Comparing America's 3 Largest Internet Service Providers

Summary The Internet Service Providers industry is expected to outperform the S&P broader market substantially this quarter, underperform significantly next quarter, then outperform significantly in 2015 and beyond. Mean and high targets for the 3 largest U.S. Internet Service Providers companies – Trulia Inc, United Online, Spark Networks - range from 16% to 81% above current prices. Find out which among Trulia, United and Spark offers the best stock performance and investment value. * All data are as of the close of Wednesday, December 31, 2014. Emphasis is on company fundamentals and financial data rather than commentary. To understand what types of companies the Internet Service Providers industry contains, we need to make some distinctions, as the category is not as self-explanatory as one might think. Oddly enough, the Internet Service Providers industry does NOT include internet service providers. Mention "internet service providers" and we automatically think of companies that provide access to the internet through television cables, telephone lines, or wireless satellite systems. But those internet "access" providers are categories into various other industries, such as: • the Telecom Services industry - which includes Verizon (NYSE: VZ), AT&T (NYSE: T), CenturyLink (NYSE: CTL) and others, which industry is compared here, • the CATV Systems industry - which includes DirectTV (NASDAQ: DTV), Time Warner Cable (NYSE: TWC), and Dish Network (NASDAQ: DISH) and others, which industry is compared here, and • the Entertainment Diversified industry - which includes Comcast (NASDAQ: CMCSA) and others, which industry is compared here. No, the Internet Service Providers industry being covered in this comparison is limited to companies that provide services over the internet, not service to the internet. If you ask me, they could easily avoid the confusion simply by adding one letter to the industry's title, calling it "Internet Services Providers" instead of "Internet Service Providers". But that would mean writers like me would have less to write about. So now that we have that whole mess straightened out, just what kinds of internet services do the largest three U.S. companies in the space provide? • Trulia, Inc. (NYSE: TRLA), headquartered in San Francisco, California, provides an online platform for locating homes for sale or rent, helping not just buyers and renters search for their next residence but also enabling real estate professionals to market their listings. The company's platform supplies such information as a home's nearby schools, crime rates, neighborhood amenities, home values, and local community services. It should be noted that Trulia's largest competitor - Zillow, Inc. (NASDAQ: Z), which provides similar home buying and renting information - is actually categorized into a different industry, the Property Management industry in the Financial sector. This is most likely because Zillow also allows borrowers to connect with mortgage lenders, even though the company does not offer any financial services per se. These classifications never cease to amaze. • United Online, Inc. (NASDAQ: UNTD), headquartered in Woodland Hills, California, provides social networking services and products under the Classmates, StayFriends, and Trombi brand names, which include social platforms that enable users to locate and interact with acquaintances from their past. It also offers dial-up Internet access services under the NetZero and Juno brand names, providing mobile broadband, DSL, email, Internet security, and Web hosting services. So there you go… this one does live up to its industry's name. • Spark Networks, Inc. (NYSE: LOV), headquartered in Los Angeles, California, provides online personals services and dating services for singles to meet, participate in community events, and form relationships through its principal sites ChristianMingle.com targeting Christian singles and JDate.com targets Jewish singles. It also offers travel and other recreational events, including weekend getaways, dinners, speed dating events, or other meeting events. Yet as popular as these online services may be, the companies' stocks have not provided very good service to investors on a relative basis, as per the graph below. Since the recovery began in March of 2009, where the broader market S&P 500 index [black] has gained 205% and the SPDR Technology sector ETF (NYSE: XLK) [blue] has gained 212%, only one of the three companies here compared has come close to the two benchmarks - namely Trulia [beige], which has risen 90% in its short 2.5 year publicly traded history, averaging a comparable rate of growth. For their part, United [purple] has gained 180%, while Spark [orange] has been rather unattractive with gains of just 55%. On an annualized basis, where the S&P has averaged 35.65% and XLK has averaged 36.87%, Spark has averaged 9.57%, United has averaged 31.30%, and Trulia has averaged 37.24% per year. These would still be great returns in any normal period. But the recovery since 2009 has not been a normal period, and much better returns have been found elsewhere. (click to enlarge) Source: BigCharts.com Looking at future earnings growth, the Internet "Services" Providers industry (we may as well call it by its clearer name) as a whole is expected to out-provide the broader market considerably, as tabled below where green indicates outperformance while yellow denotes underperformance. In the current quarter, the industry is seen outgrowing the market's growth rate at some 3.13 times its average, before slowing to a lesser but still robust rate of 2.68 times in 2015, and 2.21 times annually over the next five years. (click to enlarge) Zooming-in a little closer, the earnings growth rates of our three competitors look very promising, as tabled below. Although Trulia's and United's earnings are seen shrinking in the current quarter, both companies are seen growing in leaps and bounds going forward - with United beating the S&P's average growth at 13.97 times next quarter, and Trulia beating it at 21.63 times in 2015. But the earnings sparks fly for Spark as well, without a near term set back, as it is expected to beat the broader market's growth as far as the eye can see. (click to enlarge) Yet there is more than earnings growth to consider when sizing up a company as a potential investment. How do the three compare against one another in other metrics, and which makes the best investment? Let's answer that by comparing their company fundamentals using the following format: a) financial comparisons, b) estimates and analyst recommendations, and c) rankings with accompanying data table. As we compare each metric, the best performing company will be shaded green while the worst performing will be shaded yellow, which will later be tallied for the final ranking. A) Financial Comparisons • Market Capitalization: While company size does not necessarily imply an advantage and is thus not ranked, it is important as a denominator against which other financial data will be compared for ranking. (click to enlarge) • Growth: Since revenues and expenses can vary greatly from one season to another, growth is measured on a year-over-year quarterly basis, where Q1 of this year is compared to Q1 of the previous year, for example. In the most recently reported quarter, Trulia delivered the greatest revenue growth year-over-year at an exceptional degree, while Spark delivered the least, even shrinkage along with United. Since none of the companies' trailing earnings growth is available, the metric cannot factor into the comparison. (click to enlarge) • Profitability: A company's margins are important in determining how much profit the company generates from its sales. Operating margin indicates the percentage earned after operating costs, such as labor, materials, and overhead. Profit margin indicates the profit left over after operating costs plus all other costs, including debt, interest, taxes and depreciation. Of our three contestants, Spark operated with the widest profit margin while United operated with the widest operating margin. At the narrow end of the scale, United and Trulia contended with the narrowest margins. It is worth noting that all three companies reported negative margins, denoting loss by all. (click to enlarge) • Management Effectiveness: Shareholders are keenly interested in management's ability to do more with what has been given to it. Management's effectiveness is measured by the returns generated from the assets under its control, and from the equity invested into the company by shareholders. For their managerial performance, United's management team delivered the greatest returns on assets where Trulia's team delivered the greatest returns on equity. At the low end of the spectrum, Spark's team delivered the least. Here again it is worth noting that all three companies reported negative returns, denoting loss of assets and equity by all three. (click to enlarge) • Earnings Per Share: Of all the metrics measuring a company's income, earnings per share is probably the most meaningful to shareholders, as this represents the value that the company is adding to each share outstanding. Since the number of shares outstanding varies from company to company, I prefer to convert EPS into a percentage of the current stock price to better determine where an investment could gain the most value. Of the three companies here compared, Trulia provides common stock holders with the greatest diluted earnings per share gain as a percentage of its current share price, while United's DEPS over current stock price is lowest, even negative denoting loss. And of course, here again all three companies' figures are negative, denoting loss. (click to enlarge) • Share Price Value: Even if a company outperforms its peers on all the above metrics, however, investors may still shy away from its stock if its price is already trading too high. This is where the stock price relative to forward earnings and company book value come under scrutiny, as well as the stock price relative to earnings relative to earnings growth, known as the PEG ratio. Lower ratios indicate the stock price is currently trading at a cheaper price than its peers, and might thus be a bargain. Among our three combatants, United's stock is cheapest relative to company book value, while Trulia's is cheapest relative to 5-year PEG. At the overpriced end of the scale, Spark's stock is the most overvalued relative to company book, where United's is most overpriced relative to PEG. Since Spark's price to forward earnings is not available, the metric does not factor into the comparison, though it is worth noting that Trulia's price to forward earnings is tremendously overpriced compared to United's. (click to enlarge) B) Estimates and Analyst Recommendations Of course, no matter how skilled we perceive ourselves to be at gauging a stock's prospects as an investment, we'd be wise to at least consider what professional analysts and the companies themselves are projecting - including estimated future earnings per share and the growth rate of those earnings, stock price targets, and buy/sell recommendations. • Earnings Estimates: To properly compare estimated future earnings per share across multiple companies, we would need to convert them into a percentage of their stocks' current prices. Of our three specimens, United offers the highest percentage of earnings over current stock price for all time periods. At the low end of the scale, Trulia offers the lowest percentages for next quarter (shrinkage even), while Spark offers it for all remaining periods (with shrinkage for 2015). (click to enlarge) • Earnings Growth: For long-term investors this metric is one of the most important to consider, as it denotes the percentage by which earnings are expected to grow or shrink as compared to earnings from corresponding periods a year prior. For earnings growth, Spark offers the greatest growth in the current quarter, United offers it next quarter, where Trulia offers it in 2015 and beyond. At the low end of the spectrum, Trulia offers the slowest growth prospects over the near term (with some shrinkage), United offers it in 2015, while both United and Spark are tied for slowest growth annually over the next five years. (click to enlarge) • Price Targets: Like earnings estimates above, a company's stock price targets must also be converted into a percentage of its current price to properly compare multiple companies. For their high, mean and low price targets over the coming 12 months, analysts believe Spark's stock offers the greatest upside potential and least downside risk, while United's stock offers the least upside and Trulia's offers the greatest downside. It must be noted, however, that United's and Spark's stocks are already trading below their low targets. While this may mean increased potential for sharp moves upward, it may warrant reassessments of future expectations. It must also be noted that United and Spark each has only one broker making a prognostication, potentially limiting the targets' accuracy. (click to enlarge) • Buy/Sell Recommendations: After all is said and done, perhaps the one gauge that sums it all up are analyst recommendations. These have been converted into the percentage of analysts recommending each level. However, I factor only the strong buy and buy recommendations into the ranking. Hold, underperform and sell recommendations are not ranked since they are determined after determining the winners of the strong buy and buy categories, and would only be negating those winners of their duly earned titles. Of our three contenders, United is best recommended with 0 strong buy and 2 buys representing a combined 100% of its 2 analysts, followed by Spark with 1 strong buy and 0 buy ratings representing 50% of its 2 analysts, and lastly by Trulia with 0 strong buy and 1 buy recommendation representing 11.11% of its 9 analysts. (click to enlarge) C) Rankings Having crunched all the numbers and compared all the projections, the time has come to tally up the wins and losses and rank our three competitors against one another. In the table below you will find all of the data considered above plus a few others not reviewed. Here is where using a company's market cap as a denominator comes into play, as much of the data in the table has been converted into a percentage of market cap for a fair comparison. The first and last placed companies are shaded. We then add together each company's finishes to determine its overall ranking, with first place finishes counting as merits while last place finishes count as demerits. (click to enlarge) And the winner is… United in a class all by itself, outperforming in 14 metrics and underperforming in 7 for a net score of +7, followed far behind by both Trulia and Spark in a tie at -4 a piece. Where the Internet Services Providers industry is expected to outperform the S&P broader market substantially this quarter, underperform significantly next quarter, then outperform significantly in 2015 and beyond, the three largest U.S. companies in the space are expected to outgrow the broader market in earnings at pretty impressive rates - with Spark growing as much as 8.29 times next quarter, United growing as much as 13.97 times next quarter, and Trulia growing as much as 21.63 times the S&P's average growth rate in 2015. Yet after taking all company fundamentals into account, United Online, Inc. brings investors together given its lowest stock price to company book value, highest cash and revenue over market cap, lowest debt over market cap, widest operating margin, highest return on assets, highest EBITDA over market cap and revenue, highest future earnings over current stock price in all periods, highest future earnings growth next quarter, and most analyst buy recommendations - decisively winning the Internet Service Providers industry competition. Editor's Note: This article covers one or more stocks trading at less than $1 per share and/or with less than a $100 million market cap. Please be aware of the risks associated with these stocks. Disclosure: The author has no positions in any stocks mentioned, and no plans to initiate any positions within the next 72 hours. The author wrote this article themselves, and it expresses their own opinions. The author is not receiving compensation for it (other than from Seeking Alpha). The author has no business relationship with any company whose stock is mentioned in this article. (More...)

