Small Business Development hosts roadshows in Gauteng for SMMEs and co-operatives, 8 Mar

Department of Small Business Development and its agencies to host roadshows in Gauteng to unlock opportunities for SMMEs and co-operatives for economic growth and job creation

The Department of Small Business Development (DSBD) and its agencies, the Small Enterprise Development Agency (Seda) and the Small Enterprise Finance Agency (Sefa) will host Roadshows in Gauteng targeting SMMEs and Co-operatives on 08 March 2022.

The development and support of SMMEs is critical for economic recovery and job creation. SMMEs are the key drivers for job creation, therefore unlocking value chains for the benefit of small businesses remains critical in recovering an economy that has lost over a million jobs due the pandemic. Minister for Small Business Development, Stella Ndabeni-Abrahams and Deputy Minister Sidumo Dlamini are leading countrywide roadshows themed: “unlocking opportunities for SMMEs and Co-operatives for economic growth and job creation”.

The purpose of the roadshows is to showcase the work of the DSBD, its agencies and other strategic government departments (National, Provincial and Local). It is crucial for various stakeholders to work together in ensuring the desired impact, through the assessments of various challenges and highlighting lessons learnt in various districts. This can only be achieved through partnerships with both the public and private sectors. The Department will also utilize these roadshows as a partnership dialogue to engage with different stakeholders. These roadshows are critical in ensuring that there is a seamless engagement across all spheres of government. Minister Ndabeni-Abrahams and Deputy Minister Sidumo Dlamini invites members of the media as follows:

Source: Government of South Africa

Treasury assesses impact of rebasing and re-weighting of Consumer Price Index

Impact of the rebasing and re-weighting of the Consumer Price Index (cpi) on inflation-linked government bonds

The National Treasury has assessed the impact of rebasing and re-weighting the CPI, and the changes that will need to be made to the Government’s inflation-linked bonds. On the 16th February 2022, Statistics South Africa provided the historic data of the rebased CPI (with Dec 2021 = 100) from December 2021 backwards.

The National Treasury has replaced the existing index data for calculation purposes with the new rebased data until December 2021, and further with the new rebased and re-weighed CPI from January 2022.

Calculated on the original respective issue dates, the new base inflation indices are as follows (15 digits apply):

• R197 – 33.1501370909466

• I2025 – 62.5024695408588

• R210 – 45.4951597843470

• I2029 – 78.1513052759275

• I2033 – 73.3170965571644

• R202 – 39.1493204312236

• I2038 – 62.5024695408588

• I2046 – 66.3146796194299

• I2050 – 62.5600058085514

These base indices are calculated in such a way that the capital value of the bonds is the same before and after the indices were rebased.

Source: Government of South Africa

Employment and Labour conducts joint mega blitz inspection in Joe Gqabi District

Employment and Labour joint mega blitz inspections sends a stern warning to non-compliant employers in the Joe Gqabi District

A joint mega blitz inspection in the Joe Gqabi District led by the Provincial Chief Inspector, Patiswa Mbongwana saw 78 workplaces in the Wholesale and Retail, Miscellaneous including salons and funeral parlours, EPWP and Hospitality sectors inspected from the 01 to 04 March 2022 focusing on Maletswai, Sterkspruit, Ventersdorp, Jamestown, Burgersdorp, Lady Grey and Barkley East and surroundings.

The Department of Employment and Labour’s collaboration with the Department of Home Affairs and South African Police Services resulted in 43 compliance orders being issued due to contraventions of the National Minimum Wage Act and Basic Conditions of Employment Act. The areas of non-compliance range from underpayment of wages, non-payment of overtime and Sundays, non-provision of payslips, attendance registers and contracts of employment. The underpayment total is R342 000 and these employers are given 14 days to comply failing which the employers will be referred for prosecution.

45 undocumented immigrants who are Lesotho, Pakistan, Mozambique, Ethiopia, Malawi nationals were arrested and detained while 20 appeared in the Maletswai Magistrate’s court on 02 March 2022.

The Inspectors’ role is to educate employers and employees on labour legislation whilst enforcing compliance with the National Minimum Wage Act (NMWA); Basic Conditions of Employment Act (BCEA) Unemployment Insurance Act (UIA) and Compensation for Occupational Injuries and Diseases Act (COIDA) during inspections. The Department of Home Affairs (DHA) and the South African Police Services (SAPS) were part of the joint operation to scrutinise the legality of Foreign Nationals employed in different sectors and the validity of their permits. Department of Home Affairs has a responsibility to enforce the Immigration Act.

