All posts by Mansi

Organizations Rapidly Adopting Qlik AutoML to Bring the Power of Machine Learning to Analytics Teams

Mumbai – October 26, 2022 – Since its general availability earlier this fall, a growing number of organizations across industries have adopted Qlik AutoML™ to augment their decision-making with the power of predictive analytics for the 90% of use cases that don’t require the deep expertise of professional data scientists.

Machine learning is used across every industry, but its wider adoption and value have been limited by the gap in data scientist bandwidth and resources. Qlik AutoML is filling that gap by bringing a simple, code-free way for analytics users and teams to leverage machine learning to train models, make predictions and plan decisions on their current analytics use cases. With Qlik AutoML, teams across the organization can now explore predictive data and test what-if scenarios right in Qlik Sense®, which can then trigger alerts and automation for action across the business.

Organizations like Chef Works, RevLocal, and Bentley Systems are all adopting Qlik AutoML to better predict churn, drive efficiencies, and engage and retain clients by modeling likely outcomes and pivoting strategies based on predictions. Another example is Polygon Research, which serves the mortgage industry with actionable market intelligence. Polygon is using Qlik AutoML to make predictions in areas like loan repayments to help lenders make appropriate interventions by offering refinancing or loan modification options.

“This is where AutoML really shines,” said Greg Oliven, CTO of Polygon Research. “You can get down to individual loans, see the percentages on every single variable and then see the cumulative decision: is this borrower going to prepay or not? What’s the prediction? And what’s the strength of that prediction?”

There are common AutoML use cases across every department in an organization. Business users across Sales (forecast/churn/retention), Marketing (customer lifetime value and demand forecast), Finance (risk management and investment optimization), HR (employee retention/satisfaction/recruiting) and Supply Chain (inventory predictions/bottlenecks and transportation optimization) can all benefit from better predictions that drive proactive engagement.

“Modern analytics, when augmented with machine learning, can take the guesswork out of the future and help decision makers know what is likely to happen, why that outcome is likely, and, crucially, what changes will influence the outcome,” said Josh Good, Vice President, Product Marketing at Qlik. “Qlik AutoML is helping organizations drive more value from their data and empowering their teams to look around the corner when making decisions that impact outcomes.”

WATI raises $23M in series B, powering WhatsApp for businesses in India and other regions

26th October 2022 – India: WATI (WhatsApp Team Inbox), a customer and sales engagement tool is today announcing a $23M series B funding, led by Tiger Global with participation from existing investors Sequoia Capital India & Southeast Asia, as well as new investors DST Global Partners and Shopify. This marks Shopify’s first venture investment in a startup operating in the Southeast Asia region. The series B comes hot on the heels of an $8.3M Series A round 10 months ago; in total, WATI has raised over $35M since 2020. WATI plans to use the Series B funds to scale the teams, and product enhancement, and expand the customer base in India and key markets.

WATI has helped businesses power millions of conversations with thousands of customers across 78 countries in just 2 years since its launch. India continues to be WATI’s single largest individual market, with a third of its customers based out of the country. WATI has become an indispensable tool for startups to SMBs and is deployed by businesses across verticals like e-commerce, healthcare, education, fashion, finance, professional service, and public services. Since its last round, WATI has grown its Indian customer base by 60%. Over the next few quarters, India will remain a critical focus for WATI both in terms of deepening market reach and tapa

Over 2 billion people around the world use WhatsApp to communicate everyday things and it is little wonder that businesses are taking to the messaging platform to support their customers where they feel most comfortable. In 2020, founders, Bianca Ho and Ken Yeung launched WATI to help SMB with a self-service, low-code product on the WhatsApp Business API. WATI enables companies to have scalable, yet personalized conversations with its customer engagement software that is built on WhatsApp’s Business API. WATI’s vision is to help businesses meet their customers where they are – on messaging platforms – so they are always accessible, personalized, and can engage in real time. Through the WATI platform, SMBs can support their customers through a collaborative team inbox with multiple agents, smart routing, canned responses, data tagging, and analytics. Many of these interactions can be automated through low-code workflow builders and chatbots. 

Bianca Ho, Co-Founder, WATI commented: “It’s been an exciting 2022 at WATI culminating with this new funding round. We doubled down on our product with more automation, making it a seamless digital tool and a must-have for any business. We went vertical in our approach and created integrations and partnerships with Zoho, Shopify, and Google Sheets among others to really help scale growth and sharpen the product. The team has grown, revenue and customer numbers have doubled and now we look to scale the business, operations, and teams around the world.”

This year, WATI has grown its remote-first team by 50%, attracting leaders from Twitter and Freshworks. Revenues and customer growth have doubled in the past 12 months as users find ROI in both time saved and increased revenue from automated workflows connected to eCommerce platforms and CRMs. WATI has over 6000 customers across 78 countries including SMBs providing domestic house cleaning services to schools, tutorial centers, medical institutions and ecommerce, Shopify stores, and many more. 

