Technology and
Consulting Newsletter
The organisations covered in this
issue are:
December 2012
Welcome to Latitude Executive Consulting’s latest newsletter, reviewing recent
marketplace activity. The newsletter focuses on the Technology and
Consulting sectors, with the material sourced from a range of media and
business contacts/partners. As the holiday break approaches, we have opted
for a more relaxed and less heavyweight theme for our selected articles.
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1. IBM
2. Infosys
3. EE
4. Capgemini
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5. Vodafone
6. PA Consulting
7. Wipro
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8. CGI
9. Accenture
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IBM
Twilight: Breaking Dawn - Part 2 continued to infiltrate the Twitterverse
during Thanksgiving weekend, with competition from Box Office leaders
Skyfall and the newly released, Rise of the Guardians - according to the
University of Southern California (USC) Annenberg Innovation Lab and
the IBM Film Forecaster, a Social Sentiment Index.
The Social Sentiment Index combines sophisticated analytics and natural
language processing technologies to gauge positive, negative and neutral
opinions shared in millions of public tweets. In this instance, the index
was used to measure and understand moviegoers' views surrounding the
biggest movie weekend – Thanksgiving.
The project evaluated over five million tweets over a time period of 11
days and compared the volume around Twilight: Breaking Dawn, to other
movies in theaters, such as the next installment of James Bond, Skyfall,
Wreck-It Ralph, Flight, and The Man with the Iron Fists, all of which
opened one to two weeks prior to Twilight. The analysis also included
sentiment around new Thanksgiving weekend releases including Life of
Pi, Red Dawn, and Rise of the Guardians.
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On Sunday, November 25 , Box Office Mojo revealed Twilight generated
approximately $64 million in ticket sales over the holiday weekend
(Wednesday-Sunday) – 22 percent of the total revenue for the biggest
Hollywood holiday weekend on record. The Twitter results over the 11
days offered a different perspective:
o Despite leading the pack with 4.25 million tweets compared to runner
up Skyfall with 700,000, Twilight's positive sentiment dropped from 90
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percent at pre-release to 75 percent on Saturday, November 24 .
Some of the tweeted words were perceived as negative – not
necessarily towards the movie, but the majority captured moviegoer
"sadness" that the series was ending.
o Skyfall maintained a sentiment ratio of 9:1, receiving consistent
positive tweets, and shared similar results to weekend newcomers
Red Dawn (96 percent positive average), Life of Pi (91 percent) and
Rise of the Guardians at 99 percent.
o On opening day, Twilight received over a million tweets, 78 percent
expressed positive sentiment. The majority of the remaining
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sentiment reflected the audiences' emotional reaction to the "tearjerking" moments in the movie – so not necessarily negative.
“In the past, box office receipts indicated success or failure. Thanks to
advances in analytics, movie makers now have the ability to analyze the
public sentiments of their viewers in real time,” said Professor Jonathan
Taplin, Director of the USC Annenberg Innovation Lab. "With technologies
such as the Film Forecaster, movie studios such as Lionsgate can go
beyond receipts, to truly understand the voice of the crowd.”
The collaboration between USC Annenberg and IBM is part of an ongoing
initiative to demonstrate how advanced analytics technologies applied to
big data can help Chief Marketing Officers (CMOs) in the sports,
entertainment, retail, and news industry derive valuable insights from
online public sentiment.
“Today, Box Office results and industry accolades are not the sole drivers
of recognition across the movie community – real-time audience sentiment
is a strong factor too,” said Steve Canepa, General Manager of Media and
Entertainment, IBM. “Organizations in the Media and Entertainment
industry are now taking advantage of big data to better understand their
audience and to deliver better products, services and marketing
campaigns that ultimately drive greater results for their business.”
Infosys
Infosys BPO Ltd. has announced that it has won the Gold Award for
Marketing Excellence in the category of 'Marketing with Social and
Interactive Media' at the Information Technology Services Marketing
Association (ITSMA) Awards 2012. Infosys BPO received the award
during the ITSMA 2012 Annual Conference: Marketing's New Value
Proposition, held at the Charles Hotel in Cambridge, MA, USA.
ITSMA, the leading marketing association for technology,
communications, and professional services providers, recognizes best-inclass marketing programs with its annual marketing excellence awards.
An international jury of marketing executives and experts selected the
winners based on excellence in situation analysis, innovation, program
execution, and business results.
Speaking about the award, Gautam Thakkar, Vice President and Unit
Head – Enterprise Services, Infosys BPO said, “This prestigious award
reiterates the fact that we have been able to create considerable value
and brand equity with a highly focused campaign for our stakeholders in
the social media space. We believe that innovation in the digital world,
combined with seamless teamwork, will continue to garner significant
results. We will continue to focus on such innovative initiatives that aim at
creating a social media presence to drive and sustain community
engagement.”
