Sops are too alluring for the IT industry whose technical expertise relies on the availability of capital. Hence, so far it looks so good. And no, India isn’t jealous at all. However, often the first impressions are not the last. China has caught the same bus that India had a few decades ago. That too at the cost of snatching away the Indian seat. China is definitely intending to end India’s dominance in the information technology outsourcing industry. And it has made it pretty clear.

The icing on the cake for the Chinese is that they are finding their biggest ally in their biggest rival i.e India. The Software Technology Parks of India (STPI) scheme, dubbed as the tax holiday for IT parks, will end (after extension) on March 31, 2011. And everybody on the government front is seeing this as another opportunity for the growth of IT sector in India. It seems that the IT parks have gotten addicted to tax holidays. However, the point that is badly missed in this entire bid of providing sops is that this may hamper the long-term and a matured growth of our IT industry, which is what is required at the moment.

In the meantime, NASSCOM has written to the government for a minimum of a two-year extension of the scheme. Here too, it is important to note that the sops provided under the STPI scheme will finally lead to bringing up the Chinese IT industry, resulting in a long-term loss for the Indians. Also, no attention has been paid on currency fluctuation risks for exporting companies.

Ours is a matured IT market and we must encash this forte. Thus, it is very important that collective talks are held involving the IT industry representatives to see through the Chinese intentions and work for the betterment of the Indian IT industry. Hope someone up there right at the centre is listening!

Even as the worries of attrition keep increasing by leaps and bounds every day, AnyLinuxWork prefers to look at the other side of the picture. Says ALW CEO Vivek Singhal, “There were two options available to organizations during recession. One, staff cutting to save costs and adjust with losses. Two, refuse lay-offs and focus on employee productivity. We chose the latter one.” Instead of resorting to lay-offs, ALW chose to face the situation by employee encouragement through pay hikes. And today most people who have stuck with it are those who value this.

The message is clear. We must adjust and customize depending on the situations but we can never afford to ignore future. We cannot refute the effects of global recession during the past few years on Indian IT industry, being worst hit. Yet it has risen above the troubled waters in record time. Ever since the industry has been sailing on an optimistic ship with the workforce as its strength.

In the midst of this, with attrition hitting the scene, it is difficult to imagine how fast loyalties can shift as a major chunk of workforce leaves for greener pastures. And this is happening to organizations that refused lay-offs during recession and stood by their employees. So here’s the deal. If people who can shift loyalties so fast depart from an organization, it leaves room for the new talent who are ambitious, fresh and open to learning. Attrition, in fact, is creating opportunities for the talented young people with clearly defined professional objectives.

Adds Vivek, “I feel attrition has forced us to reconsider the way we look at a crisis. Ironically, the seeds of destruction are laid in the seed itself. And every such destruction leads to something better. Destruction inevitably leads to construction.” This should be the thought to take home. Shouldn’t it?

It is the only event that brings together Big, Medium and Small businesses along with government, all eager to find new ways of doing internet business.

The recent Internet Show at Melbourne’s success has certainly generated our interest and we look forward to  attending the next one at Internet Show Abu Dhabi 2010 which is on 21-22 September.

In 2010 The Internet Show Middle East has teamed up with the Electronics and Computer Software Export Promotion Council (ESC) in bringing a selection of India’s leading solution providers to the event.  These companies will be exhibiting alongside other international names such as Google, Etisalat, du’s ‘Empire of Sports Arabia’, ayna.com, ikoo, Jeeran, Nielsen, Advansys, Rackspace, User  Vision, Omnia Connect, souq.com and dubizzle, to name just a few.

The Seminars
With over 40 seminars running over the two days of the event – including expert guidance from Google on their advertising solutions – The Internet Show will feature two seminar theatres themed around the following topics:

• Digital advertising and marketing
• Web 2.0 and social networking
• e-commerce and payments
• Content management and streaming

Access to the seminars is free to visitors who register online before the show.

The Exhibition
More than 40 leading solution providers will be showcasing the latest technology and hottest internet business solutions in: digital marketing and advertising, Web 2.0 and social networking, e-Commerce and payments, content management and streaming and hosting and infrastructure.

For more information visit www.internetshow.ae

Many IT companies have been using Twitter to create a good ‘online personality’ for themselves.  Apart from making people acquainted with products and services, they also keep others informed about happenings in the business.

However, many such companies and the people engaged in managing their Twitter accounts are often worried about the ‘unfollowers’ more than the ‘followers’. Their simple logic is that when someone starts ‘unfollowing’ them, it should mean they have ‘displeased’ them or gone wrong in marketing.

