Cisco announced the appointment of Mark Garrett, former Adobe Systems Incorporated EVP and CFO, to its board of directors effective immediately.

"I'm delighted that Mark is joining Cisco's board and will bring over 30 years of financial management experience in technology," said Cisco Chairman and CEO Chuck Robbins. "Mark has lived the critical transformation and transition to the cloud that technology companies require to continue growing and evolving. I'm looking forward to his many contributions as we continue to make progress in our transition to drive more subscriptions and recurring revenue."

Garrett, 60, has an extensive history of leadership in finance and accounting in the technology industry. He was appointed Executive Vice President and CFO of Adobe in February 2007 and retired from this position on April 9, 2018. He previously served as SVP and CFO of the Software Group of EMC Corporation from June 2004 until January 2007. In addition, Garrett served as EVP and CFO of Documentum from 2002 until December 2003 before its acquisition by EMC. Garrett currently serves on the board of directors at GoDaddy Inc. and Pure Storage, Inc. He holds an MBA from Marist College and a BS from Boston University.

The appointment of Garrett brings Cisco's board to 12 members, including: Carol A. Bartz, former CEO, Yahoo! Inc.; M. Michele Burns, former chairman and CEO, Mercer LLC; Michael D. Capellas, founder and CEO, Capellas Strategic Partners; Amy L. Chang, founder and CEO, Accompany, Inc.; Dr. John L. Hennessy, director of the Knight-Hennessy Scholars Program and former president, Stanford University; Dr. Kristina M. Johnson, Chancellor, State University of New York; Roderick C. McGeary, former vice chairman, KPMG, LLP; Charles H. Robbins, Chairman and CEO, Cisco; Arun Sarin, KBE, former CEO, Vodafone Group Plc; Brenton L. Saunders, CEO and President, Allergan plc and Steven M. West, founder and partner, Emerging Company Partners LLC.

BOS SaaS cloud service has been "pressure-tested" by a global major player with extreme load peaks of up to 66 IDs per second, delivering a record-breaking average (fully automated end-to-end) processing speed of 4.5 seconds per image. Only AU10TIX BOS 2nd generation ID authentication & Onboarding platform can perform, in an average of 4.5 seconds, a complete process of ID image screening, optimization, auto-classification, content extraction and forensic-level forgery, counterfeiting and risk flag detection.

AU10TIX BOS is the forerunner of 2nd generation ID authentication and onboarding and the one powering global major player such as Visa, Paypal, BBVA, Payoneer, Coinbase and others. Being able to manage extreme traffic peaks is a critical requirement for global players. Fast, effective onboarding and KYC can affect conversion success rates and operating efficiency while enabling robust fraud prevention and KYC. At roughly same time it takes conventional system to OCR data and run basic data checks, AU10TIX BOS can complete an end-to-end process of customer onboarding and KYC initiation based on ID images along. No data entry on part of customers and no back-office work (Manual "review") as part of processing. This level of capabilities already made AU10TIX BOS the service of choice of fast-moving markets such as Cryptocurrencies, banking, lending, money transfer, trading, and others.

"œThis is a major achievement that and CEO, COO, CRO, CCO can appreciate its implications", says Ron Atzmon, Managing Director of AU10TIX: ג€œYou can imagine how much Machine-learning, Deep Learning and smart utilization of computing resources is required to be able to do that. Mind you that conventional solutions require customers indicating what document they're sending using pull-sown menus or rely on barcode reading to be able to tell which document they're looking at AU10TIX clients benefit not only from the deepest fraud and risk detection, not just from up to +300% conversion rates, but also fastest processing speed at extreme traffic loads. To our amazing R&D team I say: Well done!." 

"œWhile some players in our markets win awards AU10TIX clients win a technology that simply works better and faster" , says Ofer Friedman, VP Marketing of AU10TIX: "œThis "pressure testing" has been done not by AU10TIX but by an actual client, a major service provider who challenged the system with real traffic. These are tangible numbers, measured and verified professionally. If you're looking for robust automation of your customer onboarding and KYC initiation then this is a platform you may definitely want to look at." 

