Brokerage firm IDBI Capital is bullish on software and consulting company Sonata Software on the back of strong financial performance over the past few quarters under the leadership of new chief executive officer (CEO), Samir Dhir. It sees over 19 per cent more upside in the stock, despite the shares giving 163 per cent returns in a year.

As per the brokerage, Sonata Software’s alliances with technology leaders such as Microsoft, Oracle, and IBM; and involvement in several early adoption partnerships provide the company with an early-mover advantage on newer technology and releases.

Not just that, as per the brokerage, the company has also outperformed its peers in terms of revenues by 70 to 200 basis points (bps) on a quarter-on-quarter (QoQ) basis and has better earnings before interest, tax, depreciation , and amortization (EBITDA) margins than peers that are 200–500 basis points higher. IDBI Capital expects the outperformance to continue in the medium term.

Additionally, the brokerage believes that Sonata’s focus on investing in sales and marketing, account mining, hunting, and a strong platformation framework will be key long-term growth drivers, which may lead to the company aspiring to double its international service revenues by FY27E from FY23.

“We believe the company could achieve the same by FY26E (implying a service revenue CAGR of 27 per cent over FY23-FY26E). Considering this, we expect overall revenue (including domestic sales) and profit after tax (PAT) to grow at a CAGR of 23 per cent and 24 per cent over FY23–FY26E,” IDBI Capital’s report read.

The brokerage also expects large deals to drive robust growth. While touching on the valuations, the brokerage expects the growth to be better than the average of its peers, which should result in the stock commanding premium valuations in the medium to long term.

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Persefoni received the highest score possible in Audit & Compliance, Innovation, Market Presence, ROI calculation, Supplier engagement, Sustainability intelligence, and Vision, among other categories

TEMPE, Ariz., April 2, 2024 /PRNewswire/ — Persefoni, a leading Climate Management & Accounting Platform (CMAP) for enterprises and financial institutions, was recognized as a leader in sustainability management software by analyst firm Forrester. The Forrester Wave: Sustainability Management Software, Q2 2024 report evaluated sustainability management software vendors using 24 criteria to inform corporate sustainability and finance teams considering purchasing options.

“Persefoni AI (is) a specialist in carbon with deep expertise in carbon accounting, data management, compliance, and decarbonization planning,” said the Forrester report. “Persefoni AI’s strong vision includes the use of AI for deeper financial modeling and includes broader ESG reporting.”

“Persefoni is honored to once again be selected as a leader in the sustainability management software market,” said CEO and Co-Founder Kentaro Kawamori. “Persefoni Advanced and our intuitive, free, self-guided solution, Persephoni Pro, not only makes gathering climate data and reporting a breeze, but we accomplish this with enterprise-grade security, including SOC I, SOC II, and ISO 27001 certifications. Together, Persefoni leverages many years of development and achievements in AI, including proprietary, advanced GPT models, to simplify managing Scopes 1, 2, and 3, with an established focus on supply chain engagement.”

The report cited Persefoni’s superior innovation and product development and Scope 3 Data Exchange, which enables users to request and manage supplier emissions data, climate targets, and product carbon footprints. The report also noted Persefoni’s superior capabilities for ROI calculation, decarbonization levers, and Net Zero Navigator (developed with partners Bain & Co.) for environmental strategy.

Many of the world’s largest companies and financial institutions trust Persefoni – including strategic integrations with market leaders like Workivaand partnerships with global services firms like Bain & Co., Deloitte, and ERM. Industry leaders like MSCI and Deloitte Tohmatsu have already selected Persephoni Pro.

About Persephoni
Persefoni AI Inc. offers businesses and financial institutions the software and AI tools to manage their organization’s climate-related data, disclosures, and performance with the same level of rigor and confidence as their financial reporting systems. With our platform, users can streamline their carbon footprint calculations, develop and oversee decarbonization strategies, and generate audit-ready sustainability reports.

For more information about Persefoni, please visit https://www.persefoni.com/.

SOURCE Persephoni

ServiceNow (NYSE: NOW), Hugging Face, and NVIDIA today announced the release of StarCoder2, a family of open-access large language models for code generation that sets new standards for performance, transparency, and cost-effectiveness.

StarCoder2 was developed in partnership with the BigCode Community, managed by ServiceNowthe leading digital workflow company making the world work better for everyone, and Hugging Facethe most-used open-source platform, where the machine learning community collaborates on models, datasets, and applications.

