Pune-based Deskera claims to be the first GST compliant cloud software provider in India

Reports circulating the web reveal the compulsion to roll out GST by Sep 16, 2017. With businesses gone online, and a trend inclined towards cloud and data analytics, many would look for software services to help build their business function smoothly. Pune-based Deskera is one such service provider. It is a part of the GST network, and claims to be the first GST compliant service provider in India. It has been offering services in Singapore and Malaysia.“The complete structure isn’t out, but we do know it is going to be similar to Singapore and Malaysia. And, since we serve these markets, and with probably a similar structure in India, we can offer GST-compliant enterprise services,” Shashank Dixit, CEO, Deskera tells us.

Unlike others, Deskera offers full-fledged services, which aren’t limited to only bigger firms. It easily caters to SMEs alike, Dixit tells us. In fact, its the approach of services that sets it apaprt from others. For instance, a sales team wherein members get a commission will require 3-4 different types of software such as CRM to capture sales, software for payroll, ERP to calculate commission and project management. However, Deskera will do it out-of-the-box with one software.

He further tells us that Asian SMEs including Indian are more demanding and less forgiving, and the service providers will have to be very good at their work, to cater to the lot. Asian SMEs may not necessarily buy 4 pieces of software, while American SMEs could be open to the idea.Dixit tells us that cloud adoption in India is going through the roof, and Deskera opened eight office here in the past 7 months. The most recent one was in Jaipur, and he further adds how the tier 32 cities are adopting cloud service, which led it to open the office in Jaipur. Deskera is now trying to reach to its users.

While the government expects GST to unshackle India from red tape and improve the ease of doing business. However, how the industry will take to the new change will get apparent only after the implementation of the law.

Deskera is profitable startup  with 300 employees, and aims to increase the number to 600 by mid of next year. It also aims at doubling its revenue, which is now close to 200 crore.  Deskera Cloud ERP powers more than 3,000 SMEs and businesses globally. Its products are designed to fulfil the business requirements of a wide range of industries such as manufacturing, trading, distribution, engineering, building and construction. It should be noted that Malaysia switched to the GST era in April 2015. And, Deskera has been working with various Government departments and businesses in Singapore and Malaysia in helping them move to the GST based system.

Nissan finally launches the GT-R in India for Rs 1.99 crores

Remember back in Septmeber we told you that the iconic Nissan GT-R is available for pre-booking? Well, the company has now officially begun deliveries and has confirmed a launch price of Rs 1.99 crore (ex-showroom Delhi). It will be sold exclusively through the Nissan dealership in Noida which will also house India’s first Nissan High Performance Centre (NHPC) to take care of the servicing of the new car.

One of the finest production cars from Nissan, the all new GT-R builds up on the legacy of Nissan’s Skyline series. It is powered by a massive 3.8-litre V6 twin-turbocharged handcrafted engine that can produce 552 bhp at 6,800 rpm and 632 Nm of torque. Thanks to this, the car can launch from 0-100 kmph in just 2.8 seconds.India will get the same European spec Premium Edition and will be available in Katsura Orange, Vibrant Red, Pearl Black, Pearl White, Racing Blue, Gun Metallic and Ultimate Silver. The choice of interior trim includes Red, Tan, Ivory & Black.

“The GT-R is a very special car for Nissan and we are delighted to add it to our Indian line-up for the first time in its history. It is the epitome of Nissan’s technology and design, and demonstrates our brand promise of ‘Innovation and Excitement,” Nissan India Operations President Guillaume Sicard said.

The 2017 GT-R was unveiled at the New York International Auto Show back in March. It will be produced at Nissan’s primary plant in Tochigi, Japan, and will be brought to India as a CBU (Completely Built-up Unit).

99 percent counterfeit Apple chargers fail basic safety test: UK Trading Standards Institute

The Chartered Trading Standards Institute (CTSI) investigated into the safety of counterfeit electronics. In an operation, investigators purchased 400 different Apple chargers online, from various suppliers around the world. Out of these 397 failed a basic safety test. CTSI is warning consumers of the dangers of using counterfeit products.“Only buy second-hand electrical goods that have been tested and only buy online electrical goods from trusted suppliers,” said Leon Livermore, CTSI chief executive. “It might cost a few pounds more but counterfeit and second-hand goods are an unknown entity that could cost you your home or even your life, or the life of a loved-one.”