This was the Internet’s worst, best year ever

This year was a hugely momentous one in the evolution of the global network of networks we call the Internet. Since its creation as a side project of a handful of academics and military researchers in the United States some 50 years ago, the Internet has grown to encompass the whole world. But 2014 was in many ways a mixed bag for the Internet. It showed the Internet at its strongest, reaching more people, more ways than at any point in the past. But at the same time, it has also never been more threatened by everything from hackers to censors to autocrats newly attuned to the power of the online world. 1) The Internet has never been less free. In its early days, the Internet was thought of as a place where people around the world could live according to the principles of free expression and self-determination. But every year it is falling shorter of that ideal. The pro-democracy group Freedom House tallies global metrics for all sorts of online freedom, from the ability to experience an uncensored Internet to the healthy treatment of women online. In 2014, that scored dropped for the fourth year in a row. That said... 2) A tremendous number of people came online for the first time this year. The number of regular Internet users grew by about 250 million people in just the last 12 months. That's like adding the entire population of the United States to the online world all at once -- or the number of people living in all of Russia, France, Kenya, and South Korea combined. More people connected means more of them benefiting from the wealth of what's available online. On the other hand... 3) Even democracies abused the Internet. A March report from the group Reporters Without Borders identified government bodies around the world that are actively engaged in spying on what happens online. Some aren't surprising: Pakistan's main telecomm agency, North Korea's science branch, or China's chief information office. But that others exist within the confines of the planet's most celebrated democracies -- from the Centre for Development of Telematics in India to the National Security Agency in the United States -- reveals, says the group, a worrisome global "schizophrenic attitude" towards surveillance. And yet... 4) The rights of the online citizen were enshrined. Five years ago, Brazil's ministry of justice and the country's legal community began work on a sort of Internet bill of rights for the people of that nation. This year, the product of that work, called the Marco Civil da Internet, was signed into law. It guarantees, among other things, the citizen's right to a robust Internet connection and strong online privacy protections. The first of its kind in the world, the landmark law stands up for the idea that online rights are to be cherished and protected like any other set of civil rights. But... 5) Other countries turned informal Internet crackdowns into official rules and laws. In Russia, where bloggers are often some of the few voices speaking out against the Kremlin, new rules were adopted requiring those with even modest online followings to submit to the same restrictions as the mainstream media. In post-coup d'état Thailand, the military ordered Internet service providers to submit to its dictates. And in Somalia, the al-Shabab militia went one step further: in the parts of the country it controls, it formally banned the Internet altogether. Still... 6) The World Wide Web passed the billion domain mark. In the early days of the World Wide Web -- the Internet's killer app -- there were so few Web sites that aficionados would hand-curate directories of everything that was neat, intriguing, or simply just available online. Just two decades later, it would take someone typing out a similar list of everything available online about 150 years. Barely into adulthood, the World Wide Web is remarkably robust and only getting more so. On the other hand... 7) Hackers exposed the Internet's fundamental insecurities. No matter if it was the work of North Korea, disgruntled ex-employees, or other hackers, the recent breaching of Sony's computer networks was eye-opening. The Internet was built on trust. But it became inescapably clear this year just how far some are willing go to turn it into a global battleground. And the initial decision not to screen the movie at the center of the hack revealed that, when it comes to responding to online threats that move offline, we are frighteningly unprepared. Even so... 8) Millions of people in the United States voiced their opinions on "net neutrality." Whatever side of the debate over the fair treatment of online content you are on, the unprecedented nearly 4 million comments received by regulators at the Federal Communications Commission were a remarkable display of how the once obscure policy issue has captured the attention of the American public. And while this was only the U.S. making laws, given the prime role the U.S. plays in the Internet, people all around the world paid close attention to its outcome. Nonetheless... 9) Governments moved to splinter off their own piece of the digital world. More and more, leaders decided that it's easier for them to shape what happens online if they make sure that a greater part of it takes place within their borders. Some in Germany and Europe, for example, began entertaining the idea of a so-called "Schengen Zone" where Europeans' digital data, from e-mails to social media traffic, would be housed on servers within the confines of that continent. The Internet is one of the few things the people of the world share without regard to political boundaries. But increasingly dividing lines that carve up the rest of our lives are being imposed upon it. Hang on... 10) Fighting for the Internet drove people into the streets. In Mexico in April, thousands formed a human chain to object to a telecommunications bill that would, among other things, allow the shutting down of the Internet during political protests. In Bolivia in May, activists crawled through roadways dressed as snails to protest slow Internet speeds. And in Hungary in October, people threw computers into the streets to protest a proposed tax on Internet use. The Hungarians won: the government backed down from the idea. In 2014, people around the world were willing to defend the Internet like any other political value they hold dear. That, in fact, people seemed to have never been more passionate about the fate of the Internet is perhaps, the one main lesson from this past year in the Internet's life. And that likely bodes well for its future. Nancy Scola is a reporter who covers the intersections of technology and public policy, politics, and governance.

Finance Ministry turns down Home Ministry's demand for Rs 1500 crore

NEW DELHI: The Home Ministry on Thursday went into fire-fighting mode after a letter written by it to all states was revealed which said the Finance Ministry has denied it an additional Rs 1500 crore allocation for police modernization funds at the Revised Expenditure (RE) stage. Home Minister Rajnath Singh had earlier last year pushed for the Modernisation of Police Forces (MPF) Scheme funds to be doubled from Rs 1500 crore to Rs 3000 crore. The same was announced by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley in his maiden budget speech. "The additional allocation of Rs 1500 crore as per Budget 2014-15 announcement has not been provided under the MPF Scheme at RE stage. Therefore, additional state action plans received from various states will not be considered during the current financial year," says the Home Ministry letter of December 29 written to Director General of Police (DGPs) and Principal Home Secretaries of all states and marked to the Union Home Secretary and all Joint Secretaries in Home Ministry. This letter was duly uploaded on the Home Ministry website on Thursday. When asked about the reasons for the denial of the additional funds, a Home Ministry spokesperson told ET that the RE decisions had "still not been communicated" to the Home Ministry. "There seems to be some mistake in the letter...the same is being withdrawn from the website. The assumption about the funds not being provided at RE stage may be based on discussions," the spokesperson said. The letter however clearly says that the additional action plans submitted by various states for the MPF fund "will not be considered during the current financial year and may be merged/absorbed in the action plans for 2015-16". A government source said non-submission of plans by some states or the non-utilisation of the existing grant by states may be a factor for the Finance Ministry to not clear the additional grant this year. The Home Ministry in a letter to all states on September 4 had informed them that the Finance Minister in his budget speech had proposed to enhance the allocation for the MPF Scheme from a sum of Rs 1500 crore to Rs 3000 crore during 2014-15. "However, the enhanced allocation may be made available at RE 2014-15, provided the states are able to provide Utilisation certificates for the previous releases and the allocation already made during 2014-15 is fully released to states," the September 4 letter said. In another letter to states on October 22, the Home Ministry had said that proposals from many states on how to spend the additional funds were still to be received. "It may be stated that any further delay in submission of the proposals for 2014-15 may adversely impact the approval process/timelines and affect the timely release of funds," the Home Ministry wrote on October 22 to all states.

