Outsourcing News

I always love to get questions from my readers, and I answer them all, but sometimes I feel like the “Dear Abby’ for entrepreneurs. Many of the questions I get make me realize how well off most of us are, as we understand the challenges that others have to face. If you have some insights, don’t hesitate to let me know. Here are some real cases: Dear StartupPro, I am a minority looking for funding for a Home HealthCare Service business. It has been hard in my years of searching for funds. I have had some unfortunate trying times with the loss of a daughter and baby grandson and having to raise a now 17-year-old, we are upside down in our mortgage.

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‘Dear Abby’ Style Advice to Real Entrepreneurs

In a Feb. 27 All Business column about former executives’ consulting deals, The Associated Press reported erroneously that outgoing Regions Financial CEO C. Dowd Ritter’s consulting contract calls for 75 hours of work in the first year. It calls for 75 days of work.

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Correction: All Business column (AP via Yahoo! News)

A while back I emphasized how important is to have a company website these days ( Startups Without a Website Won’t Start ). I should have added that a website not clearly visible to search engines is lost in the dead zone. Unless someone searches for your company by name, it won’t show up in the results. Search engines like Google depend on website HTML tags, inbound and outbound links, and relevant content to do its ranking and matchmaking, and hopefully get your company found and near the top of customer search requests. Yet my random poll of a dozen company sites found 25% were missing even the most basic tag info. The solution is basic search engine optimization (SEO). These are the high-value elements you need if you hope to see your company on any page of results for relevant user queries: Title tags

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Get Your Website Out of the Internet Dead Zone

One of the biggest obstacles to innovation in most organizations is the addiction to short-term results. Hustling, speed, and fire fighting rule the day — resulting in the kind of over-caffeinated efforts that make everyone cranky. Focusing on your next quarter, of course, is a necessary part of business. But not to the exclusion of the long-term. Someone’s got to focus on projects that won’t see the light of day for tree years… or five …. or ten. If you are serious about innovation, you will need to develop an Innovation Portfolio , one that includes short-term, mid-term, and long-term goals.

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Create an Innovation Portfolio

Thinking of buying a digital voice recorder?  One thing to consider when deciding on a recording device is recording time.  Some recorders can store up to 250 hours of audio, but there is an important fact to keep in mind: higher quality usually means less time, and more recording time usually means lower quality.  Most digital audio recorders will specify recording time length on the highest quality setting, so look for this when making your choice. Send your audio to eDecree for transcription even if its not the highest quality.  Our transcribers are professionals with plenty of experience in transcribing low-quality audio.  We offer top-quality  at low prices.  Get the most out of your new digital audio recorder, send us your audio now! Just go to www.edecree.com.

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Tech Tip of Week: Digital Voice Recorders (Recording Time)

Start-Up Links 65 Million IP Addresses To Users, Readies Targeting Platform By Wendy Davis, Thursday, February 25, 2010 Web users who don’t want to be tracked via standard HTML cookies can opt out in various ways, including rejecting cookies at the browser level or regularly deleting cookies. Users who don’t want to be tracked via Flash cookies also can delete those cookies — though doing so isn’t as easy as deleting HTML cookies. But even the most tech-savvy users might be stymied by some of the newer, harder-to-control tracking technologies. Two years ago, NebuAd began purchasing data directly from people’s broadband providers. While the company said users could opt out of its online behavioral advertising program , it’s since come to light that some ISPs that tested the system never gave subscribers that opportunity. Now, the company ClearSight Interactive is getting ready to launch a form of targeting based on users’ IP addresses . ClearSight, which describes IP addresses as the bridge between users’ offline and online data, has spent the last 18 months acquiring more than 100 million IP addresses — along with email addresses and postal addresses — from publishers. As of today, ClearSight Interactive believes it has collected enough data from publishers to reliably link 65 million “sticky” IP addresses — typically for people who connect to the Web using cable modems — to specific individuals, ClearSight president Tim Daly told MediaPost today during a break at the OMMA Behavioral conference

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Non-Human Life Forms to be Outed on Internet Soon

Back in 2007 the mobile industry was living through its hard times. Not only there was no push for innovation but companies themselves didn’t aspire for it. Industry evolution was about implementing minor design changes and slightly improving software. Every new line of cell phones turned out to be a redesigned old concept; the software remained untouched except for occasional introduction of new features. There were no changes in the UI and thus no changes in user experience. That was the moment when Apple introduced a totally new handset – iPhone. A company that has always been setting computer and music industry trends decided to make another leap forward – seize the mobile industry market. Nobody really believed in Apple’s success because the market was already shared between such established manufacturers as Nokia, Samsung, LG etc. Steve Ballmer, by the way, was almost sure of a failure of Apple’s new undertaking.

