“Premium hardware for a superior social experience” Samsung Galaxy A7

Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. has unveiled the new Galaxy A7, one of the slimmest Galaxy smartphones equipped with premium hardware for a superior social experience. Combining powerful multitasking performance with sophisticated design, the Galaxy A7 expands on the popular services provided by the Galaxy A5 and A3, enabling users to capture and share every moment seamlessly on their social media platform.

​​“We strive to develop devices that appeal to a broad range of consumers and are ahead of the next big social trend,” said JK Shin, CEO and Head of IT & Mobile Communication at Samsung Electronics. “Combining both a stunning metallic design and a powerful performance, the Galaxy A7 is stylish while delivering the superior user experience.”

​​​The Galaxy A7 is equipped with a multicore processor combining two separate quad core processors, enabling users to quickly and easily perform data intensive tasks. The Galaxy A7 has 16GB of memory and 2GB of RAM to power all of a user’s favorite apps and media, and is supported by a long-lasting 2,600mAh battery.

​The Galaxy A7 also supports the intuitive features and services offered by the Galaxy A5 and A3, with an advanced 5 Megapixel front-facing camera and advanced selfie features including ‘Ultra Wide Shot’ and ‘Auto Selfie’ modes, which make it possible to take a photograph using only a voice command or even a simple wave of the hand. The device also features ‘Always Clear Voice Auto Control’ to reduce noise from the surrounding environment, as well as LTE Category 4 support for quick and easy photo and video uploads on any social network. In addition to these features, the Galaxy A7 offers a Private Mode, which adds an extra layer of security for important files and documents. The A7 also has Multi Screen app function capability.

​​The Galaxy A7, Galaxy A5 and Galaxy A3 are designed for those who want to express effortlessly their unique style. With these devices, Samsung continues to focus on creating smartphones equipped with the slimmest metal unibody on the market today, with comfortable grip for ease of use. The range empowers users to choose a device which reflects their personal style and lifestyle needs, not just in terms of their unique features, but also their size and color options. There are two variants of the Samsung Galaxy A7 - an LTE version and a dual-SIM version. The phone's processor will vary according to these configurations.

The LTE version, which is the one that will see release in developed countries, will ship with a 64-bit Snapdragon 615 CPU.  The dual-SIM model for developing territories will come with an Exynos 5430 chip. Both have an octa-core setup for greater power efficiency. ​The Galaxy A7 will be available in selective market in Pearl White, Midnight Black, and Champagne Gold.

​

​Full details and product images are available at www.samsungmobilepress.com.

​

Samsung Galaxy A7 Series Products Specifications

Network	LTE Cat4 150/50Mbps, HSPA+ 42/5.76Mbps
Processor	LTE DS/3G DS : A53 1.5GHz Quad + A53 1.0GHz Quad LTE SS : A15 1.8GHz Quad + A7 1.3GHz Quad
Display	5.5” HD sAMOLED
OS	Android 4.4 (KitKat)
Chipset	LTE DS/3G : MSM8x39 (Quad A53 1.5GHz + Quad A53 1.0GHz) LTE SS: Exynos 5430 + M7450 (Quad A15 1.8GHz + Quad A7 1.3GHz)
Camera	13MP AF w/ LED Flash + 5.0MP
Camera Features	Wide Selfie, Rear-cam Selfie, Beauty Face Features
Video	MP4,M4V,3GP,3G2,WMV,ASF,AVI,FLV,MKV,WEBM
	Playback : FHD(1920*1080) @ 30fps
Audio	MP3,M4A,3GA,AAC,OGG,OGA,WAV,WMA,AMR,AWB,FLAC,MID,MIDI,XMF,MXMF,IMY,RTTTL,RTX,OTA
Additional Features	Ultra Power Saving Mode, Changeable Theme (Natural, Classic, Casual, Romantic), Private Mode, Multi Screen, Quick Connect
Connectivity	Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n BT 4.0, USB 2.0, A-GPS+GLONASS, NFC (LTE version only)
Sensor	Accelerometer, Proximity, Geomagnetic, RGB, Hall, Light
Memory	2.0GB (RAM) + 16GB microSD slot (up to 64GB)
Dimension	151 x 76.2 x 6.3 mm, 141g
Battery	2,600 mAh

Kropmann at Africa Geospatial event: promises positive developments for Utility Companies

In efforts to expand  partnerships, and inform the Nigerian Market on the value and benefits of adopting GIS Solutions to improve on asset, and operational  management, as well as the analysis of numerous forms of data  Kropmann Communications was fully represented at the just concluded Africa Geospatial forum 2014 held in Lagos on December 9-10.

