What does the intelligent enterprise of the future look like? 

Which sectors are set to benefit most from artificial intelligence?

And why are the perceived challenges so numerous and diverse?

The AI & Intelligent Automation Network answers these questions and more in the newly published AI 2020 report.  

The complimentary 27-page report serves to close the AI gap, drawing on new market research, expert analysis and commentary to provide a realistic overview of industry trends to 2020. The report features contributions from AI leads from the likes of Microsoft, Hermes, Airware, Parexel and many more.

Keen to stay ahead of the curve, organizations are looking to the latest intelligent enterprise tools such as intelligent automation, machine learning and predictive analytics to solve business challenges, increase productivity and benefit the bottom line. 

In the face of the current technology hype cycle, many organizations are grappling with questions like these. Keen to stay on—or ahead of—the curve, organizations are looking to the latest intelligent enterprise (IE) tools to solve business challenges, increase productivity and benefit the bottom line.

Responsive leaders are looking for innovative ways to leverage tools such as intelligent automation, machine learning and predictive analytics, which are fast gaining momentum in the marketplace. The message, for those who’ve chosen to listen, is loud and clear:

The intelligence revolution is here - disrupt or be disrupted.

For organizations, AI promises a world of insights, analytics and business smarts like never before. Sectors like banking and financial services, defense and retail are testament to this, reaping the benefits as early adopters in a tech-pervasive world.

Industries like pharmaceuticals, mining, construction, and telecoms that may have once lagged behind, are now making huge strides to close the IE gap. Many are now realizing that AI and other IE technologies force us not only to rethink the way we work-but to rethink the way we think.

From a customer perspective, IE technologies offer the opportunity for improved experience and on-demand delivery—putting the onus squarely on brands to deliver what customers want, when they want it.

The near-future challenges for organizations are twofold: first, there is a gap between the perception of how long it takes to successfully implement IE technologies (such as AI and intelligent automation) and the actual time taken to reach maturity.

Secondly – and perhaps most notably – there remains a widespread lack of understanding of the potential benefits for AI to solve real-world business problems.

The focus to date has been largely on adopting AI as a technology rather than applying AI as a tool to solve existing problems. This report serves to close that gap, drawing on market research, expert analysis and commentary to provide a realistic overview of industry trends and expectations to 2020.

2020 is little over a year away but the AI revolution starts today!

FRANMAC, the Franchise Management Advisory Council for all Taco Bell franchises, held its annual conference in Las Vegas this September. During the event attendees had a variety of opportunities to donate to the Taco Bell Foundation, formed to support educational career aspirations for young adults across the United States.

This year a staggering 870,000 USD was raised at the event, 30% of which was taken in real-time using Spire Payments’ and iGen’s mPOS solution. Selected for the third year running the innovative mobile payment solution utilises Spire Payments’ SPm2 card payment end point. Utilising Bluetooth, the SPm2 links to a smartphone or tablet running a payment application developed by iGen. Using a few simple steps, hostesses were able to take secure card donations in a matter of seconds.

iGen Technologies, Inc. is a CA corporation based in the San Francisco Bay Area. Established in 2002, it has more than 75 employees specializing in software development and graphic design services. Utilising Spire Payments’ application programming interface (inSPire), iGen developed the smart device hosted mobile payment application in a matter of weeks.

Enrique Balmaseda, President of iGen Technologies says of the project, “It has been a pleasure to work with FRANMAC and the Taco Bell Foundation over the past three years and be part of this amazing cause. Spire Payments has made this possible with the provision of development tools and equipment to deliver a reliable and secure solution to take payments during these events. Our development staff required minimal training and Spire’s technical support ensured any issues were resolved extremely rapidly. Moving forward iGen and Spire Payments aim to collaborate on more projects to leverage both companies expertise in the Americas.”

TK Cheung, President of Spire Payments, adds, “Spire Payments is proud to work with charitable organisations and help raise funds for extremely worthwhile causes. In this case iGen invested the time in developing the solution, whereas Spire provided the SPm2s, application programming interface, and technical support. The ability to take real-time payments at such events is becoming more important as charities are increasingly aware of the costs and time involved in the collection of donations post-event. I would also like to add FRANMAC and Taco Bell Foundation should be recognised and congratulated for their continued efforts to help inspire young adults.”

More than half (52%) of online small to medium sized businesses (SMBs) globally worry that the move to frictionless payments, such as transactions that take place behind the scenes in apps, is leaving them more open to fraud and will negatively impact revenues according to a new report from Paysafe. In the UK this concern is heightened by the fact that two thirds (66%) of SMBs believe they are being more aggressively targeted by fraudsters now compared to a year ago and 43% consider card fraud an increasing challenge.