Though these two may be the reasons for some, they are definitely not the only reason.  You just need to pay attention to who has ‘unfollowed’ you recently. Were they really important people for your business? Were they potential clients? Were they IT experts? If not, you don’t need to worry about it all. In fact, it is very important from time to time that we allow this automatic filtration to happen if we really want our efforts on Twitter to pay off in near future.  Next someone ‘unfollows’ you, ensure their importance before frowning.

Today there’s an implicit assumption that every company serious about selling has to talk about it online. You are considered virtually a nobody if you don’t appear on the search results of the engine. The perpetrator of this trend is that consumer sitting conveniently before his PC or laptop, wanting to know about the ends of his desires without moving an inch.

This is what makes Social Media really work for most sellers. It is truly the new age word of mouth as the word spreads through the Internet. A consumer decides to buy a product from you not only because you have what he needs but also because you have a unique way of selling it. He gauges these characteristics through a social networking site.  For example, on Facebook there’s clothing brand that offers you to create your own design of clothes, choose your own fabric and colour and order it. In 24 hours, you will be holding your own creation in your hands.

The online ‘word of mouth’ has several names such as ‘Like’, ‘Follow’ and so on. If a certain group of college students decides to ‘Like’ a certain company page, soon others follow suit. Since social media also allows the consumers to have their say through ‘comment’, it opens up ever-newer avenues to market the product. The consumers feel happy and satisfied and usually ‘recommend’ it to others.

Social Media has another very interesting aspect. It gives ‘personal’ access to people, products and services. You can participate in healthy online discussions on issues that affect your choices. Consumers usually here are very observant and keen on getting up, close and personal with the products and services. This provides a great opportunity to sell and market products better.

Thus, online social media has a big mouth. It’s time to use it.

The Internet Show at Abu Dhabi gives us a chance to meet Middle East technology outsourcing companies as well as to showcase AnyLinuxWork web development services. Our focus will be to understand and initiate strategic alliances with Middle East website and software development companies.

We will be exhibiting our services within four of Internet Show themes i.e. Digital advertising and marketing – our online marketing strategies, Web 2.0 and social networking – our approach in developing social networking applications, E-commerce and payments – our expertise in developing highly customized ecommerce sites and Content Management and streaming.

About us: AnyLinuxWork.com is an Internet web development and marketing company based in India. With ISO 9001 quality certification and 100+ strong team, we work on Web 2.0 concepts offering product and tailor made PHP software development services like E-commerce, CMS and social networking applications along with Social Media Marketing and SEO.

Our interest areas in The Internet Show:

1. Sourcing of open source website development in LAMP – PHP and ROR

2. Joint venture/collaboration with Middle East product development and software companies for outsourcing benefits

3. Strategic partners/investors looking to work with mid-sized tier II city based Indian IT company We develop PHP based web applications including ecommerce, CMS and social networking , custom- made applications and search engine optimization.

We work on Frameworks/open source packages like:

1. Zend, CodeIgnitor, Symphony, Smarty. Savant

2. Joomla, Drupal, WordPress, Mambo, MIVA, Moodle

3. osCommerce, Magento, Interspire, Zen cart, cre-loaded

4. ROR frameworks like Nitro with OG, Camping etc.

We are excited and look forward to meet you at the Internet Show.

You can visit us at:

AnyLinuxWork Exhibition Stall no. 37

ADNEC – Abu Dhabi National Exhibitions Company, Abu Dhabi

Exhibition details:

Day 1 – 21st Sept 10am – 5:00pm

Day 2 – 22nd Sept 10am – 5:00pm

Contact details :-

Anumita Dutta, Business Development Manager Coordinator for The Internet Show

Email add: anumita@anylinuxwork.com anumita.intercomonline@gmail.com

Yahoo/Skype: anumita.intercom

Most of Intercom employees too often have a hundred chores running through their heads. He or she has to constantly multi-task the work. Stress is the order of the day and there’s a constant  pressure of keeping up with the deadlines.

