SummIT Ideate September 2013

SEPTEMBER 2013

TRANSFORMING BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT

SUMMIT—THE IT CELL, NMIMS

EDITOR’S NOTE

TEAM SUMMIT

President SRITEJ BODKAY Vice President SRIJANANI CHANDRASEKARAN Creatives & Project Head PAYEL CHAKRABORTY Editorial & Seminar Head RAHUL SANGANI Treasurer & Event Head JITENDRA SACHDEV

IDEATE is the quarterly newsletter from SummIT, the technology cell of NMIMS. The world of technology is constantly evolving and transforming at a rapid pace; SummIT takes this opportunity to assimilate ideas and latest trends in the field of technology and provide you with an assorted collection of articles, facts & significant updates.

In this edition of our newsletter, we bring to you the most ubiquitous and all-pervasive aspect of our lives ‘Apps, and How they are Transforming Business!‘ Applications or apps as they are commonly known, are an integral part of our lives.

Right from the morning e-newspapers, e-weather reports, calorie calculator to location finder, doctor locator and restaurant hunter, these software products have become a part and parcel of our lives.

To garner perspectives and insights on the impact of apps in transforming business trends, we invited articles from leading B-Schools across the country.

We are delighted at the overwhelming response and pleased to present a few of the outstanding articles before you.

We hope the contents of this newsletter would interest and enlighten you. We strive to improve with our every issue and constantly seek your valuable feedback at summit@nmims.org.

Hope you enjoy reading!

-The Editor, SummIT

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WHAT IS IN STORE...

NEW WAYS OF DOING BUSINESS -Sourabh Inani (Winning Article)

ENTERPRISE MOBILITY: THE WAY FORWARD - Praveen Hegde & Manjul Mayank Misra (Runners Up Article)

TECH UPDATES NEWS HIGHLIGHTS CROSSWORD

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SPOTLIGHT

NEW WAYS OF DOING BUSINESS - Sourabh Inani, PGP student of Management Development Institute, Gurgaon Today a smart device user has an average of 41 mobile apps with 36 being games. Businesses are vying with each other to increase their share of apps on the user’s device.

According to a report by Small Business and Entrepreneur Council productivity and utility mobile apps helped 1.28 million US business owners save 372.8 million owner hours in 2010.

What is an app?

App is short form for application. An app can be defined as small piece of software.

It can run on your mobile phone, on your computer, or in clouds.3

how this has revolutionized the music world. Similarly apps are out revolutionizing the business world.

The basic difference between today’s apps and yesterday’s software is of size. While the softwares of yesterday were big suites having huge installation and training costs, an app is a small, specialized program.

This is akin to iTunes selling single songs instead of the whole album. We all know

Traditionally big business houses have been considered to have an edge over small businesses one of the reasons being to their capacity to purchase big expensive software translating into increased efficiency which the small businesses couldn’t. The advent of cloud computing,

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How do apps help business?

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ABOUT AUTHOR cloud storage and increasing internet speeds has opened opportunities for small businesses to compete in a big way. Today small businesses can access sophisticated services such as customer relationship management, Supplier relationship management through subscription based fee services without needing to worry about the huge capital expenses involved in purchasing and setting up such services thus levelling the playing field in terms of access to technology.

It would seem that mobile apps are for small businesses only but they can benefit all businesses in enhancing productivity and understanding their customers better. Tasks can benefit from portability provided by mobile apps.

For example Sales representatives are often required to carry price books, continuously update them to make a sales pitch but with an app on their tablet the task can be automated with representatives quoting most updated product information and rates. Interactions of consumers with their devices can reveal hidden trends and patterns helping to understand their needs better.

Sourabh Inani is a second year PGP student of Management Development Institute, Gurgaon

DID YOU KNOW? Mobile app store revenue will reach $26

billion

in 2013,

up from $18 billion in 2012 Downloads from

mobile

stores

102 billion

will reach

in 2013, up from 64

app

billion

in

2012

Here in we present nine different ways apps are revolutionizing business.

