Sales | Business Upturn

Oracle adds generative AI to fusion Cloud Applications, introduces sustainability solution

Tushar Aggarwal — Fri, 15 Mar 2024 07:06:21 +0000

Oracle has announced the integration of generative artificial intelligence capabilities into its suite of software offerings, bringing the technology within reach for the 14,000 companies that use its Fusion Cloud Applications. These products are utilized for financial management, human resources, supply chain management, marketing, sales, and customer service. Oracle stated that the update offers customers more than 50 ways to take advantage of generative AI, which is similar to the technology underlying programs like OpenAI’s GPT-4.

With additional embedded capabilities and an expanded extensibility framework, our customers can quickly and easily take advantage of the latest generative AI advancements to help increase productivity, reduce costs, expand insights, and improve the employee and customer experience mentioned Steve Miranda, Oracle’s executive vice president of applications development, in a statement.

The potential uses of the generative AI capabilities include helping finance professionals explain business trends and forecasts, assisting program managers with project planning, supporting product specialists in generating SEO-friendly product descriptions, creating uniquely tailored job listings, and aiding call center employees in summarizing interactions with customers.

Natalia Rachelson, Oracle’s group vice president of applications development, highlighted that “with the 50+ generative AI features embedded in Oracle Fusion Applications, there is always a human in the loop to approve the generative AI-recommended content.”

Oracle also unveiled a new sustainability offering within its cloud-based financial management software suite. The new sustainability solution can help companies assess their environmental impact and take action to reduce it by consolidating and analyzing data, comparing the outcome of numerous possible scenarios, and even predicting performance.

According to Sankar, an Oracle spokesperson, Oracle’s sustainability updates “will help organizations comply with the new rules as well as meet multiple disclosure requirements across geographies, industries, and reporting standards.” He added that the update can help companies “adapt to changing legislation so our customers can align with and adopt new standards as they are introduced.”

Sankar also noted that various Oracle customers are already using the products to report sustainability metrics, including a $40 billion insurance company that is reporting upstream and downstream emissions.

The announcement coincides with new rules approved by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in early March, requiring publicly traded companies to disclose climate-related risks. The approved rules, while less intensive than originally proposed, still require disclosure of climate-related risks by public companies and in public offerings. SEC Chair Gary Gensler stated that the rules will provide investors with “consistent, comparable, and decision-useful information.”

Dell to lay off employees from sales department; Adopts new partner-driven market approach

Dixita Hazarika — Tue, 08 Aug 2023 15:42:47 +0000

According to reports by Business Today, Dell has announced its strategic aim to enhance its market approach utilising a partner-driven model. As part of this transformation, the company will restructure its sales teams, which may cause some team members to leave.

As part of this shift, the company will be undergoing a reorganisation of its sales teams, which might result in the departure of certain team members. It has however not been confirmed by Dell themselves if these adjustments are supplementary to the 6,650 job reductions previously announced earlier this year.

According to a report, Dell is ready to reshape its sales landscape, focusing on empowering direct sales force to promote storage solutions through partner channels. This reimagined model aims to incentivise sales representatives by providing them with enhanced compensation for driving sales in the storage product segment.

A Dell spokesperson stated, “Some members of our sales team will leave the company. We don’t make these decisions lightly, and we’ll support those impacted as they transition to their next opportunity. We’re always assessing our business to remain competitive and ensure we’re set up to deliver the best innovation, value and service to our customers and partners.”

Earlier this year, Dell made an announcement about a reduction of its workforce by approximately 5 per cent, resulting in the departure of 6,500 employees. This decision comes in order to optimise operational efficiency while keeping up to the ever-evolving market demands.

Chuck Whitten, the Dell Co-Chief Operating Officer, recently resigned adding a layer of complexity to the company’s ongoing strategic adjustments. In the financial report for the first quarter of the fiscal year 2024, Dell revealed a revenue figure of $20.9 billion, marking a 20 per cent decrease, while also generating an operating income of $1.1 billion.

