Friday, July 20, 2012
Home Based, small to medium-sized enterprise
You can do the accounts or before invoicing? If so, this, again, is something you can sell as a service. Whether or not the child's parents, the whole day at school? Consider the work of the service. Web search, to work and to see what others provide services for, and what kind of fees. Are you expert in foot-operated sewing machine? You can offer as a service and mending. I am only 5 ' 2? and both of my children are 5 '. We need all the change. I would like to bring in someone's home and to go to the dry cleaner, change their icky little bathroom, etc. Want to sell a product? You have a few choices, Yes, only a few. You can set up the product themselves. You can purchase a wholesaler or you can buy directly from the company. It is in the little options. If you wish to make products, again, see. What hobbies do you have? What does the craft industry can do? Some of the hand-sewn by hand or seriously sell knitted items. Some sell home-made soaps and lotions for liquids. Some sell home-made jewelry. These are you can do when you are Home to accommodate the Business several options. In addition, the medium-term, a small business or your own home comforts speed saves money because you do not have to pay rent. In addition, you can manage your time and if you are at home, you do not need to leave your child in the maker.
Applicant Tracking System (ATS) for Small and Medium Business (SMB): A Solution for Everyone
A good online ATS will assist small businesses with not only helping to create an opening quickly, but also posting it on social media websites such as LinkedIn, Facebook, or Twitter as well as job search engines like Indeed. By managing your own company's career page it will keep openings updated and enable people to apply in a more effective way, rather than emailing a resume. On top of this, the company will look much more professional, hopefully attracting higher caliber candidates as well. Every good tool out there will let a user control all data and even provide an easy way to export the information should the service no longer be needed. With the proliferation of Software As A Service (SAAS) providers, the processes for hiring have become much easier and collaborative in nature. The scale they provide, and the ease of use to deploy to their clients will make software such as Applicant Tracking Systems a very useful and inexpensive tool that used to only be accessible to hiring departments with very high budgets.
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Thursday, July 19, 2012
Exploring Small and Medium Businesses in India
The Indian economy is one of the fastest growing economies in the world and this is evident from the increase in b2b business space India shares with the world. Apart from the big business houses, the real contributors towards the economic growth are the small and middle sized enterprises belonging to different industries. To learn about different business sectors of India, there is no better place than a b2b business directory, where these businesses open their doors for the world. Considering the popularity and growth rate of businesses, here is a list of the top 10 business sectors of India. The foods and beverage industry of India has gained popularity in the past 3-4 years, mainly due to the changing lifestyle and eating habits of the people. Most of the segments have recorded an increase in revenue from 2005 to 2009, the alcohol segment being on the top. A growth rate of 7.5 percent is expected between 2009 and 2013 to make it a 330 billion dollar industry by 2013. The information technology business sector of India is expected to increase by 14.1 percent from 2009 to 2010. The expert analysis predicts the industry to become 67 billion dollar industry in 2010 and to increase by 11 percent by the year 2013. IT services, software as well as hardware segments are making great contributions towards the growth rate of IT industry as a b2b business. Due to a huge different in the healthcare costs in India and the western countries, the health industry of the country is experiencing a growth in terms of business. The analysis shows that the current 35 billion dollar industry is going to touch the figure of 75 billion dollars in 2012 and 150 billion dollar by the year 2017.
The growth of telecommunication business sector in India can be easily termed as a revolution. The country enjoys the second rank as the telecom network provider. The rise of 3G services and mobile telephony has also contributed significantly towards the growth rate in the sector. The mobile subscribers in the country are expected to grow by 11 percent from 2010 to 2014. Textile industry of India is a globally reputed b2b business sector. The total textile exports from India contribute towards 27 percent of the total foreign exchange. Cotton, silk, jute, woolen, hand-crafted and readymade textiles are the main segments one can find in a global Indian b2b business directory. The Indian auto component industry has been growing with a consistent growth rate of about 20 percent since 2000 and the rate is expected to remain consistent till 2015. Engine parts, drive transmission ad steering parts, suspension and braking parts and electrical parts are main contributors towards the growth of this global b2b business sector. Accounting towards 11 percent of India's total GDP, the construction industry is an exporter of various raw materials to the world. For example, China is the biggest consumer of steel exported by India. Besides, the cement industry is a significant contributor in this category. Indian handicrafts enjoy a great demand in the foreign markets like those of USA, UK and Australia. Wooden handicrafts, jewelry, hand printed textiles and crocheted goods are some of the main segments that bring foreign exchange of the worth of 3 billion dollar to the country. Both renewable and non-renewable energy sources have contributed towards the growth rate of energy sector of India. Natural gas, LPG and solar energy are the segments that have been consistently growing. Investment banking, credit cards, mortgage and insurance products are the segments that contribute towards the growth of banking and insurance sector of India. For example, the number of debit cards increased by 40 percent from 2006 and 2009.
