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The privalege not to make payments on time...
2008-06-04 13:44:00
It has been about 15 years in the business of software development for me and yet I am still not able to fathom this basic question..Why do most clients have the privilege not to pay in time while supplier/vendors are expected to deliver on time. ??Now those in business will always say you must to a client audit and ensure that you do work only for clients who pay on time..ask for a 100% advance... C'mon give me a break, I am sure all of us have clients who still don't pay on time and we continue to service them in fear of loosing business.Of course the excuses they give for not paying on time is even better like "I made the payment but I don't know why the bank has not processed it""I will make the payment within 24 hours""My Accountant is out of station and the payment could not be processed""It will sent by the beginning of next week"One of my best ones being 'silence' and no correspondence from the client at all, suddenly out of the blue his email has gone kaput or he is ou...
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We are reducing the size of the company & consolidating.
2008-06-01 15:45:00
The software scenario in India is fast changing and some of it has not been good for the small offshore software development services companies like ours. Rising salaries, retention problems, massive competition, clients not paying on time, some clients not paying at all have just some of the reasons that forced me to realize that we just cant survive this way and the end in our current state was near.Also one of my biggest mistakes was not to specialize in a domain hence not adding premium to my services and not having any differentiation from the 1000s of other software companies doing the same thing. All we offered were programming services in environments such as vc++, c, c++, .NET etc irrespective of domain. We should have been offering specialized services in banking, insurance, embedded systems, some specific domain, some niche offering.. Anyway hindsight is always 20/20 and nothing can change the past.We have reduced the size of our team, continued our programming services o...
More About: Company , Size

Tibet, the Beijing Olymics & hospitality of a country
2008-04-27 13:59:00
We read ever so often about the Beijing Olympics, the protests by the Tibet ans, human rights , separatists and all related news. Now I am not into politics but am a firm believer in human rights. However this article has nothing to do with any of above. It is about an issue that really bothers me as a citizen of India and that is the hospitality that has been offered by my country to a visitor has been taken for granted.When you are guest in some one's house you abide and respect the rules and expectations of that house and its owners. Well that is what really bothers me about the Tibetan protests and their attempts to stop the Olympic flame going thru India. Tibetans have been given refuge in India and our they are welcomed guests but their protests in Delhi left a unhappy taste in my mouth.When the Olympic flame arrived in Delhi , huge security arrangements had to be made to ensure all went well and the Tibetan protesters would not be able stop it. Not only was this a huge overl...
More About: Country , Hospitality

and then she touched my feet ....
2008-03-25 03:03:00
For those who are not acquainted with Indian traditions & customs, the action of touching someone's feet is considered as a mark of respect for an elder. It also could be a mark of respect as shown by a student to a teacher in appreciation for the impartment of knowledge.A couple of days ago, I had a software engineer resigning from her post in our company for better prospects. She was a good engineer and I was confident she would do well in her new job. Just before she left , I spoke to her and I gave my new pence of advice of what she was good at and what she needs to work on. It had been a good association but it was time to part ways. She then came upto me and touched my feet and said "thank you for everything".This simple action came as a jolt out of the blue for me. This is the second time this has happened to me , the first being one of my senior engineers giving me this respect. Both times I have not known how to react and both times I am reminded of the immensity of th...
More About: Feet

Energy Conservation in a small office is not as difficult as it seems....
2008-03-10 04:26:00
According to me it has only been recently that issues such as energy conservation, effects of global warming, save the earth etc. are really been taken more seriously by the small business office. Better late than never.We are all to blame for this as we all felt that as individuals there was not much we could do and very conveniently left this responsibility to our governments hoping their agreements and all their efforts of decreasing the release of green house gases by the industrialized & developing nations & stopping the deforestation in South America would be some of things that would really solve the problem.But if given a thought seriously all of us could really contribute to saving the earth and conserving energy in our own little way.How do we conserve energy in a small office ?1. Switch off Lights, Fans & Air Conditioners when not in useMore often that not, we leave electrical equipment such as lights, fans and ACs on even when there is no - one in the room/ca...
More About: Office , Energy , Conservation , Small , Energy Conservation

This work is useless and I will not pay for it. !
2008-01-27 14:05:00
I have had this statement thrown at me several times during my tenure as Managing Director of CygNET. It still never ceases to amaze me of how shameless people can be when they don?t want to pay for something and the flimsy excuses that they come up with to justify the same.Not that we have had a flawless run of projects in the history of CygNET, its just that we have been ALWAYS paid finally for genuinely problematic projects while this line "This work is useless and I will not pay for it. !" always seems to come for perfectly implemented projects.On postmortem of these "useless" projects, it always turns out that the client just does not want to pay and will pick on anything to justify the non payment. No matter what you put in front of the client in terms of justifications such as deadlines were being met, requirements & quality standards were being met, the client seems to just wake one day and decides not to pay. Most often they seem to even get away with it.How can one do ...
More About: Work , Useless

