EIGHTEEN COUNTRIES' DIPLOMATS TO CHINA VISITS QI-ANXIN -- THE COMPANY FULLY OPENS THE INTERNATIONAL MARKET

 

^{Twenty diplomats of 18 countries, visited QI-ANXIN on the morning of March 30.} 


BEIJING, April 1, 2022 /Xinhua-AsiaNet/--

Twenty diplomats of 18 countries visited QI-ANXIN on the morning of March 30.
 
The diplomatic delegation had in-depth exchanges and discussions with Chairman Qi Xiangdong and President Wu Yunkun of QI-ANXIN Group on the company's achievements in ensuring network security for the 2022 Beijing Winter Games. QI-ANXIN shared the solutions, products and services for building national-level cybersecurity systems in the fields of energy, finance, industrial control and critical information infrastructure. Afterwards, the delegation visited the company's cybersecurity operation center, industrial control laboratory and forensic laboratory.
 
"We are very happy to come to QI-ANXIN for communication today. Network protection has become an important part of national defense, and I hope we can take this opportunity to increase our understanding of cybersecurity technology and China's hi-tech companies like QI-ANXIN in this field," said by the diplomat on behalf of the 20-member delegation.
 
One of the diplomats asked in detail about the challenges faced and innovative technologies adopted by QI-ANXIN in securing the network for the Winter Games. Chairman Qi Xiangdong expressed his willingness to share the company's successful experience in cybersecurity for the 2022 Beijing Winter Games and provide cybersecurity services and capabilities to partner countries.
 
Nowadays, global countries face a number of challenges to cyber security. According to the Africa Cyberthreat Assessment Report 2021 released by Interpol, the top five cyber threats Africa currently facing are: online scam, digital extortion, business email compromise, ransomware and botnets. A report released by UAE cybersecurity firm DarkMatter shows that three-quarters of oil and gas companies in the Middle East have some forms of cybersecurity vulnerabilities, and that the financial, oil & gas, public utilities and transportation infrastructure sectors are frequently subject to cyber-attacks.
 
It is known that QI-ANXIN has carried out network security business in Europe, South Asia, Central Asia, the Middle East and Africa, and provided cybersecurity services and solutions for some large Chinese enterprises "going global" and overseas branches of major Chinese commercial banks. In 2021, QI-ANXIN participated in the cybersecurity construction of critical infrastructure sectors and important government agencies in Indonesia, Algeria, Angola, Ethiopia and other countries.
 
Source: QI-ANXIN
 
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   Link: http://asianetnews.net/view-attachment?attach-id=418260
 
   Caption: Twenty diplomats of 18 countries, visited QI-ANXIN on the morning of March 30.

Global advertising platform MGID buys Italy’s Metup Native S.r.l.

KUALA LUMPUR, March 31 (Bernama) -- MGID, the global advertising platform, announced it has acquired a majority stake in Metup Native S.r.l., a leading native advertising network in Italy previously owned by MetUp.

According to a statement, this deal marks the latest step in MGID’s global expansion plans.

MGID Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Sergii Denysenko, commented: “This is our first acquisition, but definitely not our last. We are in constant search of the leading adtech companies that can complement our product offering in local markets.

“Our purchase of Metup Native was an easy decision to make as not only does the company share the same values as MGID, but their market knowledge – and presence – is hugely impressive. We are looking forward to continuing our work in the Italian market and further developing our client partnerships.”

Meanwhile, CEO of Metup Native S.r.l., Shahram Bahadori said: “Joining MGID is a big milestone for Metup. We look forward to enhancing MGID’s current standing in Italy through our expert team, market knowledge and differentiated product offering, to deliver an unrivalled service for our publisher and advertiser partners.”

MGID entered the Italian market by partnering with Metup in 2019. Leveraging the technology, data, and expertise of Metup has enabled MGID to enhance its native offering for advertisers and publishers in Italy.

The collaboration has enabled MGID to grow reach in the region to over half (55 per cent) of Italy’s digital audience, through partnerships with premium publishers such as liberoquotidiano.it, ilfattoquotidiano.it, ilfoglio.it, iltempo.it, and gds.it.

Every month, MGID reaches 900 million unique readers, with 200 billion ad impressions, across 25 thousand trusted publishers.

More details at www.mgid.com.

-- BERNAMA

Synchronoss announces Kitamura launch of PicStorage Cloud Solution

KUALA LUMPUR, March 29 -- Synchronoss Technologies Inc (Synchronoss or the Company), a global leader and innovator in cloud, messaging and digital products and platforms, has announced that Japan’s leading multimedia retailer, Kitamura, launched a white-label version of the Synchronoss Personal Cloud under the name PicStorage.

Kitamura is one of Japan’s leading retailers offering image-related services and products, including cameras, photo printing, video dubbing, photo studio, photo books and more. The retailer has over 1,000 retail locations across the country with over 20 million paying visitors each year and approximately 10 million consumers registered in its online services.

Through this integration, Kitamura will be able to provide seamless online and retail experiences with the new PicStorage personal cloud offering.

“In addition to our carrier and service provider partners, Synchronoss is exploring new applications for our cloud platform,” said Synchronoss Japan General Manager, Yosuke Morioka in a statement.

“Our collaboration with Kitamura and their launch of PicStorage is just one example of how the Synchronoss Personal Cloud can be leveraged as a value-add service across multiple industries and verticals.”

Kitamura will offer PicStorage as a subscription-based service. It will include a branded app and access to an online portal to store, manage, and share digital content.

“The launch of PicStorage is a perfect extension of our product and services portfolio,” said Hajime Yanagisawa, Chief Digital Officer & Managing Executive Officer, Kitamura.

“Now millions of our customers will be able to safeguard their digital content in the cloud and share them with friends and family.”

In addition to Kitamura, Synchronoss has customers in the US, Europe, and Asia. For more information, visit www.synchronoss.com.

