Top 12 Knowledge Requirements for 2012

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2011 gave a very powerful positive impact on specialized business life for Social Media and Smart Phone Professionals - many new Gadgets, Applications, Job Profiles, Start-ups and Success Stories.

2012 – Definitely, is coming with lot more new opportunities for IT communities.

Well, what is essential for your success in 2012 – Let’s take a quick look on top knowledge requirements.

• Mobile Application Programming – It is not just Android, Windows Phone and IOS Programming. Look into HTML5, CSS3, Advance Java-script, JSON, JQuery and PHP. Mobile WEB Frameworks are going to be an excellent option for “Develop Once-Deploy to All” Concept.


• Customized Agile Project Management – Agile is still not professionally implemented in many organizations. Most of the Small and Medium size companies are using it as simplified version of traditional project management – but in the name of Agile. Certified Scrum Master and Agile Scrum Trainings for your Project Team are essential for a success with quality.


• Location Based Services – There are very few applications with Location based Content Identification as a feature and most of them are just social and Infotainment. There are lot more requirements which can be fulfilled with LBS – for Example: Tourism, Education etc.


• Data Center / Networking Technologies- The demand for networking professionals is high with virtualization and cloud computing projects. Virtualization and the Cloud could also be behind the increased need for IT professionals with backgrounds in data center operations and systems integration.


• Smartphone Security – Smartphones are becoming part of corporate network elements now days and security for official and personal data becomes major question. Data Security Applications, Anti-virus Tools, Remote Content Management, Policies for using Smartphones are high in requirement.


• User Interface Design – UI Design and Development is an important presentation layer element, which decides the success of many Smartphone and Tablets apps, and also PC and WEB Apps. There are certification course available to educate you about best practices and standards and it is a hot item in job market too.


• Mobile Commerce / Payment – Smartphones and Feature phones are fully capable for Money Management now days with Applications from various vendors. There were few banking apps, mobile malls and payment apps showed success stories last year, and I am expecting more to come in 2012.


•  Context Aware Applications – A new technology provides improved user experiences by using the information about a person's interests, intentions, history, environment, activities, schedule, priorities, connections and preferences to anticipate their needs and proactively serve up the most appropriate content, product or service.


• Gaming Smartphones, Devices – estimated to $800 million business, it provides numerous opportunities for business owners and technical professionals.


• Help Desk/Technical Support–Mobile operating systems have added a new dimension to help desk and tech support community and this will improve a lot in future.


• Business Intelligence – from Cost saving to investing in Technology, I am expecting many new prospects with BI.  There are certifications, Business Analysis best practices to improve it.


• Life with Open Source – Open source is not just limited to PHP and MYSQL, but there are more useful, free to use, efficient platforms for developers, designers, project managers, analysts, testers, business owners and general IT end-users.

I wish you all the best in this New Year 2012 for many new success stories, career improvements and business values.

Personal Goal Planner 2012

Dear Friends,

This Simple Goal Planner 2012 will help you to Plan your Goals, and Track it with milestones periodically.  Give me your comments.

I wish you everything success in this New Year 2012.

All the best.

Download your copy here

m.yoursite.com or www.yoursite.mobi

m.yoursite.com or www.yoursite.mobi - which would be your preference for your mobile website? I see many US based companies are using m.yoursite.com but Europe adopted .Mobi as a standard.! What would be your preference in personal or corporate mobile web domain..!

Question: Why Indian Android Mobile devices are not popular compare to Samsung and HTC Android Devices?

There are Lava, Videocon, Karbonn and Micromax Android devices, less popular even in Indian cities. Everyone prefers Samsung and HTC. Why? Do we need more advertisements and promotion activities?

Best Indian Android Mobile Devices – a Study

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Android – the Mobile Operating System is surprisingly becoming more popular in India – not just because of its variety of applications availability, but also for the Hardware devices from Samsung, HTC and others. Many users prefer to use Samsung, LG and HTC – the stylish look and feel makes them decide.  On the downside of it – these devices are costly and not suitable for rough industry level implementations. What you need is a cost effective device, which is fine for rough usage and of course for custom developed application implementations.

Android OS based Indian devices are best choice for this standard.  I met a client last month for a business discussion on enterprise level mobile applications for manufacturing industries. The client was already having a software package for manufacturing industry MIS. The idea is to extend it to mobile devices so that the usage of Computers can be minimized and instead their clients can go for more Smartphones. The advantage of mobility, instant status reports and communication can be achieved. We worked on an analysis report based on the available suitable Indian android devices for this business idea – so that we can offer these devices with pre-installed configured apps for quick startup.

I am just sharing few points from our analysis – to show how Indian android devices are valuable, and why you can consider them for your next purchase.

• We reviewed 4 affordable mobile brands for our analysis – iball, Micromax, Karbonn, and Videocon


• Micromax is based in Gurgaon, Haryana, India. The mobile devices are in good quality. We reviewed 3 devices from this brand – A60, A70 and A85.


• A60 is with Android OS, v2.1 (Eclair), and the Processor is 600 MHz. J2ME apps are not performing well, but Android 2.1 Business apps are fine. Network [GPRS, EDGE, 3G, Bluetooth, WI-Fi, USB] connectivity is good. Display is fine for Business apps [240 x 320 pixels, 2.8 inches]


• A70 is an improved version with 320 x 480 pixels, 3.2 inches (~180 ppi pixel density) and Android OS, v2.2 (Froyo). The processor is again 600 MHz ARM. There is GPU [Graphics Processing Unit] with Adreno 200. This is a preferred device for business users and professional purposes.


• A85 was announced 2011, Q3 – with 480 x 800 pixels, 3.8 inches (~246 ppi pixel density) and Android OS, v2.2 (Froyo). It comes with Nvidia Tegra 2 AP20H Chipset and Dual-core 1 GHz Cortex-A9 Processor with ULP GeForce GPU. 8 GB internal storage is also available. This device is little costly compare to other devices in same range.


• Micromax A60 is around INR.4000, Micromax A70 is around INR.8000 and Micromax A85 is around INR.17000


• IBall - is a privately-held computer hardware company headquartered in Mumbai, India that develops and manufactures peripherals related to computer.


• We received and reviewed IBall ANDI – an Android 2.2 based Device with DUAL SIM capacity. It comes with a 416 MHz processor and network connectivity features are good. It is a slow device for business applications but good for common android users. The price is just – INR 6500.


• Karbonn Mobiles is a Telecommunication firm which was founded in March 2009. It is a joint venture Mobile manufacturing company between the Bangalore based United Telelinks Limited (A group of Telecom Major, United Telecoms Limited) and Noida based Jaina Marketing & Associates.


• Karbonn A1 was the suggested mobile device for our review. It is a 3G enabled device and comes with Android 2.2. The processor is 600 MHz and Screen Size is 2.8 inch (240 x 320 pixels) 256k TFT touch screen display. 150MB internal memory and expandable memory up to 32GB with MicroSD is provided. Karbonn new article says – there are more new phones to come in Android series. Karbonn A1 is around INR 7000. We also recommended this phone for business purposes.


• Videocon is a very popular company in India. Their Android Mobile devices – Zeus V7500 [Android 2.1] and V7400 [Android 2.1] are relatively costly compared to other all devices – Price around INR. 12000 each. The features are limited and we felt it is not for core business users.

Finally we recorded, Karbonn and Micromax are best phones – based on the reviews in multiple scenarios, and we suggested the same in our reports. Now, based on your experience – what is your opinion? Are you using any Indian Brand? How about your experience?

HTML5 Frameworks for Mobile Apps – What you need?

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HTML5 is definitely a winner for Mobile Apps Development. It gives you the power of simple App programming and efficient device compatible app standards. Recently I started to explore few HTML5 Frameworks for Mobile apps developments, because we wanted to try something more efficient then native apps. Unlike Native apps, HTML5 gives an extraordinary advantage of ‘Create once and Deploy for all devices” and that’s the important reason for our search for a suitable framework. Here, I am sharing few experiences of the explored HTML5 mobile frameworks with my readers.

