Monthly Archives: September 2015

7 Key Factors to Consider Before Choosing an Outsourcing Company

Posted on September 26, 2015

Before you decide on which outsourcing company to partner with, read about these vital factors that can help you choose a reliable vendor.

Did you know that an outsourcing relationship can have a deep impact on your company’s reputation and bottom line? This is why you must be extremely cautious while making a choice about a prospective offshore vendor.

Here are some factors that you can examine, while selecting an outsourcing company. Considering these factors before choosing a vendor can ensure increased profits, stronger vendor relationships and higher customer satisfaction.

1.The Management Team
Find out as much as possible about who will be leading your offshore team. Check if they have the required exposure and experience to fulfil your requirements. With experienced management staff leading your offshore team, you can be guaranteed of a seamless transition of work and a successful outcome.

2. The Service Level Agreement
The SLA is the most integral document in an outsourcing partnership. Make sure that everything is clearly written out, with no room for confusion on any detail. Ensure that there is no ambiguity about the level of quality required for the services being offered.

3. Pricing
The price is usually the main motivation for outsourcing and hence it is important to avail the best possible price. Check on the vendor’s pricing structure and compare it with price offered by other service providers. Though considering the price is important, it should not be the only deciding factor.

4. The level of flexibility
Evaluate if the vendor you have choose is rigid or flexible in their approach. It is important for the vendor to be flexible enough to understand your concerns and offer possible solutions.

5. Communication
Any service provider should be able to clearly understand what is required and also promptly reply to your queries. The vendor should be competent enough to understand your requirements in clear terms, so that there are no delays in the completion of your project.

6. Trained resources
Find out if the vendor has appropriately qualified and experienced resources who will be competent enough to handle the day-to-day operations of your project efficiently and smoothly.

7. Reliability
Before signing an outsourcing contract, make sure to visit the vendor’s site. Checking on the infrastructure, back-ups for downtime, safeguards and the availability of the staff will give you a fair idea about the reliability of the vendor. Make sure to not completely place your trust on everything that is presented on paper. Personally visit the site to check is everything is also present on the floor. Continue reading →

PDF Vs ePub : Which Format to Use for your Ebook?

Posted on September 21, 2015

Publishing an eBook? Read this blog post to find out which format (PDF or ePUB) will be more suited for your ebook and popular reading devices.

With epublishing making it big in today’s world and eBooks becoming popular, you can choose between ePub or PDF. With advancements in technology and the coming of new reading devices like the Sony Reader, BeBook Neo, Kindle and Barnes & Noble Nook, publishing houses are now looking at developer-friendly files for the eBook market. Before you decide on which format is best for your ePublishing environment, read the advantages and disadvantages of the PDF and the ePub format.

PDF (Portable Document Format)

The PDF format was developed by Adobe Systems in the year of 1993. The two-dimensional layout of a PDF file can work independently on some operating systems and software. To view a PDF format on a computer, you must install Acrobat, a specialized reader.

The Pros

The most widely used electronic document format
Complete control over fonts and layouts
Files can be generated by GUI-based tools, other than those made by Adobe (Example: Microsoft Word can produce PDF files)
The reader software used to read PDFs is free and is pre-installed on most computers

Continue reading →

Top Five Elements of An E-commerce Website

Posted on September 13, 2015

What should you include when you create/optimize an e-commerce website? Here are five essential elements that every e-commerce website must contain.

More and more retailers are now preferring e-commerce websites over the traditional retail shop. E-commerce stores do have an endless list of benefits, though an actual retail shop is difficult to replace because of the physical shopping experience that it offers. However, there are ways to make the e-commerce experience for your customers brilliant.

Here are five essential elements that your e-commerce site should include:

1. Persuasive content

Your customers will not be able to “feel” a product until it is bought. To make up for this, your content should be convincing and give them the best impression about a product. A customer should be persuaded to buy, simply by reading your content. Ensure that every product on your site is well-displayed and accompanied by detailed, yet persuasive information.

2. Easy-to-use navigation and user flow

Since retailers are now aware that e-commerce platforms have many benefits, the competition within this market is stiff. The most important thing to do for your e-commerce platform is to offer the best user experience. This will keep your customers happy and make them come back for more. You could follow a very functional design or an intuitive concept. Just make sure that your site offers optimal navigation. Continue reading →

5 Advantages of Using PHP for Your Website

Posted on September 6, 2015

Well-organized modules, better upkeep of the latest technologies and a clear design have increased the credibility and popularity of PHP.

PHP is indeed a popular choice when it comes to the world of websites. This general-purpose scripting language is great for server-side web development, where PHP would run on a web server. Well-organized modules, better upkeep of the latest technologies and a clear design have increased the credibility and popularity of PHP. Reputed websites like Facebook and Harvard University are PHP based, mainly because PHP websites can be effortlessly maintained, improved or updated at regular intervals.

Here are some good reasons why you must consider picking up PHP for your website:

1. Open Source PHP is free

Since PHP is Open Source, it is readily available and completely free! It is also easy to find PHP developers, as all that they need to excel in PHP is to have a good know-how about Java and C. On the whole, PHP is very simple and can guarantee you great results.

2. PHP is cross platform

With PHP you can easily operate across any number of operating systems, as PHP is cross-platform. Whether you choose UNIX, LINUX or Windows platforms, PHP works excellently across all. PHP can also be easily interfaced with MySQL or Apache.

3. Good online support

With PHP being extremely popular, you can avail any number of references or guidelines from the net. If you are stuck with PHP at any point of time, there are plethora or forum, groups and teams that can help you. There is also an online library support to assist you. Continue reading →