Tag Archives: software

Construction, Construction News, News, North of England, North-West England, Technology

Eco Firm’s Groundbreaking Tech Lays Foundations to Make Packaging Compliance Easier for Builders Merchants

A Manchester-based environmental compliance firm has launched a groundbreaking tech platform designed to streamline packaging reporting for builder’s merchants.

The innovative software enables businesses to effortlessly create their Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) submissions online, eliminating the tedious and costly processes previously required for data collection.

This technological leap not only enhances efficiency but also ensures accuracy, crucial for compliance in the sector.

The functionality of the technology as well as the methodology used to navigate around the issue of missing packaging weights, is what makes the software invaluable to the industry.

Helen Hodgson, Data Product Manager at Ecoveritas, emphasised the transformative impact of the software: “In the building industry, where packaging data accuracy is paramount, our software simplifies compliance tasks that were once complex and time-consuming.

She continued: “By automating data collection and submission processes, builder’s merchants can now focus more on their core operations without compromising on environmental responsibility.

“This shift marks a significant advancement in how technology supports sustainable practices within the industry.”

Over the years, Ecoveritas has partnered with numerous prominent clients across various sectors. Notable collaborations include work with eBay, Selfridges, Claire’s, Suzuki, AstraZeneca, Toni & Guy, and New Look.

Collectively, more than 70 of their clients have a combined turnover exceeding £50 billion, highlighting the trust major corporations place in the firm’s expertise.

The new tech comes in the wake of recent government legislation which requires UK businesses to collect and report data on the packaging they supply or import.

Under EPR regulations, large producers are required to submit their packaging data for the first half of the year by 1st October and for the second half by 1st April of the following year.

The launch of its new software is expected to be a game-changer in the building trade allowing companies to manage missing weights and ensure comprehensive reporting online, which has been lauded by industry experts.

It not only reduces operational costs associated with compliance but also enhances the credibility of businesses in meeting regulatory requirements.

Ecoveritas recently made history by becoming the first company in the country to receive Environment Agency approval for its groundbreaking packaging compliance methodology for online marketplaces.

Speaking about the firm’s latest tech integration for the building sector, Helen added: “By integrating technology with sustainability goals, Ecoveritas empowers builders merchants to navigate regulatory landscapes with confidence.

“Our software not only simplifies compliance but also drives meaningful environmental impact, demonstrating that technology can indeed catalyse positive change.

“As builders merchants embrace our pioneering solution, they are poised to lead the industry towards a greener future, proving that sustainability and operational efficiency can go hand in hand.

“We hope to roll this out to other sectors in the near future also and we’re incredibly excited by the impact it will have.”

News, Recruitment News

Hiring Hub and hireful link up to power growth

Recruitment marketplace Hiring Hub has struck an agreement with technology provider hireful to power growth for both companies and help more employers find the right candidates to fill job vacancies faster.

The partnership and platform integration will allow users of hireful’s Applicant Tracking System (ATS) to post roles directly on to Hiring Hub’s platform and gain access to its rated and reviewed network of specialist recruiters.

Headquartered in Strixton, Northamptonshire, and with offices in Spain and South Africa, hireful supports more than 400 organisations with its ATS software, recruitment workshops, training and recruitment process audits. The company, which has 60 staff, works with clients including Heron Foods, Kidney Research UK, Haribo and Fulham FC.

Its technology streamlines and automates the recruitment process, reducing the time spent on administrative tasks such as advertising jobs, scoring and shortlisting of candidates, interviewing and onboarding new hires.

It also includes a variety of features as standard to help support employers’ diversity and inclusion goals, including diversity capture, anonymised and disability-confident applications and ongoing performance monitoring.

The platform is designed to make life easier for employers and provide organisations of all sizes with the tools, insights and capability to compete with larger rivals in their sector.

In December, hireful secured a seven-figure funding package from SME Capital, facilitated by Leyton Capital Advisors, to support its growth strategy and expansion plans.

Hiring Hub, which is based in Manchester and operates across the UK and Europe, connects businesses with boutique recruiters through its marketplace platform to help employers find quality candidates quickly.

