TechWise Today Magazine January 2019

Technology Simplified for Small and Medium Businesses

Tech​Wise​ Today

Digital Magazine | January 2019

News | Views | Training | Trends | Success Stories

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Main Stories in This Issue

Finance

Events

Funding for Tech Startup Momni Industrial Internet of Things Technology New Funding for Sprout Social

Tech Challenges for Startups Hackathon on Artificial Intelligence

Digital Media

Trends

Entrepreneurial Education DropBit Mobile Bitcoin Wallet Blockchain Technology

Learning Cloud Computing Five Skills for Your Tech Manager Ready-to-Use Templates

Search Engine Optimization Web Marketing Digital Advertising

Awards

Small Business Awards States’ Startup Ranking 2018

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Slush Academy Provides Entrepreneurial Education Slush Academy starts in 2019 and will be gradually scaled up to a full program.

Slush - with the help of the world’s leading universities, growth companies, and VCs - has started building a modern global education program for entrepreneurship – Slush Academy.

Slush Academy. Photo: Slush Academic partners of the program include organizations such as Oxford Saïd Business School, London Business School, Aalto University, UC Berkeley, Singapore University of Technology and Design, Stockholm School of Economics, Korea Advanced Institute of Science & Technology, IE Business School, Polytechnic University of Catalonia, and Aalto Venture Program.

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The first batch of mentors includes notable names from the European tech scene: Atomico, Accel Partners, Supercell, Klarna, and Unity Technologies.

Slush Academy starts in 2019 and will be gradually scaled up to a full program. The first year is built on internships in fast-growing startups and VC firms.

The applications to Slush Academy will open in the spring of 2019 with a call for the most entrepreneurial students around the world. Anybody can apply to the program, and a group of 20–30 students will be chosen for the first program. The complete list of VCs and startups for mentoring and internship positions will be announced in early 2019.

Slush is the world’s leading startup and technology event. In 2018, Slush was organized in Helsinki on December 4–5. Slush operates in 29 countries and hosts annually more than 70 events.

Nominations Invited for Small Business Awards Winners will be announced during National Small Business Week, May 5-11, 2019.

The U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) has invited nominations for National Small Business Week awards for 2019. You can​ submit​ your nomination for different categories.

Photo: SBA

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According to SBA, all nominations must be mailed or hand delivered to the nearest SBA office

by January 9, 2019. Winners will be announced during National Small Business Week, May 5-11, 2019.

NITI Aayog Launches Global Hackathon on Artificial Intelligence Participants will get mentorship and support from the hackathon cosponsors.

With the aim to expand the idea of Artificial Intelligence (​AI​) articulated in the National AI Strategy, India’s NITI Aayog has partnered with Perlin – a Singapore-based AI startup - to launch the ‘AI 4 All Global Hackathon.’

It invites developers, students, startups and companies to develop AI applications to make significant positive social and economic impact for India. The challenge question seeks to develop solutions in Distributed Computing and Privacy Preserving techniques, such as multi-party computation, in AI. The objective of this hackathon is to promote awareness and subsequently develop solutions that deliver the twin benefit of efficient computing to address the infrastructure challenges.

“The AI for All Hackathon underscores the commitment of NITI Aayog to supporting meaningful social, economic, and technological advancements directed at making people’s lives better,” said Amitabh Kant, CEO of NITI Aayog.

The hackathon will run in 2 stages: Stage I ending 15 January 2019, and Stage II, which will only include shortlisted participants from the previous stage, will conclude on 15 March 2019.

The first stage will invite ideas for use cases of multi-party computation in areas such as Healthcare, Education, Agriculture, Urbanization, and Financial Inclusion. The second stage will call for these ideas to be matured and developed, with a focus on privacy preserving AI and distributed computing.

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Participants will get mentorship and support from the hackathon cosponsors, including the opportunity to scale and implement their AI applications.

Industrial IoT Startup Raises $11.3 Million The system is designed so that customers can install it themselves without the need for customization.

MachineMetrics, an industrial IoT startup which equips factories with the digital tools needed to increase productivity, has announced that it has raised $11.3 million in Series A financing.

