ASW Connect+ 03

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w w w . a t l a s s o ft w e b . c o m
Third Edition
Volume 1
Issue 3
September- October 2015
01
Dear Readers,
Brand Building #04
It’s a joy to see Atlas SoftWeb grow leaps and bounds. What
started as a small initiative in 2011 is now a well-planned and
organized company well known in the city and overseas.
What made Atlas become so popular? Many of you would
think its branding and marketing. Well our mantra was not
exactly branding as we hardly branded until recently when
we sponsored Word Camp 2015 in Pune. Our key to success
was Quality, Customer Satisfaction and a Committed Team to
deliver whatever tasks we were assigned to.
We had a Word Of Mouth branding mechanism built for us
that took some time but was a lot cheaper, effective and
reliable.
However, branding and promotion is also important for a
growing company. As a part of this initiative we decided to
sponsor Word Camp 2015 at Pune. This helped us reposition
Atlas and build business relationships with lead Hosting
Providers and Open Source Developers. The camp that is
held once in a year was attended by 300+ stake holders and
developers. With our Stall right at the entrance of the
conference hall, we made our presence known BIG TIME.
With an excellent team, we have delivered quality all these
years and our clients have felt the ownership of referring us
to their friends and business associates. This Brand Building
mantra has paved way for easy position of Atlas to leading
companies in United States, United Kingdom and other Asia
Pacific Regions.
I encourage all my Atlasians to continue working on projects
with the same commitment and deliver nothing but WOW!
Message from our
CEO & Co-Founder
Mr. Royson Rajan
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02
Self Confidence: Have you got it in you?
Self-confidence is a combination of a lot of things. We all
have heard this word “Self-confidence” quite a number of
times all through our life. It is not a readymade quality. It
needs to be learnt, practiced and mastered all our life.
- Bejini Sajan
Self-Confidence is all about believing in yourself. Unless you
have confidence in yourself with the zeal, faith and trust and
with the attitude of “I can”; “I will” any possible achievement
would also look like a mountain to cross. Not having
self-confidence or having low confidence is not like a life
threatening disease. Everyone goes through this stage of
losing confidence and giving up on things. However,
gathering self-confidence and helping it grow in our lives is
an everyday job.
Barrie Davenport, a certified life passion coach who helps people shift their thinking,
create positive new habits, and build lifetime confidence did mention in her
research on Self-confidence theory that Low self-confidence isn't a life sentence.
Self-confidence can be learned, practiced, and mastered--just like any other skill.
Once you master it, everything in your life will change for the better.
All this totally boils down to the concept that believing in yourself is very important.
If you don’t, who else will?
Few ways of building confidence in day to day life:
1. Add positivity in all that you do: Look out at things in a very positive way.
Although we know that life is not a bed full of roses, we should still bring out
the positive enthusiasm in all that we ought to do. It is also necessary to stop
focusing only on problems or difficulties. Put all the negative thoughts and all
the negativity away. Like one rotten apple could spoil the entire bag of apples
in the same manner one negative thought too spoils everything around you.
A positive mind breaks the strongest barriers. It is like half the battle won.
2. Try new ventures: Meticulously doing the same thing every day does not give us
the required boost. To help build confidence it is also important to venture or try
new things everyday even if you fail at it, you still have the confidence of starting
it. Choosing new paths bring its own advantages. Take chances, Take risks!
3. Take a Stand and Be Prepared: Don’t always say a “Yes” just because you don’t
want to rock the boat and don’t always say a “No”, if you think you can take a
chance just do it. Request can be very politely declined too, just make sure you
don’t create silly excuses all the time. A very confident “Yes” or “No” would
definitely put the point across to the opponent. Also, being prepared for anything
is highly important. Life is full of challenges and every opportunity does not
always promise a comfort zone ahead. It is necessary to be prepared to face all
challenges with the right skills, knowledge and the right attitude.
