8KMiles is happy to announce its selection into the NASSCOM EMERGE 50 for 2010.
NASSCOM EMERGE 50 is back - in a bigger avatar. After the success of last year's listing, the EMERGE Forum within NASSCOM has begun work in full earnest for the 2010 listing. In addition to last year's categories of Growth, Markets (non-traditional / domestic), Products, and Services, this year, the categories have been expanded to include the Start-Ups. And in another first, all the 50 companies will be profiled in a booklet to be released by NASSCOM at the EMERGEOUT conclave in New Delhi on August 25 2010.
The NASSCOM EMERGE 50 for 2010 is available here: http://blog.nasscom.in/emerge/2010/07/its-time-to-unveil-the-nasscom-emerge-50-for-2010/
8KMiles is happy to announce its selection into the 2009 NASSCOM IT Innovators list.
The objective of NASSCOM's Innovation Initiative is to encourage innovative practices across the IT-ITES Industry and provide support for these by developing an ecosystem that is conducive to fostering innovativeness, technological advancement and the creation of IP. This is in the specific context of a general consensus that the next phase of growth in the Indian IT Industry will be driven through Innovation - in technologies, processes and business models.
Every year, NASSCOM creates a compilation of the top 50 Innovations in the IT-BPO sector in India to recognize and showcase the top innovations in the industry.
The NASSCOM IT Innovators list for 2009 is available here: http://nasscom.in/Nasscom/templates/NormalPage.aspx?id=58665.
Take this opportunity to meet innovation experts, practitioners and enthusiasts to help keep your organization at the forefront of IT innovation.
08:30 Registration
09:30 Welcome Address from The IET Shekhar Sanyal, Country Head, IET India
09:45 Chairperson's remarks Prof. S. Sadagopan, Director, IIIT, Bangalore
10:00 Opening Keynote session : Innovation for sustainability and growth I. Vijayakumar, CTO, Wipro
10:45 Keynote Session: IT as an enabler of business innovation and optimization Dr. Nataraj Nagaratnam, CTO and Distinguished Engineer, IBM
1. Shift from business automation to business optimization
2. Planning the right IT strategy for achieving business goals
3. Fostering business innovation through IT
4. Case studies and examples
11:45 Session 1: Innovation measurement - Importance & need Ravishankar Ganesan, VP SoC IP Strategic Business Unit, Ittiam Systems (P) Ltd
1. Measurement fundamental and critical to Innovation success
2. Innovation metrics - Traditional v/s contemporary
3. Adoption of holistic approach to Innovation measurement
4. Case studies & examples
12:30 Session 2: : Innovating in mature organisations - Insights from case studies Rajiv Narang, Founder & CEO, Erehwon Innovation Consulting
1. Best practices in innovations
2. Overcoming challenges in innovations
3. Managing innovation internally
14:00 Session 3: Intellectual Property Rights Lokesh V., Sr.Executive - Intellectual Property Management Innovation & New Product Development Strategic Planning & Initiatives - Electrical & Electronics, Larsen & Toubro Limited
1. IPR defined
2. What does it mean to have patents?
3. Can software be patented?
4. Protection of IPR
5. How to avoid infringement of other's patents?
14:45 Session 4: Fostering Innovation Culture and Practice of Creativity within the organisation Chintan Mehta, Director of Products, MPS-EM Incubation, Yahoo! India Research & Development
1. How to build innovation culture within the organization
2. Benefits of inculcating creative thinking in the organization culture
3. Creative thinking for business innovation
15:30 Session 5: Innovation Case Study - Learning from a Start up Venture Padmanabhan Raghavan, Co-founder & Chief Evangelist, 8KMiles.com
1. Innovation idea
2. Key challenges faced
3. Key learning for future innovators
16:30 Session 6: From Invention to Innovation Arun Bhardwaj, Sr. Manager (Product Marketing),Enterprise Solutions and Regional Alliances, Dell India R&D Centre
16:45 Session 7: Panel Discussion: How to become drivers of innovation than being driven? Panel Chair - Arun Bhardwaj, Sr. Manager (Product Marketing),Enterprise Solutions and Regional Alliances, Dell India R&D Centre
Panelist - Sanjay Anandaram, Founding Partner, JumpStartUp Venture Fund; Savita Kini, Marketing Manager, Cisco; Dr. Shankar M V, Principal Scientist, Dow R&D India. 17:30 Chairman's Closing Remarks
NASSCOM announces list of Shortlisted Companies under each category of Innovation Awards 2009. Companies will be contacted to advise on next steps soon.
New Technology Advancement
1. 3i Infotech
2. Airtight Networks
3. Geometric Ltd
4. Goweb 3D
5. Logica
6. Medsynaptic
7. Mistral Solutions
8. Reliance Infrastructure
9. S 7 Software
10. Tata Consultancy Services
11. Tejas Networks
12. Teli Brahma Convergent Communications
13. Wipro Technologies
Market Facing – Business Process and Business model
1. CMC Ltd
2. Cognizant Technology Services
3. Comviva
4. Consim Info
5. Eka Software Solutions
6. Genpact
7. IBS Software Services
8. Infosys Technologies
9. NIIT Technologies Ltd
10. Posidex Technologies
11. Tally Group of Companies
12. Tech Mahindra Ltd
Process Innovation
1. Acclaris Business Solutions
2. ADP Private Ltd
3. HCL Technologies – BPO Services
4. IBM Daksh Business Process Services
5. Wipro Technologies
6. Zoho Corporation
Startup
1. 8kmiles.com
2. Aspiring Minds Assessment
3. Indrion Technologies
4. ITCONS E- Solutions
5. Mymo Wireless Technology
6. Oorja Mobile Services
7. PurpleTalk
8. Ruralshores Business Services
9. TringMe
10. Zeus Numerix
In today's GT Camp, we will be featuring 10 Indian companies to watch out for in days to come. We have chosen these companies for their innovation and dedication to new ideas. We have collected important details of these companies and have put them together. The collection is unbiased and independent of any quantitative figures.
Mobiquest
Mobile application is an emerging sector where new companies are investing their money and time. The increasing sale of smartphones proves that there is a market for mobile applications. Mobiquest provides services to business for building mobile applications.
It's a privately funded company with its headquarter situated in Singapore. Beside mobile application development, Mobiquest center provides a place to test your applications on different mobile platform, hence making it easier for the business to avoid confusion of too many choices.
AdrunIndia
AdrunIndia is an offline marketing company which focuses on providing marketing campaign via advertisement on Cars.
They offer three different ad packages which includes Platinum – Full Body Wrap, Gold Wrap – Door to Door wrap both sides, Silver Wrap – Door to door wrap, single sides.
In order to track the advertisement, the number of the vehicle owner is given to the advertiser. In future, company hopes to integrate GPS system for better tracking.
In its website, AdrunIndia has put simple procedure to allow consumer get in touch with their service:
Step 1: register with us
Step2 : we will decide on the ad campaign as per your info given to us.
Step3: we will contact you.
Step 4: will do all formalities, signing the contract.
Step5: we will start with the campaign.
Evobi
Evobi is an interesting company, devoting it selves to the education sector. The main purpose of the company is to produce interactive products to enhance the learning capability of students. One of it's product is Bi-Box, which allows student to think and implement theoretical ideas.
The Entrepreneurial team at Evobi has its origin from Jawaharlal Nehru National College of Engineering (JNNCE), Shimoga, Karnataka. It started of as a special research team, constituting of faculty and students at JNNCE. The team started working in the area of Human Machine Interface, Virtual Reality and Haptics, with core vision of establishing a very strong team and becoming a pioneer.
This is an encouraging example of innovation driven company and could encourage more entrepreneurs.
Dubzer
Dubzer brings an interesting idea to allow website communicate with customer in different languages. Developing a website with multiple language support can be painful. Dubzer provides services to handle the issue with efficiency and ease.
Here is what they have to say :
Dubzer makes it easy to deliver existing websites in multiple languages.
Configure every aspect of your existing website on-demand and win customers across cultures.
How does it work?
Dubzer works in sync with your existing website and allows you to choose the content that should be modified, define the translation process at a webpage level, and publish all updates on demand.
Preserve the full functionality of your website across languages with no investment in Engineering.
All you need to get started in your existing website URL.
The founding team has in its past introduced innovative award-winning products in the Web and Natural Languages domain. These include products such as Lipikaar (www.lipikaar.com) a patented content creation product that has been used by over 25,000 content writers in 18 languages. Lipikaar won the Manthan Award South Asia 2008 for it's simplicity and mass-appeal, and was featured by the Times of India, DNA, and CNBC TV18.
Perfios
Perfios brings a value to each individual who needs to manage their personal finance. It is an Online Money Management application which helps you organize your daily finance. It also provides an integration with many bank account, credit card, investment in multiple mutual funds scheme to one place.
