The last decade was interesting in the way that new media became the media of choice for the global audience. So many magazines and newspapers folded up that it was difficult to keep track. In fact, majority of media houses went online and are still operational. What failed offline became a success or at least operational online! The most affected seemed to be the media in Europe, USA and other places where the internet penetration and usage was high.
But the India media was not really affected adversely in the sense that they are still operational. Quite a number of them are operational both online and offline. But of course the media houses are definitely getting impacted, and going forward many will fold up or merge.
Let’s see what and where the new decade leads to!!
12 Scams of Christmas-- from McAfee
As you get ready to do your holiday shopping be mindful of the scamster/cyber criminals, as they too are getting ready to shop but by using your persona details!! Look out for the "12 Scams of Christmas" revealed by McAfee. The company considers them as the "most dangerous online scams that computer users should be cautious of this year".
1. The iPad Scam: Don’t fall for the free iPad scam. If somebody, via mail/web prompts/online quizzes, promise you a free iPad if you buy something else-- SCRAM!!
2. "Help! I've Been Robbed" Scam: If you get a distress email requesting you to wire money or congratulating for winning a big lottery—simple trash it.
3. Fake Gift Cards: No stranger or retailer will offer you free gift cards, unless they want to use your money to get something for free—so keep away from such offers.
4. Holiday Job Offers: Avoid the job offers from unknown sources.
5. "Smishing": If you get text messages requesting you to call so to verify you’re your information, somebody is trying to steal your personal details, so hit delete.
6. Suspicious Holiday Rentals: Use only reputable firms and even call-up to ensure that the rental company is for real. As per McAfee, scamsters put up post fake holiday rental sites that ask for down payments on properties by credit card or wire transfer.
7. Recession Scams: McAfee advice to keep away from the advertised pre-qualified, low-interest loans and credit cards as they too are after your money.
8. Grinch-like Greetings: McAfee informs that the bogus e-cards can not only spread computer viruses and other malware, but may also force the computer to display obscene images, pop-up ads, or even start sending cards to contacts that appear to come from you.
9. Low Price Traps: Be weary when you see a price that's far below what other retailers are offering as it could be a scam.
10. Charity Scams: Keep away from the charity emails and even phone calls during the festive seasons as crooks try to take advantage of your generosity to rob you.
11. Dangerous Holiday Downloads: Don’t download the cool holiday-themed screensaver, jingle, or animation as it could be a virus.
12. Hotel and Airport WiFi: Be careful of using free WiFi connections in airports and hotels during the holiday season as McAfee says the holidays are a tempting time for thieves to hack into these networks and get a hold of your personal information.
In Nutshell, if you get an offer or anything that sounds too good to be true --- keep away from it!!
Change Your Password---Ineffective Security Measure!
Read an interesting piece by Michael Horowitz. He writes about the fact, which I have been quite strongly propagating, that changing your password within a set period of time is not actually an effective defensive method.
Instead of the IT department of an organization spending time prodding employees to change password after a specific period of time or even at times enforcing the rule, they should make the access to the systems inaccessible. Michael correctly points out, “An IT department may better serve a company by doing what the bad guys do and use password cracking software to try to decrypt the passwords under their control. If any poor passwords are discovered, they could educate the person that chose it about better passwords. If nothing else, just knowing that the IT department is watching should make people chose harder to crack (longer, more random) passwords”.
Read the whole post at http://blogs.computerworld.com/17549/change_your_password_maybe_not
Changing passwords strategy has been adopted by almost all the organizations across the globe. Though it seemed to have worked well as far as no complaints against it from any quarters; but about its impact, nobody can really vouch for or against it. Often it seemed more of a mandatory mechanism to give a false-sense of security.
Organizations are slowly waking up to the fact, that this mechanism might not be as effective as it seems. And with organizations moving on to the cloud and looking for better defensive mechanism, numerous other options are being explored. People are even talking about moving to open source based (Linux) security mechanism (especially for online banking as other such activities). What’s your take on it?
Instead of the IT department of an organization spending time prodding employees to change password after a specific period of time or even at times enforcing the rule, they should make the access to the systems inaccessible. Michael correctly points out, “An IT department may better serve a company by doing what the bad guys do and use password cracking software to try to decrypt the passwords under their control. If any poor passwords are discovered, they could educate the person that chose it about better passwords. If nothing else, just knowing that the IT department is watching should make people chose harder to crack (longer, more random) passwords”.
Read the whole post at http://blogs.computerworld.com/17549/change_your_password_maybe_not
Changing passwords strategy has been adopted by almost all the organizations across the globe. Though it seemed to have worked well as far as no complaints against it from any quarters; but about its impact, nobody can really vouch for or against it. Often it seemed more of a mandatory mechanism to give a false-sense of security.
Organizations are slowly waking up to the fact, that this mechanism might not be as effective as it seems. And with organizations moving on to the cloud and looking for better defensive mechanism, numerous other options are being explored. People are even talking about moving to open source based (Linux) security mechanism (especially for online banking as other such activities). What’s your take on it?
Email--- Dead or Alive?
The topic doing around is whether Email is dead or will be dead in a couple of years. Life seems to have come to a full circle for the application that was the reason for the death of writing letters!!
Mark Zuckerberg, founder Facebook, recently mentioned that “email would fade out, just like the letter did, as it is slow and informal”. That added fuel to the discussion that Email is dead. In fact, many of his fans and followers seem to agree with his views on the topic.
Mark Zuckerberg, founder Facebook, recently mentioned that “email would fade out, just like the letter did, as it is slow and informal”. That added fuel to the discussion that Email is dead. In fact, many of his fans and followers seem to agree with his views on the topic.
- http://www.fbjs.facebook.com/topic.php?uid=165275610152788&topic=296
- http://www.mumbaimirror.com/index.aspx?page=article§id=7&contentid=2010111720101117023600482274049f8
- http://www.tribuneindia.com/2010/20101119/science.htm
- http://gigaom.com/2010/11/15/facebook-launches-all-in-one-social-inbox/
You cannot deny the fact that Instant messaging is becoming more popular, and email is definitely losing its earlier charm. But will it be completely dead? It is too early to comment on that or even comprehend it as of now. Some things that you use emails for, seems almost impossible with instant messaging!! But then who knows? Today’s technology becomes obsolete tomorrow faster than you can imagine or understand!!
I do and prefer a world where IMs and emails are integrated, and we know which one to use for different work. Hence, I like what Terry Zink wrote on his blog :
http://blogs.msdn.com/b/tzink/archive/2010/11/22/the-death-of-email-hardly.aspxBut what’s your take on it? Is email dead or integration of Email and IM is the future?
3G Tariff War--Focus on Rural Market
Just as the industry analysts predicted the 3G tariff War has started. The telecom industry has invested a huge amount of money and to break even it will take years. But who ever starts off with the best prices, innovative services, great applications and seamless services of high quality will definitely rule the roost.
To get the critical mass will be very important. Focusing only on the elite or the urban places will not be a good idea. The services should reach even the rule places. In fact, that's where the money would be for the innovative service provider. I am more convinced about the success of mobile services in the rural area after seeing (specially in North Eastern) that people seem to prefer the mobile services rather the landline services which are in fact cheaper. The reason being the wireless connection can reach you where the wired connection cannot reach.
In the days to come, the scramble to offer the affordable yet innovative services will increase! The service providers will definitely tap both the urban and rural markets. The game will become interesting. Let's watch who comes out as the winner, and who folds up!!
To get the critical mass will be very important. Focusing only on the elite or the urban places will not be a good idea. The services should reach even the rule places. In fact, that's where the money would be for the innovative service provider. I am more convinced about the success of mobile services in the rural area after seeing (specially in North Eastern) that people seem to prefer the mobile services rather the landline services which are in fact cheaper. The reason being the wireless connection can reach you where the wired connection cannot reach.
In the days to come, the scramble to offer the affordable yet innovative services will increase! The service providers will definitely tap both the urban and rural markets. The game will become interesting. Let's watch who comes out as the winner, and who folds up!!
Tech Specs for Java SE 7 & Java SE 8 Passed!!!
It's great news for Java!!
Java Specification Requests (JSRs) for the next two releases of the Java Platform - JSR-336 and JSR-337 - have been formally approved by an overwhelming majority in the Java Community Process (JCP) Executive Committee vote.
With this ratification, the Java standard will progress through the JCP while the open source reference implementation will be delivered through the OpenJDK project.
The plan, which includes community feedback and is endorsed by the JCP Executive Committee, calls for standardization of these technologies in Java SE 7 within 2011, with Java SE 8 following in 2012.
Here’s more details:
Java Specification Requests (JSRs) for the next two releases of the Java Platform - JSR-336 and JSR-337 - have been formally approved by an overwhelming majority in the Java Community Process (JCP) Executive Committee vote.
The plan, which includes community feedback and is endorsed by the JCP Executive Committee, calls for standardization of these technologies in Java SE 7 within 2011, with Java SE 8 following in 2012.
- Java SE 7 includes language changes for improved developer productivity, dynamically typed language support, and performance improvements.
- Java SE 8 includes technologies in support of Java modularization and language enhancements for advanced multi-core support.
2010 Top Google Search
Have you checked out Zeitgeist 2010: How the World Searched, the report from Google about the hottest searches of 2010. The surprising part is that the fastest rising searches were chatroulette, ipad and justin bieber. On the other hand, the fatest falling were swine flu, wamu and new moon. The fastest rising in Entertainment were justin bieber, shakira and eminem. Meanwhile, the fastest rising in Consumer Electronics were ipad, iphone 4 and nokia 5530.
To know more please click on the links below:
As for India, the fastest rising searches were irctc login (railway ticket booking), micromax mobile and youtube videos. The fastest rising people were aruna shields, sonakshi Sinha and zarine khan. Most popular brands were nokia, Samsung and Airtel. The most popular how to searches in India are amusing and hilarious; they include get pregnant, kiss, impress a girl, improve spoken English, reduce weight, gain weight and tie a tie.
To know more please click on the links below:
- Global: http://www.google.com/intl/en/press/zeitgeist2010/
- India: http://www.google.com/intl/en/press/zeitgeist2010/regions/in.html
Steve Wozniak laments how we lost control over tech
Read a story on CNN about Steve Wozniak, Apple Co-founder and the inventor of personal computers. Although his vision of having a computer in every home is almost a reality, but he is saddened by the fact that humans seemed to have lost control over technology. "We can't turn off our internet; we can't turn off our smartphones; we can't turn off our computers," he laments. I know many of us will agree with this view.
Wozniak said that he created the computer not to make a lot of money, “accelerate the world's advancement in the social revolution that it would cause”. Is Steve listening?
Reading on :
http://edition.cnn.com/2010/TECH/innovation/12/08/steve.wozniak.computers/index.html?hpt=Sbin
Wozniak said that he created the computer not to make a lot of money, “accelerate the world's advancement in the social revolution that it would cause”. Is Steve listening?