4. Choose the right Body language and Image: The right body language plays a
great role in building self-confidence. If you look gloomy, tired, angry or not
interested, things around you would also reciprocate in the same manner. Like
they say: What goes around, comes around. Carry a strong attitude, with lots of
positivity. Hold your head high, carry a bright smile. Try making others feel more
comfortable around you.
Don't let
others put
thoughts
into your
mind that
takes
away your
self-confidence.
- Katori Hall
5. Practice being self – confident: Always practice being self-confident. Cultivate
it. Make it your second nature. Make a list of all the achievements and things to
be achieved. Keep an update of all your proud moments, all your hard work and
all the efforts put in professionally and personally. Remind yourself of all things
you are proud of from time to time. This will help soar your confidence and not
dwindle it.
Below is a short story that I happened to read in one of the blogs, it talks about
Self-confidence and summarizes all the above:
There were two boys in a village, one of them was 10 years old, and the other was
6 years old. They were the best of friends, and used to play together the whole day
long. One day while playing, they reached a faraway place from their village. There
the 10 year old boy slipped and fell into a well. He did not know how to swim and
was just struggling to keep himself on the surface of water. He could drown
anytime. Seeing this the 6 year old boy got scared. He looked around for help, but
there was nobody.
Just then he saw a bucket with a rope kept beside the well. He immediately threw
the bucket into the well, the elder boy clung on to it, and with all the strength he
had, the younger one pulled the rope and got his friend out of the well. Now when
both of them went back to the village and told everyone the story, nobody believed
them. They said it was not possible. How can a 6 year old boy who is so weak that
he cannot lift a bucket full of water, lift the same with another boy clinging on to it?
Though there was one wise elderly man in the village who believed their story. He
said he believed every word the boys said. Seeing this, all the villagers went up to
the wise man and asked how he could believe their story. The man said the boys
themselves said what had happened- the younger one threw the bucket into the
water, the elder one clung on to it, and he pulled his friend out of the well. The
villagers explained that the question is not as to how the boy did it.
The question is that how was he able to do it.
To this the wise man said that there is only one possible explanation, and that is, at
the place where the incident took place, for miles and miles there was not even a
single person who could tell the boy- "You cannot do it."
So ignore what the world says, the magic is already within you.
#Be Self-Confident
#Be-You
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0
Digital India - A Voyage In Future
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In July, 2015, the Government of India launched a new initiative
called Digital India. It is a highly ambitious task for the
betterment of India and it is now one of the top priority projects
for the Government of India. This project aims to transform
India into a digitally empowered society and knowledge
economy. The focus of this project will be on 3 core areas.
@
1. Setting up a robust digital infrastructure
2. e-governance – Government services on demand
3. Digital empowerment of citizens
- Aaron
The farsighted vision also aims for inclusive growth of
electronic services, products, manufacturing and job
opportunities etc. The goal is to utilize Indian talent pool in
developing and using Information Technology to create
tomorrow's India. It can be seen as:
IT (Indian Talent) + IT (Information Technology) = IT (India Tomorrow)
Under this program, the government with the help of private corporations (when needed and available) will provide high-speed
internet connectivity to entire India, especially rural and remote parts. Tech giants like Google and Microsoft have already
shown interest in providing free wi-fi hotspots on selected railway stations and many rural areas. Hence, looks very promising
right now.
The government also wants to make all their services available online so people can use it when needed. The plan is to cover
as many sectors as possible under this initiative so people can get the benefits from these services to accomplish their needs
related to education, health etc. An important service named as DigiLocker is a very smart goal. This service will allow citizens
to digitally store their important documents like PAN-card, passport, mark sheets, degree certificates etc. It will also provide a
secure access to the government issued documents. Isn't that great?
In the beginning of this article, I’ve mentioned that it is an ambitious task because no matter how much work the government
does, it still relies on people to understand and utilize the services wisely. I say wisely because the famous Uncle Ben from
Spiderman comic once said “With great power comes great responsibility.” and it holds true in this case as well. The citizens
need to understand the infrastructure setup and the government offerings to make the most of it. If people don't know what is
the offer and how it can be used, the entire vision of Digital India fails. To tie this loose end, the government has planned to train
people, especially students and prepare them for future. Also, people will need to understand the risk associated with online
storage and transactions and how to avoid it: therefore the great responsibility while using such services.