Companies post their vacancies on the platform and set the fee they are willing to pay a recruiter, and recruitment agencies pitch to work on them. This enables employers to manage recruiters centrally online, widen their candidate search and swiftly find off-market talent via specialist head-hunters.

The platform is used by employers such as Dodd Group, Sega Amusements and industrial and consumer goods company Henkel.

Simon Swan, founder of Hiring Hub, said: “The team at hireful are dedicated to making the lives of HR and in-house recruitment teams as simple and straightforward as possible, an ethos that very much aligns with our own.

“This partnership is a great fit for us as an organisation and, more importantly, it will deliver real value for the users of both our systems. It will increase the options available to employers using hireful when they are looking to quickly widen their candidate search, fill a specialist role or have a vacancy that has proven particularly challenging to fill. That is when we can add real value.

“We are looking forward to helping hireful users to find and hire quality talent using our award-winning recruiter marketplace.”

Adrian McDonagh, co-founder of hireful, said: “We are excited to be partnering with Hiring Hub.

“By combining hireful’s technology with Hiring Hub’s expansive recruiter network, we aim to set a new standard for efficiency and effectiveness in connecting employers with top-tier talent. Recruitment has always been about hiring first-rate talent, and our customers will benefit from the support of Hiring Hub’s network.”

Hiring Hub is backed by Manchester-based private equity firm MonacoSol, which last year invested a multimillion-pound sum to scale its sales and customer operations in the UK and overseas. MonacoSol is the private office of software and technology entrepreneur Richard Beaton.

Fintech, News

Fintech startup Alloy launches in the UK

US fintech Alloy has launched in the UK, strengthening its presence in EMEA with key senior hires and office space in London.

Alloy’s Identity Decisioning Platform helps banks and fintech companies to make smarter and faster decisions about the risk profile of each customer, and keep them safe from financial crime. The platform connects to more than 170 data sources, enabling financial institutions to automate customer approval and account opening, and monitor transactions in real time. Over 350 companies around the world trust Alloy to help them simplify processes and respond rapidly to new risks.

Fraud is a more serious threat than ever before: 91% of financial institutions said that fraud has increased year-on-year, and 71% increased their spending on fraud prevention, according to recent Alloy data. In the UK alone, bank fraud cost consumers almost £610M in the first half of 2022.

With Alloy, clients see an average 48% reduction in fraud. UK fintechs now have access to the company’s full product range, enabling them to stay ahead of regulatory requirements and scale their operations with ease.

Alloy’s former COO Edwina Johnson has relocated to London to head up global expansion, while James Baston-Pitt, former Vice President at Onfido, will spearhead commercial initiatives as the EMEA Director of Growth. The UK team is currently hiring for roles across sales and partnerships, and will continue to build out its go-to-market and client services functions throughout the year.

Since Alloy was founded in 2015, the firm has helped more than 350 of North America’s most innovative banks and fintech startups prevent fraud and financial crime, including Carta, Ramp and Brex. Alloy has raised over $210M to date, reaching a $1.55BN valuation, and last year announced its expansion into 40 new countries. The company has doubled down on its commitment to EMEA by establishing a physical presence in London, its first local site outside the US.

Edwina Johnson, Head of Global at Alloy said: “For financial institutions to remain competitive in today’s market, cross-border functionality is no longer a major advantage – it’s a must. Fintech startups are now building with a global mindset from day one, and looking for technology partners who can scale with them, adapting to their changing business needs, appetite for risk, and compliance requirements.

“The UK is one of the world’s most powerful fintech hubs, and we can’t wait to help innovative local firms unlock their potential abroad. For too long, international expansion has involved trade-offs with risk management, but that doesn’t have to be the case. Alloy provides dynamic support for companies operating across multiple regulatory environments, so they can focus on growing their business without worrying about the threat of fraud.”

To learn more, visit Alloy.com.

News

How to automate your retail ERP with RPA

As businesses become more complex and global, they are increasingly investing in workflow automation to save time and effort, and retail enterprises are no exception. The Data Literacy: The Upskilling Evolution report reveals that 40% of C-level managers expect their organization to hire a Chief of Automation within the next three years. Respondents also predict this figure to exceed 99% in the next decade.

