Customer: Can I pay you in bitcoin? Ticket counter agent: Mmm, no. I am sorry. Customer: Why not??? It is the currency of the digital age! Ticket counter agent: I'm sorry, we do not accept bitcoin. Cash or card? Customer: But why not? This conversation could be happening right now, at the ticket counter of any major airline, in any of the busy airports around the world. Interestingly, both parties are quite right and perfectly justified in their positions on the topic. So let us look at both sides of the coin and try to explain why. Bitcoin, despite the initial bad press about being used in qu...
Globally, the air cargo industry clocked a massive 2 quadrillion kg-km as per World Bank statistics for the past year. Meanwhile, IATA confirms that while the year 2016 saw growth doubling by volume, the first half of 2017 has been the strongest ever for the industry so far in this decade. Confidence levels are tremendously high within industry circles, although public perception may have taken a hit from the headlines surrounding Simon, a highly prized rabbit who met his end in the cargo hold of a prominent global airline earlier this year. While the exact cause of the animal's death remains ...
Once upon a time, people would thank technology for letting them do things they never dreamed possible. Those times are gone, and people are harder to please than ever before. Today's users want to get things done faster, easier, more efficiently and at a definite cost advantage over the long term that would ultimately pay for the technology itself. Otherwise, investing in technology just doesn't make sense! HAX, a hardware accelerator which supports multiple start-ups in the robotics space, recently hosted a demonstration of the technologies developed under their incubation. A common consensu...
The continent of Africa has a total of 54 independent countries, but international trade to and from the region is dominated by just five countries. Growth is steady on the whole (around 1.5% in 2016 and 2.6% in 2017) standing just behind Asia as a continent, and expected to strengthen in the coming years. But some countries in the region stand out - Ethiopia has been growing at 10% by IATA estimates while Kenya shows a 6% growth rate according to World Bank estimates. This distribution of trade across the expanse of the continent calls for a good connectivity network as can be provided only ...
Technology must pervade, without the need to intrude. While technology itself may be getting more and more complex, the true objective of the IT vendor is to reduce the complexity of transactions for the customer business. A SaaS mode implementation strips the customer of practically all the responsibility of IT, giving the IT provider complete control over the 'how', to implement 'what' the customer has defined as their business goal. From the point of view of a technology partner, the control we gain comes with a great responsibility. Moving to a SaaS model isn't just a question of tech...