Proquest Solutions introduces "Netsuite For Business" program of India to SAP customers

Proquest Solutions introduces "Business By Netsuite" program to Indian SAP Customers Helping Large SAP Customers Cut Costs by 50% or More Across Core Levels of Their Businesses Pune, Maharashtra, IND, 2009-01-12 10:00:00 (IndiaPRwire.com) Downloads Proquest Solutions Pvt Ltd, India-s first and the leading on-demand solution provider, today announced that the company will offer NetSuite-s Business ByNetSuite program to SAP R/3 customers in India. Business ByNetSuite targets those SAP R/3 customers who are eager to address expanding business software needs without having to increase their capital investment in SAP and incur more fees on top of what may be the highest maintenance fees ever levied by a major vendor in the enterprise software market. Business ByNetSuite guarantees SAP R/3 customers at least 50% lower for a comparable number of user seats, including their current annual maintenance and support agreement when they switch to an annual NetSuite subscription. Business ByNetSuite enables SAP R/3 customers to deploy the complete NetSuite enterprise resource planning (ERP) offering at a subsidiary or departmental level as an SAP replacement, or as the top choice for a brand new implementation. NetSuite can easily complement a customer's broader SAP investment, and its ability to help companies manage core business operations in a single on-demand business software system can deliver a huge advantage over current SAP division-level deployments in terms of cost savings and overall productivity gains. "In this tough economy where every rupee spent is questioned by management, one sure way to lower the overall total cost of ownership for SAP customers would be to embrace NetSuite-s Business ByNetSuite program as a complementary, division-level solution," said Biswas Nair, Managing Director Proquest Solutions. "We are confident that we can save SAP R/3 customers money and offer them access to a modern, on-demand software suite specifically designed to meet their needs" "India is a strategic market for NetSuite and we believe that Indian corporations can benefit from our on-demand business management software suite," said Matthew Rickard, Sales Manager Asia for NetSuite. Program Details The Business ByNetSuite program is available now and open to all SAP R/3 customers in good standing. The 50% cost savings is applied based on what an SAP R/3 customer is currently paying for annual maintenance and support. NetSuite guarantees an annual subscription price of 50% lower for a comparable number of user seats, including support. To expedite SAP replacements, Proquest Solutions has developed a special SAP Migration Program, which includes a set of services and third-party tools designed to help ease the migration for SAP customers making the switch. The program offers professional services time that can be applied to various implementation tasks such as business process mapping, configuration, data migration, end-user training and deployment assistance. - End - About Proquest Solutions Proquest Solutions is a specialized IT product and business services company, providing leading edge IT solutions to its customers in the Indian and Asia Pacific regions. Proquest Solutions was an early pioneer in enterprise software-as-a-service applications in India and is a leading Solution Partner for NetSuite. Its professionals bring rich experience in IT product and business services models to consulting engagements and count Hindustan Unilever Ltd, Novartis, APL Limited, Stryker, Patni Computers, Nielsoft, NIIT Ltd, SKS Microfinance, Serum Institute, Kalpataru Power and many others as customers. Founded in 2003, Proquest Solutions is privately held and headquartered in Pune, India. For more details please visit www.proquestsolutions.com Browse all Proquest Solutions Pvt Ltd press release » | Subscribe to daily press alerts via email » For more information, Please contact: Biswas Nair Managing Director Proquest Solutions Pvt Ltd Phone: +91 20 25635380 Fax: +91 20 25635383 You can also visit www.proquestsolutions.com for more information.

