10 Must have Mobile Apps for CEO’s on the move

Gone are the days when mobile was used just for voice communication. Like most executives, your smartphone has replaced your laptop as the go-to workplace technology for interacting with your organization when away from your desk. The world of smartphones has several powerful apps to be productive even while on the move.

In short, your mobile device is your lifeline—but are you using it to the fullest?

To help you work at full capacity and avoid time traps, we’ve compiled a list of the top TEN best business apps for busy executives along with links to download.

1. EVERNOTE

Evernote, the ultimate idea and inspiration organizer. The app syncs with all devices so you have access to your notes and files no matter where you go.

Apart from saving the ideas and Internet clips in notes, one can also share them via email and other social media. Inbuilt chat option makes quick discussions easy. It even allows you to scan business cards and add them to your contacts automatically in premium version.

2. CAMSCANNER

This app is a smart solution for managing documents on all devices, starting from capturing information precisely to storing, sharing, annotating and managing documents for different purposes. Camscanner makes the contents easily-accessed, organized and the collaboration efficient.

3. 360 SECURITY

Priority executives consider is the security of the data in their devices. Especially as more business is conducted through mobile devices, it never hurts to have a little backup. 360 Security, earned an 89.5 rating, is an app that does just that; it's an antivirus app. It also includes an anti-theft feature that lets you erase and locate the phone, and even set off an alarm or lock the device remotely.

4. POCKET

This attractive app lets the user preserve almost any web page or content in an organized way. It makes for a favorable viewing experience. Pocket App is used for managing a reading list of articles and web content from the Internet. It is a great offline reading tool that allows you to select and save articles, pictures and videos for later viewing.

5.  EXPENSIFY

No executive in the history of executives has ever found joy in expense reporting. Expensify is a useful app for expense reporting especially if one just hate carrying receipts. It can take a photo of your receipt, and report on tracking time and business travel. This will be a Chief Financial Officer's best friend because there will no longer be a need to chase down expense reports from colleagues.

6. CAMCARD

With CamCard, user can snap a picture of the business card and the application sorts and organizes the information in one repository. Add notes, set reminders to follow up with people, search and share cards. Best of all, user can access your contacts any time, any place.

7. TRIPIT

Fall back on the old favorite in travel planning TripIt, when you want clarity over your travel plans. Mail your travel details to TripIt’s official email ID to get a consolidated single itinerary for your trip of all paperwork.

8. IDENTITY SAFE

Norton’s Identity Safe is a free password manager. It is a tough task to memorize numerous passwords. Experience password freedom with Norton Identity Safe. It lets you securely manage your passwords and access your favorite sites faster. Designed to be easier than ever to use, Norton Identity Safe for iPhone and iPad saves all your usernames and passwords and syncs them across your devices.

9. DUOLINGO

If you're an executive at a global company, chances are you work with people all around the world or travel to areas where people may not speak English. Most executives know that learning a second language that is common in the business world can go a long way. DuoLingo keeps it simple for such executives to communicate easily.

10. FLIPBOARD

 Flipboard has turned into a must-have app for most of the executives. It's a great aggregator and curator of news and social content to help them easily stay on top of the subjects and categories they are interested in and passionate about. And since it places all the content in magazine-like sections, one can easily flip through categories and topics to get a nice overview of subjects in a great blend of long-form articles.

Although this is not a comprehensive list of apps available, I am sure these provide a comfortable management for executives. Thanks for stopping by. 

NagaTeja Rupavataram

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Software Outsourcing Hacks (2/7) - Baby in a month

Welcome to Software Outsourcing series in PsiberTech Blog. If you are tuning in to this series for the first time, please look here for the first post.

Here is a typical scenario for you, from the customers point of view the software outsourcing must be cost effective and fast.  From the development vendor standpoint, both are opposite commodities and often less time translates to more cost.  So, the development vendor and customer comes to an understanding after several meetings. Which usually works out to customer’s favor. i.e. the understanding that project will be delivered sooner for a slightly increased cost.  I can assure you this is the worst mistake you can do when it comes to outsourcing software development.