Common Sense Steps for Data Security in office.
2007-12-02 05:22:00
Its been a while since I have added to my blog, its been on my mind for a while so this Sunday morning took some time off, made some coffe, played Jim Reeve's Christmas Carols and added this entry.We have recently launched USB CopyNotify, a network security software for the Small Business Segment and this in turn has got me in touch with several business owners and IT administrators who are very concerned about theft of confidential data from their networks.There has been a lot of exchange of ideas, strategies, recommendations of software to be used but in all this I am suprised that we in general tend to forgot to implement some basic common sense procedures in office which in itself would minimize confidential data from the network being taken out of office.I am no top notch , certified security consultant but I do know that following these simple steps would help in minising the leak of confidential data from your office1. Educate, Educate, EducateYour staff / employees should b...
More About: Security , Sense , Office , Data Security , Data

What goes around, comes around !.
2007-06-11 14:56:00
Recently I read an article in the business section of our newspaper and began smiling which is unusual when I read this particular section. There was an article on how one of the largest software services company in India was now going make *certain additions* to the contract which they make their engineers sign the day they join. These additions in short prohibited the engineers to join any company on whose projects they might work during their employment with this COMPANY and also prohibited them from joining certain companies that this COMPANY defined as competitors. This was one of the efforts made by the company to stem employees jumping jobs. Other larger software firms are believed to be following the same.Ok so this is a REAL BAD SIGN as even one of the largest software firms in India has not been able to control its attrition rate even though it doles out the some of the most expensive employee retention & benefit schemes in India. My smile was due to the fact, that it was ...
More About: What Goes Around

Long Live the shareware utility !!
2007-04-01 05:39:00
It has been years since we have been servicing shareware authors with our software programming expertise. I believe it is called OPD "Outsourced Product Development", the new buzz word in the IT services market but hey I didnt even know it was called that !But getting back to the point, all that time during our various associations with shareware authors I always envied a shareware author for having the vision , guts and persistence to come up with an unique idea, ensure it becomes a reality (with a little bit of our help :-)) and then offer it to the world via the medium of the internet. Thier products are small software utilities with simple concepts behind them that are really really helpful to general computer users. So a user can go to one of these shareware download sites, download an evaluation copy, if they like it , they pay for it via the internet and the whole process was complete. Neat, Slick and Simple .....Who can deny that a shareware product defines ingenituity and b...
More About: Shareware , Live , Long , Utility

Your job is so small and yet you expect quality of service !!
2006-12-08 17:17:00
A couple of weeks ago we ordered some modular furniture. Their initially pitch to me was with great enthusiam thinking we are a multi-national company who were intending to buy 100s of tables. As it slowly dawned on them this was not going to be a big order for them (we only wanted 3 tables) thier whole attitude suddenly changed.Even tough we had been given a commitment as well as an inital advance, there seemed to some kind of reluctance of execution. We had to go after them for everthing, from the finalization of the proposal, the quotation and delivery dates...we felt we were being done a *favour* by them of selling us *just* 2-3 tables.They finally actually even went to extent of telling us that our order was too small for them. They took own time to deliver the tables. We even rejected one of them due to poor quality and asked for a replacement. The replacement never came on the grounds that we were too finicky about the finish and they gave us back the money for the desk we ...
More About: Service , Small , Expect , Quality , So Small

Dont become just a computer engineer...
2006-10-09 08:09:00
I have been in the field of computers now for over 15 years yet unknown to a lot of people I am not formally trained in the field of computers. I hold a Bachelor's Degree in CIVIL ENGINEERING with a specialization in Computer Aided Design as well as a Diploma in Computer Aided Engineer ing from AutoDESK.Anyway for some reason people do believe I should know a lot of about the industry and come with thier children seeking advice (at thier own peril :-)) of whether their sons/daughters should do Computer Engineering. Everyone is doing Computer Engineering , there are huge opportunities for Computer Engineers and these engineers are getting great salaries. Much to thier suprise and dismay I am totally against anyone just becoming a computer engineer or doing computer engineering as one's primary graduation degree. I know I am in the business of software which largely depends on computer engineers etc. etc. but reality is slightly different.The boom we are currently having in India wit...

