Pooja Soni Final Report

Summer Internship Report

On

MARKETING STRATEGY TO REVOLUTIONIZE THE EDUCATION SYSTEM

THROUGH e-LEARNING

By

POOJA SONI

A0101908654

MBA Class of 2010

Under the Supervision of

Dr. R.S. RAI

Programme Leader

In Partial Fulfillment of Award of Master of Business Administration

AMITY BUSINESS SCHOOL

AMITY UNIVERSITY UTTAR PRADESH

SECTOR 125, NOIDA - 201303, UTTAR PRADESH, INDIA

2009

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AUTHORIZATION

JULY , 2009

This is to certify that Ms. Pooja Soni has successfully completed the project work assigned to

her at ‘iDes Solutions’, as a part of the requirement in the MBA curriculum at Amity Business

School, Noida, under our guidance and supervision.

She has worked on the project titled “Marketing strategy to Revolutionize the education

system through e-Learning”, during the project period extending from April 28th 2009 to 10th

July 2009.

This project is done in partial fulfillment of the MBA programme from the aforesaid Institute.

We wish her all the best in her future endeavors and career.

Mr. Monty S Alagh Dr. R.S. RAI

CEO Programme Leader

iDes Solutions ABS, NOIDA

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DECLARATION

I hereby declare that this project entitled “Marketing strategy to revolutionize the education

system through e-Learning”, undertaken at ‘iDes Solutions.’ is a record of independent study

carried out by me during the academic year 2009 under the guidance of my faculty guide DR.

R.S. RAI of Amity Business School, Noida and my project guide Mr Monty Singh, CEO, iDes

Solutions.

I also declare that this project is a result of my effort and has not been submitted to any other

University or Institution for the award of any degree or personal favor whatsoever. All strategies

provided in the report hold true to the best of my knowledge.

Place: Noida Submitted By:

Date: POOJA SONI

A0101908654

Signature Signature

(Faculty Guide) (Student)

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LETTER OF ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

With profound sense of regards and gratitude, I would like to take this opportunity to thank all

those who placed their trust in me to complete this project. At the outset, I would like to thank

iDes for giving me the opportunity to do my internship with them.

I would like to extend a sincere gratitude to my Industry guide Mr. Monty Singh, CEO, iDes

Solutions who guided me with his inputs all along and whose help, stimulating suggestions and

encouragement helped me in successful completion of my project.

I owe my sincere acknowledgement to my faculty guide DR. R. S. RAI for all his support and

guidance without which my project would not have been successfully completed.

I duly acknowledge the help and support received from the entire team at iDes and AMITY

BUSINESS SCHOOL. Lastly, I would like to thank all Company Executives who could provide

their valuable time and share information for successful completion of the project.

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TABLE OF CONTENT

S No Topic Page No

1 Authorization 2

2 Declaration 3

3 Letter of Acknowledgement 4

4 Abstract 6

5 Introduction 7

6 Literature Review 10

7 The Indian Software Industry Scenario 21

8 About iDes Solutions 26

9 Solutions Offered 31

10 Products and Services 41

11 Processes, Infrastructure and Clients 43

12 E-Learning 47

13 Future of E-learning 49

14 iVLE 50

15 The Case 60

16 The Services Marketing Matrix 64

17 Swot Analysis 74

18 The 5 Forces Model 80

19 The Framework 82

20 Implementation of iVLE 92

21 Result 93

22 References 94

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ABSTRACT

This project revolves around the marketing strategy of a software company. The tremendous

success in the software sector has provided immense opportunities to iDes Solutions to expand

its clientele base in India.

The objectives of the study were to follow a strategy in order to bring about an e-learning

revolution in the education institutes in India and to recognize the specific requirements of

the institutes and design software that would cater to their needs. Currently there is a shortage

of reputed Universities in India that provides quality education. iDes through the launch of

iVLE in India wants to close this gap between these reputed institutes and students from all

over India.

This is a form of distant education learning but in a different way. It will be done by the use

of the technological break through that has come with the widespread use of internet in India

where the students will be able to attend classes from anywhere in the world sitting at their

place through Video Conferencing. These videos will be recorded and saved on the

Universities Website and the students will have access to them all day at their convenience.

The iVLE which is an e-learning solution provides a huge untapped market in India which

should rightly be targeted by iDes. And in the research that was conducted over the phone of 180

Universities in Delhi and NCR it was found that only Indian Institute of Management, Indian

Institute of Technology, Indian Institute of Foreign Trade and Amity University was using this. .

On the whole it was concluded that in order to penetrate deep into the market iDes should

undertake large scale promotional measures using the internet , reaching out to the Universities

by meeting the Directors personally and educating them about the advantages of the iVLE and

the revolution it can bring in the education system of India.

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INTRODUCTION

iDes is a web development firm based out of Fremont, California. With a co-sourced

development model, having our development centers at Gurgaon, India, they keep their pricing

affordable, ensure the highest quality of work, and eliminate all the operational hurdles that

usually arise from leveraging a 100% off-shore team. They build sophisticated web services that

look beautiful, and work seamlessly.

The products and services offered at iDes Solutions include

-Custom Web Design Company

- DOMAIN REGISTRATION

- e-commerce

- e-commerce solutions

- E-commerce Web Design

- High Quality Web Design

- Internet Marketing

- MySql

- PHP

- Search Engine Optimization

- Web Design

- Web Design And Development Company

- Web Development Company

- Web Development Services

- Web Hosting

The project deals with the marketing strategy to revolutionize the education system through e-

Learning. E-learning or electronic learning in India is gaining prominence slowly, but indeed

steadily. This is due to the fact that more than half the population of India today is below 25

years of age and the number of Internet users are growing continuously. The tremendous growth

of the economy in the recent past has also helped in the growth of online education in India.

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E-learning in India is especially popular with the young professionals who have joined the work

force quite early but still would like to continue their education that may help them move up

their career ladder quickly and safely. They find online education in India very convenient, as the

nature of the course work does not require them to attend regular classes. Moreover reputed

institutes like Indian Institute of Management, Indian Institute of Technology, Indian Institute of

Foreign Trade are today offering e-learning courses. Thus e-learning in India makes it possible

for the learners to pursue their education from reputed institutes without much hassle.

Online Education Scope in India

The scope of online education in India is actually much wider. Apart from proper course works,

some E-learning portals in India are also conducting mock tests for various competitive

examinations like engineering, medical, management etc. For example, the IndiaTimes Group

has introduced the Mindscape test center where one can appear for mock IIT JEE Exams online

for making self-assessment. The Gurukul online Solutions, apart from providing various courses,

set up a Jobs and Careers Centre (JCC), which, not only provides job-oriented vocational

education in a variety of domains, but also provides career enriching courses via eLearning. They

also offer Live Virtual Classroom connectivity to over 175 cities across India. Some E-learning

portals in India are also providing tutorials for school students. Thus the reach of E-learning in

India has expanded from adults to teenagers.

The future of E-learning industry seems to be very bright in India as number of Internet users is

growing in the country at quite a satisfactory pace and more and more reputed players are

showing their interest in the e-learning business. In fact, if prices of computers become

affordable and Internet speed becomes tolerable, e- learning can work wonders for the country.

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Strategies

The marketing strategy followed includes:

Services marketing matrix (the 7P’s) which is a combination of the marketing activities that was

conducted in order to be able to best meet the needs of our targeted market for iVLE. Today

marketing is far more customer oriented than ever before. The 3 extra P’s – People , Physical

evidence and Processes are particularly relevant to the marketing industry.

Swot analysis was conducted in order to evaluate the Strengths , Weaknesses , Opportunities and

Threats of the iVLE project. The objectives of the project were specified and then the internal

and external factors were identified which could be favorable and unfavorable for the project.

Identification of SWOTs is essential because subsequent steps in the process of planning for

achievement of the selected objective may be derived from the SWOTs.First, the decision

makers have to determine whether the objective is attainable, given the SWOTs. If the objective

is NOT attainable a different objective must be selected and the process repeated.The SWOT

analysis is often used in academia to highlight and identify strengths, weaknesses, opportunities

and threats. It is particularly helpful in identifying areas for development.

The porters 5 forces model was conducted to deal with the factors outside the industry that could

influence the nature of competition within it, the forces inside the industry (microenvironment)

that influence the way in which firms compete, and so the industry’s likely profitability is

conducted in Porter’s five forces model. A business has to understand the dynamics of its

industries and markets in order to compete effectively in the marketplace. Porter (1980a) defined

the forces which drive competition, contending that the competitive environment is created by

the interaction of five different forces acting on a business. In addition to rivalry among existing

firms and the threat of new entrants into the market, there are also the forces of supplier power,

the power of the buyers, and the threat of substitute products or services. Porter suggested that

the intensity of competition is determined by the relative strengths of these forces.

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LITERATURE REVIEW

Electronic learning (or E-Learning or eLearning) is a term for all types of technology-

enhanced learning (TEL), where technology is used to support the learning process. Often the

medium of instruction is through computer technology, particularly involving digital

technologies. E-learning has been defined as "pedagogy empowered by digital technology". In

some instances, no face- to- face interaction takes place. E-learning is used interchangeably in a

wide variety of contexts. In companies, it refers to the strategies that use the company network to

deliver training courses to employees. In the United States, it is defined as a planned

teaching/learning experience that uses a wide spectrum of technologies, mainly Internet or

computer-based, to reach learners. Lately in most Universities, e-learning is used to define a

specific mode to attend a course or programmes of study where the students rarely, if ever, attend

face-to-face for on-campus access to educational facilities, because they study online.

Goals and benefits of e-learning

E-Learning lessons are generally designed to guide students through information or to help

students perform in specific tasks. Information based e-Learning content communicates

information to the student. Examples include content that distributes the history or facts related

to a service, company, or product. In information-based content, there is no specific skill to be

learned. In performance-based content, the lessons build off of a procedural skill in which the

student is expected to increase proficiency.

E-Learning can provide four major benefits for the organizations and individuals involved.

1. Access to quality education: The fact that instructors of the highest caliber can share

their knowledge across borders allows students to attend courses across physical,

political, and social boundaries. Recognized experts have the opportunity of distributing

information internationally at minimum costs.

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2. Affordable education: E-learning can drastically reduce the costs of higher education,

making it much more affordable and accessible to the masses. An internet connection, a

computer, and a projector would allow an entire classroom in a third world university to

benefit from the knowledge of a distant instructor.

3. Convenience and flexibility to learners: in many contexts, eLearning is self-paced and

the learning sessions are available 24x7. Learners are not bound to a specific day/time to

physically attend classes. They can also pause learning sessions at their convenience.

