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Text Analytics and Natural Language Processing: Knowledge Management?s Next Frontier

Text analytics and natural language processing are not new concepts. Most knowledge management professionals have been grappling with these technologies for years. From the KM perspective, these technologies share the same fundamental purpose: They help get the right information to employees at the right time.




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AI Guidelines for Businesses: Using AI in Your Own Company

Artificial intelligence (AI) is one?if not the?key technology of our decade. Technological advances in this field are not only fundamentally changing our economies, industries and markets, but are also exerting enormous influence on traditional business practices, many of which will disappear, while others will be transformed or completely reinvented.




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Sinequa enhances NLP and data connectors

Heightens performance of information workers in the digital workplace?




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Philadelphia Offers Discounted Solar to Residents and Businesses

Philadelphia Offers Discounted Solar to Residents and Businesses aconstanza Fri, 05/01/2020 - 16:46

Philadelphia Offers Discounted Solar to Residents and Businesses

Public support for solar power is strong and growing, but it’s not always strong enough to overcome the high upfront costs of installation. To help home and business owners make that initial investment towards utilizing solar power, Philadelphia re-opened its popular Solarize Philly program.

In April, Solarize Philly began accepting to new applications. The last phase closed in November 2019 after 2,068 signups. The program has helped 6,200 customers since its launch in 2017.

Program participants benefit from group-buying discounts and consumer protections. Installers are kicking off the new phase by providing free remote solar assessments.

The program is run by the Philadelphia Energy Authority (PEA), an independent municipal authority chartered by the city in 2010 to provide targeted expertise and focus to city efforts to reduce energy consumption and expense.

The authority offers other financial incentives that are available to Solarize Philly participants. The Philadelphia Solar Rebate offers a one-time rebate incentive of 10 cents/watt to commercial and 20 cents/watt to residential projects. The rebate comes to about $1,000 for homeowners.

Fees generated by Solarize Philly also support the PEA's Solar Savings Grant Program, which provides grants plus financing to low- and moderate-income households to go solar at no upfront cost. Grants cover up to half the cost of the project, and utility bill savings start in the first year.

To participate in Solarize Philly, homeowners complete a sign-up form and are then connected to one of the city's approved installers. An installer will provide a free project proposal tailored to the home’s specific needs, based on roof space, electricity usage and other factors.

After the owner approves and signs a contract, the installer handles all permitting and engineering requirements and works with the local utility, PECO, to manage the interconnection process before the installation.

The city says Solarize Philly is also helping create jobs. Darell Clarke, city council president, said “of all energy projects, rooftop solar creates the most jobs per dollar invested.”

The PEA references a study conducted for the authority by the American Council for an Energy Efficient Economy, which found that 15 living wage jobs are created for every 100 solar installations. PEA also leads Bright Solar Futures, a partnership with the School District of Philadelphia to establish Pennsylvania’s first vocational solar program for high school students.

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Office realty leasing rises 30%, on track to beat last year high

Mumbai: Robust demand for office spaces has pushed commercial property leasing in the first three quarters of 2019 by 30% from a year ago, taking it closer to entire 2018’s performance and making sure that this year surpasses the peak touched last year.Driven by tech corporates — accounting for about a third of the leasing activity — office space take-up touched 47 million sq ft in the first nine months against entire 2018’s performance of 48.9 million sq ft, showed data from CBRE South Asia. With this, office leasing activity is now expected to touch its highest level ever, estimated to be over 60 million sq ft in 2019.Leasing activity stood at about 15.4 million sq ft during the quarter ended September, rising by nearly 23% on an annual basis. This was dominated by small- to medium-sized transactions. Small-sized transactions of less than 10,000 sq ft accounted for over 40% of the transaction activity in the quarter. 71641558 “With office leasing scaling a historic high in 2019, we expect further strengthening of occupier sentiment in the medium to long term, backed by corporates looking to expand or consolidate their operations. Favourable government initiatives, transparency in the real estate sector and the right reforms will improve investor sentiment greatly in the coming quarters,” said Anshuman Magazine, CEO, India, South-east Asia, Middle East and Africa, CBRE.Like last year, he expects occupiers would put in greater efforts to incorporate flexibility in their portfolios due to changes in the business environment. Occupiers continued to futureproof their portfolios and hedge against future rental escalations by pre-leasing space across various cities.Bengaluru, followed by Hyderabad, dominated large-sized deal closures, while a few large deals were also reported in the NCR and Pune as well. Large-scale deal closures were mostly dominated by tech firms and flexible space operators. Firms belonging to sectors such as research, consulting & analytics, banking, financial services & insurance (BFSI), and engineering & manufacturing also closed large-sized deals.Tech corporates led the office space take-up, followed by research, consulting & analytics companies (19%) and flexible space operators (15%). The rise in the share of flexible space operators (10% in the second quarter of 2019) was primarily a result of their continued expansion across almost all cities.“The share of the tech sector rose from 31% to 40% annually during 2019 year-to-date, which implies that a rise in technology alternatives, insourcing / job preservation in the US and a global slowdown have not had any specific impact on India’s position as a preferred outsourcing destination for both high-skilled and low-skilled tech services, research and development,” said Ram Chandnani, managing director, advisory & transaction services, India, CBRE South Asia.Supply addition rose by more than 80% in 2019 YTD on an annual basis, with about 43.5 million sq. ft. of development completions reported.Four cities — Hyderabad, Bengaluru, NCR and Mumbai — accounted for almost 80% of this supply addition.Compared to the first three quarters in 2018, the share of SEZs in supply dipped from 40% to 27% during 2019 YTD. Supply addition in the quarter also rose by about 6% on a quarterly basis, touching about 15 million sq. ft. More than 70% of this supply was driven by Hyderabad and NCR, followed by Bengaluru.




