MindScape

Till now the main purpose of domains was to just serve Web pages, but from now they will contribute in saving the environment also.

The introduction of a new Top Level Domain (TLD) called .eco in the arena of website domain names will aggregate the environmental information about organizations and individuals. According to the Backers of .eco, “.eco domain is established for individuals who want to express their support for environmental causes, for companies to promote their environmental initiatives, and for environmental organizations to maintain their websites in a namespace that is more relevant to their core missions.”

In order to make it a trust mark for environmental and sustainability information, the .eco domain name is being proposed to ICANN (Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers). It is being considered as a part of a new expansion of domain names which are set to occur in 2010.

The .eco site would be the place where the companies would aggregate all of their green information. All the pertinent eco-information that companies want to reveal about themselves or their products will be now available with their products having an eco label and their registration with .eco domain. Another kind of information could include membership information in environment organizations or efforts as well as the potential information regarding the use of energy.

The .eco TLD isn’t just being proposed for big vendors only, it will be useful for small business and individuals also. As millions of small businesses are looking for a framework that could exhibit their environment progress, .eco could work as that framework. Additionally, .eco will be helpful for individuals to track their own environmental activities and footsteps.

Leading environmental activist Al Gore recently revealed his backing for the proposed introduction of .eco by announcing his support for a new social venture called Dot Eco LLC, which aims to secure the .eco top level domain.

Being closer to customers is imperative for any business and becomes obligatory during this economic slump. During this tough time, finding new customers for your business is quite tough and expensive whereas it takes less effort and is economical to retain your existing customers. Moreover, it is easier to sell additional products to existing clients than to search for the new ones, in this downturn.

Here are some tips that you can undergo to retain customers and beat this recession:

Arrange Regular Personal Meetings: Personal meetings with customers show them that you are interested in their business. With this you will get an opportunity to see things with the customers’ point of view, and enables you to deal with the issues before any problem arises. You can make it simple by putting your email id on website so that customers can contact you directly.

Request an Opinion: Asking customers for their feedback, convinces them to consider that you are always keen to find out what are their expectations. Use of questions like ‘How can we improve our services?’, ‘Could we do better to meet the service standards you expect from us?’ etc. shows to customers that you value their suggestions and take care of their concerns by doing what’s needed, required and important.

Treat them in a Different Way: Your customers value their relationships with you. They are more likely to respond positively to efforts to improve that relationship. They deserve to be treated differently. Out deliver your promises to customers, and they will be delighted to come back for more business from you.

Perform an Inside Job: One quick and effective way to find out what your customers are thinking is to ask your employees as they already have (or should have) relationships with customers so it should be easy. Make it part of their job. Guide and encourage them to have conversations with customers that result in your company knowing more about your customers’ expectations.

Go For an In-Depth Study: Consider going into greater depth with focusing a few representative customers instead of surveying a wide range of customers. Learning the changing habits of your core customers is a better use of resources than focusing on new customers in this economic depression.

“Recession is a difficult time for every business, but don’t allow it to be a time of complete failure.”

Finally, Microsoft is all set to wrap off its much anticipated search engine named Bing, (formerly coded as Kumo). Going to be fully operational from June 3, 2009, Bing is a replacement for Windows Live Search. Unveiled as a ‘Decision Engine’ by Microsoft CEO- Steve Ballmer on May 28, 2009 at the ‘All Things D’ conference in San Diego, the search engine has been started as an attempt to smack down Google’s domination in the search arena.

Will Bing takeover Google’s dominance?  Is Bing a Google-killer?

We can’t say with a certainty that Bing will dethrone Google or not, but surely there are some unique features which enable Bing to withstand competition against Google and Yahoo.

Home Page: The most remarkable feature of Bing is its homepage which is loaded with nice wallpapers that seem to change on a daily basis. By hovering over the mouse on the image you can also find the story behind the wallpaper.

Search: Bing throws the information at you in a much uncluttered, unconfused and neat manner. Bing includes navigation for search results, including a new left-hand navigation bar and a categorized search feature that groups all search results by topic category. What is liked most about the web results are the snippets of information that are seen beside every search result link.

