Monday, June 8, 2009

QuantumPages Launches ConnectReseller - Division for Web Service Resellers

Mumbai, India – 8th June 2009 - QuantumPages, world’s one of the leading web Service Companies, today announced the official launch of its new division “ConnectReseller” dedicated to Domain and Web Hosting Resellers. The new division comes with a unique robust platform Starplato developed by TechBravo, development unit of QuantumPages. ConnectReseller will be a one stop shop for Domain Resellers, Web Hosts, ISPs, Web Designers and Software Development Companies as it provides comprehensive web solutions for companies of all sizes and will be the primary vehicle to accelerate global business of resellers.

By integrating this platform on its Web site, ConnectReseller will leverage its ability to bring domain and hosting resellers together. It will allow them to quickly and easily run their business thereby saving valuable time and money which aptly goes with its punch line “Start your own Web Service Company in multiple countries in just 20 minutes”.

“There’s nothing like the thrill of going live with your very own, one of a kind reseller platform which is an outcome of a 2 year’s development. Architecture of Reseller Platform is in Distributed Model. Majority of the components are in distributed architecture and are connected through Internal Web Services,” says Ashish Shah, Founder, President & CEO, QuantumPages.

The platform is fully loaded with features vital to automized reselling. One of the most essential features of this architecture is that it allows creation of multiple independent customer and reseller Webshops (Online Store) with its own independent identity with the help of Multiple Webshops feature. Others features includes private labeled architecture, white labeled ICANN Accredited Registrar, multiple discounting options, automized reselling, easy product management and many more.

According to Ashish, “The sole goal of ConnectReseller is to provide world class services at industries lowest price thereby reducing customer acquisition costs and expand sales territory of the resellers. The plans and pricing have been chalked out in a manner so as to facilitate resellers in offering their customers a wide range of services, coupled with the best value for their dollar”.

With this move, QuantumPages has separated end customer business and reseller business. End customer business will be handled by QualiSpace.in and the reseller business will be handled by ConnectReseller.com
The site displays all of the services provided and allows resellers to compare the offerings in a comprehensive manner. This simplifies the selection process, providing convenience and removing hassle. For further details kindly visit http://www.connectreseller.com

About QuantumPages:
QuantumPages is the world’s leading web service company with businesses including Domain Registration, Web Hosting, security solutions and web service automation software’s etc. QuantumPages next-generation infrastructure and core systems deliver the industry’s most reliable solutions, backed by a dedicated team of technical experts providing unrivaled customer service offering multiple web service brands, each catering to the specific needs and preferences of different customers.

Thursday, May 28, 2009

Attacks in australia on indian students

As per news reports, four students have been attacked and one is battling for his life. But I am aghast at the response of Indians there who, if asked to protest against the attacks, may come up with excuses like “We are here to study”, “You can’t help it, this is part and parcel of life here” and “We must avoid getting into confrontation”. If Mahatma Gandhi had thought along similar lines, he would not have been the Father of the Nation. These Indian students did not go there uninvited. The Australian government invited them. But now they are bearing the brunt of being brown in the white man’s land. I am not saying these students should start fighting. But they must protest. Can you imagine how it must feel to be insecure in a foreign land, thousands of miles away from home? Hope some of them muster the courage to protest and that this ordeal ends as soon as possible.

