MONETAGO HIRES IAN MILNE TO HEAD UP ASIA PACIFIC SALES

SINGAPORE & NEW YORK, April 20 (Bernama-BUSINESS WIRE) -- Financial technology solutions provider MonetaGo has appointed Ian Milne to the newly created role of head of sales, Asia Pacific, effective immediately.

This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20220418005423/en/

 

Milne brings to MonetaGo over three decades of banking experience, having held senior roles at global banks including Fortis, Standard Chartered, HSBC and most recently Rabobank.

Over the course of his career, Milne successfully led the delivery of a robust operational infrastructure, establishing procedures and frameworks to provide sanctions, anti-money laundering and anti-terrorist financing compliance on all commodities and structured trade finance facilities, along with operational risk controls in accordance with regulatory standards.

Based in Singapore, Milne will lead MonetaGo’s engagement with trade financiers across the Asia Pacific region to drive adoption of the Secure Financing platform.

“The entry into force of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) has opened up new opportunities for trade across the region, but this growth risks being held back by the trade finance gap, which disproportionately impacts developing Asia,” says Jesse Chenard, CEO and founder of MonetaGo. “Having Ian on board will take MonetaGo closer to its goal of providing the Secure Financing system to all trade financiers, enabling more trade finance to get to where it’s so desperately needed.”

“Throughout the course of my 32-year career, I’ve had a front-row seat to some of the major fraud defaults that have rocked trade and commodity finance, all of which brought into sharp focus the need for a solid understanding of the industry,” says Ian Milne, head of sales, Asia Pacific, at MonetaGo. “MonetaGo’s Secure Financing system provides a compliant means by which banks can share information on potential risks, solving for the problem of duplicate financing in trade once and for all.”

About MonetaGo

MonetaGo provides the first-ever global solution to duplicate financing fraud in trade finance, and is the world’s foremost provider of such technology to prevent both domestic and cross-border duplicate financing.

MonetaGo’s Secure Financing system is proven in production, having been live since March 2018 with substantial transaction throughput.

The Secure Financing solution has been recognised as Best Solution in Trade Finance at the AMTD DigFin Innovation Awards at the Hong Kong Fintech Week 2021, and as Most Innovative Use of Blockchain in Banking and Most Effective Bank-Fintech Partnership at the IBS Intelligence Global Fintech Innovation Awards 2021. For more information, visit www.monetago.com. 

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AUTOSTORE™ BOOSTS INTERNATIONAL GROWTH WITH NEW SINGAPORE OFFICE

KUALA LUMPUR, April 20 (Bernama) -- Leading warehouse automation company, AutoStore, has announced the opening of its new Singapore office.

“This new office in Singapore gives us the opportunity to interact more closely, directly, and personally with our Asia-Pacific clients and partners than ever before,” said Vice President Business Development Asia-Pacific at AutoStore, Philipp Schitter.

“It is clear that the demand for automated warehouse solutions is growing, especially as e-commerce continues to be a driving force for innovation. We're pleased to expand our global presence to meet customers where they are at.”

The location will serve as the local hub for AutoStore in the Asia-Pacific region as the company positions itself to serve both local partners and clients, while adapting to meet the growing demand for Automated Storage and Retrieval Systems (ASRS) in the region.

According to a statement, the new Singapore office builds upon the company's existing presence in the area.

Currently, AutoStore has installed its innovative cube storage systems at seven sites in Singapore through its partner network. The new location will allow AutoStore to seamlessly work alongside both its local partners and clients.

AutoStore plans to hire for several key positions to be based in the Singapore office, as well as offer demonstrations of its robotic solutions at the new facility in the coming year.

More details at www.autostoresystem.com.

