In 2021, an making it the most expensive NFT ever sold in an auction. Since then, NFTs have been making headlines with people buying digital arts, tweets and other assets online.

NFTs provides many opportunities for global industries like consumer goods, sports, retail to change the way they engage with their customers, enhance the value of their existing products, tap into new markets, and come up with new business models.

Impact on Global Industries
Many leading consumer brands have started to engage with their loyal fans using NFTs. For example, for auction on International Friendship Day, July 30, to engage with their customers. The highest bidder not only gets access to those rare collectibles, but also an in-real-life Coca-Cola refrigerator which would be released in the market later in year.

NFTs have opened new opportunities and business models for artists and musicians. With NFTs created for their digital artwork or music, they can engage and sell directly to their fans without middlemen, such as third-party services or distribution platforms. The American Rock band – which generated close to $2 million in sale. The token owners would enjoy perks like fronts row seat in concerts for life, VIP experience with access to lounge, hangout with the band before the show and many more.

NFTs are also starting to revolutionize fan engagement in Sports Industry too. Take for example, which is a marketplace where sports fans can buy, sell and trade NFTs of NBA video highlights. Many of top sports brands have also started collaborating with other platforms to come up with interesting and new ways of engaging with their fans. For example, ASICS has partnered with move-to-earn to encourage and reward their customers to stay fit.

Though NFTs have gained lot of popularity as collectibles, digital arts, music and gaming industry, they are slowing starting to enter enterprise segments. is an area where companies are increasingly using blockchain and NFT technology to reduce cost, eliminate bottlenecks, and have transparency with their consumers.

For example, when dealing with perishable products like strawberries, its important to know the distribution centers, the owner of the product at various stages of the supply chain and be able to calculate the freshness and shelf life of the product. NFTs can be created to not only track the movement of such perishable products, but also to obtain real-time visibility and better manage inventories in the supply chain.

Today consumers want to have visibility on how the product was created and where it came from and if sustainable practises were employed in the overall process. NFTs will be the key to providing that transparency to consumers and making it easier for them to make the best decision when making a purchase.

The role of NFTs in Metaverse
NFTs are the fundamental building blocks for the Metaverse. A metaverse is a collection of virtual reality worlds which people can access through browsers, mobile apps, gaming consoles and virtual reality equipments. Within a metaverse you can create your own avatar and navigate the virtual world to make friends, meet people, attend concerts, play games, buy virtual products, or have real-world products delivered to you. In essence, you would have a digital identify of yourself in the virtual world.

Gartner Predicts 25% of people will spend at least by 2026 and 30% of the organisations in the world will have products and services ready for metaverse.

NFTs provide a certificate of authenticity for all the digital assets in the metaverse. NFTs can be used to represent ownership of any digital asset in the metaverse 鈥� real estate, vehicles, clothing, artwork etc. The underlying technology that enables this is blockchain. NFTs are essentially cryptocurrency assets that run on blockchain making them immutable. It helps in providing a complete history of the item right from its creation to surrender with the possibility to track the ownership and the authenticity.

How to get involved with NFTs
There are several marketplaces where you can create, buy and sell NFTs. is one of the largest marketplaces and offers several NFT categories to explore. If you are an 麻豆原创 customer and looking to explore the potential of NFTs in your business, you can join this to open doors and help create new business models or find new ways of engaging with your customers.

This article was originally published on .

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This has in turn put enormous pressure on IT departments to be able to deliver value for their business in quick timeframes. This increased demand coupled with the scarcity of talented developers has brought the rise of Citizen Developers who know the business processes and could develop fit to purpose apps or automation for their department to use.

According to 鈥淥n average, 41% of employees outside of IT 鈥� or business technologists 鈥� customise or build data or technology solutions. Gartner predicts that half of all new low-code clients will come from business buyers that are outside the IT organisation by year-end 2025.鈥�

Software providers like 麻豆原创 have already started to double down on L Strategy for Application Development and Process Automation[LG1] . With over 70% of the world’s transactions touching an 麻豆原创 system, there are more than 230 million 麻豆原创 Cloud application users worldwide. 麻豆原创 is recognising the importance of empowering business users to close the skill gap and enable them as citizen developers.

