Intellect Design Arena Limited, a digital technology product provider across Banking, Financial Services and Insurance, has signed a 10 year deal with one of Australia’s “Big Four”, to implement its integrated trade finance, treasury and retail remittance solution for the Bank’s corporate and retail customers in one of its offshore regions.

The solution encompasses a modular, SOA enabled, web-based and platform-independent architecture that will replace a legacy system which is more than two decades old. This will streamline the Bank’s back-office processes to facilitate straight-through processing across all the business divisions. The solution is expected to be able to provide 360 degrees of visibility around workflow for the Bank’s separate teams in trade finance, retail remittance, and treasury, where operations often intersect. Crucially, the Bank will be able to pass these efficiencies onto its customers.

The Bank has also entrusted Intellect with the solution’s maintenance and technical support – beginning a 10-year relationship between the two firms.

Anil Verma, Executive Director of Intellect, says: “This landmark deal with one of Australia’s leading banks to implement our digital solution covering a large functional arena of Trade Finance, Treasury, and Retail Remittance is a testament to our architectural ability and product design. We look forward to a long and successful partnership.”

Concurrent, a global leader in storage, protection, transformation, and delivery of visual assets, today announced the deployment of its Aquari Storage system at Leucom Stafag AG, a Switzerland-based telecommunications provider of high performance broadband access for 30 thousand customers in the Frauenfeld area of northeast Switzerland.

Leucom delivers phone, internet and TV services to both private and business customers. To provide an enhanced subscriber experience, Leucom has developed an OTT / multiscreen offering that enables 7-day "Catchup TV", VOD and nPVR services for their premium users.

"Our high-quality service, which includes the best German-speaking premium movies and more than 250 live channels, will be delivered on the new OTT / multiscreen platform beginning in 2017," said Markus Schlatter, CEO and President of the board of Leucom AG. "We chose to partner with Concurrent to supply our high-performance storage because their technology ensures the security and reliability of our premium content."

Concurrent Aquari Storage is a modern, intelligent storage system that features simultaneous support for multiple file- or object-based workloads. Built on a true scale-out architecture, Aquari Storage seamlessly and independently scales throughput and capacity. This translates into increased flexibility and scalability to better manage growing visual media assets and the applications that process them. 
                        
"For modern operators like Leucom, it is essential that their premium content across all customer devices is stored in a way that is simple to deploy, fast to integrate and effortless to scale," said Clay McCreery, Senior Vice President, Worldwide Sales and Service at Concurrent. "We are pleased that Aquari is trusted by Leucom to ensure a consistent, high-quality experience for their customers."

Rapid7, Inc., a leading provider of analytics solutions for security and IT operations, today announced its next generation partner program: Rapid7 PACT, Partnering with Accountability, Consistency, and Transparency. Built to inspire Rapid7 partners to grow with the Company, the new program was created to enhance Rapid7's expanding portfolio of products and services, while better defining parameters for ongoing mutual success.

"We believe our partners are a key element to our next phase of growth. The introduction of PACT is designed to strengthen relationships with partners who are prepared to meet customer needs in a changing IT and security landscape," said Andrew Burton, COO of Rapid7. "We are incredibly excited to demonstrate a renewed commitment to our channel community through dedicated support programs, an industry-leading platform, and differentiated benefits."

Rapid7 PACT puts an increased focus on enabling partners to deliver the Company's expanded solutions and professional services at scale, with virtual training and certification programs, interactive reporting and analytics, and readily available success metrics. Setting it apart from more traditional channel programs, Rapid7 will equip its channel partners to directly perform professional, deployment, and training services, helping to drive immediate value. The new program structure also provides partners with a significant opportunity for growth by rewarding increased levels of partnership and investment.

"Our clients face new cyber security threats and operational IT challenges every day. At Vandis, we're focused on arming our clients with industry-leading solutions that give them the answers they need to act fast when an incident does occur - regardless of what new situations they encounter," said Andy Segal, CEO, Vandis, Inc. "Rapid7's analytics-driven, platform approach gives our clients live visibility into what's happening across their IT environments, from their endpoints to the cloud. That type of confidence is invaluable. We are thrilled to deepen our partnership with Rapid7 and applaud their expanded commitment to channel partners." 

Rapid7 works with resellers and distributors to meet the needs of its customers in more than 100 countries around the globe. For regions outside the US where Rapid7 engages with local distributors, dedicated Rapid7 PACT guidelines will be established and rolled out over the course of H2 2017.

The Power of Insight: The Rapid7 Platform

The Rapid7 Insight platform makes it possible for security and IT professionals to share data, research findings, and analytic-processing resources, significantly reducing the overall total cost of ownership inherent with on-premise, analytics-driven solutions. Processing more than 50 billion events and monitoring millions of assets daily, the Insight platform is the first to unify solutions for vulnerability management, user behavior analytics (UBA), SIEM, IT log analytics, and application security.

"Today's security and IT professionals need live analytics and comprehensive visibility into their environments in order to understand and manage risk, detect threats, and monitor operations productivity," said Corey Thomas, president and CEO of Rapid7. "We're focused on building partner relationships that understand these needs, are committed to our vision, and are dedicated to helping security and IT teams keep up with today's shifting threat landscape."

The cloud-based platform also automatically scales to meet the needs of users, helping to solve challenges presented by rapid data growth for both security and IT. This unified approach to data and resource sharing is core to the philosophy behind Rapid7's mission to help security and IT professionals manage their environments through simplified solutions.