“Joint Blitz Inspections are a mechanism to ensure that employers with labour laws and employees’ rights are not infringed. These should not be taken as punitive but rather as measures to ensure decent work is upheld”; said Nomfundo Douw-Jack.

The Department of Employment and Labour issues a confirmatory notice as soon as the compliance order expires after 14 days to all non–compliant employers.

Source: Government of South Africa

Cobira choisit la solution Dynamic IMSI Manager et la plateforme de gestion des abonnements de Valid

MADRID, 3 mars 2022 /PRNewswire/ — Cobira ApS, un fournisseur international de connectivité IoT sécurisée mondiale B2B et d’autres services facilitateurs IoT, a choisi la solution Dynamic IMSI Manager de Valid pour renforcer son offre de services de connectivité IoT. La solution Dynamic IMSI Manager de Valid  offre une connectivité sécurisée de haute qualité et offre une grande flexibilité dans la gestion des abonnements sponsorisés.

De plus, Cobira ApS a choisi d’utiliser la dernière version du service de gestion des abonnements eReach de Valid, permettant à Cobira une solution complète de gestion du cycle de vie eSIM de bout en bout. Les deux solutions combinées fournissent une base très solide pour la fourniture de services de connectivité avancés et à l’épreuve du temps.

GSMA Intelligence prévoit qu’il y aura 24 milliards de connexions IoT en 2025. Les connexions IoT d’entreprise dépasseront celles des consommateurs en 2024 et tripleront presque entre 2019 et 2025. Cela représentera un peu plus de la moitié de toutes les connexions IoT en 2025, selon l’étude de la GSMA.

Dynamic IMSI Manager de Valid, une extension d’OTA Connectivity Suite de Valid, est une solution client-serveur qui inclut une applet Multi-IMSI s’exécutant sur la carte SIM gérée à distance par une plateforme de connectivité OTA. La solution offre une grande flexibilité dans la gestion des abonnements sponsorisés en définissant plusieurs attributs d’abonnement, en reliant des données de profil riches à chaque abonnement et en incluant de nombreuses options de configuration.

De plus, Valid fournit ses services de gestion des abonnements à distance pour gérer la création, le stockage, la personnalisation et le téléchargement de profils eSIM sur les appareils IoT compatibles M2M eUICC. Cette plateforme est exploitée en tant que service par Valid à partir de son centre de données certifié SAS-SM situé près de Madrid en Espagne.

« Les équipes de Valid et de Cobira travaillent ensemble depuis de nombreuses années et nous connaissons Valid comme un partenaire solide dans tous les aspects liés au domaine de la connectivité cellulaire. Avec les produits et services de Valid derrière nous, nous pouvons fournir la qualité requise dans les solutions IoT d’entreprise. » – Allan Dickow, directeur de la technologie chez Cobira ApS.

« Valid aide Cobira ApS dans sa mission d’offrir des solutions IoT fiables et optimisées sur le marché. Avec l’aide de Valid, Cobira ApS est désormais en mesure d’offrir des services de connectivité IoT flexibles avec une solution sécurisée, pratique et adaptable à ses clients », a déclaré Pierre Lassus, directeur international des logiciels et des services chez Valid.

*IMSI est l’identité internationale de l’abonné mobile. Un numéro qui identifie de manière unique chaque utilisateur d’un réseau cellulaire.

À propos de Cobira ApS

Cobira s’efforce d’être le partenaire idéal lorsqu’il s’agit de permettre aux entreprises de devenir des fournisseurs de connectivité. Grâce à nos compétences et à nos connaissances en matière de connectivité, nous aidons nos clients à créer des solutions sécurisées, fiables et évolutives qui font de leur entreprise compatible IoT une réussite. Pour en savoir plus, rendez-vous sur le site www.cobira.co.

À propos de Valid

Valid (B³: VLID3 – ON) propose des solutions sur mesure intégrant des technologies émergentes dans le but d’offrir des expériences sûres et fiables. Des données, des paiements, de l’identité et du mobile à l’IoT, au Track and Trace, à la certification numérique et à l’agritech, Valid offre un large portefeuille de services et de solutions qui accélèrent la transformation numérique des activités de nos clients. Fort de plus de 60 ans d’expérience et plus de 6 000 employés dans 16 pays, Valid est le plus grand émetteur de documents d’identification au Brésil, et figure parmi les 5 principaux producteurs de cartes SIM et les plus grands fabricants mondiaux de cartes bancaires. Pour en savoir plus, consultez le site www.valid.com.