These concerns mean SMBs across the globe now view security as the most important factor when considering their eCommerce setup. Globally, security (59%) ranks above reliability (49%), cost (47%) and ease of transactions including refunds (40%). SMBs are also wary that these concerns may hamper the buyer journey for consumers. In the UK over half of SMBs (62%) believe that longer verification processes during the payment stage – which could potentially combat these issues – runs the risk of losing consumers, and 65% admit they don’t know how to balance security with an acceptable customer experience, highlighting the trade-off faced by UK online merchants.

Buying into a fragmented payments landscape

Leading global payments provider Paysafe’s latest research report, entitled Lost in Transaction: The Future of Payments for SMBs, is an international research report investigating the attitudes of small and medium online businesses in the UK, US, Canada, Germany and Austria to the evolution of payment types. It also incorporates further insights from offline, brick-and-mortar merchants in North America.

Abandoned transactions are also posing a problem, with 9% of purchases not being completed. Yet, while 28% believe this reflects successful fraud checks, 33% say abandoned transactions have a major impact on business performance. Notably, 15% believe purchases are abandoned purely because of a lack of payment options at the checkout phase.

When it comes to which payment options to offer, 65% of UK merchants believe offering multiple choices is essential, while 79% plan to introduce new payment methods in the next two years. Credit cards and debit cards (offered by 87% and 93% of online merchants respectively) remain relatively ubiquitous, while 44% currently accept digital wallets, with a further 22% looking to adopt them over the next 24 months. Meanwhile, 63% believe accepting prepaid cards gives access to new customers, and 28% say they will offer online cash replacements in response to consumer demand, and to service the unbanked, in the next two years. One method with the greatest anticipated gains is mobile apps, with 32% planning to offer them in the next two years, up from 18% currently.

More innovative forms of payment

Much like the decline of the high street in recent years, UK eCommerce faces a critical period as SMBs try to fend off the challenges of online goliaths while also catering to changing customer expectations. Paysafe research from earlier this year showed that nearly half of British consumers (47%) have shown an interest in re-ordering regularly purchased items via smart buttons, and more than a fifth (22%) have experimented with voice-activated payments systems.

Merchants are seemingly noticing these macro consumer trends. 52% of UK merchants agree that consumers want more innovative ways to get short-term credit, as evidenced by the recent rise of ‘Pay Later’ style products which give consumers more flexibility. Globally, merchants also appear to be conscious of ‘proactive innovation’ – a surprising 40% of North American SMBs say they will be capable of delivering Amazon Go-style checkout-free stores in the next two years, to improve customer experience and reduce friction.

Oscar Nieboer, Chief Marketing Officer, Paysafe Group, commented:

“On balance, security concerns continue to prevail for UK online merchants. This is despite merchants confirming plans to adopt new payment types with the understanding that a flexible roster of payment options is now a business imperative. This may go some way to explaining the rise of prepaid cards, online vouchers and cash replacement systems, which can alleviate these issues for both consumers and merchants. Yet, smaller eCommerce merchants are very conscious of the need to keep pace with the major retailers. While the giants roll out cashierless locations in the UK, online SMBs are aiming to innovate in parallel ways to punch above their weight as they see this as critical to business success.”

FreeAgent, the pioneering cloud accounting software provider, has taken the next major step in its mission to help small business owners navigate the UK’s forthcoming digital tax legislation.
The company, whose award-winning software is used by freelancers, small businesses and accountants, has been named among the first handful of providers on HMRC’s pilot for Making Tax Digital (MTD) for VAT. 

The new legislation will require VAT-registered businesses to keep digital tax records and make submissions using software to HMRC from next April. It is the first stage of the government’s wider Making Tax Digital agenda, which aims to fully digitise tax reporting for all UK businesses over the coming years.
FreeAgent has already been named on HMRC’s list of suppliers ready to support MTD for VAT, and has been working closely with HMRC to ensure its software provides the best possible experience for small businesses and accountants who will be submitting VAT returns under MTD. Going forward, any test VAT submissions under the new legislation will be completed through HMRC’s pilot, rather than via private testing. 

Ed Molyneux, CEO and co-founder of FreeAgent, said: “We’re delighted to be one of the first software companies on HMRC’s pilot for MTD for VAT. It’s a key recognition for our software as we prepare to support small businesses, contractors and their accountants through the forthcoming legislation.

“FreeAgent has supported digital VAT submissions since 2010, so Making Tax Digital is a natural fit for us. We’re now looking forward to working with HMRC to help shape MTD and to ensure that this brave new world of digital tax is as simple as possible for our users.”

