da Agency

How Watson helps H&R Block deliver engaging customer experiences

Just under three-fourths of US citizens get tax refunds every year, according to H&R Block CEO Bill Cobb. For H&R Block customers, the number is higher; it’s closer to 85 percent.
Now that IBM Watson is helping H&R Block tax professionals guide customers through the filing process, the company is aiming to make that number rise even further.
Cobb joined IBM CEO Ginni Rometty on stage at IBM InterConnect Tuesday to explain just how H&R Block teamed up with IBM to get Watson working on taxes and how the whole process works.
“I think this is one of the best examples of two brands coming together where they worked seamlessly,” Cobb said after showing the ad that aired during this year&8217;s big game. Rometty added that H&R Block is &8220;a wonderful exemplar of continuous transformation.&8221;
Cobb shared that, after the 2016 tax season, H&R Block research found that customers were looking for more engaging experiences. So he called IBM on his landline phone and asked how Watson could make that happen while still keeping tax professionals at the center of customer relationships. In June 2016, teams from both companies were working on a solution. Just eight months later, ads for the service were running on TV.
&8220;Anyone who says IBM doesn&8217;t work quickly, I&8217;m here to tell you, IBM works fast,&8221; Cobb said.
The cognitive interview
Here&8217;s how the process works: a customer walks into an H&R Block office and sits down in front of a screen–where previously they usually just watched a tax professional type away. A tax professional begins the usual interview, asking about life events, potential deductions and possible credits.
Throughout that process, Watson is listening in, referencing 600 million data points and the entire US tax code, creating a &8220;knowledge graph,&8221; which outlines all the areas where there might be a savings.
After the interview, Watson displays a massive chart of all the possible deductions and credits, and the tax professional goes through that chart with the customer, explaining all the different ways to increase the refund.
Positive response
Even before H&R Block with Watson was branded, when it was just a pilot program, customer satisfaction was ticking up, Cobb said. Now it&8217;s rising even more.
Tax professionals are responding positively, too, he said.
&8220;This makes them feel like they&8217;re really on the cutting edge,&8221; Cobb said.
Cobb said Watson is &8220;a beautiful fit for the nature of our business&8221; and is likely to expand into other areas of H&R Block&8217;s services, such as digital tax preparation.
Learn more about Watson on IBM Cloud.
The post How Watson helps H&R Block deliver engaging customer experiences appeared first on #Cloud computing news.
Quelle: Thoughts on Cloud

da Agency

Azure Resource Manager template reference now available

We have published new documentation for creating Azure Resource Manager templates. The documentation includes reference content that presents the JSON syntax and property values you need when adding resources to your templates.

If you are new to Resource Manager and templates, see Azure Resource Manager overview for an introduction to the terms and concepts of Azure Resource Manager.

Simplify template creation by copying JSON directly into your template

The template reference documentation helps you understand what resource types are available, and what values to use in your template. It includes the API version number to use for each resource type, and all the valid properties. You simply copy the provided JSON into the resources section of your template, and edit the values for your scenario.

The property tables describe the available values.

Find a resource type

You can easily navigate through the available types in the left pane. However, if you know the resource type, you can go directly to it with the following URL format:

https://docs.microsoft.com/azure/templates/{provider-namespace}/{resource-type}

For example, the SQL database reference content is available at:

https://docs.microsoft.com/azure/templates/microsoft.sql/servers/databases

Please give us your feedback

The template reference content represents a new type of documentation for docs.microsoft.com. As you use it to build your templates, let us know how it can be improved. Please provide feedback about your experience.
Quelle: Azure

da Agency

Announcing the General Availability of Geographic Routing capability in Azure Traffic Manager

Do you have a global user base and would like to customize content based on regions where your users are located? Have you felt the need to comply with policy mandates that require the restriction of data access within a Geography?