However, those looking to invest in automation should remember that it is a complicated and costly task, riddled with challenges. For example, according to the Customer Success Survey 2021, 46% of respondents consider the availability of the right software tools one of the main barriers to automation.

Fortunately, enterprises today can avoid this issue by utilizing retail ERP systems, with their ability to connect disparate business functions, as the basis for systematic and efficient automation. In particular, the easiest way retailers can initiate automation is by empowering their ERP solutions with robotic process automation (RPA) technology.

This article explains how RPA enables ERP automation and provides some use cases to show how RPA and ERP work together.

How can RPA benefit retail ERPs?

The main purpose of an EPR system is to serve as a single source of truth in the enterprise, storing data from disparate sources like supply chain management, HR, financial software, and so on. However, the majority of regular ERPs have automation capabilities limited to data collection, which means human employees are left to perform other, more sophisticated and time-consuming tasks. RPA technology, in its turn, can perform a wider scope of routine data-related tasks instead of humans.

Of course, unlike artificial intelligence and machine learning, RPA operates based on pre-established rules, so it is not able to learn and make decisions. In other words, RPA technology can safely perform tasks only when there’s a human in the loop. However, given that RPA operates much faster and more accurately than humans, if properly applied, it can provide considerable levels of automation for processes typically joined under the umbrella of enterprise resource planning.

Four RPA use cases for retail ERP automation

Here are some examples of those ERP components that can be automated with RPA.

1.     Inventory management

Since merchants aim for operational efficiency and meeting customer demands, they must accurately and continuously track their inventory levels to know in advance when particular products are running out, and this is where RPA may come in handy. First, bots can monitor the information about the inventory level. If any goods are running short, bots can trigger an ERP to notify enterprise employees so they can timely replenish the stock. Second, bots can compile real-time inventory reports to help merchants understand which goods are selling better and which lie in the warehouse collecting dust, and also predict future demand more accurately.

2.     Accounting and finances

In terms of the automation and optimization of various business aspects, we can see that the processes related to finance are at the forefront of this transformation, and the pandemic has only strengthened this trend. According to Work Automation Index 2021, the volume of automated workflows related to accounting and finances has almost tripled during the pandemic (199%).

One of the reasons for this is that automation enables enterprises to gather data faster and generate more accurate financial reports, thereby providing the information needed for making strategic decisions that may directly affect business profitability. The adoption of RPA can help merchants further improve the efficiency of reporting.

RPA bots can not only collect financial data from different business systems linked to an ERP but also systematize this data into documents like Excel sheets and, if needed, automatically send them to the financial department via email. And these are not all the capabilities of RPA in terms of finance and accounting. Among other things, bots can create ledgers to help merchants visualize their financial flow and draw up tax reports that can be automatically sent to regulatory authorities.

3.     Supply chain management

Supply chain automation is one of the essential tasks for any business involved in the sale and delivery of goods to customers since the accuracy and speed of delivery are critical factors affecting customer satisfaction directly. Here are some examples of how RPA can be used for supply chain automation.

For instance, bots can create documents such as RFPs (requests for proposal) and RFQs (requests for quotation) and then automatically send them to potential suppliers, which can dramatically speed up the entire sourcing process. Bots can also collect supplier data into a single database, thus helping the sourcing department make faster and wiser decisions when choosing a particular supplier.

When an enterprise works with suppliers, RPA can help manage invoices, from their receipt to transfer to the accounting system, which may naturally reduce the number of data entry errors and therefore mitigate financial data management risks. At the same time, RPA can collect data to be later used for auditing monetary expenses, enabling merchants to identify the most relevant and valuable suppliers from a business perspective.

4.     Human resources

Today, RPA is also increasingly applied in the area of human resource management, helping automate candidate search, hiring, training, payrolls and compensations, and many other tasks. For instance, bots can look through candidates’ resumes to help identify those who meet the requirements for a particular vacancy within an organization. What is more, when an enterprise hires a new employee, bots can initiate a pre-set onboarding process by automatically sending relevant documentation and credentials. And these were only a couple of examples of how RPA helps HR specialists avoid performing routine manual activities, enabling them to focus on more essential tasks, such as employee retention.

