Author: Rabindra

Deschutes Investment Consulting Advisor Phil Sherman Wins National Award for Outstanding Plan Participant Service

Portland, OR, June 06, 2024 – Deschutes Investment Consulting is proud to announce that Phil Sherman, CFP®, CPFA®, NQPC™ has been honored with a national award for his exceptional service to plan participants in 401(k) plans. This prestigious recognition was awarded by Planadviser, highlighting Phil’s dedication to providing top-notch education and support to retirement plan participants.

Phil Sherman joined Deschutes Investment Consulting in 2019, drawn by the firm’s commitment to retirement plan education and participant support. Phil’s journey into the financial services industry began as a wealth advisor working solely with families and individuals. However, witnessing numerous clients unprepared for retirement prompted a shift in his career focus. Phil found his calling at Deschutes, where he could address these challenges by educating and supporting plan participants, ensuring they are well-prepared for their financial futures.

Interview Highlights:

Planadviser: “Tell us about your practice and how you got into advising retirement plans.”

Sherman: “Our firm was started in 1997, and our founder, MacGregor Hall, has been involved with retirement plans his entire career. I personally joined the firm in 2019 and was specifically drawn to Deschutes due to their work with retirement plans and focus on education. The opportunity to assist participants not only in the present but also for years to come, providing the financial education and support they deeply require, was the perfect pivot I needed.”

Planadviser: “Are you connected to a wealth management division?”

Sherman: “Yes, Deschutes has a wealth management division. We are fortunate to have a team of CFP professionals that we can use to assist our education efforts. Our firm integrates both sides to support overall success. We also have built-in guardrails, like our free Retirement Assistance Program and required fee disclosures, ensuring transparency and ethical conduct.”

Planadviser: “What challenges do you think the retirement plan industry faces?”

Sherman: “The biggest challenges are financial literacy and income replacement. We tackle financial education and literacy through webinars designed for participants at various career and financial stages. To address income replacement, we work with HR to provide custom education presentations that illustrate what participants need to save for retirement. We then back out what Social Security will cover and offer strategies to fill the gap through their retirement plan and personal savings.”

Planadviser: “Why do you feel it is important to work individually with plan participants?”

Sherman: “The financial services industry often rewards advisers who serve the wealthiest clients, leaving many participants without adequate support. By offering individualized education and consultations, we aim to provide a sense of security that was once afforded by pensions. It’s crucial to help participants navigate their financial futures, especially when they are responsible for their own retirement savings.”

Planadviser: “What are three of the biggest challenges that plan participants face today?”

Sherman: “Income replacement, access to quality education, and dealing with industry jargon and paperwork. We address these by focusing on Social Security concerns, providing relevant and engaging educational content, and simplifying the process with user-friendly ‘How to’ guides.”

Phil Sherman’s recognition underscores Deschutes Investment Consulting’s unwavering commitment to participant education and support. Deschutes is proud to announce Phil’s achievements and continue on in the mission of helping businesses and individuals achieve their retirement goals.

AlbiMarketing Launches Innovative Employee Engagement Platform to Transform Workplace Culture

Helsinki, Finland, June 06, 2024 — AlbiMarketing, a company specializing in people engagement through digital rewards and gamification strategies, is excited to announce the launch of its innovative employee engagement platform. This new SaaS solution is designed to transform workplace culture by fostering intrinsic motivation and enhancing peer-to-peer engagement.The new platform by AlbiMarketing addresses several critical aspects of workplace culture, including the establishment of core values, fair and effective benefits, leadership support, and employee upskilling and reskilling. By embedding these practices into the workplace, organizations can create a climate of trust and empowerment, which in turn fosters intrinsic motivation among team members.

AlbiMarketing’s approach to employee engagement is rooted in sociological expertise, which helps harmonize the community in understanding company values across diverse teams. By stimulating, organizing, and rewarding engagement initiatives, AlbiMarketing creates a burgeoning cycle of mutual benefits for both employers and employees. This not only improves retention but also enhances the overall employee experience.In addition to the new platform, AlbiMarketing offers comprehensive guides and best practices for implementing gamification in various contexts, including education. These resources highlight the benefits, strategies, and examples of how gamification can be a powerful tool for enhancing motivation and engagement.AlbiMarketing invites interested parties to explore their new employee engagement platform and see how it can be tailored to address specific needs. By scheduling a demo, businesses can uncover the secrets to achieving incredible results through empowered stakeholder engagement.

Flexxbotics Delivers Robot Compatibility with Renishaw Machine Tool Probes and Laser Systems for In-Line Inspection

Boston, MA, June 06, 2024 –Flexxbotics, delivering workcell digitalization for robot-driven manufacturing, today announced advanced robotic machine tending compatible for in-line inspection with connectivity for the entire range of Renishaw inspection probes. Now, companies can enable robot-driven manufacturing with Flexxbotics using Renishaw to achieve precision quality with six sigma consistency and greater capacity.

Flexxbotics’ patent-pending FlexxCORE technology enables the robots to securely connect and communicate with Renishaw equipment. With Flexxbotics the robots receive closed-loop feedback based on automated inspection results enabling real-time adjustments to CNC machine programs for autonomous process control. With in-line inspection, Flexxbotics orchestrates the fleets of production robots in the smart factory to achieve continuous unattended operations enabling higher yields, greater throughput and increased profit per part.

