NASSCOM CEO Summit: 'Beyond Horizon'

The National Association of Software and Services Company (NASSCOM), has organized its 1st. national event, “CEO Summit : Beyond Horizon” in Kolkata on 11th and 12th November 2008. NASSCOM is a global trade body comprising of member companies that includes software development, software services, software products, IT-enabled/BPO services and e-commerce. It has over 1200 members that includes 250 global companies.

The event has focused on the key issues of the industry today.

During the Inaugural Address, Mr. Som Mittal, President , Nasscom pointed out

• the effective use of tech resources by IT-BPO industry
• emphasized that its time to make investments with domain expertise
• that small industries need support for growth and prosperity to become big corporates

Mr. Raj Jain, Chairman and Managing Director , R S Software said that

• he truly believes Kolkata to deserve the brand for IT in India
• he recollected the memories of early days of today’s IT hub in Kolkata
• he admitted that the barren place on 14th Nov. 1991 has emerged a lot
• SME s being the core of Entrepreneur’s dream
• he suggested “SME Mantra”, viz., stay focused and stay flexible.

The phases of evolution of Satyam Computer Service Limited as described by Mr. Ramlinga Raju, Chairman, Satyam Computer Service Limited, has encouraged the participants to set new visions for life. Mr. Raju emphasized on the fact

• that knowledge allows growth
• that resources to be available globally
• to mitigate the risk by spreading access to customers beyond U.S
• focussed on leadership and innovations in offering newer services for customer benefits.

Kolkata has the capability of handling the many fold growth of Nasscom , said Shri Siddharth, Principle Secretary, Department of Information Technology, Govt. of West Bengal. He has the dream

• to connect the villages with broadband
• to make the villagers computer literate
• the children to handle computer like any other acquired reflex like cycling or swimming.

Dr. Debesh Das, Minister-in-Charge, Information Technology Deptt. has

• encouraged the SME s by revealing their contribution in quantity and quality towards the growth of the economy.
• described the present recession as a passing phase and addressed all to get ready for the next boom.
• ensured that Govt. will pay the subsidy for the rigorous training needed by IT companies.
• discloses that Govt. has taken up projects to support business to be started within 24 hours.

While addressing the session on Leveraging Global Delivery Management Mr. Ambarish Dasgupta, Executive Director, PWC, said that

• services sector has adopted Global Delivery Model model far later in compared to manufacturing.

Mr. Robert Latimore, partner, PWC, depicted the transition from outsourcing to global delivery model. He believes in providing

• maximum efficient service delivery with right skill, in right place and at right time
• his views are supported by the drivers of global delivery model
• drivers comprises of the managing cost, improved services, increase agility and access to high skilled labours.

According to Mr. Sanjiv Puri, Managing Director, ITC Infotech Ltd.,

• the new forces that drives business are de regularization, digitization and globalization
• the ongoing trends shows 80% of the world’s GDP will be sold across intrnationl boarders
• to create shared strategic vision with high degree of collaboration
• R & D and analytics as the unexplored areas of innovations in I.T.

Mr. Sunil Bhaskaran, Chief, Global Wires Business – TATA STEEL

• discussed the application of wires in power industry as well as in merchant products.

During the session, The Emerging Entrepreneur, Mr. Avi Basu, CEO, Connectiva Systems, emphasized on

• the burning zeal to do something on your own
• discussed the requirement of a strong team which eventually being the DNA of Connectiva, as the investors enquire about that primarily
• his vision is to prove products not as luxury but as a commodity.

Mr. Sanjay Chakrabarty, Partner, Columbia Capital has shaken the conscious of the audience by saying

• all business plans are wrong as you cannot predict the future
• has discussed some major issues like predictability vs. flexilbility which says that whether the cost flexible enough or not relative to the revenue streams
• coverd the issues regarding scalability and differentiation and approached execution along with vision
• suggested that to be a successful entrepreneur it is required to be alert at all the times and should have a resilient mindset.

Mr. George Zacharias, CEO, 7 Strata, who have been a very successful professional earlier and now an entrepreneur has shared his valuable experiences and said that

• passionate people are required
• the key figure for growth is to identify a strategy and to execute it with right people.

