When the going gets tough, the tough gets going. We have all heard about this and it certainly applies in today's times. when everybody is buying, anybody can sell, but when there is a slowdown, people cut back spending, everyone looks for value, deals, bargains and squeezing the most out of every penny spent. In such a scenario, a business needs to be competitive to tide over the turbulent times. A competitive business will be able to offer that "BEST" deal which everybody is looking for. 

But what does competitiveness mean? At a high level, it is the ability of an organization to outperform its peers and service its customers needs better than any body else. A competitive business needs to have the following characteristics....

Stays in touch with your customers and partners: A business needs to understand its customers and the one which does that the best, will be positioned for success. This includes understanding their behavior, what causes them to buy and how we can sell more to them.

Efficient Financial and Capital Management: the ability to manage cash flow, interest, taxation and ensuring you have a clear view of what is the financial health of the company.

Has Business Transparency: A successful business is one which is very transparent flexible with its customer and partners.

There are more factors, but the idea is to see how technology can help an organization become more competitive.

Microsoft Dynamics

Technology can help in all these areas, but it needs to be the right technology. It needs to be easy to buy, maintain and upgrade (affordable), it should grow in functionality as the business does (scalable) and should be easy to use requiring less training (user-friendly).

That is why Microsoft Dynamics is such a powerful offering from Microsoft.

What is Dynamics?: It is a set of INTEGRATED business solutions offerings that connect or integrate vital business processes within an organization. Specifically, Dynamics solutions offer

• Financial Management: Helps you maintain a complete set of financial information and manage your finances in an easy/familiar interface spanning processes like invoicing, receivables and financial reporting.
• Customer Relationship Management: Helps you keep track of customer needs, their buying patterns, how effective your sales and marketing initiatives are
• Supply Chain Management: Work and engage with your vendors, suppliers and partners in a collaborative and transparent fashion that lets you manage these relationships better.

A complete functionality description can be found at http://www.microsoft.com/india/dynamics/overview.mspx

Now the reason why Dynamics scores over other competitive solutions is because of the following

1. Easy to use and Deploy: Since the interface is based on Office and key aspects of Dynamics are integrated with Office applications, it results in making Dynamics very easy and familiar application to use.

2. Easy to maintain and Support: Dynamics is based on the familiar Windows Platform and leverages the vast ecosystem of developers and It Pros that is very conversant on Windows Server, SQL Server and .NET platform. This means that if we have to extend functionality, maintain existing code, troubleshoot bugs etc - the familiar skill set makes it easy to do these tasks.

3. Easy to Adapt and Scale: Typically ERP and CRM systems have been expensive to purchase, deploy and maintain. However dynamics offers a complete range that makes it very affordable to start using the functionality today and scaling up as the business grows. An SME can start with NAV BE or Business Essentials that contains the core functionality of Financials, Inventory and Sales Mgmt. the solution can be implemented within 2-3 weeks and is available for under 3 lakhs including implementation. As the business grows and requires more functionality like manufacturing etc it can upgrade to Microsoft dynamics NAV which is the full version of the software and upgrade is easier since NAVBE uses the same database that NAV uses. hence making it easy to upgrade and scale. Further, Dynamics is also available in a hosted fashion adding yet another layer of flexibility for the customers. You can either chose a subscription model or a license model to get the same functionality.

4. Easy to get Business Insights: Since the whole Dynamics suite is based on SQL SErver and Office - both offerings that contain a lot of BI and querying, reporting features - it is easy for a Dynamics customer to get the same benefits. This include pivot table queries, ad hoc queries, Reporting and the format of your choice !!!

So if you want to tide over the current slowdown and you are a growing business, one way could be to invest in the right technology and Microsoft Dynamics offers a compelling option for small businesses!