Customers signing up to make VAT submissions through the public beta  will ensure that they are best placed to manage the switchover once the new legislation officially comes into effect from April 2019.
FreeAgent has also created a suite of useful resources for freelancers and small business owners who are looking for more information about Making Tax Digital and how the new legislation will affect them. Check it out at: https://www.freeagent.com/guides/making-tax-digital/ 

EastNets, a leading global provider of compliance and payments solutions for the financial services industry will showcase real-time solutions that can detect and combat money laundering and payment fraud at Sibos 2018, the global financial services networking event organized by SWIFT. As part of their participation, EastNets will also showcase SWIFT’s global payments innovation (gpi) service that can help banks offer their customers high-speed cross-border payments with end to end tracking, transparency on bank fees and FX rates (Foreign Exchange), ultimately allowing the bank to credit payments to end beneficiaries within minutes, even seconds.

Sibos, the annual conference and exhibition taking place at the International Convention Centre (ICC) in Sydney between 22 & 25 October 2018, connects more than 8,000 executives, decision makers and thought leaders from across the industry.

At the show, EastNets will showcase its flagship solution SafeWatch PaymentGuard (ENPG). ENPG) is a unique Artificial Intelligence (AI)-powered anti-fraud solution that responds to the growing sophistication of financial criminals and the declining utility of conventional financial crime solutions.(ENPG detects and acts on fraudulent SWIFT payments based on machine learning capabilities. The solution constantly optimizes the accuracy of its models, sorting out genuine transactions from suspicious ones and reduces the number of false positives. Ultimately, the high efficiencies gained through AI decreases operating costs and reliance on the human factor.

In addition, EastNets will also be showcasing its real-time anti-money laundering solution- EastNets SafeWatch360 Transaction Risk Radar (TR360). It will also be featuring EastNetsSafeTrade its newly launched Trade Based Money Laundering solution.  EastNets will also be showcasing its initiative solution to help banks in their efforts to implement SWIFT gpi. 

According to an IDC report, worldwide spending on Cognitive and Artificial Intelligence Systems will grow to $19.1 billion in 2018 with trends such as increased public safety, preventative maintenance, reduction of fraud driving the spend. “For an industry that provides solutions for business intelligence, resilience and financial risk management, AI offers us deeper insights and higher product efficiencies – a real game-changer for knowledge-based businesses. Crimes such as money laundering has been costing the global economy between one and two trillion dollars annually, or nearly 2% of global GDP. All of this underscores the need for institutions to commit greater resources to remain compliant, particularly through investing in technologies that embrace the latest technology – such as artificial intelligence,” said Hazem Mulhim, EastNets CEO. “Sibos’ global presence and reputation renders it a premier opportunity to showcase how EastNets is adapting to the challenges of the twenty-first century,” he added. 

As part of the event, EastNets’ Head of Product Management, Financial Crime and Compliance Risk, will be delivering a presentation entitled: "Trade Compliance: how to take control of your trade activity!" on October 22 from 14.45 - 15.15 at Sibos. The presentation will dive deep into the cutting-edge technologies that are available to mitigate the various trade compliance-related risks effectively, enabling institutions to be trade-compliant.

Baker Hill, a leading provider of technology solutions for common loan origination, risk and relationship management, CECL compliance and smart data analytics, has published its latest whitepaper, “Go Beyond Compliance to Achieve Sustainable, Profitable Growth with CECL,” revealing that by taking a proactive approach to CECL, the new standard can give financial institutions a competitive advantage to accomplish strategic growth objectives. This whitepaper is one of the company’s several new resources providing information to financial institutions to aid in making informed decisions regarding Current Expected Credit Loss.

The whitepaper explores how the Financial Accounting Standards Board’s (FASB) new standard could lead to changes within the financial industry, such as how financial institutions use data and what types of data are used to decision and monitor loans. The whitepaper also suggests that banks and credit unions that approach CECL proactively will benefit from the new standard by helping them accomplish their growth objectives and remain competitive through any economic environment.

Additionally, the resource further explains that to accurately predict loss allowances, financial institutions must gain a longer view of risk and understand how it will affect its portfolio, requiring substantial data. With insightful data analytics capabilities, banks and credit unions can gain a clearer idea of future economic conditions that may impact portfolio performance.

“A financial institution’s success in achieving CECL compliance hinges on their ability to access substantial amounts of various data sets to more effectively estimate the expectation of default at origination,” said John M. Deignan, President and CEO of Baker Hill. “By combining Baker Hill’s deep industry knowledge and expertise, this whitepaper aims to guide financial institutions in making better decisions to support improved underwriting, loan pricing and targeting for marketing campaigns to enhance long-term portfolio profitability and CECL compliance.”

To learn more, download Baker Hill’s whitepaper, “Go Beyond Compliance to Achieve Sustainable, Profitable Growth with CECL” or visit the Baker Hill CECL resource page.

Mr. George Matharu, President of Elite Capital & Co. Limited (ECC), announced today that the success of being in the Global Banking & Finance Review Magazine’s 2018 Awards List was the result of enormous effort and teamwork within the company since it was founded in 2012.

