Monzo.me just got an upgrade! From today, if you visit a Monzo.me page on a phone or tablet that has Android Pay, you’ll be able to pay your friends and family even faster. No typing required and it should take less than 15 seconds.

Sungard Availability Services ® (Sungard AS), a leading provider of information availability through managed IT, cloud and recovery services, today revealed that issues related to the office environment are an increasing reason for organisations to invoke their recovery services. In fact, 8 out of 10 invocations* are due to workplace incidents.

While the threat from malicious cyber attacks continues to grow and dominate headlines, this year’s data shows that the physical workplace environment is becoming increasingly vulnerable. Compared to the previous year, the number of invocations resulting from a workplace issue, in which the office environment is subsequently rendered inaccessible, have grown by 200%. In fact, 2016 saw the highest level of environmental issues since the annual analysis began over two decades ago. Companies are in danger of neglecting their physical surroundings, as they focus efforts on ensuring a more robust and secure virtual infrastructure, such neglect could have serious consequences for them, as well as their employees and customers. For example, something as simple as maintaining power to the workplace may seem a given, but power failures continue to hold second place as the largest cause of invocation failure in the workplace office environment. These types of invocations are on the rise for the third successive year; in absolute terms increasing 50% on 2015, whilst as a percentage of total workplace outages they now account for one in four failures (24%) up from the one in five impact of previous years 19% (2015) and 18% (2014). With 21^st century digital initiatives being power dependent, such failures stand to undermine the very progress organisations seek to achieve as they undergo transformative IT programmes.

Meanwhile, issues arising from communications-related failures have remained at exactly the same level as last year and remain the leading cause of business invocations. Despite challenges such as lengthy disruptions caused by rail strikes, the analysis reveals two areas of concern: that businesses are still not equipping their workforce with reliable means to communicate, whilst investment in appropriately robust communications systems for the workplace lags behind that for IT (with not even a single communications-related outage being reported by Technology Recovery customers). As working practices continue to move towards a more flexible model, it’s more important than ever that organisations take steps to ensure their employees can reliably stay in communication with their colleagues, customers, and other important stakeholders.

The analysis of Sungard Availability Services’ annual Availability Trends report** also shows that whilst technology invocations are maintaining a downward trend, issues relating to hardware failures increased by 140% this year. Noticeably, these customers invoked QuickShip services – the delivery of IT equipment – meaning that it was likely the failure occurred on the IT hardware under their control.

Commenting on the latest results, Daren Howell, Product Marketing Manager, Sungard Availability Services Operational Risk Management & 'People' Recovery Services, said: “It’s clear from this year’s data that not enough investment is being made to ensure facilities are properly maintained. Companies cannot afford to neglect the environment in which they house their people and hardware otherwise they risk seriously impacting their ability to service customers and potentially squander their position in the market. Our very own Buckingham Palace is a good example of this – due for its biggest refurbishment since the Second World War, the cost of the project has a current price tag of £360 million to carry out essential work to mitigate against ‘catastrophic building failure’.”

“This is just one element that could impact business availability. A joined-up approach that unites all aspects of a business’ operating model is the key to ensuring true availability.”

Keith Tilley, executive vice president & vice-chair for Sungard Availability Services added: “In today’s ruthless and fast-paced business environment where customer loyalty can turn on a dime, it is more vital than ever for companies to avoid any reason for customers and employees to look elsewhere. This is easier said than done when the IT environment is increasingly complex and digital skills are at a premium. It’s becoming increasingly impossible for companies to go it alone as they just don’t have the in-house resources and expertise required for such complex IT environments. This is where we can support – providing the much-needed third-party support that allows companies to maintain their position in the market and even look to challenge it through new innovations. Having peace of mind that their IT is in hand gives them the freedom to focus on driving their businesses forward.”

* An invocation occurs when a Sungard Availability Services customer calls upon Sungard AS to action their Business Continuity, Technology Recovery or Workplace Recovery arrangements.

**Availability Trends (formerly known as Invocations) research reports annually on factors impacting the uptime of Sungard Availability Services’ UK customers and/or how they are ensuring business as usual.