Final thoughts

Merchants are implementing retail ERP software to synchronize their retail data. However, retail enterprises can accelerate their enterprise resource planning by integrating their ERPs with RPA technology, enabling machines to perform routine and rule-based tasks. In particular, enterprises can leverage the RPA capabilities to automate inventory and financial management, supply chain and HR processes, and data analytics.

 

Author: Roman Davydov is Ecommerce Technology Observer at Itransition: Software Development Company. With over four years of experience in the IT industry, Roman follows and analyzes digital transformation trends to guide retail businesses in making informed software buying choices when it comes to commerce and store management automation.

News

Kaseya Makes Billing Painless for its MSP Customers Through ConnectBooster Integration

Kaseya, the leading global provider of unified IT management and security software for managed service providers (MSPs), small to mid-size businesses (SMBs) and mid-market enterprises (MMEs), today announced it has completed the integration of its acquisition of ConnectBooster, the channel’s leader in account receivables automation and secure payment solutions. This acquisition enhances Kaseya’s platform, IT Complete, adding a suite for automated billing and collections.

ConnectBooster automates the collections process for recurring and one-time services in a highly secure and resilient environment. This channel-centric hub integrates with industry-leading tools to reconcile accounts and billing while streamlining back-office activities to save IT professionals significant time and money.

“Every acquisition we make is aimed at making life easier for our MSP customers,” said Kaseya CEO Fred Voccola. “By fully integrating ConnectBooster into IT Complete, we’re able to help free up time for MSPs to focus on growing their businesses, and that ensures they can be more productive and profitable.”

On average, 81% of MSPs wait 60 or more days to get paid. ConnectBooster brings that down to 1.4 days. By automating end-of-month billing, MSPs no longer must chase their customers for payments. As seats fluctuate and billing changes, they don’t have to manually adjust what customers are paying. This frees up time for MSPs who manage their own billing so they can be more efficient, and it also saves costs for those who may have hired someone to handle company billing. ConnectBooster has now been fully integrated with Kaseya BMS and Datto AutoTask.

“We have benefited from ConnectBooster’s ability to save us time and money, and we are thrilled that it is being integrated into Kaseya’s complete platform of software solutions,” said Levon Parker from Ascencion IT, “I’ve seen so much innovation from ConnectBooster in the last few months, and based on our experience with Kaseya previous acquisitions, we fully expect ConnectBooster to bring more innovations to market as a result of increased investment from Kaseya. The combination of Kaseya and ConnectBooster could be really transformational for my business.”

Additionally, customers and partners with ConnectBooster qualify for the Kaseya Global Partner Program, which provides enablement team support, live technical webinars, free passes to industry events, and much more, depending on the level of participation. The program is a tiered system – Silver ($1K+), Gold ($25K), Platinum ($100K) and Blue Diamond ($250K) – with partners moving up depending on their annual spend.

ConnectBooster is the latest addition to Kaseya’s signature platform, IT Complete – a suite of solutions designed to solve MSPs greatest challenges, which are vendor fatigue, lack of technician efficiency, limited software utilisation and budget. The technology, already utilied by many MSPs, improves accuracy and cash flow and eliminates time-consuming accounting tasks. The ConnectBooster payment solution offers deep workflow integrations and automations to allow IT professional to work more efficiently.

ConnectBooster will continue to operate as its existing brand out of its headquarters in Fargo, N.D.

About Kaseya

Kaseya is the leading provider of unified IT & security management software for IT professionals in managed service providers (MSPs) and mid-market enterprises (MMEs). Through its customer-centric approach and renowned support, Kaseya delivers best-in-breed technologies that empower organisations to seamlessly manage IT infrastructure, secure networks, backup critical data, manage service operations, and grow their businesses. Kaseya offers a broad array of IT management solutions, including well-known names: Kaseya, Datto, IT Glue, RapidFire Tools, Unitrends, Spanning Cloud Apps, TruMethods, ID Agent, Graphus and RocketCyber. These innovative solutions fuel Kaseya’s IT Complete platform, which is designed to maximise efficiencies and enable businesses through a single pane of glass. IT Complete empowers IT professionals to centrally command hardware, software, security, data, compliance, operations and more from within a comprehensive, integrated, intelligent (AI utilisation-optimised), and affordable platform. Headquartered in Miami, Florida, Kaseya is privately held with a global presence in over 25 countries.