TVS Motors total rises by 3% to 2.75 lakh units in January

Aryan Jakhar — Wed, 01 Feb 2023 15:37:50 +0000

According to figures issued on Monday, the two- and three-wheeler manufacturer TVS Motor Company sold 275,115 units in January 2023. Sales increased by 3%, with the firm selling 266,788 units in the previous year.

Its two-wheeler sales increased by 4% to 264,710 units in January 2023 from 254,139 units the previous year, supported by a 29% increase in domestic two-wheeler sales to 216,471 units in January 2023 from 167,795 units in January 2022, according to TVS Motor.

The company’s motorcycle sales fell 12% to 121,042 units in January 2023, compared to 137,630 units in January 2022, while scooter sales increased 32% to 106,537 units in January 2023, up from 80,580 units in January 2022.

TVS iQube Electric achieved its highest-ever sales total of 12,169 units in January 2023, up from 1,529 units in January 2022.

However, shipments fell by 41.7 percent to 57,024 units in January 2023, compared to 97,858 units in January 2022.

“Given the macro-economic uncertainties in a few international markets, the company has reduced stock to enable the channel partners. Customer retails continue to be well ahead of the despatches. With reduced distributor stocks and improved retails, the Company is optimistic of improving despatches in the forthcoming months,” said TVS Motors in its regulatory filing.

On the BSE, TVS Motor Company’s shares fell 1.87 percent to ₹1,017.90.

OYO to fire 600 tech employees while hiring 250 people for sales

Aryan Jakhar — Sun, 04 Dec 2022 02:17:43 +0000

Oyo, a startup in hospitality and travel technology, announced on Saturday that it is laying off about 600 of its 3,700 employees as it discontinues several products and reorganises teams.

The firm announced that it is expanding its partner relationship management and business development teams while decreasing the size of its product and engineering teams, corporate headquarters, and Oyo vacation homes teams. Despite announcing at least 600 job cuts, the corporation indicated it will still hire 250 new employees.

According to Oyo, the new hires would aid in expanding the number of lodging establishments and residences available on its platform. It also promised to support “as many employees as it can” with outplacement and maintain their medical insurance coverage for another three months.

“Product and engineering teams are being merged for smoother functioning,” Oyo added in its statement.

“The downsizing in tech is also happening in teams that were developing pilots and proof of concepts such as in-app gaming, social content curation and patron-facilitated content. Additionally, members of projects that have now been successfully developed and deployed such as ‘partner SaaS’ are being either let go or are being redeployed in core product and tech areas,” it added.

The soon-to-be public hospitality company stated that in order to improve efficiency and capitalise on synergies, it is shrinking some areas of the business while merging other aspects of its European holiday homes division. The corporation is flattening team structures, consolidating positions that are similar, and reevaluating its corporate headquarters base.

“We will be doing all that we can to ensure that most people we are having to let go are gainfully employed. Every member of the Oyo team and I myself will proactively endorse the strength of each of these employees. It is unfortunate that we are having to part ways with a lot of these talented individuals who have made valuable contributions to the company. As Oyo grows and a need for some of these roles emerges in the future, we commit to reaching out to them first and offering them the opportunity,” said Ritesh Agarwal, founder and group CEO in a statement on Saturday.

The hotel unicorn is apparently planning to go public in 2023, so the layoffs coincide with that plan. Oyo submitted a draught red herring prospectus (DRHP) with Sebi in October of last year with the intention of raising Rs 8,430 crore, but the idea was later abandoned. Even as unfavourable market conditions threaten the startup industry, the IPO-bound company is reportedly aiming for a public offering in 2023.

Oyo reported a 24% YoY increase in revenues to Rs 2,904.62 crore and a lowering of its losses to Rs 747.13 crore in a new addendum to its draught IPO submitted with market regulator Sebi last week (H1FY23). However, compared to a negative adjusted Ebitda of Rs 280.36 crore in the same time previous year, the hospitality unicorn posted a positive adjusted Ebitda of Rs 62.93 crore in H1FY23.