As delivered by Mr. Sashi Reddy, Founder & Chairman, Applabs,

• it is very important to get the first customer.
• an entrepreneur must be optimistic and learn to think small initially to get the first customer.

The third session on the 1st. day on Looking at tomorrow : Digital Divide and Digital Union the paradigm of the changing society was explored.

According to Mr. Satish Jha , President & CEO, One Laptop Per Child,

• it is very important to get acquainted with the technology right from childhood
• shown a model of a laptop which is shockproof and is meant to be used by the children.

The 2nd day started with the session chaired by Mr. Bikram Dasgupta, Chairman and CEO, Globsyn Group of Companies based on Competency vs. Experience: Is It an HR Issue. Mr. Bikram Dasgupta has

• entitled this period as the google- facebook era
• approached the speakers to share their views regarding the fact that whether niche skill set deserve much higher salry than the experienced employees or not.

Based on the above topic Mr. Kiran Karnik, Immediate Past president, NASSCOM, expressed his thoughts by saying that

• experience is truly required as they have seen the downturns and are aware of the ways to overcome the crisis.
• may be a competent person who is not experienced enough can get puzzled in such a situation.
• also narrated the importance of having diversified experience.

Mr. R Sankar, Executive Director, Pricewaterhouse Coopers,

• defined experience as a competency that is required sometimes.
• said that seniority is not the necessary tool to measure competency whereas experience can be considered as one.
• the way of behavior should be rational towards the experienced person showing him respect.
• encouraged the youngsters to get diversified in terms of their skill sets and to gain the experience based on that diversification.

The vision of Cognizant is to define competency as a combination of skill, knowledge and behavior as per Mr. Bhaskar Das, Vice President- Human Resources. He said

• experience enables the ability to see a pattern from an emerging trend as per his vision
• that wisdom really blooms
• agreed upon the point of necessity of diversified experience as per the version of the previous speakers.

Dr. Gautam Sengupta, Chief Operating Officer, Kitchen Appliances India Ltd. approached to the audience to

• remove the attitudinal clots.
• Defined the problem as common for both the experienced as well as the inexperienced persons.
• suggested to set inspiring goals inside the organization to resolve conflicts and to ensure competency.
• The organization as a whole should become a learning organization by adapting changes and removing the segregation between the new entrants and the old legacy.
• showed a new way in exploring the Bottom of the Pyramid (BOP market) in our country itself.

Finally Mr. Bikram Dasgupta, Chairman and CEO, Globsyn group of Companies addressed the audiences by

• thanking NASSCOM for such a wonderful effort
• added that this knot of NASSCOM which has brought everybody under one roof
• we should look forward to work together and explore the pool of talents available in our country.

The mega event came to an end with everybody participating there in the summit having new views towards life and with a refreshed mind thinking differently, positioning differently and encompassing differently.

Contributed By:
Rik Das
(Globsyn Business School)

Impact of E commerce on Business Analyst’s Role

Everyone wants to win and to be a successful business man. It requires changing the way we visualize the game. Enterprise Solution gives Business focused analytics and flexibility.

The Business Analyst with a strong sense of business technology and a primary facilitator for e commerce communication can transform the business which will radically alter the very nature of the firm and how it creates value.

E Commerce has a huge impact on the role of Business Analyst.

Business Analyst works under the following six situations :-

Organizational chart and Organizational Process: The Business analyst need to prepare the hierarchy inside the organization to identify the different individual as well as the different ongoing process inside the organization that is going to get impacted by the new software. In the process of developing the automation it may be found that a position in the Organizational hierarchy is not required any more as the things are getting automated.

Domain Modeling: Under this situation the anatomy of the organizational setup is not needed to be scanned by the Business Analyst. It means that the Business Analyst is unaware of the scenario that who will provide the input to the system and who will receive the output for that. The type of output will be different as well for different users. So it maintains confidentiality as no one can access the whole system.

One business many systems: This scenario is totally different from the previous ones. In this situation the company which requires automation is solely unaware of the required infrastructure needed for the system. So the Business analyst need to mention all the specifications regarding hardware and software. Finally the customer has the free hand to decide that whether it is feasible for him to implement the system or not.