Tola Capital led the round with participation from existing investors Hyperplane Venture Capital, Long River Ventures, Mass Ventures, Hub Angels, and Firebolt Ventures. With the new funds, the company says it will expand its data science and product development teams while accelerating global sales.

MachineMetrics provides Industrial IoT (Internet of Things) technology solution. Its system is designed so that customers can install it themselves without the need for customization.

Once installed, manufacturers can collect, visualize and analyze data from any industrial machine. It automatically senses when there is a problem, even predicting some problems hours or minutes before they occur, and recommends solutions that reduce costly unplanned outages.

In addition, MachineMetrics benchmarks a company's machine performance against those of their peers to help guide future investments.

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"Now is the internet moment for manufacturing," said William Bither, CEO and cofounder of MachineMetrics. "Because we're pulling data from thousands of machines, we're able to gain a unique understanding of their problems. These insights are delivered back to our customers so they can take action to gain a competitive edge."

The company's latest solution allows factory workers to share MachineMetrics' data with their remote maintenance teams and makers of their equipment, and vice versa. This enables service teams to identify problems through remote diagnosis, reduce onsite service visits by 10 to 20 percent, and receive predictive maintenance alerts, which could lead to new business.

Photo: MachineMetrics

Viva Technology Launches Innovation Challenges for Startups VivaTech's Lab partners see the Challenges as a source of solutions for their business transformation.

For the fourth consecutive year VivaTech is hosting the Open Innovation Challenges to foster cooperation between startups and established companies while increasing business opportunities in global tech market.

VivaTech's Lab partners see the Challenges as a source of solutions for their business transformation. The solutions involve artificial intelligence; the Internet of Things; virtual and augmented reality; HR and the workplace of the future; and the consumer of the future.

The "Hardware Challenge" will feature pioneering drones, robots, and products in the Discovery Zone. The "Green Tech Challenge" seeks inclusive solutions to key societal and ​environmental issues of the 21st century. And the "XR & Entertainment Challenge" offers visitors immersive experiences.

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Startup Pitch Zone at VivaTech Startups from around the world can apply on the VivaTech internet platform​, with innovative solutions to the Challenges of leading companies in their sectors. Deadline for applications: 15 February 2019. The list of selected startups will be announced in March.

Pollution and Travel Advisory for New Delhi, India Delhi Government, the Indian Government, and the pollution-control agencies are not taking proper steps to control pollution.

As pollution levels remain dangerously high throughout the year in India, all travelers including business executives, tourists, and diplomats need to exercise utmost caution while planning to visit India – particularly India’s capital​ New Delhi​.

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Moreover, companies and investors must not come to Delhi for setting up their businesses or for trade conferences as pollution can harm them as well as their families. Foreigners who have come to stay in India for their work, should preferably go back to their countries. Or, at least, they should not keep their children with them because ​Delhi’s pollution is very harmful for children.

Delhi Government, the Indian Government, and the pollution-control agencies are not taking proper steps to control pollution because most politicians and bureaucrats in India are uneducated and careless.

A dirty street in India’s capital New Delhi. The authorities are so careless that they do not get the streets cleaned. Bureaucratic and political corruption is the main reason for dirty streets and increasing pollution which is causing diseases and deaths among the people of the city.

Photo: Rakesh Raman / RMN News Service World’s top magazine The Economist reports that “even by the standards of poor countries, India is alarmingly filthy.” The magazine says that Delhi’s deadly air is part of a wider crisis,

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adding that in WHO’s (World Health Organization) rankings of air pollution, Indian cities claim 14 of the top 15 spots.

Moreover, in the 2018 Environmental Performance Index – released by researchers at Yale and Columbia Universities in collaboration with the World Economic Forum – India falls at a poor rank of 177 in a list of 180 countries. Worse, India’s Environmental Health rank is 180 and Air Quality rank is 178.

An interactive tool on the Breathe Life 2030 ​website shows a Particulate Matter (PM) 2.5 level of 143 micrograms per cubic metre (annual mean) in India’s capital New Delhi. This is over 14 times over the WHO safe level of 10 µg/m3. Simply put, the people of Delhi are inhaling poison from the air. You can c ​ lick here​ to get more information.