The members of the Perfios think-tank have had long, successful stints at organizations leveraging the best-of-the-breed technologies to build intuitive, secure software applications for the Banking and Financial Services (BFS) sector. You can check the profile of the management here.
8KMiles
Cloud Computing has become the new way of computing and has given rise to concept like virtual office. 8kmiles is based on the concept of establishing an application on top of cloud infrastructure and providing a virtual office environment.
For a startup, 8kmiles has gained lot of reputation in the market. It was selected as "Microsoft startup of the day"(Reported on 24th ofAug 2009). Also have a relationship with Microsoft (SPLA) through which they can offer licensed Microsoft software on a subscription model. They also have a partnership with a video conferencing vendor (ooVoo) and an assessment firm (Merittrac). They have built their virtual computing environment on top of the Amazon cloud. These partnerships add value to their users and make the 8KMiles offering compelling and beneficial.
Mginger
Mginger is a mass mobile marketing company. The concept is very simple, people will register and subscribe to kinds of advertisement he/she would want. Hence a strong consumer base would be developed by this process. Furthermore, incentives of money is given to consumer who are registered.
In an age of mobile application, this service is a very relevant one for businesses to market their services.
Services they Offer:
Get Paid :-For receiving SMS on your mobile Accumulate Rs. 300 and receive a cheque.
mCoupons Download coupons on your mobile Avail assured discounts in stores
Be informed On various events, deals & discounts In your city & locality
Mobile Games Download free mobile games Play and have fun with your friends
Fresherstube
Jobs portal are one of the most happening site in any sector. Employment is a big part of economy and job portals cater to the needs of people. In this market, we get to see huge communication gap between freshers and companies. There are very few company tackling this problem.
Fresherstube is among those few who are trying to bridge the gap between the freshers and company.
Services they offer:
For College:
Fresher's Database creation and maintenance, Alumni database ,Campus Placement Drive Training cum Workshop
For Students:
Database , Alumni Database, Campus Placements, Job listings on web portal, Email Job alerts,SMS Job alerts Training/Workshop
Buzzintown
Buzzintown is a web portal which brings to you all the events that are happenings in the town. It is the one-stop-shop for all information related to events and happenings – musicals, plays, book reads, concerts, sports, live bands, exhibitions and expos, and, very importantly, those that are personal/social in nature.
Buzzintown.com is a portal owned by Wortal Inc. It is US headquartered company, with a presence pan-India through our India subsidiary, managed by a vastly experienced set of global leaders from the media, entertainment and technology industries.
It has been recognized by many big players in the industry. Is is Official Online Partner of IIFA Awards 2009. It also has been awared the TATA NEN hottest startups awards in 2008.
Indiagames
Indiagames is the a leading mobile and online game company. Though it's not a startup, its one company that is related to innovative and fun ideas. In India, the Company also distributes games via its consumer focused website and operates a broadband Games on Demand service located at http://www.indiagames.com. Indiagames has over 300 employees and offices in Mumbai, London, Los Angeles & Beijing. Internationally the company publishes mobile titles via its IG FUN brand. Key investors include UTV– India's foremost Media & Entertainment Company, Adobe Inc. and Cisco Systems Inc.
As Indiagames has large traffic and a wide reach to the world market, this is what alexa ranking had to say about the site :
Alexa Rank = 53,559
Among the total traffic India accounts for 93.7% traffic, US has 1.9% and U.K has 0.8%.
IndiaGames is one game portal site which still has the opportunity to bring great and interactive products to the mobile and computer users. Hence, we have considered putting it in our list to promote creativity in new startups.
If you look at all the companies above, you will notice a diversity in their services. Each company has its own agenda which is different from other. These are innovative companies which we believe will bring different level of products and services to public and add value to the eco-system of innovation.
Overview
We are pleased to invite you for the 3rd session of NASSCOM Emerge Forum in Cochin.
Traditional approaches to software development are capital intensive and involve high operational costs. Small and Medium sized businesses often do not have adequate resources (time, funds or expertise) to:
Hire and manage skilled professionals
Procure and maintain computing infrastructure
Manage product development/services delivery
With on demand access to the right people, computing infrastructure and collaboration tools, companies can get quality work done by distributed teams. Such a model would help them scale their business without worrying about staffing / resource acquisition and management costs and overheads.
Harish will discuss about how Cloud infrastructure can be combined with a network of skilled service providers to enable a just-in-time, sourcing and development model that allows businesses to obtain and provide development services in a cost efficient, collaborative and secure manner.
SANTA CLARA, CA--(Marketwire - September 29, 2009) - 8KMiles, a leading provider of on-demand workforce and cloud computing infrastructure, today announces its latest milestone with the addition of over 6,000 members to its online marketplace in just 6 months since its launch. To continue to meet the demands of its rapidly growing community of SMBs, 8KMiles will be exhibiting at this year's SMB Nation, October 2-4 in Las Vegas to showcase its current services, as well as provide a sneak peak of its soon to be launched voice-enabled services.
8KMiles online marketplace offers SMBs:
-- A vast network of highly-skilled service providers including background check and skills testing
-- Project management tools and online collaboration including video conferencing, instant messaging and environment with fine grained controls
-- Secure cloud-based Virtual Computing Environment (based on Amazon EC2) and integrated infrastructure to outsource and carry out projects online using cloud-based software and ready to use development environments
Through 8KMiles' vast network of highly-skilled professionals and cloud computing infrastructure and services, SMB can safely and securely outsource their projects online with complete visibility and control. SMBs simply log-in, create their profile, search and select talent for their projects and then lease virtual company infrastructure on an hourly pay-as-you-go basis, with no upfront costs.
But the service goes further, offering a collaborative platform for projects. With browser-based tools, SMBs can attack and manage projects with video conferences, message boards, and more. Users can even install their own tools in the Windows and Linux environments offered through the 8KMiles marketplace.
"Our rapid growth is testament to the fact that our service is addressing a staunch need. Unlike the big outsourcing giants, 8KMiles is enabling SMBs to take advantage of cloud computing economics and real world IT outsourcing, essentially allowing SMBs to set up a global business online without a real world footprint", said Dr. Suresh V. Chari, founder and CEO of 8KMiles. "By leveraging recent advances in cloud computing, 8KMiles is not only allowing SMBs to circumvent the risk and heavy capital investment historically required to starting and running a business today, it is also leveling the playing field".
8KMiles not only offers huge cost savings for SMBs, it also offers greater revenue generating opportunities for seasoned IT and business development professionals. IT professionals, SMB consultants and business development professionals are now able to sign up as service brokers and create their own Virtual Company with 8KMiles. In doing so, they can connect with other professionals with specific domain knowledge within the 8KMiles network, team up and offer services as a specialist project team, enabling them to work on high-value projects as well as sell value-added services within the 8KMiles marketplace.
8KMiles also provides intuitive dashboards for service brokers, enabling them to effectively manage the accounts and their pipeline, arming them with all the tools and communications mechanisms required to ensure a successful project. Furthermore, service brokers can earn attractive compensation by negotiating rates with their service providers and also reselling the virtual computing infrastructure offered through 8KMiles.
In addition to showcasing its core services, 8KMiles will also discuss its upcoming unveiling of a new suite of voice-enabled services at SMB Nation, aimed at improving voice solutions and adding functionality for SMBs. 8KMiles will exhibit at SMB Nation, October 2-4, at Riviera Hotel & Casino, Booth #225. Attendees can also participate in 8KMiles' raffle for the chance to win 200 hours of access to cloud computing infrastructure with which to execute projects online.
8KMiles is also offering SMBs the chance to enter 8KMiles' Thrivabil-IT Challenge both on-stand at the show, and online at www.Thrivabil-IT.com for the chance to win free IT for a year.
About 8KMiles:
8KMiles is an online community that combines a vast network of highly-skilled professionals with cloud computing infrastructure and services to enable SMBs and start-ups to outsource their projects online. Companies simply log-in, create their profile, search and select highly-skilled staff for their projects and then lease virtual company infrastructure, cloud-based software and ready to use development environments, on an hourly pay-as-you-go basis, with no upfront costs. 8KMiles' online community facilitates successful execution of projects in a secure environment with complete visibility and control. 8KMiles is privately held with offices in USA and India.
THE BUSINESS: 8KMiles Inc. provides an online community where startups and small businesses can outsource their projects to a network of professionals using cloud computing infrastructure and services. Companies simply log in, create a profile, search and select staff for their projects and then lease virtual company infrastructure, cloud-based software and ready-to-use development environments, on an hourly pay-as-you-go basis, with no upfront costs. The company also offers collaboration and dashboard tools including instant messaging, video conferencing and message boards to ensure successful, timely project execution.