Business World had an interesting story in this issue which was about the rise of sin in India. You can read the full story at http://www.businessworld.in/content/view/4795/4903 

The central premise is that how in India, the SIN industry - consisting of alcohol, tobacco, gambling and porn - is going through a huge growth phase and it permeates all sections of the society. While on one hand the economic boom is resulting in more disposable income, liberalization of attitudes and increased level of empowerment (particularly in women) - which is fueling the SIN industry, on the other hand, the poor seems to be getting poorer and these 4 SIN components are the only means of escaping from the problems of daily life. This seems to be one area of the Indian economy which seems to benefit from the Great Divide that exists in India today.

To put things in perspective, the combined Indian SIN industry is pegged at INR 300,000 crores (yep! not a zero wrong) - which implies 10% of India's GDP. No other country can boast of a ratio like this except India.

Now these are profitable businesses - since not only is there an uptake on SIN (as mentioned above), but also they are addictive in nature - hence once a customer, always a customer! ITC (Tobacco), UB Group(Alcohol), Zee Group (Gambling) are some of the biggest players and their growth rates are more than 30% YOY. Porn obviously is a "behind the scenes" industry so official figures are not available.

Online porn and gambling, as per IAMAI, accounts for 80% all traffic in India. Zee Group's PlayWin is incidentally the biggest business of the group - much ahead of its TV and Media business. Valued at 2400 crores, this site gets more hits than the Indian Railways site :)

What a revelation, read the full story!

Consider this, the Indian TV industry has about 300 channels in operation today nd there are 200 channels waiting to launch this year!!!. Currently standing at about 22,000 crores, the industry grew 18% in 2007 and is slated to grow 22% YOY. Same for advertising on TV which is 8000 crores today and is expected to grow to 20,000 crores by 2012. The other boom in this industry is the increase in the pay TV households - from 74M in 07 to 115M in 2012.

Now while all this growth is cool, there are a number of factors which will see this industry go through some change and here's why....

1. More channels means limited bandwidth: Bandwidth is a limited resource. The current analog platform can carry just 80-90 channels. So if i launch a channel today, i pay a significant premium to be in the prime band. Currently this is about 65-75 crores per channel - which is leading to a situation where just to have your channel in the prime band amounts to a cool 35% of your costs. Now this should get solved when digitization happens - such as CAS, DTH, IPTV but this is moving very slowly right now.

2. Cost of content: Once you have figured your slot in the limited bandwidth pipe - content is the other big issue. Content creation costs are rising 15% YOY, with each episode costing around 20-25 crores. Due to broadcasting issues mentioned above, it becomes tough for folks to launch niche channels - hence they go for more mainstream channels like news, general entertainment and movies which drives up the cost of content creation. After all you can only have so many people create as much content for the same category.

3. Advertising: What does this mean for advertising? Well think about it... i have to advertise my products - say a car - which is meant for the masses. With 8 channels in general entertainment categories - i will spread this over multiple channels - which leads to fragmentation of advertising revenues. This hurts even established players!!!

So what i foresee happening is that these media houses will increasingly do either of the two things. Either they will become a multi-channel player like a network (eg: Network 18) so that they are able to offer a complete package to the market and to the advertiser and thus drive synergies

OR

they will become multiple-medium players embracing TV, Internet and offline so that again they are able to exploit synergies there. Me thinks the advertising world will anyways shift to digital and online since that is where bandwidth, better targetting and increased usage patterns are being seen! Wot Say?

Software + Services is the strategy that Microsoft has been pursuing for its business and certainly represents the way forward for Microsoft. Central to this strategy is this notion that the world of software is changing to a world where software will exist either on-premise (software) or on the Web/cloud (services) - and different customers will have different choices on this continuum. Hence the term "Software+ Services" - representing that Microsoft has the platform that lets you do either or any combination of the two philosophies.

