Category Archives: Automation

SO PAULO, Nov. 5, 2021 /PRNewswire/ --ScalaData Centersthe sustainable Hyperscalable data center platform, founded by DigitalBridge an investment holding in digital infrastructure reinforces its executive team with the hiring of Agostinho Villela for the position of Chief Technology Officer (CTO). Graduated in Electronic Engineering from the Pontifical Catholic University (PUC) of Rio de Janeiro, Villela is part of a select group of professionals in Latin America and around the world to hold the position of Distinguished Engineer (DE) at IBM, one of the highest recognitions in the company's technical career.

Villela has over 34 years of experience in the technology industry worldwide, known for his ability to create state-of-the-art in innovation among different segments such as Software Defined Networks (SDN), Internet of Things (IoT), Blockchain, Artificial Intelligence (AI), Quantum Computing and 5G. "With Villela joining our executive team, we are taking an important step to have the innovation permeating the entire company in a deep and transversal way. We will be even more focused on bringing intelligence to the processes, services and operation of our data centers and, thus, better scaling our clients' digital infrastructure," says Marcos Peigo, co-founder and CEO of Scala.

As the CTO, Villela will lead Scala's automation and innovation initiatives, working on 4 main pillars: risk mitigation, quality improvement, delivery time reduction and greater efficiency. For example, in order to improve work safety, availability and delivery time, data center constructions and operations may benefit from innovation with the use of a rapid prototyping model and Open Innovation via the use of Construtechs, to instrument buildings and computing centers and automate the generation of artifacts.

"We will evaluate a wide range of technological options, which may involve the use of unsupervised machine learning, predictive models to characterize and anticipate problems, computer vision to ensure the use of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) in constructions sites and data centers, and even identifying what action people are taking," explains Villela. On the energy side, the CTO highlights possible study paths for improving efficiency, such as matching the supply and demand of renewable energy, energy supply in places that are difficult to reach via the electrical network and alternative ways of cooling in data centers.

Innovation and automation are themes that are deeply present in Villela's life and career. Founder of the IBM Brazil innovation garage in 2017 and the Brazil 5G Telecommunications Solutions Lab in 2020, Villela is the co-author of a patent on cybersecurity (digital printing of devices) and is responsible for a patent submission on caching for assistants based on voice. Entrepreneur and mentor at Endeavor, Cross-systems IT Specialist, and co-author of a Redbook on distributed computing programming, Villela is also a visiting professor in Rapid Innovation at Fundao Dom Cabral, having been IBM's worldwide representative in the Telecom Infra Project (TIP), member senior at IBM Academy of Technology worldwide and IBM Quantum Ambassador.

Scala CTO's hobbies include electric bikes, TV series, History, Geography and Cleantech.

About Scala Data Centers

Scala Data Centers is the Sustainable Hyperscalable Data Centers platform based in Brazil and founded by DigitalBridge. Developed to meet and exceed the growing demand for digital access in Latin America, Scala has a highly qualified team of more than 300 professionals and applies a flexible and innovative approach to offer exceptional colocation services for hyperscale customers, service providers and cloud software, and large companies. We customize cutting edge solutions for each customer in the construction of state-of-the-art data centers, with high availability, high energy efficiency and very high density. All of this combined with the best sustainability practices guided by our ESG (Environmental, Social, Governance) program. For more information, visit http://www.scaladatacenters.com.

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Scala Data Centers Announces CTO To Leverage Innovation And Automation Of Its Operations - PRNewswire

Microsoft has announced significant advances to its Power Automate platform to help scale robotic process automation (RPA) infrastructure. Key advances include new capabilities for understanding business processes, collaborative bot development, and scaling RPA software bots with virtual desktops. Microsoft is a relative latecomer to the RPA playing field, but is growing this capability quickly thanks to its existing strengths in office productivity apps, Windows integration, and Azure cloud infrastructure.

The field of RPA started as a way to program sophisticated macros for automating repeating tasks like copying and pasting data between two business apps. Gartner has suggested the future of this field, known as hyperautomation, includes finding ways to identify automation opportunities and program automations, then scale the deployment of the automation more efficiently. Microsofts newest updates tick the boxes of significant progress on all three of these aspects.

Microsofts Power Automate general manager Stephen Siciliano told VentureBeat, Understanding up-front which processes have the most wasted time and the highest potential for automation will be extremely valuable for them. His team aims to provide a single end-to-end product that improves the complete hyperautomation lifecycle and is deeply integrated into Microsoft 365 and built into Windows OS.

Many enterprises have hundreds or even thousands of processes that could be automated. The initial step in figuring out how to identify automation opportunities at scale lies in automating the process of seeing what procedures enterprises are commonly repeating. One approach called task mining watches over a shoulder to see how someone clicks and types their way through a process using a sophisticated macro recorder. Earlier this year, Microsoft provided the ability to bootstrap an automated flow from a task mining diagram, making it easier to go from seeing the process to optimizing it.

