SMART AIMS is planning to enter new business areas … areas/avenues that are either a fallout of our current business process, and/or relatively newer territories.. and what we are currently doing at SMART AIMS is evaluating and planning for the same.

Social Media Marketing: With the growth of world wide web as a marketing medium, the need for understanding the most effective way to promote your brand and get the maximum returns on your investment has become a need.. We at SMART AIMS have been studying and researching ways that can help our clients/customers/prospects in making the best off their investments and own a virtual identity in the mind of their customers.

Waste Management: An area that is very much a futuristic business idea.. an industry that needs both recognition and is yet to be organised in the trues sense. More on waste management in future discussions..

Do let us know if there are any other topics that you would like us to research on.. and also if there is a business idea that we could help you with.. we are not only a business.. we believe in building a new business entreprenur.. the key here is a mutually beneficial exchange!

As an entrepreneur, this journey has been yet another great learning and I am sure it will help me in the future as well.. like always.. We started with 1 full time working person (that was myself, Pradip Nagpal) and cam up to 9 at one point of time in the year and now are closing the year at 8.. no mean achievement keeping the fact in mind.. that we started when there was a downturn.. and are now seeing things picking up again…

SMART AIMS does not believe in being just another company amongst the host of others.. and certainly I would not like that to be.. and therefore we have decided to make some changes/arrangements that help us grow.. we will be revisiting each and every part/department of our small organisation.. and looking for ways to make it more effective.. as well as help it grow..

We may not be in the news for some time in the future (not that we were making headlines anyways), but we assure you by the end of these changes.. we will evolve stronger and with a better focus and management that takes us far ahead…

We once again thank all friends and partners (clients and employee) who have been with us in the journey and help us live a dream year..

Would love to finish this article off on a real positive note.. SMART AIMS is now Technology Partners for a major start-up in US.. design, development and concept partners.. and thats just the beginning..

Keep following us for more information.. and we assure you wouldn’t be disappointed.

Basically “Business Intelligence” is the ability to apprehend the interrelationships of presented facts in such a way as to guide action towards a desired goal.”.

Business Intelligence (BI) also refers to computer-based techniques used in spotting, digging-out, and analyzing business data, such as sales revenue by products or departments or associated costs and incomes. ^[1]

Going through the current trends and predictions the future of  Business Intelligence seems to be very bright.

A 2009 Gartner paper predicted these developments in the business intelligence market .^[7]

• Because of lack of information, processes, and tools, through 2012, more than 35 percent of the top 5,000 global companies will regularly fail to make insightful decisions about significant changes in their business and markets.
• By 2012, business units will control at least 40 percent of the total budget for business intelligence.
• By 2010, 20 per cent of organizations will have an industry-specific analytic application delivered via software as a service as a standard component of their business intelligence portfolio.
• In 2009, collaborative decision making will emerge as a new product category that combines social software with business intelligence platform capabilities.
• By 2012, one-third of analytic applications applied to business processes will be delivered through coarse-grained application mashups.

Keep looking for our Blog to read more about BI and the techniques that businesses today follow.

SMART AIMS deliverables:

Designer’s perspective:
We start with a mockup.. try and get it to the point whereby the client is satisfied with it.. we go through multiple iterations.. and finally ..”The client selects and approves it”.

Developer’s Perspective:
The selected template is now to be integrated to Joomla.. a theme (layout) which is close to the one selected by the client is chosen and integrated.
The designer helps the developer it changing the backgrounds, css and implements the template as he had designed.
The developer now starts adding the modules/plugins that the template is supposed to have.. and changes the css for them appropriately to reflect the selected design.

Template Integration complete..

Added Requirements by the client:
Installed Joomla already. Use the current content and plugins into the Joomla template that we had built!

SMART AIMS Delivers yet again!

The brief this time just increased the work we had to do.. not within the scope of the project defined earlier.. but again.. being a customer oriented organisation we had to  deliver.

The template was uploaded using the Joomla Administrative Section:

Log in to Administrative Section

• Click on Extensions > Install/Unistall
• Select the Zip file for the Template designed and click on Upload File and Install
• Go to Extensions > Template Manager and select the newly installed template.

Phew! and we thought it was over.. but the game had just begun.. the plugins which the client had incorporated in the earlier Joomla template.. added to our woes.. we had to work on the css and getting them into specific positions in the template! It took time and effort.. but we did get through and updated the same for our client.

Final Result:

A happy client who paid us for doing that bit extra!.. well it was not about money.. but the way we went about the work that the client was impressed with..

Get in touch with us if you have requirements and for a great customer experience!

