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If Security is Your Question, CLOUD Is The Answer

You start your computer to check the sales ledger, and are in great tremor as it was incapable of opening anything. Some sort of advertisements related to a product kept on flashing on the screen. On further investigation you realize it has been infected by virus and the nastiest part was – the antivirus on the computer couldn’t even detect it. In the end, you had to format the entire computer to eliminate the virus. You lose all of my financial data just like that.

A lot of business have suffered through problems like these, and they often think that their home or office is the best place to store data. Businesses should be cautious when it comes to storing chief data relating to business.

Enter Cloud Accounting! Let’s see how that can help and what can cause such data loss.

1) Computers are susceptible to virus attacks. 
Your system will get affected by a virus, be it from the internet or the USB. Most viruses enter a computer through the internet. I know you’ve installed the best possible antivirus solution but virus-makers get smarter every day marketing their product. Your system is just one infected USB away from getting that virus. If not the USB, it is the Internet from where most viruses come these days. These viruses are difficult to remove and sometimes wiping the entire hard disk is the only decision.

2) Weak or no access control can jeopardize your computer.
Usually, we all have one password to unlock the computer at office. It might be shared with important coworkers. Anyone can accidently delete the vital records. And it becomes very difficult to trace if someone copies the files from your computer. There must be a strong access control for your computer, be it office or home. Weak or no access control can possibly lead to losing the important data on your computer.

3) Free/High speed Internet can be very costly.
If you possess a high speed internet at your office, there are heavy chances of your computers getting infected with malwares. Employees casually use the office internet and often don’t give a thought about the security. Therefore, office computers must be secured by an effective firewall which will prevent malicious sites from attacking your system.

4) No management for Backups. 
Backups are a boon in today’s time. Only thing which can save you after a heavy data loss. Even when people know that their systems can get infected anytime, they do not have discipline regarding data backups. Post backup, the data needs to be protected and organized in such a way that it is very easy to reestablish when wanted.

5) Unpredicted occurrences can cause chaos.
You have no idea how & when fate is going to intervene in your life. Just imagine you went in a coffee shop and forgot your laptop. When you went back, the laptop was stolen. These unpredicted events like fire and theft can occur anytime and may cause heavy penalty. In situations like these, there might be no chance of protecting your data.

This Wikipedia article shows how businesses lose billions of dollars every year due to computer viruses alone.

Why Cloud accounting is more protected
Cloud accounting service providers store their data on way more sophisticated infrastructure, which is commanding and protected compared to office computers.
1. Cloud servers are sheltered by strong antivirus tools and are checked 24×7 by a devoted team of professionals.
2. Cloud data facilities employ state-of-the art electronic investigation and multi-factor access control systems. Data facilities are operated with trained security guards 24×7 and access is limited.
3. Firewall systems protect the data from online invaders. All Cloud accounting software providers use secure HTTPS connection with robust encryption levels.
4. The backup process is very precise and historic data can be restored within a few minutes, if required.
5. Systems are designed to dampen the impact of disturbances to operations. Multiple geographic regions and availability zones allow you to remain sturdy in the face of most failure methods, including natural disasters or system failures.

Such Cloud infrastructure has regularly experienced third-party certifications and evaluations. For example, leading service provider Amazon AWS has attained ISO 27001 certification and has been authenticated as a Level 1 service provider under the Payment Card Industry (PCI) Data Security Standard (DSS). It experiences annual SOC 1 audits and has been successfully assessed at the Moderate level of Federal Government systems, as well as DIACAP Level 2 for DoD systems.

Every certification means that the auditor has dyed-in-the-wool that specific security controls are in place and operating as envisioned.

More businesses are adapting to Cloud accounting software like ProfitBooks or Xero, which are not only extra secure but affordable as well. Businesses don’t need to invest their time and money to ensure data security. This is the thing which attracts more customers towards cloud computing.

Financial data honesty and security are upper significances for any business and Cloud accounting software tools offer an impeccable solution. What more does a business need?

Guest blog post by Harshal Katre, ProfitBooks 

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Notes from the iSPIRT Playbook Roundtable – Nuances of Customer Acquisition #PlaybookRT

Saturday, June 16 was the day, the iSPIRT Playbook Roundtable finally arrived in Mumbai. The topic for the Roundtable was Nuances of Customer Acquisition. 

The Roundtable was hosted at the office of WebEngage by their CEO Avlesh Singh and saw participation from CEOs of around 14 startups from in and around Mumbai.

10488869_10153099109185639_609878204_nThe event went on for around 6 hours but given the variety of issues discussed each issue could be touched upon briefly. Since this was the initial event of this kind in Mumbai, a lot of participants were meeting each other for the first time. Some time therefore had to be spent in understanding each other’s businesses, back-stories and some of the special challenges they faced.

In terms of business stage, this was a very diverse group ranging from companies signing up their initial customers to those on their way to scaling up from a well established customer base. The challenges each one faced and techniques they employed were understandably different.

Some of the hot issues that got debated were effective usage of content marketing and social media for customer acquisition, working with resellers and using out of the box ideas to increase brand awareness.

