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NEW DELHI, INDIA: In order to strive and develop the right talent to drive its growth, NASSCOM Sector Skills Council (NASSCOM-SSC) today introduced the Occupational Analysis (OS) Reports for the IT-BPM Industry.

A functional analysis exercise was conducted across sectors, which has helped develop Occupational Standards (OS) for all Entry Level job roles, said NASSCOM in a press release.

For the first stage, the four sub-sectors included in the Occupational Analysis are IT Services, Business Process Management, Engineering and R&D & Software Products and 67 unique entry-level job roles have have been identified in the purview.

The statements regarding knowledge, skills and behaviors, essential for performance in a particular job role have been identified in the OS.

Highlighting the importance of the reports, Shashi Tharoor, Minister of State for Human Resource Development, Government of India said, "India is at the cusp of a great opportunity and is entering an era of becoming the workhorse for the world. Reports like these are the first steps towards creating an understanding for the skills and behaviors required for the IT-BPM industry."

"The Government of India has set a target of skilling 500 million people by 2022; to be able to deliver this target, a structured approach involving all stakeholders is imperative. This is a starting point in the direction of imparting skills for the relevant jobs. These reports give us a clear understanding of the opportunities of the industry," added Tharoor.

As per the National Skills Mission, 150 million professionals would need to be skilled by various Sector Skills Councils by 2022 to make them employable.

The Indian IT-BPM Industry currently employs about 3 million people directly and about 9 million indirectly. While the Industry has the potential to provide 30 million employment opportunities by 2020, training individuals on courses that are well aligned to OS can lead upto - 50-60 per cent increase in employability.

The objective is to standardize and streamline the process, both for hiring as well as training and to facilitate the ‘job readiness' scenario.

Highlighting the facets of the Occupational Analysis Som Mittal, president, NASSCOM, said "The Occupational Analysis reports will encompass aspects of talent acquisition and transformation that will be positively impacted by standardization and globalization. These standards offer all stakeholders related to this industry, the clarity regarding the knowledge, skills and competencies necessary. The reports provide easily accessible standards and helps individuals and firms understand the requirements of a particular occupation."

As per NASSCOM's Strategic Review 2013, the industry aggregated revenues exceed $ 110 billion and employs more than 3 million people. The Government of India has set a target of skilling 500 million people by 2022.

To be able to deliver this target, a structured approach involving all stakeholders is imperative. Skill gap needs to be addressed through comprehensive efforts, at various levels and catering to different needs of the society and industry.

SSC NASSCOM has made an endeavor to create a common skills currency between its members and for this industry sector, a recognizable means of global exchange of skills via unique job roles/qualification packs. From a workforce development perspective these new industry standards cover knowledge, competence and proficiency.

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NEW YORK, USA: Management and motivation of people are the highest priority skills for executives, ahead of leadership and strategic thinking, according to the 2013 Industrial & Manufacturing Executive Job Trends Survey, released today by Blue Steps, a service of the Association of Executive Search Consultants (AESC).

Management and people motivation was ranked as the top skill set (33 per cent), followed by Leadership (22 per cent), Strategic thinking (21 per cent), Sector knowledge (14 per cent) and Communication (11 per cent).

Additional findings of the report include:

* Executives working in the industrial sector stated their top business concern is pressure placed on profitability and cost reduction (28 per cent), followed by finding and attracting qualified talent (22 per cent) and economy concerns (16 per cent).

* Executives also predicted the top three factors that they believe will impact the industrial and manufacturing sector in 2014. These included cost reduction (47 per cent), human resources (33 per cent) and automation (20 per cent).

* Senior-level executives' top career management concerns were finding new career opportunities (40 per cent) and career growth and stagnation (22 per cent).

"Leadership and inspiring teams are critical for organizations' success, particularly in an era when the ‘new normal' means perpetually operating leaner," said Peter Felix, president of AESC. "Accordingly, cost reduction and management of human capital make up more than three quarters of leadership concerns."

The survey was conducted in October 2013 and includes 206 responses from BlueSteps member executives worldwide in the industrial and manufacturing sector.

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BANGALORE, INDIA: NIIT University (NU) has announced the launch of a Microsoft Innovation Center (MIC) on its campus in Neemrana. A collaboration agreement was signed today to formalize the partnership between Microsoft and NIIT University in the presence of Vijay Thadani, co-founder, NIIT University, Dr. Rajendra Pandey, president, NIIT University and Bhaskar Pramanik, vhairman, Microsoft Corporation (India) Private Limited.

Under this agreement, Microsoft will collaborate with NU to facilitate setting up Microsoft Innovation Centre (MIC) with an aim to foster the spirit of innovation and entrepreneurship amongst University students, by helping them apply their knowledge and technological know-how to real life problems and thus open employment and entrepreneurship avenues for the students.

