The control room on the Snorre A platform in the North Sea.

(Photo: Even Kleppa - Woldcam / Equinor ASA)

Offshore staff

STAVANGER, Norway Equinor has awarded new framework agreements to five suppliers for safety and automation systems for its facilities across the Norwegian continental shelf.

The agreements may also be extended to the companys international E&P activities and for new development projects.

Total value of the five-year fixed periods is just above NOK5 billion ($554 million), with three five-year extension options depending on the lifespan of the installations.

The arrangements cover daily operation and maintenance, modifications and upgrading, with cyber security an increasingly important part of the work scope.

Kongsberg Maritime: Norne, Heidrun A and B, sgard A and B, Kristin, K-lab Krst, Statfjord A, B, C and Johan Sverdrup. Mariner has a separate agreement.

Siemens: Troll C, Oseberg field center, Oseberg East, Oseberg South, Njord A + B, Visund and Snorre A and B.

ABB: Krst, Kollsnes, Mongstad, Sture, Tjeldbergodden and Snhvit (all onshore plants) Troll A, Oseberg C, Gullfaks A, B, C, Sleipner, Aasta Hansteen, Johan Castberg, Draupner, Grane, Gudrun, Heimdal and Veslefrikk. Peregrino (Brazil) has a separate agreement.

Honeywell: Valemon, Kvitebjrn and Troll B. Kalundborg has a separate agreement.

Emerson: Gina Krog and Martin Linge.

12/18/2019

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Equinor ties up offshore Norway automation, safety needs - Offshore Oil and Gas Magazine

MELVILLE, N.Y.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Verint Systems Inc. (Nasdaq: VRNT), The Customer Engagement Company, today announced that it received the highest overall vendor satisfaction, product, professional services and product innovation scores from customers according to DMG Consulting LLCs new 2019-2020 Robotic Process Automation (RPA) Product and Market Report*.

On the heels of these new rankings, Verint is continuing to expand its RPA leadership position via the introduction of a new analytics solution Robotic Process Automation Discovery to help organizations best leverage RPA in the cloud or on premise to accelerate time-to-value in intelligent automation initiatives.

Verint RPA: High Customer Satisfaction Scores in All Three DMG Ratings Categories

The DMG report provides extensive analysis of the RPA market and vendors who offer solutions that address service, contact center, back-office and other enterprise uses. Verint received the highest customer scores among all featured vendors in Vendor Satisfaction ratings for professional services and product innovation, while tying for highest scores in product, implementation, and responsiveness to product enhancement requests. Verint also received the highest scores among all vendors covered in the report for six product capabilities and seven product effectiveness categories.

Commenting on the overall RPA market outlook, Donna Fluss, president, DMG Consulting, says: DMG expects the pace of growth to remain very strong, experiencing year-over-year increases of 100% or more in each of the next five years. Use cases for RPA are growing in both front- and back-office operations, and organizations are beginning to appreciate the benefits of a collaborative, hybrid workforce.

Verint Robotic Process Automation Discovery

One of the biggest challenges facing organizations in digital transformation is identifying automation opportunities. Verints new Robotic Process Automation Discovery solution provides actionable insight into enterprise workflows, to identify automation opportunities with the greatest potential for return on investment, while streamlining RPA development and deployment. Activities that previously took consultants months to deliver, can now be completed in a few weeks.

Verints solution leverages AI to automatically capture information behind the scenes on how business applications are used for daily tasks, analyze information to map tasks to processes, determine key trends and identify automation opportunities with the highest ROI, based on factors such as worker hourly rates and average handle time. AI drives workflow generation to make RPA development and deployment easier, faster, and more efficient.

Automation Discovery identifies and discovers what processes can be improved through automation, says Verints John Goodson, SVP and general manager, Products. Achieving this kind of profound visibility can eliminate the noise associated with process automation and have a positive, rapid impact on digital transformation initiatives.

Read the latest blog, Speed RPA Process Selection and Time to Value. To learn more about Verints Robotic Process Automation solution, click here.

About Verint Systems Inc.

Verint (Nasdaq: VRNT) is a global leader in Actionable Intelligence solutions with a focus on customer engagement optimization and cyber intelligence. Today, over 10,000 organizations in more than 180 countriesincluding over 85 percent of the Fortune 100count on intelligence from Verint solutions to make more informed, effective and timely decisions. Learn more about how were creating A Smarter World with Actionable Intelligence at http://www.verint.com.

* Source: DMG Consulting LLC, 2019-2020 Robotic Process Automation Product and Market Report, published Q3 2019

This press release contains forward-looking statements, including statements regarding expectations, predictions, views, opportunities, plans, strategies, beliefs, and statements of similar effect relating to Verint Systems Inc. These forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance and they are based on management's expectations that involve a number of risks, uncertainties and assumptions, any of which could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed in or implied by the forward-looking statements. For a detailed discussion of these risk factors, see our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended January 31, 2019, our Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the quarter ended October 31, 2019, and other filings we make with the SEC. The forward-looking statements contained in this press release are made as of the date of this press release and, except as required by law, Verint assumes no obligation to update or revise them or to provide reasons why actual results may differ.

VERINT, ACTIONABLE INTELLIGENCE, THE CUSTOMER ENGAGEMENT COMPANY, CUSTOMER ENGAGEMENT SOLUTIONS, CYBER INTELLIGENCE SOLUTIONS, GI2, FIRSTMILE, OMNIX, WEBINT, LUMINAR, RELIANT, VANTAGE, STAR-GATE, TERROGENCE, SENSECY, and VIGIA are trademarks or registered trademarks of Verint Systems Inc. or its subsidiaries. Verint and other parties may also have trademark rights in other terms used herein.

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Customers Rank Verint Highest in Overall Vendor Satisfaction in New Report on Robotic Process Automation - Business Wire

The findings from Canada Life Group Insurance show that workers aged 50 and over are more likely to feel cautious, unsure and underprepared than those aged under 40.

It was also found that more than half of employees aged over 60 believe they will need to learn new skills to adapt to automation, compared with two-fifths of staff of all ages.

The researchers, which surveyed over 1,000 workers last month, said this suggests that older people are especially concerned about their skills becoming outdated.

While we tend to think about automation in terms of drastic changes like robot assembly lines, it is more widespread and subtle than many realise, said Canada Life Group Insurance marketing director, Paul Avis.

Employees are rightly cautious about its potential impact, with some already recognising it might redefine job roles or require staff to learn new skills."

It was also found that 37% of workers expect people to be replaced by automation, while 28% think the trend will leave staff feeling less in control of their working lives.

There are also fears around health and wellbeing, with 56% of respondents saying that the prospect of greater automation affects their mental health in some way.

Of these, a third say it creates increased pressure to be "always on", while a similar proportion are concerned that their job will fundamentally change as a result of automation.

A third are also anxious or worried about losing their job, and a quarter of employees are concerned that they wont be able to work with or understand new systems.

Almost one in five believe automation makes workers less likely to take time off sick for fear of appearing replaceable.

If automation becomes more widespread, two in five workers said that an employee assistance programme would show them that their employer cares about their health and wellbeing.

Income protection, private healthcare and wellbeing perks were also mentioned as initiatives that could help reassure them.

Despite fears around mental health and job security, the findings also show that 20% of employees are comfortable with the prospect of automation, while 17% are excited by it.

"Employers should communicate clearly with their staff and tackle any fears head-on to ensure increased automation isnt associated with constantly working and being always on," Avis said.

Support through employee assistance programmes provided with most group income protection products alongside other wellbeing benefits, can help to protect staff wellbeing during this complex transition period.

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Older workers most anxious about automation - The Actuary

To accelerate the creation of an e-commerce infrastructure, Albertsons Cos. has formed a strategic partnership with automation specialist Takeoff Technologies to open micro-fulfillment centers (MFCs) for online grocery orders.

Albertsons said Thursday that the move expands its relationship with Waltham, Mass.-based Takeoff. Last year, the companies unveiled plans to pilot Albertsons first MFC at a Safeway supermarket in South San Francisco. The facility began operating on Oct. 23.

Related: Albertsons appoints new chief customer & digital officer

Under the wider partnership, Albertsons has agreed to buy more MFCs from Takeoff as it sizes up market expansion opportunities. Another MFC pilot, part of the collaboration that Albertsons and Takeoff announced last fall, is scheduled to kick off before the years end at a Safeway store in San Jose, Calif.

Boise, Idaho-based Albertsons, the nations second-largest supermarket retailer, has stores in eight of the 10 largest U.S. metropolitan statistical areas (MSAs).

Related: Supermarket chains step up automation to power online grocery

The micro-fulfillment center model is a key element in the store of the future, Albertsons Cos. President and CEO Vivek Sankaran said in a statement. It combines the efficiency of automation with the ease of meeting customers when and how they want to shop. In working with Takeoff, we can evolve how the MFC ties into our store and e-commerce ecosystems and accelerate our path to best serve our customers.

Situated inside existing stores, Takeoffs MFCs typically run around 10,000 square feet and hold 15,000 to 18,000 of the local markets most popular products, according to Albertsons. The retailer noted that the facilities combine the proximity of brick-and-mortar stores with the productivity of a large automated warehouse.

