Your Tech Story

Yashica Vashishtha

Yashica is a Software Engineer turned Content Writer, who loves to write on social causes and expertise in writing technical stuff. She loves to watch movies and explore new places. She believes that you need to live once before you die. So experimenting with her life and career choices, she is trying to live her life to the fullest.

Blue Yonder

Blue Yonder – Powering Digital Supply Chain Using Innovative Solutions.

Management is the very core of any business, and if one can get full-fledged software for that, it is the cherry on the top. Management includes multiple tasks, from handling the customers, the quality of the products, taking care of the employees, and ensuring on-time delivery of the product, all come under this category. Thanks to the growing IT industry and the rising IT companies, we have got software for every management work. One such crucial work is dealing with everyday supply/delivery and keeping the account for the same. Blue Yonder is one of the IT companies which offers an end-to-end supply chain platform, suitable for almost every business. The company is known for its Luminate Platform (built on artificial intelligence) used by many brands across the globe for their data integration, real-time decision making and to achieve end-to-end supply chain visibility of each process going on in the organization.

About Blue Yonder

Blue Yonder is a subsidiary company of Panasonic, which previously was known as JDA Software. James Donald Armstrong and Frederick M. Pakis founded the company in 1985, and its headquarters resides at Scottsdale, Arizona. It is an American software company providing its services worldwide. Blue Yonder is best known for its flagship product Luminate Platform, a supply chain management software that can be integrated into every corner of the business to track every activity throughout the end-to-end supply chain. The company is the home of over 5500 employees, and its clients’ count is more than 3000 from across the world. As per the 2021 records, it made revenues worth $1.1 Billion.

Apart from having customers from around the world, Blue Yonder has set up over 40 offices in America and overseas, i.e., in Boston, London, Canada, Milan, Paris, Palo Alto, Monterrey, Madrid, Dubai, Cape Town, Australia, India, China, Korea, and Singapore, etc. Names like Albertsons, Brookshire’s, Oriflame, Kenco, DHL, Petco, Access Business Group, ABB Information Systems Ltd, 7-Eleven Inc, Michelin, etc. are a few of the names of Blue Yonder software users.

blue yonder
Image source: media.bizj.us

The Back Story

James Donald Armstrong and Frederick M. Pakis founded the company as JDA Software, Inc in 1985, in Cleveland, Ohio. In just two years, the company shifted its headquarters to Arizona after it received a contract from an automotive retailer. In 1996, after successfully working for a period of ten years, the company went public and had its first IPO. By this time, JDA also started to expand and acquired Arthur Retail division in 1998. In the coming years, it took over names like Intactix (2000), E3 Corporation (2001), Manugistics (2006), i2 Technologies (2010), etc.

After a deal worth $1.9 billion, JDA went under RedPrairie ownership, turning the former private again. Also, RedPrairie started to host its operations under the brand name JDA. In 2018, JDA acquired Blue Yonder GmbH and had a name change to Blue Yonder in 2020. the company acquired Yantriks in the same year. In September 2021, Panasonic bought Blue Yonder for an undisclosed amount, and today, Blue Yonder operates as a subsidiary of Panasonic.

CEO at Blue Yonder

Girish Rishi is the current CEO at Blue Yonder. He is a native Indian and has completed his bachelor’s degree from the University of Bombay. Rishi has also got a Master’s degree in Business Administration from the University of Hartford as well as another master’s in International Public Policy from the School of Advanced International Studies at Joah Hopkins University. Before joining the company, Rishi has handled multiple leadership roles at companies like Motorola and Matrics. In 2017, Rishi became the CEO of Blue Yonder.

Adyen

Adyen – The Leading Online Payment Processing Service Providers.

Online payments have made banking and online shopping way easier. Now we can easily make payments to people sitting miles away without visiting the bank, saving time and money on travel. Buying things online and making payments through credit cards/debit cards have made things simpler. Other than credit cards and debit cards, apps are also some online payment methods that not only allow easy transfer of money but also allow bill payments, like electricity or broadband. The successful online payment through the cards, wallets, or payment apps depends on the gateway or the payment processor the platform uses (responsible for the security at the same time). Companies like Adyen are behind such payment processors that make every online transaction possible and secure.