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Apple App Store. Mobile industry before and after. Part I – Beginning

There is a huge opportunity for vendors to benefit from the generalised decline in the responsiveness of analyst relations. Most vendors fail to act in the knowledge of the last year’s changes, creating huge benefits for those AR teams that fill the gap. That is the overwhelming tone of conversations with around two dozen analysts

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How can we stop the decline of analyst relations?

Business success begins in the mind of the startup founder and his team. A winning startup is a team of entrepreneurs who build and run the business as an extension of who they are, rather than some extrapolation of the Google or Facebook model. It’s not so easy to fake the important attributes when the going gets rough. So before you risk it all by jumping into a startup, do a reality check on your own mind to see if you can find a majority of the following attributes, based on the book “ You Can Win ” by Shiv Khera: Positive believing

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Entrepreneur Success Begins in the Mind

ArchiFiles outsourcingis a professional IT outsourcing and offshore employee leasing company. We provide skilled and experienced individuals to be part of your company through the outsourcing model. Let us handle the routine maintenance and development tasks for you — allowing Focus more on  growing your business and less on running your office ! Our company features an integrated team of web specialists, office assistants , programmers, creative writers, and marketing professionals who know how to get the work done. Our office is located in Lahore, Pakistan – Asia’s largest English-speaking country. We take pride in having people who understand and practice the latest in Information Technology. Our proven program enables companies to more efficiently manage their time, while enhancing their profit margins. We accomplish this by relieving traditional cost centers such as system administration, HR compliance, payroll/benefits management. We give you… Enormous cost, time and quality advantages Flexible staffing solutions that suit your needs Low priced alternative to traditional staffing Extended resource pool of skilled personnel Rapid deployment and expertise in latest technology Outsourcing human resources responsibilities through us helps lower your overhead, reduce business risk, and save you time and distraction, so that you can focus on your core business. At ArchiFiles outsourcing, we work with our employees long after job placement to ensure they continue to develop skills, maintain work ethics and grow personally and professionally — all the attributes that signify Prime quality. Our company operates 24 hours a day to give every client flexibility.

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professional IT outsourcing

Competition is stiff in the outsourcing  industry, which is why outsourcers really have to perform in order to not just meet their clients’ expectations, but to exceed it.  Not to mention the sometimes extremely harsh public scrutiny that outsourcing companies are subjected to. Outsourcing companies are a dime a dozen now, and it’s easy to go from one to the other, especially if the one you’re with doesn’t deliver.  Just take a look at the Satyam (NYSE:SAY) – Punjab & Sind contract , which has now become the Wipro (NYSE:WIT) – Punjab & Sind bank contract . Last year, the news came out that Satyam had voluntarily reneged on their contract with Punjab & Sind Bank.  The contract was supposed to be for a term of 10 years and was signed in 2006.  The original deal was for the implementation and maintenance of the banks Core Banking System (CBS).   In 2007, Satyam was unable to meet their agreed deadline, incurring a penalty fee that they paid to Punjab & Sind.  Unfortunately for the company, when they next failed to meet the deadline, this time on January 2008, the company had already gone bust, forcing Punjab & Sind to reassess their contract and consider other options. It was when beleaguered company Satyam was acquired by company Tech Mahindra (NSE:TECHM) on April of the following year, that the decision was made to finally end the contract with Punjab & Sind bank, a decision that was made voluntarily by Satyam and resulted in the company paying for damages resulting from the twice-delayed project. Lucky now for Punjab & Sind Bank that they have been able to start anew once again with a new ten year contract, this time awarded to Wipro , who interestingly enough, was the second highest bidder back in 2006 after Satyam.  As of now, Punjab & Sind Bank is the only other public sector bank that has not begun the process of implementing CBS , which just goes to show that the bank must have a lot of areas lined up for improvement. The New Wipro-Punjab & Sind Bank contract was signed last 24th of February, 2010, with the contract emphasizing the significance of the bank’s objective to become an RS 100,000 crore bank by 2011.  As the press release states, “Wipro will be responsible for System Integration, provisioning and management of Finacle core banking solution and enterprise applications.”  Finacle is the core banking, e-banking, Islamic banking, treasury, wealth management and CRM software provided by Infosys (NASDAQ:INFY). It was lucky for Punjab & Sind that they’ve now been able to rise from the experience and focus on their own company’s improvement.  It’s tough luck for Satyam that the new deal has shifted the focus back to them, calling attention to how they dropped the ball, so to speak, on the supposedly very lucrative deal.  As I said, outsourcing companies are a dime a dozen, but then, if you’re the one who made a mistake, then you can expect all eyes are going to be on you, even now, almost half a year later, and Satyam must still feel the heat. Author: Audrey B.

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Punjab & Sind Bank Moved Deal to Wipro after Satyam

Most companies now outsource to outbound call centers in India or in the Philippines, and an issue that has occurred is the poor working condition in these countries. But this seems to be an old issue that has since been remedied.

