Strange going-ons in Vegas: Russians from Warminster vs Tesla


Tom Paine




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At CES last week, there was an odd incident in which a Tesla, supposedly in self-driving mode, ran into a small robot also in the road.




It was obviously a publicity stunt set up in advance. The bot was from a company named Promobot. Its website says the company is located at 626 Jacksonville Rd, Ste 125, Warminster, PA.

As the name Promobot suggests, the company tries to rent robots to companies for use as promotional tools.

Its not clear who produces the robots, or how many Promobot actually has.


Its Founder and Chairman of the board of directors, Promobot, is Alexei Iuzhakov. Back in 2008, Iuzhakov was in a (Russian) Presidential program for training of managerial personnel for organizations of the national economy; he also received training at some Silicon Valley institute and with NASA, according to a brief CV. The rest of Promobot's personnel listed on its website are also apparently of Russian origins, judging from their names.

Promobot's only funding, according to CrunchBase , was $2 million in 2016 from (the Russian) Internet Initiatives Development Fund (IIDF).

Nothing particular wrong with this, unless it was a serious attempt to undermine Tesla, but its kind of an odd proposition. I don't waste much time on publicly stunts, but I just wanted to identify who was behind it. I'll pass on anything else of importance that comes out of this.

More analysis of event by the website Evolving Science .


at 4:23 PM 0 comments

AT BELL LABS IN MURRAY HILL, THE FUTURE OF INDUSTRIAL AUTOMATION IS ALL ABOUT THE NETWORK



Marcus Weldon introduces Future X for Industries | Esther Surden


In November, NJTechWeekly.com was among a small group of journalists who were given a first look at some new industrial automation/internet-of-things (IoT) technology at Nokia Bell Labs in Murray Hill.

The technology was both described by officials and demonstrated by engineers at a recently built laboratory at Bell Labs.

Using the laboratory, enterprise customers of the company’s newly announced Future X for industries strategy and architecture will be able to envision how slicing, fine-tuning and making changes to their industrial networks will help them achieve their goals. Need less latency in a robotic task? The network will adapt for that. Need more speed for another task? The network will adapt.





A demonstration of how the network can be dynamically changed | Esther Surden

First they’ll sit down in a futuristic network control center and see what tweaks can be made to change their productivity outcomes. Then, they’ll virtually tour a simulated factory floor that harnesses industrial-IoT, distributed-cloud, augmented-intelligence (AI), augmented-reality, virtual-reality and high-performance networking, including advanced LTE and 5G.

Nokia Entering New Markets


Nokia is entering new markets with these AI-infused industrial networks, we learned at the press briefing. The briefing included presentations by Marcus Weldon, president of Bell Labs and CTO of Nokia; interviews with representatives of Nokia’s marketing and sales teams; and a tour of the Bell Labs Future X for industries network facility, where the company demonstrated its capabilities.

According to Weldon, networks need to become more dynamic, more scalable and more economical. They also need to create more value, and the driver for all these changes will be industry: infrastructure developers, manufacturers and enterprises.

“We’ve looked at what will serve industrial needs in detail,” he said.

One of the main components of this IoT network will be network slicing. “I’m not talking about any ordinary QoS [Quality of Service], I’m talking about QoS like you wouldn’t believe,” said Weldon.






That’s Marcus Weldon on the robot greeting visitors to the Future X network lab | Esther Surden




AI and IoT for a New Industrial Age



As we enter into this new Industrial Age, all applications and services in every industry will need QoS, he noted. Applications and services will have to be dynamically adapted and managed because things keep moving, so QoS will continue to be necessary. Networks will have to adapt to a changing environment if, for example, a robot is switched out or a new sensor added. Business systems also have different monthly habits, as well as different habits for various times of the day, and these will have to be accommodated. This adaptation is already becoming more tangible, real and important, Weldon said.

The market for industrial IoT is “hyperbolically large,” Weldon said, possibly $11 trillion of new value creation over the next 10 years. “If you can solve an $11 trillion problem, and 10 percent of that can come to those who solve the problem, you can imagine that this could be something that’s as large as the current industry we are in.”


“Industry is stuck at current levels of productivity. It will need a network to fix this.”

With a constantly changing network as the backbone of a new industrial application, operations technology and information and communications technology can come together. “The network infrastructure is probably the toughest part of the problem because it is a physical thing that you have to put in, dig, put things up on poles.” Until now, there hasn’t been any reason to make this happen, he said.