Generic Business Model: It is a retail kind of environment where the software is developed without having any specific customer in hand. A survey is made beforehand by Business Analyst based on common features in all business segments and the software is developed to meet these needs which is of common interest to all.

New Business: A Business Organization may diversify. ITC group is ruling the tobacco industry and thought of exploring the hospitality sector now. So the Business Analyst should find out the IT infrastructure required for this new venture.

Revamp: The business Analyst is responsible to change the scenario of existing business process.

The Business Analyst is to work with warehouse, finance, marketing department etc. to determine, document and define e Commerce online and operational requirements.

So the Organizational chart and Organizational Process is essential to have these ideas. If the Business Analyst is going to develop the site without having these knowledge about the organization then the E Commerce site development will not be possible. So the Business analyst will not be able to estimate the requirements of the site under the Domain Modeling scenario.

One Business Many Scenario is more required for B2B aspects. The business partners may ask the firm to go for automation through E Commerce to sustain a healthy partnership relation.

Ramco systems established in 1989 by P R Venketrama Raja provide user ID and password to create the E commerce site for any company.

This is an example of Generic Business Model , where the Business Analyst found out the common requirements of organizations and the companies are adopting it because initially they r not applying the entire module which incurs less cost. Gradually with the growth of business the full system can be implemented if required at additional cost. So it provides the flexibility of choice indeed.

If the Business Analyst find out a new venture in the business which is purely online then E Commerce is the only way out for it under the New Business environment.

The existing scenario of the business can be changed to a great extent under the revamp model with E Commerce. The Business Analyst plays a major role to find out diverse ways of implementation of the automation.

Impact of E Commerce on Business Analyst’s role has enabled the industry to innovate and stay ahead of competition. No industry is immune from this trend. This is a welcome change for the growth of the new business era and opening new ways where business process is benchmarked to ensure that they follow the best practices to achieve improved targets.

Contributed By:
Rik Das
(Globsyn Business School)

E Commerce, A review on Project Characteristics

“Business drives Technology
Technology enables Business”

Electronic Commerce, more widely known as E Commerce is digitally enabled commercial transaction. With the growth of Internet this new form of trade has grown by leaps n bounds. A wide variety of commerce is conducted in this way, spurring and drawing on innovations in electronic fund transfer, Internet marketing, EDI, inventory management systems, and automated data collection systems.

Technology is not a panacea! E Commerce Project Characteristics requires a lot of innovative thinking to make it a success.

The steps involved clearly reveals the fact.

1. Requirement Analysis :- Analyze the requirement of the site by conducting feasibility study. Feasibility study can be done in three different ways,
   

   
   

   a) Technical : Whether I have the technical expertise to develop the site or the organization in need of the e commerce website can provide the technical infrastructure or not.
   

   
   

   b) Economic : The fund needed to develop the site as well as to maintain it can be provided by the organization or not.
   

   
   

   c) Usability : Whether it is feasible to build a site for the proposed functional area or whether the users will be able to use it or not. Eg., An E commerce site in a remote area where most of the population is not computer literate.
   


2. Problem Identification :- We need to perform the “as-is” system study. The process that is going to get automated with the help of E Commerce must be done presently manually or with the help of some other existing older automation. We need to identify the problems with the existing system.
   


3. Requirement Study :- Requirements can be of two different types.
   

   
   

   a) Functional : What are the features required in the e commerce site so that it will become more user friendly. This can be done by collecting inputs from various departments.
   

   
   

   b) Non functional : This includes many things including performance, capacity , reusability , security , scalability, availability etc. Eg, If the availability of the ecommerce site is 24x7x365 then we need to design it in such a way so that necessary upgrades can be performed without shutting the execution of the site. It is applicable for both hardware and software.
   

   
   

   Another example is regarding the scalability issue. If today the hits to the ecommerce site is in hundreds it is not that the value will remain constant. It can go upto thousands and lakhs and crores. So we need to design it in such a way that it can accommodate any number of hits at any point of time. Like, if the number of hits are much higher then main topics will be displayed i.e. a lightweight version of the page will be displayed. This will make the access faster in congested traffic.
   