Takeoff's MFC solution can process about 3,500 online grocery orders weekly week per location for a two-hour service.

Compared with other fulfillment schemes for online grocery, such as a centralized model, MFCs offer a lower cost to build, faster rollout timetable and quicker time to serve, since the facilities are located near shoppers.

In collaborating with Takeoff, were able to leverage their thought leadership in e-commerce fulfillment with our expertise in running great grocery stores that meet customers everyday needs, and thats exciting turf for us, commented Chris Rupp, executive vice president and chief customer and digital officer at Albertsons. By placing an MFC in an existing store close to customers, we can carry a diverse and locally relevant selection of products with the friendly touch of our local team to service the customer.

Takeoff said its artificial intelligence-enabled robots can assemble grocery orders of up to 60 items in less than five minutes, a fraction of the speed and cost of current manual-picking options. For the robotics technology, Takeoff has an exclusive agreement with Knapp, a global provider of automated warehouse solutions.

We are thrilled to broaden our partnership with Albertsons Cos., a clear leader in grocery retailing and a key player shaping the future of eGroceries, stated Max Pedro, co-founder and president of Takeoff. With our strategic partnership, were confident well be able to add significant value to their business and consumers as we work in partnership to define the future of e-commerce.

The robotics can pick about 800 items per hour versus 60 items for manual in-store picking, and the system can process approximately 3,500 online grocery orders weekly week per location for a two-hour service. Takeoff noted that retailers can use its solution to leverage underutilized real estate and turn existing stores into micro distribution centers. And with real-time information about inventory, automated fulfillment can dramatically reduce or even eliminate product substitutions.

The grocery industry is transforming its way into the future, and the winners will be the ones getting it right first, added Takeoff co-founder and CEO Jos Aguerrevere. Albertsons Cos. move to expand its micro-fulfillment capability is a clear testament of such transformation.

Overall, Albertsons Cos. operates 2,262 stores in 34 states and the District of Columbia under the banners Albertsons, Safeway, Vons, Pavilions, Randalls, Tom Thumb, Carrs, Jewel-Osco, Acme, Shaw's, Star Market, United Supermarkets, Market Street, Amigos, Haggen and United Express.

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Albertsons, Takeoff Technologies expand automation partnership - Supermarket News

December 18,2019 Keysight Technologies, a technology company that helps enterprises, service providers and governments accelerate innovation to connect and secure the world, announced a collaboration with Nozomi Networks, a provider of industrial cyber security and operational visibility,to deliver a joint solution that enables utilities, oil and gas facilities, and other industrial manufacturing sites to identify and defend against cyberattacks.

The joint solution from Ixia, a Keysight business, and Nozomi Neworks includes anIxia Vision network packet broker(NPB), which collects data from all locations connected to an operational network and delivers it toNozomi Networks Guardianfor real-time processing and analysis. Ixias aggregation of traffic removes duplicate packets and unwanted traffic to improve performance and visibility into critical systems and processes, delivering comprehensive, automated visibility to secure connected operational environments.

The joint solutioncan also beintegrated with security information and event management (SIEM), as well as other systems, to establish automated threat response to indicators of compromise (IoCs). In addition, Ixias NPBs integrate with tools such as firewalls to improve policy enforcement and mitigate unwanted traffic.

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Keysight Technologies and Nozomi Networks collaborate to deliver industrial cyberdefense solution - Automation.com

Government and businesses are being urged to prepare for reskilling workers at risk from automation as almost half of the Scots population said they feared their jobs were at risk.

A study, conducted by PwC showed 45% of Scottish employees worried about being replaced by technology compared to just 38% across the UK.

Most workers in Scotland believe quotas should be introduced to protect human jobs from robots. However, there is a huge appetite among the Scottish workforce to evolve in-step with automation and reskill, according to the study.

Opito CEO John McDonald, said technological advances were creating jobs in the oil and gas industry and said it shouldnt be feared if we work together to ensure training and qualification is effecitively delivered.

He said: Advances such as Artificial Intelligence, automation and robotics are having a progressive and positive impact on the energy sector as it moves towards a lower carbon future. These new ways of working are creating thousands of job opportunities in positions which are either not in existence today or are an evolution of current roles.

It is imperative that we take a collective responsibility to ensure jobs can be protected as well as created by providing the training and qualifications needed to elevate peoples capabilities. As the global skills body for the energy industry, we are working closely with governments as well as employers, trade unions, and academic institutions to deliver a strategic route map which will support the transformation of the sector and benefit todays workforce and future generations.

Stephen Ashley, digital solution centre manager at the Oil and Gas Technology Centre (OGTC) said the energy industry needed to provide a clear landscape for the digital transition.

He added: By 2025, 4,500 people will be in brand new roles that currently do not exist. This will only be made possible by harnessing the indigenous skills and expertise of the existing North Sea workforce, through development opportunities, utilising technology as a tool to train and simulate, to upskill and evolve positioning the UKCS as a pioneer at the heart of innovation.

The Making the UK fairer: How we work report found that workers also believe the UK government and businesses are responsible for ensuring the current workforce is reskilled where required, as automation begins to play an increasing role in the likes of manufacturing and production of goods.

More than one in seven Scots said they would be willing to take an online training course if their job was at risk to automation, with 64% willing to study full-time via distance learning and 51% prepared to study full-time at college or university. This acceptance of automation was compounded with 55% prepared to accept a lower or entry-level position at another company, and almost half (47%) prepared to take a lower salary.

The majority of Scots believe the job they are doing now will be different in 10 years time, inversing the view of workers across the UK. When asked to consider someone doing their job in a decade, 51% said it would be different, with 49% believing it would be the same. At a nationwide level, just 46% said it would be different.

Stewart Wilson, head of government and public sector of PwC in Scotland, said that with the world of work rapidly changing, government, employers and workers all have a responsibility to respond.

He said: It is reassuring to see that so many people working in Scotland today both recognise the role that automation is going to play, and that they are keen to develop new skills in response to this. However, what our research tells us is that Government and business must ensure they collaborate to create opportunities for everyone and that work must begin now.

Our research has previously projected that more jobs will be created as a consequence of auto-mation in Scotland than displaced leading to a net benefit. But we must recognise that while automation can improve the lives of skilled workers it may make life more difficult for those less skilled and so the UK and Scottish Governments, along with local authorities and businesses need to work together to invest in upskilling initiatives which will benefit the whole workforce.

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Huge appetite among the Scottish workforce to evolve in-step with automation - News for the Oil and Gas Sector - Energy Voice

LEHI, Utah, Dec. 17, 2019 /PRNewswire/ --SaltStack, the creators of intelligent automation software for security operations teams, today announced SaltStack Enterprise is now certified with the ServiceNow New York release with an app now available in the ServiceNow Store. This ServiceNow-certified integration combines the strengths of the SaltStack and ServiceNow platforms for best-in-class closed-loop IT and security automation eliminating manual work, improving median time to repair (MTTR), and remediating critical security issues at any scale.

The SaltStack integration with ServiceNow bridges the gap between process and technology by empowering end users with self-service automation while simultaneously ensuring that least-privileged access and business rules remain in force. Users can run or request powerful SaltStack automation jobs directly from ServiceNow. System administrators can restrict access by user or group role, with the capacity to build each job into ServiceNow workflows for request, approval, testing, execution, and disposition.

"Our joint customers can now easily utilize the power of ServiceNow workflow automation integrated with SaltStack infrastructure automation for security and IT operations teams," said Alex Peay, SaltStack SVP of product. "We've received substantial customer demand for this integration and see notable value in the integration of both platforms to deliver more accessible and intuitive automation for IT and security operations teams."

The SaltStack integration with ServiceNow was delivered with the SaltStack Enterprise 6.1 release and uses a bi-directional API to surface SaltStack functionality and run SaltStack commands directly from the ServiceNow interface, allowing IT to provide end users such as departmental IT, support, and development teams with role-based access to powerful infrastructure automation. This combination reduces redundant support tickets and enables highly-skilled engineers to spend more time focusing on the work that moves business forward.

Key use cases for SaltStack integrated with ServiceNow include:

Additional Resources:

About SaltStackSaltStack intelligent IT automation software is used to help the largest businesses in the world manage and secure their digital infrastructure. Known for its powerful event-driven infrastructure automation engine, SaltStack is designed to control, optimize, and secure the inherent complexity of Web-scale while providing efficient, collaborative solutions for ITOps, SecOps, NetOps, and DevOps teams. https://www.saltstack.com

Originally posted here:

SaltStack Integrates with ServiceNow to Deliver Closed-Loop IT and Security Automation - The Herald Journal

Dive Brief:

Banks were projected to invest more than $5 billion in artificial intelligence in 2019, according to a September report by International Data Corp., up from $4 billion last year. Meanwhile, technological advances could cost the banking sector more than 200,000 jobs over the next decade, Wells Fargo Securities predicted in a report the following month.

Still, the Accenture report emphasized a greater reliance on automation can empower human employees to focus on higher-value work such as innovation, relationship building and customer service.