Other Features: There are other expected features on home page such as Images, Videos, News, Maps along with Shopping and Travel. You can also check out the bits of information at the bottom of the homepage; there’s also a ‘Popular Now’ link that shows you the topics that are currently getting the buzz at Bing.

Well, it might take some time getting used to this new set of search results and finally coming to a judgment  ‘Is Bing better than Google and Yahoo?’ but Microsoft has had a good start with Bing by creating a good amount of buzz as well as receiving some early positive reviews for this nice search engine.

Have you ever analyzed how intelligent your business is? Do you and your employees have in-depth knowledge regarding the processes to drive profits to the business? How do you acquire that knowledge and understanding, and do you exercise them for shaping the future of your business?

Above questions could be answered easily by business executives by simply monitoring the sales and revenue of their businesses. But the real question which can be asked today is how do you achieve Business Intelligence in this Internet ruled economy or simply how do you achieve E-Business Intelligence?

E-business intelligence can be described as Internet market feedback which enables an enterprise to measure and manage return on investment (ROI). Certain facts which drive E-business intelligence are: the ways to maximize traffic on website, having ample Internet affiliations, distribution of company’s products on the Internet, competitors pulling your business to drive their business etc. These facts, in future give birth to business strategies/models.

Internet has an impact over online and offline aspects of a business. These aspects can be related to legal activities, corporate reputation, infrastructure, strategies and interactive activities of the business. Since, Internet is too large to monitor the violations or immoral activities against the business; E-business intelligence is used to implement a step by step process so as to eradicate those iniquitous activities. The step by step procedure follows as:

Step 1 – Know your exposure on the Internet: The correct knowledge of your scope on Internet would assist in forming a baseline for deciding about the trends that need to be tracked over a period of time.

Step 2 – Developing official policies and procedures: Official corporate policies and procedures justify the application of different consequences and treatment for the websites that violate your business.

Step 3 –Use of practical measures: Practical or proactive measures are repeatable and sustainable. These can help in bringing out actions/behaviors that affect your bottom line business and how they can be cured.

Step 4 - Being decisive: The addition of ‘E’ to a business makes it more competitive. Whether your enterprise is big or small, the matter focuses on being attentive and decisive so as to drive more people to your site.

“US President Barack Obama pledged to end tax breaks for corporations that send US jobs overseas.” (Source: Indian express)

According to Obama administration, there will be no tax benefits for US firms that outsource their jobs overseas. As a justification to the decision, it has been stated that it would restore a sense of fairness and balance to US tax code and will create/save millions of the jobs in the country.

Well, this decision of President Obama to clamp down on outsourcing is surely going to affect the Indian tech sector. But the other side of the reality is that US is also going to suffer with this move, as outsourcing has brought a lot of economical and logical changes to the country.

The global competitiveness of US firms has been enhanced with outsourcing which has resulted into a large number of jobs within US economy. This move might damage the global competitiveness of US economy. It is a challenge for US companies such as Microsoft, Hewlett-Packard, Motorola, Pepsico, IBM etc., which have outsourced jobs to foreign countries such as India and also to Indian IT and software companies that are proliferating in US. Businesses these days are more global than ever before, the denial of tax benefits can prove to be an obstacle in the path of progress towards globalization and modernization.

No doubt President Obama’s decision is aimed towards the revival of US economy, but in the current economic environment when the entire world is under pressures of global meltdown, it is vital for all countries to collaborate on technology and innovation. Such policies only obstruct the renaissance of world economy.

Considering the current business and economic scenario, the proposed move to discourage outsourcing seems to be more harmful for American companies.

“Severe migraine attacks during Sunday evenings…”
“Six million people per year take sick leave from work…”
“Maximum number of heart attacks during office hours…”

These are some of the headlines published these days in the Health column of daily newspapers. Research studies have proven that the only reason behind these unhealthy situations is the Workplace Stress. According to a survey, ‘63% employees say that the job pressures interfere with their personal life and 60% say that the job is negatively affecting their physical and emotional well-being.’

