E-Commerce May Give BPO A Leg-Up

As Indian e-retailers gain scale and look to expand, they might have to outsource a part of their business processes. The trend has just started in a small way. Two days before Valentine’s Day in 2008, the online payment mechanism of gifting solutions company Ferns N Petals crashed. Pawan Gadia, who heads the company’s e-commerce division, was in for a tough time since the runup to Valentine’s Day is one of the peak business periods for the firm. “If users were not able to buy online, business was surely going to take a hit,” recalls Gadia. In a desperate attempt to salvage a part of the online business, he and his small team of about 15 people began calling up customers. He was able to tackle the crisis but vowed never to let the situation recur and resolved to set up a call centre. What developed out of an emergency, is slowly becoming a necessity. Indian e-commerce companies, in a small way, are emerging as a new source of revenue for business process outsourcing firms. The trend follows the footsteps of US based e-commerce giants like Amazon and eBay, who have traditionally outsourced a large part of their back-end and transaction processing to Indian BPO service providers. Businesses from India’s e-commerce firms will also heft to the revenues of local BPO firms which have seen high-end voice based processes moving out to comparatively cheaper locations like Philippines. India’s cater to a significant portion of customer care services for global retail giants in the form of customer interaction services including of call centre, pre and post sales support, telemarketing and help desk functions. However, much of the effort in setting up a call centre is being done in-house mainly because most e-commerce firms are still in the startup stage. Scaling up is likely to lead to more outsourcing. As startups get busy improving their customer service to battle competition, more job and money are likely to trickle down to BPO service providers. “The move towards e-business is helping demand,” said Deepak Patel, CEO of Aditya Birla Minacs, the BPO arm of the $4-billion diversified group company Aditya Birla Nuvo. “Emerging e-commerce companies are a big opportunity for the BPO industry but it’s early to quantify the business yet,” he added. Often, smaller companies do not have enough volumes to run full time BPOs. “That’s where BPO service providers can offer services where we leverage with multiple customers,” said Patel. While creating a backup system can be a major driver for outsourcing work to BPO firms, e-retailers, have also realised that there are upselling opportunities when talking to a customer on phone. Plus, with customers from smaller cities and towns beginning to go online, the need for voice based support is growing in India. “We discovered that customers were delighted when we called them back and helped them buy,” added Gadia. Now, the startup company has over 50 people working at the call centre which brings in nearly 25% of the company’s e-commerce revenues. Gadia is adding 4 to 5 people to the team every month. “First time buyers need a bit of handholding,” he said. The company also looks at the data available with them and makes calls to the customer reminding them of special occassions. Naaptol.com, another e-commerce site, operates a 1,000 seater call centre and is planning to add around 400 people over the next three to six months. The online retail shop has been doing business for about two years now and sends out nearly 7,000 parcels everyday to customers. With more customers buying online for the first time, call centres have become an essential part of their operations. The $10 billion Indian e-commerce market is only a fraction of the US online retail market which reached $175 billion in 2007 and is projected to grow to $335 billion by 2012 according to Forrester research. With rising Internet penetration in the country, customers have begun buying online and e-commerce is growing significantly. In 2011, according to one study, the ecommerce market grew 47 % to reach its present size. Looking at the potential, investors have begun throwing money into them. Over $200 million has been poured into Indian e-commerce start-ups in the last years. Not everybody though wants to outsource the work to a BPO service provider as experience has taught them otherwise. For Kunal Bahl, the co-founder of Snapdeal.com, the learning came the hard way. “We tried out this as a pilot. The quality of execution was extremely poor and we decided to have a call centre in house.” Bahl, who heads one of the fastest growing startups will need 100 people at the call centre by March. “We are not big believers in having a very large call centre because if you are getting too many calls, you are not doing something right,” added Bahl. However, as business grows, it is imperative to have customer support centres, Bahl feels. New e-commerce firms that want to focus on core operations are likely to outsource customer care, order processing, invoice processing, finance and accounts, among others.

