7.Miracles of mass customization

I purchased a cell phone before a month. I got the monthly bill via post and today was the last day to make my payments. Since I was busy with my exams when I got the bill, I forgot to make the payment and suddenly remembered it today. When I saw that today was the last day to make the payments, I thought that I cannot make the payment today, since it will take at least a couple days for the cheque to reach the cell phone company by snail mail. Then I saw that they had an online payment option. I went to the website and made the payments within seconds. I was happy about the entire process and made a point of making future payments online. Then suddenly at 7 PM in evening I got a text message saying that I have missed my payment.

I was baffled and decided to call the mobile phone service. I called up the customer care number and was directed to a recorded message. It asked what my problem was and gave me 5 options. It asked me to speak out my problem among these options. I replied “payments” and then it again gave me 5 options among which I chose “check my payment status” and it informed me that I don’t have any outstanding balance.

It was surprising because earlier when I was directed to automatic help services, I had to press a number in my phone to avail various options. But here I was not required to press any buttons, but instead was asked to speak. I dint know how a computer could understand what I speak.

Then an MIS PhD student told me the secret. When I chose an option among the given options, my voice is recorded and is immediately converted into a text message and it matched with an existing option by word similarity. Then automated message is played based upon my choice. For example my problem was to know the current balance and it informed my balance. He said that it was a complex process and needs integration of technology with customer records.

I asked him how it could understand my accent. He said that it is possible to program it to different English accents. The cell phone company even had a Spanish option.

He said that this might become problematic at times, if the problem is really unique and doesn’t fall under the categories of automatic choices. Then I have to be directed to a human representative. But as days go and as companies know more about their customers need to speak to such human reps will be lowered by expanding the options.

Cell Phone Company saved money by this method. USA saved valuable foreign exchange by preventing outsourcing. Customer saved time by talking to a machine. Many times we won’t even realize that we are talking to a machine. The voice is so human.

Mass customization works....hurrahhh...

6.Lessons from Apple's Indian adventures

.Is the going good for Indian BPO industry?Apple Computer Inc.planned to build a technical support center in Bangalore,but has scrapped the plan.Had that plan seen daylight, India would have got 3000 jobs.One reason cited was the increasing costs of running outsourcing in India.Frequent turnovers plague the industry and banglaore's real estate price seems to be higher than that of san diego's.

Is this a warning sign or just one of those freaky incidents?Business standard reports that Indian BPO industry is facing a mid-life crisis.Business standard also reports that Indian BPO industry is moving out of the low value jobs and is moving towards innovation.Business standard reports that Romi Malhotra, managing director of Dell International Services says that the earlier slogan "Come to India for cost and stay for quality" can now be changed to "Come to India for quality and stay for innovation".

India grew by around 9.3% in last quarter(source businessweek) and is experiencing an unprecedented boom in it's stock market.But I am afraid that much of this development comes from MNC's and software firms.Business standard reports that 60% of business in BPO comes from MNC's.BPO is yielding quick money to India.India made $17.3 billion in outsourcing in last year(source business week)last year through BPO.

Rediff says that apple's move isnt a bad omen and says that it is an one-off freaky incident.But it also points out that Dell has scaled down it's Indian operations.Even though these might be two unrelated incidents and inspite of rediff assuring us that Indian BPO business will enjoy double digit growth rates,I guess it's time to rethink our business model.

Bangalore is not the only city in India.Many sub urbans cities in India like coimbatore have all the facilities to run a BPO.English speaking population,engineers and real estate at real low prices are some advantages in these places.

Nasscom summit gave a different idea citing a shift in strategy of BPO firms.Speakers at Nasscom's annual ITES-BPO summit felt that
Indian BPO sector has to change its business model by offering clients not just process improvement but becoming their transformational partners.

The going is good and rosy as of now.But let us not take risks.India cannot lose any more deals like Apple's deal.

5.Solidarity and Sustainability

Do you know about non-profits and/or advocacy groups focused on the social and ecological impacts of religious patriarchies?


CURRENT ISSUE:

Solidarity & Sustainability ~ Volume 2, Number 6, June 2006


This is the third issue in the series, "Mimetic Violence in Patriarchal Religions." Rene Girard's mimetic theory is applied to a relatively recent episode in the Roman Catholic Church. Specifically, this case example pertains to the male-only priesthood, and the manner in which the discernment process on the ordination of women was "terminated" (at least temporarily) by the Vatican. The analysis includes the five Girardian phases: mimetic desire, mimetic rivalry, skandalon,scapegoating, and sacred violence.

