NEW: Following was released to Singapore media on hybris launch
 at Online Retail World Conference 2012.

hybris 4.6 Enabling Commerce Anywhere

…boosting sales in today’s omni-channel world...

Singapore – 24th April, 2012 hybris, a leading provider of multichannel commerce and  communication software, today announced the availability of hybris 4.6, for the first time in Asia, a software that allows any enterprise to set up an e-commerce presence on any Internet-enabled device or platform, including mobile applications, social media and even Internet-enabled TVs.

The hybris 4.6, incorporating Omni Commerce Connect (OCC), is completely programming language independent, and can commerce-enable any device, application or channel outside of the hybris Multichannel Suite.  This makes integration with non-hybris technology simple and straightforward. Hence, hybris OCC can be the ideal tool for creating a commerce hub for exposing all of an enterprises’ existing commerce functionality to other systems and platforms. It thus increases the speed and lowers the costs of providing new transactional interfaces.

A key benefit is that hybris OCC is not restricted to human user interfaces; it can easily integrate with other systems and even provide interfaces to partners and other organizations. For example, as an alternative to the native hybris capabilities, hybris 4.6 delivers out-of-the-box integration with Google Commerce Search, enabling you to utilize Google’s latest innovations in search and navigation technology – and all the power and scalability behind it – with an experience tailored specifically to online product discovery.

Its new functionalities help merchants to overcome the three fundamental commerce challenges: speed of innovation outside of their organization, channel driven processes that fail to scale and lastly, process heavy IT.

According to a recent report by Forrester[1], the open Web will result in a second web economy that will eclipse the first Internet economy in size and scope. Fueled by companies such as Apple, Samsung, Facebook and Foursquare, speed of innovation is progressing at a staggering rate.

Ariel Lüdi, CEO of hybris, explained; “With the incredible growth in innovation, so too is customer adoption on a rapid rise, be it consumers or buyers purchasing from other enterprises. As such, the commerce challenges faced by merchants are magnified and exposed by demanding customers who are empowered with new devices, better know-how about the competition, and knowledge made available by the Internet - whenever, wherever. In many cases, businesses have spotted the opportunities arising from new customer touchpoints; however investment must be small and risk off-set as predicting which touchpoint will be successful and which will vanish again can be difficult. Enterprises of any kind are simply struggling to keep up with the exponential growth of customer touchpoints.”

 
·            Plug & Play commerce processes easily into existing commerce infrastructure - Technology agnostic, hybris OCC allows enterprises to add new, missing functionality efficiently and quickly by connecting hybris with other - including non-hybris - software packages. Enterprises can also create a hybris hub with this technology that essentially orchestrates an all-point solution for a channel free customer experience.
·            Reuse business process and data across touchpoints – Processes and software in many organizations have been built with the channel, not the customer in mind. They are point solutions, lacking integration and ultimately failing the enterprise to deliver value to the customer first and often lack functionality required in today’s omni-channel world. With hybris OCC, enterprises can offer faster and cheaper new transactional interfaces to their customers. Since the interface is universal in its usage and not just restricted to human user interfaces, they can also provide their processes and data more easily to external organizations or other software packages.
·            Leverage an army of external developers - hybris OCC provides IT with the option to offload the burden of enabling new devices or integrating with new business partners by making these processes and data available to 3rd parties or external developers. This speeds up the process whilst reducing pressure on internal IT whose function is not necessarily to build user interfaces for particular devices.

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Said Mr Burghardt Groeber, Vice President of Asia Pacific, hybris: “At present, hybris e-commerce solutions are enjoying very good acceptance in the United States and Europe. The introduction of the hybris 4.6 is its first foray into Southeast Asia and we expect to do very well in Southeast Asia especially in the Retail, Manufacturing, Consumer Brands and Telecommunications industries.. E-commerce rates are growing in this market, and we want to help enterprises maximize their offerings.”