4. Reducing environmental impact: eLearning allows people to avoid travel, thus

reducing the overall carbon output. The fact that it takes place in a virtual environment

also allows some reduction of paper usage. With virtual notes instead of paper notes and

online assessments instead of paper assessments, eLearning is a more environmentally

friendly solution.

Growth of e-learning

e-learning is capturing a large portion of learning activities both in academics and in industry.

Industry

The use of self-paced (asynchronous) e-learning in training continuously grew till 2007 reaching

20% of consumed learning. In 2008 there was a first drop in synchronous e-learning to 16%. The

use of virtual class(synchronous) e-learning in training is dropping year-by-year from 16% of

learning consumption in 2005 to 8% in 2008.

High Education

By 2006, nearly 3.5 million students were participating in on-line learning at institutions of

higher education in the United States. Many higher education, for-profit institutions, now offer

on-line classes. By contrast, only about half of private, non-profit schools offer them. The Sloan

report, based on a poll of academic leaders, says that students generally appear to be at least as

satisfied with their on-line classes as they are with traditional ones. Private institutions may

become more involved with on-line presentations as the cost of instituting such a system

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decreases. Properly trained staff must also be hired to work with students on-line. These staff

members need to understand the content area, and also be highly trained in the use of the

computer and Internet. Online education is rapidly increasing, and online doctoral programs have

even developed at leading research universities

Content Issues

Content is a core component of e-learning and includes issues such as pedagogy and learning

object re-use.

Pedagogical elements

Pedagogical elements are an attempt to define structures or units of educational material. For

example, this could be a lesson, an assignment, a multiple choice question, a quiz, a discussion

group or a case study. These units should be format independent, so although it may be

implemented in any of the following methods, pedagogical structures would not include a

textbook, a web page, a video conference or Podcast.

When beginning to create e-Learning content, the pedagogical approaches need to be evaluated.

Simple pedagogical approaches make it easy to create content, but lack flexibility, richness and

downstream functionality. On the other hand, complex pedagogical approaches can be difficult

to set up and slow to develop, though they have the potential to provide more engaging learning

experiences for students. Somewhere between these extremes is an ideal pedagogy that allows a

particular educator to effectively create educational materials while simultaneously providing the

most engaging educational experiences for students.

Pedagogical approaches or perspectives

It is possible to use various pedagogical approaches for eLearning which include:

instructional design - the traditional pedagogy of instruction which is curriculum

focused, and is developed by a centralized educating group or a single teacher.

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social-constructivist - this pedagogy is particularly well afforded by the use of

discussion forums, blogs, wiki and on-line collaborative activities. It is a collaborative

approach that opens educational content creation to a wider group including the students

themselves. The One Laptop Per Child Foundation attempted to use a constructivist

approach in its project.

Laurillard's Conversational Model is also particularly relevant to eLearning, and Gilly

Salmon's Five-Stage Model is a pedagogical approach to the use of discussion boards [9].

Cognitive perspective focuses on the cognitive processes involved in learning as well as

how the brain works

Emotional perspective focuses on the emotional aspects of learning, like motivation,

engagement, fun, etc

Behavioural perspective focuses on the skills and behavioural outcomes of the learning

process. Role-playing and application to on-the-job settings.

Contextual perspective focuses on the environmental and social aspects which can

stimulate learning. Interaction with other people, collaborative discovery and the

importance of peer support as well as pressure.

Reusability, standards and learning objects

Much effort has been put into the technical reuse of electronically-based teaching materials and

in particular creating or re-using Learning Objects. These are self contained units that are

properly tagged with keywords, or other metadata, and often stored in an XML file format.

Creating a course requires putting together a sequence of learning objects. There are both

proprietary and open, non-commercial and commercial, peer-reviewed repositories of learning

objects such as the Merlot repository.

A common standard format for e-learning content is SCORM whilst other specifications allow

for the transporting of "learning objects" (Schools Interoperability Framework) or categorizing

metadata (LOM).

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These standards themselves are early in the maturity process with the oldest being 8 years old.

They are also relatively vertical specific: SIF is primarily pK-12, LOM is primarily Corp,

Military and Higher Ed, and SCORM is primarily Military and Corp with some Higher Ed.

PESC- the Post-Secondary Education Standards Council- is also making headway in developing

standards and learning objects for the Higher Ed space, while SIF is beginning to seriously turn

towards Instructional and Curriculum learning objects.

In the US pK12 space there are a host of content standards that are critical as well- the NCES

data standards are a prime example. Each state government's content standards and achievement

benchmarks are critical metadata for linking e-learning objects in that space.

An excellent example of e-learning that relates to knowledge management and reusability is

Navy E-Learning, which is available to Active Duty, Retired, or Disable Military members. This

on-line tool provides certificate courses to enrich the user in various subjects related to military

training and civilian skill sets. The e-learning system not only provides learning objectives, but

also evaluates the progress of the student and credit can be earned toward higher learning

institutions. This reuse is an excellent example of knowledge retention and the cyclical process

of knowledge transfer and use of data and records.

Technology Issues

As early as 1993, Graziadei, W. D. described an online computer-delivered lecture, tutorial and

assessment project using electronic Mail, two VAX Notes conferences and Gopher/Lynx.

together with several software programs that allowed students and instructor to create a Virtual

Instructional Classroom Environment in Science (VICES) in Research, Education, Service &

Teaching (REST). In 1997 Graziadei, W.D., et al., published an article entitled "Building

Asynchronous and Synchronous Teaching-Learning Environments: Exploring a

Course/Classroom Management System Solution". They described a process at the State

University of New York (SUNY) of evaluating products and developing an overall strategy for

technology-based course development and management in teaching-learning. The product(s) had

to be easy to use and maintain, portable, replicable, scalable, and immediately affordable, and

they had to have a high probability of success with long-term cost-effectiveness. Today many

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technologies can be, and are, used in e-Learning, from blogs to collaborative software,

ePortfolios, and virtual classrooms. Most eLearning situations use combinations of these

techniques.

Along with the terms learning technology, instructional technology, and Educational

Technology, the term is generally used to refer to the use of technology in learning in a much

broader sense than the computer-based training or Computer Aided Instruction of the 1980s. It is

also broader than the terms Online Learning or Online Education which generally refer to purely

web-based learning. In cases where mobile technologies are used, the term M-learning has

become more common. E-learning, however, also has implications beyond just the technology

and refers to the actual learning that takes place using these systems.

E-learning is naturally suited to distance learning and flexible learning, but can also be used in

conjunction with face-to-face teaching, in which case the term Blended learning is commonly

used. E-Learning pioneer Bernard Luskin argues that the "E" must be understood to have broad

meaning if e-Learning is to be effective. Luskin says that the "e" should be interpreted to mean

exciting, energetic, enthusiastic, emotional, extended, excellent, and educational in addition to

"electronic" that is a traditional national interpretation. This broader interpretation allows for 21st

century applications and brings learning and media psychology into the equation.

In higher education especially, the increasing tendency is to create a Virtual Learning

Environment (VLE) (which is sometimes combined with a Management Information System

(MIS) to create a Managed Learning Environment) in which all aspects of a course are handled

through a consistent user interface standard throughout the institution. A growing number of

physical universities, as well as newer online-only colleges, have begun to offer a select set of

academic degree and certificate programs via the Internet at a wide range of levels and in a wide

range of disciplines. While some programs require students to attend some campus classes or

orientations, many are delivered completely online. In addition, several universities offer online

student support services, such as online advising and registration, e-counseling, online textbook

purchase, student governments and student newspapers.

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e-Learning can also refer to educational web sites such as those offering learning scenarios,

worksheets and interactive exercises for children. The term is also used extensively in the

business sector where it generally refers to cost-effective online training.

The recent trend in the e-Learning sector is screencasting. There are many screencasting tools

available but the latest buzz is all about the web based screencasting tools which allow the users

to create screencasts directly from their browser and make the video available online so that the

viewers can stream the video directly. The advantage of such tools is that it gives the presenter

the ability to show his ideas and flow of thoughts rather than simply explain them, which may be

more confusing when delivered via simple text instructions. With the combination of video and

audio, the expert can mimic the one on one experience of the classroom and deliver clear,

complete instructions. From the learners point of view this provides the ability to pause and

rewind and gives the learner the advantage to move at their own pace, something a classroom

cannot always offer. One such example of e-Learning platform based on screencasts is

YoHelpOnline.

Communication technologies used in e-learning

Communication technologies are generally categorized as asynchronous or synchronous.

Asynchronous activities use technologies such as blogs, wikis, and discussion boards. The idea

here is that participants may engage in the exchange of ideas or information without the

dependency of other participants involvement at the same time. Electronic mail (Email) is also

asynchronous in that mail can be sent or received without having both the participants’

involvement at the same time.

Synchronous activities involve the exchange of ideas and information with one or more

participants during the same period of time. A face to face discussion is an example of

synchronous communications. Synchronous activities occur with all participants joining in at

once, as with an online chat session or a virtual classroom or meeting.

Virtual classrooms and meetings can often use a mix of communication technologies.

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In many models, the writing community and the communication channels relate with the E-

learning and the M-learning communities. Both the communities provide a general overview of

the basic learning models and the activities required for the participants to join the learning

sessions across the virtual classroom or even across standard classrooms enabled by technology.

Many activities, essential for the learners in these environments, require frequent chat sessions in

the form of virtual classrooms and/or blog meetings. Lately context-aware ubiquitous technology

has been providing an innovative way for written and oral communications by using a mobile

device with sensors and RFID readers and tags (Liu & Hwang, 2009).

E-Learning 2.0

The term e-Learning 2.0 is used to refer to new ways of thinking about e-learning inspired by the

emergence of Web 2.0. From an e-Learning 2.0 perspective, conventional e-learning systems

were based on instructional packets that were delivered to students using Internet technologies.

The role of the student consisted in learning from the readings and preparing assignments.

Assignments were evaluated by the teacher. In contrast, the new e-learning places increased

emphasis on social learning and use of social software such as blogs, wikis, podcasts and virtual

worlds such as Second Life. This phenomenon has also been referred to as Long Tail Learning

See also, "Minds on Fire: Open Education, the Long Tail, and Learning 2.0" by John Seely

Brown and Richard P. Adler, 2008.

The first 10 years of e-learning (e-learning 1.0) was focused on using the internet to replicate the

instructor-led experience. Content was designed to lead a learner through the content, providing

a wide and ever-increasing set of interactions, experiences, assessments, and simulations. E-

learning 2.0, by contrast (patterned after Web 2.0) is built around collaboration. E-learning 2.0

assumes that knowledge (as meaning and understanding) is socially constructed. Learning takes

place through conversations about content and grounded interaction about problems and actions.

