Leading global AI-powered credit decision platform provider, Scienaptic AI announced that Tower Federal Credit Union has selected its AI-powered platform. The implementation will equip the credit union with enhanced underwriting capabilities to make stronger, faster credit decisions and strengthen financial options for its members.

Established in 1953 and headquartered in Laurel, Md., Tower Federal Credit Union has grown to be the largest federal credit union in Maryland with over $4 billion in assets and more than 200,000 members worldwide providing a full array of financial products and services. Implementing Scienaptic’s AI-powered platform positions the credit union to make better loan decisions for its members while delivering the best value for lifelong relationships.

“As a member-owned, cooperative organization, we are committed to meeting our members’ diverse financial needs by offering the best value, member experience and innovative solutions,” said Christopher Ercole, Vice President, Consumer Lending at Tower Federal Credit Union. “Partnering with Scienaptic reinforces this commitment by ensuring our members are provided with industry-leading underwriting capabilities and enhanced access to credit, further strengthening their financial wellbeing.”

"We are pleased to partner with Tower Federal Credit Union to streamline and augment its loan decisioning process to support the financing goals and needs of its members,” said Pankaj Jain, President, Scienaptic. “Scienaptic's unique and advanced AI technology will enable the credit union to increase loan approvals to reach more borrowers while deepening the member experience.”

Cryptocurrency exchange Azondo launches its Bitcoin onboarding platform this month, with the aim of becoming a serious contender in the booming European crypto market.

The European cryptocurrency market is on fire these days. Bitcoin reached a new all-time high of nearly $69,000 on Wednesday, November 10 2021. Backed by supportive regulatory measures, the recent crypto frenzy have created the ideal breeding ground for crypto entrepreneurs all vying to create the next Binance or Coinbase.

One such promising startup is Azondo. With offices in Estonia and Lithuania, the Estonia licensed crypto exchange wants to compete for the hearts, minds and wallets of European crypto investors. With Azondo, users can buy Bitcoin with credit and debit cards. Customers can hold Bitcoin in free Bitcoin wallets, or withdraw their funds at any time. What is usually the most arduous process of buying Bitcoin - the infamous Know Your Customer (KYC) registration routine - has been significantly trimmed down through the use of electronic ID solutions like BankID, NemID and MobileID. The end result is that with Azondo, first-timers can typically buy Bitcoin within mere minutes. 

Chief Marketing Officer for Azondo, Mr. Martin Reinhardt, is enthusiastic about the launch: 

"With Azondo, we want to change how the typical consumer buys and trades in Bitcoin. We want to make the entire process simple and fast, without compromising on the stringent regulatory requirements we operate under. We believe the launch marks a transformative point in time for both Azondo and Bitcoin. It will be a bullish ride from here."

Mswipe, leading end to end digital enabler of SMEs, today said that it has partnered with OneCard, India’s first exclusive mobile-first credit card to offer no cost Equated Monthly Instalments (EMI) , across its 2.50 lakh strong retailer network.

The partnership will enable users of OneCard to seamlessly access no or low interest EMIs’ while availing mid and high-value purchases at retail outlets powered by Mswipe terminals.

The collaboration is expected to bolster consumer sentiments in a big way as customers can now seamlessly convert their purchase transactions into easy, no-interest monthly instalments.

With this partnership, Mswipe will power its partner brands to increase sales through attractive checkout offers to their customers, while also targeting the tech-savvy customers of OneCard. Mswipe is working with brand partners in designing value offers for customers. On the other hand, OneCard will offer its card users to seamlessly avail no interest or low interest EMIs at checkout.

Mswipe CEO Ketan Patel said, “Pay Later offerings delight shoppers and are a major consideration during purchase. It also improves the checkout process significantly by reducing the time taken to complete the purchase. Our solution helps brand partners to increase sales and retailers to add more revenue. We are happy to extend our ecosystem to OneCard customers.”

OneCard Co-founder and CMO Vibhav Hathi said “At OneCard, besides offering flexibility and visibility on spends, we offer our customer full control of every aspect involved in credit and payments. Our partnership with Mswipe will help us leverage their reach and technology expertise to provide our users a seamless & superior EMI experience. With this partnership our customers will now be able to enjoy hassle-free shopping while availing easy and affordable EMIs at check-out.”

OneCard aims to digitally revolutionize credit and payments in India. The card allows its users to control all aspects of OneCard from an app. This includes enabling offline and online transactions, enabling domestic and international transactions, paying the bill and locking the card. The OneCard app gives card holders a completely transparent view of their credit card spends, rewards, EMI, limits, payments, etc. FPL Technologies earlier launched OneScore in 2019, to empower people looking to monitor and manage their credit health in a simple and secure manner. The scoring platform is widely popular and has acquired more than 8 million users within just two years of its launch.