Real estate sales market in Dubai has outperformed

The real estate sales market in Dubai has outperformed the rental market in the last year, sparking a squeeze in yields and prompting concerns that the fundamentals of the market are becoming skewed. Malaysia_real_estate_low_res Soaring house prices in Dubai led the global rankings for four quarters according to real estate agency Knight Frank, and in some areas, prices were back to near pre-crisis levels, prompting the UAE Central Bank to issue a warning in June of “growing imbalances” and “an overheating real estate market”. A month later, the IMF said that action may be necessary if real estate prices continue to rise rapidly. All eyes on yields The trend of low yields has been particularly evident in the apartment segment, where sales prices increased 25% year-on-year (y-o-y) in the third quarter. The rental market, in comparison, rose 16% during the same period, according to commercial real estate services company CBRE. A report compiled by Unitas Consultancy and the real estate data analytics firm Reidin found that residential rents across the emirate contracted by 1% in the third quarter over the previous quarter, with net yields ranging from 3.5% to 7.6%. In June rental yields in Dubai stood at 70 basis points below historical averages according to the report released in late July 2014. Christopher Seymour, head of property UAE at consultancy EC Harris, points to the investment market, in terms of buy-to-let properties, as a key barometer of confidence in a property market and an early warning sign of potential future trouble. “In all sectors, if the investment market dies away, it shows there’s no growth. And the yield compression in the Dubai residential market is really telling us that story now,” he told OBG. Supply versus demand In spite of a growing consensus that Dubai’s residential property market is edging towards a peak, most experts do not believe the emirate is heading for a repeat of the last property crash. “Between 40,000 and 50,000 units were handed over each year in the 2007-08 period,” Matt Green, head of research at CBRE Middle East told OBG. “We’re certainly not there at the moment, with around 62,000 units scheduled for completion by the end of 2017.” In November, ratings agency Standard & Poor’s said prices are likely to soften due to supply in the market. “Developers are likely to continue to feed the market with new supply − particularly the top-tier players, such as UAE-based Emaar Properties, which can attract off-plan buyers for their launches, meaning they sell properties before they’re built,” said S&P. “We thus expect supply additions to outpace demand over the next few years and believe prices are likely to stabilise or soften.” Dubai’s reputation as a safe haven, at a time when much of the region remains weighed down by instability, has helped it to maintain strong investment inflows, but, simultaneously, has made it difficult to estimate levels of sustainable demand. Reidin and Unitas point out that the sales segment continues to be dominated by cash buyers, which accounted for 72% of transactions at the beginning of the year. Unlike the last boom cycle, the injection of supply is more gradual in the both the residential and commercial segment. “Population and employment growth is enough to support 15,000 to 20,000 residential units each year and this is the current pipeline, so we don’t think there’s an oversupply problem,” Craig Plumb, head of research for the Middle East and North Africa at real estate services company Jones Lang LaSalle told OBG. Reassuring investors Measures introduced by the Real Estate Regulatory Agency since 2008 aimed at cooling speculation have proved largely effective. Stamp duty (a registration fee) has been raised from 2% to 4%, while new obligations imposed on developers looking to sell off-plan are now in force. An interactive investment map, brought in by the Dubai Land Department, is supporting the measures by providing greater clarity for investors. Prices in Dubai’s luxury homes market fell 0.2% y-o-y in the third quarter, after rising 6.3% y-o-y in the second quarter. Knight Frank, which compiled the data, attributed the drop to a mortgage cap, which imposes even stricter borrowing criteria for those purchasing properties above $1.36m. The off-plan market has already eased in recent years with broker estimates placing current sales at between 2000 and 3000 units per year. “The biggest issue is whether there will be any exogenous shocks and liquidity drying up, but at this stage I do not see this happening,” Rehan Akbar, analyst for EMEA corporate finance at Moody’s Investors Service Middle East told OBG. Fundamental demand, analysts conclude, remains relatively strong. “There is continued investment demand so we don’t think there will be a major correction,” Plumb said. Caution, rather than pessimism, seems to sum up the current mood. Do you have a story or an article to publish? Please email us at spyghana79@gmail.com.

Catching the Christmas trade: 10 tips for online shops

The peak selling season is here. Online traders should use the pre-Christmas period to perfect the presentation of their range. Our 10 tips will ensure your online shop is in shape for the Christmas trade. Online Christmas trading gets going from mid- to late November. This is the period when online retailers see a significant increase in turnover. The buying frenzy then continues until about four days before Christmas Eve. Why? Because from then on time is running out for items to be delivered on time. But even then Christmas trading is nowhere near over. Our 10 tips show you how to get your online shops in the best shape to cope with the Christmas rush. Fast delivery The weeks leading up to Christmas are, without doubt, a stressful period for you as a trader. But customers are also in a rush and they will take their anger at delayed online orders out on you. For this reason, in addition to the standard delivery (2-3 days), you must be sure to offer an express delivery (24 hours). You should also make the payment methods available clear to your customers, as these are a very important factor in the purchase decision. Proactively contact customers The pre-Christmas period is a very good time for customer newsletters. Write to your customers and tell them, for example, that your online store will deliver as quickly as possible or that your range includes special festive offers. Keep an eye on your stock Check stock levels in advance and stock up on your best sellers. Avoid having to advertise popular items as “Not available” at all costs. It’s also important to remove items that are no longer in stock from the range immediately or stipulate a reliable delivery date. Check the website It goes without saying that you know your own online store like the back of your hand. Even so, in the pre‑Christmas period you should be even more vigilant in checking and improving your website. Highlight your customer service, mention the delivery options (standard and express delivery) – it’s better to do it once too often rather than not enough, and don’t forget to highlight discounts and the payment options available. When delivery time is short just before Christmas, that’s when gift vouchers come into their own. Offer vouchers Don’t underestimate the option of vouchers, as gifts of money can be of great significance. Offer your customers a gift card. Prepaid credit cards, ideally branded, are perfect for this. They can be personalised and have your logo on them. For prepaid credit cards the only technical requirement is your standard credit card tool. Offer accessories People loosen the purse strings at Christmas and customers like to buy even more than they originally planned to. For that reason it is important to display suitable accessories alongside selected items at all times. Christmas service It’s not only your stock that needs to be primed for the Christmas trade. Customer service is also on red alert for six weeks. Prepare your customer service for the stressful Christmas trade; that will be sure to pull in extra sales. Show goodwill Put your store’s goodwill agreements to the test. It’s definitely worth adapting them and adjusting them to fit the customer. But one thing to note: that doesn’t mean giving the customer something for nothing. Just be aware of your customers’ needs. Satisfied customers will come back. Collect customer feedback On the subject of satisfied customers, do follow-up with your customers after delivery. Ask them whether everything was to their satisfaction. If for whatever reason that’s not the case, try to help the customer. Post-Christmas is just like pre-Christmas So Christmas is over and sales were good? Congratulations, but for online shops the whole circus starts again on Boxing Day. Impatient types will shop online at Christmas just the same or will want to exchange something quickly. Stay in contact with your customer as immediately after the Christmas trade comes what is known as the post-Christmas trade.

Google folds My Maps into Drive

by Jon Mundy 11 December 2014 | Share: Google has incorporated its My Maps map creation tool into Google Drive. The company's custom map creation tool can now be accessed through its cloud storage and document editing tool. In a recent Google Maps blog post, Google revealed that "Creating a custom map is just as easy as opening up a new Google Doc." Just head to Google Drive and hit the New button, then open out the More menu, and you'll find Google My Maps as the bottom option. The Google My Maps tool lets you create and save journeys, which is perfect for planning holidays or road trips, or for documenting such trips. With Google Drive storage now part of the package, you can now put your maps in folders and search for them just as you would a normal document. This latest update also gives you the ability to add more layers and points of interest to your maps, as well as to import bigger spreadsheets and include more details in info boxes. Google has promised that, over the next week, all of the maps you've already created with the My Maps tool will be available to you through Google Drive. All in all, this seems like a natural step in Google's push to place Google Drive at the heart of productivity rather than just cloud storage. Read More: Best cloud storage services You can now stow your own My Maps in Google Drive JC Torres With yet another holiday fast approaching, Google is trying to help make your vacation planning a lot easier, and keep you inside its ecosystem of services while doing so. But even if you're not dreaming of your remote island getaway, getting Google's My Maps creation tool inside Google Drive is still a convenience for any traveler, or even just a digital surveyor, as it puts all your custom-made maps in a single location, stored on Google's cloud, of course. Creating your own map is quite simple now really. No need to memorize a URL, bookmark a page, or dig through menus. Simply go to your Google Drive account on the Web, create a new document, specifically the Map type. From that point forward, you're free to create your map as you would normally in My Maps, adding layers of data from spreadsheets or map files. Aside from a single place to start making maps, Google Drive integration also means that you can manage all your maps in a single file manager interface. Group them into folders, copy them, rename them, and even delete them, all from a single location. Now you can keep your holiday plans separate from, say, your business trips. Google is also updating the My Maps service with even more functionality. The amount of layers, the distinct and independent pieces of information you can overlay on a base map, has been increased. Larger spreadsheets can also now be imported with ease. Sadly, all of these are not available from the convenience of Google's mobile apps. As My Maps is a browser-based tool, it stands that integration with Google Drive only works on the browser interface as well. The My Maps files themselves of course appear in the Drive mobile app, but you can only view them from within a web browser. SOURCE: Google Google Drive Errors Preventing Users From Working The past few months or so Google Drive has had numerous issues preventing users from fully enjoying the suite of applications available. The most recent of errors occurred today, where many are reporting receiving an Internal Server Error 500 message upon loading up the service. This issue has been experienced for the past few days now, with users having the most trouble signing in to the service yesterday. Google will need to release an update as soon as possible to ensure everyone may gain access to their files and work in a timely manner, though some may be able to gain access now. Unfortunately, the Google Drive app status page is suggesting there are no problems being experienced within the application at the moment, but the users are still reporting the problems. Users were taking to the social media site Twitter to report the problems, and a constant stream of them were occurring quite regularly. Most of these users were rather unhappy about being unable to access the service, which is understandable. Is it unclear whether Google realizes the current problems being experienced, but we imagine word has already made its way to them by now. Knowing the tech firm, however, it may take them quite some time to release a working update for everyone. The company is known for releasing updates in tiers, thus ensuring they have a chance to fix any issues occurring following the most recent update. Of course, that also means not everyone will receive the fix at the same time. If you’re experiencing any problems with Google Drive, we highly recommend sending in a report to Google, or take to the same Twitter page everyone else has been using the past couple of days. Hopefully Google will fix the solution soon, then everyone can get back to their work.