Reading on :
http://edition.cnn.com/2010/TECH/innovation/12/08/steve.wozniak.computers/index.html?hpt=Sbin
India as manufacturing hub
I remember interviewing an industry leader, years ago, who mentioned that India will never become a manufacturing hub unless the government remove restrictions and unreasonable regulations. He mentioned that India did have the potential to become a manufacturing hub.
The Government of India has removed many of the restrctions and hurdles which was hindering the growth of the manufacturing industry. Today, all these have borne fruits. India is among the top and is a strong contender to become the world's prefered manufacturing hub. That's quite an achievement for the industry, and they deserve a standing ovation for making it and carrying on despite all the potholes that were in place earlier.
If you want to know more please click:
http://www.ibef.org/artdisplay.aspx?cat_id=352&art_id=27352&arc=show
http://www.mydigitalfc.com/op-ed/time-india-finds-its-niche-areas-926
http://www.icmrindia.org/casestudies/catalogue/Innovation/BREP010.htm
The Government of India has removed many of the restrctions and hurdles which was hindering the growth of the manufacturing industry. Today, all these have borne fruits. India is among the top and is a strong contender to become the world's prefered manufacturing hub. That's quite an achievement for the industry, and they deserve a standing ovation for making it and carrying on despite all the potholes that were in place earlier.
If you want to know more please click:
http://www.ibef.org/artdisplay.aspx?cat_id=352&art_id=27352&arc=show
http://www.mydigitalfc.com/op-ed/time-india-finds-its-niche-areas-926
http://www.icmrindia.org/casestudies/catalogue/Innovation/BREP010.htm
2011 Top 10 IT Trends
Regev Yativ, President and CEO of Magic Software Enterprises Americas, recently wrote about Ten IT trends to watch in 2011.
As per him, the following will be the Top 10 IT trends in 2011.
1. Mobile computing remains important, exciting and risky
2. Mix of in-house and outsourced services shifts
3. Enterprise software begins migrating to the cloud
4. Organizations embrace software lifecycle management
5. Legacy modernization delivers much-sought ROEI
6. The year of the better service level agreement (SLA)
7. Graphical user interfaces get richer; maybe too much so
8. Better performance comes to rich business applications
9. Drowning in data, enterprises turn to BI
10. Multi-tier architecture delivers the keys to integration
I do agree with his views and logic. 3 out of the 10 will definitely be game changers. 1) Enterprise will majorly go to cloud in 2011. But many will be looking for the security aspects which still remains a concern for many 2) With enterprises going to the cloud, SLAs will have to be tightened and changed as per the cloud needs and requirements. 3) With the amount of data being collected everything, many goes unused and hence wasted. But one can well imagine the level of intelligence one can receive from these data. Hence BI will definitely become a major area of focus.
Please click here to go to Regev’s blogpost.
As per him, the following will be the Top 10 IT trends in 2011.
1. Mobile computing remains important, exciting and risky
2. Mix of in-house and outsourced services shifts
3. Enterprise software begins migrating to the cloud
4. Organizations embrace software lifecycle management
5. Legacy modernization delivers much-sought ROEI
6. The year of the better service level agreement (SLA)
7. Graphical user interfaces get richer; maybe too much so
8. Better performance comes to rich business applications
9. Drowning in data, enterprises turn to BI
10. Multi-tier architecture delivers the keys to integration
I do agree with his views and logic. 3 out of the 10 will definitely be game changers. 1) Enterprise will majorly go to cloud in 2011. But many will be looking for the security aspects which still remains a concern for many 2) With enterprises going to the cloud, SLAs will have to be tightened and changed as per the cloud needs and requirements. 3) With the amount of data being collected everything, many goes unused and hence wasted. But one can well imagine the level of intelligence one can receive from these data. Hence BI will definitely become a major area of focus.
Please click here to go to Regev’s blogpost.
Streak, Galaxy, iPad---Battle for the Best
There’s an interesting article Dell Streak, Samsung Galaxy Tab: iPad Killers? by Ross Catanzariti for PC World. He has cited a number of interesting points to drive across his views on the subject. I found the following very compelling:
“Both the Dell Streak and the Samsung Galaxy Tab are far more flexible than the iPad thanks to Google's Android operating system. A great example of this is the fact that you can transfer files by dragging and dropping them from your PC (without the need for any software). Also, the Android Market offers a wealth of applications that can enhance the overall user experience of each device, particularly when it comes to multimedia playback.”
Please click here to read the whole article.
“Both the Dell Streak and the Samsung Galaxy Tab are far more flexible than the iPad thanks to Google's Android operating system. A great example of this is the fact that you can transfer files by dragging and dropping them from your PC (without the need for any software). Also, the Android Market offers a wealth of applications that can enhance the overall user experience of each device, particularly when it comes to multimedia playback.”
Please click here to read the whole article.
5 biggest Linux and open-source stories in 2010
Everybody is still going gaga over open source and companies are going big time to open source applications. Not only does it enable evrybody to colloborate and work together, but it saves cost, reduce investment and maintain as well as improve quality. Lots of things happened in the world of open source this year. Read an interesting piece on Computer World blog 2010's 5 biggest Linux and open-source stories by Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols.
The story behind the story is that Linux has become totally mainstream. You may not have a Linux desktop in front of you the way I do, but if you spend most of your day visiting Google, Facebook or Twitter, you're using Linux. That Android phone in your pocket? Linux. Your DVR? Probably Linux. Do you use a NAS (network attached storage) device for extra storage? Almost certainly Linux. Trade stocks? Yes, Linux again. You get the idea. Linux may be invisible, but it's also everywhere.
Please click here to read rest of the article.
The story behind the story is that Linux has become totally mainstream. You may not have a Linux desktop in front of you the way I do, but if you spend most of your day visiting Google, Facebook or Twitter, you're using Linux. That Android phone in your pocket? Linux. Your DVR? Probably Linux. Do you use a NAS (network attached storage) device for extra storage? Almost certainly Linux. Trade stocks? Yes, Linux again. You get the idea. Linux may be invisible, but it's also everywhere.
Please click here to read rest of the article.
Ignore the Unwanted Calls!!! TRAI helps!!
You get a call in the middle of a meeting, and you pick up thinking it might be an important call but the voice says, “Would you like to apply for a platinum card?”
Ain’t that a big nuisance?? Rather than banging the phone (in this case angrily switching it off) or hurling the choicest of abuses, you cannot do anything. But TRAI’s latest initiative to regulate the pesky calls from telemarketers, a big and important step to help the consumers, might enable you to ignore those calls and saves you time and money (mainly when you are on roaming).
As per the new TRAI directive, telemarketers will have to use numbers beginning with ‘70’ to make calls and it is upto you to decide whether you want to pick up the call or not. Likewise, a unique SMS header has been mandated for easy identification of commercial SMSs. The best part is that no commercial communication, even for unregistered customers, can be sent between 9.00 pm and 9.00 am; now we can enjoy a good night sleep without the friendly loan offer.
The Do Not Call option was a good step but still did stop the pushy callers. The SMSes also continued coming like an avalanche. We- the consumers- definitely needed more, but the big telecom players had been successful in resisting the demand for a complete bans on unwanted and irritating calls and SMSes.
Although the consumers are bit skeptic about it after the bad experience Do Not option, but at least this directive is a good step.
Will this stop the calls & SMSes? No!!
Will make us (the consumers) safe from these irritating calls? Maybe!!
But at least it has given us a choice (sic)!!!! And it is a right step towards a right direction.
Ain’t that a big nuisance?? Rather than banging the phone (in this case angrily switching it off) or hurling the choicest of abuses, you cannot do anything. But TRAI’s latest initiative to regulate the pesky calls from telemarketers, a big and important step to help the consumers, might enable you to ignore those calls and saves you time and money (mainly when you are on roaming).
As per the new TRAI directive, telemarketers will have to use numbers beginning with ‘70’ to make calls and it is upto you to decide whether you want to pick up the call or not. Likewise, a unique SMS header has been mandated for easy identification of commercial SMSs. The best part is that no commercial communication, even for unregistered customers, can be sent between 9.00 pm and 9.00 am; now we can enjoy a good night sleep without the friendly loan offer.
| The TRAI guidelines, to be effective from 1st January 2011, further adds that the erring telemarketing companies will have to pay a hefty penalty of up to Rs 2.50 lakh per call. As per the Telecom Commercial Communications Customer Preference Regulations, 2010, issued by the TRAI, erring telemarketing companies will also be blacklisted for a period of two years. | |
| But now the consumers have a range of choice to customers. One can opt for the “Fully Blocked” category or “Partially Blocked” category, in which case the customer will receive SMSs or calls in the categories chosen (which includes banking, and financial products, real estate, education, health, consumer goods, automobiles, communication and entertainment, tourism and leisure). The best part is that the telemarketers would have to pay a fine of Rs 25,000 for the first offence which will go up to Rs 75,000 in case of a second violation, Rs 80,000 for the third, Rs 1.25 lakh for the fourth, Rs 1.50 lakh for the fifth and Rs 2.5 lakh for the sixth offence, following which the number will be blocked by all service providers. In addition, if an unregistered ordinary subscriber makes unsolicited commercial communication, he/she will be warned for committing the offence for the first time. On committing the offence for the second time, his/her telephone will be disconnected. |
Although the consumers are bit skeptic about it after the bad experience Do Not option, but at least this directive is a good step.
Will this stop the calls & SMSes? No!!
Will make us (the consumers) safe from these irritating calls? Maybe!!
But at least it has given us a choice (sic)!!!! And it is a right step towards a right direction.
Gartner’s Top 10 Strategic Technologies for 2011
The year is coming to an end, and businesses are looking out for technologies and trends that would be hot and a game-changer in 2011. Here’s a list of top 10 strategic technologies for 2011 according to Gartner.
- Cloud Computing: Gartner expects large enterprises to have a dynamic sourcing team in place by 2012 that is responsible for ongoing cloud sourcing decisions and management.
- Mobile Applications and Media Tablets: Gartner estimates that by the end of 2010, 1.2 billion people will carry handsets capable of rich, mobile commerce providing an ideal environment for the convergence of mobility and the Web.
- Social Communications and Collaboration: Gartner predicts that by 2016, social technologies will be integrated with most business applications. Companies should bring together their social CRM, internal communications and collaboration, and public social site initiatives into a coordinated strategy.
- Video: Video is not a new media form, but its use as a standard media type used in non-media companies is expanding rapidly. Over the next three years Gartner believes that video will become a commonplace content type and interaction model for most users, and by 2013, more than 25 percent of the content that workers see in a day will be dominated by pictures, video or audio.