Speaking at event, Ryan Swanepoel a representative from one of Kropmanns Partners, said it was necessary to be here in person to understand the market, and the opportunities the Nigerian Market presents. Mr Swanepoel stated that GIS solutions and technology has applications across all sectors of the economy.

GIS Solutions are capable of capturing and displaying a wide array of data and displaying it visually in relationship to the  physical location  the data is relevant to.

There are some CIS solutions, which can be used to capture geographically dispersed equipment and represent this equipment in a pictorial or graphical manner referenced to the physical location the equipment is tied to. Such GIS Systems are particularly relevant in utility companies involved in power distribution, water networks, the oil and gas and telecommunication sectors, and can definitely enhance operational effectiveness and asset management within these organizations.

According to Mr. Swanepoel " there was significant interest from a number of states and in particular Lagos state in achieving a better understanding of how they could deploy and utilize GIS systems to improve and enhance government operations in respect to watershed management, land management, rural development, improved locational deployment of government facilities and general assets deployed by the government for the population.

He also indicated that customers have the options of buying GIS solutions and managing or engage with a company such as Kropmann and its partners for a fully managed solution from initial setup to data capture and formatting, migrating the data onto the tool, database administration, and the ongoing introduction of new and relevant sets of data. Whatever the clients’ choice, he indicated that Kropmann and its partners were up to the challenge. He stated that Kropmann Communications the Real World Systems representative in Nigeria, have proven their worth and ability in respect to delivering GIS based solutions and technology, and Real World Systems fully expects  the exclusive partnership with Kropmann Communications to continue and prosper.

Mr. Swanepoel explained that in partnership with Kropmann, they’ll jointly deliver Specialized GIS products  such as Smallworld, Water World, Electric Office, Spatial World etc for clients seeking to enhance their operations and gain a greater understanding of the information/data currently stored in paper formant or scattered across multiple databases within there organization.

“Young entrepreneurs should maximize e-commerce potentials”...PMM Boss

A communications and enterprise solutions advocate, Mr. Ejiofor Agada has enjoined business owners and young entrepreneurs to take advantage of opportunities that is on the abundant on the e-commerce platform, to create a huge market base for any business they can think of Mr. Agada, who is the chief executive officer of PMM Integrated (the IT solutions advocacy firm of premier business and market communications firm, Private Media Mart Limited), made these views known at the recently concluded Actors Guild of Nigeria, Lagos chapter’s capacity building workshop in Lagos.

In his presentation delivered at the event, he noted that the trending thing in business at the moment is E-commerce and any intelligent business that wants to stay alive in this era must be actively alive on the internet. He stated that with e-commerce, anything can be sold online. And enjoined the participants to explore this option.

According to Agada, “The advent of e-commerce has changed the face of buying and selling because I could be in my room and with my phone I can make purchases of anything I need, which means, I can only do businesses with those that are on the e- commerce platform and not just a company that has a website. This is where businesses are headed at the moment.”

He made reference to Tilda Kart 1.0, an online shop management tool that is designed to help businesses sell on the internet.  The Tilda Kart he said is designed to make it possible and yet cheaper for prospective businesses to become like the big online shops, but with less cost more reliable features like the ability of the solution to generate invoices, receipts and quotation. Another unique feature of the tool is its high search engine performance. And the fact that to implement this solution costs less than 80% of most e-commerce platforms.

Justifying the choice of Mr. Agada as a resource person, the Chairman of AGN Lagos chapter Don Pedro Aganbi, said that it is imperative that young and upcoming actors and actresses should look beyond the glitz and glamour of the entertainment industry and explore other avenues to create wealth, “so that the dance continues even when the music stops”, he concluded.

Blackberry to solve dual-SIM constraint with latest acquisition

BlackBerry Ltd. has bought Movirtu Ltd., which makes a virtual SIM card that allows mobile customers to have more than one phone number on a single device as the bedraggled mobile giant continues to build on its plan to target business users.

