Posts tagged ‘Technology’
Crisis sounds so cool!
Johannes Kreidler – a music composer, has found an innovating way of using microsoft’s songsmith software. He has composed an economic failure medley using the songsmith. He has turned stock charts into music by assigning notes to points on a chart.
Email Convergence
in.com a TV 18 Venture has integrated Gmail, Windows Live Mail, Yahoo mail & Rediffmail.
In order to get started, you need to go to applications and select the ones you want.
You get to see all your emails from the above services at one place. Isn’t it cool!
See the webpages you want, in your mailbox – WEBINMAIL
Rediff has launched a new service called webinmail. It aims to provide you web content in your email. Reason? I could spot two:
1. There are users who don’t have access to http in the office environment (firewall, policy etc). How do they browse? webinmail comes to the rescue
2. Users might need to access web from their mobile but don’t have the browser installed.
If you are the one among them, Try the following:
Say you want to browse – rediff.com
Simply send the URL in the subject line i.e. http://www.rediff.com
Rediff would send you the reply with the htm page of the site you requested.
It also supports Search in the following manner-
google:query
googleimg:query
rediff:query
Visit it online –>> http://www.webinmail.com
Art and Science of Software Selection
Well, software selection is really a tough task. Be it an ERP, CRM or BI software. Experts advise to follow a structured methodology for selecting the right software. Here it goes:
1. Identify your needs and document those
2. Circulate Request for Information to the vendors and ask them to provide product information
3. Evaluate vendor responses to the RFI
4. Shortlist a few vendors (at least 10) based on the RFI
5. Make a request for proposal and circulate it to the shortlisted vendors
6. Evaluate vendor responses to the RFP
7. Shortlist 3 top vendors based on the RFP responses
8. Prepare Sample Data and Demo Script and circulate it to the shortlisted vendors
9. Arrange for Demo Session
10. Evaluate Vendor Demonstrations
11. Shortlist the top 2
12. Negotiate till you find the right price and terms
13. Make legal agreement (Take help of experts, most of the vendors draft the agreement in the terms most beneficial to them)
14. Award the contract
Sounds simple? No way. You need a professional consultant to help you find a matching solution. What is the use of software that doesn’t work the way it was promised? Software selection is an art and science.
Art in the sense that you need to be really well versed with the software industry, human problems, the way humans work.
Science in the sense that you should know the structured methodology of software selection, man days estimation, technological jargons, customization needs and strengths and weaknesses of a software platform.
In my view, no software is good or bad. Software works the way it is designed and intended to be used. We humans expect either too little or too much from it and create problems. It really requires introspection before judging whether it is the software to be blamed for or our ignorance about the requirements and the features that the software is intended to offer.
The reasons for this include:
- An inability to analyze processes and/or systems that make a business work
- A lack of a general knowledge of IT
- A lack of expertise to computerize the business processes
- There is the sub-optimal use of IT through the non-identification of the information needs of the business, resulting in the mismatching thereof to IT requirements
- Finally, a lack of a formal, affordable means to assist in the decision-making process as to what IT to use where, when and how within the business environment.
Often, an organization will have a business problem that it moves to solve with a specific technical solution. They then install new software without considering whether the solution is an apt one and without knowing what it will take to make the technology work.
Many great initiatives never reach their full potential. The initiatives fail to meet their stakeholder expectations, return on investment targets, and more importantly, the expectations for customer impact. Common pitfalls include:
- Flawed design of strategies
- Inadequate risk management and mitigation plans
- Competing or misaligned initiatives
- Inability to facilitate and manage the project
Often the source of these missed opportunities is a lack of experience and an inability to remain focused on the objectives while balancing the ongoing needs of the business.
To be continued… Hopefully!!!
OnYoMo – Local Search Engine
On Your Move../..Mobile../..Mood../../.. is a web2.0 application.
It’s local, India centric search engine. Well most of us are curious about the new start-ups, new restaurants in neighbourhood, travel agents for air/railway/bus ticket booking and so on and so forth.
How many of us have time to track all the information? Well it seems OnYoMo has.
Imagine a situation, when your friend from Delhi on visit to Mumbai asks you about good courier services in Church Gate area. You start pulling your hair, don’t know what to reply. Don’t worry bookmark this site on your browser and your Mobile. It will be a real handy tool when you want the right information. Further, you can sms the contact details of the courier to your friend. After all A FRIEND IN NEED IS A FRIEND INDEED!!!
OnYoMo
If you have a GPRS enabled Mobile, you can save restaurant numbers providing home delivery, hospital numbers providing emergency services direct from m.onyomo.com. You need not retype the information. You may also call up the restaurant straight from the window of your browser.
Mobile Version can be accessed here: http://m.onyomo.com/
It provides coverage on the following cities:
Delhi, Bangalore, Mumbai, Chennai, Kolkata, Pune, Goa, Jaipur, Hyderabad, Ahmedabad, Chandigarh, Indore, Nagpur, Surat, Luknow and Bhopal.
OnYoMo covers the above cities extensively and provides quality information on products and services in the following categories:
- Automobiles
- Ayurveda
- Beauty Saloon
- Book Stores
- Chemists
- Computer Servicing
- Cooking Gas
- Courier Services
- Cyber Cafe
- Education Institutes
- Electronics
- Embassies
- Emergency Services
- Florists
- Footwear
- GiftShops
- Gymnasium
- Homeopathy
- Hospitals
- Hotels
- Jewellery
- Laundry
- Library
- Music
- Opticians
- Packers and Movers
- Pest Control
- Photography
- Real Estate
- Sports Goods
- Taxi Services
- Tour and Travel
- Utilities
- Valuers
- Watches
- Wine Shops
Still in my view, the database is evolving. It requires strong participation of users. I am sure that once that’s done, your yellow pages would see the dustbin!
Bookmark:
http://www.onyomo.com/
http://m.onyomo.com/
Gmail, Google Apps Gets Voice and Video Chat
Google has announced that the Gmail and Google Apps would support Voice and Video Chat.
Download the plug-in: http://mail.google.com/videochat
Matrimony Search Engine
Not looking… still writing…
is a vertical search portal for matrimony.
What more? Yes, they have a blog too, visit http://blog.bandhan.com/
MSN Contribute
Have writing skills?
Don’t know where to publish?
Have an opinion and faith in your writing skills? MSN Contribute gives you the perfect platform to realize your potential as a writer!Give your writing skills an audience to kill for! Express your views, prove your worth and become a five star writer. Submit your Contribution to MSN Contribute and depending on your skill and popularity, watch your ratings soar.
MSN Contribute is not a blogging platform but is a more controlled user generated articles platform.
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