Amazon Web Services Now Customizable for Tablet and Mobile |  |
- Amazon Web Services Now Customizable for Tablet and Mobile
- Tech Startup Culture Gaining Momentum in Pune, India
- 10 Reasons Why You Should Write A Business Plan
- Read Unrelenting Innovation: How to Build a Culture for Market Dominance
| Amazon Web Services Now Customizable for Tablet and Mobile Posted: 13 Jan 2013 01:00 PM PST Amazon recently launched a redesign of its Web Services Management Console, making the user interface that gives developers access to services like EC2, S3, and SQS more organized and easier to use. The new design offers more customization options so that users can choose which services and shortcuts they want to appear on their navigation based on what they use most often.
Since AWS has been consistently adding new options and services to the Management Console but not all the tools are used by every developer, the redesign allows for a personalized toolbar that can ultimately save time on your projects. The photo above shows a selection of tools that users can simply drag and drop onto the top toolbar so that the often used ones can be easily accessible without wading through a massive selection of ones you rarely or never use. Amazon also added a Monitoring View to the Management Console, which allows users to see statistics for different resources like database connections and CPU utilization. You can even view stacked graphs to compare and contrast the different resources. Smaller design changes include larger buttons, collapsible sidebar menus, and endless scrolling. The AWS Management Console is a tool that is available for developers and other professionals. It offers a set of cloud-based infrastructure tools for building everything from enterprise applications to mobile apps. Since AWS allows businesses and developers to run most functions from the cloud while giving access to a large variety of tools, it can be a very useful for cutting costs when running applications. And the new redesign simply makes it easier to use. In addition to the updated interface, the Amazon also released an AWS Management Console app for Android phones, as well as support for tablet devices. Amazon also plans to add support for mobile devices on other operating systems in the near future. The post Amazon Web Services Now Customizable for Tablet and Mobile appeared first on Small Business Trends. |
| Tech Startup Culture Gaining Momentum in Pune, India Posted: 13 Jan 2013 11:00 AM PST
Sapience AnalyticsLet us begin our discussion with Sapience Analytics, creator of an award-winning enterprise class product designed to increase productivity and create 'automated work visibility' across the enterprise hierarchy – with no added managerial responsibility. Sapience is intended to transform delivery output and capability in companies with employees dependent on the use of computers, allowing them to achieve up to a 20% gain in work output. By supporting automated deployment and upgrades, it connects to an organization's existing internal applications, such as ERP and HRIS, to create maximum benefit without any additional effort. Sapience makes detailed analytics of work time available on multiple enterprise dimensions:
In making possible this data and delivering these actionable advisories, employees and whole teams are assured that work hours are reasonable, and can therefore focus more time on key activities and thus optimize company productivity and output. Founded in 2009, Sapience Analytics is the combined effort of four serial entrepreneurs with considerable experience in technology and management at global software companies. Primary founder and CEO Shirish Deodhar, after a series of successful ventures in software entrepreneurship, began work with In-Reality Software, which successfully exited to Symphony Services in 2004 and scaled operations in Pune to just over 700 employees. It was here that Deodhar was introduced to his three Sapience co-founders – one of whom, Swati, would also become Deodhar's wife. The Sapience team decided to develop a solution to improve the productivity of organizations working with remote teams. In mid-2009, Swati Deodhar completed the prototype that addressed their fundamental and universal problem: how teams assign and execute their work. At that time, Sapience found no competitors, which left them the added challenge of creating a new market and educating its buyers. Their closest competitors today are RescueTime, oDesk, ManicTime and Cyclops 360 – none of which offer automated time and effort analysis, and team insights are limited. Most difficult for the founders, then and now, has been to highlight the fact that Sapience is not an employee monitoring tool, but is intended only to provide further insight into the quality and efficiency of collective work. After bootstrapping for the first year and a half, Sapience Analytics received funding first from the Indian Angel Network in the amount of $350,000 in July 2010, followed by another $1 million in Series A funding from U.S.-based Seed Enterprises; the firm has money in the bank, but they are considering another round to fund aggressive sales in the U.S. With a total addressable market of $600 million, Sapience has crossed the $1 million annual revenue mark. Sensible SoftwaresA second Pune-based company of note is Sensible Softwares and their flagship product, BootStrapToday. An application life cycle management platform, BootStrapToday both ensures that software development teams can begin work on their projects in just 60 seconds, and minimizes the amount of time spent chasing down software bugs to increase cost and improve code quality. Writing completely bug-free code is a nearly impossible task, thus a significant amount of any software developer's time goes into identifying, tracking and fixing bugs: nearly 30-40% (with an even higher percentage of time in maintenance projects). And with approximately 50% of these bugs found in advanced stages of development, it's a costly enterprise, as well as a time-consuming one. However, if a bug is detected during construction time unit testing, the fix takes no more than an hour – which is why BootStrapToday set out to create a solution that would do just that. Its platform offers intelligence and automation based on data mining techniques and social network-based analysis of developer contribution to assist in detecting bugs earlier. Sensible Softwares was launched in 2009 by three