KPMG Appoints Amit Khanna To Lead Data Analytics Practice

KPMG has announced the appointment of Amit Khanna who will be leading the Data Analytics practice for KPMG in India. Amit Khanna joins KPMG from Accenture, where he was the Partner & Lead for Advance Analytics Delivery & Solution Centre for their Indian and Global Operations.

Amit Khanna has over 16 years of rich experience in the field of analytics consulting, analytics capability development, marketing and customer management, pricing and revenue enhancement. In his prior experience, Amit also held crucial roles at Genpact, JT International and Perfetti Van Melle, India.

Richard Rekhy, CEO, KPMG in India said, “Data Analytics has emerged as one of the biggest challenges faced by organisations today. Building the practice is an essential step towards strengthening our strategic services. We believe this will be critical to the success of our business in India.  KPMG in India is committed to being a leader in this space and shaping the future of Data and Analytics service offerings. Under Amit’s able leadership, we endeavour to enable our clients achieve organisational growth and strategic transformation.”

Amit holds an MBA from MDI Gurgaon and was a part of the Global Advance Management Program at ISB - Kellogg University.

Mercedes-Benz India To Revise Prices From 1 Jan 2014
Mercedes-Benz India has announced an upwards revision of the price on its complete range of cars from 1st January 2014. The quantum of price revision will be up to 10 per cent.

Eberhard Kern, Managing Director & CEO, Mercedes-Benz India commented, “Mercedes-Benz stands out for its iconic luxury offerings and continues to be admired for its complete luxury product experience. A fantastic year of offensive focus has helped us achieve tremendous success in India despite challenging market conditions and we will continue to build on our success by further enhancing  our after-sales programmes, dealer network and  customer support. As market dynamics continue to evolve we are committed to offer the best luxury experience and delight our valued customers.”

Customers can avail benefits of attractive tailor made financial solutions from Mercedes-Benz Financial Services like ‘Flexinomics’, ‘STAR Agility’ and ‘STAR Supersonic’ loan approvals etc. thus enabling a hassle free purchase, while our after-sales programmes like Star Care, Star Ease and Road Side Assistance, will enhance the customer’s overall ownership experience.

Dell Launches ‘My Dell Rewards’, A Facebook Engagement Program
Dell India, a technology solutions provider has announced its Facebook Engagement program called “My Dell Rewards”, designed to connect the brand more closely with end users of technology.

A customer focused program aimed at building a deeper engagement with consumers, the Facebook Rewards Program is a first of its kind exclusive engagement initiative.

Ritu Gupta, Director, Marketing, Dell India said, “Social media forums such as Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn play a major role for us to reach out and connect with our customers. It not only gives us the option to market ourselves, but also to engage with our consumers and understand what they are saying about us. We are able to do this better than before, thanks to social media and to all the conversations that are happening within that sphere.”

The program is built around three levels of engagement for audiences to obtain and accrue reward points. The first level is simply to registerwith the program on Dell India’s Facebook page. Users can then increase points by referring the program to friends, family, acquaintances on their social network.

The third level of engagement will involve users to be a part of ongoing conversations and participate in contests hosted on the Dell India Facebook page. Participation in these activities will help users to earn and accumulate points on an ongoing basis. These reward points will be redeemable on purchase of Dell products from Dell’s online retail portal- Dell Express Ship Affiliate (DESA). These points are also transferrable, so users can also gift them to a friend or a loved one.

GETIT Launches Services In Malaysia
GETIT Transnational (P) Limited, the international arm of GETIT Infomedia, has announced that it has launched local search and classifieds services in Malaysia, in association with MaxisBerhad (Maxis), Malaysia’s only integrated communications service provider. The services will be marketed under the brand ‘FINDIT – Malaysia’.
 
GETIT has entered into an exclusive agreement with Maxis to make FINDIT services available to all Maxis users via USSD, Mobile Apps, WAP& WEB services.
 
T. Kugan, Maxis’ Head of Digital Services, said, “Our partnership with GETIT is another positive step forward in bringing innovative services to our consumers and enterprise customers. The products envisaged have immense use in a consumer’s day to day life, the platform and technology is cutting edge and it all integrates seamlessly into our portfolio.”
 
Sidharth Gupta, Executive Director, GETIT Transnational said, “Our Malaysian launch demonstrates Getit’s ability to use its decades of experience and IP to create a formidable value proposition for International Telco customers. Services are focused on mobile devices and have massive scope.  We will be developing newer markets and offering well integrated products. The response thus far has been tremendous.”

DB Schenker Unveiled As Logistics Provider For Glasgow 2014 Commonwealth Games
DB Schenker, a leading provider of integrated logistics services with global reach, has announced as official logistics provider for the Commonwealth Games.

DB Schenker will provide warehouse space, warehouse operations including staff and equipment, and freight transportation services. The company will provide an end to end service for the Games and has extensive experience in the provision of logistics services for major sporting events.

