One day after a good satisfying lunch, Don and I hitched an autorickshaw back to our office. The road on which we got the ride is a one-way and the autowallah was reluctant to come along, saying that his children will have to wait. We assured him that we knew a shortcut (that we did), and we would walk the rest of the way ensuring that he gets to his kids on time.
Continue reading “Customer Orientation”
Author: Prasad Ajinkya
Prasad Ajinkya is the Big Fat Geek and often he spends his time working on the WordPress or Google eco-system. He loves to solve business problems with technology.
Google meets Salesforce
Just came across this.
Now Google Apps premier users can avail of the famous Salesforce CRM, at a nominal price of course. Its an alliance of sorts to stave of the big bad monster from taking on the individual firms. To be honest, it is a one place solution for a lot of SMEs for a simple and yet effectively managed enterprise system.
Effectively, Salesforce and Google Apps are combining their users for a joint Go-To-Market, adding more value each other’s product offerings. De factor internal messenger for this would be the Google Talk gadget, which works like a charm.
For Google Apps basic users, who know that paying $60/user/year is slightly over their IT budget, they can use SugarCRM which comes absolutely free of cost!! Knowledge of XAMP is solicited before going ahead with SugarCRM.
I am SAPped!
Back in December, me and my team were in an iterative process for creating a lightweight ERP for our ecommerce based stores. Being a bridge to the technical and the business worlds can be exciting, but without the proper understanding, it can go haywire. Fortunately, we were able to handle the business requirements and all was well. The main reason for any software provider to cry foul is scope change; this is true especially in the case of a flexible business wherein, the entire revenue model of the business changes.
These are the times when the parity between execution and strategy becomes the most clear. So, in December, I had this sudden flash in the pan idea of doing a due diligence for SAP. The right calls and voila, we were underway … what followed were umpteen number of presentations by various SAP implementation partners, visits by the SAP India sales team to reinforce our decision and “smoothen” the entire decision making process.
What will SAP do for me? Well …
- Accountability, Transparency and Accuracy of information
- Facilitation of further analysis for top management
- Scrutiny of our business processes by a Third Party for improvements
- Adherence to globally accepted norms
Four months down, we have went through the entire workflows and process charts at least three times … the user licenses have been bought, the hosting has been more or less figured out … and you know what … I hope to let go a big phew!
b****c*** bahut kharcha hua re!!
SPECIAL NOTE – The post is written ONLY in a lighthearted fashion and does not in any way reflect the organization’s vision and mission or complete lack thereof.
Solving the wrong problem
Well its all over the news … just read it in today’s news. There is now going to be an OBC quota for IIMs, question one should be asking really is – Why do you need reservation in a premier post-graduation institute?
So now, they (Arjun Singh and his myopic HRD cronies) have increased the total number of seats, and increased the OBC quota for students. Looks like the decision to hike the fees by A and B was a wise one … lets just say that the higher fees are a premium for excellence and leave it at that!!
At the risk of sounding arrogant, heres a question –
If the holes in a sieve are increased, do you still hope to get the same quality of refinement?
Sometimes I think these news are there in the just for the IIM group discussions and nothing else! In the end, its all foo.
Inertia
What do you do when you seem to be cruising on a wide highway … and suddenly out of no-where a sharp corner comes into view? Well, you hit the brakes, slow down and turn with the curve.
Fair enough, you can drive. What would you do when the same analogy applies to your life?
Let me explain, what is a person supposed to do when he realizes that the nice and easy life is going to change (I never said end) … mostly for the better. But the lazy person that he is, is opposing the entire change, just because of its inherent nature … change. The person just like the car, lurches forward out of his rut and into the new direction given to his course. Heading for the unknown.
Grey Day
Ever have one of those days where you keep on getting this strange foreboding sensation … that the sh*t is about to hit the fan?
Today is one of them … nothing remarkable, just another day in the office, but still … when your heart is in your throat in anticipation … do not ask me anticipation of what. If I knew, then I would be a much happier person.
Makes me appreciate the Fear of the Dark – Iron Maiden :-)
Faith
Me and Amit have been having this debate since the past 2 and a half years now. It’s on the existence of god … I take the side of the theists and Sharma takes the side of the atheists. In fact he has gotten so good at that that by now he is a moderator in one of such inane communities. I just believe in god. I cant prove god’s existence, its a premise for me. And its blind acceptance to that fact.
This weekend, I had been to my family’s guru’s ashram. I was going there after an absence of 12 years (not that I missed not going there). Whilst on the way, I was questioning the many practices followed there … no leather items, lower castes may not enter certain areas, lower castes have to wait for the brahmins to finish their meals, et al. My mother seemed to take this to heart, the next day when we were having a discussion with the high priest over there, she asked him this question about why no leather … and the explanation he gave … or rather the answer he gave set me thinking.
The disciple does not have to look at question or logic for answers, he needs to look at his faith for those answers. The moment we start looking at other sources than our own faith, we have lost our faith in that particular thing. Be it god, be it science, be it the paranormal. Mulder had faith in aliens, Scully had faith in science, I have faith in god … what do you have faith in?