1. Marketing Apps Companies such as Infusionsoft and OfficeAutoPilot provides software to ensure marketing does not fall short of paying attention to customer requirements even for small businesses at the cost of few hundred dollars per month – the CRM software for which cost thousands of

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SPOTLIGHT dollars in purchase alone.

These softwares automate tasks and allow small companies to track the effectiveness of their online marketing campaigns and tailor them as per needs of customers.

2. Billing Apps Not so long ago only established businesses displayed with pride “All Credit Cards accepted” With the coming of Point of Sales applications such as Square register, Flint mobile, GoPayment, etc. even small businesses can boast the same paying on per transaction basis and focus their efforts in delighting customers.

can help to win clients. Toutapp helps to monitor sales emails.

3. Personalized Targeting Apps

5. Connecting start-ups and investors

Companies such as Poshly Inc. and Sociocast are involved in creating personalized experiences for customers. Sociocast is developing APIs which allow websites to display products that customers would like based on their previous interactions with the firm’s website thus personally targeting customer.

Dashboard is a company focused on becoming the hub for startups to secure mentorship and funding through its expanding network.

4. Tracking customer actions and responses What can ensure that your on-line client understands your sales pitch and rewards you with the contract? How to know what part of your presentation catches the attention of your client?

In this age of online marketing knowing the effectiveness of online communication 3

6. Collaboration Apps Basecamp is used by companies such as National Geographic Channel, Warner Brothers, Kellogg’s and Adidas. It allows people in different places to collaborate on a project through a web browser. No installation. No IT department expense.

No training required.

7. Apps for customers Businesses give away coupons to boost sales. They are inexpensive to distribute but usually have a low response rate.

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DID YOU KNOW? The response rate is further lowered by consumers forgetting to use the coupon due to ‘information overload’. Apps such as Poachit ensure that consumers don’t forget using the coupon before expiry and firms don’t lose the business.

8. Apps to help reduce inventory Maintaining inventory is one of the biggest headaches for current businesses. The faster the product sells the lesser are the inventory costs. Apps such as “Rue La La” make flash-sale (a sale of products for short period at reduced prices) easier by notifying members of upcoming and on-going sales. Who would like to miss out on a cheap deal?

The first electronic smiley appeared in 1979 when Kevin McKenzie tried expressing his emotion by electronic means. The very first electronic look like -) then 3 years later Scott Fahlman added colon “:-)” and it took

form

- as we use now.

9. Analytic Apps Businesses can use Google analytics to identify trends from the user data collected through mobile apps. For example Amari Hotels was able to increase its website sales by 44% using Google analytics to know which channels the customer interacted with before making the purchase.

References: Small Business & Entrepreneurship Council. Web. The Next Web - International technology news, business & culture -.

Hong Kong

is the world’s fastest

internet place. It has blazing fast internet, an average peak speed of 63.6 megabits per seconds. At this speed you can download HD movie in about 4 minutes.

‘Leetspeak’

is a writing style used

mostly online, where user replaces regular letters with other keyboard characters to form words phonetically or visually. Eg. p@s5w0rd

Business Insider. Apps That Will Change The Way You Shop - Business Insider

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IN FOCUS

ENTERPRISE MOBILITY: THE WAY FORWARD - Praveen Hegde & Manjul Mayank Misra IMT Ghaziabad( Batch 2012-14) Well into a Sunday night thinking of another gruelling week ahead with forty plus hours of work and the associated coordination and access of information is a concern long gone. This has become possible due to a rapid mobilization of enterprise software which is transforming the traditional ways in which business is conducted. Coined as Enterprise Mobility by the industry, it primarily entails capturing information and instantaneously delivering it to or from the point of activity (i.e. client location, remote site etc.). This is made possible through extensive use of 5

smartphone/tablet based applications which help in making employees use enterprise software through hand-held devices.

Enterprise Mobility is becoming essential for the enterprises interested in providing services beyond their firewall at the point of activity. For the employees who travel continuously or those working from a remote location, provision of enterprise software at the point of activity reduces costs, increases productivity and revenue thus giving the firm a competitive advantage.