Do You Really Need Cloud To Run Your Business?

Cloud computing is a technology distribution model using Internet as the service delivery channel.

By Rakesh Raman More often than not, hype without substance can be destructive. Case in point: Cloud computing. Tech vendors around the world are going ballyhoo to promote their cloud solutions among businesses. But cloud refuses to pick up steam.

As cloud awareness is almost missing, user outfits are more confused than enthused about this tech offering that is projected to herald a paradigm shift in the way businesses operate. While haze and fog have engulfed cloud, there’s hardly any serious attempt from the vendors to demist cloud for tech users through organized education programs, though rampant rhetoric persists.

There may be some progress in the enterprise cloud market, as it’s simpler for large enterprises to buy cloud because their chief information officers (CIOs) are mostly influenced by vendors’ aggressive sales campaigns and other promotional incentives for them.

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Most such CIOs just act as dumb purchase officers and buy tech gear without actually evaluating the cost benefit for their organizations. The chief financial officers (CFOs) and chief marketing officers (CMOs), who understand financial and commercial aspects of any investment, don’t understand technology.

As a result, CIOs are having a ball and freely squandering their companies’ money. Thus, cloud may be attracting some attention and bucks from large enterprises. But what about smaller businesses? How do they know and decide about cloud?

To help them understand the basic nuances of cloud computing, here we make an attempt as part of our education program for small and medium business (SMBs).

Simply put, cloud computing is a technology distribution model using Internet as the service delivery channel. Since Internet, which is a colossal network of computers, is denoted with a cloud diagram, delivery of computing resources over the Internet is now called cloud computing.

Tech vendors can sell hardware as well as software using cloud or for that matter Internet.

Since Internet can’t carry physical products, even tech products are sold as a service.

There are different cloud-based service models to deliver software, storage, platform, infrastructure, and so on.

However, smaller businesses should initially explore only the software options – termed as Software-as-a-Service (SaaS). As others are high-end service models, they come with complex usage and pricing options. Ignore them for the time being.

So, let’s discuss cloud-based software. In the traditional business models, you buy software as a product packaged in CDs or you pay and download a software package on your computer’s storage disk.

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In the cloud model, however, you need not have software in your local computer. You can connect to the Internet, go to cloud service provider’s website and after entering your login details start using the software. Your usage is metered and you’re billed by the service provider based on the amount of resources you use.

It’s like you use water or electricity in your home and pay the utility provider for the service you consume. You just need a simple water tap or an electric bulb at your place to consume the services that are delivered to you by the service providers using their infrastructure. Therefore, cloud computing is also sometimes referred to as utility computing or on-tap computing.

As in the case of water and electricity, in cloud you pay only for the software usage and don’t make any capital investment on buying software product. In other words, your software cost is directly proportional to the service you use unlike in the traditional model where you pay for the entire software package while you may be using only a fraction of its features.

For example, you’ve to pay for the entire Microsoft Office (comprising Word, Excel, PowerPoint, etc.), which is an expensive software package, though you may not be using most of its features. On the other hand, Google Drive with Google Docs is a similar cloud-based service that allows you to use Office-like features without having any software package in your computer’s hard disk. You use this service on Google’s site.

Although Google is offering this service free of charge, it can charge the users based on a cloud pricing model. Realizing the benefits of cloud service, now even Microsoft has introduced its Microsoft Office software in the cloud. Its Office 365 is being offered through subscription services for different types of users.

Likewise, Hotmail, Yahoo! Mail, and Gmail are the examples of cloud services, though these are available for free. Similarly, social networking services like Facebook, Google+, LinkedIn, Twitter are delivered through cloud. For websites, you get cloud-based Content Management Systems (CMSs) like WordPress and Joomla. You don’t have to pay for using most of these services.

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However, an important software application for SMBs is Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP).

It’s an integrated software solution that helps companies computerize their business processes such as financial accounting, sales, inventory management, human resource management, and so on.

Today, there are some cloud-based ERP solutions available in the market. But SMBs should opt for these solutions only if they need them. While introducing ERP, they should begin with standalone modules –separately for financial accounting or, say, inventory management.

