Morgan for our Schools

Archive for July, 2010

It’s an interesting period for Small and Medium Businesses (SMBs). While emergence of Internet as a premier medium of collaboration and commerce has presented small and medium businesses an unparalleled opportunity to compete on an even keel with their large counterparts – the same medium has also brought forward a host of new challenges. An explosion of content, and arrival of new Internet-based social computing technologies and concepts such as Wikis, blogs, RSS feeds and Web 2.0, has left SMBs scrambling and struggling to ensure an interactive customer experience.

The Website is the face of the SMB, and one of the most visible and influential customer touch points – especially when the SMB is trying to reach global customers who are not aware of its brand. A Website with inappropriately tagged content or a few missing links can turn away a prospective customer into the hands of the competition in a matter of few seconds.

To address this, many SMBs have considered traditional installed content management systems, only to realize later that these applications are far more expensive to implement and maintain than they are worth. This problem is compounded by the fact that most SMBs have skeletal IT staff and, at best, limited IT budgets. Even Open Source CMS options suffer from these same limitations because while the software code may be “free” everything else comes with a price tag. Much like installed software there are substantial costs with implementing it to your requirements, managing, upgrading and maintaining the software and hardware, support, and all the things that go along with the lifecycle of your site like template changes, site redesigns, workflow tweaks and navigation updates.

As a result, the CIO can seldom justify the high cost and long implementation time required to install a content management system. Additionally, as content management involves a host of tasks including usability, design, and information architecture – SMBs face an uphill task in ensuring that the Website reflects the dynamic needs of the business.

Using SaaS to level the playing field

To compete effectively, SMB’s need content management solutions that are easily configurable, are economical to purchase and maintain, and quick to implement. This is difficult to achieve in a traditional CMS, which are expensive to procure, complex to implement and configure, and even more difficult to maintain.

It is in answer to these problems, that specialist players like CrownPeak have emerged and grown rapidly. CrownPeak is one of the leading torchbearers of the ‘Software as a Service’ SaaS model, and has turned the disadvantages of the traditional model to its advantage. By letting customers access ‘software’ as a service, CrownPeak ensures that organizations are spared the high cost of purchasing software. Moreover, as the software is hosted, there is no hardware to buy and no software to purchase and install and you get the same CMS functionality as you do with traditional installed vendors or open source solutions. As a customer, you just pay on a fixed monthly or quarterly basis and leave the task of managing, maintaining and upgrading the software to the vendor. You don’t pay till an application is fully running and completely configured to your environment. Try telling this to a traditional CMS vendor!

Organizations also save cost as they do not have to employ IT, system integrator, developer or Web agency resources to tweak the HTML, workflow, or to take care of hosting. The real work in a CMS implementation begins after the site goes live which is when most vendors leave you the keys to the CMS and say good luck. But players such as CrownPeak provide a dedicated account manager for the lifetime of the service, who is the same person who actually implements the CMS for your site, as part of your monthly cost. This is an extremely attractive value proposition when compared to the traditional software model, where costs are paid upfront and the risk of product implementation and adoption is totally on the customer. With SaaS, SMBs can compete with the big players on an even footing, as they can have access to the best software, the best support, and at the best price. For instance, a player like CrownPeak offers service that covers the entire spectrum of the content management lifecycle at a monthly subscription cost. This includes licenses, hardware, hosting, bandwidth, management and support.

Improved usability and accountability

To understand how a small or medium organization can benefit from using a SaaS model, let’s take the example of School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (SMFA), a non-profit dedicated to educating artists and fostering their creative abilities. As a non-profit organization, the school had limited IT staff due to budget constraints, which in turn made the task of keeping the online content up-to-date an extremely challenging task.