Local implementation partner in Singapore and South East Asia  for  hybris 4.6 include arvato systems, Sapient and iGATE Patni.

hybris 4.6 is centred on best in class multichannel commerce features and puts the end-customer in the centre of an organisation’s multichannel strategy. hybris 4.6 comes with a full range of standardized features to support businesses to increase conversion rates and grow revenue. Some of the features include:

eCommerce

 Provide a fully functional, field-proven, best-practice storefront.

 Drive higher average order value with integrated promotions and cross-selling opportunities.

 Enable customers to easily find items with robust search and navigation capabilities.

 Production ready multi-everything web storefronts.

 Increase conversion rates with rich product information, including reviews and zoom-in capabilities.

 Offer convenient ordering with user-friendly checkout.

 Leverage mobile commerce via SMS, smart phones, and tablets.

 Provide business users with easy-to-use tools

Multichannel

 Build a solid multichannel commerce foundation for communicating and selling consistently across channels, including online, in-store, mobile, and beyond.

 Ramp up quickly with fully integrated Web, order management, and call centre functionality.

 Boost in-store traffic with an integrated store locator.

 Support cross-channel purchasing and fulfilment with integrated order management.

 Integrate with external systems to simplify product and stock data uploads.

 Leverage social commerce by sharing with social networks.

 Incorporate Customer ratings and reviews

 Display Brand news and social media activity tickers

Product Content Management

 Enable effective collaboration among content owners.

 Aggregate product data from multiple sources.

 Streamline product content management workflows.

 Efficiently manage “long-tail” catalogues.

 Deliver information that is always accurate and up-to-date

The hybris Omni Commerce Connect is a new kind of machine-to-machine interface, which helps merchants to mitigate these challenges in the following ways:

hybris 4.6 is immediately available and further details can be found at:  http://www.hybris.com/release46

About hybris

www.hybris.com

hybris is a leading vendor of next generation end-to-end multichannel commerce software based on a single platform including managed and hosting services. Its clear vision about the need for consistency, coordination and personalization of information across all channels and throughout all phases of the customer lifecycle has resulted in the development of an integrated, agile solution enabling businesses to communicate and sell across all channels – online and offline - in a consistent and effective way. hybris has 14 offices around the world located in the economic capitals of North/South America, Europe and Asia and supports over 380 global customers. Customers are brands from retail and manufacturing industries, including: Bobcat, Clarks, Coca Cola Beverages, Conrad, Grundfos, Hornbach, Iomega, Kaiser+Kraft, Levi´s, Lufthansa, Migros, Nespresso, Nikon, P&G, Rexel, Timberland and Toys´R´Us.

For further information please contact:

 Burghardt Groeber,  VP APAC, hybris      burghardt.groeber@hybris.com

[1] Here Comes The Open Web — Embrace It (January 24, 2012)

Unhygenic Practices in Food & Hawker Centres - do you feel the same way?

Unfortunately, many feel the same way as Straits Times reader, Ho Chee Khuen, who wrote to its Forum page on 5th Jan 2012 (page A37).

He ends the letter with a request for the "relevant authorities" to do something about it. In fact, there IS something that can be done. If NEA can take a look at Synnovate Solutions that tackle many of the problems faced by F&B operators in Singapore - labour shortage, cleaning effectiveness, productivity and operational costs - Synnovate can go a long way towards solving the type of problems described by Mr Ho.

Below is the full text of the letter:

Eight dirty reasons he's resorted to takeaways
(from Straits Times Forum page 5th Jan 2012)

As a frequent patron of coffee shops and hawker centres, I have gradually resorted to takeaways rather than eating-in because of the increasing prevalence of these unhygienic conditions:

- Crockery and cutlery are washed with only plain water and are often oily when used to serve food.
- Cups are dipped once in soapy water and then plain water, and taken out ready to be used again.
-  Sweaty sellers with sleeveless shirts bending their bodies over food when cooking or serving.
-  Washing of dishes on dirty floors near toilets.
- Coffee shop toilets are filthy and cannot possibly provide food stall workers with hygienic conditions.
- Cutlery is placed directly on trays that are wiped with cloth used for cleaning dirty tables.
- Servers holding the eating part of chopsticks or other cutlery with the same bare hands that hold table cleaning cloth or dirty dishes.
- The same person who handles cash transactions, handles food as well - with his bare hands.