Trained on 619 programming languages, StarCoder2 can be further trained and embedded in enterprise applications to perform specialized tasks such as application source code generation, workflow generation, text summarization, and more. Developers can use its code completion, advanced code summarization, code snippets retrieval, and other capabilities to accelerate innovation and improve productivity.

StarCoder2 offers three model sizes: a 3-billion-parameter model trained by ServiceNow; a 7-billion-parameter model trained by Hugging Face; and a 15-billion-parameter model built by NVIDIA with NVIDIA NeMo and trained on NVIDIA accelerated infrastructure. The smaller variants provide powerful performance while saving on computing costs, as fewer parameters require less computing during inference. In fact, the new 3-billion-parameter model matches the performance of the original StarCoder 15-billion-parameter model.

“StarCoder2 stands as a testament to the combined power of open scientific collaboration and responsible AI practices with an ethical data supply chain,” emphasizes Harm de Vries, lead of ServiceNow‘s StarCoder2 development team and co-lead of BigCode. “The state-of-the-art open-access model improves on prior generative AI performance to increase developer productivity and provides developers equal access to the benefits of code generation AI, which in turn enables organizations of any size to more easily meet their full business potential.”

“The joint efforts led by Hugging Face, ServiceNow, and NVIDIA enable the release of powerful base models that empower the community to build a wide range of applications more efficiently with full data and training transparency,” said Leandro von Werra, machine learning engineer at Hugging Face and co‑lead of BigCode. “StarCoder2 is a testament to the potential of open source and open science as we work toward democratizing responsible AI.”

“Since every software ecosystem has a proprietary programming language, code LLMs can drive breakthroughs in efficiency and innovation in every industry,” said Jonathan Cohen, vice president of applied research at NVIDIA. “NVIDIA’s collaboration with ServiceNow and Hugging Face introduces secure, responsibly developed models and supports broader access to accountable generative AI that we believe will benefit the global community.”

StarCoder2 Models Supercharge Custom Application Development

StarCoder2 models share a state-of-the-art architecture and carefully curated data sources from BigCode that prioritize transparency and open governance to enable responsible innovation at scale.

StarCoder2 advances the potential of future AI-driven coding applications, including text-to-code and text-to-workflow capabilities. With broader, deeper programming training, it provides repository context, enabling accurate, context-aware predictions. These advancements serve seasoned software engineers and citizen developers alike, accelerating business value and digital transformation.

The foundation of StarCoder2 is a new code dataset called Stacks v2, which is more than 7x larger than Stack v1. In addition to the advanced dataset, new training techniques help the model understand low-resource programming languages ​​(such as COBOL), mathematics, and program source code discussions.

Fine-Tuning Advances Capabilities With Business-Specific Data

Users can fine-tune the open-access StarCoder2 models with industry- or organization-specific data using open-source tools such as NVIDIA NeMo or Hugging Face TRL. They can create advanced chatbots to handle more complex summarization or classification tasks, develop personalized coding assistants that can quickly and easily complete programming tasks, retrieve relevant code snippets, and enable text-to-workflow capabilities.

Organizations have already begun to fine-tune the foundational StarCoder model to create specialized task-specific capabilities for their businesses.

ServiceNow’s text-to-code Now LLM was purpose-built on a specialized version of the 15-billion-parameter StarCoder LLM, fine-tuned and trained for its workflow patterns, use cases, and processes. Hugging Face has also used the model to create its StarChat assistant.

BigCode Fosters Open Scientific Collaboration in AI

BigCode represents an open scientific collaboration led by Hugging Face and ServiceNow, dedicated to the responsible development of LLMs for code.

The BigCode community actively participates in the technical aspects of the StarCoder2 project through working groups and task forces, leveraging ServiceNow’s Fast LLM framework to train the 3-billion-parameter model, Hugging Face’s nanotron framework for the 7-billion-parameter model and the NVIDIA NeMo cloud-native framework and NVIDIA TensorRT-LLM software to train and optimize the 15-billion-parameter model.

Fostering responsible innovation is at the core of BigCode’s purpose, demonstrated through its open governance, transparent supply chain, use of open-source software, and the ability for developers to opt data out of training. StarCoder2 was built using responsibly sourced data under license from the digital commons of Heritage Softwarehosted by Inria.

“StarCoder2 is the first code generation AI model developed using the Software Heritage source code archive and built to align with our policies for responsible development of models for code,” stated Roberto Di Cosmo, director at Software Heritage. “The collaboration of ServiceNow, Hugging Face, and NVIDIA exemplifies a shared commitment to ethical AI development, advancing technology for the greater good.”