These Awards were established to reward excellence and recognize best practice and innovation across the Worldwide business community. Global Banking & Finance Review celebrate those who have attained the peak of achievement in terms of distinction and market influence. The list mirrors the nominations, suggestions and contributions of the readership and analyses new trends to uncover the best and the brightest pioneers in business today. This is recognition of ECC’s drive to design solutions for clients after they have exhausted traditional funding sources and methods.

Elite Capital & Co. Limited is a private limited company that provides project related services including Management, Consultancy and Funding, particularly for large infrastructure and commercial projects.

George Matharu, in his statement, praised the support of Dr. Faisal Khazaal, Chairman of the Board of Directors, who boosted the engine of the Elite Capital & Co. Limited over the past years; “Dr. Khazaal is responsible for the development of the fruitful business strategies with the customers on a local, international and the governmental level by using his relationships and influence that he has gained over time being the Chairman of the parent company Deals Secure Group Holding Company (DSGH) since its founding in 1995.”

Elite Capital & Co. Limited has made strategic alliances with several organizations and companies which have given them access to international markets in Europe, Asia, Africa, Middle East and GCC region. This has given ECC a substantial foundation of clients to build on, in addition to access to the markets that are most in need of the products and services they offer. The aim of ECC is to facilitate the commencement and completion of Infrastructure projects, stimulate economy, create employment and combat poverty.

“Our services are suitable for all types of Infrastructure Projects in either Greenfield (Pre Operations Stage) or Brownfield (Operations Stage) including but not limited to Sea Ports, Airports, Railway, Bridges, Roads and Highways, Water and Sanitation Utilities, Energy, Communications, Hospitals, Schools and Social Infrastructure etc. This includes other projects or activities that impact positively on the relevant country’s basic infrastructure including the manufacturing of components used in infrastructure (such as cement and steel) and infrastructure associated with mining and agribusiness,” Mr. George Matharu, President and CEO of Elite Capital & Co. Limited, said.

Projects accepted by Elite Capital & Co. Limited are primarily executed on an EPC+F basis, which is Engineering, Procurement and Construction plus Finance.

ECC’s services depend on four types of “Funding Collateral”.

1. Commercial Bank Instruments; Bank Guarantees, Bonds, Medium Term Notes, or other Bank Debt Instruments issued by banks rated ‘B+’ or better, but this can be reviewed on a case-by-case basis.

2. Sovereign Guarantee; Elite Capital & Co. Limited is able to facilitate funding for Government and Infrastructure Projects against a Sovereign Guarantee subject to the Sovereign Guarantee being ratified by the relevant authorities and departments, namely the Central Bank and Ministry of Finance in the respective countries. In some cases the Sovereign Guarantee may need to be confirmed by a Commercial Bank.

3. Resource Guarantee; The option is available to fund projects against a Resource Guarantee such as an Oil Guarantee or any other significant and valuable minerals or resources that the country has may also be considered.

4. Promissory Notes; Corporate Promissory Notes endorsed by a commercial bank can be useful if the project has bankable assets that can be used for leverage financing.

Mr. George Matharu concluded his statement by saying, “the award from Global Banking & Finance Review would serve to enforce the company’s current business relationships, and help to foster relationships with new or prospective clients.”

IHS Markit, a world leader in critical information, analytics and solutions, today announced that Aster, an independent venture capital firm with €520 million raised, has selected the iLEVEL platform to collect, monitor, and report on portfolio data. 

A specialist in digital transformation and new industrial models, Aster has funded 60 companies since 2000. In its search for a portfolio platform, the firm wanted a best-in-class solution and chose iLEVEL for its ability to provide new operational efficiencies that would scale with rapid growth at Aster.  

"With our latest fund raised, Aster is now the leading venture capital fund dedicated to mobilities of the future and energy transition" said Jean-Marc Bally, managing partner at Aster. "iLEVEL will help us continue to scale by enabling us to automate our processes and reporting. By gaining operational efficiencies, we can continue to deliver quality information to our sponsors and portfolio companies while concentrating on value adding analysis."

"We are proud to welcome Aster to iLEVEL’s growing European client base," said Melissa Ferraz, managing director and head of client development for Private Capital Markets at IHS Markit. "For firms like Aster that specialize in high-growth markets such as energy and mobility, the ability to streamline operations while meeting the demand for flexible and transparent reporting is critical, and we look forward to supporting the firm's continued growth and success."

Nearly 60 private equity and venture capital firms in 11 European countries now use iLEVEL, Qval or other services from IHS Markit tailored to improve portfolio monitoring, reporting and valuations in private markets. 

Aster joins hundreds of private market investors globally that leverage the iLEVEL cloud platform to centralize and employ their data to drive the entire investment lifecycle, including fundraising, reporting, investment insights, compliance, and valuation.