Dell said in a press statement that the roadshow is designed to bring to life the high performance, innovation and functionality of Dell computing solutions through four different scenarios – Work, Entertain, Create and Game – that a typical person would encounter in their daily life, at work and at play.

The first – Work zone – will feature non-traditional work settings showcasing limitless working styles, anytime, anywhere.

The second zone – Entertain – will showcase the full cinematic experience, including studio sound and visual quality, possible on Dell PCs through Dell Cinema technology. Available on XPS and Inspiron PCs, Dell Cinema combines CinemaColor for true-to-life color imagery, CinemaSound that will dazzle you with true cinematic audio experience, and the state-of-the-art CinemaStream that enhances your online movie-binging experience, without interruption.

For the creative streak in you, Dell has you covered too. The Create zone will showcase the endless possibilities and inspired creations made possible with the right device and tools.

Not-to-be-missed by gamers of any level, from casual to hard core gamers, the Game zone will feature the latest Alienware and Dell G gaming laptops.

The Dell Experience Roadshow, held this weekend (22-23 December 2018) at Siam Square One shopping mall, LG Floor, will feature exciting games and activities with prizes to be won and much more.

The startup ecosystem in Thailand in 2018 turned in a good performance, growing at least 30 to 40 per cent from the previous year, and is expected to power through above 50 per cent growth in 2019 in terms of the total investment injected into startups.

Next year is expected to see several large series C fundraising deals among Thai startups that have already secured series B. Some have achieved “centaur” status, with valuations of at least US$100 million (Bt3.26 billion).

Ookbee, for example, will raise series C funding between the second and third quarters of 2019, while aCommerce, Pomelo and Omise are also on track to raise series C. Moreover, many small and medium-sized startups will exit to a higher level in 2019, giving potential for the year to be the tipping point for Thailand’s startup ecosystem.

Series A fund reassignment occurred in 2018, most notably the deal of Fastwork and Tourkrub.

The past year saw no exciting big series B deals, as the previous year saw a proliferation of startups reaching that level of investments. Eko, however, raised $20 million series B led by SMDV.

Eko’s platform, which is now used by hundreds of companies including leading groups such as Thanachart Bank and True Corporation, was built to solve a growing problem for businesses that rely on mobile-first, distributed non-desk based workforces.

Fastwork secured series A of $4.8 million from investors including China’s Gobi, Japan’s Line Corp, Partech Partners and Vickers Venture Partner.

Tourkrub also secured series A from Kingpower Click, Government Saving Bank’s SME Equity Trust #3, 500 TukTuks and the Thai entrepreneur owner of Tao Kae Noi, Itthipat Peeradechapan.

Krating Poonpol, a founder of the Disrupt Technology Venture top startup education and pre-accelerator programme in Southeast Asia, said that in 2019 there will be more small and medium-sized exits of startups that are mostly in series A. Next year, will see a lot more fundraising beyond series A, which is series B and series C.

“Investment in startups in Thailand this year continued to increase from 2017, but almost of them stayed at series A, so next year we will see a lot more beyond series A raising,” said Krating, who is also the managing partner of 500 TukTuks, a micro VC fund focused on Thailand and Southeast Asia.

However, he warned that talent and regulation are the two large factors potentially affecting the growth of the Thai startup ecosystem. In the current situation, he said, finding the talent needed by startups is harder than finding the venture capital.

Based on his experience of being involved in startup applications through 500 TukTuks and Disrupt Technology Venture, Krating ventures that the nation now has around 500 to 600 startups. Of particular note is that a lot of the interesting startup projects among small and medium-sized enterprises (SME) are working on deep technologies and innovation. The challenge is how to help them grow to full-fledged startups.

Vertical startups are potentially experiencing a boom, especially those involving financial technology, property technology, food technology and education technology. The growth momentum will continue at a good pace in 2019, he said.

Under the 500 TukTuks portfolio, around 10 of its 57 companies are in series A, while the remainder are in the bridge round between series A and series B. Of the 57 companies, around a half will continue and have follow-on funding, he expects.

Thanawat Malabuppha, president of Thailand e-Commerce Association and founder of Priceza, predicts that 2019 will see startups getting backup from investors and corporates with series A and series B raising. The growth areas are in commerce and finance sectors.

Natavudh Pungcharoenpong, co-founder and chief executive officer of Ookbee and managing partner of 500 TukTuks, says local corporate venture capitals in Thailand were very actively investing in startups over the past year.