But an interesting revelation to me while I was reading about this was also the business models that are present today that support this S+S phenomena. So while in a "software only" world - licensing was the only model by which a software product company made money (and the most successful is Microsoft), there are other models that have emerged. here is an attempt to understand them

1. Advertising: Google is the best example of this model. You go to Google and search for free, but then because you are searching for something you are interested in it - and this creates the premise for advertisers to place "relevant" ads on Google - which is what Google charges for and makes its monies from. In this S+S world, Microsoft has a set of offerings for consumers and small business called "Live" that will leverage this model to generate revenues.

2. Subscription: This is a business model that was pioneered by magazines and newspapers, but is now used by many businesses and web sites. Rather than selling products individually, a subscription sells periodic (monthly or yearly or seasonal) use or access to a product or service. Thus, a one-time sale of a product can become a recurring sale and can build brand loyalty. Microsoft is really embracing this model fully, by coming out with a range of offerings that can be "subscribed" rather than "licensed". At the same time, it is maintaing the licensing versions as well - and this is where the choice to the customer comes from. A good example of this is "Office Live" which users can use by paying a subscription fee and using the software instead of licensing it.

An interesting variant of this subscription model is the "Service Provider Licensing Agreement (SPLA)" which enables partners of Microsoft to license the software from Microsoft, host it at their end and then offer the software to its customers as a subscription service. An example is "Hosted Exchange" which a partner can license under SPLA and then host it and offer the service to its customers on a subscription basis.

3. Transactions: In this model, you pay only for the transaction you are doing with the service provider. The mobile VAS industry is a very good example of this business model. Today when you send an SMS for say voting for your favorite candidate in a reality show you get charged Rs 6 for that SMS, whereas all your other SMS may be charged differently at a lower cost. Microsoft recently announced an example of this model in its "Windows Live Cashback" offer - where it will give money to any user who is searching on its search engine and clicking on an advertiser's link. This happens on a per transaction basis.

So as you can see, S+S is not just a strategy for aligning technology assets, but also backing them up with relevant monetization models for businesses and consumers to choose from. Putting both these together, here is how Microsoft will align its assets going forward

1. On-Premise Software: Traditional Microsoft business monetized through licensing from where it gets most of its $68B revenue annually.

2. Hosted Software for Consumers: Branded under the name "Live" this will cover Windows Live Search, Live Messenger, Live Spaces etc etc. Microsoft will use a mixture of advertising (Live Search), subscriptions (Live OneCare) and transactions business model (Live Cashback) to make monies from this.

3. Hosted Software for Businesses: Branded under the name "Online" this will be the complement to existing Microsoft offerings to enterprises and will be hosted either by Microsoft or by partners. Primarily will be monetized through the subscription model. Eg: Dynamics Online, Exchange Online etc.

Globally, there are few major media conglomerates who, between them own the major advertising agencies. WPP, IPG, Publicis and Omnicom are the major ones, with WPP owning nearly 50% of the Indian ad market, followed by IPG (18%), Omnicom (12%) and Publicis (5%).

The total ad market size in india is Rs 20,000 crores (~$80B) and is rising 15% per year. Further spends on advertising in India are 0.5% of GDP versus the developed world which is at 1.5% of GDP – and you can see that the potential is huge in the Indian market. And this is proven by the entry of all the major media conglomerates. This will also challenge the near monopoly situation, WPP is in!

WPP that stands for Wire and Plastics Products Plc was founded in 1985 by Sir Martin Sorrell and today has a global turnover of $10B.

INTRODUCTION

Why Use AJAX?

AJAX enables you to build rich Web applications that have many advantages over Web applications that are completely server-based. Notably,

Performance

o   Improved efficiency by performing significant parts of a Web page's processing in the browser.

o   Partial-page updates that refresh only the parts of the Web page that have changed.

Responsive User Experience (UX)

o   Familiar UI elements such as progress indicators, tooltips, and pop-up windows.

o   Client integration with ASP.NET application services for forms authentication and user profiles.

o   A framework that simplifies customization of server controls to include client capabilities.