Advocates of social learning claim that one of the best ways to learn something is to teach it to

others.

There is also an increased use of virtual classrooms (online presentations delivered live) as an

online learning platform and classroom for a diverse set of education providers such as Fox

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School of Business for Temple University, Minnesota State Colleges and Universities, and

Sachem School District.

In addition to virtual classroom environments, social networks have become an important part of

E-learning 2.0. Social networks have been used to foster online learning communities around

subjects as diverse as test preparation and language education. Mobile Assisted Language

Learning (MALL) is a term used to describe using handheld computers or cell phones to assist in

language learning.

3D Virtual Learning Environments

As another example, Second Life has recently become one of the virtual classroom environments

used in colleges and universities, including University of Edinburgh (UK), Harvard University

(USA), and the Open University (UK), Language learning in virtual worlds is the most

widespread type of education in 3D virtual spaces, with many universities, mainstream language

institutes and private language schools using 3D virtual environments to support language

learning.

Services

E-learning services have evolved since computers were first used in education. There is a trend

to move toward blended learning services, where computer-based activities are integrated with

practical or classroom-based situations.

Computer-based learning

Computer Based Learning, sometimes abbreviated to CBL, refers to the use of computers as a

key component of the educational environment. While this can refer to the use of computers in a

classroom, the term more broadly refers to a structured environment in which computers are used

for teaching purposes. The concept is generally seen as being distinct from the use of computers

in ways where learning is at least a peripheral element of the experience (e.g. computer games

and web browsing).

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Computer-based training

Computer-based training (CBT) services are where a student learns by executing special training

programs on a computer relating to their occupation. CBT is especially effective for training

people to use computer applications because the CBT program can be integrated with the

applications so that students can practice using the application as they learn. Historically, CBTs

growth has been hampered by the enormous resources required: human resources to create a

CBT program, and hardware resources needed to run it. However, the increase in PC computing

power, and especially the growing prevalence of computers equipped with CD-ROMs, is making

CBT a more viable option for corporations and individuals alike. Many PC applications now

come with some modest form of CBT, often called a tutorial. Web-based training (WBT) is a

type of training that is similar to CBT; however, it is delivered over the Internet using a web

browser. Web-based training frequently includes interactive methods, such as bulletin boards,

chat rooms, instant messaging, videoconferencing, and discussion threads. Web based training is

usually a self-paced learning medium though some systems allow for online testing and

evaluation at specific times. Recent years have seen an explosion in online training for educators

by content providers such as Knowledge Delivery Systems.

Computer-supported collaborative learning (CSCL)

"Computer-supported collaborative learning (CSCL) is one of the most promising innovations to

improve teaching and learning with the help of modern information and communication

technology. Collaborative or group learning refers to instructional methods whereby students are

encouraged or required to work together on learning tasks. It is widely agreed to distinguish

collaborative learning from the traditional 'direct transfer' model in which the instructor is

assumed to be the distributor of knowledge and skills. “ Lehtinen et al.

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Technology-enhanced Learning (TEL)

Technology enhanced learning (TEL) has the goal to provide socio-technical innovations (also

improving efficiency and cost effectiveness) for e-learning practices, regarding individuals and

organizations, independent of time, place and pace. The field of TEL therefore applies to the

support of any learning activity through technology.

Computer-aided assessment

Computer-aided Assessment (also but less commonly referred to as E-assessment), ranging from

automated multiple-choice tests to more sophisticated systems is becoming increasingly

common. With some systems, feedback can be geared towards a student's specific mistakes or

the computer can navigate the student through a series of questions adapting to what the student

appears to have learned or not learned.

The best examples follow a Formative Assessment structure and are called "Online Formative

Assessment". This involves making an initial formative assessment by sifting out the incorrect

answers. The author/teacher will then explain what the pupil should have done with each

question. It will then give the pupil at least one practice at each slight variation of sifted out

questions. This is the formative learning stage. The next stage is to make a Summative

Assessment by a new set of questions only covering the topics previously taught. Some will take

this even further and repeat the cycle such as BOFA which is aimed at the Eleven plus exam set

in the UK.

The term learning design has sometimes come to refer to the type of activity enabled by software

such as the open-source system LAMS which supports sequences of activities that can be both

adaptive and collaborative. The IMS Learning Design specification is intended as a standard

format for learning designs, and IMS LD Level A is supported in LAMS V2.e-learning has been

replacing the traditional settings due to its cost effectiveness.

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THE INDIAN SOFTWARE INDUSTRY SCENARIO

Technological revolutions sometimes bring unexpected opportunities for countries. India, a

relative laggard among developing countries in terms of economic growth, seems to have found

such an opportunity in the IT revolution as an increasingly favored location for customized

software development. India’s success at software has led to speculation about whether other

developing countries can emulate its example, as well as whether this constitutes a competitive

challenge to software industries in the developed world. Software development can be broadly

categorized into custom developed software and packages or generic software products. Software

companies providing customized software concentrate on particular vertical market segments or

domain areas, like retail, banking, and manufacturing.

Software products may be targeted to a vertical segment or may cut across segments, but rarely

to a specific user. Software development involves a number of stages: Conceptualization,

requirement analysis, high-level design, low-level design, coding, testing and support. The value

added is typically greater in earlier stages of development – namely requirement analysis and

high level design. As we discuss Indian software firms largely provide services rather than

products. Further, Indian software exports consist largely of low-level design, coding, and

maintenance services. The Indian software industry consists of a large and growing number of

firms.

The early entrants into the industry had close links with computer hardware development. Heeks

(1996, p. 69) notes that Tata Consultancy Services, (TCS) was the first firm to agree to export

software in return for being able to import hardware, in 1974. TCS, currently the largest Indian

software firm, employs around 9000 people. Entry barriers were low because firms could start

small, since initial investments required were fairly small, little more than office space and

communication facilities.

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The industry is not concentrated in Bangalore, although Bangalore is certainly a very prominent

location for firms in the industry. With the exception of the region around Delhi, there are no

noticeable clusters in the northern or the eastern regions of India. The distribution of engineering

colleges, concentrated in the western and southern regions.

The India Software Industry has brought about a tremendous success for the emerging economy.

The software industry is the main component of the Information technology in India. India's pool

of young aged manpower is the key behind this success story. Presently there are more than 500

software firms in the country which shows the monumental advancement that the India Software

Industry has experienced.

The Indian Software Industry has grown from a mere US $ 150 million in 1991-92 to a

staggering US $ 5.7 billion in 2006-07. No other Indian industry has performed so well against

the global competition. According to statistics, India's software exports reached total revenues of

Rs. 46100 crores. The total share of India's exports in the global market rose form 4.9 per cent in

1997 to 30.4 percent in 2007-08.

It is expected that the India Software Industry will generate a total employment of around four

million people, which accounts for 7 per cent of India's total GDP, in the year 2008. Today, the

Software Industry in India exports software and services to nearly 95 countries around the world.

The share of North America (U.S. & Canada) in India?s software exports is about 61 per cent. In

2007-08, more than one third of Fortune 500 companies outsourced their software requirements

to India.

The Government has also played a vital role in the development of the India Software Industry.

In 1986, the Indian government announced a new software policy which was designed to serve

as a catalyst for the software industry. This was followed in 1988 with the World Market Policy

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and the establishment of the Software Technology Parks of India (STP) scheme. In addition, to

attract foreign direct investment, the Indian Government permitted foreign equity of up to 100

percent and duty free import on all inputs and products.

Software exports has major share in India's total exports. As of the year 2006-07, both software

and services revenue grew by 32 percent to $ 22 billions and $ 28.5 billions in 2007-08.

According to NASSCOM, India's domestic market, grew by 24 per cent. Presently Indian

companies have concentrated on only two largest IT service markets. They are USA and the UK.

Even Canada, Japan, Germany and France represent huge growth potential in the industry.

PROGRESS OF IT INDUSTRY

(In terms of US $ billion)

Year 2005-06 2006-07 2007-08*

IT software and

service exports 9.2 12.0 15.2

ITE-BPO exports 3.6 5.2 7.3

Domestic market 3.9 4.8 6.0

Total 16.7 22.0 28.5

*Estimated

(Source: Ministry of Communications and IT)

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OVERVIEW ON INDIA'S SOFTWARE INDUSTRY

According to statistics, country's software exports reached total revenues of Rs 46100 crores.

The share of total Indian exports forms 4.9 per cent in 1997 to 30.4 percent in 2007-08. It is

expected that the industry will generate a total employment of around four millions peoples,

which accounts for 7 per cent of India's total GDP as in the year 2008. The year 1995-96 was a

boom for the industry. The performance of the industry over the years is as follows:

(In terms of US $ millions)

1995-96 1996-97 1997-98 1998-99 1999-2000 2000-01*

Domestic

software

Market

490 670

920

1250 1700

2450

Software

Exports

734 1085

1750 2650

4000 6300

Indian

Software

Industry

1224 1755

2670 3900

5700 8750

(* Source: NASSCOM)

24

COMPANY PROFILE

25

iDes SOLUTIONS

iDes is a web development firm based out of Fremont, California. With a co-sourced

development model, having their development centers at Gurgaon, India. It is well established in

delivering web development services of varying complexities to their clients worldwide. They

work with clients of all sizes, ranging from bootstrapped ventures, early-stage startups, to large

enterprises.

They keep their pricing affordable, ensure the highest quality of work, and eliminate all the

operational hurdles that usually arise from leveraging a 100% off-shore team. They build

sophisticated web services that look beautiful, and work seamlessly. iDes was formed as an

answer to what was missing in the market: a firm that was technical enough to implement

complex systems, but creative enough to make the systems beautiful and easy to use.

Their areas of success have typically involved being able to provide professional internet

solutions to generate revenue streams, establish communication channels or streamline business

operations. They deliver a comprehensive suite of web services, ranging from custom website

design to development of complex Internet systems. Their offerings are based on building an in-

depth understanding of each clients business requirements, before providing them with

dependable solutions.

They work around your business. They strive to make technology integrate seamlessly with your

business so your business can grow. As your technology partner, when your business grows

theirs will grow with you, therefore, they will work hand in hand with you to support your

growth.

