interactions, reducing the cost and time of video production and improving the quality of digital engagement. DeepBrain AI is at the forefront of shaping modern digital experiences and has already made a significant impact in various industries, such as media, finance, commerce, hospitality, and education.

Headquartered in Palo Alto, California, DeepBrain AI has received numerous accolades for its technology, AI Studios, and AI Human platforms, including the CES 2022 and 2023 Innovation Awards. The company has already achieved remarkable success in the Asia-Pacific region and is now focused on growing virtual human technology in the North American and European markets.

Captured at Euro Finance Tech Day 2023, AKA Bank's CEO stands with 'Amy', the epitome of DeepBrain AI's innovation in conversational AI avatars, symbolizing the synergy of human expertise and AI precision in modern banking.
Captured at Euro Finance Tech Day 2023, AKA Bank’s CEO stands with ‘Amy’, the epitome of DeepBrain AI’s innovation in conversational AI avatars, symbolizing the synergy of human expertise and AI precision in modern banking.

PR Newswire

Microland Recognized as a Leader for the Fourth Consecutive Year in the 2023 Gartner® Magic Quadrant™ for Managed Network Services

Leave a comment

BENGALURU, India, Nov. 16, 2023 /PRNewswire/ — Microland has realigned its focus to deliver unfaltering digital experiences and business growth through its Intelligent Network Experience framework for network services. Microland Intelligeni Network Experience Framework focuses on enhancing user experience, productivity, and security through a platform-led service delivery by leveraging Network Observability and AIOps, Automation, NetDevOps, and Network Performance and UX Analytics.

Microland Recognized as a Leader for the Fourth Consecutive Year in the 2023 Gartner® Magic Quadrant™ for Managed Network Services
Microland Recognized as a Leader for the Fourth Consecutive Year in the 2023 Gartner® Magic Quadrant™ for Managed Network Services

The Microland Intelligent Network Experience framework, provides business user-centric end-to-end network services from consulting and assessment to transformation services as well as managed services across traditional and next-gen networking technologies including SD-WAN, SD-LAN and Wi-Fi 6, SASE, SDN for Data Centers, Cloud Networking, OT Networking, and Private 5G. Microland leverages Intelligeni NetOps platform to harness the power of analytics, automation, and AIOps to unlock the true potential of the enterprise network.

Microland believes that continued focus on delivering unfaltering user experience through solutions and investments in platform-led innovations under the Microland Intelligeni Network Experience Framework has led to increased customer satisfaction and growth. These factors have enabled us in being positioned as a Leader in the 2023 Gartner® Magic Quadrant™ for Managed Network Services.

Robert Wysocki, Senior Vice President, and Global Client Solutions Leader – Networks & Cybersecurity at Microland said, “Thrilled to be recognized for the fourth consecutive year! I believe this recognition in the 2023 Gartner® Magic Quadrant™ for Managed Network Services is a testament to Microland’s unwavering commitment to excellence in networking.”

“Our journey to the top is fueled by innovation, dedication, and the relentless pursuit of delivering unparalleled solutions. We don’t just set the bar; we redefine it. A heartfelt thank you to our incredible customers for their trust and partnership—your challenges inspire our innovations and your success fuels our drive for excellence.”

Pradeep Kar, Founder, Chairman, and Managing Director of Microland, proudly states, “We stand humbled and honored to be recognized as a Leader in the 2023 Gartner® Magic Quadrant™ for Managed Network Services for the fourth consecutive year. We believe this positioning is a reflection of Microland’s continued sharp focus on technology innovation and automation in our network services ensuring we deliver transformative solutions to our customers. We extend our deepest gratitude for their trust and confidence and believe this recognition makes us recommit ourselves to our customers and we will strive harder to enhance the value and experience we will provide them.”

To know more about the recognition, please visit: https://www.microland.com/analyst-insights/leader-gartner-magic-quadrant-for-managed-network-services-2023

Gartner Disclaimer

Gartner, Magic Quadrant for Managed Network Services, Ted Corbett, Bjarne Munch, 8 November 2023

GARTNER is a registered trademark and service mark of Gartner and Magic Quadrant is a registered trademark of Gartner, Inc. and/or its affiliates in the U.S. and internationally and are used herein with permission. All rights reserved.

Gartner does not endorse any vendor, product, or service depicted in its research publications and does not advise technology users to select only those vendors with the highest ratings or other designation. Gartner research publications consist of the opinions of Gartner’s Research & Advisory organization and should not be construed as statements of fact. Gartner disclaims all warranties, expressed or implied, with respect to this research, including any warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose.

