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Fri, 18 Jan 2008 01:20:00 -0800

How to succeed in the Offshore Software Development

A Software Development model that emphasizes on global delivery of quality software build by talented pool of professionals from a development center that is located in a foreign land at a highly economical cost is called Offshore Software Development.
India, China, and Russia are the three leading countries that currently control the offshore programming market.
Today the very promising competition of the offshore software development asks for the best of resources and innovative strategies with brilliant business intelligence. These companies into offshoring try not to leave the smallest of the details which has been overlooked by other businesses to win client interest.

Huge cost savings, time optimization: there are several benefits but these opportunities and advantages in this nascent business are also accompanied by challenges. Though the software vendor has hi-tech professionals with the best of technical skills with delivering quality output, there are few challenges faced which cannot be overlooked. These challenges are communication gaps, non-clarity of the project status, improper estimation in terms of resources and budget therefore and of course cultural hindrances.
Cost cut without compromising on quality is the key objective for this business and to achieve this objective, there has to be a smooth coordination between offshore client and the software vendor. This should start with the best possible approach by both the parties the offshore client and the software vendor.

The most important aspect in the Offshore software Development other than the required technical skills is the smooth communication between the two parties. Seamless communication oils the project speed. The communication in writing, video conferences along with and apart the verbal ones is more constructive. This is accomplished by implementing the work-schedules that intersect the time-frames for both the countries. Generally the offshore vendor works in accordance with the client for the later’s convenience but it is better if you as an offshore vendor also have a local presence for the client. This is like an added privilege, since this strengthens the client’s confidence into the offshore vendor. This helps the client to approach the vendor easily.

Another very important factor is the Resource and Budget forecast for the project. The Technical and Business Analysts should take the following points into consideration:
1. The risks involved in the undertaking the project and its measurement.
2. Whether the rates quoted are in accordance with the requirements of the project.
3. The terms of payment/billing: whether it should be hourly, weekly, per month or on the project completion, etc.
4. Will the quality standards set by the vendor be able to meet in carrying out the project or quality would get compromised for quoting an attractive price.
5. Double-Check for the specifications of the Project sent by client. Check whether there are any milestones in the project which has dependency on the client end. Check whether there would be any re-works or change-requests from client side.

Once the project starts, both the offshore client and the software vendor should coordinate on regular basis on the project flow. The communication has to be transparent between the both.
The offshore vendor must see that the project flow is smooth and the status is well communicated to the offshore client time to time.

This gives client a kind of satisfaction and confidence in the vendor’s work. Also, the vendor should target to complete every deliverable in the project in 80% of time committed. A buffer time of 20% of the actually committed is always good to balance if any sudden problems faced.
Also, it is better to have a single point of contact at both the ends to have a smooth and proper communication throughout the project development. But at the same time, everyone associated in the project should be aware of the communication going on between the two parties.
For more info please visit us at: Offshore software Development Company

http://semaphore06.stumbleupon.com/review/15721086/

Mon, 31 Dec 2007 04:21:51 -0800

The year in technology
The iPhone was great, except for its restrictions. And guess who’s dialing up a better mobile Web now?

You’ll balk if I label 2007 “The Year of the iPhone.” True, news of Apple’s new device hit the world within two weeks of New Year’s 2007 and dominated tech coverage pretty much incessantly afterward. But as several cynical Salon letter writers pointed out at its launch in late June, the iPhone, cool as it was, failed to revolutionize human relations. “Hey, did your iPhone end the war? No, it didn’t, so shut up!”
But tech doesn’t work that way. Only a handful of Macheads seriously expected the iPhone to deliver an exit strategy in Iraq, cure AIDS and forestall foreclosure on millions of subprime mortgages. Most techies had lower expectations, and it’s true that for some of us, the iPhone didn’t meet even those. As a phone, the thing didn’t stand out. It lacked, moreover, several necessary features, and more than a few people still can’t get the hang of its damned keyboard.

for more info please visit Web Development & Designing

http://semaphore06.stumbleupon.com/review/15721046/

Mon, 31 Dec 2007 04:18:31 -0800

SAN FRANCISCO — Online social networking websites saw their ranks swell and values soar this year as everyone from moody teenagers and mellow music lovers to mate-seeking seniors joined online communities.

Google’s freshly released “Zeitgeist 2007″ reveals that seven out of the 10 hottest topics which triggered Internet queries during the year involved social networking.

A Top Ten list compiled by the world’s most-used search engine includes British website Badoo, Spanish-language Hi5, and US-based Facebook.