Content Marketing and Social Media

There seemed to be almost unanimous feedback that there is great potential in these techniques and there will be a lot of experimentation and learning required to figure out what would work best in an Indian scenario and for that particular product category. One size definitely does not fit all, however that should not discourage you from trying. Challenges in creating content for an international audience were also discussed. A participant pointed out that one Indian company was finding it more effective to get content written by its US based team.

Different Mantras For Different Markets

There was a discussion about different customer behaviours in different Indian cities. For one company inviting potential customers to educational seminars worked well in Bangalore but did not have the same results in Mumbai. Also they saw good demand from Kolkata. The CEO of another SaaS based startup reported excellent pick up from Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities. He mentioned that if he was to begin now, he would probably focus more on those cities than the major Indian metros.

Resellers and Customization Requests

In the B2B market, even when selling SaaS products, face-to-face meetings are still important when selling in India. Resellers can really help here by providing the requisite feet on the street and leveraging their existing client relationships. However it takes a lot of time and effort to find and educate resellers.

Requests from customers for product customization are pretty common in India. This may not always be a good thing for product companies. So companies are learning to tactfully deal with such requests without jeopardizing the deal itself. This is especially important when dealing with requests from customers contacted through resellers. One of the successful tacts in dealing with customisation requests was to quote a high price which either results in good revenue or ends up in dropping the request. Either way, customisation should always be merged into the product roadmap to avoid maintenance nightmares.

10473799_10153099108785639_379159022_nSales Bible

One of the cardinal principles in sales is to create a sales bible. Ensure that every person talks and positions the product the same way and you follow a well thought out strategy in terms of furthering the customer decision making process to your advantage. In the growth phase if this is not done, you end up having inconsistencies in your sales process which significantly reduces the chances of successful acquisition. Some high level aspects of creating your sales bible:

  • Identify what kind of collateral you need
  • Qualifying the customer
  • Sharing price at the right stage
  • Determining timeline and budget
  • Figure out whether they are buying based on need or want
  • Identify early on whether they are long tail prospects and how much human touch should be built into your sales cycle. Spend your time on long tail vs short tail judiciously based on the ticket size.
  • Have aggressive goals and set weekly sales targets for your team
  • Adhere to your sales bible and redraft it from time to time based on learnings so your process becomes better over time.

Ticket Size

Ticket size is extremely important part of customer acquisition. Your product may sell well to a Fortune 1000 company and you may make 1 sale a year. You can also position the same “product” but in a new avatar for a smaller ticket size and sell 100s every year. So traction in customer acquisition can have a major boost or roadblock depending upon how you decide your ideal target customer profile. One such customer decided to keep their ticket price to US$ 3k so as to avoid getting into budgetary approvals by the buyer organisation and got significant traction in spontaneous purchase decisions. Another participant had the reverse problem as they sell analytics tools and did not want to target SMEs who have relatively smaller spends on social media.

Other ideas

It is important to try different marketing ideas as it is difficult to judge what will click. One excellent example of an out of the box idea for brand awareness was www.chotuchaiwala.com. The company behind this saw great results from the campaign.

One of the most important lessons early on is identifying the right customer. In case of one company they started selling to graphic designers but after finding that they were not tech savvy, they shifted focus to ad agencies and found their product market fit. It also makes sense to piggy back on sales channels which are selling a complimentary product and who may be able to sell your product easily to the same target group.

Using APIs to extend your ecosystem is another effective strategy. Done well, you can then latch on to the traction in other products that you can integrate with, and therefore expand your leads inorganically.

10486350_10153099108485639_2090687747_nFree vs Paid

It is generally believed that SaaS companies offering a free plan for their products do not see many free to paid conversions. However some companies reported that the free plan allowed them to increase their brand awareness. For example if the free plan user’s web site featured the product brand, independent visitors to the web site get exposed to the brand and generate leads for selling the paid version. In effect, the free plan rarely works to convert to paid plans but serves well when used as an advertising medium. Some others used an incentive during the free trial period to sign up early and bypass the long evaluation cycle.

To sum it up, this was a very good and important beginning. And everyone is looking forward to more in-depth sessions in the coming months!

Guest Post by Shiraz Ahmed, Founder & CEO – ITAZ Technologies

 

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Budget reaffirms Government’s desire to Transform India into a Product Nation

We are delighted that the Finance Minister singled out the Software Product Industry for mention in his budget speech today. This is momentous… the identity we have been so seeking especially in the corridors of power was finally articulated this morning in the highest legislative body of the land – the Indian Parliament.

We’d like to highlight four things.

  • First, the thumping endorsement that came from the Hon’ble Minister of IT and Communications Shri Ravi Shankar Prasad during his visit to Bangalore (July 1, 2014) where he spent a couple of hours with iSPIRT and the Software Product Industry and minced no words in lending the Government’s support to the Software Product Industry cannot be underplayed (link to video).
  • Second, the specific text of Section 62 of the budget speech (just 10 days after Mr. Ravi Shankar Prasad’s supportive visit) that focuses on digital India and the “imminent need to bridge the divide between digital “haves” and “have-nots” is noteworthy. The key highlight, of course is the statement about the “special focus on software product startups”.
  • Third, Section 103 of the budget speech which states: “In order to create a conducive eco-system for venture capital in the MSME sector it is proposed to establish a Rs. 10,000 crore fund to act as a catalyst to attract private capital by way of providing equity, quasi equity, soft loans and other risk capital for start-up companies”. Another boost by the Government for start-ups. Clearly the Government has its priorities straight.
  • Fourth, the taxation issue. Though there was no mention and we were certainly hoping to get a resolution to our issues of dual taxation (VAT and Service Tax) on software products as well as the issue of TDS deduction on software product payments, there is an intent to simplify and rationalise the tax regime with the proposal to set up an industry-CBDT/CBEC interaction committee that will look into industry specific issues and work to resolve them. We will of course take our issues to this proposed committee and remain hopeful that our issues will be addressed.

