WILLIAMS SCOTSMAN TO ANNOUNCE FOURTH QUARTER AND FULL YEAR 2017 RESULTS ON MARCH 5, 2018

BALTIMORE, Feb 27 (Bernama-GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- WillScot Corporation (NASDAQ:WSC) ("Williams Scotsman") today announced that it will release its fourth quarter and full year 2017 financial results before the market opens on March 5, 2018.

President and Chief Executive Officer, Bradley Soultz, and Chief Financial Officer, Timothy Boswell will host a conference call and webcast on March 5, 2018 at 10:00 a.m. EST to discuss the results for the fourth quarter and full year 2017.

http://mrem.bernama.com/viewsm.php?idm=31291

GENESIS HEALTHCARE, PIONEER OF GENETIC TEST SERVICE, RAISES 1.65 BILLION YEN NEWLY

TOKYO, Feb 27 (Bernama-AsiaNet) -- Genesis Healthcare Co., Japan's pioneer genetic testing and research company, has completed a third-party equity allocation to Rakuten, Inc. (TSE: 4755) and Omron Healthcare Co., Ltd. Genesis' Capital has increased to 3.78 billion yen, and Genesis' post-money valuation is approximately 42 billion yen (*1).

As the market leader in the genetic testing and research field in Japan, Genesis has actively pursued development of the Japanese scientific landscape through numerous R&D, product development, awareness raising via human resource development and advanced education, and genetic data translation into useful solutions. As of today, the company's Japanese genetic data platform exceeds 550,000 individuals, the largest in Japan and potentially in Asia. In 2018, Genesis aims to accumulate data of 1 million people, or 1% of the population in Japan.

http://mrem.bernama.com/viewsm.php?idm=31292

A.M. BEST CHANGES CREDIT RATINGS OF CBL INSURANCE LIMITED FOLLOWING REGULATORY ACTION; WITHDRAWS ISSUER CREDIT RATING OF CBL CORPORATION LIMITED

SINGAPORE, Feb 26 (Bernama-BUSINESS WIRE) -- A.M. Best has removed from under review with negative implications and changed the Financial Strength Rating to a Non-Rating Designation of E (Under Regulatory Supervision) from B++ (Good) and the Long-Term Issuer Credit Rating (Long-Term ICR) to “e” from “bbb+” of CBL Insurance Limited (CBL) (New Zealand) following a regulatory action that placed the insurer in interim liquidation. Concurrently, A.M. Best has removed from under review with negative implications and withdrawn the Long-Term ICR of “bb+” of CBL Corporation Limited (CCL) (New Zealand) based on the same regulatory action. These rating actions follow the High Court of New Zealand’s announcement on Feb. 23, 2018, that it placed CBL in interim liquidation, following a request from the Reserve Bank of New Zealand. A.M. Best had been closely monitoring the activity surrounding CBL since taking an earlier rating action on Feb. 6, 2018. The ratings of CCL and CBL were downgraded and placed under review with negative implications at that time following CCL’s announcement that CBL’s insurance reserves for its long claim-tail French construction insurance business needed to be strengthened, and due to the resulting capital strain and pending the completion of an intended capital raise within weeks. In addition, the under review status had reflected the need to assess the adequacy of the strengthened reserves and the corrective actions taken by management to address the causes of the reserve shortfall. http://mrem.bernama.com/viewsm.php?idm=31272

AIRTEL AND CISCO TEAM TO IMPROVE MOBILE USER EXPERIENCE

BARCELONA, Spain, Feb 26 (Bernama-GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Mobile World Congress – With mobile data consumption surpassing usage of the U.S. and China in 20171, mobile service providers in India are working to enhance their network infrastructure to manage and support the growth surge and ensure quality of customer experience.

Bharti Airtel (Airtel), India’s largest telecommunications services provider, and Cisco have joined forces to improve customer experience by taking their SON collaboration to next level.

http://mrem.bernama.com/viewsm.php?idm=31269

Cisco, Vodafone Showcase Mobile Transport Networking Advancements

KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 27 (Bernama) -- Cisco Systems Inc, together with Vodafone, is demonstrating a new network slicing technique via segment routing, at the Mobile World Congress held from Feb 26 to March 1 in Barcelona, Spain.

Cisco, in a statement said the technique could help to lower and control latency for high-bandwidth applications running on Vodafone's network, to improve the overall entertainment experience for customers streaming video, games, and augmented, virtual or mixed reality streams.

To meet the growth in demand for bandwidth and more devices connected to the network, Vodafone has started to use Cisco segment routing technology to simplify its overall transport network operations by automating core functions to better detect and solve traffic congestion issues.

Segment routing, an innovative IP routing protocol, allows the transport network to differentiate the way it delivers applications, removing legacy protocols and making network operations easier.

Using a software defined network for transport, it will be possible to create a low latency 'slice' (a virtual route within the transport network) that will ensure chosen types of traffic, for instance, automated driving or critical health applications would always choose the route with the shortest end-to-end latency.

Segment routing also improves network resiliency by using 'self-healing' to intuitively restore connectivity in under 50 milliseconds if an issue occurs by rerouting traffic automatically.

-- BERNAMA

​ALPS ELECTRIC TO EXHIBIT AT CONVERGENCE INDIA 2018 FOR THE FIRST TIME

To Introduce Technology for IoT and Next-Generation Automobiles

TOKYO, Feb 28 (Bernama-BUSINESS WIRE) -- Japanese electronic components manufacturer Alps Electric Co., Ltd. (TOKYO: 6770; President: Toshihiro Kuriyama; Head Office: Tokyo) will exhibit at Convergence India 2018 to introduce its technologies, with particular focus on the Internet of Things (IoT) and automotive electronics markets. Convergence India 2018 opens at Pragati Maidan in New Delhi, India, on March 7, 2018.

