iTWire - VoIP

Jabra Evolve range now certified for Microsoft Teams, free firmware for all

2020-11-15T19:22:08+11:00

Danish audio brand, Jabra, has announced its entire Jabra Evolve range is now certified for Microsoft Teams via a free firmware upgrade.

This certification represents an important recognition of audio quality in the Jabra business product range, particularly in this remote working age. Office works have been sent home to find whatever microphones and headsets they can. If these are not certified headsets - like the Jabra Evolve range - then dropouts, echoes, noises and distractions will result.

Jabra, part of the GN Group, is known worldwide for its consumer and business headphones, spanning wireless, true wireless and corded headphones. No matter the need, Jabra has a headphone to suit.

The Jabra Evolve series is a professional headset that's sold in the millions since launch in 2014 and is the leading unified communications (UC) headset series for noise cancellation in open office environments. The Evolve series now spans nine models and is present in many offices and homes around the globe.

Jabra's latest Evolve2 range is already certified for Microsoft Teams and includes a dedicated Teams button to interact with the app in one touch. However, the entire Evolve product range will be upgraded with Teams certification through free firmware updates, over the remainder of the year. Users will be prompted to upgrade automatically via Jabra Direct or Xpress.

{loadposition david08}The certification offers deeper integration with Microsoft Teams notifying audibly when a meeting is starting, or if you have missed calls, and allows you to take action directly from the headset. Importantly, as above, the certification means the headset hits Microsoft’s standards for clear, crisp voice-over-IP (VoIP) communications including microphone and speakers.

Jabra's own research identifies 80% of the time at work is spent collaborating, with one in every three meetings happening virtually, and 38% of meetings joined via mobile. Microsoft Teams, included with the popular Office 365 suite, is the teamwork hub for many businesses bringing chat, meetings, calls and collaboration into one pane of glass.

The certification is being rolled out across Jabra’s existing Evolve Series:
Evolve 80 / Evolve 75 / Evolve 65 / Evolve 65t / Evolve 40 / Evolve 30 II / Evolve 20. It also extends to selected collaboration and call-centric products including the Jabra PanaCast, Speak 750 and Engage 50.

In addition, Jabra's Evolve 75, Evolve2 40, Evolve2 65, Evolve2 40 and Engage 50 also meet the additional Open Office requirement. This is an objective standard that strictly tests the effectiveness of headset microphones at suppressing surrounding noise and office talk. It is only awarded to those devices with top audio engineering, and the Jabra Evolve 75 was the first Open Office certified headset when it was rolled out in 2019.

Holger Reisinger, SVP at Jabra added, “A partnership with Jabra is a partnership for a lifetime. This is why we are making sure our existing customers of our Evolve Series are supported every step of the way as they move to Teams. We couldn’t be more excited to be working alongside Microsoft to ensure our customers get the most of their devices. We believe this transition will help elevate collaboration and concentration efforts for everyday users and businesses alike.”

Albert Kooiman, Director of Microsoft Teams Devices Partner Engineering and Certification, said, “We are pleased that Jabra is expanding their portfolio of devices Certified for Microsoft Teams so customers can benefit from innovations like a dedicated button for Microsoft Teams that make it easy to join a meeting with one click.”

Court petition accuses WhatsApp of flouting Indian regulations

2018-08-29T08:41:34+10:00

A think-tank based in New Delhi has filed a petition in India's Supreme Court accusing WhatsApp of breaching certain local rules, even as the Facebook-owned company is under pressure over a spate of deaths caused by rumours being spread through the platform.

Reuters reported that the Centre For Accountability And Systemic Change had claimed in a petition that WhatsApp did not meet the requirement of the country's Information Technology Act of 2000 that stipulates “the appointment of [a] grievance officer by all intermediaries".

“It is also required to have a grievance officer for users in India. Yet, it is being allowed to continue with its Payments and other services, without any checks,” the petition said.

The grievance officer is meant to handle queries, concerns or issues that users have which cannot be handled by other authorities.

{loadposition sam08}WhatsApp has been under pressure in India over the deaths that have been caused by rumours spreading on the platform.

In response, the company has said most recently that it will create tools to fight "sinister" messages and help the authorities to stop the flood of hate that has been spread through its messages.

Last month, there were reports that Facebook would roll out software changes to make it harder for WhatsApp users to forward messages after rumours led to a spate of deaths in the country.

Authorities had pressed the company for action after several deaths in India, the biggest market for WhatsApp with more than 200 million users.

There have also been reports that telecommunications operators in India had been asked to devise methods of blocking Facebook and WhatsApp in the event that these applications were misused.