Meanwhile, various iSPIRT volunteers have shared their views on the budget with the media and these reactions are summarized here. Please spread the word about this to everybody in the software product industry.

Though we could have hoped for more, I think the consistent policy advocacy in recent past and the hard work put in by various spirited iSPIRT members have brought us to where we are today. The stage is now for ours to play on. Let’s make it happen.

A big thank you for being part of this movement,

iSPIRT Team

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Budget recognises the Software Product Industry #Budget2014 #ProductNation

The Union Minister for Communications and Information Technology Sh. Ravi Shankar Prasad spoke to iSPIRT members on July 1 in Bangalore during his first ever visit as Minister. Reacting to the pitch by iSPIRT members about transforming the face of India through a strong software product industry, Sh. Ravi Shankar Prasad strongly endorsed the Government’s backing to the industry.

Government to Transform India into a Software #ProductNation from iSPIRT // ProductNation on Vimeo.

What started as a conversation ten days back has today been further reaffirmed by the Hon’ble Finance Minister and Defence Minister Sh. Arun Jaitley in Parliament. In his budget speech Sh. Jaitley recognized and mentioned the Indian Software Product Industry as one of the key industries of growth.

iSPIRT believes that the software product industry in India is an enabler for many other industries like Defense, Electronics and Communications. The creation of 100,000 Software Product Companies in India can potentially lead to direct and indirect employment of 3.5 million people and the creation of $500+ billion in market value in a decade.

With the impetus that the Government has initiated, there is no reason why the next Facebook, Google or Whatsapp should not emerge out of India. In fact, Software products have a clear role in shaping various core sectors of the economy including agriculture, education and healthcare and bring efficiencies and cost benefits to the masses.

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How We Got The IT Minister Excited About Indian Product Startups & Made Him Our Spokesperson #UnleashTheEnergy

A behind the scenes account of how a showcase of 11 disruptive startups was put together in just 100 hours!

If you’re reading this, I’m sure  you are a part of the Indian product startup community in one way or the other. And unless you were living under a rock (which is fine, if you were busy hacking away or traveling to sell your product), you wouldn’t have missed that our Hon. IT Minister, Ravi Shankar Prasad was in Bangalore on Tuesday meeting with the product startup community. iSPIRT hosted  the “Conclave for India as Product Nation #1″, an open dialogue between the Product industry and the IT Minister.

What made it all the more special was that the he was the first IT Minister to meet with startups and also that he first met with the startups first before meeting officials from his ministry! The Minister met with the industry leaders, gave a patient hearing to the needs of the product startups and also saw presentations from 11 disruptive startups.

And here’s what the minister had to say after meeting with the startups!

So how did we pull this off? And what if I told you that it was all put together in 100 hours. We ourselves cannot quite understand how everything fell into place! But as Sharad often says, when a bunch of passionate volunteers come together towards a common cause, magic just happens. At iSPIRT, we take our volunteering quite seriously. No wonder then, that we actually have open sourced our volunteer model through a whitepaper to help other communities benefit from it!

 

A text message from Rajan on Saturday morning got me involved. Could we get on a call, he asked. There’s an iSPIRT event scheduled on Tuesday and some help was needed. We spoke and I got to know that there’s an interaction with the IT Minister scheduled on the coming Tuesday. As part of the interaction, we needed to put together a showcase of disruptive product startups to help the Minister get a sense of the kind of impactful work being done and the opportunities ahead. There was list of companies drawn from across various segments and stages, with whom we’d need to connect and get their availability for the event on Tuesday. Tapping into our network of volunteers (many of whom are themselves startup founders and industry leaders), we gathered the contact details of these companies and started reaching out to the companies. These were companies spread across the country and we checked with their founders if they’d be available to present. Based on the availability of teams and the some intense discussion and debate among the Program Managers for the showcase, a short list of the companies presenting on stage was drawn up. The thought process behind the selection of companies was to give the Minister a good view of the breadth (sectors where product startups are making an impact), the depth (companies that have achieved global market/tech leadership) and how far they can grow with sound support from the ecosystem, which includes the government as well. We were immensely privileged to have Mr. Mohandas Pai spare his valuable time for multiple meetings through the whole process and share his inputs on what kind of stories would make the maximum impact.

Product Leaders with the IT MinisterArriving at the shortlist was surely a good beginning. They say well begun is half done. But the tougher half lay ahead! We were already at Monday morning, and within the next 24 hours we had prep up the presenters. Each of the companies were to have a short, crisp presentation with the key points to be covered in under 4 minutes! Shekhar went about this with the precision of a toolmaker, thoroughness of a scientist and the strictness of a school teacher! From putting together notes on what points to cover, iterating multiple times with the presenting companies on their presentations over a sleepless night, to conducting the actual showcase in front of the minister, Shekhar was always on.