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They are very easy to work with, because they simplify communication, establish transparency,

and give you full visibility on everything that they do for you. They believe in building on-

demand services. To be able to build lasting and efficient relationships with their clients, they

offer a full-featured Client servicing area, where you are able to log in and stay 100% in tune

with progress on your project. In real time.

iDes combines industry-leading technology with user-centered creative to deliver the next, new

things in web development, digital marketing and brand experience. Some clients come to them

for a website and leave with a brand. Others need an application to do some heavy back-end

lifting and they throw in a rich user experience.

The convergence of brand and technology at iDes allows them to view each client challenge with

a bigger picture in mind and offer strategic solutions based on that visibility. Yes, everybody

talks strategy but they think their deep roots in technology, combined with brand and digital

marketing acumen, boots new life into the word. It's their commitment to intense, creative

thinking before, during, and, even after that creates sustainable solutions for their clients.

Web Development, Digital Marketing, Brand Experience. These are their practices and their

passions. Three key, often interwoven, areas that describe and define the way business,

communities, and customers interact today. They help clients design and develop for that

interaction. They live it, breathe it and they have the right people to help you profit and grow

from it. Thinkers and solutions are standing by.

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The iDes Advantage

“Their mantra is to provide solutions as unique as your business.”

They are different because they help you stay competitive as a small business. As former small

business owners, they understand your hurdles well. By thoughtfully assessing your individual

business situation and core objectives, they are able to uniquely blend your strategic objectives

with their technology model, to produce effective solutions that make you stand out. iDes is a

growing internet consulting business. Their client list includes top companies and organizations

across the world. You might be just who they need to join their team.

iDes pays careful attention to your objectives, placing then in the context of your current

operation. Their goal is to ensure that not only do their Solutions work, but they work for YOU.

Learn more about them, how they are different, and why they are right for you.

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THE COMPANY

iDes is an established web Services company delivering web development services of varying

complexities to their clients worldwide. They work with clients of all sizes, ranging from

bootstrapped ventures, early-stage startups, to large enterprises. Their success areas have

typically involved being able to provide professional internet solutions to generate revenue

streams, establish communication channels or streamline business operations.

They deliver a comprehensive suite of web services, ranging from custom website design to

development of complex Internet systems. Their offerings are based on building an in-depth

understanding of each clients business requirements, before providing them with dependable

solutions.

THEIR TEAM

They are here to work for you. Their success today is directly dependent on how they can help

you thrive, so come meet (y)their team and learn more about what each of them help you with.

DIFFERENTIATION

Their core differentiator is their extensive domain expertise. Over the last decade, they have

solved a few hundred problems, of different shapes and sizes, for their clients. They know what

works, they know how to make it work, and they know how to make it work in a cost-efficient

way.

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TOP MANAGEMENT

iDes is a company promoted by highly qualified professionals. The top management comprises

of executives with substantial business and Technology experience.

• Monty S Alagh, Founder and Chief Executive Officer

Monty is an experienced executive, with over a decade spent in building brands. Formerly,

Monty served as VP-Business Development at SiliconStreaming Corporation, Bay Area

California, growing the company from zero revenues, to $1.5 mm in sales, in less than a year. He

is also a former partner at AcroForza Consulting, an IT consulting firm based out of San Jose,

CA and has consulted with numerous early-stage startups as well has handled projects for the

State Of California in business modeling and change management.

• Preetam Mukherjee, Vice President- Technology

Preetam brings to iDes a deep understanding of web technologies and web based

applications. A former researcher at the Center for New Media & at Garage Cinema Research,

UC Berkeley, Preetam has spent a little under five years exploring the frontiers of new media,

understanding successful community building, and creating models for rapid adoption and usage

in social networks. Preetam is also the co-founder of a (thus far) stealth mode Internet video

startup: Marcellus.

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SOLUTIONS

Solutions should solve problems. It´s a key business principle they adopt, to ensure that they stay

true to their vision. They solve problems in four distinct areas. Their goal is to offer you a single

stop where you can take your web initiatives to new heights, reliably.

Web Development

The Internet is changing the way they do business. Information is transmitted within seconds,

and transactions need to take place instantly, simultaneously, and frequently, for your business to

succeed. They build secure web applications that run fast, are accessible to your customers and

partners across the world, and make you look very good. After all, the simpler you make it for

people to do business with you, the faster your business grows.

Online marketing and monetization

From search engine optimization, to blog marketing, they create and execute upon strategies that

help you promote your web site or service. And here´s something not a lot of people do: help you

make money. They help your site ready itself to serve relevant contextual advertising, and then

plug you into the Google Ad network

Identity Design

Your brand is the bond between you, and your audience. It is a critical piece of all your business

initiatives, and building an effective brand takes more than simply designing a logo. They work

with you to conceptualize, design and build your brand across all your messaging and

communications. So that the engagement is deep, and the bond is instantaneous.

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Web Hosting

Identifying the right hosting environment for serving your web site is a challenge. From

managing your domain information, to setting up the technical platform to serve your complex

services, there are many considerations that lie in front of you. iDes solves all of them with a

combination of standards-based deployment (LAMP) and strategic partnerships, to make sure

you get the right environment, at unbeatable prices.

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WEB DEVELOPMENT

From the latest AJAX solutions to extensible data-driven frameworks to community platforms,

they think it, create it, build it. The relevance of the web has evolved far beyond just the browser.

They design and develop for the new role of the web: the interface between company,

community and customer. Where and however that might be. Their web development practice

includes the following key solutions and services.

Website Design

Some people call their websites their web properties, or their web real estate. They´re ready to

help you stake your claim to cyberspace, and they do it with thoughtful construction. Other guys

might rig together a skyscraper without realizing what you really need is a cozy cottage, without

realizing that they´re building on swamp land. They take the time to make sure they´re giving

you what you and your users want and need. They look at the landscape. And then they design

and build as little or as much as it takes. A cottage if it takes a cottage. A skyscraper if it takes a

skyscraper.

User Experience

One of their core competencies is understanding how users prefer to interact online and with

technology. This vision encompasses information architecture, wire-framing, and application

user-interface development. Knowing how users prefer to interact allows them to tailor and

create a rich web or application experience for them.

Technical Development

iDes combines your requirements, audience, budget, and time line with a firm understanding of a

wide range of platforms and products. They customize and integrate dynamic solutions with

existing systems. They also build entire custom applications from the ground up. They can guide

you to Content Management Systems, Membership/Email list management, E-commerce and

shopping cart-applications, and community development solutions.

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Community building

iDes can help you implement an online community, make it relevant for your employees,

partners and, of course, customers, and make it make sense for your business. They can also help

you further capitalize on your community through highly targeted ad/marketing campaigns,

community metric management, and partner monetization programs.

E-learning Applications

iDes support carefully-selected open source applications for higher education institutes and

corporate. They know open source. They know Sakai. They know the performance, reliability,

and cost savings it delivers. And better than anyone else, they can use this technology to deploy

complete, cost-effective applications for the education enterprise.

You require comprehensive technology integration. All the pieces need to fit. That's where they

come in. They deploy, integrate, update, manage, train, and support. When colleges and

universities look to Sakai, they look to them. They package and support Sakai in way that allows

all colleges, universities and institutions to reap the benefits of open source software.

They are dedicated to facilitate the implementation of open source software for education. From

concept to deployment, to management—educational institutions can rely on iDes expertise at

every step. They offer a full range of Sakai solutions, backed by comprehensive support and

professional services.

E-commerce Solutions

A big part of doing business on the Internet sometimes involves actually doing business on the

Internet. They help you sell your goods on the web with integrated solutions that only need you

to specify what you’re selling, and for how much. They have great expertise and solutions in the

following areas.

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  • Shopping carts

  • Merchant accounts

  •Payment gateways

•Affiliate management systems

E-commerce is a fantastic way of capitalizing on the capabilities of the Internet. Sitting right at

your office or home office, you can sell goods or services to your clients on the other end of the

world or across the block without moving from your chair. They are proficient at setting up

shopping carts, and integrating them with your web site and products. Having interacted with a

number of payment gateways, they can help you identify the right solutions for your business.

They do all the thinking for you, so you never get shortchanged when working with your e-

commerce provider.

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MARKETING AND MONETIZATION

Can Technology Help Marketing Become More Creative?

Consider content. Not a very sexy or glamorous word. But in many ways, content is the never-

ending mandate of marketing these days. Advertising content. Business content. User-generated

content. Rich content. How do companies create it? Manage it? Deliver it? Receive it? And, most

importantly, how do they transform it into relevant, engaging interactions with their audience?

That's the opportunity and that's where they come in. They have a considerable background in

web and user-experience technologies. But they're also marketing and creative professionals with

considerable backgrounds in those disciplines. This convergence means they can take something

like content and create conversations and experiences with it. Or build a community around it.

Or launch a viral campaign around it. SEO, SEM, blogs, podcasts, online campaigns, video,

social networking, emails and more. You name it, they're thinking about it. The strategic and

creative plan for it and the technology that will liberate it.

Marketing Innovation

The choices out there are many and multi-channel. Their familiarity with the latest technologies

and digital tools is a key asset and helps keep their clients innovative and up-to-date in their

marketing approach.

Planning

Their strategic services combine your business objectives, research, and brand positioning with

creative thinking to meet your marketing goals. Through their collaborative process, they'll

develop recommendations around media buying, marketing strategy, creative strategy,

appropriate technology solutions, and metric and measurement approaches. Once the strategy is

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set, their multi-discipline team works with you on the process of tactical planning and execution

of your campaign or program.

Measurement

Every campaign and program created by iDes is set up to provide actionable intelligence. With a

set of customized reports, you'll get the most meaningful measurements of your campaign to

quickly gauge current effectiveness and to optimize campaigns and programs in the future.

Advertising Revenues

iDes integrates your web platforms with Google AdSense, enabling you to start earning

advertisement revenues from the day your site goes live. Their services include effective ad

placement, display, and contextualization. Rather than simply including code blocks to serve

advertisements, they make sure that your ads appear where they are most likely to be clicked,

and that they are relevant to the content on your page. They help you create granular targeting

mechanisms based on geography, demographic, and many other factors.

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DESIGN

Whether it's developing a new brand or producing creative and programs for your current one,

iDes offers a relevant approach to your brand building efforts. Call them old fashioned, but they

very much believe in the power of a relevant brand promise. But they also think brands need to

keep up with ever-changing audience behavior, so they leverage the latest thinking, creative and

technologies to help brands connect with a mobile, self-selecting, i-centered audience. Their

brand solutions combine award-winning creative with strategic research and planning to bridge

the following areas of client need.

Brand Development

The web and technology have fundamentally changed audience behavior. Creating and

positioning a relevant brand in this user-driven landscape requires as thorough understanding of

the media streams your audience swims in and the technological tools they use to navigate.