But now there is a reason. “Industry is stuck at current levels of productivity. It will need a network to fix this.” Weldon added that customers had come to Nokia asking if the company could fix their production environment, as Wi-Fi wasn’t working.

“No matter how many versions of optimized Wi-Fi they had deployed, it wasn’t reliable enough, didn’t have low enough latency, didn’t have enough capacity,” he said. And he noted that the enterprise business is a natural for Nokia because its sales team can operate through service provider partners or on its own, and the company has teams in many different countries worldwide.







Nokia Bell Labs simulated industrial floor | Esther Surden


Visitors to the lab will be able to configure their networks live and to experience an emulator that recreates factory-use cases in an Imax-like theater environment. Nokia has also built a small factory that does assembly tasks, and has constructed a small city that allows it to demonstrate the flying- or moving-vehicle features of the future IoT. The demonstrations test the end-to-end performance of a network and how the network can be dynamically adapted to a representative task. Once particular network configurations are pinned down, Nokia will be able to port them to a customer’s location more easily.



Some of what is being demonstrated in Murray Hill came from technologies developed by San Mateo-based SpaceTime Insight, which Nokia acquired in May, but these technologies have been combined with technologies developed at Bell Labs. At the time of that acquisition, Nokia said SpaceTime Insight’s advanced IoT and machine learning-powered analytics technologies would accelerate the development of Nokia’s IoT offerings.
>


Esther Surden is Publisher and Editor of NJTechWeekly, and a contributor to Philly Tech News. This article originally appeared in NJTechWeekly , and is republished here with her permission.



at 5:41 PM 0 comments

DisrupTV from Constellation Research, with segment featuring Annie McKee, PhD, University of Pennsylvania & Author



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Nielsen, CBS reach agreement before playoff round





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CBS CORPORATION AND NIELSEN REACH AGREEMENT
01-11-2019

Renewal for Measurement across National, Digital and Local

New York, NY – Jan. 11, 2019 – CBS Corporation (NYSE: CBS.A and CBS) and Nielsen (NYSE: NLSN) today announced an agreement for Nielsen national, digital and local audience measurement. The renewal encompasses a range of services. CBS Television Network, CBS Television Distribution, Showtime Networks, Smithsonian, Pop, CBS Sports Network and CBS’ 27 owned-and-operated local television stations will continue to use Nielsen’s total audience measurement services as part of the deal. Financial terms were not disclosed.

“CBS is a longstanding leader in world-class video content. We are thrilled to continue our long partnership with them as we innovate for the future,” commented David Kenny, Chief Executive Officer, Nielsen.

“We are very pleased with this new agreement we were able to achieve with Nielsen,” said Joe Ianniello, President and Acting CEO, CBS Corporation. “It meets our strategic goals, and will allow us to benefit from important advances in measurement as they are rolled out. CBS programming is perennially the most-watched content rated by Nielsen, and there is significant upside ahead as next-generation advertising continues to flourish.”

ABOUT NIELSEN
Nielsen Holdings plc (NYSE: NLSN) is a global measurement and data analytics company that provides the most complete and trusted view available of consumers and markets worldwide. Our approach marries proprietary Nielsen data with other data sources to help clients around the world understand what’s happening now, what’s happening next, and how to best act on this knowledge. For more than 90 years Nielsen has provided data and analytics based on scientific rigor and innovation, continually developing new ways to answer the most important questions facing the media, advertising, retail and fast-moving consumer goods industries. An S&P 500 company, Nielsen has operations in over 100 countries, covering more than 90% of the world’s population. For more information, visit www.nielsen.com.

ABOUT CBS CORPORATION
CBS Corporation (NYSE: CBS.A and CBS) is a mass media company that creates and distributes industry-leading content across a variety of platforms to audiences around the world. The Company has businesses with origins that date back to the dawn of the broadcasting age as well as new ventures that operate on the leading edge of media. CBS owns the most-watched television network in the U.S. and one of the world’s largest libraries of entertainment content, making its brand — “the Eye” — one of the most-recognized in business. The Company’s operations span virtually every field of media and entertainment, including cable, publishing, local TV, film, and interactive and socially responsible media. CBS’ businesses include CBS Television Network, The CW (a joint venture between CBS Corporation and Warner Bros. Entertainment), Network 10 Australia, CBS Television Studios, CBS Studios International, CBS Television Distribution, CBS Consumer Products, CBS Home Entertainment, CBS Interactive, CBS Films, Showtime Networks, CBS Sports Network, Pop (a joint venture between CBS Corporation and Lionsgate), Smithsonian Networks, Simon & Schuster, CBS Television Stations, CBS EcoMedia, and CBS Experiences. For more information, go to www.cbscorporation.com.