(That’s me on the left  trying to get the slides up!)

The event received some very good coverage in the media. Below are some links:

Here’s hoping that achchhe din are indeed ahead for the Indian software product industry!

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8 Reasons to switch to a Document Management System

Document management was essentially born out of the need to manage ever growing amounts of information being created within organizations and enterprises. As the business grows, it becomes increasingly complicated to gain access to accurate and relevant information from the bundles and stocks of paper documents and files and as a result precious paid working hours of the management is wasted. 

Research says that an employee spends nearly 40% of their time looking for information locked in e-mails, documents and filing cabinets. Managers spend an average of 4 weeks a year searching for or waiting on documents that have been misfiled, mislabeled or just plain lost. The average cost of handling one document over its life cycle is between Rs. 200-500, and upto Rs. 2000 if it’s misplaced and Rs. 5000 if it gets lost! No enterprise would want to incur such a loss on a single document. Additionally, it costs money & time to file, print, store, handle the documents.

The answer to all these issues is a Document management system (DMS). A DMS can saves time, money and space without affecting your business. As DMS is trendy, it gives a tech-savvy touch to the enterprise.

How will it help your enterprise?

1.     Make better utilization of money spent on office rental

Paper based documents storage competes with employees for floor space within an enterprise.

DMS reduces the amount of prime storage space required for files. Having real estate prices touching the skies, an enterprise would not want to waste spend space for paper documents and files. It should rather with the help of DMS, use that space for employees who will add to the productivity of the enterprise.

2.     Easy retrieval

For most enterprises, tracking down files is a hassle. It all adds up to about 2 hours/year for each corporate client and about 15 minutes/ year for personal clients. By going paperless with DMS, enterprise can track down files within seconds, not minutes and hours. 

Compared to the traditional file storage methods, DMS users can access information from the in less time. They don’t spent time locating the documents and can retrieve them without leaving the desk.

3.     Easy document distribution

Sharing documents electronically with colleagues and clients over a network or by e-mail becomes easy. On the other hand paper documents would need photo copied to be shared.

Everyone owns a smartphone these days, so sharing documents within or outside the enterprise, while traveling or sitting in any corner of the world is possible with just a click. With DMS, your smartphone will become smarter.

4.     Security

DMS will protect your documents and folders from being accessed by intruders. A DMS also removes the possibility of having confidential material or trade secrets lying around unattended in an office.

5.     Disaster recovery

DMS provides an easy way to back-up documents, working in conjunction with your other backup systems to safeguard your work. From natural to man-made disasters there is no way that paper documents can be saved. A DMS allows the back-up of documents in form of data at multiple location and hence is the only convenient solution to secure critical documents.

6.     Improved cash flows

The most important documents of any enterprise are its invoices, bills, debt collection, etc. With proper records of all documents related to finance of the enterprise, it ensures that the flow of cash can be controlled centrally and all documentation required making cash flow decisions can be accessed immediately. With this there will be no loop holes in the accounts and more transparency in the enterprise. 

7.     Improved customer service and satisfaction

With DMS, the enterprise will waste no time on finding files. It will lead to quick reaction times, a more expert reaction; a more faultless reaction to the problem and quarries of the clients and customer. By this the employees will be able to concentrate more on the core activities of the business, thus leading to more customer satisfaction.

8.     Competitive edge

The same data that was a while ago put away as paper can now be dispersed to clients and target people electronically.  With growing competition, the fight for survival in the market has become very tough. DMS adds a competitive edge as it improves the working of the enterprise by reducing time wasted on less important work and focusing on the core business activities.

Looking at these benefits of the Document Management System, it can be surely be said that DMS is the need of the hour which has to be adapted by enterprises for their smooth working. This will result in reduced costs of the enterprise and increased productivity and profitability.

If you decide to start looking for a DMS, following are few selection tips I could tell from my experience. 

How to make the right choice while looking for DMS?

  • Look for companies that have some years of business under their belt and that they are in a proper track with a growth plan. It shouldn’t be a case where they close up a year after you purchased.
  • Always look for those DMS which offer 24 – hours support and have troubleshooting resources available online.
  • Price shouldn’t be a major concern for you. You should rather focus on whether the software you are purchasing meets your document storage needs or not.  On the other hand, if the software adapts to structural changes of your company, you should go for it, no matter what it costs. The initial investment will pay off exponentially in the long run.

With inputs from Sarthak Malani, SoftwareSuggest

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Join us in hosting the Minister for IT – Bengaluru, 1st July

At the forefront of progress is change. iSPIRT continues to drive the process of change to Transform India as a Product Nation, using the engines of private initiative, policy and programs like Playbook Round Table and PNCamp. iSPIRT’s policy initiatives involve active dialogue with Government.

Conclave for India as the Product Nation

As part of this initiative, iSPIRT is hosting  the “Conclave for India as Product Nation #1″, an open dialogue between the Product industry and our Ministry for IT.