4. Design : - when we are designing a system we need to identify which portions of the project can be conducted in house, which portions can be conducted by subcontract and which portion to be outsourced.
   


5. Implementation :- It includes coding for the site along with benchmarking as well as maintenance. Site is compared with those of competitors in terms of response speed, quality of layout, and design in the process of benchmarking.
   


6. Testing :-
   

   
   

   a) Unit testing: testing the site’s program modules one at a time.
   

   
   

   b) System testing: involves testing the site as a whole , in a way the typical user will in using the site.
   

   
   

   c) Acceptance testing : Verifies that the business objectives of the system as originally conceived are in fact working.
   

Contemporary electronic commerce involves everything from ordering "digital" content for immediate online consumption, to ordering conventional goods and services, to "meta" services to facilitate other types of electronic commerce.

E Commerce has opened a new horizon and means of trading which is really a trendsetter of this cyber age.

Contrubuted By:
Rik Das
(Globsyn Business School)

Boosting the Business with Information Technology

“The successful man will profit from his mistakes and try again in a different way.” - Dale Carnegie

Information Technology has shown this different way and inspired the business growth and has become explicitly interwoven with strategic business to innovate new lanes of success stories. A robust IT infrastructure can make positive and quantifiable differences in business performances. Higher IT capability is directly proportional to higher revenue growth. Productive employees are key determinant of achieving superior productivity. IT fuels up the efficiency and productivity of the employees as well as the managers which leads to 23 percent higher revenue per employee than its peers. A positive role that Information Technology plays in enterprise growth is to enable enterprises to connect to new markets and respond to changes in the market faster. Buyer- set pricing and Auction-set prices with the help of online auctions and online seller bidding respectively lead to Cost Leadership by providing Lowest price guarantee by online price adjustment. Priceline.com, EBay.com are facilitating this process quite effectively. Increase in market share is influenced by online customer design , Customer online shipment tracking and E-Commerce.

Innovative Strategic Information Systems like online discount stock trading, package and flight management and online full service customer systems provided by Federal Express or Amazon.com has rewarded them with Market Leadership. The global satellite network Merchandise ordering system in Wall – Mart has increased the global market for the organization. Alliances like Airborne Express/ Rentrak Corp. has increased their market share by online inventory management/ shipment tracking.

Effective implementation of Information Technology has led to remarkable decline in the cost of synchronization that initiates concentrated business structure. Flexibility of Information Technology will enable to respond to the competitive forces by being able to respond to any specific information or communication requirement thus providing effective management of interdependence.

Contributed By:
Rik Das
Lecturer, IS
(Globsyn Business School)

THE GOOGLE PHONE COUNTDOWN

"Communication works for those who work at it" - - John Powell

The world is waiting to visualize whether Google is going to be an immediate game changer with their new and versatile introduction, the Google Phone. They are really working hard on this new edition of mobile communication and has been lobbying the U.S. government for changes in wireless policy.

Taiwanese manufacturer HTC is going to make the phone which is named Dream. It is available exclusively in the T- Mobile network in UK. Google’s new operating system Android is going to run in the handset. Android is a Linux based operating system for mobile devices which allows developers to write managed codes in java like language that uses Google developed java libraries.

The phone will be equipped with Global Positioning Technology and will be capable of running Google’s range of Web applications such as its email service Gmail, productivity suite Google Docs and mapping service Google Maps and last but not the least, Google Chrome, the revolutionary web browser by Google.

Google is already one of the leaders in advertising and search engine. Its success story may be going to get replicated with the G phone. HTC has built a solid reputation for the quality and inventiveness of its handsets., and it is eventually the maker of the Google phone.

Expectations and excitement is creeping up with each clock tick as the launching time for this new endeavor of Google , the G Phone is approaching. The G phone may rewrite the rules and is expected to be the one to change the face of the wireless industry.

Contributed by :
Rik Das
Lecturer - IS
(Globsyn Business School)

Google Chrome, a Google initiative

“Once a new technology rolls over you, if you’re not part of the steamroller , you’re part of the road.”
- Stewart Brand

Our minds are obsessed with the three W’s . The World Wide Web, the defacto standard of the cyber age civilization. We don’t even think of life under the blue without the Internet.
The software application that enables us to display and interact with the text, graphics, videos images in the web page is known as the web browser.

