Wednesday, April 23, 2008

Offshore Software Outsourcing

Offshore software development outsourcing has led to vegetative industry development around the world. Software requires undergoing a step-by-step process before it is accessible for general use to influence best industry practices at minimum cost, meeting international standards and industry standards. These days, everyone of us, an individual or an enterprise wants to be at the top, but just gaining the top positioning won’t do; holding and maintaining that position is of extreme contemplation. Outsourcing software applications to offshore companies has tough urge to monetize spending of business players.

Software outsourcing meets strength with increasing number of sources accessible in present IT-edge, necessities delivery in possible least time, less skilled personnel available, disconnected communication and incompetent management of various modules within a large enterprise. These business players started looking and relying on third party for improved management at minor cost and remain aggressive in the global marketplace. These are the few issues that led big businesses to outsource their software application development to offshore companies where they find time zone difference from eastern countries most attractive, cheaper human capital, rich assets, and skilled professional and little processes cost. Market analysis shows gradual penetration of investors in Indian market and other developing countries. We find bigger productive, managed simple solutions where full power remains in the hand of outsourcing companies.

40% of the Fortune 500 companies are leveraging the outsourcing model. The graph is growing depending upon the onsite and the outsource resources available. Offshore Software Outsourcing is the mainly leading area of outsourcing. Cost saving by implementing this model can diverge from 40% to 70%.

Keep in mind offshore software outsourcing is not all the time solution, so before moving to it, the best way is to find the niche requirement and then locate solution to the root trouble. Proper management between onshore and offshore team members, enhance processes, and better time management and growth prospects for both developed and developing countries are among few benefits that offshore software outsourcing companies are enjoying.

Friday, April 4, 2008

CRM Software

CRM is an absolute means to handle the relationship with your customers. In particular, present CRM systems allow you to confine information immediate to customer dealings and combine it with all customer-related operations.

The resultant information can afterwards be used to generate and computerize a range of processes that recognize, and explain, precious customers. Generally, these processes assist you personalize fresh and constant communication to economically attain, stay near to, and hold these valuable customers. What effort is needed to retain the good ones and make them better? Is it possible to get better ones or make good much better? Using these main beliefs to your complete customer support and fresh outlook are called CRM.

Now-a-days, businesses are not able to be flourishing without CRM Applications. Many corporate now use CRM software tools to improve their customer relationship management processes. The software programs are able for computerizing all business processes, starting from the customer communication to the big business responsibility, together with account managing exercises.

The wonderful point regarding CRM software is that these software’s can keep account and customer information in a central catalog & can consequentially chase every minor or major dealings of accounts like customer interactions, money transaction, worker disbursement etc. They can generate well-timed assessments and influential details that tell the figures about the monetary position of your company.

A number of CRM solutions companies to devise and employ suitable plans for every customer who can also aid in advertising products & services through straight advertising etc.

Business now has become movable & therefore it is significant to have right to use very newest data. Through Mobile CRM you can have admittance to all of the companies' information every time no issue where you are. Many current account management software contain only one catalog that has links to all information resources of the company..

CRM software which runs with account management programs assists personnel to efficiently offer suitable services to customers. Efficient interaction also assists staff, particularly sales department people, to effortlessly organize diverse actions. The company management can also check and adjust their staff more efficiently.

Wednesday, March 26, 2008

Improve Performance With Effective CRM

People make buying decisions. People have loyalties. Relationships can only be developed between people. Your customer relationship management program must be structured around these well known facts. CRM is about people. CRM is an approach to organizing your company's interaction with customers that starts with customer-centered point of view. It’s an entire discipline, not a single activity. The days are gone when the company resides in rest after selling its goods & services. Today, the company has to manage a healthy relationship with the customers to retain them. Today’s customer has wide knowledge about the various alternatives of the same product available in the market at reasonable prices. So, the companies have to render their best services & effective customer relationship management.

CRM is not just a software application that has been set up to support business, its something beyond that. The success of many businesses depends on CRM as it helps in gaining long term profits. Effective customer relation leads to better results in long term & they have to be maintained throughout the customer life cycle to obtain the best results.