-- BERNAMA

Mary Kay Inc releases report detailing partnership with Arbor Day Foundation

 

Mary Kay logo (Graphic: Mary Kay Inc.)

KUALA LUMPUR, March 23 -- Following International Day of Forests and World Tree Day, Mary Kay Inc, a global leader in corporate stewardship and sustainability, is releasing a report detailing its long-standing partnership with the Arbor Day Foundation.

According to a statement, together, Mary Kay Inc and the Arbor Day Foundation have planted over 1.2 million trees worldwide, making a measurable impact on climate change, CO2 emissions, and reforestation.

“Globally, around 18 million acres of trees are lost each year. To raging wildfires, insects, disease, climate change, and more, the need for reforestation is dire,” said Chief Operating Officer at Mary Kay Inc, Deborah Gibbins.

“Mary Kay has a footprint in markets around the world—so we must do what we can to protect it. Our partnership with the Arbor Day Foundation allows us to provide a more sustainable future for generations to come.”

Mary Kay’s latest trees report details three cumulative benefits to planting trees through the work the partnership has completed so far. They are Carbon, Water and Air.

Carbon involves planting, protecting, and managing trees which absorb carbon in that as trees grow, carbon is removed from the atmosphere into trunks, roots, and branches;

Trees and forests play a vital role in water quality and quantity whereby, healthy trees and forests reduce soil erosion, filter stormwater and agricultural irrigation, enhance rainfall infiltration, and reduce surface runoff; and,

Air is another factor whereby, trees produce oxygen that we breathe in. In addition, trees remove air pollution by lowering air temperature, by releasing water into the atmosphere, and by filtering particulates.

In 2021, Mary Kay Inc completed six main planting projects in partnership with the Arbor Day Foundation. These included 7,000 trees in Brazil’s Indigenous Fire Recovery Project; 26,496 trees in the Mississippi River Valley; and, 49,004 trees in Florida’s Tyndall Air Force Base.

In addition to its partnership with the Arbor Day Foundation, Mary Kay served as the executive producer for Forest of Hope, a documentary journey highlighting the battle to save the planet from the impending threats of climate change and destructive human behaviour.

-- BERNAMA

EVERCORE ASIA'S BEST M&A ADVISER; 5TH TIME S'PORE'S BEST M&A ADVISER - THE ASSET

KUALA LUMPUR, March 24 (Bernama) -- Evercore was recognised as the Best M&A Adviser in Asia and once again presented the Best M&A Adviser in Singapore award by The Asset magazine at its 2021 Triple A Country Awards ceremony held recently.

The Asset’s Triple A Country Awards are Asia’s pre-eminent recognition for best-in-class institutions operating within the region, according to a statement.

Chairman of Evercore’s business in Asia, Keith Magnus said: “From our inception, we have built the business from ground up and it is humbling to have been recognised as the ‘Best M&A Adviser in Asia’ and the best M&A investment banking advisory firm in Singapore for the fifth time since our official launch in 2015.

“We remain committed to delivering the most impactful advice and the most meticulous execution for our clients. These awards are dedicated to our clients and we thank them for their continued trust in us.”

Meanwhile, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Evercore, John Weinberg said: “I am incredibly pleased with the remarkable achievements of our Singapore team over the years and am excited by the tremendous prospects of the business as we extend our leadership position and remain the adviser of choice for clients in the region.”

The recognition as ‘Best M&A Adviser in Asia’ is a first for Evercore and this is the fifth time Evercore has received the award of ‘Best M&A Adviser in Singapore’ since 2015, the first full year that Evercore obtained its Capital Markets Services (CMS) licence from the Monetary Authority of Singapore.

Since its establishment, Evercore has advised on some of the largest, most complex and transformational transactions in Singapore, the fourth largest financial centre in the world.

Evercore provides conflict-free, expert advice to clients regarding the execution of key strategic initiatives including cross-border transactions and the deployment of strategic capital. 

The Firm’s Singapore office was established in late 2013 with the appointment of Keith Magnus as Chief Executive Officer of Evercore Singapore covering the region, and a Senior Managing Director of Evercore. 

Evercore is the leading global independent investment banking advisory firm. More details at www.evercore.com.

-- BERNAMA

GLOBAL SURVEY VALIDATES THE EMERGENCE OF A NEW PRACTICE AREA IN ENTERPRISE IT VALUED AT $30 BILLION

 

Corporate Leaders are practicing Enterprise Liquidity Management to protect balance sheets, drive new post-pandemic growth opportunities


SAN DIEGO & PARIS, March 25 (Bernama-BUSINESS WIRE) -- Kyriba, (“the Company”) a global leader of cloud-based finance and IT solutions, today announced the results of a major IDC survey commissioned by Kyriba. The global survey results of over 800 corporate finance executives validate the emergence of a new practice area in Enterprise IT that includes risk management, payments, real-time connectivity, treasury management and working capital finance. The survey further confirms that predictive analytics, APIs, and artificial intelligence are key integrated technologies required by financial leaders to optimize enterprise liquidity.

Leading CFOs leverage technology integration to unify financial data and processes

The survey highlights a group (“leaders”) who outperformed the survey set in operational efficiency, technology adoption, and process maturity:

• Enterprise Liquidity: 51% of leaders can produce a consolidated view of cash and liquidity in under one hour compared to 8% of the less equipped companies;
• Risk Reduction: 79% of leaders have implemented very effective payment fraud prevention with only 16% of laggards reporting confidence in their programs; 69% of leaders effectively hedge to protect their liquidity with less than 5% of laggards reporting well performing hedge programs;
• Real-Time Decisions: 93% of leaders leverage real-time insights compared to only 36% of less digitized organizations, while 85% of leaders integrate real-time data from partners and third-party members into their enterprise platforms;
• Investing in Technology: 51% of leaders and 43% of all respondents are planning to increase expenditures on liquidity platforms.