Currently, India has the highest number of WATI employees in any single market, across departments – Customer Success, Support, Partnerships, Marketing, Engineering, Product, etc. The company plans to increase the India headcount by 30%, in line with the growth of its revenues globally.

Ken Yeung, Co-Founder WATI, said “The business messaging market has grown enormously. Meta estimates that around a billion people per week communicate with a business or service account across WhatsApp, Messenger, and Instagram. This insight is critical for what’s happening now and what’s coming ahead. About 40% of Meta’s advertisers globally – over 4 million businesses – use click-to-message ads, which redirect people from Facebook or Instagram into one of Meta’s messaging products to chat with a business. WATI is well placed to service this demand and beyond.”

With additional funding, WATI will continually scale the team and invest in the product stack for low-code automation encouraging wider adoption of digital tools. WATI plans to scale sustainably in India and has aggressive go-to-market plans in emerging markets such as Latin America and Southeast Asia.

Canadian Wood & MAK Projects host seminar on Sustainable wooden constructions at BTR Greens, Hyderabad

Hyderabad, October 26, 2022: Canadian Wood- a Crown agency of the provincial government of British Columbia (B.C) Canada; in collaboration with MAK Projects-a premier infrastructure and housing development company; hosted a seminar on ‘Build with Wood’ at BTR Greens, Hyderabad, today. Mr. Bikshapati, Director General, NAC; Mr. Murali Bukkapatnam, Vice Chairman, TiEGlobal; Mr. Srikanth Sinha, CEO, TASK; Arch.Shankar Narayan, Vice president, Indian Institute of Architects- Telangana Chapter, Mr. Vikram Jain, Trade Commissioner, Govt. of Canada; Dr. Tasneem, Trade Commissioner, Namibia; Mr. Kota Reddy, MD, Sri Aditya Homes; leading architects, developers, HNIs and connoisseurs of wooden dwellings; attended the seminar.

Mr. Pranesh Chhibber – Country Director, Canadian Wood (FII); in his opening remarks said “In the last couple of years, India lost the art of building with wood. Canadian Wood’s idea is to promote building with wood in India again. In this seminar, we have called in some eminent speakers who have been involved in building with wood for a while now, and they shared their knowledge and expertise on the best practices on how to build with wood. The guests here today were able to see how one can derive not only the environmental benefits but also the bio-filic benefits from wood.”

Sharing insights on the Canadian Wood Villa Mr. Stanley Berlin, Wood Construction Specialist, said, “The Canadian Wood Villa was constructed in less than 10 months and trained about 70 artisans during that period on how to build with wood. This seminar provided an excellent opportunity to introduce the wood frame construction technique to Indian architects, designers, Builders and manufacturers. Everything used to build the villa, is renewable, unlike concrete and steel, which are exhaustible resources. For every tree harvested, Canadian Wood Products plants three more trees. In a hundred years, we can break down this house and every material used can be repurposed again.”

Commenting on building with engineered wood, Mrs. Bhawna Sharma, Artius Interior Products, said, “I am truly inspired to build with timber as it drastically reduces the carbon footprint. Statistics show that one cubic metre of timber stores around one tonne of carbon. The world is facing two major issues at the moment, housing and the global climate crisis. If we continue to build using traditional materials like concrete, we will only accelerate global warming. Science and researchers have made it possible to build a 300-meter-tall timber tower. The Canadian Wood Villa will serve as a great example for promoting wood construction in India.”

Mr. Osman Ali Khan, Director Business Development, MAK Projects, said, “In this seminar, we will talk about the problems India faces in building with wood while also explaining what a modern wood house entails. Wood houses can be divided into a lot of types, but the technology we use is lightweight timber framing and mass timber. The reason why we shifted to wood was that we wanted to show that concrete is not sustainable. For India to become carbon neutral by 2070, and to achieve that goal, every industry needs to become sustainable. “  

Speaking on the collaboration with Canadian Wood Mr. Nasir Ali Khan, Promoter and Managing Director of MAK Projects, said, “As a company, MAK Projects, we are a luxury housing company. Our current project focuses on green and healthy living. It was a pleasure to collaborate with Canadian Wood. We would be glad to do more such projects with them that focus on sustainability. The market demand for sustainable projects is gradually increasing since people these days are more conscious about a healthy lifestyle. The future of the construction industry lies in building with wood.” Mr Ritesh Kumar, Assistant Director – Business Development of Canadian wood proposed the vote of thanks.

The delegates & the guests at the seminar had a guided tour of the MAK Canadian wood villa and were thoroughly impressed with the finesse and aesthetic look of the wooden construction. The villa is the first of its kind in India and is built using certified wood from sustainably managed forests of British Columbia in Canada. MAK Projects has tied up with Canadian wood to build and promote sustainable wooden luxury homes in India. 