Can the relevant authorities consider prescribing and enforcing higher standards of food stall hygiene so that eating out does not feel like a public health risk?
By Ho Chee Khuen

In Labour-Tight Singapore: Innovative Solution to Dish Washing Woes

F&B firms in the small island republic may have just had problems dealing with dirty dishes disappear. Many restaurant owners there have problems sourcing (and keeping) dishwashing cleaning staff in their kitchens. Now there is a cost effective (actually cheaper), legal and more efficient solution available. They can now have their dishes and cutlery cleaned OFFSITE at Singapore’s first dishwashing factory.

In an article in Singapore’s main daily, The Straits Times (14 Dec 2011), titled “Four machines do job of an army of dishwashers” a local company Synnovate Solutions can not only clean their dishes but also SAVE money for its clients.

The local firm collects all the dirty dishes/cutlery at the end of day, cleans and returns them the next day. Yes, the restaurant needs to keep a second set of cockery and cutlery but according to the report the cost can be recovered easily within “three to six months”

Lawrence Low, the managing director of Synnovate, who has been involved in both the F&B and manpower industries, saw the writing on the wall more than a year ago and invested in state-of-the-art automated dishwashing machines. As the Singapore Government seeks to reduce reliance on foreign labour and that such jobs are unpopular with locals, he is using the latest technology so that F&B firms can “improve productivity, reduce reliance on foreign labour, conserve energy and cut costs.”

If you would like to know more you can contact Lawrence at tel: +65 6659 0318 or e-mail:  cylow.synnovate@gmail.com

[below, text of news report from: THE STRAITS TIMES Wednesday, December 14 2011 Page B19. Money.SME Spotlight.]

Four machines do job of an army of dishwashers

LOCAL firm Synnovate Solutions has installed a $2.5 million facility in Sembawang that can wash mountains of dishes and cutlery for commercial enterprises in no time and without an army of workers. There are four machines that can clean and sanitise up to 600,000 items a day, using only four employees per machine and recycled water.
 
The facility, the first of its kind in Singapore, is intended to improve productivity, reduce reliance on foreign labour, conserve energy and cut costs. Synnovate runs the business like a laundry service. It sends a truck to food and beverage outlets to pick up crockery and cutlery in tubs - a tub costs $9 and there is a minimum order of five tubs - and takes them back to Sembawang.

Clean crockery and cutlery are returned to the outlets within 24 hours.F&B outlets using the service must have more than one set of crockery and cutlery but the investment can easily be recovered within three to six months by cost-savings, said Synnovate.

The firm has attracted 13 customers, including Swan Lake Catering and Asian Kitchen, in the 12 months it has been operating the facility. Synnovate chief executive Lawrence Low set up the company to meet the needs of the F&B trade.

F&B firms will save on having to buy dish-washing machines, detergent and utility bills and they also do not have to worry about hiring and keeping workers to wash and clean, he said. "There is difficulty getting workers for the hotel and F&B sector, and dish-washing jobs are among the least attractive," said Mr Low.

"Singaporeans do not like dish-washing, the Malaysian market has dried up and workers from China are no more readily available. Foreign illegal workers are not worth the risk." So the industry will have to rely on other innovative solutions, said Mr Low.

"Synnovate Solutions can engage four foreign workers at the most to do the job of 40 workers," he said. "This means a significant reduction in reliance on foreign labour."

[ends]

How to rely less on foreign labour & more on automation...

Media reports recently have been harping on how businesses in Singapore better get used to the new reality: the Singapore Government is firm in reducing the country's reliance on foreign labour. One example of these reports was written by Straits Times Economics Correspondent, Aaron Low, who wrote in a Review article "Tightening the flow of foreign workers" (10th June 2011 pg A25).