Video-sharing websites YouTube and Dailymotion are on the list, along with the Club Penguin online role playing game where children pretending to be the flightless birds “waddle about and play” together.

Virtual world Second Life, where people represented by animated proxies interact in digitized fantasy settings, is the final social networking property in the Zeitgeist Top Ten.

The world has only seen “the tip of the iceberg” when it comes to online social networking, says MySpace vice president of business development Amit Kapur.

“It is a natural step in the evolution of the Web,” Kapur said.

“The Web is getting more personal. I think you are going to see much more of that happen on every website across the Web.”

MySpace aspires to become people’s homes on the Internet, with profile pages serving as online addresses as well as springboards to online music, video, news and other content conducive to their tastes and interests.

“It is a next-generation portal,” Kapur said.

Industry statistics show Facebook membership more than doubled in the past year to about 55 million, while reigning champion MySpace grew 30 percent to top 110 million.

One in every four US residents uses MySpace, while in Britain it is as common to have a profile page on the website as it is to own a dog.

“We are very social animals and this allows us to ramp it up to a whole other order of magnitude,” says professor Jeremy Bailenson, who heads a Virtual Human Interaction Lab at Stanford University in Northern California.

A strong appeal of online role-playing games and virtual worlds is that they free people to “interact as their ideal self and not their real self,” according to Bailenson.

“You can be whatever age you want — 20 forever — dress any way you want, be any gender you want, and be socializing with zillions of people at once all the time,” Bailenson said.

For more info please visit: website Designing

http://semaphore06.stumbleupon.com/review/15144113/

Tue, 11 Dec 2007 04:32:36 -0800

Search Engine Optimization- The Significance
From a small local business in a town to a big industry playing on an international platform, marketing has been a prime tool for any company or business to succeed. People started with using tools like write-ups, references, pamphlets and much more to convey their means or advertise themselves among a group. But now is a time where everything happens just on the click of your finger. And in this time is required marketing at the speed of light, marketing with niche concepts that are applied even before a common man would think.
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With the time we are moving from a physical world to a virtual world. Companies started building up their websites to have a presence in the virtual world. But likewise there are billions of websites. What would be your identity then? In this age of Internet and Technology, getting your business visible to your customer segment is more important and this is where the Search Engine Optimization comes into picture.
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Building up a website is like making a saw and optimizing your website is like sharpening that saw to use. And it is quite logical that you cannot take optimum use of your saw without sharpening it.
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Search Engines are a system through which one gets the information the later wants. Search engine optimization (SEO) is the process of improving the volume and quality of traffic to a web site from search engines through search results. Usually, the earlier a site is presented in the search results or the higher it "ranks", the more searchers will visit that site. In simple words, Search engine optimization (SEO) just means your site is as accessible as possible to the search engines to improve the chances that they will serve it up when your potential customers type in specific search terms (called keywords). The more easily search engines find your site, the higher up it appears on their results pages.
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In this world, SEO is definitely a smart move for any business.
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But getting your site ranked for your keywords, there are many aspects that play a key role: a proper site structure, clean coding and necessary keywords, to name a few. This requires the every page of your website to be optimized. Every page should have a proper title, genuine keywords and a perfect description that matches the page. These title, keywords and description have to be relevant for every individual page. Search engines "crawl" the Web looking for the keywords that their users enter, so putting those keywords throughout your site means your pages will be picked up during searches by the search engine. Hence you have to put your foot into your customer’s shoe to understand what keywords your customer would use to search for a particular product or service. You have to learn your customers’ mind and this will give you the best of Title and meta (Keywords and description) to optimize your website. Also, optimizing your content is equally important as that plays an important role. You may optimize your content with putting keywords in your content, giving the Heading tags to titles, giving bold effects wherever necessary, giving links (to phrases in the content) to internal pages wherever appropriate.
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Also, other activities to rank up your website in search engines are submitting your website URL into more and more search engines, adding your website URL into online directories, building up links with other relevant business sites, submitting rich articles into article sites, submitting your blog pages into various blog sites, submitting Press Releases into various Press Release sites. This will both increase the traffic overall to your site and enhance your search engine rankings, since the search engines pick up on the number of times people link to and from your site and rank your website higher accordingly.
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People try many techniques to boost up their website ranking in these search engines for the specific keywords. People make researches to add-on their skills to make this task easier, faster and more genuine.
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There are companies that provide services for SEO to other companies. We at Semaphore Software (http://www.semaphore-software.com ) have a dedicated team that researches on the SEO and SEM (Search Engine Marketing) activities and undertake projects to upgrade the website ranking for our clients from different businesses.
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It has become very important to move ahead with the fast pace if you wish to survive your business in this global competition.
About Author:
Ghanshyam Shah is working as Research Analyst & Project Coordinator in offshore software development company Semaphore Software
http://www.semaphore-software.com
Ghanshyam_shah@semaphore-software.com