A blog as a tool for Business

Herrmann alone is veering way off-topic here, for a post about using blogs to develop new legal business. Bexis prefers to stick to drug and device law, so he played no role in drafting this post. A surprising number of folks have asked us whether blogging is a useful business development tool for lawyers. Here are our (well, Herrmann's) two cents worth on that topic. First, discount much of what you hear on this subject. People who create or host blogs for a living are self-interested: They swear that blogging generates business, and they'll never be convinced otherwise. Second, take our comments for what they're worth: It's not as though we've done an empirical analysis of blogs and legal business. We're just speaking from our own experience and the logical implications of what we've seen. Here's the necessary background: We'd call our blog relatively successful. We've attracted some attention in the blogosphere; we have several hundred subscribers (by Google e-mail group); we've received a few awards from blog-watchers; and we typically receive a few tens of thousands of page views per month. That's good, but not great. Widely read blogs receive tens of thousands of page views each day; we're not in that league. (And we never will be; a blog about drug and device law will never be of interest even to most lawyers, let alone to the public at large. We didn't launch this little experiment with the idea that we'd soon conquer The Huffington Post or the Drudge Report.) In our little niche, however, we're pretty well known. To the extent that a blog of this type can generate business, we would have expected that to have happened during the two years we've been at this. It really has not. Here's a completely honest description of what we've seen on the business development front. (Note that we're excluding all non-business reaction to the blog. The blog has caused us to be quoted in the legal and popular press, generated speaking and writing engagements, and the like. We're talking here only about new retentions that we can attribute directly to the blog.) First, existing clients occasionally read blog posts and then retain us to think harder about some subject on which we've posted. Second, litigants searching for amici curiae in their cases occasionally stumble across the blog and ask us to provide either paid or pro bono amicus help. Third, folks who it makes no sense for us to represent -- potential product liability plaintiffs, or tiny companies on the periphery of the pharmaceutical products world -- sometimes call, but those fish are either inedible or too small to fry, so we toss them back. That's about it for business attracted by the blog. We have not been retained by any entirely new clients asking for help on substantial new matters. On the whole, then, we'd say that blogging has not been a tremendously successful business development tool. (Not to worry. We write this blog for many reasons other than business development; our lack of results on the business development front won't cause us to close up shop. Exhaustion may, but lack of new business won't.) What's our speculation about legal blogs as business development tools? First, blogs are the new-age equivalent of billboards or ads on television or in the Yellow Pages. Blogs effectively reach a mass audience, but they don't effectively target the general counsel or heads of litigation of Fortune 500 companies. We suspect that, if we were "Yellow Pages" lawyers rather than "tall building" lawyers -- if any guy on the street were a potential client -- this blog would have generated a great deal of business by now. But that's not our target "market," and a legal blog is a relatively ineffective way of developing business from sophisticated corporate clients. Think about it this way: If we bloggged about "personal bankruptcy," then any person who searched on-line for a bankruptcy lawyer might find and retain us. But if we blogged about "Fortune 500 bankruptcies," it's far less likely that the general counsel of some huge, but struggling, corporation would read our blog and be convinced by our posts that he or she should retain us. If we blogged about how to draft contracts efficiently for small businesses, we might attract small business clients. But if we blogged about "international M&A transactions valued in excess of $5 billion," we'd be less likely to succeed. In-house lawyers at sophisticated companies have many ways to select counsel, and going on-line to find bloggers ain't high on that list. Blogs are probably great business development tools for solo practitioners. Blogging might generate business for small or medium-sized law firms, which are generally happy to accept, for example, a role as local counsel. And blogs might generate business for lawyers at large firms who routinely handle smaller matters. But we're beginning to suspect that blogs are a relatively ineffective business development tool to attract large matters to large law firms. We're leaving open the possibility that blogging may be an effective business development tool over time, when used in conjunction with other tools. Thus: Giving one talk is unlikely to generate business; giving one talk a month for five years is more likely to work. Writing one article is unlikely to generate business; writing one article a year for twenty years is more likely to work. Blogging for a couple of years (by itself) may not generate business; blogging over time, while also giving talks, writing articles, and never dining alone, may be more effective. But it's awfully hard to run a controlled experiment of that hypothesis. What's our advice? Same as it's always been: Blog for pleasure; blog to stay abreast of your field of law; blog to influence the public debate; blog to raise both your firm's and your personal profile in a your legal niche. But, if you're a big-firm lawyer who typically handles large litigation or corporate matters, don't blog for profit. For lawyers in practices such as ours, there are other, more effective marketing tools. (Now we'll kick back and watch this post get slaughtered (for heresy) in the blogosphere, while we return to drug and device law.)

AOL Continues to Push Publishing, Establishes New Business Unit

AOL-s past as a dialup company is being pushed to the background yet again, on purpose for sure. This time, the company is launching a separate business unit for its publishing products, called MediaGlow. This is where the 75 properties, many Weblogs Inc. blogs, end up, all according to a New York Times story. "Instead of having a handful of front doors, we're creating dozens if not hundreds of front doors that are more relevant to advertisers," said Bill Wilson, the AOL publishing executive who will be the president of MediaGlow. Another 30 sites will be launched this year, moving the portfolio for MediaGlow past 100 sites unless they decide to close or sell off any of the brands currently there. Maybe this is necessary, because although AOL can pride itself with an increase in pageviews at 40%, the New York Times article cites JP Morgon who estimates a 18% advertising decline in 2008. Nevertheless, this is yet another great example on how blogs provide a cost-efficient opportunity for publishing companies that want to get going online with minimal hassle.