When I checked with Google, the first HTML5 Mobile framework captured me is ‘JO’. It is a very simple application framework for HTML5 and it supports almost all the mobile device browsers. iOS, Android, WebOS (Surprise..!! It is still working) and Blackberry. Yes, we didn’t tested it with Symbian – coz now days, the primary crowd is with Android and iOS only. JavaScript plays a major role here, and a little knowledge in CSS3 makes things perfect.

‘JQuery’ Mobile is the next option suggested by many friends – it is a touch-optimized Web Framework for Smartphones and Tablets. It is a unified user interface system across all popular mobile device platforms, built on the rock-solid jQuery and jQuery UI foundation. [I am learning JQuery UI with UX standards for few client works] - Its lightweight code, built with progressive enhancement, and has a flexible, easily theme able design [It makes life easy with colors].

I explored ‘The-M-Project’ last weekend with one of my friends – he is a HTML5 Guru. It is another JavaScript based mobile framework for writing cross-platform mobile apps. Ok – this M-Project contains all UI and Core files to build jQuery Mobile based mobile HTML5 Apps – so If you know JQuery – you’ve got another weapon to hit.

Yes, Of course, we tested the basics only for Proof of concept development – but still working on it for more new things. I am sure, this HTML5, JavaScript, JQuery, UI and CSS3 will be an excellent combo against Native apps – but for people like us – It is another way to make new business. Happy… !!

How to Promote HR in Social Media Marketing

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Human Resource is a business area, which always needs continuities interactions with individual candidates, groups, communities and Small/Medium/Corporate groups. The style of communication in various channels decides the greatest number in its business growth. Recently, I met a Client, who works for a renowned HR unit at Bangalore, for HR Portal Development and Social Media Strategy support services. Our meeting touched various success points as goals and strategy plans, in-fact I learned few ideas from him. I am sharing few simple ideas here, for any Human resource development businesses – which are into hiring, training, resource development, placements and management.

• Publish the available opportunities as small text notes in facebook, twitter, likedin and other common social networks. People need information about opportunities to get prepared for the same.


• Publish small notes about the current and future opportunity market trends, required technologies, knowledge base for opportunities. For example: Candidates should know that Java is still a major requirement for Mobile apps, and PHP plays a major role in Mobi Web Development. HTML5 is emerging as a next generation trend technology.


• Write and Post Human resource related articles in Social Networks with your Brand name. Educate the users about ethics, work cultures, Work – Life Balance and even personal finance management. These support areas are required for a healthy human resource management


• Create discussions on common interview questions and monitor how the attitude is changing with current scenarios.


• Ask Questions, Create Polls and Share them – let people participate and it helps for create a knowledge-base community

Our team of professionals, work for the above mentioned activities in content development and content presentations. The core idea is to create a community, where knowledge and professional values are connected together as growth.

Project Management for .Mobi Website Development

Project Management for mobile websites is a special kind of approach based on its various requirements and limitations. In my experience I handled Mobile websites for Social Media, Business Functional Applications, Online Product Purchase, News and Media presentations, Entertainment Content downloads, and Travel and location based services. For every single project, we faced a small change in our process, basically learned from experiences. We followed agile approach for almost all our projects in simple way to make the project management painless.

I am planning to write more about project management for this platform, but as a start, let me share some key points.

• Organize a basic requirements analysis meeting with all stakeholders and document the requirements in easy functional stories


• Build a product Backlog from the requirement analysis and consider it as first level defined scope


• Present the overall project goals – the overall solution model , as a guide for priority setting


• Build a team & assign key roles – the team should include stakeholders, quality assurance and implementation team members. Key roles and responsibilities should be assigned for scrum master, product owner, designers, developers, quality assurance and stakeholders. Document it for future benefits


• Define and publish a communication plan for the community of stakeholders


• Define backlog stories derived from basic analysis and user stories


• Prioritize backlog and communicate sprint release goals with stakeholders


• Plan your sprint – a scrum master is responsible for ensuring tasks are completed
  
  
  
  • Define sprint length – we plan for 10 days
  
  
  • The product owner should present stories to lead the team through the project proposal document, and define acceptance test criteria
  
  
  • Scrum master and QA should sit with the developer to confirm scope, expectations, and technical implementation details – including the QA level and documentation details.
  
  
  • Estimate the time – Scrum master, Developer and Product owner should decide based on discussions
  
  
  • Scrum master prepares a Scrum Board for tracking project activities
  
  
  • Daily scrum meetings should be planned – everyone should attend without fail
  
  
  • In Daily Scrum meetings – we normally take one story for the development, and design its solution. We also get updates of stories in progress, and identify-track-resolve blockers. We review the burn down chart and calculate time still required
  
  
  •  In sprint presentation stage – we review sprint status – basically health, discuss about areas need improvement, and changes required. We come to a agreement on how the next sprint will be run
  
  
  • The Demo normally goes through product owner – and we review the feedbacks received. The comments – improvement suggestions – and additional requirements will be added in backlog after an impact analysis
  
  
  
  

As you can see, the agile way of project management is almost same as website or any web application development – but the best thing is … it keeps us happy in developing … some kind of good professional way.

3 Quick tips to create secured Smartphone access

Are you using a Smartphone? Yes..? Oh Good. !! I am sure you are using your phone not just as a device to talk to your friends, send and receive messages – but also to store email messages, personal and office documents, presentations, audio, video files etc. When I discussed about their usage of smartphone devices, many friends accepted that they are using it as a mass storage device too – Just like a personal USB drive.

Security becomes an essential point, when your device is used as an information storage gadget. Smartphone device can be protected by using passwords / PINs.  Strong passwords are vital for maximum security. I propose these quick tips to create secured smartphone passwords / PINs.

1. Use folder security settings always. Nokia, Samsung devices are having inbuilt folder management tools with encryption options. Android devices, Windows Phones and Iphone devices are having operating system level file / folder security settings with encryption, and password protected.

2. Create passwords with combination Text and Numbers. Change your passwords often. Never keep text passwords related to you, your work or family member names. Secure your memory card, Bluetooth access with PIN password. This will be usually numbers only. Don’t use continues numbers, same numbers, birthdays / anniversary dates etc.

3. Create multiple profiles and use a profile with less information visibility while traveling. Create un-usual gestures, while using Android point based locking system or similar.

Share your tips to secured smartphone access – and follow me in twitter for more ideas.

3 essential security policies for Smartphone usage inside Office

Small Offices, Medium size organizations or Large corporate– the official Information should be secured, and managed to its maximum level through defined security policies.

The security policies should be a formal, brief, and high-level statement that embraces an organization’s general beliefs, goals, objectives, and acceptable procedures for a specified subject area. In our case, it is all about smartphone usage.

Define a mandatory require compliance, standards and guidelines, failure to comply results in disciplinary action for every policy division.

I advocate these 3 fundamental security policies for smartphone usage inside office.

Policy #1: Every Smartphone use should activate phone locking after a period of inactivity and use strong passwords or PINs for reactivation.

Policy #2: An Employee must connect from smartphone to the corporate network over secure VPN’s always.

Policy #3: An Employee must encrypt all corporate information stored on the phone using provided tools

I am sure; these policies can be a good start for security management in organizations. Share your comments and suggestions for more discussions.

Android Smartphone Security Management

If you are an Android smartphone user, I am sure you are aware of its security risks too. So, what steps you took to secure your device and information? Well, I would recommend the following Android app to increase the security management on your devices.

NetQin Mobile Security - designed to protect your devices against viruses and malware, while keeping your system running at optimum speed. It scans, detects and kills viruses with award-winning twin-engine (Cloud + Client) anti-virus scanning technology! Anti-lost runs with remote control-like functions, providing worldwide protection for financial losses and privacy leakage. 'Anti-lost' allows users to locate a lost phone, sound an alarm on it, and trace where exactly it is. Try it from here : http://www.netqin.com/en/antivirus/

I am using a Symbian S60 version for my Nokia E63. It is good.

How to create awareness on securing smart phones?

Smartphone is not just a next generation fancy device anymore. It is becoming an unavoidable gadget for most of the IT and non-IT employees. Just check around you – How many friends in your office are using Smartphone? Based on my experiences, I see almost 40% to 60% of IT staffs are using Smartphone. Yes, the non-IT industry is also having Smartphone impact – I see at-least 30% to 45% users.