About Adyen

Adyen is a Netherlands-based payment company with its headquarters based in Amsterdam. The company was founded in 2006, and since then, it has been providing e-commerce, mobile, and point-of-sale payment services. Payment service provider, gateway, risk management, local acquiring, point of sale, issuing are the major services by Adyen, which works on payment methods like a credit card, debit card, online banking, etc. Other than Amsterdam, Adyen has its branches in cities like Berlin, Brussels, Dubai, Hong Kong, London, Madrid, Manchester, Melbourne, Mexico City, Milan, Mumbai, Munich, New York, Paris, San Francisco, São Paulo, Shanghai, Singapore, Stockholm, Sydney, Tokyo, Toronto, Warsaw.

As per the 2020 records, the Adyen made annual revenues worth €684.2 million, and over 2300 people are working for it. In 2015, the company became the sixth largest European unicorn with a valuation worth $2.3 billion.

Adyen
Image source: www.rudebaguette.com

The Founding

Some of the Bibit ex-employees founded Adyen in 2006 after gaining enough experience in the field of online payments. The team included Pieter van der Does (CEO at Adyen) and Arnout Schuijff (Adyen CTO). Till the year 2012, the company was struggling to get a hold on the payment market in the Netherlands. But the real growth of the company started in 2011 when it started to expand globally. In the period of four-five years, Adyen opened offices in San Francisco, London, Paris, and many other cities of European countries. In 2016, the company reported a 99 percent growth in gross revenues as it made revenues worth $727 million that year.

In 2015, the company was valued at $2.3 billion, becoming the sixth largest European unicorn. The next year, Forbes ranked the company #10 in its Cloud 100 list and #5 in the same list in 2017. By 2017, It had gained acquiring licenses in pan-European, Brazil, Singapore, Hong Kong, Australia, New Zealand, etc. The company also received the European banking license in 2010, such that it had gained the status of an acquiring bank.

Adyen had its first IPO in 2018, and it went public on Euronext Amsterdam. The same year, the company bagged a partnership agreement from eBay, where the Company became the primary payment processing partner of the latter. In 2019, Adyen expanded its operations to Japan, India, and Africa as well as launched Adyen Issuing, a card (physical as well as virtual) issuing business. The company experienced a 51% increase in the annual revenue in the same year, as it made revenues worth EUR 497 million. In 2020, launched mobile Android POS devices for its global customers as a result of the outburst of Covid-19.

The CEO at Adyen

Pieter van der Does is one of the co-founders of Adyen and the current CEO at Adyen. He is a Dutch national and was born in 1968. Pieter has got a master’s degree in economics from the University of Amsterdam. His last job was at Bibit Global Payment Services, where he worked as the chief commercial officer. During his time at the company, he met the other co-founder of Adyen, and after Bibit was acquired by Royal Bank of Scotland in 2004, they decided to start Adyen. Pieter has been serving Adyen as the CEO from the inception of the company. Forbes ranked Pieter in its Forbes Billionaire list in 2020.

Roper Technologies

Roper Technologies – The Journey Of A Home Appliances Maker To Becoming A Conglomerate.

Technology has become an essential part of our lives, and we can’t only include computer and mobile technology in the category, but it has a vast scope. There are companies that specialize in one niche, but many are there to offer almost every type of technology service. Roper Technologies is one such conglomerate with an extended scope. The company is based in America and serves diversified industries and offers services like radio Frequency Technology, Industrial Technology, Scientific Technology, Energy Systems, Controls, etc. The company is a unicorn with a worth over 3 billion annual revenues.

About Roper Technologies

Roper Technologies was founded in 1890, over a century ago. It started as a home appliances company and later expanded into miscellaneous technology-related products. George D. Roper was the founder of the company, and Neil Hunn is the current president and CEO of Roper Technologies. It is a publically traded company and trades on New York Stock Exchange as ROP. The products by the company include Industrial technology, radio frequency (RF) technology, scientific and industrial imaging, energy systems and controls, and instrumentation. As of 2021, over 1800 thousand people were working for Roper, and it made annual revenues worth US$ 3,238.128 million in 2013. The company is operational in more than 100 countries.