If you get a chance to coalesce the tools of CRM software with that of ERP, results can be further enhanced. It’s an omnipotent tool which can do wonders in your business. This is the reason that now a days many companies are trying hands in CRM integration within the business processes. Your company can opt for CRM integration if it possesses vast customer information & want to retain their trusts & at the same time you think that you have various goods lineup. Companies should always keep in mind that CRM is customer-centered view which will help them in better interaction with the customers & will also help to enhance their interests in the products of their company.

The main aim of CRM integration with ERP involves stress on development of trustworthy customer relationship. It helps to create better surface for both the marketing representatives & the customers. IF every employee of the company is given the right to access to customer's old details then it will let the representative to render better services to the customer. Customer relationship management is a two way process which if utilized wisely can be very beneficial. CRM integration helps you to be one step ahead from your competitors & helps better survival in this competitive market. Efficient CRM is very important for businesses as it enhances your company's performance.

Tuesday, March 25, 2008

Create an Excellent Landing Page

There is no denying fact that ad campaigns are essential in enhancing your website traffic, still its significant that you concentrate more to the web pages where your links lead to. In addition to direct extreme traffic to your site, a good landing page must make your readers do a purchase or faithfulness to your goods & services.

We all know that they are just readers & if you want to change these readers into customers, it is essential that you create a well designed landing page. Following are some useful advice you may require in getting readers interested in your webpage and in the products/services that you provide.

Direct your guests to a specific page they are willing to see. If your website is not made for a particular product, prevent redirecting your consumers to your homepage. As such, you won’t let the readers wander away from the page that can guide them to buy the product or signing up for your service.

Make a call-to-action that attitude. Calling your readers to action indicates asking them to sign up for newsgroups or to buy the goods and services that you provide. Links like Buy Now or Sign Up should start in a distinct color or big fonts.

Create a landing page that has good quality. Internet browsers are not complete readers. They generally look into your webpage hurriedly for information that is advantageous them, so ensure that your headings and subheadings catch your visitor’s eye. Bulleted lists are often given more importance than lengthy and boring paragraphs.

Write articles as third person. Make use of pronouns such as “you and your” to stress on what your readers can gain from your goods or services. Like that, you can cause to feel your visitors that your main concern is to accomplish their desires.

Make two or three layouts of your landing page and check which of them the best is. Check them by using a web analytics program which permits you to perform A and B tests. This software modifies the version of your landing page as viewers by your readers

A high quality landing web page must has a deep impact on the mere readers to convert them into buyers. However, creating a good landing page not simply needs basic magic, it also requires a complete effort in analyzing and testing your landing pages so that it will be simple for your future buyers to find the way.

Monday, March 24, 2008

Website Redesign – What is right time

If you manage a website, there are possibilities that you regularly think whether it’s the correct time to make a complete change over of the design of your website. Here are some tips to take into account:

Are you planning of a change your site just because you have to? If your answer to this question is yes, then it’s not the correct time to do a change over. Keep in mind that a design works for a particular reason. If you are not confident whether to do a renovation of your site, remember that your present design may has a particular aim that you may be not aware about. You will lose that function if you do a redesign.

Else, if your website is having the same design for many years, well in that case your website seriously needs a redesign. The worst part that can happen to your site is when browser just passes off your site without having a look at your content simply for the reason that the design of your website is outdated. If your case is also the same, following are some tips to think over before starting a redesign.

When you redesign your website, it leaves behind its existing characteristics hoping for the better and at times your frequent customers may not be familiar with your latest design at first glimpse. You may get the phobia of not retaining them simply because they’ll think that they are directed to the wrong page. So, it is very crucial that you keep hold on the important characteristics from your previous template. Let it be the logo of your site; or the text design for the title that used in your previous layout.

To be on the safe side, set a voting option on your website to allow your customers do the chatting. If they believe it is essential for the website to have a new appearance, allow them the honor!

Thursday, March 20, 2008

Why do Small Businesses Fail?