According to a previous announcement, Oyo has expanded from a few hundred hotels when it first launched in 2013 to more than 800 cities as of 2019. In more than 800 cities, including the US, southeast Asia, and Europe, Oyo had around 23,000 hotels, 850,000 rooms, and 46,000 vacation homes prior to the epidemic, according to a public statement from the company in June 2019.

Nearly 16,000 positions have already been cut by new-age firms in India this year, and more are expected to be eliminated by the end of the year, according to forecasts. Despite job cuts across all industries, edtech companies have been particularly hard hit as demand for online education declines. BYJU’S, Vedantu, and Unacademy are just a few of the edtech businesses that have already cut 6,500 positions.

DMart reports rise in net profit to ₹552.53 cr from ₹446.95 cr in Q3

Malvika Choudhary — Sat, 08 Jan 2022 10:46:32 +0000

Avenue supermarkets limited (DMart), the Indian retail company released its Q3 results on Jan 8, 2022, today. The consolidated financial results showcased a 23.71 per cent year-on-year (YoY) jump at Rs 553 crore for the December quarter compared with Rs 447 crore in the corresponding quarter of last year.

The total revenue of the company stood at Rs 9,281 crore at 22 per cent growth compared to Rs 7,542 crore in the year-ago quarter. EBITDA increased by 25.6 per cent to Rs 868 crore. Net profit of the company hit of to Rs 552.53 crore YoY from Rs 446.95 crore.

The report also highlighted that 29 new stores have opened. DMart share prices were at 4,744.95 INR (+39.30) today at NSE Sensex. PAT margin for the quarter improved to 6 per cent, up 10 basis points over 5.9 per cent in the same quarter last year, the company said in a BSE filing. CEO & Managing Director Neville Noronha said overall gross margins were marginally lower due to mix deterioration.

“Inflation and lesser opportunities to go out are negatively impacting certain categories more than others. We are seeing higher inflation as an opportunity to make our buying more efficient, our assortment sharper and continue to keep our costs low,” Noronha said.

“Considering the current Covid wave, our sales and footfalls will be dependent on local regulations. We continue to take all precautions to ensure every shopper, employee and partner is operating in a safe environment,” he added

India’s top automakers Mahindra & Mahindra, Maruti Suzuki expect better sales amidst chip shortage this festive season

Sneha Sengupta — Sun, 05 Sep 2021 08:41:46 +0000

India’s finest automaker, Maruti Suzuki, Toyota Kirloskar Motor and Mahindra & Mahindra expects the demand and sales to be improved this festive season for the current fiscal year. Since the companies faced a major setback in the form of chip shortage, the previous year, the situation grows on to be more challenging for the manufacturers to battle and survive this year as per their production schedules.

“At the moment demand looks ok. It is slightly better than last year. If we look at the bookings, enquiries, retails, these are robust. On the supply side of course we may have some adverse effects, we are monitoring that,” Maruti Suzuki India (MSI) Senior Executive Director Shashank Srivastava told PTI in an official note. He identified that MSI’s inventory level, calculated recently is 23-24 days whereas the appropriate level will measure up to 30 days.

Mahindra & Mahindra Automotive Division CEO Veejay Nakra averred, “Utility vehicles (UVs) will continue to dominate the space of festive demand contributing to almost half of the PV segment. We are committed to enhancing the festive season offerings and focused on making the new launches a big success and are working towards transforming the way we deliver experience to our customers. The core focus is now to deliver a delightful customer experience, and we are leveraging all our digital tools and assets to enhance customer experience end-to-end.”

Commenting on the chip shortage, Toyota Kirloskar Motor’s Associate General Manager (AGM), Sales and Strategic Marketing V Wiseline Sigamani averred that with demand gradually increasing the company intends to cater to the needs of its customers. “TKM also announced the launch of New Fortuner in January this year, which witnessed a tremendous response from our customers, and we expected overall sales momentum to continue this year,” the official asserted.