CFOs confirm the emergence of a liquidity management practice

“CFOs’ new mission is to identify and activate all possible sources of liquidity to continually adapt to new global volatility. This survey confirms that very digitized organizations are inventing new liquidity management practices that mitigate risk while optimizing treasury, payments and working capital finance enterprise-wide and in real-time. Their CFOs deliver actionable intelligence downstream to business decision-makers by transforming data through AI and API-enabled platforms. We are witnessing the birth of a new category of software - Enterprise Liquidity Management,” said Samuel Guillon, SVP Strategy at Kyriba.

“We believe that liquidity management platforms can help CFOs improve the new practices they have already established to build resilience, generate value and unlock growth,” said Guillon.

Liquidity management is reshaping the vendor software market to create a new estimated $30b business

“Overall, the survey findings show the increasing importance of liquidity to financial leaders. The Office of the CFO is becoming a liquidity office, driving transformation through data-driven business decisions. Financial leaders demand systems that are built to aggregate, analyze and disseminate data. This need is driving the emergence of intelligent platforms built upon APIs and unified data. The survey demonstrates that CFOs recognize the need to invest in the tools, skills and resources to manage liquidity at an enterprise level,” said Kevin Permenter, Research Director, Financial Applications at IDC.

“There is a massive opportunity here for vendors to step in and help CFOs as their role changes. Taken together, we estimated the total available market for such Enterprise Liquidity Management software at $30 billion in 2021, but the longer-term opportunities for software vendors are much larger,” said Permenter.

The IDC White Paper, commissioned by Kyriba, A New Practice Area Emerges for CFOs: Enterprise-wide Liquidity Management, doc #US48341221, November 2021, is available here.

The survey was conducted online by IDC in August 2021 amongst 811 treasurers based in the US (31%), Europe (53%) and Asia (16%).

About Kyriba:

Kyriba empowers CFOs, Treasurers, and their IT counterparts to transform treasury, payments, working capital, and connectivity solutions to activate liquidity as a dynamic, real-time vehicle for growth and value creation. Kyriba is a secure, scalable SaaS platform that leverages artificial intelligence, automates payments workflows, and enables thousands of multinational corporations and banks to maximize growth, protect against loss from fraud and financial risk, and reduce operational costs. With 2,000 clients worldwide, including 25% of Fortune 500 and Eurostoxx 50 companies, Kyriba manages more than 1.3 billion bank transactions per year, and 250 million payments for a total value of $15 Trillion annually.

Kyriba is headquartered in San Diego, with offices globally. For more information, visit www.kyriba.com.

View source version on businesswire.com: 
https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20220324005223/en/

Contact

Americas

Daniel Shaffer
dshaffer@kyriba.com
+1 858-263-2218

EMEA

Caroline Peyrat
caroline.peyrat@kyriba.com
+33633372920

Source : Kyriba

HAI ROBOTICS debuts cutting-edge ACR systems at MODEX 2022 March 28

KUALA LUMPUR, March 23 -- HAI ROBOTICS, the pioneer in Autonomous Case-handling Robot (ACR) systems for warehouse logistics, will present its highly flexible totes-to-person warehouse automation solution at this year’s MODEX 2022 show, at Georgia World Congress Center in Atlanta from March 28 to 31.

Brian Reinhart, Vice President of Sales and Marketing at HAI ROBOTICS U.S., in a statement said the company would have full display of its commitment to customers, partners and the U.S. market at the show after being in the market for over a year.

“It's a very exciting time for HAI ROBOTICS as we continue our expansion and growth in the U.S. In order to best serve the market and accommodate the requests of our end users, we are developing a robust, strong, and valuable partner network.”

With its robots being exhibited also by MHS, SVT Robotics, GreyOrange and Tompkins Robotics, the company will demonstrate alongside its strategic partners how its state-of-the-art warehousing technology complements the global supply chain.

Days ahead of MODEX 2022, HAI ROBOTICS announced new partnerships with Tompkins Robotics and Storage Solutions. The partnerships will see technology and solutions developed by HAI ROBOTICS being applied to various industries across North America.

In addition to existing customers and partners, HAI ROBOTICS has established a U.S. HQ in Fremont, CA, a fully functional Demo Center with a decentralised sales and implementation strategy, positioning employees in 15 different states across the country.

The company's exhibits this year include two types of ACR robots and one workstation that were crafted to explore the full potentials of order-fulfillment efficiency, deployment flexibility and scalability in a goods-to-person order-handling context.

Founded in 2016 in Shenzhen, China, HAI ROBOTICS has offices in the U.S., Europe, Japan, Southeast Asia, Hong Kong and Taiwan, serving customers from more than 30 countries and regions.

More details at www.hairobotics.com.

-- BERNAMA

HITACHI ENERGY TO PROVIDE ADVANCED GRID CONNECTION FOR THE WORLD'S LARGEST EUCALYPTUS PULP MILL IN BRAZIL

Innovative solution will enable surplus renewable electricity to be transferred into the national power grid 

Zurich, Switzerland, March 22 (Bernama-GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Hitachi Energy, the global technology and market leader in power grids, announced today that it has won an order from Suzano, the world’s leading eucalyptus pulp producer and one of Latin America’s largest paper producers, to design and deliver a complete grid connection solution for the company’s new pulp mill in Brazil.

Suzano’s new factory will be the world’s largest single-line eucalyptus pulp mill and Brazil’s first pulp production facility to be fossil fuel free when completed in the second half of 2024. It will have an annual production capacity of 2.5 million tons and will increase Suzano’s output by 20 percent. About half of the electricity generated will be transferred to the national power grid, enough to supply around 2.3 million people for one month.

The two companies have worked closely together on grid solutions for Suzano’s fleet of mills over the past 20 years. In this spirit of collaboration and co-creation, Hitachi Energy has contributed its pioneering technologies and its unique system integration capabilities, engineering expertise and extensive experience of local grid code requirements. This enables Hitachi Energy to design and supply complete solutions with exceptional levels of reliability, that are fundamental for these types of application.