Creating unprecedented value for businesses around the globe by embracing CITIC Telecom CPC's ICT-MiiND Strategy

CITIC Telecom International CPC Limited (CITIC Telecom CPC), a wholly-owned subsidiary of CITIC Telecom International Holdings Limited (SEHK: 1883), is entering a new phase in its partnership with Hong Kong Applied Science and Technology Research Institute (ASTRI) for using AI and augmented reality (AR) innovation to create unprecedented value and enable exceptional experience in different industries and markets. In this phase, CITIC Telecom CPC will combine its algorithm expertise and AI intelligent strength with ASTRI's AR innovation capabilities to propel the ICT industry forward by exploring new industry use cases with AI/AR integrated solutions that are ready for commercialization.

"Fostering a culture of innovation and embracing intelligence are our core values and are essential to our future success. As a leading intelligent Technology-driven ICT enabler, CITIC Telecom CPC is enthusiastic about advancing AI-AR technologies with ASTRI and leveraging collaborations and sound technological exchanges to pursue innovative and practical applications. We are delighted to have this partnership with ASTRI again, which perfectly complements our mission 'Innovation Never Stops' and embraces our latest ICT-MiiND Strategy," said Mr. Esmond Li, CEO of CITIC Telecom CPC.

Phase 1 - Expand Beyond Possibilities With AR
CITIC Telecom CPC entered a partnership with ASTRI in June 2019 to explore digitalization and AR to enhance industries' competitiveness and contribute to the ICT community. The partnership led to the successful launch of AR Remote Hand Solution in September 2020 that boosted field service productivity by up to 50%. The enhanced AR-based vision allowed field engineers to access vital information at data centers and enabled seamless collaboration between frontline and back-end teams to complete maintenance tasks. The solution also demonstrated how companies could facilitate remote work strategies during the pandemic using AR technologies.

"To have sustainable traction in intelligent and innovative technologies development, we need an integrated ecosystem approach and strong partnership with stakeholders in various sectors and industries. ASTRI's continuing collaboration with CITIC Telecom CPC will lead to a meaningful exchange of innovative R&D, technologies, knowledge, and insights, which will ultimately increase operational efficiencies of the industries, uplift user experience, and create value to the community. As a technology enabler, ASTRI is confident that this collaboration will result in a win-win outcome by creating viable commercial applications that benefit different industries," said Dr. Denis Yip, CEO of ASTRI.

Phase 2 - Combined AI & AR Capabilities to Unlock More Values
In Phase 2, CITIC Telecom CPC and ASTRI will take a significant leap forward to create unprecedented value by integrating AI & AR capabilities. ASTRI will provide the software platform and customization, while CITIC Telecom CPC's team will build an innovative Machine Learning model by integrating virtual, big data, AI, and physical data into the heads-up display of the AR Glasses. The key features include:

-- Data Visualization - Computer vision techniques and machine-learning algorithms enhanced data integration will provide the remote workforce with 2D and 3D diagrams for better data visualization. Users can use AR glasses to detect, identify, locate, and track objects positioning and project holograms of technical manuals, analytical figures, or even instructions onto the heads-up display to analyze trends or issues for quicker response.

-- Cognitive Object Recognition - The AI-AR integrated service will use Cognitive Object Recognition System (CORS), which runs using CITIC Telecom CPC's algorithm and solution to improve object mapping accuracy. Using AR glasses, users can easily define the correlation between different objects. The AR glasses can further improve workplace safety by projecting the physical (path) and logical relations onto the reality in the form of digital maps, 3D models and virtual information.

-- Middleware Enhancement - Both organizations will develop middleware for AR glasses, empowering customers to work with different AR headsets such as HoloLens and Android-based headsets.

Integrating the core competence and expertise of ASTRI and CITIC Telecom CPC's extensive global knowledge, regional coverage, local service capabilities, a broad portfolio of leading-edge technologies, and experience in third-party integration will offer crucial benefits during commercialization by exploring new use cases for a range of industrial applications. Bringing business values in multiple scenarios, such as:

-- AI-AR Remote Hands for Seamless Collaboration From a Distance
Streamlining maintenance and inspection for Utilities -The AI-AR integrated service will provide field workers with better computer vision capabilities. Field users can access manuals and analyzed data or graphs for maintenance using the AR glasses while receiving immediate alerts of any wrong steps. The 5G-enabled cloud connectivity can enable supervisors to guide field users during installation and maintenance verbally.