About ConnectBooster

ConnectBooster is a software-as-a-service company based in Fargo, N.D. that provides accounts receivable and payment processing automation. Built by and for MSPs, ConnectBooster helps IT service companies spend less time on billing and collections tasks and optimise cash flow. By integrating with the solutions MSPs rely on—CRM/PSA, quoting and accounting software—ConnectBooster automates tedious and error-prone accounting tasks and automatically collects payment according to variable agreements. The result—MSPs get paid faster and on a more predictable schedule, and with less work.

News

iSpring Suite 11: Boost Learning Experiences With a Brand-New Authoring Toolkit

iSpring Solutions Inc., a world-renowned vendor of eLearning software and services, announced the release of its brand-new iSpring Suite 11. It will let content creators design even more impactful eLearning with new customization features, hand-drawn characters and locations, player speed options, and an industry-leading user interface.

iSpring Suite is an all-in-one authoring toolkit that lets users design pro-looking eLearning content — interactive courses, quizzes, video tutorials, role-plays, SCORM-compliant e-books, and interactions, fast with no tech skills or IT background required. It also comes with an extensive library of assets and templates and an online space in which users can store content, work on it together with their team, and share it with stakeholders for review and approval.

This tool is fully compatible with iSpring Learn LMS, an online training platform that goes beyond standard training delivery and helps companies transform their business. Content created with iSpring Suite can also be easily exported to over 150 of the most popular LMSs, where it will display perfectly and provide training statistics.

The new iSpring Suite 11 has a modern, extremely intuitive interface and additional features that let users create more personalized learning experiences and allow learners to study at their own pace:

 

New customization features. Instructional designers can create courses in keeping with the brand identity, set the colors and gradients of the player, round off buttons, and use downloaded fonts. They now can also use one of the five new course player templates and create their own presets once and then simply select this preset instead of building new courses from scratch.

 

New look of interactive role-plays. iSpring Suite 11’s role-plays have a new look and animations. Learners’ replies don’t disappear as before, but move up the screen. This allows learners to track the progression of their training scenario better – how the answer options they’ve selected affect the dialogue.

 

Hand-drawn characters. Unlike previous versions, iSpring Suite 11 lets educators create role-plays with hand-drawn characters and locations designed by iSpring professionals. There are 5 ready-made characters with multiple images of their emotions, and more are on the way.

 

Player speed options. iSpring Suite 11 introduces a new feature based on user requests that lets learners select the course playback speed. There are now 5 playback speed options, from 0.75 to 2x. Course developers are able to decide whether to enable this option for their learners.

 

“iSpring Suite 11 focuses on the most essential aspect of online learning – the learning experience. With this new version, course creators have endless options to customize how their content looks and displays,” says Michael Keller, eLearning Officer at iSpring. “Freelance instructional designers can create unique presets for each of their clients. L&D specialists can design training programs in keeping with their brand identity. Teachers can incorporate hand-drawn characters to engage their students and explain new topics in a more exciting way. Everyone will be able to create even more impactful eLearning with Suite 11!”

Pricing and Availability

iSpring Suite 11 is available in 9 languages, and the course player window comes in 13 languages, including Spanish, Chinese, and Japanese. It can be downloaded at the iSpring Solutions website and used with a fully functional trial for 14 days. The current price of the eLearning tool is $770/year for a basic plan and $970/year for an advanced plan.

This release also introduces a new special pricing plan for freelancers, in addition to special prices for academic institutions, nonprofit organizations, and government agencies. Detailed pricing can be found at: www.ispring.com/pricing.

 

5G, News

Infovista and PCTEL collaborate to co-develop 5G testing use cases

Paris, France – July 19 2022 – Infovista, the global leader in network lifecycle automation (NLA), and PCTEL, a leading global provider of wireless connectivity, today announced a strategic collaboration to co-develop joint 5G network testing use cases for mobile operators and industry regulators.

