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Website Management

This is the third phase and the continuous part of web development. It’s the part that is mostly forgotten. We decide to discuss web management on this month’s issue and E-marketing next month.

When the web developers register the domain, provide hosting and develop and upload the website, most of the work ends there. They forget to support and manage the website. This result in the following:

Out dated information in the website. Hence giving false information.
Website hacking due to inactivity. And when it happens, it takes time to be noticed and rectified.
Loss of information due to closure because of exceeded hosting limits.
Getting banned or closure due to lack of activity.
Rigidity of information indexing. This is bad for search engines. If information does not change in a website, then it crawls very slowly in search engines.

Therefore its necessary to understand the term. Web Management is compose of tasks both in; Domain and web Hosting (Phase 1) and Web Design (Phase 2). These phases were discussed in the september and october e-newsletter issues.

Domain & Hosting Support.

This is Web Support and Maintenance for Domains, E-mails and Hosting.

Domains: When one register the domain, the domain have several possibilities. These possibilities are used to enhance identity. For instance, one can be able to configure sub domains to be used in other web applications. E.g Blogs, Newsletters, intranet, CRM and even mini websites. One common example is where you configure a subdomain www.blog.yourdomain.com for use in blogging.

Emails: The organization uses e-mails more often than the website. Therefore there is need for greater support in emailing. A web developer should train on email use, email troubleshooting, password reset/regeneration, obsolete accounts deletion and new accounts reactivation and e-mail backup. What you should look for in email support are:

Can you access the e-mails on the web and offline through outlook?
Can you be able to set your own password (for security purposes)
How many accounts can you set? Consider the hosting capacity.

Hosting: Web hosting determines the quantity of information to have in the website and also the number of e-mails to configure. Two things are considered; storage and bandwidth. Storage is where website and emails are stored. Bandwidth is the traffic or activity of the website and emails.

For instance, in a 500MB storage and bandwidth per month, you can host a website in 50MB and give 50MB to each of the 9 e-mail accounts. If the website enjoys a traffic of 50 MB per month, then each email account is supposed to traffic about the same amount every month. Incase the limit approaches, you will be prompted to delete emails to release space or slow down incase of bandwidth. Or buy more hosting.

The most important consideration when buying hosting is the number of users and their activity. This determines the storage and bandwidth to acquire.

Your web developer should be able to monitor this for you and advice you accordingly. One should be conscious when acquiring his domain and hosting package to ensure that the support is part of the package. Otherwise, there are situations where one pays for each support rendered per piece meal basis.

Website Updating and Maintenance

When a website is developed, its uploaded into the web server. In most cases, the website runs for years on the server without being changed. Organizations are very dynamic. They keep on changing and the same is the information in their website. There are different reasons why websites become outdated:

(1) Domain registration and hosting and web designer being different: In this case, you find that when the web designer designs the website, he takes his work has ended. And since the hosting company cannot update the website since they don’t know how to do it, the website content becomes outdated.You should ensure that you agree on who and how to do website content update. Or get one person to do all including maintenance.

(2) Use of outdate web programming languages. Some websites are developed with very rigid software that require that you download the site, update or redesign it and upload it again. That long process makes it hard and expensive to keep on updating the website. The use of web 2.0 technology has opened real time end user updating. You can be able to update your website instantly on the web server without the need of the web designer.

If you are looking for a web developer, seek one that will develop a site that you can be able to do minor update tasks like updating the text, image or even populating the photo gallery. This will make you have control of the site and also enable you keep up-to-date information in your site.

(3) Improper planning: When acquiring the services of a web designer, ensure you negotiate and agree on the maintenance contract.

Posted in Web | Comments

Outsourcing with a Heart

For your information BPO is meant to mean Business Process Outsourcing. In simple terms, its where a business outsources part of its non core business process whether in production, operations or marketing to other specialty companies.