-- Computer Vision and Cognitive Analytics Solutions for Better Decision Making
Business Operations planning (e.g., Supply Chain Management) - The integrated service can provide workers with extra information during operations. The frontline staff can use data visualizations and object mapping to identify goods quickly and accurately for loading and unloading.

-- Predictive Customer Experience for Maximizing Customer Value
Enhancing customer services experience in all industries - AI and AR allow companies to use predictive and prescriptive data to understand what customers want before they know themselves, delivering exceptional customer experiences.

Extending the ICT-MiiND Strategy and Creating an Innovative and Intelligent Ecosystem of the Future

AI-AR integration in Phase 2 solidifies CITIC Telecom CPC's ICT-MiiND Strategy built on two components: intelligence and innovation. The strategy creates an "empowerment ecosystem" that translates technical potential into business value for customers. Through ICT-MiiND, CITIC Telecom CPC is truly transforming into a proactive technology-driven digitalization enabler that can help enterprises successfully transform.

The ICT-MiiND Strategy integrates a full stack of services data into the ICT service platform, strengthening the "intelligence" component through advanced container technology and AIOps modules. Meanwhile, ASTRI enhances the "innovation" component by adding their R&D capabilities and expertise.

"Our team of data science and analytics experts develop a wide range of research projects grounded in our years of ICT experience and deep understanding of industry use cases. We believe that our strong partnership with ASTRI, together with the development of new technologies, such as AI, AR, blockchain, 5G, IoT and cloud, will ensure that we will continue to find innovative and intelligent ways of helping enterprises to reap the benefits of digital transformation," said Mr Daniel Kwong, CIIO of CITIC Telecom CPC.
 

INEOS Automotive, the 4X4 development and manufacturing company, has awarded a major new service contract to the global service lifecycle management company CAD-IT.

The contract will be for the delivery of an integrated end-to-end Service Lifecycle Management (SLM) solution and supporting services for INEOS Automotive.

INEOS Automotive has designed its approach to Service to suit the needs of modern 4X4 owners and workshop technicians by adopting integrated Industry 4.0 readied solutions. This integrated approach eliminates traditional problems associated with the management of the Service business, and transforms Service into a streamlined operation, which in turn better serves the business and most importantly the customer. 

Chris Webster, INEOS Aftersales Parts Manager, stated: “It is critical the spare parts catalogue and repair manuals offer our service partners the very best user experience possible, we truly believe CAD-IT can bring our vision to reality. We believe INEOS is the first vehicle manufacturer in the world to offer such a comprehensive interactive technical manual covering the whole vehicle. Workshop technicians, 4X4 enthusiasts, modifiers and conversion specialists will all have easy access to this resource.”

CAD-IT solutions are integrated into Teamcenter and ERP. The SBOM (Service Bill of Materials) is the heart of the solution, ensuring data efficiency, consistency, and accuracy. Connected solutions and processes bring richer, fully interactive, 3D content and provide a gateway to Augmented Reality. 

All content types are created using a single tool and are hosted through CAD-IT’s Service Portal. It’s team of Technical Publications specialists will be supporting the creation of INEOS’s wide array of Service documentation. 

Andy Partridge, CAD-IT Technical Publications Operations Manager, added: “The Grenadier is an authentic and purposeful 4X4 that will challenge all entrenched loyalties. INEOS is in the enviable position of being without legacy systems to update, and with complete freedom to adopt best practice from the outset. We are honoured by the trust placed in CAD-IT by the team at INEOS and excited and driven to deliver something fantastic.”

VoiceSage partners with Capital Platform to provide technology services for their platform for the UK, European and International clients. With flagship sales in eight new countries, six global reseller partnerships, the purchase of a US company and global acquisitions in the pipeline, an Initial Public Offer (IPO) listing is now in sight. Darren Beddard Founder & CEO of Capital Platform say’s we couldn’t be more happy with this partnership. We have been working towards this for two years and are now delighted that we can give client’s the technology moving forward with both platforms. J.J. Kett the CEO of VoiceSage said that the partnership creates a breakthrough in the investment world, through combining the superior investment products, unique know how, international ecosystem and financial leadership of Capital Platform with VoiceSage’s proven and trusted communications, payments and artificial intelligence platform and comprehensive suite of products.