http://semaphore06.stumbleupon.com/review/15144096/

Tue, 11 Dec 2007 04:31:07 -0800

Importance of Search Engine visibility

A lot of people search the internet generally when they are in require of some service or to expand product information. Most people would do search using few keywords as they are unconscious of the brands they want to use to advantage the service or product. Also the person who is searching frequently decides before he hits the end of the search page.

Well that leaves us with only one question, how can one get good search engine visibility? How can the product or solution on extend be visible in the first page itself?

There are few tips that can really help you to achieve visibility on the search engines and that means your content is accessible to millions of Internet browsers.

First thing you will have to do is find out what words do people use to search to access a particular service or product and their related key words. Once you set your keywords you could Meta tag the same to represent the entire company’s website content.

Once you have the list of key words you have to try and use these keywords in your content of the website. The more keywords you collect and add on to your content the more will be the visibility for your website.

Regular press releases using these keywords can also do the trick. This way you have more gain more visibility and more search engines will pick up your data as it’s the latest update. Do make sure your press release has relevant and important data so that your possible client gets all wanted information. As he lands on your website he should see the expression of the information he has seen and should be satisfied with the further information he expected on your website. Start a blog so that you and your employees add on that and they become an entire part of the domain you control on.

With a good search engine visibility you have already won the war of the markets, as most people would not even look at the other websites. So your competition is already filtered and you are ready to be the leader. So now Prepare your content filled with keywords and get ready to rule the market!
About Author:
Shital Jethva is working as SEO in offshore software development company Semaphore Software
http://www.semaphore-software.com
seo3@semaphore-software.com

http://semaphore06.stumbleupon.com/review/15144050/

Tue, 11 Dec 2007 04:29:04 -0800

SEO- The Most Unnoticed Yet Important Marketing Strategy on the Internet

Today many businesses are turning towards having their own websites. Having an informative website or rather having a virtual presence on the www platform has become very common now a day. But then there comes a very vital question: what is the use of having a website if your potential customers can’t find it!

There are many different ways like email or banners or print ads to drive people or rather say Web Traffic to your website; but if you think more about this, there’s no prominent way to score more online customers other than by spooling in people who tell what they are interested in, what information they want, request information on your website and visit you website at zero or rather say no advertising cost.

Then here is where the Search Engine Optimization comes into picture.
Search engine Optimization and Search engine marketing is the low-cost and high-return tool for targeted advertising. And it’s proven that one yields great rewards by adopting and utilizing this tool. I would rather say that there is no better way any body can challenge that can drive better traffic to your website.

It is proved that in b2c ecommerce models, online businesses have yielded more business than traditional brick and mortar ones. But the only way seen now to stand above in the crowd and stake your claim in the online industry is by employing the sound practices of search engine marketing.

Today, many are adding-on their presence in this virtual business world. SEO is a tool that is affordable by all. And small players have started to compete with the big ones by using the smart moves of SEO.
People strive hard to get their websites to the top of Google's, Yahoo's, and MSN's search results.
The best way is adding proper Title and Meta to each of the web pages of your website. You have to be very careful in defining your keywords and description. Try to have key-word oriented titles; and that is a simple and straight way to have your pages ranked higher for that keyword.

The Google algorithms consider this very much. Also important is on-page optimization where in you put Heading tags, Alter tags (to pictures and links), ‘links’ in the content wherever applicable, using images with low size, giving bold and italic styles to keywords and titles wherever applicable, etc.
This is a very simple strategy which is overlooked by many who just simply have their websites ready. They just get satisfied with the look and feel and then soon get frustrated when they see no business from this investment.
SEO helps your website - result into top “organic” search- rankings in the search engines and this doesn’t cost you a thing. Also, other SEM activities which are commonly practiced by people are: submission of website URL into different search engines, online directories, submission of their articles into article sites, press-release into press-release sites, Blog- URL into Blog sites and getting into link-exchange with relevant sites.

These activities help a lot in getting more links throughout the World Wide Web network. And this ultimately helps for the boosting up of websites in the search engines with higher ranks.

