Silicon India Oct 11 Issue

BUSINESS & TECHNOLOGY IN THE U.S. & INDIA OCTOBER - 2011 SILICONINDIA.COM

PUBLISHED SINCE 1997sil iconindiaIn My Opinion: MR Pamidi, C-Cube Consulting Startup of the Month : Interviewstreet

Parul Mehta Kaushal Mehta

EmergingPlayer intheBPOSector

[In my Opinion]TheRisingTiger andTheWhiteKnightBy M. R. Pamidi, C-CubeConsulting

[Infocus]

[VC Chakra]InMobi raises $200 MillionAdchemy raises $61 Million in Se-ries E Funding

[CEO Spotlight]Magazines in your Hand will goDigitalBy Girish Ramdas, Magzter

[Startup of the month]Interviewstreet

[Technology]How the Cloud Resonates withBusiness TodayBy Vineet Jain, Egnyte

s i l i con ind ia |3|O c t o b e r 2 0 1 1

06 [Technology]Technology is Leading Contact Centersto ProfitabilityBy Saurabh Khetrapal, Sales Portal

[Technology]The Latest in Wi-Fi TrendsBy Mohan Vellanki, Redpine Signals

[Technology]Increase In Demand For Trained PatentProfessionals In The IT IndustryBy Atulya Nath, Global Institute ofIntellectual Property

[Technology]V.VoIP, A reality With the Launch ofMobile Broadband 4G LTE NetworksBy Krishna Yarlagadda, HelloSoft

[Business]The Next Big Thing in Mobile:The Personal CloudBy Amit Chawla,Funambol

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[Technology]Creating an Ecosystem for Semi-conductor Design ServicesBy Ash Patel, Sankalp Semiconductor

[Technology]How to build Apps BusinessBy Ruchit Patel, Amitech BusinessSolutions

[VP Profile]Entrepreneurs need financialadvisors from early stageKamesh Nagarajan, Morgan StanleySmith Barney’s Global WealthManagement Division

[SI 20 Profile]

[Viewpoint]Kindle Fire: What India needs tolearn?By Pradeeep Shankar

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By Vimali Swamy

MotifEmergingPlayer intheBPOSector

14COVER STORY

Kaushal Mehta

Parul Mehta

Contents October 2011

PublisherHarvi Sachar

Editor-in-ChiefPradeep Shankar

Managing EditorChristo Jacob

Deputy EditorJaya Smitha Menon

Editorial Staff

Hari AnilVimali Swamy

Sr.Visualizer Dipin DasVisualizer Hebert Emmatty

Subscription Manager P Magendran

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OCTOBER - 2011

Editorial

“Fairness” or “Cause” Matters?

The act of tithing, is one of the greatest acts of obedience a Chris-tian can practice. The purpose of tithing was to teach the Christiansto show God our desire to put him first in their lives. It also advisesChristians to share a part of their income with the Church for thewell being of the community. It is some thing similar that PresidentBarack Obama is trying to attempt by implementing “Buffet Rule”where the richest Americans pay higher taxes to help cut soaringU.S. deficits by more than $3 trillion. By credible estimates, thiswould raise roughly $20 billion a year. While the move holds well,this move can back fire the U.S. economy.

Obama’s assertion has been based on element of "fairness,"which is an emotional rather than an analytical basis. Tax hike on therich would be self-defeating because it would undermine job cre-ation and discourage people from working harder to make moremoney. If the tax is levied upon the richest Americans, it is going toconfine the huge investment made by them, as huge earning meanshuge tax payment. This tax will even discourage the country's mostproductive entrepreneurs from creating jobs for millions. A studyon The Importance of Startups in Job Creation and Job Destructionreveals that, both on average and for all but seven years between1977 and 2005, existing firms are net job destroyers, losing one mil-lion jobs net combined per year. By contrast, in their first year, newfirms add an average of three million jobs.

A few percentage rise in the tax rate might not only affect theavailability of VC funding, but will discourage the initial goal of theentrepreneurs of earning millions of dollars. As we all know Sili-con Valley is the hotspot for most Indians to start their dream startupand pull off. Given the U.S.' massive budget deficit, raising moremoney from people who have been very successful, the decision on“Buffet Rule”can be given a second thought. They can find alter-natives to limit deductions for wealthier filers and close loopholesin existing policies. If someone is serving the community, its ok notto be a good shepherd who do not tith. At this point of time for theU.S economy its not the element of fairness that matters, but thecause that you stand for matters.

Please do share your thoughts with us.Christo JacobManaging [email protected]

s i l i con ind ia |7|O c t o b e r 2 0 1 1s i l i con ind ia |6|O c t o b e r 2 0 1 1

iinn mmyyopinion

By M. R. Pamidi, Ph. D.The author is Founder and CEO, C-Cube Consulting

The PastThe United States and India are theworld’s richest and largest democ-racies, respectively. Democracy hassurvived and thrived in the U. S. foralmost 240 years without a singlehiatus, despite the various wars wehave fought – Civil, Mexican-American, World Wars I and II, Ko-rean, Vietnam, Iraq, andAfghanistan. And, the U. S. hasnever had a military coup d'étatsince gaining freedom from theBritish Rule. Modern India is amuch younger democracy, a littleover 60 years old. Remarkably,India has not had a single coupsince its independence, even thoughits neighbors Bangladesh and Pak-istan have suffered a constant on-slaught of dictators and tyrants.After gaining independence fromthe British in 1947, the new leadersin India were wondering what formof government they should set up.Under the British Rule, India was aConstitutional Monarchy. It couldfollow an American-style Constitu-tional Republic. What did Indiachoose?

Dr. B. R. Ambedkar, a freedomfighter and often called the Fatherof Indian Constitution, rose to pre-eminence after attending the Uni-versity of Bombay, ColumbiaUniversity, University of London,and the London School of Econom-

ics. Having faced untold discrimi-nations in India, because he was adalit, an untouchable, and havinglived in both the U. S. and England,he drew the best of both countries,thoroughly studied the Constitu-tions of both these countries – afterall, he was a lawyer – and, withother leaders, recommended thatIndia should adopt a ParliamentaryRepublic system. He was instru-mental in drafting the Indian Con-stitution, which is relatively moremalleable and hence by no meansperfect, because there have been 94Amendments to it since 1950 vis-à-vis 27 for the U. S. Constitutionsince it was adopted in 1787.

PresentThese two great nations have hadlove-hate relationships over the last60 years. Under Prime MinisterJawaharlal Nehru, India was in-spired by Socialist ideals, led thenon-aligned nations, yet became aclose ally of the U. S. S. R. Hisdaughter, Prime Minister IndiraGandhi, banned all ConstitutionalRights during a brief EmergencyRule in the late 1970s. The U. S., onthe other hand, with its Communistphobia, supported oppressive gov-ernments and military dictatorshipsin Pakistan to establish a strategicpresence close to the Soviet Union.Politics aside, on the economy front,

India eased its regulations and openedup its economy in the early 1990s –thanks to a visionary, Oxford-educatedand the then-Minister of Finance Dr.Manmohan Singh, albeit a bit too latevis-à-vis China – for foreign invest-ments, loosened banking regulations,and started privatizing many of its inef-ficient, money-losing, bureaucracy-bloated, state-owned enterprises. HadIndia embraced Capitalism and a freereconomy in the 1950s, as Japan did in inthe 1950s and China did in the late1970s, it certainly would be an eco-nomic giant by now – possibly ahead ofboth these countries. China trailed Indiain GDP in 1980, overtook it in 2000, andwill continue this trend through 2030,and perhaps going even beyond, as thefollowing graphic shows.

As we have discussed in the chapterThe White Knight and The Dragon,Indiahas a much more transparent economyand open books than China, althoughboth countries are battling the systemicmalaise of corruption. Foreign entrepre-neurs reveal that in China you bribe yourway to get the work done, but in Indiathere is no telling when and where thebribes will stop. Foreign direct invest-ments in India fell by 31 percent in 2010,because investors are apprehensive thata large fraction of the money is eatenaway by the corrupt bureaucratic ma-chinery.

If religious extremism has been Pak-istan and Bangladesh’s undoing, corrup-tion is India’s number two nemesis, withChina’s growing geopolitical ambitionsbeing India’s gravest threat. Corruptionin India is at such an inflection point,with the black money circulating in thecountry estimated at $1.4 trillion – largerthan the nation’s GDP – that a prominentsocial leader Anna Hazare recently wenton an indefinite fast to demand the pass-

ing of the Lokpal Bill which seeks tocurb, if not uproot, corruption at thehighest levels of Indian polity. This is atremendous start for India in its marchtowards cleaner governance.

On the social front, Indian civil ac-tivists and social reformers over theyears have played a yeoman's role in thefight against the caste system and thesubjugation of women. The current pres-ident of India is a woman, and her pred-ecessor hailed from the lowest socialstrata – an untouchable. These factspoint to the tremendous strides India hasmade on the social front.

India has provided safe haven forasylum seekers and refugees from coun-tries like Tibet ravaged by war or facingethnic cleansing by China. India, verymuch like the U. S., is home to severalfaiths and numerous ethnicities, a coun-try of diverse beliefs, dialects, and cul-ture.

FutureNo matter what political uncertainties itsneighbors are going through, democracywill continue to flourish in India. Theeconomic reforms made over the past 20years should be left alone and, if any-thing, more aggressive reforms areneeded. Warren Buffett, the Oracle ofOmaha and the world’s third-richestman, recently said that America willprosper more if countries like India pros-per and indicated that he would like to in-vest in the insurance sector in India, butfor the 26 percent cap on foreign invest-ment imposed by India.

The post-cold war politics has dra-matically altered the U. S.-India relation-ship, making each a natural ally and astrong strategic partner of the other. Be-sides stronger economic ties, other meas-ures, such as beefing up vital sectors ofcooperation, including nuclear energy for

civilian use, sharing of intelligence in-formation, collaboration in the defenseand education sectors, and a hotline be-tween New Delhi and Capitol Hill to fa-cilitate communication in times ofinternational crises, are needed tostrengthen the relationship. India and theU. S. should work towards dual-citizen-ship and review and revamp the taxtreaties between the two countries whichdate back more than two decades. Closertrade and education ties between the U.S.-India sister cities, like Salem, TamilNadu, India and Salem, Massachusetts,serve to strengthen the partnership be-tween the countries.

On the global scene, the U. S. shouldstrongly back India’s membership in theU. N. Security Council. In fact, back inthe 1950s India was invited to join theSecurity Council, but Prime MinisterNehru declined and suggested insteadthat the membership be given to Chinasince it was a more populous country.

China is becoming both an economicand military superpower. Already a man-ufacturing workshop for the world, toomuch dependence on China on not justpetty stuff, but electronics, microproces-sors, computers, and other high-techgadgets that equip our defense andweaponry is dangerous. China’s geo-graphical and political growth ambitionsand influence surrounding India – inMyanmar (formerly Burma), Nepal,Pakistan, Sri Lanka, and Tibet – posemajor threats to India continuing as ademocracy. It behooves the U. S. to fur-ther strengthen its ties with India, supplyadvanced weaponry, carry out joint mil-itary exercises to keep China at bay, andcurb Beijing’s appetite for 21st century-style neo-colonialism – not necessarilyoccupying foreign lands, but extendingits tentacles beyond what is consideredsafe for world peace. si

The Rising Tiger andThe White Knight

China and India’s GDP Forecast

The article is based on the ebook Camus Does a Double-Take writen by M.R. Pamidi, K. B. Anand and Meera PamidiThe authors are alumnis of IIT and IISc. The book brings an Indian-American viewpoint in the U. S. mainstream andis a refreshing take on U. S. politics, economy, entrepreneurship in the age of social networking, current world events,and international affairs. It is available on Amazon Kindle Store, Google eBookstore and Apple iTunes bookstore.


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What if the IT industry goes down? Yes, it isa highly unlikely, but is it an impossiblescenario? No, in the present business

world, no business scenario is an impossible sce-nario. It will be highly arrogant for the industry tothink that it will never happen. If there is one thingthe rise and fall of Detroit can teach the world, thenthat would be, 'no industry is fail-safe'. What betterexample is there than Detroit? A city that dependedon one major industry that boasted it will never fail;the automobile industry. It was the base of the 'BigThree' automobile manufacturers; Ford, General Mo-tors, and Chrysler. The companies that literally be-lieved, 'Whatever happens to this world, people willkeep on buying cars'. Well, as usual, they werewrong, and that too by a huge parameter.