Rabobank and Signicat are entering the Dutch identity market together by providing digital services to businesses, supporting them in servicing their clients. This joint Digital Identity Service Provider (DISP) offers a range of online login, identity, signature and archiving solutions under the banner of Rabo eBusiness. It provides optimal convenience for a range of businesses, including insurance, energy and leasing companies as well as other financial services providers. It simplifies and improves the digital transformation they are under pressure to achieve.

Rabo eBusiness helps businesses to shape their online services in an easier, more reliable and efficient way to achieve higher online conversion. Consumers can log onto the merchant’s website using one of the identity services provided by Rabo eBusiness and can then, for example, sign a contract online. The platform is easy to integrate into the existing business processes using API technology.

Rabobank will initially focus on five customer groups: energy, telecom and insurance companies, healthcare institutions and financial services providers. Rabo eBusiness services will make it easy for them to enable functions such as onboarding new customers, signing contracts digitally and offering a dashboard for invoices or expense claims.

The market for DISPs opened on 1^st April 2017 within the framework of iDIN. Alexander Zwart, responsible for Online Channels & Access at Rabobank, explains that Rabobank already has a good starting position, having: ‘Advisory skills, a large market share in the business market, operational services and a mature salesforce. In order to be able to offer technology and a high-quality and safe range of products, we have opted not to develop it ourselves, but instead to collaborate with a well-established strategic player. Signicat has a proven Digital Identity Service platform that is considered leading in the Nordics, a mature digital identity market.’

Signicat in turn wants to expand its presence in the Dutch market. Gunnar Nordseth, Chief Executive Officer of Signicat: ‘We have been operating for some time as an identity service provider in the Nordics and are currently expanding into other parts of Europe. The Netherlands is a strategically important market for us and a European hub that has great potential for digital identity, signature and archiving services. Collaborating with an innovative bank such as Rabobank gives us the opportunity to fulfil our ambition.’

The platform has been designed to grow in tandem with market demands and can consequently be expanded to include additional services. This lays the foundation for achieving Rabobank’s strategic ambition to help its customers with the digitalisation of their services.

Global Banking and Finance Review has announced ICS Financial Systems Ltd., the global software and services provider for banks and financial institutions, the “Best Islamic Banking Technology Provider MEA 2017” 

Global Banking and Finance Review awards ICS Financial Systems Ltd in recognition for its prominent in particular areas of expertise and excellence within the global financial community. The award reflects the innovation, achievement, strategy, progressive and inspirational changes taking place within the financial sector. ICS BANKS ISLAMIC provides a complete  - shari’a compliant - banking business solutions, and have facilitated banks in achieving a competitive edge by offering a complete integrated End-to-End and comprehensive suite of Islamic Banking applications, that is suited to the bank’s needs whether it’s for an Islamic bank or a conventional bank looking to create an  Islamic Banking  window.

Editor, and Global Banking & Finance Review; Wanda Rich commented: 

“Global Banking & Finance Review Awards ICS Financial Systems Ltd “Best Islamic Banking Technology Provider MEA 2017” for the second consecutive year in recognition of their continued commitment and dedication to providing comprehensive Islamic Banking solutions. ICS BANKS ISLAMIC provides banks with the comprehensive, scalable Islamic software solutions needed to improve performance.” Miss Wanda added “We look forward to seeing further growth and industry-leading solutions from them in the years to come.”

Managing Director of ICSFS, Robert Hazboun commented;

“We are honoured to receive such an award and to be named the “Best Islamic Banking Technology Provider MEA 2017” for the second consecutive year. We have been focusing on the Islamic banking industry for a while now, as it has been rapidly growing.,” Hazboun added” As a proof of our success with the Islamic Banking applications, ICS BANKS ISLAMIC has shown an increase of demand, as our customers are enjoying scalable, sophisticated and flexible products and services that addresses and fulfils their requirements."

Showpad, the world’s most powerful sales enablement platform – announced today the launch of Showpad Experiences, the industry’s first immersive presentation platform that ensures sales and marketing teams will stay one step ahead of how enterprise customers buy today.

