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Most admired companies to watch 2019

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October 2019
most
W
a
t
c
h 2019
Companies to
Admired
Dreams for Sale!
And! CIOLook presents you, The Most Admired
Companies to Watch 2019!
What? How could you shortlist few co...
not always about doing business and getting the moolah, its also about giving something back to the
society for the better...
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Most admired companies to watch 2019

  1. 1. October 2019 most W a t c h 2019 Companies to Admired
  2. 2. Dreams for Sale! And! CIOLook presents you, The Most Admired Companies to Watch 2019! What? How could you shortlist few companies and tell that they are the most admired companies of 2019? What makes them the most admired amongst billions of companies around the world? Wait! the answer is not that straight forward, as you might think. While listing out these companies amongst the long list, our team at CIOLook has gone through various painstaking processes which have helped them to carefully curate the final list. Few mandatory factors came into play whilst deciding the list which includes: Ÿ Disruptive Products: Disruption is the key word. Some also tends to think this as a ‘fad’. However, for me and our team at CIOLook, disruptive products always takes the industry forward and makes way for new innovations. When Steve Jobs launched the first iPhone, it was a truly disruptive product, which eventually changed the telecommunication industry. Ÿ Giving it Back to the Society: Social responsibility to the community played a large role while deciding this list. Its EDITOR’S NOTE
  3. 3. not always about doing business and getting the moolah, its also about giving something back to the society for the betterment of everyone. Ÿ Employee Relations: The ability to attract and retain talented employees also gets scrutinized. Employee retention plays a big role as it often indicates the number of content employees. Ÿ Global Presence: Effective presence in the global market is a key factor that gave these organizations an edge over the others, who doesn’t have a presence to boast about. Other than the mentioned points, we have also referred to the financial steadiness of the organizations, investment value in long term, decisiveness of the respective managements, social responsibility, quality of management, quality of products/services, innovation and global competitiveness, and usage of corporate assets. Additionally, this edition also considers a definitive report card on corporate reputation and how these companies collaborate with their global partners, executives, directors and seek to higher corporate reputation and performance. The list is prepared through a series of interviews with company leaders and industry analysts to determine the qualities that make a company worthy of such admiration. Happy Reading! Rohit Chaturvedi most W a t c h 2019 Companies to Admired
  4. 4. Allgress Industry Proven Risk and Compliance Management Arviem AG Impacting Supply-chains with Innovative Services AsiaPay Redening Digital Payment Solutions for Greater Good Big Bang ERP Growing Provider of Cloud ERP Services Worldwide, 24/7 Bio Tech 12 16 20 24 ContentsArticles Graphene: A Material Marvel of the Century 52 32 Imparting Wisdom Successful Personality Traits to Learn from Elon Musk
  5. 5. Clearswift Leading Provider of Advanced Content Threat Protection CMIC, Inc. A Global Contract Laboratory Organization codeSpark Academy Computer Science for Young Kids dominKnow Leading in Cloud-based Authoring Tool 44 40 36 28
  6. 6. mGage Helping Businesses Leverage the Power of Mobile Messaging MgO Systems Developing FASTER, STRONGER, SAFER, and More Sustainable Building Solutions Salt Essential IT Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Partner of Choice Silverware Making The Hospitality Industry More Protable Reveal Group Transforming Businesses for Good 48 54 58 62 66
  7. 7. CONTENT Senior Editor Alan Swann Managing Editor Bhushan Ghate Executive Editors Sourabh More Alex Spellman DESIGN Visualizer Dave Bates Art & Design Director Iresh Mathapati Associate Designer Sanket Zirpe SALES Senior Sales Manager Kshitij S. Customer Success Manager Jack Ryan Sales Executives John, Kane, Irfan, Jagdish TECHNICAL Technical Head Aditya K. Technical Consultant Victor Collins October, 2019 k.roy@ciolook.com Copyright © 2019 CIOLOOK, All rights reserved. The content and images used in this magazine should not be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without prior permission from CIOLOOK. Reprint rights remain solely with CIOLOOK. FOLLOW US ON www.facebook.com/ciolook www.twitter.com/ciolook WE ARE ALSO AVAILABLE ON Email info@ciolook.com For Subscription www.ciolook.com CONTACT US ON K. Roy Editor-in-Chief sales@ciolook.com
  8. 8. 1 Year 12 Issues $250 6 Months 6 Issues $130 3 Months 3 Issues $70 1 Month 1 Issue $25 CHOOSE OUR SUBSCRIPTION Stay in the known. Subscribe to CIOLOOK Get CIOLOOK Magazine in print, and digital on www.ciolook.com
  9. 9. Imagine you’ve been asked to manage the compliance process, but what does that even mean? Compliance regulations are exploding, making it almost impossible to keep up, and you have to be able to provide evidence of your compliance, but you and your auditor are speaking entirely different languages. What’s worse is you need to round up help from your co-workers because trying to manage compliance on your own isn’t working, but even that is easier said than done. Now you’re stuck with this overwhelming task, and the stacks of regulations just keep piling up. There is a solution – Allgress. It eliminates the hassle and streamlines the process for you, so now you can feel confident in your compliance management because it bridges the gap between you, your auditors and business stake holders. Now you’re speaking the same language, and the best part is it won’t take months to get started & you don’t need a whole team of consultants because you have the power at your fingertips. Allgress provides the automation necessary to interpret information in a meaningful way for a variety of audiences, including senior leadership. The company brings business insight to compliance, taking the hassle out of the hard stuff for you. End-to-End Risk Management Process Allgress is an established risk and compliance management solutions provider for organizations and their extended ecosystem of business partners. The Insight Risk Management Suite (IRMS) offers on-premises, SaaS, and hosted delivery options to manage hybrid cloud & on- premises environments. The company is also the first vendor to utilize AWS API’s for compliance and security management of an AWS cloud environment. The Allgress Insight Risk Management Suite v7 (IRMS) is its award- winning integrated mature risk and compliance management suite focused on helping organizations and their business partners manage the reduction of their business risk with less complexity and cost. IRMS provides a modular architecture that automates and streamlines the entire life-cycle for risk, compliance, IT security & third- party vendor management process in the cloud or on- premise. This provides the ability for its customers to craft and acquire just the right risk and compliance management system to meet their specific use-cases over time regardless of the industry vertical or size of the organization. The patented Allgress Business Risk Intelligence Engine provides common services including data store, data acquisition engine, user-provisioning, content library, workflow, correlation, incident management, and visual reporting engine, which provides the infrastructure for an operationally consistent user experience regardless of the use case. Allgress provides organizations the automation for end-to-end risk and compliance management processes for increased time-to-value, usability, simplicity, and affordability with a modular architecture so that that organizations of all sizes can leverage its solution product. World-Class Marketing Executive Jeff Kushner leads marketing at Allgress as the Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) and has been with the company Industry Proven Risk and Compliance Management 12 October 2019
  10. 10. since July 2012. As CMO, he is responsible for the global marketing strategy, branding, positioning and market communications. Jeff brings over 30 years of experience in a variety of leadership roles in technology marketing and business development. Before Allgress, he has held positions that increased revenue and market penetration with market leaders, including BindView (now Symantec), BMC Software, Sun Microsystems (now Oracle) and consulting to many organizations. His efforts have been instrumental in advancing the development and adoption of application, compliance & risk management. Robotic Process Automation In addition to rising requirements of manpower and cost results organizations were slow, manual processes that opened opportunities for inaccuracy and error, impediments to business performance, increased business risk exposures, and difficulty in responding to auditors, regulators, and partner requirements. Some of the challenges included: Ÿ Lack of ability to respond to change in regulation, technology, business, partners Ÿ Human error Ÿ No single source of truth Ÿ No accountability Ÿ Complexity Ÿ No clear view of GRC Allgress has addressed many of those capabilities in the newest release and continues to addressing these and other customer’s challenges by automating more of the entire end-to-end Integrated Risk Management (IRM) process with customizable logic and dashboards focused on the function of the user and robotic process automation using API's, bots, machine learning and Artificial Intelligence (AI). Identify Compliance Deficiencies The requirements for accountability, more oversight, and identifying business risk quicker are accelerating with new regulations, security breaches, partner requirements, fines, & reporting to target stakeholders virtually impossible. That lead to the introduction of automated Governance, Risk, and Compliance (GRC) solutions. Many of these other solutions and old manual methods have their own challenges of being complex and expensive to implement. Allgress’ goal when developing its solution was to overcome and reduce the complexity of these other solutions that introduced more complexity. To achieve that, the company introduced easy-to-use automated solutions with a common integrated approach that provides quick-time-to-value for all aspects of risk and compliance management enabling multiple people to work off the same data from identification to taking necessary action in less time, complexity & cost. Configure Needs of an Organization Organizations were already struggling to keep up with numinous regulations and best practices that were being managed with spreadsheets and home grown applications using expensive armies of consultants. Jeff Kushner CMO Allgress, Inc. 13 October 2019
