System Upgrades

• Gravity Payments Integration – SWIPER – Collect Credit cards Directly on the phone by swiping the card on a device that plugs into the phone jack of the phone. Gravity Payments will give an account and Swiper to ALL our customers
• Marchex Integration – Marchex provides a call tracking service , customers can get a set of 1-800 XXX XXXX numbers and place them on different Ad source (PPC , SEO , Yellow Pages , Radio / TV). The app will pick up the ad source of the call & the customer details automatically , saving the data entry effort and on the backend we can now deliver a report showing the customer that PPC generated 8000$ in Invoicing , this takes marketing measurability to a new level in the SME space
• Localization – Multiple Languages with easy localization interface
• FreeLancer Mode – Multi User Mobile client – Individual tech can buy the mobile subscription and start using it with 4 different companies to source Jobs. Or directly via a web portal
• Warranty Verification Service

Mobile Client Upgrades

• Major UI Overhaul
• Signature on glass
• Verification codes to customers
• Customer Surveys on Phone
• SMS notifications

Web Interface Updates

• NOC Mode – Full Screen Map with Tech Movement , Job Bubbles & Tech Bubbles
• Quick Books Integration
• OPEN-API Implementation – Easy Integrations with 3rd party systems
• Multiple Jobs Statuses , Multiple Invoices per job
• Discount Coupons
• Discount Coupons
• Efficient Route Suggestion
• Job Q Integration with CRM’s

The post 6 Degrees IT | KumoTeam Update 2.0 appeared first on 6 Degrees IT.

We have had the opportunity to work with customers to help resolve “Virus Attacks” or “Hacks” 

This issue commonly occurs in open source websites & is one of the few risks that comes with these platforms.

Your production centre should be able to fix such a situation for you , but in almost all cases they have very little to do with the problem , infact in most cases a google warning is the first notification of such a problem to us as well as you. 

What is at Risk ?

The most common reason for a Website hack for small / medium scale websites is Link farming for SEO gains. 

Other than this reason Hackers go after E-commerce sites for Customer & Possibly credit card data. 

Email Adresses of customers are also up there in the list of things hackers are after. 

How it Works ?

There are 2 common issues that occur in these scenarios , there are many other hacks as well but these 2 are the most common in small to mid size websites 

SQL Injection 

• This is Where the hacker is very familiar with the database schema (or data model) of the site & creates a script that enters malicious code directly into the database table that carries the page content.
• SQL Injection can occur in most open source platforms as for open source systems database schemas are common public knowledge.
• In Hosted platforms such as Efusion the risk of SQL injections is close to negligible as the databases are well protected & use connection methods / models known only to the company that runs the platform 
• Cleaning a SQL injection means searching the database & removing the code , which at times can cause disrupted layouts or break in functionality 

  File System Infection 

• This is where a hacker , gets in via FTP or some other server vulnerability and actually modifies the source code files to place malicious code 
• This type of a hack is tough to fix as the scripting can be intelligent to spread quickly & replicate after cleanups , some times hackers will plant “receptor” scripts that go undetected & look very normal until they connect to the hackers own servers and pull down malicious code. 
• Cleaning this hack means effectively looking at each file & cleaning up the code , we can attempt a mass “Find & Replace” to clean the code if we find the malicious code , but shortcut almost always means that we will miss out the “receptor” script that is infecting the file. This effort is massive & your PC understands that the customer is yelling but look at what they have to deal with ->
• Your base WordPress install version 3.0.1 has 756 Files ! 3.4 has 1400 + Files !
• Joomla 2.5 has 6000+ Files with a standard set of components & plugins ! 
• Some times clean up can also affect the functionality of the site , or layouts , which is a huge time killer 

How do we fix it ? 

Normally your production centre has very litlle to do with your site getting hacked , their fault maybe limited to choosing a loose password for your Admin panel or FTP 

To Fix it you will have to work with a Skilled System Administrator & a Programmer (both skills are a must) to physically clean the infection & test proper functioning of the site 

The site must be re-submitted to google as there are high chance that google has picked up on the infection 

The part you need to be careful about is , that it is tough for you to charge for this , but note that nobody wants this to happen and everyone spends time to fix it , so make this a billable item upfront in the contract. Almost like Collision insurance for a car 

How Do we prevent it ? 

There are many things that can be done in production to prevent or at least reduce the risks.