By subscribing to CrownPeak’s SaaS model, the School has been able to enable even non-technical users to contribute and update content on the site. Through the ability to quickly and easily update new content, the Boston based school has expanded its web presence by including art galleries, calendars and other relevant information. The benefits are obvious – improved web presence leading to increased web traffic at an economical cost. The site won the American Business Award for Best Design and Best Software Development in 2005. As this example shows, organizations can easily accelerate their speed of publishing content by giving subject matter experts tools that are simple to use. Maintaining a uniform look and feel across the site is also far simpler leaving content specialists to focus more on their core competency of content creation rather than worrying about formatting changes.

With features that provide a higher ROI than traditional systems, it is not surprising that SaaS players like CrownPeak have rapidly found acceptance in the marketplace. Features like complete system auditing and reporting provides even mid sized enterprises an ability to manage and track the history of all work, easing adherence to compliance of regulations. Files can be tracked through a complete document lifecycle, including check-in, check-out, versioning, rollback, approvals, and scheduling.

Small and medium enterprises will also appreciate the ease with which they can simply browse their Website and click ‘Edit’ on the tool bar. Completely configurable workflows enable organizations to assign tasks to any person, and escalate in case defined thresholds are crossed. For example, e-mail alerts can be sent to content owners of specific sections on a Website, when these sections don’t get updated after a specific time period. This is difficult to do in a manual system. With the SaaS vendor taking full responsibility of configuring and integrating back end systems, SMBs also do not have to worry about integration hurdles.

Using Web 2.0 to your advantage

With Web 2.0 radically changing user experience and preference, it is imperative for SMBs to adapt and give the same level of service that their large counterparts provide. They can look at vendors like CrownPeak to create multiple presentation of content fed from a single source. With a single centralized interface, customers can manage their different digital assets in a far more effective and efficient manner. As an example, content in a corporate blogs can be controlled and managed by employing workflow and approval rules. Similarly, RSS feeds can be created easily and automatically by simply publishing a piece of content on an RSS feed. What’s more, visitors to a company’s site can personalize their RSS feeds by defining a keyword or phrase. When new content related to the keyword or phrase appears on the Website, personalized content is automatically pushed.

The widespread adoption of CMS delivered as a SaaS points to a healthy trend that has been proven to improve
the competitiveness of small and medium businesses. Through the ability to scale flexibly without the hassles of integration and maintenance, the SaaS model offers SMBs the power to fully leverage the power of the Internet and compete on an equal footing with their more established larger counterparts. Similar to the outsourcing wave which analysts now say is an irreversible trend; SaaS too is an irreversible trend that has the potential to catapult the proverbial David into the league of the Goliaths.

My fathers enthusiasm to send me to a boarding school meant that it was his life that was at stake so he ensured that I , a ten year old kid, worked real hard to get a place in the merit list. Probably, he had realized early in life that there is no short cut to success and education plays a vital role in a person’s life.However,I was too young to realize that so for me it was just fun being in his Army Field area posting.My job was just restricted to parrotting all the previous years entrance examinations question papers along with the mathematical tables. Every day he would take my test and if I did well he would not forget to hand me some sweets.

I took the written test and was selected for the interview which was more difficult than the examination.Here you don’t know what the board is going to ask under the pretext of General Knowledge and General Awareness.However,When I was summoned inside,I parrotted Good Morning to the members and recited the background I had mugged up.The members had no option than to stop me in between as I wasn’t allowing them to speak .One of the members asked me ,”Young boy,If you get selected whom will you fight as this school prepares future officers for the Indian Army”..I did not waste time in saying,’Sir, Pakistan” because we had been brought up with this psyche since ages.It brought a smile on their faces and shot the next question at me,Now whom do you fight?To this I replied in Hindi,Sir, ab apas mein hi ladtey hain.This was taken with laughter all around.I came out and had to do the replay of the interview for my father.

The results saw me among the toppers in the merit list and it was a celeberation time all around in the family as I was the first kid who was going to a boarding which was a prestigious school ,very well known in the country.I became a hero only to realise later that this would mean the end of my stay with parents,brother and sister. I was required to get all the dresses and other equipments that were to be taken along.However, I was shrewed enough to note that it was just like a royal bath for the lamb before being slaughtered. I had no option than to take the royal bath.