"Rather than removing the human touch from financial services, technology can enable organizations to offer more personalized and more human experiences at scale,"said Bridie Fanning, who leads Accentures talent and organization group. "By automating tasks in both the front and back office, financial services companies can provide employees with meaningful work and develop client relationships that are characterized more by human ingenuity than routine transactions."

The Accenture study cited account reconciliation and data entry and gathering as among the 10% of tasks that could see complete automation by 2025. Artificial intelligence, meanwhile, can help loan officers determine default risks more accurately and help financial advisers make personalized real-time recommendations, the study suggested.

"Its an opportunity as opposed to something to fear,"Wahlstrom told Bloomberg. "Done right, its going to be great both in terms of productivity savings and ultimately client experience."

Accentures findings reinforce Bank of New York Mellons recent pivot toward AI. The bank has deployed 300 bots that execute about 5 million processes across businesses and functions.

"These robots are doing manual work,"Roman Regelman, BNY Mellons senior executive vice president and head of digital, told American Banker in October. "Theyre doing stuff that humans can do, but dont like to do, and often dont do that well. That allows the humans we have, the employees, to spend time on more value-added activities, like spending time with clients and spending time on more complicated cases."

The bank is set to accelerate its technology spend in 2020, Todd Gibbons, BNY Mellons interim chief executive, said last week, without specifically detailing by how much. The banks software and equipment expenses in the third quarter rose to $309 million, an 18% jump from a year earlier, according to American Banker.

"The future of AI is not AI alone, but what we call AI and human intelligence,"Regelman said. "Its not about robots replacing people, and its not about people fighting with the machines. Its them working together as artificial intelligence plus human intelligence. When they work together, we have something very different that fundamentally unlocks something neither can do."

JPMorgan Chase, meanwhile, is looking to use AI to develop products and services to help people build retirement savings, the banks chief information officer, Lori Beer, said at a conference last week, according to The Wall Street Journal.

"I do think we are uniquely positioned to really have an impact on how AI will address social-economic issues that provide wider access to financial services in our communities,"she said.

That positioning is a result of the banks access to about 390 million gigabytes of data.

This is not to say the bank wont also use AI for efficiencies. At the same conference, Beer said the bank has started using machine learning technology to process expense reports and determine whether they comply with company policies.

Wells Fargo fired or suspended more than a dozen employees last year for allegedly falsifying expense reports, The Wall Street Journal reported.

Automating expense-report scrutiny "[takes] some bureaucracy out of our managers hands,"and eliminates the need to farm out the analysis to auditors, Beer said.

JPMorgan Chase has made several moves this year to enhance its AI footprint. It signed a five-year deal in July to use Persados AI to generate marketing copy. CEO Jamie Dimon told shareholders in an April letter that machine learning could help the bank save $150 million by better detecting credit-card fraud.

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Banking automation's potential can unlock more than $70B in value by 2025 - Banking Dive

The robotics and automation industry keeps growing each year. Many of us can be thankful for that as automation can remove the tedious work we sometimes have to do as workers.

UiPath, the fastest growing and leading provider of Robotic Process Automation (RPA) and Artificial Intelligence (AI) software worldwide, is one of the many companies working in the robotics and automation world.

Daniel Dines, UiPath's CEO and co-founder spoke at the TechCrunch Disrupt conference in Berlin on Thursday to explain how the average person can access the benefits of automation.

RELATED: 7 OF THE BEST ROBOTICS EVENTS COMING UP IN 2020

For Dines, us humans created automation processes, he said that we put the systems in place that means we use interfaces at work.

At UiPath their interface replicates the human steps and processes human readable interfaces into technology.

The biggest challenge is that we are used to these work processes, so it is tricky to push people to start new ways of operating. The way UiPath began instilling this in their own company was by using this technology, proving it's possible to embrace new processes.

This may be a smoother process with a small company, however, Dines pointed out that this is possible with bigger companies too.

For instance, in just 18 monthsUiPath employed more than2,000 employees. This is incredibly fast scaling, meaning processes need to be added quickly, and managing an entire organization has to be a smooth process.

Streamlining processes and getting rid of bureaucracy by introducing automation were high priorities for Dines and his company.

Automation was not created to replace jobs, according to Dines. People rarely do simple tasks in their work, their jobs usually consist of a series of activities, which robots can't do. Only 5% of jobs can be fully automated, even with state of the art technology.

That said, tech can change jobs for the better. Just take the farming industry and how quickly it's improved in the past century. From manual and very hard labor, much of the work is automated nowadays.

Dines wants to "take the robot out of the human", to make jobs more interesting for humans in the end, as the simpler tasks that are sometimes hard can be taken over by automation.

Dines predicted that in two years the top ten companies in the world will seriously adopt automation into their processes.

People will understand that robots are their friends. At the moment it's still focused on the 'Terminator' stance, but that will change soon and quickly.

Originally posted here:

How to Access the Benefits of Automation as an Average Person - Interesting Engineering

Online commerce giant eBay has relaunched its dedicated mobile app for car sellers and buyers, more than four years after killing the app. The eBay Motors app has been in beta for a few months, and version 1.0 is now live for Android and iOS.

The new incarnation sports a number of notable automated features to help people sell their vehicles, including an image-categorization tool that groups photos by type, which was built using Googles AutoML Vision Edge tool for Firebase. The app has also been rebuilt from the ground up using Flutter, Googles open source platform for developing cross-platform apps based on the same codebase.

For background, eBay first launched a dedicated mobile app for cars back in 2011, but ended up pulling the app alongside three other standalone apps in 2015 as it consolidated its services under the main eBay platform. Fast forward to 2019, and eBay Motors has risen from the dead with a renewed focus on helping individuals compete with professional dealers with as little friction as possible.

Its worth noting that eBay is no stranger to computer vision the main eBay app has offered visual search tools for a few years. The eBay Motors app itself offered a visual search tool as far back as 2012, allowing users to snap a photo of a car in the real world to find similar vehicles on eBay.

But with advances in technology and edge computing, the 2019 incarnation of the app is a different beast, with all the image processing now taking place on the phones themselves. This shows how far weve come in terms of the power of off-the-shelf solutions such as AutoML Vision Edge. According to eBay, its algorithm was created by a single engineer in a matter of days, using just a few hundred photos from existing eBay listings to train the model.

The ease-of-development speaks to the maturity of AI (artificial intelligence) and ML (machine learning), which have moved beyond the province of data scientists to off-the-shelf tools which are available to software engineers, eBay wrote in a blog post.

Being able to instantly categorize photos might seem like a minor factor for sellers, but images are particularly important for anyone looking to sell a vehicle. The average number of photos someone uses to sell a car on eBay is 15 to 20, though you can upload as many as 100. Thats a lot of photos to sift through for casual individual sellers and if theyre competing against professional dealers, this puts them at a disadvantage. Moreover, eBay itself is an attractive option for auto enthusiasts looking to get into the nuts and bolts of a car, so being able to automatically group pictures by type, allowing enthusiasts to easily see the engine, will help it compete with other similar sites.

With the new eBay Motors app, users can snap photos via their phones camera and upload them, and the app will group them by exterior, interior, and engine / drivetrain. This covers most of the likely areas that different buyers will be interested in some people care more about the look of a car, and some are more concerned with what its like inside. And the car geeks probably want to have a peek under the hood.

Above: eBay Motors: Photos grouped by interior, exterior, and engine.

Additionally, this method of grouping photos will give amateur listings a more professional look. User testing of the eBay Motors app showed that photos which are well-organized into three buckets make buyers feel the listing is more trustworthy, eBay wrote.

As an aside here, while eBay already allowed users to embed videos directly from sites such as YouTube, the new eBay Motors app will now support video uploads a first for any eBay app.

Elsewhere in the automation realm, the eBay Motors app also now lets users snap a photo of their license plate to automatically pull in all the relevant details, including make, model, and year.

Above: eBay Motors: Scan a license plate to upload a cars information.

Looking to the future, eBay said that next year it will introduce a new feature that uses AI to help sellers generate a description of the vehicle. The app will ask the seller to provide a few pieces of information about the car, such as the condition and any modifications that have been made, and then the eBay Motors app will use a natural language generation model to create a description. This fits into a trend weve seen elsewhere, where publishers like the Associated Press (AP) produce journalistic content, such as sports and finance reporting, written by algorithms based on data points.

While eBay Motors is a niche app focused squarely at one market, its worth noting that the U.S. used-car industry shifts more than double the number of vehicles each year compared to new ones. In other words, eBay Motors taps a gargantuan market, and that is why eBay has elected to relaunch a dedicated mobile app for the segment.

With these various automation features combined, eBay said that sellers should be able to list their vehicles directly from their phone in less than 5 minutes. Ultimately, the less friction there is, the better both for the seller and for eBay.

With the new launch, were serving an elevated experience that is unrivaled in the market for buyers and sellers alike, and is a game changer in the way users buy and sell cars, noted eBay Vehicles general manager Ron Jaiven.