The second approach, known as process mining, analyzes enterprise application event logs to reverse engineer a process diagram. This is important, especially when a process spans many users and enterprise applications. Microsofts new process mining capability takes advantage of existing Power Query connectors for Power BI and Azure Synapse. So although the specific process mining aspect is new, Power Query supports data ingestion from the hundreds of enterprise applications today. In addition, Microsoft acquired Clear Software last week, which will improve connectivity with enterprise applications like SAP and Oracle.

Microsofts process mining and task mining capabilities approach visualization and the understanding of a process from different angles, which are slowly becoming more connected. Process Mining uses event data from systems of record to understand and analyze the process in a company. Task Mining fills in the gaps in the process identification which event data cannot see, what the human does in the middle, using recorders and RPA techniques.

In the future, we anticipate that the lines between those two will blur more, and the focus will be on the full end-to-end process, no matter how many tasks or systems it touches, Siciliano explained.

A second significant advancement improves collaborative bot development. The process and task mining capabilities help generate a template for how a bot is supposed to click and type its way through a particular workflow. But humans must then look over these and identify how to design a more efficient process or respond to common problems.

Microsoft has added collaborative development workflows that allow different experts, including bot developers, business process analysts, subject-matter experts, front-line users, and compliance teams, to collaboratively make comments, recommend changes, and revert or accept the recommended changes. This takes advantage of the same commenting infrastructure used in Word.

One concern is that RPA bots could copy data to applications lacking appropriate protections or to physical locations in violations of regulations like GDPR on where data can be stored. New data loss prevention capabilities widen Microsofts existing capabilities for labeling and tracking sensitive data into RPA automation.

Historically there have been two sets of machines that enterprises have to manage for RPA: the servers that orchestrate the work that needs to happen and the machines the bots run on. Power Automate automatically manages the machines for RPA orchestration in the cloud. However, enterprises now must manage the machines that contain the running bots. Microsoft is previewing the Azure Desktop Starter Kit, which can automate this second aspect as well.

Siciliano said, This will make it possible for IT to focus less on the raw tasks of setting up and scaling machines, and more on enabling more users in their organization to build out bots. This could also simplify governance since the IT team can set the exact policies on its use and who uses it.

Better integration between RPA and Azure desktops promises to simplify the processes of setting up and scaling the appropriate machine configurations for RPA deployments.

Weve heard from customers today it can take days to weeks to bootstrap and scale infrastructure, Siciliano added. This means not only are citizen developers blocked (and thus not being productive) during that time, but also, theres a lag time of machines sitting idle. All of that goes away once you can scale automatically.

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Tools to scale robotic process automation enhanced by Microsoft - VentureBeat

The Europe Industrial Automation Software Market is expected to witness a CAGR of over 7. 88% during the forecast period (2021 - 2026). Industrial automation helps in reducing the machine hours required for the respective operations, which can be made possible only through robust software.

New York, Nov. 04, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Reportlinker.com announces the release of the report "Europe Industrial Automation Software Market - Growth, Trends, COVID-19 Impact, and Forecasts (2021 - 2026)" - https://www.reportlinker.com/p06179128/?utm_source=GNW ?

Key Highlights - Recent developments in artificial intelligence (AI) and robotics aim to assist, or even completely automate, many clerical and social interaction tasks. Along with industrial robots, the use of service robots is increasing in the fast-developing market of the European region. - Many of the EUs research & innovation (R&I) programs have constantly supported the development of solutions and technologies that enable the European manufacturing sector to utilize digital opportunities fully. Many of the projects are financed by the Factories of the Future Public-Private Partnership as they cover areas such as digital automation, process optimization of manufacturing assets, simulation and analytics technologies, and ICT innovation for manufacturing SMEs.? - The market in Europe experiences high investments in terms of new developments, partnerships, and acquisitions. Further investment by various governments in the region is expected to increase the need for client-based software solutions to meet the rising demands from SMEs as well as from larger organizations. ? - The COVID-19 pandemic brought significant adoption of Industry 4.0 that utilizes several smart manufacturing technologies. Digital workflows and automation are no longer goals; they are becoming necessary requirements. IoT devices have offered manufacturers a path toward preserving revenue streams during this pandemic. ?Rising demand for smart manufacturing products and services in response to the public health crisis is expected to drive further growth.