“We are honored and delighted to be working with Suzano again on this landmark project that sets a new benchmark in sustainable pulp production and shares its emission-free electricity with society at large,” said Niklas Persson, Managing Director of Hitachi Energy’s Grid Integration business. “This is another example of how our solutions are advancing the world's energy system to be more sustainable, flexible and secure.” 

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NIELSENIQ ACQUIRES RETAIL AI PLATFORM PROVIDER CIVALUE

 CHICAGO, March 22 (Bernama-BUSINESS WIRE) -- Today, NielsenIQ announced they have acquired ciValue, a SaaS (Software as a Service) vendor of choice for retailers globally that powers loyalty programs with advanced AI technology. With this acquisition, NielsenIQ’s Retail Media vertical takes its next steps towards enabling smarter, more automated and more scalable retail media programs.

Integrating ciValue’s global platform assets into NielsenIQ’s powerful Connect platform will provide innovative capabilities for retailers, including audience building and insights. This dynamic platform will also support personalization capabilities that are incremental to NielsenIQ's core capabilities, which the retail industry relies on for critical decision making.

“Integrating the ciValue platform with Connect is a game changer for retailers globally,” says Xavier Facon, Global Head of Retail Media with NielsenIQ. “This SaaS-based collaborative solution will promptly deliver insights that align retailers and their brand partners with what consumers want, executing personalized content across physical and digital channels.

In today’s highly competitive marketplace, retailers require solutions that will allow them to easily analyze consumer data. NielsenIQ and ciValue’s solutions will enable retailers to gain insights, work smarter and to accelerate business opportunities. By creating engagements that matter for retailers, brands and their customers, clients who leverage Connect can achieve new revenue streams, sales growth, and increase share of wallet through customer-centric merchandising and marketing.

"NielsenIQ is a long-time investor and partner of ciValue and their dedication to making retail a win-win-win world was always apparent,” said Beni Basel, ciValue CEO & Founder. “Joining NielsenIQ enables ciValue to expand its retail intelligence offering to more retailers, brands, and more importantly, allows us to further grow data-driven decisions to satisfy customers worldwide."

“We are excited that ciValue is joining the NielsenIQ team to continue to build and support the best AI powered tools for retailers globally,” says David Johnson, President Global Retail, NielsenIQ. “The integrated platform will support groundbreaking personalization activities for the global retail industry to meet the demand for fast and reliable customer analytics and personalization.”

About NielsenIQ

NielsenIQ is the leader in providing the most complete, unbiased view of consumer behavior, globally. Powered by a groundbreaking consumer data platform and fueled by rich analytic capabilities, NielsenIQ enables bold, confident decision-making for the world’s leading consumer goods companies and retailers.

Using comprehensive data sets and measuring all transactions equally, NielsenIQ gives clients a forward-looking view into consumer behavior in order to optimize performance across all retail platforms. Our open philosophy on data integration enables the most influential consumer data sets on the planet. NielsenIQ delivers the complete truth.

NielsenIQ, an Advent International portfolio company, has operations in nearly 100 markets, covering more than 90% of the world’s population. For more information, visit NielsenIQ.com.

View source version on businesswire.com: 
https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20220321005177/en/

Contact

Media Relations
Fernanda Paredes Fernanda.paredes@nielseniq.com
Gillian Mosher gillian.mosher@nielseniq.com

Source : NielsenIQ

Published: Stonebranch 2022 Global State of IT Automation report

KUALA LUMPUR, March 18 -- Stonebranch, a leading provider of service orchestration and automation solutions, has published the inaugural Stonebranch 2022 Global State of IT Automation report.

Developed in partnership with IEEE Computer Society, the premier technical education organisation, this study collects the perspectives of automation-focused IT professionals worldwide.

Respondents, all from companies with over 1,000 employees, shared their views about automation and orchestration as it relates to cloud, data pipelines, IT operations, self-service enablement, and more, according to a statement.

“Stonebranch is proud to share this important report — the first of its kind in the IT automation industry. This research serves as a window into how the best and brightest industry practitioners plan to evolve their IT automation programs,” said Chief Executive Officer at Stonebranch, Giuseppe Damiani.

“Most importantly, the report illustrates a shift from IT automation to IT orchestration, which is driven by the continued growth of cloud, multi-cloud, and overall hybrid IT environments.”

The research indicates that orchestration is critical for successful hybrid IT environments, which have taken the lead for mid-size and large enterprises alike.

Nearly half (46 per cent) of respondents work in a hybrid IT environment comprising on-premises, private cloud, public cloud, and containerised microservices. This number far exceeds on-premises only (31 per cent) and cloud-only (23 per cent) environments.

Additional key findings in the report include Automation growth is driven by cloud adoption; Multi-cloud environments are the norm; Service orchestration and automation platforms (SOAP) have grown in popularity; and, Integration is key to orchestration.

The data in this report comes from a global online survey conducted by IEEE in January and February 2022. The survey generated 366 responses from IT professionals (primarily team leads, managers, and directors) involved in IT automation.

-- BERNAMA

AM BEST AFFIRMS CREDIT RATINGS OF MOMENTUM LIFE LIMITED

SINGAPORE, March 18 (Bernama-BUSINESS WIRE) -- AM Best has affirmed the Financial Strength Rating of B++ (Good) and the Long-Term Issuer Credit Rating of “bbb” (Good) of Momentum Life Limited (Momentum Life) (New Zealand). The outlook of these Credit Ratings (ratings) is stable.

The ratings reflect Momentum Life’s balance sheet strength, which AM Best assesses as adequate, as well as its adequate operating performance, limited business profile and appropriate enterprise risk management (ERM). In addition, the ratings factor in no rating lift or drag from the company’s 100% ownership by BlueInc Group Pty Limited.