-- BERNAMA

PALFISH CHOOSES VONAGE TO ENHANCE CUSTOMER ACQUISITION AND POST-PURCHASE SERVICES

Vonage Communications APIs enhance and build improved customer experiences

SINGAPORE, April 20 (Bernama-BUSINESS WIRE) -- Vonage (Nasdaq: VG), a global leader in cloud communications helping businesses accelerate their digital transformation, is enabling China-based edtech platform PalFish (伴鱼) to seamlessly connect with current and potential customers across multiple communications channels using the Vonage Communication Platform.

PalFish is a professional private online tutoring platform designed for English language learners from 3 - 12 years old and based on Pearson academic programs. With thousands of overseas students across South Asia on its platform, PalFish offers short duration classes of 25 minutes each through various interactive tools, helping kids maintain high attention to achieve an ideal learning outcome.

Vonage Communications APIs allow developers to easily enhance and build intelligent, intuitive customer experiences directly into their existing applications and devices. By embedding the Vonage Voice API and Messages API for WhatsApp communications into its platform, PalFish is able to connect with teachers, parents and students at scale, across geographies and channels.

The Vonage Voice API enables the creation of automated and personalized customer interactions with AI. From voice bots to customised conversational AI and analytics, the Voice API can be directly integrated to existing systems and processes. PalFish has deployed the Voice API in its contact centre to enhance communications with parents for post-purchase services.

“The partnership with Vonage has been crucial to helping us reach our audience more effectively,” said a representative from PalFish. “While the use of communication APIs is a first for PalFish, the integration of the solution into our existing systems was seamless and fuss-free. This has not only enabled us to enhance customer experience but also helped us acquire new customers.”

PalFish is also using the Vonage Messages API to offer efficient and seamless communication via WhatsApp. Using Vonage’s Messages API – integrated directly with WhatsApp, PalFish’s tele-sales representatives communicate with parents around student information and enrollments.

“The use of edtech services has skyrocketed since COVID-19. In Asia Pacific, the e-learning market size will be worth USD 90 billion by  2026.^¹ Service providers need to effectively reach their audience in order to tap into this growing market and acquire new customers. The Vonage Communications Platform enables businesses like PalFish to easily integrate scalable, international capabilities into their existing offering and connect with their customers on their preferred channels,” said Sunny Rao, Senior Vice President, Global Sales, Vonage.

With an ever-growing network of more than one million registered developers, the Vonage Communications Platform makes it easy for organisations to use APIs to disrupt their industries, and enable the type of business continuity, remote work, and remote delivery of services that is so essential in today's environment. Through its partners, Vonage’s platform is at the centre of many notable transformational projects in the APAC region, and a de facto for startups.

To find out more about Vonage, visit www.vonage.com. 

About PalFish 

PalFish is an education technology company founded in Beijing, headquartered in Singapore, and with regional offices around the globe. We are committed to helping children aged 3-12 worldwide reimagine the learning through our digital solutions and customized learning products. Language learning is an integral part to child early development, and it is vital to children’s future growth and lifetime success. With PalFish’s innovative advantages, we have established a powerful product matrix with several applications championing the market. Since 2017, PalFish has developed multiple online language learning products for children aged 3-12, including the most popular PalFish English Reading, PalFish English Class, and PalFish Chinese etc. These APPs serve children of their various learning needs through customized paths including audio picture bookreading and native English teacher private tutorials.　

At PalFish, we keep developing innovative, caring and effective learning solutions and platforms for the children worldwide. Together with them, we look forward to reshaping what is possible for education. 

About Vonage

Vonage, (Nasdaq:VG) a global cloud communications leader, helps businesses accelerate their digital transformation. Vonage's Communications Platform is fully programmable and allows for the integration of Video, Voice, Chat, Messaging, AI and Verification into existing products, workflows and systems. Vonage's fully programmable unified communications and contact center applications are built from the Vonage platform and enable companies to transform how they communicate and operate from the office or remotely - providing the flexibility required to create meaningful engagements.
Vonage Holdings Corp. is headquartered in New Jersey, with offices throughout the United States, Europe and Asia. To follow Vonage on Twitter, please visit www.twitter.com/vonage. To become a fan on Facebook, go to facebook.com/vonage. To subscribe on YouTube, visit youtube.com/vonage.

