Indian IT – Crisis Or No Crisis?

Wipro lays off 600 employees due to poor performance. Cognizant fires 6000 employees consequent to its annual appraisal. So on and so forth. The media is full of bad news about the Indian IT Industry. Notwithstanding that, rumors of existential crisis for the industry are grossly exagerrated. Whether you use a bell curve or a … Read more

How To Win A Deal By “Sharing An RFP Template”

“Can you give us an RFP template to share with our client?”, asked one of our customers recently. “We can Google it but you can save us the trouble if you have something readymade”. Good they didn’t use Google. There’s lot more to sharing an RFP template than finding, downloading and handing over a standard … Read more

Why Gmail When Hosting Provider Gives Free Mail Boxes?

After trying out a half-dozen hosting providers, I settled on one that I’ll call ACME. Among other things, I selected ACME for its following two features: Hosting for virtually unlimited domains on a single hosting plan Free unlimited number of mail boxes, each with virtually unlimited storage (subject only to the overall storage limit under … Read more

Uber Creates Loyalty To The Deal But Not For The Brand

In his book Loyalty 3.0, author Rajat Paharia, Founder of gamification solution provider Bunchball, says that loyalty programs of most brands generate loyalty to the deal but completely fail at their fundamental purpose of fostering loyalty for the brand. Uber is a great example of one such brand. The world’s largest rideshare company extensively uses … Read more

Mastering Targeted Offers – The Uber Way

Uber uses targeted offers as the bedrock of its customer engagement management (CEM) strategy. For the uninitiated, a targeted offer is a personalized deal for an individual customer segment – or even individual customer. It’s the antithesis of spam, where the same deal is sent to all customers. A simple example of a targeted offer … Read more

Unschackle Your Inside Sales To Make It More Aggressive

As SAAS gains traction, software companies are making greater use of inside sales. According to Salesforce, inside sales is growing 300% faster than outside sales. With more and more sales development representatives fishing in the same pond, the market is getting crowded. As a result, inside sales is finding it ever harder to get through … Read more

Innovation And Patents In IT Services Companies

Yes, you read that right. Much as the common man might find it difficult to believe, there’s innovation in IT Services companies and IT Services companies do get patents. The über boss of India’s largest IT company lashed out at detractors of the IT Services industry, and pointed out that: Indians should be celebrating an … Read more

Innovative Fintechs Don’t Need No Open Banking Regulation

Pink Floyd fans won’t need any explanation for this post’s title. As for the others… well, it’s never too late to become fans of Pink Floyd!  The recent buzz around Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning has spawned the next generation of Personal Finance Management applications. While the forerunners in the cateogory like Mint (now part … Read more

Sharpen Your Geo Targeting By Predicting What Will Sell Where

A Quoran recently asked me where he could sell his email list in India. Normally, my Quora answers are quite concise. And, after seeing the following reply by Quora’s Founder Adam D. Angelo, I stopped worrying if I was too terse: But the said question about email list gave me a chance to throw light on … Read more