Roper Technologies
Image source: getlogo.net

The Founding

George D. Roper is the founder of Roper Technology Inc. He founded the company in 1890 as the manufacturer of home appliances. The journey of Roper to become a conglomerate started with multiple acquisitions. In 1906, the company acquired Trahem Pump Co., and in the following years, it acquired names like David Bradley Manufacturing Works (1966), Sunquest Information Systems (2012), Vertafore (2020), etc. These acquisitions made the company start services like pump manufacturing, outdoor lawn equipment, radio frequency identification(RFID), diagnostic and laboratory software (development), etc.

In the period of hundred years, the ownership for the company and its subsidiaries also went under other players who were responsible for the overall growth of Roper. The Florence Stove Co. of Kankakee had acquired the Roper’s stove business in 1957. Electrolux took over the company’s lawn and garden equipment wing in 1988. In 1989, Whirlpool Corporation acquired Roper as a whole brand and had an IPO in 1992. Roper was operating as Roper Industries Inc, and in 2015, it had a name change to Roper Technologies Inc. Today, Roper is operational in over 100 countries. It operates through its subsidiaries, including DAP Technologies, IPA, LLC, Media Cybernetics, Princeton Instruments, Roper Pump Co., DAT Solutions and TransCore, Data Innovations, ConstructConnect, and DAT Solutions, etc.

The CEO at Roper Technologies

Neil Hunn is the president and CEO at Roper Technologies Inc. He has got a bachelor’s degree in finance and accounting from Miami University and an MBA from Harvard Business School.

Hunn started his career at Deloitte Consulting as a Business Analyst. He then worked at The Parthenon Group for a year as a consultant and switched to MedAssets in 2001, working as the SVP, Corporate Development. After working for over five years, he was promoted to be the Chief Financial Officer in 2007 and then the President of the Revenue Cycle Technology in the same company in 2010.
Hunn joined the Roper Group in 2011 and worked as the President of the medical segment of Roper Technologies. In July 2017, he became the Executive Vice President, and in 2018, he was promoted to be the COO of the company. Hunn became the President and Chief Executive Officer at Roper Technologies in 2018.

Align Technology

Zia Chishti Conceived The Idea Of Align Technology After An Uncomfortable Appointment With His Dentist.

Technology has helped almost every field of work improve its operations. Whether it is the hospitality business or the healthcare industry, each one is enjoying merging technology to their services. Talking about healthcare, several machines are technology-based, whether an MRI machine or a heartbeat oscillator. There are also 3D scanners made by companies like Align Technology that are used in the orthodontics department of healthcare, to ease out dental operations. The company is known for its 3D digital scanners and clear aligners made for the dentistry industry. Not only the company manufactures these products but also provides resources for the doctors to learn and train better.

About Align Technology

A twenty-five years old Align Technology has its headquarters based in Phoenix, Arizona, U.S. (corporate), and San Jose, California, U.S. (regional). This American company is a leading manufacturer of orthodontics devices. The company was founded in 1997 by Zia Chishti and Kelsey Wirth. The company is based in America but serves worldwide. It specializes in manufacturing clear aligners and scanners. Align Technology is a publically traded company and trades on Nasdaq as ALGN. As per the 2020 records, the company made annual revenues worth US$2.471 Billion and is a home for over 18,070 employees working for it globally. The company has over 1,260 patents registered under its name.