So how does an average Intercom employee balance time? Well, not so easily but intelligently. No cubicle of Intercom Online is ever found with a stack of files or papers or too many diaries. That’s because each employee is taught to manage his tasks not only mentally but also physically. Here’s how:

Avoid Reckless Multitasking: Employees at Intercom do not indulge in multi-tasking unless it is truly fruitful. They always keep in mind that multi-tasking without planning may affect the quality of their work. Abhishek Shrivastav, a team member, commutes from Ujjain every day, thus, he is left with no option but to race against time. He shares, “I always time my work so that I am able to finish my assignments by 7.30 pm. If I am before time, I help my colleagues so that we are collectively able to deliver on time. I use my traveling hours (four hours) for reviewing the day’s working and planning the next day’s schedule.”

First things first: Prioritizing comes only when you think about important tasks beforehand. It cannot come spontaneously. Thus, IO employees usually prioritize a Wednesday’s task on a Tuesday evening. This saves time. Says Ashish Zarkar, “I start my day with collecting all my work for the day. Whatever communication I have with the client, I save it in a word file and my daily report simultaneously. I usually pen down all my doubts first before discussing them together with seniors.”

Organize the To-do list: This is what Chetan does on a daily basis. As soon as he reaches office, he takes 10 minutes only to jot down things-to-do during the day. “It feels a different joy altogether when the list keeps reducing with each passing minute as I tick mark the task as ‘done’.  Obviously, the top-priority tasks receive the tick sooner than others.” Since he is able to finish all his daily tasks by 7.30 pm, he never misses his gym at 8.30.

Check email on a schedule: If you’ve broken up your tasks into actions, then it’s easy to find the time to read email in between completed actions. Follow the rules: if you can get rid of the email in under 2 minutes, do it. Shares Dilip Prajapat, “I begin my day by checking emails and planning the day accordingly. After lunch I usually chat with clients and schedule any extra work if any. I keep my schedule flexible enough to shift things in case of exigency.”

Keep cross-checking handy: Another IO member Jyoti Rohom has learnt to keep her reference material handy so she saves time in searching it later.  She says, “When I get assignment, I first study the related topic, then start coding keeping in mind the deadlines. During my free time at home, I study the reference book. This helps me being ready beforehand.”

This easily explains why Intercom Online is able to meet all its deadlines despite a strict nine-hour work policy. Everyone seems to have adapted to making the best of the allotted time.

So what’s your excuse of not being able to use electricity smartly? The thought is definitely inspired by the US Department of Energy initiative. They have come up with a campaign in which they are asking the children to enlist excuses for not being able to save energy. Some of these excuses we too have offered at some point of time or the other.

The top four excuses as per the list were:

1)      That’s not my charger: Someone in your office made you realize that you have taken the hook off the charger but the switch is still on. And this is how you respond.

2)      I can’t find the remote: Mum scolds you for forgetting to switch off the TV before leaving the room. And pop comes your lamest excuse.

3)      I meant to leave that on: Why haven’t you switched off the fan in your room when you are not around it? So that’s how you choose to reply to the query.

4)      Unplugging stuff is hard: The wife shouts on top of her voice- Why can’t you just unplug things? That’s coz it is hard to do.

Thus, IO came up with an idea of asking employees what’s their usual excuse for not doing what they ought to do towards the objective of using electricity smartly. The  drive is if we can count our blessings one by one, we must also count things-that-we-didn’t-do so as to correct them in future.

This was what they scribbled as their excuses:

1) I thought you will do it: This is a classical situation between two colleagues one of whom didn’t shut down the PC before leaving. Passing the buck, as we had discussed under this column earlier, comes so naturally to humans.

2) I was just about to switch off: Admission of mistakes comes a lot harder than the excuse for it. This is one such instance.

3) I wasn’t supposed to: This comes by those who just do everything by the book. Hence they need specific instructions even for the most common sensical things.

4) I got unlucky only today: This is when a senior catches you wasting energy unnecessarily and you try to persuade him that you usually are very careful but only today was an exception.

Today under this blog space, we intend to make everyone realize that we can fool the whole world by excuses but not ourselves. We might be digging our own graves by not valuing electricity as much. Efforts are not enough. We need a commitment towards using electricity wisely. No excuse on earth can ever compare with this sense of responsibility. So even if you failed last time, don’t feel bad. You can still make a difference. Never ever give up on Using Electricity Wisely.

Do feel free to share your ‘power smart’ ideas with us.

Leaders at Intercom Online have one thing in common- they are accessible to everyone. You can walk in to them with ideas, thoughts, doubts, complaints and clues anytime. IO leadership believes in encouraging people to discover their individual goals for their lives. This, in turn, widens the landscape of work at IO adding ever newer dimensions to work culture and work quality.

At Office Space today, lets explore some very interesting qualities of the leaders at Intercom Online. And yes many of these, you will realize, are cultivable.

