Indus Net Technologies‘ first official annual picnic was organized on 12th Jan, 2008 near Kolkata in a amusement park. 150+ people from INT’s Kolkata division participated and enjoyed the day together. Great weather, delicious food, team games and loads of fun made our day! Here are some pics from the event:
Ever heard your clients asking , “I need a Web 2.0 Designer” or “We want a new Web 2.0 look for my website” ? I bet that if you are still in business you must already have heard of it several times and you must have done it already whether you knew about it or not. But what does Web 2.0 design actually mean?
To a ordinary designer who can’t even explain what Web 2.0 is, it means nothing more than a good looking combination of:
1. Large Fonts in Headlines with selected words highlighted or underlined
2. Jazzy colors in High Contrasts (Apple championed it with White over Black)
3. Big Star Bursts with guarantee statements, specials offers or call-to-actions
4. Gradient and Gloss
5. Oversized boxes with bevelled borders
6. Preference to texts over images
This recipe sells wells and so there is nothing wrong with it as long as it remains in demand. Whatever happens to good old creativity, I don’t find enough reasons to complain as long as doing this makes money for our clients (and for us too!). I just imagine a day when all websites across the internet will start looking the same - it’s like they are all being run by a common CMS system.
Web 2.0 originally meant using Web as a Platform with data being as “Intel Inside”. It was a term introduced in 2004 to characterize new generation Web applications which may provide an infrastructure for more dynamic user participation, social interaction and collaboration. It never mentioned the word “design”, not in a sense of creating layouts!
For now, let’s just label glossy layouts having star bursts and over-sized boxes as “Web 2.0 layout” because it sounds smart and no one has the time to educate the world.
W3C HTML Working Group has recently released HTML 5 working draft. This is a very important step forward; the same is available for review and comment at http://www.w3.org/TR/2008/WD-html5-20080122/
The new standard addresses the need of web application developers in more pro-active way:
Some old features like frames have been removed.
Let us see how soon new browsers start supporting these new features of HTML 5. Currently the Opera browser has the best support (though it does not support all features) for HTML 5.
Footnote:
There is an overall trend to make HTML more developer friendly so that complex web applications are developed as per W3C standards and are compatible on different browsers on different mediums. With Bill Gate’s prediction coming in about different shapes and sizes of computers in this decade which will make computers more intuitive (like the table PC), this seems to be moving in the right direction.
So let’s think, how your website will look and take shape (as per device specific browser compatibility) when displayed on a coffee table as the people sitting around it mumble the name of your company!
Abhishek
Proper project management is key to a successful project. To manage multiple projects and teams which are geographically spread across the globe, you need a quality project management tool.
As a web development company, we looked around for some quality software which serves the purpose and does not burn a hole in the pocket. Here is our pick!
Basecamp HQ:- A nice, minimalist simple to use software true to the philosophy of 37signals, the company which built it. This software is only available in a SaS (software as service) model. IMO this software best suits small projects which are communication centric. It lacks version control, task management, project tracking along with cost-benefit analysis.
Overall, very easy to easy and adapt, but reporting is not up to the mark. If you are a small business and you do most of your project management yourself, this can be a good choice for you.
Intervals:- It seems to have picked up the baton where Basecamp HQ has left. It also works on a SaS (software as service) model. It has more features (specially in terms of reporting and role management) than Basecamp HQ, thus making it suitable to manage complex projects across a large organization.
Overall, it is a good attempt to overcome the shortcomings of Basecamp HQ. However it needs to improve on its usability. It also needs to provide staged progression in terms of features and complexity so that small businesses can adapt the system. I am sure that this software will become popular as they keep improving and become old. For a SaS model company, time-tested reliability is more important than anything else.
Ace Project:- A comprehensive project management software with user friendly interface and short learning curve. It has different licensing policies and therefore you can rent or buy off (with our without source code) the software to suit your organizational needs. This software is around for quite some time and therefore seems to be reliable.
It has decent reporting capabilities, but not as good as what Intervals claim to have!
Dot Project:- The best free open source project management software that I have come across. This software looks flexible and extendable. You can plug in various modules, including Mantis (for bug tracking). The usability and reporting leaves much to be desired. So if you are looking at free project management software with access to source code, Dot Project is a good choice.
Conclusion:
There is nothing called a perfect project management software. The usage, the users and the desired result determines the one which suits best for a given organization. So take your pick from the above mentioned toolset.
Apart from doing software / web development on Open-source platform, Indus Net Technologies also customize and implement open-source products for clients on demand. Some popular (and free) open-source products are SugarCRM, Drupal, osCommerce for CRM, content management and e-commerce respectively.
IMHO, these are some limitations that I have observed. It is important to know them before initiating a project. These are not very serious in nature and using free open-source products remains a good option for many small and medium sized enterprises around the world.
1. Like any product, it is very important to align the product with your workflow and/or requirements. You must fit the product into the organization by making necessary changes. Therefore a gap analysis should be done and the effort must be estimated for aligning the product as per the current work-flow and/or requirements.