Vijay Thadani, Co-founder, NIIT University said, "The unified purpose of promoting a research centric approach, for developing skilled manpower for the Global IT Industry has brought NIIT University and Microsoft together, to launch Microsoft Innovation Center at our University campus in Neemrana. Through this initiative we aim to foster the spirit of innovation and entrepreneurship in our students."

Microsoft Innovation Centers (MICs) are state of art technology facilities for collaboration on innovative research, technology or software solutions, involving a combination of government, academic and industry participants. While each center tunes its programs to local needs, they all provide similar content and services designed to accelerate technology advances and stimulate local software economies through skills and professional training, industry partnerships and innovation. Since the launch of the programme a total of 29 MICs have been set up in India.

Bhaskar Pramanik, chairman, Microsoft Corporation (India) Private Limited, said, "Building avenues for entrepreneurship is critical for enabling India's continued economic growth. The Microsoft Innovation Centre at NIIT University will give students the opportunity to experience the latest in technology, sparking new ideas and innovation.

The MIC at NIIT University will be among the other such centers worldwide, facilitating collaboration on IT-based research and development, product development and management, technology advancement, professional training, industry partnerships, placement opportunities, skill management, knowledge transfer and strong industry-institute interactions. The University will get access to key resources such as new platforms and software from Microsoft for the effective functioning of the MIC.

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MOUNTAIN VIEW, USA: Egnyte, the provider of the most comprehensive file-sharing platform for the enterprise, released the results of its "Rogue Cloud in Business" survey conducted online by Harris Interactive among more than 2,000 US adults.

The survey results illustrate a major exposure for today's businesses when it comes to the transfer and storage of data through unapproved and insecure cloud-only file-sharing services. IT teams, do you know what your users are doing with your business-sensitive data? We do!

According to the survey, more than 1 in 4 (27 percent) file-share service users report still having access to documents from that previous employer and nearly 2 in 5 (38 percent) previous and current users have transferred sensitive files through file-sharing services that are not approved by IT.

The survey results underscore the fact that employees want easy access to files and will adopt tools that allow them to easily share and collaborate on projects, with or without IT's consent.

The new survey uncovers deep issues around the rogue usage of consumer-based cloud services and illustrates the need for IT to deploy a secure enterprise-grade solution that meets the file-sharing needs of employees while protecting sensitive business data from the risks associated with insecure file sharing through the cloud.

Survey highlights:
* 51 percent of employed individuals agree that collaborating on file-sharing services (such as Dropbox and YouSendIt) is secure for business documents.

* 46 percent of employed individuals agree that it would be easy to take sensitive business documents to another employer.

* 41 percent of employed individuals agree that they could easily transfer business-sensitive data outside the company using a file-sharing service.

* 31 percent of employed individuals agree that they would share large documents that are too big for email through a file-sharing service without checking with their IT departments.

* 38 percent of employed individuals that have used file-sharing services have transferred sensitive files on an unapproved file-sharing service to someone else at least once; 10 percent have done it six or more times.

With employees needing quick access to files in today's fast-paced business environment, they look for easy ways to share their files if an enterprise-grade platform isn't in place. Wholesale drug company H.D. Smith services more than 3,000 independent retail pharmacies, institutions, durable medical equipment retailers, acute care and alternate site facilities nationwide.

The company is in the process of standardizing on Egnyte company-wide and moving employees away from Dropbox because it lacks the features or controls necessary to keep the company's business-critical information secure.

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LOS ALAMITOS, USA: Enterprise architects now have a new community and information resource at their disposal thanks to the efforts of the Enterprise Architecture Body of Knowledge (EABOK) Consortium and The MITRE Corp.

The EABOK website offers enterprise architecture practitioners and researchers a centralized location for exchanging knowledge about the profession, including methodologies, perspectives on the discipline, research results, and more.

The online community will be managed by the EABOK Consortium, an independent organization supported by IEEE Computer Society, the Federation of Enterprise Architecture Professional Organizations, and several related professional organizations.

EABOK started out as a standalone MITRE Corp. publication called The Guide to the Evolving Enterprise Architecture Body of Knowledge.

"This is the culmination of a year's worth of work," said Charlene "Chuck" Walrad, IEEE Computer Society Vice President of Standards Activities. "Placing EABOK under management of a consortium will make this valuable information available to all. We welcome enterprise architects to visit the site and contribute content."

Besides collecting and reviewing information for the EABOK site, the consortium will help evolve the field through information sharing, hosting face-to-face meetings and fostering dialogue among practitioners. Enterprise architecture practitioners and researchers are encouraged to share their work by visiting www.mitre.org/eabok and clicking the "Contributions" tab.

"The new EABOK will 'bring the world to bear' with a community-based governance structure," said Lou Metzger, MITRE fellow and corporate chief engineer. "A successful EABOK will have a full body of relevant content, populated by the professional community with expertise in enterprise architecture and access to EA students and practitioners at all levels."