• Your PC can use a non standard Data model in a standard CMS – This can be a fairly expensive solution & will need a talented developer to pull off , normally the cost benefit wont work out.
• Upgrade to the latest version of your Platform – This may also be a costly affair depending on how much customization has been done on your site , but normally you should recover this cost from the customer as “maintenance cost” . Most platforms will release security updates frequently as they know the common threats against their platform 
• Use Secure Passwords & Change them frequently. Use combinations of Upper Case , Lower Case , Numbers & Special Characters  and make your passwords at least 8-10 characters long. NOTE –> Number only passwords are the easiest to hack 
• Try not to send out passwords by email , send user names & SMS the passwords 
• Invest in a dedicated server 
• Shared servers are very risky , mostly because you don’t know who your neighbors are & you are sharing everything with them. Basically you could be on the same file system as a highly infected site & the virus will spread very easily. In such cases your PC cleaning up the virus is complete waste of time as they cant clean the rest of the server , hence its a matter of time before the infection comes back 
• on Dedicated servers your PC will have access to the root file system and base modules so they can install a lot of tools & scripts to “Harden” the server and secure it , this is not possible on shared servers 
• Dedicated servers are more expensive to own & maintain but you can look at sharing the cost with other customers as a dedicated server can host multiple sites so the effective cost per site may not be that much higher 
• PaaS hosting is the next generation of web hosting , which is highly secure 
• You can consider the use of Reverse proxies & other advanced security tools , a few of these are now available on a service basis (SaaS)

Conclusion 

WSR Recommends Dedicated Servers to all its customers along with a proper security & support package to help prevent such problems.

It is very difficult for any PC to guarantee anything in such situations , but we can certainly warn of contributing factors such as shared servers / weak passwords / outdated software

The post WebSite Viruses & Security Issues appeared first on 6 Degrees IT.

The Future is Mobile  - we have been hearing this in the market for the last 3 years. Yet we dont see mobile technology adoption in businesses become as common as it needs to be. Why is that ? Are we confusing Mobile vs Mobility ? Are we ignoring SME’s ? 

My personal opinion is that this is due to the lack of clarity around the whole Mobile Application economy, Customer’s dont understand it , hence they dont know how to sell it & end up feeling they are not capable of selling it.

The intention of this post is to try & break down the process so that an average Customer can make an educated call whether the Mobile application market is worth getting into or not.

In the Mobile App realm there are 2 broad kinds of apps

1. Conceptual Apps

2. Process Augmentation Apps

Conceptual Apps 

These are the “idea” apps ,  mostly very unique & fresh 

Things like the Tiger woods app , to be able to recognize your golf swing plot it against Tigers & Show the differences or the Taxi Meter which calculates the fare as you travel or a Guitar Tuner , or the Mirror The best example of this category being SIRI
For most purposes we can discount this market because whereas the Financial upside of building these apps can be HUGE , unique concepts are hard to come by & equally hard is the level of engineering needed to deliver on these type of projects 

Customer’s selling apps should try to spend thier energies away from this segment , but if you find something in this area that clicks , by all means , it could be a gold mine.
Your competition here is also serious , some of the pioneers of the app industry who are featured on Apple.com rule this space along Silicon valley PE’s , VC’s & Angel Investors

A vast majority of these applications make their money by selling the app itself, another large segment monetize leverage the viral aspect of these apps 

Example – Tiger Woods MySwing – $4.99 on iPhone $9.99 iPad – this has over 80K downloads in each version 

Process Augmentation Apps 

These can become the sweet spot selling wise for Customers , here you are taking functionality or processes that already exist , either offline or as a web application & you are building an application to further enhance it or simple add mobility.
Examples are in the 1000′s , Todo list trackers like “Remember the milk” , Google Maps Application etc etc
The ideal stratergy here would be to look for companies who engage with their customers or employees that are mobile, try & pickup on processes that can be enhanced by adding mobility & then build an app around it. 

This needs a decent amount of ingenuity but to deliver such apps is not hard for the most part

These apps are normally free to sub $5 downloads & the monetization happens outside the app , essentially through the value enhancement that the app brings to the interaction between the business & the customer / employee 

Example - Tripadvisor , they probably spend upwards of $200k to build this , but they give it away for free , for them the added value that this app brings to their users is what monetizes the app.

The App Development Sales & Delivery Process

IN terms of the actual app development there are almost always 3 components 

• Planning & Documentation 
• Server Side Application 
• Mobile Client 

1. Planning & Documentation – Absolute Key , explain to your customers that they should never fall for any App developer who will not give them complete specifications documentation before the first line of code is keyed in this is very critical as things will become messy without a proper & detailed plan.