Key Market Trends

Launch of stringent energy conservation standards and the drive for local processing is driving the market in Europe

- The growing regulations on energy consumption across the country, with the launch of strict energy conservation standards and the drive for local processing in Europe, are driving the growth of Industrial Automation Software in the region. Also, the increasingly dynamic needs of the industry, demanding complex operations and processes, and the need to reduce machine hours required for a specific operation, are driving the demand for industrial automation software in Europe.? - According to BP (British oil and gas company), in 2020, the renewable energy consumption in the European Union amounted to 6.97 exajoules. Germany amounted to the largest share of consumption with around 2.2 exajoules, followed by the United Kingdom and Spain consumption of 1.2 exajoules and 0.77 exajoules, respectively.? - The European Union proposed to revise its goal under the Energy Efficiency Directive, from a target of 20% by 2020 to 30% by 2030. This includes the incentives to small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) to monitor the efficiency levels in new energy generation capacities and undergo energy audits. These growing regulations on energy consumption across the region have further supported the growth of the market. ? - Automation software also helps end-user industries in Europe to control the overall manufacturing operations and deliver superior quality products with high precision. The effective deployment of automation software minimizes process failures and reduces product failure costs and waste.

Increasing use of industrial automation in automotive sector has a positive impact on the market

- Smart factory offers the automotive industry opportunities to react faster to the market requirements, reduce manufacturing downtimes, enhance the efficiency of supply chains, and expand productivity. The automotive industry is among the prominent sectors that hold a significant share of the worlds automated manufacturing facilities. - The production facilities of various automakers are automated to maintain efficiency. The growing trend of replacing conventional vehicles with EVs is expected to augment the automotive industrys demand further. - The inculcation of industrial control systems software in auto manufacturing plants gives companies the ability to keep real-time track of productivity and quality through the data generated through plant connectivity and offering mitigating actions to the line supervisors and plant executives. - Moreover, the auto assembly witnessed significant demand using automation, showing a growth pattern in the number of cars being produced while simultaneously cutting costs. Further, the smart factory implementation in this sector has grown considerably, creating significant demand for industrial automation software.?

Competitive Landscape

The market is considered a moderately consolidated market as there are many players; however, a majority share of the market is divided among a few players. Innovations in the market require the developers to understand the industrial process better to deliver a suitable solution and drive close collaboration among the stakeholders during development and customization to suit the end users needs.

- March 2021 - Infor, the prominent cloud company, announced Cory, a resource management company, deployed Infor EAM to improve asset performance management. The platform is already deployed in Belvedere, London, with transfer stations and other business sections to follow. It is designed to optimize the organization, coordination, and intelligence surrounding maintenance planning and associated inventory. The company selected Infor EAM as part of a modernization project to support future expansion plans, including an anaerobic digestion facility for food.? - April 2021 - UK-based AVEVA partnered with PlanetTogether, the leading Advanced Planning & Scheduling (APS) platform provider. This would add robust new capabilities to the AVEVA Manufacturing Execution System (MES) in terms of visual planning and scheduling, multi-plant production planning, and production schedule optimization, further broadening AVEVAs portfolio of Industry 4.0 manufacturing solutions.?

Additional Benefits:

- The market estimate (ME) sheet in Excel format - 3 months of analyst supportRead the full report: https://www.reportlinker.com/p06179128/?utm_source=GNW

About ReportlinkerReportLinker is an award-winning market research solution. Reportlinker finds and organizes the latest industry data so you get all the market research you need - instantly, in one place.

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Europe Industrial Automation Software Market - Growth, Trends, COVID-19 Impact, and Forecasts (2021 - 2026) - Yahoo Finance

Global supply chains are under pressure from many directions, not least of which is the critical shortage of warehouse labor. Could more agile deployment of automation in the warehouse be part of the solution?

With Christmas just around the corner, a spotlight is being shone more strongly than ever before on the supply chain labor shortage. Predictably, grabbing the news headlines are warnings of shortages in food, drink and toys but this global problem threatens to disrupt supply chains across all sectors. And with the peak events of Black Friday, Cyber Monday and the holiday season potentially combining with staff absence due to Covid-19, the challenges appear to be piling up.

As e-commerce continues its rapid upward trajectory, fuelled by the pandemic, its no surprise then that there is increasing interest being shown in the automation of supply chains, with an estimated $36 billion forecast to be invested in robotics and other technologies this year.

But the nature of the conversation has now changed as Dwight Klappich, VP of research at Gartner explains: In the 1980s, the main reason for investing in automation was to reduce labor costs. Now for almost half the clients, their primary reason is labor availability.

Oscar De Bok, CEO of DHL Supply Chain says that the message is clear logistics workers have no need to be wary of automation such as robots: We need these types of collaborative robotics to cope with the increase in activity required in the supply chain. Our workforce is still drastically increasing.

So with the need for labor being most pressing during peak periods, might some businesses be reluctant to make big investments in automation that isnt required all year round?

The solution for such organizations could lie in more use of flexible automation.