In a response to the latest problem, WhatsApp said it had both an Indian corporate presence and and a grievance officer for Indian complaints. But this officer is based in California and does not exclusively handle complaints from Indians.

The Centre For Accountability And Systemic Change also said WhatsApp needed to have servers in the country in order to run its payments service, the launch of which has been delayed.

One source told Reuters that the national authorities wanted WhatsApp to have a local set-up to handle Indian operations before clearance was given for the payments service to start operations.

ITonCloud offering full Skype for Business integration

2018-08-28T17:25:24+10:00

Australian private cloud provider ITonCloud says it has become the country's first IT provider to offer the full functionality of Skype for Business, including voice, messaging and video capabilities, integrated into its virtual cloud desktop platform using Citrix.

ITonCloud chief executive Andrew Tucker said, “Offering the full functionality of Skype for Business which include Standard, Enterprise and the Plus versions is part of our commitment to make IT straight forward and easy for our clients.

“Many cloud solutions, like Office 365, Azure or AWS, need to be purpose-built piece by piece. What we have focused on providing is a solution that is fully formed to make it easier for our clients to focus on their business instead of IT.”

According to Tucker, despite only launching two years ago, Skype for Business has positioned itself to be the market leader in the UC (unified communications) category with an estimated 36% of the market, according to research from Spiceworks.

{loadposition peter}“Many cloud solutions can only offer part of the Skype for Business experience, for instance only the Standard version without telephony and video conferencing (VC) for groups. Our offering includes both telephony and VC running seamlessly in our hosted desktop environment,” Tucker said.

ITonCloud says client Home Care Holdings, a mobile health provider, was one of the first to take advantage of the new Skype for Business Enterprise Plus as well as Standard to meet users’ needs appropriately. The first rollout has been completed, with 300 users already utilising all the features, and another 200 being to be added to complete the first two stages of the rollout.

Home Care Holdings Group chief technology officer Jerome Barrientos said, “The Skype for Business integration with the ITonCloud platform has been a game changer for us. It will mean we can do away with landlines completely, enhancing our mobility and collaboration among our users.”

“It will also generate considerable cost savings for us, reducing our telephony costs. This is because we no longer have to invest in hardware and complex on-site systems, instead we have a managed service with a single supplier with is stable and has a reliability of cost.

“It’s an offering that fits in with our overall IT strategy which is to focus on simplification and provide our network or users with systems that are robust.”

ITonCloud says Skype for Business integration will be available to all customers at a minimal cost per user. – and new versions and updates are automatically applied.

“One of the many benefits of having your IT environment hosted in the cloud is maintenance, updates, regular back-ups and virus/malware protection are all taken care of for you, allowing you to focus your resources on business critical activities,” Tucker said.

ITonCloud says it allows its users to host their entire IT environment in the cloud, reducing the need for on-premise servers and significantly cutting set up and maintenance costs.

“Users can easily access programs and apps through an integrated virtual desktop hosted in the cloud, facilitating greater security, mobility and flexibility,” said Tucker.

WhatsApp to create tools to fight 'sinister' messages in India

2018-08-22T11:46:15+10:00

WhatsApp has told India that it will create tools to fight "sinister" messages and help the authorities to stop the flood of hate that has been spread over the app leading to deaths in the country.

The assurance was given to India's IT Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad by WhatsApp chief executive Chris Daniels during a meeting in New Delhi, Reuters reported on Tuesday.

Last month, there were reports that Facebook would roll out software changes to make it harder for WhatsApp users to forward messages after rumours led to a spate of deaths in the country.

Authorities had pressed the company for action after several people were killed in India, the biggest market for WhatsApp with more than 200 million users.

{loadposition sam08}More recently, there have been reports that telecom operators in India had been asked to devise methods of blocking Facebook and WhatsApp in the event that these applications were misused.

Prasad said: "It does not need rocket science to locate a message", adding that he had asked the company to work out ways to trace "sinister" messages, like those that led to the deaths.

The company had agreed to create the post of grievance officer to handle issues in India, he added.

WhatsApp had agreed to comply with the requirement laid down by the Reserve Bank of India that all data from payment firms should be stored locally, Prasad said.

Earlier this month, reports said that global payments companies MasterCard, Visa and American Express were lobbying the Indian Government in a bid to avoid having to store customer data locally as mandated back in April.

India warns WhatsApp to act on messages that led to deaths

2018-07-05T09:24:35+10:00

India has warned popular mobile messaging service WhatsApp that it must act immediately to stop the circulation of incendiary messages that have caused deaths in many states such as Assam, Maharashtra, Karnataka, Tripura and West Bengal.