Documentation should cover the following

• Business Requirements – CLIENT TO CONFIRM & SIGN OFF
• Solution Architecture – CONTINGENT ON REQUIREMENT SIGN OFF
  • Communication Methods & Protocols
  • Mobile Client
  • Web Services Layer
  • Server Side Application
  • Database(s)
• Scope
• Data Model
• User Interface – Workflow
• Mobile Client User Interface
• Server Side Application – Workflow
• User Interface – Wire Frames
  • Mobile Client
  • Server Application
• Test Cases
  • Mobile Client
  • Server Application

This documentation is & should be a chargebale effort & it will take a minimum of 10-15 hrs to put together something that is 

enough to be  Sell this document & its level of detail as an Insurance policy for the client , If your developer was to get hit by a bus the document will be strong enough that you take your half done code & get it built out anywhere 

As a real world example from an actual project , here is a document that we used to build an application for a Tequila Distributor. 

Tequila Company iOS Application Specifications Document

The app is to help thier sales people view sales data for thier own product whenever they are in a store & then on to record the prices of competitor product that is selling in that store.

All the competitor data will be stored on the server & the corporate office will be able to view it real time

This document took 14.45 billable hours to build , across 4 people 

• The Client 
• Solution Architect 
• Database designer 
• Lead developer 
• UI Designer 

we did a 45 minute meeting with the client & 4 days later came back with this first draft.

There were some minor clarifications largely due to the fact that the client thought the wire frames was what the app was going to look like & flipped out ! they also wanted to add certain email notifications to be sent out

The sign off meeting was another 45 minutes , we had signed & sealed requirements , let the coding begin ! 

2. Server Side Development – This is where the app will get all the data it needs that sits in some offline / online system , or if users are creating data this is the exchange that will be used to transmit it.
The app will almost always depend on a server side component , simply because of constraints like processing power , storage & reliability of connection on the mobile device makes it tough to use it as the central controller
This part of the development is commonly under rated & mis understood by clients.
Any programming language that can incorporate a web service layer can be used here , we  @ WSR use PHP for all our Server side work.

Even for a basic application it will take at least 50-70 hrs of work to deploy a minimalistic Server side infrastructure including a basic data model / web services , testing etc Im basing this on something like a task / todo application  , fairly basic yet very scalable This development is also 85-95% re-useable across platforms (iOS / Android)

3. Mobile Client - This is the actual app that will be downloaded form the Apple Store or Android Market & will run on your phone.

This application will normally utilize all the facilities provided by the OS (a facility being the camera / key pad etc) as you need it & deliver the workflow you want.

Again there is a 20-30 hrs basic setup that goes in consistently across any development , upon which the developer can start to build your functionality.
Beyond this the complexity of the functionality will define the effort
Also you have to be careful in design stages as iPhone apps will not necessarily  run on iPads automatically & vice versa , so make sure you add in the extra effort to optimize for both devices.

The device issue gets worse on Android but only if your are trying to build some very specific functionality using the Motion sensing Gyros / GPS etc  
This area should be documented down to the last detail before you start building

Pricing

Pricing will VARY FOR EVERY APP , there is no golden rule or a benchmark to follow, there are just too many variable to develop any kind of pricing system. 

However if we look at our methodology described above we can establish a floor price , this will at least help you qualify the customer 

So looking at the 3 components (above) your minimum costs are 10+70+30 = 110Hrs , this will get you a barebones app with practically zero to very little in terms of functionality 

Hourly Rates will vary from $20-$75 depending on the skill levels you hire & then you will be able to negotiate some volume discounts

You will also have to get into Android vs iOS , typical questions will be 

• Can we do one now & one later ? YES 
• What is the added cost to do both ? The client development cost will be totally new for the next platform, the server side cost can be re-used upto 85-95%
• If I have to do one , which one should I pick first ? Depends on your user base , what devices are prevalent , in the general public though , its hard to skip a platform , you may have to do both 
• Windows Mobile ? Great Platform but we need to see more devices on it , unless you have a budget
• What about Blackberry & Nokia (Symbian) ? – TELL THEM TO GET ANOTHER PHONE !