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NEW DELHI, INDIA: Gemalto, digital security solution provider today announced a global business partnership with IBM for its enhanced Ezio eBanking security platform.

The Ezio eBanking Server platform has been further updated with the ability to support a wider range of end-user solutions, said a press release.

The platform has been tested and confirmed to work with more than 30 authentication devices from 20 different vendors, ranging from physical tokens to mobile applications. It is made available worldwide, directly from Gemalto and also through IBM Security Services.

"Our ability to deliver innovative authentication solutions is of critical importance to our clients, particularly those in the banking industry," said Kris Lovejoy, general manager of IBM Security Services.

"Making this new offering available as part of the IBM Total Authentication Solution will enable both IBM and Gemalto to address that growing demand with an even more comprehensive and flexible authentication capability," added Lovejoy.

"We believe more choices enhance the user experience that an eBanking service can offer, and we are fully committed to providing user-friendly and open authentication solutions that support our customers' current and future choices - and one that grows with them as their eBanking needs evolve", commented Håkan Nordfjell, senior vice president of eBanking at Gemalto.

"The IBM business partnership allows us to reach the global market easier and faster in order to deliver solutions that help our customers add more value and services to their online banking platform."

The Ezio eBanking Server stands at the heart of Gemalto's constantly evolving suite of eBanking solutions, including mobile applications, display cards, USB tokens, card readers, and software development kits.

To date, Gemalto claims that it has designed, produced and delivered over 70 million Ezio devices to bank customers across the world.

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MUMBAI, INDIA: Rolta and SAP AG has announced a strategic original equipment manufacturer (OEM) agreement where Rolta will integrate numerous industry solutions with platform technology from SAP.

Rolta will provide customers across the world with cutting-edge solutions by combining Rolta's products with SAP technology.

Rolta will be able to independently sell a broad range of SAP platform technology with its products at a global level and this strategic partnership will enable customers to take advantage of the combined solutions more readily due to an aggregated pool of sales resources and support.

Rolta has made extensive investments to create centers of excellence around the world comprising world-class infrastructure with a pool of experts to showcase Rolta‟s innovative solutions running on SAP technologies.

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NEW YORK, USA: Successful enterprise mobility deployment goes beyond supporting Bring Your Own Device (BYOD), and requires specific strategies targeted at balanced servicing of customer, IT and employee needs, according to a new global study, TechInsights Report: Enterprise Mobility-It's All About the Apps, from Vanson Bourne that was commissioned by CA Technologies (NASDAQ:CA).

The study surveyed 1,300 senior IT leaders worldwide and shows that while the benefits of mobility are well understood, concerns over security and privacy, multiple platform support, budget constraints and lack of appropriately skilled personnel are seen as the biggest obstacles to mobility adoption.

Nearly all (83 percent) of U.S. respondents recognize a greater need for realizing business opportunities with mobility. Organizations that have been successful with their mobility initiatives have experienced anywhere from a 17 to 24 percent improvement in business in the form of increased revenue, faster time-to-market, improved competitive positioning, enhanced customer experience, better employee productivity and lower costs.

The report also reveals that external customer initiatives like secure application management are now outpacing internal BYOD projects on IT priority lists. It indicates customer-facing mobile initiatives are business-critical and need to be addressed with the same sense of urgency as internal efforts. Customer-facing initiatives are seen as means to better address customer demands and improve the customer experience and satisfaction overall.

"Today, CIOs are under enormous pressures to address the rapid pace of technology change and evolution. Mobility has dramatically elevated the complexity of what is needed both for internal users and customer-facing systems," said Ram Varadarajan, general manager, New Business Innovation, CA Technologies.

"The potential of not complying with key regulations, inadvertent dissemination of corporate information, or negatively impacting brand reputation because of poor customer experience though a mobile application shopping experience, are just a few examples of risks faced by organizations that do not have an enterprise-wide mobility strategy," added Varadarajan.

Among the study's specific findings:

* Now it is about the apps: traditional focus for IT has been on devices, but the real opportunity is to focus on mobile apps.

* 63 percent of respondents selected mobile apps for customers or employees as their number one priority (versus 37 percent for internal BYOD and managing employee devices).

* Now it is about the customer: ITs mobility focus started with BYOD and satisfying their employees. Now, the demand is coming from the customers as well, and IT must address both.

* The number one driver of mobility initiatives is increased demand from customers as reported by 42 percent of respondents. Others include improving the customer experience (33 percent) and improving customer support (26 percent).

* Now IT must be proactive, not reactive: BYOD was all about IT reacting to demands from employee. Now, demand for mobile apps provides a new opportunity to drive new business initiatives.

* IT spending on mobility will increase 50 percent over three years.

* Spending on mobility outside of IT will grow from 9 percent to 15 percent, making this another reason for IT to be proactive.