¹ https://sg.channelasia.tech/mediareleases/135762/asia-pacific-e-learning-market-a-usd-90-billion/

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20220412006133/en/ 

Contact 

Media Contact: Elise Leonard, 732.837.3801, elise.leonard@vonage.com
Investor Contact: Monica Gould (212) 871-3927, ir@vonage.com 

Source : Vonage

--BERNAMA

KOELIS ANNOUNCES COMPLETES OF €10 MILLION FOLLOW-ON GROWTH EQUITY FINANCING WITH INNOVAHEALTH PARTNERS

GRENOBLE, France and PRINCETON, N.J., April 15 (Bernama-GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Koelis, SAS (“Koelis” or the “Company”) announced today the completion of a €10 million follow-on growth equity financing led by InnovaHealth Partners, LP (“InnovaHealth”) and certain affiliates. Koelis is a pioneer and leader in the market for image- guided prostate cancer interventions including biopsy diagnosis and minimally invasive treatments. The financing will support the Company’s continued commercial expansion as well as its commitment to clinical and technology initiatives that are at the leading edge of a paradigm shift in the diagnosis and treatment of prostate cancer. InnovaHealth Partners, based in New York, is a leading private equity firm focused on providing growth equity to the medical device industry.

The Koelis Trinity is a system that offers stand-alone ultrasound imaging and MRI fusion image guidance for prostate biopsy and minimally invasive prostate cancer treatments. Featuring proprietary 3D ultrasound imaging and prostate motion tracking software (OBT Fusion^®), the Koelis Trinity System facilitates more accurate biopsy diagnosis as well as enabling “focal” treatment alternatives to traditional “total organ” treatments such as surgical prostatectomy and radiation. The Company’s clinical stage, focal treatment programs include a prospective, multi-center registry (“Violette”) utilizing microwave technology, and multi-center clinical evaluation of its proprietary focal cryoablation image guidance software.

Antoine Leroy, Koelis’ Co-founder and Chief Executive Officer, “We are very pleased to complete this financing with the InnovaHealth Partners team that has been not just a supportive investor, but also a true partner who shares the Koelis vision to be a leader in the transformation of the diagnosis and treatment of prostate cancer.”

Mortimer “Tim” Berkowitz III, InnovaHealth’s President & CEO said that, “In advancing the way prostate cancer is diagnosed and treated, we see the enormous potential of Koelis technology to address significant unmet clinical needs on a global basis.” 

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KANEKA LAUNCHES NEW PCR TEST KIT FOR IDENTIFYING THE COVID-19 OMICRON (BA.1) AND "STEALTH" OMICRON (BA.2) VARIANTS

- Test kit capable of detecting both types of Omicron variants with a single PCR test

 

TOKYO, April 15 (Bernama-BUSINESS WIRE) -- On March 31, Kaneka Corporation (Headquarters: Minato-ku, Tokyo; President: Minoru Tanaka) released KANEKA RT-PCR Kit “SARS-CoV-2 (Omicron/Delta) ver.2”, a real-time PCR test kit capable of simultaneously detecting the Omicron (BA.1), "Stealth" Omicron (BA.2), and Delta variants of COVID-19. The kit has a suggested retail price of 121,000 yen (for 100 tests), including tax.

This test kit uses a proprietary reagent developed using Kaneka's molecular testing-related technologies to detect the presence of three variants with a single PCR test. This is expected to help reduce the burden placed by testing and to assist with selecting the best suitable drugs and treatment approaches for each variant in clinical settings.

Kaneka has already released the KANEKA Direct RT-PCR Kit SARS-CoV-2, an in-vitro diagnostic reagent that uses Kaneka's original sample processing technology to produce test results in less than an hour, KANEKA RT-PCR Kit “SARS-CoV-2 (L452R/E484Q/E484K/N501Y)”, which can detect four variants simultaneously, and KANEKA RT-PCR Kit “SARS-CoV-2 (Omicron/Delta)” which can detect the Delta and Omicron variants of COVID-19. These Kaneka products are being used at major sporting events and for pre-travel PCR testing, as well as in medical facilities and testing centers. These products make it possible to quickly test large numbers of samples.