There were also several large deals between super-startups and large corporate such as Kasikorn Line Company, the joint venture company’s connection of Line and Kasikornbank (KBank).

In another example, Grab and KBank partnered to launch GrabPay by KBank, a co-branded mobile payment application and financial solution.

The partnership comes with a $50 million strategic investment from KBank in Grab, and is part of Grab’s ongoing fundraising round.

Sompoat Chansomboon, managing director of dtac Accelerate, said that the total investment in startups in Thailand for 2018 increased between 30 and 40 per cent from 2017. There were also many real use case executions of blockchain and artificial intelligence (AI). For example, Thai startup Bitkub Capital Group Holding, aims to be the next digital disrupter in the area of financial services, driven by blockchain technology and with the goal of being the leader in the blockchain ecosystem for Southeast Asia.

Technology will not only disrupt the banking industry, but go on to disrupt the stock exchange as a whole, predicts Sompoat, and blockchain will be the key disruptive technology.

The coming year will be distinguished by the acquisitions and partnerships between startups and large corporates, with the investment in startups in Thailand next year expected to grow above 50 per cent.

For its part, dtac Accelerate, will focus on helping series A startup to move to secure series B fundraising, he said.

“Around 10 to 20 per cent of our 46 teams have already secured series A, so we will help them to move to secure series B. Some 72 per cent of the startups from dtac Accelerate have secured vital follow-on funding. Elsewhere in Asian, the proportion is around 20 to 25 per cent,” said Sompoat.

The next trend is to see a lot more startup founders from SME, domain experts and women in the next year.

Oranuch Lerdsuwankij, founder of Techsauce, said moving Thai startups from series A to series B presents a big challenge due to the need to expand regionally. More will succeed next year, Oranuch predicts.

This year, a lot of B2C startups transformed to B2B startups. And the year saw strong growth in startups that provide solutions/ platforms/ services for businesses or corporates.

“Startups that have proprietary technology or exclusive data will have a competitive advantage over the others. There is room for startup founders who have ever worked for, or have connection with, the corporates. The room for, the room in the marketplace, is in corporate users and not in mass users,” said Oranuch.

Sellsuki is a social commerce management provider for online social sellers to manage chat and sales to buyers as well as inventory, tracking, and aftersales – all integrated in a single system.

Sellsuki was born in the age of social commerce. Its service is designed to meet the demands of today’s commerce, which is often conducted through various channels, and uniquely centred around social media and chat. It is how Sellsuki has developed expertise in working with LINE@, Line’s social commerce service.

Ariya Banomyong, managing director of Line Thailand, says that social commerce is an important driver of e-commerce growth in Thailand. According to a PWC study, social commerce takes up to 51 per cent of the total US$3.1 billion (Bt101 billion) e-commerce market.

Moreover, the number of social commerce consumers in Thailand is three times higher than the global average.

“This acquisition will establish a strong foundation for our e-commerce business in Thailand. We’re confident that this acquisition will lead to a new dimension of e-commerce services from Line,” said Ariya.

“This team of skilled developers understands the needs of the Thai e-commerce market, and they will be creating new services that will surely assist and cater to the demands of Thai users and sellers.”

The acquisition was on December 6, and Sellsuki’s social commerce staff members have joined Line Thailand’s team.

Lertad Supadhiloke, co-founder and former chief executive at Sellsuki, is now head of e-commerce at Line Thailand.

Sellsuki’s social commerce solutions were completely transferred to Line, while the original company continues to operate its other business services under new management.

Lertad Supadhiloke, head of e-commerce at Line Thailand, said his mission had always been to help businesses grow while staying close to their customers.

“The vision and attitude of a corporation like Line made this an easy decision, and I believe this is a big statement in support of e-commerce merchants and the startup ecosystem as a whole. We are excited to scale our mission at Line by creating new technologies and services to satisfy the needs of Thai people with no limits,” said Lertad.

KBTG is a technology company under the digital-banking leader KBank. It aims to be a technology leader, building a totally digital bank of the future, and in the process providing a better life for its customers, who would be able to live in the digital world without limitations.

The Nation nominated Krating as Thailand’s Businessman of The Year 2016. He also was nominated as a member of the “2017 class” of Asia 21, the Asia-Pacific’s foremost network of young leaders an hosted by Asia Society.

He is managing partner of 500 TukTuks, a micro VC fund focusing on Thailand and Southeast Asia. In three years, he has invested in 57 startups.

