Corporate Networking Redefined

In large organisations, employees are often found spending too much time navigating the maze of departments and hierarchies as they seek solutions to their business challenges. Quite often organisations are unable to tap into the expertise that lies within their employees itself as they have shifted into other departments!

With the explosion of the Internet and the phenomenon of social networking, there perhaps lies an opportunity for organisations to exploit and leverage the opportunity presented by "Intra organisation" networking.

This would enable employees to exhibit their skill sets and not rely on "canteen" networking to find solutions to tricky situations.......

The principles of networking have also been effectively utilised to tap global talent outside organisations. Check out Ninesigma....

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Financial Marketing Redefined

With the launch of the much anticipated DNC service, most service organisations that have been relying on outbound telecalling as the primary method of lead generation are facing uphill challenges.

Compounded with increasing customer privacy norms, financial institutions would do well to understand better and leverage more effectively the customer contact opportunitites that lie within their own channels.

ATM and Point of Sale Transactions, as an example serve as ideal on intrusive media to communicate in an accurate and cost effective manner with clients vis a vis the intrusive telecalling approach.

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Loyalty & Payments Redefined

Imagine walking into a shopping mall on a bright Sunday afternoon, checking out the latest personalized offers available at your favourite stores, buying clothes and leveraging your gold loyalty membership, indulging in a beer and a sumptuous Thai lunch at your happy hours hangout, and ending the day with a new movie at the multiplex. Quite a pleasant afternoon. Now imagine this without your wallet. No cash in hand, none of your eight debit and credit cards or 15 loyalty cards.

Sounds rather futuristic? Not exactly. There is a mini revolution of sorts under way in North America (which I’m hoping will spread and come to the rescue of forgetful souls such as myself) that leverages the power of biometrics in making the above a reality.

Managing a large loyalty programme over the customer life cycle is a huge challenge for big retailers.

Paybytouch which enables customers to register themselves with their fingerprint and link their payment (credit and debit) cards and loyalty cards. On having completed their shopping, registered customers can simply authenticate themselves at the cash register using their fingerprint, select the payment mode of their choice and complete their purchase.

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Creating a Mobile Interoperable Payment Infrastructure

As India crosses the 200 million subscriber milestone, banks and financial institutions have been attmpting to find the panacea to address the opportunity of mobile based payments.

The primary needs remain in the area of fund transfers and remote payment enablement. But the key challenge lies in the adoption of a standard that can be used uniformly across all institutions and consumers.

Mobipay has implemented a business model wherein they have effectively aggreated the leading banks, mobile operators and merchants into a single platform. The optimal, scalable and cost effective model of choice for any market with multiple players.

MPesa is another service launched by a Vodafone subsidiary, targeting the area of fund transfers. It's been expanding rapidly but lays open the fundamental questions on the roles of a mobile operator vis a vis that of a bank.

Would be great hearing your views !