Kaneka is taking a wide range of measures to combat COVID-19. These include the launching of the “Infection Initiative Team,” which conducts research and development regarding infection control measures including COVID-19, expanding our lineup of PCR test kits, performing contract manufacturing of DNA vaccine APIs and intermediates, developing antibody drugs, supplying PCR testing reagents and testing kits, and shipping vaccine using temperature-controlled packages. 

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Anunta Tech bags VMware 2022 APJ Cloud Innovation and Transformation Award

KUALA LUMPUR, April 15 (Bernama) -- Anunta Tech, a leading provider of Managed Desktop-as-a-Service (DaaS), announced it has been awarded the VMware 2022 Cloud Innovation and Transformation Award for the APJ region.

This honour in VMware’s annual Partner Achievement Awards recognises Anunta Tech for delivering VMware solutions that help customers move to modern, cloud centric architectures and advance their digital transformation journey.

Chief Executive Officer, Anunta Tech, Sivakumar Ramamurthy in a statement said: “We're incredibly honoured once again to be recognised with VMware Partner Achievement Award for our consistent innovation, business adaptability and outcome driven approach to customer engagements.

“This is our 3rd recognition in a row and underscores how Anunta as the trusted adviser of customers is helping them maximise the value for their cloud investments. Our strong value proposition, compelling managed DaaS stack and end user focus makes us a trusted adviser to our customers.”

Meanwhile, VMware Vice President, Partner & Commercial Sales, APJ, Uma Thana Balasingam said: “VMware is proud to honour Anunta Tech as a leader in Cloud Innovation and Transformation, and we are thrilled to see their continued commitment to providing complete solutions that result in exceptional customer outcomes.”

This award recognises Anunta’s extraordinary achievement in augmenting customer's digital transformation and journey to multi-cloud environments by delivering innovative offerings through its next-gen technology.

As a ‘trusted adviser’ to customers, Anunta Tech helps customers achieve significant cost savings, and achieve operational efficiency by successfully deploying virtualisation technology and managing their complex and large-scale workplace transformation projects across multiple industry verticals at a lower TCO.

The VMware Partner Achievement Awards programme is conducted in partnership with technology research firm IDC, which reviewed and evaluated award submissions against the criteria for each category. 

More details at https://www.anuntatech.com/

-- BERNAMA

IMAGINE AVIATOR PLATFORM ENABLES MEDIA COMPANIES EXTRACT MAXIMUM REVENUE POTENTIAL

KUALA LUMPUR, April 15 (Bernama) -- Imagine Communications has announced the introduction of Imagine Aviator™, the first truly cloud-native platform that enables broadcasters, MVPDs and digital-first providers to plan, make and monetise premium-quality linear and OTT content from a single, unified platform. 

The ground-breaking platform ― designed to enable media companies to extract the maximum revenue potential from their assets ― will make its debut at the 2022 NAB Show (April 24–27, Las Vegas Convention Center).

“We understand the challenges and complexities that premium brands have in today’s fluid media landscape,” said chief product officer at Imagine Communications, Rob Malcolm in a statement.

“With Aviator, we are bringing together our experience and intellectual property in a unique, cloud-native platform that maximises monetisation of content across broadcast and OTT platforms today ― and readies media companies to adapt and thrive no matter what the future holds.”

Aviator raises the bar for monetisation of content across all screens, enabling media companies to optimise ad delivery, significantly improve the revenue of otherwise under-monetised OTT content and generate greater profitability from their media assets.

Architected for an ever-evolving future, Aviator offers flexible subscription and SaaS purchase options that suit new business models and an agile, cloud-based design allowing media companies to continue to deliver and monetise content no matter how consumer viewing habits change. 

