Resource Management – Getting Right Talent at Right Place!

Every organization has a unique requirement of skills and talent which suit their business processes, plan and culture. And with the growing trend of outsourcing, work has become project based, talent is now geographically dispersed; resources work from different locations and time zones. Managing these resources can be a pain as well as critical at the same time as it has a huge impact on schedules, budgets, resource levelling (keeping resources at hand level – not more, not less) and smoothing (ensuring project meets deadlines by increasing or decreasing resources).

If done correctly, resource management can generate most profitable projects. It helps you track, monitor and analyze any project at any time. Conflicts in resource management may hinder progress of projects, delay the projects, and increase in cost. This can be avoided by using a resource management tool.

Many organizations have started using automated tools to help manage their workforce. These tools help you forecast effort for a particular project, allocate right skills/talent to a project according to the project needs, maximize resource allocation/utilization give real time cost overview of the project and reduce the operational planning costs.

Features of a Resource Management Tool –

Forecasting

• Calculate project resource costs based on resource rating models
• Fix budget for a particular project
• Identify generic resource needs by project and to support steady-state business
• Plan effort against projects (existing/pipeline) for multiple periods based on strategic roadmaps
• Monitor/schedule planned work
• Assign people to projects for a hard book, with constraints on budget and time span.
• Perform scenario analysis and simulations on resource requirements according to different investment scenarios and different levels of available resources

Resource requesting

• Identify skills, FTEs required for the project
• Place resource request with a vendor against a project and skill required
• Vendor checks for the availability of resource and fulfill the request
• Capture the effort spent and analyze actual compared to forecasted effort through data provided by our time tracking capability

About Author:

Nisha Tolani is consultant and part of Systems Plus Pvt. Ltd. She is a part of consulting team that delivers Sourcing and Vendor Management Office projects. She can be contacted at: nisha.t@spluspl.com

Augmented reality - Simulating real world using Smartphones

When we used a Nokia 1100 handset 10 years ago, no one even thought that there could be a touch-screen mobile providing nearly all the features a laptop or desktop can.  Can you even imagine how mobile phones are going to be 5 years from now? Probably, they will be using augmented reality, equipped with the sense of feel and smell. You never know! Imagination and Innovation have no bounds.

Researchers and engineers are pulling graphics out of television screen or computer display and integrating them into real-world environments. This new technology, called augmented reality, blurs the line between what's real and what's computer-generated by enhancing what we see, hear, feel and smell.

Augmented Reality is a type of virtual reality that aims to simulate the world's environment in a computer. An augmented reality system generates a composite view for the user that is the combination of the real scene viewed by the user and a virtual scene generated by the computer that augments the scene with additional information. The virtual scene generated by the computer is designed to enhance the user's sensory perception of the virtual world they are seeing or interacting with. The goal of Augmented Reality is to create a system in which the user cannot tell the difference between the real world and the virtual augmentation of it.

On the spectrum between virtual reality, which creates immersive, computer-generated environments, and the real world, augmented reality is closer to the real world. Augmented reality adds graphics, sounds, feedback and smell to the natural world as it exists.

Primitive versions of augmented reality already exist on some cell phones, particularly in applications for smart phones. In the Netherlands, cell phone owners can download an application called Layar that uses the phone's camera and GPS capabilities to gather information about the surrounding area. Layar then shows information about restaurants or other sites in the area, overlaying this information on the phone's screen. You can even point the phone at a building, and Layar will tell you if any companies in that building are hiring, or it might be able to find photos of the building on Flickr or to locate its history on Wikipedia.

Augmented reality still has some challenges to overcome. For example, GPS is only accurate to within 30 feet (9 meters) and doesn't work as well indoors, although improved image recognition technology may be able to help.

Despite these challenges, imagine the possibilities: you may learn things about the city you've lived in for years just by pointing your AR-enabled phone at a nearby park or building. If you work in construction, you can save on materials by using virtual markers to designate where a beam should go or which structural support to inspect. Paleontologists working in shifts to assemble a dinosaur skeleton could leave virtual "notes" to team members on the bones themselves, artists could produce virtual graffiti and doctors could overlay a digital image of a patient's X-rays onto a mannequin for added realism.

Augmented Reality can be used in entertainment, military training, engineering design, robotics, manufacturing and other industries. Researchers are working towards improving and enhancing the technology. The future of augmented reality is certainly bright.

About Author:

Shweta Samudra is a consultant in Systems Plus Pvt. Ltd. Within Systems Plus, she actively contributes to the areas of Technology and Information Security. She can be contacted at: shweta.samudra@spluspl.com

Top 3 Online Support Apps

Application Support is one of the crucial segments of any application which plays a major role in customer satisfaction and overall application quality. Reports show that an application with efficient and reliable support sells more as compared to applications that lack good support even though they offer more functionality. With various online support applications available, it is difficult to choose which one fits our needs the best. Below is a list of few well known support applications along with the features that each of them offer.