Monday, May 25, 2009

Licentious Proposal

Let me familiarise you with this species of my community. The Sindhi Aunty lurks in weddings, temple meetings and third cousin gatherings, sniffing for fresh, young and unmarried Sindhi blood. She picks her prey after a regimented interrogation of the victim’s relatives. She extracts their age with the subtle “my god, she has grown so much…she was only a baby when I last saw her”, their occupation with the clever “I heard she’s doing very well for herself”, and their marital status with the blatant “So, have you started looking for boys yet?”
Once The Aunty gets all the vital statistics, she uses the most important weapon in her arsenal – the telephone. She constantly networks with her ‘clients’ - desperate mummies with single sons and daughters – and appeases them with oral resumes of newfound prey. She then follows up with all concerned parties, pushing her propaganda of “once they get older, they won’t get such a good proposal.” (According to The Aunty, girls beyond the age of 25 turn into old hags unworthy of suitable boys.) F.Y.I, in the Sindhi world, a suitable boy always possesses three essential qualities – good looking (which is often open to interpretation), well settled in the US (generally having an unimaginably boring job such as a data analyst) and from a very good family (whose surname will undoubtedly have a ‘wala’ suffixed to a product/place/trade).
At the ripe marriageable age of 24, I have duly suffered at the hands of The Aunty. Fortunately though, I have incredible parents. My dad doesn’t broach the topic of marriage at all, perhaps because he still thinks of me as ‘nano’ (‘small’ in Gujarati). My mother, having succumbed to persistent Aunties on occasion, approaches the subject rather warily but stops as soon as I give her my prized “don’t-even-think-about-it-look.” As you can tell, I am not a big fan of The Sindhi Aunty and her sneaky agenda.
Recently however, I came across someone who makes The Aunty seem like Santa Claus. A few days ago, I was at the temple to accept condolences for the passing away of a very close relative. At the end of the assembly line of suitably subdued visitors, a lady introduced herself as my mother’s long lost acquaintance. She said the appropriate words of comfort, albeit with a disturbingly beaming smile. I nodded and waited for her to pass by. However, I don’t think she was familiar with the workings of a condolence service, i.e. to say sorry and move on.
She proceeded to enquire about my job and after I told her I work with a ICANN Accredited Domain Registrar and Web Service Provider, she went on to enlighten me with tales about her website routines. She then spoke at great length about her own business, and even handed me her visiting card. I stood there, puffy-eyed and disconsolate; inserting perfunctory aah’s and oh’s while waiting for her to vanish. When I had had just about enough, she played her trump card. “I was wondering whether so and so* has told you about my son. He is a so and so* with so working with so and so* firm. But he’s 30…” she trailed off, looking at me with unbridled hope.
Shell shocked at the woman’s audacity, I managed an incredulous “errrr”. Sensing my discomfort, she hurriedly muttered, “Of course, you must be only 25.” “Actually, I’m 21,” I firmly corrected and looked away. She got the hint and at long last she disappeared. To be honest with you, I pitied her to an extent. Desperate times call for desperate measures and all that. But to proffer her offspring’s hand in marriage to my face, at a funeral service for heaven’s sake, is unforgivable. The Aunty maybe pesky, but at least she’s got tact. What say?

Wednesday, May 20, 2009

Could your office make a good book?

A recent post on the Guardian’s books blog asked why, given that we spent so many of our waking hours in the workplace, there aren’t more books set in the office. Of reasonably recent titles, it rightly mentioned Allegra Goodman’s Intuition. And, of course, Joshua Ferris’s acerbic, moving and dazzling debut, Then We Came to the End.Perhaps because it was dealing merely with novels, it didn’t mention The Pleasures and Sorrows of Work, the just-published book of narrative non-fiction from Alain de Botton, the man the Observer calls “Britain’s most popular philosopher”.

Botton’s seems to be a remarkable work, and this interview gives you an idea of the sort of research he did for it – and the sort of writer he is. Here is an essay Botton wrote for the New Statesman last week on the new book.

The workplace is a fascinating subject (as anyone who has seen The Office will know), and its something most people can identify with. I wonder why it isn’t at the heart of more contemporary novels.

Is it because a) some full-time writers don’t work in an office; and/or b) the ones who do would rather not and want to only write – presumably about subjects other than the office?

It hasn’t – as the comments on the Guardian blog were very quick to point out – always been like that. There is a sterling roll call of writers, from Charles Dickens to Evelyn Waugh, who have books (at least sort of) based on the workplace.

