TransferMate, one of the world’s leading cross-border B2B payments providers, has today announced a strategic relationship with Wells Fargo Bank, N.A. (“Wells Fargo”) to deliver Global Invoice Connect^SM – the go-to platform for U.S.-based international businesses looking for a simpler, more cost-effective solution for receiving payments from their global customers.

Global Invoice Connect^SM provides electronic bill presentment in U.S. dollars or in customers’ local currency. TransferMate collects funds from customers located in over 50 countries around the world through a local funds transfer in customers’ local currency. Global Invoice Connect^SM helps reduce a business’ expenses and improves its cash flow by ensuring receipt of the full invoiced amount and receiving funds faster and at a lower cost than a traditional international wire.

Terry Clune, co-founder and CEO of TransferMate, said:

“With this relationship, TransferMate and Wells Fargo are leading the charge in reducing the friction between borders for international businesses, and those aspiring to expand abroad. Global Invoice Connect is a prime example of two innovative financial services companies coming together to deliver a powerful new payments technology that helps businesses stay ahead of the curve in an increasingly fast-paced world.”

Global Invoice Connect^SM streamlines the receivables process and reduces administrative overhead by automatically matching the payment received to the invoiced amount, therebyeliminating manual reconciliation. Global Invoice Connect^SM also benefits a business’ customer by helping to reduce their payment cost in many locations from an expensive international wire to a local funds transfer. Additionally, TransferMate provides competitive foreign exchange rates that may be better than the rate offered by customers’ local bank.

Sinead Fitzmaurice, co-founder and CFO of TransferMate, said:

“We are delighted to announce this strategic relationship with Wells Fargo, which is an important step in the global growth of TransferMate. Wells Fargo is one of the leading banks in the world, with an extensive client base across the globe, and we look forward to working with them to deliver a more efficient process, that allows for greater transparency and control for their customers’ receivables.”

The reach of TransferMate’s world-wide operations helps Wells Fargo to meet the demands of its global business customers. With one of the world’s most extensive networks TransferMate secures competitive exchange rates, limits bank fees and provides its clients with fast payment services. TransferMate’s superior B2B technology platform easily integrates with a range of enterprise software systems, including the world’s top cloud accounting platforms, and provides a cost-effective solution to a demanding global client base.

Judd Holroyde, Head of Global Product Management at Wells Fargo said:

“The pace of globalization in the digital economy continues to grow and opens a wide variety of new opportunities for businesses around the world.  In our continuing commitment to innovate new ways to help break down physical borders and ease access to new markets for our customers, innovative partnerships have become a critical aspect of delivering these digitally-forward solutions.  Collaborating with a leading fintech like TransferMate to bring Global Invoice Connect to market is a powerful demonstration of how partnership and collaborative design can result in real value for customers by significantly reducing the costs and complexities associated with managing international receivables.” 

As the world gets smaller, the ability to deliver innovative solutions like Global Invoice Connect with TransferMate and Wells Fargo will be critical to meeting business’ global service needs. 

ICS Financial Systems Limited (ICSFS), the global software and services provider for banks and financial institutions, is awarded “Best Technology Solution Provider to Islamic Finance in UK” during  CIS (The Commonwealth of Independent States) – Islamic Banking and Finance Forum, organized by AlHuda Centre of Islamic Banking and Economics (CIBE).

The CIS – Islamic Banking and Finance Forum showcased the untapped market of CIS countries and the latest trends adoptions, challenges and opportunities in Islamic banking and finance industry in the region. The conference provided its delegates with practical insights of global efforts and achievements in Islamic Banking and Takaful and have demonstrated the flexibility of Islamic financial markets during the current financial crisis.

ICS Financial Systems (ICSFS) is recognised for its modular universal banking suite and digital platform; ICS BANKS® ISLAMIC, which is a fully integrated solution designed and developed following the principles of Shari’ah, that uses the latest technologies to provide availability, scalability and best performance.

Managing Director of ICSFS, Robert Hazboun commented: “We are delighted to receive “Best Technology Solution Provider to Islamic Finance in UK” to be added among other recognitions. We are always ready to provide the Islamic banking industry with modern banking technology platforms, to empower banking services with a broad range of features and capabilities with more agility and flexibility. With ICS BANKS ISLAMIC strong infrastructure, our customers are able to leverage high flexibility in customising favourite themes, launching new products on delivery channels and touch points, bringing flexibility at its edge.” Hazboun added “I would like to thank AlHuda Centre of Islamic Banking & Economics, and thank our customers for putting their trust in our solutions.”

