Thursday, 8 May 2008

Our Workplace

I had read a good book named FISH! by Stephen C Lundin. The book is tells about a good way to Boost Morale and Improve Results. At the end of the book it has a good message which I am sharing with you



OUR WORKPLACE


As you enter this place of work please choose to make today a great day. yiour colleagues,customers,team members, and you yourself will be thankful. Find ways to play. We can be serious about our work without being serious about ourselves. Stay focused in order to be present when your customers and team members most need you. And should you feel your energy lapsing, try this surefire remedy: Find someone who needs a helping hand, a word of support, or a good ear - and make their day.

Wednesday, 16 January 2008

Mumbai (Bombay) Airport to Pune

While I was coming back to India from UK with family, I had no option or information available to book a vehicle for me. Some how I managed to get a vehicle.
The vehicle was not available because it was Season time for them. I had my car but when you are coming after long time with all your stuff the car is not useful so you need a bigger vehicle. Offcourse if you are getting you stuff back and not throwing it over there and coming back :)

I now understand the problem and have started the service for families who wish to hire a vehicle from Mumbai Airport to Pune and vice versa. This service will be useful for more than three people unless an individual can afford it. Rest assured that you will again call once you try our service.

contact me on 00919890677192/santosh.sandbhor@gmail.com. And I will surely help you as I have started the service.

You can share your experience so that the service can be improved based on your expectation.

Tuesday, 15 January 2008

School Admission in Pune

One more first time experience for me for my daughter admission. I had never run before for admissions for self as I had to do for my daughter as my Dad use to do it for me.
On top of that my wify was after me that we must get her into best schools as if I wanted to admit my daughter into some bad school.

My search started when I was already in UK. One of my friends cam back to India from Uk and luckily got the admission due to some contact. It was this day that I started thinkink of admissions for my daughter and tried looking in to the school websites available. I wrote to the school named Bishops and the response from them was to contact them in April which was to far. And hence I ignored the admission process thinking that it was in April.

When I reached Pune, Rosary was the first school I visited. It was not a good experience to visit the school. The parking for my vehicle was on the Public Road. The receptionist was too busy to handle the calls and also the peolpe visiting for form and enquiries. There was lot of people not managed by the school waiting for enquiries. I was asked to sit so that some one can talk to me. Some of the observations I made when I was sitting over there were not good. One small girl had injured her finger and the female who cleans the floors was nursing her and not the teacher.
Some of the students were standing for about 20-25 minutes outside the Principals office with there calendars for signature may be by missing there classes probably. The person who spoke to me ultimately was sitting in a room below staircase and was very conjusted. In all after coming from UK it was not a good scenario. When I discussed this with one of my friends mother she said this is what happens here you cannot expect it to be like UK :)

Bishop was the next school I visited and I was not happy to find the Security/Gateman as the school had Xmas holiday upto 13th Jan and the admissions for LKG was not avaliable over there.

The next visit was to St Felix, when I reached the school I was told that the admissions process are already closed and no enquiry will be entertained.

The school I visited along with my better half was Symboisis International School at Viman Nagar. The reception was good and the Concerned person was nice and informative. She expalianed and took us around the school and told us that teh admissions are already full anf there is a wating list of 10 candidates. To get in to the list I need to pay onl;y Rs. 3000.

Still to continue

Friday, 7 December 2007

Golden Rules for Password

Most of the people will not have debate about the rules for password as it is standardised rules now a days.
The Golden rules for password are :
1. Password cannot be blank.
2. Maximum 12-20 characters are allowed.
3. Minimum 6-8 characters are mandatory.
4. Mixed uppercase and lowercase character must
5. Atleast 1 numeric character is required
6. Atleast 1 special character is required
7. Most important it must not be visible when it is type/keyed in. It must be displayed as asterisk or some other character

If anyone have any other thoughts please feel free to comment.

Thursday, 6 December 2007

Offshore Onsite Model

Offshore Onsite Model
I have long long being working with the Offshore Onsite Model. It is always said that there are great advantages to client of the Model.It helps the client in many ways to quicly develop the application and cost saving is the most important saving to the client/customer.I have some different thoughts about the model which I will be writing in the blog. People have renamed or called the Model as Offshore Development Centre, Extended Development Center and many more.....But the main question i am always thinking always is IS THE MODEL REALLY COST EFFECTIVE TO CLIENT? I doubt about it.

Some of the reasons after my observations are (I may be wrong)
Development
The development time if done at Onsite is 1 day it takes about 4-5 days for actual development. I have seen this happening. The reasons are due to the process to be followed for the development to be carried out at offshore. If the requirement is to be sent for development it needs to be well documented by a person(mostly Onsite Coordinator) who interacts with the Client. This may itself be a time consuming process !!!Once the document is completed the OC needs to expalin the requirement to the development lead at offshore and may be to the team. This may actually cause loss of information as it is passed on from client to the development team.The result is the requirement may be half understood or interpreted or many other reasons may popup by the time the delivery reaches the client.
Time
The time require for going through the above process to reach the ODC needs to be considered when using the MODEL.There are time delays in case there are queries from both sides due to different location and time zones.There are time delays in understand the requirement and impelementing it.There are time delays in delivery most of the time and 75% of the projects may be not as per the delivery or target date (the reason may be CR's or understanding)

COST
The most important parameter of the Model considered is surely affected due to the time and efforts. If the activity done at onsite would have required 1 day it will atleast take 4-5 days to be completed and delivered at ODC/Offshore.This increase the cost is about 4 to 5 times and equivalent to the cost of ONSITE development.The above issues can be handled but it will require good team work and proper business process.I am thinking of a Model where the Business Ananlyst from the Client site to visit the development centre and complete the development at offshore in his presence.The advantages are the team is monitored, the cost is monitored, the resource are actual and many more.

I am planning to write a document on a model of such type which will surely be useful for the Clients hopefully :)