Process Archives - GUJRAT INDIA

Free Business Listing Is the Ideal Process to Reach Potential Customers

The concept of free business listing is very contemporary in the field of online marketing. This is undoubtedly an innovative method to promote your local business through some excellent networking solutions and business advertising procedures without any confusion of spam. This can give a wide approach without costing a single penny at all. You can reach up to a wide range of targeted mass leaving your competitors a far behind. It is an absurd to analyze the importance of internet marketing in this complicated and very competitive scenario of the recent times. Getting the chance to appeal to the targeted mass without any cost is undoubtedly an addition to the benefit. This can bring you up to the mark to the mass in comparison to the other competitors of the same field.

This is the ultimate chance for your business to make people aware about its existence and its services. There are a number of potential customers in the market. Due to the various constraints in the marketing field sometimes it becomes impossible for you to reach each and everyone. Getting such a scope to reach to the mass is an immense chance through enlisting your business in the free chart of any portal. The beneficial factor is that your customer will come to your door for your services finding your existence in the market through free enlisting. In this manner your business can be benefited of free listing. Internet will be the method by which the customers come to know about your existence. You will be entered within their list without any cost.

You company can get a grand existence in various search engines including Google and many more just like that. You will be added in the directory which is beneficial without any doubt. You will be benefited in both ways. You can have the chance to increase the traffic by enhancing your presence on the internet. Even you can get an instant boost as well through a perfect ranking over the search engine. You should make the free business listing more attractive to get a perfect service. You should not take the listing for any consideration just because it is free. You need to submit enriched content so that the search engines can get you indexed.

You can mark a huge difference in your business getting such a chance to enlist your service. Lead generation is the basic benefit for any small business and this is the perfect platform. Even you can make your advertising more attractive and catchy by adding the log and images of your business on the listing. Sometimes your business location can be mapped on Google as well. Moreover, such listing portals have categorized listing type of business and you can have your presence in that category. You will be enlisted within your own segment so that the surfers can get you easily on the web.

The portals constantly update their database which is good for your listing. At the very initial stage you do not need to expense a single penny either for the listing but after sometime you have to pay a tiny amount of money. It is not a big deal for you to pay in comparison of the amount of business you are getting from such listing. It can not be an issue to spend some money on such a grand advertising policy for your business. Promoting your company is the basic requirement for your company and you have to attract as much as potential customers you can to your business. Free business listing gives the chance to give you the solid promoting scope for your services.

The Process of Media Industry Conglomeration

Introduction

The process of media conglomeration has involved the regrouping of multinational companies, which as a result, has created a power of considerable proportions. This means that these companies have the control of the local and the international market. Their control over the market has been accelerated with the launching of satellites and other development in the media, such as in the field of digital press, digital music and digital videos.

One of the main issues is related to the effects of the Western media; particularly the American media, on other cultures, as it continuously dominate the international market. This issue raises doubts about diversity of choice, quality and competition.

With the development and scope of satellite technology, it can be argued that the local culture of many countries, in particular the underdeveloped ones, has become the main victim as a result of this kind of media domination, in a world of faster global communications. The local programmers and film production in the underdeveloped countries have suffered badly as the international companies sell their media products so cheaply that the local producers cannot compete with them.

From the above, we can see that we have underdeveloped countries almost entirely dependent on cheap Western programmes to fill the time on their television screens. The irony is that money was made available to the television companies in these underdeveloped countries so that they could buy the American media products instead of the help needed to produce their own programmes.

The Global Market

With the launching of the satellite communication systems, the global market assumed different dimensions. The world suddenly became much smaller than used to be, smaller in the sense of the scope and access of media mass communication, consequently the phrase ‘global village’ became the expression of the day used by the media regularly when they wanted to refer to the world as a whole.

As a result, the individual nation market became the market for any nation who possessed the latest technology in commercial satellite communication. This situation brought life back to all old Western media products, especially the American products.

Selling in this situation increased at an incredible rate, i.e. selling all old programmes and movies to many African and Asian countries which no one in the West wanted to watch.

In this new era of communication, there is a huge market, a market to fill the time on every television channel around the world – the dawn of the conglomeration market. The underdeveloped world has nothing to compete with this. To produce films or their own programmes is too expensive in comparison with what is available on the international market. Therefore, it is not surprising to see on TV in a small African country an American soap opera made more than 20 years ago.