HOW IT MAKES MONEY: There are two revenue streams. One is through commissions based on the project contract value, currently 7.5 percent of the value of the project executed through 8KMiles' portal. The other is through subscriptions to its Virtual Computing Environment based on the hours of use.
BUSINESS, TECHNOLOGY THAT COULD BE DISRUPTED: 8KMiles says it provides a cost-effective and secure way for its customers to outsource their projects online, which creates a paradigm shift in traditional outsourcing approaches. It says its cloud-based infrastructure services eliminate the need for expensive hardware and software solutions to be deployed in-house.
MANAGEMENT TEAM: Founder and CEO Suresh V. Chari has more than 20 years of experience in consulting and outsourcing, including founding SolutionNet Consulting, SRP Consulting and SRM Technologies. Executive Vice President, Business Development and Alliances Prabhu Karunakaran was previously the director of solutions and business development at BancTec Inc. He is the chief operating officer of Mentor Minds, a business solutions and technology company, and the founder and CEO of Connexion Consulting — a consulting firm that helps companies reduce costs and improve productivity through process automation. Marketing Vice President Victor Francis held various positions at BancTec across engineering and sales teams. He also holds a senior management position at Mentor Minds and Connexion Consulting.
I don't know about you, but when I'm in a room filled to the gills with people excited about what they're doing with their lives, it makes me smile.
That's how I feel at SF New Tech. It's a monthly ritual of entrepreneurial goodness.
Seems like folks really enjoy talking about how they're trying to do cool stuff. Around the room conversations abound. I'm a firm believer that markets are conversations and you guys who were there last night knew how to get it on.
I love when you can get past the 30-second elevator pitch of your new tech, and then find yourself shooting the shit about something totally random, only to suddenly circle back to some real world ramifications playing at hand because of your new tech… there's magic going on.
Relationships begin — and thrive — when the mind is open and relaxed. SF New Tech strives to produce an environment that's dedicated to promoting a highly social, yet academic experience.
It's simple. Drink up, eat some free yummy REAL tacos, meet new people, uncover a lead, a possible job opportunity, meet a money guy, a blogger from the WSJ, a cute girl (or guy) who knows …? And then sit down, shut up, and listen to others share with you what they've been working on. It's a wonderful dynamic, if you ask me!
Also, we place a strict five minute limit on the demos because everyone should be accountable. The 5 minutes of Q & A is designed so anyone can connect with the CEO on stage and put him on the spot. And the CEO finds himself on stage because he's not only looking to show off his baby, he's looking for feedback … and the circle remains unbroken.
So — enough out of a guy who buys crazy shirts on eBay.
Here are some nifty links concerning last night (and then some…)
Real Time Ratings (starting on Friday)
60 - Second Spots
Apply to demo at SF New Tech
Annual Membership Info
And don't forget … check out 8KMiles awesome Thrivabil-IT Challenge, that's giving start-ups a leg up in the downturn. Enter for the chance to win free IT for a year and over $15,000 of software, hardware, IT services and unlimited job postings. Check out Thrivabil-IT.com .
If you're the least bit interested, I'm speaking on an awesome panel at Sandbox Suites about how to put together Kick Ass events next Tuesday, September 22nd. It's going to be a hoot - you should come! :)
And if you're around on Tuesday, September 29, the Elance Team is hosting an event for all providers, employers, fans, newcomers, fresh faces, and all elancers alike to come join them at Varnish Fine Art (77 Natoma Street) from 6:00 pm to 7:30 pm and have a drink (on them) and chat about how work as we know it today is changing in a big way. And don't forget to bring a business card – they'll be giving away some swag and will be giving away $500 in Elance services. Click here to RSVP.
Finally — for all you Founders and CEOs … if you'd like to be considered for an invitation to the exclusive Founder's Feast and Poker 2.0 Tournament on October 19th at Stonebook Court, please let us know!
Sometime back, I had a Twitter discussion where I was arguing that Cloud Computing could put a catastrophic dent on the Indian outsourcing industry. I felt that it is quite easy to automate some of the business processes on the clouds, eventually leading to businesses saving money without even resorting to the old fashioned outsourcing. Later, I came across an article about how the Indian outsourcing companies are finding it difficult to adapt to this new trend. In fact, a senior official at the Indian outsourcing giant Infosys even concurred with my thinking about the impact of cloud computing on Indian outsourcing industry.
Cloud computing is threatening the business model of the Indian IT outsourcing industry as the global recession pushes business to cut costs, according to the chief executive of Infosys.
He correctly understood the possibility of western giants like IBM, HP and Oracle chipping away business from them. Later I came across a news about Wipro coming out with their own Cloud Computing efforts. Well, I was not even sure if their offering, called as w-SaaS, is even a cloud offering in the strictest sense of the term. Anyhow, I was curious about seeing the response from the Indian outsourcing industry to the emerging trend of Cloud Computing. While I am yet to come across anything worthwhile from the outsourcing giants there, I came across an interesting little company called 8KMiles.
While the cloud pundits are busy fighting over whether we should have an outsourcing component to be part of the definition of cloud computing or not, 8KMiles had quietly tapped into Cloud Computing to build a platform offering outsourcing as a service. Unlike the big outsourcing giants in India, this company with offices in both US and India, is targeting SMB sector and helping them take advantage of the economics of cloud computing and real world IT outsourcing. This is an interesting twist to the outsourcing industry.
Their approach to the market is pretty simple. The Cloud Computing may automate many different tasks and help save enterprises huge amounts of money on the manpower. However, it is still difficult for small and medium sized companies to manage the cloud based services using the self service component of the Cloud. SMB sector still needs manpower but they also want to cut down on their expenditure. They could resort to middlemen like eLance or similar companies but they still have to find another provider for the computing resources. What 8KMiles is trying to do is to provide both a platform to find manpower and computing resources to get the work done by the hired talent. 8KMiles is not a typical outsourcing company which one can find in countries like India, China, etc.. Instead of offering manpower, they have built a marketplace for SMBs to find and hire talent and, then, tap into the cloud infrastructure to get the work done. I have come across many SMBs who still consider cloud computing to be beyond their scope because they have no idea how to put it to use for their needs. Companies like 8KMiles can help such people find low cost talent who can help them take advantage of this emerging technological trend.
The 8KMiles platform offers SMBs
* a secure cloud based Virtual Computing Environment (they use Amazon EC2 in the backend)
* a marketplace for hiring talent including support for certain degree of background check
* a project collaboration environment with fine grained controls
They offer service providers
* a platform to showcase their talent for potential customers
* an integrated infrastructure to carry out the client projects
The other interesting part about their platform is that an enterprising entrepreneur can hire talent, offer services to customers, find customers and use the infrastructure to get the project done, all within 8KMiles platform. Essentially, one can set up a global business online without any footprint in the real world.
8KMiles could offer such an Outsourcing as a Service platform without any capital expenditure only due to the economics of Cloud Computing. Their approach should serve as a great example to all the outsourcing providers on the advantages of using Cloud Computing in their service offerings. Many times in this blog, I have spoken about the disruptive nature of Cloud Computing and how it can level the playing field for a wide range of players. 8KMiles offers a compelling example for this, where a company could offer enterprise level computing services to SMB clients without any huge investment on their part. 8KMiles is a compelling story to highlight the disruptive nature of the Cloud Computing.
The company of the day is 8KMiles.com, based in India. 8KMiles.com is an online ecosystem of verified professionals and companies for outsourcing of software and knowledge services over the internet. You will find below an interview with Padmanabhan Raghavan, Co-founder & Chief Evangelist of 8KMiles.com. All the best to them and congrats for being the startup of the day!
Interview with Padmanabhan Raghavan, Co-founder & Chief Evangelist of 8KMiles.com
Who are you?
Co-founder & Chief Evangelist, 8KMiles.com
How do you feel being the most promising 'company of the day' per Microsoft?
It is an amazing feeling. Any recognition for a startup is great. And Microsoft recognizing 8KMiles as a promising startup is a great motivation for all of us. What did you do before creating your company?
All of the founding team members were into software development and services. While most of us were into engineering, one of the partners was running his software services firm in the US.
How did you get the idea? What s the genesis?
The partner who was running the software services firm in the US got requests for custom software development from many SMB's. However, these projects were too small and subsequently the overheads were too high to be considered fit for the traditional outsourcing model. We got together and decided that we can offer a compelling outsourcing solution for SMB's and start-ups without compromising on quality, security and control. That's how 8KMiles was born.
What do you sell? What is your company's mission?
8KMiles.com is an online ecosystem of verified professionals and companies for outsourcing of software and knowledge services completely over the internet. The 8KMiles ecosystem provides the people, hardware, software and tools required for outsourcing on-demand effectively enabling a no cap-ex model of "Software Development-as-a-Service".