With the availability of Geographic Routing capability in Azure Traffic Manager, such needs can be easily addressed. You can now direct user traffic to specific endpoints based on the geographic location from where the requests originate. Azure’s global presence enables you to reach a user base that is vast and diverse across nations and regions, and with Geographic Routing you can now enable a variety of use cases that are tied to geography – such as:

Customizing and localizing content for specific regions, enabling better user experience and engagement. As an example, an e-commerce site can localize the site content and merchandise items to users in a specific region.
Knowing where the users are coming from makes it easier to implement mandates related to data sovereignty.

Configuring geographic routing

Defining user regions

The first thing to do is to partition your user base according to their geographic location/region. There are different levels of granularity by which you can specify a geographic region:

World – any region
Regional Grouping – Africa, Middle East, Australia/Pacific, etc.
Country/Region – Ireland, Peru, Hong Kong SAR, etc.
State / Province – USA–California, Australia–Queensland, Canada-Alberta, etc. (Note:  This granularity level is supported only for states / provinces in Australia, Canada, UK, and USA)

To get a list of the supported regions and the various choices within each region, you can refer to this list of regions used by Azure Traffic Manager geographic routing method. You can also obtain this information programmatically by calling Azure Traffic Manager’s REST API.

The below table gives you an example of how you can route traffic to your application deployed in specific Azure regions, based on where users are located.

 

User Location(s)
Azure Region / Endpoint location

Europe, Africa
North Europe

Australia, New Zealand
Australia East

Mexico, USA-California, USA-Oregon, USA-Washington
West US

Rest of the world and any requests that cannot be mapped to a geographic region
Central US

 

Sample table directing traffic from user location to specific application deployment Azure regions

Create a Traffic Manger Routing Profile with geographic routing

Go to the Azure portal, navigate to Traffic Manager profiles and click on the Add button to create a routing profile.

Add a Traffic Manager Profile

Provide a Name for your profile, select Geographic to be your Routing method, select the Subscription and Resource group you want to use. Click on OK to create the profile.

Add geographic routing method to profile

Once the create is successful, navigate to the profile. You can now see the details including the DNS name and the Routing method (Geographic) you had specified.

DNS name and routing method

Click on the Endpoints button and then the Add button to add your endpoints, to this profile.

Add endpoints

When adding an endpoint, you will be prompted to set the Geo-mapping for this endpoint. Add the four endpoints based on the mapping we had described earlier.

Associate endpoints to geographic routing

Once that is completed, you have an Azure Traffic Manager profile with geographic routing enabled as per your needs! Your users can use the DNS name associated with this profile to connect to your application. During DNS name resolution, Azure Traffic Manager will ensure users are directed to the right endpoint based on where their DNS query originates.

Besides the Portal, you can use Rest API and .NET SDK to provision this capability. PowerShell and CLI support will be available in April 2017.

Availability

This feature is available today in all Azure Public cloud regions. This will be available in Azure Government, Azure Germany, and Azure China in May 2017.

How much does it cost?

The price is the same as with all other routing methods. For details, please refer to the Azure Traffic Manager pricing page.

Next steps

To learn more about the capabilities and best practices related to this feature, please visit the Azure Traffic Manager routing methods and FAQs pages. We look forward to your valuable feedback as you start using this today.
Quelle: Azure

da Agency

Prosecutors Are Extracting Data From More Than 100 Locked Phones Seized During Inauguration Day Arrests

Police detain a demonstrator on January 20, 2017

Zach Gibson / AFP / Getty Images

WASHINGTON — Prosecutors are extracting data from more than 100 locked cell phones seized during arrests in downtown Washington, DC, on President Trump's Inauguration Day, according to court papers prosecutors filed on Wednesday.

Prosecutors said they had search warrants to pull data from the phones, which were taken from individuals arrested on Inauguration Day, including some who were not indicted. All of the phones were locked, according to the government, “which requires more time-sensitive efforts to try to obtain the data.” But the filing appeared to indicate that they were successful in accessing information on the phones.

There are 214 people facing a felony rioting charge in connection with demonstrations on Jan. 20 that turned violent and, according to prosecutors, involved more than $100,000 in property damage. A handful of defendants are also facing separate charges for destruction of property and assaulting police.