InterContinental Ras Al Khaimah Mina Al Arab Resort & Spa opens its doors

The island getaway marks the first IHG Hotels & Resorts in the emirate, and is launched during the Diamond Jubilee of the InterContinental Hotel & Resorts brand.

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates, March 3, 2022 /PRNewswire/ — IHG Hotels & Resorts, one of the world’s leading hospitality companies, has announced the opening of InterContinental® Ras Al Khaimah Mina Al Arab Resort & Spa, the first property for the luxury brand in the emirate of Ras Al Khaimah.

Located on the sparkling shoreline of Hayat Island, just a 45-minute drive from Dubai International Airport, the five-star haven brings the InterContinental life to the Arabian Peninsula, combining idyllic island style living with the warm hospitality of authentic Arabia.

His Excellency Abdul Aziz Abdullah Al Zaabi, Chairman of RAK Properties , said : “We are pleased with this qualitative addition to our company, which owns great assets in the world of real estate and luxury. The InterContinental Ras Al Khaimah Resort & Spa from IHG, added a new value for lovers of nature, beauty and contemporary authenticity. He added: “We are always keen to improve our business and projects and achieve the highest levels of luxury and distinguished services, and it is no secret to everyone the position that the Emirate of Ras Al Khaimah has reached in the world of tourism in general, and hotels and resorts in particular.”

InterContinental Ras Al Khaimah Mina Al Arab Resort & Spa opens its doors

Haitham Mattar, Managing Director India, Middle East and Africa said:  “InterContinental Hotels & Resorts have been pioneering luxury travel in new destinations for over 75 years and the undiscovered destination of Ras Al Khaimah couldn’t be more perfect for a new, best-in-class InterContinental resort. Ras Al Khaimah’s reputation has grown internationally and has put the Emirate on the world travel map. Its focus on heritage, cultural and adventure activities has a strong appeal to domestic and also international visitors. We look forward to welcoming guests to this exquisite property and offer a level of bespoke hospitality that is befitting of the region”.

The resort’s design is inspired by the three original tribes of the emirate, the Desert, Mountains and Sea, and offers 351 sea facing rooms, suites, and private pool villas, six dining outlets, and an exclusive Club InterContinental offering. The resort is elegant yet lively with its design fusing modern conveniences with Arabian aesthetics, from patterned fabrics to artworks inspired by the wider region.

From Classic Seaview Rooms to Family Villas, all abodes face the sea, complete with discreet private balcony and terrace areas, offering breezy panoramas of blue hues, that are perfectly paired with morning coffees or evenings shared with friends, family or loved ones during the amber twilight.

The One-Bedroom Private Pool Villas are a luxurious sanctuary, equipped with their very own private pool. The 150sqm villas offer a sublime sleeping, living, dining and pool experience in a blissful ambiance where the décor, furniture, and the latest technology create a relaxing environment for travellers and a home-away-from-home experience.

The Presidential Suite is the largest of all accommodations, providing immediate access to the lapping waters just outside your door. Where elegance meets style, the 200sqm suite perfectly captures the island aesthetic of the wider resort.

Club InterContinental guests receive elevated privileges and avail an end-to-end guest experience with a dedicated check-in area and access to the exclusive Club InterContinental Lounge with its own pool, as well as lavish à la carte breakfasts, afternoon teas and a range of evening cocktails crafted by the on-site mixologist.

A dining destination in itself, the resort is also home to six all-new culinary outlets, offering an assortment of venues each with their own unique story.

Levant & Nar delivers Levant influenced delicacies with a modern twist, featuring an open kitchen that emanates aromatic seasonings and spices, quintessential to this part of the world. The restaurant’s terrace is the perfect place to enjoy leisurely al fresco dining alongside a fire pit, with 360-degree sea views, and themed Ottoman nights every weekend.

NoHo, inspired by the artistic streets of North Houston in New York offers a trendy hangout, perfect for sharing platters, enjoying the latest in mixology, and late-night entertainment.

The poolside ShaSha serves alfresco bites, frozen cocktails and sweeping ocean views, and is the perfect place to relax with shisha and take a front seat to nature’s spectacular sunset show. The location for cinema under the stars, sunrise yoga and salsa, ShaSha is a buzzing hub of entertainment.

Whether you choose to while away the hours on the white sandy beach which overlooks the royal blue of the Arabian Gulf, spend warm, sunny days by the infinity pool, enjoy a variety of water sports or take advantage of the resort’s curated activity programme – there’s something for everyone, including little ones.

