2014 could see return of double-digit IT services growth

Article via Computer Weekly

Indian IT services supplier Infosys believes 2014 could see the return of double digit sales growth following a 5.8% increase over the last 12 months.

A total of $1.9bn sales in the final three months of its financial year took total sales for the 12-month period to $7.4bn.

But despite the revenue growth, Infosys’ profits dropped 4.1% to $444m in the final three months of its 2013 financial year that ended in March, as a result of staff costs and price reductions.

Infosys’ European head BG Srinivas, told Computer Weekly lower-than-expected sales meant it had too many staff on the books. Infosys could not fully use the staff it had retained as a result of customers delaying projects. Srinivas also said the services provider had reduced prices, which also affected profit.

Economic uncertainties meant the company has predicted a broad growth range of between 6% and 10%, but internally it is confident of double digits.

India-based IT services firms were for a long time associated with double digit growth, but such was the extent of the economic downturn that growth dropped significantly.

“As we enter 2014 we see a robust pipeline. But due to slowness in decision making and macro-economic uncertainty, we are predicting a broad range for growth,’ said Srinivas.

Srinivas said the growth over the next year will come in consulting and system integration, IT outsourcing and business process outsourcing (BPO), with Infosys making investments in cloud, mobility and business analytics.

Change Your Sales Pitches

Article via Staffing Talk

I just read this dense and really nerdy study fromUniversity of North Carolina that essentially proves three simple things: 1) most people find calorie totals meaningless, 2) most people are intimidated by exercise, and 3) people will eat differently if they know how much exercise it would take to burn their meals. What does this study have to do with staffing? Well maybe it’s just a lesson in speaking on your clients’ terms, rather than your own.

Let me explain.

The medical school research study, published inAppetite, asked people to look at one of four different types of menus before ordering food. 1) No nutritional info, 2) just calorie info, 3) calories plus minutes of walking it takes to burn the calories, and 4) calories plus distance you’d have to walk to burn the calories. What they found was that groups 1 and 2 acted almost the same and their orders averages 1,020 calories. Groups 3 and 4, meanwhile, averaged a significantly lower 826-calorie meal.

This study also mirrors the findings of Johns Hopkins when they posted signs at convenience store soda coolers that showed how much exercise it would take to burn off one soda (50 minutes of running). Not surprisingly, people were less likely to buy a soda.

What I love about this approach (other than the factthat it seems like a common sense thing to do) is that it takes away labeling foods and instead reframes it to labeling people. It’s a phenomenon that reminds me of a piece of sage advice I got as a budding journalist: if you can’t get them by the heartstrings, get them by the purse strings. The idea is to adjust and customize your message specifically for your audience so it speaks to them.

So if you hear clients say things like “you don’t offer enough value” or “you’re too expensive,” do the math and figure out exactly how much resources they spend on hiring right now, then translate that into dollars. The idea is that, instead of staring atyour price tag, you make them look at their price tag. If you get really good at framing your pitch, you might even be able to prove that you’re an investment that pays for itself and helps that client grow.

Improve Your Website: 3 Free Tools for ‘Screencasting’

Via Entrepreneur.com …

A screencast, or video of what’s happening on your computer screen, is commonly used for video tutorials. But screencasts can also be used to create a tour of your website, present a slide show or demonstrate the features of any online product.

While a screenshot is a static image of a computer screen, screencasts essentially are short movies with narration that can show changes made to a site or page over time. They can be used to demonstrate how to use a new piece of software, to report problems with your site or to illustrate potential changes to your site through a redesign.

All you need to create a screencast is a microphone and a service to capture the video. Here are three free tools that can help you get started on the right foot:

Related: 5 Steps to a Stress-Free Website Redesign

1. Screencast-o-matic. This free program lets you start recording within 30 seconds of opening the webpage. One button opens the resizeable recording frame. Another button starts the recording.

With Screencast-o-matic, you can record up to 15 minutes then upload your video directly to your YouTube account. You can create as many videos as you want for free, but they come with a “Screencast-o-matic” watermark in the corner.

To get screencasts without the watermark, upgrade to a pro account for $15 a year. This includes a full editing suite, screenshots, offline recording, additional publishing options and unlimited video length. If you’re going to shoot more than two screencasts a year, it can be worth the price.

2. Screenr. This is another free, instant record tool with a resizeable frame and one touch record button. Screenr only allows recordings up to five minutes and you’re required to sign in with a social media account such as Facebook, Twitter or Google.

The advantage is that you can easily upload short videos to your social media pages, not just YouTube. Screener’s free screencasts don’t include a watermark but they do make all videos public on their site so pass on this option if you need to keep your video private.
You can go private by paying $19 a month for a pro account, but even the paid options don’t include the ability to edit videos.

3. Jing. This is a free tool you download to your desktop and activate from an icon that stays at the top of your screen. Jing allows you to quickly grab stills or record anything on your screen with just a few clicks. You can pick up your full screen or any portion, then instantly upload to Facebook or Twitter.

Videos are limited to five minutes in length and, since they’re hosted on screencast.com, storage and bandwidth is limited to 2G a month. You can increase storage space to 25G with a Screencast Pro account for $9.99 per month. Even with the limitations, Jing is one of the quickest ways to create short, single-use videos on the fly.

Link to Original Article

Mobile Application Development

Providers of application development (AD) solutions are in a global race to aid CIOs and other IT leaders who are looking to create enterprise-friendly apps accessible on a host of devices, including smartphones and tablets. A recent Gartner study, “Market Trends: Application Development Software Worldwide, 2012-2016,” indicates that companies will be spending more than ever on AD software that enables their teams to quickly and easily develop new apps in a rapidly changing environment. Gartner predicts that mobile AD projects targeting smartphones and tablets will outnumber native PC projects by a ratio of 4:1 by 2015.

 

Cloud is also a big influencer. According to a statement from Gartner, “Cloud is changing the way applications are designed, tested and deployed, resulting in a significant shift in AD priorities. Cost is a major driver, but also agility, flexibility and speed to deploy new applications.” Gartner goes on to predict that, by 2015, 90 percent of large, mainstream enterprises and government agencies will use some aspect of cloud computing. Here are eight good reasons why CIOs should pay attention to global application development trends.

 

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Via CIO Insight