Managing App the Development Process 

It is critical to know how to manage the project well when it is in Development , at WSR use base-camp & where we have TODO templates for each step just as an example here is how 2 of our templates would look 

  [Server Side App] – QA

• Staging Environment Setup
• Bug Tracking Tool Setup
• Test Case Execution
• Regression Testing
• QA Signoff

[Mobile App] – Deployment

• Application Store Ready
• Bundling
• Final iPA files / Droid Files Tested
• Billing

for a typical mobile application project there are 12 such lists that we have , from start to finish.

 Our largest number of items is in the Requirements & Specifications Documentation list 

We assign each of such task to individuals & they enter their time against it , Clients are able to see these time entries , we also maintain some threshold hours at the time of project initiation so that if in any area we are going overboard we get automatic alerts from base camp. [we have used the base camp API to develop a neat little tool to do this level of time management ]

Since most projects will be sold at a fixed price but that pricing will be derived from an effort estimate in hours , tracking time & holding people accountable to small work units being delivered becomes critical in keeping scope in check & delivery on track. 

Try to break down tasks into small managable units vs large deliverables with many moving peices. As an example look at our list for Mobile App Deployement (Above), in this list there are 4 tasks , 

One for the Finance person (to invoice the Customer) , 2 for the Developers & 1 for the QA person. 

If we were to assign “Mobile App Deployment” as a task we would end up not knowing who to give it to & it would get lost in coordination , but since its broken down , things are simple & people know what is to be delivered

In Summary , Selling & delivering mobile apps isnt for everyone , but with the right team backing you up & the correct approach , there is money to be made here for Any level of Customer

so go for it & make your future mobile 

Cheers to your Success ! 

The post How to Sell Mobile Apps – Explained ! appeared first on 6 Degrees IT.

The Future is Mobile  - we have been hearing this in the market place for the last 3 years , but yet I dont see the volume of Mobile work in the market anywhere close to what is needed to make the futuer mobile. 

My personal opinion is that this is due to the lack of clarity around the whole Mobile Application economy, Customer’s dont understand it , hence they dont know how to sell it & end up feeling they are not capable of selling it.

The intention of this post is to try & break down the process so that an average Customer can make an educated call whether the Mobile application market is worth getting into or not.

In the Mobile App realm there are 2 broad kinds of apps

1. Conceptual Apps

2. Process Augmentation Apps

Conceptual Apps 

These are the “idea” apps ,  mostly very unique & fresh 

Things like the Tiger woods app , to be able to recognize your golf swing plot it against Tigers & Show the differences or the Taxi Meter which calculates the fare as you travel or a Guitar Tuner , or the Mirror The best example of this category being SIRI
For most purposes we can discount this market because whereas the Financial upside of building these apps can be HUGE , unique concepts are hard to come by & equally hard is the level of engineering needed to deliver on these type of projects 

Customer’s selling apps should try to spend thier energies away from this segment , but if you find something in this area that clicks , by all means , it could be a gold mine.
Your competition here is also serious , some of the pioneers of the app industry who are featured on Apple.com rule this space along Silicon valley PE’s , VC’s & Angel Investors

A vast majority of these applications make their money by selling the app itself, another large segment monetize leverage the viral aspect of these apps 

Example – Tiger Woods MySwing – $4.99 on iPhone $9.99 iPad – this has over 80K downloads in each version 

Process Augmentation Apps 

These can become the sweet spot selling wise for Customers , here you are taking functionality or processes that already exist , either offline or as a web application & you are building an application to further enhance it or simple add mobility.
Examples are in the 1000′s , Todo list trackers like “Remember the milk” , Google Maps Application etc etc
The ideal stratergy here would be to look for companies who engage with their customers or employees that are mobile, try & pickup on processes that can be enhanced by adding mobility & then build an app around it. 

This needs a decent amount of ingenuity but to deliver such apps is not hard for the most part

These apps are normally free to sub $5 downloads & the monetization happens outside the app , essentially through the value enhancement that the app brings to the interaction between the business & the customer / employee 

Example - Tripadvisor , they probably spend upwards of $200k to build this , but they give it away for free , for them the added value that this app brings to their users is what monetizes the app.

The App Development Sales & Delivery Process

IN terms of the actual app development there are almost always 3 components 

• Planning & Documentation 
• Server Side Application 
• Mobile Client 

1. Planning & Documentation – Absolute Key , explain to your customers that they should never fall for any App developer who will not give them complete specifications documentation before the first line of code is keyed in this is very critical as things will become messy without a proper & detailed plan.