The world was hit by recessions, oil price wentup like a rocket, and the average American incomewas nowhere near catching up with it. Yet, for awhile, the population stayed loyal enough to theirhome grown brands, and said no to the foreigners likeHonda, Hyundai, Suzuki, and others. Finally, theyhad enough; they were no longer ready to pay heftyamounts to get cars that offered them lower mileages,and decided to try their luck with the low cost, bettermileage foreigners. They tried them, they loved them,and they took them as their own. That was the start ofthe downfall of the ‘Big Three’, so was that of De-troit. Once a city of glory, the rich and the famous, ahaven for the job seeking mass, Detroit is now noth-ing more than a haunted soul of its past. It is being en-gulfed by the disastrous and tragic fate of the veryindustry that brought it to the lime light. Now, thereis something in this story that is for all the cities inthis world, more so for Bangalore.

What is the similarity between Bangalore andDetroit? Differences are aplenty, but similarities arerather few. Let us concentrate one of these few sim-ilarities; the backbone of the city. Like automobileindustry was to Detroit, is IT to Bangalore. Around35 percent of India's IT exports is based out-of-Bangalore, and the city is known as the Silicon Val-

ley of the country. It is not wrong to say that the heartof the city is its IT industry. Now, what will happenif this heart stops beating? What, is it not possible?Of course it is possible! We have seen what hap-pened to the IT industry in the last recession and inthe future more recessions would come. No matterwhat we do and how we try to fix the global econ-omy, it seems to be going to end up with a similarfate, as that of Humpty-Dumpty.

For some years now, the state lacks a stable gov-ernment, and the politicians are working round-the-clock, to keep their positions safe, and havepractically little time to spare for anything else. Thisagain, is meant to have a negative effective on the fu-ture prospects of the city. The infrastructure is be-coming more and more congested, each passing day,and the city’s traffic is becoming impregnable. Allthese, along with other cost factors, may also makethe IT firms here, willing to migrate to Tier-2 andTier-3 cities. These Tier-2 and 3 cities are now offer-ing many benefits, both financial and infrastructural,and a few companies have already started migrating.So, the question is what will happen to Bangalore ifthe IT industry abandons the city, or if it goes downand does not recover for a very long time? Do wehave a backup plan? Don't we need one?

There are other industries in Bangalore, whichhave been here for a while, way before the first ITCompany came here; examples are the Silk, Manu-facturing, Space Technology, Aerospace industries,and even Education. We need to concentrate moreon these industries. The idea is not to reduce con-centration from the IT industry, but to give equalrecognition and concentration to the other industriesas well. A balance should be acquired; where, evenif one industry goes down, the others will balancethe city. That kind of stability is vital for the long-term growth of any city. Detroit did not do this, andthe city suffered for something that they did not do.Let us save Bangalore from a similar fate. Howeverunlikely it is for the IT industry to go down, whytake the risk when we can play it safe?

What Bangalore should learnfrom the Rise & Fall of Detroit!

By Hari Anil


--$$$$$$$ $$ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $

InMobi, a mobile advertising com-pany, raises $200 million fund fromJapan based Softbank. The invest-

ment will take place in two tranches,with $100 million in September 2011and the rest in April 2012. The currentround of funding will be used to hirepeople, finance acquisitions and ex-pand aggressively in new regions suchas China. The fund will also be used toscale up its recently launched mobilepayment service SmartPay. With thefund, the company aims to overtakeGoogle as the world leader in the cate-gory.

Founded in 2007 by three alumniof IIT-Kanpur, Naveen Tewari, AbhaySinghal and Amit K Gupta, InMobi,helps advertisers and developers serve

up mobile ads. Currently the companyhas more than 332 million uniquephone users and more than 47.3 billion

monthly impressions. InMobi has itspresence in five continents. It has of-fices in San Francisco, London, Ban-galore, Tokyo, Nairobi and Singapore.

The company is planning to increasetheir head count from 350 to 700 in thenext 12 months.

“With a global leader like Softbankbehind us, we are now well positionedto fully capitalize on the opportunitybefore us through substantially in-creased product innovation, deepermarket penetration, and acquisitionsacross the mobile ad value chain,” saysNaveen Tewari, Founder & CEO of In-Mobi. Recently, InMobi acquired a Sil-icon Valley startup 'Sprout', a platformprovider for creating HTML5 richmedia mobile advertising. It also hastied up with NDTV Convergence; thedigital arm of media house NDTV, todeliver mobile ads on the latter's mo-bile applications.

Adchemy, an advertising technol-ogy company, completed a $61million Series E financing

round with Microsoft, August Capitaland the Mayfield Fund. Microsoft andAdchemy have broadened their exist-ing partnership and will team to ex-pand the availability of the AdchemyIntentMap technology that will helpMicrosoft adCenter customers createmore relevant ads based on consumerintent. This 2004 founded company isbacked by Accenture, August Capital,Mayfield Fund, and Microsoft.

“Moving away from keywords andfocusing on a consumer’s underlyingintent is a massive paradigm shift thatradically simplifies ad campaigns andenables advertisers to address con-sumer queries in a significantly morerelevant way, at a scale unprecedentedin the industry. Our technology will

help transform how advertisers reachconsumers in search, mobile, andother intent-rich channels,” saysMurthy Nukala, Founder and CEO,Adchemy. Nukala has earlier foundedDigital Jones, which was acquired byShopping.com, a $130 million com-pany that was the nest-performing IPOof 2004.

Before completing the Series E in-vestment round the two companiescompleted the initial phase of a pro-gram focused on growing and improv-ing the profitability of paid searchcampaigns for a select group of onlineretailers, including Macy’s and Over-stock.com. The Adchemy IntentMapsolution helps advertisers expand key-word coverage and improve relevanceof paid search campaigns using con-sumer intent instead of individual key-words. Using consumer intent to

manage and optimize paid search cam-paigns significantly reduces complex-ity while helping to improveprofitability and scalability. The fund-ing supports the partnership, and en-ables Adchemy to grow its workforcein support of more clients and rapidplatform development.

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Naveen Tewari

Murthy Nukala


The magazine publishing indus-try has been witnessing adowntrend over the past few

years and the advent of Smart-phones and Tablets has given theentire publishing industry a newlease of life.

Earlier, when a magazinewanted to reach more people theycreated an e-zine which was a wayto put the entire magazine in a PDFversion online and let people pay

and buy – this started in the early2000s but this never really took off.Users always had to log into themagazine website and then down-load the issues and it was very cum-bersome. But when Apple launchedtheir iPad in 2010, the ubiquitous‘in-app-purchase’ allowed buyers tobuy anything with just one click.This transformed the readers buyingbehavior as they were able to buymagazines instantaneously and readthem in their device itself whichstarted a trend called ‘frictionlesspublishing’. The main drawback ofindividual magazines going thisway was that they all had to createApps and that too apps across dis-parate devices – the cost of creatingand maintaining such apps far out-weighs the actual number of readersor subscribers an individual apphas. This issue was effectively un-derstood by the core team ofMagzter which has years of experi-ence in the internet, marketing andsoftware industry and created theWorld’s first cross-platform digitalmagazine store called Magzterwhich allows publishers to use aself-service tool to publish maga-zines across iPhone, iPad, Androidand the web within minutes.

The industry today is moving to-wards digital newsstands and eventhough the Top Tier magazines arecreating their own apps we see atrend of those apps not being the en-tire magazines but certain nichecontent that is derived from the

magazine content. The new age ofmagazines is surely going towardsdigital editions either with theirown apps of through newsstands ora combination of both in order toget maximum reach and visibility oftheir magazines.

The next few years will see aconsolidation of the publishing in-dustry and we will see a spate ofdigital-only magazines which won’thave a print edition but only a digi-tal one. Magazines themselves willstrive to deliver better and exclu-sive content that is not available onthe web or any free media and willreinvent themselves from just beingmonthlies or weeklies to even inter-active magazines with daily contentupdates of certain sections. Theother trend on digital newsstandswould be the ability for publishersto sell single articles and monetizebetter that selling full magazines.

Digital publishing has beenaround for a while now but the wayforward is to allow magazine read-ers to buy magazines digitallyacross platforms and devices anddigitally maintain the subscriptionsand purchases on the various smart-handheld devices.

Entrepreneurs have a great op-portunity to mine data that is beinggenerated from these digital plat-forms and newsstands in order tocreate better reading experiencesand to create niche digital-onlymagazines which will be the way ofthe future.

MMaaggaazziinneess iinn yyoouurr hhaanndd wwiillll ggooDigital

CEO SPOTLIGHT

Girish Ramdas, Co-founder and CEO, Magzter

Girish Ramdas

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Parul Mehta

Almost one fourth of the back end opera-tions for financial transactions and cus-tomer support across the world happenfrom India. The billion dollar BPO indus-try has in many ways strongly shaped the

Indian IT industry, and provided several entrepreneurswith an opportunity to build world class companies.Kaushal and Parul Mehta graduated with a bachelor’sdegree in Electronics & Communications Engineeringfrom Ahmedabad, India and went to the U.S. in 1988 topursue a Masters degree in Electrical Engineering. Theywere very clear about their objective for going abroad;they would gain experience in world class organizationsand eventually return to India to become entrepreneurs.After living in the U.S. for ten years and having workedwith Silicon Valley companies such as Sun Microsys-tems, Intel and LSI Logic, they decided to return to theirhome town, and set up a software consultancy company.They had managed this profitable company for two anda half years when India opened up internet services forthe private sector. Recognizing India’s potential toevolve into a high quality service provider to the world,Kaushal and Parul started Motif in August 2000.

Motif is one of the few ITeS companies that foundsuccess operating from a tier 2 city a decade ago. At atime when most prominent BPO companies set up basein tier 1 cities like Delhi, Bangalore, Chennai and Mum-bai, the Mehtas set up Motif’s operations in Ahmed-abad, Gujarat with a 20 member team. Today, thecompany has grown to about 1500 people, and providesmultilingual support through delivery centers in India,Philippines and Costa Rica. Motif’s core business iscustomer support, BPO (Business or Back-officeProcess Outsourcing) and KPO (Knowledge Process

Outsourcing) services. It focuses on internet based busi-nesses/e-commerce companies in the retail and travelindustries, so as to provide a comprehensive range ofservices to help them operate their businesses in an ef-fective manner. “Several things can go wrong duringonline transactions, and customers expect companies toprovide prompt and accurate support when they faceproblems,” explains Kaushal Mehta. This is whereMotif helps its clients. From online travel deals, to on-line retail purchases, Motif provides relevant customersupport for the entire period of customer engagement.From pre purchase issues such as login, account man-agement, shopping carts, payment options, to post pur-chase issues such as delivery, shipment, refunds,exchanges, etc. Motif offers its clients multi channelsupport via email, chat and support, and helps themchoose the channels that improve customer experienceand provide better ROI.

Focus on Customer ExperienceFor example, one of Motif’s clients, a leading Fortune500 ecommerce company provides a portal for individ-uals and small businesses to buy and sell an assortmentof goods and services online. The company had grownexponentially over the past 10 years and had a customerbase of over 10 million members. To retain competi-tiveness in the market, the company introduced severalnew features and market-driven offerings. The growingcomplexity of the company’s processes and constantchanges in policies resulted in multiple customer re-contacts that impacted customer experience. Introduc-tion of multiple tools for customer support led totechnical issues, directly impacting First Time Resolu-tion and customer satisfaction. The company engaged

coverstory MotifEmerging Player inthe BPO Sector

Kaushal Mehta

By Vimali Swamy


Motif to overcome these challengessince Motif had a proven trackrecord of providing multi channelsupport to millions of customers.Motif's process re-engineering teamtook a structured approach towardperformance improvement andprocess enhancement to address thecompany’s business challenges. Theteam implemented three independ-ent projects to improve customer ex-perience using the Six SigmaDMAIC approach (Define, Meas-ure, Analyze, Improve, Control).They focused on three key customermetrics — Net Promoter Score,Contact Reduction and First TimeResolution.