DB Schenker was an Official Provider at two previous Commonwealth Games, Manchester 2002 and Melbourne 2006, and were also an exclusive supplier at the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games.

Ty Speer, Glasgow 2014 Deputy Chief Executive, said: "Their local presence in Scotland is an important factor as it means they know the operating environment here in Glasgow to ensure all requirements are delivered in full and on time."

Dassault Systèmes To Acquire Realtime Technology AG
Dassault Systèmes, the 3DExperience company, has announced the signing of an acquisition agreementfor an 84 per cent controlling interest in Realtime Technology AG (RTT) (Ticker Symbol: R1T), the leading provider of professional high-end 3D visualisation software, marketing solutions and computer generated imagery services, benefiting from the development of the fast-growing marketing automation market.
 
This acquisition of Munich-based RTT will include its software division, known for its Delta Gen, Picture Book, POS Configurator andother solutions, and its marketing consulting services. It will also include subsidiaryBunkspeed,with its line of powerful and intuitive rendering software. RTT’s list of customersincludes Hugo Boss,adidas, Airbus, Audi, BMW, Daimler, Electrolux, Eurocopter,Ferrari, General Motors, Harley-Davidson, Nissan, Porsche, TheNorth Face, Toyota and Volkswagen.
 
Bernard Charlès, President & CEO of Dassault Systèmes said: “In today's experience economy, brands demand seamless interplay of 3Ddesign, marketing and sales applications to create high-impact storytelling across all channels,” said Monica Menghini, Executive Vice President, Industry & Marketing, Dassault Systèmes. “Dassault Systèmesvalues the software and service portfolio that RTTwill bring to our 3DEXPERIENCE strategy because3Dmarketing, interactive movies and catalog generators represent the hallmark of successful marketers in the age of experience.”

Android Malware Would Reach 1 Mn Milestone By The End Of The Year
At the end of the second quarter of 2013, Trend Micro found there to be 700 thousand malicious and risky apps in the world, leading it to predict that Android malware would reach the dubious one million milestone by the end of the year. But that day has arrived one quarter early.

Dhanya Thakkar, Managing Director, India & SAARC, Trend Micro said “Our Mobile App Reputation data indicates that there are now one million mobile malware (such as premium service abusers) and high-risk apps (apps that aggressively serve ads that lead to dubious sites). Among the one million questionable apps we found, 80% perform outright malicious routines, while 20% exhibits dubious routines, which include adware."

Beyond the dangers malicious apps posed, mobile devices were also hit by threats that transcended platforms. These include a fake WhatsApp email containing a link that, when clicked using a mobile device, may lead to a site that hosts a premium service abuser. This was not the first time that mobile devices were targeted by multi-platform threats. In this case though, the attackers opted to use spam as infection vector instead of relying on a more “direct” approach like blackhat search engine optimization (SEO) or social media abuse.

The OPFAKE malware is similar to FAKEINST, in that it mimics legitimate apps. However, a variant (ANDROIDOS_OPFAKE.CTD) was found to open an HTML file that asks users to download a possibly malicious file.

On the high-risk apps front, ARPUSH and LEADBLT lead the pack, gathering 33 per cent and 27 per cent of the total number, respectively. Both are known adware and infostealers, collecting device-related data such as OS information, GPS location, IMEI and so on, according to Trend Micro.

ASUS, Google Launch All-New Nexus 7 In India
ASUS and Google have announced the launch of the all new Nexus 7 - thinner, lighter, and faster. The new Nexus 7 comes with the 7-inch IPS display delivers unmatched visual acuity and sharpness. With over 2.3 million pixels packed in to the screen at 1920 x 1200 with 323 pixels per inch (PPI), it’s the sharpest ever screen on a 7-inch tablet and with a rated brightness of 400 nits, its bright enough for outdoor use too.
 
Peter Chang, Regional Head - South Asia & Country Manager – System Business Group - ASUS India said: "The quality of the pixels has been improved with a 30 per cent wider color gamut than the previous generation model; ensuring colors are both accurate and vibrant to further enhance the user experience. Our constant quest for the incredible has led us to further innovate and deliver a device which is the ultimate blend of power and portability."
 
The new Nexus 7 has thinner bezels and slimmer profile for more comfortable one-handed use. It has a 7-inch 16:10 Full HD (1920 x 1200 WUXGA) display with a 30 percent wider color gamut and 10-finger multi-touch; Rear-facing 5 megapixel camera with large f/2.4 aperture; Quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 Pro (APQ8064-1AA, with Krait 300 cores) processor running at 1.5GHz; 2GB RAM; Up to 32GB of fast internal eMMC storage with FSTRIM function; Dual stereo SonicMaster speakers with Fraunhofer Cingo virtual surround sound technology; Wireless charging and Lead device for Android 4.3.
 
The all New Nexus 7 (2013) will be available at Croma, Reliance Digital, Vijay Sales &all other leading Retail outlets.