There are many reasons due to which small businesses fail. Some of them can be as follows:

  • Lack of planning: This is the foremost reason for the failure of any business. Planning is very important in every field. A SWOT analysis is essential to be capable enough to conquer intricacy throughout its growth. A business plan provides proper guidance to the business.
  • Trying to make a hobby into a business: It is not possible to change every hobby into business. Prior to setting up a small business, the concept have got to be completely studied for its possibility to stand in long run.
  • Lack of experience in managing a small business: To manage a small business productively it is essential to be well-known with numerous features of the industry, its developments and own the talent needed to market one's goods and services. Lack o f experience in these characteristics can lead to disappointment in the business.
  • Poor record keeping and financial controls: Small businesses don’t keep good accounts of profits and expenditures which can be the reason for the failure of small business
  • Entrepreneurial enthusiasm: Entrepreneurs should be trained to distinguish between exact chances and simply new dreams that are not sensible. It is compulsory to measure up the plan with the business plan goal and observe if it the talent and time is actually existing to place the plan into exercise.
  • Uneconomical money management: Making profits in small business undertakes some years, therefore not possessing good capital can hinder the expansion of the business.
  • Dependence too much on a single element: Small business owners should be cautious while having only single large client. Although this may be the main basis of earnings they should credence once what might occur if they in future don’t cover the source and attempt to widen their spheres.
  • Competition: Competition can be considered the most important factor for the failure of small business but they fail to recognize the true nature of competition & therefore fail to survive in the competitive markets
  • Poor marketing: The high achievement of the goods & services largely depends on the high-quality marketing. So, it is essential to explore every marketing technique used and attach to those that are producing good outcomes.
  • Entrepreneurial exhaustion: A small business needs a lot of tolerance, resources, time and power. Extensive working hours can lead to exhaustion and short of concern in the business which can slow down its growth.
  • Faulty location: Apt Location is very crucial for the small business. If the storehouse is not found comfortably by clients and suppliers, income can undergo losses.
  • Poor selling techniques: Business does not succeed when proprietors are not skilled to get possible customers to purchase their products.
  • Postponing tasks and improper time management: Another reason that hampers the business is desisting important tasks. Employees can be appointed if required for doing tasks that a business owner doesn't wish to carry out.
  • Low-grade quality customer service: A poor quality customer service like not attending the customer properly & answering to their queries leads to customer

Tuesday, March 18, 2008

What is CRM

The fundamental aim of each business is to provide its customers the best services. Customer Relationship Management (CRM) is an approach to do simply the same.

There are various shards of software that exits & render customer relationship management aspects, however truth of Customer Relationship Management moves further than software implementation. It's a business approach to facilitate the use of many pieces of software, plus implementing policies that endorse (1) the gathering of customer news, and (2) the utilization of that information by persons all through the business in turn to enlarge customer service and raise trade. Thus, CRM is the strategic use of information, processes, technologies & people to manage the customer's relationship with the company across the whole customer life cycle. CRM provides a customer-centered view.


Through CRM definition we can develop a framework that covers all the functions & components needed to build CRM solution. Let’s have a look at the key elements of the definition:

  1. CRM focuses on strategic impact rather than operational impact. Benefits are generally long term than immediate.
  2. CRM is a total discipline: To understand CRM think of it as having the same components as any manufacturing business. It uses CRM technology & power (people) to turn raw material (customer information) into products (processes & interactions that build customer loyalty.
  3. CRM includes all the functions that directly touch the customer throughout his entire lifetime with your company. It touches multiple organizations & crosses boundaries. Functions usually included in CRM effort are marketing, sales, customer services & product support (whether internal or through a channel partner whether on or off the web).