AM Best expects Momentum Life’s risk-adjusted capitalisation, as measured by Best’s Capital Adequacy Ratio (BCAR), to remain at the strongest level over the medium term. Despite forecast underwriting growth driving increased capital requirements, AM Best expects available capital to remain sufficient to support this planned business expansion over the medium term. Partially offsetting balance sheet factors include Momentum Life’s small absolute capital base, which increases its sensitivity to stress scenarios, as well as its high reliance on third-party reinsurance for risk transfer and upfront commission financing.

AM Best considers Momentum Life’s operating performance to be adequate. The company has reported operating profits over the past three fiscal years, with an average return-on-equity ratio of approximately 11% over this period. As a start-up insurer, Momentum Life’s earnings are impacted partially by a high expense ratio, given its small premium base. However, the company’s operating performance to date has been supported by the favourable runoff of trail commission assets arising from insurance distribution operations prior to 2018, and reinsurance commission income, which have both partially offset outward acquisition costs during the company’s initial growth phase. Prospectively, AM Best expects the company to record positive earnings over the medium term, as it grows in scale and executes its strategic business plan.

AM Best views Momentum Life’s business profile as limited, reflecting the company’s small scale as a start-up insurer and its concentration of business in New Zealand’s life insurance sector. The products offered by Momentum Life include guaranteed acceptance funeral insurance and lump-sum life insurance products, which have a low risk profile. Momentum Life benefits from good control over its underwriting and sales practices, with all products distributed through its wholly owned subsidiary.

AM Best views Momentum Life’s ERM as appropriate given the size and complexity of the company’s operations at present. The company’s risk management capabilities have developed since its inception, with regulatory compliance expected to remain a key priority. AM Best considers continual risk management developments as necessary to remain aligned with future changes in Momentum Life’s risk profile, as the company increases its operational scale.

Ratings are communicated to rated entities prior to publication. Unless stated otherwise, the ratings were not amended subsequent to that communication.

This press release relates to Credit Ratings that have been published on AM Best’s website. For all rating information relating to the release and pertinent disclosures, including details of the office responsible for issuing each of the individual ratings referenced in this release, please see AM Best’s Recent Rating Activity web page. For additional information regarding the use and limitations of Credit Rating opinions, please view Guide to Best’s Credit Ratings. For information on the proper use of Best’s Credit Ratings, Best’s Performance Assessments, Best’s Preliminary Credit Assessments and AM Best press releases, please view Guide to Proper Use of Best’s Ratings & Assessments.

AM Best is a global credit rating agency, news publisher and data analytics provider specialising in the insurance industry. Headquartered in the United States, the company does business in over 100 countries with regional offices in London, Amsterdam, Dubai, Hong Kong, Singapore and Mexico City. For more information, visit www.ambest.com.

Copyright © 2022 by A.M. Best Rating Services, Inc. and/or its affiliates. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. 

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Hitachi Energy to hasten sustainable mobility in Germany's biggest city

KUALA LUMPUR, March 15 -- Hitachi Energy has won an order from Berliner Verkehrsbe-triebe (BVG), Germany’s biggest municipal public transportation company, to supply its Grid-eMotion™ Fleet smart charging infrastructure to help BVG transition to sustainable mobility in Berlin, the country’s capital.

According to a statement, Hitachi Energy will provide a complete Grid-eMotion Fleet grid-to-plug charging infrastructure solution for the next two bus depots to be converted in the bus electrification programme.

“We are delighted to help the City of Berlin in its transition to quiet and emission-free transportation and a sustainable energy future for the people of this iconic capital,” said Managing Director of Hitachi Energy’s Grid Integration business, Niklas Persson.

“We feel the urgency and have the pioneering technology and commitment to advance sustainable mobility, thus improving the quality of life of millions of people.”

Hitachi Energy’s solution offers the smallest footprint for both the connection, as well as low noise emissions and high reliability – three key requirements for bus depots in a densely populated urban environment, where space is limited and flawless charging is vital to ensure buses run on time.

The solution comprises a connection to the distribution grid, power distribution and DC charging infrastructure with charging points and smart charging systems. Hitachi Energy will perform the engineering and integrate, install and service the entire solution.

The solution has a compact and robust design that requires less equipment than competing infrastructure, which results in a small footprint, lower operating and maintenance costs, and higher reliability.

Typically, Grid-eMotion Fleet requires 60 per cent less space and 40 per cent less cabling than alternative charging systems; it also provides superior overall system reliability.

BVG operates Germany’s biggest city bus fleet of around 1,500 vehicles, which it aims to make completely electric and emission-free by 2030. This requires the installation of charging infra-structure in its large network of bus depots.

-- BERNAMA

CLOUDFLARE ANNOUNCES API GATEWAY; INCREASES SECURITY FOR BILLIONS OF DEVICES AND SYSTEMS WITH ROBUST MACHINE LEARNING ENGINE

Now organizations can secure, manage, and monitor all of their APIs in one easy-to-use dashboard

SAN FRANCISCO, March 17 (Bernama-BUSINESS WIRE) -- Cloudflare, Inc. (NYSE: NET), the security, performance, and reliability company helping to build a better Internet, today announced the Cloudflare API Gateway, providing businesses a simple, fast, and effective way to protect and control all of their APIs (application programming interfaces). Organizations are using APIs more than ever before, yet many of them struggle to secure this traffic as legacy solutions are often expensive, overly complex, and slow. Cloudflare API Gateway will simplify the process of identifying, securing, and managing APIs of any protocol on one of the world’s largest and most interconnected networks.

The world runs on APIs—our phones, smartwatches, banking systems, and shopping sites all rely on APIs to communicate—and API traffic generates more than 50% of all the HTTP requests on Cloudflare’s global network. With this explosive growth it has become more critical than ever for businesses of all sizes to have robust protection and a clear view of their API suite. According to Gartner®: “API security challenges have emerged as a top concern for most software engineering leaders, as unmanaged and unsecured APIs create vulnerabilities that could accelerate multimillion dollar security incidents.” However, traditional legacy solutions are often difficult to implement, expensive to run, and unreasonably slow. Now, Cloudflare API Gateway provides a single hub allowing businesses to quickly discover APIs they weren’t aware of and easily secure them in just a few clicks.