Poll: How much impact from recession?

Take our poll then find out what other small-business owners are saying: How much impact is the recession having on your business? The recession is taking its toll on small businesses, according to several recent surveys. Nine out of 10 small businesses and self-employed individuals have felt some impact from current economic woes, according to the National Association for the Self Employed (click on image for a larger view). In fact, 43% say the recession that started a year ago is the worst they-ve ever experienced.More than 500 business owners participated in the unscientific online survey. More than half said their 2008 gross revenues were worse than in 2007, while 24% said they were higher and 18% said there was no change. However, 54% of respondents said their personal finances have taken a greater hit than their businesses. (Click here to see all survey results.) In a separate monthly survey, members of the National Federation of Independent Business, expressed the fourth lowest optimism score (an index based on such factors as earnings and hiring plans) in the 35-year history of the survey. Key to that pessimism was a downturn in earnings in the previous three months (click on image for larger view): "The small-business economy is weak everywhere," said William Dunkelberg, NFIB chief economist. "Job creation plans were negative in all industries except non-professional services. More owners plan work force reductions than plan to increase employment in all nine census regions." Click here to see the entire report (under Small Business Economic Trends) NASE Executive Director Kristie Darien said, "The current economic slowdown is causing many challenges for micro-businesses. More small-business owners are being faced with difficult choices, such as cutting benefits and compensation for themselves or their employees." When NASE asked what actions business owners are taking to deal with the difficult economic climate, their top answers (multiple answers allowed): More economy news"¦

The case for a quick recovery

AMERICA'S MONEY CRISIS Breaking down Obama's tax plan More Videos 2009 financial showdown More Videos NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- There is no debate that the U.S. economy is in terrible shape at the moment. Nearly 2.6 million jobs were lost last year, with the majority of them coming in the final four months of the year. And some economists are forecasting as much as a 5% to 9% drop in economic activity during the fourth quarter, which could be the biggest drop in 50 years. But some economists are starting to believe that there could be a much stronger and quicker recovery than is now widely expected. They say that the sharp drop in production and inventories during this recession will force businesses that are now busy cutting back to quickly ramp up production once the economy starts to improve. The crisis in financial and credit markets sparked by the Lehman Brothers bankruptcy in September caused businesses to slam the brakes on production much harder than justified by reduced demand alone, according to Joseph Carson, chief economist at AllianceBernstein. "We were producing 2 million tons of steel a week prior to Lehman. Now we're producing 880,000 a week," Carson said. "The economy has slowed, but it has not fallen by half in the last three months. This kind of significant inventory liquidation is exactly why recoveries take place." Many also believe that the significant steps being taken by the Federal Reserve and Congress to spur the economy will kick in later this year. That stimulus, coupled with low energy prices, could cause a jump in economic activity. A V-shaped recovery? This kind of recovery is known as a V-shaped recovery, because a chart of economic activity would look like the letter V: a steep decline followed by a quick and strong turn around. "Generally the sharper the recession, the sharper the recovery," said Lakshman Achuthan, managing director of the Economic Cycle Research Institute. Achuthan said he is not yet ready to call the bottom of the current economic downturn. But he said his firm's weekly index of leading economic indicators has been ticking higher in recent weeks, suggesting that the economy may finally be close to the bottom. He added that when things start to show signs of improvement, the economy could well be helped by pent-up demand from consumers who sharply curtailed purchases in recent months. "Consumers have been on strike," he said. "They've been holding off buying things that they don't absolutely have to have." Of course, hopes for a quick turnaround are still faint. There are many economists, including staffers at the Fed, who worry that there will be, at best, a modest pick-up in activity later this year and continued job losses continuing into 2010. According to a plan released by the economic team of President-elect Obama over the weekend, the incoming administration believes the unemployment rate will continue to rise through the third quarter of this year, and top out at 8% -- even if the economic stimulus plan it is proposing passes. Or a U-shaped recovery? And some economists who believe there will be a sharp recovery aren't sure it will take place anytime soon. "We're eventually going to get a strong recovery. We just can't forecast with any degree of certainty if it will be in the second half of the year," said Ed Yardeni, president of Yardeni Research, an independent market research firm. He added that the recovery could wind up looking more like a U, i.e. the economy hovers around the bottom for awhile, than a V. Yardeni said everything will have to go right to bring any type of recovery in 2009, including quick passage of effective stimulus by Congress and an unfreezing of the credit markets. He added there is some evidence of improvement in the economy, including narrowing credit spreads and lower mortgages rates. But it may be too little, too late for a turnaround this year. "Right now there's more going wrong than going right," Yardeni said.  First Published: January 12, 2009: 3:08 PM ET Don't expect stimulus to work fast Economy could lose 2 million more jobs in 2009 Get ready for more pain ahead 2008 job losses: 2.6 million Where Obama rescue plan stands The case for doing nothing

