OCC Noida August Edition : Event Summary

I participated in August edition of OCC Noida today.The event was again full of good discussions and knowledge sharing. I am covering few major points which were discussed there:

1. Project Management & Documentation : A lot of startups focus energies on doing real-stuff i.e. development, testing etc. but tend to forget important supporting functions like time-management, documentation etc. For any startup ( and especially in services arena) tighter project management is very much required. This helps in delivering the output in desired time-frame. Also during planning a project all of us should keep some buffers to take care of unforeseen situations. Even big companies go wrong in estimating the project time-frame and add some buffer beforehand to take care of any externalities. As soon as startup initiate few projects, they should look for structuring it well. A lot of processes like Coding Guidelines, Document Management etc. should be followed from very beginning for reference and re-usability. Document Management helps a lot when any transition happens within organization.

2. Open Sourcing IP Components : For any startup getting visibility at "low or no cost" approach should be followed. Packaging existing open-source IP's helps you to get visibility. For online businesses the usability of such small things is too high. Also from company's side there is not much work to be done. All startups should try to leverage such sources to get visibility and business. A lot of times people who use and benefit from IP components refer to others too.

3. Monetizing Online Business : A lot of online businesses attract significant traffic, but is there any way to monetize it well? Almost all people felt that currently a lot of Indian users don't click on online AD's hence not benefiting online businesses. Also the placement of advertisement makes significant difference. While putting any Ad campaign, businesses should try to use relevant keywords rather than generic terms. Also strategic advertisements should not be looked as something creating negative impression.

4. How does Google Page-Rank helps in monetization : Some people felt that Google Rank helps in better monetization and one should initiate an Ad campaign only after getting good Google Page-rank. But this assumption was challenged by others. People felt that at the end of day, most end-users care about services. They are not much concerned about such rankings. How many times you have seen Google Page-rank for makemytrip or IRCTC website. The most important thing is the convenience user is deriving out of using online businesses. So, one should be much concerned about service offerings rather than Google Page-rank. Even little things like end-user voting would add more value and help end-users in making a judgment about your offerings.