NSE discontinues the sale of digital gold by September 10

Sneha Sengupta — Wed, 25 Aug 2021 13:32:45 +0000

National Stock Exchange (NSE) has asked its members on September 10, comprising of stockbrokers, to discontinue the sale of digital gold on their respective platforms.

The notice arrived after SEBI, the capital markets regulators averred that certain members are providing a platform to their clients for buying and selling digital gold. Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi), through a letter dated August 3, informed the exchange that the said activity is in contravention of Securities Contracts (Regulation) Rules (SCRR), 1957, and the members should refrain from undertaking any such activities.

“Members, currently engaging in the activity, shall cease to undertake all activities in this regard, within one month from the date of this circular during which necessary communications, regarding the discontinuation, shall be made to the respective clients,” NSE said in a circular issued at August 10.

TradeSmart Chairman Vijay Singhania said digital gold units are not issued by any regulated entity. There is no specified parameter to check the purity of the digital gold certificate when mixed with physical gold. Jeweller firms such as Titan and banks were recognised for selling digital gold. Digital gold is not included under the definition of securities as stated by the Securities Contract (Regulations) Act 1956.

“The circular prohibits the dealing/offering digital gold-selling via Sebi registered entities, as it is not a security as mentioned above. It may be continued to be sold by the unregulated entities, subject to RBI directions if any,” Singhania said. Kishore Narne, Head of Commodities & Currencies, Motilal Oswal Financial Services, said, “We were distributors of the digital gold product of MMTC-PAMP, with the backdrop of exchange issuing the directives for such product to be not sold by all stockbrokers of the stock exchange; we shall be discontinuing distribution of this product”.

200,000 units of Kia SUV Seltos sold in India within 2 years

News Desk — Sat, 21 Aug 2021 08:31:05 +0000

KIA India is a subsidiary of the South Korean brand for its operations in India. The company was set up for operations in May 2017 in India. The company’s flagship SUV Seltos created a good market for SUV lovers in a good price range and they recently announced that they successfully sold 2 lakh units of the car.

“Success milestones are always a huge boost to motivation as it enhances our passion for serving customers better. These back-to-back milestones are a testament to our commitment to bringing a revolution in the auto industry and catering to the new age, young-at-heart dynamic buyers with class-leading premium products.” were the words of Tae-Jin Park(Kia India Executive Director and Chief Sales and Business Strategy Officer) as per Business Standards.

The car gives a great Driving Experience to its buyers along with its own internet connectivity and can easily connect to other wireless networks and this can easily help the driver to acknowledge the live traffic updates, starting the engine remotely, and using some apps in case of emergencies to call the services. The Indian audience was not prepared for these premium features at such a range and hence successfully captured the market.

“While the Seltos remains the flagbearer of this achievement as well, contributing over 78 per cent, the Sonet accounts for over 19 per cent of the total connected Kia sales,” the company said.

Passenger vehicle sales in India increased by 45% in July: SIAM

Sneha Sengupta — Thu, 12 Aug 2021 09:24:07 +0000

Passenger vehicle wholesales in India hiked by 45% to 2,64,442 units in July compared to 1,82,779 units in a similar month last year, auto industry body SIAM informed today.Acknowledging the July 2021 sales data, Rajesh Menon, Director General, SIAM said: “Indian Automobile Industry continues to face heavy headwinds in the form of global semi-conductor shortage and steep rise in commodity prices. On one hand, the industry is managing such supply chain challenges while ensuring the safety of its people, and on the other hand, Industry is also keeping a close eye on the onset of the 3rd wave in India and across the world.”

“Amidst such challenging and uncertain business environment, Industry is trying to maximize production and sales. However, sales for the period of April to July 2021 for the Passenger Vehicle segment are still lower than the level of 2016-17; for the Two-wheeler segment, still lower than the level of 2010-11; and the Three-wheeler segment has been pushed back by many years,” he added.

