How the two silk sarees added bright sparks to my life.

It was a limpid flow of red, green and blue and a surge of zari. The Kanchi silk saree was a sheer magical beauty. Tried to cajole the wife to buy it; I knew she would look even more gorgeous in that saree. No. The lady was bent upon a Gujarati Patola saree for this festive season.

She was right because the pallu had marvelously intricate design and she liked the stars that decked the body of the saree. The tinge of parrot beak red along the border was the clincher. Of course, the free blouse had designer sleeves and looked even more beautiful than the saree.

This season's silk sarees are eye catching. 

By now you must have guessed what happened next. We ended up buying both. (I don't mind – she looks alternately beautiful in her fave Gujarati Patola saree and lovely in the Kanchi silk.) The smiles are worth it.

And, another thing I liked was the silk saree prices have not gone up over last year – if anything they are a bit more reasonable.

Why should I correct grammar in web content? I am already getting enough business

If you're lucky and getting enough business, is it still necessary to bother about 'silly' things like grammar and style? The answer is no and yes.
What did the once famous and much quoted Mao Tse Tung say? As long as it caught the mouse, it doesn't matter whether the cat is black or white. Debates on same lines may convince you to forget about tense, punctuation and style. And, given that web readers are supposed to be '5 seconders' who simply scan information, it is said that web content grammar doesn't call for too much focus.

Native English:

But this is only true to a small extent. Remember, the audience is mostly native English speakers and used to certain style. Unconsciously, they do notice poorly constructed sentences; they may laugh the bloomers off and give you business; or they may think that a company that's so indifferent may not deliver on quality after all and take their business elsewhere.

Purpose of web content:

By the way, the very purpose of web content is to convince a prospective customer into clicking that all crucial "Add to cart" button. As such, the content should be easily understandable. Wrong usage of words stumps most readers and the confused lot simply flee from your site.

 Cost of correct grammar;

True, the regular keyboard pounders are cheap and offer their services for as low as $2. They are perfectly capable of stitching any number keywords together and generate an "SEO quality" content. Grammatically, it may not exactly be horrendous but still  lacks the professional polish. Hopefully, this genre of writing also can do its job of selling.
The only point is this: cheap stuff always catches low-paying customers and your business would be wallowing in the trough.

Working Smart :
Pay a bit of attention to the content and ensure that it's professional, market-oriented and free from silly grammar mistakes. This kind of quality writers do cost around $15 for about 500 words, but then on the long run, your site will attract high-value customers. Bottom lines are sure to show better shine.

Think about it; quality web content makes a difference.

A survey of Recruitment: ‘Good hires and bad hires’

Here is scratch pad survey on how hiring panned out for 25 companies in the last two years. If I make a strong suggestion that the results may be taken with an extra large pinch of salt, the reason is simple. The sample size is rather small, just 25 companies, which took about 67 employees on board.

But, the survey has some merits to back it up. 

Image courtesy of renjith krishnan at FreeDigitalPhotos.net

I know the respondents personally: 21 HR managers and 2 decision making C-Level officers shared their experiences informally over a period of last two months.

It’s not a structured interview, meaning the people didn’t have to make cautious or considered replies. Only last week, I jotted down some notes and checked with these friends who agreed with the record. But, for obvious reasons, they prefer to be anonymous and so they shall be.

To summarize the events, the 25 companies planned to hire for 95 positions but could fill only 67 positions.

On an average, 972 applications were received for each job. Believe it or not, one job post didn’t elicit, even one single application! On the max side, a Technical Sales Engineer job attracted a whopping 5,300 hopefuls. How this happened has an interesting story, which will come a bit later.

As many as around 20 selected candidates didn't care to join. The companies had to send out repeat call letters and settle for candidates whom they had marked as ‘second’ or ‘third’ best.

The final tabulation shows these results.