Documentation should cover the following

• Business Requirements – CLIENT TO CONFIRM & SIGN OFF
• Solution Architecture – CONTINGENT ON REQUIREMENT SIGN OFF
  • Communication Methods & Protocols
  • Mobile Client
  • Web Services Layer
  • Server Side Application
  • Database(s)
• Scope
• Data Model
• User Interface – Workflow
• Mobile Client User Interface
• Server Side Application – Workflow
• User Interface – Wire Frames
  • Mobile Client
  • Server Application
• Test Cases
  • Mobile Client
  • Server Application

This documentation is & should be a chargebale effort & it will take a minimum of 10-15 hrs to put together something that is 

enough to be  Sell this document & its level of detail as an Insurance policy for the client , If your developer was to get hit by a bus the document will be strong enough that you take your half done code & get it built out anywhere 

As a real world example from an actual project , here is a document that we used to build an application for a Tequila Distributor. 

Tequila Company iOS Application Specifications Document

The app is to help thier sales people view sales data for thier own product whenever they are in a store & then on to record the prices of competitor product that is selling in that store.

All the competitor data will be stored on the server & the corporate office will be able to view it real time

This document took 14.45 billable hours to build , across 4 people 

• The Client 
• Solution Architect 
• Database designer 
• Lead developer 
• UI Designer 

we did a 45 minute meeting with the client & 4 days later came back with this first draft.

There were some minor clarifications largely due to the fact that the client thought the wire frames was what the app was going to look like & flipped out ! they also wanted to add certain email notifications to be sent out

The sign off meeting was another 45 minutes , we had signed & sealed requirements , let the coding begin ! 

2. Server Side Development – This is where the app will get all the data it needs that sits in some offline / online system , or if users are creating data this is the exchange that will be used to transmit it.
The app will almost always depend on a server side component , simply because of constraints like processing power , storage & reliability of connection on the mobile device makes it tough to use it as the central controller
This part of the development is commonly under rated & mis understood by clients.
Any programming language that can incorporate a web service layer can be used here , we  @ WSR use PHP for all our Server side work.

Even for a basic application it will take at least 50-70 hrs of work to deploy a minimalistic Server side infrastructure including a basic data model / web services , testing etc Im basing this on something like a task / todo application  , fairly basic yet very scalable This development is also 85-95% re-useable across platforms (iOS / Android)

3. Mobile Client - This is the actual app that will be downloaded form the Apple Store or Android Market & will run on your phone.

This application will normally utilize all the facilities provided by the OS (a facility being the camera / key pad etc) as you need it & deliver the workflow you want.

Again there is a 20-30 hrs basic setup that goes in consistently across any development , upon which the developer can start to build your functionality.
Beyond this the complexity of the functionality will define the effort
Also you have to be careful in design stages as iPhone apps will not necessarily  run on iPads automatically & vice versa , so make sure you add in the extra effort to optimize for both devices.

The device issue gets worse on Android but only if your are trying to build some very specific functionality using the Motion sensing Gyros / GPS etc  
This area should be documented down to the last detail before you start building

Pricing

Pricing will VARY FOR EVERY APP , there is no golden rule or a benchmark to follow, there are just too many variable to develop any kind of pricing system. 

However if we look at our methodology described above we can establish a floor price , this will at least help you qualify the customer 

So looking at the 3 components (above) your minimum costs are 10+70+30 = 110Hrs , this will get you a barebones app with practically zero to very little in terms of functionality 

Hourly Rates will vary from $20-$75 depending on the skill levels you hire & then you will be able to negotiate some volume discounts

You will also have to get into Android vs iOS , typical questions will be 

• Can we do one now & one later ? YES 
• What is the added cost to do both ? The client development cost will be totally new for the next platform, the server side cost can be re-used upto 85-95%
• If I have to do one , which one should I pick first ? Depends on your user base , what devices are prevalent , in the general public though , its hard to skip a platform , you may have to do both 
• What about Blackberry & Nokia (Symbian) ? – TELL THEM TO GET AN iPhone !

Managing App the Development Process 

It is critical to know how to manage the project well when it is in Development , at WSR use base-camp & where we have TODO templates for each step just as an example here is how 2 of our templates would look 

  [Server Side App] – QA

• Staging Environment Setup
• Bug Tracking Tool Setup
• Test Case Execution
• Regression Testing
• QA Signoff

[Mobile App] – Deployment

• Application Store Ready
• Bundling
• Final iPA files / Droid Files Tested
• Billing

for a typical mobile application project there are 12 such lists that we have , from start to finish.