Project leaders with domain ex-pertise were assigned ownership foreach of these three projects. Front-line Customer Support Representa-tives (CSRs) were actively engagedto identify and capture customerpain points and policies that neededto be reviewed. They conducted asystematic study of Voice of Cus-tomers (VOC). This gave the teaminsights into the problems customersfaced. Within six months of imple-menting this project, the Motif teamshared over 200 suggestions withthe client to reduce re-contacts andimprove resolutions. The team alsoidentified issues with the maximumimpact on Customer Satisfaction(CSAT) and Resolution. Simultane-ously, Motif CSRs educated cus-tomers about changes in policies,the new features and their benefits.With such an in-depth engagement,the client saw a savings of $1.2 mil-lion annually.

Social Media InsightsThis is just one of the many successstories of Motif’s engagement withits clients. In addition to customersupport, the company also helps itsclients with content moderation oversocial media. Consumers are trulyempowered today, thanks to social

media networks and this is amedium that can make or breakbrands. Motif helps its clients un-derstand customer sentiment to-wards their brand by analyzing UserGenerated Content posted online.Also, it goes one step ahead andprovides actionable insights on thecompany’s performance against thecompetitors.

E-commerce Fraud PreventionAnother major service that Motifprovides its clients to help them im-prove customer satisfaction and re-duce risk is preventing fraudulentlistings on ecommerce sites. Manyecommerce websites tend to fallprey to fraud since anyone can eas-ily list a product on the company’splatform, and cheat buyers. In suchcases, the reputation of the companyis at stake because cheated cus-tomers will lose trust in it. Motifclosely observes activities on thesewebsites, and ensures that none ofthe policies are breached when anew product is listed. Motif studiesuser patterns and conducts a detailedanalysis that combines human judg-ment with automated tools, to en-sure that a listing is not fraudulent.

With its deep domain expertise,Motif has over the years developeda range of fraud filters that help de-tect such fraudulent listings.

Motif also helps its clients bypreventing fraudulent credit cardtransactions for travel companies inorder to lower charge-backs andlosses which have a direct impact onprofitability. One of Motif’s clientsis a leading online travel serviceprovider in the U.S. for value-con-scious, leisure travelers. The com-pany enables customers to purchaseprice disclosed hotel rooms, rentalcars, airline tickets, vacation pack-ages, destination services andcruises. The company and its sub-sidiaries maintain a wide network ofaffiliations with websites, hotels andairlines, and provide online servicesin around 100 countries covering 30languages. The company needed tominimize fraudulent transactions inreal-time. This involved authenti-cating genuine transactions, pre-venting fraudulent transactions andblocking service delivery in case offraudulent transactions. In addition,the company had to communicatewith vendor partners and customersin case of suspected or blockedtransactions.

The company’s in-house teamperformed the tasks only during USbusiness hours. Given that the clienthad operations in over 100 coun-tries, this left a vast number oftransactions unauthenticated andopen to fraud each day. Further,budgetary constraints meant thatauthentication was performed onlyfor transactions with a very highfraud score. This left a significantnumber of transactions unmoni-tored, affecting margins and moreimportantly customer satisfaction.The client’s challenge was to find apartner that could monitor suchtransactions on a 24/7 basis on realtime basis with lower costs, andMotif fit the bill.

Motif sent its experts to the com-pany’s operations site to understandthe existing processes and businessrequirements. Through a detailedtransition plan, Motif stabilized op-erations within 60 days of transitionand provided 24/7 real-time moni-toring across the globe. It identifiedsuspicious transactions through ap-propriate keyword filters. Thesewere authenticated to shortlistfraudulent transactions by reviewingcustomer's purchase history andcontacting card holders and vendors.Motif then prevented fraudulenttransactions by cancelling the pur-chase orders; prevented delivery ofservices if the fraudulent transactionwas already completed by informingthe service vendors and communi-cated with the affected vendor part-ners and members whose credit cardwas fraudulently used. It developeda team of experienced executiveswith analytical abilities, clear com-munication skills and prior exposureto the client's processes whichhelped in quick stabilization andrapid knowledge transfer across theteam. In the four years of partner-ship, Motif has provided a 500 per-cent ROI to its client and the projectteam has grown by over 300 per-cent, thereby saving millions of dol-lars every year.

Creating a World Class BusinessWith Motif, Kaushal Mehta’s dreamof building a world class businesshas come true. His ability to accu-rately assess risks, ensure fiscal dis-cipline and to be an efficient plannerhas helped him implement the rightstrategy to acquire several blue chipclients. Since it becomes difficultfor end clients in the U.S. to gain acomfort level with a brand newstart-up, he initially partnered withan existing service provider in theU.S., with blue chip clients and adedicated sales force. Most BPOcompanies in India have built large

capabilities and employed highlypaid sales force in the US to attractthe first customer. By partnering,Mehta did just the opposite, and in-vestments to the tune of a couple ofmillion dollars, which most othercompanies made in building a salesforce, were saved. Once cash-flowwas stable, to further build its pres-ence and capture a growing BPOmarket, Motif opened its sales of-fices in the U.S.

“Of the $4 million raised, wehave a built-in infrastructure to sup-port a team size of up to 3,000 peo-ple across our three centers in India,the Philippines and Costa Rica, andstill have adequate cash reserves forexpansion,” explains Mehta.

Parul and Kaushal knew that oneof the biggest challenges in the BPOindustry is ‘People Management’.They believed in team work andknew that to succeed in this work-force intensive industry, both talentand team work were critical forgrowth and success. Right from thebeginning, they created the right or-ganizational environment to attractthe right people to Motif. TheMehtas also knew that to deliverservices for the U.S., it was neces-sary to create a blend of U.S. andlocal culture. Hence, the companyrecruited a resident U.S. trainer whohas been instrumental in establishingthe Motif University, which offersvaluable training programs/sessionssuch as Americanization, under-standing U.S. culture, geography,business terminology, etc. for em-ployees across Motif’s delivery cen-ters. Parul Mehta, who overseesOperations, has keenly worked to-wards training employees in theirapproach to the customers. She re-calls an anecdote where during thefirst month of starting business, acustomer had emailed saying, “Theflight tickets booked for me are fora very early morning flight. I’ll haveto leave with the chickens!” The

support executive innocently replied,“Sir, the airlines pet policy does notallow chickens on the plane.” Today,the employees at Motif are amongthe best in the industry. Since qualityis of utmost importance, the com-pany has established a rigorous se-lection process which brings in thebest talent available. They have con-sistently identified leaders and teamplayers, and promoted deserving em-ployees from within. Since Motif’s

inception, Kaushal and Parul havelaid great stress on selecting profes-sionals with integrity and teamspirit, and have worked closely withall their employees. Between thetwo founders, someone has alwaysbeen available for each and everyemployee. Together, they have cre-ated an open and transparent workculture at Motif, unlike the typicalhierarchical work structures seen inmany organizations in India and thePhilippines.

A major servicethat Motif pro-vides its clients tohelp them im-prove customersatisfaction andreduce risk is pre-venting fraudu-lent listings onecommerce sites.

Kaushal’s abilityto accurately as-sess risks, ensurefiscal disciplineand to be an effi-cient planner hashelped him imple-ment the rightstrategy to ac-quire several bluechip clients


si

At Motif, individuals are re-spected and encouraged to partici-pate in issues and ideas. The workenvironment encourages issue baseddiscussions versus individual baseddiscussions. This openness in theenvironment results in the best ideascoming out as suggestions and thenbeing debated thoroughly beforebeing implemented, thereby creatingan environment which focuses onquality and performance. This alsoenables the company to provideguidance to its clients on how theycan improve their client facingprocesses. The company values cre-ativity and innovation and an-nounces Annual ‘InnovationAwards’ for employees who comeup with innovative ideas. This en-courages and motivates employeesto grow and excel.

The Mehtas, who are keen tohave their employees participate inwealth creation, have set aside 22.5percent of Motif’s equity for em-ployees right from the company’sinception. This is one of the highestpercentages of employee ownershipin any BPO company in the world,and has helped Motif build longterm relationships with its employ-ees, who in turn have cherished this

gesture and built long term client re-lationships.

The senior management prac-tices and preaches a ‘Work Hard,Party Hard’ philosophy and has cre-ated a fun environment within thecompany. This industry employsyoung graduates who work inround-the-clock operations to serveinternational clients. The Mehtas en-sure that Motif’s employees get anopportunity to enjoy and take careof their health along with theirwork. They have introduced variousfun events such as Motif AnnualTalent Evening, Picnics, Implemen-tation of the ‘FISH!’ principles, inaddition to regular team events onthe operations floor. Nutrition lec-tures, Fitness sessions and YogaWorkshops for health, and sportsevents such as Annual Cricket, Bas-ketball, Table Tennis and Chesstournaments are an integral part oflife at Motif.

For the Mehtas, it is importantthat every employee at Motif seesvalue for their career, and so theyhave empowered all employees withthe knowledge and freedom toexcel. The company has invited var-ious world class speakers and heldseminars on communication and

leadership skills for its employees,to help them become world classleaders of the future. Parul Mehtainvolves the leadership team in var-ious weekly and cross functionalmeetings to equip them with differ-ent domain skills. The focus is onownership, transparency, disciplineand fairness. Importance is given toproductivity and quality. Parul her-self is an exemplary role model toseveral woman employees withinthe organization, always encourag-ing them in their work and helpingthem become career driven profes-sionals. Under Kaushal and Parul’sable leadership, a confident team ofemployees interacts and providesquality services to Motif’s blue chipclients across the U.S., Europe andIndia.

Apart from all this, there is aconstant drive within the companyto give back to the society. Motif isassociated with several NGOs, andholds several social activities likecharity walks, blood donation campsand more. Over the years, these ac-tivities have gained prominence andseveral other companies have joinedhands with Motif to make a betterand healthier society.

Kaushal Mehta cherishes the factthat clients have stayed and grownwith Motif over the years. “Motif isa boutique outsourcing companythat is focused on building and nur-turing long term relationships withits clients,” he says. It is with thisthought the company has focused onestablishing and expanding servicesfor existing clients, rather than in-creasing the number of its clientsmultifold. For Motif, the real testi-monial of success is the fact thateach of its clients is referenceable.

Kaushal and Parul Mehta believethat while the first step towardsachieving their dream of building anumero uno company was takenmore than a decade ago, their jour-ney has just begun.

Motif Team


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Be it a multinational corpora-tion, a medium sized organ-ization or a tiny startup, if

there is one challenge that tran-scends all barriers across the threeit is the challenge of hiring theright talent. With millions talentedprofessionals out there in the mar-ket, how does a company ensurethat they are grabbing the right pro-fessional suitable to their needs.Most recruitment companies helpin generalized recruitment of pro-fessionals across different levels —from a fresh out of college techie tomid level managers to CXOs. Butwhen it comes to hiring program-ming wizards, they fall back andthis is where Interviewstreet canhelp.

Founded in 2009, by two NITTrichy graduates — Vivek Rav-isankar and K Harishankaran, In-terviewstreet is an online platformthat helps companies and recruiters

to create an online test that proba-ble candidates need to take post be-fore they are selected for a face toface interview. This filteringprocess consists of programming,multiple choice and subjectivequestions. The codechecker evalu-ates the candidate’s code againstvarious test cases and provides aperformance analysis of the codeagainst them. From C, C++, C#,Java, Ruby, Python and other lan-guages, programmers can code inany of these.

The test consists usually con-sists of two coding questions, threemultiple choice questions (MCQ)and one descriptive question. Whilethe coding questions are developedby Interviewstreet the MCQ and thedescriptive questions can be pro-vided by the client. Currently theyare working on allowing companiesto make their own coding questionstoo. Also companies can customizethe test by putting as many ques-tions as they deem fit. The candi-dates get the answers to the codingquestions and MCQs right after thetest while the descriptive answershave to be manually checked.Inter-viewstreet charges $2 per candidatewho takes test.

Apart from this, Interviewstreetalso develops independent codingchallenges where in program-mers/developers can participateand hack. This allows the companyto create a database of good pro-grammers/coders which to when-ever a client comes up with a

requirement. In a very short timethe company has secured multipleclients both in India and the U.S.Facebook, Flipkart, Bank Bazaarare just a few of the 50 plus com-panies that are using its services.