“APIs were never built with security in mind. Yet, today APIs are involved in nearly every app a consumer or employee touches, often carrying our sensitive personal data,” said Matthew Prince, CEO and co-founder of Cloudflare. “Every day Cloudflare’s network blocks about 86 billion cyber threats for our customers. We’re confident that no other API tool sees the breadth or volume of threats that we do. We’ve built next generation AI and Machine Learning engines that take API management to a new level, automatically detecting new APIs and preventing threats. As with other Cloudflare products, API Gateway will do all of this at a fraction of the cost and without the latency introduced by legacy solutions.”

With Cloudflare API Gateway, businesses will be able to:

• Identify and stop API abuse: Leveraging Cloudflare’s unique Machine Learning engine that processes 32+ million requests per second, customers can now automatically analyze their API traffic to detect and prevent API abuses.
• Automatically detect unmanaged APIs: As API use grows, sometimes developers may publish APIs that security teams aren't aware of. Cloudflare API Gateway passively scans the entire network and automatically lists API endpoints for complete visibility.
• Create and manage APIs directly with Cloudflare Workers: Customers will be able to use integrations with Cloudflare Workers to create lightweight, dynamic APIs that run at our edge.
• Offload authentication and authorization: The gateway will support industry protocols like OAuth 2.0, JSON Web Tokens (JWT) as well as leverage authentication methods available in Cloudflare Access such as Mutual TLS and service tokens.
• Seamlessly route, log, and measure API requests: Cloudflare's existing products, like Transform Rules, will introduce native gateway functionality without adding latency, helping keep Cloudflare’s API Gateway as fast as possible.

Schema Validation, API Discovery, mTLS, and API Abuse detection are available today, with remaining features coming later this year. To learn more about Cloudflare API Gateway, please check out the resources below:

• Blog Post: Announcing the Cloudflare API Gateway
• Cloudflare API Gateway: Sign up to learn more
• Overview: Security Week

Source: Gartner, “Predicts 2022: APIs Demand Improved Security and Management”, Shameen Pillai, Jeremy D'Hoinne, John Santoro, Mark O'Neill, Sham Gill, 6 December 2021. GARTNER is a registered trademark and service mark of Gartner, Inc. and/or its affiliates in the U.S. and internationally and is used herein with permission. All rights reserved.

About Cloudflare
Cloudflare, Inc. (www.cloudflare.com / @cloudflare) is on a mission to help build a better Internet. Cloudflare’s suite of products protect and accelerate any Internet application online without adding hardware, installing software, or changing a line of code. Internet properties powered by Cloudflare have all web traffic routed through its intelligent global network, which gets smarter with every request. As a result, they see significant improvement in performance and a decrease in spam and other attacks. Cloudflare was named to Entrepreneur Magazine’s Top Company Cultures 2018 list and ranked among the World’s Most Innovative Companies by Fast Company in 2019. Headquartered in San Francisco, CA, Cloudflare has offices in Austin, TX, Champaign, IL, New York, NY, San Jose, CA, Seattle, WA, Washington, D.C., Toronto, Lisbon, London, Munich, Paris, Beijing, Singapore, Sydney, and Tokyo.

Forward-Looking Statements
This press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, which statements involve substantial risks and uncertainties. In some cases, you can identify forward-looking statements because they contain words such as “may,” “will,” “should,” “expect,” “explore,” “plan,” “anticipate,” “could,” “intend,” “target,” “project,” “contemplate,” “believe,” “estimate,” “predict,” “potential,” or “continue,” or the negative of these words, or other similar terms or expressions that concern our expectations, strategy, plans, or intentions. However, not all forward-looking statements contain these identifying words. Forward-looking statements expressed or implied in this press release include, but are not limited to, statements regarding the growth of API usage and traffic, the capabilities and effectiveness of Cloudflare API Gateway, the potential benefits to customers of using Cloudflare API Gateway, the timing of when Cloudflare API Gateway and the various features included in Cloudflare API Gateway will be generally available to all current and potential Cloudflare customers, Cloudflare’s technological development, future operations, growth, initiatives, or strategies, and comments made by Cloudflare’s CEO and others. Actual results could differ materially from those stated or implied in forward-looking statements due to a number of factors, including but not limited to, risks detailed in Cloudflare’s filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), including Cloudflare’s Annual Report on Form 10-K filed on March 1, 2022, as well as other filings that Cloudflare may make from time to time with the SEC.

The forward-looking statements made in this press release relate only to events as of the date on which the statements are made. Cloudflare undertakes no obligation to update any forward-looking statements made in this press release to reflect events or circumstances after the date of this press release or to reflect new information or the occurrence of unanticipated events, except as required by law. Cloudflare may not actually achieve the plans, intentions, or expectations disclosed in our forward-looking statements, and you should not place undue reliance on Cloudflare’s forward-looking statements.

© 2022 Cloudflare, Inc. All rights reserved. Cloudflare, the Cloudflare logo, and other Cloudflare marks are trademarks and/or registered trademarks of Cloudflare, Inc. in the U.S. and other jurisdictions. All other marks and names referenced herein may be trademarks of their respective owners. 

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NAPIER CONTINUES EMEA EXPANSION TO MEET DEMAND FOR ADVANCED AI-ENHANCED AML SOLUTIONS

LONDON, March 15 (Bernama-BUSINESS WIRE) -- Napier, provider of leading anti-financial crime compliance solutions, has announced a commitment in 2022 to invest further in its EMEA operations as the market for AI-enhanced AML technology continues to grow at pace.

As part of this strategy, Graham Hogan is the new Head of Sales EMEA, while Sebastian Vedel will lead efforts in the Nordic and Baltic regions. Napier recently appointed Royal Bank of Canada and Fenergo veteran Kevin O’Neill as Chief Revenue Officer, and Natwest alumni Will Monk as Chief Product Officer. The addition of Hogan and Vedel to the team forms part of O’Neill’s strategy to boost adoption of Napier’s next generation SaaS financial crime solutions for financial firms and regulated institutions globally.