The Good news is.. we are BACK.. and we are still there.. Surviving the changes both technology and resources wise, and making slow but steady progress. We have been busy with too many things including planning for the year 2010.. apart from working on projects/clients, structuring the workforce and adding key people to the organisation.. and thats been keeping us busy.. but we promise you to update of whats up with us from now.. at regular intervals.

SMART AIMS has been adding technology expertise and we are now working more and more with Open Source applications/tools like Joomla, Wordpress, Zencart apart from the still going strong PHP. Open source development is the mantra for us in 2010.. and we will be adding technologies and expertise and ofcourse resources as and when we grow! You have a requirement that needs a dedicated and sincere team.. wait no further and get in touch with us right away. Our clients vouch for our excellent support and deliverables.. feel free to ask for references!

Mobile application development is another avenue that we at SMART AIMS have been exploring, Windows Mobile was always there, but we are now moving towards Symbian and Android development, both of which are expected to nose us ahead of competition.

Our web designs have always been a class apart and have been openly accepted by our clients… but thats not where we stop.. we are now moving ahead to make our client websites more sale able.. adding Internet Marketing and Search Engine Optimisation expertise.. that will allow us to serve our client better and be a One Stop Web Solution company. We look to constantly innovate and upgrade ourselves to give our clients the best in class solutions!

Product development is another avenue that we have forayed and it adds an important dimension to our portfolio.. We intend to develop secured and easy to deploy products.. more on it in times to come!

Being an organisation that has grown from the society, we decide to do our bit for the society.. and in this endevor of ours we are being supported by none other than the mighty Microsoft..  after being Microsoft BizSpark members, we are now trying to contribute and work with Microsoft on the S2B  (Students to business Initiative), and contribute in whatever extent we can to the community.

Keep checking our blog for the latest happenings in SMART AIMS and the progress we have made!

1. Recession is a correction process and will happen for sure.. be prepared for it or else you would be ruing for a real long time.

2. From Service (in 2008 and mid 2009 as a Business Development and Project Manager) to Business (as owner of SMART AIMS), one thing which did not change was “Entrepreneurship”…. if your an entrepreneur in service.. you are more likely to be a notch better than others when you step into business..  “Responsibility and Calmness” are the other attributes that Business demands.. I think I have lost my cool more often than not in service.. but Business teaches you to be calm and collective.. 

3) What makes a difference in the way we do it and what we do it is ‘ATTITUDE”, a positive attitude helps in winning more than half the battle and the rest is luck and hardwork.. carry your most positive attitude to work and things are bound to fall in place more often than not.

4) Business and Company is not  a “One man game” and thats the reason we at SMART AIMS are looking for people who can join our family and take an entrepreneur’s role to the “Tee”.

2009 was good in ways more than one to us personally.. finally SMART AIMS came ahead as a full fledged company.. rather than being a consultancy organisation and  a business generating website who would help source business to the people I did service for ..  

Friends and partners were obvious for the growth of SMART AIMS.. its the rough times that prove once and always that those who are friends will be with you.. whereas the selfish would just turn away just as the way they entered your life..  there were some who did it.. not that we cared for them .. but just reiterated the point that we need to separate the food from the roughage!

Competition always helps.. friends may or may not!

2010 will be a new beginning for SMART AIMS and we are committed to growth and excellence in the field.. our learning from 2009 will be with us forever but what 2010 holds for SMART AIMS.. is a surprise that will unfold for us.. and a lot of others who are watching us..

Please do keep us in mind.. and we assure you honesty and dedication in whatever we do.. 

Our journey to another SMART AIM begins on Jan 1, 2010.. we aim to conquer more frontiers in 2010 and would appreciate your valuable support and co-operation always.

The hard disk of my laptop just stopped responding and it was a crash.. all my data had not been backed up and all efforts to restore it just failed.. after spending one and half days on it.. decided to get professional help.. and thankfully.. all was safe.. it was a huge sigh of relief.. but the most important thing was the fact that I had learnt an important lesson.. something which we all know.. but more often than not tend to ignore.. our idea of “All being Perfect” always wins.. until we are cornered to a situation which demands us to think otherwise..

My sincere advise to all professionals and people using computers,laptops: Design and devise a backup plan for your data right now.. lest its too late.. and follow it religiously (better..schedule it to run automatically)

Some of the backup tools that I am currently using are:

Autover:

AutoVer is a configurable automatic or real time backup and personal versioning system. It can be used as a simple real time backup or as a more complex, but transparent version control system.

Backup to FTP server:  A real time backup solution that backs up your files/data to a pre designated FTP location, available as full backup or incremental backup mode.