At Convergence India 2018, South Asia’s largest ICT exposition, Alps Electric will exhibit products for the IoT and automotive markets.

Exhibit Highlights

1. IoT Sensor Network Modules

Sensor network modules for collecting a variety of data, essential for IoT business creation. Integrating low-power, high-precision and compact sensors with a Bluetooth® communication module, these products are capable of acquiring pressure, temperature, humidity, ambient light and other environmental data, as well as six-axis (geomagnetism + acceleration) sensing.

A special app (for Android) is available for viewing data and changing settings on a smartphone or tablet. In addition, radio certification has already been acquired for various regions around the world, allowing smooth, low-cost progression to demonstration testing.

At Convergence India 2018, we will present actual application examples in areas including abnormality detection in factory facilities and sports technology.

2. V2X (Vehicle-to-X) Communication Modules

Alps Electric’s V2X Communication Modules, the industry’s first to be mass-produced, support both single and dual antenna (transmit/receive diversity). They are also available as a package with an ETSI or WAVE protocol stack plus a security chip.

Other modules for vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) or vehicle-to-infrastructure (V2I) communication, for enabling connected vehicles, will also be introduced. They include GNSS and LTE Modules.

If you are at Convergence India 2018, please stop by the Alps Electric booth.

Outline of the Exhibition

Exhibition:		Convergence India 2018
Dates:		March 7-9, 2018
Venue:		Pragati Maidan (New Delhi, India)
Booth location:		Booth C117, Hall 11

Exhibits

• IoT Sensor Network Module

• IoT Sensor Network Module (Function Expansion Type)

• V2X Communication Modules

• GNSS Module

• LTE Module

• Brake Pedal Sensor

• Latch Position Sensor

• Steering Angle Sensor

• TACT Switch™ and more…

 Alps Electric Core Technologies

Alps Electric possesses core technologies in three areas—human-machine interfaces, sensors and connectivity—and persistently creates electronic components of value for the customer through enrichment and fusion of those technologies.

The company has performed tremendously well in these areas. In the human-machine interface and sensor domains, Alps Electric has been selected as primary supplier of products for applications including smartphones, game consoles and automobiles. And in the connectivity domain, the company led the industry in commencing mass production of V2X modules for vehicle-to-vehicle and vehicle-to-infrastructure communication.

About Alps Electric Co., Ltd.

Company name: Alps Electric Co., Ltd.
Established: November 1, 1948
Capital: 38.730 billion yen (as of the end of March 2017)
No. of employees (consolidated): 42,053 (as of the end of March 2017)
No. of employees (Electronic Components): 22,688 (worldwide, as of the end of March 2017)
Net sales (consolidated): 753.262 billion yen (year ended March 31, 2017)
Net sales (Electronic Components): 437.676 billion yen (year ended March 31, 2017)

Contacts
Inquiries About This Press Release
Alps Electric Co., Ltd.
Asagi Tsukahara, +81-3-5499-8001
Public Relations Team
Corporate Planning Office
asagi.tsukahara@jp.alps.com

Source: Alps Electric Co., Ltd.

View this news release and multimedia online at:
http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180228005509/en

--BERNAMA

http://mrem.bernama.com/viewsm.php?idm=31309

AIRSPAN AND SPRINT SELECTED AS THE WINNER OF "BEST MOBILE TECHNOLOGY BREAKTHROUGH" AT GLOMO 2018 AWARDS

BARCELONA, Spain, Feb 28 (Bernama-BUSINESS WIRE) -- Airspan and Sprint are proud to have been selected as the winner of the Best Mobile Technology Breakthrough award in recognition of the ground breaking and successful mass deployment of the first all-wireless indoor small cell, the Magic Box, specifically designed to improve network efficiency, increase data speeds and enhance user experience.
 
“We are delighted to have our innovative Magic Box recognized by the GSMA and judges in a highly competitive category with some of the largest companies in the world,” said Robert Kingsley, Director of Small Cell and WiFi Development at Sprint. “The simplicity of installation and built-in intelligence of the Magic Box is making our customers’ network experience better every day.”
 
“Our partnership with Sprint makes real the long-promised abilities of small cells to improve network efficiency and cost-effectively expand network coverage and capacity,” said Eric Stonestrom, CEO Airspan Networks. “The Magic Box finally answers the call for a self-installed, low cost, high-performance solution to network coverage issues.”
 
The Best Mobile Technology Breakthrough award highlights the contribution that Mobile Operators, manufacturers, and suppliers make to increase mobile usage, expand the user experience, and help expand business opportunities.
 
This very wide-ranging category includes components, microprocessors, memory, chipsets, screens, audio, batteries, operating systems, APIs to name but a few and even looks at design innovation and form-factors. It recognizes the tremendous diversity of the global mobile ecosystem as it continues to innovate and add new dimensions to the customer experience, and Sprint and Airspan are honored to be 2018 GLOMO award recipients.
 
Contacts
Airspan.com
Damiano Coletti, 01895 467100
mediarelations@airspan.com

Source: Airspan
 
View this news release online at:
http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180227006808/en
 
--BERNAMA

http://mrem.bernama.com/viewsm.php?idm=31301

World's Top Customer Service, Sales Awards At Stevie Awards Night

KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 27 (Bernama) -- The winners of the 12th annual Stevie Awards for Sales and Customer Service were unveiled last Friday night at a gala ceremony in Las Vegas, Nevada.

It was attended by more than 600 executives from around the globe.

The top Grand Stevie Award trophy was won by DP DHL for the fifth consecutive year. The company also won gold, silver, and bronze Stevie Awards for activities in Argentina, Lebanon, the U.S., Vietnam and other nations.

The other Grand Stevie Award winners, in descending order include IBM, HomeServe USA, VIZIO Inc., Sales Partnership Inc.,John Hancock Financial Services, FIS Payments, Carbonite, Inc., Visualize, and Delta Vacations.