In a statement, the Indian Ministry of Electronics and IT said many innocent people had been lynched as a result of these messages circulating on WhatsApp.

It said while the country's law enforcement authorities were taking steps to apprehend those responsible for such acts, "the abuse of platforms like WhatsApp for repeated circulation of such provocative content is equally a matter of deep concern".

WhatsApp, which is owned by Facebook, has said that it is "horrified" by the "terrible acts of violence".

{loadposition sam08}The government said its sentiments had been conveyed to the senior management at WhatsApp "and they have been advised that necessary remedial measures should be taken to prevent proliferation of these fake and at times motivated/sensational messages".

Five people were lynched in Maharashtra's Dhule district earlier this month, after rumours were spread on WhatsApp that they were child abductors. Twenty-three people have been arrested in connection with the killings.

Further, a man was detained for circulating his cousin's photo on WhatsApp and branding him as a child abductor.

The government statement said: "It has also been pointed out that such platforms cannot evade accountability and responsibility, specially when good technological inventions are abused by some miscreants who resort to provocative messages which lead to spread of violence.

"The government has also conveyed in no uncertain terms that WhatsApp must take immediate action to end this menace and ensure that their platform is not used for such malafide activities."

India is the country with the widest use of WhatsApp and about 90% of the smartphones in use have the application installed. Indians spend 50 million minues a day making video calls on WhatsApp, making it by far the highest usage of this function.

LivePerson engages with new conversational platform

2018-06-05T22:34:08+10:00

Online and mobile messaging solutions provider LivePerson has launched LiveEngage for Voice Assistants, billing the solution as the first conversational platform for the enterprise to deliver two key innovations for consumers.

LivePerson says the solution is the most advanced way for brands to connect conversationally, at scale, with consumers using Amazon Alexa or Google Assistant, and to deliver:

The ability to easily switch device or location, by handing off conversations from voice assistants to messaging on a smartphone, taking that same thread "on the go" without losing the flow or context; and
Access to both bots and human staff in one thread, so any questions too complicated for a bot can be escalated to a human customer service agent, without the frustrating "dead end" effect often found with bots in the past.

According to LivePerson by allowing hand-offs to other devices and combining bots and human staff, LiveEngage for Voice Assistants is far more powerful than earlier solutions, because it puts in-home assistants to work for consumers as part of a wider, continuous connection to the brands they use, from any location, and on the consumer's preferred schedule.

{loadposition peter}“For example, voice assistant owners can start a conversation hands-free in the kitchen, then move it to their smartphone as they leave the kitchen or house, to continue when it's more convenient,” the vendor says.

"As brands adopt conversational commerce, they need to offer consumers a continuous connection across all the most important conversational channels, and LivePerson is the first company to deliver it. With LiveEngage for Voice Assistants, brands can weave Alexa and Google Assistant into this wider continuous connection, and empower consumers with the ability to get any answer they need, at any time, and from any device," said Robert LoCascio, founder and chief executive of LivePerson.

"With this release, LivePerson is pointing the way to a conversational future that is far better for consumers than today's fragmented mix of phone calls, websites and siloed social touchpoints. We're very excited about it."

Alex Spinelli, global chief technology officer of LivePerson, says, "Alexa and other voice assistants are among the most beloved consumer technologies and increasingly a part of people's everyday lives – in the kitchen, the living room, and beyond.

“What we have delivered with LiveEngage for Voice Assistants is a way to make them even more valuable and seamlessly integrate them with other ways to message with brands, putting the consumer in control and giving them a great experience."

Medibank launches WeChat channel to connect with Chinese market

2018-05-30T23:43:42+10:00

Medibank has launched a WeChat channel in a move which it says is designed to better connect with the growing Australian-Chinese population.

A multi-functional Chinese messaging app claiming over a billion global monthly active users, the WeChat platform joins Medibank’s traditional channels as a way to discuss health insurance products with customers.

In particular, the channel is used to connect with overseas students and visitors who may need insurance.

Medibank says customers can use WeChat to find their closest store, and to see who in the store can speak either Mandarin or Cantonese.

{loadposition peter}The Medibank WeChat channel also features health-related content from Medibank’s Live Better program that users can view on the company’s feed and share with their friends – and they can read a number of articles on various topics such as how to cure home sickness, or how to be safe at the beach.

According to Medibank, the channel is gaining popularity with customers and there has been a 60% increase in the number of followers in the first two months of this year.

Medibank says almost 40 Mandarin or Cantonese fluent employees are engaged in the channel across 28 Medibank retail stores and growing – with customers able to contact them directly to discuss their health insurance needs

And Medibank says its employees have been receiving more questions from customers, and not just those looking to take out insurance, with customers using the channel to ask questions like: how to find a member’s choice provider, what can be claimed at hospital and even how to sign parents up for visitors' insurance.