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eBay relaunches Motors app with AI and automation at its core - VentureBeat

For the Second Consecutive Year, Financialforce Is the #1 PSA Leader Recognized by G2

FinancialForce, the #1 Enterprise Professional Services Automation (PSA) and the only customer-centric ERP (CCERP) cloud solution, has been named a Leader in G2s latest Main (overall market) Grid, Enterprise Grid, Mid-Market Grid, Small Business Grid and Momentum Grid reports for Professional Services Automation. FinancialForce has also been named a leader in G2s Mid-Market Grid report for Accounting.

G2 recognized FinancialForce for its extremely high customer satisfaction scores and its large market presence. FinancialForce received the highest score among all vendors in G2s Main Grid, Enterprise Grid and Mid-Market Grid for PSA, and was the only Leader for both Accounting and PSA in the Mid-Market.

G2, an online B2B software review platform, ranks products and vendors in an industry grid based on reviews gathered from its online community of software users, as well as data collected from social networks and other online resources. The G2 review platform leverages more than 650,000 independent and authenticated user reviews read by more than 3 million buyers each month.

Being recognized as a leader in the G2 report is a true honor and underscores our unwavering commitment to customers success, said Debbie Ashton, senior vice president, strategic customer experience at FinancialForce. Customer satisfaction is at the very core of our business, and this latest report highlights the fact that users love our market-leading solutions and that we are going above and beyond to deliver the very best customer experience.

Marketing Technology News: Why Your Digital Marketing Strategy Needs Instagram

Highlights from recent FinancialForce PSA and Accounting customer reviews on G2 include:

FinancialForce PSA is very configurable and flexible: The best part of this software is it improves resource management metrics and optimizes project profitability. The integration with Salesforce is wonderful and straightforward.

Above and beyond: The best thing I like about FinancialForce is the simplicityI have worked with a great number of software (applications) and all the time I had the same issue: the environment wasnt user friendly and the support community was the worst. With FinancialForce its the opposite, everything you need is one question away.

The most comprehensive accounting application, period: FinancialForces extensive resources (documentation, video training, and community) make learning the application possible without consultants and formal training. I couldnt be more impressed with their all-in approach on the Salesforce platform.

Marketing Technology News: Bassem Ghali and Green Lotus Nominated for CanadianSME Business Magazines National Business Awards

This latest recognition from G2 adds to the strong industry validation that FinancialForce has received over the past year. FinancialForce was recognized as:

Marketing Technology News: Nimble Named Top 3 Most Popular Small Business CRM in Capterras Top 20 CRM Roundup

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FinancialForce Receives Top Honors for Professional Services Automation and Accounting Software from G2 - MarTech Series

JAXenter: Which issues do database management and monitoring currently have? In what ways can they profit from cloud technologies and automation?

John:One of the biggest challenges DBAs have is keeping up with the growing number and variety of platforms they have to manage. In fact, according to a survey carried out by Unisphere Research, more than two thirds (70 per cent) of DBAs are now managing more than 11 or more databases, and incredibly, 10 per cent were found to actually be managing more than 100! So, all this complexity combined with the astronomic growth of, and the need to protect data means DBAs are spending a disproportionate time dealing with tasks related to keeping the lights on and less time thinking more strategically. Automation, when used properly, can save DBAs many hours of time according to many estimates, as much of 80% of their daily/weekly routine tasks could be automated.

Migration of databases to the cloud is one way to reduce the administration workload, but there is a trade-off. As a DBA, do you go for IaaS or DBaaS? With DBaaS, the cloud services provider manages your databases backups, patching, security, etc, and you have some database monitoring capability for that specific database, but the extent to which you can manage other things like performance tuning, etc. are restricted. Unlike IaaS, where you manage the database, therefore the administrative workload is the same as on-premises, although the business costs (CapEx) will be lower.

An effective monitoring solution that works across all these different databases and environments is a must if you want to lower the administrative footprint. Added complexity means that your MTTR, in the event of a performance issue, will suffer without an effective way to detect, diagnose and resolve problems in a timely manner.

JAXenter: Aside from the positive effects, do you see any downsides in using cloud technologies for database administration?

One reason why we wont see the role of the DBA go away with autonomous databases is because of the importance they play in ensuring the safety of data.

John:The downsides of moving databases to the cloud depend on the type of cloud service the company subscribes to. With DBaaS, the DBA stands the risk of a database being taken down at any time as the service provider performs a backup or applies a security patch (or worse still, the cloud provider suffers an outage). Also, the level of service the company chooses ultimately dictates the monthly subscription cost and many companies over-subscribe because they didnt effectively right size the service ahead of time. Its really important to choose the service tier that is most appropriate for acceptable application performance and that is sometimes a challenge because cloud database behave differently than in a data center.

Another ongoing concern is security and the protection of personal or sensitive data. Having personal data in the cloud does not obviate the companys responsibility to identify and protect it in order to be compliant with data privacy regulations like GDPR and CCPA.

Vendor lock-in is another concern and there is a growing adoption of multi-cloud strategies where companies may choose different cloud providers according to application requirements, cost and risk balance, regional dependencies (e.g. EU provider if having to comply with GDPR).

JAXenter: In your opinion, what impact will autonomous databases have on DBA in the short and long term?

John:Some believe that autonomous databases will impact DBAs to the point that theyll be out of a job. While I dont agree with this, I do believe that the role of the DBA will certainly shift as AI and adaptive machine learning enable organizations to automatically self-patch, self-tune, detect anomalies, and optimize indexes much more quickly and efficiently than manual hands-on processing. DBAs, now free from many of their mundane tasks, will have to take on more strategic roles in developing new business initiatives and focusing on finding new areas where they can provide value, such as DevOps.

One reason why we wont see the role of the DBA go away with autonomous databases is because of the importance they play in ensuring the safety of data. DBAs are responsible for implementing data privacy regulations, ensuring compliance, and as DevSecOps grows, theyll begin to enable things like proper testing in production environments.

In fact, DBAs should consider reinventing themselves as data administrators, since the value of data to the company is huge and the DBA is a key stakeholder who can help drive the business forward. They can be the thought leaders in what database technologies are most appropriate for their applications and help shape company strategy.

JAXenter: NoSQL has been on the rise as well. Do you believe we will keep heading in that direction over the next year?

The other benefit of using NoSQL that simplifies the DBAs job is scalability.

John:Yes, in fact, 75 percent of companies are already using both SQL and NoSQL databases with MongoDB and Cassandra being among the most popular, according to the cloud database trends report from DeveloperWeek 2019.

NoSQL hasnt seen a huge amount of movement in recent years, but I believe well see it pick up more next year, especially as people move towards fresher and newer data needs. While relational databases are good for traditional workloads like OLTP applications and business analytics (OLAP), for more complex OLTP workloads that include low-latency applications, NoSQL is better (versatility, agility, scalability). Ultimately, its a matter of getting the right database to suit the workloads of the organization, especially with the variety of structured and unstructured data in use. I also think well also see adoption of cloud NoSQL databases (such as Amazons DynamoDB and Googles Cloud Datastore).

JAXenter: Which implications will the increased use of NoSQL have, e.g. regarding the way DevOps and DBA interact?

John:Depending on the type of application, NoSQL databases offer some advantages in a DevOps CI/CD pipeline that can hinder the use of relational databases. Synchronizing relational database changes with an object-oriented application can be a challenge (called impedance mismatch) and requires application developers to leverage Object Relational Mapping (ORM) classes in their application code to relate to the database schema structure and any changes that might occur (e.g. change a column, add a table). This is something DBAs and the application team must manage to ensure things dont break.

With the growth of the use of NoSQL document databases such as MongoDB and CouchDB, this problem goes away since there is no schema in the traditional sense, meaning application developers can arrange their data (structured, semi-structured, unstructured) how they want and remove the impedance mismatch that ORM was designed to resolve.

The other benefit of using NoSQL that simplifies the DBAs job is scalability. NoSQL databases leverage commodity hardware and therefore are far easier to scale out compared with relational databases.

Thanks very much!

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NoSQL and automated databases "DBAs can be the thought leaders" - JAXenter

Automation is commonly thought of as an attempt by rich companies to get richer. Instead, its often an effort to cut costs when the future of the economy looks bleak. Take, for example, the economic slump of the 1950s. Though 13 million jobs were ultimately destroyed during the decade, an astounding 20 million new ones were created thanks, in large part, to technological advancements such as automation.

With visions of the next recession already clouding the horizon for many Americans, we can bet on a sweeping wave of automation technology to shake up the workforce once again. Only this time with technology thats advanced by leaps and bounds since the 50s the disruption will be stronger and reach further than ever before.

A 2011 study evaluated how the Great Recession impacted structural unemployment in the United States. The studys authors reported that the structural unemployment rate rose by nearly 2 percentage points between the end of 2006 and 2010. It was enough to disrupt industries and permanently alter local economies, but the next recession could be far worse.

Over the past decade, companies have made huge strides in automation. Consider that innovations like self-driving cars, which used to be the stuff of fantasies, are already becoming a reality. As a lesson in history plays out before us, the next recession will cause companies to reach for more cost-cutting automation, which will likely lead to larger job losses than in previous recessions.