Friday, July 13, 2012
Understanding SMEs (Small and Medium Entrepreneurs)
The benefits of SMEs are not confined to the developing world only but are predominantly visible in the developed world as well. Small and Medium Industries and small business community are the backbone of Europe's economy. There are more than 23 million SMEs in the European Union, which represents 99% of European undertakings and are responsible for 60% of Europe's GDP. They are also Europe's main job creators as they employ over 100 million people. For any economy, SMEs with high turnover and adaptability play a major role in reducing sector imbalances in that economy. Moreover, easy entry and exit of SMEs make economies more flexible and more competitive. Due to this ease of entry and the resultant increase in the number of small and medium businesses, a competitive market pressure is created which dilutes monopolies and helps increase quality of products and services. Interestingly, most of the current larger enterprises have their origin in small and medium enterprises but downsizing, layoffs and mergers have made jobs in large corporations more risky and less attractive to employees. The beneficiaries of this are the smaller companies as more creative talent is usually keener to join smaller outfits where it can have a better opportunity to utilise and explore its potential.Smaller businesses also tend to have closer customer relationships and cater to the client needs more effectively and promptly. Smaller businesses also offer better position to their owners to take quick decisions on innovation, pricing and other business strategies which render useful competitive advantage. SMEs tend to employ poor and low-income workers and are sometimes the only source of employment in poor and rural areas. They are usually wide spread and reach out to a vast population of a country even in remote areas. This role of SMEs is particularly important in the developing countries where there is lot of poverty.
Financing is one of the many problems the smaller businesses face. For SMEs, financial resources are often limited which often force the companies to select solutions which appear to be cheap initially but later the hidden costs surface during various stages of execution resulting in financial crises. Higher costs of R&D (Research AND Development) and training are issues where SMEs find difficulties especially in the face of limited capability of development and production.Due to their small size, SMEs usually lack management capacity and their ability to access and analyse information is particularly weak. They cannot afford costly support services like financial, human resource, legal and training etc. At a more strategic level, SMEs do not have the capacity to influence the overall business environment in their favour as larger firms possess. In addition to assistance provided by SMEDA, SMEs themselves have to take measures to address the problems. They must develop strong management teams and adopt a culture of learning and sharing of knowledge with other SMEs. For financial assistance, SMEs have to rely on banks and have to find ways to overcome banks' shyness to finance smaller businesses.
Proactive IT Services Save Small and Medium Businesses Thousands of Dollars Yearly
The Solution
With the advent of new monitoring tools and the ability to remotely deliver help desk services to small businesses all over the world, Managed I.T. Service Providers have developed proactive maintenance plans for their clients that maximize their uptime and reduce I.T. costs over time. By implementing newly available automated processes, systems can be patched and updated overnight without the need for onsite visits, or disrupting an organization's work day. In addition, remote help desk tools and technology allow Managed I.T. Service Providers the ability to react immediately and assist users when they experience day-to-day problems, without forcing them to wait for an on-site service call. Forward-thinking Managed I.T. Service Providers are also implementing proactive remote Network Monitoring tools and services, which evaluate the performance of systems 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, and alert these Service Providers of potential issues before they become work-stopping problems for their clients.
The Details
Implementing and receiving the benefit of these solutions is painless for the Small Business Owner, as Managed I.T. Service Providers can begin delivering these cost-saving and efficiency-improving services soon after deploying specialized software agents on all managed equipment. These agents report device health, service pack and operating system, anti-virus and anti-spyware update information back to the Managed I.T. Service Provider's monitoring systems, allowing real-time analysis and proactive management to occur.
Specialized software applications installed at the Managed I.T. Service Provider's location also track all problems reported by their monitoring systems and end-users, and are used to document all steps initiated for resolution. These applications provide a ready knowledge-base of information which grows over time, allowing swift resolution for issues that have been previously documented.