He is also a founder of Disrupt Technology Venture, described as the leading startup education and pre-accelerator programme in Southeast Asia, and which has graduated over 1,000 startup founders. In 2017 alone, Disrupt alumni raised over Bt250 million for their startups.

He also founded dtac Accelerate, among the best of its kind in Southeast Asia with a 70 per cent follow-on funding rate.

Krating was also the first Thai selected to participate in the Kauffman Fellow Programme – a prestigious honour for top venture capitalists who combined manage US$60 billion (Bt1.96 trillion) globally.

He is also adviser to the KBank chief executive officer, helping him navigate digital disruption and transformation. The $15 billion bank is the 2nd largest in Thailand.

Krating was previously the global lead product marketing manager of Google Earth, and was Google’s Asia Pacific regional lead of quantitative marketing and located at its HQ in Silicon Valley.

His resume also includes past work as a McKinsey consultant, the investment manager of a PE firm, and the market strategy and planning manager of Rejoice and H&S for P&G Thailand.

Krating graduated from Stanford Business School in 2007 and is a sought-after speaker at international conferences such as Global Entrepreneurship Summit 2016 hosted by former US president Barack Obama and the White House. He has spoke at MIT Asia Business Conference 2016, Guangzhou International Innovation Conference 2016, and the Singapore FinTech Festival.

Jianjun Zhou, vice president of Huawei Global Carrier Business Group, said Myanmar should draw up a comprehensive ICT plan for the next 10 years, focusing on 5G deployment to drive forward the digital economy.

Speaking at the Myanmar 5G Forum2018 on Wednesday, he urged the government to urgently draft a clear national 5G development plan, as it will take some years for a 5G ecosystem to mature in an emerging market such as Myanmar.

He suggested four pillars that Myanmar must prepare before the 5G era comes into being: policy, spectrum, site, and fibre.

“Firstly, the government should create the policy and regulatory environment to support a more efficient rollout, given its potential benefits to the economy. The government’s direction should support the timely rollout of 5G to enable the next wave of broad-based industry in Myanmar,” he said.

“Secondly, carriers lack spectrum. The government needs to plan a 5G-oriented spectrum roadmap, and release sufficient spectrum resources for 5G deployment. Thirdly, site resources are still insufficient for both 4G and 5G, and the cost is very expensive. Carriers need government support with site resources. Lastly, the government needs to unify and manage the fibre rollout. Fibre should be introduced in synergistic with 5G rollout. No fibre, no 5G.”

He urged the authorities to avoid inflating 5G spectrum prices – such as through excessive reserve prices or annual fees – as they may limit network investment. He suggested encouraging heavy investments in 5G networks by allowing long-term licences and renewal.

“If the government allows carriers to share the infrastructure of other public utilities, it will greatly help reduce costs and speed up deployment,” he said.

According to the executive, the government should also encourage the backbone transition to fibre by letting fibre connect every site before 5G deployment.

“Deploying new networks is not easy. We have to deal with many |challenges in terms of the technology, resources, regulations, and business cases. But we believe that 5G will make an important |contribution to Myanmar society,” he said.

The executive pledged that Huawei will closely work with other partners on technology development and standardisation, to make 5G a reality in Myanmar.

Worapat Patram, director of public policy at Intel Microelectronics (Thailand) Ltd and a representative of Global Mobile Suppliers Association, stressed the importance of multi-stakeholders collaboration to drive the success of 5G in Myanmar.

“Ensuring affordable access to spectrum is fundamental. The preference is for exclusive licences. Auctions represent a fair regime by providing a rational market value of dedicated spectrum to users who value it the most,” he said.

Worapat said spectrum auctions should not be designed to maximise revenue but should be designed to stimulate infrastructure investments and spectrum usage.

Ismail Shah, head of Southeast Asia and Timor Leste at International Telecommunication Union, urged authorities to prepare for addressing regulatory challenges including licensing, spectrum allocation, identification, security and privacy, infrastructure sharing, data analytics, and the disposal of electronic waste.

As the year comes to a close, consumers in Asia Pacific have flocked to popular e-commerce sites to maximise deals from hefty discounts, since the Singles’ Day in November to “12.12” and now to Christmas – the grand finale of this year’s shopping season.