* Security and privacy concerns remain more important than ever-not just for securing devices, but for securing the apps.

* More than one third of respondents cited security and privacy concerns as their number one challenge.

* Enterprise mobility adopters have been experiencing real and measurable benefits: While challenges remain and investment is needed, there are real, quantifiable benefits to be achieved.

* Respondents who have already achieved specific benefits report between 17 to 24 percent improvement in time-to-market, revenue, increased customer satisfaction, better employee productivity and retention/recruitment, and lower costs for BYOD programs.

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VANCOUVER, USA: The more women there are on a corporate board the less a company pays for its acquisitions, according to a new study by researchers at UBC's Sauder School of Business.

The forthcoming Journal of Corporate Finance paper shows the cost of a successful acquisition is reduced by 15.4 per cent with each female director added on a board. It also reveals that each additional female director reduces the number of a company's attempted takeover bids by 7.6 per cent.

"Female board members play a significant role in mitigating the empire-building tendency of CEOs through the acquisition of other companies," says Sauder finance professor Kai Li, who co-authored the study. "On average, merger and acquisition transactions don't create shareholder value, so women are having a real impact in protecting shareholder investment and overall firm performance."

The researchers say their results suggest women are less interested in pursuing risky transactions and require the promise of a higher return on investment.

For the study, the researchers analyzed a large sample of acquisition bids made by S&P 1500 companies in the United States between 1997 and 2009.

To determine the cost of the acquisitions, the researchers looked at the bid premium - the difference between the final offer price and the stock price of the targeted firm before the deal was signed. These figures were then correlated with the number of women directors on the various boards.

"Our findings show that the prudence exhibited by women directors in negotiating mergers and acquisitions has had a substantial positive effect on maintaining firm value," says Professor Li. "This finding adds fire and force to recent calls to mandate a minimum number of women on the boards of publicly traded companies."

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LYNBROOK, USA: Tools4ever, identity and access management solutions, has announced that, it has developed a connector between its solution, User Management Resource Administrator (UMRA), and Zendesk.

Zendesk delivers a cloud-based customer service software to thousands of organizations.

The new Tools4ever connector allows customers to sync Active Directory users directly with Zendesk through the UMRA, an identity management engine.

This allows system admins to easily automate tasks that are performed in Zendesk, including creating, deleting, updating or disabling a user, setting a password, creating a group or setting a membership, said a release.

With a connection from UMRA to Zendesk, system administrators can easily make changes in Active Directory accounts which are then automatically synchronized with Zendesk. This eliminates the manual processes of creating, changing and disabling in multiple systems and allows administrators to quickly accomplish these tasks.

"We developed the Zendesk connector to meet the ever-evolving needs and requirements of organizations," said Dean Wiech, managing director of Tools4ever. "The connection with Zendesk drastically reduces the amount of time users spend on account management by seamlessly integrating with Active Directory and UMRA to minimize manual and repetitive tasks."

UMRA helps improve service levels, increase employee productivity and enhance security while also saving time and money, as well as offering benefits, such as role-based access control (RBAC) that allows for consistency and control when issuing access rights to applications, shares, distribution lists and roles within applications.

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VIRGINIA, USA: eJeeva, provider of product information management, online catalog management, and eCommerce software, has released a complete eCommerce portal that helps wholesale distributors sell more products through their dealer channel.

Orders placed on dealer websites are automatically routed to the distributor's fulfillment center, with products drop-shipped directly to the customers, said a press release.

The process removes the need for dealers to carry an abundance of products, and allows their customers to search, compare, and order products online and through mobile devices, it added.

eJeeva Dealer Portal is tied directly to the distributor's product database - so pricing, inventory, and order management are completely automated on dealer websites. The product dealers maintain their own corporate identity on the virtual storefronts, and can sell their own products in addition to the host distributor's line.

"eJeeva Dealer Portal is a marketing and order management solution for wholesale distributors in virtually any industry," says TJ Dhillon, president and CEO of eJeeva. "Distributors that have expansive dealer channels can gain a competitive advantage by having their entire product suite featured on dealer branded eCommerce websites, helping them reach millions of new customers worldwide."

eJeeva Dealer Portal is currently being used by a leading New York-based distributor that has connected its large dealer network to its product database - Epicor Prohpet 21.

eJeeva Dealer Portal sets up branded eCommerce websites for product dealers - enabling distributors to showcase their entire product suite to customers online and through mobile devices.

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DUBLIN, IRELAND: Research and Markets has announced the addition of the "Global Data Quality Tools Market 2012-2016" report to their offering.

The analysts forecast the Global Data Quality Tools market to grow at a CAGR of 16.78 percent over the period 2012-2016. One of the key factors contributing to this market growth is the need to enhance productivity.

The Global Data Quality Tools market has also been witnessing the emerging SaaS-based data quality tools. However, the high implementation and product cost could pose a challenge to the growth of this market.