The company had initiallystarted as a platform for takingmock interviews for managementcolleges and some top IT compa-nies. But the idea did not take offand changed the business model byfocusing on helping companies sim-plify the hiring process.

The company has a strong back-ing from Morpheus Ventures butwas recently chosen by Y Combina-tor, the iconic Silicon Valley seedfund, for its incubation program,making Interviewstreet the first In-dian company to achieve this. Theprogram comes with seed fundingand an intense three-month mentor-ing regime from some of the world'sleading technology investors. si

Interviewstreet: Helping you hire Programming Wizards

SSttaarrttuupp ooff tthhee MMoonntthh

Vivek RavisankarK Harishankaran

SMBs and SecuritySmall- and medium-sized busi-nesses (SMBs), in particular shouldpay attention to the cost-efficientsecurity, the cloud provides. Ac-cording to the Wall Street Journal,companies with 100 or fewer em-ployees were the victims of 63 per-cent of overall data breaches lastyear [2]. Meanwhile, simple or inter-mediate controls could have pre-vented 96 percent of last year’sbreaching hackers like low-hangingfruit [3].

Companies think of the cloud asadding security risks, but in realitySMBs benefit from purchasing aservice, that incorporates currentbest practices and technologies tominimize risk. With everyone in thecompany downloading and sharingfiles anytime and anywhere, andfrom pocket-sized devices, the needfor granularity of controls becomesvery real. In addition to the threat ofhackers, an employee who betrayshis own company, can bring downLanka. The cloud service providercan solve this dilemma, by givingread/write/delete access to usersand groups for files and folders.The administrator can see everynew user who joins the account, aswell monitor file access patterns.Through the cloud provider’s prof-fering of controls, the admin shouldknow how strong everyone’s pass-word is, how often they use andchange passwords, and peak indownload activity. The administra-tor, who reviews cloud audit reportsto understand regular usage pat-terns, will more easily detect anom-alies that indicate breaches.

How Real-World Companies havebenefitedI have many real-life examples, ofhow companies have benefited fromcloud file servers. One companyneeded to share large design filesbetween a distributed US team, and

found itself clogging its emailserver, because the attachmentswere too large. A cloud solutionsolved this issue. Another companymigrated to the cloud, to manageexpansion to new offices, with ex-isting IT staff. These distributed or-ganizations are able to allowemployees in distributed-offices, tocollaborate, as if they were in a sin-gle office. A private equity firm thatinvests in developing nations, freedemployees from carrying printedpresentations and struggle to handlerevision changes while on the road.They carry iPads with the filesavailable offline, and they can eas-ily update to the latest version,when they connect to the Internet.

These companies did not forsaketheir local area networks entirely;however, they implemented our hy-brid solution, which delivers thespeed of local storage, with the ac-cessibility of the cloud. Users eas-ily store, share, access, and backuptheir files, while IT retains central-ized administration and control, toenforce business policies. Simulta-neously, a local private cloud (setupon a mobile device, PC, NAS de-

vice, or enterprise server), hostsfiles in each office; allowing fast,secure access at anytime, regardlessof internet connectivity. All thesefiles are seamlessly kept up-to-dateand access rules are fully config-urable, to meet the businesses’needs.

This unique hybrid solution,also addresses the psychologicaldiscomfort that some users stillhave with the cloud. Some compa-nies are concerned, that becausethey cannot physically touch theircloud file server, they are not incontrol of their data. A hybrid solu-tion offers a local component forpeace of mind.

The Cloud is Not Just a TrendIn conclusion, businesses will see acontinued need, to share increas-ingly-large and more complex files,through cyberspace; Cyber attackswill also continue to evolve. Tech-nology has to meet these twotrends, by facilitating companies’file storage and sharing needs,while keeping up with the ever-changing cyber threats. Going for-ward, the cloud, in particular thehybrid cloud will be an essential so-lution rather than just a trend.

[1] Enterprise Systems, “Cloud Com-puting Set to Soar,” June 2010.<http://esj.com/articles/2010/06/29/cloud-computing-set-to-soar.aspx>

[2] The Wall Street Journal, “HackersShift Attacks to Small Firms,” July 2011. <http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304567604576454173706460768.html>

[3] Verizon RISK Team, U.S. SecretService, and the Dutch High TechCrime Unit, “2011 Data Breach Inves-tigations Report,” 2011.<http://www.verizonbusiness.com/re-sources/reports/rp_data-breach-investigations-report-2011_en_xg.pdf>


In both the consumer and businessworlds, there is a thunderousstampede to adopt the cloud. The

cloud products and services market,is currently worth more than $16 bil-lion, and International Data Corp.projects a $56 billion dollar industryby 2014 [1].

The cloud is in rage for good rea-son; users can access their data any-time and anywhere; they can share,store and backup files without wor-rying about size limitations. Infra-structure, storage capacity,collocations, maintenance and sup-port are the cloud provider’s respon-sibility; absolving business users ofa mess of expensive responsibilities.With the cloud, data is stored redun-dantly, at multiple locations, so dis-aster recovery happens within amatter of minutes—and for free—

rather than in several expensiveways.

Users hit many barriers, whensharing files, including email attach-ment, size limitations, and difficul-ties of using ftp sites. The cloud takesthe pain out of collaboration, by pro-viding shared folders that can be eas-ily managed by users, and the abilityto share files as a link via email, orIM. Files are hosted in a central lo-cation, saving users the time of hunt-ing down the most recent versions.Risk of unauthorized intrusions isminimal, as a good cloud serviceprovider will authenticate each con-nection request, and encrypt commu-nications over SSL. A providershould also have built-in permis-sions, to make sure files are shared,only with the right customers andcompanies.

Why Companies Need the Cloud?The cloud is truly a boon for compa-nies of all sizes. The way business isdone, has changed dramatically overthe past decade or so; Cloud comput-ing meshes smoothly with the distrib-uted nature of today’s companies.Collaboration has become real-timeand cross-border, and time zones arenot as important, as speed and effi-ciency. Many workers today, are alsomobile and need access to datathrough their handsets or tablets.Businesses are running more produc-tively, on leaner resources; having theability pay for capacity as it is re-quired, as well as to expand servicesusing existing IT staff, is a require-ment for many smaller companies. Allof these factors mean, the cloud justmakes sense, while the traditional fileserver could be on its deathbed. si

The cloud is inrage for good rea-son; users can ac-cess their dataanytime and any-where; they canshare, store andbackup files with-out worrying aboutsize limitations.

TTeecchhnnoollooggyy:: By Vineet JainThe author is Co- Founder & CEO, Egnyte

HHooww tthhee CClloouudd RReessoonnaatteess wwiitthhBBuussiinneessss TTooddaayy

“

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tinues to deliver the customer experi-ences and sales revenues that busi-nesses strive to achieve.

Another method used by some en-terprises to mitigate contact centercosts is by turning each customer con-tact into a revenue generation oppor-tunity through implementation ofcross-selling and up-selling - an op-portunity to create revenue after themain transaction (either sale or cus-tomer service) is complete.

However, several problems plaguethe traditional cross-selling/upsellingprocesses used by contact centers. Arecently published survey of contactcenters conducted by InternationalCustomer Management Institute(ICMI) revealed several sets of statis-tics underscoring pitfalls associatedwith cross-selling:

• Associated costs: According to theICMI survey respondents, the mostcritical investment their center madeto enable cross-selling was training,with 68 percent describing the invest-ment in special training for agents.Other associated costs include addi-tional compensation/incentives, in-creased supervisor/coaching time, andnew and/or enhanced technology.• According to respondents, the three

biggest challenges associated with im-plementing a cross-selling programare helping staff with the transition (40percent said ‘very challenging’; 39percent said ‘moderately challeng-ing’); defining appropriate measuresof success (24 percent very challeng-ing; 42 percent moderately challeng-ing); and finding/training staff (21percent very challenging; 35 percentmoderately challenging.

Agents need to be trained on thecross-sell product…coaches need tosupervise them…Average HandleTime increases…management needsto review the cross-sells and when toimplement them…working with thirdparty product marketers means Con-tact Centers need to handle paperwork

and payments, while maintainingcompliance with FTC and other local,state and federal laws. And the regula-tory landscape is becoming increas-ingly treacherous to navigate, withnew consumer privacy and protectionlaws being passed in Washington.

Therefore, the question becomes:can contact centers have it all – excel-lence in customer service, maximizedprofitability, and ease of implementa-tion?

Technology provides the answer –specifically, Sales Portal’s trade-marked and patent-pending technol-ogy (which earned the prestigious2010 Direct Marketing AssociationPeople’s Choice Innovation Award).

We call it: Cross-Pitching Sales Portal’s patent-pending technologyenables Contact Centers to further mon-etize their phone traffic by replacing thetraditional cross-selling and up-sellingprocesses with a short sales pitch (offeredto callers at the end of calls) for a highlyrelevant product from leading brand ad-vertisers. Advertisers bid against eachother for the end-of-call “real-estate” forall calls handled by a contact center andcontact centers reserve the unfetteredright to accept or decline bids from com-peting advertisers. At the end of a call,when a contact center agent is ready tocross-pitch, Sales Portal determines themost relevant and highest-bidding pre-approved advertiser and presents a short“teaser” offer scripted by such advertiser,which is read by the agent to the caller.Callers interested in the cross-pitch offerare live transferred to the “winning” ad-vertiser. Sales Portal even handles all thebilling and collections, sending contactcenters a check twice a month for the livetransfer leads that have been sold.

In this way, the Sales Portal Cross-Pitching system monetizes precious post-transactional real estate in a moreseamless and non-intrusive manner thantypical cross-selling and up-selling pro-grams, achieving the highest possibleconversions because callers are intro-

duced to products they already want.Additionally, since agents are not sellinganything using Sales Portal’s cross-pitch-ing – and no customer data (includingcredit card or other payment information)is passed on to the Lead Buyer, ContactCenters can rest assured that they are 100percent compliant with all legal require-ments and regulations. Sales Portal’sauction-based cross-pitching platformalso maximizes incremental revenuewhile minimizing Average Handle Time(AHT).

At the core of Sales Portal’s technol-ogy is its robust reporting and analyticsengine. A staple for Sales Portal’s grow-ing customer base, the analytics moduleincreases the online platform’s real-timereporting infrastructure to give contactcenters and advertisers industry-leadingactionable data. As a result, participantsin Sales Portal’s marketplace gain a totalpicture view for campaign performance,selection and tracking. Contact Centersgain real-time visibility into their end-of-call incremental revenue and other cam-paign economics, such as cost per read,in order to calculate the effective ROI oftheir campaigns. At the same time, ad-vertisers are able to adjust their pay-per-call bid price, tweak their product offer,test new scripts and see the results oftheir adjustments instantaneously. SalesPortal’s robust real-time analytics andproprietary filters offer the metrics con-tact centers and advertisers need to max-imize revenues.

Since the official launch, Sales Por-tal has over 200 active registrants andnumerous case studies of successfulcampaigns. After hearing carefullyfrom Contact Centers, we have con-structed a platform that is becoming anengine for maximizing incremental rev-enue, customer experience, and ease ofadoption. While technology is chang-ing the rules of the contact center game,Sales Portal is successfully demonstrat-ing that technology can also play a valu-able and effective support role forenhancing customer satisfaction – andbuilding businesses.

They used to be called call centers – in-house or out-sourced organizations that handled incoming andoutgoing phone calls. Then came the ‘90’s, and with

it the Digital Age. Now, they’re called contact centers –and rightfully so, because it’s not just about handling callsanymore. Today’s contact centers need to be adept at multi-channel communication including chat, email - even socialmedia.

Contact centers come in various shapes, sizes and fla-vors – they can be outsourced companies specializing inmultiple verticals and products, or they can be internal op-erations focusing on specific proprietary brands. They canprovide customer service for Fortune 500 enterprises orhandle inbound sales inquiries from consumers driven bydirect response advertising. Whatever form today’s contactcenters take, they all share the common goal of achievingthe highest possible customer satisfaction, while remainingprofitable operations and/or containing costs. To that end,several methodologies and technologies have emerged –from offshoring to self-service via IVR or web to revenueenhancement via cross-selling & upselling. However eachof these approaches has tremendous difficulties and draw-backs.