Effervescence: Leaders at Intercom are full of life and have a knack for infusing their energy into others. They are people who have the ability to light up the environment around. All they need is a good joke to start a meeting or just entering a board room with a real good ‘Hello everyone!’.

Amour-propre: This is French for ‘self-love’. IO leaders, however, love work ethics and stick to them. They love the brand IO that they have created and developed over the years.  This love translates into their efficiency in traveling any distance to making the brand successful.

Integrity: Jack Welch- the man behind initiatives like Six Sigma quality, e-business and former CEO of General Electric- has more than once proved that you cannot lead unless you have integrity. In his autobiography, Welch shares: “I stuck to some pretty basic ideas that worked for me, integrity being the biggest one.”

At Intercom Online, integrity is almost synonymous to leadership. Our employees get inspired to work with integrity because they have seen our leaders do the same. Our leaders have always been people of strong values and honesty. It is thus no surprise that we see the same values being transferred down to the other levels of leadership. .

Organized life: Infosys Founder Narayan Murthy cautions- ‘workoholism’ must not be aped. A few months ago, IO leaders had shared affinity with this idea and had inspired the rest of the team. As a result, most employees have now cultivated a habit of working smart instead of working more. Our leaders lead a life that emphasizes the importance of inter-personal relationships. They are equally committed to their personal lives.  Thus they encourage their subordinates in their personal achievements as well. They have successfully created such an environment at our office that each individual focuses on having a good life and not just professional success. In addition, it is our policy to be mindful of the health and personal life of the employees. Joint celebrations, fitness initiatives, recreation facilities etc are some of the most practical things we do at IO to ensure that each one leads a healthy and happy life.

Complimenting: How easy and handy it comes to point out mistakes. A heart of appreciation, ironically, doesn’t come so easy. However, the art of complimenting is something that is an integral part of the IO work culture. Nothing tastes better than a compliment right out of the horse’s mouth. Apart from an organized system of encouragement through ‘Employee of the Month Award’, IO leaders never miss out on showering words of appreciation to team members even in the smallest of achievements.

Self-domain: Most people keep waiting for ‘the big opportunity’ for exercising their leadership skills. This is definitely a mistake. A good leader leads a team of two as energetically as he does a team of 20. What really matters in leadership is not the size but the spirit of leading. Effective leaders love their domain of work and transmit this feeling in others around them.

We have tried to inculcate this habit of leadership in each employee by making him or her accountable for the work assigned. IO leaders give each member enough freedom to logically take decisions on their respective assignments. As a result, each team member never feels insufficient to deliver his or her best.

These are a few more visible qualities of our leaders apart from many personal qualities that they have like a good character, sportsman’s spirit and a generous heart. The good news is IO provides ample opportunities for cultivating these qualities and practice leadership right from where one is placed. If this can happen at IO, it can happen anywhere. There may be a great leader sleeping inside you. It’s time to wake him up.

Intercom Online recently came across an interesting survey that confirms this. According to Liz Ryan, former Fortune 500 HR executive in Business Week, there are many unhealthy HR practices that are prevalent today. But the good news is that IO happens to be an antidote to these HR faux pas.

The ‘Time-off policy’, in Ryan’s article, has been listed as one of the fatal HR policies as it ignores the personal life of the employees and expects them to think about the company 24 hours. At IO, on the other hand, we believe in creating an environment where each individual grows not only professionally but personally as well. The biggest check provided at IO is a strict adherence to working hours i.e from 9.30 am to 7.30 pm.

Employees and clients both have been made to understand the importance of this time that usually results into efficient work, meeting of deadlines and no extra working hours.

In addition, we encourage the employees to live a healthy life through including Office Yoga sessions, desktop exercise guidance etc. The ‘Nirvana’ at IO is an exclusive place reserved for the recreation of our employees who can take a break during the day and listen to music, play and read books.

Another culture that has been inculcated so well at IO is the importance of celebrations. The IO calendar is usually filled with birthday bashes, festival celebrations, New Year party and so on. The idea is to build a common platform and a sense of camaraderie where everyone gets to share his or her life with others.

Yet another fatal HR policy is the lack of right appraisal as per the list. Most HR cells in India would look at appraisals only from the point of view of increments. However, at IO, appraisals are a platform for a healthy growth of our employees. We focus on giving the credit to the right person while also providing him with more challenges to improve in the next tenure.

The overall environment here is filled with positive energy which is the essence of the IO family.