I was traveling from Nakuru to Nanyuki.At a small town midway, I saw a young man waving at me. Some instincts told me to stop and hear his story. However being in business, I have realized that money come with people and I have learnt to listen to them. As I halted, he came running and asked me if I could offer a lift to his wife and child. With a child, I couldn’t deny. We chatted along the way and one thing really struck me. She said that she used to run a business with her husband until the post election crisis messed them up. To cut the story short, she was looking for kshs 1,500 to start a business. “1,500?” I asked surprisingly. “Hiyo ata ni mingi. Ningepata 1,000, niko mbele” She replied.

Now, Kshs 1,500 to me is small. Its part of what I use in a day. But to her, its her whole business, her life and that of her family. Now, 90% of that money was to go to buying stocks for resale. I remembered a close relative who owns a bottled water company and had an idea of providing stocks to youths to be able to run businesses without much hassles of capital.

Some years ago, I was traveling and working in India and I came across the vast business of BPO. Its quite eminent and the big companies are doing a great job in lifting up small and medium businesses by outsourcing part of their processes to them. Some case studies are quite amazing since they integrate well with the corporate responsibility concept in Business. There is this milk company that used to outsource its package assembly to an NGO that supports destitute women. Win win, the company gets the packages done and the women get an income. Another polish company used disabled people to assemble watches. And somewhere near home, in south africa, a company that manufactures winding radios has outsourced its assembly to a special civil group and prisoners.

If companies could come up with policies that allows them to outsource part of their business to small businesses, I guess the economy and the society could gain enormously. My passenger woman made me realize that is only that the big businesses would provide products to the small juakali businesses, the issue of capital would not arise. However, as a businessman, I understand the implications that would arise if I would offer the woman products on credit. First, there is no trust, I barely know her and if she goes away with the products, I wouldn’t know where to get her. Second, her business is a survival business and its run informally making its continuity doubtful. Third, the magnititude of the business doesn’t guarantee family needs uninterruptions in business. If an emergency occurred, the woman doesn’t have an insurance for medical emergencies or any savings or investments. So the most probable thing she will do is to use the borrowed stock money. However she shrugged the latter saying “In juakali business, God is usually with us and big emergency do not occur”

I had goods worth over Kshs 100,000. And I usually give credit for goods worth as little as 1500. If this woman gets and sell these goods in a day and gets a 20% margin. She takes home Kshs 300. If she eats Kshs 150 and reinvests Kshs 150, it will take her 10 days to raise the capital. For micro finance, they provide the 1,500. What I am suggesting is that these small entrepreneurs could get interest free capital inform of stock from manufacturing business. The business could outsource the retail to them. But due to the intricacies involved, the companies wouldn’t trust them. That’s why we should see the civil society and community mid sized traders take initiatives to organize these small entrepreneurs and guarantee them upon the big enterprises. Since they know the juakali entrepreneurs, it would be easy to track and monitor them. In an organized way, I believe that my concept would work. It has actually worked.

Posted in BPO | Comments

Fibre Optic

An optical fibre (or fiber) is a glass or plastic fiber that carries light along its length. Fiber optic is the application technology of the optical fibre. Optical fiber is mostly applied in fiber-optic communications, which utilizes signals to transmit telephone signals, Internet communication, and cable television signals over an optical fibre. Although fibers can be made out of transparent plastic, glass or combination of the two, the fibers used in long-distance telecommunications applications are always glass.

FIBRE OPTIC MILESTONES

Ø The need for reliable long-distance communication systems has ever existed and the sophistication of these systems has gradually improved, from smoke signals to telegraphs and finally to the first coaxial cable, put into service in 1940.

Ø In 1966 Kao and Hockham proposed optical fibers but the development of lasers in the 1960s solved the first problem of a light source and polished the technology.

Ø 1975 to 1980, the first commercial fiber-optic communication system was developed by Corning Glass Works

Ø In 1988, TAT-8 was developed as the first undersea fiber optic link between the United States and Europe.