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ABOUT AUTHORS Here are some of the ways different industry sectors have put enterprise mobility to use: 

Healthcare – In this sector safety, accuracy and speed are of extreme importance. Enterprise mobility is extensively being used to provide doctors with accurate information with no time wasted in coordination which reduces liability and saves lives.

With the help of this, hospitals can connect patients to nurses and doctors anytime which lead to better monitoring of patients.



Telecom – Tellabs, a telecom firm, has built a warehouse shipping application that connects to its SAPbased data. It claims that this application has increased its access efficiency by more than 50%.



Automotive Sector - Mercedes-Benz is using iPads in the showroom to present various financing options to customers.



Insurance Agents – Use these apps for faster claim processing e.g., at the accident site by checking for claim related details.



Sales Mobility – Salesforce people work outside the boundaries of the enterprise and they use the enterprise mobility applications to access critical business information or to provide the same to the customers at their site. The additional productivity got through timely information directly impacts the bottom line.

Enterprise mobility brings with it the convenience of size from a hand-held device as well as the savings from cost. Companies that use enterprise mobility also frequently see a significant return on investment from having the information they need, when they need it, which can at many times provide the

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Praveen Hegde

is a former software engineer with work experience in Infosys and Fidelity Investments, currently in the second year of a full-time MBA (finance) program in IMTGhaziabad (Batch of 2014). He is interested in music, literature and travelling, and occasionally dabbles in the stock market.

Manjul Mishra

worked as a senior software engineer in Infosys before he quit to pursue an MBA in finance from IMT-Ghaziabad (Batch of 2014). He likes data analytics, reading and travelling.

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IN FOCUS competitive edge for sales and marketing teams. It can also help to integrate devices with cloud-hosted services such as Exchange Online, which provides users with the ability to respond to changed schedules and new e-mails on the go. When decision makers are able to communicate approvals to employees, regardless of location, tasks can get done quickly and efficiently.

up by the firms. IT executives are already predicting a post-PC era where tablets and mobile devices will completely replace PCs as PCs transformed business in the 80s. Gartner has predicted that BYOD will become the top technology trend for 2013.

Now that many firms have already incorporated Mobile Device Management the

With so many advantages on the line, companies are making a beeline to bring in Enterprise Mobility. With mobilization growing at such a fast pace, we look at how the future trends are getting shaped in this technology and how companies are set to harness this to bring about a paradigm shift in productivity.

As more and more employees have started using tablets and Smartphones, it was only natural for their usage to spill over to office space. Employers are now providing flexibility in letting their employees choose their own devices to work thus resulting in a decentralized office resource system. This trend has been dubbed BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) and is fast gaining acceptance. According to a new CCMI survey, 10% of the survey takers responded that their work places have a complete BYOD policy in place. It’s only a matter of time for widespread acceptance once data security measures and Mobile Device Management policies are properly taken 7

trend will have to shift from here because of the sheer diversity of the devices involved. Thus, focus might shift from Device Management to Mobile Application Management because the device platforms don’t matter anymore and applications being developed are functional across different platforms.

However, not everyone is gunning for Enterprise Mobility. This is chiefly because of security concerns. Although, the data in local devices is encrypted in app containers, these devices (as part of BYOD drive) are not owned by the corporate. Loss/ theft of these devices is a huge risk to the

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DID YOU KNOW? data. This has spurred a demand for virtualization and cloud solutions. As these enterprise applications are fully integrated with cloud based drive, data is more secure than local device storages. This also maintains the line between corporate data and personal data. To address this issue of security, increased dependence on cloudbased solutions is expected. There are firms which offer Security-as-a-Service Cloud solutions which further ensure that data in mobile devices are secure.

One of the major trends is the increasing popularity of HTML5 amongst mobile app developers. Since there are a variety of mobile platforms, applications have to be platform agnostic. HTML5 addresses this issue directly as HTML5 apps can be accessed through browsers and hence there need not be separate versions for each mobile operating system.HTML5 is also simple and cost effective with many professionals already familiar with HTML. Apart from major IT consulting companies which provide mobilization technologies, there are numerous start-ups in enterprise mobility solutions space with some of them offering specialized solutions for industries such as retail, healthcare, etc.