StarCoder2, like its predecessor, will be made available under the BigCode Open RAIL-M license, allowing royalty-free access and use. Further fostering transparency and collaboration, the model’s supporting code will continue to reside on the BigCode project’s GitHub page.

All StarCoder2 models will also be available for download from Hugging Face, and the StarCoder2 15-billion-parameter model is available on NVIDIA AI Foundation models for developers to experiment directly from their browser, or through an API endpoint.

For more information on StarCoder2, visit https://huggingface.co/bigcode.

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“Python Development with Visual Studio Code,” designed to equip participants with the fundamentals of Python programming within the VSCode IDE, will be held from 3-4 pm Wednesday, Feb. 28, on Zoom.

Python is one of the most popular computer programming languages ​​for data analysis, task automation and machine learning. Because it’s relatively easy to learn, many non-programmers, such as accountants and scientists, use Python for a variety of everyday tasks.

The webinar will review how to set up the Python environment, VSCode’s powerful editing, running and debugging features, and integrating with Git for version control. Participants will also learn about useful extensions to enhance their development workflow.

The session includes a practical demonstration of building a simple Python project, offering hands-on experience with the tools and features discussed. The webinar aims to provide a solid foundation for developing Python applications efficiently using VSCode, catering to both advanced beginners and intermediate users.

Register to attend.

Let’s talk about the popular Constellation Software Inc. (TSE:CSU). The company’s shares saw a significant share price rise of 22% in the past couple of months on the TSX. The company’s trading levels have reached its highest for the past year, following the recent bounce in the share price. With many analysts covering the large-cap stock, we may expect any price-sensitive announcements to have already been factored into the stock’s share price. However, could the stock still be trading at a relatively cheap price? Let’s examine Constellation Software’s valuation and outlook in more detail to determine if there’s still a bargain opportunity.

View our latest analysis for Constellation Software

Is Constellation Software Still Cheap?

The stock seems fairly valued at the moment according to our valuation model. It’s trading around 15% below our intrinsic value, which means if you buy Constellation Software today, you’d be paying a fair price for it. And if you believe that the stock is really worth CA$4374.84, then there’s not much of an upside to gain from mispricing. In addition to this, Constellation Software has a low beta, which suggests its share price is less volatile than the wider market.

Can we expect growth from Constellation Software?

Future outlook is an important aspect when you’re looking at buying a stock, especially if you are an investor looking for growth in your portfolio. Buying a great company with a robust outlook at a cheap price is always a good investment, so let’s also take a look at the company’s future expectations. With profits expected to grow by 38% over the next couple of years, the future seems bright for Constellation Software. It looks like higher cash flow is on the cards for the stock, which should feed into a higher share valuation.

What This Means For You

Are you a shareholder? CSU’s optimistic future growth appears to have been factored into the current share price, with shares trading around its fair value. However, there are also other important factors which we have not considered today, such as the financial strength of the company. Have these factors changed since the last time you looked at the stock? Will you have enough confidence to invest in the company should the price drop below its fair value?

Are you a potential investor? If you’ve been keeping tabs on CSU, now may not be the most optimal time to buy, given it is trading around its fair value. However, the optimistic prospect is encouraging for the company, which means it’s worth diving deeper into other factors such as the strength of its balance sheet, in order to take advantage of the next price drop.

Story continues

If you want to dive deeper into Constellation Software, you’d also look into what risks it is currently facing. For example, we’ve discovered 1 warning sign that you should run your eyes over to get a better picture of Constellation Software.

If you are no longer interested in Constellation Software, you can use our free platform to see our list of over 50 other stocks with a high growth potential.

Have feedback on this article? Concerned about the content? Get in touch with us directly. Alternatively, email editorial-team (at) simplywallst.com.

This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. We provide commentary based on historical data and analyst forecasts only using an unbiased methodology and our articles are not intended to be financial advice. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. We aim to bring you long-term focused analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material. Simply Wall St has no position in any stocks mentioned.

This provides international and domestic airlines with a solution for last-mile coverage to smaller destinations that are underserved by existing carriers, the statement added.

FLY91, the country’s youngest regional airline, has partnered with IBS Software to power its commercial operations.

FLY91 aims to provide an air alternative to road and rail travel across underserved routes in India.

IBS Software has created a reservation experience designed to deliver a simple, efficient and cost-effective experience, to attract and retain customers, a press release from the company said on Wednesday.