Google Nexus 6 release date, price and specs UK: Finally on sale but in limted supply

Everything you need to know about the new Nexus 6 made by Motorola with Android 5.0 Lollipop By Chris Martin | PC Advisor | 11 December 14 As expected, Google has announced the Nexus 6 smartphone with Android 5.0 Lollipop by way of a quick blog post rather than the big launch event but the device is having launch woes. It's finally on sale so here's all the Nexus 6 release date, price, pre-order and specs you need. Updated on 11/12/14. See also: Best smartphones 2014. Just a day before Apple announced new iPads, Google unveiled a range of new devices to go with Android 5.0 Lollipop including the Nexus 9 and Nexus Player. See also: Nexus 5 vs Nexus 6 comparison: why Google's latest smartphone isn't necessarily a natural upgrade. Google Nexus 6: Release date and price UK Update: Although Google initially announced that the Nexus 6 will be available to pre-order in the UK in November and go on sale the same month, this has simply not happened. The device is now on the Google Play store priced at £499 for 32 GB and £549 for 64 GB but the only model available (as of 11/12) is the 32 GB blue and it will leave the warhouse in 3-4 weeks! O2 has contacted us to announce the Nexus 6 is now available. Although O2 was the first to put the device on sale (4 December), launch woes continue elsewhere - see below. Read: Where to buy the Nexus 6 in the UK. We heard from various retailers that the phone would go on sale on 1 December but that day has arrived and thing appear to have only got worse. Big high street name Carphone Warehouse now has the 32 GB blue model and although it claims to have an exclusive on the white model, it is available for pre-order and expected on 29 December. Meanwhile, Clove has pre-sold all its stock which it is expecting on 22 December with a second batch set to arrive 'late December' and there is limited stock available to order now. Mobilefun says the nexus 6 is due in a whopping two months on the blue model and Expansys doesn't even state when it is expecting the device. Mobiles.co.uk also gave a release date of 1 December but currently expects delivery on 15 December. With Christmas fast approachingthe Nexus 6 launch situation isn't good and Google has been all too quiet on the subject. We've reached out for comment and will update you as soon as we can. Google Nexus 6 smartphone Android 5.0 Lollipop Google Nexus 6: Specs and features The Nexus 6 has been built by Motorola for Google and looks very similar to the Moto X. It has a 'contoured aluminium frame' which houses a 5.96in Quad HD screen (493ppi). Google's tag line for the phone is "more room to explore". Along with the Nexus 9, it is the launch product for a new version of Android which we now know is 5.0 Lollipop. This will also be available for the Nexus 7, Nexus 6 and Nexus 10 in the 'coming weeks'. Nexus 6 with Android 5.0 Lollipop Back to the Nexus 6 and it features a 13Mp rear facing camera with optical image stabilisation (OIS), front facing stereo speakers and the latest Qualcomm Snapdragon 805 processor which is clocked at 2.7 GHz. It includes the Adreno 420 GPU. The Nexus 6 will come in 32- or 64 GB capacities but there's still no microSD card slot. Inside is a 3220mAh and Google touts over 24 hours of use. The firm also touts up to 6 hours of use from only 15 minutes of charging (if the battery is substantially depleted). • OS: Android 5.0 Lollipop • Display: 5.96in 1440 x 2560 display (493 ppi) • Battery: 3220 mAh • Camera: 13 Mp rear-facing with optical image stabilisation, 2 Mp rear-facing • Processor: Qualcomm Snapdragon 805, 32-bit Quad Core 2.7 GHz, Adreno 420 • Memory: 32/64GB See our original Nexus 6 rumour round-up on the next page After ‘Big Billion Day’ Fiasco, Flipkart Shies Away From GOSF-2014 Google’s Great Online Shopping Festival Google GOSF (Google Online Shopping Festival) kicks off today, Wednesday, Dec.10, 2014. Google GOSF (Google Online Shopping Festival) kicks off today, Wednesday, Dec.10, 2014. As Google’s 3rd Great Online Shopping Festival (GOSF) kicks off today, India’s major retialers including Flipkart, which has sold $100 million worth merchandise in Big Billion Sale recently is shying from the event, not merely because of its own technical glitch but also owing to the threat the Google mega-sale would pose in the future. But, more than 300 retailers have already queued up for merchandise from consumer durables to housing, besides brands in travel, fashion and accessories. But protesting the mega-sale, the Confederation of All India Traders (CAIT), comprising medium and small retailers, has complained to Finance Minister Arun Jaitley fearing threat to their bricks and mortar model. Even the big retailers like Reliance Industries, ITC and Aditya Birla Group have already raised voice against the discounts being offered online. The recent example of selling President Pranab Mukherjee exclusively on Amazon has irked book stores to threaten to boycott the publisher. The experiment, started with Xiaomi is another challenge to Indian smartphone makers and not falling behind, Micromax is also planning to launch a new Canvas phone exclusively on Flipkart. However, with more than 400 brands on GOSF sale through the gosf.in website, with price comaprison websites on stand-by, while this time snapdeal.com, amazon.in, ebay.in, limeroad.com, shopclues.com and jabong.com are prominent on the sale front, though Flipkart is giving a cautious miss this time. Launched in 2012 by Google, the 2013 sales saw almost 200% rise in sales, claim 200 GOSF participants, with the peak time from 2 to 8 PM in India. This year, Google India has an ‘exclusive launch corner’, where its own products for the Indian buyers will be available including Nexus 6 and Chromecast. Another new section called the “Rs 299 Corner”, similar to the 100-YEN sales in Japan would feature this time to cater the price-sensitive Indian buyers. Snapdeal, ebay, Jabong, Firstcry, Fab Furnish, Lensekart and Yepme.com are among those offering the Rs 299 deals on wrist watches, electronics, clothes, linen and furnishing material. Even big time real estate companies including the Tata Housing is offering flats in cities of Bangalore, Pune, Chennai and Ahmedabad, while car makers offering their brands today include Fiat, Mahindra, Renault, Chevrolet, Ford and Nissan. Job portals like Naukri, Shine and Monster are offering discounts and healthcare, travel and luxury premium products are not far behind from the show, including the insurance policy available on discount. Twitter is going gaga with its GOSF 2014 handle #72HoursOfCrazy, while most of the buyers have posted their grievances. It remains to be seen how far this year’s Google Great Sale will go. Related Google Online Shopping Festival 2014: Get Best Deals On Your Car Accessories at GOSF 2014 Sale Conceptualized in the lines of the US’s Cyber Monday, the GOSF, first initiated on 12 December 2012, is an initiative by Google India. Devised in collaboration with a number of Indian online shopping portals, the GOSF not only offer online shoppers some heavy discounts and deals on leading products, but also to promote their sales. As of Today, motor enthusiast can find some exception deal on car accessories, especially at the 299 Corner, where you can buy some essential accessories like Car Care Kit, 2x4 SMD/LED Lights, Tyre Pressure Gauge, Mobile charges and more, all for the rate of INR.299 only. Apart from these there are more in line, right from discounts up to INR 4000 to exclusive launches and offer. Moreover, the offers do not just end at accessories, even leading car brands have come up with some exciting deals and offers. With brands like Renault, Ford and Skoda offering quite some big discount and benefits, booking your car today might be a wise option. With online shopping sites offering you discount ranging right from 30% to 80% off, there couldn’t be a best time to add some cool Bling! Bling! to your sweet ride.

Google's expansion to cars and TVs will be powered by Android Studio apps

Android Studio's installation wizard highlights what Google's hope for the IDE is. Android Studio's installation wizard highlights what Google's hope for the IDE is. The usefulness of Android in your car, on your TV and smartwatch will be decided by app availability, and Google is hoping to make it easier to create them with its new development environment, Android Studio. Google has, with the introductions of Android Wear, TV and Auto, expanded its operating system to new product categories. All three pieces of software are for highly competitive areas where consumers have a lot of choice, and killer apps are needed to differentiate from the competition and convince people that they actually need a smartwatch or a TV with Android. Apps that work across all three platforms will be easier to build using Android Studio, the IDE (integrated development environment) that was finally introduced Monday. When developers install version 1.0 of the IntelliJ-based Java tool they are greeted with a panel showing a smartphone, tablet, smartwatch, car, TV and a pair of glasses, highlighting Google's hopes. "I think that tooling is really important in making it easy for us as developers to target these new form factors and platforms, and Android Studio helps a lot here," said Marius Mårnes Mathiesen, head of Android development at Norwegian consultant Shortcut, via email. Whether developers will actually target these product markets is a different story. More cars and TVs running Android are needed for those two to attract developers, according to Mathiesen. Android Wear makes more sense since there are a growing number products, even though many of them haven't been well received. Also, developers get some functionality free, because of the way the development environment works, Mathiesen said. When an Android smartphone or tablet and smartwatch are connected, the handhelds automatically share notifications with the wearable. Google is also hoping to convince developers to add wearable-specific functionality to the notifications. When developing this with Android Studio, developers can see how the notifications look on round smartwatches like the G Watch R from LG Electronics and Motorola's Moto 360 and square models, including Sony's Smartwatch 3. Opening the door for multiscreen apps isn't the only goal for Android Studio.. There are also useful features for developers that only develop apps for smartphones. The IDE takes advantage of the editing capabilities of IntelliJ, such as code completion and code analysis. The support for refactoring -- which is used to improve the design of existing code -- works amazingly well, according to Mathiesen. Other features include a memory monitor for improving performance and integration with Goggle's cloud services. The IDE can be downloaded from Google's developer website, and can run on Windows, Mac and Linux desktops. The launch is an important milestone, but is by no means the end of the road for Studio. It will continue to receive updates on four different release channels: Stable, Beta, Dev, and Canary. Canary builds are at the bleeding edge of development and the least mature, while the stable releases are fully tested, according to Google. The classification lets developers choose how quickly they want to add the latest features to their development environment, the company said. Google is working on a navigation editor that will be used to create and view the structure and layout of Android applications. The tool can be used by developers who want to rapidly prototype apps, and by designers who want to see their designs work on real devices without writing any code, according to Google. "It's in really early stages and not really usable for any real work, but it could be a really useful addition to the Android toolset," Mathiesen said. Now that Android Studio has hit 1.0, the Android tools team needs to start working on a decent emulator. The version Google now offers is embarrassing and has put a lot of people off from doing Android development, according to Mathiesen. "I realize this is a difficult problem to solve, but now that we have seen what [Google was] able to do with Android Studio, I expect this problem to be solved too," he said. Send news tips and comments to mikael_ricknas@idg.com Brand Post MFT to the rescue as staff put corporate data at risk More from Ipswitch Join the CIO newsletter! Error: Please check your email address. Tags mobile applicationsDevelopment toolsapplication developmentGooglesoftwaremobile

7th pay commission to visit Raj for recce

The author has posted comments on this article Vimal Bhatia, TNN | Dec 7, 2014, 03.50AM IST Page 1 of 4 Jaisalmer: The newly formed seventh central pay commission delegation led by justice Mathur will come to Jodhpur on December 12 and Jaisalmer on December 13 to see the activities of BSF and other central government employees and officers doing duty in remote areas and guarding borders under tough conditions at the international borders adjoining India and Pakistan. According to information from reliable sources, the 7th pay commission formed for the valuation and to give possible hike to central government employees and officers, will be coming under the chairmanship of justice Mathur to Jodhpur and Jaisalmer and will visit Jaisalmer on December 13. Sources said that many central departments including army, para military force have sent many recommendations for change in salary to the commission. Looking to this, the central pay commission will visit the remote areas and will visit border outposts at Shahgarh Bulj area and will meet BSF jawans and officers. It is to be mentioned that commission's recommendations will be given to the Union government next year. The commission will do an assessment on how much burden will it be on the states because generally state implement the Centre's pay commission as it is. Article continues Stay updated on the go with The Times of India’s mobile apps. Click here to download it for your device.