And instead of buying a packaged ERP product, they should buy bespoke solution from a local software developer who could give them proper after-sales support. Big companies run away after selling their software products, which are also very expensive. Once you’re comfortable with standalone software modules, you should integrate them – again as a customized solution.

And before you zero in on cloud-based ERP, you should carry out a thorough cost-benefit analysis – comparing your customized ERP with packaged software and cloud-based solution.

Although cloud technologies are supposed to save capital costs for your company, some cloud software vendors will try to fleece you and you’ll find that it’s better to buy packaged solution instead of cloud-based service.

Moreover, today there’s a fundamental flaw in the cloud computing offerings. The basic principle behind cloud is that the cloud service providers should provide all computing resources to cloud service consumers. By this rule, you don’t need to buy a bulky and expensive PC or a laptop. You should have a very thin, lightweight, and cheap machine to use cloud services. It should not cost more than $100 or so.

But top cloud vendors like IBM, HP, and Microsoft are reluctant to make and offer cheap machines (also called thin clients) because they’re heavily dependent on lucrative PC business.

If they start offering cheap frontend machines to cloud users, cloud business will cannibalize their PC business. Obviously, the vendors are as confused about cloud as the users.

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So, what’s the lesson for SMBs? Avoid any commercialized cloud service; start using that which is available for free like office productivity software options and CMS solutions, as described above.

Cloud is not yet ready for smaller businesses, as they operate on shoestring budgets. Let the big, deep-pocket companies experiment with cloud. As small users, you can wait till the cloud ecosystem is stable. That’s what I suggest.

Coin Ninja Releases DropBit Mobile Bitcoin Wallet The 'text Bitcoin' feature, deals only with sending and receiving addresses, meaning the user holds the private keys.

Coin Ninja has unveiled its latest Bitcoin offering that allows users to send and receive Bitcoin via text messages through their mobile wallet, DropBit. DropBit makes it easy for people to receive their first Bitcoin​, even without currently owning a wallet or address. According to the company, DropBit may be the fastest and easiest way to send and receive Bitcoin, and has created a seamless way to send Bitcoin to your contacts using only their mobile phone number.

The 'text Bitcoin' feature, deals only with sending and receiving addresses, meaning the user holds the private keys, and they're not held with Coin Ninja or DropBit. Bitcoin ownership remains with the users, which the company says is so important to the very ethos of Bitcoin.

The company also emphasizes safety and security regarding both transactions and contacts. Coin Ninja's CEO, Larry Harmon, a long-time developer, has been working on Bitcoin projects for over 5 years. He states, "We know how important it is that our wallet makes it easier to transact Bitcoin to new users while maintaining

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all of the key protocols for advanced Bitcoin users - namely custodial ownership and anonymity."

Coin Ninja is a 15-person company based in the U.S. with offices in Akron, Ohio and Silicon Valley, California. The company aims to accelerate the global adoption of Bitcoin.

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The company also publishes and distributes digital content products and magazines among readers around the world. You can ​read and download our digital products that cover diverse content streams.

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Tech Startup Momni Closes $1.75M Funding Round Momni's platform connects existing network of friends moms already know and trust.

Momni, Inc., has secured additional funding of more than $1.75 million to expand its caresharing app, which connects moms to moms for premium childcare in their own neighborhoods and communities.

This recent round brings the female-led tech company's total fundraising to more than $2 million. The round was led significantly by Tamarak Capital, a Utah family office, and was accompanied by investors from Utah venture service firm RevRoad and angel investors.

Karmel Larson, founder of the new caresharing app Momni This support from investors will allow the Momni team to expand product features and launch its growing careshare-platform into new geographic regions.

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"I am so grateful for all the support I've received as Momni has taken off," said Karmel Larson, Momni Founder and CEO. "Statistics show that it's hard for female startup founders to get funding, and I am encouraged by the overwhelming interest we've received to help moms worldwide support one another with a cutting-edge and network-based childcare platform."

Larson was inspired to start Momni after learning about the global childcare crisis in 2017. The company released iPhone and Android apps earlier this year to help moms connect with one another digitally.

Momni's platform connects existing network of friends moms already know and trust. It offers instant access to trusted care by mothers in your Momni Circle and community. The company works closely with the Momni Foundation to provide caresharing opportunities to women and families in the developing world as a solution to the global childcare crisis.