Robotics as a serviceRichard Foster, Director of Digital Manufacturing at DHL Supply Chain, explains the concept behind flexible automation: Previously when people spoke about automation in the supply chain, it was about fixed industrial automation, which typically has a six to twelve month lead time. Its heavy Capex, but with a good payback at the end of it. However, that might be a five-year return on investment. Our thinking at DHL was that our customers often require more flexibility than that. We therefore developed our own robotics integration team internally, to explore the possibilities of flexible automation technology such as robotic arms that we can lease into an operation for a few months during peak and then take out. So customers can bring in more automation as they get busier, but when they get quieter they can send it back. Its almost like robotics as a service.

The work that the robots undertake often include tasks that are essential, but mundane or physically demanding, such as palletizing.

With people in the warehouse now a precious resource, it means humans can be used to the best of their ability using skills that cannot be replicated by machines rather than to undertake work that automated technologies can do faster and with less of a health and safety risk.

Unloading containers onto pallets, for example, is traditionally a manually demanding task. However, the use of automation is now making it safer, simpler and faster with a lower risk of repetitive strain injuries for warehouse workers.

How, though, can robots help with more bespoke tasks such as packing a variety of different shapes and sizes into packages?

Richard points to the example of collaborative robots currently being used to fill advent calendars a perfect example of a seasonal product using 3-D printed grippers attached to robotic arms: Previously, the calendars were all filled by hand, with each of the 24 differently shaped items being placed into the tray. It was an expensive and time-consuming way to do it, but the cost of automation was prohibitive to design it in a bespoke manner. However, advances in 3-D printing have allowed us to tailor the necessary parts quickly at relatively low cost so that robotic arms can take over the monotonous work previously carried out by humans.

An opportunity to upskillAs well as making their jobs less mundane, and safer, there is another significant benefit for warehouse workers the opportunity to learn new skills.

Rosie Heaps, VP HR Retail & Consumer at DHL Supply Chain, says: One of the reasons people often give for leaving a warehouse position is the lack of opportunity to learn and develop. Now, however, were giving people that opportunity to upskill. Having flexible automation in the warehouse is different to having a major industrial system in play that you might need an engineering qualification to maintain. Instead, flexible automation more commonly involves straightforward troubleshooting, which can be done by someone who has some experience of working with it.

Weve moved away from a scenario where people sometimes felt almost threatened by technology to a point where they feel protected. Weve taken away a lot of manually repetitive processes through the use of automation, and were training them not just in the things you would normally see in a warehouse such as forklift truck driving, but in engineering skills. We are looking for apprentices to be able to come and support our automation, and equally, with our managers, were having to train them to go beyond the core picking and packing activities that you would traditionally associate with a warehouse environment.

Its why weve invested in our Supervisory Academy, which launched last year, and which equips our frontline colleagues with the skills to be able to manage change and implementations such as flexible automation. It also supports them with managing the changing nature of work.

A win-winWith supply chain challenges showing no signs of abating any time soon, we are likely to see an increase in the use of flexible automation being deployed to tackle peaks.

At DHL Supply Chain we anticipate continuing demand for robot arms, with 3-D printing providing end-of-arm tooling, and also demand for support systems such as conveyors. These can be deployed for repetitive pick and place tasks that include palletizing loose-loaded products on receipt into a warehouse. The challenge here, says Richard, is to find cost-effective ways to apply these technologies to less uniform tasks, by adding in sensors, vision systems and machine learning to allow a broader range of deployments.

As these technologies become increasingly commonplace in the frontline, Rosie is confident that people will become even more comfortable working alongside automation. She says that, already, feedback from colleagues indicates that working alongside robotics and other automation is an enjoyable and interesting part of their role, which improves their job satisfaction.

I think people used to perhaps have an attitude of the robots are coming, theyre taking our jobs. But actually, theyre taking away the tasks that people dont really want to do. Theyre improving safety performance and taking on the largely repetitive tasks, such as shrink wrapping, which means we can train more of our colleagues to do the more value add activities.

For DHL Supply Chain, that increase in employee satisfaction, combined with the flexibility and agility that our customers need, represents the perfect win-win.

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Changing the conversation on workplace automation | theHRD - The HR Director Magazine

Professional developers have started working with one of the top programming languages in recent times, Python for multiple tech companies in different industries. Python projects are in high demand for providing a strong practical experience to developers for brushing up coding skills. Python projects are popular for adding value to CVs during the recruitment process in reputed companies. Lets explore some of the top Python automation projects for professional developers to work on in 2021.

Automating reading and writing a file is one of the top Python automation projects for professional developers to work on in 2021. They should know the location of the file path where it is stored. They should use a statement to open and run all code that are indented under a block. After the completion of a programs execution, the statement will automatically finish the clean-up and finally close that opened file in the folder. This Python project makes it easy for professional developers to read and write a file with automation in this programming language.

Since cryptocurrencies have started dominating the financial sector, there is a huge demand for crypto trading bots from investors in the cryptocurrency market. Building a crypto trading bot is one of the top Python automation projects for professional developers. This Python project includes buying and selling cryptocurrencies as well as checking whether one can trade any amount of money efficiently. Professional developers should have a strong understanding of cryptocurrency arithmetic with programming language. There are multiple exchanges with API to execute code for crypto trading.