About Microland

Microland’s commitment to “Making Digital Happen” allows technology to do more and intrude less. We make it easier for enterprises to transition to nextGen digital infrastructure through our extensive service portfolio including Cloud and Data centers, Networks, Digital Workplace, Cybersecurity, and Industrial IoT. We ensure that the embrace of digital services is predictable, reliable, and stable.

Microland is making digital happen for enterprises with a laser focus on services that are more relevant to our clients and prospects than ever before, guaranteeing business outcomes. Incorporated in 1989 and headquartered in Bengaluru, India, Microland has more than 4,600 digital specialists across offices and delivery centers in Asia, Australia, Europe, the Middle East, and North America.

Read more here: https://www.microland.com/

PR Newswire

Appian Enhances “One Appian” Global Partner Program Strategy for 2024

Leave a comment

Enablement, alignment, and investment support accelerated partner success

MCLEAN, Va., Nov. 16, 2023 /PRNewswire/ — Appian (Nasdaq: APPN) today announced significant updates to its partner-focused growth strategy and the “One Appian” Global Partner Program for 2024. Appian is fully committed to its partner ecosystem as a strategic lever to further the company’s position as “vendor of choice” for end-to-end process automation. The enhanced program empowers Appian partners to grow their businesses through a variety of routes to market aligned to their preferred business models, a simplified program structure, and “stackable” benefits across partnership tiers.

Appian announces significant updates to its partner-focused growth strategy and the “One Appian” Global Partner Program for 2024.
Appian announces significant updates to its partner-focused growth strategy and the “One Appian” Global Partner Program for 2024.

“The 2024 enhancements to our partner program support the ‘One Appian’ go-to-market strategy I outlined at the beginning of the year. The program is focused on aligning combined resources and collective capabilities to foster greater collaboration in delivering outstanding customer experiences and business outcomes,” said Chris Jones, Chief Revenue Officer at Appian. “We will increase customer value and net-new business by enabling our partners’ go-to-market strategies and industry specializations and providing unprecedented access to Appian resources, financial incentives, and tailored support.”

The 2024 program provides a set of economic, relationship, sales, marketing, and technical benefits designed to support and recognize each partner’s expertise, level of engagement with Appian, and commitment to customer success. These include financial benefits and value-based incentives tied to deal registration, new training paths, and the execution of joint marketing campaigns to help partners quickly create new business, generate qualified pipeline, and increase profitability.

The program features three partnership tiers: Authorized, Premier, and Elite. Financial incentives and stackable discounts and benefits increase with each program tier. As partners advance to higher tiers, they qualify for increased performance-based financial benefits and deeper levels of enablement from Appian.

New program benefits include:

Deal Registration: protects partners’ sales investments with defined rules of engagement and increases partner profitability by providing predictable discounts, escalating incentives for registered deals and new logos, and provides the ability to resell to new customers identified and registered by partners in any market segment.

Pipeline Creation Support: provides more Appian resources dedicated to supporting partners’ go-to-market activities, new sales tools to accelerate deal advancement, and Pipeline Acceleration Funding available earlier in the relationship to jump-start top-of-funnel pipeline creation.

Expanded Product Enablement: to help partners grow and mature their Appian practice enablement, programs now include Appian Fast Start to quickly ramp up new partners with free developer training and certifications; Appian Edge for partners upskilling and certifying practitioners holding eligible certifications on competitive platforms; Accelerated Senior Developer course offering a unique approach to learning while actively working on customer projects; and University Partnership support for Appian partners working with local schools interested in offering an Appian curriculum.

Jones continued, “Appian’s 2024 Global Partner Program delivers on our commitment to partner success through enablement that elevates and empowers the partner experience, alignment to accelerate success together, and increased investment across our partnership tiers.”

Learn more about the benefits of becoming an Appian partner.

About Appian
Appian is a software company that automates business processes. The Appian AI Process Platform includes everything you need to design, automate, and optimize even the most complex processes, from start to finish. The world’s most innovative organizations trust Appian to improve their workflows, unify data, and optimize operations—resulting in better growth and superior customer experiences. For more information, visit appian.com. [Nasdaq: APPN]

Follow Appian: Twitter, LinkedIn.
Follow Appian UK: Twitter, LinkedIn.

Photo – https://techent.tv/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/appian-enhances-one-appian-global-partner-program-strategy-for-2024.jpg 

Logo – https://techent.tv/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/appian-enhances-one-appian-global-partner-program-strategy-for-2024-1.jpg 

PR Newswire

SymphonyAI Introduces Breakthrough Predictive and Generative AI-Powered Case Management for Financial Crime Investigation in Asia Pacific

Leave a comment

Unified Sensa Investigation Hub is the industry’s first for high-impact AI transformation of critical financial crime investigation and detection

SINGAPORE, Nov. 15, 2023 /PRNewswire/ — SymphonyAI Sensa-NetReveal, a leader in predictive and generative AI enterprise AI SaaS, today announced the availability of Sensa Investigation Hub, a generative AI-enabled investigation and case management platform that propels financial institutions into the future of financial crime management in Asia Pacific (APAC).