Aviator combines the critical capabilities of scheduling, rights management, channel origination, live events, VOD, ad sales, ad placement, ad serving, campaign management, and more into a single cloud platform.

Running in the public cloud, Aviator requires only a web browser and internet connection to securely access and operate all aspects of the platform, placing control at the operators’ fingertips wherever they are based ― at the office, a remote location or when working from home.

At launch, Aviator will include all the capabilities required to solve the complex needs of delivering premium-quality, sophisticated linear channels with unified origination — originating broadcast and OTT linear streams from a single playlist supporting ad insertion. 

More details at https://www.imaginecommunications.com.

-- BERNAMA

USERTESTING NEW CAPABILITIES PROVIDES ORGANISATIONS MORE CUSTOMISABLE, POWERFUL INSIGHTS

KUALA LUMPUR, April 14 (Bernama) -- UserTesting, a leader in video-based human insight, has announced new features as part of its quarterly product release to help companies gather human insights specifically tailored to how their business operates.

“UserTesting is continuously innovating its overall platform experience to bring greater efficiencies to how organisations collect, access, and take action on customer insights,” said CTO at UserTesting, Kaj van de Loo.

“The easier we can make it for organisations to capture these types of insights, the greater the customer intuition they can build–and it’s those companies that understand what is driving their customers’ behaviours that will be the market leaders.”

According to a statement, UserTesting has also rolled out usage management for workspaces, making it easier to plan and share testing capacity across the entire organisation.

Lastly, for teams that want to capture feedback from their Fuel Cycle community members, UserTesting now offers the ability to launch tests to these audiences directly from the UserTesting® Human Insight Platform.

New features in this product release include customise auto-generated insights. UserTesting’s insight customisation allows customers to provide feedback on auto-generated, intelligent insights by adding their own custom terminology.

Meanwhile, new integration with Fuel Cycle allows companies to more efficiently reach and get feedback from their own customers that are already established via Fuel Cycle communities.

In addition, usage management for workspaces enables organisations to manage testing capacity across their enterprise more easily and efficiently. Customers can now expand the use of the UserTesting Human Insight Platform into new departments, groups, and lines of business while effectively managing testing capacity.

Headquartered in San Francisco, California, UserTesting has more than 2,300 customers, including more than half of the world’s top 100 most valuable brands according to Forbes.

More details at www.usertesting.com.

-- BERNAMA

STONEBRANCH NAMED A LEADER IN THE G2 GRID® REPORT FOR MANAGED FILE TRANSFER

 End-users highly rate Stonebranch for its integration capabilities, data lifecycle management, and workflow design tools


ALPHARETTA, Ga., April 12 (Bernama-GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Stonebranch, a leading provider of service orchestration and automation solutions, today announced that it has been recognized as a Leader in the Spring 2022 G2 Grid report for Managed File Transfer (MFT).

“We’re pleased that Stonebranch’s high customer satisfaction ratings and large market presence have culminated in a leadership position on the G2 grid for managed file transfer,” said Damiani. “Nearly universal cloud adoption has created complex hybrid IT environments comprised of on-prem systems, clouds, and containers. Our goal is to help organizations simply and securely orchestrate their file transfers — both internally and externally.”

According to the 2022 State of IT Automation report, 92% of respondents use two or more public cloud service providers in their day-to-day activities, and 91% automate multi-cloud data transfers.

“It’s becoming increasingly important for enterprises to securely share data with business partners and providers,” said Giuseppe Damiani, Stonebranch CEO. “The Stonebranch B2B Managed File Transfer solution combines advanced automation with MFT to securely move sensitive data in real-time while adhering to industry-standard protocols.”

The G2 Grid ranks products algorithmically based on data sourced from product reviews shared by G2 users and data aggregated from online sources and social networks. Products in the Leader quadrant are rated highly by G2 users and have substantial market presence scores. The four possible categories in the G2 Grid are Leader, High Performer, Contender, and Niche.