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Five Skills Your Tech Manager Should Have Tech managers should think to save money for their own organization instead of contributing toward the revenues of the tech vendors.

By Rakesh Raman At a time, when companies are trying to do more with less, technology has become a veritable backbone for efficient business operations.

Obviously, all corporate eyes are turning toward tech managers – CIOs for big enterprises and IT managers for smaller companies – expecting them to rise to the occasion and make an optimum use of IT (information technology) resources.

But are they competent enough to deliver? Most are not. Trouble with many CIOs and IT managers is that they’re used to working in a traditional way as if they’re still in the EDP (electronic data processing) environments of the 1990s.

Technology, however, has evolved – and is evolving constantly, almost at the speed of light. But most tech managers are stuck and sleeping. They are not ready to learn. If you want them to wake up and take charge, ensure that they’re equipped with these five skills.

1. Tech Knowledge Today’s technology is not about backend resources only. Now, tech managers are supposed to think beyond just clients, servers, storage, and security. It’s no more just about an EDP room in the corner of the company’s building. Rather, tech managers are supposed to bring IT to the center stage and run the company as a complete digital enterprise.

So, along with the understanding of backend technologies, they need to have skills related to the latest mobile and web technologies. As today’s businesses are supposed to follow the sun and always stay on, the use of mobile networks and web platforms is inevitable.

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Selection of need-based tech systems, their deployment, internal training on those systems, their integration with the business processes, and return-on-investment (RoI) analysis are all part of a tech manager’s job. They must be ready to acquire new tech skills and evolve constantly.

2. Business Communications If they can’t communicate, they’re good for nothing. All tech managers should have complete grip on language (generally English language) and should be able to express the tech objectives in a simplified manner to all the stakeholders in the company. Written and verbal communication skills are equally important.

They should be able to customize their communications for internal workforce connected with the digital systems, buyers who interact with the company through web interfaces, suppliers who expect the company to be responsive, resellers who want constant support, and top management that is always eager to know the RoI made on IT gear.

Plus, tech managers should know how to use emails efficiently even when they’re traveling.

They can’t afford to sit on emails that are supposed to be replied. Those who can’t respond on time, give a bad name to their organizations. Email writing should be part of their training.

3. Marketing Acumen Tech department is not just a cost center; rather it’s supposed to work like a profit center – fully integrated with the marketing activities of the company. It’s tech manager’s responsibility to help marketing heads devise the right marketing messages for the company keeping in view the company’s tech strengths to serve the customers and others.

In today’s information-driven world, marketing communications can make or break an organization. Companies can decide to dump all those executives who can’t communicate in a clear and flawless manner.

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Moreover, when the business world is enamored with the hype around social networks, tech managers should be able to use web and social media analytic tools to empirically evaluate the impact of social media marketing for their brands. They must also participate actively in all digital marketing efforts of the company.

4. Independent Thinking Tech managers must be wise enough to buy IT systems that are actually needed for handling critical business applications. They should not blindly follow tech vendors’ advice and splurge company’s money on everything that vendors try to push.

To meet their own sales targets, mostly tech marketers try to sell terminology instead of selling technology. That means, old technology is sold with new names. It’s a tech manager’s responsibility to first figure out the real need of the organization and then take decision about fresh investments on IT. For example, if the applications are running smoothly on an existing operating system, they should not buy a new one simply because their favorite company has launched a new operating system. Similarly, there is no need to replace the desktops with new laptops if the company’s applications don’t need mobility for the workers.

Tech managers should think to save money for their own organization instead of contributing toward the revenues of the tech vendors.

5. Future Planning The business world of the 1990s has moved from static web of the 1990s to the present-day collaborative web. And the transition is imminent, as companies are ready to embrace the next-generation semantic web or the thinking web.

Tech managers must be competent enough to make an enterprise-wide strategy along with cost-benefit and RoI analyses to take the organization to the future tech era. Semantic web and

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online virtual worlds are some of the future areas that tech managers can decide to embrace for their organizations.