  11. 11. organization with less complexity, cost, and manpower of homegrown or other solutions. The solution is delivered ready to start providing a continuous picture of their risk and compliance posture for an entire organization to an individual department with minimal set-up. An organization can typically start correlating technical, procedural, and operational control information from multiple data sources and/or a traditional assessment against one or more policies then produce visual reports for different audiences within a “week or so”. With Allgress, customers can converge disparate enterprise risk silos to gain an immediate, intuitive and unified view of their organization’s risk & compliance posture that translates that data into the language of business to reduce business risk. Reduce Business Risks Quicker Allgress IRMS provides the ability for its customers to craft and acquire just the right risk and compliance management system to meet their specific use-cases over time regardless of the industry vertical or size of the organization. Stakeholders and risk professionals receive a notification when a parameter falls outside the acceptable range with the supporting information they need to effectively manage the acceptance, exception, or mitigate the risk all within the solution. Allgress is pure play Governance, Risk & Compliance (GRC) meaning it only sells a GRC platform and not other solutions like infrastructure protection or other solutions. The company regularly attends and participates in online and industry events. The company foresees and hears from its customers that they need to improve efficiency, communicate their risk posture quicker, increase automation, have the same management capability they get in their current on-premise environments in the cloud, and consume data from additional IT & non-IT data sources with responsive customer support. The company has and will continue to add seasoned professionals to its implementation and support team to help customers reduce their business risk quicker using years of industry experience and knowledge of Allgress, being most of them were Allgress customers before joining the company. Allgress provides Automated end-to-end risk management for increased time-to-value, usability, simplicity, and affordability. “ 14 October 2019
  12. 12. Impacting Supply-chains with Innovative Services Arviem AG C loud computing and software programs have significantly improved product tracking, with real-time updates on the movement of goods globally. It allows business firms to adjust production schedules and inventory levels on a real-time basis. Such systems are being used for diverse warehouse management functions like inventory management and they are ensuring the elimination of blind spots and inefficiencies. One such cloud-based platform is Arviem AG. The company solves the challenges of obtaining visible and intelligent trade by offering real-time end-to-end cargo monitoring services. Arviem provides visibility and insights into the flow of goods and finances within the supply chain, enabling supply chain, logistics, security, and finance professionals to have a real-time, holistic overview of the movement of their assets. The company is offering a full, carefree service to customers that allow them to track all their global shipments, regardless of the transportation mode or the logistics service provider, on one single platform. Below is their story, Seeking the inefficiencies in global supply chains, the arising security issues after 9/11 and the lack of visibility and control supply chain professionals had over the movement of goods globally, Arviem realized that with the emerging new technologies it is possible to improve the status quo and bring transparency into how supply chains operate. The company aspires to become a ‘one-stop-shop’ for services when it comes to optimizing various aspects of the supply chain, whether it is about inventory management, working capital, carbon footprint, or demurrage of logistics costs. Arviem offers’ IoT enabled supply chain visibility services by monitoring the location and condition of goods in transit in real-time with sophisticated sensor devices. Besides real-time event notifications and alerts, supply chain professionals can also rely on Arviem’s cargo monitoring platform to manage their goods in transit. While the company’s IoT based services help clients to digitalize parts of their supply chain without the need for investigating into new technologies, hardware or staff, our scalable, pay- per-use service offers a possibility of a quick ROI by reducing costs and enhancing efficiency. With this services, customers can monitor their shipments with ease, reap the benefits of the gathered data while Arviem takes care of all the rest. The company sets itself apart from the competition by being the only provider of supply chain visibility as a hassle-free service. It aims at implementing supply chain visibility and cargo monitoring services as easy as possible. Having the collected cargo monitoring data in the core of our new service offering, the company has already developed new services that rely on the data hidden in supply chains. The company makes sure that the customer has the right amount of devices at the right time and the right location of the shipment, from the start till the shipment has reached its destination. To demonstrate, the company’s carbon footprint reporting and emissions monitoring solution reveals 16 October 2019
  13. 13. where carbon emissions are concentrated in the clients’ supply chain. Clients can leverage the collected data when making key business decisions with regards to the supply chain; such as, how to reduce energy use and how to lower the carbon footprint of logistics operations. With the aggregated data, supply chain and logistics managers can develop less intensive supply models to reduce the energy consumption of the supply chain and lower the company’s carbon footprint. Stefan Reidy is the CEO and Founder of Arviem, he is a supply chain enthusiast, and a visionary. Stefan has over 20 years of experience with innovative technologies & business models in the supply chain, which he gathered both by working for corporations and in the startup environment. Before founding Arviem, he was responsible for IBM’s Secure Trade Lane Solution, developing innovative solutions to improve security in international trade. Stefan’s passion and industry expertise We provide traceability from doors closing to doors opening. “ “ Arviem AG 17 October 2019
  14. 14. have been important for Arviem’s development ever since. He often shares his knowledge with university students professionals periodically at various events. Arviem’s goal is to provide visibility and insights into the flow of goods and finances within the supply chain, enabling supply chain, logistics, security, and finance professionals to have a real-time, holistic overview of the movement of their cargo. By having access to data and insights, clients are enabled to make educated decisions to optimize their physical and financial supply chain, eliminating blind spots and inefficiencies. The company’s vision is to maximize the value of the insights it can generate from the collected data and help their clients to bring their supply chain to the next level. Thanks to Arviem’s services, clients know where their cargo is located in any given moment, the environmental conditions it is exposed to and if it’s security has been breached. If disruptions arise (cargo experiences shocks, unfavorable temperature or humidity conditions, an intrusion or door opening or unexpected transshipment is detected) clients are noted immediately so they can take corrective action. Arviem’s monitoring platform provides an overview of all shipments in an easy to use, visual, user-friendly management dashboard, making it possible to access any information of the cargo’s journey at fingertips. Another innovative service leveraging the power of cargo monitoring data that Arviem has developed is focusing on optimizing the working capital management of organizations. The company enables the optimization of the financial and physical supply chains by making goods in transit financeable through monitoring the location and condition of the cargo in real-time. The company provides traceability from ’doors closing to doors opening’ serving as an independent verifier for regulatory purposes as well for real-risk mitigation. Stefan Reidy CEO & Founder Arviem AG 18 October 2019
  15. 15. Joseph Chan Chief Executive O cer Redefining Digital Payment Solutions for Greater Good AsiaPay 20 October 2019
  16. 16. Ever since the ‘digitalization’ came into the bright picture, the implementation of innovative tech in business processes has become often a need rather than a want. It has inherently boosted the growth of various businesses and help them to flourish in the current competitive markets. Fintech industry portrays itself as an appropriate explanation for the above statement. Meet AsiaPay, one of the blooming digital payment company in this industry. Led by Joseph Chan, Chief Executive Officer, it is the leading electronic payment service and technology player in Asia and beyond. Being a premier digital payment solution and technology vendor, it strives to bring advanced, secured, integrated, and cost-effective electronic payment processing solutions and services to banks and eBusinesses around the world. It aims to help it’s business partners grow their business through online and other digital channels by providing innovative, secure and cost-effective payment solutions. CEO’s Description of AsiaPay Being the CEO, Joseph Chan has always envisioned the day when digitalization and technological innovations will take over in both FinTech and retail industries. He firmly believes the future requires cashless and even cardless payment transactions that would make shoppers complete their purchase, simply, in few taps. He states that this futuristic idea was fueled by the fluctuating demands of company’s Asian consumers and the growing eBusiness concerns in the region. “Considering that the Asia Pacific is a collective of marketable countries with a wide population of digital natives, we have managed to bring our merchants and consumers the business-suited payment tools and services that are convenient for them in the eCommerce landscape,” says Joseph. Through the above statement, he exemplifies, with the help of such business-suited payment tools and services AsiaPay continues to provide innovative payment technology and gateway that would bring ease as well as security in this on- going cashless generation. He also states that AsiaPay leads to take advantage of Asia’s active card penetration and ranking with the highest internet engagement in the world. Moving away from traditional cash and card payments, eWallets and QR payments are often used nowadays when purchasing goods, be it in-store or online which predicts Asia’s progressive move towards the digitized economy. The company claims to continue to add up comprehensive and technologically advanced payments in its payment platform that offer a streamlined user-friendly experience that will boost eBusinesses productivity followed to the revenues. “New additions include Launch of Diners and Discover, Online Bonus Point Redemption, PayDollar SDK for Android and iOS, MemberPay, 3DS 2.0 Solution, Secure Remote Commerce…etc,” says Joseph. Presenting New Approaches to Clients AsiaPay runs a 24/7 online payments platform with multi-card and multi-currency features. This streamlined payment processing is made for both local as well as international users. AsiaPay’s top-notch services roll out a wide array of payment methods that are ranging from online, mobile and point-of-sale payments. Over the last 20 years, AsiaPay has led the global expansion of its accessible cost-effective payment processing technology in cross-border regions—namely in—Vietnam, Indonesia, Thailand, Taiwan, China, Philippines, Malaysia, India, Singapore, and Australia. If compared to other companies/Unlike other companies, AsiaPay holds more than a decade of AsiaPay headquarter in HK K. Wah Centre 21 October 2019
