As per latest news Kolkata is up on the terror radar.

But I feel Kolkata is relatively safe from a mass scale terror attack. Two reasons that come to my mind -

Reason 1:

Kolkata is a safe heaven for terrorists operating from Pakistan and Bangladesh. They come here to lay low till the next assignment and prepare for the same (mentally and logistics wise) . If you track most of the terrorist strikes in last five years, most of them had some or other logistical link to Kolkata (or West Bengal). The reason they have selected Kolkata to do the same are:

• Big metro city with 12.5 million people. So it is easy to hide!
• Excellent connectivity with the rest of the country through the rail network.
• Very lazy and indifferent police force.
• Excellent hideouts! Even police is scared to raid some places.

And the most important reason is - Close proximity to Bangladesh from where terrorists smuggle themselves into India for few hundred rupees with their weapons of destruction through the porous border.

Reason 2:

Terrorists have never taken Kolkata seriously because an attack here does not result in any political or financial impact on national scale.

So, Whats the conclusion?

Therefore they are less likely to attack Kolkata on a mass scale anytime soon. This will throw open their hide-out to major hunt-and-shoot operations, disrupting their major operations in the pipeline! They will surely send terror-mails about their planned attacks in Kolkata, since their main weapon is terror and not rifles and grenades. If people in this city gets terrorized, changes their lifestyle, live in a state of uncertainty - their mission is accomplished!

But, this does not mean that the security be relaxed here. You never know!

Friends,

I have recently written an article for SME WORLD (November 2008 - January 2009) issue of Financial Express. It should be a good read for any small business if they want to put together an Internet strategy for their business.

Internet Strategy for Small Business

Internet is making the world flatter and giving small businesses a level playing field to compete with the big players. Many businesses have changed the rules of the game by using Internet to their advantage.

Do you have a compelling Internet strategy? In simpler words, do you have a clear plan, on how you will use Internet as an enabler to create an edge for your business? If not, put one together now.

Demystifying Internet Strategy?

Every successful business needs a strategy, i.e. meticulous planning and a long term vision across all functional practices like human resource, sales, marketing, supply-chain management, etc.

Internet is a media, a platform and a network. Therefore, it is not a business function. But, it cuts across all business functions and has a profound impact on the way we do things. It has changed the way we do business.

Therefore, it is important to plan to usage of Internet across different business functions in a way that it can make the business more competitive by optimizing it’s top-line and bottom-line growth.

Every organization is unique. The way their business works is different. And therefore, their Internet strategy is bound to be different. However, a generalist approach for small business highlights three core strategic dimensions –

• Acquisition of new business
• Developing a strong online business network
• Improving efficiency in communication, and collaboration

Acquire new business

Internet is a mass media with millions of attentive people logged in. They are trying to solve a problem. And if you can solve that problem, you have a hot business lead!

Do not ignore the fact that this prospect is looking for what you offer. Therefore this is a potential pull-sale prospect. It is more valuable than hundreds of cold calls and thousands of mailers that you might invest in, expecting a single digit conversion rate.

This opportunity has its own challenges:-

• What is your prospect searching for?
• How will your prospect find you?
• What offer should you make?
• How will you convince him?
• Why will he trust you?

The entire cycle is comprised of a) Getting targeted visitors to your website, b) Convert those visitors into clients and c) Analyze results and make changes in your online customer acquisition process! (Note: A targeted visitor is one, who is looking for a product /service you offer.)

You can get the targeted visitor by using techniques like SEO (Search Engine Optimization) and SEM (Search Engine Marketing) backed by high quality content on your website.

SEO is a technique used to rank a website high on search engines on specific keywords. SEM is all about buying clicks on popular search engines. Both techniques have their pros and cons. The selection entirely depends upon the business need and the overall Internet strategy of the company.

Once you have the visitor on your website, you can further test various offers, content snippets and design elements by techniques known as A/B split testing and Multivariate testing to see which combination works best!

This is just the beginning. Some of the many things that you must consider:-

• Which keyword shall I target?
• Is it worth paying $1 per click when I am selling something worth $25 only?
• How to handle a visitor who is not interested in my product today, but might need it tomorrow?