Shipping contact center operations offshore is a double-edged sword…with initial cost-savings being the attraction,but often to the detriment of long-term sales and customerservice levels. The effects of offshoring – both positive andnegative – are well-documented.

With advances in technology, enterprises have increas-ingly rushed towards customer self-service, where IVRsand websites serve as the main tool for customer interac-tion. Self-service systems – while certainly a cost effectiveoption and ideal for certain applications – simply cannotdeliver the best customer service experience. After all, ifyou are a consumer with a product question, would you pre-fer to navigate through an IVR and/or go online and readthrough the FAQ’s and online Help features, or make aphone call and get a human response? In a recent article inCustomer Management IQ, author Tripp Babbitt describes:“These sorts of broad assumptions [around replacing phonecalls with a cheaper channel like self-service] lead to costlymistakes. Not talking to customers may be cheaper, butwhere is the relationship? Or the ability to find answersquickly? The focus usually turns to refining the self-ser-vice rather than re-evaluating it. Ever find a FAQ on a web-site that takes too long to find the answers to your question?If you are in the midst of a self-service strategy that lacksevidence or knowledge, stop and take account of your cus-tomers! You may find that costs - not the customers - aredriving your thinking. The result will be increased costs.”

I tend to agree with Mr. Babbitt’s thesis and would arguethat the combination of telephone and live operators con-

TTeecchhnnoollooggyy:: By Saurabh Khetrapal

si

Technologyis Leading

Contact Centers to Profitability

The author is CEO, Sales Portal

Saurabh Khetrapal


New Age of Wi-FiWith the launch of the Apple smart-phone in 2005, it was considered sig-nificant for the exponential growth ofWi-Fi. The device pushed the focusaway from the PC and laptop market,to devices in general. New product de-velopment was focused on task basedcomputing. The advantage of machineto machine (M2M) connectivity, as atruly networked environment, waspossible with Wi-Fi as the standardprotocol. Wi-Fi provides the conven-ience of wireless connectivity, alongwith the flexibility to design intelligentapplications on an IP network. Thiscombination of standard and ease ofdevelopment was missing in otherwireless technologies, such as Blue-tooth and ZigBee.

The recent launch of Wi-Fi Directhas further strengthened the case ofWi-Fi for device to device connectiv-ity. Wi-Fi is now competing withBluetooth, as the leading technologyfor PAN area networks, with industryproven security and bandwidth sup-port. Last year, a consumer electronic-toy company, launched an RC modelcar, controlled by Wi-Fi from a con-sumer smartphone. The RC model carconnected a smartphone, using an in-tegrated Wi-Fi module embedded inthe car. The market of wireless con-nectivity is now taking a turn, fromproviding internet access for browsingas the primary use case, to connectingdevices to monitor, display and controla consumer’s lifestyle. For example, acustomer can now use a smartphone to

connect to their car and monitor thecar’s performance, using Wi-Fi de-signed into the car infotainment sys-tem. This market for Wi-Fi inelectronics devices is also being re-ferred to, as Embedded Wi-Fi.

Future Evolution of Wi-FiToday, the industry is quickly adopt-ing 802.11n standard in all Wi-Fi en-abled devices. This standard, willsoon stage a phase out of 802.11b and802.11g standards. 802.11n is de-signed to allow for higher through-puts, with much lower average powerconsumption for the same perform-ance as previous standards. The stan-dard also has better error correctionand ability to use bandwidth from the40MHz channel. This is much largerthan the 20MHz bandwidth, used by802.11b.

It took a decade since its launch in1999, for the first billion Wi-Fichipsets to be sold. Meanwhile, in2010 alone,about 770million Wi-Fichips weresold. It is ex-pected, that itwill take onlyone year, forthe next bil-lion units tobe sold; withthe increas-ing trendnow for con-necting all

electronic devices. The penetration innew markets will be driven by: • Ability to support higher through-

puts• Ultra low power requirements of

embedded devices• Physical layer security, compara-

ble to wired networks• Ease of integration into complex

embedded-electronic designs

Ultra-low power functionality ofthe latest Wi-Fi chipsets, allows forusage of Wi-Fi in smart-grid networksand smart appliances. Smart appliancesby definition, are energy efficient de-vices which can react to feedback,from a central smart grid. The idle-en-ergy consumption over the lifetime ofthe product is the most critical cost fac-tor, given the rising cost of energy gen-eration. It is more important, than theactual production cost of the module.Wi-Fi energy requirements and aver-age cost of production to support suchhigh volumes, makes it the leader inwide scale adoption of technology,across all smart-appliances.

Companies are planning to take ad-vantage of Wi-Fi’s core internet protocol,reliable wireless connection, and robustWPA2 security mechanisms, for aggre-gation of real time energy consumptionand control of appliances, using demandresponse algorithms within the home andmunicipality. This would lead to a truesmart home area network.

Wireless connectivity withWi-Fi®, has become per-vasive across many appli-

cations, from wireless devices, tomedical devices, and smart grid. Theadvent of innovative implementa-tions in Wi-Fi over the years, coupledwith an all-IP nature of communica-tion, has enabled it to be a defaultwireless interface for the emerging‘The Internet of Things’ market. Wi-Fi was invented to be a networkingtechnology, to play a complementaryrole along with the much successfulEthernet technology. Wi-Fi can beused in the home, on the campus, inoffices and factories, in a hospital, orat public places, including restau-rants, airports, or even on the street,to connect a variety of electronic de-vices. Today, the Wi-Fi interface isnot only lower in power than manyproprietary wireless interfaces; it is

low cost and also supported by a verycredible industry ecosystem. This ar-ticle discusses the various target mar-kets and applications for Wi-Fi.

IntroductionWi-Fi was first introduced in 1999, withWireless Ethernet Alliance (WECA) en-dorsing 802.11b specification. Thisspecification was branded as Wi-Fitechnology. WECA was renamed to Wi-Fi Alliance in 2002. The main focus forthe specifications has been to enableelectronic devices to connect seam-lessly. Although, the idea was to replaceEthernet cabling; the initial technologywas not mature enough to compete at

high bit rates for wired connections.However, after a decade, the growth ofWi-Fi has been phenomenal with onebillion Wi-Fi chips sold in the last 10years. The major mass adaptors of thistechnology were the laptop and PC mar-kets. This was aided by wide scaleavailability of wireless enabled net-working routers and access points tohome consumers at a sub-$50 price.

Wireless Technology Position-ing(fig.3)The figure depicts the positioning of Wi-Fi technology, in comparison to otherprevalent wireless technologies. Noticethat Wi-Fi is promising to become theleading technology in PAN (PersonalArea Network) and LAN (Local AreaNetwork), with advances in Wi-Fi Direct(Peer to Peer device connectivity) and802.11ac (more than 800Mbps through-put support) standard launches in 2011.

TTeecchhnnoollooggyy:: By Mohan Vellanki The author is Product Manager, Redpine Signals.

The Latest in Wi-FiTrends

Figure 3 Wireless Technology Positioning

Figure 2 Spectrum Usage and Licensing

Figure 1 Wi-Fi Alliance Group - http://www.wifi.org


Wi-Fi Enabled Smart Home AreaNetwork (fig.4)A significant advantage of Wi-Fitechnology is its ability to adapt todifferent use cases. The standardsbody has designed open standardsfor ultra low power and also forhigh-performance and high-band-width required applications. Noticethat Wi-Fi chips are all set to re-place HDMI cables, with thelaunch of 802.11ac standard in thenext 18 months. This standard willallow consumers to view DVD’sfrom their television, without anywired connection between the DVDplayer and the television.

Wi-Fi Standards Evolution (fig.5)This technology is being used fornew applications, in the area ofhome automation and controls inindustrial and automotive seg-ments. The adoption of the WPA2security standard, has given Wi-Fithe maturity to compete with wiredinfrastructure for such applications,

as building au-tomation, security,and surveillance,automotive, andindustrial controls.The new standardof Wi-Fi Direct™has opened thedoor for anysmart-phone, PC,and laptop to con-nect to any other

Wi-Fi powered electronic deviceand exchange information.

Adoption in niche markets (fig.6)There are many more applica-

tions being invented, with Wi-Fi asthe core connectivity solution. Realtime location based services basedon geographic location of accesspoints, is fast gaining traction inhospitals, mining, and large ware-houses. Hospitals are fast adoptingVoWiFi services, to enable medical

personnel to stayconnected overvoice and data,while in the facility.

Companies havelaunched dedicatedVOIP phone prod-ucts, which use the5GHz spectrum toallow for high fi-delity voice anddata connectivity.The 5GHz band is

the most appropriate wireless bandto be used in such facilities, as the2.4GHz band has become too busywith Bluetooth, and other devicesoperating in this range. The systempiggybacks on an already existinghotspot technology, which needs bedeployed to provide local internetaccess to consumers in these loca-tions. This reduces any additionaloperating expenses, apart from op-timizing on the initial capital ex-penditure.

WLAN has also become the stan-

dard, with telecom operators world-wide for public internet access to theirmobile subscribers. Operators are of-floading data traffic from their alreadycongested mobile and POTS telecomnetworks to local IP based wirelessnetworks, using the Hotspot connec-tivity solutions. These innovations arepossible, because Wi-Fi remains anopen standard with constant push foroptimizing the cost of technologyusage, along with innovations to in-crease performance of chipsets.

With slightly over a decade nowsince Wi-Fi was introduced; the pe-riod of exponential growth is justabout to start, with adoption of thistechnology in any type of consumerand industrial electronic device con-ceivable. We should all keep our eyesand antennas open for new and moreinteresting use cases that will developin the Wi-Fi market.

Figure 4 Wi-Fi Enabled Smart Home Area Network

Figure 5 Wi-Fi Standards Evolution

Figure 6 Wi-Fi Direct Use Case - Courtesy Wi-Fi AllianceVideo on Wi-Fi Direct si


TTeecchhnnoollooggyy:: By Atulya NathThe author is CEO, Global Institute of Intellectual Property

si

Information Technology (IT) has emerged asa key sector of the Indian economy in termsof its contribution to export earnings, em-

ployment opportunities, investments and over-all socioeconomic development. India's ITpotential has attracted multinationals to grab ashare of the pie and cash in on the IT boom.Notwithstanding competitive pressures fromaround the world, the sector continues to growas a consequence of access to trained Englishspeaking professionals, cost competitivenessand quality telecommunications infrastructure

Despite the rapid growth, experts have at-tributed the success of India’s IT sector and es-pecially of its software firms mainly tooutsourcing services to multinational firms forlow-value, routine and standardized tasks.Lately, it has been observed that the IT compa-nies are committed to boost their spending onR&D and innovation, which is evident from theincrease in number of Patents that have beenfiled by these companies at the US Patent Of-fice, European Patent Office and the IndianPatent Office.

A patent is the right that theowner has and which sets about en-suring that others are excluded fromcreating, making use of or sellingthe invention defined in the asser-tions made in the patent. Typicalprocess of obtaining a patent under-goes five layers: disclosures by theinvestor, search for patentability,filing of application, examination ofthe patent application and amend-ment of the application. A majorportion of this work is undertakenby technical (BE, BTech, MS, PhD)professionals with sound subjectmatter knowledge and skills inpatents and patent process.

In India, software is protectedunder the Copyright Act and not thePatent Act (as in many westerncountries). However, Indian ITcompanies have filed patent appli-cations for their software in otherparts of the world and these compa-nies continue to seek non-softwarepatents in India. Many of them havealso filed business method patentsin US. As Indian IT companies re-structure their operations for highvalue service offerings, they are fo-cused on innovation and intellectualproperty generation and protectionin India and abroad.

The Indian IT industry has reg-istered a 29-fold increase in patentsover 2005-2008 and as opposed tothis, growth in patent applicationswith the Indian Office of the Con-troller General of Patents was nega-tively affected in 2009, says theNasscom Strategic Review, 2010.

As opposed to this, both in 2009and 2010, the number of patentsfiled by Indian IT companies in theEuropean Patent Office (EPO) andthe United States Patent and Trade-marks Office (USPTO) has wit-nessed a growth of over 20 per cent.