The big players in browsers are Internet Explorer, Konqueror, Opera, Mozilla Firefox and so on.
The most recent addition to these names is Google CHROME.

Much ink and many electrons have been spilled over the fact that its advanced features has made it an icon in the crowd. It is an open source web browser. Stability, speed and security issues has been much improved compared to any other browser.

Is it yet another web browser? Not really the way we have thought about Web browsers before. Most web browsers send HTTP messages to far-off Web servers, which respond with HTML pages. But with Chrome things are quite different. When an address is typed that doesn’t exist , Chrome will send it to Google for help finding the right address. The standard homepage keeps link to most visited sites and recent bookmarks.

We can start right from the point we have left off before shutdown. Chrome can be customized as which page to be opened everytime a program is launched. Isn’t its handy for those who use numerous pages ??

The URL name can be typed on the whole, e.g. http://www.globsyn.com/ to visit the site directly or only “globsyn” can be typed to go for a search. This is indeed a versatile feature.

At the top right corner functions like print, save, cut, copy, paste etc , all can be found under a pull down menu at the top right or else just at the right click of the mouse. Its just all about to browsing a real enjoyment.

In incognito mode sites are kept off the browsing history list which allows the privacy while cruising the Web.

If one becomes bore with the same designated homepage then several shortcuts can be created on the desktop. With every start up click anyone and the browser opens it up for you. Its something really refreshing all through.
The users get continuous updates and about the phising and malware. These warnings restrict them to visit harmful sites. Other users can also get the facility through a public API called “Google Safe Browsing API”. Google Chrome wont let one bad site to crash the entire web browser.

“Sandbox” mechanism has been introduced in Google CHROME. This security mechanism safely runs programs and is often used to run untested codes or programs from unverified third party. By keeping each tab in an isolated "sandbox", we were able to prevent one tab from crashing another and provide improved protection from rogue sites. This mechanism prevents malware from installing itself. The V8 JavaScript engine has features which has made it twice as fast than other popular browsers.

So the speed has become a striking factor of Google CHROME.

CHROME has implemented the multithreaded browser with a multiprocessing

architecture concept. The stability issues are taken care of very nicely. CHROME has taken the focus of World Wide Web with a lots of new features and facilities to make the Internet more user friendly and has touched the hearts of millions.

As of now, Chrome is a beta version with significant security problems yet to be addressed. By definition, it's not ready -- that's what beta means. Bugs and security holes will be fixed. But Chrome's basic business model will remain same.

Contributed by:
Rik Das, Lecturer, IS
(Globsyn Business School)

Google Chrome

Google recently launched its much awaited Browser Solution called "CHROME"; A report suggested that with in 4 days of it launching it captured close to 1% of the market share. Internet Explorer still continues to lead the market with close to 72% Market Share.

A lot people are keen to figure out how Chrome stands out vis a vis its competitors. Here is a Video which helps answer some of those questions.


Romit Dasgupta
Director - Technology
Globsyn Group

note: if the video does not load at first, keep re loading till it does.

SOA is the latest buzz-acronym for "Service-Oriented Architecture."

What is SOA?

SOA is not a technology or something you install. It is a concept, or rather an approach to modelling your system, and one that is different from the standard client/server model you may be used to. As opposed to large, proprietary applications that do everything, SOA is a design meant to try to integrate numerous and diverse software applications with common interfaces, in the name of code reuse/maintainability, and adaptibility. The notion of using a group of independent applications to accomplish a shared task is also sometimes referred to as grid computing.Everyone knows that "Web Services" are one of the hottest things lately. An SOA is essentially a collection of such services, communicating with one another, generally through XML. (Of course I am over-simplifying things: SOA can involve any kind of self-contained service communicating in any way.)SOA is not specific to any technology, indeed every "family" of technologies has its own SOA solution, and usually you can mix-and-match your own. However, open-source XML-based technologies such as BPEL, SOAP and WSDL are very commonly used.