The big international companies are growing bigger every day as the number of their viewers increase all over the world. Media corporations from the West are controlling the whole international market, which is one of the main issues related to media conglomeration.

One positive argument for the process of conglomeration is that the free markets will bring competition which consequently makes the diversity of the media products a reality for all the customers around the globe. This is what the owners of the big corporation believe, such as Mr. Murdoch.

The local people would prefer to see on their TV channel the reflection of their own daily life, rather than what is/was happening in faraway places (e.g. a high proportion of Zimbabwe people watched ‘Root’). It appears that the danger in a situation like this one is that the people in that African country, and especially the new generation, see Western media production as a model which should be copied in their own daily life, As a result of this, the local culture, which should be protected, is gradually destroyed.

Power and Control

The power (and control) exercised by conglomeration is an important issue, as it affects the opportunity of speech. Fair competition between businesses and freedom of speech in a democratic society is an important factor for the progress within any culture. Unfortunately, this is not the case with the Western media products, i.e. the big corporations want other countries to depend on their products.

Access to media, therefore, is limited to few companies and consequently the choice is limited. For example, the local producer in underdeveloped country will be always struggling to launch his/her new product, and even if he/she is successful in launching it, the financial gain, in some cases, will hardly cover the cost. Therefore, there is an argument for diversity and choice of media products, i.e. it is important not to have in any country saturation of any media products, such as with the present situation concerning the saturated market of American media production.

When it comes to the music industry, the market and the power of controlling it again is the main issue. The $30 billion industry generates its income from massive international market. For example, one album ‘Thriller’ by Michael Jackson sold more than 40 million copies, which consequently produced a profit for CBS of more than $60 million. The Japanese ‘Sony’ saw that there was an opportunity for their hardware industry in this market, so when the CBS company decided to sell their record division, they (the Japanese) bought it for $2 billion. The ‘sale’ meant a new door opening for more sales to Sony, i.e. with their new technology at that time, e.g. CD, software, etc, they can sell the music all over again on a new format. From the above takeover, the big corporations in the music industry copied Sony’s action by buying market shares of other smaller music companies. The last music business ‘Virgin’ sold to EMI Thorn for $500 million. There are, consequently, few big corporations which control the music industry worldwide, such as Thorn-EMI, Sony, Philips/Polygram, Matsushita/MCA, Time Warner and Bertelsmann/BMG.

The above companies have penetrated the worldwide market and have an overall monopoly of this market, which consequently, as has been mentioned in connection with the film and TV industry, bring with it a limitation of consumer choice.

The Print Industry (Publications)

Concerning the print industry, i.e. publications such as newspapers, magazines and books, the statistics show that between 1985 and 1995 the number of media products and distribution systems has increased noticeably. However, this does not mean that these new products have successfully established themselves in the market. Many of the new launches at that time, such as News on Sunday, The Sunday Correspondent and The Post, could not survive the competition and consequently closed down. Many critics believe that the close down of a number of newspapers was the result of Mr. Murdoch’s price war. For example, account for News Corporation during 1994 indicated a loss of more than £45 million in the United Kingdom alone. However, the profits at BSKyB rose to over £186 million. News corporation also suffered a drop in profit outside UK but at the same time had a rise in television and films profits. Mr. Murddoch tried to increase the sale of his newspapers – that means taking readers away from newspapers such as the Daily Telegraph and The Independent. He reduced the price of The Times newspaper as well as introducing upmarket bingo, bringing more sensational stories in the Sunday Times (the false Hitler Diaries), all these had limited success.

How to Choose a Good Business Process Outsourcing Service Provider

Did you know that organizations that prioritize business process outsourcing services see 12 times higher return on sales than companies that do not? This was observed by the International Customer Service Association. Therefore, it is imperative that you indulge in delegating the work in order to achieve the set target of your business. A provider of BPO services can successfully handle your diverse work areas while you concentrate on the core functions.