First annual Performance Appraisal Summary	No. of Employees	By Percentage
Achievers who have exceeded expectations	6	9
Good: these employees are meeting the objectives	14	21
Average: These people need constant persuasion, supervision	14	21
Unsatisfactory: Low productivity, inter-personal problems, poor attendance	33	49
Total	67

Some of the reasons given are eye-openers.

How the achievers were hired:

The three companies which report having hired achievers and ‘good’ followed a meticulous process. They prepared a detailed profile of the person who would fit the job role best. In addition to anticipated education, experience and certification qualifications, the HR and the departmental heads wrote a brief note on expected behavioral and attitudinal attributes. The profile was so complete that it could actually mirror the possible candidate. The decision maker vetted the profile and was involved at each important stage of hiring. A meticulous schedule was prepared and adhered to closely. The companies benchmarked competition and were ready with the right salary structure which was announced upfront.

The planning and execution were a model of project management, if it could be put like that.

How the ‘Unsatisfactory’ people crept in:

The story about the below par employee is riddled with the blame game.

‘We were never given sufficient time and brief’ says one HR manager. A very cryptic Email from the boss simply said ‘Hire two Technical Sales Engineers.” The HOD was equally short – “you know what we do – get two chaps.” You can easily imagine how badly the job post was drafted and wouldn't be shocked to hear that 5,300 applications poured in. And, naturally most of the applicants had none of even the basic knowledge. The interview was a hurried mish-mash affair, with as many as 250 people literally ‘walking through.”

In another case, the hiring process was prolonged over some 8 rounds spread over three months. ‘All the good candidates vanished and we simply rushed through at the end picking up chaps who had not found a job in three months.’ the HR lamented.

I am convinced that hiring should be handled like a project and must have the full involvement of the decision maker. More on that in my next post.

Meanwhile, if you would like to have any articles/ blogs on HR, automobiles, IT Enabled services and any other topics, you know what to do. Just shoot an Email. Vvsarma51@gmail.com .  

From the Sidelines: Another Day, Another Referral Spammer

From the Sidelines: Another Day, Another Referral Spammer

How the Google Hummingbird Changes Business Rules for Content Writers.

Content writers will be one large community touched by the Hummingbird, Google’s new algorithm.  Suddenly unleashed (said to have been in the oven just for a month,) the search engine algorithm is likely to change the way digital content writers will be asked to write.

This bird flew in from the Wikipedia

Google picks up your search string, the words you have entered in the search box, searches through some trillion pieces of information on the Worldwide Web, tracks down results and presto, pulls out thousands of ‘pages’ that are most likely to tell you what you want to know. That’s algorithm in plain terms and the search string is the handle in the whole process, as far as visitors are concerned.  

For the SEO experts, mining ‘key words’ the magic mantras expected to help push up PageRank was one of the important activities. There were ‘good’ SEO experts who saw that the content should be intelligible and there were mechanical minded chaps, who stuck to convoluted key words.                                                            

Imagine the life of a content writer. And, then imagine a keyword like “2014 Chevy Malibu Tampa.” If tasked to construct a meaningful sentence using that phrase, a writer has little to do except pound her/his head. The mechanical SEO, I alluded to never settled for even a comma in between “Malibu” and “Tampa.”

Google’s Panda itself drove a bit of sense into information written for the web. It frowned upon tortuous or artificial key words, more so when they were referring to a particular geography. It’s said, it’s enough if the place name and the product/ service appeared in the same sentence. Dear old Google (15 years old!)  was savvy enough to figure out what the visitor wanted.

The Hummingbird is expected to matters even simpler. But then, the technical writers have to now truly slog and create high quality information that would be useful to the reader. Not just PageRank, but holding the interest will be the crux. We can write peacefully, focussing on research and product/Service utility.  

I expect business owners will re-discover revenue flows on the net with elegantly market-oriented content.

That’s a great news for digital content writers who are“Too restless to settle too wild to tame.” (Don Robertson in his wildly famous song “Hummingbird.”)

Get Involved: That’s How to ensure that your Website is the Best.