Align Technology
Image source: www.mercurynews.com

The Back Story

Zia Chishti conceived the idea of Align Technology after an uncomfortable appointment with his dentist. He partnered with Kelsey Wirth to develop clear aligners under the brand name Invisalign. The company received the approval for Invisalign from Food and Drug Administration in 1998, and they started shipping the products very next year. In the initial years of Align Technology, it received investments worth $140 million from some major venture capitalists. In 2001, the company had its first IPO, and it went public on NASDAQ. It raised a sum of $130 million in the IPO.
The innovative idea behind the Align Technology products made the company reach over 175,000 by 2004. In 2005, the company started to expand overseas and reached Japan for the first time. The same year, the Invisalign certification also became a compulsory thing for the Harvard School Dental Medicine graduates. Align Technology has also launched a certification program to train doctors and has established the AlignTech Institute for doctors to learn better.
Align Technology also introduced another innovative product in 2005, the Invisalign Express 10. The next launches from the company included Invisalign 1.5 (2009), Invisalign G3 (2010), Invisalign G4 (2011), Express 5 version (2012), Invisalign G5 (2014), etc.
In 2011, Company acquired Israel-based Cadent System, Inc., which helped the company to expand its 3D imaging and scanner manufacturing wing. By 2014, over 2.4 million people all over the world were being treated using Invisalign. Also, Align Technology became a unicorn in 2016. Apart from California, the company has its manufacturing units based in Costa Rica, Juarez, and Mexico. It also has its scanner manufacturing units in Israel and China. It has also launched separate subsidiaries to operate in Australia and Hong Kong.

The CEO at Align Technology

Joseph M. Hogan or Joe Hogan is the Director, President, and the CEO at Align Technology, serving since 2015 at the position. Hogan has got a B.S. degree in Business and Economics from Geneva College, Pennsylvania, and has completed his MBA from Robert Morris University.
With more than 25 years of experience, Hogan has worked at executive positions in companies belonging to fields, including healthcare, technology, automation, etc. Before becoming the CEO of Align Technology, Hogan has served companies like ABB and GE Healthcare as the CEO.

Hathway

Hathway – India’s largest Multi System Operator Owned By Reliance Industries.

In the early days of television, we used to have those antennas and big dishes that would catch the signal for us. But slowly, time went by, and the broadcasting went digital. In India, some major names handled those cable connections, one of them is Hathway. Hathway started from digital TV broadcasting, and today, it is also offering broadband services to its customers. This can be termed as a fairly growth story of a company and must be considered as an inspiring one, as one can only learn from the journey of the company is to grow whatever is the scale of competition is out there. This Indian company is the first cable ISP in India and the first to provide internet using a CATV network in India.

About the Company

Hathway is an over eighty years old company founded in India. Pheroza Billimoria and Roopesh Rao founded the company, establishing its headquarters in Mumbai India. The company offers its services in Cable television, Broadband Internet, Digital voice as well as Home networking. Hathway is a publically traded company and is completely owned by Reliance Industries. It is one of the first companies to provide HDTV services in India, and Mumbai, Hyderabad, Bangalore, Chennai, Indore, Kolkata; Gujarat were the first ones to receive this service.
Today, over 11 million people are using the Hathway services in terms of digital TV and broadband/wireless services. In 2018, the company came under the ownership of Reliance Industries as it acquired 51% of the stakes in the company for ₹2,940 crores (US$390 million). In the following years, Reliance acquired the other 49% stakes as well.

Hathway
Image source: www.gizbot.com

The Founding of Hathway

Pheroza Billimoria and Roopesh Rao founded Hathway as Chics Display Services Private Limited in 1959 in Mumbai. The company then had a name change to Hathway Cable & Datacom Private Limited as the shift in the ownership to Business India Television (BITV) Cable Networks Pvt Ltd. The real journey of the company started in 1998 when it was revamped and got launched again as a cable service provider after receiving massive funding from its investors.
In 2000 Hathway also started the broadband internet services on DOCSIS technology, whereas the News Corp acquired a 26% equity in the company paying ₹ 3.4 Bn. The year 2003 was a special year for Hathway as it had reached 2 lakh cable TV subscribers in that year. The next year, the company introduced digital TV services and had acquired over 100,000 internet service subscribers.
The company starting from Mumbai, began to expand to other major cities of the country as well by acquiring the local MSOs, like the Rajesh Multichannel Private Limid (Maharashtra), Gujarat Telelink Private Limited (Gujrat), Bhaskar Multinet Private Limited (Madhya Pradesh), etc.
In the year 2008, Hathway launched the HD PVR boxes and acquired 50% stakes in GTPL. The next year, the company hit the one million subscribers milestone for its digital cable subscriber. The company went public in 2010 and raised ₹4.8 Bn in the IPO. In 2011, the company launched the HDTV service in the major cities of India. Hathway partnered with D-Link Direct Service in 2013 to provide high-speed Wi-fi routers to its customers.
The company also launched its music channel in Bangalore as well as partnered with EROS to launch a movie service in 2014. In 2017, the company spun off its cable TV business to make it a subsidiary company.