Why do you think we don’t have as many office novels nowadays? Which ones can you think of that you enjoyed?
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Posted by Soumya Bhattacharya on Monday, April 6, 2009 at 7:14 pm
Filed under Books · Tagged Alain de Botton, Allegra Goodman’s Intuition, Joshua Ferris’s acerbic, The Pleasures and Sorrows of Work, Then We Came to the End
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Saturday, May 2, 2009

Who sets the agenda? Neta or the Janata?

When this election season started, To the Point said Lalu Prasad and Narendra Modi would be the best orators in the campaign.

At the end of the campaign I am revising my positions substantially.

Lalu Prasad, my all-time favourite as a campaigner, disappointed me completely. His magic was missing. Nitish Kumar turned out to be a shrewd campaigner raising the right issues in the right proportion at the right places in the caste-ridden terrain of Bihar. Outside Gujarat and off his trademark Hindutva, Modi didn’t sound as good. Jayalalitha kept an audience of not less than 50,000 spellbound for nearly an hour on a terribly hot afternoon in Villupuram in Tamil Nadu. Late into one evening last week, I listened to Congress leader P Chidambaram at his hometown Karaikkudi– he swayed the crowd with statistics on government spending in welfare and some rhetoric.

Politicians usually suggest that they take positions that please their voters. But I think good leadership is more about mobilizing public opinion in support of a sensible political line.

M K Azhagiri, son of Tamil Nadu chief minister M Karunanidhi is the DMK candidate in Madurai. At a public meeting, he attacked AIADMK chief J Jayalalitha. “She calls herself Miss. But is she one? She is not married, true. But then….,” he questioned, in some details, Jaya’s right to be addressed Miss and the crowd seemed enjoying and appreciating it all.

Just two hours later and 90 km apart, in Karaikkudi, Chidambaram – who is contesting with the support of DMK – told his gathering something that surprised me. “I have no caste, no religion. In my family there are all religions and castes,” he said and the crowd applauded him. I was surprised that a politician could afford to publicly denounce caste and religion. Even the Marxists in Kerala do not do that.

Listeners of Azhagiri and Chidambaram are roughly from the same socio-political milieu. They appreciated the views of both Chidambaram and Azhagiri.

Who is to blame? The neta or the janata?

Friday, March 27, 2009

8 REASONS EVERY CORPORATION SHOULD HAVE A BLOG

Consumers Don’t Trust Faceless Advertising

* Transparency is key. Consumers want (are, in fact, demanding!) to hear directly from you. If a consumer can’t trust your brand, and you don’t have a relationship with them, guess what? They move on to the next brand who will treat them with the respect they crave.
* Corporate blogging allows an open line of communication between you and your customers and allows a deeper brand experience, in a casual environment, about your company, your products and services.
* Blog posts are not sales pitches, but ongoing conversations. Most likely you and your team possess a passionate voice about your industry, your company making it a more compelling way for customers to interact with the brand. It offers them a real personality who they can connect to on a personal level. When you are passionate, people will follow your lead.
* Nothing beats a personal one on one relationship and a corporate blog is a great way to connect on a deeper level with your customers.
* A blog enables you to speak more freely and in a more informal and personable style than your web site does, and your readers will soon feel like they know you. The more they know, like and trust you the more likely they are to visit your main site, click your links, visit your store and purchase your product.

You Don’t Enjoy Being On The 5th Page of a Search

* Blogs help with page rank and search engine optimization making it easier for those looking for your area of expertise. Placing numerous key words into your blog is much easier and effective than only placing them on your corporate website.
* Blogs provide an opportunity for you to use lots of key words and phrases because they are updated frequently. This allows your site to be link heavy which provides many more valuable opportunities for search engines to index your site and consider its content valuable.
* Most blog engines have built-in functions which automatically notify search engines of new content on your site. This means that blogs provide a direct pipeline into search engines, resulting in a greater chance for indexing and improved page rank.
* A corporate blog is a great tool for link-building. Others often reference and link to your blog posts, so by providing content through your corporate blog is a great way to get links from other bloggers in your category.
* Most blog engines offer plug-ins which allow for even more search engine optimization than simple keyword heaviness and automatic notification of search engines, including title manipulation, metatagging, auto-generated sitemaps, and more.