The availability and maturity of artificial intelligence and machine learning technologies could be the catalyst for a massive wave of automation in all kinds of industries. In a recession where profits dip and human labor becomes one of a businesss biggest expenses, the incentive for companies to pursue automation will drastically increase.

To make matters worse, automation disproportionately affects economically vulnerable workers because simple, repetitive tasks are the most likely to be automated. Employment will primarily contract in industries such as food service, manufacturing and transportation, where workers struggle to make a living even under ideal employment circumstances.

The good news is that other fields will be starving for employees, but it will take purposeful policy changes to prepare displaced workers.

MORE FROM FEDTECH: Discover why feds see promise in robotic process automation.

Although most employees understand the need to learn new skills and data from the Pew Research Center suggests that 49 percent of Americans anticipate reduced job security by 2050 that doesnt mean they have access to the resources necessary to pursue new employment avenues. At present, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development warns that the employees who need training the most are the least likely to receive it, setting the stage for alarming levels of unemployment.

Governments, however, have the power to quell this growing issue by aiding workers growth. Here are two ways they can start:

Thankfully, government doesnt need to reinvent the wheel when it comes time to map out these programs. If they dont have the infrastructure in place to help workers learn new skills already, they can partner with pre-existing training organizations to achieve worker security and strengthen community roots.

Finding ways to support or partner with employers making strides to do this is a viable way to encourage on-the-job learning opportunities. This approach is already tried and tested as well: In July 2018, the federal government announced a partnership with 23 organizations to further an apprenticeship and employee reskilling initiative.

Its true that automation has historically created more jobs than its eliminated, but it still causes incredible upheaval for the millions of workers who are left looking for new employment. If the federal government wants to reduce the fallout from the next major wave of automation, it must implement training programs that prepare employees for the next chapter in their careers.

Read more:

What Should the Government Do About the Coming Automation Apocalypse? - FedTech Magazine

Former Microsoft Corporation Executive Takes Lead in AI (photo: Kevin Ku)

By Oliver Estreich

The world is at the cusp of the fourth industrial revolution, also referred to as Industry 4.0. Disruptive technologies such as Artificial Intelligence (AI), Robotics, Internet of Things (IoT) and Virtual Reality (VR)are changing the way we live and work. AI is evolving at a rapid pace. Organizations are using AI to perform a variety of useful functions. Countries are discovering new ways to transform themselves using AI. The AI technologies are becoming firmly embedded in our lives. The question is no longer whether we use AI or not, but rather how we can better collaborate with it. The management of risks around AI are also a key feature of robust corporate governance.

Some of the worlds greatest minds have devoted themselves to usher in this technological revolution. It has taken them many years of hard work and tireless dedication to bring the human civilization to the present era of technology. CorpGov spoke to Krishna C. Mukherjee, who figures prominently among the leaders who have contributed significantly to the advancement of technology and business. He has devoted a large part of his career to the research and development of AI.

Early stages of AI development

Krishna C. Mukherjee has an excellent educational background. He studied engineering at the elite Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs). In 1988, he was recruited by Microsoft from IIT Kanpur to create architectures, and design and develop software products. At that time, he was completing his Masters degree in Computer Science and Engineering, with specialization in AI and Robotics. He had conducted excellent research, written a thesis on AI and published papers in AI conferences. He graduated at the top of his class. Soon thereafter, he joined Microsoft at the companys headquarters in Redmond, Washington, USA.

Krishna C. Mukherjee served as Principal Architect and Lead Software Engineer for Microsoft. He played a vital role in the architecture, design and development of the Microsoft Office suite of applications and the Microsoft Windows operating system. From 1988 to 2004, he designed and developed key features and technologies for Microsoft. He introduced AI at Microsoft. He oversaw the creation of AI-based features, including AutoFormat and IntelliSense, that have become integral part of Microsoft products.

In the earlier Graphical User Interface (GUI) frameworks, there was no separation between what an application looks like and how it behaves. Both the user interface and its behavior had to be programmed in imperative languages such as C#. Krishna C. Mukherjee created AI-based architectures to separate the appearance and behavior of GUI applications. He invented the concept of using declarative mark-up languages to generate advanced user interfaces. Under his leadership, Microsoft developed innovative technologies: Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF) and Extensible Application Markup Language (XAML).

Throughout his career, Krishna C. Mukherjee has been a driving force behind Microsofts success. He has contributed energy, skills and talent towards the success of Microsoft. His accomplishments have helped Microsoft to become a leader in the technology industry and one of the most valuable companies in the world. He received many awards and honors from Microsoft.

AI for Workflow Automation

While Krishna C. Mukherjee was working to increase Microsofts strength in AI technologies, he was also inventing other strategies to commercialize AI. In the late 1990s, he created the Intelligent Filling Manager, popularly known as INTELLIFM, to automate the workflow systems that organizations use regularly. INTELLIFM, an AI-based technology, disrupted many industries including insurance, legal, finance and health care. With INTELLIFM, Mukherjee introduced a high degree of collaboration between cross-functional teams, and thus greatly improved the efficiency of business processes. In fact, this cross-functional collaboration is the key to Agile software development that has become popular since its inception in 2001.

From the late 1990s to the early 2000s, Krishna C. Mukherjee developed and established his Software as a Service (SaaS) model that gives organizations the ability to perform complex business transactions on the Internet, or the cloud. During these creation years, he served as the Chief Information Officer for Wolters Kluwer. In this role, he transitioned the companys traditional paper-based methods to automated electronic processes. He spearheaded the creation of the heavily used, award-winning SaaS applications CTAdvantage.com, hCue.com, MediRegs.com and LienSolutions.com. Customers use the SaaS applications on a subscription basis from Wolters Kluwer to manage their data and automate their enterprise workflows.The SaaS applications generate recurring revenue for Wolters Kluwer and also save costs for its customers.

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Krishna C. Mukherjee made invited presentations on INTELLIFM, distributed computing and Microsoft technologies at AI conferences. He selected Microsoft Windows servers to host the SaaS applications for Wolters Kluwer N.V. He built strategic partnership between Microsoft and Wolters Kluwer. Through his efforts, he helped Microsoft gain recognition in the field of AI and get established in the enterprise software market. He enabled Wolters Kluwer to become a global provider of information services. Mukherjee received the Highest Achievement Award from Wolters Kluwer for his outstanding contributions to the success of the company.

AI in the Finance Industry

Krishna C. Mukherjee advanced his career from 2004 to 2011 in the finance industry. He worked in Directorial positions for Citadel, Bloomberg and UBS Group AG three of the most well-known companies in the finance industry. He provided strategic direction to these finance companies. They experienced remarkable progress after Mr. Mukherjee infused advanced technology into their financial systems.

By using Microsofts WPF and XAML technologies that Mr. Mukherjee pioneered, software developers are able to work collaboratively with designers to create financial applications that are information-rich and have minimum code complexity. This collaboration is essential in a rapidly changing environment because it shortens the time from concept to delivery of the financial applications. The applications have elegant user interfaces that meet the expectations of technology-savvy financial users. The applications can process large volumes of data in real-time, and satisfy the high-performance and security needs of the finance industry.

One of Mr. Mukherjees most important contributions to the finance industry is the architecture, design and development of the Bloomberg Valuation Service, popularly known as BVAL. Previously, prices were determined on the basis of models that considered market opinions and comparable securities. Hence, these prices were subjective and inaccurate. The investment decisions, based on these prices, were speculative and not scientific. Mr. Mukherjee designed BVAL to provide accurate valuations with the help of sophisticated algorithms and AI. He ensured that BVAL uses the highest quality data for algorithmically computing prices of financial instruments. Moreover, he created a scalable architecture for BVAL. Today, BVAL prices millions of financial instruments across multiple asset classes. It provides the finance industry with rigorous, transparent and defensible valuations.

Mr. Mukherjee instilled new life in the finance industry with his AI-driven approach. He made the finance industry objective and reliable. He helped to build the foundation of modern financial technology or FinTech.

Krishna C. Mukherjee

AI in the Retail Industry

The collection of huge amounts of data and the usage of AI techniques to analyze data have brought a new perception paradigm. This phenomenon lets us understand a larger part of the world through its projection on the data space. Highly skilled resources are needed to manage data and capitalize on the opportunities it offers. Electronic commerce (e-commerce) has become a necessity for businesses. Retail companies need experts like Mr. Mukherjee who can integrate modern technology into existing business environments.

After his success in the finance industry, Mr. Mukherjee set his focus on the retail industry. He linked up with Icon Parking Systems, popularly known as Icon. The company is a leader in branded parking services with more than three hundred locations in Manhattan and surrounding areas. More than forty thousand cars are parked daily at Icons locations. As the Head of Software Development, Mukherjee transitioned Icons business from VAX mainframe to a hybrid cloud environment. He also directed the development of the heavily used e-commerce site IconParkingSystems.com.

Mr. Mukherjee also advanced other areas of Icons technological work-frame. He directed the development of an internal web-based accounting system. Icons employees use this internal system to enter and update customer information, post recurring charges, issue debits and credits, view ledger balances, prepare monthly and new customer billing, generate invoices and perform other business critical activities.