We all know what Workplace Stress is, right? Struggle to beat the clock, deadlines to meet, targets to catch up on…etc., etc…

However, it is not true that workplace stress is always negative. It can yield positive results also. In fact, people perform better when they are under ‘stress’. While stress and pressure are productive for a short time, their long time influence can affect a person’s mental, emotional and physical perspectives. Negative stress turns out when the job is mismatched with what was really wanted, little on-the-job flexibility and no time to relax and recover.

Over the past few decades, stress in the workplace has been greater than before. Occupational Stress can be one of the most devastating types of stress. Employees are not acknowledged properly by their Managers. Attitudinal problems among superiors cause lack of communication due to which subordinates feel isolated, unsupported and stressed.

Perhaps, this so called epidemic can be cured by taking immediate actions to control the causes of stress. Employees themselves can deal effectively with stress on the job. Proper time management and planning can help create a routine and get organized. Respect and appreciation at work, mix of a little fun and smile with work also might help to ease the stress of workdays. Sometimes small words of acknowledgment like ‘Thanks’ can create big wonders.

It was the last day of ‘2008’ and we all were eagerly waiting for ‘2009’ as we were anxious – what New Year is bringing for us, GOD knows!

But the Vinove team, so optimistic as usual was totally geared up for the New Year. There was one more reason to celebrate- we all were going to ‘Fun town’- A beautiful resort near Bahadurgarh on Jan 1st, 2009.

And the great day arrived. We all gathered up in the office premises wishing each other, Happy New Year! All were so excited for the lovely excursion- Thanks to HR team for all arrangements done.

Our bus arrived and everybody was screaming with joy. Some new Vinovians - Amit, Vishal, Saurabh and Manish Rawat were on the top of the bus jubilating and giving different poses for the photos which were taken by our very own creative cameraman Naveen.

The bus started heading towards our destination. There was excitement in the air. This was going to be great. Everybody was enthusiastic to reach Fun Town. Swati, Tripti, Manju and Kanika started singing songs and soon we were playing ‘Antakshri’- A game in which a team has to sing a song at the alphabet on which the other team has finished. It was going great and soon we reached ‘Fun Town’.

As we came out of the bus, we uttered ‘WOW’ in joy! Situated in the suburbs of Haryana, the platinum resort was known for its aesthetic appeal.
Without wasting time we entered the resort and our session started with a brunch. The food was great and after that we all started exploring the resort. The DJ was playing awesome music, there were breath taking swings and a beautiful water park.

First of all everyone tried the great “Columbus”. As it started swinging fast to-and-fro in the air, everybody started screaming and were feeling the goose bumps. Out of all, Vijyata was having a tough time.

Mohit, Gulshan, Pankaj and Charanjeet were busy with table tennis. Khem Raj, Manish Chauhan, Naveen, Chandresh, were playing pool. Everybody was so into their games but soon all this came to an end when Neha and gang intervened in the game.

Abhijeet, Akash, Amit and Piyush accompanied by other members went to the water park. Without taking much time all were in their trunks enjoying mighty water rides. The boys were elated and living the moment to the fullest.

Soon the music became loud and everybody started heading towards the dance floor but to our surprise some of our members Vishal, Kanika, Vibha, Naveen, Umar, Tripti were already shaking their legs on the dance floor. Soon the DJ podium was filled by the Vinovians and everyone was dancing so elegantly.

Other members were playing football and cricket but they too joined the DJ.
After dancing to the music for hours, we all went to take the lunch and again the food was delicious!

We all finished our lunch and were again ready for the next session and this time we were playing “Tug of war”. One team was headed by Mohit Malik and the other was headed by Ashish Thapiyal. Both the teams were shouting and their entire strength was in pulling the rope towards their respective side. But the game came to an end and the winner was Mohit’s team.
Soon all were back to the dance floor and this time it was Khem Raj dancing to the music. We all gave our best dance steps. But soon were told to get on the bus by our HR head-Bhavna.