Silicon Valley analytics software firm FICO today announced that Amazon Web Services (AWS) is joining FICO® World 2018, a leading Decisions conference on artificial intelligence (AI), applied analytics, and decision management, as a platinum sponsor. AWS and Amazon executives will discuss their relationship with FICO to help drive digital transformation in organisations. More information: http://www.fico.com/en/ficoworld/

“We are thrilled to welcome AWS to FICO World,” said Nikhil Behl, head of global marketing at FICO. “FICO and AWS have established a relationship critical to enabling our customers’ digital transformation strategies. At FICO World, AWS will share key insights into pressing issues such as cost, velocity, and security which impact the way organisations do business today.”  

Philip Moyer, director of global financial services at AWS, will join FICO at a keynote presentation to discuss the relationship between the two companies. In 2017, FICO migrated core applications to AWS, with additional applications to become available on AWS in the future.

Going cloud-first with AWS gives teams across FICO access to the most comprehensive set of cloud capabilities, proven security and compliance, and operational expertise. This allows FICO and AWS to deliver the most advanced analytics software and tools to enterprises around the globe, including 95 percent of the largest financial institutions in the US, enabling organisations to make smarter business decisions.

Ballu Singh, solutions architect at AWS, will also participate in a session on “Securing Sensitive Data in the Cloud” with Hilik Kotler, chief information security officer at FICO.

Amazon Shares Success Using FICO® Xpress Optimization Suite

Additionally, Tim Jacobs, director of research science and planning technologies at Amazon, will present a session on how Amazon has built its customer-centric strategy on FICO optimisation technologies. He will share insights into how the company has standardised the FICO® Xpress Optimisation Suite and FICO® Xpress Insight for deployment of its advanced analytic applications. Tim will discuss the difficulties of deploying analytic applications and why Amazon chose FICO’s Xpress Insight to meet those challenges and incredibly tight timelines. Tim will discuss various examples of how Amazon uses the Xpress Optimization Suite.

FICO® World 2018 will take place April 16-19 in Miami Beach, Florida. Other FICO World sponsors include Equifax Inc., TSYS, FIS, and Creative Solutions. More than 1,000 business leaders from 50+ countries are attending to explore new ideas, technologies and solutions in AI, advanced analytics and decision management. More information about the event can be found at: http://www.fico.com/en/ficoworld/

Banco Santander today announced the launch of a new international payments service using blockchain-based technology. The service is available to retail customers in Spain, UK, Brazil and Poland, and will be rolled out across more countries in the coming months.

The new service, known as ‘Santander One Pay FX’, makes it possible for customers to complete international transfers on the same day in many cases or by the next day. The service also shows them the exact amount that will be received in the destination currency before they make the transfer.

The Bank will add more features in the coming months, including offering instant international payments in several markets before the summer, making it significantly faster than existing international payment services.

With the launch of the service, Santander will become the first bank to roll out a blockchain-based international payments service to retail customers in multiple countries simultaneously.

Ana Botín, Executive Chairman of Banco Santander, said:

“One Pay FX uses blockchain-based technology to provide a fast, simple and secure way to transfer money internationally - offering value, transparency, and the trust and service customers expect from a bank like Santander.

“From today, customers in the UK can use One Pay to transfer money across Europe and to the US. In Spain, customers can transfer to UK and US, while customers in Brazil and Poland can transfer to the UK.

“Transfers to Europe can be made on the same day and we are aiming to deliver instant transfers across several markets by the summer.

“Our goal is to help the thousands of people who use international payments services every day, and we will be adding more currencies and destinations in the coming months.

“Blockchain technology offers tremendous opportunities to improve the services we offer our customers, and the launch of Santander One Pay FX is the first of many potential applications”.

At launch, each country will offer customers different payment options depending on the market. Customers in Spain, for example, will be able to send dollars to USA and pounds to UK. Customers in the UK will be able to send euros to 21 countries and dollars to USA, and from Brazil and Poland, pounds can be sent to the UK.