  17. 17. experience. Being a PCI DSS Level 1 compliant since 2006, it has opened up in multi-channels in Internet, Mobile, mPOS, SmartPOS, eMoto, Offline, IVRS, IoT, etc. It also includes payment solutions such as BatchPay, Card Promotion Payment, Member Payment Dynamic Currency Conversion (DCC), MCP, EventPay Installment Payment, Cash Dollar Redemption, Recurring Payment Mobile Payment (mPOS plus), QRPay and RetailPay. It also offers Fraud and security solutions like Built-in intelligent fraud management tools and reports, 3-D secure, CVV authentication and tokenization. Into the Shoes of Leader Mr. Joseph Chan is a FinTech expert and pioneer of success in making technologies advanced payments through his company, AsiaPay. His influence in the PSP industry flew from being a Hong Kong-based office to numerous countries across the Asia Pacific. His drive towards delivering the consumers their desired payment methods and merchants’ integrated settlements, stands as key factors why AsiaPay is built. The award-winning payment solutions that he founded eyes for the future generation’s potential for a card and mobile-based financial settlements. Embracing Tech Advancements AsiaPay’s payment platform now is integrated with the latest 3D SECURE 2.0 (3DS2.0). Through 3DS2.0, merchants’ eCommerce platform is able to enjoy advanced payment authentication, minimize payment friction and generate more successful transactions and increasing eTransactions and business revenue. 3-D Secure authentication is an additional security layer for card- not-present transactions, and it has been used for over 10 years. It helps Issuing and Acquiring banks to authenticate the cardholder through a web browser to prevent fraud and AsiaPay has implemented our own certified 3-D Secure MPI and ACS solutions and providing our services to our valuable merchant and bank clients in Asia. Ÿ Customer experience: personalization, customization provides a seamless checkout and payment experience to their customers with various payment options and methods and completing their ePurchases in a secured platform. Ÿ Payment Innovation: Analytics, IoT and digital collaboration. A Peek in AsiaPay’s Future The company claims that Asia is leading towards digitized payments society and states, to continue to champion its ePayment expertise in other parts of the world, it will make sure that its payment technology runs effectively and gives out streamlined access to its clients. Aiming for a revolutionized way of interaction in this day and age. Moreover, with over 100 payment methods and bank partners in Asia, AsiaPay is the leading electronic payment processing service and solution house in Asia, offering electronic payment processing solutions to banks and eBusinesses around the world. World-class Provider of ePayment Services & Technologie s in Asia since 2000. “ “ 22 October 2019
  18. 18. Growing Provider of Cloud ERP Services Worldwide, 24/7 Big Bang ERP Maximize the success of your cloud transformation with Big Bang ERP. “ “ Gabriel Tupula CEO Big Bang ERP 24 October 2019
  19. 19. E RP systems help improve the management of any organization and allows each team member to understand his/her role within the company. Its many advantages include streamlining business processes and supporting the team’s daily operations promoting the business’ growth. In 2014, Big Bang ERP is founded to offer the best service through a unique, personalized experience for each customer. Since then, the company has become one of the leading trusted business advisors for cloud solutions, and applications including ERP, CRM, MRP, ITSM, marketing automation. Big Bang’s Reach Big Bang is not simply a Value Added Reseller (VAR) it is a solution integrator. No matter the business need, the Big Bang team can and recommend the right solution and provide the necessary services to implement and integrate it with the client’s current systems. Big Bang’s expertise in various industries has influenced it to Big Bang invest in industry-specific events, over the years, to reach out to their potential customers in-person. It is very important for the company to establish a human connection, as it is part of the company’s vision to act as trusted business advisors starting with human contact. The organization also supports these marketing initiatives through an online presence by publishing insightful posts on social media, creating ad-word campaigns to help its audience find what they are looking for easily, and remarketing campaigns. The Big Bang team stays up to date with market trends to convey the right information to the right audience through their content. The organization also uses SEO keywords in all of their content to attract their target market. Its website serves as a big landing page that allows the company to study their visitors’ behavior and use it to deliver the appropriate information along with several call-to-actions allowing visitors to connect with a big bang. Moreover, the company’s proprietary methodology & approach allow them to assess clients’ business needs and fully understand the requirements, to offer exceptional service tailored to those needs, for each customer. Finally, the company does occasional email campaigns to stay connected with its audience providing them with the latest updates, news and relevant information related to Big Bang and the products they offer. Big Bang believes that all people in every organization should have direct access to the information that enables them to do work, from anywhere, every day, and that is what the company hopes to accomplish. As Gabriel, CEO at Big Bang, puts it: “Take the best features of best of breed products for one tailored solution?” What he realized was that offering multiple products was the solution to better serve a vast array of customers. Gabriel has been working in the field of technology for almost two decades. The reason behind the idea of Big Bang was Gabriel’s disapproval of supporting only one core product. Offering clients more than a single option for their business needs allows the customers to have some sort of benchmark. This freedom to choose what fits best with the client’s requirements is key in delivering exceptional service. Big Bang ERP 25 October 2019
  20. 20. Big Bang ERP is solution-agnostic. It means that the company assesses the needs of its customers and then offer recommendations based on those needs. The company’s priority is to help customers streamline their processes to grow and prepare for future success. Its solutions are up- to-date. The company is constantly looking for ways to expand its portfolio of solutions and make sure they cover all business management needs with the best-in-class solutions in the market. This is how the company fulfills its purpose of creating tangible value for its customers and giving customers the right tools to grow. The company’s mission and vision statement are very straightforward. The vision consists of becoming the most trusted independent consultant team specializing in business management, collaboration, and automation solutions. They do so by seeking simple and scalable solutions that respect the company’s clients’ requirements for Cost- effectiveness, Scope and quality, and Delivery schedule. Big Bang is always up to date. In fact, the company’s department of innovation and solutions’ main purpose is to make sure the company can keep up with the volatile technological changes along with expanding its portfolio of products and solutions. The Big Bang team is constantly monitoring the industry changes and applies best practices to adapt to this fast- paced industry. Moreover, having an in-house department to advise the company as it does with its clients has proven to be incredibly beneficial in coping with technological changes. Big Bang wants to become the most trusted independent consulting firm for all business needs. Their company’s aim is to be a one-stop- shop for all its clients and build long- lasting partnerships with them to contribute to their business growth and success. The company also wants to expand on an international level and increase its global footprint. Its future aspirations consist of making the company’s vision a reality by actively looking for new solutions to serve all business needs and opening offices as it grows around the world to serve customers worldwide in the best way possible. 26 October 2019
  21. 21. Leading Provider of Advanced Content Threat Protection Innovative, customer-driven, solutions which protect critical information and enable continuous collaboration across email, the web, and endpoint. “ “ 28 October 2019
  22. 22. C ontent threat protection technology has become imperative for organizations to achieve compliance in many areas of business. Deep Content Inspection when coupled with Data Loss Prevention (DLP) functionality provides IT security teams with a 360-degree view of information flow across the organization’s boundary, along with granular control of security policy to enable automated enforcement. The technology ultimately enables highly secure digital collaboration; mitigating advanced information borne threats as well as data leaks or unauthorized data acquisition. With a continuous focus on innovation, Clearswift delivers its advanced content protection technology to government, defense and multi-national financial organizations around the world. In an interview with CIO LOOK, Dr. Guy Bunker, CTO of Clearswift discusses the company’s technology portfolio and why it is trusted by some of the most sensitive intelligence agencies across the globe. Below are the highlights of the interview between Guy Bunker and CIO LOOK: What led to the inception of the company? The company can trace its roots back to 1982 when email was emerging into the business world. We effectively developed the first email application for MS-DOS before moving onto providing email security solutions for both Windows and UNIX. However in 2012, the company was acquired and significant investment injected into the business for technology innovation, together with a new vision and focus on Advanced Threat Protection and Data Loss Prevention (DLP). How do your services differ from the other companies’ offerings? Clearswift has created a series of next-generation email and web security solutions which also overcome the problems of traditional DLP solutions. Our Adaptive Redaction technology enables content to be changed on- the-fly as it crosses the organizational boundary, preventing the need to stop and block content, and hinder communication flow. The Deep Content Inspection engine built into all Clearswift products enables A-DLP to seamlessly remove advanced information borne threats, such as ransomware delivered in weaponized documents, from inbound/outbound email and web downloads/uploads. Our advanced Information Governance solution enables the ability to track and trace information at a sub-file level, creating a previously unseen level of granular protection. Our recent innovations enable the redaction of text (black box) from images, not just from documents. Anti-steganography technology can be deployed to prevent data loss as well as protection from next- generation malware hidden in innocuous-looking images that executes when inside a network. Give a detailed description of the featured person’s influence over the company and the industry I joined Clearswift in 2012 as part of an executive turnaround team and was tasked with creating a new technology vision which could be implemented to help reinvigorate the Clearswift brand. By looking into the heritage of the organization and at the existing technology, the idea of Adaptive Redaction was created. With several years’ experience in DLP, I understood where the shortcomings were with traditional solutions and that with Clearswift, there was the opportunity to change the game. Traditional DLP is about stopping and blocking communication which slows collaboration and creates business risk, however, overzealous policies frequently led to false- positive events whereby communication was unnecessarily halted, resulting in the solutions being disabled – creating data loss risk. A-DLP was developed to remove only the smallest piece of information from an email or a document which broke policy as it traveled across the organizational boundary via email or the web, while leaving the rest to be delivered unhindered, overcoming the issues of traditional DLP and the pesky ‘false positive’. In conjunction with A-DLP, I oversaw the acquisition of two small companies which enabled Clearswift to move our DLP solution onto the endpoint as well as the gateways, resulting in inclusion to the Gartner analyst Magic Quadrant for Enterprise DLP. I also led the innovation of our Information Governance solution, which can track and trace information across the organization and its boundary. Rather than tracking just files, it can track the information inside the files, protecting classified information at a more granular scale than was previously possible. What marketing activities do you implement to reach out to your potential customers? 29 Clearswift Ltd October 2019