By,

S.S.Baidya

Globsyn Business School

The future of Social Networking – V 3.0

Several studies have shown, that the concept of social networks has existed for several decades. The concept stems from the fact, that people are social beings, and their ability to work in social groups to create value, is their biggest asset. In 1954, J. A. Barnes popularized the term by using it to denote systematic pattern between two nodes. In the early 1990’s Internet was born, and that gave the concept of Social Networks a whole new definition.

Social Networking 1.0, focused mostly on establishing virtual connections between people , creating “Social Graphs”. Last few years have seen an emergence of Social Networking 2.0, where the priority has shifted from Connections between people to Content. We have seen the emergence of rich media sharing, RSS feeds, digital whiteboards, custom API’s, podcasts etc. The future, Social Networking 3.0 however, would see social networking being used as a technology (SNT) rather than a product or a service.

The future of Social Networks would see custom tools (API’s) being built for specific Interest group Networks. For example, a Business Networking Portal like Konnects.com might have a Business Lead Generation Tool, where as a Shelfari.com which is a social network for Book lovers, might see a tool to track authors and their recent releases.

Having said that, there are a few tools, which would form the basis for all Social Networks of tomorrow. Here are few TRENDS for Social Networks of tomorrow:

a) Smart Profile (Social or Professional) – Profiles form the introduction of individuals on all networks. Currently none of the social networking sites allow individuals to export their profiles for other networks. In the future, there might be opportunities to export and import profiles between networks.

b) Dynamic Buddy list (Social or Professional) – Segmented buddy lists would also get created. They would be divided in two broad areas, first Social Buddies, second Professional Buddies. Once again these could be imported or exported.

c) Real Time Collaborations – TEXT/VOIP/VIDEO based collaboration tools.

d) Integration with mobile devices – This would be a must for social networks of tomorrow simply because a user spends more time with a mobile device than a laptop or a PC. Also the reach is much higher (in some markets)

e) Ability to create niche stand alone networks – both in the professional and social front. Today, there are very few companies which are offering that. (Ning.com offers that for Social Space where as Konnects.com offers that for the professional space)

f) Custom API’s & Widgets – custom API’s - widgets would play a very important role in dressing up a social network of tomorrow. Companies like Facebook and Google (Open Social) have already taken a lead in this area.

g) Media Sharing & Interaction – Real Time Sharing of Rich and Lean media with interaction tools would also dominate the market. Specially in the area of Learning and Education.

By:
Romit Dasgupta
(Director, Globsyn Group)

What to expect from Web 3.0

Any veteran of the software industry will tell you that version 2.0 of any product tends to be a short-lived staging post on the way to 3.0, which is where it finally hits the mark. There is a possibility that Web 2.0 also turns out to be just a staging post on the way to a much more mature and durable Web 3.0 and it is going to deliver a new generation of business applications. There could be some new players like WebEx, WebSideStory, NetSuite etc. along with the old players like Google, Amazon etc. As with any shift from one generation to the next, there's plenty of scope for new leaders to emerge.

One thing about Web 3.0 is that it isn't just about shopping, entertainment and search. It's also going to deliver a new generation of business applications that will see business computing converge on the same fundamental on-demand architecture as consumer applications.

The Web 3.0 is divided into three (and a half) distinct layers: API services, Aggregation services, Application services, Serviced clients (half layer).

To read the full article click here.

What is Open Office and How do I use it ?

Open Office is an Open source software, which is absolutely FREE for all to use. To make things easier it is also compatible with Microsoft Office Suite.

Contributed by:

Romit Dasgupta

note: if the video does not load at first, keep re loading till it does.

New funding values LinkedIn at $1 billion

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - LinkedIn, an online destination for professional networking, raised $53 million from investors in a fourth round of financing, giving the company an estimated valuation of just over $1 billion, LinkedIn Chief Executive Dan Nye said.
Private equity firm Bain Capital's Bain Capital Ventures led the investment round, and LinkedIn's existing investors, venture capital firms Sequoia Capital, Bessemer Venture Partners and Greylock Partners also put in money, the company said.
Jeffrey Glass, Venture Partner at Bain Capital Ventures, said the $1 billion valuation is a "big number if you think about it in absolute terms."
But Bain felt comfortable with its calculation given LinkedIn's popularity and the growth opportunities that lie ahead, Glass said. "We... feel like we'll make a nice set of multiples on our money."
A handful of Web 2.0 start-ups, providing people innovative ways to interact online, have recently secured high valuations.