Mass timber construction has created a new way of building. The volume of wood used in the MAK Wood Villa is 192 cubic metres, which is replenished by Canadian forests every 1.6 minutes. This method of construction can dramatically reduce construction carbon emissions. 327 metric tons of CO2 emission was avoided by using wood for this house, which is equivalent to 102 cars being off the road for a year, that is enough energy to operate 51 home for a year.

The Scrumptious Range of Festive Packs This Diwali by Cornitos

Cornitos has come with a range of Innovative yet unique gifting ideas. Cornitos Gift packs are for all health-conscious consumers; looking for value without categorization. They have holistic and exquisite packaging.  

Nachos Fiesta gift pack adds a Mexican twist with exotic Nachos crisps and lip-smacking dips. Cornitos diamond-shaped ‘party pack’ might surprise the guests with its exotic Nacho Crisps & Party Nut mix. Festive Blaaast is a pack which makes you experience the fun of firecrackers in the Cornitos way.  

Cornitos Royal Nuts – The Box of Royalty is packed with Cornitos premium nuts. The pack beholds a Premium range of Pepper & Herbs Cashews and Lightly Salted Almonds alongside Party Nut Mix and Premium Peanuts. Cornitos Pop N Crunch anytime and anywhere theme packs offer a unique combination of almonds, party mix, sunflower, pumpkin seeds, peanuts, almonds, and coated green peas.  

Cornitos Reusable Bag of Happiness- Utsava, a jute bag which gives the feel of royalty in design as well as flavors. The bags, which come in three different variants, each contain 4 Re-sealable multi-time use packs of Nuts and Seeds which are a perfect blend for party lovers, health-conscious individuals, and peeps who prefer luxurious taste.  

Cornitos has launched new variants in the box of joy festive packs- Snack Bus, Crunch Carnival, and Crusties Gift Pack. Make your festivals tastier, and crunchy, and add a twist of munch with Cornitos Snack Bus. Buckle up your seatbelts and board this bus for a unique munching experience. This beautiful pack has Nacho Crisps 20gX5 and Crusties 18gX5. Crunch Carnival will make this festive season a carnival of crunch. Relish your taste buds with an amp of tanginess and have a cracker of a time. This wholesome pack includes 4 packs each of Nacho Crisps 55g and Crusties 50g. Crusties Gift Pack includes all 6 variants of Crusties Baked Snacks that are just perfect for a happy and guilt-free crustying. The zigzag shape and unique flavor add a snacky spin to chickpeas, bean, and potato. 

Cornitos strategy behind launching products during the festive season is to provide a platform for captive audiences that are ready to pick modern gift offerings which are unique and hold value propositions. Apart from launching new packs, the festive range is being promoted on our Social media handles with engaging content. 

Diwali is all about sharing our joys and gifting. Keeping up with this spirit of celebrations, Cornitos sizzling munchies will turn Diwali into a thrilling one. The perfect ready-to-go festive packs for this festive day are here. Get your hands on these amazing hampers this Diwali. https://shop.cornitos.in/collections/gift-pack 

“iThink Logistics initiates its first step towards the National Logistics Policy with the Go Green Initiative by giving plants to its customers”

Mumbai, 25th October 2022: iThink Logistics, one of the fastest growing SaaS-based shipping platforms in India, has announced that it will be shipping plants to its customers in various cities in an effort to initiate its preliminary steps towards the National Logistics Policy (NLP). The plants as keepsakes will be an encouraging gift to the customers to help them understand the importance of plants in reducing the carbon footprint. These plants, which will be given to the customers, are known to increase humidity levels and simultaneously lower the amount of carbon dioxide in the air, which helps clean the air. This eco-friendly initiative is a judicious step towards the amelioration of excessive carbon emissions (CE) as the logistics sector is the third-largest contributor to carbon emissions in India.

“At iThink logistics, we understand the importance of taking responsibility to redress the excessive carbon emissions that are a byproduct of logistics operations. As our company is truly an Indian organization at the core, we want to use this auspicious period of Diwali to create a difference and establish a touchstone for how responsible logistics companies should operate in India.” – Ms. Zaiba Sarang, Co-Founder of iThink Logistics

The Go Green initiative by iThink Logistics also includes employee engagement activities that are aimed at creating awareness and promoting sustainability for the environment. The public transport day, which is already underway from this month. It directs every employee to travel on public transport for a dedicated day every month. They need to send their travel selfie to get the reimbursement. Another interesting involvement activity includes making an eco-friendly best out of a waste product which will be auctioned later, and the collections would be forwarded to an NGO. Apart from this, a food stall would be set up every month as an NGO’s fundraising endeavor.