  23. 23. The change in legislation, particularly around GDPR, saw our digital marketing strategy move from a push to a pull model. Our team works together cohesively on a broad cross-section of marketing activity including events, digital campaigns, events and PR programs. We work closely with our PR agency to create appropriate, engaging content including positioning Thought Leadership articles in relevant publications, as well as being subject matter experts on cybersecurity stories in the press. We also work with our partners on events with their customers as well as attending and speaking at a variety of industry events around the globe such as RSA and NIAS. How do you cope with the volatile technological changes in the market to make your solutions resourceful remain relevant? The key to keeping up with technological change is to keep up with our customers and partners which helps us to understand the new threats they’re facing, where their businesses are going, how we can best support them to keep their critical information safe, no matter where it is stored or what digital collaboration channels it flows through. We work very closely with multiple defense organizations around the world which enables us to understand the next generation of threats entering the landscape. We can then adjust our innovation and roadmap strategy to address these advanced threats, bringing solutions to the market promptly. Describe your company and its cutting-edge solutions which address all the needs of your customers Clearswift delivers innovative email, and web security solutions with an emphasis on advanced threat protection and Adaptive Data Loss Prevention (A-DLP). Consistent use of our technology across email, the web, and endpoint ensure there are no weak links in the chain which is good information security. What are your company’s future aspirations? What strategies are you undertaking to achieve those goals? The future aspiration of the company is to continue to grow by delivering innovative solutions which meet our customer’s needs. We will continue to drive innovation in R&D through encouraging ‘side projects’ looking at some of the most challenging information security issues and how they can be solved, which can then be productized and included in our solutions. We also continue to invest and work with our partners across the globe to drive our sales growth. Could you throw some light on your mission statement? Making information safe for CNI: Around 70% of our global customers are classified as Critical National Infrastructure, with the majority in government, defense and finance. We understand the special needs of these customers where there are strong requirements for keeping critical information safe from both advanced cyber attacks and data loss (or breach) events. Dr. Guy Bunker CTO 30 October 2019
  24. 24. Successful Personality Traits to Learn from Elon Musk 78 Successful Personality Traits to Learn from Elon Musk 32 October 2019
  25. 25. L egends never need an introduction. They tend to be victorious despite of their uneventful histories. They stick to captivating traits such as Discipline, determination and self-belief which help them accomplish wonders in the long run. One such example of an extra-ordinary person is Elon Musk, a South African Business Magnate, Investor and an engineer. Musk is the founder, CEO, and chief architect of SpaceX; co-founder, CEO, and product designer of Tesla Inc.; and co-founder and CEO of Neuralink. As of February 2018, he is the 53rd-richest person in the world and has a net worth of $20.8 billion, which is far more than the net GDP of Greece taken into consideration. While each entrepreneur possesses a unique set of traits that makes him/her successful, this Tech founder has a few traits much different from any other ordinary CEO, which has allowed him to build some of the world’s most respected and innovative organizations. Musk once quoted, “When something is important enough, you do it even if the odds are not in your favor.” Let’s have a look on these personality attributes and characteristics that make him a contender for the most innovative intellectual entrepreneur of the century alive. Hard-work and Characteristic Work Ethics Elon Musk is a hard-working innovator, working for about 100 hours a week, and has been productive since many years. He may even be considered as the hardest working employee of the company, setting standards for his colleagues to follow and implement. Since the field of work lies inside his radius of interests, he enjoys it to every moment and bit when it comes to learning and execution. Strong Risk Tolerance Founding a start-up involves a great deal of uncertainty and risk. A study found that after 10 years of being in 33 Imparting Wisdom October 2019
  26. 26. business, 96 percent of the start-ups fail. Going by the statistics, Musk must have faced the same odds against him, when he had decided to leave an otherwise comfortable life to start a risky and uncertain business venture. For instance, Musk left his PhD program at Stanford University to find a company called Zip2 with his brother in the year 1995. Later, the company was sold to Compaq computers, profiting Musk a bit over $20 million. Following this, Musk once again took a great risk by investing millions of dollars to found a company called X.com, one of the world’s first online banks. ‘Always Be Learning’ Attitude An astounding and less-known fact about Elon Musk is that he is self-taught in programming and in many advanced level subjects. He read and understood a variety of books, which helped him gain endless and persistent knowledge and understand diverse concepts. The best piece of advice on learning and implementation is to constantly think about how things could be done in a better manner and question self to seek the answers. Feedback Loop It is of prime importance to recognize the present symbol or otherwise ‘status quo’ in the market as an organization and re-position accordingly. Musk solicits constant feedback of the companies and executes ‘self- analysis.’ He induces efforts and divergent strategies to improve customer feedbacks and strives towards perfectionism. For example, he seeks out his critics and tries to converse with them. This habit of self-reflection at regular and considerable periods is pivotal for any entrepreneur or organization to succeed in the long run. Tendency for Vertical Integration Vertical integration is a strategy where an organization or a firm acquires business operations within the same product vertical. Both Tesla and SpaceX embrace this concept. For example, Tesla not only produces electric cars; they also generate public awareness about their cars via Tesla showrooms across various countries. And SpaceX does not only have the primary goal of rocket propulsions; they develop their own rocket architecture as well. Faith in Self and the Founding Team Musk undoubtedly possesses a profound belief in his own capabilities as well as the potential-seeking factor of its founding team. He does not hesitate to gamble on large scale unless he is genuinely aware of the expected end-results. It is equally essential to maintain clarity of doubt in any large scale organization. Under his supervision, Musk encourages in creating a positive and comprehensive environment across his firms. Preferring to Stand Out From the Crowd Musk elects to bring up innovation at every level of his understanding. He tends to impart theoretical knowledge at the base level, applying changes and executing the same on the practical level. He relies more on transitional aspects such as research and development, thereby increasing the probability of ground-breaking inventions. Tesla Motors, a far headed firm headed by Elon Musk, is anti-ordinary. Its compelling marketplace has become a one-stop destination for potential buyers where they can interact about product specifications. They also have video testimonials that far outperform in the sales-dominated industry. There is no ambiguity that Musk, by far, has been a pillar of inspiration for budding entrepreneurs and investors because of his prolific and optimistic approach towards life All these traits possessed by Musk, in some manner or the other, coincide with most of your habits. The only thing that stands as a potential barrier between these two is identifying your strengths and working on them on a continual basis. Go on, apply these traits into your daily life, and you may become the next big CEO the world is in need of today! 34 October 2019
  27. 27. 36 A Global Contract Laboratory Organization CMIC, Inc. B ioanalysishasevolvedovertheyearsandoftenitisbeingused in clinical and other pharmaceutical-related studies. Bioanalytical services include method development, method transfer, method qualification, method validation, cross-validation and sample analysis. These services are critical elements when it comestothedevelopmentofpharmaceuticals.Withover30yearsof experience, leading Contract Research Organization (CRO) and a providerspecialized,inbioanalyticalservicesCMIC,Inc.researchers provide cutting-edge expertise in small and large molecule bioanalysis in order to optimize drug development for pharmaceutical companies. The company offers bioanalysis for non- clinical and clinical projects, both GLP and non-GLP, to meet critical drug development milestones. Its GLP compliant state-of-the-art facility can accommodate quick turnaround and high-volume projectsfromaroundthecountry. InaninterviewwithCIOLOOK,thePresidentandCEOofCMIC,Inc. Mike Suga, helps us study changing drug development environment with professional scientists and improving the company's expertise through training and continuing education while performing as specialistsintheindustry. Below are the highlights of the interview conducted between Mike SugaandCIOLOOK: Whatledtotheinceptionofthecompany? CMIC, Inc. originated from CMIC Group, which the very first and largest Contract Research Organization (CRO) and also the top bioanalysislabinJapan.Itwasestablishedasastrategiccornerstone forCMICGroup'sNorthAmericagrowth. October 2019
  28. 28. 37 “Meeting the needs of our clients and the changing drug development environment.” Mike Suga President & CEO CMIC, Inc. CMIC,Inc. October 2019