- Next Generation Analytics: Increasing compute capabilities of computers including mobile devices along with improving connectivity are enabling a shift in how businesses support operational decisions. It is becoming possible to run simulations or models to predict the future outcome, rather than to simply provide backward looking data about past interactions, and to do these predictions in real-time to support each individual business action. While this may require significant changes to existing operational and business intelligence infrastructure, the potential exists to unlock significant improvements in business results and other success rates.
- Social Analytics: Social analytics describes the process of measuring, analyzing and interpreting the results of interactions and associations among people, topics and ideas. These interactions may occur on social software applications used in the workplace, in internally or externally facing communities or on the social web. Social network analysis involves collecting data from multiple sources, identifying relationships, and evaluating the impact, quality or effectiveness of a relationship.
- Context-Aware Computing: Context-aware computing centers on the concept of using information about an end user or object’s environment, activities connections and preferences to improve the quality of interaction with that end user. The end user may be a customer, business partner or employee. Gartner predicts that by 2013, more than half of Fortune 500 companies will have context-aware computing initiatives and by 2016, one-third of worldwide mobile consumer marketing will be context-awareness-based.
- Storage Class Memory: Gartner sees huge use of flash memory in consumer devices, entertainment equipment and other embedded IT systems. It also offers a new layer of the storage hierarchy in servers and client computers that has key advantages — space, heat, performance and ruggedness among them. Unlike RAM, the main memory in servers and PCs, flash memory is persistent even when power is removed. In that way, it looks more like disk drives where information is placed and must survive power-downs and reboots. Given the cost premium, simply building solid state disk drives from flash will tie up that valuable space on all the data in a file or entire volume, while a new explicitly addressed layer, not part of the file system, permits targeted placement of only the high-leverage items of information that need to experience the mix of performance and persistence available with flash memory.
- Ubiquitous Computing: As computers proliferate and as everyday objects are given the ability to communicate with RFID tags and their successors, networks will approach and surpass the scale that can be managed in traditional centralized ways. This leads to the important trend of imbuing computing systems into operational technology, whether done as calming technology or explicitly managed and integrated with IT. In addition, it gives us important guidance on what to expect with proliferating personal devices, the effect of consumerization on IT decisions, and the necessary capabilities that will be driven by the pressure of rapid inflation in the number of computers for each person.
- Fabric-Based Infrastructure and Computers: A fabric-based computer is a modular form of computing where a system can be aggregated from separate building-block modules connected over a fabric or switched backplane. In its basic form, a fabric-based computer comprises a separate processor, memory, I/O, and offload modules (GPU, NPU, etc.) that are connected to a switched interconnect and, importantly, the software required to configure and manage the resulting system(s). The fabric-based infrastructure (FBI) can be supplied by a single vendor or by a group of vendors working closely together, or by an integrator — internal or external.
Mobile Number Portability is ON!!!
After a decade of waiting and a two year delay, Mobile Number Portability (MNP) will ultimately be a reality. It has been launched in Rohtak, Haryana today and marks the end of the service providers rein over the custyomers. Telecom Ministry officials informed that it is likely to be launched in other parts of the country by the end of December.
MNP which should have been a part of Indian telecom success story long time back was being held back by the service providers. The providers feared that the customer loyalty (either willingly or enforced) would be gone with MNP as customers would simply move to a new provider if they are not happy with the current provider.
It will definitely lead to a tariff war and VAS offerings will also increase as the telecom service providers would try their best to retain their existing customers. Providers with bad customer services should take notice as their subscribers number will go down rapidly unless they start offering good services and tariffs quickly. The customer is ultimately the king!!!!
MNP which should have been a part of Indian telecom success story long time back was being held back by the service providers. The providers feared that the customer loyalty (either willingly or enforced) would be gone with MNP as customers would simply move to a new provider if they are not happy with the current provider.
It will definitely lead to a tariff war and VAS offerings will also increase as the telecom service providers would try their best to retain their existing customers. Providers with bad customer services should take notice as their subscribers number will go down rapidly unless they start offering good services and tariffs quickly. The customer is ultimately the king!!!!
War for the Cloud--Microsoft Vs Google
The cloud space is heating up with both Google and Microsoft coming up with solutions and strategies to beat each other. Recently, Google has released Google Cloud Connect for Microsoft Office, which allows users to save their Office documents in Google Docs.
The solution reportedly can not only save copies of a user's Office documents to the Google Docs cloud, where they can be edited simultaneously by other users, but syncs them for access from a variety of PC and mobile devices. It works with Office 2003, 2007 and 2010; and starting 2011 it will be accessible to anyone with a Google account.
Analysts have pointed out that although this solution allows Microsoft and Google users to collaborate but it’s an extremely strategic step to show Google Apps' benefits over Microsoft Office.
Microsoft has already moved to the clouds with the launch of Office 365 which combines Microsoft Office, SharePoint Online, Exchange Online and Lync Online. The company has already shown its cloud seriousness by the earlier launch of cloud platforms such as Windows Azure and smaller offerings along the lines of Office Web Apps.
The cloud space is definitely important to both companies, and both of them will definitely try to outdo each other. Watch out this space for more inputs.
The solution reportedly can not only save copies of a user's Office documents to the Google Docs cloud, where they can be edited simultaneously by other users, but syncs them for access from a variety of PC and mobile devices. It works with Office 2003, 2007 and 2010; and starting 2011 it will be accessible to anyone with a Google account.
Analysts have pointed out that although this solution allows Microsoft and Google users to collaborate but it’s an extremely strategic step to show Google Apps' benefits over Microsoft Office.
Microsoft has already moved to the clouds with the launch of Office 365 which combines Microsoft Office, SharePoint Online, Exchange Online and Lync Online. The company has already shown its cloud seriousness by the earlier launch of cloud platforms such as Windows Azure and smaller offerings along the lines of Office Web Apps.
The cloud space is definitely important to both companies, and both of them will definitely try to outdo each other. Watch out this space for more inputs.
Cloud Computing Hurdles---the reason for low adoption
The biggest challenge towards the adoption of cloud computing is security. Majority of the enterprises are confused and not sure about the security aspects; and are apprehensive that the number of breaches or data loss would increase as enterprises move into the cloud. In addition, enterprises are scared of the cloud as they feel out of control, and sees traditional computing as better way to keep data secured.
But there are many companies that offer best of the class security solutions. For example, access and identity management solutions from Oracle can keep the cloud security threats at bay. In fact, with the right kind of solutions, cloud computing would be even more secured than the traditional network security.
Cloud computing offers a large number benefits. Enterprises will definitely start moving to the cloud once they start seeing the advantages. Not only will cloud computing cut down on expenses but will also provide the enterprises with an edge over others which are still in the traditional computing arena.
As the enterprises move to the cloud, there will definitely be a number of complications, some big and some really serious. So selecting the right vendor to roll-out the cloud computing is very crucial. In fact, it’s imperative for the enterprises to look out for the strengths of the vendor which includes adaptability, technical expertise and most important of all security. Vendors that offer cost effective, easy to adopt and secured solutions will be the market leaders.
But there are many companies that offer best of the class security solutions. For example, access and identity management solutions from Oracle can keep the cloud security threats at bay. In fact, with the right kind of solutions, cloud computing would be even more secured than the traditional network security.
Cloud computing offers a large number benefits. Enterprises will definitely start moving to the cloud once they start seeing the advantages. Not only will cloud computing cut down on expenses but will also provide the enterprises with an edge over others which are still in the traditional computing arena.
As the enterprises move to the cloud, there will definitely be a number of complications, some big and some really serious. So selecting the right vendor to roll-out the cloud computing is very crucial. In fact, it’s imperative for the enterprises to look out for the strengths of the vendor which includes adaptability, technical expertise and most important of all security. Vendors that offer cost effective, easy to adopt and secured solutions will be the market leaders.
Free Roaming in India--now that's an idea!!!
Free roaming, ain’t that a great idea!!! It would be great for the consumers and damper of the telecom service providers. The huge and at times the absurd roaming charges within India may soon become a passé as DoT has recommended that the country be considered as a single region!!!
As of now, India is divided into 22 circles and every time mobile consumers make or receive calls outside their home circle, they have to pay hefty roaming charges. The recommendation from the DoT is to completely do way with the circle concept, which would in turn totally nullify the concept as well as issues related with roaming.
But the telecom industry will not take it easy with this recommendation, as it would mean further cut into the revenue of the sector already hit by the declining ARPU. Although, many countries have already done away with roaming charges, the Indian consumers kept on shelling the charges. Hence, the DoT efforts will be appreciated and welcomed by all the consumers.
To do away with the seeming protest that India cannot be considered as a single circle, DoT suggested that the country can be divided into four regions. In this case, it will help consumers avoid roaming charges when travelling within a region; for example if one is travelling all over North India, roaming charges won’t apply.
All the idea is fantastic, but to implement it will take time and crossing several hurdles. Since, there is no timeframe as of now—so only time will say when it will be implemented and hence make the life (or rather the pockets) of mobile users easy.
As of now, India is divided into 22 circles and every time mobile consumers make or receive calls outside their home circle, they have to pay hefty roaming charges. The recommendation from the DoT is to completely do way with the circle concept, which would in turn totally nullify the concept as well as issues related with roaming.
But the telecom industry will not take it easy with this recommendation, as it would mean further cut into the revenue of the sector already hit by the declining ARPU. Although, many countries have already done away with roaming charges, the Indian consumers kept on shelling the charges. Hence, the DoT efforts will be appreciated and welcomed by all the consumers.
To do away with the seeming protest that India cannot be considered as a single circle, DoT suggested that the country can be divided into four regions. In this case, it will help consumers avoid roaming charges when travelling within a region; for example if one is travelling all over North India, roaming charges won’t apply.
All the idea is fantastic, but to implement it will take time and crossing several hurdles. Since, there is no timeframe as of now—so only time will say when it will be implemented and hence make the life (or rather the pockets) of mobile users easy.
Phoenix Progressive Certification Enterprise Ltd. Selects Oracle Clinical To Boost Productivity in Clinical Data Management
News Facts
• To address the growing demand for clinical research services from customers nationally and internationally, Phoenix Progressive Certification Enterprise Ltd. (PPCE) has selected Oracle Clinical to align its Clinical Research Allied Services with international regulatory compliance requirements.
• PPCE, a 14-year-old organisation, was established to extend verification and inspection services to land-based and offshore industries, and has since emerged as a functional service provider of choice for its project management skills, service quality, response times and skilled human resources. Its customers include organisations across the public and private sectors like oil & gas, construction, financial services, utility, transportation, engineering, service providers as well as health sciences including pharmaceuticals and clinical laboratories.
• Oracle’s clinical development applications have been deployed across many clinical trials, including studies across all development phases for many therapeutic areas and vast patient populations in multiple geographies. Oracle clinical development applications are designed to provide maximum system uptime and availability to ensure continuous operations and security of clinical data.