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Meet the Indian advising Trump on Covid

When the Covid-19 pandemic caused a sudden shortage of hand sanitisers, alcoholic beverage major Pernod Ricard was among the companies in the US that stepped up to ensure there was no dearth of the product in the market. Leading the initiative was Ann Mukherjee, who took over as chairman & CEO of Pernod Ricard North America in December 2019. Mukherjee has spent almost 30 years in sales, marketing and brands, including with Frito-Lay North America and SC Johnson. The Kolkata-born Mukherjee was last month chosen by US President Donald Trump to be part of a high-profile group to advise the American government on how to kick-start US manufacturing in the post-pandemic era. Trump has formed several such groups to focus on various sectors of the economy. In an interview with Ishani Duttagupta, Mukherjee says that re-entering life and enabling safe travel will be the biggest challenges that all nations face in a post-lockdown world. Edited excerpts...You took over the reins at Pernod Ricard North America only last December; how are you dealing with the crisis caused by the pandemic?My first priority was the health and safety of our employees. That meant creating an infrastructure and agile ways of working to enable working from home through confinement. It also meant creating and maintaining safety protocols for our essential frontline workers, especially our teams in production facilities and distilleries. Second, we focused on our ability to give back to the communities we serve and partner with. Given our entrepreneurial culture, many teams went into action creating opportunities with speed. Working closely with the White House COVID taskforce, we were able to get clearance to produce and supply hand sanitiser for the US government. We provided this free of cost to help first responders across the country. Our Jameson team --- realizing that many bartenders that partner to make the brand great would be out of work – donated $600,000, and generated another $700,000 in matching funds, to the US Bartenders Guild charity fund. Also, our on-premise team worked with multiple charities to provide free meals for hospitality workers affected by the crisis.Finally, we dealt with the crisis by closely collaborating with our distributor partners to keep our business open in the short term, while working together to create a roadmap for recovery. We leveraged our resilience and our culture of conviviality to keep spirits high -- and work with optimism -- during difficult times.As the head of the American operations of an European giant, what are the challenges? Are there any cultural issues?Honestly, cultural issues never even enter the conversation. The culture is centred around conviviality…..bringing people together. That is true for what we sell and how we interact together as business units. Our CEO Alex Ricard sets the tone and walks the walk. He is a very expansive thinker and an inclusive leader who unites us and our different experiences to make for a more powerful whole. Take me for example. He hired an Indian American with very strong roots in India, with North American commercial experience and global marketing experience. He looks for people with broad perspectives and experiences. 75649631Is the American market for scotch whisky growing?Scotch is the best-selling imported whiskey in the US by revenue. Blended scotch has been somewhat flat, with some growth during the crisis, and we see that with our iconic Chivas brand. Single malt is where we see the growth; sales increased almost 10% last year. Our Glenlivet brand has been a huge driver of that growth, bringing new drinkers into both the brand and the category. The brand is positioned to challenge the more traditional conventions of scotch drinkers and celebrates the young unconventional drinker, especially appealing to women who are now open to enjoying single malt as their drink of choice.You are part of the team of top CEOs advising President Trump on reviving the US economy. What are some of the key issues that you think the US government needs to address at this point? It’s an honour to serve the country in this capacity. Our number 1 objective is to help the administration bring back and rebuild confidence. It is a very difficult balance between managing public health and insuring a sustainable economy. We must protect the population from this virus but we need to ensure there is an economy to come back to post the recovery. If we open too quickly, we might be back in confinement; if we don’t re-open with smart speed, we might create a bigger crisis. So we need to ensure that there are the right protocols in place for recovery, ensure there is adequate supply and access to protective accessories needed, and the right partnerships in place with private enterprise, local government and federal oversight. What should the Indian government do?As the world’s largest democracy, India has a very strong state-driven government system with strong central government oversight, not unlike the US. It is critical to get that balance right and work together to strengthen and unite the mosaic that is India. India defines entrepreneurship. It is vital to tap into that cultural advantage and unite business leaders, scholars and government to create out of the box solutions. Private enterprise will need to understand that we as CEOs have not only a fiscal responsibility to our companies, but also a societal