The CEO at Hathway

Rajan Gupta is the current CEO and MD of Hathway. Before becoming the CEO of the company, Gupta served Hathway as the President of the Hathway Broadband business and has done quite well for the company. Gupta has more than twenty years of experience handling various leadership roles as he has been a part of companies like Tata Teleservices, Coca-Cola, and Asian Paints.

Absolute Software Corporation

Absolute Software Corporation: The Leader in Endpoint Resilience

Stealing can be of any type, with the intention to damage or just to make free money. But the person who loses his/her device or data is always at loss. There have been methods applied to track down those thieves, which are not always successful, and we are stuck with the same problem we began with. This same problem had ignited an idea of developing an end-point tracking system in the minds of the founders of Absolute Software Corporation. And today, the company is the only firm-ware-embedded visibility and control platform developer helping companies track and trace the lost products.

About the Company

Founded in 1993, Absolute Software Corporation is the first of its kind. The company develops software products to provide endpoint and zero-trust security to its clients. Absolute Software is headquartered in Vancouver, British Columbia, and has established two more headquarters in Canada and Austin. Healthcare, government sector, K-12 education, professional services sector, higher education sector, finance are the main areas of service for the company. It operates through device manufacturers, independent software vendors, resellers, and managed service providers, such that it can offer efficient services worldwide effectively.
Absolute Software Corporation is a publically traded company and trades on Toronto Stock Exchange and Nasdaq as ABST. The company is known for its flagship product, Absolute Platform and Persistence technology, a platform protecting devices, data, applications, and users both on and off the corporate network. Today, Absolute Software has over 140 registered patents and more than 13,000 clients rely on the company for their data security purpose.

Absolute Software Corporation
Image source: azureedge.net

The Back Story

Absolute Software Corporation was founded with a unique idea, i.e., to manage, track and secure computers despite their physical location. This was simply the result of a laptop theft that led to data loss as well. Leading to the solution of such a problem, Absolute Software started to work on a track-and-trace software solution, such that even despite the theft or any damage to the device it could be tracked by the owners.

This was only possible with some great partnerships, and at the beginning of the 2000s, Absolute Software started to build ties with device manufacturers, such that the Absolute software was embedded into those devices on the BIOS level. This way, even if the thief wanted to remove the tracking software, he could not find it in the first place.

In the year 2000, Absolute Software went public on Toronto Stock Exchange. The company also started to expand overseas, as it opened its first European in Newbury in 2006. Further expansion included the establishment of offices in the UK, Austin, Malaysia, etc. Absolute Software then partnered with Microsoft and achieved the gold certification as a partner from the latter in the Microsoft Partner Ecosystem. The Absolute Software growth also included some major acquisitions such as LANrev product suite (2009), some assets of LiveTime Software (2012), Palisade Systems (2013), etc. This way, the company was able to enhance the features of its products. The company got listed in the Forbes list of cybersecurity companies in 2020.

The CEO at Absolute Software Corporation

Christy Wyatt is the President and Chief Executive Officer of Absolute Software Corporation. With more than twenty years of experience in the field of cybersecurity and IT, Wyatt has worked in different prominent positions in big-name companies, including Apple, Palm, Sun Microsystems, Motorola, and Citigroup. She also served Dtex Systems as the CEO. Christy was also the Chairman, President, and CEO of Good Technology. In 2019, she was among the Top 50 Women Leaders in SaaS and also got listed in the Top 50 Women Entrepreneurs of America by Inc. Magazine.