Why software engineers in smaller companies are better .....
2006-09-23 05:20:00
Its been a long time since I wrote for my blog, its been a hectic couple of weeks but finally got the time to add to my ramblings on the software development sector.Everytime we recruit/interview a software engineer from a larger company, many a time I see a very distinct difference between that particular individual and the software engineers of my company in relation to thier technical acumen and general programming skills. My engineers are way ahead in thier knowledge and capabilities. Now if I recruit/interview an individual from a software company that is approximately the size of my company or smaller this difference is negligible.Why is this ?!- A software programmer coming from a larger company is supposed to be exposed to skills, expertise and infrastracture that usually small software companies can only dream about.- They work under senior architects/programmers/design analysists who are supposed to be very very experienced and these "experienced" people whose salaries we ...
More About: Software , Companies , Engineers

What happened to the original GURUS ???
2006-06-30 07:34:00
Yesterday I got a call from an old friend of mine regarding this blog. I had asked him to read it but I had forgotten to give him the URL so he wanted the URL. When I put the phone down I got nostalic as I consider him one of the original technology GURUS. These are the guys who knew stuff about computers years before this IT boom took place.I have known several GURUS such as him who were so far ahead of most of us in computer technology, its application and the development platforms. These guys knew the core of technology and did thier work for the sake of advancement of thier knowledge and capability. If you wanted to know about application of technology in the REAL WORLD scenario, how to get it done, which technologies to use , you would turn to them. They KNEW how to give the BEST of technology to the user. They used technology not for the sake of technology but they used technology for the sake of the user and that differentiated them from the rest.But in this new age of huge I...
More About: Original , Gurus , Origin

The software vegetable market.
2006-06-10 18:52:00
Our company is a small company, a micro ISV as they call it and naturally the market segment we market and advertise to and who usually respond are small companies themselves. These small companies cater for the bulk of our business.However as the days go by I see a very strange trend. It seems man hour rates for programming seem to be the only criteria for winning a BID, not infrastructure, not expertise, not experience , it always seems to boil down only to price. !!! The cheaper you are ..the better chance it is to win the bids.Now there are so many of us offering the same programming services , with the same level of expertise, our websites look the same, we have the same things to say so I suppose the company wanting to outsource some programming work goes to google, send emails to 10-15 companies like us.. gets the quotes and gives the order to the lowest bidder.This whole scenario reminds me of a vegetable market in our area. When you enter there is a line of vegetable vendor...
More About: Software , Market , Vegetable

Did we really gain independence....
2006-05-30 12:01:00
It is over 50 years that we have gained Independence from the British Raj...yet when I see the IT/Outsourcing boom it really makes wonder how much economic independence we have really gained. The British RAJ was all about controlling India economically and making money by using our raw materials and using us a cheap labour. We were also a market for thier goods on top of all that.Have things really changed ...?? especially when you look at the IT sector.We still are being used as cheap labour except now it is in the field of software development, IT services, BPOs etc.. Over 90% of the sector are basically captive units for companies in the west. So if they shut the TAP we run dry.. not much independence I would say.We dont really have any upgrade of knowledge domains, the products that we work on or support basically belong to the West so when they find a cheaper and practical alternative like China, they will move and we would be left high & dry. Is this really independence..To to...

Junk candidates, resources...
2006-05-25 07:57:00
As we go thru the daily routine of interviewing candidates for our office, there is this HUGE AMOUNT of JUNK candidates that are applying. They claim to have experience but even a fresher from school would know more programming than them and yet they will have this extremely long resume claiming huge experience and yet they dont know ANYTHING. It is very frustrating and irritating interviewing such candidates as it is a complete waste of our time and money.I think everybody just wants to jump onto the IT bandwagon whether they are trained for it or not. Recently I interviewed this candidate and in our company we sometimes take the HR interview first , so here he sat confidently , answered with a lot of gusto etc. etc..seemed to be good so I shortlisted him. I had even asked him in general about the technologies and projects he had worked on. As he left he asked our front office assistance what was the position for which he had just been interviewed for ??!!! so now they dont even kn...
More About: Resources , Candidates , Junk , Candidate

Watch out for the big guys, they could make more money out of you ....
2006-05-19 06:35:00
Just the other day I was explaining to my father how size of a software development company also influences the way you can make money if you want to. He wanted to know how some companies larger than us were making so much money inspite of such large overheads while smaller companies with more expertise, experience and lower overheads make less.So I explained a possible scenario.....When you have a LARGE company you automatically for some strange reason get selected over smaller companies for larger orders which may need many engineers, it is a KNOWN fact that the client really has no way of really finding out how many engineers are really working on a project unless they have a educated and dedicated project manager from thier side who knows how to undertsand and apply performance metrics (now this rarely happens). The projects managers of today especially from the client side really dont have the time for this and hence the possible opportunity for making more money.Let me explain...
More About: Watch , Money , Guys , Make

Another day begins....
2006-05-17 06:38:00
Its 10.00 am and I am getting ready for another day at office. An employee of ours is leaving us and has submitted his resignation. He has got a good opportunity in a larger company with a salary much higher than what he is getting here. I am really happy for him as he had joined us as a fresher with low confidence and now he has grown professionally and will move well up the ladder of his professional life. Not worried about my company as he will be replaced with another competant and good engineer and life goes on...However this whole issue of software developers jumping from company to company, each company outdoing the other in terms of salary with the large companies just gobbling up by the 100s and then thier own staff moving by the 100s from one large company to another , every large companies just hearding them like cattle ... a very crucial issue comes to my mind... I read a recent article that in day there are about 20,000 change in epf numbers, that means 20,000 people ha...