As per the latest data released by the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM), the two-wheeler dispatches from the OEMs to dealerships witnessed a sudden decrease of 2%t to 12,53,937 units by July, against the 12,81,354 units in the year-ago period.

Motorcycle sales reached 8,37,096 units past month compared to the 8,88,520 units in July 2020, which dipped at 6%.

Scooter sales rose to 10% to 3,66,292 units from 3,34,288 units. At a similar pace, three-wheeler sales increased by 41% to 17,888 units the previous month compared to 12,728 units in the previous fiscal. The overall sales across various categories, excluding commercial vehicles, resulted at 15,36,269 units against the 14,76,861 units in July a year ago.

Tata Motors seeking ways to offset semiconductor shortage on sales

Aayushi Singh — Sun, 01 Aug 2021 10:58:17 +0000

A company official said that Tata Motors are looking towards various ways to offset the impact of semiconductor shortage on their production activities and sales. The company would include direct buying from the stockists and make change in the product configurations.

The company has been looking at different types of chips that could be used in the components where the supply situation was severe. The company is a seller of the models like Nexon, Harrier and Safari in the domestic market.

The company has expected for the improvement in supplies in the second half of the fiscal as the situation would remain challenging in the current quarter.

Shailesh Chandra, the President Passenger Vehicles Business Unit of Tata Motors, had said that they were impacted due to the uncertainty of supplies but had managed so far. These remarks were made in the reply to whether or not the company was facing issues in their production activities because of semiconductor shortage. He also added that the company was considering on reworking some of the product variants as to minimise the production loss.

Mr Chandra said that they were looking for different semiconductors and had been procuring from the stockists directly, they were also trying to see if a standard chip could be used in the certain components where they had been facing stress. He said that to prevent from losing sales, they were looking at a trim mix.

Mr Chandra said that the company in order to manage the situation were working closely with chip suppliers.

The semiconductors were the silicon chips that cater to control and memory functions in the products like automobiles, cellphones, computers and many other electronic items.

In the auto industry, the use of semiconductors has increased all over the globe in the recent times, as new models come with many more electronic features.

The global supply chains had been led to a shortage due to enhanced demand for automobiles in the past few months which has put pressure on them.

Mr Chandra said that the situation in the current quarter would remain hard and the things would improve in the second half of this fiscal.

He also said that the situation was very uncertain and hard to predict.

Glenmark Pharmaceutical reports 30.04% rise in net profits for Q3

Sanah Shah — Sat, 13 Feb 2021 07:34:47 +0000

Drug firm Glenmark Pharmaceuticals on Friday 12th February announced a 30.04% increase in consolidated net profit to Rs 248.17 crore for the quarter ended December 2020. This was primarily due to robust sales in India and progress in the API segment. Glenmark Pharmaceuticals in a regulatory filing had reported a net profit of Rs 190.83 crore for the corresponding period last fiscal.

Consolidated revenue of the company was Rs 2,786.76 crore for the December ended the quarter in 2020 in comparison to Rs 2,735.56 crore for the same period a year ago.

“Our India business continued to grow at a healthy pace in the third quarter, consistently outperforming industry growth. The US business rebounded well and we expect the business to gradually build sales momentum,” Glenmark Pharmaceuticals Chairman and MD Glenn Saldanha said.

This quarter, “the active pharmaceutical ingredient (API) business once again performed well and we expect this business to grow in the next few years. We also expect the European and the emerging markets business to gain traction in the coming few quarters”, he continued.

Sales from the formulation business in India for the third quarter of FY 2020-21 was at Rs 882.11 crore. The filing reported that it was Rs 788.83 crore in the previous corresponding quarter.

Glenmark Pharmaceuticals Inc, USA registered revenue from the sale of finished dosage formulations of Rs 780.38 crore for the quarter as against Rs 799.82 crore for last year’s corresponding quarter.