Less Qualified People Are Claiming Your Space

* Showcase your expertise. There are hundreds of people claiming authority in your category. If you don’t define your brand for the world, someone else will.
* Because new content on your corporate blog should be updated regularly, it is easy, especially with RSS feeds, to quickly provide a steady flow of information to your customers.
* This is an opportunity for your company to become the center point for top trends and forward thinking in your category.
* Customers are more likely to patronize your brand if you’ve demonstrated authority in your category.

Blog Updating is Chimp Simple

* Anyone with opposable thumbs can contribute to a blog. There is no need to know any advanced code or have a degree in advance mathematics. It also makes it very inexpensive to run since you don’t need to pay or wait for a professional to update the content.

Little Effort = Big Rewards

* Updating your corporate blog on the business that you are passionate about takes less time than reviewing your teenager’s algebra homework.
* We love anything that doesn’t take a ton of time out of our busy schedule. Creating and updating a blog does not burn up a ton of time.
* Like I mentioned above, a blog is simple to manage even for the technologically-challenged.

You Can’t Afford Not To

* Blogs are inexpensive to create and maintain. There are a number of open source (read FREE) blog engines available, including wordpress.org (our favorite) that are suitable, when re-skinned (designed to coordinate with the look and feel of your corporate identity), to become an integrated part of your brand website.
* However, to make the blog look like your brand, you may need to hire someone to re-skin it and seamlessly integrate it into your existing website. We use and recommend Eric Oliver at http://www.thecosmonaut.com

Forget Focus Groups

* If customer insight, feedback and reaction is important to your company, start blogging to get near immediate results. You can also track the most read posts, which generate the the right kind of conversation, posts that are shared most often, etc.
* If a customer has something to say, ask or criticize, a corporate blog is a fast and effective way to manage customer relations through the blog comments boxes. Probably most effective, is the blog’s ability to deftly manage the spread of a company crisis.
* When the corporate blogger responds, it demonstrates the company’s genuine interest in communicating with customers and bettering their services and/or products. It can, over time, change overall perception of a brand.

Reach Out And Touch Someone

* Brand awareness is critical to generating sales. Standard thinking is that you need between three to seven “touches” between the brand and the customer before the sale takes place. Because your corporate blog is updated consistently, it offers a multitude of opportunities to connect with your consumer.
* As other bloggers pick up and post your articles on other sites, brand notoriety improves.

The conversation is already happening about your brand, if you don’t join in the social media marketing revolution, and participate with your customers, you will in effect, render your brand mute.

Friday, February 27, 2009

The simplicity of the sandwich

I don’t need music, lobster or wine
Whenever your eyes look into mine;
The things I long for are simple and few:
A cup of coffee, a sandwich-and you!

An American author called Billy Rose said that.

It’s been a very hectic week, and I know just what he means.

I have had no time to think or listen to music or open that wine, so I have a very, very short blog post this week, about a very simple pleasure in life.

Whenever I have a week like this, I survive on sandwiches for breakfast.

This is not normal. I usually have two breakfasts, one at 8:30 am, or thereabouts, and another at 10.30 or 11 am.

Hey, I get hungry.

Anyway, back to the sandwiches.

You can create the most magnificent breakfasts from two slices of bread - and a few things in between.

You know what they say? Life is like a sandwich; the more you add to it, the better it becomes.

Here’s what I had yesterday.



* Two slices of dalia (that’s cracked wheat, I think; we get it in the neighbourhood) bread, lightly toasted
* Mustard - sometimes it’s a local mustard, sometimes a grainy French mustard
* Big leaf of lettuce
* Big leaf of spinach
* Chopped olives
* A slice of ham
* Some thin slices of cheese (I usually use a cheese with cumin gouda, called Flanders, made on a farm somewhere on the outskirsts of Delhi)
* A double-fried egg (no runny yolk)



It’s so simple.

Put it together, and my god, there can be no better breakfast.