The report, the Global Data Quality Tools Market 2012-2016, has been prepared based on an in-depth market analysis with inputs from industry experts. The report covers the Americas, and the EMEA and APAC regions; it also covers the Global Data Quality Tools market landscape and its growth prospects in the coming years.

The report also includes a discussion of the key vendors operating in this market.

The key vendors dominating this market space are Experian QAS Inc., Informatica Corp., Pitney Bowes Inc., and SAP AG.

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EDISON, USA: Cloud computing is the most effective means for small, medium and large enterprises in reducing their IT cost. Not only does it eliminate most of the infrastructure

CapEx because it eliminates the need to buy servers any more, even the total operating cost of running the infrastructure is significantly lower.

The benefits apply both to start-ups and to established organizations. Had it not been for the Cloud, Instagram could never have gone from zero to 100 million active users in less than 18 months; the infrastructure scale-up challenges, not to mention the capital investment in hardware, would have curtailed such growth to a minor percentage of what actually transpired. Thus Cloud Computing is undoubtedly a great boon for companies everywhere, and, therefore, a boost for the world economy.

In a recent interview with bodHOST's CEO Probal DasGupta, he recalled the Instagram growth, and its $1 billion acquisition by FaceBook; and, compared it to the mere $35 million paid by Yahoo for a similar service, Flickr, in 2005. One factor that might have played in Instagram's favor was access to more advanced Cloud technology.

Probal firmly believes that cloud computing is slated to revolutionize the way in which companies and people utilize computing power. "We wouldn't consider installing a power generation plant when building a house, would we? We take electricity for granted, and simply draw a power line from the power company's grid to our house.

Buying, installing and maintaining Computer Servers to obtain computing power for an organization is analogous to buying, installing and maintaining power generators for obtaining electricity for a building.

The old paradigm is rapidly being phased out. Post Generation-Y, only history buffs might even be aware that once upon a time organizations had to buy their own servers."

eNlight pioneered the true utility billing model

Vikram Jape, director of International Sales for bodHOST, pointed out that one of the indispensable characteristics of Cloud computing is metered usage. Quoting a definition published by the ISACA, he explained: "This implies that just like air time, electricity or municipality water, IT services are charged per usage metrics." But this is where most Cloud providers fail at this current moment, because most of them still charge you by resources allocated, even if the allocated resources are not used.

Greater business agility

James Anderson, sales manager at bodHOST, holds that perhaps one of the greatest benefits from the Cloud is greater business agility. Today external and internal conditions are changing more rapidly than ever before, and every organization must react to these changes in order to remain competitive. The Cloud provides instant scalability - not just upward, but also downward (which is even more difficult with on-premise infrastructure) - and greatly facilitates business agility (quick implementation of decisions, quick path changes, etc.).

Thus,James recommends that the industries should trust "Cloud based infrastructure" as it perovdes every company with the quickest road to savings and enhanced competitive advantage at the same time.

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BROOKFIELD, USA: Fiserv, Inc., provider of financial services technology solutions, has published a new white paper that explains how an ongoing forward-looking mobile banking strategy can help financial institutions to win mobile banking customers and enhance profitability.

Consumers are expecting increasingly sophisticated mobile banking capabilities, and delivering these capabilities requires financial institutions to move beyond short-term tactical thinking in favor of a continuous commitment to the channel. In short, mobile banking should be treated as a marathon, not a sprint, said a report.

As consumers become more comfortable with the mobile channel, they are seeking tailored mobile banking experiences that leverage the unique attributes of the channel, such as the ability to transfer funds in response to a low balance alert, or to deposit a check by taking a picture of it with their smartphone camera. A growing population of mobile-only consumers, who connect with their financial institutions exclusively through mobile devices and ATMs, also requires more robust and extensive functionality from the channel.

Financial institutions can ensure that they are properly prepared and ‘fit' to compete in the mobile banking race by employing a comprehensive ‘Fit to Win' approach. Elements of this approach include:

Talent - hiring focused and dedicated mobile banking professionals, including those with mobile experience from outside of the financial services industry, and choosing the right partners;

Proper training - taking the steps required to learn about mobile options and remain up-to-date on mobile trends;

Coaching - securing executive endorsement and support that guides the enterprise;

Good nutrition - nourishing a culture where mobile is understood and prioritized by everyone;

Understanding strengths and weaknesses - identifying assets and gaps in infrastructure that impact mobile offerings and implementing a plan to leverage or overcome them.

As part of a ‘Fit to Win' mobile banking strategy, financial institutions will define what winning means for them and pick the course that is most likely to help them achieve this goal.

Financial institutions will want to consider the approaches taken by mobile banking market leaders across the globe, as well as those pioneered by mobile experience leaders such as Amazon, Google and Facebook. It is also critical for financial institutions to put a dedicated mobile infrastructure in place, develop targeted strategies to reach the consumers most interested in mobile banking, and leverage frontline staff to drive interest in the service.