Showpad Experiences will help buyers the way Waze helps drivers, converting static marketing materials into an immersive, interactive, branded experience for clients and prospects. Today, buyers are more educated about products and services than ever before. The fundamentals of successful sales conversation have shifted away from product details, pricing, and even relationships to more value-driven conversations where the experience has the biggest impact on a successful outcome. More than half of buyers today buy based on the buying experience over any other factor. Showpad Experiences is driven by the acquisition of London-based start-up Hickup, which created mobile sales playbooks.

“Showpad Experiences is going to change how sales teams have conversations with clients and prospects,” said Pieterjan Bouten, CEO of Showpad. “The acquisition of Hickup furthers our dominant position in this exciting market.”

With Showpad Experiences, marketing can craft new interactive ways of presenting their existing materials without needing to coordinate or create new collateral. And prospects, in turn, have more valuable conversations that dynamically focus on what they need, and only on what they need.

“Showpad Experiences adds value to the way we engage with our customers, ultimately improving our ability to convert more business,” said Graham Leeson, head of communications at Fujifilm. “It increases sales productivity, more deeply engages our buyers and gives marketing the power to control content.”

The core Hickup team, including founder Julien Lescure, is joining Showpad as part of the completion of the company’s acquisition and will continue to focus on product design and development. Several large Showpad customers are already using Showpad Experiences, and today marks the wide availability for more than 1,000 Showpad clients.

Key Showpad Experiences benefits include:

●        Maximise marketing impact on the sales conversation by guiding salespeople to the most relevant content for each conversation. Increase sales relevance by giving the buyer a clear visual storytelling experience and focus on the right content using contextual and segmented navigations that make it easy to come out with the most relevant information.

●        Give salespeople the flexibility to choose the right flow for every conversation, while maintaining control over which documents they can use.

“Showpad Experiences takes marketing collateral and sales team's’ effectiveness to the next level,” said Lescure. “I’m thrilled to be able to develop products like this at Showpad.”

3W Infra, one of the fastest growing IaaS hosting providers in Europe that managed to grow its server base by one third in just half a year to currently 4,000 dedicated servers under management, announces the launch of its 3W Infra Financing Program – a ‘lease-to-own’ program aimed at somewhat larger hosting infrastructures, for companies intending to pursue increased margins and cost control. 

3W Infra’s new Financing Program provides IaaS hosting customers the opportunity to obtain end-of-lease ownership of their dedicated servers and network equipment while paying fixed monthly instalments during life of lease.

Through the 3W Infra Financing Program, users are enabled to easily acquire new pieces of equipment and keep their investment costs in line with company revenues. The equipment acquired may include rack servers, blade enclosures, storage nodes, firewalls, load balancers, switches, optical fibers, cabling infrastructure, and more. The financing program is meant for enterprises, cloud services providers (CSPs), systems integrators (SIs), managed services providers (MSPs) and other companies requiring somewhat larger IaaS hosting infrastructures. 

OPEX vs. CAPEX

The 3W Infra Financing Program features flexible instalment schemes with instalment plans ranging from 12-month to 36-month periods. Users are eligible to apply for the 3W Infra Financing Program when they have located their IaaS hosting infrastructure within 3W Infra’s premises already or when they are planning to do so. 3W Infra Financing Program participants are able to select whichever hardware brand or appliances they prefer when financing their equipment.

“Our new Financing Program with lease-to-own offering provides CXOs and financial managers the opportunity to shift their IT investments from CAPEX to operating expense funding for their dedicated servers and network gear,” said Roy Premchand, Managing Director of 3W Infra. “Freeing up capital may give these companies the advantage to acquire up-to-date IaaS hosting technology while able to focus on their core missions and revenue generators. It also enables them to de-risk their IT investments when confronted with potentially high upfront hardware costs.”

The lease-to-own financing program builds on 3W Infra’s options for ‘Operational Lease’ (dedicated servers or network services with monthly charges, where 3W Infra retains ownership of the hardware), and ‘Purchase’ where 3W Infra operates as a reseller of server and network equipment. The latter provides customers the opportunity to obtain full ownership of the hardware from day one.

