Wipro Unveils a Contactless Car-Buying Solution

Wipro has unveiled its contactless car-buying solution that addresses the complete automobile-buying journey. It is called Click-Shift-Drive, and will enable automakers and dealers to everything from research and loan approval to purchase and delivery at a time when 50% of car-buying journeys begin online.

"With Click-Shift-Drive, automakers and dealers can launch e-commerce solutions and provide a virtual direct-buying experience in just eight weeks. Click-Shift-Drive uniquely incorporates a range of Salesforce technologies so companies can provide an enhanced user experience throughout the customer journey. In addition, Wipro partnered with ThreeKit 3D & Augmented Reality to provide an augmented reality component so buyers can visualize a virtual rendering of the automobile in their own driveway," mentioned the Wipro press release.

Research has suggested that 59% of automotive customers today are interested in purchasing cars online. The Click-Shift-Drive is part of Wipro's $1 billion investment in cloud over 3 years.

"Building relationships and knowing your customer is key to the success of any commerce business," said Lidiane Jones, Executive Vice President & General Manager, Salesforce Commerce Cloud. "For many customers, this requires a suite of integrations made possible by our partners. With Wipro’s Click-Shift-Drive and Commerce Cloud, companies will be able to take customers beyond traditional product catalogues and lead management in the car buying journey to a highly customizable commerce engine."

 

How video technologies change in our today’s world

The new age of video technologies has come. After the TV and internet revolutions, we actually thought that we had reached the top of this industry. But we couldn’t be further from the truth.

Today’s state of social media marketing and marketing, in general, shows that videos only start their fabulous journey to take over the world. If you are interested in what is around the corner for this amazing industry, keep reading.

The golden age of video content

Today we live in the golden age of content when we get new breakthroughs and innovations in this area every day. It not only changed the way we consume information, but it also changed us: the way we learn, speak and collaborate with others.

One of the most popular careers nowadays is a Youtuber, and most kids dream about a job in the creative field. And the thing is that this dream is much closer to an average person than even five years ago. It’s practically in our hands.

You don’t need a big product team, stuff, and countless hours in the editing room to make a single video anymore. You can do it on your own, in your home with a regular camera and video editing software like Adobe Premiere or any online video editor of your choice.

The widespread usage of drones, once exclusively a professional tool but now a piece of standard video equipment, also gave more opportunities for new people to come into the video-making industry. Today everybody can make quality video content, and it helps to grow competition and create new, previously unseen technologies for recording and editing videos.

Streaming: the biggest trend in video marketing

The hottest and most trending video technology in 2021 is streaming services. And we mean not the only platform for gamers like Twitch, but also video streaming websites like Netflix or Hulu. 

According to studies, an average person watches about 16 hours of video per week, and it is more than 34 days spent watching videos a year. This shows how important the video industry is in the life of an ordinary human being. So it is safe to assume that in times of constant lockdowns and never-ending restrictions, video streaming services became the most needed thing in homes.

Also, marketing trends show that people are actually ready and will love to pay for high-quality content. For example, most videos on Youtube are free to watch, but websites like Patreon (ones that help content creators get extra money) are still on the rise.

People support favorite creators and shows, and since we are all in a state of war with the pandemic, we are absolutely sure that streaming services are only at the start of their successful path.

Next step of video making evolution: AI and VR

The widespread introduction and incorporation of AI in all spheres of our lives have already happened. Today, we can only watch how AI and VR will be more and more involved in our lives.

Soon enough, we will be living in a world where we don’t need any special software or an online video editor to edit our content. The only thing that will be needed is to tell AI: “edit video,” and it will do the job for you.

As for VR, we already have many great and absolutely realistic games with VR, and this industry is just starting to take off. It is possible that soon VR will be an important part of our day-to-day lives, and we will use it in routine Zoom conferences, for example.

In general, the video industry also tries to move towards a better user experience: increased framerates, improved visuals, and higher resolution. We already have games that look much better than the real world (like 2018 hit Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice), so we can confidently assume that in the future, the video and gaming industry will continue evolving in this direction.