With the increased demand and popularity of the LCNC topic, we are seeing many LCNC platforms emerging in the market and organisations are starting to prioritise and evaluate how these platforms would help them accelerate the delivery of apps and automation.

Despite its growth, many misconceptions around the LCNC topic are preventing organisations to take the first step.

Low-Code/No-Code platforms hinder collaboration
LCNC platforms provide an intuitive drag and drop visual interface for any business user to build apps. Like any initiative, having the right governance is crucial. If there is no governance, this would lead to each department installing its own LCNC tools and building apps on their own. Often this results in data silos and risks in security & compliance.

It鈥檚 important for IT leaders to partner and collaborate with different lines of businesses to set up the governance model and offer the right set of tools thereby enabling business users to build apps that meet the standards. Apart from setting up the governance, IT teams need to periodically supervise and provide support around integration/APIs for consumption in LCNC tools to ensure apps developed by business users are real-time and provide the single source of truth.

Low-Code/No-Code platforms do not offer enterprise-grade apps and are relevant for small departments
LCNC has evolved over the last few years. There are many platforms out there today which offer a sophisticated set of capabilities that can be used to build enterprise-grade apps. Many platforms offer reusable components which can be easily integrated to build complex applications that span across multiple solutions.

For example, you can build an that monitors assets that are maintained in an 麻豆原创 system and triggers service requests based on information in the CRM system.

Low-code tools provide no flexibility to customisation and locks you down
Contrary to this misconception, many advanced LCNC platforms do offer the ability to customise the apps. Often there is a need to embed reusable business logic and enhance the capabilities of the apps generated using LCNC platforms. These capabilities give more freedom for businesses to be able to rapidly build apps that are tailored for their requirements.

Portability is an important factor when it comes to selecting the right platform. One needs to select the right platform which enables access to the generated code and customize it before deploying elsewhere.

Low-Code/No-Code is only meant for Citizen Developers
LCNC platforms can be used for different skill levels. On one hand, we have Citizen developers who know the business domain and can use intuitive tools to create applications. On the other hand, we also see professional developers using LCNC tools to accelerate their application development.

As touched on in the previous point, often we see the need to extend and customise the output provided by LCNC tools.

This is where Citizen Developers work in collaboration with professional developers to enhance the application to meet the business requirements. Hence, Citizen developers, as well as professional developers, will end up using LCNC tools but for different purposes.

In conclusion, LCNC platforms play an important role in empowering both line-of-business users and IT developers to accelerate the development of apps and foster collaboration. There is no doubt that the topic of LCNC will continue to evolve rapidly in the coming years fuelling innovation and providing more agility for businesses to meet the changing customer demands.

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This year鈥檚 event saw entries from 13 different teams, most of them from Australia and New Zealand, as well as India, Japan and Indonesia. Each team was tasked with building an intelligent but practical solution to challenges the world is facing. The theme of the hackathon, 鈥淭he Evolution of Work鈥�, focused on the changing working landscape not only off the back of the COVID pandemic. It was also about how technology (AI/ML and Automation to name a few) is changing the working landscape, how we reskill people and how people will interact with technology and colleagues in the ever-evolving workplace of the future.

Teams also had to work and collaborate digitally, stretching the Hackathon鈥檚 duration to a two-week sprint that saw members of the partner ecosystem work together to solve real-world challenges faced by 麻豆原创 and Microsoft customers 鈥� particularly as both brands are committed to simplifying and streamlining the customer journey through .

And the winner is鈥�

Third place went to Team Still Viral from DXC Technology with their solution, Parkman, which used artificial intelligence and machine learning to help drivers park more efficiently while assisting parking rangers in their work.