Brand Identity

You need a look. Or a visual shot in the arm for the old one. Or you need to extend your identity

into other materials or products. Their design capabilities are top-notch and spark a wide range of

corporate identity, business systems, environmental, and collateral solutions.

Brand Communications

The buttons that trigger brand experience with your audience come in all shapes and sizes and

mediums. iDes offers a full range of advertising, design and interactive creative to support your

marketing and brand-building efforts. From concept to print to code, they create materials and

experiences to engage your audience where, when, and how they prefer.

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WEB HOSTING

Infrastructure defines your ability to scale.

How your infrastructure is set up is critical to the success of your business. They have seen

clients pay through their nose for infrastructure they don´t need, and they have also seen clients

unable to scale up their infrastructure on time to meet their growing needs. Having seen a

diversity of problems related to scale, configuration and management, iDes offers low-cost,

continuously available web hosting services so you can rest assured that you web services will

always be up, available, and ready to grow.

Hosting setup and migration

Let´s start at the beginning. From registering a domain name, to finding the right hosting

solution, to migrating your name server information, iDes manages the entire process for you, to

ensure a completely hassle free experience for you. In addition, they have partnered up with

leading hosting solution providers, to bring to you these services at prices you will not find in the

market.

E-mail

In an age where business happens at the speed of thought, you need to be in touch wherever you

are. iDes helps you build and configure e-mail systems that fit in with how your company needs

to operate. So you are able to access your e-mail from you mail client, Blackberry or other

mobile devices, or on the web. And so that no matter where you access your e-mail from, it is

always completely synchronized to give you access to any information you need, wherever you

are, whenever you want it.

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Server configuration

More often than not, your web applications require you to create special configurations on your

server, including the set up of various 3rd party tools and services. Typically, your web host will

take care of all of these for you, but at exorbitant service charges. Their in-house systems team is

present to solve these very problems for you, at no additional charge. They install, configure and

manage all components of your server needed to run your web service effectively, including

database installation, PHP configuration and customization, and a lot else.

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PRODUCT AND SERVICES

• e commerce solutions

• e commerce web design

• Custom web design company

• Domain registration

• High quality web design

• Internet marketing

• My Sql

• PHP

• Search engine optimization

• Web design

• Web development company

• Web development services

• Web hosting 

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iDes SERVICES

Custom Application Services 

They understand technology and its impact on business. They take pride in being able to

engineer the right solutions for the customer to face business challenges, that is what our mantra

is “Solutions as Unique as your BUSINESS”. They offers customized low cost solutions based

on open standards, contemporary technologies and maintenance support.

They can help you

• Increase productivity by upgrading your old APPLICATIONS

• Design and develop Custom Database and Intranet applications

• Design and develop Web-based applications and e-commerce solutions

• Web Design and Prototype Hosting

Onsite services  

They can augment the customer’s resources on a contract staffing mode. They have

successfully deployed resources as business analysts and as test specialists who have a functional

domain background at our client sites.

Consulting

They offer consulting and functional training for IT companies especially to banking

solutions companies. This practice is directly headed by our CEO. They approach every software

assignment with a view to identify and provide solutions to the challenges confronting the

business.

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iDes PROCESSES

iDes follows Professional Project Management and Software Engineering practices. Good

project management is essential for the success of any IT Project. They follow well-accepted

project management practices. They also lay great emphasis on Quality and Processes. They

have a well-defined methodology for their software development and processes that are at least

at SEI/CMM level 3.

iDes INFRASTRUCTURE:

With a office in the US and two in India, they have a good infrastructure and ample space and

infrastructure and also the advantage of having best of both worlds. They have an excellent

network with external connectivity to allow us to be in touch with their customers and their

people all 24 X 7. They Provide, “not just software, but total business solutions.”

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iDes CLIENTS

1. Judicial Council of California

The internet-based employment recruitment software solution and maintenance services was

procured from ides by the Judicial Council of California, Administrative office of the Courts on

behalf of the 58 Superior Courts of California

The Human Resources departments of the Superior Courts of California are responsible for

providing recruiting services for the individual courts. The courts were in need of an internet-

based employment recruitment software solution as a means of publicizing job openings and

receiving, storing and processing qualified applications.

Ides successfully developed a robust system for The Judicial Council of California,

Administrative Office of the Courts (AOC) which has automated all functions of their recruiting

process such as:

A. Recruitment

B. Selection

C. Applicant Tracking

D. Reporting and Analysis

E. Internal Human Resource Automation

F. Software Solution Upgrades

G. Implementation

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H. Technical Requirements

I. Customer Support

J. Training

K. Security

2. BigAdda.com – a venture of Reliance Entertainment

Services : Community modeling and technical execution.

Reference : Ramkumar Ramamurthy, CTO, Reliance Entertainment/Adlabs Films

3. Microsoft SaaS Sales portal

Services : Software development for SaaS leads, opportunities and sales portal

Reference : Gaurav Saran, Enterprise Sales Manager, Microsoft Corp.

45

4. Mahindra & Mahindra Group

Services : Image and Video publishing SaaS platform

Reference : Zarina Hodiwalla, Manager, Corporate Communications

5. RealtyU

RealtyU Group Inc, is a California corporation, We have been successfully building

complex training and e-learning software for them to keep up with then position #1 in

their industry.

6. US Department Of The Interior Bureau of Land Management.

46

E-LEARNING

Electronic learning (or E-Learning or eLearning) is the Education offered using electronic

delivery methods such as CD-ROMs, video conferencing, websites and e-mail. Often used in

distance-learning programmes. It is a term for all types of technology-enhanced learning (TEL),

where technology is used to support the learning process. Often the medium of instruction is

through computer technology, particularly involving digital technologies. E-learning has been

defined as "pedagogy empowered by digital technology" . In some instances, no face- to- face

interaction takes place. E-learning is used interchangeably in a wide variety of contexts. In

companies, it refers to the strategies that use the company network to deliver training courses to

employees. In the United States, it is defined as a planned teaching/learning experience that uses

a wide spectrum of technologies, mainly Internet or computer-based, to reach learners. Lately in

most Universities, e-learning is used to define a specific mode to attend a course or programmes

of study where the students rarely, if ever, attend face-to-face for on-campus access to

educational facilities, because they study online.

The focus of much e-learning activity is upon the development of courses and their resources.

Successful e-learning takes place within a complex system involving the student experience of

learning, teachers’ strategies, teachers’ planning and thinking, and the teaching/learning context.

Staff development for e-learning focuses around the level of technological delivery strategies

when other issues such as the teachers’ conception of learning has a major influence on the

planning of courses, development of teaching strategies and what students learn. This article

proposes a more comprehensive framework for the design, development and implementation of

e-learning systems in higher education.

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WHY E-LEARNING?

E-learning can help counter most of the challenges faced by the education systems world

wide. Prominent among them are faculty shortage, lack of infrastructures, low ratios

(number of institutes : number of students), poor quality of education, offering curricula

that is not to the day’s needs. The answer lies in e-learning, as it can provide high quality,

cost effective, and quick solutions to all of these and many other challenges faced by

education systems.

It’s not just cost and convenience that makes e-learning an attractive option for students

and institutes. E-learning has also made education much more accessible to and far

reaching. Sitting in India, you can register with an online university in the UK or the US,

and have access to the same content as a student from these countries would have. E-

learning also provides students with the flexibility to participate in discussions on the

discussion board at any time, and interact with their online classmates scattered across the

globe.

Moreover e-learning has evolved over the years from CD-Rom-based learning to surgical

simulations (for medical students) and war games (designed for the armed forces),

making learning much more engaging and immersive, as opposed to the passive learning

experience of a lecture-based classroom.

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FUTURE OF E-LEARNING

With PC penetration, Internet access and bandwidth increasing by leaps and bounds, the

future of e-learning looks very promising. E-learning delivery modes are also becoming

more flexible, thanks to laptops and internet-enabled mobile phones. Also, with more and

more young people logging on to G-Talk, Facebook, Orkut and You Tube, technology is

no longer seen as an impediment but as supportive and indispensable. As the number of

such users increases, e-learning will continue to make strides.

iDes believes that e-learning can equip young people to seize opportunities in the global

economy. We are living in a knowledge economy, where the most important asset of any

country is the skill level of its people. To meet this challenge, we cannot persist with the

old ways of education. The future of education and of our countries lies in e-learning.

Although e-learning has potential in India, adoption has been slow and will need a major

marketing and awareness effort. According to IDC, the revenue earned worldwide from

e-learning was $6 billion in 2003. That’s expected to rise to $21 billion by 2008.

Nasscom reports that Indian companies will get revenues of $7 million to $9 million by

end-2005.As is apparent from the above figures, the Indian e-learning market is still at a

nascent stage. But thanks to an increasing emphasis on honing individual skills, e-

learning is slowly becoming popular in India.

Countries without university education can access universities in other countries via the

Web, a solution much cheaper than building university infrastructure. In underdeveloped

countries, e-learning can raise the level of education, literacy and economic development.

This is especially true for countries where technical education is expensive, opportunities

are limited, and economic disparities exist.

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WHAT DOES iDES OFFER?

iDes Virtual Learning Environment (iVLE). It has become very popular among educators

around the world as a tool for creating online dynamic web sites for their students. This

Technological breakthroughs has made sharing knowledge on the web a convenient and

popular option.

We will help you set the best applications to meet your needs, provide comprehensive

support for your project, train staff and users, host your application, develop new features

and provide on-going assessment and support. Our comprehensive support solutions

include:

• Project planning

• Installation & configuration of iVLE

• Training and documentation

• Hosting and remote management

• Management services for local installations

• Troubleshooting, upgrades, security, backups

• Data migration and integration with systems

• Performance monitoring and assessment services

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WHAT IS iVLE?

It is an online courseware management system designed for bringing students and teachers

together in a virtual learning environment and provides the tools, resources and techniques for

communication, group interaction and interactive support.

Users can find an array of web based educational tools and resources all under the IVLE. These

include online courses, discussion forums, chat rooms, quizzes, library resources, assistance

schemes, video-on-demand, network TV and computer-based training materials.

The focus of the iVLE project is always on giving educators the best tools to manage and

promote learning, but there are many ways to use it.

iVLE has features that allow it to scale to very large deployments and hundreds of

thousands of students, yet it can also be used for a primary school or an education

hobbyist.

Many institutions use it as their platform to conduct fully online courses, while some use

it simply to augment face-to-face courses (known as blended learning).