Excerpt: "Businesses, especially smaller firms, will also suffer, with the supply of cheaper foreign workers drying up." It is predicted that the manufacturing and services sectors will be hit and CIMB economist, Song Seng Wun, was quoted as saying, "For many entrepreneurs, setting up a restaurant was one of the easiest ways of going into business.With labour costs rising and a lack of workers, it is going to be much harder to take that route." The article said those who persist are likely to pass on the higher cost to customers.

One area in the F&B business that has been particularly hit by manpower supply problems is the cleaning of dishes and cutlery. It is the most unattractive job in the kitchen and restaurants are already facing problems finding (and keeping) workers to perform this job.

The article predicts once it comes to the crunch we will be paying more for our meals outside. Synnovate Solutions Pte Ltd, an  innovative home grown Small Medium Enterprise (SME) is offering another solution to this problem - how you can go for greater productivity with automation AND it will be cheaper, better and faster!  More information, case studies and practical examples on how it is doing this will be posted on its Facebook page: Synnovate Solutions

 

Jacob's Creek Joins the Club

What has Australian wine Jacob's Creek has in common with brands like Chanel, Louis Vuitton and Rolex? It joins a long list of many exclusive brands of goods that have been counterfeited.

According to the brand owner, Pernod Ricard, the fake wine is not harmful to health. However, it is of a very low quality and substandard taste. Luckily the contraband is easy to spot. The lower back label reads "Wine of Austrlia" missing the 'a'.

Hundreds of the fake bottles were seized in UK earlier this year. According to press reports, the fake wines are thought to have originated from China.

Source: http://www.couriermail.com.au/lifestyle/food-wine/wine-of-austrlia-how-bogus-bottles-of-jacobs-creek-were-caught-out-by-poor-spelling/story-e6frer5f-1226035051347

Congratulations! WFA 2011 SE Asia Wine Pioneers of THAILAND

The awardees from Thailand has been announced and we give a toast to the following successful luminaries of Thailand’s wine scene.

Mr Michel Conrad (Independent Wine and Spirits)

Mr Nantachai K Kollert (World Class Wine)
Mrs Nuanwan Rujimongkol (Ambrose Wine Co Ltd)
Ms Orada Nonthasignh (Silom Cellar)
Mr Pairach Intaput (Thai Sommelier & Gastronomy)
Mrs Patcharee Musikul (The Best Cellar)
Ms Patchaya Soonthonchote (Italthai)
Mr Piya Bhirompakdee (PB Valley, Khaoyai Winery)
Mrs Sanita Na-Chiangmai (Maison du Vin)
Mr Sanjog Modgil (F&B Association of Thailand)
Mr Thakul Kijadech (BB&B Co Ltd)
Mr Visooth Lohitnavy (GranMonte Wines)

Congratulations! WFA 2011 SE Asia's Wine Pioneer Recognition Awardees of Indonesia

A veritable Who's Who of wine experts and industry leaders from Indonesia will be in Singapore during WFA 2011. We salute them all for their passion, drive and success in promoting wine as a business and as a cause in the country:

Mr Alex Effendi (PT Danisa Texindo)
Mr Bernard Haymoz (PT lndowines)
Mr Eddy Sugiri (Peak Connoisseur)
Mr Hermansyah Rasyid (PT Jaddi)
Mr IB Rai Budarsa (Hatten Wines)
Mr Jaya Sukamto (PT Bogacitra Nusapratama)
Mr Kamal Bhojwani (PT Kaybee Interindo)
Mr Marjuky (PT Dima)
Mr Reimer Simorangkir (PT Jaddi)
Ms Simone Baldwin (Boga Fine Wine)
Mr Soegianto Nagaria (Indonesia Sommelier Association)
Mr William Wongso (Jakarta Wine Society)
Mr Yohan Handoyo (Decanter Wine House)