Meanwhile, the winners in the People's Choice Stevie Awards for Favourite Customer Service, as determined by more than 124,000 public votes, announced on Feb 15, were also presented at the event.

More than 2,500 nominations from organisations of all sizes and in virtually every industry were evaluated in this year's competition.

The finalists were determined by the average scores of more than 150 professionals worldwide in seven specialised judging committees.

The entries were considered in 89 categories for customer service and contact centre achievements, 60 categories for sales and business development achievements, and categories to recognise new products and services and solution providers.

-- BERNAMA

DIVERSIFIED GATEWAY BERHAD BECOMES NTT COMMUNICATIONS' FIRST PARTNER IN MALAYSIA FOR MANAGED SERVICES

TOKYO & KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia, Feb 26 (Bernama-BUSINESS WIRE) -- NTT Communications (NTT Com), the ICT solutions and international communications business within the NTT Group (TOKYO:9432), announced today that Diversified Gateway Berhad (DGB) has become the first partner in Malaysia to provide NTT Com's Global Management One (GMOne) managed services. This partnership is a part of NTT Com's expansion strategy for its managed services in the region, following Singapore and Hong Kong. Both companies will leverage complementary strengths to provide managed services based on automation to medium and large size enterprise customers in Malaysia.

GMOne services are designed to meet the requirements of enterprise customers who need to manage an increasingly complex and hybrid ICT environment. Leveraging NTT Com's global resources, GMOne is a one-stop global solution that helps companies manage their entire hybrid ICT ecosystem, from infrastructure through business applications to business services. Thanks to proactive 24x7x365 remote monitoring and management (RMM) of the entire infrastructure, GMOne helps customers maximize the benefits from their Hybrid ICT without compromising on security and reliability.

http://mrem.bernama.com/viewsm.php?idm=31277

MITSUBISHI CHEMICAL IN STRATEGIC PARTNERSHIPS FOR MARKETING ZEOLITE MEMBRANES FOR BIOETHANOL PRODUCTION

AsiaNet 72465
 
TOKYO, Feb. 28, 2018 /Kyodo JBN-AsiaNet/ --
 
Mitsubishi Chemical Corporation ("MCC") hereby announces strategic partnerships for marketing its zeolite membranes, ZEBREX (TM), for bioethanol production. The strategic partnerships consist of ICM, Inc. ("ICM") for North America and Mitsui & Co., Ltd. ("Mitsui") for Asia-Pacific and Europe. The partnerships will accelerate MCC's business development in the bioethanol market further on a global scale.
 
With the United States and Brazil leading the global market, the use of bioethanol derived from biomass feedstocks such as corn, sugar cane and cassava has been wide-spreading due to its carbon neutrality and potential to reduce greenhouse gas emission. Further, what has been called the "second-generation bioethanol," bioethanol from non-edible feedstocks is evolving in the United States and India.
 
Bioethanol is required to be dehydrated to a certain extent for use as fuel. With the continuously growing market globally, bioethanol producers will significantly take advantage of ZEBREX (TM). ZEBREX (TM) being a state-of-art, continuous dehydration technology of zeolite membranes, bioethanol producers will save 20% to 30% of energy consumption compared with a traditional batch PSA process (*), which requires periodical regenerations. ZEBREX (TM), through either replacement of the PSA process or integration to an existing bioethanol plant, allows bioethanol producers to reduce carbon footprints and operation costs while increasing production through improvement in efficiency and operational stability.
 
Known for its engineering expertise in the fuel ethanol market, ICM's technology is used in more than half of ethanol plants in the United States, where the largest bioethanol production is taking place. The combination of MCC's ZEBREX (TM) dehydration technology and ICM's process integration ability will speed the penetration of ZEBREX (TM) into the North American market.
 
Mitsui has a strong marketing and business network with bioethanol producers in Asia-Pacific and Europe. Its strength is not limited to bioethanol but also lies in the sugar and food markets. MCC will promote ZEBREX (TM) with Mitsui to bioethanol producers who can take advantage of the technology. As a result of this partnership, one of the largest bioethanol producers in Europe, Pannonia Ethanol Zrt based in Hungary, has committed to install the world's largest ZEBREX (TM) system. Pannonia also employs ICM technology: this ZEBREX (TM) integration will be one of the best showcases to represent successful partnerships revolving around ZEBREX (TM) in the global perspective.
 
MCC contributes to continuous promotion of efficient energy production and use by expanding its zeolite membrane business that these partnerships will accelerate.
 
(*) PSA (pressure swing adsorption) is a technology with traditional type A zeolite pellets. Due to inefficiency of the PSA dehydration process, ethanol/water 50% mixture requires to be regenerated in the distillation column, which results in an energy-intensive process.
 
About ICM, Inc.
 
Established in 1995 and headquartered in Colwich, Kansas, ICM, with a regional office in Brazil, provides innovative technologies, solutions and services to sustain agriculture and to advance renewable energy, including ethanol and feed technologies that will increase the supply of world protein. By providing proprietary process technologies to over 100 facilities globally with a combined production capacity of approximately 8.8 billion gallons of annual ethanol production and 25 million tons of annual distillers grains, ICM has become a world leader in bio-refining technologies.
For more information, please visit http://icminc.com/
 
Mitsubishi Chemical Corporation website:
https://www.m-chemical.co.jp/en/index.html
 
SOURCE: Mitsubishi Chemical Corporation 
 
--BERNAMA

http://mrem.bernama.com/viewsm.php?idm=31306

VRICON LAUNCHES TELCO SUITE AT MOBILE WORLD CONGRESS

Visit us at MWC Booth 6L8 to learn about our 3D geodata solution

McLean, Virginia, Feb 26 (Bernama-GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Vricon is pleased to announce that it is launching its Telco Suite at this year’s Mobile World Congress(MWC) in Barcelona.  MWC participants can see a demonstration of the Telco Suite in Vricon’s booth, located at #6L8. 