Digital India will connect more and more people to the high-speed internet as the years go by and will provide the government
services on demand to consume. This way citizens will have a faster and a reliable access to such e-services resulting in
getting things done quickly without the likes of frustration with current paper based system. It also means no more standing in
long queues at the government offices and no more pleasing of government officers with power. This will result in reduced
corruption and help people to save their hard earned money which otherwise go into bribes for getting the work done. So
people can hope for better and quick services rather than struggling to get hold of government officers to sign documents.
The government will seek private-public partnership model wherever it is beneficial. This will directly benefit the companies
involved in such a model. Apart from this, it will make the interactions between the government and the businesses easier and
quicker. Businesses will be able to apply for and get approval from the government easily by using e-governance services. The
more number of people using the internet will mean more potential customers for businesses. Businesses can reach to more
people with the same amount of efforts using digital mediums. Also, the time saved by eliminating human efforts in interacting
with the government and customers, businesses can become more creative and productive resulting in better and quicker
services to the customers. Digital India opens the door to lot of opportunities for businesses.
The government wants to change the face of their services by Digital India mission but will it help everyone across India? The
simple answer is No. Poverty is an arch enemy of any government. There are millions of people who lead poor life classified as
below poverty line. These people do not get enough food for their families for a day, one square meal a day at times is difficult.
There are millions of people who do not have their own home. Going digital will be the least of their concern. So the government needs not only to create digital infrastructure and digital literacy but also fulfill the basic needs of a poor Indian before
asking him to use the digital services. Unless these people get their basic needs like food, clothing and shelter, Digital India
mission will not be accomplished in true sense.
Though it is a daunting task of transforming India into a digital country, I am very hopeful that the government will be able to
accomplish what is planned. It has lot of challenges that need to be overcome first but it should not stop any of us to help in
shaping tomorrow's India. Let's embrace the great vision for the future of our country and play our part nicely as much as we
can. I will, will you?
4
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How to integrate Magento
with Mas 200 / Sage 200 ?
Introduction
Magento is world's most popular e-commerce platform. Magento
has 26% of the eCommerce market share of 56,000 eCommerce
sites surveyed in the Alexa top one million.
- eWin
SAGE :- Sage, is a multinational enterprise software company headquartered in Newcastle upon Tyne, United Kingdom. It is
the world's third-largest supplier of enterprise resource planning software (behind Oracle and SAP), the largest supplier to
small businesses, and has 6.1 million customers worldwide.
Sage 100 ERP, formerly known as MAS 90 and Mas 200 (Master Accounting Series) is an accounting software offered by Sage.
-> Why do we need an integration between Mas200 and any other e-commerce platform (Zend cart, OS-commerce, Magento
etc.)
– As we have known the proverb “Necessity is the mother of invention” so in order to work with any of the platforms of
e-commerce and to manage the whole ERP system through one side, SAGE (Mas200) has filled this gap and proved to be an
excellent way to handle the whole ERP system.
– Usually when it comes to synchronize the data between Magento and Mas200, people go for a manual approach:
New Orders
Inventory management
Customer synchronization
Invoice and Shipment generation
Credit Memo generation
Cancellation or orders are done manually into Magento from Mas200.
Content
Atlas SoftWeb Pvt. Ltd. has pushed one level up to make things automated for one of its client which used to make mobile
accessories. Here we have automated all the above 6 data processes.
Let's get into how these things really happened.
1. New Orders: When an order is placed from Magento at that time our system had created a function where all order related
data necessary for Mas200 were being inserted into one database which acted as a mediator between Magento and Mas200
and from there Mas200 extracted all required order details.