Amidst the popularisation of online shopping sprees during the holiday season, customers are leaving traces of their digital footprints and preferences across multiple channels ranging from desktop, mobile and even brick-and-mortar stores. With data on customers’virtual shopping carts, payment preferences, social profiles, and even internet browsing histories, retailers stand a chance to understand their customers better. But there’s a challenge too: how to gather, store, manage and analyse all of this data to provide better products and services and ultimately create the best customer experience?

This is where we’re seeing artificial intelligence (AI)-enabled cloud services come into their own, helping businesses across the region use this information to build the personalised, data-driven and secure customer experience that’s not just a possibility, but an absolute necessity.

Connecting Online and Offline Experiences

More and more customers today expect a personalised, seamless cross-channel approach to their shopping, whether that’s in-store or online. According to Oracle’s recently published Topography of Retail report, 74 per cent of consumers want “knowledgeable in-store staff that could meet their specific needs quickly”, while 64 percent of consumers from emerging markets including China and India said they loved the idea of virtual reality “try on” apps, for personalised shopping experiences. Imagine looking online for the perfect Christmas gift and then going into a store the next day, to find a shop assistant who points you towards the gift you were looking for. That’s the level of cross-channel expectation we’re gearing towards.

Data, when analysed correctly, is at the heart of this genuinely connected customer experience. It requires brands to effectively establish an understanding of their customers by analysing existing behaviours, so they can give favourable, precise recommendations quickly, based on the results.

Here Comes the AI Revolution

AI is making data-powered personalisation possible. Using cloud services powered by a combination of emerging technologies led by AI, machine learning and blockchain, retailers and brands are able to build a detailed understanding of a consumer’s behaviour both within their stores and across their online channels, as well as understanding their likes and behaviours beyond their shopping experiences. With this information, marketers can create appropriate content, specifically targeted to their audiences and delivered during key daily purchasing moments.

ZALORA, the largest e-commerce fashion company in Southeast Asia, is an organisation that relies on machine learning and AI to drive new levels of customer loyalty. It was important for ZALORA to have a tool that helps them listen and respond in real-time to each personalized interaction with the customer. With Oracle Marketing Cloud, ZALORA has moved from a batch and blast model to become an orchestrator of personalized conversations, where they are able to speak to customers in a relevant and tailored manner. Some of the benefits achieved by ZALORA from Oracle Marketing Cloud include the halving of time needed for a lead conversation to capture a large customer base, resulting in a multifold increase in revenue.

Connecting Data Cross-Platforms

Looking beyond targeted offers, it is also essential to bring all data related to customers in one centralised location, especially if you want to improve service efficiency and accuracy. With connected access to data from the marketing team, the supply chain and the back office all centralised in the cloud, companies can better coordinate internally and then create an integrated, end-to-end engagement plan without breaking into fragmented point solutions throughout the customer journey.

Bangkok Airways has become the first airline in Thailand to deploy the Oracle Service Cloud to improve its customer service and engagement. The carrier expects the software to help it quickly identify and respond to requests and incidents, minimising any disruption to customers’ travel plans and improving the customer experience through greater visibility supporting informed decisions. Agents and supervisors can now route, track and audit emails, and generate reports to measure the performance of the incident resolution process and agents themselves.

Protecting Information

Yet, many will say that AI and cloud-based data-sharing present a major risk to identity security.  After all, if brands are able to know so much about us, isn’t there a risk that hackers could easily access the data?

This is where blockchain comes in. Contrary to the belief that this is simply a vehicle for volatile cyber currencies, blockchain can create ultra-secure tokens which contain an individual’s unique personal information. By using encrypted authentication, this information can only be accessed through use of a secure key, providing totally personalised information, alongside cryptographic security.

It’s about Trust

All these innovations are available right now, but companies need to carefully adopt this innovation while ensuring customer trust.Over 90 per cent of consumers in developing markets such as India or China and nearly half in developed markets such as the US or Australia that Oracle spoke to, said it was important that they themselves had control over the personal information that retailers held on them. So, while one in three customers in Australia, New Zealand, and India would welcome a personalised digital experience based on previous interactions with brands, there has to be boundaries.Retailers need to tread that fine line between customers appreciating good Christmas present recommendations based on their Singles’ Day purchases, and, feeling a bit uncomfortable with gift suggestions based on their mood in their latest Instagram story.

The continuous pursuit of customer happiness remains at the heart and core of companies. As many customers are demanding the future now, companies need to either predict their needs or lose them.Emerging technologies including AI-enabled cloud solutions can help companies find more value from data, and ultimately, up their game in perfecting the digitally-transformed customer experience journey.