I was taken to the school housed in a palatial palace of the erstwhile State of Kapurthala.I was nervous to see so much of hustle and bustle around.I couldn’t stop my eyes from getting wet but being strong kid did not display my emotions..However, there was a meaningful attempt from the house matrons and support staff to make us comfortable so that the bond between the parents and kids could be given a little shake.I had many other new guys with me who reacted differently but we had no option than to hold each others hands strongly leaving the parental hands and patronage.

Initially, like everyone else the problem was in getting used to school mannerisms and etiquettes.It was tedious to hold the knife and fork together at the breakfast table as I had always loved paranthas like all Punjabis.Paranthas give you the liberty of using hands or at the most the spoon.Again, learning fast was the order of the day. The School routine right from getting up at 5 am to getting to bed by 10 pm had some activity or the other. I had guys Punjab,Haryana,HP,Delhi etc so that helped to learn all the major northern languagues.Then the Games were real lovable where I could play my favourite Cricket and I later on went to head the School Cricket team.

Now, when I realize that we are successful today because of the contribution of education and the extra-curricular activities during the boarding time.We were made to go through all the activities that helped us not only to succeed in professional lives but also contributing meaningfully to the society.It was an all round development.The relations that we built and the friendship we had nortured is today as important to us as it was during the school days.A mere mention of ex-school mates brings a natural smile and enthusiasm of the same 10 year old kid that we were.The independent approach towards life,Self made persons attitude and standing for the principles are all the contributions of schooling.We are not just followers but leaders and its well known-Leaders just don’t follow, they make their own path for others to follow.Right, I couldn’t agree more.

Bakshinder

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bakshinder@hotmail.com”>bakshinder@hotmail.com

my blog-http://saikap.blog.co.uk

http://optimistic95.spaces.lve.com

So I’d chosen my trucking school, ma paid for it, and I showed up for the first day. Welcome. Smiling faces, hand shakes, and piles and piles of paperwork on each desk. No party hats (they really should have party hats) but, oh well, what do they know?

The schooling began with nothing but classroom study for the first week or two. If you decide to attend driving school at a trucking company….let the propaganda begin! They won’t waste any chance at promoting themselves, believe me. They will also make you feel like it is your privilege to be working for them. Get used to that. Now here’s your first piece of raw truth about the industry… companies are completely and totally desperate for truck drivers. I mean DESPERATE!

Were you ever offered a $2000 bonus just to come work for a company? Did you ever have a company offer to pay for all of your schooling if you will come work for them when you graduate? Why would someone offer such an insane amount of money just for you to come work there? They don’t even know you! They have no idea what you’re capable of! You don’t even have any experience! They don’t really care.

These bonuses are common at the larger trucking companies. Sure they HOPE you’re gonna be an outstanding truck driver, but more than anything they just desperately need your butt in one of their trucks. Period.

Well, turnover is a huge problem in the trucking industry. A driver with a clean record, even a driver straight out of school, can land literally hundreds or even thousands of jobs at any time and everybody knows that, drivers and companies alike.

So in order to put themselves in a position of authority, which is a falsity, they may try to keep you on pins and needles by implying that your job is always on the line. One false move and you could be fired. This is one of the HUGE mistakes that companies make…. its simply not true.

All that they really accomplish by trying to scare you is filling you with a lack of trust and loyalty towards them. Most large companies are full of drivers that have hit bridges, rolled trucks, been late for deliveries, and on and on. Does this mean you won’t ever get fired? Certainly not. I’ve been fired a few times by idiots I’ve never met on some committee making decisions based on little or no real facts or understanding about me or my situation.

But getting another job, as long as you’ve never had a DUI or killed somebody, is really easy…so don’t let them snow you into thinking your career is always on the line… it’s a bluff. Lose your job and you can have ten new ones tomorrow. Simple as that