Welcome Sh. Ravi Shanker Prasad

iSPIRT lives and breathes (software) Products and Products only. It’s think-tank has passionately engaged with the Ministry of IT to advocate recognition of the Software Product industry in its own right. We welcome the Hon’ble Minister for IT Shri Ravi Shankar Prasad, to meet the Industry folks and experience our Industry in person, first hand.

 

You already know iSPIRT is an open-source movement. This means everyone can contribute, and each contribution is recognized. It is each such contribution that makes the open-source movement go from strength to strength. In keeping with this philosophy, you are warmly invited to participate in the Conclave with the Minister. iSPIRT Founder Circle members, Product Circle members, Fellows, Mavens and Saarthis are all welcome to attend. It’s your industry, our industry, so be there!

Prior confirmation is required… so do RSVP here to help us make adequate arrangements.

Agenda:

    • Introduction
    • Showcase of Disruptive product initiatives in India
    • Interaction session with the Product industry

Venue:

Hotel Le Meridien, 3pm – 6pm
Sankey Road, Bengaluru
Registration : 2.00pm

Do come in early. Doors close at 2.45pm.

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7 Must-Have Features of the right Point of Sale (POS) software for your Retail business

Point of Sale software is being used in millions of retail and hospitality businesses who have thousands of different POS software to choose from. A right POS software will give the business a new level of control over operations; increasing efficiency, boosting profits, and will help it fine-tune its business model. The wrong system, however, can be a waste of money, time and a source of frustration.

The mistake retailers often make is to buy software that is not intended for their industry and this confusion mainly arises from the wide range of features available in thousands of software in the market. For example, a gift shop has much different needs than a car dealer and a liquor store doesn’t need the same software as a clothing store. So the same POS software will not be compatible to all of them. The differences in features and intended uses of a POS can have a huge impact on your business.

Organisations need to narrow their search to the specific industry and it will be well on its way to money well spent and a POS software system that makes your life easier and business more profitable.

Here are 7 common features to look into while buying a POS for any Small, Medium or Large Retail Business:

Features

  • Fast checkout: A retail POS software should be able to simplify the checkout process. This means that it should not take the sales team’s much manual effort to complete a transaction. If there is still a manual process that the team has to go through, then the POS software needs a replacement.
  • Inventory tracking: A  POS should make the inventory management process effortless. One should be able to monitor all the critical information about the store from individual transactions to purchases. This will make the ordering from vendors easy & the inventory manager would not waste time calculating the re-order level.
  • Customer Data: A good POS can help convert the data on customer’s profile into information. As a use case, it will let the purchase team know what products the customers buy more frequently and thus the team can place orders accordingly. The data can also help the customer relation team build an effective loyalty program, which can increase sales in the long term.
  • Automated Purchasing Program: A good POS allows the business to have a streamlined process of connecting with suppliers. For example, if the retail outlet is running low on a critical product, with the help an Automated Purchasing Program, the POS can easily get connected with the suppliers in no time and place the order for the required quantity required quantity
  • Capabilities for multiple location / Mobility: A good POS should also offer online access which helps you stay connected with the business from anywhere remotely.  It is a convenient feature for franchises and business having more than one location.
  • Payment Card Industry (PCI) Agreement: It is one of the most important features which can help the business build trust with its customers as it will protects customers’ credit card details. An organization may face legal issues if the POS does not have this feature.
  • Reporting tools: Every Retail POS should have a reporting feature which is user friendly. It should store information such as product styles or models, weekly sales, monthly sales, annual sales and hourly transactions.

These 7 features are essential for any POS software and ensuring the above feature will increase effectiveness and efficiency of any Retail or Super-Market.

Here are some softwares that you find useful:

 

To find POS with these features you can visit our the Point of Sale page on SotfwareSuggest.com

With Inputs from Sarthak Malani, at SoftwareSuggest.com 

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Presenting the iSPIRT Volunteer Model

Last few years have been very instrumental in making iSPIRT what it is today. A lot of thought had gone into creation of this movement.  We thought it is a good idea to retrace the movement to its origins and codify the model with which we operate on.  The whitepaper at the end of this blog post details the model.

This whitepaper describes the foundational principles, operating practices and culture of this network. This is the volunteer model that underpins the network and (through it) all actions of it. The whitepaper is for public consumption and will be available in public space for other organizations to emulate if they see the merit in these models.

There are two foundational principles. The first one is that this volunteer network is pulled by passion and pushed by program management. Both are essential for success. The passion signifies a strong sense of mission and cause. Program management converts that energy into feasible actions and tangible results. Sustainability of the network comes from its ability to get things done. The second principle puts the “challenges” at the center of network. We expect the volunteers to become part of the network not for glory, but for being part of addressing a shared challenge. The bond generated out of working on something bigger than oneself is what binds this network together.

Operating practices describe how to define a challenge, select volunteers, onboard them, and manage the project. They also describe the assessment of projects, the overall work program, volunteers and the network.

Finally, there is a strong culture within the network. While no document can completely capture any organizational culture, key behaviors that have shaped the network are described here.  The culture holds the volunteers together and creates a strong bond needed to deal with challenges.

Hope this paper will be useful for people creating similar structures across the various communities.

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Benefits of CRM Software – A 360° Evaluation

Do you own a business and face the problem of customer communication? Are you unaware of your customers’ needs? Are your customer’s unhappy with your services? Are you unable to analyze the progress of your business? Then, to all such problems there is one and only one solution – the CRM Software.