Information available on the of-ficial web site of the United StatesPatents and Trademarks Office(USPTO) indicates that the major

patent filing, from India, has beenin the field of chemistry followedby software and Automotive. Themajor filers include Mahindra Nav-istar Automotive, Infosys Technolo-gies and Council of Scientific andIndustrial Research. The other fil-ing is coming from Ittiam Systemswhose patents were granted forSoftware and Communication, alsoSTMicrelectronics for microproces-sor and sensor.

The patent filing statistics of theIntellectual Property Office Indiashows that the number of patent fil-ings in the field of computer sci-ence & electronics has been on therise since 2004 (except for the year2009). From 5700 patent applica-tions in 2005-2006 the number hasgone upto 7646 applications in2009-10. The top five Major Indianapplication for patents in the fieldof IT are – Infosys Technologies,LG Soft India, C-DAC, NewGenSoftware Technologies and Sam-sung India. Whereas Microsoft isthe top foreign filer for patent ap-plications in India

For Indian IT companies to havea sustained growth in terms of in-tellectual wealth creation and patentportfolio, they need focused in-house IP development and commer-cialization of these innovations.This needs to be supported by an in-creased thrust on Patents for thesecompanies to stay ahead in the tech-nology licensing market.

Thus, there is a growing need fortrained patent professionals in the ITsector as the number of technicalprofessionals having skills in thearea of patents and patent process isvery low. These skilled IP technicalprofessionals can work as a patentengineer, patent analysts, patentconsultants, patent associates, IPbusiness analysts in the in-houseteams at the Corporate.

Another sunrise Industry boom-ing in India is the KnowledgeProcess Outsourcing (KPO) sector.KPO work requires knowledge ex-pertise, technical and analytical, anda skilled workforce. The sectors thathave potential within the KPO in-dustry include data search, integra-tion and management services,financial services, research and ana-lytics, technology research, com-puter-aided simulation andengineering design, and profes-sional services such as business re-search and legal services. Today theKPO industry in India employs ap-proximately 2,55,000 professionalsout of which approximately 12,000are involved in Legal, Paralegal andIP related services. Assuming 25percent of these professionals areinvolved in IP related services, theKPO industry today employs ap-proximately 3000 IP professionals.Further a study by independent re-search company shows India willhave a higher growth rate in KPOsegment of 45 percent comparedwith 25 percent in the BPO seg-ment. This shows that the number ofIP professionals engaged in the KPOindustry will be approximately30,000 by March 2015. It is esti-mated that half of the country’spatent professional community,working at KPOs, will be profes-sionals with technical degree infield of Computers, Electronics orTelecommunication. Approximately12,000 – 14,000 such patent profes-sionals will be required by 2015.

INCREASE IN DEMAND FOR TRAINEDPATENT PROFESSIONALS IN THE INFORMATION TECHNOLOGYINDUSTRY

Atulya Nath

It has been observedthat the IT companiesare committed toboost their spendingon R&D and innova-tion, which is evidentfrom the increase innumber of Patentsthat have been filedby these companies

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Consumers and Enterpriseusers are both eagerly waitingfor the high resolution, good

quality, 2-way, video and voice-chatfor years now. This is all the more im-portant for Silicon India Parivaar,who has their folks, eight thousandmiles away. Their dream got close toreality, with Apple launching theFacetime, and multiple Video andVoIP applications on Android de-vices. But these have their own limi-tations--migrating between thenetworks and compensating forpacket losses in the real-time envi-ronment. Apart from the client issues,the media quality was un-acceptableon 3G networks, due to bandwidthlimitations and limited coverage of4G WiMax Networks. This articleprovides an overview of some of thechallenges for implementing aV.VoIP, in a real-time environmentand possible improvements on 4GLTE networks.

V.VoIP, over the fixed broad-band (both Cable & DSL), has beenaround for quite some time, hasbeen deployed and very well-ac-cepted globally. The primary fac-tors that contributed to its successwere the guaranteed QoS, low la-tency, high capacity, and hence ac-ceptable user-experience. Secondand Third generation wireless-tech-nologies, have not be able to caterto the user requirements to offer re-liable V.VoIP service. While thefourth generation WiMax networkwas a teaser, the LTE network guar-antees all the primary requirementsmentioned above--bringing revolu-tion to the world of mobile V.VoIP.

LTE is now rapidly gaining mo-mentum, with large mobile opera-tors like AT&T, Verizon,MetroPCS, Vodafone, China Mo-bile, DoCoMo, showing a sense ofurgency to deploy the LTE net-works in short order. This is first

V.VoIP, a reality with the launch of Mobile Broadband 4G LTE Networks

time ever that the operators are com-mitted to using the Mobile broad-band pipe for Voice communication.Many have already announced theirplans to launch the Voice, over LTE(VoLTE) service in near future, withsome launching as early as the firstquarter of next year. While therewere attempts made in the past tobring the voice over IP networks ina Mobile perspective, they have notbeen as successful due to the lack ofsupport from the network infra-structure and operators. There wasincreased pressure on the operatorsto adopt the superior quality Videoand VoIP over the mobile broadbandnetworks, since the evolution ofSmartphones.

SmartPhone penetration is ex-pected to flourish many folds overthe next few years. About 65 percentof the U.S. population, or over 200million people, will have a smart-phone and/or tablet in 2015, accord-ing to the research firm In-Stat.Most of the Smartphones shippingtoday have multiple GHz proces-sors, integrated with high-endgraphics and video hardware; thusenabling superior quality V.VoIPuser experience. Today’s Smart-Phones, invariably have largescreens; thus further improving theend-users viewing experience.

User expectations for a richmulti-media experience have expo-nentially increased, with the rapidgrowth of LTE and Smartphones.Key factors that determine the suc-cess of V.VoIP technology are asfollows:

1. Improved User ExperienceUnlike the other wireless technolo-gies, LTE guarantees QoS and lowlatencies that are pre-requisite foran intelligent 2-way conversation.In addition, higher capacity in aLTE environment enables an im-proved, 2-way video experience.Thus, LTE has all the ingredients to

provide superior quality V.VoIP andincreased user adoption.

2. Seamless RoamingAs LTE is just starting to getrolling, continuous coverage is anissue; hence it is mandatory toswitch to the legacy circuit-switched, where LTE is not avail-able. During the early deploymentstages, it is very important to im-plement a very efficient Voice CallContinuity (VCC) algorithm, toprovide a seamless voice-experi-ence, when moving between the cir-cuit-switched and packet-switchednetworks. This can be further ex-tended to, between packet-switchednetworks, such as WiFi and/or 3Gnetworks.

3. Increased Battery LifeLTE technology inherently, is lowerpower than its predecessors, such asWiMax. This can be further im-proved, by implementing an opti-mized V.VoIP application on ahandset. Some of the techniques in-clude - • Optimizing the voice algorithms,

for the targeted processor, to run ata reduced speed; thus lowering thepower consumption and increasingthe battery life.• Making use of the hardware ac-

celerators, such as the hardwareVideo engine.• Shutting down the sub-systems

when not in operation.

4. Extensive InteroperabilitySome of the early V.VoIP imple-mentations, though very attractive,failed miserably, as they could notcommunicate with other equally at-tractive devices and networks. Foradoption across wide-range of theusers, the ecosystem of Operators,Infrastructure vendors, and Clientvendors have to work together veryclosely, to ensure that they delivera standard-based solution that can

communicate with any device, atany location, and at any time.

5. Reduced Time to MarketWhile VoLTE does require imple-mentation of some additional RFCsand features, it mostly uses thelegacy VoIP and IMS-based stan-dards, where many of the clientvendors have invested heavily tomake them work on low bandwidth3G and earlier generation wirelessnetworks. This has also given theclient vendors, extended learningcurve, to understand the complexi-ties of wireless environment and ad-dress any consequences.

Some of the legacy standardsand protocols that 3GPP basedVoLTE uses include – • Session Initiation Protocol (SIP)

signaling, Real- time Transport Pro-tocol (RTP), Real-Time TransportControl Protocol (RTCP), and Ses-sion Description Protocol (SDP)• IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS)• Voice Call Continuity (VCC)• Supplementary enterprise call

features, like 3-way conferencing,call waiting, call transfer, callhold/resume• Voice and Video Media engine,

including Video and SpeechCodecs, Acoustic Echo Canceller(AEC), Voice Activity Detection(VAD), Comfort Noise Genera-tion(CNG), and other media mod-ules• Since there was no QoS on the

infrastructure side, on third genera-tion and earlier wireless technolo-gies; it was mandatory, to handlethe inefficiencies in the network, onthe client side. The very robustPacket Loss Concealment (PLC)and Adaptive Jitter Buffer (AJB) al-gorithms were developed to cater tothe packet losses in the network.

To summarize, LTE ecosystem,is very much committed to provide arich multi-media experience to theusers over the mobile broadband.

TTeecchhnnoollooggyy:: By Krishna YarlagaddaThe author is Founder, President & CEO of HelloSoft

siKrishna Yarlagadda

to sync devices using a cable, the re-ality is that, many people do not dothis, for a variety of reasons — in-convenience, tediousness, technicalchallenge, and more.

Thus, the cloud is a natural ware-house, to store digital informationand to keep things in sync across de-vices for easy access. It also becomesan easy way to share data and mediawith other systems (e.g. email sys-tems and social networks), as well aswith other people (e.g. family, rela-tives, co-workers and colleagues).

3. The cloud will grow to becomean important tool for people, to ac-cess and purchase mobile content; in-cluding music, videos, movies,e-books, games, apps, and other dig-ital content. Although this is still inits infancy; the trend is clear thatcompanies will use the cloud as a dis-tribution channel, to offer users addi-tional digital goods.

Based on these trends and others,Forrester Research recently pre-dicted, that the personal cloud willbecome a new mobile market,amounting to $12 billion by 2016 inthe U.S. alone. Extrapolating this to aworldwide population, the market isprojected to be worth $40 billion,which by comparison is twice as bigas the current market for onlinemusic.

How the Personal Cloud WillChange the Mobile IndustryCompanies in the mobile industry areaware of the likely 'sea change' po-tential, of the personal cloud. Theycan see that mobile users will be stor-ing additional data and rich media inthe cloud, and that it is going tochange the structure, as well as for-tunes of many companies in the in-dustry. Here are some of the moresignificant changes on the way.

Apple is feverishly putting thefinishing touches, on its new iCloudservice, which lets users store a vari-ety of data and media, on personal ac-

counts in the cloud. It is primarily in-tended for users of iOS devices(iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch), as well asMac computers and laptops. As partof iCloud, iTunes will be integrated--allowing users to store iTunes pur-chases in the cloud, for access acrossApple devices, PCs, and TVs.

Google is increasingly pursuingopportunities in the mobile space.This shows that, to thrive in the mo-bile industry, at least three majorcomponents are needed: great hand-sets (hardware), a modern mobile op-erating system (e.g. iOS or Android),and integrated cloud services (e.g.iCloud, or Google cloud servicessuch as Gmail, Picasa, and YouTube).Another component, as noted, is theability to offer commercial content,such as music and videos, so thatusers can store both their own user-generated content (such as their pic-tures and videos), as well ascommercial content (such as musicand movies), in one place.

Other large companies, in andaround the mobile industry, for ex-ample, LG, Samsung, Nokia, HTC,and RIM, are aware of how the per-sonal cloud is changing the mobilegame, and are taking various steps toaddress it.

Mobile operators and othertelecommunication service providers,such as cable companies and landlinephone companies, face the question,of whether it makes sense to offercustomers a personal cloud (or a per-sonal 'business' cloud). The challengefor them is that they need to supportmany different phones and devices ontheir network, from different vendors;whereas Apple and Google, for ex-ample, only need to support their owndevices. The challenge and opportu-nity, for them, is to support a diver-sity of devices, while still providingthe ease-of-use, offered by the likesof Apple.

At the same time, the customer re-lationship that service providers have

with customers, gives them a poten-tial advantage. For example, if all ofthe members of a family or a work-group use the same operator, it makessense that the operator would providea cloud service that works with all oftheir devices; allowing people to storetheir data and media in the cloud, andshare it with each other.

Another group of companies im-pacted by the rise of personal cloudsare content companies such as Ama-zon and social networks, such asFacebook. They want to make surethat mobile users continue to usetheir sites as the primary place to ac-cess content. However, if a mobileuser has multiple alternatives forstoring their data and media online,it obviates the need to save data andmedia with the content company, orsocial network. In this respect, thepersonal cloud is both a threat, aswell as an opportunity for contentcompanies.