The joint uses cases will bring together PCTEL 5G scanning receivers and Infovista’s market-leading TEMS software to create differentiated and simplified solutions that address specific customer needs and requirements. The initial set of use cases include 5G C-Band interference monitoring, autonomous testing, beamforming configuration validation, automatic site location detection and automated interference detection, and combine PCTEL’s scanners with Infovista’s AI-powered network testing and assurance software.

One of the first joint solutions sees Infovista and PCTEL combining to deliver automated interference source detection and location. Leveraging Infovista’s NLA cloud platform for automated cross-domain troubleshooting, the solution uses network and service performance data from Infovista Ativa™ and its AI/ML analytics engine to rapidly identify and geo-locate cells affected by interference. With the approximate area of the interference identified, Infovista’s precision drive testing algorithms determine an optimal drive route and diagnostics workflow, and then a tester is dispatched with a PCTEL scanner and guided workflow to quickly find the source of the interference.

Faiq Khan, President of Global Networks, Infovista, said: “Mobile operators and regulators are facing new and specific challenges as 5G spectrum is licensed and networks rolled out. Their complexity requires new approaches to network testing, using the latest in AI, automation and cloud-native technologies to reduce the time and cost of network testing and monitoring while also being more accurate and valuable to the business. The strategic collaboration between Infovista and PCTEL is driven by this customer need, and we’re excited about the future opportunities our combined customer program will unlock.”

Arnt Arvik, Vice President & Chief Sales Officer, PCTEL, said: “Today effective network testing and monitoring requires purpose built scanning receivers to measure hundreds of channels across a broad spectrum including 5GNR and mmWave. Testing needs to be fast and accurate, conducted in multiple environments, and it need to be capable of simultaneously testing multiple technologies and operator networks. We are delighted that our industry leading 5G scanning receivers including our flagship Gflex® will be paired with Infovista’s software solutions. Together we’re bringing the power of two customer-focused teams to co-develop joint 5G testing use cases that solve tangible challenges facing our customers today and in the future.”

PCTEL designs, develops and manufactures industrial-grade products that enable customers to deliver wireless connectivity. PCTEL scanning receivers are precision network testing tools, designed for drive testing, walk testing, troubleshooting, and monitoring of cellular, WiFi, IoT, and critical communications networks worldwide.

Infovista’s TEMS Network Testing Portfolio enables network and services performance quality evaluation, troubleshooting and optimization by measuring and benchmarking end user experience. For Network Operators and Regulators, TEMS delivers the ability to walk test, drive test, and dynamically analyze service performance under real-life conditions — indoors, outdoors, and around the clock. For more on the Infovista TEMS network testing portfolio, please visit https://www.infovista.com/tems

Appointments, News

IRIS Software appoints new HCM Managing Director to give businesses time to thrive

IRIS Software Group (IRIS), one of the UK’s largest privately held software companies, is today announcing the appointment of Stephanie Coward as the Managing Director (MD) for its Commercial division.

Stephanie joins following an esteemed career in the technology sector, bringing over two decades of experience in managing and transforming businesses to best support their customers, as well as their people.

Stephanie will be driving forward IRIS’ Human Capital Management offerings, leading the mission to give every employee time to make a difference by automating vital HR processes to fast-track business success. She will play a key role in establishing IRIS as the leading supplier of software solutions and services that support HR professionals now and in the future.

Prior to joining IRIS, Stephanie held several senior director positions at Capita for 17 years, working across all areas of business. Initially commencing her career in sales, business development and operations, Stephanie moved into MD and Chief Operating Officer roles with a remit to transform traditional on-premise licence-based businesses into competitive subscription-based SaaS cloud solution providers.

Over the past decade, Stephanie has managed businesses providing strategic HCM software technologies as well as HR and Payroll managed services.

Alongside IRIS’ other sector MDs, Stephanie will focus on ensuring customers are placed at the heart of IRIS’ cloud technology solutions, so they have the time and tools they need to focus on what matters – making the best decisions for their people and business.

Stephanie Coward, MD for Commercial at IRIS Software Group comments on her appointment, “I am incredibly excited to lead IRIS’ commercial division. Businesses of all sizes are navigating an extremely challenging environment. Ongoing employee woes with the cost-of-living crisis and rehashed Government conversations around the future of work, has highlighted the need for HR teams to have agile, flexible technology that supports the myriad of difficulties impacting working lives.