As BlackBerry’s share of the smartphone market has diminished, CEO John Chen has refocused the Waterloo, Ontario - Canada-based company to develop services for businesses and governments. The Movirtu technology lets employees who use one phone for work and home switch easily between business and personal profiles with billing clearly separated, BlackBerry said in a statement recently.

BlackBerry plans to start offering the phone-splitting software to customers early next year, with iOS, Windows and Android versions. Though the strategy will definelty enhance the flexibility and cost-cutting measures of Blackberry device users, it may not have much impact on Android and Windows phone users in Nigeria, most of which have devices with physical double SIM capabilities already.

Though no terms of the deal has been released, it's worthy of note that Movirtu was founded in 2008 in London,  and is run by CEO Carsten Brinkschulte and has 22 employees.

In a blog posting recently, Brinkschulte said working with BlackBerry gives his company direct connections to hundreds of mobile operators around the world. "Leveraging these existing connections would be the best way to offer quick and reliable deployment of the Movirtu Virtual SIM solution with minimal effort for the operator. Additionally, BlackBerry will help bring the solution to market through their wide network of mobile operators," Brinkschulte said.

BlackBerry's first new handheld devices to be released under Chen's leadership, an old-style BlackBerry dubbed the Classic and a new format called the Passport, are expected this month. The company is planning invitation-only events on Sept. 24 in Toronto, London and Dubai, but hasn't provided details. Chen said in August that BlackBerry had completed reductions to its workforce that began three years earlier and that it was preparing for modest hiring and small acquisitions.​

This acquisition is coming on the heels of the company's recently celebrated altercation with Apple on the vulnerability of the iCloud hacked recently.

BlackBerry might be struggling to regain its footing in the mobile market right now, but it still has a few strengths that outshine some rivals in key areas. And according to BlackBerry, one of those strengths is the BBM cross-platform messaging app, which apparently tops Apple’s popular iMessage service in a number of ways.

Now, in a new post on BlackBerry’s blog, the company has listed five ways that its BBM product is better than iMessage, and they all focus on BBM’s ability to avoid the huge number of spam attacks that are currently plaguing iPhone and iPad users.

“We all hate spam, whether in our e-mail inbox, or, even more jarringly, when it comes as a mobile message,” BlackBerry’s Jeff Gadway wrote on the company’s blog. “Yet according to an article in WIRED, ‘Apple’s iMessage is being taken over by spammers’ and Cupertino is ‘moving slowly’ to help out ‘beleaguered users.'”

Signal Alliance partners with Cisco for Customer Care Service Solution

Adanma Onuegbu, CEO Signal Alliance

As part of efforts in keeping its leadership strides in quality service delivery to its numerous customers in various sectors of the economy, Systems Integration and Solutions Provider Signal Alliance Limited, recently announced the introduction of the Cisco Smart Care Services, a services solution platform that fosters proactive infrastructure support services for customers.

During an industry presentation to announce this, Mr. Kingsley Nnamchi, Signal Alliances’ Presales Manager described the Cisco Smart Care Service as a unique, proactive services platform that allows Cisco products and solutions customers to take advantage of Cisco’s database of networking expertise, methodologies, technical tools, best practices and service infrastructure to create new, personalized and proactive support services for their networks.

According to Kingsley Nnamchi of Signal Alliance, Smart Care Service provides the capabilities needed to offer the network-level insight, proactive maintenance, and proactive network support services that customers require. He continued, “Imagine – as a network administrator with your usual tight work schedules - a situation where you are already aware of a network fault well before it occurs! Imagine a scenario where you know about the latest updates/patches needed for your sensitive security equipment that protect your infrastructure and services from unauthorized access and attacks. Clearly, this is a tool that takes the goal of achieving maximum infrastructure and services uptime to a whole new level. Smart Care services is miles ahead of the well-known SmartNet services, combining so many of the other Cisco products and services support modules to provide a robust, well-rounded total infrastructure backup for the enterprise business. From the onset of subscribing for the Cisco Smart Care service, the enterprise customer begins to grow and differentiate their businesses in the commercial marketplace.