"The mobile channel has already altered banking forever and further transformative change is inevitable," said Serge Van Dam, segment leader, Digital Channels, Fiserv. "Financial institutions that make mobile financial services an enterprise priority, adopt a marathon view of mobile banking and consider mobile as a central part of any product or strategy decision have the chance to turn customers into fans. Mobile financial services are now integral to the customer experience in banking and therefore merit an ongoing program of transformation rather than one-off investments."

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BEIJING, CHINA: NCR Corporation today announced that it has been awarded professional service contracts from Bank of China to develop new automated teller machine ("ATM") applications running on the bank's multivendor software platform, NCR APTRA Edge, to support the bank's initiative in implementing paperless ATM transaction flow and its Financial Integrated Circuit Card ("IC") 5.0 project.

The Bank of China's ATM network went live with the NCR APTRA Edge platform last year and most applications on its ATM network have completed the initial phase migration process to be compliant with EMV1 (PBOC 2.02) standards.

As part of the project, NCR will provide software application development, system analysis, support services and related training programs.

"The newly signed contracts have proven that NCR APTRA Edge has offered Bank of China a truly stable and open platform for providing unlimited application development productivity, making their customers everyday transaction easier," said Gary Miao, president of NCR Greater China for financial services.

"We are excited in winning the trust again from BOC for our professional services team's software skills and service expertise, which has reflected our success in executing our strategy in building our software and services capabilities in a fast growing market like China," added Miao.

In line with the new market demand for smart cards, Bank of China also is kicking off a Financial IC Card 5.0 project to enhance its IC card product features and business process.

The ATM paperless transaction flow project aims to reduce operating costs and improve ATM service availability. The traditional ATM transaction journal printing in paper will be replaced by paperless, electronically generated transaction journals.

The project will eliminate the maintenance cost of changing journal paper rolls as well as the cost of paper. ATM service availability can be increased without having to suspend the services whenever the machine is out of transaction journal paper.

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NEW DELHI, INDIA: Trend Micro Incorporated, the global cloud security leader, has announced that it recently deployed Comprehensive Security Solutions for Hindustan Petroleum (HPCL), one of India's largest oil and natural gas companies.

HPCL's data was shielded by a thin layer of anti-virus software and lacked a centralized management and monitoring component to keep track of updates and vulnerabilities, said a press release.

Another challenge was that users weren't able to download security updates directly from the Internet. Worse, many of HPCL's employees did not have Internet connection at all times. As a result, many user machines were getting outdated when it came to security updates.

Apart from malware attacks, this was also resulting in productivity losses for HPCL. Its helpdesk team was the busiest team in the company, as it used to receive numerous calls in a day.

"The solution we had was not comprehensive. It was protecting us only at the client level. But there was no protection at the network level. There were times when, for instance, we could not connect a freshly formatted laptop onto the network without getting infected by a virus. We realized that having AV software on all the clients was not sufficient. Also, monitoring and patching was not happening effectively," says M.P. Keshava, chief manager-Information Security and Compliance, HPCL.

"There were many instances of PCs getting re-formatted because the AV software did not work properly. When we studied the scenario, we realized that it was mainly because the users were not updating their antivirus software regularly," added Keshava.

On top of that, HPCL had an extensively distributed network with multiple locations across the country. Central management and monitoring, thus, became the need of the hour for the company.

"HPCL implemented our enterprise management dashboard, which tracks security performance, reports malware events, and also helps HPCL in setting threat policies, increasing visibility across the enterprise, and improving compliance. Our solution also helped HPCL in tightening its security policies," said Dhanya Thakkar, managing director, India & SAARC, Trend Micro.

Along with Trend Micro's office scan antivirus suite, HPCL opted for the vendor's InterScan Mail security and InterScan Web security solutions, which provided sufficient gateway security for the company, the release added.

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DUBAI, UAE: Online shopping is a rapidly growing consumer trend in the Middle East and North Africa and the region now stands poised to be the next eCommerce hot-spot.

A recent report by PayPal has revealed that spending online in the MENA will grow from $9 billion in 2012 to $15 billion by 2015. The digital realm with its convenience of access, abundance of attractive offers and truly staggering range of options is being willingly embraced by tech-savvy consumers.

But the region, being a hot-bed for cyber crime, is also drawing the interest of hackers and scammers who are equally keen on doing some shopping of their own- at the expense of their victims. This might involve using stolen credit card and bank account information to fund online purchases, or even capturing and selling personal information to the highest bidder.

Pradeesh VS, GM, ESET Middle East warns that while eCommerce is a trend sure to positively impact both consumers and retailers in the MENA region, customers must take some precautions to ensure their online safety. Here is our list of top tips to help savvy cyber-shoppers avoid getting scammed while hunting for the best online deals.