While modernizing Icon, Mr. Mukherjee identified a very important problem: Customers were reluctant to make payments without confirmation that their money was going to be handled promptly and securely. In 2012, he created the AutoPay platform to solve this problem. AutoPay allows customers to schedule payments from their bank accounts or cards for paying recurring bills. The relevant funds get automatically deducted on specific days. AutoPay is secure, convenient and fast. It saves time and effort for customers, and helps them to streamline their finances. They do not miss a payment or incur late fees.

Mr. Mukherjees e-commerce strategy worked like magic for Icon. The companys customers, who are individuals and organizations, use IconParkingSystems.com to sign up for monthly, daily and hourly parking at premier locations. They pay their bills using electronic checks (ACH), debit and credit cards via the AutoPay system. In return, Icon receives payments on time. The company no longer has to handle an excessive amount of paperwork for processing paper checks and cash. Electronic payments made by customers are automatically processed and posted to Icons ledger. Mukherjees AutoPay has been adopted widely. Today, many companies in retail and other industries offer AutoPay to their customers.

Under Mr. Mukherjees leadership, Icon became highly efficient and profitable. The company acquired new locations and re-opened old locations that it had to close. Mukherjee chose Microsoft technologies to create the e-commerce presence for Icon. Thus, he helped Microsoft to gain business in the competitive cloud market.

The popularity of e-commerce has changed the way retail companies operate. Customers shop in a variety of ways. They may look at reviews of a product or brand, visit a store in person, and then buy through the retailers website. Omni-channel allows retailers to create a unified and holistic experience with their brand, services and products. With this in mind, Mr. Mukherjee has worked on advancing omni-channel retailing with superior technology and AI. His portfolio now includes mobile applications that implement contactless digital wallets, such as Apple Pay, for enhanced security and privacy. He has been incorporating AI-based recommendation engines into retailing applications to generate personalized ensembles of products for shoppers. His goal is to optimize the shopping experience of customers and also meet the business objectives of retailers in the best possible way.

AI for Customer Service

During his work with advanced technologies, Krishna C. Mukherjee has zoned in on a key focal point for distributed and cloud-based systems: These systems must be efficient, robust and reliable. Accordingly, he continues to create AI-based architectures and designs when building distributed and cloud-based systems for enterprises. He ensures that state-of-the-art error handling capabilities are built into these systems. The error notifications, such as emails, phone calls, pager alerts and instant messages, are sent to support teams immediately when any error happens at runtime. The AI-based auto-correction capabilities enable the enterprise systems to fix the errors automatically, without the need for human intervention.

Mr. Mukherjee has also been designing Interactive Voice Response (IVR) systems to service and direct high volumes of phone calls. The IVR systems interact with the customers, and only if necessary, transfer the calls to the human agents. Mukherjee has been researching the application of Natural Language Processing (NLP) to improve the IVR systems. His goal is to simulate real, two-way conversations by giving the customers more control over the call flows. He aims to use NLP to make the IVR systems more dynamic so that customers do not have to go through a menu of options that may be irrelevant to their enquiries. Further, by using NLP, Mr. Mukherjee plans to analyze sentiments of callers. He feels that insights gained through sentiment analysis help organizations to identify and act on the root causes of issues and mitigate problems before they become serious. Additionally, Mr. Mukherjee has been researching the application of Machine Learning (ML) to implement predictive routing of customer calls. He has been applying ML to build IVR systems that can anticipate the reasons for a call and rout the customer to the best matching agent.

For many years, IVR has been unchallenged in the customer service domain. More recently, however, the chatbot has been vying for the top spot. Mr. Mukherjee has been researching chatbots and how they can better apply decision-tree logic, or more complex AI, to improve customer experience. The field is open from an enterprise perspective. As one would expect, chatbots are showing good results in the e-commerce and retail world that Mukherjee has transformed. Mukherjee feels that both IVR systems and chatbots can be used for providing superior customer service. Customers, who prefer to call, can be connected by the IVR system to the best human agent. Others, who approach online, can be greeted by a friendly chatbot.

Through his innovative work, Mukherjee has been helping organizations to become more profitable by providing excellent customer experience and by increasing employee efficiency.

Optimism about AI and Automation

A business can grow earnings by increasing the topline with organic growth, by improving the bottom-line through higher efficiency and by cultivating inorganic growth through acquisitions. As a Senior Executive, Mr. Mukherjee has been focusing on all the three aspects. His illustrious professional career spans for more than three decades. His innovations have automated workflows and maximized efficiency of many businesses across industries. His software architectures and domain-driven designs have been adopted to create many new products and services. He has enabled organizations to improve their level of compliance with ever-changing regulatory requirements. Customer service has become excellent with the AI-based systems that he has designed.

In August of 2019, the prestigious publication Marquis Whos Whohonored Mr. Mukherjee with the Albert Nelson Marquis Lifetime Achievement Award in recognition of his incredible accomplishments in the field of technology. This award endorsed and solidified what experts have known for a long time: Krishna C. Mukherjee has shaped the world as we know it.

Mr. Mukherjee has used AI and automation to help organizations increase sales and improve customer service, eliminate repetitive tasks and increase productivity, analyze data and improve prediction capabilities, expedite important decisions and actions, and enhance business agility. He has shown to the world that technological advancements are extremely beneficial to society. He is optimistic about the future of AI and automation. He says, Forward-thinking organizations that implement AI and automation are sure to succeed and exceed our expectations.

Contact:

editor@corpgov.com

http://www.CorpGov.com

Twitter:@CorpGovernor

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Krishna C. Mukherjee Continues to Advance Organizations with AI and Automation - Yahoo Finance

P4213D Nov 25 2019 STSPIN ROBOT eval kit_IMAGE

Geneva and Sachseln, Switzerland, November 25, 2019 STMicroelectronics (NYSE: STM), a global semiconductor leader serving customers across the spectrum of electronics applications, is working with maxon, a leading precision-motor provider and a member of the ST Partner Program, to accelerate the design of robotics applications and industrial servo drives. The companies will demonstrate a jointly developed servo control kit at sps 2019 trade show in Nuremberg, November 26-28 (Booth 10.1/138).

The EVALKIT-ROBOT-1 is a plug-and-play solution aimed to help users easily approach the world of precise positioning and high-end motion in servo drives and robotics. A maxon 100-Watt BLDC motor with built-on 1024-pulse incremental encoder is included in the kit, embodying the companys expertise in magnetic design in motors that ensures smoothness and balance to allow fine control even at low rotor speeds.

The servo control board supplied with the kit contains STs STSPIN32F0A intelligent 3-phase motor controller and a complete inverter stage built with ST power transistors ready to connect to the motor. Motor-control firmware is also included, making it easy for users to start the motor and begin sending commands.

Our motors are trusted worldwide to deliver high quality, precision, and accuracy, said Felix Herger, Head of Business Development Industrial Automation, maxon motor. Teaming with ST has created a platform that makes these attributes more easily accessible to a wider variety of product designers.

Designing high-end motion controls with accurate positioning capabilities is complex and time-consuming, demanding specialist skills. Working with maxon, we have now put those skills in a box for our customers, said Branimir Ivetic, Motion Control Product Marketing Manager, STMicroelectronics. The EVALKIT-ROBOT-1 kit accelerates development of next-generation robotics and automation that delivers advanced capabilities and dexterity with excellent reliability and ease of use.

The kit is available now at http://www.st.com, priced at $129.00.

Further technical information:

STs STSPIN32F0A system-in package contains critical circuitry for motor control, including an STM32F031C6* microcontroller and three-phase inverter driver in a compact 7mm x 7mm VFQFPN package. The microcontroller comes loaded with plug-and-play firmware for MODBUS communication and field-oriented control (FOC) with precise positioning capabilities. Power management and current sensing circuitry are also embedded in the device making it more flexible and versatile.

The maxon EC-i 40, 40mm-diameter, 100-Watt brushless (BLDC) motor embeds a maxon ENX 16 EASY 1024-pulse incremental encoder for precision control. Hall sensors for detecting rotor position are included. The motor features an optimized design for high output torque with low cogging torque, which permits smooth motion across the speed range and enhances positioning precision.

The 3-phase BLDC inverter power stage features STs STL7DN6LF3 60V, low on-resistance, N-channel MOSFETs, capable of 6A maximum output for driving the motor.

* STM32 is a registered and/or unregistered trademark of STMicroelectronics International NV or its affiliates in the EU and/or elsewhere. In particular, STM32 is registered in the US Patent and Trademark Office.

About maxonmaxon motor is a developer and manufacturer of brushed and brushless DC motors, as well as gearheads, encoders, controllers, and entire mechatronic systems. maxon drives are used wherever the requirements are particularly high, such as in NASAs Mars rovers, in surgical power tools, in humanoid robots, and in precision industrial applications. To maintain its leadership in this demanding market, the company invests a high percent of its annual revenue in research and development. Worldwide, maxon has 3000 employees at nine production sites and is represented by sales companies in nearly 40 countries.