Medibank says it joins a growing number of businesses that are looking to better connect with the growing Chinese population in Australia.

The health fund cites statistics from the Department of Home Affairs, showing that Chinese nationals accounted for the largest portion of approved student visas in the second half of 2017, with 40,925 visas or 24.4%.

China had the largest number of lodged visitor applications with 941,088 lodgements in 2016-2017 as well, and Medibank says KPMG and the University of Sydney are also predicting an increase in Chinese investment in the Australian healthcare sector in particular.

Medibank senior customer consultant Jason Huang says the WeChat channel is a great way to serve and shows respect to Chinese customers, particularly those who are new to Australia.

Huang, who has been working at Medibank since 2015, after moving to Australia from the Hubei province in Central China in 2010, also translates content into Mandarin and Cantonese for articles on WeChat.

“Our new WeChat channel means that we can be better at supporting the Chinese community here in Australia, and particularly those who are new to the country,” he said.

Since 2015 Huang has worked in both the Glen Waverly and Box Hill Medibank stores in Victoria and says that WeChat is great for many of his customers who have migrated from China and don’t know the language and the health system.

Tech start-ups find little to cheer about in budget

2017-05-09T23:02:12+10:00

IT start-ups and small businesses have generally not found much to cheer in the federal budget, with some lamenting the lack of any direct support for start-ups and entrepreneurs.

Other tech companies were disappointed at the fee that they would have to pay for each foreign worker they hired.

Commenting on the lack of investment for start-ups, Trevor Townsend, managing director, Startupbootcamp Internet of Things & Data Melbourne, an industry-focused start-up accelerator, said while it was good to see further changes to crowd-sourced equity funding in the budget, it looked like the new economy was no longer a priority for the federal government.

His sentiments were more or less echoed by Nazar Musa, chief executive of Medical Channel, who said: "As far as I can see, there is no direct focus on trying to support start-ups and entrepreneurs. Any focus on start-ups would have supported tech entrepreneurs, or at least slowed down potential talent leaving Australia and going to the US and Europe. Now, without any further government support, this talent may not come back."

{loadposition sam08}On a similar note, Mike Pritchett, chief executive and co-founder of always-on video production solution firm Shootsta, said: "It is a disappointment; there is no push for extra funding or anything to do with start-ups, which is a massive oversight. Once again, the innovation hype has been all talk. It was pushed and pushed as being so important, and it hasn’t been reflected in the budget. If you compare Australia's attitude towards start-ups as compared to the rest of the world, it’s typical. It’s just a joke."

Weploy's head of growth Tony Wu said while the hiking of taxes to recoup costs might seem like a good short-term solution, the budget lacked investment into the future.

"Tech is the future," said Wu, whose company provides an online platform that connects businesses looking for short-term support staff with prospective employees. "If you neglect that, you're not motivating people to innovate. Small-business tax breaks are nice, but that mainly targets 'mum and dad' SMBs.

"If we want to create businesses of global scale, global reach and solve global problems, we need to create much stronger policies to support this. This budget shows how much tech is talked about but not properly backed up. We need more action, and action means cash."

The Turnbull government abolished the 457 temporary work visa system in March and instituted a new Temporary Skills Shortage visa system; under this, businesses witrh turnover of more than $10 million will have to pay a levy of $5000 for each foreign worker they employ on the four-year visas. Those who hire foreign workers on the two-year visa will have to pay $1800.

In the case of businesses with turnover of less than $10 million, the levies are $3000 for four-year visas and $1200 for the two-year visas. The levy will be put towards a fund to train Australian apprentices and trainees.

Reacting to this, Shootsta's Pritchett said start-ups were being penalised and made to pay the government money for the fact that Australia has a skills shortage. "I’m not sure how this is logical," he said.

Tim Parker, the chief executive of professional solutions firm Gruden Group, said: "Hopefully it won't apply if there are simply no local candidates. Otherwise it's just an extra tax on us. It just feels like we're being punished for Australia's inability to train suitable candidates."

Ewen Malcolm, co-founder of MiSale, said: "We are so far behind and we need to bring in foreign workers to fill holes and meet expertise requirements. Drastic improvement was required yet this budget has tip toed around a small room with several elephants in it."

Malcolm, whose company provides a real estate platform that puts the buying and selling of homes into the individual's hand, added: "The foreign worker levy will be a real Homer Simpson 'dohhhh' moment that future generations will look back on with dismay and a lot of question marks.