The uniqueness of the initiative is that Infosys BPO created a novel
community to enable discussions among the buy-side, the sell-side, and
the influencer-side of the outsourcing community and the Infosys BPO
leadership team. This was indicative of a spike in brand awareness and
the brand proposition of 'optimize, transform and innovate' among the
desired target audience.
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“This was an innovative use of social media targeted at a difficult
audience, with very successful results," said Dave Munn, President and
CEO of ITSMA. "The program was well defined, the research was
thorough and the execution was methodical. Infosys has developed a
best practice.”
EE
From tomorrow, iZettle – designed for small businesses and tradespeople
- mini chip-card readers, that turn smartphones and tablets into mobile
payments terminals, can be purchased exclusively in 297 newly designed
EE stores across the country and from EE’s telesales channel. The social
payment company’s new device and free app could help small businesses
secure millions of pounds they are owed by customers. For example, the
UK’s plumbers, electricians and builders alone are currently owed up to
£283 million by late or non-paying customers, according to an EE survey
of 1,029 tradespeople.
iZettle’s mobile payments card readers, which can be used with iPhones,
iPads, and more than a dozen 2.1 and higher Android smartphones and
tablets including the Samsung Galaxy range, cost £20 in EE stores and
come with a £20 voucher that can be used towards iZettle transaction
fees. With iZettle merchants can accept Visa, MasterCard, American
Express and Diners Club payments. There are no lengthy sign up
processes, no set up fees, no monthly fees and no minimum spend.
iZettle merchants are simply charged 2.75% of each payment.
“The beauty of iZettle is that it’s simple to use, totally secure and takes
seconds for a transaction,” said Jacob de Geer, CEO and co-Founder of
iZettle, which is used by more than 75,000 small businesses and
individuals in six countries. “Whether you are a cabbie, florist,
tradesperson or a courier, iZettle gives you the flexibility to operate in both
cash and cards. The possibilities are endless because hundreds of
thousands of small business can now take plastic. We are very excited
about our full commercial launch in the UK and the positive results of our
Beta test with 4,000 users over the past six months.”
Research revealed today by EE, which has just launched its new
superfast 4G and fibre brand in the UK, shows that small electrician,
plumbing and building firms alone are currently owed up to £5,000 each
by late or non-paying customers – equivalent to £283 million. To
compound the late and non-payment issue, tradespeople are investing an
average of 36 days every year chasing overdue customer bills. Even
based on minimum wage rates, that means the time spent chasing
customers for payment costs tradespeople up to £125 million a year.
Accepting card payments could easily boost revenue and cash flow, but
45% of small firms have been previously put off due to the cost of
accepting cards. However, 71% claim they would accept credit or debit
cards if there was a low cost, low hassle way of doing so. iZettle meets
this need with an effortless sign-up and stress-free system that has one of
the lowest cost and complexity profiles on the market. While according to
consumers, there is also a pent-up demand with eight in ten (82%) saying
they would like the option to pay tradespeople by card.
Please contact Latitude Executive Consulting at:
Golden Cross House, 8 Duncannon Street, London, WC2N 4JF T: 020 7484 5055
Email: reply@latitudeexec.com www.latitudeexec.com
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Gerry McQuade, Chief Marketing Officer at EE said: “iZettle is a revolution
for small businesses and consumers across the nation. The aim of our
new superfast EE brand is to make businesses’ digital lives easier and
ultimately more profitable through technology. Businesses and consumers
are on the cusp of mobile payment transformation and we are delighted to
bring iZettle to market, enhancing our mobile payment portfolio.”
Capgemini
Capgemini has appointed a new Group Director of Marketing. Senior Vice
President Bob Scott has been with Capgemini for over 20 years and has
worked in numerous parts of the organisation from consulting, to
applications and outsourcing, including roles such as Head of eBusiness
and CRM and Head of Public Sector Outsourcing. Most recently he has
worked with Sogeti and led the Business Process Management Global
Service Line.
Scott’s extensive experience working on large deals and account based
marketing is best exemplified by his leadership of the successful
Metroplitan Police contract from 2004 to 2007. Bob has also had
responsibility in various global roles in outsourcing and different UK and
sector business units. Scott’s most well-known Marketing contribution is
the ‘Rightshore’ concept which is now at the heart of the Group and is
used to describe Capgemini’s global delivery model. It was a term he first
used in 2003, to describe the right mix of location, resources and skills to
offer the optimum solution for customers.