The challenge is – most of the Smartphone users are unaware of its security risks. So, my question is – are you taking any steps to create an awareness on securing smart phones! Yes, it is required – not only for personal security purposes, but also for corporate IT information security purposes too.

I recommend the following simple activities to create a basic awareness on securing Smartphone devices.

1. Create Simple Posters about known smartphone security challenges and stick them around work places

2. Educate about secured Bluetooth usage and keeping Bluetooth off – while not in use.

3. Create small Case-Stories and publish them in official emails / Official social networks.

4. Guide a session on insecure Wi-Fi networks, and security challenges in using such networks.

5. Call for a Security weekend Day – to make them present their security tips for public interest.

I suggested these activities to my clients – many are following it and seeing some good improvements. I would like to listen in your experiences.

Have a nice day.

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Mobile Website Testing – the strategy

Testing is an essential part of any software / website development. Testing is not just to fix and improve the functional quality, but also helps to improve the performance and non-functional values too.

Mobile website testing is little different from traditional website testing procedures. We normally use different browsers for traditional website testing - [Ex: Internet Explorer (all recent versions), Firefox(all recent versions), Opera (all recent versions), and Apple Safari – now days Google Chrome also added in the list. But for Mobile websites we follow a different strategy.

• Test cases should be based on different devices and its functional capacity – Ex: processing speed, battery level etc.


• Test cases should be executed in different real devices and different browsers in same device.  Sometime, a same device will do different things with different browsers. The screen size and the network also matters in performance.


• Emulators and Online Standard verifications should be used for DotMobi Compliance Tests – Ex: ready.modi – The result should be atleast 4/5 for quality.


• Data Access, external application access should be verified – Ex: Video Play, Upload Picture etc.


• The Testing should happen from the early stages of development itself to avoid major issues in final stages. The Testers should have awareness about devices, Device specifications, Mobile internet browser specifications, settings and knowledge about other mobi websites too.


• A quality standard document should be prepared and published with all design and development guidelines, and it should be followed strictly. If the developers are using Wordpress Templates or Joomla Templates, the same verification strategy should be applied – if required the customization should be done.


• The performance [download image & media], and non-functional [clear view] should be verified before certification.

Testing is basically a common sense activity with little knowledge on usability. Mobile website testing, and mobile application testing varies with little differences, but a Skillful tester can easily manage both the areas.

Mobi Social Websites – a quick introduction

Mobile devices are becoming unavoidable for now days lifestyle. Mobile phones are used not only for voice calls and SMS, but the power of internet [GPRS, Wi-Fi etc] brings world as compact in hand. Feature phones and Smart Phones are playing major role in Social lifestyle improvements. People use it for Internet browsing, Emails and Media content sharing and management on the way. How many of you are using these tools?

Snaptu: It is a Mobile application available for verity of Mobile Operating System platforms, enables the users to share media content through Facebook, Twitter and Emails. Users can utilize the available device capabilities such as Mobile camera for capturing photos and upload in Flickr, Play videos and visit linked websites. The RSS news feeds can be captured and shared in Facebook and Twitter with single click.

Qeep: Qeep a mobile social network for Java based phone owned by Germany based private network, has officially launched it app for the Indian markets. Qeep is a freely downloadable application and offers features like Private messaging, photo-blogging and live multi-player gaming.

Mocospace: allows you to share text, pictures, videos and location information between PCs and mobile phones. It’s based on chatrooms, with different levels of privacy and a “Circle of Trust” to determine who you can send and receive from.

Jaiku: shares an online log of your day as microblog, including messages, events and photos through “activity streams”. Jaiku Mobile allows you to view other user’s streams through your contacts list.

Guys, try these tools and share your comments.

Programming .Mobi – Mobile Websites

Are you a programmer? What programming languages are you using currently – C#.net, Java, PHP, Perl, Ruby, SQL … don’t worry – you got some new career opportunities in mobile web site development too.

Even though all the above mentioned programming languages can be used, I strongly suggest going with PHP-MYSQL combination – because of its tremendous advantages in dynamic content design and delivery.

Also – the Wordpress, Joomla and other Content Management Engines mostly follow PHP-MYSQL as preferred programming. Personally, PHP-MYSQL programming is very easy to learn, and a average developer can do wonders in 10 days with right challenges.

• XHTML and CSS knowledge - required – Very important but can be easily handled with Dreamweaver type of Software Tools.


• Javascript knowledge - required – but can be handled with customizing available downloaded code blocks.


• SQL – required – Database Programming, Query based applications.


• XML – required – to handle simple and complex data structures


• Knowledge in using popular IDE tools for PHP – this reduces development time by instant help, and programming support.


• Preferred knowledge – HTML 5, Mobile detection using WURFL, Multimedia and Streaming, Mobile Wordpress, Location Detection, Widget Design Patterns, Mobile SEO and Social Features and MIME Types for Mobile content.

I strongly suggest having a code library for all required functionalities, so that the plug-and-execute can happen with little or no modification.

Career opportunities in Social Media Marketing

Every day is a new day, and every day opens new doors for opportunities – Not just for fresher, but also for experienced professionals. Social Media Marketing is another new door – come let’s see what kind of opportunities are there and what skills we need to get that…

UX Developer/Designer

• You need some hands on experience with XHTML, CSS, HTML5


• Ajax, Javascript, Jquery


• Prototyping skills, platform specific UX knowledge (Iphone, Android etc), PHP, MYSQL

Social Media Specialist

• Knowledge in creating social media content – Text, Pictures, Polls etc


• creativity and documented immersion in social media, including viral marketing campaigns


• Familiarity with website content management systems and professional graphics software.


• Excellent written and oral communication skills and success in presenting information/data.

Social Game Designer

• Experience in game and entertainment content of Social Media


• Knowledge in PC game development – with Flash


• Logical Thinking &  Creative mind


• Action scripting, PHP, MYSQL programming

Social Media Account Manager

• Updating Client's social media accounts with meaningful content to effectively engage audience.


• Weekly companywide social media tips and updates


• Monitor client’s brands and campaigns.


• Administration and moderation of multiple client social media accounts


• Building client social media accounts and pages


• Development and implementation of Facebook and Twitter promotions


• Conceptualization and project coordination of mobile applications and mobile optimized sites


• Coordination and development of custom Facebook content


• Project management, including managing contracts, budgets, project schedules, vendors, and staff

Social Media Strategist

• Ability to develop best practices and policies regarding use of various digital media


• Recommend and deploy an appropriate mix of communications strategies and approaches as they relate to websites, mobile technology, blogs, social media networks, social bookmarking, discussion groups and forums, to drive brand awareness and engagement.


• Facilitate ways to measure, test and optimize platforms, leveraging tools that will aid in driving programs


• Three to five years experience in a digital marketing role at a digital marketing/development, advertising or public relations firm preferred

Are you guys ready for these opportunities – why waiting, Just update your resume and try the new world… !!

Creating Business values using .Mobi Website

LinkedIn.com is giving me lots of opportunities to meet professionals and people from various industries, of course with all different kind of business requirements. I recently met a LinkedIn contact – who works in Education Management, for one of his requirement on .Mobi websites for Educational purposes. He suggested me to give a write-up mentioning the business values of .Mobi website – so that he can present it to his higher authorities. I did a small research on it, and designed a PPT for him, but I would like to share some points which I learned through the research.

• The success of creating business value of .mobi site starts with defining the purpose of a mobile website itself


• A strategic business plan and setting realistic goals are important as first step for a successful mobile website


•  Identification of types of users – including prospects, clients, investors, job seekers. After this process is completed, now we determine at a high level what our mobile website needs to accomplish. Visitors will make decisions based on their experience and perception of the Mobile website.


• Organizations should invest in hiring a professional Mobile web consultant to assist them with designing a site that will achieve their goals and purpose of the site.


• Mobile Web Users are a unpredictable group; they have short attention spans, fly from page to page, and are highly judgmental, holding their attention takes careful planning and execution.


• A Mobile website has several aspects including design, content and functionality.


• The design of the website should be simple to browse, should use the same color theory / theme of your corporate website and should be clear with right size fonts and images.


• The content should be easy readable text in small paragraphs – mostly about services, product information and interactive transactions (ex: javascript based registration for corporate events) if any.


• The content should follow Attention, Interest, Desire and Action template – to invoke the desired visitor response.