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In November, Nielsen and Comcast, which sees Nielsen ratings from at least three different angles, reached an agreement that extended coverage of X1 and non-linear programing .


at 8:55 PM 0 comments

Philly EnterpriseTech Highlight 1/11: Vague for President? FanDuel (Irish, not British thankfully) at Valley Forge


Tom Paine




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Philly VC Richard Vague for President (of the US) ?

That's the speculation started by a BuzzFeed piece and followed up by Larry Platt in the Philadelphia Citizen . Don't know if there's anything to it, but Vague is a very bright man who has studied the key issues in depth.

“I have increasingly crystalized a set of issues that I think are the way to put Democrats back into the White House", he told BuzzFeed. "To oversimplify, these are kitchen-table issues. This is a laser focus on the middle class,” said Vague. “And as the 30-odd candidates coalesce, if there’s not somebody who is laser-focused on the issues I think are important, then you never say never.”



FanDuel is bringing its sports book to Valley Forge Casino , beating other PA casinos to the punch. I thought for a second whether its past Pennsylvania investors (such as Comcast) had given it a leg up, but now since its been acquired I doubt those connections matter much.



Cannon Group, a Blue Bell-based business consulting and IT management firm, has just announced the launch of a new offering, Connectivity as a Service (CaaS). This solution meets a need in the marketplace for a single point of contact across third-party connectivity providers to enable cost-effective and high-quality network connectivity while simplifying processes for customers, the company said in a release.

CaaS is a managed services offering that helps businesses manage connectivity-related processes across multiple providers, including order management, implementation management, network management and invoice management capabilities.






















































at 3:31 PM 0 comments

Fyre: The Greatest Party that Never Happened (Official Trailer)

About the guy, an ex-DreamIT Ventures startup co-founder, who convinced people he had a lot of VC money from Comcast Ventures.

It debuts on Netflix January 18.



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Guru CEO, Rick Nucci, discussing AI, Hype, and the Future of Humanity at Business of Software Conference USA 2018



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Looking back at Veeva Systems' rise


Tom Paine




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I was writing about Veeva Systems when it was still named Verticals onDemend. Few outside of certain Pharma and SaaS circles knew much about it, or what its business actually did.


Verticals onDemand becomes Veeva Systems
(May 2009)

Verticals onDemand, the Pleasanton, California-based SaaS CRM vendor that has much of its sales & marketing staff in Radnor, has changed its name to Veeva Systems (see press release). The new name, a derivative of the Latin word meaning "to live", is intended to emphasize Veeva's total focus on serving the life sciences market. With the name change, the company has also indicated it plans to get deeper into that vertical, providing applications that go further into an organization than just CRM. Announcements of some more details on this should be forthcoming.

 The two-year-old company’s application runs on Force.com from salesforce.com. In fact, of its top 4 execs three came from Salesforce.com, with the exception being EVP & GM Matt Wallach, who came from Health Market Science in King of Prussia but was formerly with Siebel (now part of Oracle).

 Veeva Systems recently expanded to Europe, and next week in Philadelphia is holding what it calls "the largest Pharma SaaS CRM Gathering" (May 19 & 20).





Veeva (NYSE: VEEV) now has a market cap of $14 billion. Today, when I look at the reaction to a simple press release, its an endless stream of tweets from around the world. Wall Street jumps on every rumor or bit of information.

Things usually look messier to insiders, but to the public eye, execution has been almost flawless.

Investors' Business Daily ran a story yesterday, Top Stocks: Veeva Systems Stands Tall In Fast-Growing Software Sector.

I am sure that Veeva must have a chart in its offices showing all known segments of the digital life sciences market. and those that ere not yet digital. And many are still beyond its current scope. The opportunity to move into other spaces exist, but Veeva is very methodical and careful about what it takes on.




at 8:17 PM 0 comments

Philly EnterpriseTech Highlights Jan 7-9; Is WeWork actually just an overvalued real estate business?; Veeva vs Salesforce: Which stock would you buy?

The early talk was that WeWork would get a $15 billon + equity infusion from SoftBank. But it ended up being only $2 billion. What happened?
Is WeWork actually just an overvalued real estate business?