The Vricon Telco Suite is designed to help telecommunications companies navigate the rapid changes happening throughout the industry. With an increasing number of connected devices, high-definition content, and new services, the demands on networks are accelerating and growing exponentially. The Vricon Telco Suite is a cost-effective, next-generation solution that helps companies design networks for optimal performance, whether it’s to densify existing 4G LTE networks, prep for 5G to empower smart homes and the Internet of Things, or work a more complex HetNet.

“Mobile World Congress 2018 is the best place to see first-hand new technologies, to include Vricon’s Telco Suite.  Our new product suite will help telecommunications companies solve some of their most pressing problems," says Magnus Brege, CEO of Vricon. “We are excited to showcase this great technology at MWC and help telco companies lower costs without sacrificing quality, scale, or time-to-market.” 

Vricon’s Telco Suite provides a complete geodata solution that enables telco companies to analyze urban, suburban, and rural areas precisely and quickly.  The Suite includes 3D and 4D vectors, clutter heights, clutter classes, orthoimagery, and terrain data. Based on high-resolution satellite imagery, Vricon’s geodata is highly detailed, of consistent quality and accuracy, and covers the world.

At the heart of the Vricon Telco Suite is The Globe in 3D—a revolutionary new source of 3D geospatial and digital elevation data with 50cm resolution and 3m absolute accuracy. Defense and intelligence agencies are using The Globe in 3D today to support precision targeting, mission rehearsal, and GPS-denied navigation.

About Vricon 

Headquartered in McLean, Virginia, Vricon creates The Globe in 3D through a unique combination of patented technology, big data processing, and access to massive satellite imagery archives. For further information, visit vricon.com.

Attachments:

A photo accompanying this announcement is available at http://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/dc061646-b86e-4ead-9e48-bc74fe53abb6

Attachments:

A photo accompanying this announcement is available at http://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/c38c072f-1427-4c97-bd95-3fa74d852731

Manne Anliot
Vricon
+46 734 183655
media@vricon.com

Source : Vricon

--BERNAMA

Excel Dryer Receives EPD Verification By UL Environment

KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 23 (Bernama) -- Excel Dryer Inc has announced that three of their hand dryers were evaluated and their environmental claims, substantiated with the publication of the hand dryer industry´s first Environmental Product Declarations (EPDs) by UL Environment, a business division of Underwriters´ Laboratories.

The evaluated hand dryers are the XLERATOR Hand Dryer, XLERATOReco Hand Dryer and ThinAir Hand Dryer, proven to be sustainable.

Excel Dryer, in a statement, said that EPD is a standardised way of quantifying the environmental impact of a product by studying the raw materials and energy consumption during its production, use and disposal.

For buyers and specifiers, the EPDs are a disclosure tool that helps purchasers better understand a product´s sustainable qualities and environmental repercussions, to make more informed product selections.

To create an EPD, there must first exist Product Category Rules (PCR) which create testing guidelines and reporting methods through industry consensus, thereby permitting buyers and specifiers to compare products, apples-to-apples.

"Excel Dryer is proud to have been the first to publish dry time and energy use results of our three high-speed hand dryers to the new global PCR standards," said Excel Dryer vice-president of marketing and sales, William Gagnon.

The hand dryers are the first and only to achieve Made In USA certification.

The publication of EPDs continues Excel Dryer´s lists of celebrated accomplishments and ushers the hand dryer industry into a new age of transparency.

-- BERNAMA 

EVERISE HOLDINGS TO PARTNER WITH MICROSOFT TO DISRUPT THE BUSINESS PROCESS OUTSOURCING INDUSTRY WITH AI PLATFORM

Next generation AI platform for the contact center industry developed with Everise domain knowledge and powered by Microsoft’s intelligent cloud

 

SINGAPORE, Feb 23 (Bernama-BUSINESS WIRE) -- Everise Holdings (Everise) announced today that it will partner with Microsoft to develop and roll out an Artificial Intelligence (AI) platform to disrupt the Contact Center and Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) industry, leveraging Microsoft’s AI capabilities.

The omni-channel customer service solutions will target voice, video and text interactions, and deliver an unprecedented intelligent, customer-centric experience by leveraging the power of AI. By adding advanced AI tools and chatbots to existing capabilities such as speech recognition, sentiment analysis, and image recognition, Everise seeks to set a higher standard for a more personalized customer experience.
 

Everise operates a C3 Lab in Las Vegas within its operating unit, C3/CustomerContactChannels, with locations opening in Manila and Malaysia. C3 Labs has currently been incubating a variety of tools focused on the same mission of transforming the customer experience. Each of the C3 Labs will also marry Microsoft technologies with domain knowledge from C3’s customer innovations teams.

http://mrem.bernama.com/viewsm.php?idm=31262

SFR (ALTICE) EVOLVES ITS NETWORKING STRATEGY WITH CISCO NETWORK AUTOMATION

BARCELONA, Spain, Feb 27 (Bernama-GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Mobile World Congress -- Remaining competitive in today’s increasingly connected, mobile, digital and video-centric environment requires a network that is more agile and responsive than ever before. For service providers looking to support network speed and deliver high-quality services faster and more easily, deploying network and services automation solutions is crucial to managing secure, seamless operations and to preparing networks for 5G.

SFR, a subsidiary of the Altice Group, is deploying Cisco® Network Services Orchestrator (NSO) to tremendously enhance the automation, agility and reliability of its network, while accelerating network services change management from months to minutes with automated on-demand services provisioning.

With Cisco NSO, SFR is able to simplify the entire lifecycle management for its services, automating core functions across physical and virtualized networks for both existing and new customers. This enables faster innovation and increases customer satisfaction by speeding time-to-market for new managed services like SD-WAN, and Application-driven, on demand services.