2. Inventory Management: In order to keep track of the inventory between Mas200 and Magento we have created a script in
Magento which ran at every 5mins (technically known as CRON job) and checked into the inter-mediate database (where
Mas200 gives its updates). Once it finds any inventory updates in that database it will then update inventory into Magento.
3. Invoice & Shipment creation: For all orders which were placed from Magento their invoice & shipment were created by
Mas200. So when Mas200 updates the invoice and shipment to intermediate database, we created a script which ran at every
5mins and checks into this database whether any invoice and shipment is created for orders which are in processing or
pending state. So once they are found it fire creates invoices and shipment for Magento with the same details.
4. Credit Memo: For orders which need to be refunded back to customers, credit memo is created. As order is placed in
Mas200 so when customers ask for returns of it, Mas200 creates credit memo for that particular order and that entry is created
in the inter-mediate database. We have created a script which checks into this inter-mediate database to know whether the
credit memo is created or not, so once found it will create Credit Memo for Magento.
5. Canceled Orders: If the customer has raised a request for cancellation of a particular order then Mas200 updates the order
and marks it as canceled and it creates an entry into the inter-mediate database. We have created a script which is used to
check this inter-mediate database whether any order is canceled or not, once found it will cancel the order in Magento.
0
6. Partial Orders: One more thing which we have handled here is Partial Order this means if any order is partial, then an email is
triggered to admin informing them that the order is partially made and necessary steps should be taken so that order is made
complete into Magento.
Examples
1. Inventory Management:
$sql = "SELECT *
FROM mas200_inventoryitem_whse_detl Where WhseCode = '" . $xyz . "'";
2. Credit Memo:
$sql1 = "SELECT * FROM `mas200_invoicehistory_header` Where InvoiceType = 'CANCELLED' and ApplyToInvoiceNo IS NOT NULL";
3. Canceled Orders:
$sql = "SELECT SalesOrderNo, OrderStatus
'X' and SalesOrderNo LIKE '%T%'";
FROM `frommas_so_salesorderhistoryheader` WHERE `OrderStatus` =
Pros / Cons:
Pros:
1) One of the biggest advantages is that there is no manual entry of data for all the above processes, as the entire process is
automated.
2) Eradicates repetitive data entry.
3) Removes administration errors.
4) Decreases order to dispatch times.
5) Reduces operational costs.
6) Improves company performance.
Cons:
1) If not implemented whole process needs to be handled manually.
2) Costly compared to automation as dedicated employees need to be placed there.
3) Time consuming data entry activities.
4) Chances for human errors increases.
Conclusion
From the above processes one thing can be concluded that if we automate the process, it would be very effective, time
preserving and cost effective.
5
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Drupal:
CMS or CMF?
- Darshi
According to Drupal.org:
“Drupal is a free software package that allows you to easily organize,
manage and publish your content, with an endless variety of
customization.”
“Drupal is open source software maintained and developed by a community of over 1,000,000
users and developers. It's distributed under the terms of the GNU General Public License (or
"GPL"), which means anyone is free to download it and share it with others.“
According to Wikipedia, Drupal is...
“Drupal is a free and open-source content-management framework written in PHP and distributed under the GNU General
So the big question is: Is Drupal CMS or CMF?
CMS as per Wikipedia is...
“A content management system (CMS) is a computer application
that allows publishing, editing and modifying content, organizing, deleting as well as maintenance from a central interface.”
CMF as per Wikipedia is...
“A content management framework (CMF) is a system that
facilitates the use of reusable components or customized
software for managing Web content.”
Drupal has a long history. It started as a forum by Dries Buytaert
in 2001 and came a long way since then to be one of the most
amazing communities.
(ImageSource: http://www.nuweb.co.uk/projects/nuweb/nuweb/resources/images/main-images/contentmanagement.jpg)
Drupal initially was just a forum software but quickly became a
flexible system which was centered on nodes- a piece of
content. Back then all the pieces that made up a Node, were
contained as a whole. A better way to understand it would be to
state it like this; we could not easily create Nodes, we were
adding pre-built solutions (like recipes and news) and organizing
them.