Tip 1: Clean up before you shop

Like tuning-up your car before going on a long drive, you should also ensure you get your laptop in top shape before going online for some power shopping. Give it some love, and improved protection, by updating and patching your browser and add-ons like plug-ins. It might be worth checking to see there aren't any bad ones in there since this is a trick cyber criminals have been employing this year. Finally, before you shop, patch your operating system and anti-malware suite too as this will help you avoid malware infections and scams, and keep you running smoothly.

Tip 2: Make sure it's secure and ideally, shop from a PC, not a phone

When you are in the ordering process on a website, check to make sure it is using SSL, the standard in secure transactions- often shown by browsers as a little lock symbol. If that isn't there, check the URL i.e. website address. You should be able to see https or shttp in front of the web address instead of http. It's far easier to do these checks on a PC, rather than smartphone or tablet browsers, so it's worth sitting down, even if it is an impulse buy. Using SSL encrypts the exchange of information, such as your credit card, so eavesdroppers cannot read it. When in doubt, a quick search in Google for the word "scam" or "fraud" along with the site name should tell you if that site has a history of problems.

Tip 3: Logging into lots of sites? Don't use your "real" password

Earlier this year, four out of five internet users admitted to being "locked" out of websites due to lost or forgotten passwords- and shopping binges can tempt you to reuse the same one, as you log in to site after site. DON'T. If you are reusing a password- make sure it's a "throwaway", i.e. one unrelated to the important passwords you use for email, or for your bank. For good measure, why not use a throwaway email address as well? It will even help cut down on promo emails to personal mail accounts!

Tip 4: Don't shop at leaky hotspots

If you need to do any shopping over WiFi, either at home or at a hotspot, make sure it is secure by looking out for the lock symbol in the WiFi connection dialog. As a rule, avoid shopping while connected to public hotspots such as those in malls, coffee shops etc. You're far safer using your 3G or 4G phone as a hotspot. While this might add a little extra to your data bill, its far better than someone going on a shopping spree with your credit card. The last thing you want is someone snatching your personal details out of thin air as you transmit them from your laptop or smart device.

Tip 5: Use a credit card

According to PayPal, about 80% of online purchases in the Middle East are made with cash on delivery while Credit and debit cards make up 15%, and PayPal the remainder. If you get scammed and try to get your money back you may have better luck with credit card transactions versus debit cards. Credit cards often offer guarantees against fraud, whereas debit cards don't. Many vendors, whether at the mall or online, prefer debit cards because the transaction is cheaper for them. But that's not the customer's problem. Credit cards can put an extra layer of protection between you and the bad guys.

Tip 6: Scan credit card bill for 'mistakes'

After a heavy shopping spree, you might have a tendency to avoid looking at your credit card statements. Maybe you were hoping that you didn't spend as much as you THINK you may have. But if you got scammed, that statement may be the first sign, so make it a point to at least skim the statement to see if there are any transactions you don't recognize. For example, if you have never been to Russia and don't know anyone who lives on the outskirts of Moscow, it's a safe bet that any wire transfers or shipments of computer gear to the region are fraudulent. Remember, the sooner you act, the more likely you are to recover your money.

Bonus Tip for Parents: Buying the latest gadget? Make sure it's child-safe

Many gadgets already have built-in controls which can help you protect children from adult content. Be sure they are in place before children run off with their new gifts. Apple's iOS for iPhone, iPod touch and iPad contain a range of settings to restrict access based on age. These include the ability to block in-app purchases, which can protect against "bill shock" if children buy extras within games.

Amazon's Kindle Fire devices have a particularly impressive range of child protection options. Windows 8 PC also has upgraded security controls for parents which can be found under the Family Safety area. It can monitor internet use and deliver reports each week on where they've been surfing. Be sure to know which of your children's gadgets CAN go online since today, most games consoles can too. Consoles such as Xbox and Nintendo DS have parental controls, which block children from inappropriate content. Use them- many parents don't!

Follow these simple tips and you should sleep a little better knowing that you're safe while shopping online. Remember, things will show up on your computer, as they do in real life, that seem too good to be true. Caution may sound boring, but it will definitely pay off. After all, if you have decided to shop online because you feel you don't have enough time, you certainly don't have time to bear the hassles of dealing with online fraud.

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ATLANTA, USA: A new version of RapidReconciler, featuring a redesigned user interface, common currency reporting and a new integrity report, has been released by GSI, Inc. and will be featured at the second annual INFOCUS conference.

More than 200 companies use the 11-year old software package and corporate subsidiaries to help streamline their JD Edwards (JDE) general ledger reconciliation process, said a company release.