Digital transformation is a requirement for ongoing competitiveness that clearly helps businesses run more efficiently and deliver great experiences. However, many of today’s point solutions only solve part of the digital workflow problem, don’t play well in existing software ecosystems like the broad HR technology space, or just don’t provide the enterprise-grade identity assurance required in industries like financial services.Today we are thrilled to further differentiate Adobe Document Cloud with industry-first signer identity and workflow improvements focused on enabling seamless digital customer onboarding for FSIs, the industry’s most comprehensive HR solution support and even stronger document security as Adobe Acrobat becomes Microsoft’s preferred PDF solution for Microsoft Information Protection.

Adobe Sign introduces industry-first Government ID Authentication for FSI customer onboarding

Implementing an e-signature solution is a simple way to digitally transform your company, attract new business online, and help customers save time in any enrollment or onboarding process. But for some industries, especially banking and other financial services, e-signatures are a no-go unless they can confidently verify the identity of their customers before providing digital onboarding services.

Adobe has solved this problem with the latest release of Adobe Sign that pioneers an industry-first signer identification option called Government ID Authentication, whichuses a physical ID, like a driver’s license or passport, as a form of digital ID authentication. When enabled, signers are guided through the simple process of using their mobile phone to snap a photo of a physical ID card. Adobe Sign automatically and comprehensively evaluates the ID card’s security features, like patterns, fonts and layout, to authenticate the identity of the signer and allow them to complete the signature process. This smart new way to authenticate a remote signer takes only seconds, but it delivers a great signer experience, while reducing identity fraud concerns for the company.

Providing this higher level of signer identity authentication will help our customers implement e-signatures in a whole host of new business processes. Many of the world’s largest financial service providers already trust Adobe Sign for their customers’ digital enrollment and we expect many of them to adopt Government ID Authentication to make the process an even better experience for everyone involved.

Adobe Sign expands its comprehensive support of HR solutions with industry-first integrations in Microsoft Dynamics 365 for Talent and ServiceNow HR Service Delivery

Every HR leader understands that employees expect a modern, digital experience.According to Jacob Morgan, best-selling author focused on the future of work, organizations that invest in employee experiences have 4.2x the average profit and 2.1x the average revenue of those that don’t. And while the HR technology industry is laser-focused on employee experiences, there are still so many paper-dependent HR processes that degrade employee experiences and waste limited HR resources.Integrating e-signatures into HR solution-based processes is critical to delivering an end-to-end digital experience for employees that eliminates paper-based processes like offer letter and onboarding document approvals. Adobe Sign has integrations with the most widely used HR solutions to help deliver an all-digital employee experience. And now to support even more HR organizations, we’re releasing new, industry first integrations with two powerful HR solutions: Microsoft Dynamics 365 for Talent and ServiceNow HR Service Delivery.

Adobe Sign is the first and only e-signature solution to be integrated with these HR platforms, giving Adobe customers even greater choice in how they adopt e-signatures into employee-centric processes. The Microsoft Dynamics 365 for Talent and ServiceNow HR Service Delivery integrations join the other Adobe Sign integrations with widely adopted HR solutions like Workday and SAP SuccessFactors to make e-signatures part of company-wide document processes.

Adobe Acrobat Now Microsoft’s preferred PDF solution for Microsoft Information Protection

As the leaders in digital document solutions, Adobe and Microsoft continue to work together to help modern enterprises digitally transform. In addition to the new Adobe Sign integration with Microsoft Dynamics 365 for Talent, today we’re enabling even higher document security in PDFs thanks to Microsoft Information Protection support in Acrobat DC and Acrobat Reader on Windows. Now companies that require the comprehensive protection of sensitive data provided by Microsoft Information Protection can open and view PDF files in Acrobat DC that have been secured by Microsoft Informaiton Protection. This new capability makes Acrobat DC the preferred PDF viewer for Microsoft Informaiton Protection solutions. This is another great example of how Adobe and Microsoft’s ongoing strategic partnership helps make work both frictionless and secure for our joint customers.

All of the ground-breaking new functionality introduced today in Adobe Document Cloud focuses on giving our customers, partners, and their customers more flexibility, more security and more options to deliver great digital experiences at any scale. Learn moreabout the new functionality and integrations in Adobe Sign. Learn more about Microsoft Informaton Protection support in Acrobat DC and Acrobat Reader.