2. Most free open-source products lacks in usability. Therefore if you are doing a major implementation which will be used by thousands of people and you are going to pay for their time, you must consider a major overhaul of interface by involving a usability consultant from your vendor. Otherwise you will end up spending a lot of money.
3. Most free open-source products have very poor reporting system. These reports are not good enough to run a business as they fail to provide any insight into the business function that you are tracking. They should be re-done as per your company requirement aligned with your key measurement matrix for the given business function.
4. The programmers who can change the software as per your needs are the code-hackers types, who love to dive into an existing system architecture and make small changes to achieve the desired results. Therefore you must identify and hook up with the right programmer / programming company (like Indus Net Technologies - a bit of shameless self promotion) to get it right.
5. It is a myth, that implementing open-source software is free. Software code is free, not the hard work of programmers and analysts which goes behind implementing it. And you need the later to successfully implement it in your scenario and reap the benefits of the solution. Yes, it considerably reduces the cost, improves reliability and gives you a head start from where you can take informed decision about your IT needs.
Do not get me wrong. I am only listing the limitations. The benefits are well-known and they out-live the limitations any day. However it is very important that these limitations are known before proceeding.
Feel free to discuss / debate!
I was with a client from Australia last week and he said; “Only way to sustain a relationship is when both client and vendor are gaining from the deal”. Fixed-price contracts have the highest propensity of getting into the red and as a software services company you need to very careful (if not wary) of entering into such contracts.
When can you give a fixed quote?
Here are the rules - giving a fixed quote makes sense only when:
1. The scope of work is detailed enough to be estimated properly and you can plan the project.
2. You can meet or exceed the expectation of the client within reasonable amount of tolerance (i.e. while keeping yourself profitable)
On the other hand, you can never make money with fixed price contracts unless:
1. You have the knowledge of the business domain. This is simple to explain - if you have never built a “newsletter application” before, you will never be able to estimate it correctly. Clients cannot detail out everything and they expect the vendor to fill in the gaps, unless you have worked on the same type of applications earlier, these gaps will seem like rifts and you will blame client for not specifying everything. Remember that technical skills are not a replacement of knowledge of business domain.
2. You have the right team to do the job. Again, when you estimate something, implicitly you are assuming certain base skill-sets which you know your team possesses. At the time of execution, if a team that does not have the adequate skills or experience is assigned to the job, the project will take 10x longer.
3. You know the technology. This is no biggie! you cannot estimate R&D time beforehand. At best you can budget out for 15 days R&D but you can guarantee that at the end of two months, all unknowns will be known.
4. You have sufficient cushion. No, I am not talking about sleeping over the project! You need to have adequate slack of time, budget and profitability. If your developer estimated 20 days and you gave calendar 20 days to the client then you are doomed even before you start. Similarly, if your client’s budget is $1000 and your budget is coming to $900, its better to say goodbye to this project.
5. You factored the complexity of the project into quote. Complexity is a multiplier to the cost of the project. Forget the technical matters, you may need to change your price by upto 3x depending on the nature of the client. You need to have enough financial incentives to work with a client who is control freak and demands an update 6 times a day. Other factors to consider except technicality is communication with the client or involvement of 3rd party vendors.
Remember: Prevention is better than cure!
Same time last year, USD 1.00 meant INR 44.6 while as of today it means something like 38.00. American Dollars lost nearly 16% of its value in a period of one year and for companies like us it may mean between 6% - 7% reduction in profits. The situation is more complex because wages continue to rise by as much as 25% per annum and unless the situation is controlled, the decline in profits will be as much as 19% - 20% for a SMB which do not have access to sophisticated techniques to managing forex.
The blazing question right now is: how an organization can protect itself from this loss? Here are some suggestions:
Increase billing rates
One of the quick fixes will be to increase your billing rates by 15% - 20%, so that you may continue to earn the same level of revenue as we used to earn earlier. Increasing the price will make you lesser attractive and for providers who compete just on price, this will spell certain death.
Increase billable hours
You may want to increase the billable hours as much as possible. Making all satirday as working days will mean that your billable hours will increase increase by 13.33% which will offset the dollar depreciation entirely. This will make your very unpopular with your employees though!
Start billing in Local Currency
You may start billing your clients in your local currency and then convert it to USD equivalent at the time of receiving payments. This is the exact opposite of what you are doing now. This approach will make you some of your clients feel uneasy, especially those who insist on fixed dollar value quotes and can’t understand what rupees mean.
Have contract level agreements
While signing the contract you can have a clause that says that if dollar value falls below a certain threshold level, the client will have to pay the difference amount.
Increase Business outside US
This is a long term solution but one that you must take a close look at. You must develop markets outside USA, so that you are not that badly affected by the dollar rates.
Reduce dependence on USD
You must invoice the clients outside USA in their local currency and not in USD. It will reduce your exposure towards dollars.
On lighter note, gold prices keep on rising. Thus, may be you can charge your clients in gold, the idea of asking for 100 gms of gold (or its $ equivalent) for a job sounds like a silver bullet solution. (Please, no noble prize for this one!)