Younger guests can revel in the Planet Trekkers and Teens Club facilities, equipped with indoor and outdoor spaces. Only available at select InterContinental resorts, Planet Trekkers provides a curated program to actively engage children and enhance their view on the world.

Complete with state-of-the-art equipment, the resort’s light flooded health club is the perfect place to get a workout in, complete with a separate fitness studio, outdoor tennis court, as well as segregated male and female saunas to relax in after.

Spa InterContinental, scheduled to open in April, is replete with a range of soothing anti-ageing and wellness treatments, along with modern remedies to melt away stress and enliven the senses, including a traditional Turkish Hammam.

From the dazzling coastal sands to the far-reaching desert-cloaked topography, the resort’s Concierge Programme – a dedicated hallmark of the InterContinental brand – is on hand with a wealth of knowledge about Ras Al Khaimah’s unique treasures and how to best explore them, curating individual experiences for every guest.

The resort also offers almost 1,000sqm of impressive meeting venues, including a spacious 360sqm ballroom and two large meeting rooms, with bespoke catering options.

Images to download.

Logo – https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1704152/IHG_Primary_Centred_Black_RGB_Logo.jpg
Photo – https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1758885/InterContinental_Ras_Al_Khaimah_Mina_Al_Arab_Resort_Pool_Villa_Terrace.jpg

Zoho Takes on Current Low-Code Market Gaps with New Creator Platform to Empower Businesses to Easily Build, Deploy, Manage, and Analyze Custom Solutions

Bringing in the company’s 15 years of expertise in low code, the new unified development platform empowers both IT teams and business users to build sophisticated, modern, and compliant solutions, for a low-code experience that is secure, easy to use, and custom-fit to solve business challenges

Austin, Texas, March 03, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Today, Zoho Corporation, a leading global technology company, announced the latest version of its low-code offering, Zoho Creator Platform, an all-in-one solution that bridges the gap between business users and IT teams by providing a low-code solution-building experience regardless of technical know-how. Organizations currently face soaring demand for new business software, but existing low-code platforms for business users only facilitate basic app building, lacking the sophistication needed to develop scalable, enterprise-ready end-to-end tools. Existing solutions in the market designed specifically for business users facilitate only basic app building, lacking the complexity needed to develop end-to-end tools, which allow organizations to scale and ensure centralized governance.

Addressing the needs of both business users and IT teams, Zoho Creator Platform supports all levels to build, manage, integrate, and analyze for a complete low-code experience, enabling 10X faster deployment than any other solution on the market. Democratizing access to low-code development tools allows IT and business users to work in tandem to create and deploy apps that are highly customized, while minimizing common interoperability, permissions, and governance challenges.

“Currently there isn’t a low-code solution on the market that allows both business users and IT to truly build end-to-end business solutions,” said Raju Vegesna, Chief Evangelist, Zoho Corporation. “With this update, Zoho’s Creator Platform combines application development, integrations, process automation, business intelligence and analytics into a single platform while simultaneously enabling IT teams to effortlessly manage security, compliance, and governance challenges. Organizations can now leverage a unified solution for all of their low-code needs, extending the ability to innovate to every employee.”

The Zoho Creator Platform integrates digital data and processes to facilitate the creation of truly agile solutions for business users and IT teams alike. Business developers can now easily build scalable low-code solutions which include apps, integrations, analytics, and process automation without heavy dependency on IT teams or time-consuming training. For IT stakeholders, the Platform now provides deeper controls around governance and management, without compromising automation, data-driven insights, customization, and the ability to affect revenue and growth. Together, business users and IT can quickly deploy secure, dynamic solutions built to auto-scale, so that organizations can focus on solving business problems and pursue new opportunities.

“We needed a complete solution to resolve specific operational difficulties, including a lack of streamlined communication and an inability to oversee employees effectively. The Zoho Creator Platform allowed us to build new contextual tools that unify disjointed communication channels, automate processes, and seamlessly integrate into our existing system,” said Gaurav Kakkar, System Process Manager at Emirates Logistics. “Additionally, the new Platform has given specific administrators greater flexibility in implementing new processes through the sandbox and demo user options to keep our data secure while providing important business insights. Together, we’re able to better support employees to be more productive, enabling them to collaborate and spot opportunities to better serve themselves and customers.”