Faltering economy is not business journalism’s fault

Chuck Melvin, assistantmanaging editor for business news atthe Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, writes Sunday that he doesn-t believe, as some do, that negative coverage about business and the economy has contributed to the current economic turmoil. Melvin writes, "We get no kick out of sorry news. Contrary to popular opinion, bad news doesn-t sell newspapers. Think about it: If bad news sold newspapers, the Packers- 2008 season would have sent our circulation through the roof. "And we are constantly on the lookout for "˜good news- stories. In today-s economic atmosphere, the most newsworthy stories can be those that tell of businesses that are expanding, factories that are hiring, shops that have found ways to draw more customers. Such news doesn-t just perk us up; it can also help other businesses find ways to cope"“ and to grow. Please don-t hesitate to contact us if you have a story like that to tell. "Throughout the past year, we carried many of these types of articles, with headlines such as "˜It-s a good time to buy a second home- and "˜What goes down must come up.- We featured local companies drawing new investors, developing innovative products, finding ways to thrive in a difficult environment. We highlighted differences between the economies of southeast Wisconsin and the nation as a whole. On the front page today, we tell a story of companies in the region that have bucked the economic trend and are continuing to look for people to hire." Read more here.

SOE hopes PS3 will be half its business

SOE hopes PS3 will be half its business January 12th, 2009 @ 11:35 In an interview with GameDaily, Sony Online Entertainment Chief John Smedley placed his hopes for the future atop the bank accounts of PSN's virgin masses, voicing his belief that SOE's formerly PC-centric business will successfully open up shop in the console market. "I think PS3 will be close to half our business," he said. "There-s an audience now waiting for online games on the PS3. I believe PSN has over 15 million users today. It-s growing so quickly, we see a great user-base potential there." "I think a lot of the people who play PS3 games right now aren-t the same people playing MMOs right now. I think it-s going to bring in a lot of new players," he added. More through the

Northeast Ohio ranks fourth in corporate headquarters

Amid the depressing news of layoffs and company shutdowns, comes this surprising bit of uplift -- our region is a stalwart when it comes to the number of corporate headquarters. Team NEO, the region's business-attraction group, reports today that the 16-county region is fourth among the nation's largest metropolitan areas in its share of people working at business headquarters. In 2006, 41,000 people worked at corporate and division headquarters from Youngstown to Lorain, including 18,500 in Cuyahoga County, data showed. As a percent of the total work force, headquarters employment in Northeast Ohio ranked higher than Boston, Chicago and Atlanta, Team NEO's research showed. BY THE NUMBERS Northeast Ohio has lots of corporate headquarters. Here's the Top 10. 1. St. Louis 2. New York 3. San Francisco 4. Northeast Ohio 5. Detroit 6. Boston 7. Philadelphia 8. Chicago 9. Atlanta 10. Seattle Northeast Ohio has 22 headquarters that are from Fortune 1000 companies. Here is the list: Goodyear Tire & Rubber Progressive Eaton FirstEnergy Parker Hannifin Sherwin-Williams KeyCorp Timken Aleris International Lubrizol Nacco Industries RPM International Diebold PolyOne Ferro Medical Mutual of Ohio Cleveland-Cliffs Lincoln Electric Holdings American Greetings Applied Ind. Technologies Jo Ann Stores Schulman (A.) SOURCE: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics and Economy.com "People who are managing business is a particular strength here," says Tom Waltermire, Team NEO's chief executive. The numbers are no surprise to Ned Hill, the interim dean of Cleveland State University's urban affairs college. Hill, an influential economist, has been telling people for years that the density of business headquarters here is an economic driver. From 2000 to 2006, an industrial sector formally known as "management of companies and enterprises" saw a 5.7 percent annual growth in jobs, according to Hill's research. That sector's gross domestic output totaled $4.4 billion across 16 counties in 2006, research showed. Hill knows the numbers don't seem right. For years, the region has been rocked by the departure of landmark headquarters, from the likes of British Petroleum in 1998 to National City Bank last month. The bank is now subordinate to PNC Bank headquarters in Pittsburgh. But the loss of corporate titans obscures the fact that headquarters large and small are plentiful here, Hill said. Team NEO's research showed 541 headquarters in 2006, employing an average 70-plus people per site. "We tend to measure ourselves on the big icons that aren't here," Waltermire said. "You need to consider all the others that are just below the radar screen." The region has 22 Fortune 1000 companies headquartered here, TeamNEO noted. And the number of chief executives, accountants and general managers in the region is well above the national average, another indicator of headquarters activity, Team NEO reported. The large number of headquarters results from the region's historic strength and diversity in manufacturing, Hill said. A number of the headquarters are privately owned, small- to mid-sized companies whose operations have gone national or global, Hill said. Others were acquired by larger companies and became branch headquarters, he said. Headquarters remain here, or are attracted to Northeast Ohio, for a number of reasons, including our heartland location and affordable cost of living compared to the East and West coasts, officials said. Too, the region is rich in businesses that support corporate headquarters, including banks, law firms and accounting firms. Team NEO brandishes the bounty of headquarters when it sells the region to business prospects like GCA Services Group, Inc. and its chief executive Robert Norton. Norton and his board decided 1½ years ago to move the company headquarters from suburban Philadelphia to downtown Cleveland. GCA is a large, facilities-maintenance company, employing 30,000 people who clean schools and companies in 38 states. Sales last year approached $500 million, said Norton. GCA liked Ohio as the "center of the country" and saw prospects in a state where it had few accounts, Norton said. The company is saving hundreds of thousands of dollars on its lease in the US Bank Centre on Euclid Avenue, compared to the Philadelphia site, Norton said. GCA employs about 40 in its headquarters. The buzz-cut, Harley Davidson-loving Norton had inside knowledge before he came. The headquarters is a few blocks west of Cleveland State University, where Norton graduated in 1973. He grew up in Stow. "My heart is here," said Norton. "It's been good for us so far."