Professional developers can use the Python programming language for automating sending multiple regular and mundane emails to a list of senders. They can send emails by using the Python library known as smtplib. There is no need to install the smtplib library separately owing to its pre-installed version with Python distributions. Simple Main Transfer Protocol is popular for only working with Gmails to automate sending emails efficiently and effectively. It is essential to define the Host and Port variables with a few lines of code to complete this Python automation project.

Creating a Raspberry Pi web server is one of the top Python automation projects for professional developers. This Python project helps to set up a local web server and develop a flask website to perform multiple tasks efficiently without any potential error. Professional developers can use this webserver to react to the fresh and dynamic content that a user will input. They can combine a Python micro-framework known as Flask with Python to create their own Python web server. The following products are essential for completing this Python project Raspberry Pi board, power supply, microSD card, case, Linux distribution, and Python, Flask, pip.

Automatic time tracking tool is another popular Python automation project to manage time efficiently and boost productivity in this programming language. It helps professional developers to automatically track the current website and the time spent on the website by each user. It is essential to use a JSON file for future purposes with that data. Developers can track the time of any website or their usage of social media accounts with this Python project. It is useful for time-saving purposes as well as gaining practical experience of automation with this programming language.

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Top Python Automation Projects for Professionals to Know in 2021 - Analytics Insight

The COVID-19 pandemic, while winding down, has permanently changed the course of business for many firms and industries. Among those changes, it forced enterprises to adopt more sophisticated automation programs that have the ability to reshuffle priorities on a dime by using the latest analytics.

The repercussions of this shift are profound. In 2022, Forresterpredicts that existing process improvement platforms will converge and be challenged by new AI-led entrants; investment to address global worker shortages will be prioritized; and to address the future head-on, enterprises will embrace an automation fabric to fuel extreme innovation.

Here's a deep dive into some of our 2022 predictions for automation:

New entrants and platform convergence will inhibit RPA growth by 10%. Process automation tools such as robotic process automation (RPA) and digital process automation (DPA) enjoyed healthy growth in recent years. In addition, enterprise application cloud providers like Salesforce and ServiceNow added RPA and enhanced process offerings. Such tools come from different heritages but will converge on a unified set of tools for process automation. One might think well-funded RPA sweethearts such as Automation Anywhere, Tibco-Blue Prism, and UiPath will ride their momentum into the winner's circle. They will indeed remain prominent, but a new wave of AI-led vendors will encroach in the process automation market in 2022.

35% of service companies will introduce physical robot workers. Restaurants and other businesses can't fill the glut of job openings for service workers. This worker shortage will not go away, even with reduced employment subsidies. Healthcare, food preparation, and warehouse jobs that typically command low wages with difficult working conditions will increase steadily over the next 10 years. Companies that depend on them will invest in service-worker automation for customer self-service, grounds maintenance, delivery robotics, food preparation, surveillance, and janitorial support, altering the low-end service-worker landscape permanently.

5%t of the Fortune 500 will adopt automation fabric to fuel extreme innovation. Companies with advanced automation programs will obliterate -- not merely beat -- the competition. To reach this state, enterprises must define an automation fabric -- a framework to build, orchestrate, and govern a hybrid workforce of human and digital workers -- that links AI-based and traditional automation components, supported with a proactive program for innovation.

These predictions are not only irreversible, but they will move us toward a new standard level of automation, visible to customers and the bottom line. To stand out, businesses must build on the lessons learned from the pandemic and drive automation to levels that will stretch their creativity and staff. The efforts will pay off for those with the mettle to achieve what most will not.

Learn more about Forrester's predictionshere.

This post was written by Vice President, Principal Analyst Craig Le Clair and it originally appearedhere.

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The Pandemic's Wake Drives Automation Trends - ZDNet

In todays world, where viewers curate their own must watch TV across a combination of content providers and screensincluding TV networks, subscription video on demand (SVOD), advertising-based video on demand (AVOD), virtual multichannel video programming distributors (MVPDs), set-top-box (STB) and internet protocol TV (IPTV)there is no place for siloed planning or buying. It is impossible to execute a thoughtful cross-screen campaign orchestration without automation, unified audience planning and execution, and the ability to deliver appropriate frequency at the household level.

As an industry, we are finally at the tipping point to drive meaningful addressable scale; all the technology exists. The last step is connecting the pipes to create true interoperability.

Over the last decade, I have planned and executed thousands of addressable TV and audience-based cross-channel campaigns, both on the agency side without automation and on the sell side with automation. I can say with absolute certainty that it is much easier with automation.

Essentially, any type of TV (STB or IP) that allows you to target audiences at the household level and measure results against specific business outcomes is addressable.