The new service uses xCurrent, a technology based on distributed ledgers owned by California-based Ripple. InnoVentures, Santander’s $200 million fintech venture capital fund, invested in Ripple in 2015. In total the fund has made over 20 investments in a range of financial technology startups focused on artificial intelligence, big data, blockchain, payments, financial advisory, SME and automobile finance or mortgages.

TruRating, a technology company specialising in point-of-payment customer feedback solutions announced today an official extension with Magento Commerce, the worldwide leader in cloud digital commerce innovation. TruRating is now available for Magento merchants looking to select innovative solutions that enhance business operations. 

In addition, the TruRating solution, which began as an instore service when the company was founded in 2014, is now available to all online retailers as well as Magento, through a simple initiation process. This means that for the first time, businesses with both online and brick-and-mortar stores can gather customer feedback across those channels, combining ratings with transaction data to gain omnichannel insights that haven’t been possible before. 

TruRating’s online business solution, which provides easy-to-understand insights via a dashboard and mobile app, generates a 59 percent quantitative customer response rate and 20 percent qualitative customer response rate, greatly outpacing typical industry standards. All feedback is gathered quickly and efficiently on the payment confirmation page, ensuring that the online shopping experience remains seamless and uninterrupted. Through Magento, digital retailers can go live with TruRating in less than 15 minutes and for those handling less than 10,000 transactions per year, TruRating is free.

“Providing an extension through Magento seems the obvious way to officially launch our online product offering and bring more retailers the customer insights they’re craving,” said TruRating CEO Georgina Nelson. “Nearly 35 percent of businesses around the world use Magento to host their online store.”

The company was launched by Nelson, a former lawyer who wanted to help businesses get better insights by giving a voice to the “silent majority” of consumers who never give reviews. Online shoppers are asked one question on the payment confirmation page that can be answered simply using a number from 0-9, and written responses are also encouraged. The validated customer feedback data is fed back to merchants in near real-time, and the performance dashboard allows them to easily switch between online and brick-and-mortar stores.

“TruRating online is a natural evolution of our wildly successful instore solution,” said Mary Hubbard, head of consumer product at TruRating. “Having worked with major retail brands in the past, I know first-hand that TruRating addresses well-known blind spots with their customer interactions, particularly as we’re witnessing the rapid change from traditional customer journey to consumer demand for flexible, personalised, omni-channel shopping experiences.”

Workday, Inc., a leader in enterprise cloud applications for finance and human resources, today announced it is expanding its operations into Italy with the opening of a new office in Milan. Services partners that currently support existing local customers are ready to assist new Workday deployments in Italy.

Workday started in 2005 with a clean sheet of paper in the cloud and a disruptive idea: to put people at the centre of enterprise software. Today, the company has more than 2,100 customers globally that have selected Workday for unique benefits including: 

·         A Commitment to customer satisfaction – Seventy percent of Workday’s rapidly-growing customer community—ranging from midsized businesses to Fortune 50 enterprises—are live. Because of this intensive focus on customer success, Workday has consistently achieved an industry-leading customer satisfaction rating over 95 percent, with a 98 percent customer satisfaction rating this year.

·         One unified system – With Workday, organisations have a single system to streamline their finance and HR operational processes and create a more engaging experience for their employees. Workday’s unified suite of products empowers customers with the only cloud system to plan, execute, and analyse their business through one secure environment.

• A highly engaged community – New customers will join over 450 global organisations that are successfully deployed and using Workday in Italy,including AstraZeneca, Rolls-Royce, Roquette, Sanofi, and Italian-headquartered YOOX Net-A-Porter. As part of Workday’s collaborative community, customers have the opportunity to share ideas and best practices, and actively engage product teams on the next innovations.

With the new office opening, Workday now has a presence in 15 countries across EMEA, including Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Netherlands, Norway, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, and the UK, as well as regional data centres in Dublin and Amsterdam. The company has more than 1,400 employees across EMEA.

Comments on the news

“As a multinational company, we wanted to create one global people management system, enabling our business leaders to work with a single source of truth about the workforce,” said Laura Bruno, HR director, Italy and Malta, Sanofi. “Workday is transforming the way people work in HR and improving how employees and managers interact on HR matters. Critically, the continuous innovation that comes from the Workday community means that Workday is not only a partner today, but for the future. We are excited to see Workday expand its operations into Italy as we continue on our journey together.”