The institute representatives said that criminals around the world are luring gullible consumers into buying cheap electronic products that are known to set houses on fire. Although the CTSI takes measures to remove dangerous products from the market, and disrupt the supply chain of such unsafe goods, apparently their work is just skimming the surface. The National Trading Standards eCrime division is working with fire and rescue services to make home checks and identify dangerous products. The efforts of CTSI are running concurrently with Project Jasper, an initiative to purge counterfeit products from online marketplaces and social media sites.

Apple has identified the problem too, and has filed a $2 million lawsuit against Mobile Star LLC, for making and distributing counterfeit apple accessories. Details of the lawsuit was posted on Macrumors. Apple has found that 90% of the Genuine Apple products listed on Amazon were counterfeit. The listings used official Apple images and branding. The counterfeit products have a high risk of fire, electrical shocks and overheating.

Panasonic may buy ZKW Group, European automotive light maker to accelerate push into auto

                                           

Japan’s Panasonic Corp is in talks to buy European automotive light maker ZKW Group, accelerating its push into the automotive electronics market, a person familiar with the matter said. The deal could be worth up to $1 billion and the two companies could reach a basic agreement as early as this month, the Nikkei business daily reported Monday.An acquisition of ZKW would expand Panasonic’s automotive lineup, which currently centers on batteries and navigation systems, as it shifts its focus to corporate clients to escape price competition from lower-margin consumer electronics manufacturers.

“ZKW is among various deals that Panasonic is considering,” said the source, who was not authorized to discuss the matter and asked not to be named. “But no details have been decided and the deal could fall through,” he said.

Panasonic has earmarked 1 trillion yen ($8.80 billion) for strategic investments including mergers and acquisitions for the four years through March 2019. Of that amount, 70 percent has been already completed or allocated for specific deals, the company has said. The possible acquisition comes at a time when rival electronics makers are also pushing into the automotive industry. Samsung Electronics Co Ltd agreed in November to buy Harman International Industries in an $8 billion deal.

Panasonic is targeting annual sales of 2 trillion yen for its automotive business in the year ending in March 2019, up from 1.3 trillion yen in the last financial year that ended in March. Last year Panasonic took a 49 percent stake in Spanish automotive mirror manufacturer Ficosa International and plans to contribute $1.6 billion to Tesla Motors’ $5 billion battery factory.

Zenith, a leading forecaster says that social media ads will hit $50 billion by 2019

The amount of money spent on advertising on social media is set to catch up with newspaper ad revenues by 2020, a leading forecaster said on Monday. The rapid expansion of social media platforms on mobile devices, as well as faster internet connectivity and more sophisticated technology, has triggered a huge shift in the way many people get their news.

Advertising agency Zenith Optimedia, owned by France’s Publicis, predicts global advertising expenditure on social media will account for 20 percent of all internet advertising in 2019, hitting $50 billion and coming in just one percent smaller than newspaper ads. It expects social media to overtake newspapers comfortably by 2020.

Marketers are increasingly directing their spending to social media sites where ads blend into users’ newsfeeds on platforms such as Facebook and Snapchat proving more effective than interruptive banner formats. Zenith’s report forecasts that global advertising expenditure will grow 4.4 percent in 2017, the same rate as in 2016, which it said would be a strong performance given that big events like the Olympic Games, Britain’s EU referendum and the U.S. presidential election boosted advertising this year.Online video advertising is also rapidly growing and set to total $35.4 billion across the world by 2019, fractionally ahead of the amount spent on radio advertising but still far less than television. Global spending on advertising has been stable since 2010 the report showed, although growth has declined in the Middle East and North Africa. It was expected to continue to grow strongly in China and much of Asia.

Tesla hires Microsoft HoloLens Senior Designer Andrew Kim

Tesla has appointed a new Lead Designer, Andrew Kim. Kim used to be a Senior Designer for Microsoft, who has worked on the HoloLens. The hiring comes close on the heels of Tesla acquiring SolarCity, and Kim could be a part of the team designing SolarCity products, according to a report in Slash Gear. The LinkedIn profile of Kim confirms his new position at Tesla.