There are numerous startups, aswell as established companies, thatare introducing new personal cloudservices--practically on a weeklybasis. This is increasing the numberof options available to users, and in-creasing the levels of innovation andease-of-use in the industry.

In summary, the mobile world israpidly changing. Many more peoplewill be storing significantly moredata and rich media in the cloud,which is changing many aspects ofthe mobile ecosystem. This will cre-ate both many new challenges, aswell as opportunities.

If you are interested in learningmore about how people intend to usepersonal clouds in detail, you are in-vited to download a free research re-port, "Personal Cloud Survey: Hypevs. Reality," at http://www.funam-bol.com/solutions/library.php. Thereport analyzes people's intentions tokeep data and media in the cloud, andhighlights potential obstacles toadoption.


si

Amajor change is brewing inthe mobile industry—the ad-vent of the personal cloud.

Mobile users, of which there are nowmore than five billion, will be stor-ing more of their data and rich mediain personal accounts in the cloud,also called 'digital lockers.' Personalclouds are beginning to be used byboth consumers, as well as enterpriseusers, and there are three primaryreasons why they will be storingeven more data and rich media in thecloud:

1. Smartphones are evolving intopowerful personal computers, whichstore increasing amounts of data andmedia. While, in the past it mighthave been just a minor inconven-ience if your phone was lost, brokenor stolen, it is now a major nuisance--given the amount of data and con-tent stored on a users’ phone. Just as

people have become aware of theneed to back up critical data on per-sonal computers, the same reasoningapplies to mobile devices. By savingone's data and rich media in thecloud, the user is assured of a reliablebackup of their personal or businessdata.

2. As smartphones and mobiledata plans become ubiquitous, con-sumers are increasingly using multi-ple wireless-devices, such as twophones (one for work and anotherfor personal use), a phone and lap-top, or a phone and tablet. This willmake it progressively more difficultto keep them in sync, if for example,you have some contacts on onephone and other contacts on anotherdevice, or you want to access yourcalendar across multiple devices.The same goes for email, pictures,videos, files, etc. While it is possible

The Next Big Thing in Mobile:tthhee PPeerrssoonnaall CClloouudd

TTeecchhnnoollooggyy:: By Amit ChawlaThe author is CEO, Funambol

Amit Chawla

Training Institute – Talent ac-quired from schools does not alwayshave the practical experienceneeded to contribute to the billabil-ity of the service company. Engi-neers need to be trained for industryneeds, and hence the need of a state-of-the-art training institute. Traininginstitute should be run on an inde-pendent basis, by experienced teach-ers; at the same time it shouldimpart some knowledge about thecompany culture.Partners – Companies with match-ing ideologies and non-overlappingdomains can accelerate mutualgrowth, by forming partnerships.Partners are a key ingredient of asemiconductor design serviceprovider’s ecosystem. Chip designand manufacturing is a capital in-tensive and complex process, mak-ing the need for partners a necessityand not an option. Various types ofpartners are as follows • EDA vendors• Foundries• Packaging vendors• Test houses• Service Providers covering Complimentary Domains• Industry Standards Bodies• Sales RepresentativesService Company – The designservice company is the centerpieceof the ecosystem and its main objec-tive is to provide customer satisfac-tion, by utilizing all the componentsof the ecosystem. To build a longlasting company, all factions of theecosystem should collaborate andwork as a unit.

For a service company to scale,the management system should pro-mote ownership and develop lead-ers. This can be done byempowering employees to maketheir own decisions, even thoughthey might make some mistakes. Bygiving the power to make decisions,you let the employees feel that theyare an integral part of the company

and they will go the extra mile tocreate customer satisfaction. Per-formance rewards should be wellstructured, so that the employee cancorrelate his or her hard work withthe reward. The sense of ownershipcan be further strengthened, by pro-viding stock ownership to the em-ployees. A sense of pride andownership is a key for long term re-tention of employees, and stablework force is a key to a company’ssuccess.

Every company should have asocial cause and allocate some of itsresources towards the improvementof society. Charity work can be inthe form of time or money. Compa-nies can help local schools’ infra-structure or by creatingemployment. Goodwill createdamong the society and employees bysocial contributions, results in betterbusiness growth, hence making so-cial cause a mutually beneficialitem.

Employee Development directlytranslates into company developmentand is a great tool for recruiting. Hav-ing invested in training and retainingthe employees, companies should notbe short sighted but should always in-vest in employee development. Thiscan be done, by un-derstanding the ca-reer aspirations of theemployee and en-abling him or her toachieve those goals.Leadership classes,supporting higher ed-ucation, mentoringon the job, exposureto industry events,are some of the toolsa company can use todevelop their em-ployees. A satisfiedemployee results in asatisfied customer,which translates tobetter business.

Company events and benefits,should be framed keeping in mindthe entire family and not only theemployee. If the family is happy, itis a great incentive for the employeeto work hard and also a recruitingtool for the company. Medical, re-tirement, and emergency loans aresome of the benefits a company canprovide to assist the employee’sfamily. Events, such as offsite ac-tivities, sports, and cultural func-tions should include family, tocreate a strong bonding betweenemployees.Summary - The growing focus ofthe semiconductor industry on re-ducing chip design cost and timeand acquiring the ability to churnout ever more new products atshorter intervals will be a key fac-tor, in shaping the chip design serv-ices market in 2011 and beyond. 2010 was the year of return togrowth, for many third-party chipdesign service providers. However,in 2011, design service providerswill need to "go the extra mile", toretain their customers and keepgrowing by providing value-addedservices. This further solidifies thereason to have a well functionalecosystem.


Overview – The semiconductordesign services industry is agrowing field, due to rising costsand shortage of engineers incountries, where IC companiesare located. According to Gar-nter, the number of outsourcedchip design stats, grew by 21.4percent in 2010; compared to adecline of 9 percent in 2009, anda rise of 6.5 percent in 2008. Thechip design services revenue, in-creased by 34 percent in 2010.

Chip design companies, aregetting comfortable working,with service providers; resultingin complete projects to be out-sourced, instead of just individ-ual blocks. For supporting the currentand future needs of their customers,the design service providers need tofocus on building an ecosystem.

Ecosystem – The capital investmentneeded to start a design servicecompany may restrict the growth ofthe company. If the company creates

an ecosystem with verticalpartners, it can grow faster andadapt better to changing marketneeds. The figure below showsthe various components of asemiconductor design servicesecosystem.Talent Source – Engineeringtalent is scarce and especiallywell-trained engineers. Everyservice company should recog-nize and understand that, engi-neers are their key assets.Business growth will be pro-portional to the number of en-gineers they can hire andretain.For a company to succeed, it

needs to have access to studentsfrom good schools, and to do so itshould build strong relationshipswith the school management.

TTeecchhnnoollooggyy:: By Ash PatelThe author is Director of Business Development, Sankalp Semiconductor

si

Figure 1: Semiconductor Design Services Ecosystem

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listed in the App Store. Research saysthat an eye-caching icon increases thesales. What Customer can see beforebuying, are the Screenshots of the App.Good UI design is an important factoraffecting app sales.

Develop ItWork on the app, according to proto-type. If you don't have a team, you canhire developers from Odesk, or otherfreelancer portals. Developers must fol-low the iOS Human Interface Guide-lines; read the guidelines once.Application having bad or inaccessibleUI might get rejected from App Store.Get the advantage of Accelerometer,Gyroscope, Compass, and other hard-ware sensors.

Testing and PolishingTest your apps in all possible versionsof iPhone/iPad, or other devices. It'shighly recommended to test on a de-vice, because many bugs and crasheshappen only on hardware. Crashing ofyour app will cause the negative re-views on your App page, and high re-turn rate. Polishing the app will make amajor difference. Enhance the app withanimations, Social sharing options,functionality to ask users to reviewyour app, and custom loading anima-tions.

Prepare for SubmissionOnce your app is ready, developersneed to do several tasks, like configur-ing different sizes of icons, screenshots,and signing binary with provisionalcertificate. After submission of app,Apple takes 3–to-7 days to test and ap-prove your application.

Market your AppApp Store is a competitive environ-ment; more companies and market-places release more applications.Against more than 140,000 apps, allscreaming for attention, how do youmake sure your app gets its time in thespotlight? Get a nice website and a

Facebook fanpage. Decide the launchdate, and write press releases and Blog-posts; be interesting and Tweetable,post video reviews on YouTube.

Send promo codes to famous blogs,and app websites to review your app.The App might get picked by famouswebsites, like TechCrunch, or Life-Hacker ; TUAW gives high peak in appsales. You can also run an ad-campaignon ad-networks, like Admob and iAdsto get targeted downloads. Gettingmore downloads and reviews in initialdays of launch will help to get your appgain good position and get featured instores. Massive quantities of mobileapps create competition to stay viable.A price drop, for few days will alsohelp to get more reviews on paid-apps.

Keep a track, Give updatesNow your app is generating good rev-enues from Appstore, but your job isnot over. To generate revenue for longterm, you should keep a track of yourusers. Read the reviews they write onApp Store and check crash logs. Fix theissues and problems users facing, addnew features, enhance the app, and re-lease an Update.

Those were 10 steps to launch yourfirst App in the market. Now you cantry different ways for monetizing yourapp and generate some extra revenue.

Pricing StrategyDownload revenue can be more com-plex, as it involves pricing strategy. Thesecret to maximize download revenue,is pricing. The most popular paid ap-plications are priced between $0.99 and$3.99; with a predominance of 99 centsapplications. These applications arewhat we call, the "big-fast sales." Mostusers download them and use themonce or twice; they're predominantlyentertainment-based, and provide smallvalue to the consumer, but the massdownload provides great initial revenueand then stops. The most grossing ap-plications are actually priced between$4.99 and $9.99, and account for 44

percent of revenue. These applicationsare downloaded less frequently, butused more often, as they usually pro-vide tangible value

Monetize app with AdvertisingRevenue from advertising is similar tobrand-driven applications; the approachaims to reach as many users as possi-ble, by providing free entertainment orutilities, and to collect revenue throughthird party advertising like Admobfrom Google, iAds from Apple, or in-Mobi from Mobclix. Mobile Ads givehigher eCPM values than web ads;whch means you can generate revenuefor an ad impression. Monetizing appwith Ads is more preferred for appswhich engage users for long time.

Freemium Business ModelThe Freemium model has a strategythat user gets the app for free, but theycan pay to get more features and en-hanced experience using In-App-Purchase.

According to a new study by mo-bile app search firm Xyologic, about11 percent of all free games in Apple'sApp Store, have in-app purchase forvirtual goods, currency and additionalfeatures. But these Freemium apps,have an outsized influence on the AppStore, making up 40 percent of all freegame downloads from the store inMarch.

This year stats are showing spec-tacular growth in Asian App market;especially in China app downloadshave increased by 46 percent, 1.5 mil-lion daily downloads in China. Beingin app business, you can take advan-tage of this growth, hire translators,and localize your apps for Asian lan-guages.

Amitech Business Solutions hasbeen in app business from 10 monthsand have produced top ranking apps;I have been developing iOS apps andI have learned that, you have to thinklike a user, to get successful in the appbusiness.

Mobile applications have be-come a technological battle-field today. The market has

"exponential growth" phenomenon anddownloads are predicted to reach 4 bil-lion this year alone; rising to 21 billionby 2013. This isn't surprising when youlook at the number of smartphones inthe market and the worldwide ship-ments are reported to surpass 390 mil-lion by 2013; growing at a rate of 20.9percent per year.

A new report from the researchfirm Canalys indicates that the directrevenue from mobile app stores will al-most double within the next year, to hitfigures of $14.1 billion a 92 percent risefrom an expected $7.3 billion in 2011.

According to the Germany-basedresearch2guidance, Android would sur-pass Apple's App Store by August 2011.The firm expects Android Market toreach 425,000 apps next August, effec-tively overtaking App Store in size.

The good news for application de-velopers is that, as the number of smart-phone users increase, so does thedemand for a wide range of mobile ap-plications. Today App business is bil-lion-dollar-Pie and everyone is jumpingin to take their part of pie. The onlyquestion that remains is how do youtake advantage of this opportunity,when there are already so many appsout there, and more constantly beingdeveloped? But it's never too late.

