Anti-Corruption Helpline by IIM students

Anti-Corruption Helpline by IIM students–Need of the hour!

2G scam, Commonwealth Games Scandal, Adarsh Housing Society Scam, Corporate Loan Bribery scandal – Are you tired like me of hearing about scandals day in and day out? Are you in the same boat like me having lost trust in the system? Are you thinking that everything would be forgotten in a few days / weeks.

Here’s an interesting piece of news which has re–instilled a bit of my faith in the system. Six students (Ravi Yadav, Udit Goyal, Saurabh Singh, Nikhil Bhaskar, Shantanu Sekharof IIM Ahmedabad and Daniel De Luna, an exchange student from Italy) have decided to come forward and start an anti corruption helpline.

So what gave them the idea of leaving their cozy high paying jobs to start a helpline?

The biggest reason according to the six of them was the pain at seeing multiple scams rocking the country and people having no idea whom to complain too. This prompted the 6 of them to approach Abdul Kalam and IIM A professor Anil Gupta who more than agreed with their idea.

So what’s their business idea?

The students have conducted a market research regarding the need for such a helpline. This, along with the fact that they have visited the Anti–Corruption Bureau and also other police agencies, shows that they are really serious for this kind of work.

Their model envisages getting the complaints from people, scrutinising it by specially recruited retired officials and finally forwarding the complaints to the right agencies. Their main aim is to address only the useful calls and prevent the umpteen frivolous calls they would get. Therefore they plan to raise the charge for a call to Rs 5 or 10. For this they plan to integrate their anti–corruption helpline with the Anti Corruption Bureau. They aim to consult people and make them aware of their rights and where they are being cheated.

Initial success

Their plan has been forwarded by a politician to the state department. They have also enlisted a telecom provider to provide the toll – free status for the helpline. Another feather in their cap is the fact that Gujarat Anti – Corruption Department has shown a keen interest in their model.

But the road is fraught with CHALLENGES, CHALLENGES and more CHALLENGES!

here have been examples of various projects by students / youngsters across the nation which may have been related to helping the country at some level or the other. But sadly only IIMs and IITs ones are noticed. But then, even they are noticed when they start, while afterwards no one knows what happened to them.

Since the idea is based on a very touchy topic, six of them are sure to face lot of struggle initially to make people understand that they are not a fly by night operators (one who would probably make a lot of money in this) but someone who is really serious. Since a large part of our police force as well as politicians are involved in CORRUPTION, the idea would be even difficult to propagate.

The business model is something which has to be decided. Since they say that it would be a helpline, would it model into a consultancy into the future, probably helping in the complete process of filing complaints and getting to see the results or it would remain the same – that of a helpline?

Other aspects like awareness through word of mouth, getting the right people to work, paying them their salaries which are linked to getting the right financial support, being on the right side of the law while solving problems etc. are some of the other issues which need attention.

Though the idea sounds fantastic and excellent especially for a country like ours, the great six need to make sure that the glow to help the country keeps burning in their hearts and not let the idea die a natural death!

What are your views?

Microsoft Vision 2019 – Fascinating & Exciting !!

IT Market Predictions for 2011

10 Indian IT Market Predictions for 2011 !

Every year, Springboard research releases IT market predictions for many countries including India. But, before we look at 2011 IT predictions, lets look at what was buzzing in Information Technology sector in 2010.

2010 IT award winners

Springboard research has named “HCL Technologies” as the Indian IT company of the year, while the biggest IT trend is “Everything as a service”. Suddenly in 2010 you have started hearing phrases like storage-as-a-service, testing-as-a-service, security-as-a-service, business intelligence-as-a-service, software lifecycle-as-a-service and so on. Thanks to cloud computing, vendors have revamped their offerings to package and position their solutions “as-a-service.”  And with hardware and OS offerings like chrome, this trend is does not seem to be dying anytime soon!

While, last year the IT buzzword award went to “cloud computing”, this year it is the subset – “Private Clouds” on which these “Everything-as-a-service” solutions have been built. The acquisition of the year award goes to IBM-Netezza Deal.

Top Indian IT Market Predictions for 2011

So here the 10 IT predictions as put forth by Springboard research.