A key technology enabler for software-defined and intent-based networking, Cisco NSO will enable SFR to reap several benefits including:

• Transform their networks and services towards programmability, by empowering SFR teams to manage their network services more efficiently
• Assured quality of service for critical applications, driven with agility, flexibility and simplicity of management at its core
• Faster delivery of revenue-generating services and shorter activation times from months to minutes
• Automated service lifecycle and reduction of manual configuration steps by up to 90 percent
• Model-driven automation, to abstract the services from the underlying devices, in a standardized way
• Transparent orchestration spanning multiple domains in the network to include NFV and SDN through use of an open, modern programmable platform
• Reduce failed service activations and network issues by removing risk of human error

SFR is planning to replicate these network automation best practices using Cisco NSO to change the way it runs across its Fixed and Mobile networks, to accelerate digitization, that could be extended to other Altice entities.

“Utilizing Cisco’s leading network automation software allows us to bring a common API for our services across different networks in a simplified manner,” said Christophe Delaye, CTIO, SFR. “As a result, enabling SFR to get back to what matters the most – supporting our customers’ network automation requirements and enabling them to deploy new services quickly.”

“With Cisco NSO, customers like SFR can reap the business benefits of SDN and intent-based networking such as speed, agility, reduced risk and continuous compliance,” said Yves Padrines, vice president, Global Service Provider EMEAR, Cisco. “Our network automation solutions enable companies to simplify operations, increasing customer engagement and providing overall better experiences through network innovations.”

Cisco is leading disruption in the industry with our technology innovations in systems, silicon, optics, and security and our unrivalled expertise in mass-scale networking, automation, optical, cable access, video, and mobility. Together with our portfolio of professional services, we can enable service providers and media and web companies to reduce cost and complexity, help secure their networks, and grow revenue.

Supporting Resources

• SFR Business
• About Altice Group
• Cisco Network Services Orchestrator
• Follow Cisco news and activities at Mobile World Congress 2018 via #CiscoMWC, @CiscoSP360, and by visiting our SP360 blog.
• Follow us on our LinkedIn page for targeted updates and announcements
• Subscribe to Cisco's SP360 feed

RSS Feed for Cisco: https://newsroom.cisco.com/rss-feeds

About Cisco

Cisco (NASDAQ:CSCO) is the worldwide technology leader that has been making the Internet work since 1984. Our people, products, and partners help society securely connect and seize tomorrow’s digital opportunity today. Discover more at newsroom.cisco.com and follow us on Twitter at @Cisco.

Cisco and the Cisco logo are trademarks or registered trademarks of Cisco and/or its affiliates in the U.S. and other countries. A listing of Cisco's trademarks can be found at www.cisco.com/go/trademarks. Third-party trademarks mentioned are the property of their respective owners. The use of the word partner does not imply a partnership relationship between Cisco and any other company.

Press Contact
Sara Cicero, Service Provider PR, Cisco, stutzes@cisco.com

SOURCE : Cisco Systems, Inc.

--BERNAMA

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CISCO LAUNCHES NEW '5G NOW' PORTFOLIO FOR SERVICE PROVIDERS TAKING ACTION TODAY

More than 20 global service provider and mobile operator customers worldwide are advancing their 5G action plans with Cisco

BARCELONA, Spain, Feb 26 (Bernama-GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Mobile World Congress - Continuing on its path to disrupt the industry by redefining the network, Cisco announced today its ‘5G Now’ portfolio for service providers ready to go full throttle on their 5G roadmap. 

5G services promise to offer emerging new services at significantly faster speeds, expanded capacity and stronger coverage to accommodate the more than 27 billion connected devices1 expected on service provider networks by 2021. Beginning 2020, 5G connections will grow more than a thousand percent from 2.3 million in 2020 to over 25 million in 20212.

At Mobile World Congress this week, many technology vendors are focused on the spectrum advantages, radio equipment and architecture to support 5G services. Cisco is committed to showing service providers and mobile operators why 5G is important to plan for, and what they can really do with it. Cisco’s role here is focused on three things: 

1. Services: Planning for new 5G-enabled services Cisco can help deliver
2. Infrastructure: Mapping the right 5G infrastructure to their needs
3. Automation: Helping to make the mass network scaling for 5G simpler to manage, operate and secure

http://mrem.bernama.com/viewsm.php?idm=31276

CISCO AND TIM: TOGETHER TO ACCELERATE ITALY'S DIGITIZATION

BARCELONA, Spain, Feb 26 (Bernama-GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Mobile World Congress – Cisco and TIM, the leading service provider in Italy, announced a major agreement aimed at accelerating Italy’s digitization today at Mobile World Congress.

The two companies are engaged in developing a joint business and innovation program. They will leverage their unique competences and technologies, to create next generation solutions and services focused in particular on Cybersecurity, Internet of Things, Industry 4.0, Smart Cities and 5G.

This Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) has been signed in the framework of Digitaliani, the three-year investment plan launched by Cisco in January 2016, whose objectives are well aligned with TIM own digitization program.

http://mrem.bernama.com/viewsm.php?idm=31273

Taconic Biosciences Appoints Medical Experts For Its SAB

KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 22 (Bernama) -- Biotechnology company, Taconic Biosciences, has announced the formation of its Scientific Advisory Board (SAB) with the initial appointments of Dr J. Victor Garcia, Dr Andrew Goodman and Dr David Hill.

The SAB will collaborate with Taconic's management in providing scientific insight and guidance on the evolution of the company's product and service portfolios.

As Taconic is currently leading the microbiome and immuno-oncology spaces, the SAB members bring complementary expertise to continue to drive innovation in these and other research areas.

Chief Executive Officer of Taconic Biosciences, Bob Rosenthal said discovery and pre-clinical animal models continued to move toward highly-complex and high-value translational models.