• Mobile websites should be powered using SEO – Search Engine Optimization, a technique that allows a .mobi site to be indexed and ranked on search engines such as Google search engine for mobile websites.  Using analytics will provide us reports on SEO functionalities.

Social Media Marketing for Beginners

I am sure most of the MBA guys know about ‘integrated marketing communications’ – it is a practice organizations follow to connect with their target market. Social Media marketing is a recent addition in integrated marketing communications plan. It uses the promotional concepts – advertising, public relations, sales promotion, publicity and direct marketing. Social Media marketing is creating a content that attracts attention and encourages community members to share it with their community groups – basically social networks. The message comes from a community member is trusted – thus it gets more value.

Social Media is a easy accessible platform to anyone using Internet and Mobile Phones. There are very popular networks – Ex: Facebook, Twitter, Google+, LinkedIn, MySpace etc.

Technically, we call social media marketing as Social Media Optimization. There are many tools available for these concepts

• Social Media Monitoring


• Social Aggregation


• Social Book Marking and Tagging


• Social Analytics and Reporting


• Automation


• Social Media


• Blog Marketing


• Validation

Let me share more about these concepts and some useful tools soon. Meantime, I expect the users to share their comments.

Wordpress Blogs on the go…

Are you traveling without computer access, and you want to post a blog entry? Are you using a mobile phone with internet access – here you got an interesting utility for mobile devices – “Wordpress Mobile Apps”.

Wordpress for Mobile is available for all flavors –including iOS, Windows Phone 7, Andriod, Blackberry and Nokia. You have to simply download and install using appropriate stores.

URL : http://wordpress.org/extend/mobile/

You can create blog entries, edit, delete, approve or reject comments, do some administration and also can upload and share media components from your mobile [based on your network capacity].

I downloaded and installed for Nokia platform, wordmobi – works on python + pips framework.

Try it and share your views.

Wordpress Mobile Pack – advanced .Mobi Development

Wordpress Mobile pack is another very powerful complete toolkit, to help mobilize the corporate Wordpress Site. It comes with excellent mobile switcher, to select themes based on the type of the user, that is visiting the site, a selection of mobile themes, extra widgets, device adaptation and a mobile administration panel to allow users to edit the site or write new posts when out and about.

Note: PHP 5.x is also highly recommended, although the plugin also works with PHP 4.3.

Some extraordinary features include:

• A set of advanced themes for Nokia and WebKit devices, designed by Forum Nokia. These also look beautiful on Android, iPhone and Palm devices


• Standards adherence, ensuring that mark-up is valid XHTML-MP 1 and the site scores 5 on mobiReady.


• Device adaptation, including the rescaling of images, intelligent splitting of articles and posts into multiple pages, the simplifaction styles, and the removal of non-supported media.


• A mobile admin panel, that allows the blog managers to access the admin interface via a mobile device, with simplified access to the most common features such as editing a post or approving comments.


• Mobile analytics, allowing you to track your mobile traffic with PercentMobile, and view simple local traffic tallies


• A mobile ad widget to easily enable mobile ads with AdMob or Google's Mobile Adsense.

Project Status Reports

Regular status report is a necessary expectation from any stakeholder. A project manager is expected to decide, the frequency and format of this report. Ensure it satisfies these points

• What has been completed


• What has not been completed and why


• What is being done about the incomplete work


• What concerns, issues and risks remain  unsolved


• What needs to be done about these unsolved problems

I always suggest using a simple PPT, but few stakeholder s expect word / excel documents too. Fine, try these important elements in your reports and discuss with me, what else you usually expect.

• Slide 1: A graphical summery of overall process – Ex: Dashboard, Gantt Chart


• Slide 2: Completed Tasks, Milestones


• Slide 3: Not Completed Tasks – and Action points


• Slide 4: Issues/Concerns/Risks – and Action points


• Slide 5: List of milestones with due dates – in next reporting period

Estimations – Some best practices

Estimation is a decision about how much time and resources are required to carry out a piece of work to acceptable standards of performance. Fine, most of the project managers do this estimation practice, with the help of tech leads, or key team members. Here, I would like to share some best practices based on my experiences in estimation process.

• Schedule full-time team members at three and a half to four working (productive)days per week to allow for holidays, absences, and training sessions
• Always include management time where appropriate as an additional 10%
• In planning, avoid splitting tasks between individuals – when tasks are split between two individuals do not reduce the time by 50% - allow time for communication and coordination
• Take individual experience and ability into account
• Allow time for cross functional data transfer and responses
• Build in time for unscheduled urgent tasks arising on other non-project activities
• Build in spare time for problem solving and project meetings

For each key stage keep a record of
• Any assumptions made during estimations
• Where contingencies have been added & how much added.

Facebook – How to do Social Media Marketing

Social Media Marketing in Facebook is a very interesting thing – coz the platform & audience are already ready for you. All you need to do it is engaging them with right content at right time. Recently I met a client, who wanted to have a plan for promoting his products through facebook – he wanted facebook specifically because, he heard the value of facebook through many channels.

I suggested these activities in my Plan…

• The profile should be impressive with its content. Use the Product image as Profile Photo and fill the profile by keeping the product in mind. The product should act as a person promotes himself in market. The profile should talk more about its key plus points rather than just specifications.


• Create a Facebook Page, and get connected with audience. Create an impressive banner, and present your offers through Facebook Page. Create adverts and promote them through your friends


• Posts should be informative and meaningful. Make your posts interesting by putting them as questions and polls. Let the users participate – it makes more promotions


• You can create some facebook applications – as simple games, Quiz content or choose the product, etc. It should be filled with fun, and useful to understand about the product. Choose the applications from facebook store, and utilize them – careful about the competitors.


• Connect Blog RSS Feeds, Twitter Feeds, Tumblr Posts with facebook and hire a team of professionals to do promotion for you through these channels.

What do you think – if you have some new ideas, share it with us… it will be helpful for everyone.

W3C Initiatives - for .Mobi Website Development

W3C had developed several number of web technologies that unequivocally take into account the specifications of mobile devices. Try the following in your .Mobi Website development, and let me know your experiences.

• CSS Mobile, a profile of the cascading style sheet language that matches the need of mobile Web authors


• SVG Tiny, a profile of the Web’s scalable vector graphics format well-suited to the capabilities of mobile devices


• XHTML For Mobile, which defines a subset of XHTML for mobile

The latest generations of mobile internet browsers are capable of using more advanced Web technologies, including features from HTML5, CSS 2.1 and 3, a number of rich JavaScript APIs, opening the way for Web-based mobile applications (including widgets).

I am working on the technical document now for some sample models, which can help the beginners to get started with .Mobi development quickly.

Quick Tips .Mobi Web Development

.Mobi is the extension for Mobile websites – websites that can be browsed in Mobile Phone Internet browser.  Just like .com, .net and .info, the .modi extension is also becoming popular based on the popularity of smart phones in market. Numerous corporate companies and news media agencies are having their Mobile website to present news and content directly into the hands of end user. Many social media websites – including facebook and twitter posts are also getting presented in this way through various mobile websites.

.Mobi websites are opening a new world of opportunities for web site designers, developers and testers. I see many small and medium size companies are also participating in these developments powerfully now days. Recently I presented a demo about .Mobi development and its standards to a client. I would like to share some points here for our friends.

Number #1: Visualize the .Mobi website based on a straightforward template, which is suitable for almost all the mobile browsers. Try to see visit the existing mobile websites and build a standards document. It will be helpful for your designers and developers, and also for estimations.

Number #2: Plan the .Mobi website with limited content. Don’t fill it with everything from your Internet website. Plan for the images, media content [videos, audio etc], and RSS feeds in design time itself. Use images with less DPI, and size reduced audio video content. Don’t use animated GIF kind of media in professional websites.

Number #3: Create a personalized CSS Template, and tailored theme for your website. It should be impressive, at the same time, it should be lite to get downloaded quickly in mobile device.

Number #4: Less usage of Javascript and Flash will be good, but these things are helping a lot in presentation and interactivity. Try using Javascript libraries and Flashlite swf files wherever you feel required, and test its performance in real time mobile devices. Don’t rely on Emulators. Emulators will not help you to find and fix real time issues.

