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Supply chain management is the "chain" linking each element of the manufacturing and supply process from raw materials through to the end user, including several organizational boundaries. As the process involves several organizations, information flow plays a vital role to the success of the supply chain management especially in terms of keeping all the components (i.e. suppliers, manufactures, logistics, warehouses etc.) connected. Innovation in technology has successfully integrated factory automation and enhanced communication devices. These technologies are applied to help supply chain planning, collaboration among customers, manufactures, and suppliers. With the use of web technology, customers may order more easily, manufacturers will forecast demand better given the instant customer feedbacks, upstream suppliers will also have relative correct date and reduce the bull-whip effect.

The advent of ERP has significantly boosted efficiency and simplified back-office process automation in a wide range of manufacturing industries. This spreads across discrete and process production based industries. The biggest beneficiaries of such automation were without a doubt the large enterprises as they were the early adopters of ERP systems. Their SME counterparts were fence sitters, but soon realized the potential ERP offered and followed suit.

This is because efficiency is a common factor to all irrespective of size and geographical spread. While enterprises grew in size, ERP grew in its value proposition. ERP got more verticalized and several built in tools for data drill downs became key ERP elements. Besides, ERP moved from client server to web architected platforms and it made sense to many enterprises to take advantage of the significant cost benefit that is achieved by dropping their slower LAN/WAN/VPN/Lease line based systems and adopt a web based ERP.

How many times have you, the procurement professional, established an enterprise-wide contract only to find your staff making purchases from other suppliers? Even worse, when you find out that they are making purchases from other suppliers, you realize that they are making purchases at a cost that is very unfavorable to the contract that you have established both for strategic and cost reasons! There is a term for this in the procurement industry, and I guarantee you’ve heard of it: maverick buying. The purpose of this article is to present some important ideas on how you can prevent your staff from engaging in this cost-wasting practice of maverick buying.

My father was very curious to know what my new company does. I remained silent for some time. I was trying to figure out a way to explain to him in words he could understand. He is 72 years old. He only understands the meaning of the term computer. He was a serial entrepreneur in his time. As far as software is concerned, he has no idea what programmers do? What is coding? What is HTML? What exactly does a software engineer do on a computer?

It’s already been three months I have been evaluating different ERP / Business Management Software packages. While other vendors are restless and follow up with me every week, NGR sales team looks least concerned. Not a single follow up call from them. But they were kind to extend my trial account twice and their chat support has been very helpful. I have decided to sign up with NGRERP! And when I informed the same to other vendors, whose software I was evaluating simultaneously, they called NGRERP a Fake ERP? What does that mean? Well, let me have a final call with Ashutosh to close the deal.

Marketing Automation has matured from a stand-alone "blasting" solution to a truly integrated communication medium. Many companies have been using stand alone-email blasting solutions for some time and are beginning to realize that the value of email marketing is dramatically improved when used in a "Nurture Marketing" fashion.

NGR has built a powerful yet easy to use solution the NGRPulse for B2B marketers that puts the power of nurture marketing in their hands in a manner that allows even the novice marketer to be successful. NGRPulse supports a variety of email marketing requirements from the most basic bulk email to the most advanced nurture marketing campaigns.  Our pricing structure allows for companies large and small to take advantage of the same enterprise-level feature set that has historically been reserved for only the largest companies.

CRM solutions are available as cloud and enterprise models for organizations of all sizes and specializations. Ensuring you retain customers and convert leads is essential to stay afloat and grow in the long term.

Social CRM which is continually gaining in popularity is an effective way for everyone in your organization to track competitors and their offerings while simultaneously devising counter strategies. With conversation tracking tools which capture social conversations based on specific keywords, there are unlimited possibilities to gain a stronger foothold and understand customer mindsets.

Today, either your enterprise builds a resilient digital presence or it will not exist in your target’s mind. If your business does not have a widely distributed, multi-channel digital marketing presence, then your organization is probably undetected, unnoticed, unobserved and unperceived.

Let’s be honest, the market is tough and competitors are everywhere. Companies are investing more now than ever on digital marketing efforts to enhance their marketing strategy and brand awareness.