Key improvements according to GSI include:

* Common Currency Reporting - Added ability to report all companies in a common currency;

* Integrity Report - New report to display accounting instructions as entered in JDE used for debugging reconciling items Flex Accounting - Support for balance sheet accounts built with flexible accounting rules from the item branch or business unit master;

* UI Overhaul - Changed layout of user interface to improve overall user experience and reconciliation process; and

* Performance Upgrade - Major improvements to data processing and interface response times.

"Our development team continues to actively develop new features and implement user requested enhancements to make it even easier and faster for our clients to reconcile their JD Edwards inventory to general ledgers process," said Bill Cashman, vice president of products and services, GSI.

The release further added that RapidReconciler is compatible with any version of JDE EnterpriseOne or World.

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MOUNTAIN VIEW, USA: Healthcare application solution provider, TrueVault has announced the availability of image32, a healthcare application which can store any binary data object in TrueVault.

The TrueVault BLOB (binary large object) Store offers HIPAA compliant binary storage for any file format. This includes DICOM files (e.g. X-Rays, CT Scans, MRIs), PDFs, scanned medical records, images, and videos, said a company release.

"There is no limit to the number of files you can upload," said TrueVault Founder and CEO Jason Wang. "Any binary file can be uploaded, updated, deleted, and downloaded via our REST API. Healthcare applications can now store and exchange medical images, videos, and large files with ease. There are numerous use cases for this kind of HIPAA compliant file storage, the possibilities are endless."

The company claims that image32 is an early adopter and sees the value in the TrueVault BLOB Store.

Millions of X-Rays, CT Scans, MRIs, and other medical imaging studies are created every day. But, complicated rules and incompatible software has prevented doctors and patients from easily sharing these images. image32 solves this problem and liberates these medical images, it said.

With image32 it is easy to securely share medical imaging studies on any device, anywhere. There are 3.9 million medical images currently hosted on image32, and all of the images that include PHI can be stored in a HIPAA compliant manner using the TrueVault BLOB Store, the release added.

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MENLO PARK, USA: A team of computer scientists from SRI International and University of California, Santa Cruz are making a game out of the difficult task of software verification by creating an entertaining and accessible way to help ensure software programs or systems are free from common vulnerabilities.

The Xylem puzzle game, initially available on the iPad, helps find "loop invariants," an important element of formal software verification.

Xylem is part of an SRI-led project called Chekofv (Crowd-sourced Help with Emergent Knowledge for Optimized Formal Verification), which is under the broader, multi-institutional Crowd Sourced Formal Verification (CSFV) program funded by the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA).

Xylem is one of five computer games in DARPA's CSFV program, all of which are freely accessible through the Verigames .

"The Xylem game leverages crowd-sourcing techniques to search for proofs that software programs are free of vulnerabilities," said John Murray, Ph.D., program director in the Computer Science Laboratory at SRI and principal investigator for the overall Chekofv project.

"Pieces of software code are inserted into this engaging puzzle game, where players identify new plant species by spotting patterns in the plants' behavior on the island. The more people that play the game and correctly identify patterns, the more pieces of code are verified that they will work with the rest of the software program - it's like solving a gigantic jigsaw puzzle," added Murray.

To play Xylem, you don't need to know anything about software. The setting is a newly discovered island called Miraflora, and the player is a botanist sent to describe the many unusual flowering plants on the island. The intrepid explorer is provided with a "floraphase comparator" for examining the plants.

Using this device, the player finds mathematical relationships among the features of flowers on the plants. As the community of players contributes solutions by finding and describing flowers, players can see how much of the island has been explored.

"The numbers of flowers are actually values of variables inside software loops. By finding these relationships among flowers, you're actually describing the behavior of a loop," explained Jim Whitehead, Ph.D., professor and chair of computer science at UCSC's Baskin School of Engineering and the university's principal investigator for Xylem.

Ordinarily, finding loop invariants in software programs is a challenging task that requires extensive training and insight. "It's a hard concept to get across even to computer science students," Whitehead said. "By turning it into a game, it becomes something that an untrained person with basic math skills can do."

Currently, formal software verification is not used very much because relatively few people have the necessary training in verification techniques, according to Whitehead. "There aren't enough experts to formally verify all the kinds of software that are being developed," he said.

"With more than 25 years of experience developing and using formal software verification tools, SRI understands how vitally important it is to assure that mission-critical computer systems are error-free, secure, and interoperable," said Patrick Lincoln, Ph.D., director of the Computer Science Laboratory at SRI International.

"The Chekofv project is an aggressive research program that addresses these complex software problems in highly innovative ways. By making formal software verification more accessible and fun, a lot more people can help increase reliability and security for critical software around the world by playing the Xylem game."

Heather Logas, the lead game designer for Xylem, said the project's software verification goals placed tight constraints on the possibilities for gameplay. "There are a lot of things that would make sense to do if we were just designing a game, but to meet the software verification goals we couldn't do them. So we had to come up with some creative solutions."

The result of their efforts is an interesting puzzle game with a story line and interactive features to keep players engaged.