At Amitech Business Solutions, wedecided to get into the App business inJanuary 2011; the next thing we had tothink about, was the platform. We hadfew options: iOS, Android, and Black-berry to choose from. I have been iDe-

vices fan so went for iOS and the nextFebruary we launched our first iOS appBeatMaster. After a month, we ven-tured into our first Android app. We re-alized that, for new developers theApple's App Store platform is better tolookout, as Return-on-Investment arehigher in iOS, than any other platform.There's no doubt Android Market willat some point offer more applicationsfor download and/or purchase thanApple's App Store, as the latter's growthhas been slowing down of late, whilethe Android application store's growthrate has been accelerating.

How to Get Started?Idea: All it takes is a Good Idea. Theidea can be entertaining, or a problemsolver. There are unlimited possibilitieswhat you can do with mobile devices.Your Idea can target a people, or cate-gory of store. Market research can helpyou, if there is already an app similar toyour Idea-Read the reviews and com-ments of users in App store, and en-hance your Idea. It's not always neededto do market research; there are hun-dreds of examples that developers haveput wired Apps which have brokenrecords. (Like iFart)

Select a TechnologyAndroid: Get yourself an Androidphone and an Android SDK. You mustregister to be able to distribute yourproducts through the Android Market.There is a onetime registration fee of$25.iOS: To develop iOS, you need a MacComputer and an iPhone/ iPad to testyour Apps on the device. Get enrolled

in the Apple iOS developer program,which costs $99/year. Download theiOS SDK and development kit frommember area.Cross-Platform:There are some tools,which allow you to deploy applicationin multiple mobile formats. That savestime and money, if done right way.HTML5 developers can make mobileapplications with the PhoneGap or Ti-tanium Mobile frameworks. Advancedgame development softwares likeUnity3D, also deploys games in multi-ple platforms. Still, you will need tojoin Developer programs, to publishyour apps to the App store.

Gather the TeamIf you are a developer, you can start onyour own, but for sophisticated Apps itsteam game. If you are an entrepreneurhaving no developing experience, youneed a good team of developers, and agood UI designer.

PrototypeDon't forget to research your competi-tor's app, and solve and add featureswhich they lack. Make blueprints of thescreens of the App you are planning;sketch the screens. For sophisticatedapp, you may sketch screen in differentresolutions and landscape/portraitmodes of your choice.

Design ItDesigning is most important thing inApp development. If you are a devel-oper, hire a designer to design the UIand screens of your App. Design is veryimportant, as you get few seconds to at-tract the customer when your app is

TTeecchhnnoollooggyy:: By Ruchit PatelThe Author is Co-founder, Amitech Business Solutions

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How to build Apps Business


for an entrepreneur it is very impor-tant to look at the liability part ofthe balance sheet. Everyone thinksthat wealth Manager is for Manag-ing wealth. It’s true, but they alsomanage liability, whether it is aboutthe entrepreneur buying a house orleasing a car. Also in future theymight think of going public. So howdo you go about on the IPO road?There will be a lot of people whowill be pitching you at that point be-cause you have built a great com-pany. But if you have an advisorycore group already in place, it iseasy to plan things such as succes-sion planning, expansion and so on.

Entrepreneur’s DilemmaI think some of the things that havechanged over 13 years is, the finan-cial world has become a lot morecomplicated today, between taxlaws and global investments, thelandscape is more sophisticatedwhich means the need for good ad-vice is stronger than it’s ever been.You have economic volatility glob-ally. You get so much informationwhen you pick up the newspaper, oryou see the CNBC and Bloomberg.But that lacks good advice. Themore the information, more peopleget over loaded; but then they don’tknow what to do. So the financiallandscapes are lot more sophisti-cated with ever changing tax lawsand globalization. The need to havegood strong advisors has never beenstronger.

India when compared to U.S.The way of doing business is verydifferent in both the countries.Butthere exists a commonality which isvery exciting. India today is proba-bly what U.S. was when the Rocke-fellers and JP Morgan were buildingthis country. It’s a time of phenom-enal entrepreneurship in India; it’s atime of unbelievable growth. It islike their renaissance. But we being

Indians, we tend to be more pes-simistic. We hear everyone talkabout the problems in India; but ac-cording to me India has attained animpressive growth. To be more spe-cific, it has been only 63 years sinceIndia got its freedom, whereas U.S.got it almost two centuries back.India has achieved significantgrowth in this small period.

Reflections of a Second Genera-tion Indian AmericanMy value system came very earlyon by watching my parents. My dadcame to U.S. in 1952, travelling 22days on a boat, not even a plane. Heworked very hard in IBM for his ca-reer. He never asked for glory, hehumbly did his job. My mom alsocame here, she did her double mas-ters. They set a very good exampleof work. We understand the valuesystem that our parents gave uswhich was to understand our cultureand above all know your subjectmatter. However during our times,we don’t strive for money or glorybut we do strive to measure up tosacrifices our parents made. Theymade great sacrifices that we neverhave to make. They did it for a bet-ter life and we almost owe it tothem and ourselves to be the bestwe can be. You look at what SanjayGupta is doing in the Second gener-ation — he’s always pushing him-self to be better. It’s not aboutmoney, it’s about how can I be bet-ter? When you see Indra Nooyi,when you see these people, it’s notabout striving for money but it’s apassion for knowledge that I thinkis the greatest lesson we learnt inthe Indian community. A passionfor education — to keep learningalways. This is the greatest gift myparents have given me. I am a Sen-ior Vice President now but I neverassume I know everything. I thinkit’s the greatest lesson that we haveand will be giving to the future gen-

eration. I might have resented it ear-lier on when I had to study and theother kids were playing. But that isa pretty big lesson of growing upand it’s very helpful to have rolemodels to look up to.

Role models in the journeyI had a lot of role models. When Iread stories of Dhirubhai Ambani,I very much look up to the thingshe stood for, the things he was ableto do in his lifetime, though thekids are different. But surelyDhirubhai Ambani! I like WarrenBuffet here, and Donald Trump. Ilike any entrepreneurial story forthat matter. There is a lot of waysthat your parents have influencedyou, because as Indian kids grow-ing up back then we were prettysheltered. We went home to ourdosa, rice, rasam, sambar and ourlifestyle. And not till were we mucholder did we go to other people’shouseholds and learn what Ameri-can families did. I was born in the69 and growing up in the 70s, so re-ally our role models were the ethicsand values we learnt from our par-ents and our in-laws.

Entrepreneur’s need for financial advisorsEntrepreneurs never have set income; theynever take income out of the company. Theincomes they make are minimal. So learn-ing to manage that is very important.Hence, for an entrepreneur it is really im-portant to surround himself with advisorswhom he can trust from the early days.Trust only comes with time. Once yourcompany evolves and grows big, everybodywants to be your friend. Getting very strongadvisers early on from the personal side andfrom the business side is very crucial for theentrepreneur. These advisors can help himwith questions like “How do I structure mycontract”, “How do I go to VCs?”, “How doI divide the shares of the company?” Entre-preneurs usually face liquidity issues. Start-ups and entrepreneurial ventures needmoney, but as they grow, they need goodstrong advisors. For lot of these entrepre-neurs they need tax advisors. So they needto work closely with their CPAs on creatingtax sufficient investments. I also think that

VVPP PPrrooffiillee:: By Jaya Smitha Menon

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Entrepreneurs Need FinancialAdvisors from Early StageKamesh Nagarajan is a Senior Vice Presi-dent in Morgan Stanley Smith Barney’sGlobal Wealth Management Division withover 12 years of experience. His team, TheFifth Avenue Group, specializes in helpingcorporate executives with concentratedstock planning, and in advising physiciansand entrepreneurs on comprehensivewealth management issues. Nagarajanbegan his career in Rochester, New York,practicing law at Harris Beach LLP priorto joining Morgan Stanley Smith Barney.Nagarajan has a Bachelor of Arts degree inEconomics from Vassar College and a JurisDoctorate from Syracuse University Col-lege of Law.

According to Gartner,CIOs need to consider

adopting industrialized,low-cost IT services toreduce the cost of run-

ning the business, whilecontrolling the risk, inte-gration and customiza-tion issues, to increasethe business value of ITand enhance its percep-

tion by the business.

Kamesh Nagarajan


siTech20

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CAPITALIZATIONIn Rs. Crore

INDIA INDEXIndex of the top tech public companies in India

Infosys TechnologiesTata Consultancy ServicesWipro LtdTech MahindraHCL TechnologiesMahindra Satyam Mphasis Financial TechnologiesPatni CompGTL LtdRolta IndiaHCL InfosystemsMindtreeMoser BaerCMC LtdPolaris SoftwareNIIT LtdSasken Communications TechnologySonata SoftwareSubex Systems

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2162869311539368543086572504883583212079111543952741

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It is true that Tablets are here to stay.These small, sleek and easy to usedevices, have definitely caught the

consumer’s attention. We saw Appleruling the market, but with a pricewhich does not suit everyone’s wallet.After the phenomenal success of iPad,we saw many big players entering thesame space.But none has been able tocrack the dominance of Apple's iPad;whether it be Samsung’s Galaxy Tab,Motorola Xoom, HP TouchPad, RIMPlaybook or LG’sOptimus Pad. Most ofthem have been greeted with mediocrereviews and tepid sales.

In a market where all is not goingwell, on September 28, 2011 Amazon'sJeff Bezos introduced the 7-inch An-droid tablet with a $199 price tag. At$199, Kindle Fire will be the cheapestof its kind when it is released in theU.S. next month.According to researchfirm eDataSource, pre-order sales fornew Kindle Fire tablet totalled 95,000units in the first day of sale. Thoughprice and preorder volumes say it all,these are not the only indicators of anapproaching success which is going tofizz the tablet market. So what can theplayers learn from Amazon’s approach?Especially the Indian players who didtry their luck in this market, have muchto learn from Amazon’s strategy andapproach.

The Desi EuphoriaBack home, there has been some actionin the tablet space by home grown com-panies—Olive Telecom’s Olivepad,Notion Ink’s Adam, Reliance’s 3G Tab,Infibeam’s Phi tablet, BhartiAirtel’s-Beetel, HCL’s ME tablet, BinatoneHome Surf, Accord@pad, Wesproepad,

Lava, Micromax — are battling for ashare of the Indian tablet market. Theirmantra: Affordable tablets.

However, affordable product ortechnology alone is not the recipe forsuccess in the marketplace. There is nonew technology introduced that givesFire an advantage over anyone; all theydid was make a good product at a rea-sonable price. The key to the success,is smart marketing or smart businessstrategy. The Kindle Fire may be poisedto win the Android tablet war, butBezos doesn’t think of it as a tablet.“We think of Kindle Fire as an end-to-end service.”

The new Kindle strategy is terrific.It's about the content and the price.Bezos sees the Kindle Fire, holisticallyas a delivery device, which will helpunleash all the digital media servicesAmazon offers. As Amazon puts it, "18million songs, movies, TV shows,books, magazines, apps and games."Can the other players in the androidmarket beat this volume of content?

Beyond the Device“In the modern era of consumer elec-tronics devices, if you are just build-ing a device, you are unlikely tosucceed,” Bezos says, “Today it isabout the software, the software on thedevice and the software in the cloud.It is a seamless service—this is Kindlegreeting you by name when you pullit out of the box. Some of the compa-nies building tablets didn’t build serv-ices, they just built tablets.” Forexample, Kindle Fire comes with anew kind of Web browser called Ama-zon Silk, which weds the tablet toAmazon's cloud network.

That’s the reason Kindle Fire isproducing more optimism, than allthe non-iPad tablet launches com-bined. People do indeed like the ideaof a purpose-built device that does afew things well.

Bezos’ exceptional ability, to“marry commerce and technology increative ways," and "his sheer inven-tiveness and willingness to take therisks," should decide the success ofAmazon and that of Kindle Fire.It isnow going to be an exciting market,where Amazon is leading and pavingthe way. Innovation also means fill-ing the gap and improvising the prod-uct. Can the other players follow suit?Lets wait and watch.

Kindle Fire: What India needs to Learn?

By Pradeep Shankar

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“In the modern era ofconsumer electronics de-vices, if you are justbuilding a device, you areunlikely to succeed”

Silicon India Oct 11 Issue

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