Median CEO pay rises to $9.7 million in 2012

Leslie Moonves is the CEO at CBS, the #1 rated television network. Moosves is the higest paid executive in America. Photo by Robert Hanashiro, USA TODAY(Photo: Robert Hanashiro, USA TODAY) Story Highlights CEO pay risen to all-time highs past 3 years Median pay for women CEOs higher than men by $1.6 million Health care CEOs receive highest median pay, utility CEOs receive lowest CEO pay has been going one direction for the past three years: up. The head of a typical large public company made $9.7 million in 2012, a 6.5% increase from a year earlier that was aided by a rising stock market, according to an analysis by the Associated Press using data from Equilar, an executive pay research firm. CEO pay, which fell two years straight during the recession but rose 24% in 2010 and 6% in 2011, has never been higher. But the numbers don't tell the whole story. After years of pressure from corporate governance activists unhappy about big payouts, many companies have revamped their compensation formulas. They have awarded a bigger chunk of compensation in stock to align pay more closely to performance, become more transparent about how compensation decisions are made and in some cases promised to claw back pay from fired executives. Shareholder activists say the changes are a step in the right direction, yet they argue that CEO pay is too high and that there is still too much incentive to focus on short-term results. The highest-paid CEO was Leslie Moonves of CBS, who made $60.3 million. He beat the second-place finisher handily: David Zaslav of Discovery Communications, who made $49.9 million. Five of the 10 highest-paid CEOs were from the media and entertainment industry. For the fourth year in five, health care CEOs received the highest median pay at $11.1 million, while utility CEOs had the lowest at $7.5 million. The median value is the midpoint; half the CEOs in that group made more and half less. The median pay for women CEOs was higher than it was for men — $11.2 million compared with $9.6 million — although only 3% of the companies analyzed were run by women. Irene Rosenfeld of Mondelez International, the snack giant that was spun off from Kraft Foods last year, was the highest-paid female CEO, taking in $22 million. The biggest changes in compensation last year came from stock, which increased 17.2%, and from stock options, which declined by 16%. Over the past five years, the amount of compensation that comes from stock has risen from 31.7% to 44.3%, while the amount from stock options has fallen from 31.6% to 17.6%. Shareholders tend to favor stock compensation because it can be tied to metrics like revenue and earnings, whereas the value of stock options depends only on the stock price. Salary and perks rose last year, while bonuses fell. As a proportion of total pay, bonuses accounted for 23.8%, salary 10.4% and perks 3.8%. The third straight year of rising pay coincided with an improving economy and an increase in corporate revenue, profits and stock prices. The S&P 500 index rose 13.4% last year. The median profit increase at the companies in the Equilar study was 6.1%, and the median revenue gain was 7.6%. Companies say they need to pay CEOs well so they can attract the best talent, and that this is ultimately in the interest of shareholders. But shareholder activists and some corporate governance experts say many CEOs are being paid far above what is reasonable or what their performance merits. Pay for all U.S. workers rose 1.6% last year — not enough to keep up with inflation. The median wage in the U.S. was about $39,900 in 2012, according to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Yet with the economy on steadier footing and the stock market surging, the debate over CEO pay is settling into more of a simmer than a boil. Companies cut CEO pay in 2008 and 2009 amid investors' white-hot anger over the losses they suffered during the financial crisis. Since 2011 they have been required by law to hold "say on pay" votes, which give shareholders the right to express whether they approve of the CEO's pay. The vote is non-binding, but companies don't want to deal with the public embarrassment of a "no." Companies say they are listening to their shareholders' concerns. They point to changes in how CEOs are rewarded that are meant to tie pay more closely to company performance. For example, they're more often linking stock awards to revenue, earnings and share price targets, rather than just handing them out automatically. "I've never seen an environment where boards take more time trying to get this right," says Charlie Tharp, CEO of the Center on Executive Compensation, an advocacy group that supports corporations. Pay is up partly because a bigger proportion is coming from stock, and stock markets are hitting all-time highs. But it's a two-way street: If stock markets decline, pay could decline or at least grow more slowly in future years. But changing the pay structure has hardly silenced the critics. They say formulas for stock awards, for example, can drive CEOs to focus on short-term results. And they're anxious for the Securities and Exchange Commission to implement a rule required under the Dodd-Frank financial overhaul that would force big public companies to disclose the ratio of their CEOs' pay compared with the median pay for their entire workforce. "If you're making $10 million a year, you get into a situation where life isn't real anymore," says Eleanor Bloxham, CEO of the Corporate Governance Alliance, which advises boards. Charles Elson, a well-known shareholder-rights expert who is director at the Weinberg Center for Corporate Governance at the University of Delaware, has been crusading for companies to stop compensating their CEOs based on what their peers at similar companies are making. The trouble with peer groups, Elson says, is that a CEO could have a terrible year, "but if my peer's pay goes up, my pay will too." To calculate pay, Equilar looked at salary, bonus, perks, the potential future value of stock awards and option awards, and other pay that companies have to report for their top executives in regulatory filings each year. This year's study examined pay for 323 CEOs at S&P 500 companies that had filed their shareholder proxies by April 30. The sample includes only CEOs in place for at least two years. Sixty percent of CEOs received a raise, 37% got a pay cut, and the rest had pay that was virtually flat. Some other findings from AP's analysis of the Equilar data: • Money in the bank. Among the six U.S. megabanks, Wells Fargo CEO John Stumpf knocked off JPMorgan Chase's Jamie Dimon for the title of best-paid banker. Stumpf's pay grew 8% to $19.3 million. Dimon's board of directors slashed his pay after a surprise trading loss at the bank that has led to regulatory investigations and congressional hearings. Dimon's pay declined 19% to $18.7 million. • TV nation. If CEO pay says anything about what our country values, then we like coffee and online shopping but love TV. In addition to Moonves and Zaslav taking the No. 1 and 2 spots, Bob Iger of Disney ($37.1 million) was No. 3; Philippe Dauman of Viacom, which owns MTV ($33.4 million) was No. 4; and Brian Roberts of Comcast, which owns NBCUniversal ($29.1 million) was No. 6. The rest in the top 10 included No. 5 John Donahoe of eBay, who made $29.7 million, and No. 7 Howard Schultz of Starbucks, who made $28.9 million. Behind them were Ken Chenault of American Express ($28 million), Rex Tillerson of Exxon Mobil ($27.2 million), and Kent Thiry of DaVita HealthCare ($26.8 million). CEOs of financial companies used to dominate the Top 10 list, but Chenault's appearance marked the first time since 2008 that a CEO from the industry made the list. • Power and perks. Wynn Resorts kept a suite at its tony Las Vegas resort constantly open for founder and CEO Steve Wynn, a perk valued at $452,000. IBM, upon the retirement of CEO Samuel Palmisano, let him keep an office and renovated it for $1 million. Constellation Brands, maker of Corona Light beer and Paul Masson brandy, gave CEO Robert Sands a "product allowance" of up to $10,000 for fiscal 2012, though he used only $5,532. • The shareholder revolution? So far this year, only seven U.S. companies have had shareholders vote down their executive pay packages, according to proxy adviser Glass Lewis, and none are in the S&P 500. That compares with 56 companies last year. Even that number was tiny in relative terms — because it came from a sample of 2,100 companies. Some high-profile companies that lost their "say on pay" votes last year, including Citigroup, Big Lots and Chesapeake Energy, have gotten new CEOs since then. For its annual survey of CEO pay, the Associated Press uses data provided by Equilar, an executive pay research firm. This year, Equilar examined the regulatory filings detailing the pay of 323 CEOs. Equilar looked at S&P 500 companies that had filed statements with federal regulators between Jan. 1 and April 30. To avoid the distortions caused by sign-on bonuses, the sample includes only CEOs in place for at least two years. To calculate CEO pay, Equilar adds salary, bonus, perks, stock awards, stock option awards and other pay components. Stock awards can either be gifts of stock, meaning the CEO gets it right away, or "restricted" stock, meaning the CEO has to meet certain goals before getting it. Stock options usually give the CEO the right to buy shares in the future at the price they're trading at when the options are granted. All are meant to tie the CEO's pay to the company's performance. To value stock and option awards, Equilar uses the companies' estimates on what those stocks and options could eventually be worth when the CEO receives the stock or cashes in the options. Their actual value in the future can vary widely from what the company estimates. Equilar calculated that the median CEO pay in 2012 was $9.7 million. That's the midpoint, meaning half the CEOs made more and half made less. Here's a breakdown of 2012 pay compared with 2011 pay. Because the AP looks at median numbers, rather than averages, the components of CEO pay do not add up to the total. • Base salary: $1.1 million, up 4.4% • Bonus: $1.9 million, down 5.4% • Perks: $162,000, up 9.4% • Stock awards: $4.1 million, up 17.2% • Option awards $1.3 million, down 16% • Total: $9.7 million, up 6.5% Read or Share this story: http://usat.ly/12UPL19