  29. 29. 38 Describe your company and its cutting-edge solutions whichaddressalltheneedsofyourcustomers?Wehave been the leading bioanalysis CRO in oligonucleotide therapeutics (Oligo) for several years now. Even before Oligo, we have 30+ years of experience in conventional small molecule and are also significantly expanding our capabilitiesinlargemoleculeandbiomarker. Could you throw some light on your mission and vision statement? CMIC has the vision to provide a solution service called “Pharmaceutical Value Creator” (PVC) that encompass an entire value-chain of pharmaceutical companies, not only on CRO, but also on manufacturing, sales, and marketingservicesolutions. How do your services differ from the other companies’ offerings? We are the leading bioanalysis CRO in oligonucleotide therapeutics(Oligo)aswellasveryflexibleandagilewith quick turn-around time, which is not possible by large CROs. What marketing activities do you implement to reach outtoyourpotentialcustomers? CMIC, Inc. together with the rest of CMIC Group has, several scientific publications and whitepapers and several webinars either already implemented or planned. How do you cope up with the volatile technological changes in the market to make your solutions resourceful? CMIC’s“CREED”ascorporatephilosophyisconsistingof Wellbeing, Challenge, Change and Communication (W&3Cs). We apply these items to continuously evolve ourselves in line with market changes and voices of customers. What are your company’s future aspirations? What strategiesareyouundertakingtoachievethosegoals? By further expanding from the current “Pharmaceutical Value Creator” (PVC) business model, we have an aspiration to become a “Personal Healthcare Value Creator” (PHVC) to contribute for and to address to the up-coming personalized medicine and individual patient qualityoflife. Abouttheleader With 30+ years of experience across biotechnology, pharmaceutical, life sciences industry, and medical device areas, Mike Suga has been assuming CMIC. Inc.'s President role since 2015. He earned bachelor and master’s degrees in agricultural biosciences from the University of Tokyo. Prior joining CMIC, he was the Deputy General Manager of GE Healthcare’s CT/MRI contrastmediainvivodiagnosticsandPET/SPECTradio- pharmaceuticals division in Japan and was responsible for establishing a new pharmaceutical operation reportingintoGEHealthcare’sU.KHeadquarters. He and other leadership team members, with 15 to 25+ years of the industry experience, are helping the companytogrowandaddressthebioanalysisCROneeds frommid-to-small/bioventureclientswhowerenotwell served by other large-scale CROs. He together with the current leadership team also competed strategic facility investment in 2017, leveraged by CMIC’s new U.S. client baseexpansionafterbusinessintegration. Mike is based in Chicago, while he also serves as Senior Vice President of CMIC HOLDINGS Co., Ltd., reporting directly to CMIC Group’s Tokyo Headquarters. He started his 30-year’s professional career as tissue cultureandgenomicsscientistsatJTgeneticengineering labandlaterspent5yearsinNewYorkandSanFrancisco as JT’s recombinant DNA business development manager. “As CMIC, Inc., we will accelerate our growth of servicesinNorthAmericaandmostimportantlybetteraligns with our overall vision to bring value with each client interaction,”saysMikeSuga. October 2019
  30. 30. Computer Science for Young Kids C reativity is an essential tool for success in life. It helps us solve problems, imagine new products, produce art and find humor in difficult times. Play and creativity have a significant role in education, and professionals have a responsibility to nurture both. We now know from research that children learn best through play and this includes learning how to be creative. So, in spite of some out of date views on education, governments should support and develop this vital teaching of learning through play. Regularly working to combine coding with core subjects like math and English, edtech company codeSpark has produced codeSpark Academy, a specialized learning game that teaches kids about computer science, game design and digital story telling. codeSpark’s mission is to ignite curiosity about computer science and to turn programming into play. The company’s award-winning computer science education platform, “codeSpark Academy with The Foos”, is specially designed for kids who are aged 5 and up. codeSpark Academy teaches young kids about computer science concepts by letting them program cute characters in a virtual world. The company believes that diverse teams are the most creative and innovative. codeSpark is also a proud participant in Kapor Capital’s Founder’s Commitment to diverse and inclusive hiring. The codeSpark team is 50% women and 50% people of color. Creative Learning Platform codeSpark believes all kids can create incredible things so their platform gives kids access to powerful creative tools for coding games and interactive stories. The company wants every child in the world to have access to a first-class computer science education to help prepare them for success in a future dominated by computers and software. Some key differentiators for codeSpark Academy are: Ÿ A word-free interface that makes the platform highly accessible (pre-readers, visual learners, etc.) Ÿ Powerful creative tools that allow kids to design and code their own video games and create interactive stories (these tools were only available to teens and adults previously) 40 October 2019
  31. 31. Grant Hosford CEO & Co-founder codeSpark Academy Turning Programming into Play “ “ 41 codeSpark Academy October 2019
  32. 32. Ÿ A focus on making sure the platform is as interesting to girls as it is to boys (done with a combination of powerful female characters and the focus on using code creatively) Power of Programming Tools codeSpark Academy is the most used kid’s coding platform in the world and the top-grossing coding platform of any kind on iOS. Kids ages 5-10 use the platform in order to learn fundamental computer science concepts. codeSpark is used at home and in schools and has an unusual business model. Over 60,000 K-5 teachers use codeSpark Academy in their classrooms for free to teach computer science while parents pay a subscription to access the platform directly at home. The company’s product team adds new content and features to codeSpark Academy every 3 to 4 weeks. The company is very proud that 54% of codeSpark’s users are girls, the highest percentage on any coding platform. High visibility partnerships for codeSpark include being part of Apple’s global “Everyone Can Code” initiative and the launch of nine new coding merit badges for the Girl Scouts this past July. Free Solutions The platform is free for public schools, libraries, and non-profits. Home users can purchase access via a subscription. codeSpark lets public schools use codeSpark Academy for free, so that all kids can have the necessary access. If parents want to use codeSpark Academy at home, they can purchase a subscription. Teachers and subscribers get full access to codeSpark’s industry leading lesson plans, projects and other resources. Enabling Education Accessiblity Everywhere codeSpark’s App has been downloaded over 14 million times and has been used by 30 million kids around the world. The company designed the platform to be available across all devices (Android, iOS, Amazon and Desktop/Web). So, kids always have new challenges and activities to engage with. The game is self-directed and the interface is 100% visual so anyone, anywhere in the world can play, including pre- readers. In 4 years, over 30 Million kids in 190+ countries have used codeSpark Academy. Largest Community of Kids codeSpark is razor focused on building the largest community of young kid creators in the world. Currently kids are designing and coding over 1 million video games and interactive stories every month! The company knows that if it keeps listening carefully to the customers and keeps improving its tools, it will have the global impact it is pushing for. codeSpark will also continue to pursue smart partnerships with like- minded companies that can help them grow and prosper. Strong and Sharp Leader In 2013, the CEO and Co-founder Grant Hosford’s young daughters wanted to know how computers work. Inspired by their curiosity he tried to find an “ABC’s of computer science” for them and was shocked to learn nothing existed. Grant thought computer science should be taught like English and Math, with a clear progression from Kindergarten through High School. He also thought learning about computer science should be fun and focus on creation. So, he connected with an incredible Co-founder, game designer and father of three, Joe Shochet, who shared his vision and they launched codeSpark in March 2014. Grant had the original idea for the company and he and Joe still set the vision today. Grant is very involved in the global movement to teach young kids about the fundamentals of computer science. In the last year, he has spoken about the need for STEM education at a young age in Beijing, Washington DC, and London. He also writes blogs quite frequently and recently posted a piece about why kids as young as 5 know how AI works. 42 October 2019
  33. 33. dominKnowLeading in Cloud-based Authoring Tool learning resources such as courses, images, graphics, videos, Eaudio files, and their associated data pose a problem for most organizations to store, track and update. One solution is a learning content management system (LCMS), a comprehensive and centralized web-based database where organizations can create and store e-learning projects and even collaborate on content. Such tools are ideal for large organizations, but can also help smaller content authoring teams. There are only a handful of experienced vendors in this field. One such company, dominKnow, has been creating e-Learning authoring tools and LCMS software for large teams for more than two decades. dominKnow provides authoring software for e-learning content development that empowers instructional designers, developers, and teams to create better learning experiences efficiently, together. In an interview with CIO LOOK, the CEO of dominKnow, Luke Hickey enlightens us how easily its clients can collaborate in real- time, share and re-use content across projects, and engage subject matter experts in the review process. Below are the highlights of the interview between CIO LOOK and Luke Hickey: What led to the inception of the company? Since 1997, dominKnow has taken leaps of growth developing our all-in-one learning creation authoring system today. Now in 2019, our content creation platform, off the shelf content, and collaborative support system are instantly accessible from anywhere – not just on that one CD we used to ship to you 20 years ago. That’s how we got to where we are today. This wild phenomenon called “the Internet” took control of the way we learn, connect with others, proceed in business, etc. and the way we operated instantly evolved. We saw that CD jam-packed with learning that we used to ship across the world fast track its way into so much more, to so many more people. It’s truly amazing to just stop and think about how far we’ve come, and what’s even possible to achieve in the future with the technology we have right at our fingertips. 44 October 2019
  34. 34. Easily create more kinds of eLearning e ciently by managing content centrally, reusing assets, and collaborating as a team. “ “ 45 dominKnow Learning Systems Luke Hickey CEO dominKnow Learning Systems October 2019
  35. 35. Could you throw some light on your mission and vision statement? Our software solutions were created to help solve the problems we as individuals faced throughout our professional careers. Creating better team collaboration and communications, more engaging training that works, while also adding value to the opportunity to grow. We wanted to empower ourselves and by doing that, also provide organizations and their employees the tools to do so as well. Describe the company and its cutting-edge solutions which address all the needs of your customers Our customer base is so vast in what it needs to properly design and provide information to employees effectively and efficiently with limited resources, and our tools need to support this. We have customers in the medical, financial, technology, food industry, and more, and that makes for a lot of different specific needs and approaches for designing and delivering information. We’ve created dominKnow ONE - based around the needs of our clients – empowering more advanced users with the flexibility to create and design content to their specific needs, but also enabling less experienced designers like subject matter experts to easily contribute without being overwhelmed by the sheer power and flexibility of the full system. With dominKnow, one can help you create almost any type of content, whether you start with off the shelf editable courses or need to develop your compliance training or highly engaging and interactive content, or software simulations, or scenario-based training, or just in time infographic-style content, or searchable knowledgebases and so much more. All of these capabilities are part of a core collaborative content design approach that enables small and large organizations to achieve efficiencies by engaging non- traditional development groups, streamlining collaboration & reuse and helping the company, as a whole, raise its training output to a new level and often with the less overall effort. 46 October 2019