The list can go on and on. As you can see, it is a fairly technical process; it needs expert guidance, external consultancy and implementation help.

Make new connections

Business networking is a marketing method by which business opportunities are created through networks of like-minded business people. People like to work with people within their comfort zone. So before you can talk business, you need to create a trusted relationship.

A good network is like a catalyst, which can multiply the speed of your growth. If you know the right person at the right time for the right job, you will race ahead in the competition.

When this networking is done online, it can connect you with people all over the world in a very efficient way.  You can efficiently create private and open networks where you can share opinions, ideas, problems, information, knowledge and most importantly business references! There are several online business networking websites like LinkedIn, Ecademy and Ryze.

It is important that you approach the network in the right spirit, present yourself nicely, increase your connections, work on win-win partnerships, and adhere by the pay-it-forward principle of networking.

I highly recommend that you try to strengthen your network with face-to-face meetings with as many people as possible.

Some questions that you need to answer to do this bit effectively:

• What is your elevator pitch?
• What are your goals of networking? What are you trying to achieve? Most people who are actively networking invest a lot of time, without a clear view of the desired outcome.
• What kind of people you want to connect with? Why will they like to connect with you? What is your win-win proposal for different categories of connections that you will make?
• How can you proactively help? What knowledge can you share? Which are your areas of expertise? Do the areas of expertise help you create influencers in the marketplace?

You need to do the groundwork to get the best results. So do not underestimate this part. You may need someone to help you with this.

Streamline communication and collaboration

In an increasingly dynamic business environment, proper communication and collaboration system is the key to success. Internet is a software platform that enables such system to be deployed across the organization cutting across various roles, designations and departments.

Businesses do not operate within their closed shell anymore. They have major impact from its environment consisting of employees, clients, suppliers, etc.

You need to react to changes as they happen every moment across the organizational eco-system. Therefore, the data required is real time – i.e. updated every moment.

You need to have an intranet (internal collaboration portal) or extranet (external facing collaboration portal) to keep up with the pace.

Think of some of the advantages it can bring to your business:-

• Employees can share ideas, notes and project details.
• Efficient communication with all your employees and clients.
• New employees applying online on your website to reduce time and cost in processing the job applications.
• Real time order status and inventory flow can be seen by respective customers and internal stakeholders.
• Clients have access to their ledgers in real time.
• Clients can communicate with their sales managers, place new orders and file complains / queries instantly.
• Suppliers can see tenders online and submit their quotes. The built in rule engine help you select the winning bid.
• Documents can flow within departments with remarks added on within seconds at relative ease.

Such empowerment will increase the level of productivity and satisfaction at all levels. Innovative ideas will result in paradigm shift in the way a particular work is done.

Some examples:-

• E-statements by bank save money, postage and trees.
• You can buy and reserve your air ticket / railway ticket online without standing in the queue.
• Major corporations need you to apply for a job online. Even, Barack Obama, President (elect) of the USA is recruiting his team online!
• Large corporations like BPCL have online system to receive and resolve complains from consumers.
• Online shopping is becoming the order of the day.

The way Internet can be used to increase efficiency is only restricted by your imagination.

It is a good idea to hire a consultant who can think aloud with you to find out ways, in which your business can become more productive, more efficient and stay ahead in the fiercely competitive world.

Conclusion

There is no silver bullet of Internet strategy. However, the following tips will help you define your Internet strategy and put the same into execution.

• You need to put together your organizational goals. Break them down into functional goals and map them with the three dimensions of Internet strategy.
• Rationalize and prioritize various elements of your strategy. Everything may not be feasible or even rational to execute. The cost / return analysis should be done.
• Once you have created the right mix, define your approach for every element in detail. It is a low-effort high-impact world of Internet. If success gets magnified, then so are the mistakes!
• Execute the strategy in a time bound manner. Everything changes fast and if you are caught on the slow trail, you might be doing something which does not hold value anymore.
• There is no absolute truth. Make sure that you have a mechanism for measuring the results.

How Indus Net Technologies can help?

Indus Net Technologies has been rated as #1 IT SME in India – 2008 by Dun & Bradstreet.