Get Business Tax Cuts Out of the Stimulus Plan It is heartening that the new Congress is tackling the economic crisis with the urgency it deserves. The economy is slowing dramatically, and 15 million Americans are now unemployed or underemployed. The numbers worsen every month, and if state and local governments meet their budget shortfalls by cutting services and laying off employees, the pace of job losses will accelerate. Without immediate and very sizeable intervention, unemployment could top10 percent next year. Most of the stimulus plan proposed by the incoming Obama administration is exactly what is needed, including aid to states, an emphasis on education -- including early childhood -- and investment in the nation's infrastructure -- the backbone of a productive economy. The United States has allowed its infrastructure to deteriorate to the point that dikes and bridges fail catastrophically, our drinking water suffers, our mass transit systems badly lag the rest of the world, and our broadband connectivity is slower and reaches a smaller share of our citizens than equivalent systems in Korea, Japan and other allies and competitors. The condition of many school buildings -- some built in the 19th century -- is deplorable and hurts the performance of teachers and students. The money in this rescue package is a small down payment on what is needed to give the U.S. the world class infrastructure we need. However, the tax portions of the package are a mixed bag. Middle class taxpayers will benefit from the AMT fix and the Make Work Pay tax credit, but the business tax cuts are mostly a waste of resources that could be much better spent elsewhere. The job creation potential of a one-time $3,000 tax credit for hiring new workers is questionable, at best, as are the stimulus effects of accelerated depreciation and reducing past income tax liabilities by taking into account recent business losses. It will be particularly hard to watch the banks and construction companies that made billions during the housing bubble get a windfall they don't deserve. It is instructive to compare the negligible job creation potential of these tax cuts with the hotly contested but far cheaper effort to rescue the domestic auto companies. If saving the Big 3 from bankruptcy would cost $100 billion -- the mid-range of estimates by Mark Zandi of economy.com -- but prevent the loss of 1 million to 3 million jobs, its "bang-for-the-buck" would equal or exceed even the best parts of the stimulus proposal, let alone the wasteful business tax cuts. There are many causes of this downturn, including our astronomical trade deficit - the result of two decades of one-sided trade agreements and failure to respond to the unfair practices of other nations - which have not been addressed. The reckless greed of so many financial institutions and speculators is a major cause of our current problems, and the damage done to millions of homeowners remains largely unaddressed. The dwindling strength of unions has contributed to wage suppression, the loss of fringe benefits, and the end of retirement security for the average American. The ultimate health of our economy cannot be assured without addressing these problems and the dangerous growth in inequality associated with them. We need an economy that creates broadly shared prosperity, not just for executives and professionals, but for every segment of society