According to the filings on Wednesday, the government plans to produce the information it collects from the seized phones to the defendants by way of an electronic database that would be made available to defense counsel. The extracted data includes irrelevant personal information, prosecutors said, so they&039;re seeking an order from the court that would prohibit defense lawyers from copying or sharing information unless it&039;s relevant to defend their client.

A number of defendants filed requests after they were arrested asking the judge to hold a hearing on any requests by the government for search warrants for electronic devices or social media accounts. The judge overseeing all of these cases denied those requests, saying that if defendants believed the government carried out an illegal search, they could ask the court later to suppress information.

Some defendants have also been filing motions to dismiss the charges against them, arguing that the indictments aren&039;t specific enough in tying individuals to particular acts of rioting. Other defendants are arguing that the Justice Department should be disqualified because the protests were against Trump, who is now the head of the executive branch. The government has not yet responded to these motions.

Defendants have been coming to court in groups over the past few weeks for arraignments. Prosecutors on Wednesday proposed formally dividing the defendants into at least four categories for future trials, based on the type of conduct they were accused of, the seriousness of the alleged offenses, and the available evidence that could apply to groups of people.

Christopher Mutimer, a defense lawyer representing one of the defendants, told BuzzFeed News by email on Wednesday that he would oppose efforts by the government to hold joint trials.

“These cases should be tried individually in a manner that protects each individual defendant&039;s constitutional rights,” Mutimer said. “Not in groupings that make the trials most convenient for the government. Grouping individuals for trial creates a danger of wrongful convictions based on guilt by association.”

Arraignments are scheduled through early April, and then follow-up hearings are set starting in the middle of the month, when the judge is likely to begin addressing any evidence-related issues and motions.

Quelle: <a href="Prosecutors Are Extracting Data From More Than 100 Locked Phones Seized During Inauguration Day Arrests“>BuzzFeed

da Agency

Announcing the General Availability of Geographic Routing capability in Azure Traffic Manager

Do you have a global user base and would like to customize content based on regions where your users are located? Have you felt the need to comply with policy mandates that require the restriction of data access within a Geography?

With the availability of Geographic Routing capability in Azure Traffic Manager, such needs can be easily addressed. You can now direct user traffic to specific endpoints based on the geographic location from where the requests originate. Azure’s global presence enables you to reach a user base that is vast and diverse across nations and regions, and with Geographic Routing you can now enable a variety of use cases that are tied to geography – such as:

Customizing and localizing content for specific regions, enabling better user experience and engagement. As an example, an e-commerce site can localize the site content and merchandise items to users in a specific region.
Knowing where the users are coming from makes it easier to implement mandates related to data sovereignty.

Configuring geographic routing

Defining user regions

The first thing to do is to partition your user base according to their geographic location/region. There are different levels of granularity by which you can specify a geographic region:

World – any region
Regional Grouping – Africa, Middle East, Australia/Pacific, etc.
Country/Region – Ireland, Peru, Hong Kong SAR, etc.
State / Province – USA–California, Australia–Queensland, Canada-Alberta, etc. (Note:  This granularity level is supported only for states / provinces in Australia, Canada, UK, and USA)

To get a list of the supported regions and the various choices within each region, you can refer to this list of regions used by Azure Traffic Manager geographic routing method. You can also obtain this information programmatically by calling Azure Traffic Manager’s REST API.

The below table gives you an example of how you can route traffic to your application deployed in specific Azure regions, based on where users are located.

 

User Location(s)
Azure Region / Endpoint location

Europe, Africa
North Europe

Australia, New Zealand
Australia East

Mexico, USA-California, USA-Oregon, USA-Washington
West US

Rest of the world and any requests that cannot be mapped to a geographic region
Central US

 

Sample table directing traffic from user location to specific application deployment Azure regions

Create a Traffic Manger Routing Profile with geographic routing

Go to the Azure portal, navigate to Traffic Manager profiles and click on the Add button to create a routing profile.