A vehicle鈥檚 onboard camera is used to capture real-time data of license plates, sending this information to Azure for further processing. Azure Cognitive Services, Azure Event Grid, Azure Block Storage, and Azure Functions process the license plate data to send a text-based event to (BTP),聽 with being used to check the records for the same vehicles from previous patrols submitted by different parking rangers.

Combining this data with location-based parking rules, Parkman can detect differences and issues (such as overparking), sending a message directly to the vehicle’s stereo and heads up display, which is powered by 麻豆原创鈥檚 BTP web application. This feature can also be used for drivers trying to understand the parking rules of a specific area or spot.

Parkman can also connect with other public services, such as finding a license plate being looked for by Crime Stoppers, and automatically forwards a message to them with the relevant data. Further assistance for parking rangers is provided through voice activation supported by , which can communicate to them the parking rules and incidents in their vicinity, either via in-car stereo or smart device.

Thomas Yuan from team 鈥楽till Viral鈥� explained that how the first version of Parkman was developed in 2013. However, he found it was too expensive to upload mobile video data back then. He was thrilled to revisit this idea today with a dramatically different outcome as 麻豆原创 and Microsoft allowed him and his team to explore its potential through intelligent technology solutions.

Second place was awarded to Team BourneHack from Bourne Digital for TakeOff 鈥� an onboarding system that was demonstrated through a video of animated character 鈥楬olly鈥� starting her first day at a hybrid workplace.

Holly immediately received her company device with all software downloaded and ready for use, which included all account logins autogenerated by Azure. The focus of TakeOff is to guide and support new workers through the onboarding process, particularly as new-starts handle the challenges of beginning a new role remotely.

New employees, like Holly, are automatically guided through the onboarding process with simple steps that are also accessible via mobile app. TakeOff also includes an interactive organisation chart so Holly can navigate the team structure, understanding the names and roles of her new colleagues.

If faced with any issues or questions, TakeOff provides employees with a support centre and chatbot. This chatbot also acts as a tour guide in TakeOff鈥檚 virtual office AR induction, which is powered by Microsoft HoloLens. This intelligent function means employees can familiarise themselves with the office layout and explore it in a 3D-rendered environment so they鈥檙e comfortable with the layout once they get to the physical office.

According to Team BourneHack representative, Julia Leong, the whole team are passionate about the onboarding experience particularly as businesses strive to create a good first impression that helps attract and retain new talent during the challenges of the pandemic.

The winner of the 2021 麻豆原创 and Microsoft ANZ Hackathon was Team Aztecs from Capgemini, who produced an Upskilling Kiosk to assist those whose jobs were lost or rendered obsolete during the pandemic outbreak.

Operating in India, Team Aztecs understood first-hand how AI and the global pandemic are greatly impacting on employment and redundancies. The team highlighted studies that show the value in upskilling and reskilling staff compared to rehiring, seeing this as an opportunity to provide more resources and support to vulnerable workers.

Team Aztec noted two key upskilling challenges 鈥� skill development programs rarely direct focus on outcomes while training is generally through reading or video lectures, leading to trainees missing out on real world experience. The focus of Team Aztec was to bridge this gap with intelligent technology.

Using the digital Upskilling Kiosk, users answered a series of questions through an AI-powered chatbot. The kiosk then recommended a relevant learning journey based on each employee鈥檚 answers and experience. The platform can also show trainees what kinds of internal jobs they can apply for in the future.

The chatbot acts like a program manager, calculating utilisations, booking meetings, and offering guidance to trainees. Not only are they provided with scenario-based testing through AI, but trainees can access dashboards, reports, and analytics to closely monitor their learning journey and understand what skills are valued in the job market.

Team Aztec representative, Sayan Pal said the motivation behind this development was the common challenge many faced during COVID 鈥� upskill or be made redundant. Sayan noted that the project wasn鈥檛 just about reskilling people but offering them visibility around their training and development, which can lead to new opportunities and prevent employees from losing their jobs in an ever-changing talent marketplace.