Similarly, as most companies have already burnt their fingers in the overhyped social networks without gaining anything out of them for their businesses, tech managers should stop spending any resources – time or money – on them.

After evaluation, they can go from public to private social networks to provide effective communication platforms to all stakeholders.

Tech managers’ job doesn’t end at mere deployment of tech boxes. They’re now supposed to create a tech culture in their organizations – a culture geared to meet the core business objectives and ensure organizational growth on all possible fronts.

If they can’t learn and move forward, it’s time for them to move out. And that’s the whole point.

Sprout Social Raises $40.5 Million in New Funding Social marketing and social data have become mission-critical to virtually all aspects of business.

Sprout Social, a leading provider of social media marketing, analytics, and advocacy solutions for business, has announced $40.5 million in new funding from Goldman Sachs, New Enterprise Associates and led by Future Fund.

This latest round of investment brings its total capital raised to $103.5 million. New funds will be used to accelerate the company's plans for deepened platform capabilities and increased international expansion.

"Social marketing and social data have become mission-critical to virtually all aspects of business. In many ways, social is still in its infancy, and we're fortunate to help so many great customers navigate this evolving set of challenges," said Justyn Howard, CEO of Sprout.

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Headquartered in Chicago, Sprout Social offers deep social media listening and analytics, social management, customer care, and advocacy solutions to leading brands and agencies.

Digital Marketing Services Business is Marketing… Marketing is Content​. In today’s information-driven world, it’s not possible to manage any business without the right content, delivered to the right people, at the right time, using the right communication channels.

With this belief, Raman Media Network (RMN) Company - the publisher of ​TechWise Today - offers to provide its Digital Marketing Services to SMBs. These services are packaged under our iManager brand, which is a combination of content creation and communications using digital media channels.

With specialization in digital media, RMN Company has provided its digital marketing programs to hundreds of companies in India – in association with the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) and the Federation of Indian Export Organisations (FIEO).

While our current rates are $75 USD per person-hour, you can contact us to hire our digital marketing services under a retainer arrangement if you have a minimum annual budget of $60,000 USD (or equivalent amount in other currencies) for these services.

Business and trade associations in all parts of the world can also contact us for digital marketing training programs for groups of their members. The price for training programs is $1,500 USD per day. [ A ​ ll prices are excluding taxes and other actual costs.​ ] Contact Rakesh Raman Raman Media Network (RMN) Company 463, DPS Apts., Plot No. 16, Sector 4, Dwarka, Phase I, New Delhi 110 078, INDIA Contact by email

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Startup India Portal Offers Ready-to-Use Templates These templates will particularly help those companies which find it difficult to write their official documents in English language and then standardize them.

In order to help the startups create professional documents, the Startup India portal offers over 30 templates that can be customized according to the specific needs of the user companies.

Photo: Startup India The templates cover areas such as Human Resource Management, Legal, and certain contracts.

These templates will particularly help those companies which find it difficult to write their official documents in English language and then standardize them.

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Do Not Spend Even a Single Penny on SEO Once your corporate and product site has sufficiently useful content, you can do SEO without the help of an external agency.

By Rakesh Raman A search engine is a web illusion that searches everything for you except what you want to search. In other words, even after years of its introduction, search technology is still so crude that you can’t rely on it.

You can see that most results that you get for your search query are totally irrelevant and they uselessly flow on reams of web pages – making search engine a veritable smorgasbord of confusing information snippets.

Then how do you expect Search Engine Optimization (SEO) to work properly? In fact, SEO is supposed to make your web pages search-engine friendly so that they get higher visibility free of charge in search results.

But the way ad agencies and SEO agencies sell their services based on usual tricks and false commitments amounts to hoodwinking the buyers. And many customer companies have burnt their fingers, as they did not get any meaningful results after hiring SEO services. Probably, your company is one of them.

If there is something called SEO, it’s just a factor of content. If the content or information on your website or web pages is not original and fresh, no amount of SEO tricks can help you bring your pages at top in search engines like Google, Yahoo, or Bing.

Today, there are an estimated one trillion web pages that reside on nearly one billion websites.

When you enter your search words on a search engine – say, Google that is the most widely used search facility – it culls out results that match your search words from this ocean-like web.