There are plenty of digital marketing tools for enterprises to build an online balanced marketing presence. Of course, having a smartly distributed brand presence through a cross-channel environment with consistency is key for reaching targeted consumers.

Global supply chains can increase efficiency, but they can also increase risk. Recent events—including the Japanese earthquake and tsunami, the floods in Thailand and the ash clouds caused by the Icelandic volcano—have demonstrated how far the consequences of such risks can extend. The Japanese earthquake, for example, severely affected global electronics production and led to extended business disruptions for the automotive industry.

The Thai flooding created significant shortages in the hard disk drive market that generated millions of dollars of losses for well-known electronics manufacturers. In addition to these headline events, however, the nature of supply chain risk is constantly changing. New risks and new vulnerabilities can often be better addressed if given close attention from management.

My colleague's Uncle once asked him "What is cloud computing? Do you really keep your data on clouds?" The idea seems highly far-fetched ! Most of the general public do not know what  cloud computing signifies.

They are saying cloud computing is the next big thing in IT.  Before coming to NGR, even I thought cloud was some kind of a big-time new IT invention, which the lesser mortals of this world are not supposed to know. Probably, that’s why the word, cloud. You either had to be above the world or into the cloud to understand cloud!

This is an open letter to all brands, products and businesses from an earnest customer who is fed up of being treated like a child. Things may have been different a few years ago, but, the same redundant techniques do not work on me anymore. Now, I am too smart to fall for advertising gimmicks. Today, if you show me an ointment or a brand of tea that will reduce my waistline to half of its current measurement in two weeks, do not expect me to pick up the phone and call you. Similarly, if you do not respond to my repeated grievances, do not call me a month later asking me why I didn’t renew my subscription plan. Since, your marketing gurus seem to having a tough time guiding you in the right direction, let me take this opportunity to show you, as a customer using your product, what I really want.

In the manufacturing world two very common terms are procurement and sourcing. To the unknowing person, these terms often have the same meaning, but this is incorrect. Although these terms are often used interchangeably, their meanings are different enough that interchanging the two terms can lead many to confusion.

The most likely reason these two terms are freely interchanged is because they both involve purchasing. The terms procurement and sourcing both lie under the large umbrella that is purchasing. Since purchasing is a very general term, it gives the two terms vaguely similar meanings. Each term is a method in which a company can obtain goods or services that meet customer’s needs at the lowest possible cost. In addition to finding an affordable way to obtain goods and services, procurement and sourcing methods must also avoid sacrifices in quality or service. The difference between the two is that although procurement lies under the purchasing umbrella, it also has aspects that come out from under the umbrella, making it a bit more than just purchasing.

It’s been called the fourth industrial revolution. Smart factories will change the manufacturing landscape around the world, heralding a new age of productivity, efficiency, responsiveness, and product customization. And serious manufacturing people—like CEOs and industry analysts—think the reality is not very far away.

The revolution began a few decades ago, when manufacturers started creating smart manufacturing cells, for the first time merging information technology with manufacturing technology in real-time, albeit on a small scale. Then, as the technology progressed, along came smart production lines, and then smart individual factories.

If I am a small business, the last thing I need is an ERP. My business is running fine, I am making money, my customers are happy, my accountant is happy and I have already enough trouble with all the software I am using. So why use an ERP? Ok maybe I need one. All the time I am following up on my clients if I need to close a deal, or they are after me to deliver. I never have data when I need it. I don’t have control over my stock and I think all my employees are not working hard and they don’t appreciate what I am doing for them. I need an ERP to get my act together. Then I could go on the long promised vacation to the beach.

So a friend tells me that there is this very affordable online ERP / Business Management Software that I could just sign up for and its got a 30 day trial. Its called NGRERP. So I go to their website and it looks kind of a good tool. There is just too much stuff to read on their site, and it takes me ages to find the sign-up button. Why don’t they make it easier for people to sign up?? So I fill up the sign-up form and it goes through. It seems that they will manually approve the request. Ok I will wait for it. Since I am already on their site, I go through their blog. Its basically a brain dump of their employees. It seems like they like to blow their own trumpet a lot. Let me see if the software is half as good as they claim.