"It's a rather devastating blow for tech start-ups and Australia at large. The reality of it is, we don't have access to the qualified engineers we need, we are forced to source overseas as it is. There is not enough funding for local companies, and now the government wants to force us to pay more money, or dip into a smaller pool of people with inferior skill-sets. It's not ideal for the agile environment we need to create here in Australia."

In contrast, Jeff McAlister, chief executive of ticketing and registration company TryBooking, was supportive of the measure.

"We have long claimed that we could not hire enough local workers to grow our business - also we were unable to meet the training requirements for 457 sponsorship," he said.

"It it good to hear that this will be replaced with a levy per foreign worker per year. This will help us grow our local workforce and global business aspirations."

Luke Taylor, managing director of Mpire, was critical of the measure. "Creating a fine, which in essence appears to support apprenticeships, will do nothing in terms of helping grow the kinds of skills that we need to develop technology talent in Australia," he opined.

"For us, this fine is a wasted cost, we are still a young company and are frugal about where we spend our money and this is essentially charging us for being unable to access local talent.

"Like many start-ups, our fast growth trajectory means we just can't afford to wait to train (people), and hiring from overseas remains essential to our growth.

"As a high growth technology company, Mpire needs to hire people with a niche skillset that is largely unavailable locally. As a result we have been lucky to attract foreign talent to our team. This, in turn, has enabled us to hire graduates and invest the up to 2% back into their training and further growth of our business."

Weploy's Wu felt the visa and levy move was a negative measure. "This policy is just a limitation that will make it harder for foreign workers to find work and make it harder for the businesses who desperately need skilled staff to hire," he said.

"It sends a message that Australia does not value the skills of foreign workers. Weploy will pay the levy either way because we need to be able to hire skilled foreign workers (alongside local Weployees) so we can provide the best talent available to our clients. It's just an unnecessary tax that will not be beneficial to many businesses including our own."

Yanir Yakutiel, the chief executive and founder of Sail Business Loans, termed the foreign worker levy the thin end of the wedge and one that created uncertainty for small businesses.

"The government says implementing an annual foreign worker levy will generate $1.2 billion to support local skills development. While it sounds good in theory, governments seem to forget that businesses change their behaviour based on legislative changes," he said.

"Businesses will be discouraged from hiring skilled foreign workers, with resulting revenue likely to fall short of expectations. A levy would effectively be passed onto foreign workers' salaries, discouraging them from coming to Australia in the first place and making it more difficult for Australian start-ups and businesses to attract top talent."

Yakutiel said he recently had to pull two offers to potential employees when the 457 visa changes were announced "as it wasn’t clear how it would impact our business moving forward. This can be a significant setup for a growing startup like us".

"As a small technology-focused business, we rely on very specific skills for growth. Unfortunately, these skills are in short supply in Australia. Surely, skilled migrants are the last people we want to deter from immigrating to Australia."

"On the contrary, we need to make Australia as attractive as possible, as we are competing globally for the brightest minds. The multiplier effect of imported skills is enormous. The best way to skill Australians is to expose them to global expertise. Shielding the local labour market from foreign skills is a protectionist policy that is going to have the exact opposite result that what it is intended to achieve.”

HearMeOut chairman Howard Digby said the tightening of foreign worker visa policy to increase jobs for Australians may work for some areas (e.g. trade and technical) but have the reverse effect for others (such as senior executives).

"Bad handling of this policy will end up being counter productive for Australian jobs," said Digby, whose company produces a voice-based social network app. "New policies must allow for key people in strategic positions to be hired from overseas if it is deemed by the board of a company to be in the best interests of that company.

"Having blanket restrictions for industries or job titles could restrict that. The right person in a strategic role may mean the difference between great or poor performance of a company. This has the most impact on the growth of Australian Jobs by far. Successful and growing businesses create jobs, not governments."

Julius Wei, the co-founder and head of Investment Analysis at BMY Group, said: "Some of the biggest losers in today’s budget are foreigners, especially those skilled people working in Australia, with the new levy on businesses hiring foreign employees on a work visa.

"Adding to the turmoil caused by Malcolm Turnbull and immigration department’s earlier announcement of closing 457 visas all of a sudden, this budget again shows the message that Australia doesn’t welcome talent.

"We are talking about people who can bring skills and talents to the country, the people who contribute to the nation’s culture and economy, people who pay their taxes and spend money on consumption – hence 'making a net profit' from the Treasury’s point of view."

Siobhan Hayden, the chief operating officer at HashChing, an online marketplace for home loans, said a better way would be for the government "to implement initiatives for small businesses that enabled them to recruit local resources and develop them over time with supportive funding".