8KMiles provides access to quality talent as well as access to pre-built infrastructure (development / testing stacks) delivered from the cloud. Using 8KMiles, SMB's, Start-ups and IT consulting companies can build their virtual development and testing teams and monitor and collaborate in real time with them. 8KMiles is a no cap-ex virtual outsourcing option for companies.
Mission: 8KMiles is a company that is leveraging collaboration, networking and technology to enable a new delivery model for software and other services. Our goal is to make remote service delivery easy, secure, reliable and transparent.
What is your market?
8KMiles' solution is targeted at SMB's, start-up businesses and IT consulting and contracting companies who are looking at a no cap-ex, cost efficient and reliable outsourcing model.
Any clients? References? Partners?
A retail library chain is building its library application with a virtual team from 8KMiles. There are other companies that leverage the 8KMiles model to bring down their development costs. We have a relationship with Microsoft (SPLA) through which we can offer licensed Microsoft software on a subscription model. We also have a partnership with a video conferencing vendor (ooVoo) and an assessment firm (Merittrac). We have built our virtual computing environment on top of the Amazon cloud. These partnerships add value to our users and make the 8KMiles offering compelling and beneficial.
Funding history? VCs? BA?
We are currently self funded.
Growth? Internationalization?
Our verified Service Provider pool is restricted to the US and India at this point. However, we are global when it comes to Service Buyers (companies / people who want to outsource on 8KMiles).
How many employees do you have? How many developers?
We are 15 people and 10 are into development.
Are you hiring? If yes, what? Where?
We leverage the 8KMiles platform for a lot of our work. We outsource some of our development and testing requirements on the 8KMiles ecosystem to freelancers and small IT companies that are registered on our platform.
Which platform are you building on? Why?
Our solution is built on Java. We use both Linux and Windows for our server needs.
Do you have any Software IP? Is there something that you're the only one to do on the market?
We have a provisional process patent filed in the US (Process for enabling execution of a project outsourced across the Internet with an integrated computing infrastructure). The virtual model of having freelancers working remotely accessing a cloud based infrastructure is unique to 8KMiles.
Who's your role model?
A lot of my ideas and thoughts for 8KMiles came after reading the blog posts of Seth Godin, Guy Kawasaki and Marc Andreessen.
Where do you see opportunities today in the Software/internet areas?
In the current economic situation, with cost savings being a top priority, SaaS and cloud based solutions are going to be looked at more seriously than ever before. At 8KMiles, we see a lot of potential there and are building our expertise around that area.
Looking for funding? If yes, how much?
We are absolutely focused on enhancing the experience of our users. We want to make 8KMiles as the "go-to place" for cost effective and reliable outsourcing for SMB's, start-ups and IT consulting companies. If an investor will help us achieve these objectives faster through capital and network, we will be glad to explore the possibilities.
What about the BizSpark Program? What do you think? Are you going to join? Why?
BizSpark is a fantastic program for Start-ups. Microsoft has taken a huge step forward in helping many start-ups. We are already part of the program. Many times, start-ups choose open source software only because they are not able to afford the cost of purchasing Microsoft software (free is a very attractive word for start-ups!). Now that the entire suite is available for free, I'm sure start-ups will benefit by using the reliable and highly efficient software solutions from Microsoft.
Any advice to young Software entrepreneurs?
Stay focused. Be positive. Keep learning.
Anything else you'd like to say?
We would be glad if start-ups take a look at www.8kmiles.com and explore the possibility of building their cost efficient virtual development or testing teams.
8KMiles, an online ecosystem of verified professionals and companies that enables outsourcing of software and other knowledge services completely over the internet, offers an effective model of outsourcing without capital expenditure for Small and Medium Businesses, IT consulting / contracting companies and start-up businesses by providing on-demand access to people, hardware, software and tools.
Excerpts from the interview:
How does your Virtual Computing Environment (VCE) work?
8Kmiles Virtual Computing Environment (VCE) is a remote infrastructure solution built on top of reliable virtualisation and cloud computing technologies. VCE enables secure and reliable delivery of services thus alleviating scalability and business continuity concerns faced by companies.
8KMiles VCE offers desktops and environments with different types of softwares such as Windows Server 2003, Linux and CentOS bundled with various development tools and applications. VCE acts as a shared environment accessible from anywhere over the Internet to enhance collaboration between project members distributed across the world and enable remote delivery of services. VCE provides easy administration and management dashboard for the infrastructure clubbed with automatic backup and disaster recovery mechanism, which is very much needed for any software development.
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What is unique about 8KMiles?
8KMiles connects global business looking for IT and knowledge services to skilled professionals and companies. The 8KMiles ecosystem provides the people, hardware, software and tools required for outsourcing on-demand effectively enabling a no cap-ex model of "Software development-as-a-Service". Some of the unique features offered by 8KMiles are:
Online Outsourcing market place with Credential verification
Skills assessment of the Knowledge professionals
Secure and reliable Virtual Computing Environment
Real time collaboration with VCE , Video conferencing and Project collaboration tools
Pre Built development and application stacks on VCE, ready for development use.
Secure and flexible payment options
Build teams (Virtual companies) and provide comprehensive suite of services to business from around the world
Service broker Skilled professionals who will expand the online outsourcing ecosystem of buyers and service providers
Project managers - Skilled professionals who will manage the projects on the ecosystem.
Where do you see the growth coming for 8KMiles?
In terms of revenue streams, we see growth coming in from Platform usage (i.e. outsourcing engagements), value-added services for project management and collaboration and in the virtual infrastructure space - subscriptions to virtual desktops/environments and services related to infrastructure management, security and deployment support.
In terms of business areas, we anticipate major uptake in our virtual infrastructure services as they offer an excellent model for distributed teams to collaborate on projects. With our continued development efforts in our virtual infrastructure offering, we will enable a true develop-test-deploy-maintain model, which would offer the benefits of traditional outsourcing without the overheads. By allowing professionals and businesses to network and engage with each other, 8KMiles will enable multiple engagement models beyond usual buyer-provider contract engagements. This will lead to newer monetization opportunities for users and should significantly contribute to 8KMiles' growth going forward.
How do you think you can take on the IT giants?
8KMiles does not compete with IT giants for Enterprise Services business pie instead it forms an online eco system of knowledge professionals, startups and small and medium IT companies as a business community and targets SMB's across globe for online outsourcing business. Traditionally, only large and fortune 1000 companies have benefitted from the outsourcing phenomenon. Small and medium business (SMB's) faces strategic, competitive cost and operational challenges with outsourcing. SMB's across the globe cannot outsource their needs for the cost what our IT giants may offer.
They cannot travel to India and set up an outsourcing unit for a project worth $250,000. They have their unique needs in terms of collaboration, flexibility and pricing. To offer better services and solutions for best price to SMB'S globally there should be an organizational model which is different from the current model what the Indian IT services companies follows
Where do you see 8KMiles in five years time?
8KMiles will be the world's largest online ecosystem of knowledge professionals, startups, small and medium businesses distributed across the globe offering remote services to business community. In India 8KMiles will be the largest "virtual employer" of IT talent.
The impact of slowdown (recession) on your company?
We believe the slowdown has made businesses globally a lot more aware of the importance of conserving cash. They, now more than ever, want the best return on their investments. Businesses also need to keep innovating and improving their offerings and processes to stay ahead of the game. Any business would benefit from a model that lets them get quality work done, without having to spend time and money acquiring and managing people and infrastructure (hardware, software, office space).
8KMiles facilitates such a model - by providing on-demand access to skilled providers, project management professionals and collaboration tools coupled with on-demand computing infrastructure for getting work done in a centralized, collaborative and secure environment. Our verification and validation tools, project management centric approach and tightly integrated computing infrastructure help mitigate the risks associated with online outsourcing and allow businesses and professionals to obtain and provide services as if they were sitting in the same office.
A quick comparison between Indian and global markets?
Many advanced markets have been used to outsource services (local and offshore) for quite a while. There are a lot of small and medium businesses in global markets that are yet to realise the benefits of outsourcing. There are many reasons for this - accessibility and education being the primary ones. SMBs need to be able to trust outsourcing partners, get properly managed services and track progress of work in real time to really take to outsourced services.
However, Indian businesses have not yet taken to outsourcing in a big way. We find a lot of scope for outsourced services in the Indian market - in the context of both traditional and new age businesses. Trust is probably the single most important component in an outsourcing relationship. A model that facilitates trust, coupled with right education about the benefits and accessibility would certainly appeal to traditional Indian businesses.
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There is a lot of innovation happening in India and we see a number of startups with interesting ideas. These startups can benefit immensely by engaging or partnering with the right professionals to take their ideas to implementation. We may even see engagements where startups share some stake with their outsourcing partners in place of cash.