As customer travel expenditure starts to slowly bounce back, travel marketers are moving more of their advertising funds toward interactive channels like email marketing so as to maximize ROI and interact travelers carefully researching for those best deals. Because of this, NGR, the world's only provider of both email marketing and marketing automation solutions particularly tailor-made to the unique needs of B2C and B2B marketers, has helped new and existing tourism clients expand their programs and much more effectively engage with their audiences.

Not all prospects are 'ready to buy'. However, these prospects have to be kept engaged, if you want them to ultimately buy your product. And keeping them engaged is all about conveying the right messages at the right time, to make them choose you. And this is what 'lead nurturing' is all about. From the time you identify a prospect, till the time they are convinced that your product is what they need, you have to keep their attention with a series of time-appropriate messages.

Often, in marketing, inappropriate or untimely communication may lead to a leaky sales funnel, which can increase your customer acquisition costs, and make your marketing efforts ineffective. And this is why mature marketing processes try to plug these gaps with suitable lead nurturing programs. While this is easier said than done, with marketing automation entering the arena, lead nurturing programs have become much simpler to design and launch. However, rolling out an effective lead nurturing program still rests in your hands, because you need to employ the right channels, send out the right messages at the right time.

As I started to reflect on this question, my first thought was to look at all the amazing trends that we have witnessed in the Indian Internet landscape in 2011. Here are just a few for context. The total number of Internet users crossed the 120 million mark; ecommerce is now in excess of Rs. 40,000 crores annually; the Indian Facebook population is touching the 40 million mark; there are 50 million mobile data subscribers; new companies and eco-systems are being created around cloud computing, online advertising, mobile applications, web infrastructure, online travel, and much more.

By multiple estimates including reports published by BCG and McKinsey, India will reach somewhere in the vicinity of 250-350 million Internet users by 2015. I took a liberal interpolation of those estimates to arrive at a number of 30 million new users that we will add in the coming year. That’s a staggering number – and larger than the entire population of Australia if you like those kinds of comparisons. However, to truly deconstruct this number and get a sense for what the potential impact this will have for a business looking to leverage this user base, we need to look carefully not just at the users but also at the following ‘inverted iceberg’- where there is more than that meets the eye below the surface.

Robin joined his current organization in the early nineties and was among the first batch of twenty five employees. Back then, the top management decided they needed to focus on customer relationship management more and therefore needed a software to store basic customer information and contact details. They quickly employed a handful of IT professionals to accomplish this task and get a head start on their competitors. The software they developed generated a unique customer ID for every new customer created and had sets of fields for capturing or displaying pertinent details.

In this blog, we will discuss how project centric engineered to order products and complex build to order products can benefit from being managed by supply chain software set up entirely in the cloud.

First, lets discuss companies dealing with project centric engineered to order products. A recent article in Industry Week gives a perfect example for this type of situation. The story starts with a European company servicing an oil exploration. The company serviced the exploration by delivering large project specific vales and gears. These projects typically took the company years to complete due to the extremely high potency of constant delays. This forced the company to end up manufacturing gears and having to hold them in stock as the project timeline continues to slip.

A few days back, one of my friends asked me to help him figure out, how he could send emails to his customers using an address like This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Even I was not aware of how to do such a thing, when I joined this company 10 months back. Thanks to working on NGR Technosys, I was able to help my friend. He was relieved to find that establishing such an email address was very easy and cheap. And he could maintain it on his own.

Further, he wanted to send a marketing email to his customers every month and ensure that it gets delivered. His eyes lit up when I told him, that he could not only track, if the email got delivered, but also track which link (if any) were clicked by the users. This statistics could help him gauge the interest of his customers and help him do better marketing.

As his interest grew, I realized that many businesses have similar desires and difficulties, when it comes to creating an online presence. Hence, I am listing here, an overview to take your company online, the way NGR did (with some improvements).