These trends indicate that the direction of growth of Enterprise Mobility is unequivocally up and companies which don’t adopt these measures might see themselves los-

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United States is the largest country on Facebook while India stands 3rd.

ing their competitive edge in this era of pervasive mobility.

References: InformationWeek | Business Technology News, Reviews and Blogs. 7 Enterprise Mobility Predictions For 2013 - Mobility Smartphones Technology Research | Gartner Inc. Enterprise Mobility and Its Impact on IT SAP - The Best-Run Businesses Run SAP. 2013 IT Market Trends and Predictions on Enterprise Mobility.

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TECH UPDATES WHEN INNOVATION TOOK OVER! The gadget that has created anticipation and the promise to be the ‘The Next Big Thing in Technology’!

Samsung, in its quest of being at the top in technological innovation is also now focusing on the potential star -‘smart watches’ along with their cash cow - ‘smart phones’.

Samsung Galaxy Gear is a smart watch which bridles music playback, provides a sophisticated Android interface and picks up notifications. These seem great but the sugar coating is provided by the integration of a 1.9 megapixel camera, two microphones and a speaker which allows you to capture 720p movies and manage phone calls.

The man behind the gadget: The man, who broke the path and affirmed that even watches can be smart, is none other than the Indian origin Pranav Mistry.

He has his roots in a small town of Gujarat called Palanpur and has moved a long way to become the head of the think tank team and Director of Research , Samsung America. The galaxy gear is the implementation 9

of Pranav’s ‘sixth sense technology’ concept. In an address to a packed venue in Berlin, he said “We have uniquely positioned the speakers and microphone so that you can talk as you would talk to the hand. It is such a natural gesture, just raise your hand to your ear and talk”. The goal, according to him, was to roll out a device which is simple yet equipped with cutting edge technology which looks like something out of the sci-fi.

Galaxy gear: The paradigm shift device : With the kind of potential that seems budding; Galaxy Gear has become the royal messenger of an impeccable world driven by technology. Nothing seems impossible from here. The Galaxy Gear is a fine piece of engineering which has a touch screen, email, texting, apps and Bluetooth. It can very well become a fashion statement in the near future given the kind of enthusiasm it has created amongst the youth. But having said that, a smart watch like gear would incorporate science deeper into our everyday life and create a ‘wearable technology’! The multitude of additional technologies scraps the idea that watch is just an accessory or a time-telling device. With the increasing competition from Apple’s announcement of ‘iWatch’, we can expect the galaxy gear to come up with newer apps and become a paradigm shift device in the near future.

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NEWS HIGHLIGHTS Twitter to go public After so much of anticipation, Twitter is going public. The company confirmed the news via Twitter and within minutes, the news was re-tweeted by thousands of people. This shows the company’s growing role as a global source of breaking news and instant analysis. Twitter is valued at $US 10 billion in early 2013, it might be of little more worth when it goes public. Probably it’s not the highest valuation this year, but the offering is expected to be the tech world’s largest since Facebook.

Canada's Fairfax offers to acquire BlackBerry in $4.7 billion deal A consortium led by Canada's Fairfax Financial Holdings has offered to acquire struggling smartphone maker BlackBerry, valuing the company at $4.7 billion. Fairfax already owns about 10% of BlackBerry stock.

BlackBerry was once the leader of the smartphone sector. But the company failed to evolve its handset range in the face of new Apple iPhones and Android smartphones moving customers towards full touchscreen phones. The recent Blackberry 10 OS was too late to be effective.

Blackberry’s future as a smartphone maker seems uncertain today, with the company

IDEATE SEPTEMBER 2013

writing off unsold inventory worth $934 million of its Z10 model. Its future might lie in enterprise business in mobile device management and messaging services.