Number #5: Use the CMS based Frameworks, if you are familiar with such architectures. I used Wordpress, and I see many are using Joomla too. The development time can be optimized, and many standards related things will be taken care by these frameworks automatically. There are Templates for Mobile Devices available for Free, and you can customize them for your requirements.

WordPress and .Mobi Development

Wordpress is a well known name in cross platform open source blog publishing application market. It uses PHP and MYSQL – and it can be used as Content Management System also.  It has many features including plug-in architecture and custom templates – best for beginners to advance level users.

Wordpress is providing Mobile template and functional extensions for .mobi development.  Wordpress Mobile Edition is a Plug-in that shows an interface designed for a mobile device, when visitors come to your side on mobile devices. Mobile Browsers are automatically detected using WURFL, the list of mobile browsers can be customized on the settings page.

The Installation is very simple – just like all other Wordpress Plug-ins

• Drop the wp-mobile.php file in your wp-content/plugins directory


• Drop the carrington-mobile-(version #) directory in your wp-content/themes directory


• Click the 'Activate' link for WordPress Mobile Edition on your Plugins page (in the WordPress admin interface)

Mobile template themes can be created, and customized for your business requirements. You can also add other plug-ins such as RSS feeds, Micro Blog Panel etc. You can create and edit pages to customize the PHP/XHTML content – add your Facebook Badges, LinkedIN profile connecters etc.

Visit my Mobile blog – http://m.gvmuthu.com – I created it using Wordpress – just as a beginner. Share your comments and suggestions – let me see, how best I can improve it.

What are the customer needs?

How do you meet the customer’s expectation? How to understand the needs of a customer clearly before producing project definition to them? Well, this is an important activity in any mobile application development project, but it is easy if you follow these simple steps.

• Understand your customer and business


• Understand the customer’s environment – technical & business beliefs


• Demonstrate your awareness of the customer’s technical and business needs


• Ensure Customer and End-user needs are aligned – see from different views


• Expose and hidden expectations – technical mostly

Sustainable Innovations

Early this week, I got an opportunity to attend a workshop on Sustainable Innovation – presented by Dr. Kumar S. Nochur (Ph.D, MIT’s Sloan School of Management, USA), President, Vidya Technologies Inc., - a Boston area management consulting firm. It was organized by Amrita School of Business, Coimbatore.

The workshop provided an excellent insight on Innovations and how to build a process for innovations. Basically from an Idea to Success. Kumar presented some very valuable business philosophies on Innovations and its process, stakeholders through various real-time examples including his experiences with 3M and other companies. Yes, it finally went into – ROI – How to increase your return of innovations…

I personally learned some real interesting business model system around innovations in industry, which includes handling stakeholders – investors, intermediates, influencers, customers/end users, and competitors. He also discussed about need and priority analysis, proactive and skillful management if key stakeholders, values and risks in innovations, positive relationships, what stops innovations in industries etc.

Kumar gave couple of workshop exercises – based on the personalized idea to success on everyone’s mind – which is a personalized innovation for their life. I wrote about enterprise mobile solutions – even though it is not an innovation – but an idea which can change the way of management in many industries.

I have to thank Vasudevan Uppili [CEO, Haritham Technologies] for this interesting opportunity. Now I am working on 5 critical roles kumar suggested in his workshop – for innovation success. I think I can fit into the role of creative thinker and champion to make it success.

Good things are happening… Happy to work on these kind of projects…:)

Facebook Desktop Chat

Ever tried to Connect Facebook Chat with your Desktop Chat Client - here is the easy way..

I am using Pidgin 2.6.2 as my Desktop Chat client - where I configured multiple Yahoo Accounts, MSN Accounts and Gtalk Accounts. Now, Let me show you how I configured Facebook Chat ..

Start your instant message program and locate the menu where you can add a new account (usually in preferences or settings).

Create a new account by entering the following info:

Protocol: XMPP or Jabber

Username: [your username]

Domain: chat.facebook.com

Jabber ID: [username]@chat.facebook.com

Password: <your Facebook password>

Enter the following server info, as requested:

Port: 5222

Server: chat.facebook.com

Use SSL/TLS: no

Allow plaintext authentication: no

Facebook + SKYPE = Facebook Video Call

Facebook comes with Video Call - Facebook + Skype.

Just click the call button at the top of your friend's profile or chat window — no need to launch new software.

You can also leave a Video Message. :-)

Milestone schedule – a view to success

The milestone is a flag or signal, at some clearly defined point in the project. The milestone flag indicates, that something special should have happened, or it is about to happen. The milestone is a point of control, placing target points in the project plan for certain events, to be signed off as completed.

Try to build a Milestone chart using these points and let’s discuss how it improved your planning.

• Completion of a Key Task – Example: Functional Analysis based on business requirements


• Completion of project deliverables – Example: First cut working demo, Database Design


• Stage for generation of benefits – Example: Reports


• Completion of third party significant event – Example: acceptance tests


• Completion of third party activity – Example: Delivery of equipment / Mobile


• Financial Audit Point


• Project Audit Point


• Quality Audit Point


• Significant decision point


• Completion of project stage to release further funding

Your Social Network?

web surveys

How to do self-appraisal using Google Forms

Self appraisal is nothing but an evaluation of employee himself – It gives the fundamental feedback / views and points regarding his performance in given period of time at work. It analyses the strengths, weaknesses, accomplishments, problems faced, training and development needs for every member in team. The self appraisal document is normally a simple excel sheet.

Google Forms is an excellent alternative for static Excel sheets – mainly for this kind of processes. You can create a Form and share it with multiple members without any duplicate efforts.

We used Google forms in a small size organization – for 150 members. It gave us interesting results effort wise. We finished the self appraisal process in 2 days using this. We used the following sections for self rating (1 to 5) simply and added a notes section at the end of it for comments.

• Satisfaction in current responsibilities held by the employee


• Clarity in Goals for the next appraisal period


• Accomplishments score


• Training need for his current role


• Support from his Manager for challenges in Work


• Leadership skills Score


• Inter-personal and communication skills

Steps to create Google Forms

1. Click on ‘Form’ in ‘Create New’ Menu – from the home page of Google Docs.


2. You can edit the title, add description, add Question Titles, Question Types (basically answer type –               Text, paragraph, multiple choice, check boxes, scale, grid etc)


3. You can even select themes for colorful forms.


4. After all your create Form processes – you can publish it in email to your team


5. You can see responses in Summery or Spread sheet mode

Try it, and give me your feedbacks. If you need any help in doing it first time – just ping me.

How to satisfy your customer?

Recognize that customer expectations directly relate to customer satisfaction. Ensure that you are following these simple instructions.

• Serve them with professional competence


• Behave in a cooperative and friendly manner


• Understand the customer business and technical environment


• Understand the difficulties and constraints your customer face in real time business


• Always avoid springing negative surprises


• Always provide positive results, not excuse for poor performance

Windows Phone Marketplace Reac...

Windows Phone Marketplace Reaches 25K Apps. #microsoft #mobile #career #development #smallbiz #in. http://bit.ly/j8YX8D

Foursquare Finds Its Way To Wi...

Foursquare Finds Its Way To Windows Phone 7. #microsoft #mobile #social #locationservices #phone #in. http://bit.ly/lKBLrI

3 New Apps For Self Improvemen...

3 New Apps For Self Improvement. #personal #development #career #opportunities #smallbiz #in. http://bit.ly/ixt0Kj

The Week's Best Android Apps #...

The Week's Best Android Apps #Video #mobile #android #widgets #smallbiz #social #in http://bit.ly/j6VAGW

How to Make Google+ Look Like ...

How to Make Google+ Look Like Facebook+ [Google+]. #google #facebook #social #tips #in http://bit.ly/iyyhSK

The Google +1 project: Explore...

The Google +1 project: Explore Mobile. #social #smallbiz #opportunities #mobile #in http://bit.ly/jB2j9H

Plan, find, work on jobs and a...

Plan, find, work on jobs and assignments that challenge your mind. #leadership #smallbiz #in

Controlling mobile access with...

Controlling mobile access with device management policy: Case study. #security #mobile #infrastructure #in. http://bit.ly/m8CDcz

RT @dnewman: Amazon.com: Top 1...