Last day, I spoke about some considerations that you must take into account while starting your business. While I am not too much a fan of grand vision and mission statements, I strongly detest the idea of being too verbose about profitability.
As a young business you should not be driven by profits but you should understand what drives your profitability. First let’s attempt to understand what profit means. According to Michael Porter profits are no more than the sum of the difference between the price that customers pay for an activity and the cost of that activity. Thus, if customer is not paying for an activity then it’s non-revenue generating overhead. As a startup, you must minimize this overhead. The best way to do this is ask - “why am I doing this?”, before you add any process or demand a new report. Don’t put the cart before the horse, profitability within the business depends on certain fundamentals and you need to:
1. Drop the image of a lone warrior and focus on building a team. You’ll need to hire and retain the best people you can find. If you don’t have good talent then you will never be able to do things as effectively and efficiently. On the other side, the cost of replacement of your best people is incalculable. If you have good people then you will navigate through anything.
2. Minimize overhead. You need to ensure that maximum efforts are put in revenue generating activities. If your best people are not spending their time productively then you are not growing as fast as you should be.
3. Be crazy about customer success. You need leave a breadcrumb of successful projects and clients. If you focus on this well then, you marketing and sales will almost be on an auto-pilot for lifetime.
4. Stop competing on price. It’s not wrong to enter a matured industry without having something special (read different) to offer to the market. But, you should never differentiate yourself on price. The reasons for this demand a separate article but I would like to hint that a differentiator should not be easily copied by competitor and price could be easily cut further by an ignorant competition.
There is a lot of literature around about starting your own business and growing it. The problem young companies face is that it’s often a single man who has to do everything and it’s easy to loose your priorities. The age old adage - “All’s well that ends well” does not work here, it’s important to start well! Here is a small list of things that if you can follow:
Keep customer satisfaction above everything else
Service business runs on referrals and reference checks. While, there are plenty of blog posts around that talk about getting even with customers or firing them, I recommend you abstain from them for a while and rather choose your customers carefully and then do everything to keep them happy. Remember that you’ll need projects that you can showcase in your portfolio and people who can give you five star feedback.
Build your management team
You will not be able to grow if you have to everything yourself. You need a line of leadership within your organization that can take care of entire functions and handle tough issues. A start-up is usually starved of cash and hence do get too crazy about hiring management grads. Instead hire people who are keen to learn, have a fire in their belly and are ready to grow with you. Assign them responsibilities early-on and let them do their jobs.
Invest in Tools and Processes
It is much easy to adopt a tool and process in a 5 people company than in a 50 people company. Thus, it is important that you sit with your team and employ tools in the areas on project management and establish key processes atleast in the areas like Project life cycle, Accounts & Invoicing and HR. There is plenty of free stuff in the market and you will realize later that your PM tool has become a goldmine of information and even a platform for information sharing.
Specialize
Don’t fall into the trap of trying to pick of all sort of projects regardless of price and technology. This garbage collector approach will put you in a death spiral from which you will not be able to recover from later. In the initial days it is important that you specialize in only certain type of projects. It will be easier to manage! Try looking for simmilar type of projects as the code reuse can boost your profitability as well as you can surprise the customer with a quick delivery. You must have proper management body in place before you undertake any diversification initiative.
Save Cost
Don’t run into renting the most plush offices that overlooks the ocean and buy expensive furniture with Aeron chairs. Remember you are startup and you are not competing with IBM. Keeping your ego in check and that will help you control your expenses.
I don’t remember where I read it but I must quote and say is that being successful is not about doing things exceptionally well but it’s about making lesser mistakes.
‘Web Commuting” is increasingly becoming omnipresent. A Citrix study showed that this is becoming increasing common amongst Americans. It read and I quote:
This survey, conducted by the polling company, inc., found that 23 percent of American workers and 41 percent of small business owners regularly work from home or another offsite location
Our own organization also launched a W@H (Work at home) program which allowed employees doing certain type of work to work from thier homes in case they are unable to come to office for any reason. This implies one thing for sure that with time, we will see less of our employees face-to-face.
This trend makes the importance of proper communication even more important. According to experts, our non-verbal language communicates about 50% of what we really mean (voice tonality contributes 38%) while words themselves contribute a mere 7%. Thus, talking to your employee only via emails, documents or instant messenger means utilizing only about 7% of communication potential and getting only 7% information. Thus, If you not willing to travel at least once a year or devote time to provide constant feedback then it is not going to work for you. Our W@H model has matured to a level where we have employees hired for web commuting only. We see the benefits, but it has not come without time and investment.
Web Commuting can deliver outstanding cost benefits, adding the dimension of “outsourcing” makes it more lucrative. However, you must carefully plan your business processes to see if it fits your need and when you are ready, involve experts who can walk their talks
Frankly, I feel that outsourcing companies that sell “offshore staffing” as a service whereas, they do not allow remote working to their own employees, are hypocrites. They sell what they don’t believe in!