In any business two things are very critical: customers and employees. The growth of any business depends majorly on the relationship between the customers and the vendors. When both are satisfied then we have a “win-win” situation as happier customers are more loyal and spend often. To achieve this goal the business should meet its customers’ expectations and deliver them the best services in every odd. Hence, to address the problems of dealing with customers in day-to-day basis the concept of CRM was introduced which is gaining popularity from past few years.

Customer Relationship Management abbreviated as CRM is not just a software or an application of technology rather it’s a unique approach to deeply know the customers’ needs and nature in order to effectively and efficiently develop  a stronger relationship with them.

CRM: Business Point Of View

Benefits of CRM Software

  1. Right Selection

The CRM application is a supreme tool that helps to easily manage the business of any type – big or small, anywhere- home or office ,anytime- day or night and hence, it boosts the customer services. The increase in the sales efficiency can be seen after implementing the right CRM. Even, a CRM can enhance the productivity by 30%, if used correctly.  The selection of a right CRM for your business matters a lot to manage your business. Now-a-days, there are lots of CRM options available in the market.

Thus, as a businessman your first step is to figure out which option will help you build a strong relationship base with your customers and gain you profit.

Points to consider when evaluating a CRM are:
– Ease of implementation
– What features are available out of the box
– What level of customization is required to meet my business requirements
– Cost Professional Services
– Ease of integrating with other back office systems
– what level of integration is available “out of the box” to my telephony system.

  1. Your Progress

The report system empowers you to analyze the progress of your business as well as your team.

  1. Know your Financial Status

Certain CRM packages, offer its users to track their cost of sales and other operating costs to calculate the net profit. Such feature is implemented via finance software in the systems and plays a vital role in tracking the development of small business.

CRM: Sales Agent Point Of View

Advantages of CRM Software

There are many ways in which CRM helps you to nurture the customer relationships with the sales agents and some of them are discussed below:

  1. Organize your Business on tips

It is said that to achieve success easily you should have required resources. The same thing applies in the case of business too. The sale teams of any business – big or small can manage easily their business if they have the right tools to do the job.

The services offered by the CRM makes the task simple and effortless for the salesman or its team to efficiently organize their job of managing multiple clients or meeting big quotas.

Even you can track your own contacts, deals and leads using this technology and can share the info with your team members that helps to manage the customer’ needs even if their contact is not available on regular basis.

  1. Alert System

This functionality of a CRM software follow-up the salesperson with the data set for alert and helps you to do various important tasks on time like to timely meet the milestones, trigger a new activity, prepare presentations, go through a communication with a customer and many more.

Setting alerts makes you attentive, proactive and impresses your multiple customers with your punctual working style.

  1. Track the Important

CRM is a centralized system which helps you to manage your customer relationships by securely accessing as well as sharing your important information, correspondence, conversations, billing info or documents anywhere, anytime through your CRM based cloud benefits.

You can even have a look over the historical records of the customers which help you to deal with any specific customer more professionally.

  1. Get Social

Most enterprise CRM systems help the agents to be in touch with their customers via social media. Moreover, with CRM, agents can work together through chat or video conferences. CRM software offer agents a space to create and store templates for call scripts that have restricted accessibility to other employees.

Even, the service agents can go live with their customers through their website and mobile apps.

  1. Check where you stand

The reports attached with your CRM tool helps you to continuously measure your customer service performance as well as the customer activities so that you can easily figure out the needs of your clients and act accordingly to fulfill them.

CRM: Enhances Customer Services

Importance of CRM Software

After knowing deeply the benefits of CRM for different sectors let’s have a look on the ways in which CRM can help in improving Customer services.

  1. Social media

Generally, social media is used to mainly watch the activities of the customers which help to better learn about the customer choice. Encouraging the clients to link their lead generation and social media enables the clients conveniently log-in. For example, instead of submitting their name, phone, email address, etc. on a form on your web site, let the users just sign in with LinkedIn, Twitter, Google+, Facebook and others.

  1. Automated Customer Service

On adding a new customer to the CRM, automatically registering them in a Support System, sending them a “welcome to support” Email (with instructions on how to use it), adding them to the e-news mailing list, and notifying customer services to contact them after a specified period to see how they are getting on improves the customer services to a greater extent.

  1. Easy Adoption to system

To make the customers efficiently use the CRM system new gamification processes can be included in a customized CRM.

  1. Customer engagement

Customers always have a tendency to compare what they are getting is best or not it could be in terms of Price, Quality, Service and even the way there are being treated . So any function or process which can envisage the customers that they are getting the best deal or treatment from the market at optimal or lowest cost, and then nurturing that same relationship for highest profit or yield for as long as possible would make a difference to any Business.

  1. Customer Self-Service Approach

Usually, CRM systems offer portals that manage knowledge for the customer self-service. These portals allow the customers to access FAQ or troubleshooting articles without assistance of any agent.

On the other hand, some CRM solutions also offer a company to establish their own online communities for their customers which is an easy way to reach for queries and feedback.

Thus, Customer Relationship Management is an efficient way to get a clearer picture of your current business and helps you to plan your future strategies to satisfy your customers.