“IRIS is the leading trusted advisor for HR management, that truly understands the needs of HR professionals and their people. I’m proud to support in delivering the best-in-class technology, that will give HR professionals the time they need to focus on value added work.”

David Lockie, Chief Operating Officer at IRIS Software Group says, “We’re delighted to welcome another experience Managing Director to our executive team. The market is constantly evolving, and digitisation is a critical enabler for businesses to not only survive but thrive. With Stephanie’s expertise, we can go the extra mile for our customers, providing them with the technology they need to grow their business and succeed in these difficult times.”

News

Perforce’s Automotive Software Development Survey Reveals Software Has Become Central to Automotive Development

Survey of nearly 600 automotive development professionals finds fulfilling every ISO 26262 requirement to be the top safety concern; security and quality were also top of mind.

MINNEAPOLIS, May 19, 2022 – Perforce Software, a provider of solutions for enterprise teams requiring productivity and visibility at scale within the SDLC, released the results of its annual State of Automotive Software Development survey conducted in partnership with Automotive IQ. Close to 600 automotive development professionals across the globe provided responses to current practices and emerging trends within the industry. Key findings suggest a growing concern for automotive software security, while the automotive vehicle market continues to rapidly evolve.

With the continued growth of autonomous, semi-autonomous, electric, and connected vehicle segments, software is even more central to automotive development. The increasing amount of software installed in vehicles can lead to more safety and security considerations during the development process. In fact, 76% of automotive developers have adopted or are in the process of adopting a shift-left strategy to identify software security and safety vulnerabilities as early as possible.

In addition, the survey found that automotive developers’ top three leading concerns are safety (34%, a decrease of 9% from last year), security (27%, an increase of 5% over last year), and quality (25%, and increase of 4% over last year). Of those most concerned with safety, 46% said their biggest concerns are the difficulties and time required to fulfill every ISO 26262 requirement.

“Safety continues to be the automotive software industry’s key priority, but security concerns continue to rise as the need to protect automotive electronic systems, communication networks, and software grows,” said Perforce Vice President of Product Ido Benmoshe. “OEMs and their supply chain partners want to prevent costly and malicious attacks, unauthorized access, or manipulation to automotive systems, and ensuring their code is secure is the first step to mitigating those incidents.”

Autonomous, semi-autonomous, electric, and connected vehicle development is also greatly impacting development teams. The majority of teams are working on autonomous and semi-autonomous components (82%, an increase of 38% over last year), electric components (87%, an increase of 39% over last year), and connectivity components (83%, an increase of 34% over last year) to some degree.

Another notable finding was that 86% use a coding standard to ensure safe, secure, and reliable code — with 46% of those surveyed using a static code analysis tool to aid in compliance, and 31% use a SAST tool to ensure secure software.

“Organizations across the automotive industry continue to work toward meeting the highest levels of quality,” said Director of Compliance Jill Britton. “With the rapid growth of the electric and autonomous vehicle segments, compliance to safety and security standards is going to be more important than ever.”

The full results of the survey are available in the 2022 State of Automotive Software Development Survey Report.

News

Zoho Unifies Marketing Operations with New Platform Driving Business Growth

Zoho Corporation, a leading global technology company, today announced Zoho Marketing Plus, a new unified platform that enables CMOs to drive up performance through bringing together marketing sub-functions working on activities across campaign ideation, creation, execution, management and measurement.

This provides stakeholders across the entire marketing organisation with a single, shared view of critical information for improved collaboration and results. The new marketing platform increases the effectiveness of digital marketing strategies by giving marketing leaders a deeper understanding of prospect preferences and behaviours so they can deliver engaging, high-value experiences that increase the quality and volume of leads.

CMOs require their teams to use technology solutions that capture prospect insights in ways that add value to the business. Through automation and business intelligence, the platform synchronises data to help marketing teams better understand prospects, make more informed decisions, and ultimately provide better results, growth and potential revenue.