Scott began his career at British Coal, following a Mining Engineering
Trainee programme, before moving into providing external consultancy for
the NHS and the Department for Social Services and Export Credits
(ECGD). He has a degree in mining engineering from the University of
Nottingham and an MSC in Operational Research from LSE.
Vodafone
F1 champion Jenson Button has made a pit stop at Vodafone HQ to
congratulate employees who have raised nearly £300,000 for British
charities, as part of Vodafone’s JustTextGiving £100 Challenge.
Vodafone’s employees were challenged this summer to raise £100 each
to support British charities using the JustTextGiving service, with the
Vodafone Foundation matching the £100 to make a donation of at least
£200 for each charity. Fundraising activities ranged widely from extreme
sports activities like sky diving, bungee jumping and a zip wire challenge
to a 300-mile ‘Le Tour De Yorkshire’ bike ride, marathons, cake sales and
a musical soiree.
With the matched funding, £280,000 has been donated to more than 630
large and small charities across the country.
Button, who raises thousands of pounds a year for charities through The
Jenson Button Trust, said: “I’m thrilled to be part of today’s celebrations as
I know firsthand the huge boost that the JustTextGiving service gives to
charitable fundraising efforts, making it easier for my family, friends and
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fans to donate. The Vodafone people here today deserve a huge slap on
the back.”
JustTextGiving by Vodafone enables anyone to get their own Vodafone
Individual Code (VIC) to raise money for their chosen charity. Using their
unique, personalised VIC, 100% of the donation is passed to the charity
and Gift Aid can easily be added. The text to donate is also free on any
network. To date over 50,000 people have registered for their own VIC to
use in their own fundraising and over 17,000 charities are now using
JustTextGiving too.
Emer Boulter, Head of HR Business Partnering, Vodafone UK said: “This
has been a powerful challenge as it combined employee engagement and
product advocacy while fundraising. Our employees have seen for
themselves, often for the first time, just how powerful JustTextGiving can
be in fundraising.”
PA Consulting
PA Consulting Group has created a new concept for toothbrushes,
designed to encourage children to develop positive brushing habits while
making teeth-brushing a fun part of the day. According to the NHS, tooth
decay is one of the most widespread health problems in the UK and
around a third of children starting school and around a third of children
aged 12 have visible tooth decay.
The new toothbrush, a ‘Brushead’, is a 3D-sculptured cartoon character,
designed so that kids can relate to it and grow to love it. The toothbrushes
are charged by USB to give flexibility on the go and contain intelligent
sensors that recognise brushing patterns and give encouraging words
to support better brushing.
The Brushead is linked to an app which means children can interact with
each Brushead character, whether through their smartphone if they are
old enough or on the web. This allows them to check out their brushing
performance and compare the achievements of their character with their
friends and other children. Parents can also use the app to monitor their
child’s progress and keep an eye on patterns and trends.
PA Consulting Group’s Ahmad Bitar, an expert in product design, says:
“Getting children to brush their teeth is a common challenge for parents
everywhere and can be a stressful experience for both parent and child.
Children often find brushing-time dull and mundane. The Brusheads help
parents to encourage their children to brush their teeth properly, while
making the experience more enjoyable.”
PA is currently in discussion with potential partners to take this product to
market.
Wipro
Wipro Technologies has announced the launch of Wipro SmartOffers - a
location based solution for banks, in partnership with Intuition Intelligence.
Wipro SmartOffers, primarily targeted at retail banks, will help increase
coupon redemption rates significantly by delivering the right offers to the
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bank's customers over the mobile or the internet. The solution leverages
Wipro's mobile based applications IP, data models and partner's
algorithms to deliver highly targeted offers. Wipro is working with Intuition
Intelligence who has a patented machine learning algorithm that applies
rapid real time learning to target coupons.
Vijay Sharma, Global Domain Head – Banking and Financial Services,
Wipro Technologies, said, “We expect Wipro SmartOffers to enable banks
to pre-empt commoditization by building brand loyalty and creating
additional revenue streams. We are already testing the concept with
several banks across the globe, which gives us a first mover advantage
and are very encouraged by the prospects.”
Dr. Arif Ansari, Founder of Intuition Intelligence, Inc, said, "Our unique
Intuition Intelligence Super Relevancy Engine proactively brings real time,
contextually relevant offers to digital banking customers by server and
client side learning. Unlike the aggregator centric models currently in
practice in the market, this solution champions the Bank Centric Offer
Model."
Meheriar Hasan, Managing Principal, MMH Consulting said, “The rapid
migration from online to mobile banking, brings challenges as well as new
opportunity in terms of understanding real-time intent of users at a given
location. This can be leveraged to provide highly targeted offers to meet
the customers' needs in terms of specific products and services."