1. Mobile Reporting Services Transforms “Business Intelligence”
2. Cloud Computing – From Silver Bullet to Just Another Sourcing Option
3. Managed Services Providers Innovate to Drive Added Value
4. Mobile Banking Triggers Technology Innovation in the Banking Sector
5. IT Distribution Channel Partners Accelerate the Evolution of their Business Models
6. “Single Window System for Integrated Services Delivery” to Gain Greater Attention from State Governments
7. Telcos Embrace the Cloud but Are Forced to Prove Their Customer Orientation
8. New Market Opportunities to Drive IT Investments from Enterprises
9. #Information Security Becomes a Key Priority for Government and Enterprises and Sparks Client Virtualization
10. The Consumerization of IT Drives Major Changes in Usage Patterns and Expectations

If you want to read details on each of the IT market predictions, you can download the full PDF here.

Indian Telecom: MNP Churn Numbers

MNP Churn Numbers: Vodafone gains & BSNL falters!

MNP has been implemented – now its time for a reality check for all the telecom service providers. The verdict would come from none other than the king (the customer!) himself. 

The initial churn reports with respect to subscribers willing to avail of MNP to switch operators are fast emerging on the horizon. Though, most of such reports are limited to the Haryana circle where MNP was implemented way back in November 2010; analysts are of the opinion that the trend could be more or less similar across the country.

While the initial estimates suggest that hardly 140,000 subscribers, or 0.75%, opted for MNP to ditch their current mobile operators; a Swayam-numvar survey indicates that 58% of the subscribers are more than willing to log on to telcos that provide better services.

The IBN survey finding provides that Airtel was the most preferred operator with 26% respondents voting in its favor, followed closely by Vodafone (21%) and Idea (13%). Idea came at a distant 3^rd position despite having launched a big advertising campaign – “No Idea? Get Idea”.

Network coverage (34%) and tariff rates (30%) emerged as the top 2 reasons as to why respondents want to avail of MNP while retaining their number. Well, that’s about survey findings. Let’s get back to ground reality.

The early set of numbers from Haryana provides that BSNL and Reliance Communications have emerged as biggest losers in the race of poaching subscribers led by MNP.

While the state-owned operator has net lost 20,503 subscribers, the Anil Ambani-led Reliance group finds itself short of a net 13711 subscribers (GSM+CDMA).

In MNP, one’s loss is other’s gain! The subscriber loss recorded by BSNL, Reliance and Idea has proved to be a welcome business opportunity for Vodafone (20,748), Airtel (7,434) and even the late entrant Aircel which net gained by 9,329 subscribers.

For Tatas, the CDMA business has been a net loser. However, its GSM business – Tata Docomo – which has pioneered innovative marketing strategy in Indian telecom market – has been a great leveller for the group under its competitive DoCoMo brand.

What’s more? As the craze for poaching customers sizzle-up, telcos have also started to waive-off MNP port-in charges of Rs. 19 as an extra incentive to the new customers.

The differences between ERP and CRM:

For an entrepreneur who is planning to expand, these terms often trouble him. They seem to require a great deal of software knowledge which, I believe, majority of entrepreneurs (especially non-IT folks) won’t have. More than entrepreneurs, students in B-Schools lose the bigger picture and take ERP as a painful punishment.

Let’s talk the layman language

Consider this; when you send a courier through any logistics company like DHL, FedEx, DTDC etc they give you a receipt with an alphanumeric code on it. You can then log on to their website and track the delivery status of your parcel to the destination with the given code. You can precisely track as in which city has your parcel reached, is it in air cargo, or delivered to destination. How is it possible?

ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning)

Plans the resources of an organization and hence is Organization-oriented. This is a software tool to keep a track of various departments of an organization at a central database. With expansion of a business, an owner’s biggest concern is to manage the chaos happening around and this gives a complete picture of what’s happening. It’s a multi-module tool that maintains information about finance, accounting, procurement, inventory, payments, delivery, support, payroll, human resource, and the list is endless.