Capital Platform will now be able to  automate fully secure and hyper personalised communications with all of its clientson a regular basis. The company which has been trading for over 18 years and has survived 2 recessions and a global pandemic is now looking towards transformative international expansion. It is determined that it has the best products on the planet and has long-term blue-chip clients who testify to (a) how robust and reliable the platform is (b) how easy to use the products are, (c) the huge scale of the savings achieved, and (d) the major positive impact on critical key business metrics. The cloud-based SaaS, cPaaS, AI (Artificial Intelligence), ML (Machine Learning) and Fintech communications platform transforms how companies communicate with their customers.

The VoiceSage platform has the full suite of communication products. These include, Interactive Voice, Rich Media Messaging, Interactive SMS, Payments, Chat Bots, WhatsApp, Email, API’s, Beacon Technology, IOT and social media, which creates a seamless communication strategy that increases customer engagement, speeds up payments, provides better customer service, drives renewed business and significantly increases company KPI’s (key performance indicators). With the recent win on EIIS from Ireland and investors already looking at further investments with them, the platform has also been given the green light from HMRC in the UK for EIS, adding extra tax advantages for investors in both Ireland and the UK, The pandemic experience has confirmed that communication is critical to business growth. With SaaS, AI, Fintech and ML technology the private equity firmconfirms their intent to make several more acquisitions to become the blue-chip provider of high calibre, high margin products in the communications and payments market

The company is leveraging PCI Pal’s Agent Assist solution for PCI DSS compliant payments

PCI Pal, [LON:PCIP] the global provider of cloud-based secure payment solutions, has announced that Michelin, the largest tire manufacturer in the world, has successfully implemented its Agent Assist solution to ensure payments are handled securely and in compliance with the PCI Data Security Standard.

Michelin was in search of a customer-centric, secure payment solution with a priority to keep drivers safe on the roads, while taking the best care of its agents within the call centre. Following its implementation, the company now uses PCI Pal Agent Assist to secure payments for its Advantage Fleet members.

Michelin is committed to providing the best experience for all involved, and when the pandemic hit, so did a need for compliance continuity whether agents were in office or remote. Utilising Dual-Tone Multi Frequency (DTMF) masking technology, Agent Assist ensures all payment data is secured, allowing contact centre agents to continue the conversation without accessing sensitive data, even as customers input their payment information.

With Agent Assist, Michelin ensures Advantage Fleet members’ payment card information is kept secure, with no degradation to customer experience quality.

Jill Weis, Michelin’s Director of North America Inside Sales, comments, “We knew we were PCI compliant when all contact centre staff were working on site. When the pandemic hit, to keep our team safe, we quickly moved them to working from their homes. We needed to maintain the same level of security at home that we had had on site for our customers’ credit card registrations. The interim solution was to have contact centre employees working with a video camera on them at all times, but this solution was not sustainable. We needed a more effective way.”

Weis continues, “PCI Pal really had our employees’ best interests at the forefront and prioritised aspects of the integration where it would benefit contact centre employees’ health and safety, by allowing them to work from home in a PCI compliant environment. For that we are eternally grateful.”

PCI Pal’s CRO, Darren Gill, adds, “Getting to work with an organisation such as Michelin that shares so many core values and a commitment for excellence is one of the exciting parts of what we get to do within the industry. We are excited to have Michelin’s Advantage Fleets up and running in a setting that perfectly blends compliance and customer-agent experience.”

Nobul Corporation received a Companies-to-Watch award. The award spotlights emerging companies that exhibit strong growth and show potential to be a future candidate of the Technology Fast 50 award.

Nobul's (www.nobul.com) CEO, Regan McGee, credits Nobul's consumer centric real estate marketplace platform that brings trust and value to every step of the real estate transaction process with the company's tremendous success. "Buying or selling a property is one of the biggest and most impactful decisions that a person can make in their lifetime," McGee said. "Nobul empowers consumers to select a real estate agent who offers the best mix of services and cash back to them. At the same time, real estate agents are able to connect with home buyers and sellers just by putting their best foot forward with no upfront risk. It's a win-win for both."

Companies-to-Watch winners are new companies headquartered in Canada, demonstrating superior technology, effective management experience and common traits of Deloitte Technology Fast 50 award winners. To be eligible, candidates must also devote a significant portion of their operating revenues to creating proprietary technology or intellectual property.

"With great pride, we wish to congratulate this year's Companies-to-Watch winners," stated Anders McKenzie, partner and national leader for the Technology Fast 50 program at Deloitte Canada. "Their growth trajectory and ability to thrive through uncertainty, particularly during these turbulent times have set these organizations apart and established them as an emerging cohort of tech leaders in Canada."