responsibility. One feeds the other; without a vibrant market, our businesses cannot thrive, so working together as a collective across business and government is key.The alcobeverages sector traditionally didn’t have women in top roles. Do you see that changing? What are the challenges?I absolutely see it changing, though I wish progress was faster. Companies need to reflect their consumer base, and a majority of everyday purchase decisions globally are made by women. That fact is only accelerating as women become more educated, empowered as single parents or heads of households across many countries. In beverage alcohol in the US, a majority of decisions are actually made by women. The challenge is that we need corporate boards and top management teams to get more rigorous about achieving this objective. Companies must put shorter term and longer term 5-10 year succession plans in place to achieve ambitious targets for women in top management roles; they need to be identified early, developed, and given aggressive career plans to groom them for these positions. This is a passion point for Pernod Ricard driven by our Chairman, Alex Ricard. It’s about achieving better balance…and I personally like this approach. It isn’t about favouring one gender over the other, it’s about getting the right balance reflective of the marketplace and in creating tomorrow’s workforce now. Going forward, what do you think are the biggest challenges that your company and sector will have to grapple with as lockdown gradually lifts across the US and the world?Re-entering life safely is the biggest challenge the world faces. Whether it’s re-entering your neighbourhood, your town, travelling within your own country, or beginning to travel the world again. It also will be parents letting go of their children after they kept them from harm in confinement, and trusting school systems to keep them safe. And family members trusting each other to maintain safety protocols as they come back home from work. We all will lose control when we come out of confinement. In our industry, our biggest challenge will be restaurants, hotels, bars and pubs. How can you enjoy and connect, but safely from a distance? Can smaller establishments have viable businesses when there need to be fewer patrons? It will be a new normal, and we need to work together to make it viable and enjoyable.What do you think are the major differences between the liquor market in the US and Europe?I believe the liquor market is very similar in the two continents. During this crisis, we have seen the market stay strong through in-home consumption, with some of the bar and restaurant consumption shifting to home consumption. People are drinking brands they know and trust. They are also looking for premium experiences to help overcome the difficulty of confinement. For us at Pernod Ricard, we have the world’s largest premium portfolio with a large stable of familiar and trusted brands. So we have seen positive performance from our portfolio in both continents. What has your experience been as a woman in a typically male-dominated industry?Joining Pernod Ricard was a great fit for me. My husband and I love entertaining, bringing friends and family together because we believe creating special moments together makes life worth living. That is exactly the spirit and culture of conviviality. So when I joined the company, I invited my leadership team to my home for a night to meet the Mukherjees as part of a bigger leadership summit. My husband, who is very proud of his bar, rebuilt all the shelves so he could light up and showcase all of the incredible Pernod Ricard brands. I show my compassion through food. So I made samosas, mutton biriyani, raita, chicken cutlet and chapali kababs, and for my vegetarian team members, I made dal makhani, matter paneer, aloo dum. As a parting gift I gave everyone a small Ganesh so our paths moving forward would have no obstacles. I believe that if you are to be a meaningful leader, you must bring your whole and authentic self to work. As a woman, I don’t shy away from sharing my personal stories as a wife, mother and daughter, or from sharing my vulnerabilities as a woman leader in how I manage, try to instil trust and inspire others. After all, we are in the human being business. Do you see a timeline for recovery of firms such as yours in the wake of the COVID-19 crisis?The only thing that is certain about this crisis is that it is uncertain. Until we have viable testing and treatment and eventually vaccines, we cannot fully recover. So the key right now is to be agile. Adjust as the marketplace adjusts. That means new ways of working, helping your workforce to be in a mode of agile planning and execution. We can help people through the stops and starts this will cause by helping them see the bigger long-term goal of recovery and viability.Do you have any connections with India?I have very strong connections with India. 98% of my family is still in India, in my native hometown of Kolkata, New Delhi where I went to high school, as well as Mumbai and Bengaluru. We talk to them daily/weekly to keep in touch and stay connected through this crisis. We speak Bengali at home as a family. I am very proud of my sari collection and dress Indian any chance I get. We have a very strong Indian community here. I am as Indian as I am American and am a better person for it. I hope and pray that everyone stays safe and recovers with prosperity.




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