  36. 36. How do your services differ from the other companies’ offerings? DominKnow is one of the longest-serving providers of authoring tools for e-learning. We first began in 1997 developing custom content and off the shelf libraries of content, and now we offer a spectrum of products including off the shelf editable content, collaborative community-based learning, and our all-in-one e- Learning authoring tool, dominKnow provides a number of unique features to the market such as multiple authoring types for traditional and responsive design, cross-platform software simulation, an adaptive authoring interface to meet the needs of different skilled team members, and so much more. Surprisingly, another unique aspect is we use our products to create all the training content and support material for our product. You would think that would be the norm in this industry, but we are an exception. If you’re looking up information in our product guide – it was made in our tool. If you’re working through the activities in our training guides – it was made in our tool. If you’re searching for lessons on our community site – it was built upon our tool. What marketing activities do you implement to reach out to your potential customers? We value getting involved within the community online and face-to-face. Attending and hosting events and industry-geared conferences has always been a great way to connect with peers, partners, and customers. The value we get from the industry events has even inspired us to create our outlet to help organizations and peers grow. We’ve recently launched a new online and face-to-face community resource called “Instructional Designers In Offices Drinking Coffee” or IDIODC started in 2018 as weekly live cast to help instructional design peers create better learning experiences, and also feel more engaged in the community! Now, IDIODC has grown into a wider scale community outlet, in-person, and online. How do you cope with the volatile technological changes in the market to make your solutions resourceful? Changes to the market and technology can impact the business, we know this first hand. What’s important is to utilize those changes to your advantage. For example, when we first started, it felt like the Internet had spontaneously appeared, we saw the opportunity and moved from CD-ROM to all online delivery. It was a huge change for the way we approached our business, but it made a serious impact on our ability to extend our reach well beyond our original customer base. We continued to adapt, becoming one of the first companies to drop Flash and fully support mobile-first responsive design. Then, recognizing the important advancements in inclusive design being made in other web-based media, we embraced the same revolution and aligned dominKnow | ONE with accessibility standards like WCAG. The result is an even more comprehensive tool. Being the first with these changes wasn’t easy, but they’ve proved to be the right choices. More recently, we’ve fully embraced xAPI to empower learners to fully utilize the standard with no programming required and have quickly become the leader in this area. Our whole mantra is based on learning and the opportunity to always be growing, following that with the changes in technology, and the market is fundamental. What are the company’s future aspirations? What strategies are you undertaking to achieve those goals? After 22 years, in the industry, dominKnow is in this space for the long run, we don’t see that changing. We’re still excited by the possibilities technology can bring to the power of learning to better people’s lives. We have continued to increase the spectrum of our content solutions, adding off the shelf fully editable content to get people started and a searchable community of knowledge, Clarofy, that enables anyone, regardless of authoring experience, to contribute, share, and help the overall knowledge of the company. Provide a few quotes in approximately 15 to 20 words that best describe your company and its services? More than just an authoring tool for eLearning, dominKnow is a powerful cloud-based authoring system with integrated authoring tools and built-in simulation, working together as one. This lets you easily create, share, reuse, and collaborate on, more kinds of content faster, by managing assets centrally. About the Leader Luke Hickey is the CEO and also the longest-serving employee at dominKnow. With over 20 years of experience in the field, he has lots of “war stories” to share! He was there for the first lines of the code in the original authoring solution, so he knows the products’ history intimately. Luke is passionate about the possibilities of using technology to help make a difference in how people learn, and that passion is shared with everyone at the company. Luke maintains close relationships with many in the eLearning industry, listening, and learning as well as sharing. 47 October 2019
  37. 37. 48 Helping Businesses Leverage the Power of Mobile Messaging W ith a mission to provide worry-free messaging by delivering every message from businesses to their customers swiftly, reliably and securely, mGage was formed. It all began in 1999, when Air2Web was established as a wireless application service provider in Atlanta, Georgia. Its objective was to provide mobile marketing solutions to brands wanting to connect with their consumers via mobile devices. Over the years, the company grew through a series of mergers and acquisitions, including its European affiliate entity in London, as well as entities in other geographic locations. In 2014, the company was rebranded as “mGage,” and the following year it was acquired by its parent company, Vivial Networks LLC, and this is where the story of mGage continues. Today, the company is recognized as one of the largest domestic and global mobile messaging providers, delivering over 1 billion messages monthly. Throughout its journey, the company has invested in its technology and people to ensure mGage delivers best- in-class services. mGage is at the forefront of the industry and is a critical partner to large brands who want to leverage mobile to engage with their customers. There are over 5 billion people around the world who can send and receive SMS messages (latest figures 2018—GSMA). It’s important to know that SMS is still a relevant and growing channel even with other messaging apps emerging in the marketplace. According to MobileSquared A2P (Application-to- Person) SMS is set to rise to 2.8 trillion messages by 2022. mGage enables brands to send high volume time- sensitive, transactional, and promotional messages across key messaging channels, including SMS, RCS, MMS, and Push. mGage also provides mobile payment solutions, allowing consumers to pay for digital content and services using their mobile phones. The company’s solutions enable brands to build out customer journeys that deliver personalized, timely and relevant messages.The arrival of mGage’s latest technology RCS (Rich Communication Services) offers an app-like experience within the messaging inbox. It includes features like quick response buttons, carousels, rich cards, videos, branded messages and much more. This technology when combined with smarter segmentation and better analytics, allows brands to understand and know their customers more to drive higher customer engagement, enhance the user experience, and increase customer satisfaction. The broad and deep expertise of the company in the ever-changing mobile industry makes mGage sought-after experts, trusted advisors, and the go-to partner for enterprise-level companies that look to use mobile to their best competitive advantage. The level of October 2019
  38. 38. 49 mGage empowers brands to deliver powerful, personalised and relevant messages to the mobile handset to drive better customer engagement. Denisse Goldbarg Global Chief Operating Officer mGage mGage October 2019
  39. 39. 50 service the company provides, its reliability, security, and speed of delivery are the key differentiators of why mGage retains such a significant market share. As a Tier-1 SMS aggregator, the company meets the highest industry standards. The level of dedicated support it provides to its clients is unmatched in the industry. mGage daily operations are led by its Global Chief Operating Officer, Denisse Goldbarg. In her role, Denisse oversees all sales, operations and marketing functions worldwide at mGage. She also serves as CMO for Vivial Media. Denisse has held senior sales and marketing roles at companies such as Time Warner Cable, where she served as VP of Marketing, Tachyon, Teligent, MCI, Colgate Palmolive, and Booz, Allen & Hamilton. Ms. Goldbarg graduated from Wellesley College and holds an M.Sc. from the London School of Economics and an MBA from Harvard University. Denisse has worked with large global brands throughout her career and understands what their pain points are and how to find solutions to those problems. Combined with her deep marketing expertise, she provides insights into how companies can utilize mobile as a part of the overall marketing mix. She has helped drive mGage forward with her strong operational expertise coupled with a track record of success that allows her to provide a clear vision as to where the company is heading, and what it needs to focus on to remain successful. mGage operates in a dynamic industry that experiences a lot of changes and its ability to adapt to those changes and continuously evolve its solutions is the core reason behind the company’s successful longevity. Given how quickly the landscape of mobile technology changes, mGage constantly evaluates new technologies and how they can integrate the company’s existing technology to offer a more comprehensive solution to its clients. This is a very exciting time for the messaging ecosystem. mGage will continue to develop and embrace new methods of customer interaction. Through its RCS technology, the company will continue to transform the way brands connect with their customers through business messaging. The company will continue to invest in its proprietary messaging cloud platform to ensure it continues to meet the demands of both the market and customers, to further enable omnichannel customer engagement. mGage will always be committed to helping businesses leverage the power of mobile messaging to engage, inform, and better understand their customers. October 2019