• With Oracle Clinical, PPCE will be able to offer its health sciences customers enhanced design protocols and amendments, as well as specify how patient data is tracked. The protocol design includes study objectives, investigator and site information, enrollment plans, drug treatment regimens, randomization schedules and visit definitions. The solution also allows amendments to be inserted transparently, within minutes and with no recompiling or copying.
Supporting Quotes
• “India is one of the fastest growing clinical research destinations with a growth rate that is 2.5 times more than the global market. In India, clinical allied research services accounts for 35% of clinical research spend and 18% of total R&D spend,” said Khushnoor Dastoor, Executive Director, PPCE. “We chose a market leading solution like Oracle Clinical to offer our customers with world-class services. In the future, we are looking at adding Oracle Remote Data Capture for EDC studies and Oracle Argus for pharmacovigilance to fulfil our biopharmaceutical drug development requirements across the globe”.
• “Oracle Clinical was built based on the experience of hundreds of companies that conducted clinical trials, which provides us with a greater understanding of clinical data management,” said Neil De Crescenzo, Senior Vice President and General Manager, Oracle Health Sciences. “PPCE’s combination of broad coverage and deep functionality will help it better address clinical data management and help them boost business productivity and ROI with each clinical study.”
Supporting Resources
• Oracle in Health Sciences
• Oracle Clinical
• Clinical Research Allied Services – Phoenix Progressive Certification Enterprise Ltd.
• To address the growing demand for clinical research services from customers nationally and internationally, Phoenix Progressive Certification Enterprise Ltd. (PPCE) has selected Oracle Clinical to align its Clinical Research Allied Services with international regulatory compliance requirements.
• PPCE, a 14-year-old organisation, was established to extend verification and inspection services to land-based and offshore industries, and has since emerged as a functional service provider of choice for its project management skills, service quality, response times and skilled human resources. Its customers include organisations across the public and private sectors like oil & gas, construction, financial services, utility, transportation, engineering, service providers as well as health sciences including pharmaceuticals and clinical laboratories.
• Oracle’s clinical development applications have been deployed across many clinical trials, including studies across all development phases for many therapeutic areas and vast patient populations in multiple geographies. Oracle clinical development applications are designed to provide maximum system uptime and availability to ensure continuous operations and security of clinical data.
• With Oracle Clinical, PPCE will be able to offer its health sciences customers enhanced design protocols and amendments, as well as specify how patient data is tracked. The protocol design includes study objectives, investigator and site information, enrollment plans, drug treatment regimens, randomization schedules and visit definitions. The solution also allows amendments to be inserted transparently, within minutes and with no recompiling or copying.
Supporting Quotes
• “India is one of the fastest growing clinical research destinations with a growth rate that is 2.5 times more than the global market. In India, clinical allied research services accounts for 35% of clinical research spend and 18% of total R&D spend,” said Khushnoor Dastoor, Executive Director, PPCE. “We chose a market leading solution like Oracle Clinical to offer our customers with world-class services. In the future, we are looking at adding Oracle Remote Data Capture for EDC studies and Oracle Argus for pharmacovigilance to fulfil our biopharmaceutical drug development requirements across the globe”.
• “Oracle Clinical was built based on the experience of hundreds of companies that conducted clinical trials, which provides us with a greater understanding of clinical data management,” said Neil De Crescenzo, Senior Vice President and General Manager, Oracle Health Sciences. “PPCE’s combination of broad coverage and deep functionality will help it better address clinical data management and help them boost business productivity and ROI with each clinical study.”
Supporting Resources
• Oracle in Health Sciences
• Oracle Clinical
• Clinical Research Allied Services – Phoenix Progressive Certification Enterprise Ltd.
Oracle Announces Oracle CRM On Demand Release 18
- Demonstrating Oracle’s commitment to ongoing innovation, Oracle CRM On Demand Release 18 introduces industry-leading capabilities designed to drive revenue and reduce costs.
- New capabilities include delivering qualified leads at lower cost, enabling better business planning regardless of market conditions, enterprise-grade cloud security, network and access control and a new “Insurance On Demand” solution for broker/producer channel management.
- Release 18 delivers enhanced lead quality with progressive profiling and advanced data integration, allowing companies to target potential customers with more relevant messages using adaptive campaigns, and to increase conversion rates.
- Adaptable business planning enables companies to create, modify and execute plans more quickly in response to market conditions, shortening the planning cycle, providing early visibility to potential disruptions and improving response time.
- Enterprise-grade cloud security helps ensure that critical data is safe and secure in the cloud, providing enterprise-grade data encryption, virtual private network connections and access control auditing, protecting customer interactions in the cloud while adhering to data compliance standards.
- Oracle CRM On Demand Insurance Edition delivers the only complete, on-demand Broker/Producer Channel Management solution for insurance companies, designed to maximize producer revenue at a lowest possible cost through better producer planning, integrated marketing management and comprehensive channel analytics.
Over 65,000 customers worldwide rely on Oracle's complete, open and integrated enterprise applications to achieve superior results. Oracle provides a secure path for customers to benefit from the latest technology advances that improve the customer software experience and drive better business performance. Oracle Applications Unlimited is Oracle's commitment to customer choice through continuous investment and innovation in current applications offerings. Oracle’s next-generation Fusion Applications build upon that commitment, and are designed to work with and evolve your existing applications investments. Oracle's lifetime support policy helps ensure customers will continue to have a choice in upgrade paths, based on their enterprise needs. For more information on the latest Oracle Applications releases go to: www.oracle.com/applications.
Recharge Your Cell Phone Wirelessly
It’s no science fiction, for within a couple of years you will be able to recharge your cell phone wirelessly!!!
All thanks to Fujitsu, the Japanese technology company. It’s been reported that the company has developed a system capable of simultaneously charging multiple portable electronic devices such as mobile phones, digital cameras and laptop computers; and that too without the need for cable connections.
Fujitsu unveiled a prototype system at an Institute of Electronics, Information and Communication Engineers conference at Osaka Prefecture University. According to the company, electric cars users may also eventually be able to charge their vehicles wirelessly using the same technology.
This innovative and predicted as a life changing technology works on the basis of the transmission of electricity using magnetic fields between the charger and the electronic device. The system enables wireless charging at distances of up to several metres, with the ultimate aim of installing public "charging spots" on the streets in order to enable easy charging around the clock.
Fujitsu is reportedly planning to make products, incorporating the new wireless charging system, for the masses by 2012.
All thanks to Fujitsu, the Japanese technology company. It’s been reported that the company has developed a system capable of simultaneously charging multiple portable electronic devices such as mobile phones, digital cameras and laptop computers; and that too without the need for cable connections.
Fujitsu unveiled a prototype system at an Institute of Electronics, Information and Communication Engineers conference at Osaka Prefecture University. According to the company, electric cars users may also eventually be able to charge their vehicles wirelessly using the same technology.
This innovative and predicted as a life changing technology works on the basis of the transmission of electricity using magnetic fields between the charger and the electronic device. The system enables wireless charging at distances of up to several metres, with the ultimate aim of installing public "charging spots" on the streets in order to enable easy charging around the clock.
Fujitsu is reportedly planning to make products, incorporating the new wireless charging system, for the masses by 2012.
Apple's New iPod Soars
Apple’s new iPod touch seems to have started off on a strong note going by the feedback and responses of the market. It is packed with incredible new features including Apple’s stunning Retina™ display, FaceTime® video calling, HD video recording, Apple’s A4 chip, 3-axis gyro, iOS 4.1 and Game Center—all combined in the thinnest and lightest iPod touch ever. The new iPod touch features up to 40 hours of music playback and seven hours of video playback on a single battery charge.*
Apple’s stunning Retina display makes everything on iPod touch look even more incredible, whether playing games, watching video, browsing the web or flicking through photos. The Retina display has 960 x 640 pixels—four times as many pixels than before. The resulting 326 pixels per inch is so dense that the human eye is unable to distinguish individual pixels when iPod touch is held at a normal distance, making text, images and video look sharper, smoother and more realistic.
Apple’s A4 chip provides iPod touch users with exceptional processor and graphics performance along with long battery life. This remarkably fast and power-efficient chip, along with the Retina display and 3-axis gyro, makes games on iPod touch the best they’ve ever been on any mobile device.
iPod touch is the world’s most popular portable game player. Now with Game Center, iPod touch users can challenge and play friends or be matched automatically with new opponents. Game Center lets iPod touch users showcase their scores and achievements and discover new games their friends are playing. With the App Store on iPod touch, users have access to the world’s largest catalog of apps with over 250,000 apps, including over 65,000 game and entertainment titles to choose from.
Music and entertainment lovers can now easily access iTunes® Ping directly from their new iPod touch. iTunes Ping lets you follow your favorite artists and friends to discover the music they’re talking about, listening to and downloading. iPod touch users also have the entire iTunes Store® at their fingertips, giving them instant access to the world’s largest catalog of music, TV shows and movies.
The new iPod touch comes with iOS 4.1, the newest version of the world’s most advanced mobile operating system. iOS 4.1 enables new features like FaceTime video calling, multitasking, folders and Game Center.
Apple’s stunning Retina display makes everything on iPod touch look even more incredible, whether playing games, watching video, browsing the web or flicking through photos. The Retina display has 960 x 640 pixels—four times as many pixels than before. The resulting 326 pixels per inch is so dense that the human eye is unable to distinguish individual pixels when iPod touch is held at a normal distance, making text, images and video look sharper, smoother and more realistic.
With the new front-facing camera and mic, iPod touch users can make FaceTime video calls over Wi-Fi. With just one tap of the new FaceTime app, iPod touch users can call other new iPod touch or iPhone® 4 users** to easily see what their friends are up to, share important moments like the first day of school and even show others what they are seeing by easily switching to the rear-facing camera.
The rear-facing camera on iPod touch is perfect for HD video recording. Users can easily capture HD video wherever they are and share it via email, MobileMe™ and YouTube. With the iMovie® app, users can combine movie clips, add dynamic transitions and themes and include photos and music right on their iPod touch. Users can buy and download the app for just $4.99 through the App Store℠ right on their iPod touch.
iPod touch is the world’s most popular portable game player. Now with Game Center, iPod touch users can challenge and play friends or be matched automatically with new opponents. Game Center lets iPod touch users showcase their scores and achievements and discover new games their friends are playing. With the App Store on iPod touch, users have access to the world’s largest catalog of apps with over 250,000 apps, including over 65,000 game and entertainment titles to choose from.
Music and entertainment lovers can now easily access iTunes® Ping directly from their new iPod touch. iTunes Ping lets you follow your favorite artists and friends to discover the music they’re talking about, listening to and downloading. iPod touch users also have the entire iTunes Store® at their fingertips, giving them instant access to the world’s largest catalog of music, TV shows and movies.