So, what are you waiting for? Start expanding your business today with the suitable CRM technology and share your experiences with us via comments.

Browse a list of CRM Software at SoftwareSuggest.com

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#TheWayForward for M&A in India

2013 was a hot year for Global Technology M&A:   204 announced Tech M&A deals took place at an overall valuation of ~$100B, of which 70% were pure software companies. Thanks to a strong stock market, 51 Tech IPOs took place in 2013.

The story for the India software product industry has been different. Despite huge innovation and rising entrepreneurship, most Indian product companies have lacked meaningful exits.

ThinkNext CorpDev PanelLast Friday, I hosted the M&A Panel at Microsoft Think Next in Bangalore, with a very interesting setup: 2 VCs, 2 entrepreneurs and 2 Corp Development folks from MNCs.   The theme of the discussion was “The way forward for M&A for the Software products out of India”.    Our star panel consisted of Ashish Gupta (Helion Ventures), Bharti Jacob (Seedfund), Ken Foo (Autodesk), Prashant Gupta (Microsoft), Sanjay Shah (Invensys Skelta) & Phani Sama (Redbus).   We had a marquee audience of VCs from IDG, Lightspeed, Qualcomm, Inventus etc. who contributed their insights and really made the discussion lively!

Here is a glimpse of the insights generated during the panel:

– “Discovery” continues to be problem #1 for India software product companies.  Most Indian startups don’t show up on the radar of the big US acquirers. Autodesk first discovered Qontext (their marquee acquisition in 2012) through analyst reports in the US, and didn’t know they were an India company until later in the process.
– Corp development folks are mostly agnostic to the location of the company.  As Ken Foo from Autodesk put it, “we don’t start our day thinking:   today I will acquire an Israeli company … or an Indian company”.  They are looking for a specific product or technology fit & location is secondary.
– One interesting insight was the Investment bankers didn’t really seem to play a role during the discovery process, and all of the participants (buy side, VCs and entrepreneurs) felt that startups shouldn’t expect a banker to help with strategic engagements.  iBanks do play an important role in helping negotiate the deal and running the process to a positive conclusion.
– Acqui-hires (acquisitions with the sole intent of acquiring engineering talent) are extremely hot right now, due to the shortage of big data, analytics & android/iOS engineers.  Obviously, VC investors are less excited about acquihires & view them as a “last option”.  As Ashish put it, a VC will entertain an acquihire deal only when he believes that scaling the company is no longer possible, and the company is in danger of running out of cash.  On the other hand, Corp development folks at the MNCs view acquihires as a ‘badge of pedigree’ for the founders!
– Entrepreneur readiness continues to be a challenge during the M&A process.   Indian entrepreneurs traditionally are techies and don’t spend time building a clear differentiation story or preparing themselves for organizational and financial diligence.  iSPIRT does offer an “M&A hotline” to entrepreneurs where we formally provide advice in the event of an inbound M&A interest.
– A new generation of MNCs: Traditionally, MNC companies have established captive R&D centers in India (eg: Intel, Cisco) and then looked at M&A to enter the India market or identify new technologies.   However, the panelists beleived that M&A activity in software products will be driven by a new generation of MNC companies, such as Facebook, Salesforce, Autodesk etc. who have limited or no presence in India, and are looking to use M&A as a means to acquire global talent and/or establish a presence in India
– Future M&A:  Based on the “Virtual Mandates” that iSPIRT has received, we believe that future technology M&A is likely to happen in the areas of Machine Learning & Analytics, SaaS disruptions like HR and Recruiting, Cloud Infrastructure & Mobility.   Companies that have aggregated large groups of customers & partners within India (small medium businesses, classifieds, consumers for finance etc.) are also interesting for acquirers.

I enjoyed the frank conversation & clear thinking from the panelists, and left with a  huge amount of learning and ideas that I will use to guide iSPIRT’s M&A connect program.

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Looking for full-time Program Manager for Software Adoption Initiative(SAI)

Program Manager for Software Adoption Initiative(SAI), is a full-time position (preferred location: Bangalore, India) with iSPIRT, would drive full-scale and focused implementation of the Action Plan 2014 that is drawn up by iSPIRT Founder’s Circle.

The focus of SAI for the year 2014-15 would be to work with software product companies across multiple domains, software product buyers in India and iSPIRT partners and help materialize a lot of engagement between the software buyers and sellers in India. The role involves interactions with key stakeholders (product company execs, marketing agencies, iSPIRT team members, iSPIRT partners), program/project management, document preparation (example creating software adoption guides for various industries), conducting events and managing outbound tele-engagement team.

We are looking for someone who holds an MBA, has flair for communication and interactions with senior executives and has a cross-functional experience with any product companies in Sales/BD program management roles.

The position is very entrepreneurial in nature, where the individual’s drive and passion determine the results while guidance and participation from the core SAI team members would always be available. As a program manager, one would gain great insight into what drives software adoption in India and what opportunities exists for software product companies.

Profiles could be sent to me at avinash(at)ispirt.in. We request Product Nation members to refer anyone who could be interested in the position. Suggestions welcome.

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Presenting the iSPIRT Governing Framework

It has been a great, great year here at iSPIRT, and though we have a long way yet to go, we are confident that we are well on our way to get to where we want to be.