Karen Taylor-Brown, the chief executive and co-founder of Refraction Media, found the budget a disappointment, especially after the energy and excitement of the announcement of the National Science and Innovation Agenda in December 2015.

"This budget has completely shied away from the future skills-conversation," she said. "We've seen in the US how technology and innovation became a political pariah, but I expected more from a Turnbull government, especially with a prime minister who made his money in the heady dotcom boom days of the 1990s.

Taylor-Brown said 44% of jobs were expected to be at high risk of being affected by computerisation and technology in less than 20 years.

"Yet our children are still not required to learn computational thinking in schools," she lamented. "Industries based on technology will be the major employers of our future and I worry that not only our children, but more immediately, and our existing workers don't have access to the skills to help them succeed in a digital future."

The federal government had said it was focused on backing innovation and start-ups and this was highlighted in the "ideas booms", said Anna Rooke, CEO of QUT Creative Enterprise Australia. But it had been diluted down in the budget.

"It's disappointing, but this is a budget built around traditional skills and traditional industries like housing and transport infrastructure," she said. "We need a plan that focuses on enabling our start-ups to compete globally, and that empowers companies to capitalise creative industries contributes which contributes $90 billion to the Australian economy."

Rooke added that while the further reduction of red tape was welcome, more clarity was needed to ensure start-ups and small businesses knew how to maximise the use of these new schemes.

"The extension of the small business instant asset write-off of $20,000 is helpful and it's good news that this has been extended by a further 12 months given this is exactly the investment start-ups and small businesses need in technical infrastructure to remain competitive," she added.

The extension to crowd-sourced equity funding was welcomed by Rob Hango-Zada, the co-founder and co-chief executive of Shippit.com, a firm that makes it possible for anyone to track the location of anything, sent anywhere, at any time.

"I think it's a massive win," he said. "Basically it allows small-time investors to get in on the start-up book in Australia and also allows start-ups to benefit from a consumer investor market without the need to find angels (investors) and high net-worths (investors) to help them bridge funding gaps or make a break.

"It's the opportunity for the market to take that forward though, i.e. start-ups which will help create these marketplaces. Allowing consumers to invest will mean better valuations if they share the vision and want to participate in start-ups without needing to go all in."

Michael Jankie, chief executive of PoweredLocal, a company that markets a simple wireless marketing automation system, was also enthusiastic about this measure. "The crowd-sourcing framework may well come out as the greatest announcement for innovation in this budget. Extending this to proprietary companies should see a larger amount of uptake and growth in innovative ideas that become companies," he said.

"Bitcoin and the entire cryptocurrency markets are exploding, the real effect of this awareness is a closer look at blockchain technology. There is no doubt that there are huge innovations ahead in this technology. The long-overdue change in the double-taxation of cryptocurrencies is a giant leap forward in adoption and innovation here. Very glad to finally see that this has been resolved."

Rendevu founder Reuben Coppa said venture capital investors generally had a large minimum investment and that could put them out of reach in the first few years of a company's life. "Extending the crowd-sourced equity framework to proprietary companies won't just make funding more available to early-stage companies, it'll also open up the sector to mum and dad investors."

One measure announced in the budget will force banks to share the data they hold on a customer when requested by that customer.

HashChing's Hayden said of this: "Customer data belongs to the customers, and currently lenders provide little to no analysis or ongoing education to consumers about their financial affairs, even though they have access to their earnings and spending behaviour.

"Fintech solutions already exist, and more will follow when banking data access is provided. Businesses will use this information, following approval by customers, to gamify their spending and financial affairs with the goal of delivering better outcomes for consumers.

"The Productivity Commission inquiry into the financial services industry will help identify how the industry can improve its services to customers."

Commenting on the same measure, Sally Tindall, RateCity Money Editor, said creating greater transparency for customers was the basis of increasing competition.

"Putting a more powerful spotlight on the alternatives in the banking sector will help empower customers to make better financial decisions and should be supported," she said. "It means customers are more likely to be put ahead of profit margins."

Tindall said, however, it all hinged on whether the Productivity Commission could help deliver this outcome in a timely manner, "or whether it's a band-aid fix for a political wound that is still hurting the government from the last election".

The budget has introduced a levy on the five biggest banks in the country, and Tindall said while it sounded good on paper, it was more than likely that the new fee would be passed down to customers.

"Which means the big bank levy could end up being a big bank tax on their customers, which is about three-quarters of all Australian mortgage holders, many of whom are already struggling with record levels of debt," she added.

Sail Business Loans' Yakutiel said, given the hold the big four banks had on the market, "we certainly welcome efforts to increase consumer choice and competition in the financial sector. It is sad that we need to force their hand to refocus their businesses to put customers first".