To scale addressable, it needs to be easier to plan, buy, sell and measure. Early technology focused on turning the STB into an ad server to allow brands the ability to target strategic audiences. Next, the industry focused on creating unified audience segments to send across screens. Newer technology has automated the workflow between the buy and sell side to create operational ease and executional efficiencies.

Technology, when put in the hands of media buyers, makes it easier to scale addressable TV across multiple suppliers. Brands also need the ability to contemplate holistic cross-screen viewing of their target consumers by being able to find their target audiences regardless of what type of inventory they are watching. To a consumer, TV is the content they watch; they have no idea if the commercial they are viewing was served in a local addressable STB pod, or a national addressable STB spot, or IP-based OTT/CTV inventory. As we look holistically at addressability across all these screens, brands will be able to deliver their message thoughtfully and at the appropriate frequency.

So what has stopped addressability from achieving wider adoption as a TV buying paradigm?

Ultimately, the right technology exists and agencies understand the impact, but broader collaboration is needed to ensure the best consumer experience. No one wants to send 30 messages to one household and none to another. Viewers do not view in silos and we cannot continue to execute in silos. For addressable TV to realize its full potential, interoperability is key. In fact, a recent Forrester report determined that 74% of TV buyers want there to be more interoperability among MVPDs and 66% want simplified buying and campaign management across suppliers.

Technology needs to facilitate more relevant ads to the right consumers and protect the viewing experience. Relevant ads at the appropriate frequency will better resonate with audiences and ultimately drive meaningful KPI-based results for brands.

Over the last few years significant progress has been made. The industry has managed to live through years of time-consuming, manual spreadsheets. Television has made great strides in catching up to digital media over the last several years with targetability, measurability and automation. Advertisers have seen the impact of advanced TV and experienced the positive results. So until another medium proves to be more effective, the time to embrace advanced TV is now.

It is time for us to combine the power of data and technology together to truly empower advertisers to reach the right audiences within premium content, and at scale.

The Transformation of Television: Embracing the Era of Addressable TV, conducted by Forrester Consulting on behalf of Cadent, Comscore, Canoe, DISH Media, INVIDI Technologies, LiveRamp, ViacomCBS, Verizon Media and WarnerMedia. https://s3-prod.adage.com/whitepapers/dish_futureisnow_wp.html

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How automation will scale addressable TV - AdAge.com

PHOTO:Vlad Tchompalov

Customer experience management or "CXM" per the acronym gods is on every C-level checklist. This has been especially true in the COVID era, as customer relationships have simultaneously gotten more valuable, more fragile and more automated. This CXM trifecta of value, fragility and automation is a tricky one to get right, particularly when you look at the "first mile" and the "last mile" of customer experiences.

It used to be that the last mile of customer experiences in the service realm was the most problematic. Think of the conversations of yesteryear, when we were promised the cable technician would arrive "sometime" on Thursday in two weeks maybe and "Could you please make sure you are there all day in case the technician actually shows up?" Automation and responsiveness seemed to be a foreign concept to this last mile problem. The technician showed up when they showed up, and the customer was basically held hostage until they did.

Conversely, the first mile of the cable service experience wasn't too bad. You called a phone number, a person would answer the phone yes, often after an indeterminate wait time and after you were asked your account number a gazillion times but at least there was the comfort of connection with a person.

My recent experience? The automation and customer experience tables have turned. My suspicion is that under the guise of "improving responsiveness," many companies are actually using automated customer service e.g., chatbots, call centers, "call you later" functionality to make the first mile as frustrating as possible. This is ironic, because as the first mile has grown more and more frustrating with automation schemes run amuck, the last mile has improved dramatically as a result of automation.

Related Article: The Customer Experience Hierarchy

We recently had termite traps installed. These foot-long spikes get pounded into the ground around the perimeter of the house. They're then loaded with stuff that initially is attractive to termites, but when brought back to the nest, proves disastrous. (A good first mile, very bad last mile for the termites.)

When the technician was pounding away near our cable box with nary a check with the mysterious Miss Utility I hear so much about and have been longing to meet suddenly all communications were broken phone, cable, internet.

Me: "I think you cut through our cable."

Termite Man: "Oh no, these spikes aren't long enough. You need to call the cable company. It wasn't me."

Sigh. And thus began my first mile automation saga.

Step 1: My TV instructed me to 1) check the connections, 2) reboot the set-top box and 3) check a mysterious battery pack in a hidden location. All of which seemed unnecessary, because after all, the problem was Termite Man. But I complied because that is my nature. Of course it didn't work.

Step 2: I tried calling the cable company. I was advised to go to the web and check for an outage. Yes, I understand the irony, since a web outage was in fact a key part of the problem. But since I had a hot spot on my mobile, I was able to connect and determined that there was no systemic outage in our area. I was then auto-directed to a page and, you guessed it, instructed to try the steps listed in Step 1. There was nowhere for me to interject the fascinating fable of the Termite Man into the narrative.