co-founders Anand Agarwal, Nitin Bhinde and Vishwajeet Singh. Agarwal comes to Sensible after more than 10 years managing large-scale product lifecycle management initiatives with Geometric Ltd. Bhinde and Singh, his colleagues in previous organizations, join Agarwal in experiencing problems in the project execution stage and shared a collective desire to rid the tools for the software development life cycle of their inefficiency. Together, they founded Sensible Softwares with the intention of bringing value through intelligence and automation. Though some competitors existed at the time of BootStrapToday's creation, price points proved to be a deterrent – while some were expensive, others offered only a pay-per-user model. None integrated intelligence to reduce overall project cost by identifying bugs earlier in the development process. In response, Sensible offers a series of four packages based on number of users. Today, their closest competitors remain Assembla, Unfuddle, Codesion (recently acquired by Collabnet), and GitHub. Taking advantage of web 2.0 to provide near-desktop performance on mobile devices, Sensible Softwares believes they can capture their share of an $867 million market. After investing $12,000 of personal funds, Sensible received $250,000 in seed funding in 2011 from a Pune-based independent investor and currently has paying customers. Persistent SystemsThird on the list is a much larger company that develops software products in Pune but does not market them: Persistent Systems, self-titled "Partners in Innovation." Persistent offers outsourced software product development services, partnering with pioneering startups, enterprises and large technology brands. Persistent focuses on four key areas:
Given the launch date and budget, as well as a "wish list" of product features and specifications, the firm sets about creating by the given deadline. Though it is primarily large product companies that make up the bulk of Persistent's business, about 30% of their clients are startups. Founder and CEO Dr. Anand Deshpande founded Persistent Systems after an 18-month stint working for HP in Palo Alto in 1990 – after which time he found his visa expired and he required a way to occupy his time once back in India. Deshpande claims Persistent is his response to three key concerns he discerned when speaking with CEOs: a primary focus on management bandwith, a preoccupation with growth over cost, and a deep-seated interest in solving customer problems. Now at 4,500 employees, with a small percentage still residing in the U.S., the company has grown substantially. The firm went public in April 2010. IndiaCakesFinally, let us examine briefly examine entrepreneurship of another kind: IndiaCakes, an online cake delivery shop. The site consolidates the menus of hundreds of cake shops throughout India, allowing users all over the world to browse and order from one convenient location. Similar to those previously mentioned, the company identified a market gap and sought to fill it. Founder, Manit Nagri, created a means for consumers anywhere could send high-quality cakes – and in some cases, flowers as well – for any occasion to friends and family in 250 Indian cities. IndiaCakes offers added conveniences such as 5-hour delivery, and the possibility to have cakes delivered by midnight. Since its inception in 2007, the company has taken off. It aims to have over 400 stores across India, and through a combination of storefront purchases and online ordering, is already past the elusive $1 million revenue mark. I have been to Pune several times and spent time with large numbers of entrepreneurs on each occasion. The city currently has a special kind of energy brewing in its belly, and I am excited to see where these entrepreneurs lead the country. India Photo via Shutterstock The post Tech Startup Culture Gaining Momentum in Pune, India appeared first on Small Business Trends. |
| 10 Reasons Why You Should Write A Business Plan Posted: 13 Jan 2013 08:00 AM PST
But the fact is that a business plan — even just a one-pager with a few financial projections — can be a valuable internal tool. A roadmap for even the smallest or earliest-stage idea. It can foster alignment, set the tone for the business and even help you craft your brand messaging. We asked members of the Young Entrepreneur Council (YEC), an invitation-only nonprofit organization comprised of the country's most promising young entrepreneurs, the following question to figure out when (and why) a business plan is an asset, even if you’re not planning to raise one penny:
Here's what YEC community members had to say: 1. Clarity “Writing a business plan or putting together an investor deck allows you to think more clearly about what you’re doing and where you are going. Key point to remember though is that the minute that your business plan hits the printer it is already out of date, so don’t depend on it as your to-do list. Think of it as a roadmap.” ~ Paige Brown, BookingMarkets 2. Gain a Deep Understanding of Your Market “Although it took several weeks and I’ve barely looked at it since, I credit my business plan for helping me understand a brand-new industry in an extremely deep way before actually entering it, and for forcing me to deeply examine how we would fit into the market and what TalentEgg’s probability of success was. As a “risk averse” entrepreneur, it was critical. “ ~ Lauren Friese, TalentEgg Inc. 3. Organization “The biggest reason to write out a business plan regardless of any financing option concerns is that it can help you stay organized and remain on track. Businesses without a plan can easily get off-target, and revenues will suffer as a result. Creating a plan with expense projections, revenue forecasts, and more can help a small business remain committed to its long-term goals.” ~ Andrew Schrage, Money Crashers Personal Finance 4. Practice Makes Perfect “It’s great to write one simply to throw it away. The mental gymnastics are great. The plan is basically worthless the moment you’re finished – but it will force you to think about things you might not have otherwise.” ~ Brent Beshore, AdVentures 5. Confirm the Math “A lot of ideas sound great on paper and even in discussions. However, simple math can make or break an idea. Before we launch any new idea, we at least create a financial model to project the ROI from several realistic scenarios. You can save a lot of time and frustration thinking through the numbers, and