 Our largest number of items is in the Requirements & Specifications Documentation list 

We assign each of such task to individuals & they enter their time against it , Clients are able to see these time entries , we also maintain some threshold hours at the time of project initiation so that if in any area we are going overboard we get automatic alerts from base camp. [we have used the base camp API to develop a neat little tool to do this level of time management ]

Since most projects will be sold at a fixed price but that pricing will be derived from an effort estimate in hours , tracking time & holding people accountable to small work units being delivered becomes critical in keeping scope in check & delivery on track. 

Try to break down tasks into small managable units vs large deliverables with many moving peices. As an example look at our list for Mobile App Deployement , in this list there are 4 tasks , 

One for the Finance person (to invoice the Customer) , 2 for the Developers & 1 for the QA person. 

If we were to assign “Mobile App Deployment” as a task we would end up not knowing who to give it to & it would get lost in coordination , but since its broken down , things are simple & people know what is to be delivered

In Summary , Selling & delivering mobile apps isnt for everyone , but with the right team backing you up & the correct approach , there is money to be made here for Any level of Customer

so go for it & make your future mobile 

Cheers to your Success ! 

The post How to Sell Mobile Apps – Explained ! appeared first on 6 Degrees IT.

This dilemma is very common amongst apple buffs… Firstly i believe that the mac side is the better side of the world… secondly i believe all Apple buffs suffer from something called Cognitive Dissonance (look it up)

last week as i was working with the design team on liquid layouts, and they were testing stuff on my iphone.. i got a rare few moments away from my mac & my Iphone…. my Cognitive dissonance turned into deep introspection and lead me to ponder upon where all this is headed, and of course , how does this impact an Customer.
  
we all know that each keyword is a lead, analyzing the keyword & its associated visitor behaviour tells us a lot about the user using that keyword including where they may be in the buying cycle.

now bring in a new class of users “not at home , not at work” … coming to your site from their mobile devices…! Instant gratification doesn’t get more instant than this  

is your site ready , are you taking these people through your normal 3 clicks ? or are you showing them what they need right away. Imagine a guy sitting in his car , in traffic on a friday evening , looking for a Mexican restaurant nearby .. flips out the iphone and uses the normal search on Maps.

Does your client show up ? (your pay per click ad or #1 listing didn’t show up)
What is the landing URL ? your home page ?
Is your site designed to pickup the fact that its an Iphone coming in ? (or a blackberry or a Nokia)
Do you serve the same resolution & the same information ?
Do you look at google analytics the same way ? 
Can you design a campaign for your client that caters to their mobile marketing needs ?

I think this is where the business is headed your Clients will demand these types of solutions going forward & your production partners will need to deliver this level of complexity wrapped in an Ultra Simple (Applesque) User interface at ridiculously low prices ?

Do you agree ? what can we do to make sure Customer’s are ready ?

With my CTO @ Search results hat on … this is really really exciting , my tech team is ready & they love this stuff. We have some very talented brains that can do amazing things 
Bring on the challenge !
 

The post The Future is Mobile ! Are you there ? appeared first on 6 Degrees IT.

Bal got to meet with all the 48 Members of the 6DegreesIT team in India, he managed to get a lot of his work done sitting with the Developers , Designers & SEO Specialist & talking to his clients in the UK

It was a great experience for the Team as they got to spend time with a Customer and Bal was awesome in the way he explained to them what an Customer expects out of a Supplier and told them some basic tips on how each of them can give the Customer a better experience at 6DegreesIT 
This grass root level motivation will certainly reflect in a positive impact on our service delivery in days to come.

Our Office in India is a fully owned facility, state of the Art , Climate Controlled , bleeding edge technology & Bal got to make the best of it, including the “6DegreesIT Sports Bar” , which is on the Terrace of our office where Bal shared some good old british drinking etiquette with the team , which was very well appreciated (certainly reflected in the amount of beer consumed over the 2 nights Bal was there)

Here is short video describing his visit.

The post Customer @ Our Production Facility !! appeared first on 6 Degrees IT.

Please download the case study - Please download the case study – CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD  

Since the company was in the distribution industry , working with a very specific product, confidentiality was & is a really big concern  , there is no way they would want their competition to know what level they had taken their technology to. Hence we have made a huge effort to genercize this and build a case study

Right from its genesis to execution , this project is a highly complex solution with tons of integrations & thousands of lines of code that came around from a simple opportunity where we were asked to , “Showcase what mobile can do ?”