Step 3: At the end of Step 2, I was directed to try a chat, which of course was a bot, who kindly directed me to return to Step 1.

Step 4: I returned to the phone. "Your time is very important to us. If you would like a call back, please push 3 and leave your number." Hot zig. Here we go.

Step 5: My phone rang five minutes later. So far so good. And then my hopes were dashed as an automated voice told me to: 1) check the connections; 2) reboot the set-top box; and 3) check a mysterious battery pack in a hidden location.

Step 6: I thought I had struck gold when I went to my "customer portal" and clicked the "Contact Us" link. But all that got me was detailed instructions describing the options I had already pursued in Steps 1 through 5. But nowhere or nobody to whom I could actually tell the story of "The Termite Man and the Cut Cable."

And then I saw it. A link making this offer ... "Contact us by Facebook Messenger."

I remained skeptical, but tried it. And that broke the automated customer service first mile obstacle course that seemed insanely focused on keeping me from getting ... customer service. Voila. A real person! From there, everything went quickly to actually booking a technician to repair the cut cable.

Related Article: Money and a Mandate Aren't Enough for Great Customer Experience

Fast forward to the last mile, the part of the story that was always so problematic and frustrating in the past.

It was, simply, a perfect example of how CX automation should work.

The booking software worked flawlessly to select a date and time, as did the follow-up workflow to connect with the technician once he was booked. I selected a two-hour window for the visit, with the promise that he would text me when he was 15 minutes from my home. He sent me a set of the COVID protocols he would follow. Location monitoring kept me informed of his progress.

Sure enough, he arrived like clockwork, fixed the cable, and gave me his personal cell phone for followup if I had any problems, along with the name and contact information for the company that would come back to bury the cable.

And this time the mysterious Miss Utility was automatically notified, although she personally did not come to our home.

So my challenge to close out this tale for all of those companies undertaking CXM initiatives, a challenge that never would have occurred to me 10 years ago:How can you make the first mile of customer experiences as painless as the last mile?

John Mancini is the President of Content Results, LLC and the Past President of AIIM. He is a well-known author, speaker, and advisor on information management, digital transformation and intelligent automation.

Read more here:

Why Can't CX Get the First Mile and the Last Mile Right? - CMSWire

Valmet Oyj's press release on November 5, 2021 at 11:00 a.m. EET

HELSINKI, Nov. 5, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Valmet and CMPC have finalized the agreement of which Valmet and CMPC signed a letter of intent in September 2021 (Valmet's press release on September 20, 2021). According to the agreement, Valmet will deliver key technology and automation for CMPC's BioCMPC project. The target is to modernize and increase the production capacity of the Guaba pulp mill's line 2 from 1.5 million ADt/y (air dry tonnes per year) to 1.85 million ADt/y. The upgraded mill is expected to start operation in the fourth quarter of 2023.

The order is included in Valmet's orders received of the fourth quarter 2021. The value of the order is not disclosed.

BioCMPC project's main targets are to both increase the sustainability of the pulp mill and modernize the production technology. The project will include new control and environmental management measures across the mill. The project has been carefully designed, based on CMPC's mission to sustainably produce and market wood, pulp, paper and tissue products of first-rate quality that are competitive, add value and create development opportunities for its employees and local communities.

"CMPC has chosen the most environmentally efficient and sustainable solutions. Valmet's delivery offers the full benefits of our unique offering consisting of process technology, automation and services. We will continue the excellent cooperation by improving the mill performance and including more industrial internet solutions combined with expert services on site and remotely," says Celso Tacla, Area President, South America, Valmet.

"We provide the mill with our latest technological innovations designed for high efficiency which will allow the mill to be one of the most sustainable mills in Brazil with low environmental impact. The project will have a significant employment impact both for our engineering, production and project execution in Brazil and the Nordics," says Bertel Karlstedt, Business Line President, Pulp and Energy, Valmet.

Story continues

"Valmet was chosen to be the key technology and automation provider for the BioCMPC project, and we are very happy to participate in this innovative and modern project. All equipment and solutions included in this project represent proven technology that provides better environmental performance and increased production efficiency. The project brings benefits to the customer, community as well as local and global environment," says Fernando Scucuglia, Director, Pulp and Energy, South America, Valmet.

Valmet will deliver key technology and automation for CMPC's BioCMPC project.

Technical information about the delivery

Valmet's delivery for the Guaba pulp mill line 2 modernization will include rebuild of the pulp drying, fiberline, evaporation and white liquor plant, a new recovery boiler and new ash treatment, and extended distributed control system including advanced industrial internet features. The technology delivery is supported by spare parts packages. The upgraded line is optimized for high reliability and performance with low environmental impact.