Many of our users love to use the many activity modules (such as Forums, Wikis,

Databases and so on) to build richly collaborative communities of learning around their

subject matter (in the social constructionist tradition), while others prefer to use iVLE as

a way to deliver content to students (such as standard SCORM packages) and assess

learning using assignments or quizzes.

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HOW DOES iVLE FIT IN?

Becoming an integral part of the campus services

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FEATURES OF iVLE

Overall Design

Suitable for 100% online classes as well as supplementing face-to-face learning

Simple, lightweight, efficient, compatible, low-tech browser interface

Full database abstraction supports all major brands of database (except for initial table

definition)

Shows descriptions for every course on the server, including accessibility to guests

Courses can be categorized and searched - one iVLE site can support thousands of

courses

Emphasis on strong security throughout.

Most text entry areas (resources, forum postings etc) can be edited using an embedded

WYSIWYG HTML editor

Overview

Goals are to reduce admin involvement to a minimum, while retaining high security

Standard email method: students can create their own login accounts. Email addresses are

verified by confirmation.

IMAP, POP3, NNTP: account logins are checked against a mail or news server. SSL,

certificates and TLS are supported.

Students are encouraged to build an online profile including photos, description.

Every user can choose the language used for the iVLE interface (English, French,

German, Spanish, Portuguese etc)

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Site Management

Site is managed by an administrator user

Site can be modified by a robust Site Admin block

Plug-in language packs allow full localization to any language. Currently there are

language packs for over 70 languages

Enrolment

Teachers can add an “enrolment key” to their courses to keep out non-students. They can

give out this key face-to-face or via personal email etc

Teachers can enroll students manually if desired

Each person requires only one account for the whole server - each account can have

different access

Assignment Module

Students can upload their assignments(any file format) to the server -they are date-

stamped.

Late assignments are allowed, but the amount of lateness is shown clearly to the teacher.

For each particular assignment, the whole class can be assessed on one page in one form.

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Chat Module

Allows smooth, synchronous text interaction

Includes profile pictures in the chat window

Supports URLs, smiles, embedded HTML, images etc

Course Management Overview

Choice of course formats such as by week, by topic or a discussion-focused social format

Flexible array of course activities - Forums, Quizzes, Glossaries, Resources, Choices,

Surveys, Assignments, Chats, Workshops

Recent changes to the course since the last login can be displayed on the course home

page - helps give sense of community

Most text entry areas (resources, forum postings etc) can be edited using an embedded

WYSIWYG HTML editor

All grades for Forums, Quizzes and Assignments can be viewed on one page (and

downloaded as a spreadsheet file)

Full user logging and tracking - activity reports for each student are available with graphs

and details about each module (last access, number of times read) as well as a detailed

"story" of each students involvement including postings etc on one page.

Mail integration - copies of forum posts, teacher feedback etc can be mailed in HTML or

plain text.

Custom scales - teachers can define their own scales to be used for grading forums and

assignments

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Lesson Module

A lesson is a series of pages which can be presented in a linear fashion, like a slide show,

or in a non-linear, branching manner, or in a combination of the two.

Question pages include Multiple choice, Multi-answer, T/F, numeric, short answer and

essay.

Pages can be imported either as questions in a variety of formats

Student attempts, time limits, minimum score and retakes can be set.

Choice Module

Like a poll. Can either be used to vote on something, or to get feedback from every

student (eg research consent)

Teacher sees intuitive table view of who chose what

Students can optionally be allowed to see an up-to-date graph of results

Forum Module

Different types of forums are available, such as teacher-only, course news, open-to-all,

announcements-only forum and one-thread-per-user.

Discussions can be viewed nested, flat or threaded, oldest or newest first.

Discussion threads can be easily moved between forums by the teacher

If forum ratings are being used, these can be restricted to a range of dates

Glossary Module

Allows participants to create and maintain a list of definitions, like a dictionary

Student entries can be previewed by instructors before publishing

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Entries can be searched or browsed using alphabet, category, date, and author

Survey Module

Built-in surveys (COLLES, ATTLS) have been proven as instruments for analyzing

online classes

Online survey reports always available, including many graphs. Data is downloadable as

an Excel spreadsheet or CSV text file.

Feedback is provided to the student of their results compared to the class averages

Wiki Module

Wiki is a web page that anyone can add to or edit

It enables documents to be authored collectively and supports collaborative learning

Old versions are not deleted and may be restored if required

Workshop Module

Allows peer assessment of documents, and the teacher can manage and grade the

assessment.

Supports a wide range of possible grading scales

Teacher can provide sample documents for students to practice grading

Very flexible with many options.

Quiz Module

Teachers can define a database of questions for re-use in different quizzes

Quizzes are automatically graded, and can be re-graded if questions are modified.

Quizzes can have a limited time window outside of which they are not available

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Quiz questions and quiz answers can be shuffled (randomized) to reduce cheating

Questions can be imported from external text files

Resource Module

Supports display of any electronic content, Word, Power point, Flash, Video, Sounds etc.

that are stored locally or remotely

Files can be uploaded and managed (zipped, unzipped, renamed, moved, etc..) on the

server

Internal web pages (html formatted) can be created with WYSIWYG editor and linked to

External content on the web can be linked to or seamlessly included within the course

interface

Linked MP3 audio files will display with elegant flash player

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HOW DOES iVLE WORK?

Components of iVLE

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THE CASE

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How iVLE launch can help counter most of the challenges faced by the education systems

world wide?

Background

iDes Solutions is a multinational Co-Sourced IT Services company based in The Bay area

California and our Development Centers in Delhi & Gurgaon. It was established in the year 2006

with the objective of providing consultancy and information technology services to clients

worldwide. With a young and highly skilled, qualified, experienced and dedicated team of IT

professionals they have been successful in providing Software solutions which enables their

clients to control cost, drive revenue, achieve capital efficiency and lead with confidence. It has

an extensive track record in the E-learning management.

Its mission for its iVLE project is to make the benefits of the E-learning management software

available to organizations worldwide.  Privately funded, iVLE Software is focusing on institutes

and organizations all over the world. iVLE Software was introduced to iDes Solutions by their

CEO Mr Monty Singh.  iDes Solutions has a long-standing relationship with Judicial Council Of

California, Microsoft, Bigadda.com, Mahindra & Mahindra Group and RealtyU.

The Challenge

iDES CEO Monty Singh said, “We could immediately see that iVLE Software had incredible

potential, but like most tech start-ups, faced several major challenges.”

These included:

•  Little market visibility or track record

•  Operating in a relatively unknown market area

•  Lack of internal resources (time, PR expertise etc)

•  Limited budget

• Unawareness of the importance of iVLE in the Indian market

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The objective

The objective is to make sense of the changes in the trend of the software industry and according

plan their software business model, product strategy, software sales and marketing to maximise

their potential. The objective also included making the Indian Universities aware about the

existence of iVLE software first, its importance and then designing a strategy for its marketing.

The Solution

They have developed a range of launch packages especially for tech start-ups.  It enables them to

make an impact on a market, and have access to a range of activities and their consultants’

extensive expertise, for a one-off discounted and fixed price.

“This means that start-up clients can be assured that they are getting their usual high level of

service, but without any long-term commitment or risk of unseen costs.  Of course, from their

point of view, the intention is that start-ups are so pleased with their service that they become

one of their long-term clients.”

iDES put together a launch package of activities for iVLE Software to take the company from

where it was, to where it wanted to be. Designed to create an immediate impact, the strategy

centred on building iVLE Software’s credibility in the eyes of target audiences, so that it was

more likely to be taken seriously by media, analysts and  investors and of course, partners and

customers.   

iDES built electronic-education programme because this software is predicted to be a huge

opportunity, and it is currently little known. Wherever possible, existing resources were re-

worked to minimise additional costs or delays. iDES also focused on priority activities most

likely to reap rapid results.

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Strategy

In the service oriented world today marketing strategy has become very important for software

company than it has ever been. The software industry is going under some major changes which

has an impact on the software companies business models as well as their marketing and the

sales tactics.

Lets see what are the current trends in the market that can impact the software businesses and

their marketing efforts :

1. Software as a service

2. Cloud computing

3. Open source software

4. Software as a service

5. Outsourcing of IT

6. Enterprises running IT as a service

7. Last but not the least – the Global Recession

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THE SERVICES MARKETING MIX (7P’S)

The services marketing mix comprises of the 7P’s:

1. Product

2. Price

3. Place

4. Promotion

5. People

6. Process

7. Physical Evidence

Traditional 4Ps are extended to encompass growth of service industry. One has to take into

consideration the 4P’s of the product marketing mix plus the 3 additional P’s of the marketing

areas and use them as an advantage over its competitors. These are the tools available to a

business to gain the reaction it is seeking from its target market in relation to its marketing

objectives.

Blend of the mix depends upon:

• Marketing objectives

• Type of product

• Target market

• Market structure

• Rivals’ behaviour

• Global issues – culture/religion, etc.

• Marketing position

• Product portfolio

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1. PRODUCT

Product is one of the components of the 4P’s of marketing. A company or an individual must

have product to market and to offer to the people. A product is define as anything that can be

offered to a market for attention, use, or consumption, and that might satisfy a want or need

(Armstrong and Kotler 278). Also, according to Armstrong and Kotler, a company’s offer to

the market place often includes both tangible goods and services.

The product that we offered at iDes is a software called iVLE (Integrated Virtual Learning

Environment), which is a service in the form of a product. It is an intangible product and a

product purely of the service industry. This product is designed for the educational

institutions. This Technological breakthroughs has made sharing knowledge on the web a

convenient and popular option. It will help the customers set the best applications to meet

their needs, provide comprehensive support for their project, train staff and users, host your

application, develop new features and provide on-going assessment and support.

A product must take care of:

Design

Technology

Usefulness

Convenience

Value

Quality

Packaging

Branding

Accessories

Warranties

Different methods are used to differentiate and improve the product and increase sales or target

sales more effectively in order to gain a competitive advantage over its competitors.

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The different strategies can be:

Specialised versions

Extension strategies

New additions

Improvements – real or otherwise

Changed packaging

Technology

2. PRICE

Price is another component of the four Ps of the market mix. Price is defined as “The amount of

money charged for a product or service or the sum of the values that consumers exchange for the

benefits of having or using the product or service” (Armstrong, Gary and Philip Kotler 353). It is

extremely important for marketers to remember that individuals in a market are highly receptive

not only to the price of an item, but also to the value offered by the product.

Software companies have to take into special consideration of the different parts involved in

setting its prices. Item such as list price, discounts, allowances, payment periods and credit terms

are items that work together to set the price.