Conclusion

Video technologies are an essential part of our everyday lives. We learn from YouTube videos, entertain with Netflix, and come for advice to the internet videos in almost every case.

The future of the video industry looks bright: it is now an essential part of marketing, and companies are ready to put resources into this industry’s development. Without a doubt, we should wait for some amazing breakthroughs in this area that will give us absolutely new experiences.

We can only guess what it will be, but only time will tell.

 

 

Starting a Business? Avoid These Common Traps

Whenever the global economy enters periods of uncertainty, people from all walks of life start thinking about opening their own businesses. It's a natural human response to a risky job market, rising inflation, and political unrest. If you are one of those entrepreneurial types who is seriously considering starting a company from scratch, it makes sense to review a few of the most dangerous pitfalls that first-time owners encounter. Simply knowing what they are is often protection enough against the common traps that appear along the road to success. In no specific order, here are several obstacles that thousands of people face when attempting to unleash their creative spirit on the marketplace of ideas, goods, and services.

Not Researching the Competition

Far too many prospective owners spend little time doing in-depth research on their competition. Again, this mistake can be chalked up to human nature because it's easy to spend hundreds of hours writing business plans, designing products, assembling mailing lists, and essentially focusing on getting the company's doors open. What often falls by the wayside is opposition research, the investigative phase of any competent startup operation. Take the time to identify every viable, potential rival in your niche. Study their websites, prices, special offers, shopping carts, advertisements, ‘About Us’ website sections, and more.

Ignoring Potential Sources of Financing

Unfortunately, too many stop before they start, assuming they don't have enough financial resources to sustain the months it can take to get a company off the ground. Most working people have more available capital than they at first suspect. Among the many hidden sources of financing for a young business, one of the most overlooked ones is life insurance.

It's worth remembering that you can sell almost any type of life policy you currently own. Check the fine print to discover how you can sell the contract to a third party for cold, hard cash. The best way to begin is to review a complete online guide to the subject that explains everything you need to know. Plus, once you sell your policy, you can use the money for any purpose under the sun, and that includes financing your brand-new business.

Assuming You Need to Rent Office Space

In your mind's eye, you've probably envisioned yourself sitting behind a desk in a rented office, working away at the keyboard and telephone. In reality, most new organizations don't need dedicated, rented office space for the first few months of their existence. As an alternative, use an extra room, corner of the garage, or an attic loft as a temporary headquarters until you acquire enough regular customers to support the expense of a more formal office. And there are plenty of ways to track employee performance when working from home as you expand your team or outsource work.

Doing Your Own Books and Taxes

Unless you have a degree in business administration and know enough about accounting, finance, and tax law to do your own books and file tax returns, hand the job over to someone else. Fees are very competitive, and you'll have the peace of mind that comes with having all the financial statements and tax issues in perfect order.

 

Google to Develop a Brand New App to Help People with Speech Impairments

Tech giant Google has stated that it is currently working on an Android app known as 'Relate', and it will help people suffering from speech impairments. The ultimate aim of Relate is to help people who have difficulty in speaking to communicate and interact with people and Google Assistant more easily.

According to Google, the app is designed with the help of over a million speech samples that participants have recorded during its research process. The app is still being developed, and it is currently not available for users to download. Google is searching for English-speaking testers in regions like Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and the US to experiment with the working capability of the app and provide feedback.

Google will be asking testing the app by asking users to record a set of phrases. Later, these phrases will be used by the app to automatically learn how to understand speech patterns and provide access to the app's three major features: Listen, Repeat, and Assistant.

 

Similarweb Announces Acquistion of Leading Mobile-Insights Provider Embee Mobile

The Tel Aviv, Israel-based leading digital intelligence company Similarweb announced that it was acquiring Embee Mobile for an undisclosed amount. Embee Mobile is a San Francisco-based mobile insights provider and market leader in mobile audience analytics, consumer panels, and mobile sampling.