RT @dnewman: Amazon.com: Top 10 Recommendations for the New Manager's Bookshelf http://t.co/UaoNSay #leadership #management #business #in.

.Mobi – Pencil - Mobile Website UI Prototype

UI [User Interface] is an important factor for a Mobile Website, just like any other Mobile Application. Of Course, Mobile Websites cannot have Flashy UI, as they use in Mobile Applications, but the web site needs impressive outlook to attract visitors. The UI should be simple, at the same time, functionally easy to use for a non-technical user too. Whenever I work for UI designs in Mobile Platform, I go with Prototype model in first stage. There are number of software tools available in market, but I used Corel Draw for long time. Recently I found one interesting tool called “Pencil”. It is a GNU General Public License Software, primarily helps for UI prototype designing to Desktop, Web and Mobile Websites / Applications.   It comes with free Stencils for GTK Widgets, Windows XP Widgets, Native UI Widgets and Sketchy GUI too. You can also create your own stencils group using ‘Stencil Generator’ menu option.  It is a very small application programs, loads very fast, and solves the primary purpose of UI prototyping easily. It initially came as a Plug-in to Firefox, now the standalone version is also available for free download.

Try it for your Prototype designing and share your comments.

You can download it from : http://pencil.evolus.vn/en-US/Home.aspx

Note: There is another software called “Pencil” - in the same name J, animation/drawing software for Mac OS X, Windows, and Linux. It lets you create traditional hand-drawn animation (cartoon) using both bitmap and vector graphics. Pencil is free and open source.

RT @_robin_sharma: People love...

RT @_robin_sharma: People love doing business with people who love doing business. #smallbiz #marketing #in

Tumblr hit with huge phishing ...

Tumblr hit with huge phishing attack. #security #social #blog #mobile #in http://bit.ly/jxEPhu

Project Management: 4 Ways to ...

Project Management: 4 Ways to Manage Your Budget. #smallbiz #quality #mobile #in. http://bit.ly/lBUSAY

What Mobile Platform Is Right ...

What Mobile Platform Is Right For Your Business? #blackberry #android #iphone #symbian #windows #smallbiz #in http://bit.ly/mUmSnW

Security-as-a-Service ROI Calc...

Security-as-a-Service ROI Calculator #information #security #business #in. http://bit.ly/jXoJJ8

I'm on twiends. Join me! http:...

I'm on twiends. Join me! http://twiends.com/me/gvmuthu

There's a gold rush on for mob...

There's a gold rush on for mobile app developers willing to retool their technical skills and adopt a new design mind-set. #Jobs #in.

Always define clear goals and ...

Always define clear goals and expectations for the assignment. But don’t explain how to do it. #Team #Management #QuickMBA

Well managed device is a secur...

Well managed device is a secure Device - Mobile Device Management Solutions is a new generation Enterprise Career Opportunity. #Career #in.

Any management can be reduced ...

Any management can be reduced to three words: people, product and profiles. People always come first. #team #management #smallbiz

Are you using any Mobile Socia...

Are you using any Mobile Social Networking Application in your Device? Which one? #mobile #social-networks #marketing #technology

what is a one thing that would...

what is a one thing that would make you consider moving to another company? http://linkd.in/kra1rS #jobs #career #business #Staffing

Black berry Playbook dual-core...

Black berry Playbook dual-core 1GHz processor, 1GB RAM, BB Tablet OS and QNX technology - http://t.co/cjIeWVh via @ndtv #Blackberry #in.

How to - Improving the Scrum Practice

Daily Scrum meeting alias Daily Standup meeting is an important element of Scrum Process Practice. It is usually a 15 minutes discussion and it makes everyone to answer three basic questions. "What did you do since the last meeting?", "What are you going to do until the next meeting?", "What impedes you from being more productive?". The purpose of this rigidness is for making sure that daily Scrum is to help team members synchronize between themselves, not to solve problems.

There are few quick improvement ideas below.

• Visual Progress Artifact board based discussion – ideally in front of the task board with the sprint and backlog.


• Everyone should attend – because this meeting should be utilized as a wide communication bandwidth as possible.


• Don’t take Notes – Take only micro notes by hand. Don’t use the laptop typing.


• Concentrate on "What are you going to do until the next meeting?", "What impedes you from being more productive?" – to figure out what’s blocking the efficient work and who could help it.

The above mentioned simple tips can be good starting points or reminders. However, every team knows best how to adjust its stand-ups to serve them better. The important part is the goal, not the method.

How social media marketing is ...

How social media marketing is changing your business? Share your comments. #social #business #in

We've Already Reached 'Peak An...

We've Already Reached 'Peak Android,' Says Analyst. #marketing #in. http://bit.ly/j6eeoR

Review: Motorola XPRT. It open...

Review: Motorola XPRT. It opens few more development opportunities #mobile #technology #marketing #smallbiz #in http://bit.ly/kk0inr

RT @mashablemobile: How do you...

RT @mashablemobile: How do you engage with your customers through #mobile #marketing ? strategic ways yo... http://on.mash.to/jCWFNW #in

Build a simple project managem...

Build a simple project management process, and validate it with atleast 3 live projects. Learn lessons to improve it. #smallbiz #qpmp #in

SEO & Internet marketing: Defi...

SEO & Internet marketing: Defining & refining your offering. #seo #marketing #smallbiz #socialmedia #in http://bit.ly/jsF9UQ

Revolutionary Mobile Search Qu...

Revolutionary Mobile Search Queries Apps Instead of the Web http://t.co/epHGG24 via @mashablemobile @mashable

6 hot IT jobs - Mobile tech ex...

6 hot IT jobs - Mobile tech expert, Enterprise mobile developer, Data scientist, Social media architect, Business arch…http://lnkd.in/7ciASD

Conflict Management – Key Gu...

Conflict Management – Key Guidelines for Managers, Tips and Suggestions. #Operations #Management #Startups #Profession…http://lnkd.in/a_7GvQ

Advanced Twitter Tools

Twitter is becoming an interesting social media platform for many new communication tools. I did a research on it, few days back, for a new business discussion. I found some interesting websites – just sharing them here for your interest.

- TwitterLocal – This tool allows you to locate and follow posts of people based on different geographical locations.

- TwitterBuzz – It is one of the popular tools that is updated constantly. It tells you what’s being linked to the most on Twitter.

- Who Should I Follow? – This is a very helpful tool for newbie that gives good recommendations on who you should follow.

- TwitDir - TwitDir not only allows you to search for people, but also find statistics for Top 100 followers, Followed, Updaters and Favoriters.

- Twellow - Use Twellow to find users in specific industry that you are looking for.

Try these – I think these will help a lot for building and managing your own twitter groups.

Startup companies are having m...

Startup companies are having more potential compared to big corporate companies. I see a good attitude and meaningful effort. #Business

Social Media – Customer Serv...

Social Media – Customer Service - Couple of weeks before I participated in an online group discussion on... http://tumblr.com/xwz2urppur

Social Media – Customer Service

Couple of weeks before I participated in an online group discussion on Social media based customer service management. Many organizations starts with social media in its marketing and communications, and as they began monitoring for brand mentions, they quickly discover they were intermediaries between the customer and the customer service department.
They are the most qualified to respond via social media, as they are the ones responding by phone and email.

There are few interesting things I noted in the overall discussion.

1. The person monitoring for mentions, whether they are in corporate communications or customer service, needs to know what to do with customer service requests when they find them. Make sure you have set internal expectations for response time.

2. If you already have established customer service response times, develop a social media response times too that fits within the culture of your organization. Make sure it is something that you can meet, because you want to post this publicly and set customer’s expectations for the response.

3. While customer service reps have always been on the front lines representing the company, if they will now be responding using social media, they need to understand the etiquette of the platforms. Some people can get a bit snarky when posting on social networks, and some of that grows out of the informal nature of the conversations. Informal or slightly fun is okay in your responses, however, they also need to be serious.

4. Your customer service reps can tell you the 10 most common questions asked by customers and prospects. Write a blog post for each one of them and use keywords in the titles so people can find them using search. This is the inbound marketing approach to customer service.