Financials, Cloud Companies

For 3W Infra it’s not that profitable to include a lease-to-own offering in its portfolio, but the company’s management team wants to offer it anyway. “Margins on solutions like these are quite low actually, but we think it’s important to go the extra mile and have this lease-to-own option available for our customers,” added Mr. Premchand. “It’s in line with 3W Infra’s unique go-to-market strategy to provide endless options for demanding clientele, where they are also able to choose whichever hardware brand they like while obtaining high levels of customization.” 

Especially for financial enterprises and cloud services providers (CSPs) this lease-to-own option would be a good fit, says Mr. Premchand. “Even for startups lease-to-own might be a suitable financing solution. Operational lease, in other words our regular dedicated server product portfolio, might be a good solution for them as well – as some startups may prefer to have more flexibility in their medium term commitments. The lease-to-own model enjoys quite some attention from the startup scene though, as cloud storage startups and streaming startup companies from respectively Canada and India have already shown interest in our lease-to-own offering.” 

“For some of our gaming customers operational lease would probably provide a better fit as well, as their dedicated server and network requirements can fluctuate enormously,” added Premchand. “For financials on the other hand, our network performance with 100% uptime guarantees and low-latency connectivity are usually more important than CPU power. When selecting high quality brands for their lease-to-own based infrastructure, they would be able to implement a sustainable and economically quite beneficial IaaS hosting infrastructure. The same accounts for well-established cloud services companies, for example when expanding their activities abroad from the U.S. to Europe.” 

The pioneering work of Danfoss has received international recognition at KuppingerCole’s recent European Identity & Cloud (EIC) Conference in Munich, Germany. Danfoss’ IoT security framework project was recognized with an esteemed European Identity & Cloud Award 2017 in the Best IoT Security Project category.

Duqu, Stuxnet, Mirai and similar malware was the start of a trend of attacking connected devices in industrial environments. With IoT just about to lift off, industries are witnessing increasingly connected devices being at risk of being breached or used as weapons to attack other environments, as in the first wave of connectivity enthusiasm, the unexpected appearance of malicious actors was typically overlooked by vendors during product design and development phases, leaving the device security ignored.

In close co-operation Danfoss and Nixu have jointly developed a clean slate security platform based on modern elliptic cryptography and manageable, streamlined and mostly automated PKI. As part of platform functionality, every device gets a strong cryptographic identity during the manufacturing stage, which is then used to secure all later transactions and communication in the open Internet. The ability to address, group and manage devices with the help of a virtually unforgeable device identity; also introduces new security and business critical capabilities in license management, remote monitoring and maintenance, software updates and other areas. Ensuring root-of-trust integrity by help of some innovative hardware mechanisms results in the devices being tamper-proof and resistant against even advanced physical attacks.

The new security platform enables Danfoss a highly secure way to perform preventive maintenance and new business models. As a result of the new security platform, Danfoss will also ensure even better product quality throughout the lifecycle in a cost-efficient way.

“It is remarkable to witness an industrial technology company like Danfoss leveraging security as a true enabler for new, innovative business models. We are privileged to be part of and support Danfoss in its digitalization journey”, says Aleksandr Vara, Head of Industrial Internet Security at Nixu Corporation. 

“Danfoss appreciates the new opportunities presented by the digital world. With more software built into our products, we can offer our customers appropriate control systems, intelligent data and functionalities – thereby improving user-friendliness, performance, and quality. It is imperative that we have the best possible data protection in place to do so. Nixu’s expertise has elevated us to the forefront of security in the industrial automation space “, says Theis Solberg Hjorth, Senior Security Architect, Global Research & Development at Danfoss Drives.

CHAPS Clearing Company Limited, the UK’s same day high-value payment system, welcomes Bank of China Limited as a shareholder and Direct Participant in CHAPS with immediate effect. 

As commerce evolves beyond the traditional storefront, so does the need for businesses to provide their customers with a seamless payment experience, regardless of where they check out. 

Hanse Orga Group, the market leader in financial automation software, today announces that is has reached agreement with Dolphin Enterprise Solutions Corporation (Dolphin), a leading provider of process automation and data management solutions for SAP customers, to become part of Hanse Orga Group and jointly deliver leading technology and process solutions to enterprise customers across the globe.