SMBs have stepped up outsourcing to cut cost and brave economic slowdown better. According to reports, they are paying particular attention to contract sourcing to outsource work to service providers online. 8KMiles, a relatively new player in contract sourcing arena, offers many interesting features such as Virtual Computing Environment, an interesting solution built on cloud. For a start-up, 8KMiles is drawing good attention and was recently profiled by Washington Post.
Business Technology spoke with Prabhu Karunakaran, EVP, 8KMiles, on topics ranging from trends in contract sourcing to how start-ups can leverage cloud computing. Based in Dallas, TX, Prabhu Karunakaran is responsible for business development and marketing for 8KMiles. 8KMiles is privately held with offices in USA and India.
How big is the Contract sourcing industry?
There are more than 50,000 active projects on the major contract sourcing and online outsourcing sites. The value ranges anywhere from a few hundred dollars to a few thousand dollars. The average size of the project is in the $750-$1000 range. There are more than 300,000 service providers. The industry has grown significantly in the last year (about 25% to 40% increase).
Can you give an overview of the buyers and sellers participating in contract sourcing? What kind of projects gets contracted?
Buyers participating in contract sourcing come from a wide-array of business lines and domains ranging from insurance, healthcare, financial services, retail, energy and other verticals. A significant number of buyers represent small to medium sized businesses and the majority of them come from the US and European markets. Average project value ranges between $750 and $1,000.
All types of work are being transacted on online marketplaces – IT, architecture, engineering multimedia editing, content, graphic design, business consulting, marketing, training, accounting, legal, data processing, virtual office assistant and so on.
What impact has recession made on contract sourcing?
The recession has helped the contract sourcing market as the number of job postings have increased. During these tough economic times, IT and business managers face immense pressure to cut costs. So rather than hiring full-time employees and paying then all the required benefits, they turn to the contract sourcing systems as an alternative.
On the other hand, many professionals have lost their jobs due to recession and they are looking at different options to keep themselves busy and make a living. Several of them do turn to freelancing sites for part-time opportunities.
What are the advantages and disadvantages in contract sourcing? What should buyers and sellers look out for?
Savings on cost, convenience and access to talent on-demand are the major advantages. There could be limitations pertaining to quality of the people involved in the delivery of services, collaboration and monitoring and project continuity.
The buyers should pay attention to the quality of the people they are hiring for a project. They should ensure that the service providers are verified, and have the necessary technical and soft skills required for the project. They should also see if there is a proper mechanism available to ensure smooth and clear communication with the Service Providers. Since this is a contract workforce, there is a high chance of people moving out of a project mid-way into it. The buyers should ensure that the system they choose provides them with an ability to continue the project with minimal disruption. It is critical that the buyer clearly communicates the project needs and specifications from both a functional aspect and technical aspect. Continual communication must be done to ensure project scope, quality and deliverables. Establishing project milestones, attaching appropriate payment terms, using the escrow account will also aid drive expectations.
Given the huge number of Indian developers and other potential service providers, how important is the country in global contract sourcing business. Have Indian service providers lived up to their potential in contract sourcing?
In a global contract sourcing environment, country should not be a critical factor. However, since countries like the United States and India have a very large technical talent pool, it is only natural that they contribute to a lion's share of the service provider community. India has one of the highest representations in the service provider pool and it is bound to have a mix of talent in terms of the quality. Overall, India has been living up to its expectations. Moreover, communication is a key factor while working in this virtual model and India certainly has better English speaking skills when compared to other Asian countries.
Availability of high-speed Internet connection is of paramount importance in an online outsourcing engagement. While tier 1 cities in India have well-laid out communication infrastructure, tier 2 and tier 3 towns have some catching up to do. The government is taking the needed measures to make technology reach rural areas.
There are established players on contract sourcing? What prompted 8KMiles to get into the business? What are your differentiators?
Any project development (primarily the technology ones) requires four main components: people, hardware, software and tools. The current set of players in the contract sourcing space address the people part and to some extent on the tools part. At 8KMiles, we focus on the complete solution and provide on-demand access to people, hardware, software and tools to make the overall experience compelling. SMBs and start-up companies facing infrastructure and resource limitations can effectively use 8KMiles to bring their products and services into fruition. 8KMiles has other interesting features such as a multi-step verification and assessment model, six-way video conferencing and a Service Broker Program.
Besides facilitating contract sourcing, you also offer a virtual computing platform leveraging Amazon's cloud infrastructure? Can you give details of this solution?
The integrated cloud delivered infrastructure (VCE – Virtual Computing Environment) provides real time monitoring and collaboration opportunity. It also saves cap-ex on infrastructure and also any setup and configuration time (and also worries about backup and disaster recovery).
Through the 8KMiles.com system, registered users can have access to Linux and Windows based machines with different flavours of applications and software packages.
8KMiles is constantly looking at adding more Virtual Computing Environments and also integrating with other cloud infrastructure providers. Users can also request specific environments through the portal.
All VCEs are available on a pay-as-you-go subscription model and users have the option of automatic and manual renewal plans. Once the buyer subscribes and owns the VCE, the buyer can open it up for access to the provider(s). Different access privileges can be granted for various providers through the portal. The VCE gives greater visibility of the project and also facilitates project continuity.
We have very tightly integrated our online portal with Amazon's cloud infrastructure.
Can you share your experience of building a solution on cloud? How different was it from doing an on-premise solution?
8KMiles application is a complex web application involving cluster of Web, Application, Data base, Monitoring and scheduling servers. The teams involved in the development phase were distributed in 3 locations (Chennai, Bangalore and USA). We chose Amazon cloud as our infrastructure because we needed real time and tighter collaboration between teams during our development. Since our own software development is happening over Amazon cloud we are better equipped now to offer our VCE as Software development as a service to the IT community in our eco system. We have saved considerable time and effort by using Amazon cloud Infrastructure. We have also realized cost benefits by bringing the machines up/down on usage basis.
For example, if we need 5 high-end Linux servers for our load testing phase for just two days, we can get it on-demand from Amazon. As other hosting providers would have made us wait for days, cloud has made our development efforts very agile and flexible. Also in online business the load on servers is varies. By using Amazon EC2 we get considerable cost benefit by auto scaling up/down our server infrastructure.
We use cloud computing for our development, testing and application hosting phases. Building a solution over cloud is dependent upon the Internet bandwidth. If you have very good bandwidth connectivity, building solutions in remote cloud servers is more flexible and reliable than premise solutions.
Amazon cloud offers the suitable software stacks with benefits of elasticity, reliability, flexibility for distributed software development. The above benefits prompted us to develop our 8KMiles over cloud and offer our VCE also from Amazon cloud.
Do you see other start-ups based out of India using cloud?
Cloud computing is gaining a lot of traction in India. In a recent report Amazon said India was in top 10 countries using its cloud service. Big cloud service providers are looking at India as there is a huge market here, especially among the smaller companies. We see SaaS as a well adopted strategy in India and Cloud seems to be the next logical progression. India’s large and fragmented market will give provide great opportunities for cloud infrastructure providers.
Is contract outsourcing a moonlighting option for service providers? Can it be a full time engagement? Any advise on this for aspiring service providers.
As of today, moonlighters form the majority on any contract sourcing system. However, it has the potential to attract full timers. Software development can be akin to the Hollywood industry. In Hollywood, the best talent (Actors, Directors, and Technicians) assemble for a specific assignment and dismantle once the exercise is over. Similarly, in software development too developers, designers, testers and project Managers can come together to develop a solution for a client and re-assemble on a need basis. Software (many times) need not be developed by travelling and getting stuck in a physical space. It is a creative exercise and can be done from wherever one is located. As a movie studio provides the backdrop, lighting, and audio and video systems, for actors, directors and technicians, 8KMiles provides hardware, software and collaboration tools for buyers, providers, service brokers and project managers to conduct business and execute projects. Freelancing offers work freedom and independence and it is time that the technology industry moves in that direction.
Service providers must spend time in creating their profile online and enter as much professional and experience information as possible. They must also get verified by uploading a government-issued photo ID such as driver’s license and passport copy. Commitment, collaboration and camaraderie will certainly help providers succeed in the online outsourcing space.
Slowdown-hit SMEs in the IT/ITes sector are moving into more niche, underserved areas to survive. Guruji, which started as a general search engine ran into a wall called Google, and new clients were choosing to trust the bigger brand.
"Clients slowed down their spending and we had to tweak our plans", says Anurag Dod, CEO of the Sequoia Capital funded company. Guruji then bet on a new technology—a customisable music search engine. "This will drive our growth now, and differentiate us from the others in the sector", says Dod. The Bangalore-based firm expects the new software to contribute 25% of business by the year-end.
Prof K Kumar who heads the incubation centre at IIM Bangalore says, "These new niches will be growth drivers for companies even after the recession is over". He estimates that niche products could contribute over 50% to the revenues of these companies soon.