"There are still many factors that make it less enticing for emerging small businesses to engage with the big banks. Their legacy approach to lending, including requiring small business owners to put up their home or car as collateral, strict business history requirements, and lengthy loan processing times, is just one example."

In this milieu, he said, the introduction of an open banking regime was a critical point for fintech businesses like his. "This move empowers consumers to use their data to shop around for a more competitive deal instead of allowing the banks to essentially hold their customer’s hostage. Like anything, the devil is in the detail. It is imperative that banks don’t drag their feet and use other means to prevent challengers from accessing the data."

The budget also included some measures to get multinationals to pay more tax and TryBooking's McAlister said the government needed to further crack down on multinationals not properly adopting current GST obligations.

"We are competing against foreign ticketing companies with a clear base in Australia that are dodging fair GST obligations by passing the payment and reporting obligations onto their customers. We seek a fair playground in this regard as our quoted prices always include GST while foreign competitors may not include the tax," he said.

Tech start-ups hope for tax, investment relief in budget

2017-05-08T06:32:48+10:00

Tech start-ups are hoping for changes in Tuesday's federal budget that will reduce their tax burden and make access to investment easier so that their sector can grow and thrive.

The Coalition government has made jobs and growth its mantra for a long time and thus it is not surprising that small businesses, which form the majority of Australian firms, are hoping for encouragement as they look to expand and consolidate.

Grant Shankster, co-founder of MiSale, said previous budgets had recognised the need to invest in the start-up space, adding that it would be great to see continued investment in this area.

"We start-ups are Australia’s future, after all, said Shankster whose company provides a real estate platform that puts the buying and selling of homes into the individual's hand.

{loadposition sam08}"However, I’d like to see more than investor tax breaks and new laws around crowd funding introduced. It would be great if the budget recognised the need for start-ups to access funding quickly, working alongside start-ups to deliver on ‘first to market’ ideas and products.

Shankster said most start-ups faced problems in identifying and securing funding.

"Like much of government funding there’s a great deal of bureaucracy and red tape to cut through before you have access," he said. "Start-up culture is all about being lean and agile.

"It’s hard to apply funding when you’re unaware of the benefit of such schemes and the process to secure funding is achingly complicated and often locked behind different acts or tedious tender processes. This ultimately leaves start-ups looking for aid in the private sector away from government or worse, self-funding and declaring bankruptcy before truly getting their idea off the ground."

Jeff McAlister, the chief executive of TryBooking, said: "As an online company we are able to create overseas companies and launch without a local presence quite easily. The current system of taxation means that we would pay tax in Australia on overseas profits before they are remitted to Australia (in the absence of a deferred tax asset). This area needs to be reformed to encourage local companies to expand overseas while keeping jobs in Australia."

TryBooking handles ticketing and registration and McAlister said start-ups needed to experiment with several business models in order to find one that fit a market need and was also scalable.

"Currently, under the 'same business' test, the tax losses incurred through the first business models are not deductible - if they were deductible it would give further incentive for investors to fund the new business models," he said.

"Reform is needed to the fringe benefit tax system as it is one of the complicated parts of the tax system - higher thresholds for employee FBT amounts provided to each employee would also be of assistance."

Tony Wu, the head of growth at Weploy, an online platform that connects businesses looking for short-term support staff with prospective employees, said SMBs were the future of Australia's prosperity and if "we want to drive economic growth, then we need to be investing in and better supporting these companies by making it easier for them to grow and succeed".

"I would like to see incentives that assist young companies in making their first hires and building a team. So many SMBs have amazing ideas and potential, but fail because they lack the capital to invest in staff. A subsidy or tax offset to support new hires would provide much-needed relief for businesses struggling with growing pains."

Wu said more money needed to be invested in innovation. "The amount of capital in the Australian start-up ecosystem is not enough to support the growth of an industry that will drive the future of our economy," he said. "We need to introduce more tax breaks and incentives to attract more investors and allocate more budget to supporting start-ups.

"For example the Victorian Government recently allocated $90 million to drive tech innovation. This is a great step forward. However, realistically, it will only be able to support a handful of start-ups. If we want to be global contenders, we need to be more aggressive and have access to global budgets."

What happens to the old stuff?

2016-06-26T17:56:12+10:00

It is widely known that about 90% of e-waste ends up in a landfill. That is ecologically dangerous, irresponsible and wasteful.

Dutch company, Ynvolve (pronounced Involve), one of the major global "end of life/lease" (EOL) IT specialists, has established a joint venture (JV) in Australia to bring its best practice here — reuse, repurpose and recycle — to show that there is still value in superseded computing, networking, and communications hardware.