If you are planning to have a new website developed or revamping an existing site, pay more than a decent amount of attention to the activity. Even though familiar with the basics of project management, and knowing that client involvement makes or breaks a project, quite a number of business owners leave the task  totally to the outsourcing company.

True, the web development company is the expert, gets paid for the job and should deliver results. But, they will never know your business as well as you and there lies the crux. Unless, you look at web presence as just a “we too have a web site,” it’s better to plan and oversee the project closely.

What you want from the website:

Plan the Website for your prospective customers. Go through competitors’ sites meticulously as if you are a customer and jot down the points which prompt you to click the “add to cart” button and note down the points which drive you away from the site. This gives you a fairly efficient roadmap. Now, think how your USPs can be built in and how your website can be entirely different from the other websites.

Risking being preachy, I would urge you to prepare a thorough document which outlines your goals, expectations, strengths and weakness of your products etc.

Interacting with the Web Development Company:

Liaising with the web development company obviously is not about coding. It’s ideating with the developer.

Ideas are hidden behind thoughts and fruits behind the leaves.

It’s an idea sparking session; once the web designer catches on, they will be able to come up with superb layouts, color schemes, navigation, data bases, payment gateways and the dozen other things required for the Ecommerce site or web site.

You can be sure of one of the efficient sites on the web.

Talk to a Web Developer!

If there is a tone of surprise in that query, it’s understandable. Not all web designing companies are comfortable with putting their designers directly on the line and allow them to talk with you. Mostly, it’s a ‘project manager’ (thinly disguised sales person.) Since the actual developer hears everything secondhand and a watered version, the chances are your thoughts are lost somewhere down the pipeline.

A few outsourcing web designers facilitate direct interaction with the developers throughout the project and naturally ideas flow, things are done right the first time and fast. The cost of web design is cut down dramatically in many cases.

If you want to speak to a web development company that offers this facility, just send an Email to vvsarma51@gmail.com

How to Increase Data Center Performance while reducing Costs?

DevOps + NetOps process is the latest philosophy that’s working exceptionally well in managing IT Infrastructure. 

SaaS Companies for whom Data Center Colocation is a compelling requirement can achieve significant cost reduction in by synchronizing their development teams, Network Operation teams. And within NetOps, ensuring that networks teams and the Security Teams operate in tandem is the trick of the trade.

Bundled APMs, NPMs

Are you auditing IT Infrastructure costs with a view to reduce wastage and duplication of effort? Then have a second look at the security analytics tools, Application Performance Management solutions and Network Performance Management applications. The chances are the vendors have bundled Network Recording facility with any of these tools/ applications. The vendor may be offering such integrated packet capture solution purely out of friendly intentions.

But the overload on rack space, hardware increases costs and drives up power consumption many times.    

Duplication of Packet Capture:

The duplication of packet capture tools actually occurs as the networks teams and the Security Teams buy their own NPM or APMs each of which comes with its own packet capture tools, which in turn is overloading the system as discussed.

Then it should be a simple matter of tracking these applications at the time of purchasing or subscribing to them. Given the pace at which SaaS Companies need to work, you may not find enough time and even if you do, evaluating different software calls for expertise.

Remote Managed IT Infrastructure Services:

Focus on Core Activity

If you want to be free to focus on your core activity and leave essential but standard tasks, think of a Remote IT Infrastructure Management. A provider with DevOps specialization can assess your needs objectively, evaluate applications from an independent point of view (say without being constrained by platforms, technologies and so on,) and recommend what would be best for you.

Here in the simplest scenario, DevOps is nothing but knowing both sides of the table; the client that is you and the vendor of the application.

DevOps goes beyond Agile Development in the sense that while Agile provides a holistic framework, DevOps solves the day-to-day problems which brings practical returns in dollar terms.

If you would like to learn more about providers of Remote IT Infrastructure Management Services, just shoot off an Email: vvsarma51@gmail.com.