A special thanks to all our participants, judges, and mentors. Your efforts made 麻豆原创 and Microsoft Innovation Hackathon #2聽 an exciting competition that brought real-world solutions to the common challenges many businesses and individuals face.

To learn more about the Hackathon, this year鈥檚 winners, or to register your interest in upcoming Hackathons, reach out to on Linkedin.

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This event was a way to build on an existing partnership, product innovation and to tackle shared challenges at a time when many were feeling isolated, uncertain, and our mutual customers and end users were ever-more dependent on technology.

The winner of the first hackathon in 2020 was Team Gone Viral from , which comprised of Analytics Practice Lead, Martin Green, and Principal Consultants, Thomas Yuan, and Galvin Gunawan. The team developed BusIntelligence 鈥� an app providing real-time insights and solutions for bus passengers and operators alike.

鈥淲e wanted to focus on something relevant to the COVID pandemic we were in,鈥� Martin explained. 鈥淟ooking at a technology solution that would benefit communities on different levels, particularly within the transport industry. We recognised that COVID had shifted not only usage patterns through remote working, but capacity changes due to social distancing.

鈥淭he way we saw the application supporting that was during COVID and as life normalises, this will give bus operators the means to respond quickly, aligning the bus network and routes, optimising for commuters as a key driver. The app essentially supports the analysis of real time and historical data around bus routes 鈥� such as common causes of delays or average travel speed of an area 鈥� a lot of information to support the optimisation of routes and timetables.鈥�

According to Thomas, the key was to address traditional issues in the hopes of setting reference architecture for future developments. 鈥淚t鈥檚 the app 鈥� but it doesn鈥檛 stop as a single app. In the future, people can also continue with their own innovations to extend this application into endless possibilities.鈥�

Thomas noted that one common challenge within this area is disparate datasets, noting that the process for converting large multi-source systems and multi-form datasets is very complicated. This issue is compounded by public-facing data and internal systems 鈥� such as HR, rostering, and financial data 鈥� struggling to match or integrate seamlessly.

鈥淲e wanted to showcase how to balance long-term trend analysis and a dashboard, Thomas said. 鈥淲e also wanted to address something we call, non-intrusive real-time analyses. Going to the industry and talking to our clients about real-time analysis, the first question we get from operational-system architects is, 鈥榳ill it impact my system performance?鈥� Our response to that, in this case, is we source our data from a public API, which means the data ingest site is safe, optimised, and won鈥檛 affect operational performance.鈥�

Thomas expressed the value in having access to two open-data sets from Transport NSW and TransLink Queensland. Since both follow the universal standard of GTFS, this helped ensure consistency and accuracy while setting a template for architecting potential extensions into other public and private sector applications.

鈥淲e architected our solution to five high-level layers,鈥� explained Galvin. 鈥淔irst, the source layer, then the ingestion, storage, data processing in the data warehouse layer, and finally the presentation layer. In the ingestion layer, we utilised Azure Functions, which is a python friendly tool for retrieving GFTS files from Transport NSW. And then we used that to ingest it into Azure Data Lake gen 2 surface.

鈥淒ata is then picked up Azure Stream Analytics for the real time dashboard, and we use Azure Data Factory to aggregate many of the file storage in Azure Data Lake. We then utilise 麻豆原创 Data Warehouse within the data processing layer, as the high-performance platform to harmonise, further transform, and aggregate the data into a meaningful format for analytic purposes.鈥�

In supporting the various development teams preparing , 麻豆原创 and Microsoft experts provided training sessions to address questions and offer guidance. 鈥淭hose mentor-training half-hour sessions have become collectibles for me. Whenever I need information about certain products, I just watch back those videos. The mentors were very knowledgeable and all our understood questions, coming up with clear and creative solutions 鈥� often able to predict our next move.鈥�

Everyone at Team Gone Viral were excited about future applications for BusIntelligence and hope to continue showcasing its possibilities to wider audiences, such as local councils, town planners, and other public transport operators. They noted how this hackathon has demonstrated the value of combining different datasets, solutions, and development skills to create flexible and scalable solution that address common challenges we all face.