The pulp drying line upgrade will increase the drying and baling capacity and performance with the same high operational safety requirements that always guide Valmet's projects. The upgrade includes improvements to screening and drying, automatic tail threading and an additional baling line.

The fiberline upgrade includes cooking plant technology update, fiberline improvements in brown stock and post oxygen washing and a new additional bleaching stage. The upgrade gives flexibility to minimize water usage and effluent generation improving the fiberline sustainability and environmental KPIs.

The recovery island modernization includes capacity increase of the recaustisizing and lime kiln, evaporation plant upgrade to eight effects, new high-power recovery boiler with electrostatic precipitators (ESP) and ash treatment with Ash Leaching Duo technology. The recovery island modernization emphasizes high energy efficiency and low emissions. The collection and handling of the mill's odorous gases is further improved with NCG upgrades across process islands.

The automation delivery includes Valmet DNA distribute control system, advanced process controls (APC) for selected process areas, analyzers and online measurements.

The delivery is supported with extensive Valmet Industrial Internet (VII) services package with onsite and remote expert support. The VII services include Valmet Performance Center support, Data Discovery, Dynamic Center Line Advisor, Performance Monitoring tools and Operator Training Simulator.

About the customer CMPC

CMPC produces and markets wood, pulp, packaging products, paper, tissue, and personal care products from certified plantations. The Company has over 641,000 hectares of forest plantations, mainly pine and eucalyptus, located in Chile, Brazil and Argentina. CMPC Pulp SpA operates 4 production lines in Chile and 2 in Brazil, with total annual production capacity of approximately 4.1 million metric tons of pulp.

VALMET Corporate Communications

For further information, please contact: Bertel Karlstedt, Business Line President, Pulp & Energy, Valmet, tel. +358 10 672 0000Celso Tacla, Area President, South America, Valmet, tel. +55 41 3341 4444

Valmet is the leading global developer and supplier of process technologies, automation and services for the pulp, paper and energy industries. We aim to become the global champion in serving our customers.

Valmet's strong technology offering includes pulp mills, tissue, board and paper production lines, as well as power plants for bioenergy production. Our advanced services and automation solutions improve the reliability and performance of our customers' processes and enhance the effective utilization of raw materials and energy.

Valmet's net sales in 2020 were approximately EUR 3.7 billion. Our 14,000 professionals around the world work close to our customers and are committed to moving our customers' performance forward - every day. Valmet's head office is in Espoo, Finland and its shares are listed on the Nasdaq Helsinki.

Read more http://www.valmet.com, http://www.twitter.com/valmetglobal

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With extensive out-of-the-box integrations and an API-first architecture, Swimlane enables simple interoperability with any organizations existing security stack. Integrations for new and custom applications can also be easily developed using common scripting languages and a RESTful API.

The new partnership between Swimlane and VirusTotal is a great example of this approach in action. In this two part blog series, well start by taking a look at how we work together, and in part two, well share step-by-step guidance for users looking to go live with this powerful technology integration.

VirusTotals new VT Augment Widget feature gives Swimlane and other applications the ability to display up-to-date threat intelligence from right within the Swimlane platform, as well as returning immediately actionable intelligence detection ratios.

This empowers analysts to drill down into the latest, most actionable intelligence and allows us to automate initial classification and triage from a single API call.

How it works

In order to integrate the new VT Augment functionality into Swimlane, we first had to decide how to architect the solution. The following workflow was decided upon, where:

A Source Alert such as a Phishing Email or XDR Alert enters the Swimlane Platform

External IP addresses

Domains

URLs

File Hashes (SHA1/SHA256/MD5)

query: The IOC for which we wish to obtain reputation information (required)

fg1: The desired hex color of the main Widget text (optional)

bg1: The desired primary background color in hex (optional)

bg2: The desired secondary background color in hex (optional)

bd1: The desired border color in hex (optional)

url: The URL to use as an iframe src to display the VT Augment Widget

detections: Number of positive VT engine detections

total: Number of engines scanned against

The returned detection ratio can be used to power initial determination of the IOCs maliciousness, and any automations based on prioritization or automatic determination of the IOCs nature.

The returned URL is embedded in an iframe in a Swimlane Widget, where it remains ready for manual analysis

When an analyst opens the Threat Intelligence Record for the IOC, the Widget automatically renders, displaying the full results of the investigation from VirusTotals VT Augment /widget/html endpoint.

This workflow is documented in the following diagram:

In part two, well walk through the process of adding VT Augment functionality to a Threat Intelligence Application in Swimlane.

*** This is a Security Bloggers Network syndicated blog from Swimlane (en-US) authored by Nick Tausek. Read the original post at: https://swimlane.com/blog/building-best-of-both-worlds-automation-and-threat-intel-with-swimlane-and-virustotal-part-one/

Read more from the original source:

Building Best-of-Both-Worlds Automation and Threat Intel With Swimlane and VirusTotal Part One - Security Boulevard