Cross Browser Support

o   Support for the most popular and generally used browsers, which includes Microsoft Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox, and Apple Safari.

How does AJAX work?

AJAX enables a programming model in which the browser exchanges only the data it needs with the server, without having to update the complete page. AJAX relies on the following combination of technologies:

Asynchronous communication between the browser and server by using the XMLHTTP object that is built into browsers.

A format for exchanging data between the browser and server. This format usually is XML, but it can also be JSON (as in ASP.NET AJAX) or another format.

Data presentation in the browser by using XHTML, HTML, and CSS.

Client scripting that uses the browser document object model (DOM) and JavaScript to create a responsive user interface (UI).

JavaScript Object Notation (JSON) is a lightweight format for representing objects and their state. AJAX uses JSON as a serialization format instead of the SOAP format more typically used with Web services. Using JSON simplifies client-server interaction, because it eliminates the need for extensive client script to construct requests that use SOAP and XML.

How do you install AJAX?

  First off, you should use the URL http://ajax.asp.net/downloads/default.aspx where all AJAX downloads and some good tutorials are there. The only requirements for installing AJAX is .NET FX 2.0 and IE 5 and above.

1. You need to install ASP.NET 2.0 AJAX Extensions v1.0. This extensions contains both the server side and the client side AJAX implementation of Microsoft.
2. The ASP.NET Ajax Control Toolkit is a community supported project of controls and samples that can speed up your App dev. So you can install that as well after you have done Step 1.
3. Some new functionality has been added in the ASP.NET futures release, which you should install.

A good thing is that you can use the Microsoft AJAX library on NON-WINDOWS environment as well. The MS AJAX library is the client side implementation of the AJAX Extensions mentioned above. This library is made up of .js files and contains the client side implementation of AJAX from SM. It will work with any browser where .js is supported!

CONCEPTS 

What is Partial Page Rendering?

Partial-page rendering removes the need for the whole page to be refreshed as the result of a postback. Instead, only individual regions of the page that have changed are updated. As a result, users do not see the whole page reload with every postback, which makes user interaction with the Web page more seamless. This has the following advantages….

Improve the user experience with Web pages that are richer, that are more responsive to user actions, and that behave like traditional client applications.

Reduce full-page refreshes and avoid page flicker.

Enable cross-browser compatibility without writing client script.

CONTROLS 

In the ASP.NET AJAX implementation, this is achieved by 2 controls namely the Script Manager and the UpdatePanel Control.

ScriptManager Control: The ScriptManager keeps a track of all the update panels on the page and of their triggers. It coordinates partial-page rendering behavior on the server, and determines which sections of the page to render as a result of an asynchronous postback. The control has an EnablePartialRendering property which is enabled by default that allows this feature. If false, the page will default to synchronous communication.

UpdatePanel Control: To add AJAX functionality to ASP.NET Web pages, you identify individual sections of the page that you want to update. You then put the content of these sections into UpdatePanel controls. The contents of an UpdatePanel control can be HTML or other ASP.NET controls. You can add an UpdatePanel control to the page as you would any other control and you can have more than one in each page. This is all about drag and drop. You can even work programmatically with the PageRequestManager class and control the Udpate and rendering behavior if needed.

UpdateProgress Control: As is evident, it is a control that provides status information on the partial rendering process. Most of us would have seen on Hotmail or other Windows Live sites. You need to associate the control with an updatePanel control so that it displays when the panel is updating,.

DEMO: You can try this out…Create a new page and put a button and a textbox. Write some demo code on button click. When you run the page, you will see the paqge postback and the results appear. Now in the saem page, put a ScriptMaanger control and an Update Panel. Move the button and textbox inside the UdpatePanel control and run the page again. You will see the AJAX implementation in action !!!!

NOTE: Some controls are not compatible with partial-page updates, and are therefore not supported inside an UpdatePanel control. See at http://ajax.asp.net/docs/overview/UpdatePanelOverview.aspx