Furthermore, the ability to connect and collaborate with different experts from 麻豆原创 and Microsoft isn鈥檛 just breaking down traditional silos but furthering the possibility to innovate and provide more hybrid solutions to market. To learn more about the next 麻豆原创 and Microsoft hackathon in May 2021,

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, AI and Robotics Leader at noted that the presence of was very valuable and complimentary for those participating. 鈥淭here are a number of different things that we could not have done alone. The part I liked the best from this hackathon was having options on both sides.

鈥� and with software development & business processes and streamlining them. My own career is based off 麻豆原创 and a mixture of open-source, so it was quite a good mixture in the end to have so many options present. For example, we wanted to make a dashboard, so we were able to compare, taking some options from the 麻豆原创 side, like a bot, and some things from Microsoft, such as their screen development tools.

Being able to compare them was like being given an unlimited credit card to go shopping, choose what you want from the market, and then bring them together. That鈥檚 pretty much what we did.鈥�

According to Adeel, the development of NTT鈥檚 Digital Concierge hackathon entry stemmed from the organisation鈥檚 own history in developing lifelike avatars. 鈥淚 took some inspiration from that idea and decided to give it more of a COVID theme. We referenced Microsoft and found that you can have IoT representation of the entire building. You could have people moving around, you could have IoT sensors attached, and you could actually mimic an entire building.鈥�

Adeel noted the great support given to his team through Microsoft and 麻豆原创 mentors. 鈥淭hey were a really responsive lot. With their help, we found that we wanted to do some voice synthesis, so we latched onto another API on the Microsoft side, which could convert voices into text.

鈥淭his was another part of the research I was doing in the AI space, where you can give the entire employee guidebook to the avatar and it will use open-source algorithms to search that PDF file and come up with an answer. We fed in the employee guidebook for our Copenhagen office, so when they ask when lunch is served it will tell them the answer, and they can change the location to get a different answer.鈥�

Combining these technologies allowed NTT鈥檚 team to demonstrate various functionalities and benefits at once. 鈥淭o top it off, we wanted to put out something that would be very difficult to compete with,鈥� Adeel added, 鈥渟o we used a photo of Natalie Portman to animate the avatar. Towards the end of our demo, she actually speaks, saying whatever data the system has read back to it.鈥�

Adeel said accessibility was a primary focus when implementing text-to-speech and voice-to-text. 鈥淥ur technology shouldn鈥檛 always be for those that can see and hear at the same time 鈥� other people should be included. That was our main reason, but there was also the coolness factor. You can actually synthesise the voice of a real human.

鈥淐ortana鈥檚 voice is synthesised in Microsoft and those voices sound really mechanical, you can tell that鈥檚 a robot talking to you. Deep learning has progressed to a point where it can listen to you and I talking, talk and begin mimicking one of us. It will be very difficult for a human to tell that it鈥檚 not really a person. That sort of thing has progressed, and we wanted to show that 鈥� it doesn鈥檛 have to be mundane, boring responses from a computer; it can be very lifelike.鈥�

As social distancing practices and restrictions change the ways we interact with one another, they will determine how NTT鈥檚 Digital Concierge solution is implemented across offices, shopping centres, and beyond.

鈥淢ore and more people have gotten used to working from home,鈥� Adeel explained, 鈥渟o we prefer now to not get too close to other human beings we don鈥檛 know. There will be preference, especially with 24-hour service, for an avatar that can dedicate a spot, talk to someone in a lifelike manner, and understand the actions said to them 鈥� that鈥檚 the way this thing is going.鈥�

Adeel also expressed how these lifelike avatars combined with intelligent sensors and AI technologies can be used in car showrooms and for homeschooling, providing more convenience and human connection in the way we access and share information.