About STMicroelectronicsST is a global semiconductor leader delivering intelligent and energy-efficient products and solutions that power the electronics at the heart of everyday life. STs products are found everywhere today, and together with our customers, we are enabling smarter driving and smarter factories, cities and homes, along with the next generation of mobile and Internet of Things devices.

By getting more from technology to get more from life, ST stands for life.augmented.

In 2018, the Companys net revenues were $9.66 billion, serving more than 100,000 customers worldwide. Further information can be found at http://www.st.com

For Press Information Contact:

Michael MarkowitzDirector Technical Media Relations STMicroelectronics Tel: +1 781 591 0354Email: michael.markowitz@st.com

Felix HergerHead of Business Development Industrial Automationmaxon motor agTel.: +41 41 666 15 69E-mail: felix.herger@maxongroup.com

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STMicroelectronics and maxon Collaborate on Precision Motor Control for Robotics and Automation - Financialbuzz.com

science formula and math equation abstract background. concept of machine learning and artificial ... [+]intelligence.

Eight years ago in Germany, three college friendsBastian Nominacher, Alexander Rinke and Martin Klenkstarted Celonis with 12,500 euros.They saw an opportunity to leverage process mining to transform the operations of large companies.From the start, Celonis was profitable and grew quickly.

It was actually not until June 2016 that the company raised its first round of institutional capital ($27.5 million from Accel and 83North).Then there was a Series B for $50 million two years later.

And yes, this week came the mega round:$290 million.The lead investor was Arena Holdings, joined by Ryan Smith (the co-founder and CEO of Qualtrics) and Tooey Courtemanche (the founder and CEO of Procore).

So then what is process mining?And why is it so hot right now?

First of all, process mining has its roots in academia in Europe, pioneered by the Dutch professor, Wil van der Aalst.He is one of the worlds most cited computer scientists (with more than 92,000 according to Google Scholar).

He realized that analyzing event lots from IT systems could provide valuable insights, say in terms of mapping the real processes of an organization and their context.By doing this, its easier and more objective to find problems and bottlenecks as well as to uncover the opportunities to improve the systems.

Now it was Celonis that first commercialized process mining.It also helped that the company leveraged existing open source projects and focused on a limited number of use cases like finance, the supply chain, customer service and sales/marketing.This strategy was essential because effective process mining requires a deep understanding of a domain.For example, Celonis has developed pre-built modules to handle specific business outcomes (such as for on-time delivery or finding ways to get paid faster).

Process mining is an easy idea, said Rinke.But it is hard to make it work right for organizations.You need to collect large amounts of data from all sorts of IT systems.You also need to go beyond integrations and must understand the databases that are underneath.And all are customized.

No doubt, a key driver for Celonis has been the rapid growth of RPA (Robotic Process Automation).In RPA, you'll often get to the first low-hanging opportunities by asking people what routines take up most of their time, said Antti Karjalainen, who is the CEO of Robocorp. As companies progress in their automation journey, data-driven technologies become an important part of identifying opportunities. People might not even realize how their own work is related to work done in other areas of the company and process discovery technologies can uncover these hidden workflows.

But the Celonis software is not just for upfront analytics. It is something that is useful for ongoing monitoring to make sure that an RPA implementation is on track.

With the capital infusion, Celonis plans to ramp up its sales and marketing. But there will also be moves into other domains.

I believe our business can be bigger than RPA, said Rinke.RPA is mostly about automating tasks and is hard to scale.But our approach is more holistic.

Process mining may also be a gateway for digital transformation, such as with AI (Artificial Intelligence) and ML (Machine Learning).By analyzing huge amounts of data, we can filter out the noise and make better predictions, said Rinke.For example, if an order comes in, we can show within 85% to 95% accuracy if it will be on time or not.

Regardless if process mining will be exceed RPA or not, it does seem like the growth will continue for quite some time. Gartner is estimating anywhere from 3X to 4X during the next two years.

Celonis funding proves once again that process intelligence is a must for companies going through digital transformation and using RPA, said Scott Opitz, who is the president of ABBYY Process Intelligence.We see this as a positive dynamic in the market as it raises awareness among the C-suite that they need to know which processes to automate first and why, where to run RPA bots, how theyll perform and the expected quantifiable benefits from deploying these digital workers into the enterprise.

Tom (@ttaulli) is the author of the book,Artificial Intelligence Basics: A Non-Technical Introduction.

More here:

Could Process Mining Be Bigger Than RPA (Robotic Process Automation)? - Forbes

Science, my lad, is made up of mistakes, but they are mistakes which it is useful to make, because they lead little by little to the truth, wrote Jules Verne.

Ive been in the field of automation long enough to see that many of the most impressive advancements are still quite new. Take driverless cars, for instance. A decade ago, they were little more than a fantasy, but in February 2019, Elon Musk predictedthat wed have the technology for a fully self-driving car by the end of this year.

Driverless cars promise to transform transportation, but something like machine learning promises to transform everything. Smart systems that can learn from experience have applications in just about every aspect of life. In healthcare, researchers found that machine learning systems can correctly classify echocardiograms up to 92% of the time, whereas human doctors can only do so 79% of the time.

As automation technology has grown, so has its accessibility. Advances in natural language processing promise to liberate AI from purely technical settings and integrate it with more aspects of daily life. Amazon has sold100 million Alexa-enabled devices, and almost every household technology staple is now available in a smart model.

Im optimistic about this new era of automation, but Im also cautious. Forward thinkers have always understood that technologies have the potential to create challenges as well as solve them. If were going to realize the highest potential of AI and automation, we need to not only acknowledge the worst aspects, but also do our best to avoid them.

When Automation Isnt An Asset

We dont need to imagine a futuristic scenario to see what bad automation looks like. Most of us are already inundated with robocalls -- something that combines the annoyance of telemarketing with the persistence of automation. Robocalls may cut labor costs, but they alienate customers in the process. Unfortunately, this is just one of many examples of automation delivering shortsighted solutions.

Bad automation has made the news in recruiting, too. Its a common misconception that AI is free of human bias. However, tools designed to automate candidate selection have beenshown to exclude womenand others because the algorithms they rely on are human creations full of subtle prejudices. In that way, AI can amplify the faults of humans rather than eliminate them.

Implementing The Better Automation of Tomorrow

My goal isnt to discourage anyone from embracing automation. Rather, I want to underline the fact that its not an automatic improvement.

Companies that want to leverage it effectively need to look for the right applications, ones that deliver value for both the business and the end users. If youre looking to implement AI and automation, I recommend the following best practices to ensure that the technology is an asset, not a burden:

1. Embody The End User

If the technology is customer-facing, you must first make sure its actually addressing a customer pain point. Otherwise, its not likely to be much more than an annoyance.

Focus on precision, not just volume. As an example, the database being used to feed chatbots, robocallers or auto-mailers information about customers must include their history and all touch points and interactions with the business to avoid repetitive communication. In the case of financial institutions, for instance, if a person has already been denied a line of credit, they shouldnt receive mailers that continue to make that same offer.

Ensure your marketing departments CRM software and customer database are linked and regularly cross-checked with those in related departments. To avoid the above case, the underwriting and marketing departments should be sharing data to avoid annoying potential customers.

2. Avoid Out-Of-The-Box Solutions

Even if you entrust a third-party vendor to implement automation for you, someone on your staff should have a solid understanding of the algorithms, training sets and metrics used to fuel the technology.

This is because no automated system is a purely out-of-the-box solution. Every business has different inputs, processes and other variables, and each tool should be fine-tuned accordingly. An employee who understands both the unique challenges of your company and the technology itself will be able to liaise between you and your automation partner.

Also, to identify where automation will really boost efficiency, management or technology-positioned employees should be able to clearly define the process thats set to be automated. If they cant outline the inputs, the processes and the expected output, the process is not yet ready to be fully automated. These tools need to be built with certain standards in mind and fine-tuned to meet specific needs.

3. Prove The Business Case

Establishing the business case can be difficult with AI and automation because a decrease in one set of costs may be offset by an increase in another.

Its easy to imagine a business process that uses a certain amount of human labor and takes a certain amount of time. Sometimes, automated systems can lower both of those things -- but not always. The automated system may speed up the process, but the human labor required to monitor and assist it may increase, along with material input, utility and technology costs.

The point is that automating just because you have the resources to do so is not a productive strategy. To know whether your business should automate, crunch the numbers to estimate long-term value. Consider the full costs of employees who might be replaced -- including insurance, pensions, office space, etc. -- as well as the full expected savings of the new technology, including increases in the quality of your outputs.

Our automated future seems certain, but that doesnt mean the evolution will be easy. Some companies will thrive because of automation, and others will stumble for the same reason. The difference often depends on which players are being realistic. Instead of treating automation like a panacea, companies should see it for what it is: a tool with tremendous potential, as long as its used in the right ways.

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Is Automation Always Better? - Forbes

After much bluster and a snowy Halloween (for some of us, at least!) Holiday 2019 is here, and Im sure that many of you are working through strategies to maximize your campaign performance while also maintaining your sanity. To that end, Id like to remind you of a few features available within Facebook Ads Manager: Dynamic Creative Optimization, Campaign Budget Optimization and Automated Rules.