Hogan joined Napier in London with over 15 years’ experience in senior EMEA leadership roles at firms such as Wolters Kluwer, AxiomSL, and FIS; specialising in regulatory reporting, risk management, and capital market solutions. Meanwhile, Vedel’s former financial crime compliance roles within the Danish offices of EY and Danske Bank will help boost Napier’s presence in the Nordic and Baltic regions.

O’Neill said “Expanding our EMEA footprint underlines our commitment to the region. Building on our strong customer base there, we’re now placing our experts closer to key markets across the continent. Europe is home to some of the world's leaders in fintech, neo-banking, and payments, as well as several established banks and financial institutions. By strengthening our local presence, we will be better positioned to help our clients through digital transformation and to scale by taking advantage of the cost efficiencies and full compliance functions that our next-generation technology offers.”

Napier’s highly configurable financial crime compliance solution is used by a variety of market participants, including banks, payment providers, asset managers, asset servicers, FX specialists, insurance firms, and other regulated institutions. Headquartered in London, Napier’s global presence also includes offices in Sydney, Singapore, Kuala Lumpur, Dubai, London and New York.

About Napier

Napier is a new breed of financial crime compliance technology specialist. Our intelligent compliance platform is transforming compliance from legal obligation to competitive edge. All Napier products are built using cutting-edge technology, and the platform can be delivered via public cloud, private cloud or on premise. 

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CLOUDFLARE TO DEMOCRATIZE AND SIMPLIFY EMAIL SECURITY TO PREVENT PHISHING AND MALWARE ATTACKS

New tools for eligible customers will provide critical detection and protection for email threats in a single click

SAN FRANCISCO, March 15 (Bernama-BUSINESS WIRE) -- Cloudflare, Inc. (NYSE: NET), the security, performance, and reliability company helping to build a better Internet, today announced that it plans to make enterprise-grade email security tools available to Cloudflare customers, once Cloudflare’s acquisition of Area 1 Security closes. Email continues to be one of the biggest security threats that organizations of all sizes face, yet legacy email security solutions are often expensive, overly complex, and hard for businesses to implement. With the acquisition of Area 1 Security, Cloudflare will be able to provide organizations an easy way to benefit from robust phishing and malware detection that is part of an integrated, Zero Trust approach to securing all of their organizations applications.

“Email is the largest cyber attack vector on the Internet, and we believe that you shouldn’t have to be a Fortune 100 company to be secure from email threats,” said Matthew Prince, co-founder and CEO of Cloudflare. “We recently made a significant investment in email security by agreeing to buy Area 1 Security. In the spirit of democratizing email security, we plan to bring several critical capabilities to businesses of any size. This is the future of Zero Trust security–where you have an integrated, one-click approach to securing any and all of your business applications.”

Legacy email security products are often expensive, complex, and require physical or virtual infrastructure that is out of reach of many organizations without a large IT team. Protection from big email providers often only does a good job at stopping annoying spam, but are not equipped to handle sophisticated phishing attacks. As email continues to be an attractive entry point for increasingly complex cyber attacks, businesses of all sizes need to integrate email security into their overall security approach. Area 1 Security’s cutting-edge email protection will provide Cloudflare customers with a simple to use, highly effective, email security solution that can be implemented in just one click. And because it’s integrated with Cloudflare’s suite of Zero Trust solutions, we are designing Cloudflare’s email security tools to use email data to trigger additional security actions like automatically routing suspicious links through remote browser isolation or displaying phishing insights within the recently launched Cloudflare Security Center.

CLOUDFLARE TO DEMOCRATIZE AND SIMPLIFY EMAIL SECURITY TO PREVENT PHISHING AND MALWARE ATTACKS

FOURKITES UNVEILS ROBUST NET ZERO INITIATIVE AT WORLD'S LARGEST GLOBAL SUPPLY CHAIN SUSTAINABILITY EVENT IN AMSTERDAM

As part of the global initiative, FourKites announces Sustainability Hub, which offers granular emissions tracking, industry benchmarks, analytics and scenario modeling to help customers meet sustainability goals

 

AMSTERDAM, March 11 (Bernama-GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- FourKites, provider of the world’s leading real-time supply chain visibility platform, today announced its new Net Zero initiative to help the world’s leading companies achieve their organizational goals to reduce supply chain emissions. As part of this announcement, FourKites unveiled Sustainability Hub, a suite of analytics tools to provide better visibility into resource consumption and waste generation; a new Sustainability Advisory Board; and ongoing original research around sustainability.

Sustainability Hub is the latest phase of FourKites’ ongoing focus to help companies scale sustainability efforts through technology and collaboration. The platform will include new tools and capabilities that enable customers to:

• Input their sustainability goals and more accurately track saved emissions
• Benchmark progress against industry averages based on organizational goals and anonymized industry data
• Drill down into additional load-level details to better pinpoint opportunities for optimization
• Track progress via a single summary dashboard
• Use analytics and scenario modeling to surface new insights for emissions reductions

Sustainability Hub builds on the company’s industry-first Sustainability Dashboards, a free solution that allows companies to identify specific areas within their supply chains that are contributing high levels of greenhouse gas emissions so that they can develop more effective sustainability strategies.

The announcement coincides with FourKites’ 2022 Global Supply Chain Sustainability Summit that is bringing together more than 4,000 supply chain executives and sustainability thought leaders from organizations including Sony, DHL, Future Planet, Volvo Group and others, to discuss how to drive positive environmental impact through supply chain transformation. 

According to Gartner, “We cannot scale the sustainability agenda without technology. CSCOs expect the focus on digitalization to increase. Seventy-two percent stated that enterprises will continue to digitize and integrate new technologies, meaning supply chains will have to continuously adapt.”* To that end, FourKites has continued to drive innovation in the industry and facilitate discussion among key stakeholders across the industry in order to help companies meet their long-term sustainability goals.

