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

How To Fire Developers And Assemble Software From APIs

A few months ago, I’d visited the South Indian temple town of Tirupati with my family. On the way, whenever the train stopped at a station, the engine was switched off. But the air-conditioning still worked because it was powered by huge battery packs installed in the AC coach. Coincidentally, the manufacturer of these battery … 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

How To Replace Excel For Collecting Master Data For Your SAAS

In Why Overcoming The Tyranny Of Excel Is A Lousy Positioning Theme, we’d cautioned software companies from pitching their software as a replacement for Excel. Since then, we’re happy to see more innovative positioning around Excel by technology providers. For example, BI vendor Domo pitches its suite of data visualization products as complementary to – … Read more

Reliance JioFi Second Impressions

In Reliance JioFi First Impressions, I’d shared my initial experiences with the Reliance JioFi Portable 4G Pocket WiFi Router. One month later, here are my “second” impressions: UPDATE DATED 16-SEP-2016: It’s confirmed that voice on JioFi happens via data packets. However, I understand it’s called Voice Over LTE (VoLTE) and not VoIP as I’d previously labeled … Read more

SAAS – What’s In It For Vendors?

SAAS promises zero upfront cost, freedom from maintenance and relief from headaches of updates, and so on. These are all benefits for customers of SAAS. What’s in it for providers of SAAS? Shorter sales cycle is the most obvious benefit. Because buyers don’t need to incur huge licensing costs while signing up for a SAAS … Read more

Omnichannel Couponing Drives CEM Success – Part 2

In Part-1 of this blog post, I’d described my experience with PayTM’s CEM campaign on Nescafe’s instant coffee bottle. In this part, I’ll describe my experience with the sachet of the same product. If you’re wondering how packing types matter in a CEM campaign, trust me, bottle and sachet pose different challenges and provide different … Read more

Omnichannel Couponing Drives CEM Success – Part 1

Barring a few exceptions like Dollar Shave Club, consumer brands still don’t sell their products directly to people who use them. Instead, they use the traditional multi-tiered distribution channel comprising distributors, wholesalers and retailers. Ergo they don’t know their end consumers. How do brands overcome the “anonymity” challenge, reach out to end consumers and engage … Read more