The new iPod touch comes with iOS 4.1, the newest version of the world’s most advanced mobile operating system. iOS 4.1 enables new features like FaceTime video calling, multitasking, folders and Game Center.
Build SCM Confidence to mitigate Risks
Managing the supply chain in the current turbulent world is increasingly becoming difficult. Various external and internal factors contribute to mismanagement and ultimate to a total disruption to the smooth functioning of the supply chain. The latest trend in Supply Chain Management is to create confidence in supply chain team members so as to mitigate risks in the process. In fact, building confidence within the supply chain management is increasingly becoming extremely important for the companies to do away with the various risks involved in the process. Very often, issues and problems in the chain happens because the supply chain members are not confident and are in tandems about some unforeseen events erupting at the last hour; and these leads to a lot of man made mistakes which could have been avoided. In addition, the end-to-end visibility and real time information is extremely critical.
Lack of Confidence=Rise in Risks
Globalization of the market, shorter product and technology life cycles, uncertainties in demand and supply, complex international supply network comprising of logistics etc—all have led to great risks in the supply chain management. And if you add chaos and nervousness to then chances of making wrong decisions exist in every stage of the supply chain.
Issues like lack of information and visibility in the process ends with lack of confidence that often leads to a breakdown of the chain. Some of the typical pain-points for the supply chain members are:
• Can the suppliers deliver?
• Is the quality of products is good?
• Is the demand forecasts correct?
• What is the current status of the order?
• What is the order cycle time?
The lack of confidence in the supply chain leads to the following risks mentioned below:
Finance & Market:
• Stocking up inventories
• Obsolete inventories
• Incorrect markdowns
• Less supplies
• Changes in users taste or preference
• Missing existing and new opportunities
Chaos & Decision:
• Unsure whether a decision is correct or wrong
• Overreacting
• Mistrusting and second guessing
• Intervening and overreacting
Confidence Building Measure
Companies have woken up to the fact that having an effective supply chain management also means to have a team confident in the process. There are a number of solutions available in the market that can not only create an effective supply chain management process but can also make the information available to the members which in turn can increase confidence and mitigate risks. The supply chain management solutions should have the following:
• Availability of real time and accurate information
• All the relevant data should be accessible to all
• Whenever there is an issue or problem, the appropriate team should be alerted
• The supply chain members should have the right tool to respond and troubleshoot
• The demand and pipeline inventory should be visible to all the concerned teams
• Whenever the products are going out of stock, the appropriate teams should be alerted
Effective supply chain management solutions from companies like Oracle can power information-driven supply chains, predict market requirements, innovate in response to volatile market conditions, and align operations across global networks. In addition, Oracle’s supply chain management solutions provides industry-specific solutions based on best-in-class applications that span product development, demand management, sales and operations planning, transportation management, and supply management.
Conclusion
The supply chain is often exposed to market risks, and it would fail to correctly respond to changing market trends and user preferences if the right market signals are not detected at the right and appropriate time. And if the right information and data is not available all the time or in real time, there are chances of problems and issues at each stage of the supply chain. The best bet is to have an appropriate supply chain management solution that would have the companies take control of the whole operations and hence increase the supply chain confidence.
Lack of Confidence=Rise in Risks
Globalization of the market, shorter product and technology life cycles, uncertainties in demand and supply, complex international supply network comprising of logistics etc—all have led to great risks in the supply chain management. And if you add chaos and nervousness to then chances of making wrong decisions exist in every stage of the supply chain.
Issues like lack of information and visibility in the process ends with lack of confidence that often leads to a breakdown of the chain. Some of the typical pain-points for the supply chain members are:
• Can the suppliers deliver?
• Is the quality of products is good?
• Is the demand forecasts correct?
• What is the current status of the order?
• What is the order cycle time?
The lack of confidence in the supply chain leads to the following risks mentioned below:
Finance & Market:
• Stocking up inventories
• Obsolete inventories
• Incorrect markdowns
• Less supplies
• Changes in users taste or preference
• Missing existing and new opportunities
Chaos & Decision:
• Unsure whether a decision is correct or wrong
• Overreacting
• Mistrusting and second guessing
• Intervening and overreacting
Confidence Building Measure
Companies have woken up to the fact that having an effective supply chain management also means to have a team confident in the process. There are a number of solutions available in the market that can not only create an effective supply chain management process but can also make the information available to the members which in turn can increase confidence and mitigate risks. The supply chain management solutions should have the following:
• Availability of real time and accurate information
• All the relevant data should be accessible to all
• Whenever there is an issue or problem, the appropriate team should be alerted
• The supply chain members should have the right tool to respond and troubleshoot
• The demand and pipeline inventory should be visible to all the concerned teams
• Whenever the products are going out of stock, the appropriate teams should be alerted
Effective supply chain management solutions from companies like Oracle can power information-driven supply chains, predict market requirements, innovate in response to volatile market conditions, and align operations across global networks. In addition, Oracle’s supply chain management solutions provides industry-specific solutions based on best-in-class applications that span product development, demand management, sales and operations planning, transportation management, and supply management.
Conclusion
The supply chain is often exposed to market risks, and it would fail to correctly respond to changing market trends and user preferences if the right market signals are not detected at the right and appropriate time. And if the right information and data is not available all the time or in real time, there are chances of problems and issues at each stage of the supply chain. The best bet is to have an appropriate supply chain management solution that would have the companies take control of the whole operations and hence increase the supply chain confidence.
Does Social Media Promote Narcissism?
Based on a survey by Jean Twenge, an SDSU Psychology Professor and co-author of The Narcissism Epidemic: Living in the Age of Entitlement, 57% of young people believe their generation uses social networking sites for self-promotion, narcissism and attention seeking.
While it’s no surprise that social media would cater to a more self-promotional audience, it’s certainly interesting to note that not only does Gen Y think of their social behaviors as narcissistic, but almost 40% (39.27%) agree that “being self-promoting, narcissistic, overconfident, and attention-seeking is helpful for succeeding in a competitive world.”
While it’s no surprise that social media would cater to a more self-promotional audience, it’s certainly interesting to note that not only does Gen Y think of their social behaviors as narcissistic, but almost 40% (39.27%) agree that “being self-promoting, narcissistic, overconfident, and attention-seeking is helpful for succeeding in a competitive world.”
Catch a movie at YouTube
Nobody see’s YouTube as pay-and-view content provider, rather as see- for-free user generated content facilitator. In a move, which is seen as a direct challenge to Apple as related to distribution of film and television content, Google is in talks with leading Hollywood movie studios to launch a global pay-per-view video service in YouTube by the end of 2010.
The plan is to launch the service first in USA and then take it to other countries. The Hollywood studios are also supposedly excited with the idea as this will be an additional arena for them to make money and might prove to be the most profitable in the long run.
Google will reportedly use its search technology as well as YouTube to direct users to the new services. And with Google and YouTube’s loyal users already on-board, it will likely be an easy venture to become a great success.
Google has not been able to make much money from $1.65bn buy—YouTube. But this initiative might turn out to be the money-churning tool for them. But there will be lots of competition from companies like Apple, Amazon and others who are already online and ready, and those who are also planning to offer such services. We can only wait and see who rules the roost and who calls it a day!!!
The plan is to launch the service first in USA and then take it to other countries. The Hollywood studios are also supposedly excited with the idea as this will be an additional arena for them to make money and might prove to be the most profitable in the long run.
Google will reportedly use its search technology as well as YouTube to direct users to the new services. And with Google and YouTube’s loyal users already on-board, it will likely be an easy venture to become a great success.
Google has not been able to make much money from $1.65bn buy—YouTube. But this initiative might turn out to be the money-churning tool for them. But there will be lots of competition from companies like Apple, Amazon and others who are already online and ready, and those who are also planning to offer such services. We can only wait and see who rules the roost and who calls it a day!!!
Indian midsize organisations give precedence to ‘on time project deployment’ rather than ‘fast return on investment’
About the Survey
The top 10 issues related to business requirements included:
1. Project deployment on time
2. Project deployment on budget
3. Comprehensive security considerations
4. Ability to integrate multiple departments and business partners
5. Speed of problem resolution
6. Low total cost of ownership
7. Fast time to business benefit
8. Delivery of high uptime
9. Software vendor after sales support
10. Fast return on investment
Eight of the top 10 Indian business requirements matched the APAC survey ranking (although in a slightly different order). However, the ability to integrate multiple departments ranked much higher for India as compared to Asia/Pacific as a whole.
The ability to achieve a fast time to business benefit and fast return on investment were also of much greater concern to Indian respondents as compared to APAC where these attributes did not appear in the top 10 concerns for APAC respondents.
In addition to tracking business requirements, the survey also studied the top 10 performance criteria in the operation of business applications. These included:
2. Project deployment on time
3. Delivery of high uptime
4. Application security management
5. Project deployment on budget
6. Speed of problem resolution
7. Software vendor after sales support
8. Fast project business benefit
9. Fast project deployment
10. Fast return of investment
- As business applications gain importance among midsize and enterprise companies alike, Oracle today shared the findings of a survey conducted by Frost & Sullivan, titled ‘Business Applications Optimisation in India 2010’ between end 2009 and early 2010.
- The survey was conducted with more than 1500 respondents across Asia Pacific (APAC) to understand the needs of midsize organisations using business applications; help them prioritise their business issues; and assess their ability to execute them.
- Twenty-three percent or 354 APAC respondents were from India, comprising CIOs, IT decision makers, IT managers and business decision makers from midsize companies. The majority of these companies represented the industrial manufacturing, high technology and professional services sectors. Other prominent sectors included engineering/construction, communications, financial services, education and research, automotive, retail, travel and transportation and healthcare.
- All survey respondents were instrumental in owning and deploying business applications in their organisations.
The ability to achieve a fast time to business benefit and fast return on investment were also of much greater concern to Indian respondents as compared to APAC where these attributes did not appear in the top 10 concerns for APAC respondents.
In addition to tracking business requirements, the survey also studied the top 10 performance criteria in the operation of business applications. These included:
1. IT department understanding of the needs of the business
On Facebook, Avoid Dislike Buttons
Despite the desire of a lot of users, there is no ‘dislike’ button on Facebook. And beware of the dislike buttons that are going viral on Facebook. Some scamsters are working on the need of the users to have a dislike button to work out a scam.
Graham Cluley, a senior technology consultant at the British security firm Sophos, has written in a blog post, “you still haven't at this point been given a "Dislike" Facebook button, and the rogue application requires you to complete an online survey (which makes money for the scammers) before ultimately pointing you to a Firefox browser add-on for a Facebook dislike button developed by FaceMod”.
What it can do
On Facebook, avoid posts like: "I just got the Dislike button, so now I can dislike all of your dumb posts lol!!"
These posts are typically followed with a link that takes people to a fake Facebook application.