And it displays those results on multiple pages.

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Normally, Google displays just 10 search results per page. If you are not able to find what you wanted to search on the first page, you have to click the next page, and so on. A user usually starts huffing at the second page, is fed up at the third page, and is not willing to go to fourth while there may be hundreds of pages that Google would display for a single query.

Even on the first two pages of search results, research shows that web readers follow a ​Golden Triangle rule. That means, they will read the full line of the result that appears at the top and then fewer words in the second result, and so on.

At the last result of the page, they would hardly read even the first word at the line. So, from the first to the 10th result on the search page, it forms a triangle – left to right, top to bottom. If your web page reference does not appear in this triangle, your SEO thing has gone futile.

Then how do you expect your web page to appear in the first one or two pages of search results? And what are SEO agencies doing? Why do they charge you for SEO services?

There are two types of search queries: head queries and long-tail queries. Head queries are the generic keywords that people use like “film makers” in an area. And long-tail queries are specific terms like the exact name of your company or a particular product.

Most SEO agencies cheat you by showing the tail query results when they give the exact search string that exists exclusively in your site. For example, “​yourname CEO of your company name​.”

With this kind of query, your company name is likely to appear somewhere at the top in search results.

But that doesn’t meet your requirement of doing SEO. Most web users try it with head keywords.

For example, if you are a furniture manufacturer, buyers who want to buy furniture will enter “furniture manufacturers” along with the area where they live.

There will be thousands of web pages of furniture manufacturers that the search engine will extract. But it displays only 10 results per page. Then how will your page appear in the first one or two pages? It won’t unless your site is full of meaningful content and many of its pages are indexed in the search engine.

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Truth is that almost all smaller companies have static websites with just a few pages. New content is rarely added on these sites. In fact, these are the companies that SEO agencies target and fleece. For want of knowledge, they easily fall prey to the tricks of cheating SEO service providers.

As companies need to protect themselves from these frauds and save their money being spent on SEO, they should avoid paying to any SEO agency. The first step for such companies is to build content-heavy company sites with useful information for their target users like buyers.

Content work is difficult, expensive, and very expensive. It can take a few months to a few years depending on your budgets to create the right content for a corporate website. Most ad agencies and SEO agencies are not trained enough to handle content work. While there are specialized content service providers, they are not easily available.

Once your corporate and product site has sufficiently useful content, you can do SEO without the help of an external agency. These days, free SEO plug-ins are available for all popular content management systems like WordPress. You can easily download and configure these small software tools for your site and start using them. It’s easy.

When you add a new post or article in your site, the SEO plug-in allows you to enter focus keywords for which you want that particular page to be found by others. It even suggests you options that you can use as keywords.

The same plug-in prompts you to add the SEO title that can be different from the headline of your page. So you can have a catchy headline along with a SEO title that carries all your important keywords about that page. It can even generate the title for you. The plug-in also tells you that your title should not exceed 70 characters because search engines usually look at the first 70 characters.

Moreover, the SEO plug-in asks you to add the meta description for that page. Although meta description won’t directly help you push your page up on a search engine, it can encourage

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users to click on the hyperlinked search result if the description that you write is attractive enough.

The use of SEO plug-ins is very simple for site administrators or the people who update information on your site. Then why should you pay to external agencies for SEO services? Never hire these services.

If you want to pay, you must pay to content developers because any SEO activity including the SEO plug-ins will work only if your site content is in order. Content and only content can help you attract buyers and other business partners to your site. Only content can help you expand your business through the web channels.

Without having attractive and plentiful content on your site, even God won’t help you leverage search engines for your marketing needs. Remember, God helps those who believe in the magnetic power of content.

ITU Invites Experts to Apply Blockchain in UN Operations The UN specialized agency for information and communication technologies, ITU, suggests that use cases of blockchain and distributed ledger technology (DLT) are emerging in sectors such as telecom, finance, supply chain, and government.

Leading organizations across the UN system are exploring how applications of blockchain technology could increase the efficiency and transparency of UN operations.

Now ITU is soliciting input on promising DLT-based use cases, the benefits realized by DLT in these specific use cases, and their associated standardization needs.