Baby in a month

Here’s tip 1 even before we get to the actual problem of this scenario. Assuming you would choose a development company with a decent rating and expertise, you need to listen to the technical glitches of delivering project in a shorter time.  If your development vendor says it can’t be done on the stipulated time, trust his ability to gauge the efforts in finishing the task. 

Fred brooks has put it more so eloquently “Nine women can't make a baby in one month”

Even when a project is not delayed or had to be delivered in short span, more people does not equal more value.  Larger teams tend to move slowly, due to communication limitations and managing the team would often takes more time.  So, the loss of productivity is either borne by customer or by the development vendor.  If it is a small or medium vendor it might translate to huge loss or loss of credentials. When it comes to bigger firms the project is dragged beyond salvage.

When it comes to bigger firms, the headcount shown in the project proposal does not always translates to the actual team in the project.

In either case the outsourced software project fails. Investment may buy more developers but may not buy more value for your software. So, it is wise to create a timeline that is practical and team that is manageable for a successful outsourcing. Sit with your development vendor on those modules and features that can be delivered first and then do a full release. Release in phases is much better than no release isnt?

That’s all for today folks! If you have questions regarding accurate project timeline and effort estimation, please head over here.

   Srivatsan Aravamudan

General Enquiries	:	info@psibertech.com.sg
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Software Outsourcing Hacks (1/7) - Going High or Low?

Welcome to yet another series in PsiberTech Blog. This is the first of seven blog posts in which we would be discussing useful hacks pertaining to software development outsourcing. 

More than 50% of software outsourcing has failed to deliver the expected results.

Many firms have turned to software development outsourcing in the past few years instead of using in house development team. The trend continues to raise even though many studies suggest that more than 50% of software outsourcing has failed to deliver the expected results. There are various reasons pertaining to this raise. Research has suggested that IT outsourcing can provide firms with economic, technological, and strategic benefits, such as reducing IT operation costs, improving technical competence, and even providing firms with competitive advantages over its competitors.

All things said and done, software outsourcing is no cake walk. In fact, both companies and vendors suffer throughout the process due to poor practices in vendor selection, scoping, budgeting etc. In this series, we would list down hacks, which if proactively handled can benefit outsourcing projects.

The Technology Consultant who would be the captain and crew of your outsourcing ship, forms the crucial element of Software outsourcing.

One of the main cause of failure in outsourcing comes from poor management practices starting with choice of vendor. Vendor selection i.e. the Technology Consultant who would be the captain and crew of your outsourcing ship, forms the crucial element of your outsourcing.

Go Low or High?

Often the choice of vendors would come down to cost estimation each has provided. While many opine choosing the lowest bidder, I strongly suggest you stay away from them. If it is too good to be true, it probably is. Perhaps the vendor has not fully understood the effort needs required for the project. Or perhaps his costing model has not prioritized the features you wanted in the software application.

Highest bidders on the other hand may promise you the highest quality of services. While it seems, there is a relation between cost and quality, I often found that the average bidders tend to deliver at high quality as well. Hence, paying higher price for quality would be a unwise decision.

Furthermore, it is important to look at the deliverables and cost break down provided by each vendor instead of choosing them on cost alone. Asking few questions to clarify vendor’s effort would bring more light into their approach towards the project and would enable you to make an affirmed decision.

Stay tuned for more posts on this series. Thanks for dropping by and Have a fantastic weekend!

   Srivatsan Aravamudan

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Cost of Custom Software - The Ultimate Cheat Sheet

Good day and welcome to Cost of Custom Software series. Thanks so much for all the support you have shown towards this series. We are truly grateful for your feedback and hope to provide more useful content for you in the upcoming posts. 

Well the idea of this post is to provide you a comprehensive list of items that you can use while working on the cost of custom software. In a way, this would be a consolidation post of all the custom software series post we have done earlier.

I often find a list key word being used in our google searches, and it’s basically a variation of terms like “Top IT Companies, Top Software Companies, Top Custom Software Development Consultant” etc. If you have noticed, our customers are searching for the top software development consultants who can help them with their forthcoming development. 

Top companies do not necessarily mean they are good fit for the project & they may not even provide a cost-effective solution.