ICSFS invests in its software suites, especially in its digital banking platform, by utilising modern technology in launching new products, constructing a secured and agile integration, and keeping pace with new standards and regulations worldwide. ICS BANKS ISLAMIC software suites future-proof banking activities by providing a broad range of features and capabilities with more agility and flexibility, to enrich customers journey experience. The highlight of ICSFS solutions is its digital platform that accommodates Islamic Banking with the latest technological advances possible, where its proven omni-channel capabilities provides a full cycle of banking functions that are executed digitally from customer onboarding, KYC, product execution, to CRM, flexible credit scoring with a strong rule based engine and back office processes that are powered by embedded BPM engine. Also, ICSFS digital platform is recognised for its advanced technological deployment such as Blockchain, smart contracts, open API platform, AI and others to provide its customers with the edge in boosting customer experience.

 Haltian Oy is the first vendor on the market to offer industrial enterprises a complete and fully integrated wireless Smart Factory solution with on-site infrastructure.

The innovative product development and global IoT company, has just launched its end-to-end Smart Factory solution, based on its Thingsee IoT platform. This includes new industry-grade retrofit sensors with a Gateway device, coupled with an Edge Computing platform based on the AWS IoT Greengrass technology, and optional Private LTE for secure, local wireless connectivity.

McKinsey Global Institute has conducted a study that predicts that the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) is expected have an enormous efficiency boost in factories globally – and that the annual economic value of this can reach up to USD 3.7 trillion by 2025.

The study by McKinsey&Company in 2018 however, also identified several challenges, which can slow down the adoption of digital transformation and industrial IoT in factories. These include a lack of reliable and mature IoT platforms, insufficient application of these and a lack of analytics development and unsuited data communication and connectivity technologies.

Haltian’s Smart Factory solution addresses these main market challenges with a secure and cost-efficient, end-to-end approach. Haltian’s sensor devices use Wirepas IoT Mesh networking to transmit data to the local Thingsee Gateway device, which then relays it to the Thingsee Edge on-site solution based on AWS Greengrass Edge Computing. The Private LTE technology complements the solution with flexible and secure wireless connectivity. This end-to-end infrastructure then enables factories to process all IoT applications and collect sensor data on-site, without having to transmit data through the public Internet.

“No production breaks are needed for installation and digitalization investment is reduced by 90% per data point, compared to the traditional automatic valves”, Pasi Leipälä, CEO and co-founder of Haltian explains. “This Smart Factory solution has been developed hand-in-hand with large industrial customers and leading connectivity partners, to deliver a true fit-for-purpose solution”.  

Leipälä continues, “Our Smart Factory uses leading IoT technologies including the fast-growing Wirepas Mesh, which is the most reliable technology for connecting thousands of wireless sensors in a demanding radio environment. AWS’s Edge Computing technology and Private LTE complement the onsite solution with unprecedented edge scalability, and a robust data collection infrastructure”.

“Thingsee is the most flexible IoT platform in the market and these new technologies takes secure onsite solutions a decade further. The 5G-factory era is approaching fast and Haltian will be amongst the first vendors to get it right,” he concludes.

New IoT Sensors and Gateway Devices

The new retrofit sensor devices included in the Haltian Smart Factory solution are Thingsee ANGLE and Thingsee ENVIRONMENT RUGGED sensors, and Thingsee GATEWAY LAN.

The sensors are delivered to the customer as 'plug-and-play' – the firmware is customer specific and operational out-of-the-box. After the sensors are installed and powered on, they automatically connect to the local Thingsee IoT Platform by using the Wirepas Mesh IoT connectivity protocol. The smooth and thought-through installation process does not require a production break at the factory.

Thingsee ANGLE is a unique, retrofit sensor device, which is attached to manual valves. It has magnetic and mechanical angle sensors to monitor the valve’s position and reports any dispositioned valves to the Cloud to allow for a rapid fix by the maintenance staff. The power-frugal Thingsee Angle sensor has up to ten years of battery life.

Thingsee ENVIRONMENT RUGGED sensor monitors, and wirelessly reports all conditions in the factory - including the temperature, humidity, luminosity, the machine run-time data and more. The sensor is equipped with a rugged IP67 casing, and its replaceable battery can operate up to five years depending on the set transmit interval.

Thingsee GATEWAY LAN collects data from the sensors through the Wirepas Mesh IoT connectivity and aggregates it to the local Thingsee IoT Platform over the ethernet. The Thingsee LAN Gateway is easily installed by just plugging in the LAN and power cables. After this, it automatically connects to the customer´s local IoT network. If the LAN cable is left unplugged, the gateway operates as a Wirepas Mesh router node, enabling indoor positioning and offering more reliable local Edge infrastructure applications.

Triple Point Venture Fund has led a £1.3m investment in UK-based messaging company Augnet Limited (“Augnet”). Triple Point invests alongside a number of industry experts. The funds will be used by Augnet to further develop the platform, support the testing stage and invest in its sales and marketing channels.

The global A2P SMS market is forecast to be worth US$70.32 Billion by 2020 (figures from Transparency Market Research). For companies dealing with time-sensitive or confidential information, the ability to trace and confirm whether or not a message has been delivered has substantial financial and cost-saving benefits.