Instead of installing a dislike button, the application uses a person's social network to continue spreading the fake program. Typically, such schemes are designed to steal information from Internet users. That information then can be sold to other parties. The scams also can be used to co-opt an Internet user's social network contacts.
Cluley wrote, "If you do give the app permission to run, it silently updates your Facebook status to promote the link that tricked you in the first place, thus spreading the message virally to your Facebook friends and online contacts," he writes.
After the other viral scams like including 'Justin Bieber trying to flirt,' 'Student attacked his teacher and nearly killed him,' 'the biggest and scariest snake' and the 'world's worst McDonald's customer, the fake dislike button is the latest one to hit the Facebook users.
What you can do to uninstall
If you accidentally installed the fake application, click on the "account" button at the top right of the Facebook home screen. Navigate to the option that says "application settings," and disable the fake "dislike" application.
If the app has posted to your Facebook wall, go to your profile page and delete those posts to stop the scam from spreading further. Some experts also recommend checking your "interests" and "likes" settings from the "edit my profile" menu, to be sure that the app hasn't lodged itself there as well.
You can also ask Facebook to uninstall/remove it.
Facebook’s Response
As per Facebook, there is no official dislike button and have requested users to not click on strange links, even if they are from friends, and notify the person and report the link if one sees something suspicious. The company further added that it is trying to block the "dislike" app
Graham Cluley, a senior technology consultant at the British security firm Sophos, has written in a blog post, “you still haven't at this point been given a "Dislike" Facebook button, and the rogue application requires you to complete an online survey (which makes money for the scammers) before ultimately pointing you to a Firefox browser add-on for a Facebook dislike button developed by FaceMod”.
What it can do
On Facebook, avoid posts like: "I just got the Dislike button, so now I can dislike all of your dumb posts lol!!"
These posts are typically followed with a link that takes people to a fake Facebook application.
Instead of installing a dislike button, the application uses a person's social network to continue spreading the fake program. Typically, such schemes are designed to steal information from Internet users. That information then can be sold to other parties. The scams also can be used to co-opt an Internet user's social network contacts.
Cluley wrote, "If you do give the app permission to run, it silently updates your Facebook status to promote the link that tricked you in the first place, thus spreading the message virally to your Facebook friends and online contacts," he writes.
After the other viral scams like including 'Justin Bieber trying to flirt,' 'Student attacked his teacher and nearly killed him,' 'the biggest and scariest snake' and the 'world's worst McDonald's customer, the fake dislike button is the latest one to hit the Facebook users.
What you can do to uninstall
If you accidentally installed the fake application, click on the "account" button at the top right of the Facebook home screen. Navigate to the option that says "application settings," and disable the fake "dislike" application.
If the app has posted to your Facebook wall, go to your profile page and delete those posts to stop the scam from spreading further. Some experts also recommend checking your "interests" and "likes" settings from the "edit my profile" menu, to be sure that the app hasn't lodged itself there as well.
You can also ask Facebook to uninstall/remove it.
Facebook’s Response
As per Facebook, there is no official dislike button and have requested users to not click on strange links, even if they are from friends, and notify the person and report the link if one sees something suspicious. The company further added that it is trying to block the "dislike" app
India to be fastest growing economy by 2013-15
A recent Morgan Stanley report by Chetan Ahya and Tanvee Gupta says that India is poised to accelerate its growth rate to 9-9.5% over 2013-15, and will become the fastest growing economy.
The report further forecasted India will significantly jack up its expenditure on infrastructure and in plant and machinery. Infrastructure expenditure has gone up from 5.4% of GDP in 2005 to 7.5% in 2009 and is poised to go up to 8% of GDP in 2010. Over 2012-17, the forecast is that India’s infrastructure spend would be $1 trillion as compared with $530 million over the previous five-year period.
Another assumption is on the quantity and quality of the young people coming into the workforce. While India will be the largest contributor to the world’s workforce — all of 136 million people — over the next 10 years, China will add just 23 million.
As per Gartner-- Security Software Market poised for 11 percent growth in 2010
Worldwide security software revenue is forecast to surpass $16.5 billion in 2010, an 11.3 percent increase from 2009 revenue of $14.8 billion, according to Gartner, Inc. Although the economic downturn slowed security revenue to 7 percent growth in 2009, organizations have indicated an intention to give priority to security budgets.
"Most segments of the security software market will continue to grow over the next few years, although a significant degree of variation is expected between the more-established and less-mature technologies," said Ruggero Contu, principal research analyst at Gartner. "Overall, security will remain one of the fastest-growing areas within the enterprise software market."
Gartner analysts said security software markets will weather the current economic downturn better than in 2001 and 2002, because the market conditions are dramatically different in terms of maturity, penetration, confidence in IT, and geographic and vertical mix.
"Security software vendors that have a balanced mix of channel, new license and maintenance revenue streams and flexibility in contractual terms, such as software as a service (SaaS), open source and outsourcing, have the strongest options for continued growth and to even out the risk," Mr. Contu said. "Shrinking discretionary spending budgets have heightened competition for new maintenance and license revenue streams and placed a renewed emphasis on vendor performance and viability."
The consumer security software market remains the largest security software segment, with 2010 revenue projected to reach $4.2 billion in 2010, up from $3.9 billion in 2009. The endpoint protection platform (enterprise) market is the No. 2 security software segment, with revenue on pace to reach $3 billion in 2010, up from $2.9 billion in 2009.
The security software market continues to benefit from prioritization and demands related to compliance requirements, as well as the need to keep up with ever-increasing sophistication and volume in the threat landscape.
“During the next six to 12 months, products delivered as SaaS and appliances will continue overtaking traditional software licensing as the preferred purchasing methods,” said Matthew Cheung, senior research analyst at Gartner. “Delivery as a suite in subsegments such as enterprise endpoint security, identity and access management (IAM), and Web security will be the most prevalent product delivery types. Despite major vendors seeking to consolidate, opportunities exist for smaller niche players and product specialization, and local expertise is expected to remain a valued factor.”
Compliance remains an important driver across many segments, particularly user provisioning, security information and event management (SIEM) and mobile data protection.
"The growing sophistication of the threat landscape — with malware composed of multiple components that can be installed after the initial infection and the exploits of socially engineered trojans, which trick end users into downloading and executing malicious files — will push organizations and consumers to invest in endpoint security products in coming years," Mr. Cheung said.
IAM is a critical component of enterprises' security strategies. Gartner clients indicate that about 8 percent of their security budgets are currently dedicated to IAM. This area is composed of technologies with varying levels of maturity and adoption; overall, the IAM market is estimated to grow to more than $12 billion by 2014.
"Most segments of the security software market will continue to grow over the next few years, although a significant degree of variation is expected between the more-established and less-mature technologies," said Ruggero Contu, principal research analyst at Gartner. "Overall, security will remain one of the fastest-growing areas within the enterprise software market."
Gartner analysts said security software markets will weather the current economic downturn better than in 2001 and 2002, because the market conditions are dramatically different in terms of maturity, penetration, confidence in IT, and geographic and vertical mix.
"Security software vendors that have a balanced mix of channel, new license and maintenance revenue streams and flexibility in contractual terms, such as software as a service (SaaS), open source and outsourcing, have the strongest options for continued growth and to even out the risk," Mr. Contu said. "Shrinking discretionary spending budgets have heightened competition for new maintenance and license revenue streams and placed a renewed emphasis on vendor performance and viability."
The consumer security software market remains the largest security software segment, with 2010 revenue projected to reach $4.2 billion in 2010, up from $3.9 billion in 2009. The endpoint protection platform (enterprise) market is the No. 2 security software segment, with revenue on pace to reach $3 billion in 2010, up from $2.9 billion in 2009.
The security software market continues to benefit from prioritization and demands related to compliance requirements, as well as the need to keep up with ever-increasing sophistication and volume in the threat landscape.
“During the next six to 12 months, products delivered as SaaS and appliances will continue overtaking traditional software licensing as the preferred purchasing methods,” said Matthew Cheung, senior research analyst at Gartner. “Delivery as a suite in subsegments such as enterprise endpoint security, identity and access management (IAM), and Web security will be the most prevalent product delivery types. Despite major vendors seeking to consolidate, opportunities exist for smaller niche players and product specialization, and local expertise is expected to remain a valued factor.”
Compliance remains an important driver across many segments, particularly user provisioning, security information and event management (SIEM) and mobile data protection.
"The growing sophistication of the threat landscape — with malware composed of multiple components that can be installed after the initial infection and the exploits of socially engineered trojans, which trick end users into downloading and executing malicious files — will push organizations and consumers to invest in endpoint security products in coming years," Mr. Cheung said.
IAM is a critical component of enterprises' security strategies. Gartner clients indicate that about 8 percent of their security budgets are currently dedicated to IAM. This area is composed of technologies with varying levels of maturity and adoption; overall, the IAM market is estimated to grow to more than $12 billion by 2014.
Change your Operator but keep your Number
One of my friends has changed his number 9 times in the last 3 years, and many of the people I know have at least changed it 5 times. But you cannot blame them; once you change the network – you have to change your number. Number portability was a distant dream. It was working fine for the telecom service provider but it was a nightmare for the consumers who have to keep on informing everyone about the number change.
But it would change pretty soon, as mobile number portability (MNP) will be implemented nationwide from October 31.
Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has informed that there would be no further delay in the implementation. In fact, the Department of Telecom (DoT) said the operators must ensure that all inter-operator tests for porting the numbers from one service provider to another are completed before September 1, 2010. DoT further pointed out the telecom operators will be barred from launching any new commercial services from September 1 in case they fail to implement MNP as per the scheduled deadline
As per a DoT note, "It has been decided that permission to launch commercial service in any area with effect from September 1, 2010 shall be given to only those licensee(s) who are MNP compliant,"
But it would change pretty soon, as mobile number portability (MNP) will be implemented nationwide from October 31.
Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has informed that there would be no further delay in the implementation. In fact, the Department of Telecom (DoT) said the operators must ensure that all inter-operator tests for porting the numbers from one service provider to another are completed before September 1, 2010. DoT further pointed out the telecom operators will be barred from launching any new commercial services from September 1 in case they fail to implement MNP as per the scheduled deadline
As per a DoT note, "It has been decided that permission to launch commercial service in any area with effect from September 1, 2010 shall be given to only those licensee(s) who are MNP compliant,"
One-fit-on-charger for all Cell Phones
Your cell phone is dead and you don’t have a charger. But everybody else you know has a charger, but you are not able to use it as your cell phone is of different make and model. Ain’t that annoying?
Currently, every company ships its own charger. In fact, many companies have different chargers for its models. So whenever you buy a new model, you get a new charger.
But those days will likely be over in the near future. And the Europeans are leading that trend. Thanks to the European Commission, starting 2011 the cell phones sold in Europe will have a one-size-fit-all charger. In fact major cell phone makers including Apple, Motorola, Samsung and Research In Motion, have signed on to the agreement.