SEO is a powerful tool. As truly said by Eric Schmidt, CEO of Google: "Search is the ultimate expression of the power of the individual, using a computer, looking at the world, and finding exactly what they want."
If you use this tool in a wise way, you simply add money to your business with more customers and more prospects.

About Author:
Ghanshyam Shah is working as Research Analyst & Project Coordinator in offshore software Development Company Semaphore info tech
http://www.semaphore-software.com
Ghanshyam_shah@semaphore-software.com

http://semaphore06.stumbleupon.com/review/13736199/

Thu, 25 Oct 2007 04:00:53 -0700

Mobile Application Development
As the businesses are growing far and wide, the need for proper Communication with the field executives has increased by many folds. The need to connect to people at all times is rapidly growing now. Deals click in an instant provided if right information is available at the right place, no matter where this place is.That means Information needs to be omnipresent today which is possible now through instant access to real-time data using Wireless/ Mobile Solutions. Semaphore has developed expertise in Windows Mobile applications that have helped companies improve workflow, customer order taking, and record keeping in the front office.
Solutions which can be build on Windows Mobile :Asset TrackingField ServiceInspectionsSales Force AutomationTime and Materials TrackingWork Order ManagementServices Offered :Programming services on Windows Mobile Pocket PC based DevicesConnected and Disconnected Mode ApplicationSynchronization with your Enterprise Database SQL / OracleSQL Mobile & Oracle Lite SupportIntegration with Enterprise Database using XML / Replication Mobile Application Development

http://semaphore06.stumbleupon.com/review/13350518/

Thu, 11 Oct 2007 00:20:47 -0700

IE, Outlook, Word Get Critical Bug Fixes
Microsoft has released six security updates for its products, fixing critical flaws in Word, Outlook Express, IE and Windows image viewer.
Robert McMillan, IDG News Service

Microsoft today released six security updates for its products, fixing critical flaws in Word, Outlook Express, Internet Explorer (IE) and the Kodak image viewer that ships with Windows.
The updates fix nine bugs in Microsoft's products. In addition to the four critical updates, Microsoft also released "important" fixes for the Windows SharePoint collaboration software and in the Windows remote procedure call (RPC) technology.
(Stuart Johnston, who writes PC World's Bugs and Fixes column, evaluates today's Patch Tuesday output.)
Fewer Patches
Nine updates is one less than originally expected. Last Thursday, Microsoft said it was planning to fix an unnamed flaw in Windows 2000 and Windows Server 2003 that could be used for "spoofing." That update was not included in Tuesday's patches.
Microsoft pulled this Windows patch because of a "quality control issue," the company said in a statement. It's not unheard of for Microsoft to make such last-minute decisions. The SharePoint update that was released Tuesday had previously been pulled from the September updates for similar reasons.
Word Vulnerability
The /www.stumbleupon.com/to//http/www.microsoft.com/technet/security/bulletin/t:4af7f7356773d;src:blog"%3EWord/t:4af7f7356773d;src:syndicate" rel="nofollow" target="_new">http:/www.microsoft.com/technet/security/bulletin/t:4af7f7356773d;src:blog">Word vulnerability may be of particular concern.
That's because it has been exploited by attackers, according to Christopher Budd, security program manager with Microsoft's Security Response Center. "We're aware of very limited and targeted attacks, but the issue itself has not been publicly disclosed," he said.
The bug can be exploited when an attacker tricks a victim into opening a maliciously crafted Word document. It was reported to Microsoft sometime during the past three months, Budd said. This type of attack has been used many times over the past few years, exploiting bugs in a variety of Microsoft Office products. These attacks have been launched at a small number of select victims, often within government.
Most Important Patch?
Though the Windows RPC flaw apparently cannot be exploited to run unauthorized software on a victim's machine, security experts consider it one of the most important patches released Tuesday. RPC service has been the source of many virulent computer worms in the past, including 2003's Blaster, according to Amol Sarwate, manager of Qualys' vulnerability research lab.
"Whenever there is a denial of service there is always a chance of remote code execution," he said. However, even if hackers could find a way to use this bug to run unauthorized software on a PC, RPC is typically blocked at the firewall. This means that even if a worm could be crafted, it would have difficulty spreading.
IE Patch
Sarwate said that the IE patch, which fixes four bugs in the browser, should be moved to the front of the line by system administrators. That's because IE is so widely used and some of the bugs in the browser are very likely to be used in online attacks.
Even users who have removed Outlook Express from their PCs should install this month's critical patch for this software, according to Microsoft's Budd. "The files in question are part of the core operating system, so what we tell people is if the bits in question are on the box then you should apply the security update."
The IE patch is the most critical, agreed Andrew Storms, director of security operations with nCircle Network Security Inc. According to him, an address spoofing flaw that was patched in this update has been known publicly for three months. "The URL spoof has been known since at least July and it's the perfect tool for a phisher," he said via instant message.
As for what Storms would patch after installing the IE update? "Second on my list is pretty much a tie between everything else minus the SharePoint vulnerability," he wrote.