The latest grid report is available now on the G2 website. G2 is the world’s largest tech marketplace where businesses can discover, review, and manage the technology they need to reach their potential.

About Stonebranch

Stonebranch builds IT orchestration and automation solutions that transform business IT environments from simple IT task automation into sophisticated, real-time business service automation. No matter the degree of automation, the Stonebranch platform is simple, modern, and secure. Using the Stonebranch Universal Automation Platform, enterprises can seamlessly orchestrate workloads and data across technology ecosystems and silos. Headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, with points of contact and support throughout the Americas, Europe, and Asia, Stonebranch serves some of the world’s largest financial, manufacturing, healthcare, travel, transportation, energy, and technology institutions.


Contact
Scott Davis
Vice President of Global Marketing, Stonebranch
scott.davis@stonebranch.com

SOURCE : Stonebranch

LOGO DESIGN AND CATCHPHRASE CONTEST FOR THE 50TH YEAR OF ASEAN-JAPAN FRIENDSHIP AND COOPERATION

Application Deadline: June 15, 2022

TOKYO, April 11 (Bernama-BUSINESS WIRE) -- ASEAN-Japan Centre (AJC) launched the online application form on its website to accept applications for the logo design and catchphrase contest for the 50^th commemorative year of ASEAN-Japan relations hosted by the Governments of ASEAN Member States and Japan, in collaboration with the ASEAN Secretariat and the AJC. The contest is open to all nationals of ASEAN Member States and Japan. Application deadline is Wednesday, June 15th, 2022.

This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: 
https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20220401005161/en/

 

The year 2023 marks the 50th commemorative year of ASEAN-Japan relations. The Governments of ASEAN Member States and Japan will celebrate the 50th Year of ASEAN-Japan Friendship and Cooperation with various commemorative events and exchange programs in 2023 and also encourage their citizens to join the celebration of this milestone.

For this purpose, the contest is organized to publicly invite ideas from their citizens for a logo design and a catchphrase which reflect the 50 years of friendship and cooperation.

1. Overview - Logo design and Catchphrase Contest
 

(1)		Eligibility: The contest is open to all nationals of ASEAN Member States and Japan.
(2)		How to apply: Submit the online application form through the AJC website below.
		https://www.asean.or.jp/en/ajc/50th-logo-catchphrase/
(3)		Application Deadline: Wednesday, June 15th, 2022
(4)		Selection: Entries will be carefully considered by the contest organizers. One winner and two runners-up for both logo and catchphrase will be selected.
(5)		Announcement: The results of contest will be announced at the ASEAN Post-Ministerial Conference with Japan and thereafter on the respective websites of the ASEAN Secretariat and the AJC.

2. Requirements

• Each applicant may apply for both logo and catchphrase or either one.
• Each applicant shall submit only one entry and multiple entries from the same contestant will not be considered.
• Entries will not be returned.

3. Points to note

The entries should be new and unpublished before, and original exclusively for this contest of the 50th Year of ASEAN-Japan Friendship and Cooperation. For more details, please check the application guideline available on the online application form page: https://www.asean.or.jp/en/ajc/50th-logo-catchphrase/.

4. Inquiry

ASEAN-Japan Centre
inquiries50th@asean.or.jp 

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Delphix to accelerate growth with new executives' appointments

KUALA LUMPUR, April 8 (Bernama) -- Delphix, the industry leader in DevOps Test Data Management (TDM), has announced the appointments of Tammi Warfield to Chief Customer Officer and Alex Hesterberg to Chief Strategy Officer.

“We are excited about the leadership scale that both Tammi and Alex will bring to our customers, partners, and team,” said President at Delphix, Steven Chung, in a statement.

“They have excellent track records of accelerating growth by hiring great talent, improving performance, and creating a culture of customer value. Tammi and Alex also bring public company experience to our executive team as we expand our operations globally.”