Ø In the 1990s, the fiber optic communication industry became associated with the dot-com hence a vast increases in demand for bandwidth due to increased use of the Internet

Ø In 2009 (21 years from the TAT-8 installation), fibre optic reached the eastern part of Africa (The only region in Africa that was not connected to fibre optic).

ADVANTAGES OF FIBRE OPTIC

Fiber has large advantages over existing copper wire. These advantages are:

High System Performance
Greatly increased bandwidth and capacity
Lower signal attenuation (loss)
Adaptive to extreme conditions like heat, cold or pressure.
Difficult to tap and signal secure.
Freedom from short circuit and sparks
Environmental Protection
Lower installation cost

DISADVANTAGES OF FIBRE OPTIC

· Increase cost of its components due to its newness to the market.

· Increased cost of installation due to lack of installation experts.

USES OF FIBRE OPTIC?

A. Fiber optic sensors: Optical fibers can be used as sensors to measure strain, temperature, pressure or transit time of light. In some applications, the sensor is itself an optical fiber. In other cases, fiber is used to connect a non-fiber optic sensor to a measurement system. A major benefit of fibre in sensors is their ability to reach places which are otherwise inaccessible e.g. measurement of temperature inside aircraft jet engine, vibration, pressure, rotation, displacement, velocity, acceleration, torque, and twisting, internal temperature of electrical transformers where the extreme electromagnetic fields present make other measurement techniques impossible.

B. Fiber for Illumination: Fibers are widely used in illumination applications. They are used as Light guides in medical and other applications where bright light needs to be shone on a target without a clear line-of-sight path. In some buildings, optical fibers are used to route sunlight from the roof to other parts of the building. Optical fiber illumination is also used for decorative applications, including signs, Art, artificial Christmas tree and illumination from many different angles while only employing one light source.

C. Fiber for Imaging: Optical fiber is also used in imaging optics. A coherent bundle of fibers is used, sometimes along with lenses, for a long, thin imaging device like endoscope, which is used to view objects through a small hole. Medical endoscopes are used for minimally invasive exploratory or surgical procedures (endoscopy). Industrial endoscopes are used for inspecting anything hard to reach, such as jet engine interiors. Using a spectrometer, Fibre can also be used, study composition of objects, gasses, or reactions in pressure vessels.

D. Fiber as energy source: Optical fiber can be used to supply a low level of power (around one watt) to electronics situated in a difficult electrical environment. Examples of this are electronics in high-powered antenna elements and measurement devices used in high voltage transmission equipment.

E. Optical fiber communication: This is the common use of fibre optic. Here, it is used as a medium for telecommunication and networking because it is flexible and can be bundled as cables. It is especially advantageous for long-distance communications. Each fiber can carry many independent channels, each using a different wavelength of light. Over short distances, such as networking within a building, fiber saves space in cable ducts because a single fiber can carry much more data than a single electrical cable. Fiber is also immune to electrical interference, anti-radiation, non conductors of electricity and tap-proof (for those who might think of tapping free internet).

CONCLUSION

The greatest fiber optic hype in Kenya is based on the communication aspect. The high speed and cost effective internet is what’s being discussed in media, pubs and even homes.

From a common mwananchi perspective, reading emails, browsing the net, keeping in the loop with facebook for the youths and even researching and online education, AT INCREDIBLE SPEEDS AND CHEAPER RATES, are the eminent benefits of the fiber optic.

However for organizations, branch networking, data transfer, remote access and sensing, internet telephony, e-commerce and e-business, e-marketing, intranet management and online based enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems are what they are looking into.