“We believe Embee’s metered panel is one of the largest in the world, and it adds a new dimension to our highly differentiated approach to digital measurement,” said Benjamin Seror, Similarweb Chief Product Officer. “With consumers spending increasingly more time — over four hours per day — on their mobile devices, the granular insight into mobile app usage that Embee enables is more valuable than ever, across a wide variety of industries and use cases. Beyond this, Embee positions us to introduce additional exciting new market research capabilities in the future.”

The acquisition of Embee Mobile will enable Similarweb to make its data edge in digital measurement stronger and improve its mobile app intelligence offering. Embee’s metered panel technology and direct relationship with panelists will allow extensive mobile app behavioral and performance data to be integrated into Similarweb’s insights, allowing customers to go beyond traditional app store metrics such as downloads and DAU and access deeper behavioral insights, such as in-app searches, clicks, and journeys.

SafeBreach Secures $53.5 M in Series D

 Israel-based SafeBreach has secured $53.5 million in its Series D round of funding, which was led by Sonae IM and Israel Growth Partners (IGP), with additional participation from Sands Capital and Leumi Partners. The round saw investment come in from ServiceNow and participation from existing investors including Sequoia Capital, Deutsche Telekom Capital Partners, DNX Ventures, OCV Partners, PayPal, and others.

The fresh capital will be used by the company to fuel its plans of expansion into new geographies and improve its offerings. SafeBreach has raised over $106 million in total funding to date. As part of the funding round, Carlos Alberto Silva, Managing Partner at Sonae IM and Assaf Harel, General Partner at IGP will be joining the SafeBreach board, and Scott Frederick, Managing Director at Sands Capital will be added as a board observer.

“SafeBreach is the most comprehensive breach and attack simulation platform on the market – not only does it have the largest playbook containing over 21,000 breach methods; the platform also has flexible prioritization capabilities, extensive integrations, and extensible remediation options – while being simple to deploy,” said Carlos Alberto Silva, managing partner, Sonae IM. “We’ve never had such strong, positive customer feedback from high caliber clients and look forward to helping the company accelerate market expansion.”

Many large global enterprises in financial services, healthcare, manufacturing, telecommunications, retail, and other industries turn to SafeBreach for breach and attack simulation as part of their core security strategy to validate controls, improve security posture and mitigate business risk.

 

Starting a Software Business? Silicon Valley or Pennsylvania

Whether you are an aspiring entrepreneur planning to launch your startup or a CEO strategizing to open new offices, knowing about the tech hotspots of the country can be a game-changer. 

Silicon Valley has emerged as the destination choice for most software startups. Tech giants like Apple, Google, HP, Intel, eBay have established their headquarters in Silicon Valley. 

There are several reasons why Silicon Valley has emerged as the number one destination for startups. It is a global center for technological innovation. It is home to hundreds of software, technology, and internet companies. It is one of the wealthiest regions in the world, and the social aspects of the tech community are far-reaching in Silicon Valley. 

Apart from Silicon Valley, other U.S. cities have also started to attract budding startups. Some of these cities are Raleigh, Austin, Oregon, San Francisco, San Jose, Denver, etc. Among these places, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, is the fastest-growing U.S. city, set to replace the Silicon Valley tech dominance.  

Silicon Valley Vs. Pennsylvania

The city of Silicon Valley

The reason behind Silicon Valley’s popularity lies in its already existing tech community. Markets and industries have started to concentrate in that particular area because it is the home of the major tech giants of the world. 

In the startup culture, competitors always tend to line up in close proximity. This gives software businesses an edge over others. Consumers prefer a variety of choices, and it is easy to build infrastructure that facilitates similar businesses. 

In other words, Silicon Valley is a destination of its own. Starting your tech business in such an ambiance equipped with a talented resource pool, business infrastructure, and a flourishing market gives a head-start compared to other destinations. 

 Carnegie Mellon, Silicon Valley is the cradle for many aspirational students who have a penchant for IT. Many Carnegie Mellon graduates go on to set up business at the heart of Silicon Valley in California. 