The above elements of CRM help to build CRM software solution. It can also be said that customer relationship management structure is an endeavor structure, which indicates that it covers various divisions. Practically every part of a company has certain implicit contact to customers, or customer information; the aim of CRM is to gather that information in a main depository, examine it, and present it to all departments. Customer relationship management system is very intricate, containing many divisions of information and several shards of software, coupled in a specific interface which is difficult to arrange. A number of bigger companies employ an integrator to place the CRM system as one. Since intricacy of CRM is high, small companies view it as very costly. But, the nominal company can also employ a CRM approach. These companies manage CRM with a pack of index cards and a ball pen rather then spending huge some of money as spent by the large companies. Average companies might employ effortless software and yet have an extremely efficient CRM system that can assist them to offer customers the best services in their own way, and to gain the beneficial aid of information which has been gathered.

Monday, March 17, 2008

Outsourcing V/s Offshore Outsourcing

Outsourcing is an act of transferring some of an organization's recurring internal activities & decision rights to the outside providers, as set forth in a contract. Where as offshore outsourcing is the delegation of administrative, engineering, research, development or technical support process to the third party vendor in a lower-cost location. It can also involve engineering processes. The term re engineering in the context of offshore outsourcing refers to a strategy of developing new process designs & solutions in order to eliminate business performance problems.

Both outsourcing & offshore outsourcing have several advantages but hold a different view on some points. The mutual advantages of outsourcing and offshore outsourcing consist of lightening the responsibility of everyday business processes which can be straightforwardly and proficiently managed at an off-site location, usually for smaller finances. Outsourcing is an exceptional concept to ease the business unit from useless effort and in its place gives more concentration to the particular service zones. In addition, outsourcing exempt the firm from the considerable installation prices like the charges of workplace, human resources, systems and extra costs that have to met else.

Whereas confined outsourcing handles only a pair, offshore outsourcing come up to with a complete luggage of benefits. The best part of offshore outsourcing keep on the niche markets obtainable at the offshore sites, containing outstanding experts at significantly less prices. Actually, motivated by the enthusiasm of offshore outsourcing model in India, several Fortune 500 companies are already gaining benefit of it, comprising large names like Microsoft, Motorola, Oracle, and IBM.

Economy of scale is one more gain from Offshore outsourcing, because offshore sites normally carry out themselves as dedicated endeavors that assume alike tasks from various companies round the world. Offshore outsourcing can result in lower costs for you as compared to onsite and offshore sources according to the figures.

In Addition to that, offshore outsourcing lets you to make up a cautious selection keeping the typical time factor in consideration, thus providing the effectual working timings approximately all the time.

Additionally, offshore outsourcing can extend over good backend business processes; the most important of all IT and IT enabled services (ITES) with a huge 28% of the complete share. According to the dependable statements, bulk of IT dependent outsourcing deals is moving to India, regardless of competitive rates presented by China and Russia. India provides vast ability and more buying force for US dollar, thus banking billions of dollars for its US equivalents.

Friday, March 14, 2008

Software Outsourcing Issue

Outsourcing software development has turn out to be a leading business practice in which a company contracts every or portion of its software projects to the outsourcers. Outsourcing software development is one of the most crucial & questionable topic. Most of the issues are about the information that Offshore Software Development is available at low costs in countries which provide outsourcing services. The market research predicts that there is high competition in IT industry. As a result, countries like India, China, and Philippines have become the choice of many developed countries for getting outsourcing services. India has become the largest destination in Software Outsourcing because of the reason that it possesses highly skilled professionals offering services at low cost. Because of this large amount of work is transferred to India to get it done at low costs & at the same time achieving high qualities results.

Many IT/ITES companies are now looking for overseas service provider. It provides great independence to the companies in areas like time, money and management. It lessens the management responsibility from the companies at great amount. Companies outsource non-core activities and focus more on the core business activities. Sending the non core activities overseas provide the companies the advantage of high profits & quality. To achieve these results company should also have well skilled management team.