Posted in Internet | Comments

E-mail Marketing

INTRODUCTION

E-mail marketing or Electronic Mail marketing is a form of direct marketing which uses electronic mails as a means of communicating commercial or fundraising messages to an audience. In its broadest sense, every e-mail sent to a potential or current customer could be considered e-mail marketing. However, the term is usually used to refer to: Sending e-mails with the purpose of enhancing the relationship of a merchant with its current or previous customers and to encourage Customer loyalty and repeat business; Sending e-mails with the purpose of acquiring new customers or convincing current customers to purchase something immediately; and sending e-mails over the Internet, for the purpose of informing or educating.

ADVANTAGES

A mailing list provides the ability to distribute information to a wide range of specific, potential customers at a relatively low cost.
Compared to other media investments such as direct mail or printed newsletter e-mail is less expensive.
An exact return on investments can be tracked (“track to basket”) and has proven to be high when done properly. E-mail marketing is often reported as second only to search marketing as the most effective online marketing tactic.
The delivery time for an e-mail message is short (i.e., seconds or minutes) as compared to a mailed advertisement (i.e., one or more days).
An advertiser is able to “push” the message to its audience, as opposed to website-based advertising, which relies on a customer to visit that website.
E-mail messages are easy to track. An advertiser can track users via autoresponders, web bugs, bounce messages unsubscribe requests, read receipts, click through, etc. These mechanisms can be used to measure open rates, positive or negative responses, and to correlate sales with marketing.
Advertisers can generate repeat business affordably and automatically.
Advertisers can reach substantial numbers of e-mail subscribers who have opted in (i.e., consented) to receive e-mail communications on subjects of interest to them.
Over half of internet users check or send e-mail on a typical day.
Specific types of interaction with messages can trigger (1) other messages to be delivered automatically, or (2) other events, such as updating the profile of the recipient to indicate a specific interest category.
E-mail marketing is paper-free (i.e., “green”).
Tracking and response metrics enables tuning and optimisation of the E-mail marketing channel by a process of testing different variants and calculation of statistically significant results.
E-mail is popular with digital products marketers.

DISADVATAGES

Many companies use e-mail marketing to communicate with existing customers, but many other companies send unsolicited bulk e-mail, also known as spam.
The sheer volume of spam has led some users to mistake legitimate commercial e-mail for spam. This situation arises when a user receives e-mail from a mailing list to which he/she subscribes. Additional confusion arises when both legitimate and spam messages have a similar appearance, as when messages include HTML and graphics.
One effective technique used by established email marketing companies is to require what is known as the “double opt-in” method of requiring a potential recipient to manually confirm their request for information by clicking a unique link which includes a unique identification code to confirm that the owner of the recipient email address has indeed requested the information.

E-MAIL MARKETING TOOLS

E-mail delivery

You need to have a medium to use to send emails. Depending on the size of your addressbook and the frequency, you can choose which program to use to send emails.

If you will be sending less than 500 emails per day, then a normal email account is enough. POP3 accounts have various email sending limits. They are those that limit in hourly basis (200 emails per hour) and those that limit per day (the highest being 2000 per day). Check with your web host to know your sending limits. Otherwise your account will be blocked if you exceed the limits. Free mailing platforms also have varied limits. Gmail has the highest with 500 emails, then yahoo at 200 sent in batches of 50 and hotmail at 200 per day.

If you intend to send more than 500 emails per day, it’s the time you need to solicit commercial programs.or mailing lists programs. There are various commercial and open source programs that you can use to develop an emailing platform. The most common ones are constant contact, sendblaster, phplist, mailman, pommo. weber etc. These mailing lists have a capacity to deliver even about 100,000 emails per day. However, it has to depend on the mailing server you are using. It should not have email sending limits.

Email creation

The emails to be sent needs to be formatted. There are two modes of sending emails; text or html.

Text emails are just words which are simply formatted. You cannot include images when sending with this format. The format is simple, light and easy to send. You can send these emails in large batches. They are actually like the normal emails we send hence they end up right into the inbox (not junk folder)

HTML emails are emails which are highly formatted. Sometime you will see them look like websites. They include text formatting, images and graphics and even other media like videos and music. They are smart and presentable. These emails are heavy and complicated. They take time to send and might load the server. Its recommended to send them in small batches. Since these mails are the one used by advertisers in spams, they are often filtered to the junk folder by email clients.