Source: Reuters

Full Article: http://www.reuters.com/article/technologyNews/idUSN1625440420080618

Comments :

A lot of us would find the valuations of Social Networks creeping up while the general market is at a Low. Ever wondered why it is so? In my personal opinion, I feel that social networks will revolutionize the future of Search Technology.

Social Networks have already started making a move from being associated with “products” to being a “technology”. Very soon, We would hear people say, “This product is built using Social Networking Technology”

On a Philosophical note, life is all about who knows who, i.e Personal Networks. Very often we hear people giving their Introduction by qualifying their personal connections. This is exactly what Social Networks have done. In years to come, I expect to see more “focus group” networks than general purpose networks. It’s a space that every youngster should watch out for. Just remember that Mark Zuckerberg founded Facebook while he was still a student at Harvard.
He was a teenager then, and today 4 years later, Facebook is valued at over 15 Billion US Dollars…

Romit Dasgupta

(Globsyn Business School)

Who Will Rule The New Internet?

It's been riveting to watch three of the most innovative companies in Silicon Valley—each representing a fundamental phase of the information era—battle it out. Apple, Google and Facebook are, respectively, an icon from the pioneering days of personal computers; the biggest, most profitable company yet born on the Web; and a feisty upstart whose name is synonymous with the current migration to social networks.

In many ways, these companies are technology's standard-bearers, though their guiding philosophies differ. Google, for instance, advocates an "open" Web and tends to push for open standards and alliances among developers. Facebook, with its gated community of 70 million active users, offers a more controlled experience and, so far at least, wants to keep its users safely within its walls. Apple comes from the old world. Its elegant products cocoon customers from the chaos of the information age, but the Apple experience tends to be highly controlled, with Apple hardware at the end points and Apple software and services, like the iTunes Music Store, in between.

The winners of the platform wars stand to make billions selling devices, selling eyeballs to advertisers, selling services such as music, movies, even computer power on demand. Yet the outcome here is far more important than who makes the most money. The future of the Internet—how we get information, how we communicate with one another and, most important, who controls it—is at stake.

source: an excerpt from CNN.com

Full Article : www.time.com/time/business/article/0,8599,1811814,00.html

Are you looking for a precedence?

To Well-Established Precedent

One day through the primeval wood
A calf walked home as good calves should;
But made a trail all bent askew
A crooked trail as all calves do.

Since then three hundred years have fled,
And I infer the calf is dead.
But still he left behind his trail,
And thereby hands my moral tale.

The trail was taken up next day
By a lone dog that passed that way;
And then a wise bellwether sheep
Pursued the trail o'er hill and glade.
Through those old woods a path was made.

And many men wound in and out
And dodged and turned and bent about
And uttered words of righteous wrath
Because 'twas such a crooked path;

But still they followed do not laugh
The first migrations of that calf,
And through this winding wood-way stalked
Because he wobbled when he walked.

This forest path became a lane
That bent and turned and turned again;
This crooked lane became a road,
Where many a poor horse with his load
Toiled on beneath the burning sun,
And thus a century and a half
They trod the footsteps of that calf.

The years passed on in shiftless fleet,
The road became a village street;
And thus, before men were aware,
A city's crowded thoroughfare.
And soon the central street was this
Of a renowned metropolis;
And men two centuries and a half
Trod in the footsteps of that calf.

Each day a hundred thousand rout
Followed this zigzag calf about
And o'er his crooked journey went
The traffic of a continent.

A hundred thousand men were led
By one calf near three centuries dead.
They followed still his crooked way,
And lost one hundred years a day;
For men are prone to go it blind
Along the calf path of the mind
And work away from sun to sun
To do what other men have done
They follow in the beaten track,
And out and in and forth and back
And still their twisting course pursue
To keep the path that others do
They keep the path a sacred groove
Along which all their lives they move
For thus such reverence is lent
To well-established precedent.