To see more from the teams that presented at last year鈥檚 hackathon or to learn about the upcoming

The post NTT DATA Collaborates with Microsoft and 麻豆原创 to Deliver Digital Concierge Service appeared first on 麻豆原创 Australia & New Zealand News Center.

As technology remains critical in keeping people safe and connected, the key focus for all hackathon teams was addressing the impact of COVID in real-world scenarios. Runners-up of the event, Team , presented the judges with CovidSafe Building Access Management Solution 鈥� a cross-industry resource for managing employee OH&S.

, Microsoft Practice Lead and Solutions Architect for Bourne Digital, explained, 鈥淚n the initial stage of hackathon, the whole team came together to come up with a lot of ideas, but the main challenge facing a lot of organisations was around COVID. We interviewed some of our clients and those in the company, their main concern was how to help employees return to work while keeping things safe and secure, implementing the COVID-safe protocols.

鈥淎t the time, all businesses were operating ats a risk with COVID and needed to implement control measures to manage those risks. They also needed to assess any new changes that arrived because of COVID, for example, customer aggression, the unusually high work demands at the time, and also the difficulties in work isolation.鈥�

Bourne Digital鈥檚 CovidSafe Building Access Management Solution uses thermal-screening technology to support facial recognition and temperature checks. This identification data passes through authentication via Face API and a backend ECC system to determine whether employees can be permitted into the office.

鈥淥n the Microsoft side, we used a series of servers hosting in the MSN Azure Cloud,鈥� Barry explained. 鈥淎ltogether, the servers provided the functionality around facial recognition, which was a key function of the system. The key server, a real in-demand prototype, is something that we call Face API, which is part of the collective service 鈥� it鈥檚 the AI surface service in the Azure Cloud. It can do a lot of things, like image recognition, voice recognition, and facial recognition as parts of its function.

鈥淭hat server is built together with other services also hosted in Azure, like Azure AD, which is the world鈥檚 most popular identity management service and stores all the user information, such as name, ID, and password. It can also be used as an identification portal for external services. All this together with Face API as a strong backbone, provides a solid solution to these safety challenges.鈥�

According to Barry, thermal screening provides two primary functions. 鈥淭he first function was to collect the photo of the user for other applications 鈥� it鈥檚 the same as when you go through customs at the airport. This also saves your facial information to the backend and sends this information to Face API, which will match your identity from Azure AD.

鈥淭he thermal screening is also responsible for capturing the temperature from the user without the user having to actually contact anything themselves 鈥� no need for a fingerprint or to enter a password. It鈥檚 just through the thermal screening.鈥�

Ben Kemal, General Manager of Southern Region at Bourne Digital noted that the team used their hackathon entry to develop a solution for internal use. 鈥淯sing the Microsoft Power Apps platform, they created a desk-booking solution that they鈥檙e using to managed desk space in our office 鈥� especially with the restrictions around Australia in terms of how much capacity you can use. I was proud that the team could take a solution from the hackathon, build upon it, and convert that to a solution that we could implement for ourselves and potentially for our clients.鈥�

Barry believes this kind of solution will have numerous applications across different organisations and industries, providing more intelligence and convenience to accessibility. 鈥淚 think traditional security, such as physical access cards and passwords will be replaced with biometric security assets like facial recognition 鈥� it鈥檚 just a matter of time.

鈥淐OVID has sped up that evolution. From a business perspective, it鈥檚 given much stronger justification for organisations to fund these kinds of changes. And there are really good values that can be provided through this project as this kind of accessibility has gone from something good to have to almost an essential requirement.鈥�

Last year鈥檚 麻豆原创 and Microsoft hackathon not only helped developer teams become more familiar with the latest technologies and techniques available; but it also provided them with real-world experience in addressing critical challenges that we all face through this pandemic. The event encouraged more collaboration between 麻豆原创 and Microsoft experts from across different organisations and functions, all working to improve the way we work and live.

To understand more about the innovations presented at previous hackathons or to learn about the upcoming

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