Though Software Outsourcing has many advantages as mentioned above, but it also many concerns involved with it that needs a lot of consideration. The appearing profitable deal of Offshore Software Development can sometimes lead to losses, if company does not carry out the deal accurately. Continuous monitoring along is highly expected to make the win deal. A lot of security issues are also there that should be taken under consideration at the time of making important decision in dealings. Companies should also make it certain that they could give out the best resources to achieve the most wanted product. Companies involved in offshore outsourcing should always revise their resources and information achieve the fruitful results

The increased requirement of outsourcing services is to understand the client requirement so that they don’t look for other options in the market. IT is one of the most flourishing sectors in the market today with increasing need of low cost and high quality services, which forces the company to opt for Software Outsourcing services.

To conclude, we can say that as IT sector is flourishing day by day the need of outsourcing is also increasing though it involves certain issues that have to be taken care of.

Thursday, March 13, 2008

Outsourcing Work In Offshore Countries

Offshore outsourcing is not a new term. Nowadays every person knows the meaning of offshore outsourcing & reason of offshore outsourcing. Offshore outsourcing involves selecting an organization on contract basis to complete various or every business activities in a different country.

Knowing exactly what offshore outsourcing is brings another question to your mind-what process is involved in outsourcing? Well, the most important task in outsourcing process is selecting an efficient vendor at offshore destination who is capable of understanding your requirements & ready to take up the responsibility of the complete project at cheaper cost. This helps the companies to work on their core competencies. Companies are least interested to burden themselves with non core activities. So, they prefer outsourcing & developed countries find India as their home town for this business. There are various advantages of outsourcing services in India like:

1. Concentration of company work & organizational abilities on elementary function,
2. Guaranty of high quality of outsourcing services.,
3. Internal cost reduction
4. Access to latest technologies & organizational solutions
5. Employment reduction

The offshore outsourcing trend in the market has given rise to business consultants so that not only the big companies but also the small companies can get the advantage of outsourcing services. But this largely depends on the type of vendor the company has chosen. if the selection is good then they can help you in solving various problems that arise recurrently.

Companies are today transferring their work to offshore countries due to the fact that the same work can be accomplish at very low costs but who knows what’s happening inside. What kind of programmers they are employing, how internal work is carried out their etc. Companies are making a web-based software program, which can be used as an information console for clients.
Though all these reasons are of large concern, still offshore software outsourcing is at its peak & is likely to grow more in the coming years as predicted.

Wednesday, March 12, 2008

Application Development in dot net

The tender of this article is to throw a light on what .Net is? What problems can it solve & last but not the least why .Net? Microsoft .Net is a platform built on top of the operating system. .Net is influenced by other technological advances such as XML, Java & COM.

VB .Net is the major change to the popular Visual Basic programming language. What is special about VB.Net is its tight interoperability into .Net framework.

.Net is Microsoft’s vision of applications in the internet age.

There are three parts of .Net:

1. .Net Framework which provides an exceptionally attractive environment for creating & using software components. Components are the features that are used to create and test Visual Studio programs.

2. Software development kit which is used to create different forms. A simple form can be designed by simply dragging & dropping tools from the toolbox window. But before that the application developer has to start with the standard IDE. There are many tools available in the toolbox. We can simply double click on them & use them on our forms. There are special tools as well which have to bring in the window from the component panel.

3. Development Environment

Basically Microsoft .Net provides:

· The common language runtime platform

· Multiple language development with no language being preferred over the other

· The .Net framework, an extensible programming model which provides a very large class library of reusable code available to any .Net language.

· Support for any networking infrastructure built on the top of internet standards

· Support for new industry standard of web services, Web services represents a new mechanism of application delivery that extends the idea of component based development to the internet.

· ASP.Net which allows you to understand the standard programming practices to develop Web Applications.

Now, we have some idea about what .Net is. The next question in the queue is what problems .Net can solve? .Net solves problems that have plunged the developers in the past.

The main problem was the problem of Windows development. The other main issue was Security in Win32 which is difficult to understand & use. To solve these problems .Net has provided a set of services that is available to all languages at all the times.

.Net is the future of application developers. .Net possess following advantages which make it the hottest in the market:

  • .Net provides enhanced interoperability features based on internet standards.
  • .Net improves robustness of the classic windows applications
  • .Net offers developers a new programming platform & superb tools with XML playing a fundamental role.