Features	Zendesk	Kayako	Freshdesk
Customer Communication: 1)     Emails 2)     Phone 3)     Website 4)     Chat 5)     Facebook 6)     Twitter
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Categories and custom field tagging	ü	ü	ü
Organized view (All tickets from one person in one place)	ü	ü	û
Functionality to automate activities like route tasks, complete tasks, etc	ü	ü	ü
Search option	ü		ü
Community for customers to assist each other	ü	ü	ü
Portable on devices: 1)     Android 2)     iPad 3)     Blackberry 4)     Windows
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Collaborate with external partners/third party	ü	û	û
Custom reports	ü	ü	ü
Analytics	ü	ü	ü
Record Customer Feedback / Survey / Rating	ü	ü	ü
Macros to answer commonly asked questions	ü	ü	û
Live chat	û	ü	û
Knowledge base for self-service (find instant answers)	ü	ü	ü
Step-by-step troubleshooters for self-diagnosis	û	ü	û
Update customers by posting summary of new features on the homepage	û	ü	û
Tie tickets to organizations	û	ü	û
Internal quality checks and peer reviews	ü	ü	ü
Easy product customizations	û	ü	ü
Organized team inbox	û	ü	ü
Time-tracking for each ticket	û	ü	ü
Agent Collision Detection	ü	ü	ü
Multiple SLA Policies and Escalations	û	ü	ü
Complete Portal Customization	û	ü	ü
Games for refreshment	û	û	ü
Customers	L’Oreal, Adobe, Lonely Planet, Sony Music, Vodafone, Disney	NASA, MTV, Pearson, Toshiba	Stanford, truecaller, goodreads, MakeMyTrip, naukri.com
Price	Free trial for 30 days. Paid plans available ranging from $1/agent/month to $195/agent/month	Free trial for 30 days. Paid plans available at $29/month and $49/month	Available for free, for 3 agents $15/month. Paid plans available ranging from $16/agent/month to $40/agent/month

Review:

1. Zendesk
   Zendesk offers a colorful and easy-to-use interface. Though it has many useful features, it lacks some of the important aspects like live chat, time tracking, etc. Product customization is not very effective and SLA’s for ticket types cannot be defined. Cost wise, the range looks pretty good, however if Zendesk has to be utilized throughout the enterprise, it might turn out to be very expensive.
2. Kayako
   Kayako is an efficient service desk offering most of the necessary features. The only thing missing is portability on different devices and linkage to Facebook and Twitter. The live chat feature is a plus point here. Also, there are some additional features like linking tickets to organization, troubleshooting for self help and posting product updates on the dashboard which are not available in the other two tools. However, cost wise this may look expensive for small and mid size companies as the plans start from $29.
3. Freshdesk
   Freshdesk is a decent tool. It lacks features like live chat and macros to answer commonly asked questions. The interface of this service desk looks a bit confusing and may not be very easy to use. This tool is available for free with limited features and there are different paid plans available.

The selection of online support app depends on the requirement of the company and the features they wish to use. Based on our review of the 3 apps, the kind of tool used depends upon the requirement. However, Kayako does offer more features and is reasonably priced.

About Author:

Kintu Racca is a consultant in Systems Plus Pvt. Ltd. Within Systems Plus, she actively contributes to the areas of Technology and Information Security. She can be contacted at kintu.r@spluspl.com

Retail Outlook – 2013

Know your customers to know your business! That’s Easier said than done. But one thing is certain in today’s dynamically changing Retail industry that the traditional monolith business models and segments can no longer be taken for granted. Technology has empowered the customers and opened up the retails industry beyond any time, place or manner in which customer shops. On one hand it brings a huge possibility for the industry for engagement but on the other hand each advance is technology creates new dynamics and challenges in ways never known before.

Technology trending: As the trend shows in 2013, technology has become paramount in driving growth and enhancing customer experience. Key is to adopt a multi channel approach utilizing the traditional as well as online and mobile channels to cater to the ever changing behaviour, spending and demographics of customers. Most executives admit that social media and mobile technologies have accelerated the rate of change and bringing in new ways of doing business and reaching customers. Most retailers are now moving towards seamless integration of their physical and virtual channels for more personalized customer experience.

Brick and Mortar is back in fashion: Once thought to be in danger to become obsolete due to new technology, are now viewed with new found potential. The distinct advantage of face to face personal interaction between customer and the store has brought back brick and mortar in trend. Trick is to leveraging technology to be innovative and provide outstanding customer service and increased personalization, all in an effort to make their stores more exciting, entertaining, and emotionally engaging.

Data Analytics as value add: As the technology is opening new avenues that are breaking all the traditional ways of doing business and throwing new challenges on one hand, but on other hand it is also providing valuable information of customer behavior, that was never available earlier. Data analytics is acting as key facilitator in understanding the new dynamics through traffic patterns, loyalty data, social behavior, and enhanced platform to connect and interact with the customers. Retailers are also leveraging data in brand and product management and making pricing decisions. This is helping executives to drive operational excellence and acquire new customers.

Cloud computing as a silver lining: No trend has had as much impact on the world of information technology over the past decade as Cloud computing. Cloud computing facilitates the implementation of a multi-channel strategy due to a low cost-low risk model. It helps retailers manage multiple channels and locations, integrate their websites with business, support their Point-of-Sale (PoS) systems, provide a unified real-time view of business, perform automated merchandising and marketing, and gain a 360-degree view of each customer. Most of the retail executives have already adopted or plan to adopt the cloud technologies in their business and operational strategies.

Spend to Grow: Challenges due to uncertain markets and slow growth still loom on the industry forcing retailers to invest capital in geographic expansion, information technology and advertising and marketing initiatives.

Regulatory pressures: Most retail executives believe that political/regulatory uncertainty that includes healthcare reform, labour and immigration laws is a growing concern and will hamper the growth in the industry. Apart from that pricing pressures and rising labor costs were seen as the major obstacle in the growth.

Industry growth: Majority of the executives in the industry believe that the industry will experience growth in coming year with a modest gain of more or less than 5%.

Overall the retail industry continues to make slow but positive improvement in 2013. Major challenges have been adverse economic conditions and increasing concern over the burden of regulation and legislation are significant obstacles standing in the way of more robust industry growth. But in spite of challenges, technology has opened new paradigms for the growth and capturing and analyzing data are helping companies drive growth, streamline operations, and engage better with consumers.

About Author:

Harsh Saraogi is consultant and part of Systems Plus Pvt. Ltd. He is a part of consulting team that delivers Sourcing and Vendor Management Office projects. He can be contacted at: harshvardhan.s@spluspl.com