Microsoft chief Steve Ballmer to retire within an year In August Steve Ballmer announced that he would be retiring as Microsoft CEO within 12 months after selecting a successor. Microsoft has formed a special committee, including founder Bill Gates, to find a replacement. Microsoft shares jumped 7.3% after the announcement, demonstrating the market sentiment about the exit. It follows years of criticism about the waning growth and decreasing market share, in face of competition from newer players like Google. PC sales, that have driven Microsoft sales in the past are being eaten into as consumers switch to iPads and smartphones which offer more mobility and may work with free open source software. The new chief is going to have his hands full revitalising the company.

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CROSSWORD 1 2

3

4 5

6 7

8

9

10

13

11

12

14 15 16

17 18

19

20 21 22 23 24

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CROSSWORD Across

Down

2. An American company that provides infrastructure software for companies to use onpremises or as part of cloud computing environments

1. The program a personal computer uses to get the computer system started after you turn it on

5. The video conferencing tool from Microsoft 6. This movie also shares its name with a type of keypad for cell phones

4. A type of Internet web site that’s a closed community protected by a password and/or firewalls

7. Matthew Charles Mullenweg started this site

7. A very famous social media analytics tool

9. The nobel prize of computing

8. Terminology used to prove the technical feasibility of a proposed system

10. A security measure for checking a user’s identity

3. Term used for program used to scan and discover websites

16. Vital Information Research Under Seige

11. Data or text altered so that it cannot be understood by unauthorised persons

18. The new search tool from Facebook _______ search

12. The social network which helps you create social network

20. Little pictures (usually faces) made out of typed characters and viewed sideways-on

13. The company that founded the famous online movie ticket booking portal in India

21. An easy way to earn money from your online content

14. Cryptocurrency used to transfer money

23. Vital software for viewing Internet sites

17. The premier trade body and the chamber of commerce of the IT-BPO industries in India

24. The file hosting service from Microsoft

15. The symbols used in an assembly language

19. A statistical tool, used in project management, designed to analyse and represent the tasks involved in completing a given project.

22. This methodology aims for customer satisfaction through early and continuous delivery of components developed by an iterative process

Answers to the above crossword will be published soon on SummIT facebook page! facebook.com/SummIT.nmims

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WHAT WE DID...

Pylon of Isis It is the most challenging online treasure hunt contest conducted by SummIT for the fresh batch. This year too, the event witnessed huge participation from the students with approximately 140 teams registering for the event in teams of 2. The quest for answers continued almost for 4 hours of brain storming. Eventually, Team ManjRockers emerged as the winners in the battle of wits. All teams showed great enthusiasm making the event highly successful.

CEO Connect CEO Connect, a panel discussion among eminent business leaders was conducted by SummIT, the IT cell of NMIMS in collaboration with Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) on August 2nd, 2013. The students at NMIMS got this rare opportunity to interact with stalwarts of the business world and understand their perspectives on “What CEO’s Expect From MBA’s”.

The guests of honour included much acclaimed names from the industry - Mr. Ninad Kapre, CEO & MD of Aptech Ltd, Mr. Arun Nanda, Director of Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd, Mr. R Mukundan, MD of Tata Chemicals and Mr. Anuj Puri, Chairman and Country Head at Jones Lang LaSalle. More than 200 students from both 1st & 2nd year attended the event and were enlightened by the discussion.

Also, it was history in the making, as Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) chose NMIMS to debut its CEO Connect initiative, a drive to connect with the student community.

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THE INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY CELL School of Business Management, NMIMS V. L. Mehta Road, Vile Parle (West), Mumbai – 400056

NEWSLETTER SEPETEMBER 2013

EDITORIAL TEAM

CREATIVES TEAM

Rahul Sangani Abhinay Reddy Panati Abhiram TKVR Dipanjal Deb Tanmay Gambhir Tarun Gupta Vibhu Vatsala Sood

Payel Chakraborty Arjun Krishnan Meghna Gupta

Contact Us: Email: summit@nmims.org www.facebook.com/SummIT.nmims https://twitter.com/SummIT_Nmims