With Cisco Smart Care Service, Signal Alliance can provide their customers with capabilities such as remote monitoring and repair of Cisco devices and software applications, proactive health checks and periodic assessments of Cisco Network of Data communications, Voice, Wireless and Security Technologies to identify potential issues, need for IOS updates, technical support for all Cisco hardware and software in the network with a single network-wide maintenance contract, new technologies and applications over time, Disaster Recovery services to back up the customer’s active devices. Furthermore, another uniqueness of the solution is in the high Disaster Recovery and Business Continuity capacity regardless of power fluctuations or outage. It is important to note here that this service positions a business much more for Business Continuity than just Disaster Recovery.

Mr. Nnamchi explained that “As we look at changes in the market by setting proactive services as the baseline experience, we always look at defining new and smarter service experiences as leaders in the industry, using the Cisco Customer Care Service as a perfect ground for driving proactive service capabilities which provides trusted visibility into customers business network’s health”. He went further to say that “this model shift will drive new levels of experience/lifetime value and accelerate the business’ ability to compete based on value rather than cost”.

The Smart Care Service that Signal Alliance is bringing into the market is targeted at specific customers. These include businesses that place high value on secure and highly available network, businesses whose network is critical to its operations, and businesses with minimal IT staff working with limited networking expertise.

Being an active player in the IT industry for 2 decades, Signal Alliance Limited is the natural Partner to choose in this regard due to the depth of our competencies, alliances with industry giants and ability to deliver across the value chain. Signal Alliance is a renowned Cisco Premier Partner for almost two decades.

Considering Online Stores? Tilda Systems and PMM unveil low-cost E-commerce solution - Tilda Kart

With the market style taking another dimension and going the e-commerce route as a means of getting visibility for their products in a much larger scale,
Tilda Systems in Partnership with its West African representatives PMM Integrated Ventures (the technology advocacy firm of Private Media Mart Limited), has unveiled another software solution to ease the pain of merchants that wish to gain wider markets for their products on the internet. The unique e-commerce software solution Tilda Kart, is an online shop management and e-commerce solution designed to give the Small enterprise businesses the global visibility that would translate into productivity and profit maximization without draining their resources.

In a statement released from their location in Lagos recently, the PMM Integrated Ventures head of business development, Mr Obinna Ibeawuchi said that the Tilda Kart 1.0 system is actually a complete online shop manager which gives the user the most effective and efficient platform for business. “Customers can go online to a particular merchant from anywhere around the world, buy and pay online for any goods on offer”.

According to him, the uniqueness of this platform lies in its functionality of automatically generating reports, invoices and quotations for the various transactions. It also has the best of viral marketing functionality through its fully optimized search engine options (SEO). In addition to that, he said, “the integration of online payment platform is world class as it can take all the recognised pay cards and also work on all the currency of the countries where the software is accepted. The user’s freedom to review all products on the platform without interference with automated discount system, which means you just input your percentage rate and it computes same on all highlighted products” he said.

“We have looked at all the e-commerce sites domiciled in the Nigeria and discovered that most of them are dysfunctional and others have implementation prices that are way out of reach for the common businessman, continued Mr. Ibeawuchi, “and most of these sites either don’t go beyond the home page of the site or don’t even have the access to the functionalities of a genuine e-commerce site”. He added that another handicap noticed in most e-commerce systems is the fact that the providers here in Nigeria and some parts of Africa have some very expensive platforms. “These are what we considered before going into these project with the mind-set of reaching the affording powers of the mid-stream players in the commercial circle. Therefore, we can gladly say that we have provided a platform that is as effective and more efficient than most of the other ecommerce platforms, yet is 80% less the cost of what is available in the market today” he concluded.

Lending his voice the chairman of Tilda Systems, Mr Tomy Brown said, “Africa has the potential of creating the largest market activities using the e-commerce solution especially with the Nigerian population. Our presence in Nigeria and our interaction with PMM Ventures give us the insight as to aspiration and yearning of the average businessman using technology based platform like the Tilda Kart 1.0., and these keep us moving and providing such technology solutions to soothe their needs”.

The Tilda Kart 1.0 the company says will deliver unequalled profit maximization for user of the solution, as the company in turn will provide the adequate technical and publicity support, ensuring the continuity of the customer’s business.  