There is no implication of intentional wrongdoing by anyone at the Vatican or elsewhere. However, a radical renunciation of violence is postulated as indispensable to make progress toward human solidarity and environmental sustainability. Religious institutions must show the way by renouncing the triple patriarchal addiction to wealth accumulation,absolute power, and worldly honors; thereby renouncing violence.If religious institutions really want to be instruments of peace, they better practice non-violence in their own internal affairs.

Any feedback is gratefully received.

P.S. The July 2006 issue is in preparation. Please forward this notice to people who might be interested on the impact of patriarchal religions to global issues of solidarity, sustainability, and gender equity.

4.venture philanthropy

Social entrepreneur offers blueprint
for social change through IT

As the Internet boom was gaining momentum in boardrooms across the
United States, an entirely different technology revolution was quietly taking place on the other side of the world: The “venture philanthropy” movement supported social change through technology in Eastern European countries and others emerging from generations of authoritarian rule.

Author Jonathan Peizer chronicles his years on the front lines of that
revolution in his new book “The Dynamics of Technology for Social Change.” With this book, Peizer offers a blueprint for philanthropists, social entrepreneurs, corporate responsibility programs and academics trying to enact social change through Internet Communications Technology.

In 1993, Peizer joined philanthropist George Soros’ foundation to
create an Internet program for the foundation’s Open Society Institute. Over the next seven years, Peizer helped launch 250 projects in more than 30 countries with the goal of facilitating social change and sustainable economic development through technology.

Using his firsthand experience, Peizer offers strategies for using ICT
to facilitate change in NGOs, understanding the culture of nonprofits, and promoting relationships between nonprofits, foundations, government entities and private companies to achieve a mutual mission. “The Dynamics of Technology for Social Change” is an important resource for understanding program
sustainability, implementation and evaluation, as well as the unique
challenges facing open source methodology in the nonprofit environment and the importance of donor support conferences.

Peizer catalogs the history of venture philanthropy projects — from
Estonia to Albania, from the Czech Republic to Azerbaijan, and from Mongolia to South Africa and Haiti — along with their unique challenges, including civil war, political upheaval and even the threat of NATO bombings. While Americans were just starting to use ponderous dial-up modem service, Peizer was helping
implement alternative Internet service using satellites, spread-spectrum radio modems, ham radios, cable TV, microwaves and asynchronous satellite technology for
nonprofits around the globe.

With more than 20 years of experience in ICT consulting, Peizer directed the Internet program for the Soros Foundation’s Open Society Network from 1993 to 2000 and continued to support and develop projects promoting social change through technology as its Chief Technology Officer from 2001 through 2005. He continues his work in the field of venture philanthropy as founder of Internaut Consulting, Greentealovers.com and capaciteria.org.

Eileen Garvin

3.The Dynamics of Technology for Social Change

The Dynamics of Technology for Social Change” by social entrepreneur Jonathan Peizer.

The book offers a blueprint for venture philanthropists, academics,
social entrepreneurs, nonprofits and government agencies seeking to improve people’s lives through technology.

In this new book, author Jonathan Peizer chronicles the venture
philanthropy projects that took him to more than 30 countries in a seven-year period as director of the Soros Foundation’s Internet program. Peizer helped implement technology for the sake of social change in tumultuous times for Europe, Asia and other parts of the world at a time when the use of the Internet for these
purposes and the concept of venture philanthropy were in their infancy.

Jonathan Peizer lectures frequently on this subject.

2.Will segmentation work for charities?

Market segmentation is an important tool in marketing.Wikipedia lists the requirements of succesful segmentation strategy as follows.

homogeneity within the segment
heterogeneity between segments
segments are measurable and identifiable
segments are accessible and actionable
segment is large enough to be profitable.

Why do we segment markets?Its because different people respond in a different way to the 4 p's(1,2,3,4) in marketing.Segments ensure that the marketer spends his resources in a judicial way.

Will segmentation stragetegies work for non-profit marketing firms?Obviously they are working.That's why we see soo many charities targeting different types of segments.But what segmentation stragegies work what strategies dont work?

----
I refined this question further and did a study.I cant talk about the specific hypotheses and findings,but I can talk about the statistical techniques I used in this study.I used regression and manova.To conclude, this story has a happy ending.The paper got accepted in a conference.

But the million $ question is(well actually it's not a million dollar question:-) will this paper turn out into a good journal article?

I am an eternal optimist.:-)

1.Philosophy of Research

The philosophy of research interests me a lot.In this blog I will mostly write about epistemology and pragmatism,i.e the underlying philosophies of science.But I wouldnt keep this blog so dry and will often write about applied philosophy and social sciences like business,marketing and statistics.

I hope that I can build a network of researchers through this blog.Initially I hope to gain by practicing my creative skills by writing in this blog.As days go on I hope that I will upgrade the quality of my writing through this blog.

I thank the moderators of blogdesam who enlisted this in their portal.

with regards
selvan