“With this version of Creator, Zoho is shifting its low-code emphasis from applications to business solutions,” said Jason Bloomberg, President of Intellyx, an industry research firm. “Creator helps business stakeholders and IT personnel collaborate to combine applications, business intelligence and analytics, and process automation into end-to-end business solutions. Creator is simple enough for nontechnical staff while also powerful enough to address complex workflow scenarios in a secure, scalable environment.”

Key areas of innovation in the new Creator Platform include:

Expand App Building to Solution Building

Unified Solution Builder – Create, integrate, analyze, and manage custom business solutions at scale from a single dashboard. Seamlessly switch between different elements, with deep interoperability between capabilities, and in-built guardrails for IT teams to drive enterprise-wide citizen development programs.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) – Zoho’s intelligent AI assistant (Zia) now enables developers to import data from anywhere, cleanse and transform with one click, build data models, and automatically detect data relationships via Smart Import. AI tasks such as predictive analytics, keyword extraction, sentiment analysis, OCR, and object detection are built into the drag-and-drop user interface for easy deployment.

Process Blueprinting – This intuitive drag-and-drop builder graphically constructs an online replica of a business process by specifying each step, assigning responsibilities across stakeholders, and automating actions based on pre-set conditions. Users can now identify bottlenecks and have clarity to facilitate scalability for evolving business needs.

Enhanced Serverless Functions – Developers can now write, store, and execute reusable code blocks in Zoho Creator Platform using Deluge, Java, or Node.js. These functions encourage IT and business teams to work together to build scalable and easily maintainable enterprise-ready apps faster.

Build a Connected Ecosystem of Solutions for a Seamless Experience

Unified Data Modeling (UDM) – Unchecked data points, varied data formats, and evolving app landscapes add layers of difficult-to-solve complexities to data integration, resulting in sub-optimal business results. Universal cloud modeling is now included to help developers establish secure data transfer by automating data integration protocols with unified data architecture and over 600 plug-and-play connectors to make data integration easier for users.

Integration Status Dashboard – Users have complete visibility on how well each integration operates with the new Integration Status Dashboard. Status Dashboard provides key findings on recent executions, success and failure stats, and top connections facilitating early error detection and resolution to enable organizations to discover errors and resolve them quicker.

Embedded BI and Analytics Engine – An industry-first, full-fledged business intelligence and analytics engine is now included in the Zoho Creator Platform, enabling users to derive business insights from the data residing in their applications without worrying about bringing another subscription into the fold. High-end BI functionalities like predictive analytics, data alerts, what-if analysis, data blending, and conversational analytics are all now supported on the low-code platform.

Increased Control for IT with End-to-End ADLM

Environments – Developers can now launch solutions in different environments of choice—development, staging (testing), or production—with a single click based on the readiness of the solution. This allows users to add features continuously or make changes without disturbing the existing app in production. The environments also support role-based access to help business developers simulate user-specific experience validation.

Centralized Governance – To help IT manage low-code development, features such as granular role-based access controls, comprehensive audit trails and backup options, application IDE, dashboards to view and manage users, billing dashboard, personalization options such as localization, branding customization, and more, are now available in the low-code platform.

Integrated Communication and Collaboration Aid – Often, business developers get stuck in the build phase with minor obstacles, especially when new to the platform. In order to enhance communication and collaboration, integrated communication enables messaging, sending files, sharing screens, and the ability to make audio and video calls.

Zoho Creator Platform Pricing 

Pricing starts at $25 USD per employee, with a 15-day trial available. For comprehensive pricing information, please visit: https://www.zoho.com/creator/pricing.html

Zoho Privacy Pledge

Zoho respects user privacy and does not have an ad-revenue model in any part of its business, including its free products. More than 75 million users around the world, across hundreds of thousands of companies, rely on Zoho every day to run their businesses, including Zoho itself. For more information, please visit: https://www.zoho.com/privacy-commitment.html

About Zoho

With 50+ apps in nearly every major business category, including sales, marketing, customer support, accounting and back-office operations, and an array of productivity and collaboration tools, Zoho Corporation is one of the world’s most prolific technology companies.

Zoho is privately held and profitable with more than 10,000 employees. Zoho is headquartered in Austin, Texas, with international headquarters in Chennai, India. Additional offices are in the United States, India, Japan, China, Canada, Singapore, Mexico, Australia, the Netherlands, Brazil, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates. For more information, please visit: www.zoho.com/

Attachments

Sandra Lo
Zoho Corporation 
[email protected]

Carol Tong
PR for Zoho
[email protected]