Flexxbotics compatibility includes Renishaw’s standard-accuracy and high-accuracy machine tool touch probes including optical transmission probes, radio transmission probes, lathe probes, modular probes and hard-wired probes, as well as, Renishaw on-machine scanning probes with SPRINT™ technology. Flexxbotics is also compatible with Renishaw contact and non-contact advanced laser tool setting systems and broken tool detection systems.

“We understand the crucial role that in-line inspection technologies play in enabling autonomy in the smart factory by providing the closed-loop feedback required for autonomous process control,” said Tyler Modelksi, CTO and Co-founder of Flexxbotics. “That’s why we have focused on making all types of inspection equipment such as probes, vision systems, lasers and gauges, CMMs and more interoperable with the CNC machines and production robots, essential for robot-driven manufacturing.”

Flexxbotics robotic workcell digitalization is the backbone of the Smart Factory, delivering robot-driven manufacturing at scale with autonomous process control for continuous operations. Flexxbotics’ SaaS/hybrid architecture runs both online and offline so production continues with or without internet access, and Flexxbotics works with existing business systems such as CAD/CAM, DNC, SCADA/HMI, IIoT, MES, ERP, PLM and others for comprehensive process integration.

A full set of bi-directional communications, transforms and routing capabilities are available in Flexxbotics for the inspection tools, robots, and machinery that are connected including loading programs, sending instructions, updating parameters and status awareness depending on the machinery’s capabilities so the robots drive the Renishaw equipment along with the CNC machines and other assets in the smart factory.

“With Flexxbotics the robots do more than simply monitor the machines, the robots run the machines and inspection equipment at your command with closed-loop quality for higher yields and continuous operations,” said Tyler Bouchard, CEO & Co-founder of Flexxbotics. “We believe the rapid advancement of robot-driven manufacturing is transforming the smart factory forever.”

AAEON Announces Support for NVIDIA Jetpack 6.0 on BOXER-8640AI

Taipei, Taiwan, June 06, 2024 –AAEON, a leading designer and manufacturer of AI Edge solutions, has today confirmed that its Fanless Embedded AI System, the BOXER-8640AI, will support the newly released NVIDIA® Jetpack™ 6.0 software development kit.

The NVIDIA Jetpack 6.0 SDK is equipped with a range of new features conducive to accelerating AI application development, such as Jetson Platform Services, a modular, API-driven suite of pre-built and cloud-native software services.

The BOXER-8640AI was the first of AAEON’s Fanless Embedded AI System range to feature the NVIDIA® Jetson AGX Orin™ module, designed with a precise set of interfaces to utilize the AI performance offered by the NVIDIA® Jetson™ edge AI platform. At the time of launch, AAEON noted that the PC would maintain ongoing support for updates to the NVIDIA JetPack SDK in order to give its customers a complete framework with which to harness world-class AI acceleration, multimedia, graphics, and computer vision tools for any application, as new technologies enter the market.

NVIDIA JetPack 6.0’s introduction of Jetson Platform Services reduces the time required to configure and deploy edge AI applications using the BOXER-8640AI. These modular services, including AI Perception Service using the NVIDIA DeepStream SDK, Sensor Management and Storage with VST, and AI Analytics for processing metadata to time-series insights, will empower developers to create innovative edge AI solutions. Furthermore, AAEON is committed to providing comprehensive support for the adoption of NVIDIA JetPack 6.0 across its BOXER-8000 series, ensuring customers can leverage the latest advancements in AI development across their entire product range.

To complement these advancements, NVIDIA JetPack 6.0 includes updates such as NVIDIA TensorRT 8.6.2 for high-performance deep learning inference, NVIDIA DLA 3.14 for hardware acceleration of convolutional neural networks, NVIDIA cuDNN 8.9.4 for optimized deep learning primitives, and NVIDIA CUDA 12.2.1 for comprehensive GPU-accelerated application development. Additionally, the full release of the update has enabled security and power management features to par with NVIDIA JetPack 5.X.

By leveraging these features, the BOXER-8640AI offers even greater flexibility to AAEON customers for AI edge computing solutions. With its robust specifications, including up to 64GB LPDDR5 memory, multiple storage options, extensive I/O interfaces, and now upgraded support for Linux Ubuntu 22.04, the BOXER-8640AI is an ideal platform to bring industry 4.0, smart retail, transportation, and autonomous mobile robot solutions to market.

“We have always worked hard to ensure our hardware supports the latest NVIDIA technologies, and feel that the substantial benefits offered by JetPack 6.0 will allow our customers to achieve their AI application development goals,” said Alex Hsueh, Associate Vice President of AAEON’s Smart Platform Division. “This integration unlocks new possibilities for edge AI applications across industries, and we hope that AAEON confirming the BOXER-8640AI’s support for JetPack 6.0 will encourage our customers to leverage the latest advancements in AI technology with the platform.”

AAEON urges those who wish to learn more about its support for JetPack 6.0 to attend a showcase being held at its headquarters, located at 6F., No. 28, Baogao Rd., Xindian Dist., New Taipei City, during COMPUTEX 2024. AAEON’s full range of products will be on display from June 3 to June 7.

The major theme for this year’s event is edge AI, with a focus on the live demos of its embedded AI systems powered by NVIDIA® Jetson™ modules. The demonstrations on show leverage NVIDIA technologies to create real-world, value-adding solutions across various markets. Highlights include a Generative AI Visual Insight Agent powered by NVIDIA Jetson AGX Orin, an edge AI smoke/fire/gas detection system powered by NVIDIA® Jetson™ Xavier™ NX, a real-time AI-assisted endoscopy system powered by the Jetson AGX Orin, and an AI AOI printed circuit board defect detection solution using NVIDIA GPUs.