Not a single one of us was ready to go back. Everyone felt that the fun has just begun but evening was getting colder by the minute. Soon we were in the bus and started heading back home.
All in all it was a fabulous trip and its moments will be cherished for many days to come.
A trip down the memory lane will be worth having a laugh and ecstatic hysteria will remain forever.

Let us forget the sorrows of the past.
With determination and unflinching will,
Let us renew our lives, our good habits and our success to give ourselves
and all our near and dear ones a great year ahead.
Wishing you all divine happiness for the New Year.

VINOVE FAMILY

Like every Diwali (the festival of lights and a long weekend for most) everyone at Vinove was looking forward to a day of fun and revelry. It was more special since we were a larger number than the last year. With a 100% growth in manpower it was going to be great to have extra hands to engage in our most popular activity “decoration of our cubicles”. As always, we were eagerly waiting for the missive from the HR team containing the schedule for the day. A few of us had also decided on the color scheme for the rangoli. However, the mail from the HR team came as a pleasant surprise. Unlike the previous years, this year there was a proposal to celebrate Diwali in an Orphanage that is home to children who are mentally challenged or who belong to the economically weaker strata. “But what about the decoration”, asked a few inquisitive ones. To answer these and other such questions, the mail further explained that this was a voluntary trip and the non-participants could go on to decorate their cubicles (there was a collective sigh of relief).

The response took the HR team by surprise. Everybody in the office wanted to participate. The response was so overwhelming that the HR Team had to restrict the participants, and the team leads were designated to recommend the names of the participants. After all there were a few people needed to decorate the cubicles too, reasoned the HR team. Rakesh was deliberately left behind to ensure that the kids do not get scared by his bulging arms and bushy eyebrows.

After collating the names of the participants, the Admin team got down cracking. They went and compiled a list of items, which the authorities of the orphanage wanted assistance with. All these items were sourced by funds gathered from contributions from our employees and the Office Funds. The response was so encouraging that we ended up giving more than the actual requirements.
The Admin team worked out the modalities, and the last working day before Diwali weekend, was stipulated for the visit. On the designated day we were ready and the excitement was palpable. We joked with Manish to behave lest he be mistaken for one of the residents, and detained. We all trooped into the designated vehicles and were on our way.

After some confusion on the way (thanks to the chaotic Delhi traffic), we reached the venue, just a few minutes late. We were greeted by a clamor caused by continuous banging of steel plates. Mr.Anupam, the Manager of the orphanage, explained the cacophony to us. He told us that the clocks in the stomach of the children triggered this phenomenon, and this was how the kids expressed their displeasure, if the food was not served on time. He further explained that the clocks in their tummies were always on time (such precision could put any watchmaker to shame).

Without wasting any more time, we got down to business. As we entered the room we were greeted with cheerful namaste. It was amazing to see the discipline amongst the children (with an average of 4 years). Each of them knew the order in which they would be served and there was no snatching or fighting (as could be expected by such toddlers).

The only snatching witnessed was between Sanjeev and Shyam (our team members), as both of them wanted to bet he first to serve Pooris!! Thankfully this was promptly resolved.

It was a pleasure to serve the children and heartening to see the participation of our team in this endeavor. Ankit was struggling to convince a kid to eat first and drink water later, while Deepti tried to use her charm to persuade a kid to eat first and talk later, but failed. Ankit won but Deepti lost. Ankit-2 (yes, there are two of them), got so engrossed with the kids that he started to throw tantrums when we were to leave!!

After the meal, we were taken around the premises and also visited the section which houses the critically ill children. It was poignant to see these children, but heartening to see that they were being looked after well by the attendants. The compassion with which the children were being looked after was indeed commendable. The surroundings were clean and impeccable, and any violations of toilet training were promptly cleaned!!