A standardized and common charger will be beneficial for the consumers as well as for the companies which can drastically cut down on cost of making new chargers with new models. And it is also a green move as having one charger for all would mean less e-waste and usage of fewer resources.
In India too, we should urge our telecom authorities to ask the cell phone makers to provide a standardized one-fit-in-charger for all.
Currently, every company ships its own charger. In fact, many companies have different chargers for its models. So whenever you buy a new model, you get a new charger.
But those days will likely be over in the near future. And the Europeans are leading that trend. Thanks to the European Commission, starting 2011 the cell phones sold in Europe will have a one-size-fit-all charger. In fact major cell phone makers including Apple, Motorola, Samsung and Research In Motion, have signed on to the agreement.
A standardized and common charger will be beneficial for the consumers as well as for the companies which can drastically cut down on cost of making new chargers with new models. And it is also a green move as having one charger for all would mean less e-waste and usage of fewer resources.
In India too, we should urge our telecom authorities to ask the cell phone makers to provide a standardized one-fit-in-charger for all.
All India Oracle Users Group presents its annual conference ‘Sangam 2010’ in Hyderabad
• After the success of Sangam 2009, the All India Oracle Users Group (AIOUG) presents Sangam 2010– a two-day Oracle user conference in Hyderabad, 3rd to 4th September 2010.
• As part of its charter to encourage Oracle technologists in India to exchange, experience and discuss advancements and innovations on various Oracle technologies, Sangam 2010 will host multiple sessions by international and Indian experts. Key speaker highlights include:
o Roland Slee, Vice President, Database Product Management, Oracle Asia Pacific & Japan will describe how Oracle is leveraging its expanded product portfolio, including the acquired Sun assets, to progress its long-standing vision of enhanced information management and a simplified, standardised IT infrastructure
o Jonathan Lewis, renowned expert on Oracle Database and an independent consultant from the UK, who has worked on the technology for more than 23 years, will discuss various aspects of Oracle Database Engine.
o Murali Vallath, President, AIOUG and an Oracle ACE Director specialises in areas of capacity planning, high availability solutions and performance tuning of Oracle. He has successfully completed over 100 (Oracle 9iR2, 10gR2 and 11gR2) successful small, medium and terabyte sized RAC implementations for reputed corporate firms across the globe.
• The event is expected to host IT professionals and Oracle enthusiasts from India’s leading SI companies (Infosys, Wipro, Patni, GE, TCS etc.), independent software solutions companies as well as Oracle certified professionals (those directly involved in developing business applications based on the world’s and India’s #1 database provider, Oracle Database) from other industries. In India alone, there are more than 500,000 developers working on various Oracle technologies.
• AIOUG provides Oracle technology and database professionals the opportunity to enhance their productivity and influence the quality, usability, and support of Oracle technology. The group is composed of Oracle professionals across business users, IT professionals (several from leading SI and ISV companies) and developers committed to helping fellow IT professionals develop Oracle-based solutions to address their business challenges.
• “AIOUG has been in existence for more than three years and in this period, we have seen tremendous activity among this community with all the new developments and new technologies that Oracle offers,” said Murali Vallath, President, AIOUG. “This year we initiated a new webcasts programme that aims to enhance skill sets and also provide members and non-members with access to sessions by world-class speakers on various technology platforms and developments.”
• SANGAM 2010 is being actively promoted through various social media channels like twitter, linkedin, facebook as well as through blogs.
• “Through our SANGAM conferences, we would also like to create an opportunity for our Indian Oracle user community to listen to world-class speakers such as Tom Kyte, Jonathan Lewis among others,” said Satyendra Kumar, Co Founder and Vice President, AIOUG.
• To get more information visit: www.aioug.org/sangam10.php or Oracle Events or Oracle User Groups Center
• As part of its charter to encourage Oracle technologists in India to exchange, experience and discuss advancements and innovations on various Oracle technologies, Sangam 2010 will host multiple sessions by international and Indian experts. Key speaker highlights include:
o Roland Slee, Vice President, Database Product Management, Oracle Asia Pacific & Japan will describe how Oracle is leveraging its expanded product portfolio, including the acquired Sun assets, to progress its long-standing vision of enhanced information management and a simplified, standardised IT infrastructure
o Jonathan Lewis, renowned expert on Oracle Database and an independent consultant from the UK, who has worked on the technology for more than 23 years, will discuss various aspects of Oracle Database Engine.
o Murali Vallath, President, AIOUG and an Oracle ACE Director specialises in areas of capacity planning, high availability solutions and performance tuning of Oracle. He has successfully completed over 100 (Oracle 9iR2, 10gR2 and 11gR2) successful small, medium and terabyte sized RAC implementations for reputed corporate firms across the globe.
• The event is expected to host IT professionals and Oracle enthusiasts from India’s leading SI companies (Infosys, Wipro, Patni, GE, TCS etc.), independent software solutions companies as well as Oracle certified professionals (those directly involved in developing business applications based on the world’s and India’s #1 database provider, Oracle Database) from other industries. In India alone, there are more than 500,000 developers working on various Oracle technologies.
• AIOUG provides Oracle technology and database professionals the opportunity to enhance their productivity and influence the quality, usability, and support of Oracle technology. The group is composed of Oracle professionals across business users, IT professionals (several from leading SI and ISV companies) and developers committed to helping fellow IT professionals develop Oracle-based solutions to address their business challenges.
• “AIOUG has been in existence for more than three years and in this period, we have seen tremendous activity among this community with all the new developments and new technologies that Oracle offers,” said Murali Vallath, President, AIOUG. “This year we initiated a new webcasts programme that aims to enhance skill sets and also provide members and non-members with access to sessions by world-class speakers on various technology platforms and developments.”
• SANGAM 2010 is being actively promoted through various social media channels like twitter, linkedin, facebook as well as through blogs.
• “Through our SANGAM conferences, we would also like to create an opportunity for our Indian Oracle user community to listen to world-class speakers such as Tom Kyte, Jonathan Lewis among others,” said Satyendra Kumar, Co Founder and Vice President, AIOUG.
• To get more information visit: www.aioug.org/sangam10.php or Oracle Events or Oracle User Groups Center
Oracle leader in PPM--as per Gartner 2010 report
Gartner, Inc. has named Oracle a leader in its report “Magic Quadrant for IT Project and Portfolio Management, 2010.”
Gartner defines IT Project and Portfolio Management (PPM) applications as those that “primarily automate and centralize the collection of data about demand, costs, schedules and resources for investment prioritization, as well as the execution of the programs and projects delivering new technologies and other IT assets to the business. They can also be used to assess, justify, rationalize and otherwise control the investment in ongoing IT operations or specific applications.”
Oracle's PPM solutions support the full lifecycle of project and portfolio management with an integrated, accurate view of all project-related activities, helping companies and organizations achieve and maintain strategic advantage over their competitors.
Gartner defines IT Project and Portfolio Management (PPM) applications as those that “primarily automate and centralize the collection of data about demand, costs, schedules and resources for investment prioritization, as well as the execution of the programs and projects delivering new technologies and other IT assets to the business. They can also be used to assess, justify, rationalize and otherwise control the investment in ongoing IT operations or specific applications.”
Oracle's PPM solutions support the full lifecycle of project and portfolio management with an integrated, accurate view of all project-related activities, helping companies and organizations achieve and maintain strategic advantage over their competitors.
Apple's Magic Trackpad
Now's the time to say Goodbye to the mouse!!! For here, comes the Trackpad!!!
The new Magic Trackpad is the first Multi-Touch trackpad designed to work with your Mac desktop computer. It uses the same Multi-Touch technology you love on the MacBook Pro. And it supports a full set of gestures, giving you a whole new way to control and interact with what’s on your screen. Swiping through pages online feels just like flipping through pages in a book or magazine. And inertial scrolling makes moving up and down a page more natural than ever. Magic Trackpad connects to your Mac via Bluetooth wireless technology. Use it in place of a mouse or in conjunction with one on any Mac computer — even a notebook.
Magic Trackpad is just like the trackpad on the MacBook Pro — but bigger. It’s made with the same advanced touch-friendly and wear-resistant glass surface. But with nearly 80 percent more area, it’s the largest Multi-Touch trackpad made by Apple. So there’s even more room for you to scroll, swipe, pinch, and rotate to your fingers’ content. And since the entire surface is a button that clicks, you can use it in place of a mouse.
Magic Trackpad features the same sculpted aluminum design as the Apple Wireless Keyboard, and side by side the two sit flush at the same angle and height. Go from typing to gesturing in one motion, or do both at the same time.
Magic Trackpad works using Bluetooth technology, so you don’t have to deal with an annoying cable that dictates where you place it. Once you pair Magic Trackpad with your Bluetooth-enabled Mac, you’ll enjoy a reliable, secure connection up to 33 feet away. Magic Trackpad detects periods of inactivity, and it’s equipped with an on/off switch. Together these features help to conserve battery life, so you can keep gesturing for months at a time.
The new Magic Trackpad is the first Multi-Touch trackpad designed to work with your Mac desktop computer. It uses the same Multi-Touch technology you love on the MacBook Pro. And it supports a full set of gestures, giving you a whole new way to control and interact with what’s on your screen. Swiping through pages online feels just like flipping through pages in a book or magazine. And inertial scrolling makes moving up and down a page more natural than ever. Magic Trackpad connects to your Mac via Bluetooth wireless technology. Use it in place of a mouse or in conjunction with one on any Mac computer — even a notebook.
Magic Trackpad is just like the trackpad on the MacBook Pro — but bigger. It’s made with the same advanced touch-friendly and wear-resistant glass surface. But with nearly 80 percent more area, it’s the largest Multi-Touch trackpad made by Apple. So there’s even more room for you to scroll, swipe, pinch, and rotate to your fingers’ content. And since the entire surface is a button that clicks, you can use it in place of a mouse.
Magic Trackpad features the same sculpted aluminum design as the Apple Wireless Keyboard, and side by side the two sit flush at the same angle and height. Go from typing to gesturing in one motion, or do both at the same time.
Magic Trackpad works using Bluetooth technology, so you don’t have to deal with an annoying cable that dictates where you place it. Once you pair Magic Trackpad with your Bluetooth-enabled Mac, you’ll enjoy a reliable, secure connection up to 33 feet away. Magic Trackpad detects periods of inactivity, and it’s equipped with an on/off switch. Together these features help to conserve battery life, so you can keep gesturing for months at a time.
Airtel Daily Use Pack Rs.5
Bharti Airtel, a leading global telecommunications company with operations in 18 countries across Asia and Africa, today announced their new Daily Use Pack priced at just Rs.5 for its mobile customers in Delhi NCR. The Pack will enable customers to choose from various tariff options on a daily basis without any hassles. Under the plan, customers can choose from any one of the benefits listed below:
• 9 min of STD and Local calls
• 150 national and local sms
• Airtel to Airtel calls at 30p per min
• 50 min of night calling
• 50 MB of mobile internet
One can choose as many plans one wants by just dialing *222# (toll free). The price of each plan is Rs 5. For more details pls visit http://www.airtel.in/.