making sure it’s possible to hit your revenue and profit goals.” ~ Phil Frost, Main Street ROI 6. Iron Out Possible Kinks “Writing a business plan allows you to really think things through. Your plan should question the validity of your ideas, the product/service target markets and so on. It should force you to do your own proper due diligence.” ~ Nicolas Gremion, Free-Ebooks.net 7. Foster Alignment “Writing a business plan is an ideal way to make sure that everyone on your founding team is aligned with the current and future plans for the business. In the early stages of a company, it’s imperative for founding team members to be on the same page as to how they’ll work together on moving the business forward to great success. Avoid any miscommunications by getting it all on paper early.” ~ Doreen Bloch, Poshly Inc. 8. Hold Yourself Accountable “A business plan is a great tool that allows founders to articulate their vision and future plans for their company. When using any business plan format, there are standard questions that force you to think & create a long term vision and strategy for your idea. Once these are down on paper, they can serve as a guide to allow you to track your progress and hold yourself accountable for the future.” ~ Aron Schoenfeld, Do It In Person LLC 9. Know Your Message “Business planning is incredibly helpful for describing what you do, understanding who your competitors are, and crafting a realistic three to five year plan. Each of these activities is crucial if you are looking to launch or expand a venture, and learning to speak concisely about your company will always be crucial no matter what stage you’re in.” ~ Garrett Neiman, CollegeSpring 10. Establish Benchmarks “Business plans are a valuable, iterative, document that can serve as a successful benchmarking tool. Where did your business exceed expectations? In what areas did your strategy maybe fall short? While it’s fine to “pivot” your company based on what you’ve seen in the market, having something in writing puts the onus on you to be honest about your company's performance. “ ~ Charles Bogoian, Kenai Sports, LLC Business Plan Photo via Shutterstock The post 10 Reasons Why You Should Write A Business Plan appeared first on Small Business Trends. |
| Read Unrelenting Innovation: How to Build a Culture for Market Dominance Posted: 13 Jan 2013 06:00 AM PST
I don't want to sound cynical here, but I can't help but think: "Here's another brilliant book based on tons of research that shows that corporate culture is the critical success factor behind innovation and success and bunches of CEOs will read it and they will extoll the virtues of innovation and an innovative culture and then they will leave the meeting they are in and promptly go back to the behaviors that are familiar and comfortable and that deliver mediocre results." Sorry about that ridiculous run on sentence, but this is exactly what I think when I read a book like this. Then I ask myself the question:
I can't say for sure. You can decide for yourself. So to help you do that, let me give you a little background. About the Author Gerard Tellis is a Professor of Marketing, Management and Organization, Neely Chair of American Enterprise and Director of the USC Marshall Center for Global Innovation in LA. That introduction may sound extremely academic – and it is. But Tellis' writing isn't stilted or uncomfortable. He moves easily and effortlessly between academic research and practical real-life experiences. In Unrelenting Innovation, Tellis balances the rigors of academic research with human nature and psychology. Tellis became very interested in the idea of what causes innovation and why it is that some companies are just more innovative than others. Shouldn't the product drive innovation? Maybe, but HP came up with the tablet concept before Apple and that never really went anywhere. So there must be something else. Tellis proposes that it's a company's culture that is the critical success factor when it comes to innovation. The Research Behind Unrelenting Innovation Tellis was so curious about this that he and his colleagues set out on a huge research project. They interviewed 770 companies across 15 countries. They searched for the origins of 90 innovations and studied the evolution of 66 new markets spanning over 100 years. What they found was surprising. It wasn't the time or money invested in R&D, nor was it the number of patents, the size of the company or the country of origin that made the difference in innovation success – it was the internal culture of the firm. Tellis learned that an innovative culture can't simply be imposed or manufactured, rather it had to be created, instilled and nurtured. How to Create and Nurture an Innovative Culture There were three basic principles Tellis uncovered in his research:
What Can All These Big Companies Teach a Small Business About Innovation? You might think that big companies have different circumstances than a small business. And in some cases, that is certainly so; they have many more people and departments and complexity. And all of those things can make it all the more difficult to incorporate some of the lessons contained in Unrelenting Innovation. The good news for small business is that it's easier for an organization of ten people to implement these principles than an organization of a hundred or a thousand people. Unrelenting Innovation is a great book for anyone in a leadership position to read. You will find yourself recognizing certain circumstances and behaviors that big companies have that you might be taking on as you grow. Small businesses have one thing that larger companies have to work hard for; a clear and present culture. Unrelenting Innovation will show you how to maintain the culture that you have and use it to innovate and grow. The post Read Unrelenting Innovation: How to Build a Culture for Market Dominance appeared first on Small Business Trends. |
Made in India startups are definitely gaining ground, and among them Made in Pune holds an increasingly important place. To further illustrate the success of Pune-based startups, we shall address a select few as a collective, while we hope for many more.
Business plans are dead — or are they? For many entrepreneurs, the business plan is an outmoded document that gets created mainly for the benefit of VCs and bank loan officers. Bootstrappers rarely think they need one to get by.
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