Archive for February 10, 2020

Infosys To Acquire Salesforce Platinum Partner Simplus

Posted in Commentary with tags on February 10, 2020 by itnerd

Infosys today announced a definitive agreement to acquire Simplus, one of the fastest growing Salesforce Platinum Partners in the USA and Australia. Simplus is a recognized leader and advisor in cloud consulting, implementation, data integration, change management and training services for Salesforce CPQ and Billing.

This acquisition, coupled with the acquisition of Fluido announced in September 2018, further elevates Infosys’ position as an end-to-end Salesforce enterprise cloud solutions and services provider, offering clients enhanced capabilities for cloud-first digital transformation.

Simplus brings to Infosys globally recognized Salesforce expertise, industry knowledge, solution assets, deep ecosystem relationships and a broad clientele, across a variety of industries including high-tech, financial services, retail, healthcare, life sciences and manufacturing. It has offices across North America, Sydney, Melbourne, London, and a large delivery center in Manila.

The acquisition is expected to close during the fourth quarter of fiscal 2020, subject to customary closing conditions.

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BREAKING: US Department Of Justice Indicts 4 Chinese Nationals In Equifax Hack

Posted in Commentary with tags , on February 10, 2020 by itnerd

In the last few minutes, news is coming out that four Chinese Nationals are being charged by the US Department Of Justice in relation to the Equifax hack. The Washington Post has the details:

In a nine-count indictment filed in federal court in Atlanta, federal prosecutors alleged that four members of the People’s Liberation Army hacked into Equifax’s systems, stealing the personal data as well as company trade secrets. In a statement announcing the case, Attorney General William P. Barr called their efforts “a deliberate and sweeping instrusion into the private information of the American people.”

The fact that these four individuals are members of the Chinese military underscores the threat that nation states can pose to IT infrastructure. Also, it is highly unlikely that they will ever face trial in the US as I see no scenario where China hands them over to face US justice as I have to assume that they are still in China. Thus I can see a scenario where the US goes after the Chinese in cyberspace in retaliation for this hack, and perhaps others as China has been linked with other high profile hacks that have happened in teh last few years.

UPDATE: You can read the indictment here.

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TELUS Tries To Get In Front Of The Liberal Government Demand To Cut Cell Phone Bills By 25%

Posted in Commentary with tags on February 10, 2020 by itnerd

While I was in the process of researching something for a customer who wanted to switch from their current provider to TELUS, I tripped over this link which seems to have some talking points about their pricing in relation to the demand by the Liberal Government that cell phone bills be cut by 25%. Among other things, it says this:

We reviewed our current in-market pricing to ensure our plans meet – or exceed – the $2929 annual target for a family of four, as outlined in the chart below. Also, according to a study by PWC, Canada’s unlimited plans are ranked #1 based on wireless speed, access, latency and cost per GB among G7 nations.

The way I read this, I see the following:

  • TELUS already meets or exceeds what the Liberal Government wants carriers to do in terms of pricing.
  • Cell phone service is the best in the world in Canada. Which if I read this a certain way, TELUS is basically saying that to be the best in the world requires more investment, which requires higher cell phone bills.

There’s also this:

Our TELUS Peace of Mind plan for a family of four provides 26GB more data than the sample plans referenced by the Liberal Party, and provides an additional $49 in annual savings.

It’s an interesting argument overall. In fact it’s a much better argument than the one that Rogers is making in terms of how much money they pump into the Canadian economy. The question is, will it resonate with the average Canadian who feels that their cell phone bills are way too high? On that front, the facts don’t matter because perception is reality to them. Or will it resonate with someone like me who travels worldwide and sees everything from getting very fast 4G LTE speeds in the middle of rural India for $13 CDN for three months to $2 CDN a day in Australia for 4G LTE unlimited everything except data which is capped at 500MB a day. For someone like me I look at either of those examples, then I look at Canada and say “why can’t we in Canada have nice things?”

I can’t answer if it will resonate or not. But I think we will get answers shortly as the push by the Liberal Government for cheaper cell phone bills continues.

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The Windows 10 Start Menu Now Harasses Firefox Users

Posted in Commentary with tags on February 10, 2020 by itnerd

From the “WTF?” department comes this story on the “Suggested” section on the Windows 10 Start Menu. It used to just promote its own apps, which was annoying in itself. But for some users who haven’t disable Microsoft’s “Suggestions”, that menu is now showing a new kind of ad listing reports MSPowerUser:

The listing displays “Still using Firefox? Microsoft Edge is here”, to all users of the former — even with the latter already installed.

The ad provides a link to download the chromium-based browser.

Undoubtedly, the suggestions won’t end here. Microsoft is reportedly planning to sprawl similar ads out to Wordpad, to encourage users to download official Office apps.

Microsoft’s “Suggestions” can be permanently disabled with a few tweaks, but the fact is that you shouldn’t have to put up with this. Operating systems shouldn’t be advertising the way that Windows 10 seems to. Users hate it and I often get asked to disable that and live tiles to make Windows 10 more usable. That should be a big hint to the folks in Redmond to stop doing this. Which of course they won’t unless they’re forced to.

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