Bangalore-based BPO 24/7 Customer has launched new software which will enable call centre operators to predict customer demand, and respond in a way that doubles customer satisfaction rates. From 15 customers last year this software has now got them 30 new clients this year, including Adobe. "We are hiring 1,000 people, including PhDs in math and statistics this year for developing advanced versions of the software", says chief marketing officer V Bharathwaj.
Funding for such ideas is getting better now, says Arun Natarajan, managing director of Venture Intelligence India, a VC tracking firm. "Moving niche shows you have special skills, and so venture capitalists might be interested", he adds. Anticipating a recovery, many VC firms are raising fresh funds.
Recently, Kanwal Rekhi-promoted Inventus Capital announced the availability of $100 million, while Helion Ventures raised $200 million.
Startup firm 8K Miles enables IT-educated housewives and IT professionals in small towns to create software code for large firms, essentially creating an online outsourcing ecosystem of verified professionals and companies. This IIM Bangalore-incubated firm, which would have been just another aspirant in the cloud computing space, has bagged projects worth around $50,000 within a month of its launch.
"We are making software development a service and we had to move to this niche", says Suresh Chari, founder and CEO, 8KMiles, which will target mostly small businesses and startups.
"Moving into such niche areas is a way to survive in an environment where finding money is tough", says Nikhil Khatau, managing director, Mayfield Advisors, which has invested in Tejas Networks and PayMate and is eyeing more investments later this year. The company typically invests $5-10 million in startups.
Partnership enables 8KMiles users to maximize collaboration and facilitate project continuity through ooVoo six-way video conferencing.
Dallas, TX (Vocus/PRWEB ) July 28, 2009 -- 8KMiles, today announces its partnership with multi-point video communication provider ooVoo. Through the new agreement, 8KMiles will offer ooVoo's high quality video chat software as part of its suite of online collaboration tools to enable users to conduct live videoconferencing to foster greater project collaboration and continuity.
Through the partnership, 8KMiles users now have access to up to six-way video conferencing. This not only enables service buyers to become more acquainted with service providers, but also encourages real-time collaboration and project transparency between virtual teams.
Outsourcing has traditionally benefited larger corporations, SMBs are yet to fully capitalize on these benefits due to limited budget, talent and infrastructure. SMBs can now overcome this by embracing the power of the Internet and outsourcing their projects through 8KMiles' on-demand enterprise scalable cloud infrastructure and network of certified service providers
Every day, ooVoo connects millions of family members, co-workers, friends and online communities through remarkably clear and highly superior video quality. We are very excited to launch another API partner, 8KMiles, as we continue to help innovative development teams and partners implement our video conversations into their platforms
"Outsourcing has traditionally benefited larger corporations, SMBs are yet to fully capitalize on these benefits due to limited budget, talent and infrastructure. SMBs can now overcome this by embracing the power of the Internet and outsourcing their projects through 8KMiles' on-demand enterprise scalable cloud infrastructure and network of certified service providers," says Prabhu Karunakaran, EVP of 8KMiles. "To ensure the success and continuity of these online outsourcing projects service, it is critical that we provide a rich array of easy-to-use collaboration tools. By partnering with ooVoo, we are now able to deliver superior real-time video communication as part of our online ecosystem."
ooVoo's new video conferencing capabilities complements 8KMiles' current lineup of collaboration resources. Through 8KMiles, 24/7 project visibility and user control is made possible with messaging chat boards and the ability to monitor online service provider availability in real-time enables companies and project managers to communicate and benchmark key project milestones with their team of service providers.
In addition to collaborating on projects within the 8KMiles' online ecosystem, users or buyers can also use the service to collaborate among each other or add ooVoo's high quality video chat rooms to their own sites or build widgets and applications on top of the ooVoo high quality video communication platform.
"Every day, ooVoo connects millions of family members, co-workers, friends and online communities through remarkably clear and highly superior video quality. We are very excited to launch another API partner, 8KMiles, as we continue to help innovative development teams and partners implement our video conversations into their platforms," says Tom Herman, Vice President of Product Marketing and API "Evangelist" for ooVoo. "ooVoo understands the importance of high quality when connecting with friends, businesses colleagues and family over video communication. To download the ooVoo Developer API, register an application or get more information, please visit www.ooVoo.com/Developer. To use the new integrated environment please visit www.seetoo.com.
About 8KMiles: 8KMiles is an online ecosystem of verified professionals and companies that enables outsourcing of software and other knowledge services completely over the internet. The 8KMiles ecosystem provides the people, hardware, software and tools required for outsourcing on-demand effectively enabling a no cap-ex model of "Software Development-as-a-Service" and other knowledge services. 8KMiles' platform facilitates successful execution of projects in a secure environment with complete visibility and control for companies in addition to providing opportunities for business development and information technology professionals to offer services to companies. 8KMiles is privately held with offices in USA and India.
About ooVoo: ooVoo provides a high-quality webcam video chat and communication service that delivers a meaningful way for people to call and connect over the Internet. ooVoo's technology enables people to experience a face-to-face conversation and share a full range of emotions as if they are in the same room together, whether they are across the street or across the globe. ooVoo's superior quality video and audio are available to anyone with a computer, broadband connection and a web camera, for real-time video calls with up to six friends, relatives and colleagues simultaneously. ooVoo offers high-resolution video, video conversation recording, telephony, video messaging, instant message chat and file sharing amongst other capabilities.
8KMiles, an online ecosystem founded by Dr Suresh V Chari, Harish Ganesan, Padmanabhan Raghavan, and Praveen Aravamudhan, was incubated by the Nadathur S Raghavan Centre for Entrepreneurial Learning (NSRCEL) at IIM Bangalore.
The world envisaged by 8KMiles founders is a virtual one where companies that are in need of professionals, and professionals who are in need of work, meet.
In this new virtual world, people from anywhere in the world can meet and get their work done and also get work.
Harish Ganesan, co-founder and the chief technology officer, talks of this unique initiative.
What is 8KMiles?
When we found that there are many small- and medium-sized companies that are looking for IT professionals from India and the United States but do not know how to outsource work to the right people, we thought, why not connect these two?
We developed an online ecosystem where we connect knowledge professionals with small- and medium-sized IT companies, start-ups, etc.
Why the name 8KMiles?
It is after a lot of thought that we decided on the name 8KMiles, which is 8000 miles. It is the approximate equatorial diameter of the earth from anywhere. It is also the distance between Bangalore and Los Angeles.
As we are trying to connect people who are positioned anywhere in the world, we thought this name was very apt.
The name has helped us a lot as people are curious to know what it means.
Incubation by IIM-B
With the idea, we approached IIM, Bangalore when we came to know that the NSRCEL cell of the campus incubates companies. What interested the NSRCEL cell was the social objectives we put forward; that of involving women and rural youth in the growth process.
The social objectives
We also thought of the women professionals who are not getting a chance to be a part of the changing professional environment because of various personal reasons, and also those who live in the rural part of India. Just because these professionals are far away from the metros, they are unfortunately denied a chance. In our model, where you are placed is immaterial.
We found that many qualified rural youth who are sitting in say for example, places like Salem, Nagercoil, Madurai [ Images ], et cetera, but cannot find a job there.
One thing they lack is good communication skills. Otherwise, they are very good techies. Then we thought, how do we address them? We felt they could form a team and those who could communicate could be the manager and those who are good in technical knowledge could do that.
Women professionals find it difficult to work in an office after childbirth. Taking a break from work also is harmful to their career. We thought what we offer is the best thing that can happen to a woman professional.
Within a month of our launch, 1,500 people have registered and we find that 30 per cent of our registrations are by women and another 40 per cent are from rural India.
We don't have a target that so much percent of our people should be women and/or rural people. We will also be happy if all of them are from rural India.
Though involving women and rural youth is a part of our social obligation, we don't look at it purely as a social responsibility as we run a business. It is a good business proposition which offers the companies cost effective solutions.
How does 8KMiles function?
We have an ecosystem, one side of which has IT professionals, and knowledge workers registering on our system. On the other are those who are looking for professionals to get their work done. We connect these two. We act as a market place where we bring these two groups together.
We, at 8KMiles are particular that all those professionals who want to register on our site have to upload their photos. When we conduct an interview via videoconferencing, we cross check the identity of the person.
This verification is important as it is also our reputation that is at stake. Once the verification is done, an online test is given to test their knowledge. What we follow is exactly what is done in the real world. Then, the professional is registered on our site.
On the other side, we have registered companies looking for people to do work. They choose people from us. What we get is 7.5% commission.
In the first month, we have had 15 projects from India, the United Kingdom, and the United States. We see lots of projects coming from India itself as there are a lot of small entrepreneurs who need people.
Like in eBay, after the work is done, companies rate the professionals which also will be displayed on our site.