The highlight of the day was the performance by the tiny tots (from the mentally challenged wing), who presented a well orchestrated dance performance. A big round of applause was followed by distribution of gifts that we had brought for them. Manju (our Systems Analyst) grudgingly presented a doll to a young girl (I suspect Manju wanted to keep it for herself).

After spending a few hours with the kids, it was finally time to wave the kids goodbye. Hugs and kisses were exchanged with the kids and we thanked Mr. Anupam for giving us the opportunity to visit their establishment. As we trooped out, I noticed that Manish was also coming with us (thank God he had not been detained).

All of us reached the office in time to resume decorating our cubicles, followed by other events.
As we reminisced about the trip, we were unanimous in our admiration for the unsung heroes-The staff of the orphanage who go on discharging their duties without being acknowledged for such selfless service. Hats off to them indeed.

The visit was indeed very humbling for all of us and it left us wondering if all the material gains that we chase all the time are worth the effort. After seeing the kids so content being in the First Level of Maslow’ need, our pursuit of Esteem needs appears flippant.

This awakening did not however, deter us from going ahead and participating in the cubicle decoration contest!!

As a fall out of this trip, each one of us has requested the HR team to arrange such nobel outings more often. I am sure that the next mail from the HR inviting the names of participants for such an event, would lead to a server failure, what with the entire organization volunteering for it.

Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) is a concept that integrates two or more functions of a firm for smoother operations.

Almost every organization has several departments with individual responsibilities. The commonly encountered classifications are :

• Manufacturing
• Human Resources
• Inventory management
• Customer Relationship management
• Accounting

and others. Each of these has separate databases, the complexity of which increases with the scale of the organization.

ERP’s power lies in in its ability to integrate these multiple databases and processes into one coherent entity accessible by all departments, thereby improving cross-functionality, cutting time and escalating productivity.

For Example:

A shipping firm bags an order to deliver 100 crates of wine in 5 days. The departments engaged to accomplish the objective would be:

• Sales : the one that bagged the deal
• Inventory management : keeps an eye on the supply of necessary equipment(carts) for delivery.
• Finance : handles all the associated finances required, including payments from the customer.
• Logistics: takes care of the proper shipment and tracking of the crates.
• Customer relations : keeps in touch with the customer during and after the project.

It clearly calls for extensive coordination among all the departments for the project to be completed successfully. Any inter-departmental can have a crippling effect on the final delivery.

However, ERP systems are configured to smoothen such situations. Employing an ERP system for the above situation would bring about the following change :

The moment the sales team bags the order, it updates the order in the central database. From there it is instantly accessible to all other related departments. Inventory studies the order and checks its related stocks. In case it runs short, it notifies the in-house stock procurement dept. to make additional purchases.

Next, Finance steps in and estimates the costs to be borne by the firm for delivering the project. It also works on the billing details that will be sent to the customer(Billing dept.).

Logistics simultaneously checks transport availability to ports and also works on tracking the consignment till it is safely delivered.

Additionally, the Customer Management System keeps in touch with the customer and keeps him informed about the progress of his order, till it is delivered and beyond, for future projects that he might decide to entrust to the firm.

Thus, employing an ERP system greatly improves inter-department co-operation, and results in much better operational efficiency.

All the departments that ERP integrates and can be applied to are known as ERP Modules.

Advantages of ERP

1) Reduced Data entry and redundancy : this is the prime objective of ERP. It integrates all data under one centralized database that makes repeated data entry unnecessary, and facilitates easy access by all departments.

2) Easier Inter-department communication : which follows from a centralized database.

3) Reduction in time and cost

4) Security : ERP systems come with in-built computer security systems that are useful in preventing crimes like industrial espionage and intellectual property embezzlement.

Criticism against ERP and new developments

ERP has generated criticism due to its extensive integration costs. ERP costs can be roughly broken down into :

• Configuring(Revamping) existing system according to ERP requirements.
• Reconfiguration of hardware, work-flow, data transfers etc
• Training of personnel on ERP’s functional dynamics
• Expert ERP consultation for installation, training and post-installation maintenance and trouble shooting.