The various pricing strategies available are :

Skimming

Penetration

Psychological

Cost plus

Loss leader

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The pricing strategy followed at ides for iVLE was of price penetration. Seeing the demand

curve for the software’s which is elastic in the long run market equilibrium will be achieved by

changes in the quantity rather than change in the prices. Therefore penetration pricing is a

suitable strategy in this case as the price changes by any one firm will be matched by other firms

resulting in a rapid growth in industry volume. The dominant market share will be obtained by

the low cost producer Swho would follow the penetration strategy.

Penetration pricing is the pricing technique of setting a relatively low initial entry price, often

lower than the eventual market price, to attract new customers. The strategy works on the

expectation that customers will switch to the new brand because of the lower price. Penetration

pricing is most commonly associated with a marketing objective of increasing market share or

sales volume, rather than to make profit in the short term.

The advantages of penetration pricing to the firm are:

It can result in fast diffusion and adoption. This can achieve high market penetration rates

quickly. This can take the competition by surprise, not giving them time to react.

It can create goodwill among the early adopters segment. This can create more trade

through word of mouth.

It creates cost control and cost reduction pressures from the start, leading to greater

efficiency.

It discourages the entry of competitors. Low prices act as a barrier to entry (see: porter 5

forces analysis).

It can create high stock turnover throughout the distribution channel. This can create

critically important enthusiasm and support in the channel.

It can be based on marginal cost pricing, which is economically efficient.

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The main disadvantage with penetration pricing is that it establishes long term price expectations

for the product, and image preconceptions for the brand and company. This makes it difficult to

eventually raise prices. Some commentators claim that penetration pricing attracts only the

switchers (bargain hunters), and that they will switch away as soon as the price rises. There is

much controversy over whether it is better to raise prices gradually over a period of years (so that

consumers don’t notice), or employ a single large price increase. A common solution to this

problem is to set the initial price at the long term market price, but include an initial discount

coupon (see sales promotion). In this way, the perceived price points remain high even though

the actual selling price is low.

Another potential disadvantage is that the low profit margins may not be sustainable long enough

for the strategy to be effective.

Price Penetration is most appropriate where:

Product demand is highly price elastic.

Substantial economies of scale are available.

The product is suitable for a mass market (i.e. enough demand).

The product will face stiff competition soon after introduction.

There is not enough demand amongst consumers to make price skimming work.

In industries where standardization is important. The product that achieves high market

penetration often becomes the industry standard (eg Microsoft Windows) and other

products, whatever their merits, become marginalized. Standards carry heavy momentum.

Taken to the extreme, penetration pricing becomes predatory pricing, when a firm initially sells a

product or service at unsustainably low prices to eliminate competition and establish a

monopoly. In most countries, predatory pricing is illegal, although it can be difficult to

differentiate illegal predatory pricing from legal penetration pricing.

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In sum, price is also an important tool within the 4 P’s of the marketing mix, yet it is important to

remember that consumers are also interested in the products value. In many instances if the

product does not deliver value the product will be doomed for failure, regardless of its price.

Software companies like iDes have to take into consideration list price, discounts, allowance,

payment period and credit terms as relevant elements to consider when setting the price.

3. PLACE

An important decision when trying to determine the overall competitive marketing

strategy is place. Place includes company activities that make the product available to

target consumers. iVLE’s place are the UNIVERSITIES all around the World. Internet

plays an important role in reaching out to these target customers who are placed around

the world. iDes has to place itself at the top of the top search engines such as google , so

that when its customer search for an integrated virtual learning environment software

they are at the top of the search in order to compete with its customers.

When we talk of place one has to consider the following :

Retail

Wholesale

Mail order

Internet

Direct sales

Peer to peer

Multichannel

iDes for iVLE tries to reach its places through the mail order , internet, direct sales by

personally meeting its target clients by visiting the various universities where its executives

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would go and give the demo of iVLE to its clients in India and for the universities abroad it

would arrange a video conferencing where they would give them a demo and take the

feedback there and then and being a software the exchange of the service was through the

internet , it has done the same for many of its clients in India as well.

4. PROMOTION

Promotions are activities such as advertising, personal selling, and sales promotion which

communicate the merits of the product and persuade target customers to buy it

(Armstrong and Kotler 63).

While carrying out the promotion activities one can follow the following strategies:

Special offers

Advertising

Endorsements

User trials

Direct mailing

Leaflets

Posters

Free gifts

Competitions

Joint ventures

At iDes we used the free user trials , special offers and the direct mailing method for the

promotion of iVLE for all universities. With these strategies we tried to make the consumers

aware of the existence of this software and it was not just an advertising activity.

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5. PEOPLE

• People represent the business

– The image they present can be important

– First contact often human – it can provide a lasting image to the customer

– Extent of training and knowledge of the product/service concerned

– Mission statement

– The staff represents the desired culture of the business

The people include the following :

– Employee

– Mangement

– Culture

– Customer service

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iDes is a company promoted by highly qualified professionals. The top management

comprises of executives with substantial business and Technology experience.

6. PROCESS

This strategy is especially relevant to the service industry , which talks about how the

services are consumed , the processes the consumers have to go through to acquire the

services and where they can find the availability of the services.

One has to take care of the following :

– Contact

– Reminders

– Registration

– Subscription

– Form filling

– Degree of technology

At iDes the registration for any of their products could be done online at their website :

www.idessolutions.com and whenever a customer gets to know of any of their services they

could easily be contacted as they had all their contact information updated with all the

leading telephone directory services be it on the internet such as asklaila.com,

yellowpages.com, alibaba.com etc as well as on the telephone directory services such as

justdial, mtnl etc. The delivery of their services was usually via the internet as the iVLE is a

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software which can be easily exchanged over the internet and they could also visit their

office and personally collect their copy of this software.

7. PHYSICAL EVIDENCE

It is the ambience, mood or physical presentation of the environment which could be:

– Smart/shabby

– Trendy/retro/modern/old fashioned

– Light/dark/bright/subdued

– Romantic/chic/loud

– Clean/dirty/unkempt/neat

– Music

– Smell

Physical evidence includes:

– Smart

– Run down

– Interface

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– Comfort

– Facilities

In case of the iVLE project the physical evidence did not play an important role as the consumer

interaction for the software service was not to be provided at the iDes itself , therefore the quality

and the design of the software were to play the most important role in selling of iVLE as its high

quality and convenience would lead to their customer retention.

SWOT ANALYSIS

A SWOT analysis must first start with defining a desired end state or objective. A SWOT

analysis may be incorporated into the strategic planning model. An example of a strategic

planning technique that incorporates an objective-driven SWOT analysis is Strategic Creative

Analysis (SCAN). Strategic Planning, including SWOT and SCAN analysis, has been the subject

of much research.

Strengths: attributes of the person or company that are helpful to achieving the

objective.

Weaknesses: attributes of the person or company that are harmful to achieving the

objective.

Opportunities: external conditions that are helpful to achieving the objective.

Threats: external conditions which could do damage to the business's

performance.

Identification of SWOTs is essential because subsequent steps in the process of planning for

achievement of the selected objective may be derived from the SWOTs.

The decision makers have to determine whether the objective is attainable, given the SWOTs. If

the objective is NOT attainable a different objective must be selected and the process repeated.

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The SWOT analysis is often used in academia to highlight and identify strengths, weaknesses,

opportunities and threats. It is particularly helpful in identifying areas for development.

A. POSITIVE INTERNAL STRENGTHS

iVLE is one of the best tools to manage and promote learning.

It is an alternative avenues for peer-peer interaction and communication

Promote independent learning and reduce administrative teaching load

Suit university size, institutional culture and integrate with existing network, student

admin. and legacy systems

Systems today are unable to meet all of the desired criteria. Lack of suitable off-the-shelf

solution has lead to a need for an in-house developed platform, thus the birth of IVLE

It is an E-learning management system that supports Staff-Student and Student-Student

interaction

Enables collaborative teaching and learning over the Internet through a rich set of easy-

to-use tools

100% web-based courseware management

Dual mode support

- Staff mode

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- Student mode

- Single sign-on

- Supports both asynchronous & synchronous T&L

Web-based and designed to meet diverse T&L pedagogical styles. New components can

be added as needed Multilingual Support and Web access statistics analysis.

It is an award-winning product which comprises of purely web-based set of tools and

resources that faculty members use to supplement the classroom experience. Unlike

commercial off the shelf products, IVLE captures uniquely how lecturers and students

want to interact online.

It is built on a robust infrastructure with a relational database that has the ability to grow.

It is built on common student information schemes used in post secondary institutions

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B. NEGATIVE INTERNAL WEAKNESSES

• How the main page is focused is most important. While news and events are conveniently

located on the front page the user has to “fish” for certain information. The first question a user

will ask is “what is the product?” This is not answered on the first page. You need to click from

the front page, which is supposed to entice you/lead you into the website but may instead annoy

the user.

• The top and bottom navigation is too far away. On long pages I would have to scroll down to

try to find out how to contact them and their FAQ page. If one uses two navigation bars one

should be used at the top and the second of the side.

• Their product doesn’t allow for access to its source code. If the source code is accessible the

user will be able to push the products capability to their unique needs.

Other negative internal weaknesses would include the complex nature of respective iVLE’s set

up in the organisations which would be complex for the employees to understand. Also, cost

could be a big factor in deciding whether the organisation goes in for a complete technological

overhaul or installs a lower version of the same software. Lack of course content, especially

outside the mainstream focus areas of IT education, English-language content, and tutorial-like

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courses. There will be high demand for people who can develop multi-lingual courseware that

addresses various topics.

C. EXTERNAL OPPORTUNITIES

• There has been a technology explosion in most post-secondary institutions. This would include

the development of distance education, technology content courses and supplemental e-learning

resources used within a physical classroom.

• Some of the trends they should be aware of include development of open source products and

unconventional use of modern technologies in education. This would include the use of Blogs,

Blogfolios, and Wiki pages.

• They could add training viewlet movies, and perhaps live chat for support.

• Users will take designed software and find new uses for it beyond what the creators intended.

Trends to watch for would include the monitoring of the use of their own software and others

and see what people will do with it.

Ipod did a marketing experiment by giving a free ipod to every first year student at one

university to see what the students would do with them outside of their designed purpose: Let the

consumer do the research for you!

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Other external opportunities would entail the use of upgraded and updated iVLE in various

upcoming MNC’s in India as well as Indian Corporate houses setting up bases abroad. An iVLE

designed by iDes would help ease the stress involved in internal employee relationship dealings

and propagate a healthy interaction and highly sophisticated working environment.