MySAP ERP upgrades: Users are the key to success

by Jon Franke, News Editor Those who have been down the road to a mySAP ERP upgrade have a suggestion: Don't forget the user communication. In the midst of a large software project like a mySAP ERP upgrade, it can be easy to get lost in the many details. Technical challenges aside, one key to a successful project is communicating with users, according to presenters at the Americas' SAP Users' Group mySAP ERP Upgrade Symposium. For the Ottawa-based Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC), Canada's public broadcasting network, user communication started on day one. "We made sure that everybody knew exactly what to expect throughout the process, so the users knew they were part of it from the get-go," said Stéphane Rivest, director of financial systems, processes and training for the CBC. User communication can have many facets, and for the CBC, change management throughout the project was of particular importance. "Change management is going to be the key," Rivest said. "There is no other component that is going to be more important in the process." CBC will expand the number of SAP users from its current 950 to all 10,000 employees once the upgrade to mySAP ERP 2005 is complete. Rivest felt that change management and user communication were especially important on a project involving SAP. "The perception out there is that SAP is not a user-friendly system, and we are fighting against that with every SAP project here as well," Rivest explained. "So we started out with a killer change management program that we're building on for the next activities." Donna McCormick, supervisor of IT training at SaskPower, a Regina, Sask.-based utility company that supplies most of the electricity for Saskatchewan residents, also said user involvement is a key to upgrade success. "[As] we get business [more] engaged [in SAP projects] and get partnerships built within our own company we'll be much more successful," McCormick said. SaskPower installed SAP in 1999. The company upgraded in 2001, purchased the mySAP suite in 2003, and upgraded again in 2006. It employs about 2,750 people. "Users were saying, 'When is this going to stop?' " McCormick said. "Every time they turned around, there was another change to the system with more and different functionality." With all these changes, keeping users trained on the system was very important, and difficult to accomplish. McCormick echoed Rivest's thoughts that SAP projects, especially, require close collaboration with users. "Contrary to popular belief, SAP is not intuitive. People do have some trouble figuring out what they should be doing," McCormick said. "We have to find ways to let them know that the SAP system is what we have and it's powerful -- it can do anything we need it to." SaskPower had its functional team conduct a comprehensive analysis of the system changes and issue a report that detailed what the old system and upgraded system looked like and described each business transaction where changes occurred. The functional team then reviewed the report with the training department, walking through how a transaction would be completed on the upgraded system compared with the old system. "That was really valuable in the training process," McCormick said. "Then we knew how to train each piece, and we could make it as simple as possible for users." The company is also constantly looking for and developing ways for users to locate the information they need, without necessarily having to ask someone. SaskPower is open to any product that will help in that endeavor, according to McCormick. She agrees that a comprehensive change management plan is crucial but says that following through on that plan is where an upgrade can be made or broken. "From a communication perspective, it's one thing to put a plan together, and it's another to follow it," McCormick said. "Some people might have thought that we over-trained or over-communicated. My feeling is: How can you do that? I would rather hear that we over-communicated than didn't communicate enough." Dig deeper on SAP ERP software MySAP fades into history At SAP's Sapphire, SAP laid MySAP to rest and resurrected it as SAP ERP 6.0. It's merely a name change and will have no implication for customers, said Philip Say, vice president of European marketing and sales. "MySAP was of the dot.com era, and was an artifact of 2005, when the product name was conceived," he said. At least we still have MyYahoo to remind us of those early days of the Web.

Pros and cons of Sixth Pay Commission and its impact on people

New Delhi, Tue, 25 Mar 2008 Noor En Ahmed The sixth pay commission yesterday submitted its report to Union Finance Minister P Chidambaram recommending hefty increment in the current salary of Central Government Employees to establish the government employees equivalent to private sectors’ employees, as per sixth pay commission claimed in its report. The Commission has recommended hiking 20- 40% salary from the current salary structure and it would now be two to three folds in terms of gross salary as against the current basic salary. This margin increment would put an additional burden on Central Exchequer of Rs. 7,975-crore per year while a lump sum of Rs. 18,060-crore will be spent in paying the credit money of employees in the form of arrears as the commission has recommended to implement the salary structure from January 01, 2006 and the difference of this period would be paid in the ‘arrear’ form, as per the commission’s submitted report. The minimum salary, as per commission’s recommendation would be Rs.6,600 while the maximum salary would be Rs. 80,000 (except Central Secretary’s salary that is recommended to Rs.90,000-per month) that will be two to three times from the current basic salary and will damage the exchequer of states as now the states will also have to follow the Central’s pay structure because the states’ employees will demand the similar status from their government. As per pay commission’s record, the recommendations of the second pay commission had put the additional average burden on exchequer of Rs. 39-crore that were extended after every pay commission’s recommendation. It rose to Rs 144 crore, Rs 1,282 crore and Rs 17,000 crore in the third, fourth and fifth recommendations respectively. Now, it is estimated that it may go to Rs.20,000-crore (excluding savings of the states) in the 2008-09, while pay commissions earlier reported that up to 90% of the total revenue were spent only in paying the salary and pension of the employees and beneficiaries. This recommendation might prove the ‘panic’ decision for the state governments. On the other hand, for the employees and pensioners, this recommendation can be proved as a ‘golden hen’ that can boost the living status of the government’s employees and can also eradicate the complaint of the beneficiaries who always accuse ‘government’ for giving such low salary in which they can hardly survive in these inflammatory circumstances. A lower and lower-middle class family (the maximum number of persons belongs to these categories and highly depended on their salary) usually seeks the normal living standard including bread-and-butter, cheap and best shelter, moderate clothes, good education for their children, sufficient medical facilities, average status of marriage of their children, reasonable living status and adequate money after retirement. The pay commission evaluates all these things and decides the parameter of the salary scale as it claims. According to sixth pay commission report, ‘It was mandatory to raise the broad increment in the government employees’ salary to prevent the migration and to compete with the private sectors.’ The trend of migrating from government jobs to private sectors jobs have been increased since last four-five years as the salary difference between both the sector’s employee were increasing rapidly. What is Pay-Commission and why government needs to establish it? A pay commission is a group of some honorary members of selected areas that is organised by the Union Cabinet to examine several aspects of government’s employees’ compensation package and living standard that include pay and allowances, retirement benefits, conditions of service, promotion policies. The Central Pay Commissions have been set up so far at the gap of 10 to 13 years. The first pay commission was established in 1946, second in 1957, third in 1970, fourth in 1983, fifth in 1994 and sixth pay commission was set up at a largest gap of 22 years in 2006. While fixing the salary of the government’s employees, the pay commission analyses the growth rate of the nation, the rate of inflation, the growth rate of per capita income, the changing trend in the living standard and the employees’ share in the respective field of working. The general criteria of fixing salary Usually, pay commission first fixes the lowest level of salary and then the highest; after this it becomes easier to determine other salary brackets. The commission also considers about the gap between the post-tax salary of minimum and maximum and set up according to requirement. In the first pay commission’s recommendation, the difference ratio was 1:55 times while it became 1:16 in 1996. Now, in this newly recommended report, commission has established the salary ratio of 1:12 (minimum Rs.6,600-maximum Rs.80,000). Useful Links: Sixth Pay Commission has updated the salary calculator. User can calculate their salary by clicking the following links: http://6pc.in/calc/

How to Migrate from Your Integrated Planning Solution to SAP BusinessObjects

[unable to retrieve full-text content]dept low in case of existing MS Excel knowledge excellent Score 50 What We'll Cover ... Understanding SAP BusinessObjects Planning and Consolidation and CPM Comparing SAP BusinessObjects Planning and Consolidation vs. HP TouchPad Needs 6 to 8 Weeks for Additional Shipments Hewlett-Packard will apparently need close to two months to start fulfilling backorders for the (temporarily) revived TouchPad tablet."It will take 6-8 weeks to build enough HP TouchPads to meet our current commitments, during which time your order will then ship from this stock with free ground shipping," read an email sent to customers and reprinted in a Sept. 7 posting on the Precentral.net blog. "You will receive a shipping notification with a tracking number once your order has shipped." That would place the new TouchPads in consumers' hands sometime in either late October or early November. The reduced-price devices are not returnable, according to the email. HP originally acquired webOS as part of its takeover of Palm in 2010. The manufacturer originally had big plans for loading the operating system onto a variety of devices, including tablets, smartphones, desktops and laptops.However, sales of its TouchPad proved anemic, and HP made the decision to end the tablet's life after a mere six weeks on the market. In order to clear out inventory, the manufacturer sliced the starting price to $99, which sparked a surge of consumer interest. In the wake of that, HP made the decision to revive the line for a limited time. In addition, HP plans on dividing its webOS arm into two separate units reporting to different areas of the company, according to two leaked memos that have made their way onto the Web. The webOS software assets will find their way into the arms, however welcoming, of its Office of Strategy and Technology. The other parts of the webOS corporate infrastructure, presumably including its hardware interests, will continue as part of the Personal Systems Group, which manufactures HP's PCs, and which will presumably be spun off into its own entity under the terms of the company's new strategy. "We have decided that we'll be most effective in these efforts by having the teams in webOS software engineering, worldwide developer relations and webOS software product marketing join the Office of Strategy and Technology," Todd Bradley, executive vice president of HP's Personal Systems Group, wrote in an email circulated to the webOS developer team and also leaked onto Precentral.net. "The remainder of the webOS team, under Stephen DeWitt, will continue to report into PSG."According to at least one analyst, flooding the market with additional TouchPad devices could have significant benefits for HP going forward. A "larger installed base of TouchPad and webOS devices should increase the value of webOS in a potential sale," Sterne Agee analyst Shaw Wu wrote in a research note widely circulated on Barron's and other financial Websites. "We believe logical buyers may include Samsung Electronics, Research In Motion, HTC, Amazon.com, Facebook, Sony, Microsoft and others."Follow Nicholas Kolakowski on Twitter Nicholas Kolakowski is a staff editor at eWEEK, covering Microsoft and other companies in the enterprise space, as well as evolving technology such as tablet PCs. His work has appeared in The Washington Post, Playboy, WebMD, AARP the Magazine, AutoWeek, Washington City Paper, Trader Monthly, and Private Air. He lives in Brooklyn, New York.