However, there are downsides as well. While Silicon Valley does have its perks, it is saturated with old tech giants. Therefore, there is hardly any space left for new businesses to grow. 

Excessive saturated growth in one area has resulted in other U.S. cities as dream startup destinations. Today, we will look at Pennsylvania state, which is turning out to be one of the leading software business locations. 

The state of Pennsylvania

Immigrants from South Asian countries have been flocking to Pennsylvania because it’s a sanctuary for software businesses. Cities like Philadelphia and Pittsburgh are cheaper than the neighboring state of New York, and employment opportunities are endless. 

Philadelphia itself accounts for 40,000 immigrant entrepreneurs who run businesses ranging from tech companies (Haystack Informatics) to food trucks (Delicias). 

Earlier this year, the second citywide Immigrant Business Week was kickstarted by Mayor Jim Keeney, who traveled across the state to stump for Philly startups. In addition, the presence of the Ivy League school at the University of Pennsylvania proves to be a great motivator for competing startups. 

In fact, according to PitchBook, the University of Pennsylvania’s undergraduate program ranks fifth, and the graduate program ranks third globally among the production of venture-backed entrepreneurs. 

Comcast-NBCUniversal is Philadelphia’s largest tech private employer. It even has a new accelerator that includes a game console startup from the son of Atari and Chuck E. Cheese’s founder Nolan Bushnell. 

The city also continues to produce successful coffee companies that fuel the startup drive. These entrepreneurial avenues include companies such as La Colombe, which has now opened in five states, Saxby’s Coffee which is known to colonize college campuses laying along the East Coast. 

With legal sanctions and a budding community of online gamers, PA online casino businesses and betting sites are thriving and performing much better than other states. The Keystone State is proving to be the cornerstone of the gambling industry, and many tech startups are coming up with innovative ideas to fuel this sector and attract more players.

Is Pennsylvania the next Silicon Valley?

Tech experts have hinted that it’s time for the supremacy of Silicon Valley to end since Pennsylvania is on the rise. Even though California’s Silicon Valley is home to bona fide software businesses, Pennsylvania is spurring new technologies and presenting a stronger sense of community. 

Here are 5 locations in Pennsylvania that are on their way to make the state the next Silicon Valley. 

1. Erie

Erie is Pennsylvania’s fourth-largest city and is quickly becoming an appealing destination for tech startups. The city has a strong sense of community that has motivated the creation of an entrepreneurial ecosystem. Erie has everything that a startup needs to succeed, including great coffee, a resource pool of new talent, internet access, work culture, and so on. Mercyhurst University is teaming up with several local businesses in downtown Erie to attract students from across the globe. 

2. Philadelphia

Being the largest city in the state, Philadelphia has a slight edge over the others. The city boasts of prestigious universities, aspiring entrepreneurs, innovators, talented employees, etc., with easy access to software infrastructure and a thriving market. Philly Startup Leaders President Robert J. Moore has referred to the city as “a lean startup’s paradise.”

3. Pittsburgh

Pittsburgh has emerged as one of the country’s leading innovation hubs. There are three primary reasons behind this:

1. Pittsburgh has a highly skilled workforce.
2. There is an encouraging community that will help new entrepreneurs succeed.
3. Pittsburgh has a rich history of successful founders and, thus, access to capital. 

4. Harrisburg

The Harrisburg University of Science and Technology is fueling a growing young talent pool. Millennials are increasingly attracted to this city which is encouraging startups to launch here. In fact, even tech giant Apple has set its sights on Harrisburg. Spaces like St@rtup Harrisburg give students the direction and guidance they need to start a business in PA. 

5. Lancaster

Lancaster’s laid-back atmosphere and the culturally diverse talent pool are moving towards sustainable growth. The city has a thriving art, craft brew, and culinary scene that is proving to be tempting for avant-garde entrepreneurs destined to change the world. Besides, Lancaster’s new generation workforce is among the most hardworking in the city, and they have a penchant for collaboration. This drive is what makes the city an attractive destination for startups.