D. EXTERNAL THREATS

• Competition from open source software is a major threat.

• The open source software kind of thinking – it should be free and we should be able to push the

development of the product as we see fit.

• The competition is allowing access to the source code for development by the user. Examples

of content management systems include Plone and Movable Type. Movable Type content

management software was originally designed for self-publishing Blogs but now is being

developed for other uses. For example, About.com, which is an informational site that uses e-

articles, tutorials and e-mail courses, uses Movable Type.

• The drawback of open source software is the absence of support. This is where software such

as WebCT and Blackboard excel. However, websites and blogs dedicated to tutorials and

teaching aids for open source software are increasing and are of good quality. The decrease in

sales of print manuals for software is reflected in the quality and availability of online e-

resources.

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MICHAEL PORTER’S 5 FORCES MODEL

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FRAMEWORK

THE THREAT OF SUBSTITUTE PRODUCTS

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The existence of close substitute products increases the propensity of customers to switch to

alternatives in response to price increases (high elasticity of demand).

Buyer propensity to substitute

Software can be developed easily and is not very costly to do so; hence, buyers

tend to go for locally developed software with better features and lower costs.

The product has high price elasticity and buyers tend to substitute branded

products with custom made software which have most of the desired features.

Relative price performance of substitutes

There is a considerable price difference between custom made and branded

products in the market.

Custom made software are quite low priced, their reliability is however quite low.

On the other hand, their reliability is somewhat overcome by their custom features

which cover all user requirements.

Buyer switching costs

Data transfer etc in small and medium sized businesses can be done very easily

and in a cost effective way and does not consume too much time either.

This reduces the switching cost especially if the benefits of the new software are

considerably better.

Switching costs are on the higher side for some businesses which have high

dependency on sensitive data and cannot switch easily. (For e.g. banks, insurance

companies, mutual funds etc.)

Perceived level of product differentiation

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Software can be differentiated on 3 major bases: cost, features and brand

reputation.

Perception of differentiation entirely depends on every individual customer.

Custom software have an edge on two fronts: cost and features (which are added

or removed as peer customer needs)

Whereas branded software have an edge in brand reputation and are much more

reliable.

THE THREAT OF THE ENTRY OF NEW COMPETITORS

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Profitable markets that yield high returns will draw firms. This results in many new entrants,

which will effectively decrease profitability. Unless the entry of new firms can be blocked by

incumbents, the profit rate will fall towards a competitive level (perfect competition).

The existence of barriers to entry (patents, rights, etc.)

Many large firms have a lot of copyrights and patents which need to be

considered while developing a new program to avoid legal conflicts.

Economies of scale

Software development does not require a very high investment and hence it does

not pose a high barrier.

However, when large firms enter a market segment, they have better economies of

scale even than old small players.

Brand equity

Large sized firms such as Adobe, Microsoft etc have high brand equity which is

not easy to match.

Capital requirements

Software industry in not highly capital intensive which increases the threat of new

entrants

Access to distribution

Existing players have established markets as well as networks which are not easy

to penetrate for new players.

Hence, a strong distribution channel reduces the risk of new entrants.

Expected retaliation by incumbents

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Entry of a new player especially a large firm in a new segment may provoke

retaliation and result in price wars or advertisement battles etc.

Government policies

Policies and laws governing data security and cyber crimes have to be followed

while entering the market.

THE INTENSITY OF COMPETITIVE RIVALRY

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 For most industries, this is the major determinant of the competitiveness of the industry.

Sometimes rivals compete aggressively and sometimes rivals compete in non-price dimensions

such as innovation, marketing, etc.

Number of competitors

Software industry is highly competitive and there are several developers for

various kinds of software.

E-learning software are however very comprehensive and complex in nature and

do not have too many players in the market especially in the branded segment

where Adobe and Sun Microsystems are the major players.

Rate of industry growth

India has witnessed tremendous growth in the software industry (over 50% annual

growth) as well as the education industry (over 12% annual growth).

With more emphasis on rural education, e-learning can provide a crucial

breakthrough in education and hence holds immense opportunities.

Exit barriers

Software development is not very capital intensive on a small and medium scale.

Also it does not involve any heavy machinery.

Due to these factors, exit barriers are very low and players do not have too much

at stake in case of an exit decision.

Diversity of competitors

Competitors are highly diverse in terms of scale of production, brand equity and

products & services offered.

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Level of advertising expense

Software industry relies very less on media advertisement which is also the most

expensive form of advertisement. It is more dependent on creating brand name

through continuous performance, word of mouth and customer relationship

management.

Sustainable competitive advantage through improvisation

Scope for improvisation is very high in this industry. Programs can be easily

modified as per market needs and trends to get an edge over competitors.

Such a competitive advantage is however short-lived. Such modifications can be

copied easily unless patented and become outdated within months or at times even

weeks. Hence, such advantage is not sustainable.

THE BARGAINING POWER OF CUSTOMERS

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Also described as the market of outputs. The ability of customers to put the firm under pressure

and it also affects the customer's sensitivity to price changes.

Buyer concentration to firm concentration ratio

Most of the new firms come up in areas with high untapped demands.

Transportation and distribution of software is not difficult. Software can be

transported to virtually any part of the world through internet at negligible costs

and thus gives a lot of power to the buyers to bargain over prices.

Degree of dependency upon existing channels of distribution

Software can be distributed both physically on portable hardware as well as

through wire transfer.

Hence, producers have a lot of options for distribution with low degree of

dependency.

Buyer volume

High volumes are mostly involved in B2B transactions where prices can be

negotiated with high volumes.

B2C transactions usually involve very low volumes and there is not much scope

for bargaining.

Buyer switching costs

Switching costs are usually not very high except for industries handling very high

volumes of data or extremely sensitive data.

Buyer information availability

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Information regarding software is easily available over the internet and buyers are

usually well educated regarding these products.

Ability to backward integrate

Backward integration is not usually feasible in this industry since software

development requires a lot of expertise which most of the customers do not have.

Availability of existing substitute products

There are a large number of substitutes available for nearly every type of

software, both in terms of functions as well as price. Hence, it gives a lot of power

to the buyers.

Buyer price sensitivity

Price sensitivity in this industry is usually quite high. Buyers are willing to save

money while compromising on quality, features and brand name as well.

Differential advantage (uniqueness) of industry products

Products in this industry are not usually unique unless there is a phenomenal

breakthrough. Even if a unique product is available it becomes outdated quite

soon and needs to be improved continuously.

However, uniqueness is lost in a short span of time and only competitive

advantage can be maintained.

THE BARGAINING POWER OF SUPPLIERS

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Also described as market of inputs. Suppliers of raw materials, components, labour, and services

(such as expertise) to the firm can be a source of power over the firm. Suppliers may refuse to

work with the firm, or e.g. charge excessively high prices for unique resources.

Supplier switching costs

Suppliers have high switching costs since it is very difficult to create new

customers. It is instead easier to update the software and retain the old customers.

Switching to a new customer may involve modifying the entire software as per

the different needs of the new customer.

Degree of differentiation

Differentiation is usually in terms of services and warranties since every customer

usually wants only the core benefit from the products.

Presence of substitute

There are a large number of substitutes available for nearly every type of

software, both in terms of functions as well as price. Hence, it dilutes the

bargaining power of suppliers.

Cost of inputs relative to selling price of the product.

The major cost associated with software is its development cost. This is however

a onetime expense and the same software can be sold throughout the masses.

This five forces analysis is just one part of the complete Porter strategic models. The other

elements are the value chain and the generic strategies.

IMPLEMENTATION

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Activities within the launch package included:

• Message development – creating a set of key messages for each target audience 

• Key words – identifying and applying key words for verbal, written and website/SEO use 

• Web site audit/advice & rewriting home page - to support SEO terms and launch 

• Analyst & media relations – proactively outreach to over a 100 targets, arranging interviews 

• Creation and distribution of launch press release and press kit

RESULT

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iVLE was launched in June, 2009 and was reported extensively, including media outlets that

reach straight to the heart of iVLEs potential customer base: the Universities in India. As a result,

it gained popularity among these universities and was installed in 11 of them by July.

As a direct result of the PR launch, high-profile potential customers for iVLE contacted iDes

Solutions to find out more and arrange meetings.

Results have included:

• Six major customer opportunities

• Enthusiastic response from leading industry analysts

“The market response owes much to the strength of their team who ensured that it gets the

widespread and – most importantly, positive – visibility that it deserves.”

The success of iVLE has helped iDes to make a respectable and impressive foray into the Indian

Software market with an aim of grabbing the maximum market share over the minimum time

possible. Although, there is stiff competition as big market players like Infosys, Microsoft, IBM

already exist, iDes already has its work cut out as it would primarily be focusing on unventured

markets of India and South Asian Countries, which thus provides it with a justification of setting

up centre’s in India and the Sub-Continent.

Concludingly, iDes has taken an irreversible step in the form of launching its iVLE into the

Indian markets which considerably and adverently involves a certain risk but the risk is worth

taking and iDes has nothing to lose. With a solid managerial back up environment and full proff

planning before every managerial venture, the path forward is the only path for iDes Solutions.

REFERENCES

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1. The Competitive Advantage of Nations, 1990, page 97-100

2. Competitive Strategy: Techniques for Analyzing Industries and Competitors, 1980

Competitive Advantage: Creating and Sustaining Superior Performance, 1985

3. Karrer, T (2006) what is eLearning2.0?

(http://elearningtech.blogspot.com/2006/02/what-is-elearning-20.htm)

4. Karrer, T (2007) Understanding eLearning 2.0

(http://www.learningcircuits.org/2007/0707karrer.html)

5. Nichols, M. (2008). E-Learning in context.

(http://akoaotearoa.ac.nz/sites/default/files/ng/group-661/n877-1---e-learning-in-

context.pdf)

6. EC (2000). Communication from the Commission: E-Learning - Designing "Tejas at

Niit" tomorrow’s education. Brussels: European Commission

7. Nagy, A. (2005). The Impact of E-Learning, in: Bruck, P.A.; Buchholz, A.; Karssen, Z.;

Zerfass, A. (Eds). E-Content: Technologies and Perspectives for the European Market.

Berlin: Springer-Verlag, pp.79-90

8. http://www.idessolutions.com

9. iDes Company Annual Reports (2007-2008)

10. iDes Market Analysis Report 2007

11. iVLE Brand Awareness Promotion Campaign Brochure

12. Marketing Management , Reading material , Fore School Of management , Faculty: Dr

Jayant Bose.

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