An industry first, the Sensa Investigation Hub uses cutting-edge predictive and generative AI technology with unparalleled global domain risk and compliance expertise, culminating in an enterprise-wide, next-generation investigation platform that delivers up to 70% increased investigator productivity.

Building on the industry leadership of the Sensa Copilot for financial crime investigators introduced earlier this year to speed financial crime alert investigation, the Sensa Investigation Hub enables accurate, accelerated investigation and reporting by combining an entity-centric view of risk with the speed and intuitiveness of generative AI. Detection engine-agnostic, the Sensa Investigation Hub works seamlessly with existing financial crime solutions to provide a single, unified view of risk, regulator-friendly auditing, and end-to-end transparency.

Global resources suffer a cost of around $1.6 trillion per year due to money laundering efforts worldwide, according to the Financial Accountability Transparency & Integrity panel (FACTI) – a United Nations-affiliated body dedicated to combatting financial crime.

“SymphonyAI Sensa-NetReveal is disrupting the compliance technology sector with our latest cloud-native, generative AI-enabled investigation platform to solve real-world money laundering problems in Asia Pacific,” said Gerard O’Reilly, Regional Director, APAC. “Our integrated end-to-end AML solution offers a holistic view of risk and financial crime in a single integrated platform. Coupled with SymphonyAI’s generative AI-enabled software, customers can reduce the time and cost of investigation while increasing efficiency and consistency.”

Sensa Investigation Hub’s market-leading features and benefits include:

  • Generative AI-powered investigation: The Sensa Investigation Hub’s built-in Sensa Copilot accelerates investigations by ~70% by sourcing, summarizing, and analyzing data at scale – while surfacing results in interrogatable, natural language.
  • Seamlessly augments existing solutions: The Sensa Investigation Hub’s detection-agnostic, flexible data ingestion works with existing detection solutions.
  • Enterprise-wide risk management: SaaS-led, the Sensa Investigation Hub consolidates the risk and compliance tech stack with a single platform, managing all types of financial crime detection and compliance risks across business units and asset classes, reducing complexity, and streamlining operations.
  • Entity-centric investigation: The Sensa Investigation Hub combines an end-to-end view of risk, starting with anti-money laundering and rapidly including sanctions, know your customer (KYC), customer due diligence (CDD), and fraud.
  • Transparent and auditable decisioning and reporting: The Sensa Investigation Hub delivers end-to-end transparency aligned with organizational processes, policies, and regulations, ensuring consistency, auditability, and explainability.

With the Monetary Authority of Singapore’s push for increased AI use in combating money laundering, AI will be centre stage at the 2023 Singapore FinTech Festival (SFF). “The center of gravity for global financial activities is moving away from the West towards the Asia Pacific[1], and this trend is set to accelerate over the next decade,” said Mike Foster, President and CEO of SymphonyAI Sensa-NetReveal. “With the financial world becoming more integrated, the sophistication of financial criminals and malicious actors is also rising. As a result, the sector is under increasing pressure to improve its anti-money laundering and financial crime detection capabilities.

“With bold innovation, our unique financial crime AI models, and breakthrough predictive and generative AI capabilities, SymphonyAI has delivered breathtaking power, simplicity, and effectiveness for every role and tier of organizations engaged in detecting and preventing financial crimes and money-laundering,” he added.

SymphonyAI will demonstrate the Sensa Investigation Hub, along with the rest of the Sensa-NetReveal product portfolio, this week at the SFF from 15th – 17th November 2023. Sensa- NetReveal expert David Lehmani will be speaking at the Regulation Stage on Unshackling Compliance Operations, Wednesday 15th November at 12:15 pm.

About SymphonyAI

SymphonyAI is building the leading enterprise AI SaaS company for digital transformation across the most critical and resilient growth verticals, including retail, consumer packaged goods, finance, manufacturing, media, and IT/enterprise service management. SymphonyAI verticals have many leading enterprises as clients. Since its founding in 2017, SymphonyAI has grown rapidly to 3,000 talented leaders, data scientists, and other professionals. SymphonyAI is a SAIGroup company backed by a $1 billion commitment from successful entrepreneur and philanthropist Dr. Romesh Wadhwani. Learn more at www.symphonyai.com.