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Ethical Issues in Outsourcing Outbound Telemarketing Services

Are you in search of electronic medical billing services at lowest possible billing rates? Does your business require fast and accurate electronic medical billing solution? Offshore medical billing is one of the best medical billing companies in the healthcare industry and recognized name for advanced electronic medical billing services.Offshore medical billing is a modern and well known

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Electronic Medical Billing Services at Offshore Country

CHICAGO — Aon Consulting, the global human capital consulting organization of Aon Corporation ( NYSE:AON ) , today declared it has partnered with The Center for Organizational Excellence (COE) to support a multi-agency health and wellness pilot program.

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Aon Consulting Partners with COE on Presidential Wellness Initiative (dBusinessNews.com)

The traditional mode of starting a company is to plan a serial process, where you complete only once all the steps, leading to the “big bang” launch of the company. I strongly recommend a dramatic departure from this model, called “planned iteration,” where you assume you won’t get it right the first time. This idea was well articulated by Paul Graham in an old essay, called “ Startups in 13 Sentences ” in which he talked about “making a few people really happy rather than making a lot of people semi-happy.” One of his key points is that “launching teaches you what you should have been building,” and I agree. All you old software development types will recognize the analogy to the traditional two year “waterfall model” of software development, which has been totally replaced with the Agile iterative methodology. Agile assumes and plans for iterative development, where requirements and solutions evolve as more is known and markets change. Don’t mistake this for a license to launch an incomplete or poor quality solution. Your strategy today should be to define and excellently prepare the absolute minimum product that will excite a selected small segment of your intended customers, and roll it out to them – as a Beta, early promotion, or even a give-away. Then you assess feedback, adjust your offering, and iterate until you get it right (have some very satisfied customers). Plan on multiple small launches, with iterations, rather than a big launch. Here are the advantages I see with this approach: Fast time to market

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Startups Should Launch Early and Iterate

Top-Consultant.com’s management consultancy columnist, Mick James, this week talks to Mark Robinson, Managing Vice President Sales and Marketing of Hitachi Consulting, about the company’s growing presence in the UK.

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Hitachi Consulting continues on a global expansion path (Consultant News)

Managing and growing your business is not an easy task, considering that you have the responsibilities of all the departments on your head. If you are looking for ways to reduce your load and dedicate time to growing your business, outsourcing bookkeeping services may be the right step for you. Business owners generally ignore the number of hours they spend in taking care of their bookkeeping functions, which they can avoid by outsourcing bookkeeping services . By outsourcing bookkeeping functions to a service provider, you can not only save on time but also ensure that your bookkeeping records are maintained impeccably. The following are 4 ways outsourcing bookkeeping services can help in developing your business: Save Time The most important benefit for business owners of outsourcing bookkeeping services is that they can save on time, which can be used for expansion of the business. Outsourcing bookkeeping can ensure that you as the business owner can focus on your core business activities so that you can take your business to the next level. Save Resources Outsourced bookkeeping services are generally cheaper than hiring in-house bookkeepers

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4 ways outsourcing bookkeeping services can help grow your business

Inserting page numbers into your document may be one of the first things you want to do when starting a new document.  Fortunately, it is not too complicated.  Simply click on the “Insert” tab at the top of the window.  Then select “Page Numbers”.   The options menu that opens will vary in appearance depending on the version of Word you are using, but there are a few basic options that are always available.  You can choose whether you want the page numbers in the header or the footer; whether you want them in the left, centre, or right of the page; and whether you wish to show page numbers on the first page.  The default setting places the page number on the right side of the page in the header.  Most recent versions of Word will allow even more formatting options, such as chapters and subsections. When you transcribe with eDecree, page numbers are standard on all our finished materials.  We provide the best quality at super competitive prices!  Increase your productivity today; send us your audio or data and we can have it back to you in as little as 12 hours.  Please go to our website (www.edecree.com) for more details.

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Word Tip of the Week: Page Numbers

Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves Is Not a Fable in China China Venture News Everyone's talking but no one's listening. Yahoo's 1 billion dollar 40 percent stake in Alibaba, China's largest e-commerce firm does not illustrate that a Net bubble …

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Seen that? – Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves Is Not a Fable in China

Home About Press IA Capital Partners Archives After 17 years in M&A, Derivatives and Trading, Im spending my time with young entrepreneurs in and around financial technology and digital media…. And from my perspective as an engaged seed stage venture investor, this makes them unfundable. Read more &raquo Recent Press The New York Times April 22, 2009 – A Company Plans to Market Illiquid Assets CNBC.com April 8, 2008 – Social Stock Picking Reuters April 6, 2009 – Bit.ly Brought to you by: Southern California Tech Central

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Advice for CTO Founders: Don’t Let Business Kill the Business