Wipro's SmartOffers is optimally built to leverage the unique features of
both online and mobile channels. It is a multi-channel application that is
integrated with the bank's retail mobile and online offerings, and supports
IOS and Android based smartphones. This solution will link the bank's
internal and external ecosystem, leading to new revenue streams
centering on offer optimization and redemption.
CGI
Renminbi (RMB) denominated transactions are growing with the rate of
growth accelerating. Standard Chartered figures show that in February
2012, 17.6% of Singapore’s trade with China/Hong Kong was settled in
RMB. Chinese banks are a major source of liquidity for the Asia region,
financing many large infrastructure projects across the region. Project
finance specialists say it will be a matter of time before many of those
projects are denominated in RMB.
With China’s economy now the world’s second largest and a key driver of
global growth, banks are finding that their RMB business is growing. This
is leading to an increase in the number of incoming financial messages
containing CCCs. Chinese Commercial Codes (CCC) were originally used
for transmitting Chinese text over electronic telegraph. However, for nonChinese speaking countries, there is still a need to identify a Chinese
person's name without using Chinese Characters. CCCs are used by
some countries in visa and immigration applications and they also occur in
financial messages to communicate Chinese names when the Chinese
characters themselves cannot be present.
Regulators are taking an interest in potential gaps in sanctions compliance
from not scanning CCCs. The problem extends to payments, FX and trade
finance all of which may contain CCCs. If a bank is only scanning Latin
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names on regulatory watch lists, it may inadvertently accept or make
payments to a sanctioned entity.
Real-time filtering of financial messages against sanctions lists is crucial in
any bank. Therefore, Logica in conjunction with Dow Jones, has created
an informative and interesting Webinar looking at how Chinese names
could be creating a gap in your compliance programme.
Accenture
One of the leading telecommunications and ICT service providers in the
Netherlands, has selected Accenture to develop and maintain innovative
television services based on the Accenture Video Solution.
Under the agreement, Accenture will improve service performance and
deliver KPN’s interactive TV service to multiple devices (TV, tablets and
smartphones). Using Accenture’s software-based open architecture, KPN
is able to offer a unique viewing experience. This new integrated solution
will add features to the market leading iTV and iTV Online services that
KPN offers to the Dutch retail and wholesale markets.
“We will provide KPN a complete portfolio of innovative digital services
that will enable subscribers to watch TV on more devices,” said Marco
Vernocchi, Managing Director of Accenture’s Media & Entertainment
industry group. “We believe the Accenture Video Solution deployed by
KPN is now one of the industry’s most comprehensive, feature-rich video
software and services platform available today.”
KPN’s iTV Online Services leverage KPN’s Content Delivery Network
(CDN) for content streaming. The CDN provides various business-tobusiness and consumer services using the latest technology and is built to
stringent network standards that translate into improved picture stability
and a best-in-class adaptive streaming services for KPN’s clients.
Through its video software and services capabilities, Accenture is making
it possible for KPN to provide its subscribers with an advanced
multiscreen video experience, remote recording capabilities, ‘catch-up’ TV
allowing users to select and view video on demand, and adaptive
streaming for consistent quality of service experience. In addition,
Accenture plans to develop and deliver innovative new features and
services designed to provide KPN’s subscribers with a superior user
experience.
The above information has been sourced from a range of media publications and
statements made in public company announcements. Latitude Executive Consulting
acknowledges all copyright and trade names. The information does not represent Latitude
Executive Consulting’s view or opinions. Copyright, Latitude Executive Consulting, 2012.
Please contact Latitude Executive Consulting at:
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Email: reply@latitudeexec.com www.latitudeexec.com
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Introducing Latitude Executive Consulting
Latitude Executive Consulting, founded in 2003, has a wealth of experience in
hiring senior leadership and commercial profiles spanning every major sector
and geography. Our teams of experienced, market-specific Consultants and
multi-lingual Researchers ensure the successful delivery of assignments
globally.
Our expertise has created an exacting and contemporary recruitment service
that is thorough yet agile. We have the flexibility to source people expediently,
enabling our clients to hire the best possible talent in the shortest practical
timescales.
Through the utilisation of market leading technology, processes and
infrastructure we engage in a combination of methodologies to maintain,
update and grow a community of function and sector specific contacts. Through
constant communication with this network we are kept appraised of all market
developments and are able to track individuals throughout their careers.
Our approach applies the highest standards of professionalism through a
proven delivery mechanism that never compromises on quality.
Contact
Please call us on 020 7484 5055 or visit www.latitudeexec.com for more
information on our range of services.
Please contact Latitude Executive Consulting at:
Golden Cross House, 8 Duncannon Street, London, WC2N 4JF T: 020 7484 5055
Email: reply@latitudeexec.com www.latitudeexec.com
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