Gemalto, the world leader in digital security, has received the Élan Award for Card Manufacturing Excellence for its newly implemented Maryland's driver's license and identification card. The award, presented by the International Card Manufacturers Association (ICMA), honors innovative card manufacturers, personalizers, issuers and suppliers that support a commitment to design quality, technical innovation and the future of the global card industry. 

The importance of a secure driver's license in the United States
Serving as a de facto ID document for many Americans, the driver's license can be used in many states to buy firearms, open a bank account or travel on domestic flights. Therefore, states require a solution that is secure, reliable and affordable while also tailored to meet individual state requirements. 

In identity documents, polycarbonate makes it possible to incorporate a significant number of additional security features inside the document similar in effect to watermarks on bank notes. A polycarbonate identity document is created by fusing together multiple layers of polycarbonate in a glue-free process, using temperature and pressure to ensure the upmost security and a 10-year card life. 

Security features are even more necessary to provide a seamless and protected experience since the passing of the REAL ID Act in 2016. For example, starting in January 22, 2018, citizens with a state driver's license not yet compliant will need to show an alternative form of identification for domestic air travel. Luckily, Maryland citizens won't need to worry. The star in the upper left-hand corner of their card proves REAL ID compliance and will allow then to use their driver's licenses or identification cards as usual. 

Executive Comments:
"We are very proud of the Élan Award in Card Manufacturing Excellence recognition of the high level of security we are providing to Maryland residents through our driver's license and identification cards.  We appreciate our working relationship with Gemalto in this important service for all Maryland residents."

Neptune, the Fixed Income network for real-time “axe” indications, today announced enhanced integration with partner TS’s TradeSmart FI.

The Neptune network provides a venue for investors to consume the highest quality bond axes/inventory data from their most trusted Bank counterparts.  This enables institutional investors to be more effective and targeted when looking to execute large size orders in products such as corporate and emerging market bonds.

Grant Wilson, CEO, Neptune Networks Ltd, said: “Connectivity to an EMS such as TradeSmart FI is precisely what our buy-side clients are seeking from Neptune. It provides the ability to consume an aggregated feed of the highest quality bond axes, which in turn allows them to be more targeted in their enquiries for large size bond execution. As the EMS becomes a more important part of fixed income, we are well placed to serve our clients with minimal disruption to their workflow.” 

Nineteen bond dealers are already live on the network, providing axe information in real-time on over 14,500 different securities with over $131 billion in gross notional across 20 different denominations. This is generated from over 26,500 pre-trade real-time “axe” indications in the network, daily. This strong growth is expected to continue with the 20th and 21st global Banks due to go live in mid-Q2, 2017.

Paul Reynolds, Fixed Income Product Manager at TS, added: “With this new connectivity to Neptune networks, TradeSmart FI now offers buy-side traders even wider access to a universe of high quality dealer axe liquidity. The integration of Neptune into TradeSmart FI further reduces the buy-side cost and complexity of bank connectivity.”

“Adding Neptune bank axe data to TradeSmart FI significantly enhances the buy-side best selection and best execution workflow in the TradeSmart FI user interface. Similarly, pre-trade transparency checks and post-trade transaction cost analyses are further enriched.”

BroadSoft, Inc. a global market leader in cloud business software for unified communication, collaboration and contact center (UCaaS), accepted an innovation award with Mobile TeleSystems PJSC ("MTS") (NYSE:MBT) (MOEX:MTSS), at the Global Telecom Business awards in London last night. The award signifies innovation in the Russian market with a unified communications solution.

Leveraging the BroadSoft BroadWorks® call control platform and UC-One® suite of business applications, MTS has brought  an innovative fixed-to-mobile convergence service to market named "Virtual PBX." Over 50,000 Russian businesses across numerous industry sectors have signed up to the service in the short time since the service's launch.

"The success of Virtual PBX is the result of close cooperation between two companies. BroadSoft provided MTS with extensive support throughout the deployment launches through training and consultancy, expertly helping execute this award-winning solution," said Vasyl Latsanych, Vice President for Strategy and Marketing, MTS. "Our strategic relationship with BroadSoft strengthens the MTS leadership position in the Russian corporate telecommunications market."

"We are honored to receive recognition from Global Telecom Business by winning this innovation award with MTS," said Marco Meier, Vice President, Germany and Eastern Europe, BroadSoft. "As one of Russia's largest telecommunications providers, MTS plays a critical role in driving world-leading technologies and services throughout the country."

The consultation on Direct Debit – which is used to pay 73 per cent of household bills – was carried out in late 2016 and included a call for public responses, market research, as well as in-depth interviews with stakeholders.

While the exercise found that Direct Debit continues to be the most popular method to pay regular bills, the consultation has also prompted plans to investigate further product enhancements; those being considered would ensure Direct Debit remains the payment method of choice for the tens of thousands of businesses and millions of consumers who rely on it to pay and collect funds. 

The findings are officially released today and coincide with Bacs’ sponsorship of the EPA’s Pay360 Digital Payments annual conference, which brings together a wide range of organisations from the fintech and paytech industries. 

Bacs’ Director of Product and Strategy, Anne Pieckielon, said: “While Direct Debit usage has never been higher, we are committed to ensuring that this trusted and market-leading product continues to meet the future needs of millions of consumers and tens of thousands of businesses alike, remaining a payment method of choice.

“It is for this reason that we conducted a review, including a public consultation, into Direct Debit in late 2016. This process has helped us understand the business challenges and customer needs today and in the future – establishing where Direct Debit is functioning flawlessly and where there is potential to adopt changes to enhance the product still further.

“We will continue to collaborate closely with all stakeholders, and the wider industry, to ensure that any future work carried out is consistent with the overall regulatory framework and industry strategy and we look forward to discussing this further at the EPA’s annual conference.”