Since Drupal 4.6 was a CMS everything was in form of nodes. We had nodes for news, events, upcoming events etc.
With the introduction of CCK and Views in Drupal 4.7, the way Drupal used to work changed. Instead of pre-defined nodes we
now have the ability to make our own types using text fields, date fields and image fields. This combined with Views gave
developers a great way to show content exactly the way they want.
The process has continued from then now. Now it is expected that you build your own content with Drupal.
So what is Drupal exactly?
Drupal was a CMS at some point but today Drupal has evolved to become as CMF on which you can build a CMS tailored
specifically for your needs.
The Advantages:
The advantage is that you are making your own CMS. You define your data models using CCK and fields. You decide your
displays using Views, Panels etc. You control your admin workflow using modules like workbench. You define your site structure
using menus, taxonomy and various other tools.
This CMS is as you made it. Even though, you made it, it is still based on Drupal and you get the required support from the
amazing community. That means access to the open source support network, ready availability of Drupal-savvy talent, freely
available documentation, and the ability to collaborate with others to push the Drupal platform itself forward.
Sometimes, the CMS you are looking for is already made by someone else in Drupal community and contributed. Drupal calls
these readymade CMS “Distributions”. They are core Drupal + themes, modules, libraries, and installation profiles to make
specific CMS.
Distributions are of two types:
Full featured distributions: These are complete solutions for specific use cases.
Others: These are mostly starting points for developers to build something specific.
Building a CMS based on Drupal requires a thorough planning and execution. But it’s important to understand that Drupal is a
Content Management Framework: A tool for building your own dream CMS, to your specification, for your organization.
06
Defining a brand and brand strategies can be complex and
requires considerable amount of time spent on proprietary
analysis. For that, lot of research is required. Brand value is the
matter of focuses where a brand surpasses customer
expectations. So one needs to learn habits and expectations of
current customers and prospects.
Attributes that play a vital role in strong branding are:
1. Logo: Where you graphically represent your organization.
Get it done and place it everywhere.
- Ripple
Drive Customer
Loyalty with GREAT
Branding
“Branding is what people say about you when you’re not
in the room."
- Jeff Bezos
2. Brand messaging: Key messages that communicates
about your service offerings. Build it and let everyone know it.
3. Integration of brand: Way of answering phones, e-mail
signatures, presentations, everything matters.
4. Voice of an organization reflects your brand:
Incorporation in visual imagery of all documents. Be
conversational. Be formal.
5. Tag-line: Concise statement which captures the essence
of your brand.
6. Brand Standards: Production of marketing materials
having unique color schema and excellent look & feel. Be
consistent.
Communications
Brand Identity
Brand Strategy
(Positioning)
How we want
to be seen
Environments
Behaviours
7. Authenticity: Drive referrals with decency in your work.
Double the prospecting.
8. Consistency: Consistency in all of the above attributes is a
key point to keep in consideration while branding.
How to identify what drives loyalty to your brand?
A five step process determines this achievement.
Visual & Verbal
Identity & Tone
Products & Services
Branding is just a journey of organizations' self-discovery.
Being the most difficult task in the business, it requires to
get answers of the following questions:
What is your organization's central goal?
What are the benefits of your services?
What is there in the existing customer's and prospects'
mind about the reputation of the company?
What are the added qualities being added by your
client in your organization's brand building?
First, determine your most beneficial customers.
Couple of customers will ordinarily speak to the noteworthy
extent of your benefit. These are the ones you need to hold
and discover a greater amount of.
When you begin attempting to satisfy all customers, you
weaken your uniqueness and capacity to contend
beneficially.
Understanding why a customer is important to you and what
he/she anticipates will turn into a key ability in your business.
So increase your emphasis on your essential target customers, what you remain for as a brand and the worth you bring
them. You can then choose how this can be dialed up or
down for different portions.