PR Newswire

STRADVISION’s Senior Process Engineer Achieves intacs® Certified Data Management Extension/Assessor Certification, Demonstrating Commitment to Industry Standards and Innovation

Leave a comment

  • Utilize the ‘Growth Program’ as part of STRADVISION engineer career development support
  • Achieved the Certified Data Management Extension/Assessor certification by intacs, the certification body of A-SPICE, the international standard for automotive software development process
  • Soyoun Cho, an engineer who worked as a software process expert in the automotive field for 18 years at Hyundai KEFICO, Hyundai TRANSYS, and BOSCH Korea, will contribute to establishing STRADVISION data management standards as a global standard

SEOUL, South Korea, Nov. 14, 2023 /PRNewswire/ — STRADVISION, an automotive industry pioneer in deep learning-based vision perception technology, is pleased to announce that Soyoun Cho, Senior Process Engineer at STRADVISION, has achieved the Certified Data Management Extension/Assessor certification by intacs®(International Assessor Certification Scheme), the organization responsible for issuing the SPICE(Software Process Improvement and Capability dEtermination) assessor certification by utilizing the internal ‘Growth Program.’ This prestigious certification underscores STRADVISION’s dedication to industry best practices and innovation in the field of data management.

Soyoun Cho, Senior Process Engineer at STRADVISION, has achieved the Certified Data Management Extension/Assessor certification by intacs®, the organization responsible for issuing the SPICE assessor certification by utilizing the internal ‘Growth Program.’
Soyoun Cho, Senior Process Engineer at STRADVISION, has achieved the Certified Data Management Extension/Assessor certification by intacs®, the organization responsible for issuing the SPICE assessor certification by utilizing the internal ‘Growth Program.’

Intacs was established in response to industry demands and input from international ISO/IEC 15504 experts, with the primary goal of ensuring top-tier assessor qualifications globally for process assessment in accordance with the ISO/IEC 33000 series standards.

This esteemed organization behind the SPICE assessor certification operates through several active working groups that define processes for various technical areas. The resulting certifications are meticulously reviewed and approved by the VDA (German Association of the Automotive Industry) before officially issuing the Data Management SPICE PAM v1.1. Soyoun Cho, as a member of the Data Management SPICE working group, attended the pilot assessor training and successfully completed the certification process.

Commenting on this achievement, Soyoun Cho said, “The pilot assessor training was an enriching experience, and achieving this certification highlights our commitment to maintaining the highest standards in data management. It reinforces our capability to perform assessments on companies and projects applying the Data Management SPICE framework, which is crucial in today’s data-driven automotive industry.”

The ongoing certification process is a pivotal component of our extensive automotive industry initiative. Soyoun Cho, an integral part of this endeavor, is actively engaged in a dedicated sub-working group focused on the seamless integration of Data Management SPICE with SUP.11. This critical effort ensures that STRADVISION’s processes remain aligned with global standards in the years to come.

The upcoming major milestone in the form of the upcoming ASPICE 4.0 release will introduce the groundbreaking MLE.x process for machine learning and SUP.11 Machine Learning Data Management, marking a significant leap forward in our automotive industry commitment.

“The purpose of the Data Management SPICE working group is to create a process model for data management aligned with Automotive SPICE® 3.1 and other industry standards,” said Junhwan Kim, CEO of STRADVISION. “With innovations in autonomous driving, digitization, connectivity, AI/machine learning, and new mobility services relying heavily on data, this certification signifies STRADVISION’s commitment to addressing the challenges and risks associated with data handling in these innovations.”

About Soyoun Cho, Senior Process Engineer at STRADVISION

2022. 07 ~ Present: Senior Process Engineer at STRADVISION

2020. 06 ~ 2022. 07: Motor control software PM, software process engineer at Hyundai TRANSYS

2012. 10 ~ 2020. 06: Engine torque system engineer / Engine control software PM (project applying ASPICE CL2) at BOSCH Korea

2005. 04 ~ 2012. 10: Transmission control software engineer/development leader at Hyundai KEFICO

About STRADVISION 

Founded in 2014, STRADVISION is an automotive industry pioneer in artificial intelligence-based vision perception technology for ADAS. The company is accelerating the advent of fully autonomous vehicles by making ADAS features available at a fraction of the market cost compared with competitors. STRADVISION’s SVNet is being deployed on various vehicle models in partnership with OEMs; can power ADAS and autonomous vehicles worldwide; and is serviced by over 300 employees in Seoul, San Jose, Detroit, Tokyo, Shanghai, and Dusseldorf. STRADVISION has been honored with Frost & Sullivan’s 2022 Global Technology Innovation Leadership Award, the Gold Award at the 2022 and 2021 AutoSens Awards for Best-in-Class Software for Perception Systems, and the 2020 Autonomous Vehicle Technology ACES Award in Autonomy (software category). In addition, STRADVISION and its software have achieved TISAX’s AL3 standard for information security management, as well as being certified to the ISO 9001:2015 for Quality Management Systems and ISO 26262 for Automotive Functional Safety.