"To continue to provide the best solutions for our customers, it is essential for Taconic to have guidance from prominent scientific experts as we develop and validate new models and services," he added.

Dr Garcia is a Professor of Medicine at the Center for AIDS Research (CFAR). He is an Oliver Smithies Investigator and fellow of the American Academy of Microbiology.

Dr Goodman is an Associate Professor of Microbial Pathogenesis and a member of the Microbial Sciences Institute at Yale University School of Medicine.

Dr Hill has a successful and extensive career leading the pharmacology departments of many major pharmaceutical companies, including a combined 20 years at Organon and Merck.

-- BERNAMA

CISCO 2018 ANNUAL CYBERSECURITY REPORT REVEALS SECURITY LEADERS RELY ON AND INVEST IN AUTOMATION, MACHINE LEARNING AND ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE TO DEFEND AGAINST THREATS

Findings show 39 percent of organizations are reliant on automation, 34 percent are reliant on machine learning, 32 percent are highly reliant on AI

SAN JOSE, Calif., Feb 22 (Bernama-GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Malware sophistication is increasing as adversaries begin to weaponize cloud services and evade detection through encryption, used as a tool to conceal command-and-control activity. To reduce adversaries' time to operate, security professionals said they will increasingly leverage and spend more on tools that use AI and machine learning, reported in the 11th Cisco® 2018 Annual Cybersecurity Report (ACR).

While encryption is meant to enhance security, the expanded volume of encrypted web traffic (50 percent as of October 2017) - both legitimate and malicious - has created more challenges for defenders trying to identify and monitor potential threats. Cisco threat researchers observed more than a threefold increase in encrypted network communication used by inspected malware samples over a 12-month period.

http://mrem.bernama.com/viewsm.php?idm=31250

OVUM SURVEY FINDS NETSFERE AMONG THE TOP 3 MOST WIDELY DEPLOYED SECURE ENTERPRISE MESSAGING SERVICES

NetSfere is the third most used enterprise platform, clearly outpacing legacy enterprise communication vendors

CHICAGO, Feb 21 (Bernama-GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- A report by Ovum, a market-leading research and consulting firm, commissioned by Infinite Convergence Solutions, a global leader in messaging and mobility solutions, finds that within just a few short years of launching, NetSfere is ranked as the third most used enterprise messaging service behind Skype Business and Cisco's Spark.

In addition to the need for a secure messaging service, the report shows enterprise demand for communication services that enable collaboration beyond messaging. NetSfere's combined HD voice, video and text capabilities - all preferred means of communication in one encrypted platform - validates its ranking among the top services for enterprises.

http://mrem.bernama.com/viewsm.php?idm=31243

Papercut Brings One, Easy-To-Use Solution For Production Printing

KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 15 (Bernama) -- PaperCut Software International, a global software company, has announced the general availability of its PaperCut MF version 18.0 software, bringing specialty production printing and three-dimensional (3D) printing under one, easy-to-use software solution.

PaperCut, in a statement said admins and operators could simply manage all specialty jobs, while also taking advantage of its powerful cost management, security and user identification features with the new job ticketing capability.

The new capability allows operators to accept specialty and 3D printing job submissions, such as laser cutting and prototype production, and track them through the production process while communicating the status to the requesting user.

The update connects in-house print rooms and fab labs at educational institutions, legal organisations, local governments, commercial organisations and hospitals to PaperCut's print management system.

"Until now, the lack of connection between our customers' general and specialty printing solutions such as print rooms and 3D fab labs has been a burden that cost them both time and money," said co-founder and chief executive officer of PaperCut, Chris Dance.

'To solve these problems, we have created a simple solution that will improve their specialty printing controls, security and payment options," he said.

Previously, organisations needing specialty prints lacked affordable or efficient options, or both, to produce and manage jobs.

Businesses would either have to use tedious, manual approaches to tracking and management, or purchase expensive software solutions limited in scope.

-- BERNAMA

DOW AND USA LUGE TECHNICAL PARTNERSHIP DELIVERS ADVANCED SLEDS FOR PYEONGCHANG 2018

Collaboration at the intersection of science and sport developed sleds for superior performance

MIDLAND, Mich., Feb 21 (Bernama-BUSINESS WIRE) -- People watching the Olympic Winter Games PyeongChang 2018 this month witnessed the power of a collaboration between USA Luge and The Dow Chemical Company (“Dow”). The USA Luge team competed with Olympians from around the world using sleds designed by their engineers and Official Technical Partner, Dow. The two organizations have been working together since 2007 to combine science, engineering and technology for superior sled performance on the track.

Dow is applying the knowledge of physical sciences and state of the art engineering tools to develop an advanced luge sled. For example, Dow engineers gather insights into the track dynamics through a computer based model which helps to understand the interplay between various types of forces acting on the athlete and sled. Through its advanced manufacturing and testing capabilities, Dow creates prototypes of new designs and validates them with internal testing. Promising ideas are further tested on the track by USA Luge athletes who are able to assess the practical advantages of the changes.

“By transforming the end-to-end process of sled R&D, design and manufacturing, Dow helps to continually innovate the sleds that the USA Luge team uses,” said Gordy Sheer, Director of Marketing and Sponsorship of USA Luge.

“Exceptional solutions require exceptional teams and teamwork,” said Louis A. Vega, Dow’s vice president of Olympic & Sports Solutions. “Dow’s long history and deep expertise in materials science combined with our drive for innovation complements USA Luge’s drive for sporting excellence and breakthrough performances. Together, we have been able to help push the limits of design possibilities which in turn has given Dow new insights for our broad portfolio of solutions. We are proud of this partnership and the team’s achievements this month.”

http://mrem.bernama.com/viewsm.php?idm=31246

LEGAL & GENERAL ANNOUNCES NEW PARTNERSHIP WITH TECHNOLOGY PARTNER SLICE LABS TO ROLL OUT 'ON-DEMAND' HOMESHARE INSURANCE

LONDON, Feb 21 (Bernama-BUSINESS WIRE) -- Legal & General, the FTSE 100 financial services group and leading home insurance provider, has today announced a new technology partnership with Slice Labs Inc with the aim to offer a new on-demand homeshare insurance proposition for customers.