Objectives of Brand Marketing:
Conjure your message instantly
Enhance credibility
Prompt an emotional affirmation
Motivate the buyer
Augment customer loyalty
The power of ongoing customer insights in
building brand loyalty:
Listening helps transform loyal customers
into Brand Advocates.
Customer insights can drive both service
innovation and branding.
Collaborating with customers lets
marketing drive innovation.
Customer feedback brings clarity when
loyal customers disagree.
Potential Barriers to Brand Development:
Service Quality
Competition
Bad timing
Poor Location
Poor resonance with targeted market
values
A brand stands out among the most important
resources of a business, and it should be
precisely made to guarantee appropriate and
legitimate representation of the business.
Making a brand is a common try, however;
customers, workers, blog readers, and any
individual who communicates with a business
has a part in forming the brand.
Second, determine their expectations.
A key segment of a branded client experience is being separated in a
manner that is important to target customers. You additionally need to
recognize what beneficial customers esteem and the couple of most vital
traits that drive fascination, retention and referral.
Distinguish the key customer touch-focuses. This can be used as a framework for further research.
-Qualitative Research: Focus on small number of target customers using feedback forms to know likes, dislikes and loyalty drivers. Question to be asked is, “What do you value most from best service offerings?”
Let them prioritize and rate your brand against these expectations.
-Quantitative Research: Focus on top most expectations and use
them to build on-line survey to collect as much target customers as you
can. Larger the data, stronger the validation can be. This may result in
response rate of 10%. It must be ensured that your information set is
sufficiently strong to decide the worth drivers measurably.
When you invest in customer service strategy, you are investing in your
company’s financial success. Greater the customer services, higher the
conversation rate.
Third, determine the value drivers.
Relate the outcomes with expectation 'to return' or "suggest" to shape a
center arrangement of quality drivers. These will be the basis of your
brand promise.
You should ordinarily distinguish between three to six quality drivers and
these turn into the establishment for characterizing your customer guarantee.
Fourth, create an expectation map.
Cluster customer's desires so you can rapidly recognize what is vital at
every touch-point with your brand.
Measure satisfaction level, touch-points, goals and actions for each phase
of service offering and look after consistency. This will help you with your
experience outline.
Finally, ask your people.
The people who connect with your customers consistently will regularly see
things that delight customers or disappoint them. These might be the things
that the customer may not articulate. This insight enables you to exceed
customer's expectations. You should also realize what obstructs employees in
delivering an extraordinary experience. They should be aware of what the
brand stands for and what customers expect for. They should get the right
leadership support, communication and training.
Company
Name
Customer
Serivce
Logo
Strong
Impression
BRANDING
Price
Product
Benefits
Repetition
Value
Proposition
Extracurriculars
ATLASIANS
Growth and development is an integral part of Atlas
and to enhance this growth we had Anu joining the
Software Development Team. Please join Atlas in
welcoming him! We are thrilled to have him join our
team!
EMPLOYEE OF THE WEEK
Atlas SoftWeb has recognized the following employees
as the “EOW” for September 2015 and October
2015 for their hard work, commitment and excellent
performance.
(Raja, Darshi, Chirag, Mehul, Elvin, H1,
Vijay, Arpan, Trushal, Rakesh, H2,
Dhaval, Sweta, Hiren, Kinjal, Kana,
Prashant, Kevin, Mamta, Edwin, Anu,
Ripal)
Congratulations
to all the
WINNERS!
Birthday Celebrations @ Atlas
The following staff members celebrated their birthday
in the month of September 2015 and October 2015
BEJINI, TRUSHAL,
EDWIN,
KANA,
ELVIN,
PRASHANT
We wish them all a very Happy Birthday & a great year ahead!
For private circulation only. This newsletter is meant for sole use by the recipient and is not for circulation.
For more details contact “Atlas SoftWeb Pvt Ltd, Ahmedabad."
Phone: +91 79 27700576 / Email: admin@atlassoftweb.com
w w w . a t l a s s o ft w e b . c o m