Things to Make Sure While Hiring Business Process Outsourcing Services

Businesses that choose to hire business process outsourcing services can cut down their cost of investment to a great extent. Following are the top guidelines to adhere to while choosing a BPO services provider to reap the benefits of outsourcing:

1. Effective Government

The government should not only be supportive but should also actively contribute to the BPO industry. The government of the leading countries, such as India, formulates policies and regulations that help the business process outsourcing economy grow. Make sure that the political structure is stable enough so that the economic structure does not face any threats. Economical threats, low foreign direct investment rate, may shake the stability of the outsourced company.

2. Infrastructure and Technologies

A developed infrastructure and latest telecommunication advances can help your business grow leaps and bounds. Problems, such a congested phone lines, frequent server downtime, outdated software can lead your business to face a hard time. Make sure that you research well and choose a location where there are more numbers of high-tech parks built for smooth business operations.

3. Skilled Executives

Skilled professionals are essential to reflect the goals and values of your business effectively. Customers often feel hostile and frustrated when the customer support executive is not tech-savvy and take more time than expected to troubleshoot. Such inefficiencies in business process outsourcing services companies can make you lose customers in no time. Therefore, ensure that the BPO service provider appoints IT and software skilled personnel.

4. Anytime Service

Businesses do not want to stop their sales at any point of the day. Therefore, hiring business process outsourcing services in countries which offer a smooth flow of your business at any hour of the day will prove useful. Customers calling for support during late evening hours or early morning hours would be effectively entertained. Employees of the outsourced BPO service companies also would not have to suffer with ‘graveyard shifts’. Customers rely a lot in companies that facilitates 24×7 support services and want to deal with the company again in future.

Role of Budgeting in Planning, Control, and Resource Allocation Process in UAE Companies

Budget

Before understanding the key concepts of budgeting, it is important to understand the meaning of budget. A budget is used to make a documentation of the translation of plans into money. So, the amount of money that needs to be spent in the planned strategies of the company would lie under the budget of that company. These planned strategies include the expenditure that a company incurs and also the income that the company predicts to make. So, in other words, a budget helps one to make an estimation of the amount of money that would be required for the company to handle the projects undertaken by it. It must also be understood that a budget is not made permanently. There are conditions under which a company can make changes in the budget and go as per as the needs of the market. As for example, if a company sees that the use of computers is not as had been planned in the budgeting; it would either replace it with something or not make any investment at all in the field. This is where the utility of controlling comes into the picture. Other than this a budget is also significant from other perspectives. If one talks about the resource allocation, budget has an equally important role to play in it. The reason for the same is that let’s say that a company has budgeted that it can afford a certain amount of power supply for a certain project that is conducted in a village. Under the conditions, the amount of human resource that would be required to carry out the project can be determined from the budget itself. Normally a budget is of three types. They have been mentioned as follows:

Survival Budget: This form of budgeting is important in the boundary conditions. It estimates the minimum resources so as to complete a particular project. So, if a company has a look at the survival project, there is one obvious analysis that can be done. This is that under the most optimistic of the situations, the resources allocated would be sufficient. There would be very little margin of error under the conditions.

Guaranteed Budget: This budget is formulated when there is a guarantee of a particular amount of income at the time of formulation of budget. So, when a budget is made from this perspective, this income is taken into consideration. If somehow, the debtors are not able to provide the income that the company used as guarantee before making the budget, it would have to switch over to the survival budget formation.

Optimal Budget: The third form of budget is the optimal budget. This budget is used under the conditions when there is extra money in the company accounts or else the company feels that it could raise extra money from the market. So, if the position of the company is good then this form of budgeting can be applied. As for example if we consider a very famous company in the infrastructure sector, Emaar, we would find that the company has the ability to raise a lot of extra capital from the market. So, Emaar can hope to use it in utilizing the money to plan a few more interesting projects like it had made the longest mall in the world and the tallest tower in the world. Both these projects were outcomes of an optimal budget made by the company.

Budgeting Responsibilities

Owing to the circumstances under which a budget is fruitful, the organizations should be highly selective in handing over the responsibilities of making the budget. There are a few pre-requisites of making a budget. They are as follows:

The concerned employee should have a clear understanding of the company’s values, strategies, and plans that lie in the near future.

The employees must know the importance of cost-efficiency and cost-effectiveness.

Also, the concerned employee must have knowledge about the resources that would be used to generate and raise funds.