The last few years has seen an increase in the popularity of on-demand insurance which allows customers to use a mobile app to purchase insurance to protect their personal belongings, car, or home when ‘at risk’.

http://mrem.bernama.com/viewsm.php?idm=31244

28MALL.COM CNY E-ANGPOW GIVEAWAY : YOU GIVE, WE PAY*

KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 21 (Bernama) -- During Chinese New Year, giving AngPow has now gone digital and global via 28Mall.com e-AngPow called HongBao$. Over RM100,000 worth of e-AngPow is allocated for CNY. For first time users, they can claim US$28 value of e-AngPow HongBao$ at www.28Mall.com/s/P37.
 
28Mall is the first to offer FREE “AngPow for Friends” to members who can claim e-AngPow each day to share with their friends via social media. The senders will receive more HB$ automatically when their friends accept their e-AngPow. The more they send, the more HB$ they get.
 
Even Celebs like Amber Chia is using 28Mall e-AngPow to reward her 600,000 Facebook Fans.
 
To promote the use of digital AngPow, 28Mall has launched two CNY offers till 28 Feb 2018.
 
A. Send e-AngPow, Win Cash (1 Winner)
The Member who sends 28Mall e-AngPow and refers the highest number of new members will get US$2 cash and HB$2.80 per member.
 
B. Shop & Win (3 Winners)
Top 3 Shoppers with highest spending will earn additional shopping money.
Read the full info of the giveway at http://28mall.com/blog/2018/02/13/28mall-com-cny-e-angpow-giveaway-you-give-we-pay
 
“28Mall is Cross Border O2O mall for brands can help Malaysia brands to export to China and overseas. Unlike other marketplaces, 28Mall only accepts brand owners or authorised distributor to ensure all products are authentic, so that consumers can shop with ease of mind” said Fione Tan, Co-Founder of 28Mall.com
 
Within 1 year, 28Mall has already attracted over 300 international and local brands. 28Mall.com also offers delivery logistics services for their sellers, and has successfully delivered items to Malaysia, HK, China, SEA, South Korea, USA, Spain and even Poland.
 
About 28Mall.com

28Mall, positioned as “Asia’s First Choice for Better Lifestyle and Best Rewards” is a new O2O Mall for brands targeting SEA, and China. 28Mall was founded by the Co-founders of eOneNet.com. For more information, visit www.28Mall.com and www.FB.com/28MallAsia
 
About eOneNet.com

eOneNet, ranked No.1 Internet Marketing Asia company in Google since 2000, provides internet marketing coaching for businesses to increase sales online globally. They have over 18 years experience in selling B2C and B2B online, and have offices in KL, Singapore, HK and China. For information, visit www.eOneNet.com
 
Source : e1Net Sdn Bhd

FOR MORE INFORMATION, PLEASE CONTACT:
Name: Harrace Lau
Marketing Director, 28Mall.com  
Tel: +603 2284 6418  
WhatsApp: +6012 2328878                                                     
Email: harrace@eOneNet.net    
 
--BERNAMA

GLOBECOMM JOINS AMAZON WEB SERVICES PARTNER NETWORK

HAUPPAUGE, N.Y., Feb 21 (Bernama-GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Globecomm announced today that it has joined the Amazon Web Services (AWS) Partner Network (APN) as a Standard Technology Partner.  This agreement will enable Globecomm to seamlessly interoperate its global satellite and fiber network with AWS’s storage, compute and cloud content delivery services.  With multiple direct connections to AWS, Globecomm can provision customer content, work processes and resilient network connectivity into AWS.  Customers already using AWS to support their processes can benefit from seamless access to Globecomm’s teleports, satellite capacity, fiber points of presence and cloud software applications running on AWS.

“We have been developing platforms and scalable customer solutions on AWS since late 2014,” said Globecomm CEO Jason Juranek.  “Like many of our customers, we turned to AWS for cost-effective, secure hosting of our own applications and content.  With this agreement, our customers can leverage our expertise in service design and delivery for both on-premise and cloud strategies while enjoying serious savings in implementation time and overall cost.”

Globecomm is currently expanding its existing global points-of-presence with AWS within the North America, Central Europe and Southeast Asia Regions.  The company anticipates deploying hybrid cloud-satellite-fiber solutions for customers in media and entertainment, enterprise video and IoT.  These hybrid solutions will reach beyond the edges of the network to remote facilities, ships, offshore platforms and vehicles in motion around the world.

"In the past," Mr. Juranek continued, "customers had to use traditional stacked hardware in their own data centers and then build their own teleport and operate the entire environment just to serve their markets.  Between Globecomm's global fiber and teleport network, and the huge capabilities of AWS, they can develop solutions, create content and connect it globally without ever owning a single physical asset."

http://mrem.bernama.com/viewsm.php?idm=31245

CISCO LEADERSHIP IN AUTOMATION CONTINUES WITH NEW NETWORK AUTOMATION PORTFOLIO FOR SERVICE PROVIDERS

Company launches industry’s most comprehensive closed-loop multi-vendor, multi-domain automation solution
 
SAN JOSE, Calif., Feb 21 (Bernama-GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Cisco today introduced its new Cisco Crosswork Network Automation software portfolio to improve how global service providers run their large-scale networks. The solutions are designed to work together to offer greater network visibility at scale (mass awareness), data-driven insights (augmented intelligence) and outcome-based automation (proactive control).

With 27 billion devices and connections¹ expected to be running on service provider networks by 2021, the pressure is on for industry adoption of complete lifecycle network automation and intent-based networking to help networks predict change and react in near real time.