Veeva vs Salesforce: Which stock would you buy? Motley Fool weighs in.












































































at 10:13 AM 0 comments

Top Cancer Doctor Resigns as Editor of Medical Journal, Joins AstraZeneca

by Katie Thomas, The New York Times, and Charles Ornstein, ProPublica

Top Cancer Doctor Resigns as Editor of Medical Journal

Dr. José Baselga, the former chief medical officer of Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, resigned under pressure on Wednesday as one of the editors in chief of Cancer Discovery, a prominent scientific journal, after he failed to accurately disclose his conflicts of interest in dozens of articles in medical journals.


The American Association for Cancer Research, which publishes the journal, said a panel of experts and the group’s board of directors had concluded that “Dr. Baselga did not adhere to the high standards pertaining to conflict of interest disclosures that the AACR expects of its leadership.”


“Consequently, Dr. Baselga was asked to resign from his role at the journal,” said a statement sent to the association’s members.


Baselga, a prominent figure in the world of cancer research, had helped found the journal and served as an editor for the past eight years. The AACR, which he formerly led as president, concluded that his omissions were inadvertent and said it would allow Baselga to continue publishing in its journals.


“Dr. Baselga is a valued member of the AACR with acknowledged expertise in clinical and translational cancer research,” Dr. Margaret Foti, the group’s chief executive, said in the statement.


Baselga’s disclosure lapses have prompted a broader discussion over the influence of the drug and health care industries on medical research, including whether journals should do a better job of ensuring that researchers accurately report their corporate ties. Teaching hospitals across the country have reminded faculty members of their obligation to disclose, and some have begun re-examining which relationships are appropriate.





Baselga resigned as chief medical officer of Memorial Sloan Kettering in September after The New York Times and ProPublica reported that he had failed to disclose millions of dollars in payments from health care companies in dozens of research articles. He also resigned from the boards of the drugmaker Bristol-Myers Squibb and Varian Medical Systems, a maker of radiation equipment.


Contacted for comment, Baselga provided the resignation letter he sent to the AACR. In it, he thanked the cancer organization for its “deliberate and thorough review” and said he takes “great heart from the panel’s finding that my failure to disclose was inadvertent. I understand, however, that the situation made it difficult for me to continue in a leadership role.”



Baselga, 59, is an expert in breast cancer research and played a key role in the development of Herceptin by Genentech, a subsidiary of Roche. He came to Memorial Sloan Kettering in 2013 after serving as chief of hematology and oncology at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston. Before that, he was a leader at the Vall d’Hebron Institute of Oncology in Barcelona, Spain.


Since September, Baselga has corrected his conflict-of-interest disclosures in several journals, including twoin The New England Journal of Medicine, three inClinical CancerResearch, five in JAMA Oncologyand two inCancer Discovery.


In a note that accompanied Baselga’s correction in The New England Journal of Medicine, editors described his failure as a “breach of trust.”


Baselga also revised disclosures with the American Society of Clinical Oncology, which said that his participation in future meetings will be contingent on a review of his presentation slides and that his sessions would be monitored for evidence of bias.


The group also said that if Baselga did not disclose his interactions in the future, he would be barred from participating in any meetings sponsored by ASCO for two years.


ProPublica and The Times found that Baselga had failed to report any industry ties in 60 percent of the nearly 180 papers he had published since 2013. That figure increased each year — he did not disclose any relationships in 87 percent of the journal articles that he co-wrote last year.


The AACR said its panel of experts will continue to look at conflict-of-interest disclosures, including how to “best harmonize such disclosures and provide greater clarity around these issues.”



ProPublica is a Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative newsroom. Sign up for The Big Story newsletter to receive stories like this one in your inbox.



at 8:43 PM 0 comments

Veeva Ranked 2nd Fastest-Growing Enterprise Software Company by Fortune Magazine (Press Release)

24.178.145.127 ­
Veeva Ranked 2nd Fastest-Growing Enterprise Software Company by Fortune Magazine
Fortune recognition among additional accolades from Deloitte, PM360, and Pharmaceutical Manufacturing for continued growth and innovation

January 08, 2019 07:03 AM Eastern Standard Time
PLEASANTON, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Veeva Systems (NYSE:VEEV) today announced that it was ranked the second fastest-growing enterprise software company on Fortune magazine’s 100 Fastest-Growing Companies list and one of the fastest-growing software companies in Deloitte’s 2018 Technology Fast 500™ survey.