Add a Traffic Manager Profile

Provide a Name for your profile, select Geographic to be your Routing method, select the Subscription and Resource group you want to use. Click on OK to create the profile.

Add geographic routing method to profile

Once the create is successful, navigate to the profile. You can now see the details including the DNS name and the Routing method (Geographic) you had specified.

DNS name and routing method

Click on the Endpoints button and then the Add button to add your endpoints, to this profile.

Add endpoints

When adding an endpoint, you will be prompted to set the Geo-mapping for this endpoint. Add the four endpoints based on the mapping we had described earlier.

Associate endpoints to geographic routing

Once that is completed, you have an Azure Traffic Manager profile with geographic routing enabled as per your needs! Your users can use the DNS name associated with this profile to connect to your application. During DNS name resolution, Azure Traffic Manager will ensure users are directed to the right endpoint based on where their DNS query originates.

Besides the Portal, you can use Rest API and .NET SDK to provision this capability. PowerShell and CLI support will be available in April 2017.

Availability

This feature is available today in all Azure Public cloud regions. This will be available in Azure Government, Azure Germany, and Azure China in May 2017.

How much does it cost?

The price is the same as with all other routing methods. For details, please refer to the Azure Traffic Manager pricing page.

Next steps

To learn more about the capabilities and best practices related to this feature, please visit the Azure Traffic Manager routing methods and FAQs pages. We look forward to your valuable feedback as you start using this today.
Quelle: Azure

da Agency

AT&T Pulls YouTube Ads Over Google's Hate Speech Controversy

Stephanie Keith / Reuters

AT&T is the latest high-profile company to pull its advertising from YouTube and Google as the search and advertising giant struggles to quell a controversy over online hate speech and its marketing platforms.

“We are deeply concerned that our ads may have appeared alongside YouTube content promoting terrorism and hate,” a spokeswoman for AT&T said in a statement to BuzzFeed News Wednesday. “Until Google can ensure this won’t happen again, we are removing our ads from Google’s non-search platforms.”

Several other brands including McDonald&#039;s, HSBC, and L’Oreal, as well as the British government, have also recently pulled advertising from YouTube over concerns that the company is not doing enough to protect them from having their marketing campaigns tied to abusive and extremist content online.

The sudden departure of advertising partners followed news reports that Google had failed to remove hateful material from YouTube, in what appeared to be a breach of its own guidelines.

Earlier this week Matt Brittin, the head of Google&039;s operations for Europe, the Middle East, and Africa, issued an apology for the company&039;s apparent mishandling of ad placements. “I would like to apologize to our partners and advertisers who might have been affected by their ads appearing on controversial content,” he said. We take our responsibilities to these industry issues very seriously.”

On Tuesday, Philipp Schindler, Google&039;s chief business officer said the company would soon offer businesses tools to better control where and when their ads appear, and to prevent their marketing campaigns from being displayed alongside “potentially objectionable” and “higher risk” content.

In a statement concerning AT&T&039;s move, a Google spokesperson told BuzzFeed News: “We don&039;t comment on individual customers but as announced, we’ve begun an extensive review of our advertising policies and have made a public commitment to put in place changes that give brands more control over where their ads appear. We&039;re also raising the bar for our ads policies to further safeguard our advertisers’ brands.”

Quelle: <a href="AT&T Pulls YouTube Ads Over Google&039;s Hate Speech Controversy“>BuzzFeed

da Agency

Amazon CloudWatch Events now supports input transformation of events

We are excited to announce that Amazon CloudWatch Events now supports input transformation of events before sending the events to targets. Using this the new feature, you can extract multiple key-value pairs from their event JSONs and transform the data to fit your needs. For example, you can transform AWS console login event JSON to a human readable message and attach it to an SNS topic for email notifications. Another use case for input transformer is to simplify nested event JSONs before sending to event targets such as SQS. The input transformer is a new addition to the existing list of three input configuration features – matched event, part of matched event, and a constant. You can use the input transformation through the console and PutTargets API in all AWS regions where CloudWatch Events is available.
Quelle: aws.amazon.com