The above pre-requisites are essential for the company if they have the motive of using budgeting in the planning, controlling and resource allocation purposes.

So, it is generally recommended that a company has a budgeting team that has an optimal size so as to prevent any discrepancy with the formation of the budget. Under all situations where the concerned members of the finance department have difficulties in planning the budget, they would have to consult the board of members for the same. For a situation like this to arise, the planning in the company must certainly have been wrong. So, we can see that the new planning would depend solely on the fact that budget allows the same to happen. Under all other conditions, the estimated plan would have to change. (Budgeting, 2010)

Role of Budgeting in Planning

Here we are taking the telecommunication giant, DU into account to understand the role played by budgeting in the planning process. It was only about a couple of years ago that the company introduced its new plan. This new plan was about introducing the pay-by-the second plan amongst the services of the company. This was done as per as the optimal budget plan of the company. DU had formulated a budget where it got the option of introducing a new facility with the extra money that it hand in hand. As the company analysis shows that DU was climbing the ladders of success even then, so this was certainly a major step in the making. Moreover, the funds that had been allocated in the budget were enough for the fact that the company could start this service any time it wanted. So, it chose the time when the nearest rival company Etisalat had screwed up its plans after introducing the Blackberry services. As an optimal budget is that which allows the time for starting a new investment, this was just the time and DU made the most of the opportunity. Today this plan is among the most revenue-fetching plans that the company had ever introduced in its services. So, budget played an extremely important role in the planning of this success of the firm. Had the company planned to use the extra money as a surplus or retained or reserve, it would never have been able to introduce this service. So, one can see the importance of making the right budget at the right time can help in planning for great successes in a company. There are other examples also where one can see the planning being aided by preparation of budget. The tourism department of Abu Dhabi was guaranteed of the fact that it would have a considerable amount of income from the flourishing tourism in the country due to the onset of some of the most peculiar activities in the country. Under the situation, the department used the guaranteed budget to enhance the cultural activities of the country. A number of museums have been renovated because of a planned budgeting under the guaranteed budget plan. The department had planned that with the money they would have from the already existing resources in tourism, it would evoke a cultural feeling in the country and its natives, It has been able to do it successfully as per as the statistics of the museums of the region are concerned. So, once again we see that budgeting has helped in planning of such an important landmark in the country.

As in general one can say that budgeting is about aiding a company to make plans for the future. It is that process where a company can be assured of the fact that it would have enough money so as to carry out the requisite projects. We are all acquainted with the fact that the world is about competition as of today. Every company needs to plan new projects so as to show its core competency. Under the conditions, no company can automatically start investing on its research and development. It has to come through a substantial degree of planning which could only be possible after the budget of the company allows it to do so. In all other situations it would finally have to terminate the services with an excess of demand or supply.

There are also other instances where a company can use the principles of budgeting in order to carry out its planning. This can be seen in the case of training. Every planning of training has to be supported by budget. This is one of the foremost criteria of training. There are a number of instances in the country where the Government is implementing programs like Emiritzation. If the budget of the company does not support such plans they would certainly not be executed. The loss can be huge under the conditions. The first case would be a monetary loss as an incomplete training would actually be of no used as it would be insufficient to fulfill the company’s criteria. If some small companies do place employees with an incomplete bit of training, it would make the company even smaller!

So, we can see how budgeting governs this chain of planning which of not executed in a suitable manner could bring about adverse results. (The Importance of Budgeting, 2010)

Role of Budgeting in Controlling

As in the case of planning, budgeting also has a special role to play in controlling of an organization. We have seen that a plan would simply lay the conditions of taking on a particular activity. What follows is its controlling in the implementation phase. Let’s say that a company wishes to promote its products or services in the trade fare of Dubai. This is one of the places where controlling comes into play with respect to budgeting. Dubai Trade Fare is one of those occasions when a number of companies use the best of means to promote their products. With an adequate amount of control, the companies would never be able to compete in the pool of so many. So, a budgeting has to be done to choose the HR and marketing department which would be responsible to control the scenario.

Without a proper budgeting in this respect, the company would make inefficient decisions and after a while, there would be no control over the promotional measures of the company.