http://semaphore06.stumbleupon.com/review/13159628/

Thu, 04 Oct 2007 03:02:27 -0700

E-Commerce Solution

New generation Internet solutions are much more than just a collection of pictures and text or a simple brochure stuck out alone. Internet technologies have evolved towards valuable strategic tools. Users are saviors, customers expect a lot more, and clients are pressed to generate revenue and save money with their Web sites. Internet and e-commerce have become synonyms or complementary to each other. A website, nowadays, is created to generate revenues and to reduce operational cost.

Semaphore plans to accelerate to develop custom designed websites, executes the hosting and promote the website by not only registering it with various search engines, but also by using various Search engine optimization methods to increase its Page rating.

We are specialized in large web application development projects which are of OLTP (Online Transaction Processing) nature. Semaphore has expertise in building web application which can be integrated with enterprise portal, Intranet and Extranet.

We are specialized in Web Services, SOAP Architecture based development.

We offer solutions in following areas:
Web Services J2EE Architecture .NET 2.0 Technology WSDL / SOAP/ Services Content Management Solution

http://semaphore06.stumbleupon.com/review/13159480/

Thu, 04 Oct 2007 02:50:19 -0700

SEO- The Most Unnoticed Yet Important Marketing Strategy on the Internet

Today many businesses are turning towards having their own websites. Having an informative website or rather having a virtual presence on the www platform has become very common now a day.
But then there comes a very vital question: what is the use of having a website if your potential customers can’t find it!
There are many different ways like email or banners or print ads to drive people or rather say Web Traffic to your website; but if you think more about this, there’s no prominent way to score more online customers other than by spooling in people who tell what they are interested in, what information they want, request information on your website and visit you website at zero or rather say no advertising cost.
Then here is where the Search Engine Optimization comes into picture.

Search engine Optimization and Search engine marketing is the low-cost and high-return tool for targeted advertising. And it’s proven that one yields great rewards by adopting and utilizing this tool. I would rather say that there is no better way any body can challenge that can drive better traffic to your website.
It is proved that in b2c ecommerce models, online businesses have yielded more business than traditional brick and mortar ones. But the only way seen now to stand above in the crowd and stake your claim in the online industry is by employing the sound practices of search engine marketing.

Today, many are adding-on their presence in this virtual business world. SEO is a tool that is affordable by all. And small players have started to compete with the big ones by using the smart moves of SEO.
People strive hard to get their websites to the top of Google's, Yahoo's, and MSN's search results. The best way is adding proper Title and Meta to each of the web pages of your website. You have to be very careful in defining your keywords and description. Try to have key-word oriented titles; and that is a simple and straight way to have your pages ranked higher for that keyword.

The Google algorithms consider this very much. Also important is on-page optimization where in you put Heading tags, Alter tags (to pictures and links), ‘links’ in the content wherever applicable, using images with low size, giving bold and italic styles to keywords and titles wherever applicable, etc.
This is a very simple strategy which is overlooked by many who just simply have their websites ready. They just get satisfied with the look and feel and then soon get frustrated when they see no business from this investment.

SEO helps your website - result into top “organic” search- rankings in the search engines and this doesn’t cost you a thing.
Also, other SEM activities which are commonly practiced by people are: submission of website URL into different search engines, online directories, submission of their articles into article sites, press-release into press-release sites, Blog- URL into Blog sites and getting into link-exchange with relevant sites.
These activities help a lot in getting more links throughout the World Wide Web network. And this ultimately helps for the boosting up of websites in the search engines with higher ranks.
SEO is a powerful tool. As truly said by Eric Schmidt, CEO of Google: "Search is the ultimate expression of the power of the individual, using a computer, looking at the world, and finding exactly what they want."If you use this tool in a wise way, you simply add money to your business with more customers and more prospects.

Author:

Ghanshyam Shah

Semaphore infotech

Offshore Software Development