After all, well begun is half done.

But then, there is also the question of structure, not unlike the problem entrepreneurs face they have to scale their business – when the organization becomes big and responsibilities fragment and become more focussed, what if the core values get diluted?

This is why principles are important, and since we started with an ideal we wanted to reach, we have distilled it into three governing principles , which are –

  1. Radical transparency
    This is crucial to continued operation of our ‘peer production’ (volunteer) model.
  2. Polycentric governance aka Panchayat system
    Which means that SPIRT is bigger than any one individual.
  3. Open-Access Public Goods
    We work for many and not for any one company, no matter how important it might be.

The Governing Council (GC) is responsible for upholding these governing principles and ensuring integrity across the board. The GC is about empowerment, not control. It helps clarify the causes and initiatives that we pursue. It is responsible to the SPI at large and not to donors. Our inspiration comes from the world of Wikipedia and Linux.  It’s a world where people are organized but there is no traditional organization; disputes are resolved and order prevails but there is no single person in control.

In the GC, we have a clear conception of the long-term outcomes that we seek. Today SPI is not even an identified industry. We seek to change this. As we argued in the 2012 iSPIRT Annual Letter, India’s future depends on a vibrant software product industry.

To accelerate the growth of SPI we seek a healthier power-law distribution of big and small firms. Our focus on market catalysts like M&A Connect, Global CIO Connect (InTech50) and Software Adoption Initiative are geared to help companies scale faster. In keeping with the global practice, we measure ecosystem’s success in terms of market capitalization, not revenues. We hope to overtake Israel in number and value of M&A deals in the coming years.

The Governing Council is going to champion three causes in this regard –

  1. Solve market coordination failures (e.g. through M&A Connect Program),
  2. Influencing policy,
  3. Synthesizing and evangelizing playbook for faster success.

We recognize that these aren’t everyday tasks. And iSPIRT is just getting started. With our almost audacious mission of transforming India at large through use of software products, we know this is a marathon, not a sprint.

This governing framework that we are sharing with you has evolved from numerous discussions and conversations with our Founder Circle members, Fellows, Mavens and Saarthis over the last many months.  By placing this in the public domain, we once again commit ourselves to building a durable Think Tank that’ll turn India into a Product Nation.

Bharat Goenka (Tally Solutions), Jay Pullur (Pramati Technologies), Naveen Tewari (InMobi), Sharad Sharma (BrandSigma), Vishnu Dusad (Nucleus Software), Governing Council, iSPIRT Foundation

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iSPIRT Seeks Technology Intern(s)

banner-who-we-areiSPIRT has over 40+ volunteers who belong to different organizations. The volunteers are working on many initiatives that are complex, need a lot of analysis/thinking, experimentation, and outcomes take time. Currently, iSPIRT internal communication and interaction has been happening via email, google docs, attachments, etc. The current set of tools have worked so far, but, we need a comprehensive toolset for iSPIRT to be able to manage its internal needs.

iSPIRT is looking for a platform that helps in 5 areas:

a)    Managing volunteers, expansion of volunteers, and creating sub-groups of the same.

b)   Managing information about product companies – mini CRM.

c)    Managing initiatives, projects, tasks, and discussions around them by a group of volunteers.

d)   Critical decision making, polls, and feedback online

e)    Information management – presentations, docs, info graphics, spreadsheets, etc.

Requirements

The intern or volunteer must come from a product/technology background and understand iSPIRT requirements, catalogue them, and identify a product that can be used for this purpose. If possible, facilitate the deployment of the solution among a test group initially and expand into all iSpirt participants. Ability to work independently is a must. Familiarity with open source tools is a plus.

Who should consider this internship

Volunteers who take on this gets an opportunity to work with the top executives of various companies, VCs, Angel investors, entrepreneurs, marketing specialists, sales specialists, and overall highly energetic engaging volunteers in India. Those who are in between jobs or those who are starting out their own startup, would be ideal to get their feet wet and build their network in the startup eco-system.

Location

Bangalore or Delhi

Duration

We are open to both full-time and part-time interns. The expected duration is 3 calendar months and the total effort may be around 25 hours.

How to Apply

Please send your detailed resume with cover letter explaining your motivation for undertaking this internship to avinash(at)ispirt.in by 28th April 2014.

After the Internship

At the completion of the internship, you’ll get a letter of work experience. You’ll also get a chance to network with industry leaders that are iSPIRT Founder Circle Donors, Fellows, Mavens and Saarthis.

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Unlocking the data within Indian Software Product Startups : An iSPIRT Survey [INFOGRAPHIC]

India has the potential to build a USD 100 Billion software product industry by 2025. India has a critical mass of software product companies that have entered their maturation stage. At this juncture, to sunstain momentum it’s very important for the entire ecosystem – product entrepreneurs,  angels,  VCs, government to  be aligned. And this alignment will come about when everybody is looking at the industry issues through the lens of credible industry data. Since this data isn’t available iSPIRT embarked on a systematic research effort in partnership with Prof. Sharique Hasan of Stanford University to address this problem.

The first Product Industry Monitor report is a result of this effort. Following are some key findings of this report.

Survey Infographic_7.0-01