Glenmark Europe’s revenue for the third quarter of FY 2020-21 stood at Rs 313.32 crore in contract Rs 308.93 crore earlier.

API business rose by 22.09% to Rs 320.07 crore for the quarter ended December 2020, Glenmark said.

Shares of Glenmark Pharmaceuticals closed at Rs 504.20 per scrip on BSE, declined by 0.37% from its previous close.

Sales of TVS Motor’s native two-wheeler grows by 30% in November

Shlok Arya — Tue, 01 Dec 2020 11:37:59 +0000

TVS Motors reported an increment of 25 percent in the sales of two-wheeler segment at 311,519 units in November 2020 versus 249.350 units in November 2019. The company witnessed sales growth of 30 percent, with 247,789 units sold in November 2020 as opposed to 191,222 units sold in the previous year.

Apparently, Domestic two-wheeler sales grew by 26 percent to 133,531 units in November 2020. In 2019, 105,963 units were sold. Scooter sales of the company grew 26 percent to 106,196 units in November 2020 as opposed to 84,169 units in 2019.

In November 2020, total sales of the company grew by 21 percent, with 322,709 units getting sold. In the same month of the previous year, 266,582 units were sold.

In November 2020, the company’s total export stood at 74,074 as against 74,060 units in November 2019. Moreover, two-wheeler exports grew by 10 percent, with 63,730 units getting sold in the market, as opposed to 58,128 units in November 2019.

Lastly, in November, the company’s three-wheeler sales stood at 11,190 units. In November 2019, the sales number stood at 17,232.

Maruti, Hyundai, Tata Motors witnessed spike in sales in festive season

Shravan Kanade — Mon, 02 Nov 2020 06:40:33 +0000

Leading car manufacturers of India, Maruti Suzuki India, Hyundai, and Tata Motors registered increased sales during the festive season as compared to last year. While other manufacturers including Kia Motors, Toyota Kirloskar Motor, Mahindra & Mahindra, and Honda Cars India also witnessed good sales during the period.

The ten-day period from Navratri to Dussehra is considered auspicious for purchasing new things and property, thus it registers high sales of automobiles.

Maruti Suzuki India (MSI) sold around 96,700 units in the ten-day period this year, which was around 76,000 units in the same period last year, registering a 27 percent increase in sales. While, Hyundai Motor India said it retailed 26,068 units during the period, with an increase of 28 percent over last year.

Tata Motors retailed 10,887 units during the Navratri period this year, with an increase of 90 percent over 5,725 units last year. “It is noteworthy that despite the slowdown caused by the pandemic, the company continued to witness strong demand and growth in bookings for all-new ‘Forever range’ of cars and SUVs. Our cars are being appreciated for best in class design, driving dynamics and safety,” Tata Motors Passenger Vehicle Business Unit (Head Marketing) Vivek Srivatsa said.

However, Kia Motors India registered a 224 percent increase in retail sales during the ten-day period selling 11,640 units. While Toyota Kirloskar Motor also reported 13 increase in sales by selling around 5,000 units in this period. Similarly, Mahindra & Mahindra said its deliveries this year during the period were higher than last year for SUVs and overall including small commercial vehicles (SCVs), registering a 41% increase in sales in the SUV category and 20 percent overall.

Tata Motors sees a hike in sales in August 2020

Aditi Swarup — Thu, 03 Sep 2020 12:32:54 +0000

Last year, in August Tata Motors, reported sales of 32,166 units.
This year in the same period their sales have jumped 13.38% to 36,472 units.
The domestic sales of Tata Motors are up 21.6% to 35,420 units, from 29,140 last year.
The sales of passenger vehicles have also gone up significantly.

Tata Motors reports 13% increase in sales at 36,472 units in Augusthttps://t.co/mi4GLgYTD2 pic.twitter.com/NDZCcjdnCx

— Mint (@livemint) September 3, 2020