5. Simple responses to common questions can, and should, happen publicly. But real issues that require research or detailed conversations need to move offline. As soon as an issue is identified in this category, respond publicly with an email address or a request to send contact information via Twitter Direct Message. Other people following your company need to see a response, and the customer with an issue may require a response that is longer, and not appropriate for public channels. Frequently, customers who have raised issues using social media will post a positive comment once the issue is resolved. The ongoing perception that your company cares about its customers and wants to solve customer issues is important. If this is not true, using social media will be a challenge.

#Cloud #Storage Services Keep ...

#Cloud #Storage Services Keep Data Safe and Accessible. #security #enterprise #business #in. http://bit.ly/iyqBof

At 1.6 Billion Queries Per Day...

At 1.6 Billion Queries Per Day, #Twitter Finally Aims To Make #Search Personally Relevant. #social #media http://bit.ly/iRCIMy

Any flash lite programmers wit...

Any flash lite programmers with 2+ exp, in coimbatore? We are building a team... #social #media #gaming #mobile #in

#Android app: Battleheart – ...

#Android app: Battleheart – Review. #game #in. http://bit.ly/iR5KJL

connected with FB and TWT. htt...

connected with FB and TWT. http://4sq.com/mbVJFG

Live #Webcast: Three Proven St...

Live #Webcast Three Proven Steps to Transform #Reports into #Decision Making Tools. #smallbiz #sales. #in http://bit.ly/mczfeH

#Facebook Still Has No #iPad A...

#Facebook Still Has No #iPad App But They’re Building A #Desktop Software Team?! #social #networks #in http://bit.ly/iYSLjA

#Smartphones, not DVRs, are th...

#Smartphones not DVRs, are the biggest threat to #TV adverts. #in http://engt.co/l40Cqq

RT @digitindia: Micromax launc...

RT @digitindia: Micromax launches Bling 2, the Android Froyo fashion phone for Rs. 8,999 http://bit.ly/lkOz9K #in

#Tablet apps revenues to top $...

#Tablet apps revenues to top $15 bn by 2015: In-Stat. #business #career #professional #in. http://bit.ly/kBjBLp

The rising use of SSL raises n...

The rising use of SSL raises new risks. #social #networking #security #in http://bit.ly/kiB6y4

Reasons #Mango Could Interest ...

Reasons #Mango Could Interest You in Buying a #Windows #Phone. #technology #smartphone #microsoft #in. http://bit.ly/lhInI1

3 Gifts from my CSC Team

As many of you already know, I am not in my responsibilities of Photon and CSC Roles from Feb 4 2011. I resigned from Enterprise project management Office role, and now looking for opportunities in Delivery Management and Operations - also supporting to few SMEs as Consultant. My CSC Friends gave me a good party and few good books too – as a gift. Thanks to Neel, Veera, Shajahan, Sambit, Anthony, Kumbesh, Elumalai, selva and others.

I am yet to read these books but I am happy to share its titles to everyone.

1. JACK – straight from the gut – This book is written by Jack Welch. As CEO of General Electric for the past twenty years, he has built its market cap by over $500 billion and established himself as the most admired business leader in the world. His championing of initiatives like Six Sigma quality, globalization, and e-business have helped define the modern corporation. At the same time, he's a gutsy boss who has forged a unique philosophy and an operating system that relies on a "boundaryless" sharing of ideas, an intense focus on people, and an informal, give-and-take style that makes bureaucracy the enemy. This book is laced with refreshing interludes, such as "A Short Reflection on Golf," that capture Jack's competitiveness and the importance of friendship in his life. JACK: STRAIGHT FROM THE GUT is destined to become both a business classic and a deeply personal journey filled with passion and a sheer lust for life.

2. The Management Gurus – Lessons from the best management books of all time – Chris Lauer - Insightful summaries of fifteen outstanding management books.

3. The New age of Innovation – C.K. Prahalad, M.S. Krishnan - Named one of the "Best Books on Innovation, 2008" by "BusinessWeek" magazine. From the greatest minds in business today comes a groundbreaking new blueprint for executing the next stage of customer-created value. C.K. Prahalad, the world's premier business thinker, and IT scholar M.S. Krishnan unveil the critical missing link in connecting strategy to execution--building organizational capabilities that allow companies to achieve and sustain continuous change and innovation.

Once again, Thanks to everyone. All the best for a great time.

Microsoft Mango

News BY MATT HARTLEY, POSTMEDIA NEWS (http://www.ottawacitizen.com)

Microsoft Corp.'s quest to reassert itself in the smartphone industry entered its next phase on Tuesday with the release of "Mango," the latest iteration of the company's flagship Windows Phone software.

Microsoft is adding 500 new features to its Windows Phone 7 software, which first launched in November. The "Mango" version of Windows Phone 7 will be available later this fall.

It said several new smartphone manufacturers, in-cluding Acer Inc., Fujitsu Ltd. and ZTE Corp., would begin building Windows Phone devices. Joining a list of existing manufacturers that includes LG, Samsung Electronics Ltd. and HTC Corp.

For Microsoft, Windows Phone has given the world's most powerful software company a strong foothold in the mobile device industry as it seeks to counter the dominance of Apple Inc.'s iPhone, Google Inc.'s Android platform and Research In Motion Ltd.'s BlackBerry devices.

Mind-map your way to successfu...

Mind-map your way to successful projects. An interesting presentation. #in http://bit.ly/jLaXj4

11 Free #Microsoft Tools You'r...

11 Free #Microsoft Tools You're Overlooking. #professional #development #in http://bit.ly/k302TL

How to #Protect #Smartphones a...

How to #Protect #Smartphones and #Tablets #in http://bit.ly/izV7pZ

American Society for the Advancement of Project Management (ASAPM)

While discussing about the ethics in Project management through Facebook – one of my friends shared the below listed interesting information - I am just sharing the same for your views.

We, the members of asapm, in recognition of our personal obligation to our profession, to its members, and to the communities we serve, do hereby commit ourselves to the highest ethical and professional conduct and agree:

To maintain high standards of integrity and professional conduct, and to accept responsibility for our actions.

To avoid real or perceived conflicts of interest whenever possible, and to disclose them to affected parties when they do exist.

To be honest in representing our project management capability, and realistic in the application of project management.

To reject bribery in the conduct of our professional responsibilities.

To improve and promote the understanding of project management, of its appropriate application, and of its potential consequences.

To maintain and improve our project management capability.

To seek, accept, and offer honest criticism for the purpose of enhancing the project management body of work, and to credit properly the contributions of others.

To treat all persons fairly regardless of their race, religion, gender, disability, age, national origin, or other differences.

To avoid injuring others, their property, reputation, or employment by false or misleading words or action.

To assist colleagues and coworkers in their professional development and to support them in following this code of ethics.

Initial Thoughts On The #Samsu...

Initial Thoughts On The #Samsung Series 5 #Chromebook #in. http://bit.ly/ieqgJt

Top 5 Things to Do Before Buyi...

Top 5 Things to Do Before Buying More #Security #Technology. http://bit.ly/ljWKEe

7 Simple Tips That Will Turn Y...

7 Simple Tips That Will Turn You Into A Powerful #Leadership #professional #career #in. http://bit.ly/kyGXkV

#Android And #Chrome: Anywhere...

#Android And #Chrome Anywhere And Everywhere. #google #web #mobile http://bit.ly/jD0FxY

S.M.A.R.T. Monitoring Tools #p...

S.M.A.R.T. Monitoring Tools #project #management #professional #personal #in http://bit.ly/khv9Wb

#LinkedIn Tip: How to Use "Sig...

#LinkedIn Tip: How to Use "Signal" to #Job Hunt. #professional #career #in http://bit.ly/iT61mA

Management Magazine Websites

In today’s world, the knowledge is the key. Knowledge comes not only through own experiences but also from continuous reading – Yes, I mean Magazines. Magazines will help us to understand the current trends, market and business strategies, views and focus points etc. Many of us are not reading even news paper now days – we all watch it in TV. But reading is a good habit per me. At least – 30 mins of reading can give a message / idea / or solution even. Fine, let me introduce few online magazines – for business managers. Try to visit these websites at least once in a week – or get the RSS feeds.

- Perdido - Features articles, profiles of organizations and their programs, and book reviews in the fields of leadership, human relations, and management

- Selling Power - Magazine for professional selling skills, motivation and sales management know-how in the business- to-business environment.