—Sam Walter Foss (1895)

Thank you for bearing with me and the poem. It will be so nice if you can recall this verse when you look for precedence. Of course there is nothing wrong in looking for precedence. But I feel you earn the right to look for precedence only when you are absolutely confident about etching out your own course. Otherwise using precedence is only an easy way out.

If you are following the best practices of your competitors in business, you are sending the signal that you are only as bad as your competitors. So your customers don’t have a choice. Will this strategy or can this strategy work in today’s business environment. The answer is an emphatic No.

This brings us straight to the subject of Business Process Management. Few years back an exciting slogan was “write once run anywhere” (WORA) which was perfected by Java professionals. Today the slogan has changed to “zero code one click deploy”. When and if IT solutions do not need coding than what will an IT professional do? And if IT professionals have nothing to do then who will offer IT solutions?

Change is accelerating. This implies that solutions must be realized faster. Does a business have enough time to wait for solutions, which IT professional will offer after toiling for six months or more in a project? It’s a distinct possibility that an IT solution, which is relevant today, is no longer meaningful tomorrow. IT professionals may lose their relevance but not the business managers. Business in some form will exist always. Its complexion will change. And it is in this respect that looking for precedence to find solution will not offer the silver bullet.

The first impact of change is in business process. A business manager must know how to create, maintain, and reengineer a business process (without the assistance of IT professionals). He or she has to look for highly innovative business processes. It is these processes that will act as differentiator vis-à-vis the practices of the competitors. The quest for new processes must be eternal. That’s because competitors will soon come up to your level. An existing business process will transform and evolve with time. It may even become a candidate suitable for outsourcing. Finally, we may have to retire a successful business process. At every step of a business process life cycle the process needs to be handled deftly by a business process owner. A business needs designations like Chief Process Officer, Business Engineer, Process Designer, Process Participant, Knowledge Worker, Process Owner, System Architect, and Developer.

You fit into which role?

Prof. Supriyo Chatterji

What’s the point in studying Information Systems?

Why do we need to know Information Systems (IS) when we study Business Management? Business Management is more about Marketing, H.R., Finance, and other topics like O.R. or Logistics. But knowing about IS is like acquiring the skills of using MS Office. Isn’t it? Already there is a separate breed of people with M.C.A. or B.Tech in Computer Science qualification who are quite conversant with IS. MBAs should be more concerned with managing the business. That’s what is expected from them.

But do you know that, today the customer can left click the mouse a business to bankruptcy? If the home page of an ecommerce site takes five seconds more to display its contents, the disincentive can be enough for customers to do business with somebody else. As a business manager what is your take on that? The age of advertising in its present form is ending. The development of Internet and satellite television has fragmented the audience. This means that now it will cost more to the advertiser to reach the same number of people. Mass customization has replaced mass production. Your customer can’t care less whether you maintain a Marketing Department or Finance Department in your Organization. Customer is only concerned about how efficient your customer order process is. Or for that matter how efficient your after sales service process is.

So, these are the points to which I wish to draw your attention. The practice of business management in its present form has taken a body blow from technology. This has also threatened the career of IT professionals. Today IT professionals are held accountable for the revenue earned by a business. A business should be process centered rather than divided into different functional divisions. It is only from CEOs perspective that a business should have functional divisions. But technology has led to a power shift. The king customer is now a dictator. Gone are those days of Henry Ford when he said “I will give the customer any color of car he wants – so long as it’s black”. From the customers viewpoint, partners viewpoint, or from any outsiders viewpoint the business should be process centered.

That’s the objective of Information Systems in the bigger canvas of Business Management. To equip you with the ability to design and appreciate the blue print of a business. So that business can always remain nimble. Be able to morph very fast, to ensure that business remains sustainable. Information Systems will help you to realize and be part of a Real-time Enterprise.

Globsyn Business School offers you the right ambience towards this end. We have spent more than five years exclusively in the domain of Information Technology, before offering a postgraduate management program. We can talk about how to change and how to do business through IT rather than with IT from a level of confidence. This confidence comes from our transformation and reinvention of ourselves to ensure sustainability.

Wish you Good Luck.

Prof. Supriyo Chatterji