Future
We see this as the future model - utilisation of the virtual world - in the next 5-10 years or so. The top companies from the US outsource their work to the top Indian companies like TCS [ Get Quote ], Wipro [ Get Quote ], etc. But there is a huge number of small- and medium-sized companies in the US who need outsourcing to remain competitive.
Outsourcing will be in billions of dollars. In a competitive environment, working in the virtual world is the cheapest.
There are also many people who prefer working at their own convenience from anywhere in the world because of the heavy traffic and other problems that you face in many big cities.
So, we see the model we have developed as a huge market and we are going to be the largest virtual employers.
A new startup is using cloud computing to help broker outsourcing and software development work for small businesses.
8KMiles, which takes its name from the diameter of the Earth, launched three months ago with $1 million and a mission to help small businesses outsource tasks by connecting them with a community of service providers that specialize in everything from software development (expected to be the lion's share of transactions) to legal and accounting advice.
8K verifies the validity of those service providers and lists them in a categorized, searchable portal, ranking them according to customer feedback and collecting 7.5% of the total cost of the outsourcing project in the process. In a few months, the company hopes to add targeted advertising to the site, and eventually it will offer sponsored rankings - letting service providers pay more for a higher spot on search-result lists.
Today 8K is adding a third entity to the mix: service brokers that will act as matchmakers within the matchmaking site, further simplifying the selection process for a fee (and theoretically making use of their own contacts outside 8K's community, which they can then bring inside the portal).
The site also includes videoconferencing, provided by Oovoo, to let buyers and sellers see and speak with one another live to get better acquainted.
8KMiles joins other online outsourcing and hiring matchmakers eLance, oDesk and Guru.com. But 8K claims it's the only one that includes an optional cloud-computing component. Cloud-based services gel well with outsourcing because customers only pay for the resources they consume, but in this case, they can also help establish trust between partners, said Prabhu Karunakaran, 8K's executive vice president.
"Say you need an application developed on top of your existing product", Karunakaran said. "You want to outsource it, but you're not comfortable sending your source code to someone you've never seen before, to sit on a laptop thousands of miles away. You can submit your code to a virtual computing machine, and grant appropriate access to a provider in China, etc. That person can log on to your machine, hosted by 8KMiles, and work on it, and they can't download or upload anything".
Asked whether security is more of a concern than a selling point of cloud computing, he said, "I would definitely agree if the question were posed a year ago", adding that companies like Amazon.com, which provides 8K's cloud computing, as well as Rackspace and others have allayed those concerns.
Because nearly 90% of 8K's 30-person staff (and most of its participating service providers) are based in India, much of the connections it hopes to foster will be between US small businesses and Indian outsourcees. So far about 1400 service providers have signed on to join 8K's community, but only 220 have been verified.
Sales and IT professionals can now monetize connections through new 8KMiles "Service Broker" Program. As part of the 8KMiles Service Broker Program, IT professionals with a particular skill set or business development role are invited to join 8KMiles.
Santa Clara, CA (Vocus/PRWEB ) July 7, 2009 - The simplification and model of collaboration that the Cloud offers to the outsourcing industry not only offers huge cost savings, but also greater opportunities. With the launch of 8KMile's new Service Broker program, seasoned IT and business development professionals can now connect and profit from their existing network of outsourcing partnerships and contacts.
Launched earlier this year at Web 2.0 Expo, 8KMiles is an online ecosystem of verified professionals and companies that enables outsourcing of software and other knowledge services over the internet. Through 8KMile's Virtual Computing Environment (VCE), companies and professionals are able to connect and conduct their outsourcing projects in the cloud or "cloudsource" through on-demand access to enterprise scalable infrastructure and a rich pool of highly-skilled professionals, with no required cap-ex, while having complete control and visibility.
Cloudsourcing is becoming increasingly attractive in an environment where cost pressures are high and capital is low. Smaller businesses are even more likely to rely on cloudsourcing, but they may not have the skills to orchestrate cloud services efficiently. As a result, a new breed of service brokers is emerging. We are launching the Service Broker program to reach this new breed of highly skilled professionals and incentivize them to join and help rapidly expand our online outsourcing ecosystem of buyers and service providers.
With 8KMile's virtual computing environment and virtual company concept, sales professionals can effectively sell value-added services to a variety of companies, offering on-demand access to a complete listing of tools needed to quickly set up and run a global IT office in the cloud. "Cloudsourcing is becoming increasingly attractive in an environment where cost pressures are high and capital is low. Smaller businesses are even more likely to rely on cloudsourcing, but they may not have the skills to orchestrate cloud services efficiently. As a result, a new breed of service brokers is emerging", said Dr. Suresh V. Chari, CEO of 8KMiles. "We are launching the Service Broker program to reach this new breed of highly skilled professionals and incentivize them to join and help rapidly expand our online outsourcing ecosystem of buyers and service providers".
As part of the 8KMiles Service Broker Program, IT professionals with a particular skill set or business development role are invited to join 8KMiles. Once registered as Service Brokers, registrants are encouraged to invite companies and contacts from their vetted networks to join the 8KMiles ecosystem. Through the 8KVCE, Service Brokers are then able to create their own Virtual Company by connecting with professionals with a specific domain knowledge or skill set to offer services as a specialist project team, enabling them to work on more complex high-value projects.
After successful on boarding, these companies become the Service Broker's 'Accounts', and the projects posted by these companies become the Service Broker's 'Opportunities'. 8KMiles provides intuitive dashboards for the Service Broker to effectively manage the accounts and the pipeline, arming them with all the tools and communication mechanisms required to ensure a successful project. Service Brokers can earn attractive compensation by negotiating rates with their providers and also reselling the virtual computing environments offered through 8KMiles.
"With 8KMile's virtual computing environment and virtual company concept, sales professionals can effectively sell value-added services to a variety of companies, offering on-demand access to a complete listing of tools needed to quickly set up and run a global IT office in the cloud", added Prabhu Karunakaran, EVP of 8KMiles.
About 8KMiles: 8KMiles is an online ecosystem of verified professionals and companies that enables outsourcing of software and other knowledge services completely over the internet. The 8KMiles ecosystem provides the people, hardware, software and tools required for outsourcing on-demand effectively enabling a no cap-ex model of "Software Development-as-a-Service" and other knowledge services. 8KMile's platform facilitates successful execution of projects in a secure environment with complete visibility and control for companies in addition to providing opportunities for business development and information technology professionals to offer services to companies. 8KMiles is privately held with offices in USA and India.
Capital can be tight for any business, but startups especially feel the pinch, squeezing as much as possible out of their seed money. Instead of ramping up on-site staff, consider outsourcing as a way to stretch your cash. You'll be able to scale contract costs up or down depending on business success.
8KMiles applies this outsourcing model to a virtual environment. The company helps find skilled workers, letting you make connections across the world, all without leaving your PC.
Workers are initially audited by 8KMiles to give you a sense of their competence. People can offer their skills across dozens of categories, the usual techie experts are available, plus the service manages writers, designers, business consultants, legal pros, accountants, and more.
You'll fill contracting needs through searches and connections that resemble social networks. At that point, you can continue the relationship without 8KMiles if you choose.
But the service goes further, offering a collaborative platform for your projects. With browser-based tools, you can attack and manage projects with video conferences, message boards, and more. You can even install your own tools in the Windows Server and various Linux environments.
8KMiles costs depend on the way you use the service. The company charges a fee of roughly 7.5% of the project value on top of your contract worker costs. If you connect with the collaboration tools or use 8KMiles to host your own tools, the company charges with a pay-as-you-go model.
Online collaboration isn't just for tech projects, although 8KMiles still serves that audience. If your budgets are tight, the service might help you complete projects without the full costs of employee or on-site workers.
Recently, when a library chain in Bangalore wanted to build an IT platform, it decided to try a new recipe.
It was neither interested in investing in an in-house IT team, nor was it keen to outsource the project to one of the regular IT services companies.
What it did can surely be defined as the next generation outsourcing, or outsourcing in a new avatar. 8KMiles, a start-up incubated at the Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore, gave shape to the library chain's dreams. As it describes itself, 8KMiles is an online ecosystem of verified professionals and companies that enables customers to outsource their IT requirements over the Internet.
"The way we work is very simple", explains Padmanabhan Raghavan, Co-founder and Chief Evangelist. Companies wanting to build solutions can post their requirements on the 8KMiles portal. 8KMiles, on the other hand, has tied up with IT professionals who are willing to freelance, or even with small IT firms.
Once the requirements are posted, engineers registered with 8KMiles bid for projects that they are interested in. The customers can then choose their team from amongst those who have submitted bids. "Thus, the customers have an IT team in place without having to go through the hassles of hiring", says Raghavan. Customers can also select a project manager who would hand-hold the entire project, he adds.