Our approach was to sit & understand the business model & to come up with a solution where we could show a tangible return on Investment.

How did we find areas where mobile would work ?

• Our Mandate – “Help this customer make money / save money somewhere in their day to day operations”
• We spent time to understand their complete business cycle, end to end. 
• We listed all their departments (sorted) by Cost Incurred 
• Within the departments we listed the major cost headers 
• We did a similar excersise on the revenue side 
• We did a detailed study of the top 3 areas on our list & built prototypes as to how we could use technology to add efficiency in each of them

Simple as it sounds the above effort took 4 months, not to mention the considerable cost involved in prototyping & analysis (paid by the customer)

With the above exercise we saw that their Sales department had more than 50% of their staff (hence expenses), so it made sense to build something that focused on the sales staff. At the same time most of their margins came from being able to price their product effectively. 

The resultant project was a mix of 2 solutions that we proposed , where we planned to build something where they can use their wide spread sales staff to give them real time data which will result in good pricing decisions.

Details of the solution including Features & Workflows are in the Case Study. 

Once we were in production , we had to work very closely with a large IT team , to help us connect to their internal systems & pull out data.

The specifics are too detailed & technical for the scope of this blog, but the intention here is to demonstrate that to sell larger technology solutions you need the ability to look at a customers business & find opportunities to fit in a business solution. 

The post Store Data Collection Application – Case Study appeared first on 6 Degrees IT.

]]> http://www.6degreesit.com/store-data-collection-application-case-study-2/feed/ 0 http://www.6degreesit.com/gea-phe-systems-ecoflex-partners-with-6degreesit/ http://www.6degreesit.com/gea-phe-systems-ecoflex-partners-with-6degreesit/#comments Tue, 03 Apr 2012 19:38:19 +0000 6DegreesIT http://sixdegreesit.wsisrdev.com/?p=1197 GEA PHE Systems The Worlds Largest Manufacturer of Heat Exchangers Partners with 6 Degrees IT to Develop a State of the Art Sales Work Flow Management Application This will be a Multi Phase Development that is designed to perform a mission critical role in GEA’s Processes

The post GEA PHE Systems EcoFlex – Partners With 6DegreesIT appeared first on 6 Degrees IT.

]]> GEA PHE Systems The Worlds Largest Manufacturer of Heat Exchangers Partners with 6 Degrees IT to Develop a State of the Art Sales Work Flow Management Application

This will be a Multi Phase Development that is designed to perform a mission critical role in GEA’s Processes

The post GEA PHE Systems EcoFlex – Partners With 6DegreesIT appeared first on 6 Degrees IT.

]]> http://www.6degreesit.com/gea-phe-systems-ecoflex-partners-with-6degreesit/feed/ 0 http://www.6degreesit.com/6-degrees-new-mobile-development-deal/ http://www.6degreesit.com/6-degrees-new-mobile-development-deal/#comments Tue, 27 Mar 2012 08:54:19 +0000 6DegreesIT http://sixdegreesit.wsisrdev.com/?p=515 6 Degrees has recently bagged a contract from a 3Billion dollar food distribution major , to develop an iOS application which will enable its sales staff to carry out their functions via a mobile device On the backend the system will aggregate all … Continue reading →

The post $3BN Food Distribution Major partners with 6 Degrees appeared first on 6 Degrees IT.

]]> 6 Degrees has recently bagged a contract from a 3Billion dollar food distribution major , to develop an iOS application which will enable its sales staff to carry out their functions via a mobile device

On the backend the system will aggregate all this data coming from Individual stores & assimilate it into an MIS dash board to help the management make real time decisions

This is an aggressive development & a pioneering initiative in the industry , which is expected to be live in 60 days !

The post $3BN Food Distribution Major partners with 6 Degrees appeared first on 6 Degrees IT.

]]> http://www.6degreesit.com/6-degrees-new-mobile-development-deal/feed/ 0 http://www.6degreesit.com/cms-platforms-hosted-vs-deployed/ http://www.6degreesit.com/cms-platforms-hosted-vs-deployed/#comments Tue, 27 Mar 2012 08:49:45 +0000 6DegreesIT http://sixdegreesit.wsisrdev.com/?p=513 Many Customers have asked :” What is the difference between a Hosted CMS like Business Catalyst & a Joomla / WordPress / DNN that i can deploy myself”? As The Top Business Catalyst supplier we feel its our Duty to … Continue reading →

The post CMS Platforms : Hosted Vs Deployed appeared first on 6 Degrees IT.