Your Next Computer Intel’s Ultrabook

A new type of laptop is headed our way. It’s ultra-thin, ultra-light, ultra-desirable and not that expensive either. Harsimran Julka and Hitesh Raj Bhagat have the details on Intel’s new wonder child Worldwide PC shipments are expected to grow by just 2.8% in 2011, a downgrade from the previous forecast of 4.2%, according to the International Data Corporation (IDC). This is worrying for PC makers and especially Intel, the world’s largest manufacturer of PC chips. This is why Intel devised a whole new platform of notebooks, designed from the ground up to be sleeker, lighter and more desirable. WHAT EXACTLY IS AN ULTRABOOK? The word Ultrabook is an Intel trademark. Ultrabooks are ultra-light and sleek notebooks with Intel's Core i5 and i7 processors, they weigh less than 1.4kg and are less than 20 mm thick (see Intel’s Ultrabook checklist on the right). The form factor was devised by Intel as a strong competitor to Apple’s Macbook Air, but at a cheaper price point. Paul Otellini, Intel’s president and CEO sums it up nicely; “The Ultrabook is our most satisfying and complete computer experience. It's lighter, sleeker and lasts long with a single charge so that you can carry it almost anywhere.” THE ULTRABOOK RATIONALE Not only does the Ultrabook form factor have to compete with the MacBook Air, but also with the tablet, which a lot of consumers are seeing as a viable, everyday alternative to a bulky notebook computer. Other desirable features include a lower power consumption (Ultrabooks use ULV or ultra low voltage Intel processors) and a design that has to be at least 20mm or less. “We’re fairly optimistic about Ultrabooks and have noticed an increased demand for this sort of form factor,” said Rajesh Thadani, director - consumer, Lenovo India. “It’s an evolution of the traditional laptop and a potential game-changer,” he added. “With an evolving IT market in India, we are confident that Ultrabooks will be a worthwhile investment for any consumer,” said S Rajendran, chief marketing officer, Acer India, in a conversation with ET. THE ROAD AHEAD “Intel's focus is to make Ultrabooks capture about 40% of the worldwide laptop market by next year”, said Mooly Eden, vice president and general manager of the PC Client Group at Intel. This was at Intel’s Developer Forum 2011. “The market share of Ultrabooks will increase more in 2013, when Intel plans to launch its ‘Haswell’ processor. Haswell will offer more than 20 times reduction in connected standby power," Eden said. In 2012, Ultrabooks will come with Windows 8, Microsoft’s newest operating system which uses a grid of live tiles as the start menu. Since the OS is optimised for touch, Ultrabooks with touchscreens or those with detachable screens (an Ultrabook-tablet hybrid) are being developed. Going forward, Ultrabooks will offer a built in anti-theft technology from McAfee. A stolen or lost Ultrabook will be unusable by anyone other than the actual owner. Prices are also expected to drop further to $800 from the current $1,000. Acer Aspire S3 Review Officially the first ultrabook to launch in India, the Aspire S3 is a handsome, wellbuilt machine. It has a super-bright LED backlit display, multi-touch trackpad, 6 hour battery life and all the features you would expect. Acer pulled off a neat trick with the S3 – by including a 20GB SSD and 320GB hard drive, it manages ultra-fast boot & wake from sleep with extended storage for all your files while keeping costs low. Thanks to the Core i5 processor, 4GB RAM and Intel HD graphics, the performance on tap is more than enough for all your HD multimedia and office needs. Compared to the Lenovo, the Acer has better build quality with tighter shut lines. However – and this could be a dealbreaker for some – the tapered design, black bar above the keyboard, the keyboard itself and the overall shape itself is very similar to the MacBook Air. The brushed aluminum on the lid is beautiful, but we wished there was more of it, especially on the palm rest and underside. Plus the cursor keys are absurdly small. Overall a solid device if you don’t mind the physical similarity with the Air. Lenovo IdeaPad U300s Review The U300s marks a new design language for Lenovo’s IdeaPad – and it is refreshing. Unlike the Acer, the U300s has an even thickness throughout and clad in sandblasted aluminium (both top and bottom). With the lid closed, the machine resembles a book or folder. For storage, it includes a 128GB SSD – so not as much space as the Acer, but it is faster, and there are no moving parts, so your data is more secure. Hands down, the U300s also has a better keyboard than the Acer – layout, key size and general feel of the keys is better. Performance and battery life is similar to the Acer – since most of the specs are the same. Unlike the Acer which has all ports at the back, the U300s is more conventional and has ports on both sides. However, the U300s scores extra points for including a USB 3.0 port for faster data transfers. It’s not all good though — some of the aluminum edges are quite sharp and the airflow design is noisy – air is sucked through the keyboard and blown out the back, but with the fan on full tilt, it sounded like a mini jet engine. Plus, the keyboard is not backlit, something which the Acer S3 could do with as well.