The Benefits
Benefits from Managed I.T. Services enjoyed by Small Business Owners are many, and include increased operational efficiency, the ability to reduce and control their operating costs and gain access to Enterprise-level support. In addition, these Small Business Owners are now able to focus on running their businesses, and not their networks, and receive the peace of mind that comes with the knowledge their networks are being monitored 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
Small And Medium Businesses Embrace Servers Running Linux
The general consensus is that Linux did better in 2004 than anyone had predicted. Director Enterprise Marketing & alliances, Customers solution Group, HP India says, " As per IDC India, Linux in the server market grew by 48 percent in OND, 2004 over JAS, 2004, while the windows and Unix markets showed a modest 3 percent and 3.4 percent growth respectively during the same period." For any OS to succeed, applications need to be made available. SMBs can be major draw for Linux servers as it offers them lower TCO and tighter control on their IT spends. Since many SMBs already have home grown applications, a proprietary OS will be the single largest area of spending. It is here that Linux offers a big advantage. The availability of version 2.6 of the Linux kernel in Red hat Enterprise Linux 4 and Novell's SuSE 9 will give a big boost to vertical scalability. As SMBs become a part of the global supply chain, they want enterprise applications on Linux to keep their investment low. This trend will be a key enabler for the Linux server market worldwide.
Why Linux Based servers?
Cost is a factor and Linux offers better security as the source code of proprietary software is always kept a secret. With a community supporting it, any security hole in Linux is quickly found and patched. Linux not only lets an organization save on software costs, it also offers long term long term saving on hardware. Instead of being forced to upgrade software with Linux, an SMB can take control of its IT strategy. Chief technology officer of IDBI bank says, "You decide when you wish to upgrade, not the vendor, hence you get tighter control on your spending." This can be particularly important for users, such as SMBs that cannot afford to keep up with the pace of change in commercial software.
Business application and Linux
There is credit to Oracle for driving the Linux server market. During the early part of 2004, Oracle came up with a value offering. It offered pre- configured Oracle E-Business Suite special edition on Lintel Boxes for a 10 user License for $36,000USD. The traction of this offering was seen towards the end of 2004 when we closed a dozen deals that were in various stages of implementation, says General Manager, Oracle India. This is a testimony that SMBs are opting for Linux servers. SAP is following Oracle in making application available on Red Hat Enterprise Linux.
Customized and certified
All server vendors including HP, IBM and SGI are throwing their weight behind Linux and each has a SMB specific business strategy with significant initiatives to lure them.
HP has announced that some of its high end computing tools from the HP-UX environment are ported onto Linux and made available to SMBs. This includes a clustering solution called HP service guard for high availability of applications and management tools such as Systems insight Manager(SIM) and open view that offer third party integration. Additionally HP is creating a reference architecture stack, including hardware, OS, database and Middleware. HP certifies a stack so that customers can feel more confident on deploying their core business application on Linux. Linux servers are popular in high performance computing(HPC) environments such as research labs. IBM has recently launched a new family of eserver Openpower systems based on its Power5 processor specially designed for Linux. The Power5 comes with a micropartitioning technology called Virtualisation Engine(VE) wherein each processor can be sliced into ten virtual partitions with each partition acting as a new server. IBM's eserver Openpower 710 is a single CPU processor with 3 HDDs and 512 MB memory with RAID level 1 and 5. This eserver offers SMBs an affordable alternative to higher priced entry level Unix or Linux system. Openpower offers a 64bit platform at a price point of a 32 bit offering. We believe that it is the right product for the mass market. Sun Microsystems has the Sun fire V20 and V40 severs based on the 64 bit AMD Opteron processor, which has been successful with SMBs. It also offers the Solaris 10 Opetron combination. Sun is aiming to position Solaris 10 as its trump card to take the fight to commercial Linux with support - email, phone and onsite - available at a small price. Advanced scientific research, elite foods, Sage Design systems, Centre for DNA fingerprinting and diagnostics, are Sun customers running there core application on Linux. Linux servers are used by SMBs for CAD analysis, CFD (Computational Fluid Dynamics) and FEA(Finite Element Analysis). Linux systems are rugged as they come with SGI Propack over and above the standard Linux Kernel. This gives customers the ability to scale there computing environments with independent I/O, memory and power supply.
Banking on Support
Linux is getting traction and getting into commercial business applications in verticals such as manufacturing, small banking and hospitality. Availability of tally o Linux will result in a new chapter being inked in the Linux server market. Red hat has 950 ISV partners who develop applications that run on its Linux distributions. Linux offers secure and scalable solutions to meet SMB requirements. IBM has 35 to 40 pure Linux partners that offers consultancy and assist it in integrating and implementing services for its customers who are using Linux.