The Agriculture sector to thrive using the ERP solution

As part of concerted efforts in making IT prevalent in virtually every sector of the Nigerian economy, Signal Alliance one of the leading IT companies in Nigeria recently came up with proposition for an Agro-based  ERP solution. This was contained in a white paper which it recently published on Agriculture Titled “ERP for Agriculture Sector: transforming big data into big value in the agriculture sector.

The ERP solution is to provide an integrated real-time view of core business processes, using common databases maintained by a database management system in the Agriculture sector. The SAP myAgri and Microsoft Dynamic AX ERPs are the solutions that are in effect designed to carry out definite activities beneficial to the Agriculture sector. MyAgri which operates on SAP business intelligence is designed to create automated control of field and production operational activities reducing costs in their resources management. Improve flow of products through the processing plants, allowing for much better interaction. The Microsoft Dynamic AX Microsoft Dynamics AX, is designed to build a unified business infrastructure that facilitates an unimpeded flow of information.  

According to Signal Alliance’ SAP consultant, Charles Esumeh “In Agribusiness, there are strong tendencies towards increasing the role of IT in creating positive value, decreasing costs and ensuring high quality food products to final recipients. At the same time, the number of regulations concerning the food market is on the increase, including those associated with the necessity to ensure the identification of the origin of ingredients and semi-products in food supplied to the market. Information and data is an essential ingredient in agricultural development programs but Nigerian farmers seldom feel the impact of agricultural innovations either because they have no access to such vital information or because it is poorly disseminated”.

He highlighted some the challenges the local sector is faced with at the moment as lack of awareness, marketing process and technology challenges.

 With the Agric ERP integration the sector, would cut across many platforms, bridging the gap between the producers and the final consumers. For instance, using a SAP ERP Software running on a smart phone, a local buyer of cashew nuts is able to record single buying transactions. Each bag of cashew nuts is labelled with a barcode. By scanning the bar code on the bags of cashew nuts, the system can track every bag. The phone collects the data and sends it directly to the farmers’ cooperative. The cooperative controls the daily pricing for cashew nuts and this information is also sent to all buyers’ smart phones

Some notable features of this proposed ERP is that it is suited for small, medium and large farms with facility to manage to manage multiple farms at multiple locations. It will also improve farm producer’s operational efficiency and profit. Agriculture ERP is designed also to help optimize resources, maintain quality and improve staff performance levels.

Production, post production and sales, marketing and accounting also is considered on the ERP solution.

The Agric ERP can keep track of planting - cultivation - harvesting – Production - marketing history of multiple farmers and farm produce. Land information with scanned photographs and documents can be stored. This Agric ERP maintains farmer database to aid the Management in taking critical key decisions based on data available in terms of irrigation, crop cultivation practices, pest and nutrient management, marketing of crops harvested, etc.

The implementation of ERP in agriculture business enterprises is a requirement resulting from the progress of information technology, BIG DATA and economic globalization. This is a method of not only improving the business processes in the agriculture industry but also a source of obtaining competitive advantage on the market, which leads to an improved financial situation of the industry. Analysis shows that there is significant internal variation within the scope of the food production sector with reference to the scope of IT system use in management of agricultural produce. However, without doubt the agriculture industry is a field in which the implementation, range and pace of ERP system implementation will be increasing.

Due to the influence of ERP systems in obtaining a competitive advantage of enterprises, their implementation is highly recommended for the agriculture sector. Countries are now moving from the small subsistence farming to the industrialized and mechanized form of farming to meet growing population demands. However, attention should be paid to the appropriate adjustment of systems to the needs of the enterprise; depending on its size (less complicated and cheaper systems can support the development of micro and small enterprises).

The benefit of the system will enable farmers to avoid long paper works involved in the supply chain process. It will also increase the revenue of low-end Farmer that deals on seed plants.

In conclusion, the role of technology in all sectors of industries is becoming increasingly relevant. The Agriculture Industry is no different from any other industry. ERP systems implemented in various organizations have not only improved business processes overall but boosted revenue of that organization. Developed countries have recognized the importance of a modernized agriculture industry and have leveraged on technologies like The ERP to gain comparative advantage in the industry and generate massive income revenue for the country.