Veeva was ranked the 2nd fastest-growing enterprise software company on Fortune's 100 Fastest-Growing Companies list, among other industry accolades from Deloitte, PM360, and Pharmaceutical Manufacturing for continued growth and innovation.
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PM360 magazine also recognized Veeva’s continued product innovation and leadership, naming Veeva Nitro one of the most innovative products of 2018. In addition, Pharmaceutical Manufacturing magazine named Veeva Vault Training as a Pharma Innovation Award winner for advancing role-based training in quality manufacturing.

“Thanks to the Veeva team for their focused execution and commitment to product excellence,” said Peter Gassner, founder and CEO of Veeva. “We’re proud of the strong partnership we have forged with the life sciences industry and the continued opportunities to support our customers’ success.”

Fortune Ranks Veeva as Fast-Growing Company for Second Consecutive Year

Fortune ranked Veeva the second fastest-growing enterprise software company and number 18 overall on its 100 Fastest-Growing Companies list. The annual list ranks the top performers in revenues, profits, and stock returns over the past three years.

Deloitte Names Veeva a 2018 Technology Fast 500™ Winner

Deloitte recognized Veeva as one of the fastest-growing public and private technology companies in North America. This is the fifth consecutive year that Veeva has been named to the Deloitte Technology Fast 500™.

“These companies are innovators who have converted their disruptive ideas into products, services, and experiences that can captivate new customers and drive remarkable growth,” said Sandra Shirai, vice chairman, Deloitte LLP, and U.S. technology, media, and telecommunications leader.

PM360 Selects Veeva Nitro as a 2018 Most Innovative Product

In its annual Innovations Issue, PM360 recognized Veeva Nitro as one of 2018’s Most Innovative Products. Veeva Nitro eliminates the time and effort of custom data warehouse development and maintenance with an industry-specific solution for life sciences that is analytics and AI-ready.

“Our selections represent the companies, offerings, and strategies that demonstrate what we believe is unique in their ability to impact the industry,” said Anna Stashower, CEO and publisher of PM360. “We hope others in the industry are able to work with these innovators or use these innovations to better serve patients, physicians, and other healthcare stakeholders.”

Pharmaceutical Manufacturing Recognizes Veeva for Product Innovation

The Pharma Innovation Award highlights technologies and systems from companies that have distinguished themselves as industry leaders. Pharmaceutical Manufacturing acknowledged Veeva Vault Training for delivering a centralized view of training across an organization.

“Veeva’s training system has the potential to reduce validation times from months to days,” said Karen Langhauser, chief content director at Pharmaceutical Manufacturing. “Pharmaceutical equipment suppliers invest a large amount of time into their products, so we feel this innovation should be recognized.”

Additional Information

Connect with Veeva on LinkedIn: linkedin.com/company/veeva-systems

Follow @veevasystems on Twitter: twitter.com/veevasystems

Like Veeva on Facebook: facebook.com/veevasystems

About Veeva Systems

Veeva Systems Inc. is a leader in cloud-based software for the global life sciences industry. Committed to innovation, product excellence, and customer success, Veeva has more than 675 customers, ranging from the world's largest pharmaceutical companies to emerging biotechs. Veeva is headquartered in the San Francisco Bay Area, with offices throughout North America, Europe, Asia, and Latin America. For more information, visit veeva.com.

Forward-looking Statements

This release contains forward-looking statements, including the market demand for and acceptance of Veeva’s products and services, the results from use of Veeva’s products and services, and general business conditions, particularly in the life sciences industry. Any forward-looking statements contained in this press release are based upon Veeva’s historical performance and its current plans, estimates, and expectations, and are not a representation that such plans, estimates, or expectations will be achieved. These forward-looking statements represent Veeva’s expectations as of the date of this press announcement. Subsequent events may cause these expectations to change, and Veeva disclaims any obligation to update the forward-looking statements in the future. These forward-looking statements are subject to known and unknown risks and uncertainties that may cause actual results to differ materially. Additional risks and uncertainties that could affect Veeva’s financial results are included under the captions, “Risk Factors” and “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations,” in the company’s filing on Form 10-Q for the period ended October 31, 2018. This is available on the company’s website at veeva.com under the Investors section and on the SEC’s website at sec.gov. Further information on potential risks that could affect actual results will be included in other filings Veeva makes with the SEC from time to time.

Contacts
Roger Villareal
Veeva Systems
925-264-8885
roger.villareal@veeva.com

Lisa Barbadora
Veeva Systems
610-420-3413
pr@veeva.com



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