Dynamic Creative Optimization (DCO) is part of Facebooks Power 5, which collectively are optimization features that allow advertisers to scale growth efficiently. Implementing DCO during this busy season means that you can continue to test into messaging and creative concepts while ensuring stable performance by keeping your hero creatives/messaging enabled. If you would like to test into DCO right now, a few things that you can think about to develop your creative tests are:

Campaign Budget Optimization (CBO) is also a Power 5 optimization feature, which allows you to allocate budget to top-performing ad sets within your campaign dynamically. While a controversial feature (some advertisers have reported drops in conversion volume and increased costs after implementing CBO), Ive found that opting into this optimization feature can deliver some pretty fantastic results for clients. The key when turning the key on CBO is to:

Automated Rules have been available within the platform for some time, but Im still surprised by the relatively few advertisers who use this tool regularly. As a refresher, automated rules can automatically check your campaigns, ad sets and ads, and then update or notify you of any changes. In addition to these automatic checks and notifications, the tool will also take the necessary actions for you.

As a hands on advertiser, this means that you can create a series of rules to ensure that when youre not online, your campaigns are still at optimum performance and delivering the right message to the right user. Ways that you can implement these rules include:

In short, embracing automation will be key to maximizing Q4 performance, which will give you more time for both 2020 strategic planning, and eggnog with the family by the fire. Happy Holidays!

Opinions expressed in this article are those of the guest author and not necessarily Marketing Land. Staff authors are listed here.

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Pro Tip: Leaning into Facebooks automation for the 2019 holiday season - Marketing Land

We constantly hear foreshadowing of a jobless American future and warnings of the dire reality artificial intelligence and automation will bring. My own conversations with policymakers like presidential hopeful Andrew Yang and Colorado governor John Hickenlooper have reflected this, and even SpaceX and Tesla CEO Elon Musk has echoed their concerns.

Personally, I challenge the idea that more automation will destroy our workforce. But because we dont hear specific scenarios where AI and automation produce more jobs, quality careers, and lower cost of living, we cant visualize an alternative future. Fear sets in.

My arguments for the benefits of job automation are often cut short when someone places the burden of proof of a positive future on me.

Challenge accepted.

The historical arguments I usually bring up seem to have little bearing on a person if they already fear AI and automation. Even when I reference how, in the 18th century agricultural age, farmers feared industrial machines would take their jobs, and those same workers eventually panicked about computers. In both these cases, political and social leaders were wrong.

But wait, theres more.

People feared the impact of the automobile on horse husbandry, carriage makers, and blacksmiths. In recent history, ATMs were going to replace bank tellers, and new textile automation would replace textile workers. In both classic cases, more jobs resulted as automation increased margins, allowing the hiring of more workers, for new types of jobs.

We can see now that our fear was misplaced, but this doesnt make the future any easier to visualize. And I think thats the real problem.

Because every past group of people had difficulty visualizing the future, they feared it. Consider the term horseless carriage, which fixated on and defined what would be lost, instead of the potential economic gains from opening up national commerce.

But as we move from the 20th century information age of knowledge workers into the 21st century conceptual age where AI and automation are said to do all the jobs humans can do, there are already signs that more jobs are right around the corner.

Heres the future I see.

Some believe companies like Amazon will be the primary benefactor of AI and automation, providing the world with everything it needs, while firing all their staff. Some politicians believe they have too much power and must be broken up.

But Amazon does not have the power you (or even its leaders) believe it does. In fact, its position in online commerce is at significant risk.

Almost daily, my Warby Parker sunglasses, my Allbirds sneakers, and my wifes cute Rothys flats are a reminder of what the future holds. Without utilizing Amazon, Walmart, or even Target, and often being labeled as the keyholders to internet commerce, Warby Parker has seen 500% growth and a $1 billion valuation. Allbirds hit a $1.4 billion valuation in just two years. Rothys posted more than $140 million in revenue.

Amazon and even Walmart may quickly bleed out via a thousand paper cuts. If they arent careful, their market share will be eroded by smaller, yet more responsive and more numerous adversaries thanks to direct-to-consumer practices. (My brother in law just spent four hours with Amazon customer service to troubleshoot his broken Ring doorbell. It still doesnt work. That type of service is not likely to lead to loyalty.)

Shopify has enabled 1 million individual creators and small businesses, generating $183 billion in economic impact from 2016 to 2018, slowly gaining on Amazons $200 billion economic impact in 2018. Have you noticed all the unique Instagram products lately? It feels like every day yet another direct-to-consumer product pops up, launched by a small group of friends or cohorts who can get products to market quickly.You can thank Shopify for much of that.

Etsy has made it easy for homepreneurs to produce soap and crafts for consumers anywhere in the world, and its aggressively taking on e-commerce competitors.

In the same vein, Kickstarter and Indiegogo were unthinkable 10 years ago. Power is slowly shifting to individuals and small teams.

Small team empowerment will not just speed upit will be the norm. Consider the economic opportunities for workers, entrepreneurs, and creators when AI, automation, and robots solve the last mile problem alone. Home businesses will thrive as the cost of shipping drops to nothing.

A 16-year-olds first car will also be their first job as it drives around town making deliveries or picking up passengersas early as next year, according to Tesla.

Individual chefs will be able to compete in the 21st-century home-delivered food industry. As companies like Foodee, created by Ryan Spong, connect business catering needs to local chefs, automated cars will fulfill their delivery routewhile they enjoy movie night with the family.Naturally, this will evolve to home delivery too.

Visualize a world where a solo inventor creates a new smartphone accessory and 3D prints it in her basement, benefiting from global overnight distribution due to thousands of specialized drone delivery services, charging fractions of a cent per mile.

Using similar 3D and circuit board printers,a three-person team with no production support can create a short run of 5,000 smartphones specifically designed for the visually impaired.

AI-powered air-ships, traveling outside the earths atmosphere, will work in tandem with small drones to carry a disabled veteran to France and Spain to teach his new wood working-class, coming back to his rural home in Guthrie Center, Iowa in time to see his granddaughters ballet recital.

The possibilities for AI and automation dont end at new revenue sources and opportunity, however. Many see potential in its ability to greatly reduce living costs.

As many Americans, and indeed people around the globe, fear high living costs, AI and automation can potentially ease that pressure.

Healthcare currently accounts for nearly 19% of US GDP. AI healthcare would would improve outcomes and lowers costs, and physicians like Dutch-American ophthalmologist and AI entrepreneur Michael Abramoff believe a new normal will take shape. Imagine the free blood pressure machine in your Walgreens being upgraded by an AI solution that is 10 times more accurate than your physician.With the pending physician shortage, this couldnt come at a better time.

AI leaders like Sean Chou, who runs an AI automation company, says that, in the same way that ATMs led to more bank tellers being hired, automation will lead to more physicians being hired and/or maximizing their time with patients.

Beyond healthcare, Chou believes AI is more likely to perform jobs people cant or dont want to do, lowering company costs. His company, Catalytic, is focused on creating a human-centric AI future through a processes guided by the very employees that many believe will be disrupted. As a former executive of workforce company FieldGlass, he understands what makes workforces tick. And he believes AI and automation will empower people, not take jobs.

Does anyone want to take the same customer service call over and over? No. Which is probably why call center turnover is so high, leading to longer wait times from companies who assure you your call is important to them as you waste time on hold. Time is money.

Chou also believes AI can be used by law firms in ways never before seen. Imagine a paralegal going through decades of case law in minutes instead of months, lowering costs and increasing access for those who need legal assistance but dont have the cash. Expert legal counsel wouldnt just be for the rich, but for anyone who needs justice.

Just as the automobile created more opportunities than we could possibly imagine, a AI and automation could open up a global air-and-sea interstate system could develop, creating new jobs for people in extreme poverty across the globe, lowering commuting costs to nothing. When people who currently live in poverty can suddenly find income, they will become a whole new demographic for marketers to sell to.

Visualize a future where corporate cube farms, once filled with tired and depressed office workers, become modern co-working spacesreminiscent of 18th-century town squares. Except instead of bakers, leather workers, glass blowers, and ironworkers, wed work alongside each other collaborating on new ideas you cant even dream of all thanks to the healthy AI and automation future that we have been taught to fear.

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How job automation will boost small businesses - Quartz

Data security and automation are the top IT projects for 2020, while artificial intelligence projects are not in the top 10 for IT professionals, according to Netwrix.

The online survey asked 1045 IT professionals worldwide to name their top five IT projects for the next year; they could pick from a predefined list or specify their own descriptions. The survey found no dramatic difference in IT priorities among organizations based on size or vertical.

Not surprisingly, data security is a top priority for the majority of organizations. There are several factors that go into a successful data security process. The first is automating current processes to free up time for data security projects. Another is to research and deploy a data security solution.

Be sure your solution offers automated data classification, because it is the optimal way to enhance data security and reduce your attack surface without additional effort by the IT team, said Steve Dickson, CEO of Netwrix.

Infrastructure, operations, networking and security are the foundation upon which the technology-enabled world is built. It must deliver value at each layer as it ultimately supports people.

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Data security and automation top IT projects for 2020, AI not a priority - Help Net Security