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All interested parties can submit their input to the ITU Focus Group on DLT applications.

Use cases will be evaluated using the following criteria:

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Completeness of the information provided

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Value added by DLT to the use case submitted

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Description of standardization requirements specific to the use cases

Submissions will assist ITU in highlighting the value of blockchain applications to the pursuit of the UN Sustainable Development Goals. Use cases received before 4 January 2019 will be considered by the group’s next face-to-face meeting in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, 14-17 January 2019, hosted by the Brazilian Development Bank (BNDES).

The meeting will include a workshop on 14 January emphasizing the ability of DLT to support transparency and integrity.

The Focus Group is expected to complete its work by September 2019. One of the group’s priorities is to deliver an ‘assessment framework’ to support efforts to understand the strengths and weaknesses of DLT platforms in different use cases. The group is also developing a high-level DLT architecture – a reference framework – detailing the key elements of a DLT platform.

The Focus Group’s findings are expected to inform ITU technical standardization activities on DLT and blockchain technology. P ​ hoto: ITU

India Releases National Report on the States’ Startup Ranking 2018 A total of 27 States and 3 Union Territories participated in the exercise to compile States’ Startup Ranking 2018.

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The Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP) in India has conducted the first ever States’ Startup Ranking exercise with the objective to encourage States and Union Territories to take proactive steps towards strengthening the startup ecosystem.

The methodology has been aimed at creating a healthy competition among States to help them learn, share, and adopt good practices. According to DIPP, awareness workshops, knowledge workshops, mentoring, international visits, and video conferencing have helped many States initiate effective measures to support Indian startups.

States’ Startup Ranking 2018. Photo: DIPP DIPP says it consulted all stakeholders of the Startup ecosystem and came up with 7 key reform areas as the basis of the States’ Startup Ranking Framework. An online portal was launched, which was instrumental in enabling States seamlessly submit their initiatives across these reform areas.

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A total of 27 States and 3 Union Territories participated in the exercise to compile States’ Startup Ranking 2018. Evaluation Committee comprising independent experts from the Startup ecosystem assessed the responses across various parameters.

Many parameters involved getting feedback from beneficiaries. DIPP claims that more than 40,000 calls were made in 9 different languages to get feedback from beneficiaries. Results of the Ranking exercise were announced on 20th December 2018 at a special event organized at Pravasi Bhartiya Kendra in New Delhi.

States have been identified as leaders across various categories such as Startup Policy Leaders, Incubation Hubs, Seeding Innovation, Scaling Innovation, Regulatory Change Champions, Procurement Leaders, Communication Champions, North-Eastern Leader, and Hill State Leader.

A comprehensive National Report on the States’ Startup Ranking 2018 was also launched at the event, detailing the journey of Startup India, role of Central and State Governments, conceptualization

of

the

ranking framework, evaluation

methodology, capacity development of States, assessment process, feedback from stakeholders, and the results of the exercise along with its impact on the States and the future road map.

Meet the Editor The editor of ​TechWise Today magazine ​Rakesh Raman is a national award-winning journalist and social activist. Besides working at senior editorial positions with leading media companies, he was writing an exclusive edit-page tech business column regularly for The Financial Express (a daily business newspaper of The Indian Express Group).

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Nowadays, for the past about 8 years, he has been running his own global news services on different subjects. He also has formed a free Education and Career Counselling Center for deserving children at a poor J.J. Colony in Dwarka, New Delhi under his NGO – RMN Foundation.

He runs an exclusive community-driven anti-corruption social service “​Clean House​” to help the suffering residents of Delhi raise their voice against the growing corruption and injustice. He also creates and distributes a number of ​digital publications that cover areas such as technology, law, environment, corruption and transparency.

He has created a comprehensive online information service to educate the Indian voters for the upcoming L ​ ok Sabha election​ scheduled to happen in 2019.

Earlier, he had been associated with the United Nations (UN) through United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) as a digital media expert to help businesses use technology for brand marketing and business development.

Contact

Rakesh Raman Raman Media Network (RMN) Company 463, DPS Apts., Plot No. 16, Sector 4, Dwarka, Phase I New Delhi 110 078, INDIA C ​ ontact by email

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