            

You handover the parcel to the shop owner, he enters the details into his ERP-UI at his desktop along with the tracking code. The moment parcels of the day are loaded on to the truck, the shop owner changes the status of all parcels accordingly and the process is followed each time.

Information about the payment received from customer goes to the finance department, which also captures other information like cost to company, salaries due and other operations costs. If it’s a manufacturing company, information of procurement and production are also captured by respective departments. For the time being, you may call this, capturing of this information at all levels and analysing it later for business benefits, as “Analytics”.

CRM (Customer Relationship Management):
CRM is Customer-oriented and managed by marketing and sales department which often represents organization to the world. Just like ERP manages information inside organization, CRM manages information about existing and potential customers so as to build better relations with them.

The objective of CRM is to make marketing and sales department capture maximum information about customers to offer them better deals and maintain relations by understanding their needs.

ERP vs CRM

Is there a connection between the two? Definitely yes! They do have a little overlap in the operations. Moreover, a CRM can be clubbed with ERP at the central database level and both can interact easily.

Maintaining leads via website is an integral part of CRM. An online store of any product needs to interact with inventory management module of ERP to check the availability of a product before it is displayed on the website. Along with this, the supply chain module should interact with CRM so that customers can be promised a specific delivery date and time.

"Not every B2C business model can keep detailed information about its customers. Therefore, a provision is made where you enter your courier code through website; it interacts with concerned ERP module and gives you desired information about delivery status of parcel. To bring a smile on customers face, CRM can shoot mails to customers informing them about confirmed delivery along with name of the person who received it."

With time, CRM is becoming a vital part of ERP, which was not true until early years of this decade. However, the requirements and possibilities of implementation depend from business to business. If you (or your IT department) are smart enough, you can tweak the model of the combination favouring your business.

Retailing: cash conversion cycle

Decoding cash conversion cycle

Mind your CCC for good health of your business.

Arnold Schwarzenegger's famous dialogue in the english movie, The Twins, "When money talks, bullshit walks" holds true for everything. A good cash flow is important to run any retail and this is possible if the cash conversion cycle is efficiently managed.CCC is ideally defined as the length of time between a firm's purchase of inventory and the receipt of cash from accounts receivable and is an expert analysis tool that determines where a company needs lending facility or where not and whether the company can meet financial obligations.

Large business firms tend to have shorter CCC periods than small retail businesses. The latter institutions can take steps however to reduce the extent of their cash conversion cycles, including reducing inventories or receivables conversions. CCC’s span is also inversely related to organizational cash flows, and a significant positive relationship exists between CCCs and current and quick ratios.

Cash conversion cycle is a measurement of business health, especially during growth. Therefore, it is important to effectively manage cash conversion cycle.

Cash conversion is forecasted on four factors:

    * The time (number of days) it takes customers to pay what they owe.

    * The time (number of days) it takes the business to make its products.

    * The time taken by the product to sit in inventory before it is sold.

    * The length of time that the small business has to pay its vendors.

For a correct picture of CCC, determine first Accounts receivable days, Inventory days and Accounts payable days by calculating as below:

    * Account receivable days: Receivable balance/last 12 months sale x 365 days.

    * Inventory days: Inventory balance/ last 12 months cost of goods sold x 365 days.

    * Company’s payable balance/ last 12 months cost of goods sold x 365 days.

Now, receivable days + production+ inventory days-payable days = CCC

Flitch rating firm reports, most retailers will continue with negative cash flows even in 2011. CCC of Indian retailers such as Pantaloons, Trent and Next retail remain high despite the drop in the cycle between 2007 and 2010.

While Pantaloon’s cycle of conversion has come down from 125 days in 2007 to 95 days in 2010, Videocon Group’s Next Retail saw a drop from 165 days to 130 days in 2010.

Trent, the retail arm of Tata witnessed a drop from 80 days to 70 days.

Shoppers stop achieved a drop from 30 days in 2007 to 10 days due to better inventory management.

In 2011, The ongoing inventory management will reduce overall cash conversion cycles. It expects retailers to adopt measures such as increasing the proportion of bought-out sales (where inventory is held on vendor’s books while being physically on shop floor), increased use of franchise stores and streamlining supply chain operations.