Dean Michael is the local partner and manager of the JV that offers the majority of Ynvolve’s services here. His business partner is Dutchman Martijn Niessen, chief executive of Ynvolve and the Infinite Group who said that after 10 years of European customer satisfaction it is time to expand into the Asia-Pacific region.

Michael, a South African by birth, is also establishing a presence in in his home country.

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The remainder of the interview is given below as a Q and A.

There are many companies offering EOL services – what’s different about Ynvolve?

We have a 360° view of a customer’s needs – not just the disposal of EOL computing. Our main motivators are to help customers comply with the European Waste Electronic and Electrical Equipment (WEEE) directive and the 1998 Data Protection Act – or their Aussie equivalents.

For starters, we do not just buy back EOL equipment. Many other companies offer that service, so we have to be different. Where we are better is that we have access to many more markets for refurbished and repurposed equipment – Europe, US, BRIC countries, South Africa, and now Australia. Because of that, a lot less is going to end up in the waste stream. A lot more is reused, and that’s good for everyone.

While the economy of scale is in handling multiple units we will also look at smaller quantities – anything to keep it out of eBay or auction houses.

Surely the challenge is to put a fair price on the equipment – that must be risky?

The general "industry" rule is that EOL — say a three-year-old lease expiry — is worth around the same as the payout residual, say 10%. Then you have decommissioning costs, data migration, data erasure, packing, and shipping – all before it reaches us. The buy-back price helps the client cover those "hidden" disposal costs and often very much more.

For the moment most of the major inventory pricing is done by a Netherlands-based team of specialists with an incredibly relevant depth of experience – that’s great, as I can send over a list at the end of the day and it's ready and costed by the next morning.

Optionally you can ask us to handle it on consignment that may bring in even higher values if we can find a new buyer.

Because we have access to larger global markets we may have buyers for say, old UC systems, or to those who want used workstations to cost-effectively extend the life of an installation – we often can offer more than straight "second-hand merchants".

Isn’t labour your biggest cost?

Yes, the cost of testing, data erasure, reinstallation and ensuring tech stuff works before resale is costly. But that is our responsibility – not the client who has sold it. We have to warrant goods – usually for a year - as fit for purpose, so it is our risk if warranty return rates increase (we target for less than 5%) or we simply get stuck with unsaleable lemons. And there are issues of software licences where a used PC is worth less than the cost of an operating system or the productivity software installed on it.

You seem focused on refurbishment as a way to avoid e-waste?

It’s a tragedy that EOL cycles so heavily influence equipment replacement. A three-to-five-year-old PC or notebook has a lot of life left in it especially if you add more memory or upgrade hard disk space. Some businesses can’t afford ‘new’ and would rather pay a few hundred dollars for a great used commercial grade machine than use cheap white box clones.

Then there is a demand from larger companies wanting to maintain existing equipment – IT Lifecycle extension.

We are finding that there is a burgeoning market in ‘spares’ – just like an automotive wrecker. Tried buying DDR 2 ram lately, or a smaller hard disk that works with an older BIOS, or want to match an older UC handset?

All this is better than shipping it off to an auction house or landfill - refurb/re-use/repurpose creates the maximum value for all.

When we have to scrap things it is done 100% to the ISO process, and best practice means all metals and plastics are recycled – there is little e-waste.

What about Ynvolve’s other services?

It’s a case of gently, gently at first. We have about 15 staff here and ten times that globally, mostly based in the Netherlands. We need to build partnerships with local technicians, freight, logistics and more to expand services. I am happy to hear from others that share our environmental concerns – you will find us very open and honest.

At present clients are calling us to see what we can do – not giving us a fixed brief to buy their old stuff. Ynvolve’s 360° customer philosophy means we are able to consult offering free or paid services including whether they should dispose of, or repurpose the equipment, data migration to the cloud or new devices, Mil Spec data erasure (critical for protection of private information as well as corporate secrets – imagine all those price lists or company IP on old server and workstation) and more. Our offer depends on what a client needs!

Where are your clients coming from – this is a young business?

Global referral from Ynvolve is a start. Burning shoe leather works also. But its amazing how quickly we have cemented our reputation here and are getting more calls from finance providers, major ASX companies, government, and education. Even small business is catered for.

So ends an interview with a what could be best described as a human dynamo – this Millennial is tech savvy, totally focused, highly efficient, and will succeed.

Ynvolve’s Sydney office is at 608 Harris Street, Ultimo, email apac.sales@ynvolve.com

My take is that this company, its international backing and systems, and its local manager have long-term ‘legs’.