As the Chief Customer Officer, Warfield leads onboarding, professional services, customer success, and support for Delphix worldwide with a focus on building and delivering a world class Customer Experience through all stages of the customer lifecycle.

Warfield joined Delphix from Microsoft, where she served as VP, Worldwide Customer Success for the Business Applications Group, a multi-billion dollar division. Prior to Microsoft, she served in numerous customer success and services leadership roles at BMC Software.

Meanwhile, as Delphix’s new Chief Strategy Officer, Hesterberg leads strategic partnerships, OEMs, channels, solutions and systems engineering teams supporting the company’s technology innovation, corporate development and go-to-market efforts.

Prior to joining Delphix, he served as Chief Customer Officer at Turbonomic. Prior to Turbonomic, Hesterberg served in executive customer success, presales, and services roles at Pure Storage (IPO in 2015), Sailthru (acquired by CM Group) and Riverbed Technology (IPO in 2006).

More details at www.delphix.com.

-- BERNAMA

CURIOUS THING POSITIVELY IMPACTS PUBLIC SAFETY, SCALES CONVERSATIONAL AI SOLUTIONS AND CONNECTS CUSTOMERS GLOBALLY USING THE VONAGE COMMUNICATIONS PLATFORM

Partnership enabled customer to establish intelligent conversations with 150,000 customers in 10 days at the start of the pandemic

SINGAPORE, April 5 (Bernama-BUSINESS WIRE) -- Vonage (Nasdaq: VG), a global leader in cloud communications helping businesses accelerate their digital transformation, today announced that Australia-based startup Curious Thing is using the Vonage Communication Platform (VCP) to scale its solutions and improve customer experiences with automated and AI-enabled proactive customer engagement.

Curious Thing is a voice-based conversational AI startup. Its voice AI technology is currently used in proactive call outreach and inbound service augmentation, helping ecommerce, financial services and healthcare providers re-engage with customers and uncover deeper insights from conversations.

Vonage Communications APIs allow developers to easily enhance and build intelligent, intuitive customer experiences directly into their existing applications and devices. The combination of Curious Thing and Vonage APIs, including Vonage’s Voice, SMS, Numbers and Reports, enables Curious Thing’s customers to connect at scale, across geographies and channels.

Safely Establishing Contact During the Pandemic While Ensuring Business Continuity

At the beginning of the pandemic, a customer in the public sector approached Curious Thing with an urgent request to connect with service users and determine compliance with trading requirements. This information would impact public safety and people’s livelihoods, but it was an insurmountable task if done manually. With Curious Thing and Vonage, the customer was able to establish intelligent conversations with 150,000 people in 10 days, in a reliable and secure manner. COVID-19 has fundamentally changed how businesses operate and how people interact with those organisations, underscoring the need for the customer to continue connecting with service users in multiple ways, in their preferred modality.

“With the Curious Thing engine, we can understand people in their own language,” explains Rik Johnson, Head of Solutions, Curious Thing. “Without Vonage, we wouldn't be able to connect our customers with huge volumes of people at scale globally, while maintaining personalised connections. The combination of the Curious Thing engine and the near-limitless capability of Vonage APIs helps us solve a variety of problems for our customers.”

The team behind Curious Thing is focused on building intelligent communications solutions that provide personalised experiences - from AI call outreach that mimics conversational interactions to automated conversational AI campaigns that have the capacity to handle thousands of calls per day. Backed by Vonage, Curious Thing is constantly innovating and re-imagining what it means to connect.

July, a direct-to-consumer travel brand, embarked on a conversational commerce AI project with Curious Thing and Vonage to understand cart abandonment and ways to encourage purchase completion.

“We are always looking for new channels to add to our marketing stack and conversational AI was a natural thing to try after the results we’ve seen with SMS and email marketing,” said July co-founder Richard Li. “The real-time personalisation of AI technology will get us a lot of cut-through compared to other channels. In the coming years, AI will continue to help e-commerce businesses scale and meet the demand of consumers, especially when it comes to customer experience.”