We help enterprises all over the world through consulting and implementation of their online strategies. We bring together 11 years of experience and implementation expertise to ensure success in your online initiatives through out its lifecycle.

Our core teams provide creative services, web application development and Internet marketing (SEO, SEM & conversion optimization) solutions. They are guided and supported by our consulting initiative.

You can be in touch with us at abhi@indusnet.co.in

Hello Friends,

I am glad to let you all know that I have been honored by the Vocational Excellence Award by Rotary International District 3291. It was presented to me at a function at Rotary Sadan, Kolkata on 25th October, 2008.

I will like to thank Rotary International District 3291 for their recognition. My heartfelt thank you everyone, who have supported me achieve the same.

Regards
Abhishek

I was reflecting upon last one year and how IT industry has changed in this duration from HR perspective. Among many thoughts, the most visible one (and the most concerning one as well) was the all-time-low employer-employee trust level.

One year back, we were looking into an industry where attrition was the biggest concern. Even the FAB5 (Infosys, Wipro, Satyam, HCL, Cognizant) of Indian IT industry felt the heat as employees jumped ship at the drop of a hat. It was difficult for them to understand as "What the youth want?". The HR honchos from all over India were hunting for answers even less than six months back. Employers were finding it very difficult to trust an employee. The question was - "Will he stay with me long enough to complete this project?"

And suddenly, the situation has taken a u-turn. Companies are laying off their "talent bank" for which they fought so ferociously. The guy who walks out of office today is not sure, if his job is here to stay when he reaches office the next day. The morale is at all time low. Employees are finding it difficult to trust an employer. The question is - "Will he sack me today?"

This is an environment of extremes and uncertainty. This is an environment of relationship without trust. And, this is going to worsen with every cycle on up-and-down.

So, Who is to be blame? And more importantly, how this cycle can be broken? OR, Can this be at all checked?

In my opinion,
This environment is a result of a number of social-commercial factors, like:

• Employee side:
  • Desire for overnight riches and i-want-to-retire-young mindset
  • Career objective not properly defined. (Corollary: Objective=money)
  • Peer pressure. Comparison of lifestyle. Increase in jealousy.
  • Spending more than the earning!
  • Gaining experience without gaining competence (i.e. 12 years of experience looked like 1 year of real experience repeated 12 times over! - which eventually remains 1 year of experience) 
• Employer Side:
  • Inexperienced and poor management
  • Unavailability of proper HR professionals (Hint: NOT those people who think HR = headhunting)
  • Treating employees as commodities
  • Not sticking to the basics
  • Lack of strategic insight into one’s business

Currently, the problem is in a virtuous cycle, and it is difficult to break it, since it is not based on a tangible outcome. It is purely based on emotions! And, if this cycle is not broken soon, it will intensify and re-occur more frequently.

However, it is very important to solve this problem. Otherwise, it will result in more bankruptcies, more stress, disturbed lives, social crime and poor results. To resolve this, both sides need to take corrective actions (read: be logical in their approach).

I hope, both sides get it right soon.

Dear Friends,

We have recently completed an innovative project for one of our prestigious client 9.9 Media. It is called CreateOnlineBuzz.com.

CreateOnlineBuzz.com is an initiative to create a high value eco system for the bloggers and advertisers. From this online platform, advertisers can purchase online campaigns for marketing their products or services. They need to mention the number of reviews they need from the bloggers. All reviews are independently written by different bloggers, who have signed up on the platform.

How will the advertisers benefit from createonlinebuzz.com? One immediate benefit is from the direct traffic from the blog post of the blogger. Usually the blog review will contain links of the client website and the visitors of the blogger will visit the client website via the links on the blog post. Another benefit will be the longer term benefit of Search Engine traffic for relevant keywords for the business drivers of the clients. Hence, having many reviews written and link backs to the website will be an effective way to increase web traffic.

Another benefit for the client is that they get valuable feedback on their product or service from the bloggers. Getting different perspectives will potentially help the client to improve their product or service.

The blog marketing platform, createonlinebuzz.com, provides an opportunity for bloggers to generate some revenue from their blog. We do believe that blogging is driven by individual passion and coupling it with monetization opportunities will only improve the eco-system of the blogosphere and make it more sustainable.