To avert this, two news trends that have witnessed encouraging responses are Online ERP and Custom ERP.

For Online ERP, any firm that wishes to avail the ERP services contacts an online vendor, who in turn provides the services for a pre-decided charge.

Custom ERP entails the integration of particular ERP modules that are relevant to the existing business’s needs, rather than revamping the business itself.

These two alternate approaches to ERP have found reasonable acceptance as they eliminate the much criticized stage of existing business revamp and the huge costs involved in on-site ERP installation.

Conclusion

ERP’s success can be gaged by the widespread popularity of firms like SAP AG, Ramco ERP, Oracle Applications and Microsoft Dynamics, that are the biggest players in this field. Having been introduced only a few years back, ERP systems have helped organizations both big and small integrate their functions for better productivity and profits.

With constant improvements being introduced and the scope of application widening to cover almost all industry sectors, ERP systems are here to stay and rule.

Not all guidelines are meant to be restrictive. Quality standards, the guidelines for web development, are meant to establish a semblance of uniformity in all web services delivered.

Issued by W3C, Quality Standards stipulate the various parameters any web development service/product must match up to, to be considered up-to-the-mark The Internet today is a beehive of all sorts of web services. Some are good, some are top-of-the-line, and some are a waste of time.

Quality standards aim to eliminate this discrepancy by promoting researched standards so that all web products and services are user-friendly and make good sense to invest in.

The need for standards

Web designers and developers are humans, which means their work reflects their viewpoints to varying extents. These viewpoints can be broadly classified under:

• Scripting of Websites
  

Using XHTML standards

XHTML is an extension of HTML that is cleaner and leaner. It allows websites to be viewed on various devices (mobile phones etc.) which was not easy with HTML.

Using Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) standards

Websites have varying degrees of complexity in their underlying codes. With HTML <font> tag, re-writing or changing the content of the website becomes tedious as it involves extensive re-configuration of the existing code.

To overcome this, W3C Quality Standards stipulate the use of CSS standards. It is a potent way of separating the style of a webpage from its content. In doing so, it enables very easy re- configuration of the page’s content.

Using CSS greatly improves the browser compatibility of a website and also improves its readability, while the lesser development time involved cuts development costs.

• Readability of websites

Text used in website content varies widely in terms of font size, color, font style(bold, italic), character/line spacing etc. Thus, the same block of text :

“Einstein had bad grades in school.”

can be written as :

“Einstein had bad grades in school.” or Einstein had bad grades in school.

Reading both the types requires concentrated effort. This hampers easy readability of websites.

Thus, Quality standards decree the use of easier text representation (font, color contrast, spacing etc.) for maximum readability.

• Website Accessibility

The spectrum of Internet users ranges from the top-end users with the latest technologies at their disposal, to the other end of users with the bare minimum required for browsing.

Clearly, websites designed to hog system resources are viewed best only on high-end systems. Such websites deny accessibility to the rest of the users, which in a way harms the website owners themselves as they lose out on the bulk of the potential visitors.

Quality Standards save the day here by stipulating user-friendly web development guidelines that maximize the website’s accessibility. The more the visitors, the better the business opportunities.

• Internationalization of Websites

Most modern browsers use the internationally accepted Unicode (UTF-8, UTF-16 etc.) character set. However, not all documents transmitted over the Internet conform to the standards of this set owing to the uniqueness of language scripts used. This results in a discrepancy among the browser being used and the text to be displayed on-screen.

Quality standards thus recommend the labeling of each document used with the character set in use for easier identification and representation.

Also, other commonly experienced discrepancies like which format to use while writing dates is taken care of by W3C guidelines. Thus, the accepted date format is yyyy-mm-dd. (letters with their usual meanings).

Eg. : 04-05-1984 could either mean 4th May 1984 or April 5^th 1984.

But with the use of quality standards, 1984-05-04 can only mean May 4^th, 1984

Although not exhaustive, this brief overview of the prevailing quality standards in web development is an endeavor to give you a better understanding of the guidelines we, at Vinove, while designing web sites for our clients.