QR Codes(Quick Response Codes)

What are QR Codes QR codes (or Quick Response Codes) are two-dimensional codes that can hold thousands of characters of information. Though they look like standard bar codes, they are actually quite different. QR codes can store much more data including url links, location information, and text. Basically, a QR code can store any information you add to it. Once a mobile device takes a picture of the code, the information will be automatically transmitted to the device. The transmitted information can include contact details about a business, personal details, movie previews, or any other type of media related content. How do you create a QR Code? There are many websites that will allow you to easily create a QR Code. You can either type “QR Code Generator” into a web browser or use these recommended sites: Kaywa – Kaywa was designed by Datamatrix. I used this website to create the QR codes above. It took me all of 10 seconds. You can use Kaywa to generate QR codes that link to a website or web page, a text, or SMS. Kerem Erkan – This site will allow you to customize your codes. It offers more in-depth options and more creativity. QR Code Uses: The uses for QR codes are endless, especially for marketing purposes. Consider these possibilities: 1. Facebook – You can direct customers to a page which leads them to “Like” your fan page or follow you on Twitter. With Facebook “Like” generating QR codes created from sites like Likify, you can create a custom page that includes the option to “Like” your fan page. You can also direct people to your Facebook welcome page. 2. Blogs – Direct customers or prospects to a specific blog post. 3. Element of surprise – Use QR codes to hide information that can only be revealed by scanning the code. 4. Articles, ebooks, videos. – You can direct scanners to any type of related content with QR codes. 5. Custom landing pages 6. Business cards 7. Directions to your business 8. Mp3 audio downloads 9. Customer reviews 10. Email subscriber page 10. Contests 11. Product Demonstrations

SEO Then and Now

SEO Then and Now SEO is an industry that is changing all the time and if you don’t keep up you’ll get left behind. In the earlier days of SEO it was more about technology and it was the tech people/developers creating optimization strategies. Now SEO has become a marketing function since it’s more about building a brand. Let’s take a look back at the SEO landscape circa 2004 to see how far the search and SEO industry has come in less than a decade. It Was All About Links. The focus wasn’t so much on creating content but more about building links, and lots of them. SEO professionals participated in tactics that are now considered to be black hat. This wasn’t because we were trying to be sneaky, but because we really didn’t know better. In fact, people were hired for full time link exchanging jobs. Imagine that? It Wasn’t All About Google. In 2004 Google was certainly a big player in the search game, but it wasn’t the King that it is now. People were still frequenting Yahoo!, Ask, and even AOL to find information. There Were No (or Very Little) Google SEO Tools. Tools that we now take for granted like the Google Keyword Research Tool and Google Analytics didn’t exist. Previously, you had to spend a lot of money for analytics information or simply rely on hit counters (remember those?) that were on the bottom of a website to see how many people had visited. When it came to keyword research we were just left to guess and assume what keywords and keyword phrases to use. Basically, we had a lot less free data and information to work off of. There was social media. MySpace was really growing in popularity around that time and Mark Zuckerberg had recently launched Facebook. However, it hadn’t been taken over by marketers and was mostly a place for college students to “poke” each other, whatever that means. If you wanted to share something, you still copied and pasted a link into an email. Basically, social media and SEO didn’t really mesh the way that they do now. Ranking Factors Were Different. Search engine rankings didn’t jump up and down and remained pretty steady back in the day. They weren’t personalized as they are now and there was much less focus on local search. As you can see SEO has become much more advanced in the last seven or so years. The focus has shifted and is now concentrated on creating content to build a brand. Quality is much more important than quantity. Now that we’ve looked back, let’s try and look ahead. What do you think SEO will look like in five, ten years?