  40. 40. he simplest observations are Tsometimes the greatest discoveries. Watching an apple falling from its branch, Isaac Newton discovered the famous law of universal gravitation. Almost three centuries later, science could take another leap forward with... a roll of tape. There is a new wonder material in town that might change our future. Imagine a coffee cup that streams the day’s headlines in real time. Or a cooking pot that can detect the presence of E. coli bacteria that could make you sick. Or a television screen that is as flexible and thin as a piece of paper. All of these applications could be a reality if the wonder material, named Graphene, lives up to its hype. A Complicated Narrative The story begins in 2004 in the laboratories of the University of Manchester. Fascination with this material stems from its remarkable physical properties and the potential applications they offer. Although scientists knew one atom thick, two- dimensional crystal graphene existed, no-one had worked out how to extract it from graphite. That was until it was isolated in 2004 by two researchers at The University of Manchester: Prof. Andre Geim and Prof. Kostya Novoselov. This is the story of how that stunning scientific feat achieved while peeling layers of graphite using adhesive tapes, and why Andre-Kostya duo won the Nobel Prize in Physics for their pioneering work. This is the beginning of a scientific and engineering renaissance. Unboxing Graphene Graphene is a material that can be perceived as a form of graphite, and therefore a carbon allotrope that is distinguished by its crystalline organization. In simple terms graphene is a sheet of a single layer (monolayer) of carbon atoms, tightly bound in a hexagonal honeycomb lattice. It is the building-block of Graphite but graphene is a remarkable substance on its own - with a multitude of astonishing properties proving the title of ‘wonder material’. Graphene is the thinnest compound known to man having size equal to one atom thick, the lightest material known, the strongest compound discovered surpassing diamond, the best conductor of heat at room temperature and also the best conductor of electricity known to exist. The Material of the Future Graphene is a disruptive phenomenon; one which could open up new markets and even replace existing technologies or materials. It is when graphene is used both to improve an existing material and in a transformational capacity its true potential can be realised. The vast number of products, processes and industries for which graphene could create a significant impact, all stems from its amazing properties. Ÿ Biomedical Graphene’s unique properties allow for ground-breaking biomedical applications; Targeted drug delivery, improved brain penetration, DIY health-testing kits and ‘smart’ implants can be mentioned out of many possibilities. Ÿ Composite Materials One of the simplest and most effective ways of harnessing the potential of graphene is to combine it with existing products - so called composite materials. By combining with paints, a unique graphene coating can be formed which could signal the end of the deterioration of ships and cars through rust. Additionally, it can do wonders in the field of weather-proofing, packaging, sports equipment and creating lightest, strongest, safest structures. Ÿ Electronics Graphene has the potential to create A Material Marvel of the Century 52 October 2019
  41. 41. the next-generation of electronics exploring spheres of Sci-Fi technology, faster transistors, semiconductors, bendable phones, wearable gadgets and other electronics. Ÿ Energy With its influential properties and capabilities, graphene is surely an innovation with distinct future prospects. Bearing this in mind, one might be surprised to know that carbon is the second most abundant mass within the human body and the fourth most abundant element in the universe by mass, after hydrogen, helium and oxygen. This makes carbon the chemical basis for all known life on earth, so therefore graphene could well be an ecologically friendly, sustainable solution for astronomical energy demands. Imagine fully charging a smartphone in seconds or an electric car in minutes. That’s the power of graphene batteries and super-capacitors. Ÿ Filtration Membranes Imagine clean drinking water for millions in developing countries. A global toll of 3.4 million deaths each year is a serious concern which underlines the gravity of clean water requirement. The development of graphene-based membranes has brought that possibility closer like never before. Ÿ Sensors Ultra-sensitive sensors made from graphene could detect minute dangerous particles helping to protect potentially dangerous environments. Its inherently micro-sized structure allows for the creation of hair thin like sensors which can be incorporated to detect biological agents like drugs in our body, stresses and strain levels, atmospheric changes caused by decaying food, and many more. Future It must be a wondering question that despite of graphene’s prodigious abilities why it has not hit the ground reality. The problem that prevented it from initially being unavailable for commercial uses was that the creation of high quality graphene was a very expensive and complex process. “Its industrial production is not yet based on reliable methods to obtain large quantities,” claims Alberto Bianco, a researcher at the CNRS and the University of Strasbourg. It was estimated in 2008 that the production of a square meter of this miracle material cost a whopping amount of 600 billion euros. However, studies in 2012 found that by analysing its interfacial adhesive energy, it is possible to effectually separate graphene from the metallic board on which it is grown. As the techniques continue to evolve in nearby future, on the account of its high productivity, a sharp decline in price is expected to be achieved. The range of industries where graphene research is making an impact is substantial. And this is only the beginning. These are only the baby steps. Although, it’s important to consider the span within which it is likely to exist in customary life, one simply cannot overlook the inconceivable and endless potential of this supernatural material. With continuously growing necessities and depleting resources of the contemporary world, graphene will certainly turn out to be a panacea of all remedies. Bio Tech 53 October 2019
  42. 42. 54 Developing FASTER, STRONGER, SAFER, and More Sustainable Building Solutions I n 2010, the McKay family home burned to the ground in a matter of minutes due to an electrical fire that started in the garage. Fortunately, it was during the daytime, and everyone escaped with their lives, albeit with little more than the clothes on their backs. For Todd McKay, MgO’s founder and former general contractor and electrician, this event would solidify into a single mission: to build stronger, safer buildings. This mission led to the creation of MgO Systems Ltd. In the last hundred years, technology has driven every industry in the world forward except for construction. The production of commonly used materials, such as Portland cement, has some of the highest carbon footprints on the planet. The time to build is lengthy and continually changing, costing clients millions in project delays and change orders. Traditional construction materials are built to minimum standards that are frankly, unsafe and unreliable. Thirty years ago, you had seventeen minutes to escape from a house fire; today, that has been drastically reduced to just three minutes! In 2013, 100,000 people throughout southern Alberta were uprooted from their homes due to catastrophic flooding. In the 2016 the forest fire that devastated Fort McMurray claimed 4400 homes that were either totally destroyed or contaminated beyond repair. Just last year, 88 people were killed in the California fires and 10,000 buildings destroyed. Fires and floods are only two events in a long list of disasters that destroy homes, buildings and lives every day, yet the construction industry maintains its dedication to the same disaster-prone materials. MgO Systems Ltd. exists to change this narrative by building faster, stronger, safer and more sustainably. MgO Systems Ltd. recognizes that traditional materials for constructing walls, roofs, and floors demonstrate October 2019
  43. 43. 55 Todd McKay Founder Mgo Sustems Mgo Systems October 2019
  44. 44. unacceptable performance when it comes to the devestaing effects of force, fire, water, mold and insects. Thus, they’ve developed, and now manufacture, technologically-advanced building solutions for various construction applications such as commercial, residential, education, hospitality, healthcare, etc. The company’s proprietary building technologies, developed around patented magnesium oxide-based construction materials, are used in the design and manufacturing of the C3 Engineered Wall Systems. These systems provide clients with greater structural performance, superior fire rating with no toxic off- gassing, resistance to mold, mildew and insect, increases insulation efficiencies and enhances acoustic performance. The utilization of digital component technology affords custom design integration and precise off-site manufacturing to provide an all-in-one solution that is both cost-effective and quick to build. MgO Systems is, at its roots, a technology company. Striving to push environmental responsibility with its sustainable North American made building products developed inhouse by its own Ph.D. Chemist, Dr. Doug Brown and his team of scientists. Each member of the management team has been personally selected by Todd for their unique set of skills and experience to build his vision into reality. MgO Systems curates a family-style culture harnessed around integrity and a passion for technology, innovation and creating meaningful change. MgO’s goal is to disrupt the traditional construction industry and to create safer, greener standards for building. Its primary strategy to achieve this is to continue gaining market share with new projects and by educating people through conferences and forums that focus on innovation, green technologies and construction such as the International Builders’ Show and Greenbuild. They also have a MgO Insiders mailing list for anyone and everyone who wants to stay in the know. Insiders receive only relevant information: upcoming presentations or conferences, bi-monthly blogs and company press releases. The aim is to better inform people about the current state of the construction industry and to open their minds to new technologies and better materials. Todd has over 30 years of diverse construction experience as both a contractor and business owner. It’s his vision and dream for truly building better has led the company to where it is today. Change is constant, and with the right mindset and committmentfor a better way, MgO Systems is well on its way to becoming industry leaders. For too long, the buildings in which we live, work, heal, and play have been built to minimum standards, affecting safety, quality, health and sustainability. It's time for change. “ “ 56 October 2019
  45. 45. With a mission to help clients accelerate their transformation programs by applying best-of-breed technologies, Reveal Group was founded back in 2005. The group's focus on enabling operational excellence and workforce optimization eventually led it to Robotic Process Automation (RPA) in 2014. Reveal Group's early RPA engagements convinced them of the need to establish partnership with cutting-edge technologies to enable scalability and sustainability. While RPA is often bandied about as easy to implement in small settings, implementing a program at scale requires fit-for- purpose infrastructure as well as experienced management and strong governance standards. Helping clients achieve this foundation from the outset enables future scalability and self-sufficiency, the hallmark of Reveal Group's business model today. The Specialists in Robotic Process Automation Reveal Group specializes in RPA and Intelligent Automation (IA) technologies. The firm's business model is predicated on helping clients achieve operational excellence through automation. A critical tenet of this approach is enabling clients to develop their own internal capabilities to drive ongoing benefits sustainably and independently. Blue Prism is Reveal Group’s technology change agent of choice, since forming a strong partnership in 2014. Despite Reveal Group's modest size (100 employees) in comparison with some of the firms also competing in the space, it is consistently ranked as as one of Blue Prism's largest, most successful global partners, working with clients around the world. Core Values Reveal Group is driven by core values that guide their business, developments and partnerships. As the organization continues to grow and evolve, these three values remain constant. Transforming Businesses for Good 58 October 2019
  46. 46. Reveal Group is your Intelligent Automation specialist. Clients look to us to achieve sustainable and scalable business results through Automation. “ Ian Crouch CEO and Co-founder Reveal Group 59 Reveal Group October 2019