It is a great product and the team behind is very committed. I am sure they will redefine the way blog marketing is being handled currently. I wish them all the best in their venture.

Recently there has been some media coverage of my company winning the #1 IT SME in India Award by Dun & Bradstreet. Here is a coverage shot by NDTV Profit, one of the leading news channels in India.

I was just thinking as why Microsoft has based one of its R&D center out of Ireland. Then as I sat in the bus on the way to the airport, reading some advertising displays it became very clear.

Reason: Because the Top Level Domain (TLD) of Ireland is .IE

(Hint - IE = Internet Explorer)

It is the first official award I have won for my entrepreneurial efforts!

Indus Net Technologies has been selected as the #1 IT SME (Small and Medium sized Enterprise) in India 2008 by Dun & Bradstreet in a glittering Award Ceremony in Mumbai on 30th September 2008.

For more information on the Award, please visit: http://www.dnb.co.in/SMEAwards_2008/
Indus Net Technologies has also been prominently placed among the Emerging SMEs of India publication, which was unvieled on the same day.

I will like to thank our 5000+ clients who put in their trust in us (even though 90% of them have never met us) and the team which delivered and fulfilled every promise that Indus Net Technologies made.

We look forward to grow at a steady pace and achieve many more milestones in days to come.

So keep checking!

I will not wait for your answer. I know you cannot see a child die when he can be saved with medical intervention.

But the fact is that millions of newborn infants die worldwide due to Congenital Heart Defects (CHD). These are a lethal constellation of birth defects of the heart. Eight of every 1000 children born alive (0.8%) will have some form of congenital heart defect.

CHD affects not only patients, but entire families. Along the winding, tortuous road ahead, with major surgery and continuing medical care looming, most families need a helping hand, a friendly shoulder to cry on and peers they can count on for support and encouragement in difficult times. Here is a list of some wonderful resources to find such assistance.

More info about CHD can be found at CHDinfo.com

So what can you do?

There are thousands of families below poverty line, who cannot afford the medical expenses when CHD strikes them. You can help them by donating at (http://www.chdinfo.com/chdaware/donate.htm). You can also help by donating some valuable time by spreading a word about this problem and the noble work Dr. Mani is doing to help people who are suffering from CHD.

Now who is Dr, Mani?

I was told about Dr. Mani by my colleague Arun Agrawal. I was curious about this person who is an expert heart surgeon, an Internet marketing professional and someone who find enough time for social cause. It encouraged me to dig deep into his profile and this describes him very well:

Dr.Mani is a heart surgeon. He lives in India. He treats little children born with congenital heart defects.

Heart surgery is expensive. Many of his patients, from poor families, cannot afford the cost of treatment. So Dr.Mani decided to try and help sponsor the operations.

This was the simple concept behind an online adventure that started in 1996.

Ten years later, Dr.Mani’s team has raised over $100,000 and funded heart surgery in 23 children, with many more to follow. He’s well on his way to achieve an ambitious mission - make high quality heart health care accessible and affordable to every Indian child.

More information about Dr. Mani can be dound at http://www.drmani.name

So friends, come up with an open heart and help Dr. Mani in every possible way for the cause he is so committed. Donate for those poor children who cannot afford heart surgery and medication on their own. Give them the right to live. Save them.

I will be off to participate on my 4 hour tweet_a_thon which Dr. Mani is doing to raise awareness about this noble cause. If you care, do follow us there and tweet about it to spread the word. My twitter feed is available at http://www.twitter.com/abhishekrungta

Have a great weekend!

I thought only Microsoft messes up their products / releases.

I could not understand, why will Google release such a major product i.e. a browser to compete against Microsoft and the Firefox without support for their own toolbar. Also, after five days of usage, I find Google Chrome still lacking in many areas:

• Browser plug-ins won’t work!
• Text editor of my blogging software does not load (Must have some problem with Java Script)
• I am missing the option where Firefox posts the POST-DATA when something goes wrong, so that you do not have to fill up the form from scratch.

So, I have again started using Fire Fox after the initial Google Chrome mania. Yes, I will still continue to use Chrome to see how it develops.

Will keep you all posted.