Thursday, August 30, 2012

How to Set Microsoft Outlook (For SCIT Students)

What do you do when you need urgent access to your old emails and you don't have Internet Connectivity?
Don't you get bored seeing the same Google Email Inbox everyday?

Switch to the Best Email Management Application by Microsoft! It not just manages the email but help you to organize your work. Setting reminders, manage your events/Project Submission deadlines/assignment deadlines with the help of Calender! Don't worry about missing an important email - you get a instant pop up if you get any email! Beautiful integration with other Office applications will actually make your life better :-)

Following are the steps to configure your Outlook with 'associates ID'/ Gmail ID.

1. Open Microsoft Outlook 07/10. You'll see 'Add New Account' Wizard, Select 'Manually configure server settings or additional server types' Click on Next.

2. Select 'Internet E-mail' and Click on Next


3. Fill required details as given below.Tick appropriate option shown it the image.


4. Click on More Settings, do not click on Next! You should see a new Window 'Internet Email Settings',Click on tab - 'Outgoing Server'. Put appropriate tick 



5. Click on Tab - Advanced. Ensure you put only what is shown in image below. Do not tick 'Remove from Server after ---- days' you may loose all your emails, I did it once :-(


 6. Click on Ok, you'll see 'Internet E-mail Settings' Window. Click on Next and you are done!

Congrats you setup your own outlook account, successfully!

Let me know if any issue :-)



Tuesday, August 28, 2012

Custom Made Laptop - unReal, why?

I always need customized 'things' in my Life let it be food, bikes even I chose my MBA course which is customizable! The only thing that eats my head every time is, Why can't we have 'Complete' Custom Made Laptops? Don't tell me that you consider Dell Online Store, A place for customizable laptop. I hate Dell, because they do not allow you to customize everything in 'your' Laptop!
Consider a 'Subway Melt' sub prepared at Subway outlets, you can customize it right from bread, veggies, sauces anything and everything in the sub.Why can't we have it in Laptops?

My Idea about Laptop Customization -
It should start from Laptop's outer body - some people like Laptops to be slim like MacBook Air while some likes it Sturdy like Lenovo Thinkpad.
Another best part is keypad - i prefer a keypad with num keys/pad on right side just like the keyboards that we use for PCs.
Most importantly battery - I have a Gateway ID58 Laptop, it earlier had 6 Cell battery but now as I make heavy use of my Laptop I wanted to go for 9 Cell battery. I asked Acer's Vendor (after sales in India for Gateway) but he said my Laptop doesn't support it.
I have seen some of my female friends who rejected some nice Laptops just because they didn't like the color of the panel, too much huh? But I would say, yes they can demand for it and they should!

Why don't we have a Laptop Vendor who can help us in getting an assembled laptop just like we have it for PCs? I understand it's not easy for a Supply Chain to establish in order to procure different things for a single laptop which can vary a lot from one order to second. But if you see the idea has a lot of potential in it. People would definitely buy a 'Custom' made Laptop which may be or mostly will be 'Heavy on Pocket', but they will buy it, just because they get exactly what they want!

I agree it wouldn't be possible for a Vendor like Dell to allow people choose whatever they want and make their laptop ready for use. But entrepreneurs they can definitely think over it, as I really feel that this unnoticed area can really get you 'Real Money'! And the idea - first of it's kind :-)

Do Let me know your views and opinions about my idea! 


Sunday, August 12, 2012

Play Safe with Disgruntled Employees

'Information Security' this word has got a lot of power in it! In my MBA Curriculum (Information Security) at Symbiosis Institute, I often heard terminologies like Threats, Risks, Vulnerabilities and many more.

One of the Threat, i would say the most interesting one is - Disgruntled Employees. The reason i call it as interesting because I wonder how can one predict the intention of a Disgruntled Employee. Definitely it could be a risk for an organization but how can you control them? Just by disabling their access rights and controls? Do you think this would be enough?

Disabling/Revoking the access rights of a Disgruntled Employee can be one of the control measure but according to me the most critical and beyond an organization's control is something different - The Knowledge/insights learn by a Disgruntled Employee during his tenure at the organization. 

Let me take an example: Ajay, a recent college graduate from a Well Known Technical Institute joined Fysat Technology Ltd. a small scale (50-80 employees) IT company into Services. Ajay was interested into Java Development, he also had sound knowledge of Java. But like every other IT Company, he was put into a Support project. Ajay was disheartened but he took interest and started learning things, he was a quick learner so soon he became one of the best knowledgeable resource of his team. But some senior members of the team couldn't digest the fact, they started troubling the newbie. The poor soul couldn't fight back and he fall prey to dirty office politics. 
Time came when the Management announced Yearly Increment, Ajay received least increment, hardly 2%. Reason - His performance was degraded very much, due to some dirty tricks of his seniors Clients escalated many issues about Ajay to Fysat's Management.
Ajay got frustrated within a year though he had good knowledge and technical insights about the work but he couldn't understand and handle managerial things which comes by Experience. 
Finally the day came, one fine morning Ajay put his resignation to his manager. Unaware of the facts manager simply accepted it as he thought Ajay is not worthy resource as he was portrayed by his Seniors to the manager. Even his exit interview was not done properly as the HR felt that this a case of inefficient resource getting kicked out of the company.
Ajay was disheartened, frustrated and angry. But his talent and knowledge that he had gain while working at Fysat helped him to get a decent job at Fysat's competitor Eryat IT Solutions.
Eryat is working into same market where Fysat is operating - South East Asia. Eryat is a market leader but since last few months due to a product launched by Fysat, Eryat was feeling the heat. Fortunately for Eryat, Ajay was the guy who worked extensively in supporting the product for some Big Clients of Fysat.

Now what do you think, by just disabling Ajay's accesses on Client Servers/DBs Fysat will get rid of their 'Disgruntled Employee' ? Can Ajay's knowledge and anger about Fysat help Eryat to beat Fysat?

I feel it's responsibility of Ajay's Manager at Fysat to understand the issues faced by Ajay instead of relying on opinions/view given by senior members of Ajay's team. At least HR should had identified the problems faced by the trainee and if possible change his mind to retain him. But as the person was just a year old at Fysat, HR didn't bother about it.

(I have seen IT industry not much but at least for two years such things happen at many of the IT Companies all over the globe)

For Eryat, Ajay might not prove to be the expert to beat Fysat's special product but his knowledge will definitely be used by Eryat to develop something better than Fysat, something which lacks in Fysat's product.

Disgruntled Employee can potentially impact a lot on the companies, I feel there has to be done something more than just worrying about the Access Control of the Disgruntled Employees. 
What do you think should be done to prevent such losses which may impact organizations terribly!  Do comment to respond :-)

[NOTE: Company names and character name in the above post is fictitious.]