SAP Plans Stats Zone for Times Square's Super Bowl Boulevard

Back-end enterprise analytics company SAP, wanting a more public face, has designed an interactive hub with social media stats for Super Bowl fans. SAP, the B2B enterprise software company, would like to get to know its "customers' customers" and so has devised a way to hopefully meet several million of them on Feb. 2, during Super Bowl XLVIII.In a warehouse on Long Island, SAP has constructed the NFL Stats Zone with Insights From SAP—a little house of sorts that it plans to pack up and reassemble on Super Bowl Boulevard, a 13-block stretch of Broadway that will feature football-themed attractions beginning Jan. 29.An enormous display outside the Stats Zone will feature social media analytics—or, the Super Bowl's social pulse, as taken by SAP's NetBase real-time analytics tool. NetBase near-instantly scans Facebook, Twitter, other social media sites, blogs and really a large swath of the Internet, looking for keywords and making sense of the content it finds.SAP's Super Bowl analysis will include fantasy player of the year stats, player vs. player comparisons, team comparisons, word clouds showing trending topics, a geographic display of fan support and sentiment questions. In the chilly warehouse three days before its move to Times Square, the display outside the Stats Zone showed attractive, changing graphics and asked, "Which team are fans most passionate about?" It then showed the breakdown by week of which team had come up in positive conversations most often. (The scores were based on a scale from minus 100 to plus 100. If three negative things and three positive things came up in the search, for example, the score would be zero.) Other questions will include: Do fans prefer talking about the game or halftime show? Which quarterback has the most passionate fans? And, do fans want it to snow on Super Bowl Sunday?As of the data on the morning of Jan. 23, 65 percent of fans are hoping for snow on game day."Our goal is to make fans smarter," said Ben Richards with GMR, the marketing agency SAP tasked with designing and executing the Stats Zone. "We have real data, and we want to share it." People tend to glaze over when SAP explains what it does."But when we talk about it in terms of Fantasy Football, people get excited," said Dan Fleetwood, SAP's group director of world sponsorships. When the NFL wanted to increase enrollment in its Fantasy Football league last summer, SAP partnered with it to build a Player Comparison Tool that enabled team owners to benefit from SAP's abilities to make sense of data."There are all of these choices to make. Do I sit this guy, do I start him? With the Comparison Tool you could look at parameters and compare them," said Fleetwood. (The NFL met its goal of increasing Fantasy Football enrollment by at least 25 percent.) SAP vs. Oracle: Customers Avoid Choosing Sides Will it be the apps vendor's innovation or the stack vendor's one-stop shop? IT hedges its bets. This article originally appeared on InformationWeek.com Score a battle victory for SAP this week with its strong quarterly earnings and first gain in software license market share against rival Oracle in eighteen months. But it's not who wins the battle, as the old saying goes, it's who wins the war. Which vendor is in a better strategic position? SAP says its innovation strategy is winning, tapping into a "structural change in the IT industry" whereby companies are spending less on commoditized hardware and more on software and innovation. There's plenty of truth in this analysis, but don't expect to see a white flag from Oracle. Commoditized as hardware may be, it's a core piece of Oracle's end-to-end stack offering, which is aimed at helping customers to cut IT costs. Which side will customers choose? That will play out in the earnings reports in the quarters and years to come. But IT buyers just might be looking for a third option as consolidation raises concerns about interoperability and price leverage. The crux of the IT-spending shift that SAP highlighted this week is one in which more of your IT dollars are being spent on software and innovation and less on hardware and consulting. Where 85 cents per dollar used to be spent on hardware and consulting, that spending is shifting toward 60 cents per dollar, with fewer hardware refresh cycles and consulting projects freeing up money for software and innovation, William McDermott, co-chief executive officer of SAP, told financial analysts. What's the evidence of this trend? You need only look at the financials of the major hardware companies, which "haven't reported the kind of numbers that we've reported," McDermott said in an interview with InformationWeek. True, Dell and HP revenues were flat in the last quarter. Part of the story was that Apple's iPad took a big bite out of consumer PC sales, but growth in corporate sales was also less than robust. Among enterprise-focused vendors, hardware sales were down 6% at Oracle, while IBM had a 17.5% increase in the revenue of its Systems & Technology Group. (IBM clearly gained share from Oracle with its Power Server line, but its mainframe business also had a huge quarter.) By comparison, SAP's software revenue grew 26%, bolstering McDermott's software-outpacing-hardware analysis. The IT spending shift is a very real long-term trend, according to Andrew Bartels, principal analyst at Forrester Research. Enterprise expenditures on hardware have grown 4% to 5% per year over the past decade, on average, while software has been growing 9% to 10% per year, Bartels says. The disparity keeps widening because Moore's Law keeps driving hardware costs down, he says. And cloud computing and virtualization are accelerating the trend by cutting into hardware sales. Ray Wang of Constellation Research also sees the shift, but it's more like 70 cents of every IT dollar now spent on hardware and services, down from 80 cents in years past, he says. The trend is more about "less money going to keeping the lights on," meaning maintaining and administering existing deployments, Wang says. Outsourcing and data center consolidation are key trends cutting into hardware sales, he notes. Companies are replacing aging hardware, but they're spending even more significantly on software, in part to avoid hiring more people, Wang says. That along with shadow IT spending on things like software-as-a-service and iPads has tech spending up 22% overall, he noted. Will the pressures of the hardware business--relentless development cost rewarded by thin margins--ultimately be a drag on Oracle's prospects? Let's first consider SAP's strategy. Innovation is the key theme SAP has been talking up since McDermott and Jim Hagemann Snabe became co-CEOs early last year. It's the company's label for its in-memory, mobile, and on-demand offerings. In-memory is highlighted by the Hana appliance, technology aimed at analytics today but expected to take on data warehousing and, eventually, transactional database duties. SAP's mobile apps and infrastructure are mostly Sybase products, including the Sybase Unwired apps development and Afaria device management security platforms. SAP's on-demand offerings are led by the Business ByDesign SaaS suite but also include a Sales OnDemand app released in June, a Carbon Impact OnDemand app, and other offshoots planned for the same platform. McDermott puts SAP in the same category with Apple and Google as "companies that are reporting strong momentum because they're following innovation strategies." That may be a bit of a stretch, but there's evidence SAP's innovation strategy is working. The Hana appliance, for example, has a 400 million Euro ($570 million) sales pipeline, and SAP is counting on about 100 million Euros ($142 million) in completed sales this year, McDermott said. About 3,000 companies are embracing SAP and Sybase mobility apps and infrastructure, and the mobile sales pipeline is "in the same zipcode as Hana," he said, though he stops short of offering hard figures or average deal sizes. With only 1,000 customers expected to be using Business ByDesign by year's end, SAP's on-demand revenue will scarcely register. But let's throw that in with Hana and mobility and call it 200 million Euros ($286 million) in top-line impact for 2011. That's a rounding error compared to the 12.9 billion Euros ($18.4 billion) in revenue SAP expects this year. Nonetheless, McDermott insisted that the bulk of the revenue boost has yet to come and that the innovation strategy is having an outsized impact on core application suite sales today. "Once companies hear the in-memory and mobile story, they're confident that SAP has the best process, data, and mobility strategies of all the major software companies," he said. Counting cloud, mobile, and analytics among the "big levers" in the IT market these days, Wang says, SAP has made "all the right bets." The BI and analytics bet (with SAP BuisnessObjects) has paid off particularly well, driving 30% to 40% of revenue, he estimates. But companies like Salesforce.com also are placing these bets, and the question for customers is who has the most cost-effective approach? That remains to be seen, says Wang. How Oracle Stacks Up For the last two years, the innovation at Oracle has been all about Exadata and the integrated stack. In the wake of Charles Phillips' departure as company president, software appears to have taken a back seat. Acquisitions have been small tuck-in deals, like this week's purchase of InQuira, a self-service knowledge management systems provider that will bolster Oracle's CRM offerings. After several years of delay, Oracle's Fusion Applications are finally available, but the company has been very quiet about their release. No doubt, there will be a big splash at Oracle Open World in early October. But will the story be about applications or the vendor's one-stop-shop, single-stack approach? If the focus is on the apps, expect to hear about the innovative blend of on-demand, on-premises, and hosted deployment options. It won't be hard to outdo SAP's conservative embrace of cloud computing. If the emphasis is on Oracle's stack play, expect to hear about IT manageability, vendor consolidation, and the promise of reducing the cost of keeping the lights on. Wang sums up the story line as "just buy the red stack, and we'll get rid of a dozen vendors and save you money." Even if hardware business is commoditized, that doesn't mean it's not a strategic assets for Oracle, says financial analyst Brett Korsgaard of Koa Capital Management. In this recent article, Korsgaard speculates that Oracle's strategy is to "render hardware less relevant while it recoups the profits through value-added applications and systems software." Oracle's diverse product line has made revenue predictable, shielding results when new software license revenue might suffer, he says. So there you have it: SAP's innovation story versus Oracle's stack appeal. SAP's fortunes appear to be on the rise for now. But Oracle's diversity may overcome what some see as an innovation deficit. The wild card in this war is customers, who may not react to innovation or stack-appeal as expected. In fact, the rampant vendor consolidation of recent years has raised concerns about the vendors still standing. In our just-released InformationWeek Analytics Enterprise Apps 2011 report, nearly two-thirds (64%) of 274 IT pros responsible for enterprise apps cited the "ability to integrate with existing systems and infrastructure" as the most important quality they look for from enterprise applications vendors. The next most cited quality, responsive service and support, came in at 38%. Customers are mightily concerned about interoperability. They're also worried about counting too much on any single vendor. "We see more and more SAP customers becoming less SAP-centric," Wang says, "and we also see Oracle customers trying to create a buffer against the single stack." The fear, Wang and others observe, is that overreliance on any single vendor will diminish a customer's ability to influence pricing. And that's the sort of fear that promises of innovation or IT cost savings might not overcome. In our research 39% of respondents agreed with the statement "core ERP system(s) are crucial, but we have a heterogeneous environment that requires application-independent information infrastructure." That was the top response, but not far behind (with 31%) was the view that "our enterprise is committed to a core ERP system as the platform for running the business. We want to build and extend initiatives around this platform." Even when companies commit to one ERP suite, chances are they have eggs in lots of other baskets. It's estimated that more than 60% of SAP customers, for example, run their apps on Oracle database. I don't see that changing quickly, and SAP hasn't bothered trying to aggressively push the newly SAP-certified Sybase ASE database on those customers as an alternative to Oracle database. In fact, despite their market battles and legal feuds, SAP and Oracle have managed to agree on support for each of their hottest new products. That is, Oracle has cleared the way for SAP customers to integrate SAP Hana with Oracle databases running SAP apps. And SAP has recently certified Oracle Exadata to run SAP apps. That happened because customers demanding interoperability. This article originally appeared on InformationWeek.com Doug Henschen is Executive Editor of InformationWeek, where he covers the intersection of enterprise applications with information management, business intelligence, big data and analytics. He previously served as editor in chief of Intelligent Enterprise, editor in chief of ... View Full Bio More Insights