“Through the Vonage Communications Platform, Curious Thing has been able to easily integrate scalable, international capabilities into its existing offering and improve customer experiences with automated and AI-enabled proactive customer engagement,” said Savinay Berry, EVP of Product and Engineering for Vonage. “Businesses of all sizes are looking to engage with their customers more deeply by shifting from notifications and transactions to conversations and ultimately a future of immersive engagement.”

Read the full case study to find out more about how Curious Thing is using Vonage Communications APIs to deliver more flexible, intelligent, and personal connections for its customers.

To find out more about Vonage, visit www.vonage.com.

About Vonage

Vonage (Nasdaq: VG), a global cloud communications leader, helps businesses accelerate their digital transformation. Vonage's Communications Platform is fully programmable and allows for the integration of Video, Voice, Chat, Messaging, Conversational Commerce, AI and Verification into existing products, workflows and systems. Vonage's fully programmable unified communications and contact center applications are built from the Vonage platform and enable companies to transform how they communicate and operate from the office or anywhere, providing enormous flexibility and ensuring business continuity.

Vonage Holdings Corp. is headquartered in New Jersey, with offices throughout the United States, Europe and Asia. To follow Vonage on Twitter, please visit www.twitter.com/vonage. To become a fan on Facebook, go to facebook.com/vonage. To subscribe on YouTube, visit youtube.com/vonage. 

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H3 Dynamics-ELID partnership on Fully Autonomous Building Facade Maintenance

 

Cloud-based, AI-enabled building facade assessment solution by H3 Dynamics links up to ELID’s facade repair robots for end-to-end building facade maintenance automation. (Photo: Business Wire) 

KUALA LUMPUR, April 4 (Bernama) -- Singapore industrial AI & robotics companies, H3 Dynamics and ELID Technology, have entered a commercial and technical partnership that ties H3 Dynamics’ AI-enabled façade assessments to ELID’s robotic façade repair gondolas.

According to a statement, the combined technologies create the first end to end automation solution covering both inspection and remediation activities on tall buildings.

This increases worker safety, while scaling up much needed maintenance in large-scale cities with aging populations and thousands of aging structures.

“Our partnership with ELID exemplifies a powerful end to end innovation, where robots are not just capable of acquiring data, but also execute repair tasks identified by our AI analytics platform. This will make smart cities even smarter - bringing building automation to the next level,” said CEO of H3 Dynamics, Taras Wankewycz.

Meanwhile, CEO of ELID Technology International, Kenneth Wong said: “We are proud to have H3 Dynamics’ market leading 'Facade Inspector' solution tied to AXIOBOTS® facade robots. This provides clients with an easy all-in-one-solution for their façade maintenance needs.”

Launched three years ago, H3 Dynamics’ H3 Zoom® platform applies AI and workflow automation to help digitise health assessments of various structures and sites, with a first solution aimed at modernising dangerous façade inspection work.

This year, Singapore enacted the Periodic Façade Inspection regime, making it compulsory to inspect buildings over 13 metres high and over 20 years of age every seven years. 

Anticipating this development, Singapore’s JTC Corporation partnered with H3 Dynamics to develop an all-digital façade inspection solution as part of a national innovation initiative, now seen as the most advanced solution of its kind. The AI-enabled solution has been applied to over 900 buildings so far in Singapore alone.

ELID’s AXIOBOTS® robotic gondolas bring façade maintenance automation to the next level: they can paint, grout, clean, check for waterproofing and provide visual inspection.

Combining AXIOBOTS® with H3 Zoom AI-enabled platform fully automates the physical inspection and remediation process, linking precise positioning and qualification of defects with automated NDT physical checks and repair.

H3 Dynamics and ELID are expected to begin trials of the combined solution in Singapore with JTC Corporation and Frasers Property Singapore, as a springboard to other megacities and countries with dense urban city-centres.

-- BERNAMA