The team or the project manager then advises the customers on the kinds of tools they would require while developing the solution. The customers or buyers can subscribe to Microsoft or Linux development tools and applications through the 8KMiles portal. "This gives buyers on-demand access to infrastructure for which they will be charged based on usage", says Raghavan. The Infrastructure would be maintained by 8KMiles.
Raghavan says all that a customer needs is a browser to access the Internet. The remote infrastructure solution has been built on the Amazon cloud computing platform. The customer requirements are designed, developed, deployed and maintained on the cloud. In the future they would like to use other cloud-based platforms such as the Microsoft Azure or the one provided by IBM, he says.
"In a nutshell what this means is that customers get access to workforce as well as software and hardware tools without having to invest in creating a physical infrastructure", says Raghavan. "They just come and get their work done".
And who would be the clients for such a service?
"We expect small and medium businesses (SMBs), start-ups and small IT and consulting companies to use our service", says Raghavan. "The SMBs and the start-ups can outsource their IT requirement through 8KMiles, while for the small IT firms we would be their remote development arm", he says. There are many such small firms in the US who get contracts but do not have the capability to deliver them, he adds.
8KMiles has tied up with skill assessment company MeritTrac to evaluate the quality of the engineers who register. It is also in talks with a verification company who can do the background check and verify the work experience. This would ensure that the chances of fraud are minimised, Raghavan says. Also, if an engineer quits, he cannot rejoin. There is pressure to do a good job or not to come back. Moreover, payments are based on milestones. Only when a certain percentage of work is complete does the customer have to pay. This would ensure that the customer does not lose his money, he adds. At present, about 500 people have registered with 8K Miles and there are about 15 service buyers.
| Financial Chronicle | + Big IT firms bat for fixed pricing - Financial Chronicle | June 23, 2009 |
| Financial Chronicle | - Big IT firms bat for fixed pricing - Financial Chronicle | June 23, 2009 |
While large IT companies are on course to break the linearity between headcount and revenue through fixed-cost pricing, smaller companies under pressure for survival are slowly resorting to outcome-based billing. This helps clients to mitigate business risks and also builds confidence in vendors during tough times, say industry players. As companies gain expertise in particular domains and when project methodologies mature, they move to fixed-cost billing. Unlike the existing system, buyers do not have a say on the number of people to be employed. Under outcome-based pricing, the IT vendor takes a nominal fee upfront and gets the remaining amount over multiple years as a percentage of business value created for the client.
According to GB Prabhat, founder and chief executive officer of Anantara Solutions, the Indian IT industry gets about 65 per cent of its revenue by the time-and-material billing model and about 30 per cent from fixed pricing. About five per cent is said to come from outcome-based billing. IT vendors become genuine partners by sharing their business risks in this model, he added.
This means IT players work closely with clients to analyse their business problems rather than just deliver IT systems. Most large IT corporations are now consistently building their consulting capabilities to move towards this goal. "Fixed price has gone up. That is the reflection of the time, customers are asking for more fixed price and we would also like to do more fixed price because that is an opportunity where we can get benefit out of the productivity improvement we bring to the table", said SD Shibulal, chief operating officer of Infosys Technologies Ltd, in the company's recent earnings call.
According to R Chandrasekaran, president and managing director - global delivery, Cognizant, value-based billing has a long way to go. However, almost all large deals these days come with strict service-level compliance and productivity improvement clauses. About 25 per cent of Cognizant's revenue comes through such fixed-cost bids, he said.
Pure-play testing company Maveric is also executing a few deals on the outcome-based model mainly to attract clients by sharing more risks. This is possible only in mature processes, said P Venkatesh, director and co-founder of the company. Moreover, a vast pool of mid-tier companies with IT requirements is still untapped in North America and Europe. The companies do not have the reach to outsourcing vendors. They are new to outsourcing and outcome-based pricing would help keep up the confidence in vendors, said Suresh V Chari, founder and chief executive officer of 8KMiles. The startup company has created an electronic sourcing platform where companies can look for listed software developers and groups.
| Financial Chronicle | + 8KMiles launches e-sourcing platform - Financial Chronicle | June 21, 2009 |
| Financial Chronicle | - 8KMiles launches e-sourcing platform - Financial Chronicle | June 21, 2009 |
What if IT professionals lose their jobs because of "performance issues" or lack of projects? Here is an opportunity for them to freelance their skills. Startup firm 8KMiles has launched an e-sourcing platform that helps software developers to register and work on projects independently or as groups. The online ecosystem of verified professionals and companies enables outsourcing of software and related knowledge services completely over the internet. Despite concerns of uncertainty and delay in project closures, most IT players are optimistic about future prospects mainly because of the enormous opportunities. A vast pool of mid-tier companies with IT requirements is still untapped because of the lack of reach to outsourcing vendors. Such companies can list their project requirements on 8KMiles and developers can bid for the deals, said Suresh V Chari, founder and chief executive officer of the company. The online model enables outcome-based pricing to mitigate risks. The company is targeting e-commerce sites, IT consulting and startup companies, which need no introduction to the advantages of outsourcing, he added. Moreover, the company offers a virtual computing environment, which enables developers to work on projects from remote locations with only a PC and an internet connection. This also ensures security. All project details reside on the environment and cannot be copied out of the system. The company has tied up with leading cloud services providers such as Google, Azure and Amazon.
Capital can be tight for any business, but startups especially feel the pinch, squeezing as much as possible out of their seed money. Instead of ramping up on-site staff, consider outsourcing as a way to stretch your cash. You'll be able to scale contract costs up or down depending on business success.
8KMiles applies this outsourcing model to a virtual environment. The company helps find skilled workers, letting you make connections across the world, all without leaving your PC.
Workers are initially audited by 8KMiles to give you a sense of their competence. People can offer their skills across dozens of categories; the usual techie experts are available, plus the service manages writers, designers, business consultants, legal pros, accountants, and more.
You'll fill contracting needs through searches and connections that resemble social networks. At that point, you can continue the relationship without 8KMiles if you choose.
But the service goes further, offering a collaborative platform for your projects. With browser-based tools, you can attack and manage projects with video conferences, message boards, and more. You can even install your own tools in the Windows Server and various Linux environments.
8KMiles costs depend on the way you use the service. The company charges a fee of roughly 7.5% of the project value on top of your contract worker costs. If you connect with the collaboration tools or use 8KMiles to host your own tools, the company charges with a pay-as-you-go model.
Online collaboration isn't just for tech projects, although 8KMiles still serves that audience. If your budgets are tight, the service might help you complete projects without the full costs of employee or on-site workers.
Qualified housewives, moonlighters and aspiring entrepreneurs, who lack finance among other freelancers, have a new online outsourcing platform to work, while, individuals small firms and start-ups looking for freelance talent can avail them to get their work done.
8KMiles, an online ecosystem of verified professionals and companies that enables outsourcing of software and other knowledge services over the internet - will provide this platform.
Launched here on Thursday - (http://www.8KMiles.com) is targeted at small and medium businesses (SMBs) and start-ups firms - providing ways to securely and cost-effectively achieve instant on-demand access to hardware, software, tools and expertd across IT disciplines. It will provide distributed project shareholders can connect, manage, develop and deliver software solutions in a transparent manner. Further this will also enable firms to cut costs as there will be no need of capital expenditure. 8KMiles will provide the infrastructure needed and qualified professionals and firms who can execute the projects.
With initial investment of $1 million the company has tied up with Microsoft, enabling companies that use the platform to hire Microsoft tools - which otherwise must be bought.
| Professor Sadagopan's Weblog | + 8KMiles is launched - Professor Sadagopan's Weblog | June 12, 2009 |
| Professor Sadagopan's Weblog | - 8KMiles is launched - Professor Sadagopan's Weblog | June 12, 2009 |
Today saw the launch of 8KMiles, an unusual "software-development-as-service" company that would make outsourced software development into a "cottage industry" with many "mom and pop" outfits even in remote areas participating in the Indian IT revolution. By providing cloud-based IT resources (hardware and software) along with tools and environment to support multiple platforms (Java & .Net, open-source and commercial software) 8KMiles is likely to turn software development "upside down" the way Borland changed the software industry upside down way back in 1984 with its $ 49.99 compiler (hardware companies like IBM & HP were selling compilers at thousands of dollars till then).
8KMiles founder Suresh Chary in the presentation did talk of his "one audacious goal" of 8KMiles becoming the world's largest virtual organization of developers.
I look at 8KMiles as a company that provides meaning to "cloud computing" and a natural extension of business processes like airline ticketing, university application processing, banking or even matrimony turning "completely online" to the software development process itself.
The co-founder Paddy being a IIIT-B alum and 7 of the 12 developers of 8KMiles (as of today) being IIIT-B alumni / intern makes it particularly pleasing for me
I want to re-visit 8KMiles in 2015 with nearly million developers enrolled!