Traditional operations staff will not be able to keep up with adding nearly 10 percent more devices every year without changing how they work. When Cisco automation is utilized, typical results include a 70 percent improvement in operational efficiency, 30 percent revenue uplift and a 40 percent improvement in customer satisfaction².

The new Cisco Crosswork Network Automation software portfolio helps innovative global service providers like Telstra and many others, automate their networks and explore how to effectively extract and manage huge amounts of data to help their networks react to common events and impending security threats.

This new portfolio offers service providers a single point of integration with zero-touch telemetry, machine learning intuition, open APIs and automated actions that offer a simpler experience.  It is backed by Cisco Services to assist customers with planning, customization and implementation.

New software technologies available today include:

• Cisco Crosswork Change Automation: Automated operations application that enables large-scale change and closed-loop control
• Cisco Crosswork Health Insights: Smart sensors, smart alerts and smart remediation to monitor and optimize networks
• Cisco Crosswork Data Platform: Featuring both an OpenSource and commercial-class data analytics platform
• Cisco Crosswork Network Insights: Cloud-based analytics solution for solving large-scale routing issues
• Cisco Crosswork Situation Manager: Machine learning-based event correlation featuring social tools such as chat functions to solve repair issues quickly.

The Cisco Crosswork Network Automation solution extends capabilities of the Cisco Network Services Orchestrator (NSO), offering the industry’s most comprehensive closed-loop multi-vendor, multi-domain automation solution, with service orchestration and automation applications that support third-party solutions with open APIs.

Solving Customer Challenges  
With this new portfolio, Cisco is uniquely offering its service provider customers easy onboarding into the network automation process. Key customer challenges the Cisco Crosswork Network Automation portfolio addresses include:

• Human driven network changes are error prone, time consuming, and lack comprehensive validation.
  • Cisco Network Services Orchestrator transforms network changes into intent-driven deployments with automatic validation
• Data silos make network data impossible to analyze and correlate.
  • Cisco Crosswork Data Platform creates a single point to seamlessly collect, analyze, and visualize network data across multiple services and domains
• Customer experience suffers when variations in network quality go unnoticed.
  • The Cisco Crosswork Data Platform, combined with Cisco Crosswork Health Insights, utilizes real-time visualization with analytics to provide unparalleled insight into network performance.
• The time needed to manually identify network problems results in significant business impacts when outages occur.
  • Cisco Crosswork Situation Manager uses artificial intelligence algorithms to automatically triangulate faults across multiple network domains, drastically reducing the time to isolate network outages, and provide root cause analysis to prevent future outages
• Remediating network problems is a slow and manual process.
  • Cisco Crosswork Change Automation uses analytics enhanced closed-loop automation to automatically remediate network issues as they happen
• Global Routing Scale errors can cause dramatic outages.
  • Cisco Crosswork Network Insights enables a cloud-first approach for resolving challenges in the rapidly changing global routing environment
• Networks are not continually optimized for business and service needs.
  • Cisco WAN Automation Engine (WAE) and XR Traffic Controller (XTC) use advanced telemetry and analytics to improve network performance in real time without human intervention

“As we remain focused on building Australia’s leading network of the future, we are committed to delivering superior quality networked experiences to our customers,” said David Robertson, Director, Network Transport & Routing Engineering, Telstra. “We are equally focused on anticipating the challenges and opportunities that affect our business goals. Our work with Cisco to reinvent our network operations through orchestration, automation and advanced data models offers us valuable insight for mass data collection, applying analytics and machine learning, and taking decisive action through automation.”

“Only Cisco can offer this comprehensive and holistic automation approach to solve challenges of today’s mass scale infrastructure,” said Jonathan Davidson, senior vice president and general manager, Service Provider Networking, Cisco. “Our primary goal for network automation is to help our customers turn growing pains into growing profit, and streamline operations so they can spend less time on tactical ‘firefighting’ and more time on identifying and trialing new revenue streams.”

Cisco is leading disruption in the industry with our technology innovations in systems, silicon, optics and security, and our unrivalled expertise in mass-scale networking, automation, optical, cable access, video, and mobility. Together with our portfolio of professional services, we can enable service providers and media and web companies to reduce cost and complexity, help secure their networks and grow revenue.

Supporting Resources

• Cisco Crosswork Network Automation Product Portfolio
• About Cisco Crosswork Network Automation
• Jonathan Davidson blog: ‘Cisco Crosswork Network Automation: The Industry’s Most Comprehensive Closed-Loop Automation Solution’
• Cisco Network Services Orchestrator
• Cisco Services
• For more information about Cisco service provider news and activities, visit the SP360 Blog or follow us on Twitter @CiscoSP360
• Follow us on our LinkedIn page for targeted updates and announcements
• Subscribe to Cisco's SP360 feed

 
RSS Feed for Cisco: http://newsroom.cisco.com/dlls/rss.html
 
About Cisco
Cisco (NASDAQ:CSCO) is the worldwide technology leader that has been making the Internet work since 1984. Our people, products, and partners help society securely connect and seize tomorrow’s digital opportunity today. Discover more at newsroom.cisco.com and follow us on Twitter at @Cisco.

Cisco and the Cisco logo are trademarks or registered trademarks of Cisco and/or its affiliates in the U.S. and other countries. A listing of Cisco's trademarks can be found at www.cisco.com/go/trademarks. Third-party trademarks mentioned are the property of their respective owners. The use of the word partner does not imply a partnership relationship between Cisco and any other company.

Press Contact
Sara Cicero, Service Provider PR, Cisco, stutzes@cisco.com
_________________________
¹ Cisco Visual Networking Index Forecast, 2016-2021
² Cisco BTA analysis on automation

SOURCE: Cisco Systems, Inc.

--BERNAMA