Well.. if this article is a bit late.. and you have a problem.. would like to salvage your data on an old pc etc.. contact us at sales@smartaims.com with your problem and we will try and help you recover that.

Its about presentation and laying out data that makes the difference in most cases. Data is information if presented to make sense.. and thats what our services  aim to do.. Its another SMART AIM.. whether we get to it or not though.. only time will say.

The next very important question/comment could be.. are you talking of Data Intelligence/Mining or something.. well not exactly.. but it could well be used for Business Intelligence.. thats what Information stands for most of the times.. provided the figures speak to us and profile the story behind it.

We at SMART AIMS a constantly looking to innovate and work around to survive.. please feel free to suggest anything that we could work on together.. and we assure you we will not let you down on it..

After all.. its never late to be a SMART AIMS – Friend.

Social Networking is the buzz and people are using more and more of it to reap the benefits of their networks and promote business.

This trend though more visible today.. but most companies had been using it knowingly/unknowingly for a long time..recession and downturn has just emphasised it further and made it more visible.

SMART AIMS has always nurtured relationships and to take this further we are now working on a model of “Join as a Friend”.

A simple business model whereby any business/lead that you generate and provide us with i.e. it results in work/revenue for us.. we share  with you a fixed percentage of the project cost as business consultancy fee payable to you.

Not only that, if the same client/prospect gives us future business which you may or may not be aware of.. we track it for you and send you notifications and your affiliate rewards as a token of our appreciation.. just to say “Thank you from being a SMART AIMS Friend”.

Feel free to review our website (www.smartaims.com) and let us know if you have a prospect/lead that could result in business for us. .we will follow it up and on succesful business closure, the consultancy charges are for your taking.

We look forward to connecting with more “SMART AIMS Friends”.

For any queries/information on our services and solutions offerings, please email us at info@smartaims.com

You might design a web site that looks fantastic but few people are going to see it if it takes a long time to load.

Designs should be optimized for the web and should not take more than 15 seconds to load. Remember, you might have a great design but very few people are going to see it if it takes a long time to load.

Ten tips to fast-loading web pages.
1. Minimize the use of images
2. Optimize images for the web
3. Use Tables creatively
4. Cut down the use of animated gifs
5. Design simple icons
6. Use background images instead of big images whenever possible
7. Try out CSS Styles
8. Use Flash sparingly
9. Design most of your site in HTML
10. Keep checking your load time

# Clear Navigation –
Once a visitor has come to your site you need to make them go through your site. To do this you need to have clear navigation. Make sure all your important links are at prominent places. Preferably right on top – that’s usually where a visitor first looks.

Make use of menus on the right and the left. Try to link to as many pages of your site. Let your information be accessible from all parts of the site. You never know what a visitor may be interested in. Try to also use the footer for your important links.

#Navigation tips.
1. Organized Links
2. Clear and Prominent
3. Consistent
4. Easy to understand
5. DHTML Menus

# All Resolutions –
Today, there are computers with all kinds of resolution. They range from 640 x 480 to 1024 x 768 and go even higher. Your job is to design your site for all these resolutions. The best way to do this is to design your site in terms of percentage and not pixels.

# Browser Compatibility –
Make sure your site is browser compatible. Your web site should look good in Netscape as well as in Internet Explorer. Don’t stop designing your site as soon as you find that it looks great on IE.
Usually Netscape gives some problems, especially when you try doing complicated HTML designs. But don’t give up too soon, usually with patience these problems can be easily fixed.

# Readable and professional looking fonts –
Don’t use Comic Sans and other fancy fonts that may not be available on most computers. If the font you use is not available in a visitors computer the web site will use the default font of your computer which is much worse. So try to keep to common and professional
web fonts. The fonts that we could always stick to are Arial, Tahoma and Verdana.

# Minimize the use of images –
I believe that sometimes simple designs are the most effective for the web. Keep your site simple but neat. Don’t clutter your page with big, bulky images that take ages to load. Instead use tables creatively and design eye – catching icons that will draw a visitor’s attention to a particular section of your site.

SMART AIMS feels – Visitors are usually more interested in content
than in design.

# Use of white space –
Try not to clutter up your page with too many images, backgrounds and colorful fonts. Again use the “Keep It Simple” principle by minimizing the use of graphics and using a lot of white space.
White space gives a sense of spaciousness and overall neatness to a site. We practice this.. check out our website.

# Check for broken links –
Always check for broken links within a site before uploading it to your web server. In Dreamweaver you can check for broken links by right clicking on any file in the Site Files Window and then clicking on Check links – Entire Site. If you don’t have this facility you need to upload your site and then check it using online tools like Net Mechanic.

We will keep adding to the list and would love to have your feedback.