“By implementing IBS Software’s modern omni-channel iFly Res commerce platform, FLY91 will not only create a compelling user experience powered by the platform’s rich set of APIs and flexible rules engine, but also deliver dynamic pricing.

“These real-time dynamic and personalized pricing capabilities are a vital tool in delivering the most cost-effective fares and ensuring pricing is competitive with alternative modes of transport,” IBS Software said in the release.

Additionally, access to an API-driven ecosystem gives FLY91 the ability to open its services and routes connecting tier-2 (population of 50,000 to 100,000) and tier 3 (population of 20,000 to 50,000) cities across India to interline partners, it said.

This provides international and domestic airlines with a solution for last-mile coverage to smaller destinations that are underserved by existing carriers, the statement added.

First Published: Apr 03 2024 | 4:33 PM IST

At least 18 people have now come forward raising concerns over a second IT system used by the Post Office, Sky News understands.

Accounting software, Capture, was installed by several post offices around the country in the mid to late 90s – before the notorious Horizon system was rolled out.

Hundreds of sub-postmasters were wrongly convicted after errors in the Horizon software caused false accounting shortfalls.

Lawyers for the victims of the Post Office scandal have told Sky News more people who used the Capture system may now come forward.

Sources have also said there are growing concerns about a continued “culture of denial” at the Post Office, and a suspicion that record-keeping was “in a mess”.

Documents show that Capture was known by the Post Office to have issues early on.

A Post Office spokesperson said they take any concerns “very seriously”.

They are also “particularly concerned about allegations of prosecutions”.

Their statement continues, saying that they are looking into “whether shortfalls could have been caused by faults in this software, and the potential impacts if so”.

Given the passage of time, and changes to data storage they say they “do not yet have a complete picture”.

The Capture software system was not believed to have been “networked” to a larger, wider, system but was used by some postmasters across the country.

Former sub-postmasters have told Sky News they had to pay more than £1,000 for the software despite it being developed in-house by the Post Office.

Steve Marston, now 68-years-old, pleaded guilty to theft after shortfalls of over £79,000 showed up in the year between 1996 and 1997 when he started to use the Capture software.

For the twenty years previous, he said he had “no problems” with accounting.

Mr Marston has received bravery awards from the Post Office in the past for confronting armed robbers on two occasions.

He describes feeling “betrayed” by the Post Office who, he says, missed an opportunity ahead of the Horizon scandal.

“I mistakenly thought Capture was a computerized system and computers don’t make mistakes.

“I didn’t know any better. I just automatically assumed it was something I was doing wrong.”

He was spared prison but spent 12 months on probation and still feels the “shame”, saying it has ruined his and his family’s life.

After his conviction, he sold his wedding rings and wife’s jewelery to “make ends meet”, and spent years living in a caravan because he lost his house.

“I just feel so guilty – I still feel shame and guilt about it.”

Read more:
Woman who died after conviction may have suffered miscarriage of justice
Former postmaster says compensation offer is ‘insulting’
Post Office chairman ousted amid row with government

Rupert Lloyd Thomas, a former IT specialist for the Post Office for 27 years, said he had repeatedly raised concerns about how the Post Office managed its software systems.

He was a local manager in Birmingham in the mid-80s, at one point, and says he often went into offices to see what was happening.

“I remember visiting an office in west London, in Hounslow,” he said, “and I opened a cupboard there and there were hundreds of floppy disks sitting in this cupboard sort of discarded and I said well, what’s all this?

“This was software crashing in the office, and yet I got back to headquarters in London. Nobody’s interested. You know, we’re getting a new system. So why would we worry about stopping the old one.

“All of those things went on. I think a lot of these people that have appeared in front of the Post Office inquiry honestly didn’t know what was happening because they didn’t bother to go find out.”

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Kevan Jones, MP, who has supported Horizon victims, says he is in touch with around ten possible victims of Capture.

“What makes me very angry,” he says, “is the fact that the Post Office, despite all the publicity around Horizon, didn’t feel necessary to come forward and admit that they had a system before Horizon where similar things occurred.

“They haven’t raised that at the public inquiry, they haven’t raised it with ministers.

“And I think certainly Nick Reed the chief executive needs to come clean now and ask why they’ve not done that.”

The Department for Business and Trade has said that it “is in active discussions with the Post Office about the Capture system issue and are taking it very seriously”.

“If there is evidence that this system led to improper accusations, the government will not hesitate in taking robust action.”

It is also understood that there is a possibility the public inquiry could be expanded to include the Capture system if more evidence emerges.