“Consumers and digital marketing continue to evolve at warp-speed, leaving marketers struggling to keep up. It’s becoming increasingly difficult to properly manage multiple campaigns, channels, potential customer profiles, data and ROI”, said Suvish Viswanathan, Head of European Marketing at Zoho. “The complexity of data and personalisation at scale only raises pressure on marketers and CMOs to deliver effective campaigns and revenue. By eliminating redundancies and confusions arising from multiple siloed solutions, Zoho Marketing Plus maximises efficiencies, productivity and team collaboration, allowing marketers to stay nimble. We have experienced that first-hand as we use Marketing Plus for our own campaigns in our 10K+ employee size company.  When marketers are not bogged down by operations, they can deliver creative campaigns that promote meaningful relationships between the brand, prospects and customers.”

The unified platform empowers marketing teams to build continuous, consistent and more personalised experiences for prospects through:

Improved Collaboration Across Campaigns: Marketing teams will be able to connect and collaborate on various projects in tandem and with ease, enabling users to create, manage, execute, and monitor individual activities, across different stakeholders, and accurately track the progress of each task and brand asset. The platform delivers a strong creative suite that empowers teams to develop and improve marketing assets through comments, with the ability to maintain version control with flexible sharing capabilities for both internal and external stakeholders.

Streamlined Management of Marketing Projects: Brand Studio eliminates the need for siloed solutions by serving as the centralised workplace where marketing campaigns can be created and managed. Users strengthen the brand from a single, unified platform where they can oversee all marketing strategies and progress. Capabilities like Brand Assets, powered by Zoho Workdrive, for example, help digital marketers better manage documents and assets, serving as the repository for all project support materials.

Unified Digital Brand Asset Creation and Repository: Documents, presentations, sheets, videos, and other files can be kept in a single shared space, making assets easy to locate, reuse, or share. Machine-learning-powered search capabilities streamline team efforts, quickly and accurately locating the correct file.

Strong Marketing Automation Capabilities: Prospect insights are surfaced through AI-powered data analysis, which activates marketers to design the journeys customers and prospects respond to best. The platform properly tracks engagement and response data of prospects, giving marketing teams insights to improve their journeys over time. This clear and granular understanding of prospect behaviours gives marketers the ability to collaborate with prospects like never before, ultimately delivering experiences that speak to their unique wants and needs.

Omnichannel Engagement: Prospects bounce between channels and devices regularly, yet marketing teams can be ill-equipped to adapt to this rapid movement. Zoho enables marketing teams to access and manage all channels, driving better connections with prospects and brand engagement. Email campaigns, social media, surveys, webinars, events, and more can all be created and managed from one single interface within the platform.

Supported Integrations: Zoho’s new marketing platform supports strong integrations with third-party solutions, making it easy to share data and insights where needed. For example, sales teams can connect insights from Zoho CRM to existing systems like Salesforce, Microsoft, HubSpot, and more to help measure how much marketing spend is converting to sales. Other key integrations across finance, commerce, and event management strengthen the connections between apps that marketers already have in their arsenal. Platform integrations include Google Ads, Facebook Ads, Google Analytics, Google Search console, YouTube, Survey Monkey; on the finance side it integrates with QuickBooks, Xero, Stripe; on the commerce front it integrates with WooCommerce and Shopify; and on the events front, it integrates with Eventbrite. Integrations can be accessed via Zoho Marketplace from the Campaigns and Analytics sections of the platform.

Advanced Data/Marketing Analytics: Real-time data aggregation and analytics deliver business intelligence that helps marketing teams and leaders determine true marketing ROI. Integrations further support a more accurate view of impact, ROI, and revenue growth projections.

The unified platform includes a vast array of integrated capabilities aimed at helping digital marketers achieve greater results through simplified processes, tighter collaboration, shared assets, and consistent data. Zoho Marketing Plus combines the capabilities of multiple Zoho applications including Campaigns, Social, Webinar, Analytics, Marketing Automation, Workdrive, PageSense, Survey, and Backstage. This newest iteration of Marketing Plus will continue to evolve through tighter integrations with existing Zoho tools such as Cliq, as well as new apps including LandingPage, a no-code page builder that enables marketers to create high-converting website landing pages in minutes without needing a developer-level skillset.