  47. 47. Ÿ Innovation: Reveal Group encourages bold, imaginative and dynamic ideas, relentlessly challenging itself to bring clients breakthrough results. They value taking risks, inspiring creativity, and learning from its outcomes. Ÿ Collaboration: The Reveal Group team empower each other to make change and unleash new potential in an environment built on openness and trust. It has fostered a vibrant, trusting, and sociable culture, where doors and learning are always open. It is a critical tenant of the organizations success to share and collaborate in order to achieve the ultimate outcomes for clients. clients on the journies to optimize business operations and eventual digital transformation. The firm’s strong technical and architecture chops combined with its approach of enabling clients to build and run their own automation environments helps yield effective baseline automation programs. Horses For Sources (HfS) Research has seen many automation programs stalled by perpetual POCs, lack of internal talent cultivation, limited governance, weak change management, poor demand management, and minimal benefits tracking. Reveal Group knows that mitigating these pitfalls requires enterprises to establish and run robust automation operating models; otherwise, the programs will wither once the implementation partner leaves. Reveal Group brings the benefit of its pure-play experience with RPA, including an array of accelerators in its cache of internal IP, and post-departure health check capabilities to get enterprises on the right track and keep them there. While Reveal Group has built its reputation as a Blue Prism specialist, as it expands its geographic footprint, it will increasingly encounter clients with other or multi-vendor RPA environments. Reveal has already inked partnerships with TrustPortal and UiPath to support a wholistic approach to the RPA space for clients going forward. What's in Store? Reveal Group’s plans for 2019 and beyond include relocating its headquarters to New York with a continued operational focus on expanding its practices across North American, Australia and beyond. The firm will also expand on its stature as a certified Blue Prism partner, as well as building out it’s UiPath practice in line with the renowned Robotic Operating Model it already offers. Ÿ Integrity: Honesty, openness and respect are fundamental to Reveal Group’s success and integral to the way it operates. The passion for the work it does and pride in its outcomes solidifies the importance Reveal Group places on its clients. Ÿ Excellence: Their reputation for delivering world-class outcomes inspires us them be the best. Reveal Group set standards high so they can exceed expectations and strive for the best results for their clients. The Farsighted Leader Before founding Reveal Group in 2005, Ian Crouch, CEO and Co-founder of the organization served at the most senior levels of the financial services industry and is responsible for growing Reveal Group into the leading specialist consultancy it is today. Crouch served as the CIO at National Australia Bank and as the Vice President of EDS, A.T. Kearney, Booz Allen, and Hamilton. The experience gained at these organizations highlighted a gap in the market, one that over the past decade he has worked to fill with Reveal Group. Strategizing for Success Amidst Volatile Technological Changes Reveal Group has made a conscious decision to leverage RPA as a gateway technology to enable 60 October 2019
  48. 48. 62 Just like Salt is an essential ingredient in every dish, technology is an essential ingredient to business transformation. “ Sonja Coetzer Chief Operations Manager Salt Essential IT October 2019
  49. 49. Salt Essential IT loud Computing paradigm has given the opportunity and capability to the Centrepreneurs to achieve their business goal. It represents an opportunity for all businesses to save their time and budget with resources focused on innovation. Hence just like salt, cloud technology is an essential ingredient to your business transformation. Salt Essential IT provides collaboration, connectivity, & support services to the businesses and paves the way with innovative new technologies and IT solutions in the markets. The company has been serving thousands of organizations since 1998 with personalized solutions delivered by internationally certified subject matter experts. Changing technology can be daunting and expensive if not supported by experts. Also, the company’s experts ensure that consumers benefit from the perfect solutions to drive their business' growth and digital transformation. Salt Essential IT enables the business to operate better, generate revenue, and boost with happy employees by its solutions. The company is known to make the impossible, possible for the customers, and ‘Salties’ are very proud to be a part of the Salt family. Empowering Customers Salt is one of Africa’s select award-winning Microsoft Direct Cloud Solution Providers, supporting customers ranging from small and medium business to enterprise. The company’s mission is to empower each other, it’s customers, and it’s economy. The company delivers expert solutions and services in data-centers and hybrid/cloud solutions that allow its customers to be disruptors in their respective industries. As their core focus is understanding its customers’ business. Apart from its competition customers can buy a license, or a computer, from thousands of other IT Companies. The company believes in the empowerment of each employee to take on the challenge of delivering quality services that will impact the customer experience in an efficient, productive, and collaborative manner. Customers get guaranteed up-times and access to email while ensuring security and compliance. Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Partner of Choice Salt Essential IT 63 October 2019
  50. 50. 64 Salt will involve the vendor for architecture support and confirmation and where needed to engage with a third party to ensure a successful consumption of products and solutions once procured by our customers. By putting the customer first, the company is an ICT partner of choice. The company’s biggest challenge lies in vendor support, which it manages through good relationship management to ensure its customer is always top of mind for the channel. The company is tackling one customer at a time through short workshops to teach them about the power of the technology they have procured to drive collaboration, productivity, and disruption. At Salt, it only provides the very best AntiVirus available in the world to its customers. The company continually strives to do its work in new & better ways, bringing new and better technology to the customers. Securable and Reliable Salt’s focus is on understanding the customers’ business and their ICT needs to manage & securely achieve core business goals. With solutions such as Security eXchange Point, or SXP, ensures its customers’ employees are always connected to their cloud services reliably and securely, from any location or device. SXP provides systems and tools to ensure their company and their employees’ data is secure. Its Information eXchange Point provides a secure and productive environment for the customers. Employees and stakeholders get access to the latest Word, Excel, PowerPoint, etc, as well as the very secure and stable Windows Enterprise, for a fraction of the cost of the traditional licensing vehicle. Documents are secure as only certain people are allowed to edit or share the documents. Secure to Secure Site Connectivity (S2SC) is groundbreaking technology allowing securely connect the branches to the concerned Head Office, and all offices to the world wide web. Disaster Recovery (DR) is the process of getting crucial data duplicated, in a safe, secured, and easily accessible place. Online Backup Service (OBS) allows protecting your critical data securely so that customers can concentrate on the key focus of the business. Driving Down Costs Salt closely works with its clients to understand their business needs, goals, and objectives and accordingly formulate and design an ICT environment that drives down cost yet increase productivity and yield. Through the company’s various Software as a Service offering, it can deliver Email eXchange Point that allows the customers to be connected from anywhere at half the cost. The company also allows its customers to be disruptors in their respective industries while driving down the cost of ownership of their Information and Communication Technology (ICT). Its solutions are known to save businesses up to 50% on IT costs. Its Exchange Online plan offers a secure corporate email for a low cost. Time Matters Salt Essential IT understands that it has embraced the fourth industrial revolution digital marketing approach, focussing its time and efforts mostly on reaching its customers through easily accessible mediums, such as social media and internet-based platforms. The company’s Desktop eXchange Point enables our customers to work from anywhere at any time, making work always accessible. Pro Plus even share the documents and have multiple people work on the same document at the same time from different places that saves time. Salt’s sleeping server replicates data real-time between data center’s and if hardware fails or disaster strikes, the sleeping server which wakes up and keeps the employees working. By accessing the right skills to solve the customer’s problems, they don’t waste time trying to figure out how to solve the problem. Customers only pay for a portion of that person’s time, and the resource is shared, making that usually unaffordable and unattainable skill accessible to all. Overall Impact Salt’s vision is to positively impact everyone and everything connected to it. The company believes in the empowerment of each employee to take on the challenge of delivering quality services that will impact the customer experience in an efficient, productive, and collaborative manner. The company’s goal is to empower all companies in all the industries to take on their delivery challenges and Impact each client October 2019
  51. 51. 65 through digital transformation. The company strives to make a positive impact on each other and the customers in all it says and does. As Salt is a hybrid-cloud based service and solution house, it affords the much-needed agility to cope with the ever-changing technology that its customers require to be industry disruptors meeting the needs of their clients. The company’s goal is to challenge the status quo and in doing so, change lives for the better, by embracing and sharing better technology. Passionate and Motivational Leader To evolve IT leaders need a clear vision embarking on the journey to the cloud. Those who stay ahead of the cloud trend will be able to control and shape this transition. Sonja Coetzer, Chief Operations Manager, at SALT says, “I am honored to work with such a brilliant, forward-thinking team who embraces a Cloud-first model, delivering smart yet effective and inclusive solutions to our clients”. She is a living example of how choosing the right technology tool can bring a huge amount of delivery excellence to any job and shares this passion with customers, staff, interns, and students alike. Having worked all over SADC, she has been able to reach thousands of people and helped them grow personally and professionally by introducing and exposing them to her world full of technological pearls. Sonja fell into IT over 20 years ago and had her first exposure to the love of her life when she met Windows 3.1. She grasped the infinite power ICT products and solutions could offer to change lives for the better, and of course like any other marriage, for the worse. Sonja is passionate about IT and in particular, Microsoft and will take every moment and opportunity to apply it to her everyday life and customers' environment. October 2019
  52. 52. 66 Making The Hospitality Industry More Profitable Nick Thalas Founder & CEO Silverware We bring more to the table, so you can bring more to yours. “ “ October 2019

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