- strategy+business - Delivers penetrating insights and practical guidance about management, innovation, public policy, strategy, and more.

- Workforce Management - Provides information on employment law, human resource development and human resource management.

- Chief Executive - Magazine written for CEOs and their peers. Provides ideas, strategies and tactics for top executive leaders seeking to build more effective organizations.

How We Moved Almost Everything...

How We Moved Almost Everything to the #Cloud 5 Lessons. #technology #business #professional #in. http://bit.ly/izOEY5

Scope Management

Scope Management is an important knowledge area for PMP masters. It is all about making sure that the project includes only the work required to complete the project successfully. Here the success is Time + Quality + Content. To be effective in scope management, the manager must learn to control what is and what is not in the scope of the project. There are some best practices I learned from my discussions with many mangers in recent years.

1. Collect requirements in early stage itself and get a sign-off – It happens by clearly understanding the business of client, by understanding the needs of the stakeholders and the capabilities and constraints of our resources. I suggest interviews as best method of requirement collection. The manager must ask questions about stakeholder’s views of the finished product, the deliverables they expect to receive and mainly the schedule of the project.

2. Change Management Board – Change Control or Change Management board is a group of members including the key technical and management team of the project. The scope of the project should be well defined in a document and shared. Any amount of variation in the scope of the project can affect the project schedule, budget and ultimately the success of the project. The change request should first come into CCB for a discussion. The impact analysis results should be discussed. The approved Change should be published with its impact on other areas to all stakeholders. The change should be logged for any further clarifications. The roll-back scenarios should be planned.

There are more, lets discuss in coming days.

Social Networking Security..

I am working on Social Networking Security for Small and Medium size organizations. Share your case studies and suggestions ... lets discuss and work together.

Mobile Applications for Twitter

Hi Friends, try these mobile applications – these are really interesting for those who use twitter for personal and professional micro blogging, business management and of course project management.

- Twitter Answers – Enables you to Tweet answers and get responses. Like Yahoo Answers for Twitter.
- Twitter2Go – WAP or XHTML-MP interface that works on Palm, Pocket PC, BlackBerry, and almost any other mobile phone or PDA device.
- Twitterpation – An iPhone application that lets you record mixed voice-and-text Tweets

LinkedIn Takes A Data Dive To ...

LinkedIn Takes A Data Dive To Examine What’s In A Professional Name. #interesting #must read. #in http://bit.ly/dHc7Fu

Social Networking for Schools

Facebook is giving me opportunities for new business always. Recently I saw one advertisement for Social Networking for Schools. By following the link I found an interesting web 2.0 online application called – Twiducate. It is a free resource for educators. The goal is to create a medium for teachers and students to continue their learning outside the classroom. The service attempts to fill a need for a more educationally focused, safe venue for teachers, schools, and home learners in a social networking environment.

Teachers can create a network for them/school and their students and can do the following things using this Twiducate.

Share inspiration, ideas, readings, thoughts
Post discussions, deadlines, homework
Embed pictures, links and video
Keep parents informed
Collaborate on work by providing feedback
Connect with students outside the classroom in a secure manner!

I am exploring this website with one of my friend – she is a teacher, works in a private school. Let me post my observations soon.

Brochure: Simple, cost-effecti...

Brochure: Simple, cost-effective #collaboration and messaging for small and midsize businesses. #solution #in. http://bit.ly/e78VTN

Best Sellers in Management shelf

Recently one of friend introduced me the store manager of landmark at Chennai. We discussed a lot about the change in reading habits of people now days, the growth of new age Indian writers, book exhibitions, and the type of books they sell in recently business scenarios.

I saw these books on stand – and found that these are the best sellers now days.
- Leadership @ Infosys by Matthew Barney
- Destination Work : Getting People Excited About Coming To Work And Working Hard by Harry Paul, Ross Reck
- Being The Boss : The 3 Imperatives For Becoming A Great Leader by Linda A. Hill, Kent Lineback
- Employees First, Customers Second: Turning Conventional Management Upside Down by Vineet Nayar
- Marketing 3. 0: From Products To Customers To The Human Spirit by Philip Kotler
- TEN MUCH- Ten Ordinary Processes For Extraordinary Success by A. G. Krishnamurthy
- The Maruti Story by R C Bhargava

Friends, Try these books and let me know your comments.

What they don’t teach you at Harvard Business school

What they don’t teach you at Harvard Business school- by Mark H McCormack is a very famous book in best seller market. 14 Beautiful Chapters on People, Business Management, Sales and Negotiation – makes this book a must read for those who are doing an M.B.A – or working on Management – any domain. There are many practical cases explained with solutions, and lessons learnt.

There is a website http://www.bainvestor.com/What-they-teach-Harvard.html - where you can even get a small business book - Thinking Like An Entrepreneur - How To Make Intelligent Business Decisions That Will Lead To Success In Building And Growing Your Own Company - by Peter Hupalo.

#Microsoft Unveils Tools for N...

#Microsoft Unveils Tools for Next-Gen #Windows #Phone OS, 'Mango'. #development #career #software #professional #in http://bit.ly/gtcf4D

#Adobe And #Zend Launch Flash ...

#Adobe And #Zend Launch Flash Builder 4.5 For #PHP Development. #professional #career #business #in. http://bit.ly/h6Sn51

Social Media – what more…

One of my valuable clients came back again with a new request on Tourism business – using Social Media. There are many websites available already – for ex: WAYN, but they wanted to have a detail discussion on ‘What more can be done’. The discussion happened in their office – for around 6 hours – non-stop with many examples, case studies, success stories, risks, and opportunities.

We discussed mainly about using Social Media (Facebook, Twitter etc) for Tourism based services, Health Tourism management, Lifestyle Programmes, Content Development and Broadcasting, Food and User Generated Information Management. We agreed to develop a framework using Facebook as a platform. I am happy to see some improvements every week.

Gandhi, CEO: 14 Principles to Guide & Inspire Modern Leaders

Two months before one of my friends suggested this book, when we were in Landmark Chennai. I finished reading it just last week. It’s an interesting book from Alan Axelrod. Alan is the author of more than 60 books, including the bestsellers Profiles in Audacity 9781402745317 and The Real History of the Cold War 9781402763021. He has appeared on MSNBC, the Discovery Channel, CNN, Fox, and numerous radio news and talk programs. Axelrod and his work have been featured in Business Week, Fortune, Men's Health, Cosmopolitan and many newspapers.

The book is very useful for new generation leaders and practical managers. Gandhi’s Personal Leadership and Institutional management are well explained through his management principles and personal/political life. Learning and Experience, The nonviolent CEO, Deciding, Revaluation and Revolution are very interesting titles to read. Every chapter is having collection of lessons. There are 14 Chapters and 100 lessons – every single lesson is giving a practical path for a leader of this generation.

Bizness Apps Expands To #Andro...

Bizness Apps Expands To #Android To Bring Your Business Into The #Mobile Apps Game. #professional #development #in http://bit.ly/eIOFxT

10 #Free #Sports #mobile Apps ...

10 #Free #Sports #mobile Apps for #Android and #iPhone #ideas #development. #technology #in. http://bit.ly/fu9rwt

How to Motivate your Employees

The business success comes from a team of motivated, hard/smart working employees – in any small and medium size company. In a seminar, I attended few years ago – I noted few valuable points about this topic, and I would like to share them here.

Creating a Positive Environment – Every employee should feel worthwhile and important. Such office environment gives a positive energy to employees, and it makes a productive office. The manager’s office door should be always open for staffs – their questions and concerns.

Career oriented growth – The manager should help the employees to reach to the next level professionally by providing on-site coaching – through their day to day works. There is professional one-to-one counseling available, which can help people learn how to overcome personal and professional obstacles on their career path.

Acknowledge every contributions – A manager can make a very big difference in employee morale simply by taking the time to recognize the contributions and accomplishments of every members in team.

Incentives – Offering incentives to members for best performance is a good practice. It can be something small like a gift certificate, or something more such as performance based bonus. “Employee of the Month”, “Star Performer” kind of treats will help a lot in motivating employees.

In my experiences, I crossed many success stories in my team – of course by implementing the above mentioned ideas.