“We started using FourKites years ago because we knew it was important to have visibility in transit,” said Paul Avampato, Head of International Logistics for Laundry and Home Care at Henkel. “Now we’re using that data to drive efficiencies in our supply chain and help achieve our sustainability goals.”

Sustainability Hub is the latest component of FourKites’ multi-faceted strategy to help customers achieve their sustainability goals. Other programs and solutions include:

• Dynamic Yard^SM, a new category of software that connects traditional, siloed yard management software with FourKites’ real-time supply chain data and predictive ETAs to provide insight into driver detention patterns, labor efficiency and more to reduce dwell and inform carbon reduction strategies. In the last quarter of 2021, customers who used Dynamic Yard emitted 20% fewer carbon emissions than non-Dynamic Yard users through reductions in truck idle times.
• FourKites Sustainability Center of Excellence, a thought leadership council dedicated to promoting sustainability throughout the end-to-end supply chain via actionable, data-driven strategies.

“Sustainability is a core tenet of our philosophy at FourKites, and we are hyper-focused on enabling our Fortune 1000 customers to embed sustainability throughout every level of their supply chain,” said FourKites Founder and CEO Mathew Elenjickal. “I am incredibly proud of our team for driving the sustainability agenda for the industry and helping our customers make a meaningful impact on the environment.”

*Gartner, “CSCO Response to Environmental Sustainability Trends for Supply Chain in 2022,” Sarah Watt, Laura Rainier, Heather Wheatley, Simon Bailey, Andrew Stevens, Kristin Moyer. Published 24 January 2022.

About FourKites
FourKites^® is the #1 supply chain visibility platform in the world, extending visibility beyond transportation into yards, warehouses, stores and beyond. Tracking more than 2.5 million shipments daily across road, rail, ocean, air, parcel and courier, and reaching over 185 countries, FourKites combines real-time data and powerful machine learning to help companies digitize their end-to-end supply chains. More than 1,000 of the world’s most recognized brands — including 9 of the top-10 CPG and 18 of the top-20 food and beverage companies — trust FourKites to transform their business and create more agile, efficient and sustainable supply chains. To learn more, visit https://www.fourkites.com/. 

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Eagle Eye LPR unveiled, making highly-accurate license plate recognition possible

KUALA LUMPUR, March 11 -- Eagle Eye Networks, the global leader in cloud video surveillance, has launched Eagle Eye LPR (license plate recognition), which uses artificial intelligence (AI) in a true cloud-based system for high accuracy in all kinds of challenging conditions.

According to a statement, Eagle Eye LPR operates on readily available security cameras making it affordable and practical for today’s business owners.

“We’re seeing increased demand for LPR/ANPR for security and business optimisation. Eagle Eye LPR is designed to be easy to deploy and manage, and it does not require the purchase of special cameras,” said Chief Executive Officer of Eagle Eye Networks, Dean Drako.

“Our industry-leading AI not only provides high accuracy, Eagle Eye cloud LPR is continuously improved to support new license plates and increase accuracy.”

Powered by Eagle Eye Networks industry-leading AI and analytics, Eagle Eye LPR works with the Eagle Eye Networks Vehicle Surveillance Package (VSP) to enable seamless monitoring of vehicles across multiple locations.

Eagle Eye Networks supports many manufacturers’ LPR products including cameras. Eagle Eye Networks operates an open system giving customers choice. The Eagle Eye Cloud VMS will continue to support camera and other LPR technologies.

The benefits of Eagle Eye LPR include Camera Agnostic; Affordable; High Accuracy; Flexibility; Scalability; Continuous Delivery; and, Broad Geographic LPR/ANPR Support.

Target applications for Eagle Eye LPR include Smart Parking with LPR-based automation; Corporate Offices - Secure, smooth vehicle entry/exit; and, Healthcare and Education Campuses - Touchless access control.

Eagle Eye is based in Austin, Texas with offices in Amsterdam, Bangalore, and Tokyo.

-- BERNAMA

INTERACTIVE BROKERS LAUNCHES MOBILE APP FOR GLOBAL STOCK TRADERS

KUALA LUMPUR, March 9 (Bernama) -- Interactive Brokers, an automated global electronic broker, has launched IBKR GlobalTrader, a simple mobile trading application for investors to trade stocks globally. With a streamlined design, the app is easy for novice investors to use, and powerful enough for experienced stock traders.

Investors can open an account in minutes and start trading stocks on over 80 stock exchanges in North America, Europe and Asia.

According to a statement, investors trading with IBKR GlobalTrader benefit from Interactive Brokers’ global expertise serving over 1.75 million accounts in over 200 countries and territories.

Developed specifically for global investors, IBKR GlobalTrader conveniently lets investors make deposits in up to 23 different currencies. These deposits are automatically converted at interbank rates into the currency needed to buy and sell stocks across markets and geographies.

For investors seeking global diversification but unsure of what to invest in, the IBKR GlobalAnalyst scanner helps investors identify investment opportunities worldwide. Investors can then use the IBKR GlobalTrader app to quickly take advantage of them.

“As a growing number of individuals around the world discover the benefits of actively participating in the financial markets, the need for a simple and easy to use stock trading app has never been greater,” said Steve Sanders, EVP of Marketing and Product Development at Interactive Brokers.

“The IBKR GlobalAnalyst tool helps both beginners and advanced traders find investment opportunities, and then they can use the simple IBKR GlobalTrader app to trade stocks worldwide.”

Trading costs with IBKR GlobalTrader are transparent and low. For investors outside the U.S., commissions start at just USD 0.0035 per share and U.S. residents enjoy zero commissions on U.S. stocks. Commissions on Forex transactions are 3bps (0.03 per cent) times the trade value, with no hidden spreads or markups. (US$1 = RM4.180)

-- BERNAMA