UK-Based Service Provider Inca Cloud is First to Build a New Multi-Cloud Service Alternative to the Public Cloud on Nebulon smartInfrastructure

Nebulon, Inc.^®, the pioneer of smartInfrastructure^TM, server-embedded, infrastructure software delivered as-a-service, today announced the Nebulon smartIaaS^TM solution, designed to help cloud service providers deliver new services at a lower cost across both hosted and customer-owned data centres. Nebulon also announced that UK-based service provider Inca Cloud has chosen the Nebulon smartIaaS solution with Supermicro^® as a part of its new cloud service, WSO by Inca. The service will be built for both hosted and private cloud deployments and will provide enterprises with a multi-cloud solution as an alternative to standalone Google Cloud, AWS and Microsoft Azure.

Cloud Service Providers (CSPs) today are focused on developing new services and revenue sources, reducing service delivery costs by optimising infrastructure and operations, and maintaining high customer satisfaction by minimising availability risks and security threats. Achieving these goals can be a challenge for those CSPs deploying single-use hyperconverged infrastructure (HCI) technology versus a fully open platform providing a common experience across hypervisors and bare metal use cases. HCI also puts significant pressure on service costs because its data services consume up to 25% of server resources — effectively one-in-four servers and related software purchases are lost to HCI overheads. In addition, both HCI software updates and server operating system maintenance take critical storage resources offline placing data and committed customer service level agreements at risk.

Nebulon’s smartIaaS solution is a blueprint that helps CSPs drive incremental revenue growth by provisioning, monitoring and maintaining application infrastructure in both the CSP data centre as well as that in the customer’s own data centre via a single API. With this capability, CSPs can easily leverage their orchestration platforms to deliver new multi-cloud services with a common cloud-like experience for their clients. CSPs can also take advantage of additional Nebulon solution blueprints for bare-metal- and Kubernetes-based services, extending their offerings beyond hosted virtualisation services.

60% of enterprises have repatriated at least one application back from public cloud infrastructure services to their on-premises data centres due to previously unforeseen reasons, including cost, security, and compliance,” said Scott Sinclair, Practice Director at Enterprise Strategy Group. “As we see organisations become more strategic about which workloads are in which locations, they will increasingly expect the same experience and operational simplicity no matter which data centre they choose. Nebulon delivers that consistent, simple experience for both enterprises and service providers and its timing could not be better.”

The Nebulon smartIaaS solution can help CSPs in three other ways. Firstly, it can streamline the costs of a CSP’s existing services by offloading all data services from the server CPU, memory, and network to a next-generation IO controller in each server called an SPU (services processing unit). CSPs can therefore use 100% of their servers for their hosted applications, therefore buying fewer servers and software licenses and lowering their costs by 33% on average. Secondly, smartIaaS can also help maintain high customer satisfaction by keeping storage resources online during software updates and server maintenance thereby reducing availability risks. And, lastly but arguably most importantly, the Nebulon smartIaaS solution includes a zero-trust security model with end-to-end encryption to minimise security threats.

UK-based cloud service provider Inca Cloud, has chosen the Nebulon smartIaaS solution as a part of its new multi-cloud service, WSO by Inca. With WSO, Inca can provide enterprise clients with a single platform to provision and maintain workloads in the public, hosted or private cloud data centre. The public cloud is a ‘rental model,’ and while appropriate for certain use cases, is two to four times more expensive when compared to other alternatives. With WSO by Inca, monthly costs are completely transparent for public cloud, hosted and private data centre deployment options. This service also provides an extensive library of machine images, as well as a common cloud-like experience independent of data centre type. With the help of Nebulon smartInfrastructure, Inca is able to deliver this breakthrough, yet cost-effective, multi-cloud service to its customers.

“Inca is pioneering a multi-cloud service model for enterprises unlike anything offered in the industry today,” said Damon Dance, Director of Sales at Inca Cloud. “With a Nebulon-based Supermicro foundation for the hosted element of our multi-cloud service, we are able to bring to market a ‘smart’ vision that would have been impossible to deliver just a couple of years ago. Customers can now retain the flexibility and operating model which make the public cloud so appealing whilst regaining the control it removes, and improving both predictability and cost advantages for their cloud deployments.”

“In order for cloud service providers to not just survive, but thrive and lead in a competitive market, they need the ability to attack growing trends with differentiated solutions,” said Siamak Nazari, CEO at Nebulon. “There is a massive opportunity for CSPs to offer solutions, which provide a more cloud-like experience for enterprises repatriating or retaining workloads in private or hosted data centres, and I am thrilled that our smartIaaS-based Inca solution will allow customers to do just that.”