In last couple years, I am seeing more and more discussion on why companies in the west should look for better alternatives (especially on IT outsourcing). Many times such discussions are propaganda from companies of competing countries but many are genuine concerns as well. Concerns like: why they continue to face challenges in outsourcing, quality problems, debate on “Offshore Vs Nearshore”, etc. Everyone has their own share of challenges with many common factors but I consistently see everyone...

How do you really define a start up? Is it because of: • Duration • Number of employees • Valuation • Professional management team and business model or some other reason? Secondly, what are you doing to ensure that you remain stable, reduce your risk of operation and get out of the startup mania to concentrate on right areas? What are you doing to build a self-sustaining growing team and business? I rarely see business owners giving time to such topics. You can always get things done if you pay...

This is an interesting question one of my friends asked me recently. Answer to this is very subjective…. So often business owners get into the trap of numbers and miss to appreciate and honor the factors that are generating those numbers for them. Yes, being financially successful is the basic reason for doing any business. However, you have to build a lucrative ecosystem to be able to have a sustainable business. I believe business is “people” and “money” is an output of the business. Business is...

More “right time” questions: What is the right time to: - start any business? - take some risks? - realize your dreams? - dream, plan and act? - experiment and learn? Answer to all is “NOW”. There could be many such questions but no one can time the market, luck or dream. Every time I think something different than common: I hardly see people getting aligned or relating to those ideas/thoughts. I see them realizing it only after it is done or proved! This has happened with me in both personal and...

Ever wondered what makes an organization better from others to work for? Most professionals have been through this question. So... what makes an organization different and better than others? Here are some parameters: Salary: yes, one of primary reasons. (There is no salary bigger than expectations ) Employees: Irrelevant factor as they keep changing and you end up getting similar employees across organizations (in same category) Your manager: Big factor which can change your life in either direction....

Today, outsourcing is not a choice but NEED. In today’s time, you cannot ignore technology irrespective of your business domain. If you are looking for a decent sized technology development or support (especially in developed economies): you will have to look at cost effectiveness for doing technology development. You cannot just do it all in-house (in developed economies) for the level of cost that is required and the level of professional required to do the job. I run a software development house...

Simple solution for me: Allow MSN at Anti Virus I upgraded MSN yesterday and it worked well. When I rebooted my laptop today it stopped working! When I searched for the error code, I got huge list of pages with variety of solutions like registry changes and all sorts of setting which was not required at all (at least for me). So I choose to write my solution. I am using Vista Ultimate 64 bit Microsoft Help on MSN...

Microsoft announced the new updated public website for MVP (Microsoft Most Valuable Professional): www.microsoft.com/mvp The site is designed to help people understand the MVP Award Program and the exclusive nature of the MVP Award. Offered in nine languages, the new pages feature a fresher design, and simplify the user experience while addressing the key questions that site visitors ask. One improved way to the MVP Award Program...

Yes, now its Microsoft getting into SEO. Personally, I have not been a big fan of SEO initiatives and the action that is going around it. Following article is what I agree: http://societrends.com/2009... Having said that, we still have to keep our customers happy and IIS SEO Toolkit can make developers life easy. Some of customization we do today for achieving SEO requires multiple third party utilities and in the end becomes miserable to maintain. Executive Summary Microsoft...

Available immediately from Code Gallery, download the Windows Azure MMC. The Windows Azure Management Tool was created to manage your storage accounts in Windows Azure and makes it simple to help debug, create, and explore your storage solutions. In our testing, this tool has been invaluable to us to inspect messages in our queues. debug, create, explore… Developed as a managed MMC, the tool allows you to create and manage both blobs and queues. Easily create and manage containers, blobs, and permissions....