Mr. Shashi Arora, CEO - Delhi & NCR , Mobile Services, Bharti Airtel Limited, said, “Airtel has launched this cost effective daily plan so as to make our services more affordable for our pre-paid customers. We are confident that this value-added initiative will greatly benefit our customers and in return strengthen our association with them.”
He added, “Earlier, Airtel initiatives like the Easy Charge, Special five, Lifetime Validity have revolutionized the Indian market in terms of creating customer value. Airtel will continue to come up with offerings that facilitate an affordable and great mobile experience for our customers”.
• 9 min of STD and Local calls
• 150 national and local sms
• Airtel to Airtel calls at 30p per min
• 50 min of night calling
• 50 MB of mobile internet
One can choose as many plans one wants by just dialing *222# (toll free). The price of each plan is Rs 5. For more details pls visit http://www.airtel.in/.
Mr. Shashi Arora, CEO - Delhi & NCR , Mobile Services, Bharti Airtel Limited, said, “Airtel has launched this cost effective daily plan so as to make our services more affordable for our pre-paid customers. We are confident that this value-added initiative will greatly benefit our customers and in return strengthen our association with them.” He added, “Earlier, Airtel initiatives like the Easy Charge, Special five, Lifetime Validity have revolutionized the Indian market in terms of creating customer value. Airtel will continue to come up with offerings that facilitate an affordable and great mobile experience for our customers”.
Agile Product Lifecycle Management can help Pharmaceutical & Biotech Companies
The pharmaceutical and biotech companies should check out Oracle's Agile Product Lifecycle Management.
Having worked in a pharmaceutical company (Eli Lilly), I can understand the risks and pains associated with the development of a single drug. It involves million of dollars and takes 10-15 years to develop a single drug. And even then it might fail during the development stage or clinical trial stage or might fail due to non-compliance with regulations.
As per Oracle, Agile is a complete product lifecycle management solution suite built on industry best practices that enables organizations to manage-from a single interface-the product compliant dataset throughout its lifecycle, including research and development, prototype development, clinical trials, regulatory submissions, new product introduction, market acceptance, and end-of-life content.
Oracle claimed that the major benefits that the Agile PLM solutions can provide to the pharmaceutical companies are as listed below:
• Drive product innovation and introduction with one central solution for collaboration across research networks both internally and externally, and managing all product portfolio aspects such as project and resource management, thereby automating the design control process across the organization
• Lower inefficiency and compliance exposure with a secure workflow-enabled change management processes for core product record components such as development documents and records, product and process specifications, through regulatory submission information providing a compliant archive to support regulatory audits
• Support enterprise quality management by providing one central solution for aggregating, analyzing, and acting on product quality issues from customer complaints to manufacturing deviations to adverse-event information or supplier corrective actions, and "closing the loop" on these quality events by resolving the product quality problem and communicating the resolution to all parties involved, including compiling medical device reports for submission to the FDA
• Enable regulatory compliance by providing the infrastructure to meet the requirements outlined by the FDA's quality system regulations, as well as providing a platform for full compliance with FDA 21 CFR Part 11. Agile also provides solutions to help speed the validation of your Agile PLM system implementation
• Leverage outsourced research, design, manufacturing, and packaging by providing secure role-based access to product information and progress status, allowing the company to focus on its core competency while ensuring swift progress and high-quality from its networked supply chain
From my perspective, the biggest benefit seems to be:
a) The ability to collaborate. Diverse groups are involved during the development of a single group and at each development phase; and if the groups or individuals are able to collaborate or if there is a break/miscommunication/misinformation during the flow of information—the whole cycle might break; that would result in loss of millions of dollars and wastage of hundreds of manhours.
b) Enabling regulatory compliance as listed by FDA and specifically full compliance with FDA 21 CFR Part 11. Non-compliance whether willing or unwilling with the FDA guidelines can mean a complete ban of the drug. Agile PLM can help be compliant with regulations like FDA 21 CFR Part 11.
Having worked in a pharmaceutical company (Eli Lilly), I can understand the risks and pains associated with the development of a single drug. It involves million of dollars and takes 10-15 years to develop a single drug. And even then it might fail during the development stage or clinical trial stage or might fail due to non-compliance with regulations.
As per Oracle, Agile is a complete product lifecycle management solution suite built on industry best practices that enables organizations to manage-from a single interface-the product compliant dataset throughout its lifecycle, including research and development, prototype development, clinical trials, regulatory submissions, new product introduction, market acceptance, and end-of-life content.
Oracle claimed that the major benefits that the Agile PLM solutions can provide to the pharmaceutical companies are as listed below:
• Drive product innovation and introduction with one central solution for collaboration across research networks both internally and externally, and managing all product portfolio aspects such as project and resource management, thereby automating the design control process across the organization
• Lower inefficiency and compliance exposure with a secure workflow-enabled change management processes for core product record components such as development documents and records, product and process specifications, through regulatory submission information providing a compliant archive to support regulatory audits
• Support enterprise quality management by providing one central solution for aggregating, analyzing, and acting on product quality issues from customer complaints to manufacturing deviations to adverse-event information or supplier corrective actions, and "closing the loop" on these quality events by resolving the product quality problem and communicating the resolution to all parties involved, including compiling medical device reports for submission to the FDA
• Enable regulatory compliance by providing the infrastructure to meet the requirements outlined by the FDA's quality system regulations, as well as providing a platform for full compliance with FDA 21 CFR Part 11. Agile also provides solutions to help speed the validation of your Agile PLM system implementation
• Leverage outsourced research, design, manufacturing, and packaging by providing secure role-based access to product information and progress status, allowing the company to focus on its core competency while ensuring swift progress and high-quality from its networked supply chain
From my perspective, the biggest benefit seems to be:
a) The ability to collaborate. Diverse groups are involved during the development of a single group and at each development phase; and if the groups or individuals are able to collaborate or if there is a break/miscommunication/misinformation during the flow of information—the whole cycle might break; that would result in loss of millions of dollars and wastage of hundreds of manhours.
b) Enabling regulatory compliance as listed by FDA and specifically full compliance with FDA 21 CFR Part 11. Non-compliance whether willing or unwilling with the FDA guidelines can mean a complete ban of the drug. Agile PLM can help be compliant with regulations like FDA 21 CFR Part 11.
Steve Disappoints iPhone Fans
The flaw in the iPhone 4 got termed as Antennagate and went viral faster than Apple could even think of a strategy or a stop gap solution. Even the Apple die-hard fans were left wondering why and how could such a problem be there in an Apple product and that too in an iPhone that was supposed to beat even the most optimistic product sales figures.
So the conference called by Steve to explain the problem to the select media and bloggers was the most sought after and awaited event. But even here, Apple failed to capitalise (going by the media reports).
Check out the press conference here.
Steve refused to admit that there was a problem and in fact claimed that problem exists with most of the Smart Phones (from RIM, HTC etc).
The solution that Steve offered were:
His solution did not seem to merit appreciation as it seemed like a stop gap solution. He did admit later that Apple engineers are working overtime to fix this problem.
Knowing Apple we can confidently say thi problem will definietly be overcomes and a solution will be there to resolve the current problems. Let's wait and see what comes out.
But Apple's competitors are happy and customers are annoyed!!!
- Install the new iOS 4.0.1 update as it is supposed to fix the signal strength bars.
- Get free bumpers and cases from Apple. Those customers who have already brough the bumpers will be refunded.
LTE-WiMAX War Goes On
The Indian telecom sector is on a high surge. Gartner had predicted that the Indian mobile subscriber base will cross 771 million by 2013. In fact, the total telecom subscriber base for India has already reached 638.05 million subscribers with a tele-density of 54.10. Additionally, Indian mobile operators have collectively added 16.9 million new mobile subscribers and hence the total subscriber base jumped to 601.22 million.
The opening of the 3G spectrum is further expected to boost the fast growing telecom sector. The market will definitely heat up with innovative products and services which would be beneficial for the customers as well for the service providers. And in this rapidly expanding market, companies with new and unique solutions will emerge as the leaders.
3G Scenario and Perception
There is more to 3G than the faster internet access and downloads, excess data limit, and better video and picture quality. The technology and the capital involved in providing 3G services to the customers is complex. In fact, 3G operations require large scale investment and are highly risky due to increasingly diversified and segmented requirements. Additionally, the investment patterns will lead to more diversification in the market.There would be more direct investment from shareholder and strategic investor, borrowing from local and international financial market, vendor financing from suppliers and revenue generation from current asset like tower.
In addition, it would be necessary for the service providers to have a robust network to roll out the 3G services where the scalability of the network would become extremely important. So as to provide seamless services to its customers, it would become increasingly more critical for the service providers to have the correct infrastructure and network, and the appropriate amount of capital.
Even though 3G offers much higher bit rates as compared to 2G, there are other technologies that enable the service providers to cater to the ever-increasing demand for fast wireless broadband. These kinds of technically innovation can not only improved the ROI but can also cut down the costs of deploying mobile broadband networks. All these demands and economical sense have led the service providers to 4G technologies.
Note: To read rest of the article please click here: http://voicendata.ciol.com/content/ContributoryArticles/110071001.asp
The opening of the 3G spectrum is further expected to boost the fast growing telecom sector. The market will definitely heat up with innovative products and services which would be beneficial for the customers as well for the service providers. And in this rapidly expanding market, companies with new and unique solutions will emerge as the leaders.
3G Scenario and Perception
There is more to 3G than the faster internet access and downloads, excess data limit, and better video and picture quality. The technology and the capital involved in providing 3G services to the customers is complex. In fact, 3G operations require large scale investment and are highly risky due to increasingly diversified and segmented requirements. Additionally, the investment patterns will lead to more diversification in the market.There would be more direct investment from shareholder and strategic investor, borrowing from local and international financial market, vendor financing from suppliers and revenue generation from current asset like tower.
In addition, it would be necessary for the service providers to have a robust network to roll out the 3G services where the scalability of the network would become extremely important. So as to provide seamless services to its customers, it would become increasingly more critical for the service providers to have the correct infrastructure and network, and the appropriate amount of capital.
Even though 3G offers much higher bit rates as compared to 2G, there are other technologies that enable the service providers to cater to the ever-increasing demand for fast wireless broadband. These kinds of technically innovation can not only improved the ROI but can also cut down the costs of deploying mobile broadband networks. All these demands and economical sense have led the service providers to 4G technologies.
Note: To read rest of the article please click here: http://voicendata.ciol.com/content/ContributoryArticles/110071001.asp
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