Augnet has developed a unique technology that enables SMS messages to be tracked and ensures a 100% delivery rate through a patent-protected, encrypted solution. This means that for the first time, it will be possible to audit and trace SMS delivery, enabling the growing number of ‘killed’ messages – those that are not actually sent to users in order to increase operator profit margins – to be tracked.

Augnet’s technology facilitates the delivery of SMS messages from consumer-focused organisations to reduce fraud, increase accountability and improve SMS marketing features. The company caters to an established network of organisations, from financial institutions to booking sites and airlines.

The Augnet management team is led by founder and CEO, Daniel Gill, a former Skype executive with 20 years’ telecoms experience who also brings his own experience as an angel investor and board adviser to a number of start-up businesses. COO Jekaterina Orlova brings commercial and management consultant experience from Skype, Deloitte and the fintech sector, where she specialised in cloud services and digital workplace transformation projects.

Ian McLennan, Head of Venture at Triple Point, said: “The average consumer knows SMS as a simple, quick way to send messages. High open rates offer companies growing possibilities to use this platform. By increasing accountability and efficiency in the delivery of SMS messages, Augnet is in a strong position to help large corporates solve the significant challenge they face in targeting consumers via SMS technology. We look forward to working with Daniel, the management team and Augnet’s other investors to help realise this potential.”

Daniel Gill, CEO and Founder of Augnet said: ““We are very excited to be working with Triple Point. Gaining a partnership with them at this early stage is a strong endorsement of our model.

“Augnet is well placed to work with some of the largest technology companies in the world in the near future. At just one-year-old, we are pleased to have achieved recognition from such a highly respected VC.  Triple Point, which has already proven itself to be a valuable partner, focuses on opportunities that solve problems for established companies, and so is a perfect fit with Augnet.  Apart from the important investment that Triple Point has made, its highly knowledgeable industry experts have given us hugely valuable advice and have introduced us to a range of tech entrepreneurs and investors who are supporting us on a number of levels.

“We believe that with Triple Point’s backing and guidance, we are well placed to achieve our high-growth plans at speed and reach our full potential in the global marketplace.”

 Chelmsford City Council today announced a new partnership with leading enterprise software provider TechnologyOne, signing a two-year Software as a Service (SaaS) deal to implement its fully integrated OneCouncil solution.

TechnologyOne’s SaaS solution will replace the council’s on-premise Totalmobile system, streamlining its financial and procurement operations under one platform, with information accessible from any device, anywhere and at any time.

Michael Sage, Digital Services Group Manager at Chelmsford City Council said TechnologyOne’s solution will create a single source of truth, enabling the council to operate more efficiently.“The TechnologyOne system will help us to consolidate our technology stack, simplifying our back-office systems into a single, integrated platform,” Sage said.

Switching from on-premise software to SaaS will also enable the council to drive unparalleled productivity and transform its mobile workforce into a connected team.

Alison Chessell, Chief Procurement and Risk Officer at Chelmsford City Council explains: “Mobile working was part of our core criteria when selecting a new financial system. The OneCouncil solution will enable our employees to work when and where suits them best.

“With less reliance on the accountancy department, employees will be able to intuitively access real-time budget information and collaborate in a much more fluid way.”

Chessel added: “Alongside TechnologyOne’s powerful mobile capabilities, we were impressed with OneCouncil’s intuitive user interface – it’s easy to use and removes a lot of complexity.”

Anwen Robinson, UK Operating Officer at TechnologyOne said there is great pressure for councils to do more with less amid increasing service demands from the community.

“OneCouncil will help Chelmsford City Council to access more accurate, reliable and timely financial information, providing a single source of truth,” Robinson said.

“By automating manual processes and implementing self-service capabilities, councils can operate more efficiently and spend more time providing front-line services to citizens.

”TechnologyOne’s OneCouncil solution is currently being utilised by a growing number of councils across the UK, including Mid Ulster District Council, Horsham District Council and Dover District Council.

areeba, a leading Lebanese financial technology company that provides payment solutions for banks, governments and merchants in the Middle East, has signed an agreement with Wallet Factory for the supply of Mobile Wallet platform. Wallet Factory will provide areeba with technology to enable mobile payment services in the region.

This technology includes a platform for processing mobile payments and electronic money, a mobile app for users and a merchant app. By using an app, the customers will be able to pay bills, goods and services, and transfer money. The merchant app will allow sellers to raise a bill and receive payments using a QR code. The use of the merchant app and QR code technology is an economical and convenient alternative to the merchant acquiring.

According to areeba, more than 80% of e-payment volume occurs in Beirut, while in other cities the use of cards and POS terminals is insignificant. Mobile payment services for users and merchants will speed up the transfer to cashless payments in Lebanon. The deployment of mobile financial services is scheduled for the end of 2019.