]]> Many Customers have asked :” What is the difference between a Hosted CMS like Business Catalyst & a Joomla / WordPress / DNN that i can deploy myself”?

As The Top Business Catalyst supplier we feel its our Duty to shed some light on this subject.

A CMS system is basically a piece of software or a web based application that allows a user to manage their web presence.

Business Catalyst :

This is a “SaaS” model application , which means Software As A Service. In simpler terms it means you are “leasing” the application or an instance of it for your clients site.

Under SaaS what you do is you “configure” the application for your clients use vs Customizing it.

By configuring we mean , create templates for their design preferences , setup forms , etc etc

Pros & Cons of Business Catalyst

Pros

Cons

Cutting Edge Technology : The creators of the Application upgrade the application centrally & everyone benefits with the upgrade. This is now owned by Adobe and the advances are amazing since Easy to Manage : the user interface is very user friendly , the Sitewalk feature is great , excellent integrated analytics , reporting etc Resource Availability : Efusion has many videos that you can send to client to train them on simple tasks www.onlinebusinesswiki.com is a great resource. Great !! System for 80% of your Web Development needs Integrated CRM is excellent for Small Business needs CMS system is very intuitive & the sitewalk feature is top notch Integrated Email marketing plugs into the CRM nicely Integrated Analytics & Reporting Workflows are great tools for simple business automation Some advanced features like API ‘s Webapps etc allow us to push the envelope to a fair degree Faster development cycle as the developer doesn’t need to mess with any envoirnments , server setups , code etc, infact a slightly tech savvy designer can do the whole build Lower cost upfront.

No “ownership” : the client never really owns the site , its more so a lease No Portability : the client cant host the site on their servers Higher cost of ownership: conventional CMS hosting can be fairly inexpensive but with Efusion you will pay for their system fees + hosting in a monthly amount. where as with an Open source CMS the system is free Limited customization : since we have no access to code , we get stuck when we are faced with advanced customization. A great example is our ‘Customer Dollars” system , every time someone comments on a blog give them Points , this can never be done in Efusion Limited “specialist” : its tough to developers who know the system inside out, we are WSR have become experts over the months by doing over a 100 projects

Open Source CMS :

Examples of Open Source Content Management Systems are Joomla , Website Baker , DNN , OS Commerce , Zen Cart etc. they come in a variety of languages like PHP , ASP.net , Ruby on Rails etc

Open Source basically means that the Source code is open or freely available to absolutely anyone.

Open source is an absolutely great concept and we subscribe to it fully. Distribute what you know freely and openly so that everyone benefits & only good will come back to you , its almost spiritual !!

Typically these systems are distributed under the GNU General Public License, which is an Honor based software listening system (so there is no monetary basis).

What a GNU GPL License says is that you can use , distribute , modify , integrate & customize the software any which way you like , as long as you credit the original developer for it explicitly.

In other words we openly state that we have taken the base joomla , made some modifications and we use it as a development platform. with this approach we are in full compliance with the GPL license, but the moment we say that this has nothing to do with Joomla and we built it from the ground up we are in violation

Pros & Cons of Open Source CMS

Pros

Cons

Complete access to code – we can customize this type of system to any extent , be it talking to the customers point of sale system , integrate to their accounting system , create embedded flash applications , absolutely anything. Open Source code – easy to understand code , well organized & developed by people who love what they do. Support – hundreds of developers who know the system inside out are available all over the internet , in addition to that we have forums , blogs etc. you can google any issue and find a fix. Applications & Modules : tons of modules or widgets freely available so for example if you wanted a real estate site you could simply install a module and get done in 20 minutes Low cost of ownership : typical hosting fees range between 5-15 dollars a month for an average site The Client “owns” the site so they can move it or host it anywhere and they have access to all the code

Complex Setup & install – a server has to be prepared and setup so you need an expert to do this Managing a site can be complex as it is designed for a basic level of technical skill High initial cost – since a lot more work needs to be done to set this up

The post CMS Platforms : Hosted Vs Deployed appeared first on 6 Degrees IT.

]]> http://www.6degreesit.com/cms-platforms-hosted-vs-deployed/feed/ 0