There are also a number of chances where a company goes with leisure expenses. It does increase the value of the company for a particular period of time but after a while there has to be an end to it. Now, with a planned budget under the conditions, the companies would be able to restrict themselves from over-spending as the budget would not suit their expenditure. This requires the company to make a survival budget. As we can see a survival budget would certainly take care of the budgeting requirements of the company. If the employees are aware of the fact that they would not be able to complete their respective projects with the type of expenditure they are doing, they would certainly shift to other economic reasons. This way a company can also control the activities of the employees. Once a planned budget is produced the whereabouts of the employees can also be checked as they would be on a hire. The amount of time given to them in the budget would be fixed. If they are unable to finish their respective works in this stipulated time they would see the effect on their salaries or wages. So, this way, the company’s activities, employees, time and money can all be under control with the introduction of budget in the company’s financial plan. The company would certainly become more efficient if it works in a controlled manner. So, this would be for the mutual benefit of both the employees and the company as well. (Controlling a Budget, 2010)

Role of Budgeting in Resource Allocation

A company’s success is highly dependent on the resource allocation. This has to be done optimally so as to complete a certain project. The law of economics suggests that a company has the least resources and has to make the most of it. So, only an appropriate resource allocation would help this happen. This would be in terms of human resource, raw materials, equipments, money, time and all other attributes that take for making a project successful. Here again, the budgeting of the company plays an important role to play. The reason for the same is that in all the sectors that have been talked about here, only a planned budget could decide the maximum a company can afford. Let’s say that ADNOC has the plan of staring a new subsidiary. Under the conditions, it would have to make a budget where the company could allocate the amount of human resources in order to make this happen. Not only this, there are a series of activities that would have to be done in the process. Much of the time, there would be two processes going on and at times even one. So, a planned budget would estimate the amount of money that the company can afford throughout the process. Based on this, the processes would have to be allocated in a manner where the company can make the best use of the human resource available. If ADNOC has 200,000 AED for the purpose, and there are 10 slots, rather than allocating 20,000 AED per slot, the company would have to see the priorities of each slot. If a particular slot requires double the number of processes than the others, the resources would have to be allocated accordingly for the same. Now this can only be possible with an appropriate amount of budgeting. If the budget of the company does not allow double resource allocation for a particular slot because of other activities, then the company would have to come up with other alternatives. Had there been an inability of a budget, the company would allocate double resources and finally land up with none available for a process that has little requirement. So, we can see that even the process of resource allocation requires budgeting to a large degree.

Talking about the company Emaar, as per as the organizational size of the company, there has to be a proper budgeting done. The reason for the same is that every department requires an adequate amount of human resource and funds. If the company’s budget for a particular project is 200 million AED, the company would also have this budget divided into different departments. Every department would have to use only the allocated funds to support its human resource and all other requisites prior to conducting the project. If the construction department spends so much that the company is not able to use any funds for its advertisement, in this world of competition, even a company like Emaar would have to bow down to others in the league. There are so many options that people have for residents that promotion under forced conditions could change every profitability ratio of Emaar. So, here again we see the hierarchy that could be affected because of the inappropriate use of resources that would result from the non-availability of a budget that could suit the purpose. (The Basic Budgeting Problem, 2010)

Conclusion

So, one can see that a budgeting process has a number of utilities in the projects of a company. This could be from the perspective of planning, controlling or resource allocation. Every company has the desire to be at the top. Finance has a special role to play in the same. Te steps of laying down an appropriate budget are as follows:

Firstly, the concerned person should lay down all the places of investment with respect to a particular project.

Next, make an estimation of the unit cost of every product that would be manufactured in the process.

Next, analyze the resources that would be sufficient to provide for the unit costs found.

Next make a proper budget format so that it is clear to all the departments and they the amount of allocation for them in all the respects.

It is also advisable to make notes so as to be able to explain the budget better.

Next, it is required to take a feedback on the budget so as to see whether it is applicable to all the departments or not. If not, then it would have to be re-planned.

Finally, make the final documentation so as to be able to help in planning, controlling and resource allocation as has been suggested earlier.

With all the above processes followed, a company can afford to perform all the financial activities in its respective projects. It must be remembered that only a systematic design of budget as has been concluded could be used for the mentioned cause.