Address Book management

You will need to have valid email address to send the emails to. Organizations and individuals gather addresses into the addressbook from the customers, friends and family. The size of your address book determines the platform and format to use.

Small organizations can use normal emails since their addressbook are small whereas large organizations can purchase commercial solutions that don’t limit their capabilities.

Its important you have an addressbook that can be able to group of filter addresses by groups. This ensures that you can be able to send specific emails to niche groups. It enhance effective communication and targeted marketing.

EMAIL MARKETING STRATEGIES

There are several ways of doing email marketing depending on what you want relied over internet. Most organizations will use email marketing to do the following:

Customer Relationship Management: It can be used when an organization want to relay important information about a product or service to their existing customers like product enhancement, service reminders, product safety, service improvement etc.

E-Newsletters: Organizations can be sending regular newsletters to their subscribers. These newsletters will provide information within and without the organization. It could also be information about a certain service or industry. E-newsletter is refered to as a gentleman spam. Its both informative, educative and also commercial since you can slot advertisement slots in the newsletter.

Announcements and Alerts: Mailing lists are also use for announcements. Most organizations have announcements to make to their customers. To make it personal and quick, they send emails to each and every one of them. For instance, an internet service provider will send an email to its 10,000 subscribers list to tell then of a potential virus circulating in the internet.

Sales: The times of knocking on people’s doors to solicit for business are gone. People are using the internet to do cold calling. Internet is very effective because you can contact thousands of people in one hour what you could do to only one person in door to door selling. Organizations are using email marketing to generate sales leads. With effective follow-up, they eventually become business.

Posted in E-Business | Comments

Whats Internet & Web?

The terms Internet and World Wide Web are often used, interchangeably, in everyday speech without much distinction. However, the Internet and the Web are not one and the same.

The Internet is a global data communications system. It is a hardware and software infrastructure that provides connectivity between computers. The Internet is a global system of interconnected computer networks that use the standardized Internet Protocol Suite (TCP/IP). It is a network of networks that consists of millions of private and public, academic, business, and government networks of local to global scope that are linked by copper wires, fiber-optic cables, wireless connections, and other technologies.

In contrast, the Web is one of the services communicated via the Internet. It is a collection of interconnected documents and other resources, linked by hyperlinks and URLs.The Internet carry these vast array of information resources and services, most notably the inter-linked hypertext documents of the World Wide Web (WWW) and the infrastructure to support electronic mail (e-mail), in addition to popular services such as online chat, file transfer and file sharing, online gaming, and Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) and person-to-person communication via voice and video.

Uses of Internet

Fibre optic brings forth cheap and fast internet to East Africa. With this, then we can get to see what’s in store for you. There are different uses of internet for individuals and organizations.

Internet for personal use

Internet has been popular for personal use. Most of the individuals use internet to do the following:

E-mailing like yahoo and Gmail.
Music and internet radio and TV
Movies and video streaming like in Youtube and voodoo.
Shopping at Ebay or Amazon
Image and photo browsing
Social networking like Facebook and twitter
Instant messaging and chatting
Internet telephony like Skype, Google voice and Yahoo voice
Online gaming

Internet for Business

Communication

E-mail: Electronic mails are the most popular use of internet. Currently majority of internet users login in to send and receive e-mails. There are many e-mail service providers both paid and free. Due to its popularity, it has become the most effective form of marketing for small and medium businesses in Kenya. This is a must for everyone. Encourage your family and friends to open e-mails. Pioneers for free e-mail services are Yahoo, Gmail and Hotmail.

VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) started from an optional two-way voice chat provided by some of the instant messaging systems that started around the year 2000. The benefit of VoIP is that it can be free or cost much less than a normal telephone call, because the Internet carries that voice traffic. VoIP is surely a cheap solution for long distance call. Yahoo voice, Google voice and Skype dominate free voip providers.

Teleconferencing: Most organizations are embarking video or tele conferencing. This is where you can hold a meeting online where you could see and talk to each other from the comfort of our offices, homes or even on holidays. A good example is Webex.

Marketing (E-Marketing): Reputable companies are establishing their online presence by developing their company websites. The websites are stuffed with information about the company’s profile, the latest news about the company, partners, and the company’s product line. Businesses have taken advantage of internet to reach the mass market. They use their websites for profiling, to advertise, list in directory, buy advertisement spaces in high traffic sites and even use e-mails to reach both existing and prospective customers. Bizkenya.com is a one of the web development providers for small and medium organizations in Kenya.

Transactions (E-commerce)- E-commerce is a term that has been used widely in internet world. E-commerce basically means buying and selling through internet. Businesses have managed to establish online catalogues and created shopping carts where potential customers can see their products’ information, decide to buy, select, pay for them and even get delivered instantly. This makes the business process short and easy. E-bay, Amazon and Paypal fall under this category.

Human resource management (E-HRM)- Businesses has embraced the online recruitment systems. They are now putting forms online so that prospective employees can list their resumes and even give feedback. The HRM has advanced to include employee management systems and intranets to ease the information flow and increase efficiency. Check out our own myjobseye.

Customer Relations (E-CRM)- E-CRM (online customer relationship management) is a system that ensures that the customers’ information is kept updated, accessed easily and efficiently in a database and their communication is enhanced. These systems can be web or computer based and run through branches and subsidiaries. For instance Sugarcrm

Operations: Organizations have been establishing intranets to enhance smooth operations and interconnectivity between departments, branches and divisions. This enhances harmonized and efficient communication and information flow. Intranets are like editable websites but restricted for use within a closed network.

Accounting: Accounting and finance were the first disciplines in business to get automated, due to their dependence on figures. In internet and web, most of the accounting systems nowadays are web dependent to embrace interconnectivity and remote accessibility. Enterprise Resource Planners (ERP) are slowly taking over the accounting and administration processes.

Entrepreneurship: Business people and professionals are also not left out. They are using internet to network, make business and even seal deals. Online profiles are used to tap for opportunities. Great recommendations are Linkedin and Bizkenya

OTHER USES

Education (E-learning): With the advent and popularity of the internet, easy access to high speed internet connection and affordability, attaining higher education has been made easier than ever for those who want and need it. This is called Online Education. Just like traditional methods of learning, online education and online degrees are now widely accepted. They’re recognized as genuine educational qualifications. A simple search online will reveal a lot of online learning programs.

Researching: Individuals, academia, business, governments and not for profits are relying on internet to seek for information. These research endeavors provide information necessary in making decisions or establishing conclusive outcome for implementation. Companies like Google and Wikipedia are pioneers in research and information searching.

E-Banking: Most of the banks are using internet and web to make banking easy. With an e-bank account, you can check balance, transfer funds, print statements, order for chequebooks, pay bills and many more. Most Kenyan banks like Equity, CBA and NIC does e-banking.

CONCLUSION: SCENARIO

This is what we would see some years to come: An accountant sitting at home in Nakuru can audit the books of a company based in Uganda, on a server situated in a Australia that is remotely maintained by IT specialists in India. These accounts could have been created by home-working bookkeepers, in Bungoma, based on information e-mailed to them from offices in Nairobi, Kigali, Dar es Salaam and Johannesburg. Concurrently, a field worker in Juba can send field data and GPS video streams to his boss in Nairobi and telecasted and presented live by the Executive Director on an international conference to London. These and many are the scenarios that we will see in just a couple of years to come. Take time and establish what you would like internet to do for you. Then Consult. And Outsource.

Posted in Internet, Web | Comments