Best Practices for SAP Cash Application Process in Accounts Receivable

Reducing costs is one of the main reasons why companies attempt to improve their accounts receivable order-to-cash cycles. However, it's complicated. According to Dolphin Corporation, "Accounts receivable is much more than just collecting what is owed. It has become a core business process." More importantly, accounts receivable is a customer-facing process. When approached the right way, the customer's experience can be enhanced and a relationship fostered. When approached the wrong way, it can prompt customers to start looking for a new vendor. To further complicate matters, numerous challenges exist. For example, some businesses consolidate their invoices when making a payment, and progressive discounts may be applied based on when the invoices are paid. Meanwhile, diverse payment types such as EDI, paper check, and credit cards require different settlement practices. With these thoughts in mind, use the best practices below to simplify and improve both the SAP cash application process in accounts receivable and your relationships with your customers. Capture check stub details from electronic images. Using scanners and optical character recognition (OCR) software allows you to capture remittance advice from check stubs electronically. Images of checks from the bank via lockbox or scanned at the desktop can be used. This steps eliminates the need for manually keying in the data and results in faster, more accurate processing. Convert captured invoice data into payment advice notes in SAP. SAP can automatically convert invoice data (such as invoice number, date, terms, and amount) into remittance advice. Again, this eliminates the need for manual data entry and improves accuracy. Match payment advice to customers' orders. Since invoice, customer, and payment advice data is linked, SAP can automatically match payment advice to customers' orders. Once posted in SAP, payment can be applied resulting in faster and more accurate processing yet again. Match payments to invoices. SAP can automate matching payments to invoices. Exact matches are easily handled by SAP while discrepancies such as overages, shortages, and write-offs are typically resolved based on algorithms, logic, and AR interventions. Situations that require review or approval are automatically flagged and any related workflows activated. Develop systems that can handle various forms of payment media. As paper checks become less common, other payment forms emerge, making payment processing a multifaceted process. Workflows and systems for each payment type must be developed so that payments are processed consistently regardless of how they arrive. Monitor performance. In order to ensure that the order-to-cash process is meeting its targets, it's crucial to monitor performance. Use reports to monitor the volume of payments received and applied as well as to identify issues that need attention. How does automating the order-to-cash process enhance customer relationships? An inefficient order-to-cash process can result in order fulfillment delays, incorrect orders, incorrectly applied discounts, incorrectly applied payments, or even unwarranted collections calls. By automating the process in SAP, these problems can be turned around to result in a better customer experience. For accounts receivable departments using SAP applications, Dolphin's Accounts Receivable solution suite provides the tools needed to automate the order-to-cash process. Use this suite to automate discrepancy management and gain insight into the process. Works Cited: 1. ReadSoft, "Five Steps to Best Practice AR Cash Application Processing in SAP," - http://www.readsoft.com/docs/default-source/resource-library/five-steps-to-best-practice-ar-cash-application-processing-in-sap_fl04 2. Citibank, "Best Practice in Accounts Receivable Reconciliation," - http://www.citibank.com/transactionservices/home/about_us/articles/docs/accounts_receivable.pdf 3. Dolphin Corp, "SAP Accounts Receivable Cash Application," - http://www.dolphin-corp.com/business-process-management/ar-cash-application/

SAP Readies a Big Business Marketplace

SAP, one of the world’s largest makers of software for business, is readying an ambitious plan to build a global marketplace for business products and services, according to senior company executives. Photo William McDermott, SAP’s chief executive. William McDermott, SAP’s chief executive.Credit Uwe Anspach/DPA, via Agence France-Presse — Getty Images SAP, which is headquartered in Germany but whose chief executive, William R. McDermott, is American, could make money selling the software, Mr. McDermott said. The company might also gain valuable economic information about business behavior that it could then sell. “Participants conducting digital commerce, and the insights that can come from there,” he said. “All through HANA,” SAP’s tool for rapidly managing and analyzing large quantities of information. The plan, still in development, will be announced early next year, he said. If successful, SAP could become a direct competitor to Alibaba, which already enables significant commerce between businesses through an online marketplace. Given SAP’s customer base, however, the business would most likely aim to be far bigger and more sophisticated and to involve larger sums changing hands. If SAP could succeed in analyzing that, it might be able to identify the kind of economic behavior that stocks trade on faster than most government agencies can presently publish. That plan is a long way off, however, and faces numerous hurdles. Several Internet companies have already tried to be alternatives to government reporting, without success. None, however, have SAP’s size, nor have they worked deeply in a world of cloud and mobile computing. SAP follows Oracle as the world’s top maker of software for things like planning and managing global manufacturing and financial operations. It has more than 263,000 customers in 188 countries. For several years SAP tried to move more of its business from older-style computers inside companies to cloud computing, selling the software not as a packaged item but as a service. This has involved several acquisitions, including Ariba, a maker of software for corporate purchases, for $4.3 billion in 2012, and Fieldglass, with software for hiring and managing temporary workers, for more than $1 billion last May. On Thursday, SAP closed a deal to buy Concur, used in filing expenses, for $8.3 billion. HANA was first offered as a cloud-based service in May 2013. The Concur acquisition was particularly important in Mr. McDermott’s plan to build a network of software available online. Concur’s chief executive, Steve Singh, has previously discussed using the expense system as a way of procuring and accounting for things like airline flights, cars and hotels. United Airlines and other travel and lodging providers have deals with Concur to allow booking through the expense system. “There is an amazing opportunity for technology to anticipate our needs and act on them, whether it’s getting goods and services to run business, hiring people or buying trips,” said Mr. Singh, who will be running the planned new business for SAP. By opening the marketplace up to outside developers, even SAP competitors, SAP would be able to increase the number of offerings in its store, and also derive more data. “We want this to be an open and global, digitally connected network,” Mr. Singh said. “Anyone can build software on it.”

ERP 9 for BlackBerry now available for Tally.ERP 9 users

ERP 9 for BlackBerry, the latest application for the Tally software series is now available on the BlackBerry World storefront giving existing Tally.ERP 9 customers enhanced business capabilities on their BlackBerry smartphones. ERP 9 for BlackBerry offers real-time access to critical business information on Tally.ERP 9 through Tally.NET framework. With all the features required for high-performance business management, Tally.ERP 9 customers with a BlackBerry smartphone will not need to make frequent calls to their accounts team for information. Customers will receive instant and important financial updates for modules like creditors, debtors, bank balance, top 10 customers, inventory status and more, directly on their BlackBerry smartphone. The app provides instant access to customer information including concerned person, email id and contact information amongst other details. Users will also be able to make a call from the customer information accessible from creditors and debtors module. Mr. Vikash K. Agarwal, President, Tally Solutions (P) Ltd. said, “In today’s world, instant access to information is very vital and enterprise mobility using smartphones has become a business necessity. At Tally, we continuously strive to make the lives of our customers simpler and this includes bringing mobility solutions into the country. We are very happy that BlackBerry shares this vision of ours and has taken this initiative with aggression. With ERP 9 for BlackBerry now being available for BlackBerry smartphones, customers will be able to leverage the tremendous potential of Tally.ERP 9 on the move.” Commenting on the announcement, Mr. Hitesh Shah, Director Commercial Business for India at BlackBerry said, “BlackBerry smartphones have always been about empowering business customers, and Tally being an important tool used across industries is a welcomed addition. The availability of ERP 9 for BlackBerry provides more value to business customers by giving them the opportunity to make important and timely decisions while on the go.” With Trusted Remote Access, Audit & Compliance Services, an Integrated Support Centre and Security management, Tally.ERP 9 is a complete product that retains its original simplicity yet offers comprehensive business functionalities such as Accounting, Finance, Inventory, Sales, Purchase, Point of Sales, Manufacturing, Costing, Job Costing, Payroll and Branch Management along with capabilities like Statutory Processes, excise and other functions. Key benefits of Tally.ERP 9: Simplifies business processes while delivering a host of unmatched functionalities Adapts to the way businesses work with an intuitive interface Ensures business continuity even in unforeseen and exceptional situations Offers solutions to real life business problems Ensures businesses perform more in the same amount of time ERP 9 on BlackBerry is now available on BlackBerry World BlackBerry OS and BlackBerry 10 smartphones. ERP 9 for BlackBerry now available for Tally.ERP 9 users SummaryERP 9 offers real-time access to critical business information on Tally.ERP 9 through Tally.NET framework. ERP 9 for BlackBerry, the latest application for the Tally software series is now available on the BlackBerry World storefront giving existing Tally.ERP 9 customers enhanced business capabilities on their BlackBerry smartphones. ERP 9 for BlackBerry offers real-time access to critical business information on Tally.ERP 9 through Tally.NET framework. With all the features required for high-performance business management, Tally.ERP 9 customers with a BlackBerry smartphone will not need to make frequent calls to their accounts team for information. Customers will receive instant and important financial updates for modules like creditors, debtors, bank balance, top 10 customers, inventory status and more, directly on their BlackBerry smartphone. The app provides instant access to customer information including concerned person, email id and contact information amongst other details. Users will also be able to make a call from the customer information accessible from creditors and debtors module.

More steps to rationalise subsidies on anvil: Finance Minister Arun Jaitley

New Delhi: Assuring India Inc of NDA's commitment to carry forward economic reforms, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley today said the government will come out with more steps to rationalise subsidies. "I had a series of meeting with the Expenditure Management Commission. They are effectively working on some very valuable suggestions with regard to rationalisation of subsidies... "In the next few, even months...may be earlier than that they will be able to come out with some interim recommendations to us so that we can proceed with rationalisation in that direction", Mr Jaitley said. Recalling the government's decision to link the diesel prices with market price, the minister said that it would help in reducing the subsidy burden of the government. Besides, the government has recently decided to give direct cash subsidy on pilot basis to LPG customers in select cities. The Centre had set up a Commission under former RBI Governor Bimal Jalan to suggest steps to rationalise subsidy and help the government in effectively bringing down the fiscal deficit. The government currently provides various kinds of subsidies which run into lakhs of crores of rupees. It was pegged at Rs 2.51 lakh crore for 2014-15. Speaking at the conclave, Mr Jaitley expressed confidence that the government would be able to push the Insurance and the GST bills in the current session of Parliament. On the government's views on a joint session of Parliament to push the bills as it does not have a majority in the Rajya Sabha, he said: "We don't want to use the last resort of a joint session for legislations. But if it becomes inevitable that's a constitutional remedy." Related Tags: rationalise subsidies on anvil , Finance Minister , Arun Jaitley