We all know that top companies do not necessarily mean they are good fit for the project. And they may not even be a cost-effective solution. So, let us list down the items that would work as a cheat sheet to find the “good fit” for reduction of cost in custom software projects. I have made that into tabular form with my remarks and prioritized them as per their impact in reducing the cost. 

Ultimate Cheat Sheet for reducing cost of Custom Software. 

Sno.	Item	Description	Links & Remarks
1	Requirements	Reduce up to 50% of the wastage and Cost reduction using various methods such as draft RFP, functional vs good to have features etc.	Clear Requirements Functional – Non-Functional Requirements Draft RFP
2	Location	Vendor location can save up to 50% costs.	Vendor Location
3	Timeline	Learn how realistic deadlines can save up to 50% costs and prevent project failures	Flash Effect
4	Design	Understand design and cosmetic clutter reduction which would help in huge cost savings when it comes to hardly used features	Cosmetic Clutter
5	Communication	How enhancing communication can solve your budget loop holes in custom software outsourcing	52 Hz Whale
6	Fixed Costs	Learn how effort vs fixed costs can help to reduce cost. Also, beware of cheap cost estimates from the vendors.	Cheap cost estimates Fixed Costs vs Efforts
7	Agile	Knowing more about agile development process can not only save you cost but also time. Don’t we know that time is money! That’s double saving isn’t?	Go Agile
8	Cloud Solution	Everyone loves a good cheap solution, and when it comes with loads of benefit why not? learn more about cloud computing and cost benefits of cloud.	Rest in Cloud
9	Bonus Cost Saver	Learn how to save up cost in IT environment overall and apply those principals to custom software outsourcing as well	10 ways to save up cost in IT

Thank you for dropping by and if you have any queries regarding the cost reduction techniques please head over here to write to us.

   Srivatsan Aravamudan

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United Airlines’ price of re-accommodation: How not to treat thy customers

A story that continues to gain attention amidst global news such as geopolitical confrontations of Syria & North Korea, is an everyday incident handled so poorly by United Airlines. On Sunday, an Asian-American doctor was forcibly removed from his seat and dragged down the aisle and off the plane, since he refused to leave the seat that he paid for. The videos taken by several passengers went viral and soon the tweet roasts by public started trending worldwide.

In summary, the airline had overbooked the flight - a common practice that’s usually resolved by finding volunteers to change flights and or using measures like offering travel vouchers. Since there were no volunteers, the man together with few passengers were selected randomly. And his refusal to comply was met with brutal force. On Tuesday, United issued an apology for having to “re-accommodate” those passengers which was met with severe criticism and fueled anger from public.

People had different reactions to the situation. while some labelled this as PR issue and others as poor customer service, serveral citizens started a boycott movement addressing the discrimination against the Asian origin. The shares came tumbling down and United Airlines lost about $950 million in market value in a day.

From ethical point of view, many regard this incident as a toxic combination of capitalism and corporate culture leading to a customer being dragged along the floor. The CEO’s choice of words in the apology not only proclaims this view but also shows the lack of empathy while handling sentiments of the customers.

Airlines are not charities and they are here to make money. While all of us understand that, the anger of public seems to stem out of deeper issue than customer service or bad PR. It’s the morality of the Airline while conducting the business. The goal of overbooking is not to reduce the price of tickets but to maximize the profits by increasing the volume. A strategy which clearly put the profit in center and not the customer.

While spectators yelled “That’s not right”, no staff seems to be paying attention to that feeling. The feeling of unjust laws of corporation overriding on human’s dignity. The flight crew kept silent, probably watching the incident in horror. But they did not react, which shows the toxicity of corporate culture. When the leaders feel, it is okay make unjust rules to their favor, employees are conditioned by those unjust laws as well.

Customers are not always right, but it is important to see their point of view. Even if it is not in accordance to the Business. Because that’s where the true sentiment of the customer lies. Why one chooses a brand over another sprout from that place. And I think it is a good place to start re-accommodating your business.

   Srivatsan Aravamudan

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Telephone	:	+65 62689551
Fax	:	+65 62689858

   Business Analyst - Snr Software Consultant.

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