“We are honoured that 175 of the Fortune 500 already use Workday, and we have more than 450 global companies in Italy gaining value from their Workday experience,” said Gonzalo Benedit, president, EMEA and APJ, Workday. “We are ready to help more organisations in Italy drive their business transformations—with one unified system for financial management and HCM that is easy to use, quick to deploy, and ready to support future growth.”

Aryaka, the leading global SD-WAN provider, today announced that CRN®, a brand of The Channel Company, has given Aryaka a 5-Star rating in its 2018 Partner Program Guide. This annual guide is the definitive listing of partner programs from technology vendors that provide products and services through the IT channel. The 5-Star Partner Program Guide rating recognizes an elite subset of companies that offer solution providers the best partnering elements in their channel programs.

To determine the 2018 5-Star ratings, The Channel Company's research team assessed each vendor's partner program based on investments in program offerings, partner profitability, partner training, education and support, marketing programs and resources, sales support and communication.

"Over the last year, Aryaka's channel partners have played a pivotal role in furthering the company's position as a market leader in the global SD-WAN space," said Claudio Perugini, Senior Vice President of Global Channels at Aryaka. "Receiving this recognition from The Channel Company for the second consecutive year is a testament to our commitment to the channel and the innovative approach that Aryaka has taken with our partner program."

Deployed by more than 800 global enterprises, Aryaka is the leading independent global SD-WAN provider and has the fastest growing SD-WAN solution in the market today, delivering enhanced performance for cloud and on-premises applications worldwide. Aryaka's global SD-WAN is a game-changer for the channel community as the company offers global enterprises a next-generation alternative to legacy network technologies, delivers significantly quicker commissions to partners as compared to telcos due to fast deployment schedules (days, instead of months), and drives perpetuity-like revenue streams as its customer retention rates are over 98%. More than 70 percent of Aryaka's revenue bookings come from its global partner program.

"Finding the right technology vendor to partner with can be a daunting task, given the vast array of choices now available to solution providers," said Robert Faletra, Executive Chairman of The Channel Company. "CRN's Partner Program Guide and 5-Star ratings help them narrow the field and find the best fit, identifying the most rewarding partner programs and providing crucial insight into their strengths and benefits. We are pleased to present our 2018 PPG list, recognizing the strongest and most successful partner programs in the channel today."

"As Aryaka continues to further expand our channel program in various regions around the world in 2018, we will focus heavily on partner training and enablement," added Perugini. "Aryaka has a very unique place within the evolving SD-WAN space, and it is our goal to continue educating our channel partners as they work to identify their customers' global application delivery and network infrastructure needs." 

COSS.IO, a Singapore-based cryptocurrency trading platform announced today that it has included the MARK (MRK) coin launched by MARK.SPACE platform into its list of digital currencies. The listing is symbolically confined to the date April 12th, which is celebrated internationally as the Day of Human Space Flight.  

Since 1962, April 12 has been celebrated in Russia (formerly the Soviet Union) as the Cosmonautics Day and since 2011 internationally as the International Day of Human Space Flight (or Yuri's Night). The event is held to increase public interest in space exploration and to inspire a new generation of pioneers. Driven by space-inspired artistic expression and culminating in a worldwide network of annual celebrations and educational events, Yuri's Night creates a global community of young people committed to shaping the future of space exploration while developing responsible leaders and innovators with a global perspective. These global events are a showcase for elements of culture that embrace space including music, dance, fashion, and art.

To commemorate and celebrate this great historical event, COSS.IO has chosen April 12 as the day to launch the MRK, which is the internal digital currency of MARK.SPACE, world’s first open-source, platform-agnostic social VR and AR-compatible ecosystem. MARK.SPACE, as the name suggests, symbolizes a framework of different possibilities, that not only allow for the creation of so-called “spaces”, but also give the opportunity to go into spae and beyond virtually. The latter is the reason for the choice of date.