Kim was born in Seoul, Korea and raised in Vancouver, Canada. Apart from HoloLens, Kim had worked on the Xbox One S, confidential new products, and the Microsoft design language at Microsoft. Kim has also worked on Chrome UI and Chromebook concepts while interning at Google. Kim has also worked at Cisco and Frog. Kim graduated from the Art Center College of Design in California.In 2014, Kim was included in the Forbes list of 30 under 30, an annual tally of promising young talent. When he was a student, Kim proposed a concept design for re-branding Microsoft, which took the internet by storm. The design was posted on his blog, called Minimally Minimal, and called “The Next Microsoft“. Microsoft got in touch with Kim after he posted the designs, and hired him.

Samsung moves on from Note 7 fiasco but battery affiliate SDI is struggling

In the shadows of Samsung Electronics’ Note 7 smartphone crisis, affiliate Samsung SDI is quietly reassuring anxious clients including Apple Inc that its batteries are safe. But potential new customers may prove harder to convince as Samsung’s biggest in-house parts supplier grapples with the reputational fallout from the Note 7 debacle. Created as a joint venture with Japan’s NEC to make vacuum tubes in 1970, Samsung SDI’s TV and smartphone screens and batteries were key to Samsung Electronics’ rapid growth.

But it now faces a tougher challenge than its biggest customer and shareholder as it looks to add new customers and extend into electric vehicle batteries and renewable energy storage systems. Samsung Electronics, the world’s biggest maker of smartphones, was quick to blame the battery for causing some Note 7 devices to catch fire. It has since widened its investigation into the exact cause of the fires in its near-900,000 won ($780) phones after replacement phones using batteries from China’s Amperex Technology also caught fire. But for Samsung SDI the damage was already done, analysts said.

SDI, the main supplier of Note 7 batteries, has lost around a fifth of its market value since the problem first emerged, and its third-quarter operating loss was more than double that of a year earlier. Shares of Samsung Electronics, however, are little changed over the same period, and a Reuters/Ipsos opinion poll on Sunday showed the Note 7 recall has had little impact on the willingness of users in the United States to buy the company’s phones.

“Since the first recall, we’ve had many inquiries from our clients, including Apple, asking whether batteries used in their products are safe,” said a person at SDI who was involved in developing the Note 7 battery. “We are also asking ourselves whether we should have done it (the Note 7 battery) this way, or whether there could have been other ways,” the person said, declining to be named as he was not authorized to speak to the media.

Lasting Impact 

SDI has said the battery issue was limited to the Note 7, and it has carried out reliability checks on products with major customers and found no problems. It has set up teams to improve product safety, and allowed customers to check batteries, which, it says, meant temporary shipment delays for a couple of customers. “We put the utmost priority on battery reliability, and will use this opportunity to further enhance customer trust,” Kim Hong-gyeong, SDI’s chief financial officer, said on a conference call with analysts.

Some analysts say the impact could be lasting for SDI. “This will have more of an impact on new customers than on existing customers,” said S.R. Kwon, at Dongbu Securities. “SDI can assure existing customers … but this could be a minus factor for SDI when it tries to attract new customers.”

“The affected (Note 7) battery is totally different to the product we use so the issue doesn’t really impact us,” said an official at one of SDI’s automotive customers. “But we’re not happy,” the person added, declining to say whether that may change its relationship with SDI. SDI, which has around a 25 percent market share in small device batteries according to market research firm B3, is already battling a slowing smartphone market, and its diversification push hasn’t been helped by a failure to win Chinese certification for subsidies on its electric vehicle batteries in the world’s biggest autos market.

Close Ties

Close ties to Samsung Electronics have helped SDI build scale and reputation, and secure orders from the likes of Apple. Close to a third of its revenue in the first half year came from other Samsung companies. For Samsung Electronics, having in-house suppliers helped it beat rivals to cutting-edge technologies – from curved screens to faster chips and higher-density batteries.

But the Note 7 crisis has raised doubts about whether that in-house supply chain can handle the growing strains on capacity as Samsung Electronics transitions from fast-follower to trend-setter. Calling the Note 7 problem “very embarrassing,” a second person at SDI said: “It’s a matter of our capability … We thought we had control (over all aspects of manufacturing), but it turned out there were some aspects we weren’t able to govern.”

SDI had to incorporate new materials and technology to meet Samsung’s request for bigger battery capacity for the Note 7, which increased by a sixth from the previous model, the SDI insiders told Reuters. “We focused on boosting battery capacity, but this could have been disadvantageous to reliability,” said the engineer who worked on the Note 7 battery.

Samsung Electronics said its focus is on looking at all possibilities to find the root cause of the Note 7 problem.