FSD Solutions | IT Staffing | Website Design and Development

January 13, 2010

Every second Wednesday of the month, we deliver newsletter that contains at least three sections including a case study, a new trend in the industry and a quote. We hope you enjoy and learn. If you have any feedback, feel free to reply to this email, submit a contact us form or contact your point person at FSD Solutions. For past newsletters, you can visit our website at www.fsdsolutions.com.

Case Study - Concerns Surrounding Outsourcing

Problem: In early 2008, a California based web development firm, DigiCal, Inc. approached FSD Solutions with several problems they were experiencing. Having been in the business for over a decade, they felt they had reached their peak and were not experiencing significant growth. This brought them to their other concern, which was finding a way to increase clientele, without sacrificing productivity or increasing costs typically associated with hiring new employees and upgrading infrastructure. It was evident that outsourcing was the way to go. However, with having several experiences in the past that ended negatively the company was a little hesitant with giving this approach another try.

Consequences: With offshore outsourcing being the norm of today's IT industry, the market has become quite saturated, and the firm had a tough time finding a company that made them feel like they were right down the road from them. The firm had come across several issues:

Timings- how well will you be able to accommodate our business hours and the hours of our core clients?
English- are your employees fluent in English? Can they speak and comprehend English with minimum to no accent, not to mention have a good understanding of the American culture?
Communications- are you readily available to speak on the phone several times throughout the day as emails and messengers alone are not sufficient?
Infrastructure- will I face typical roadblocks with offshore outsourcing such as power outages, high network down times, etc?

Solution: FSD clearly understood the concerns that were brought up by DigiCal on their past experiences. We understand the market is saturated and in order to stay competitive we need to accommodate our clients to the fullest. Our goal is not to be "just another" outsourcing company that provides "cheap rates" but to go beyond by creating a satisfying experience through providing competitive amenities to our clients. It is this reason why we provide them with a nearly 24-hour development center with backup infrastructure; we employ a diverse group of individuals with firsthand experiences in the U.S, European and Middle Eastern markets and not to mention live phone support throughout the day. We strive to make the "outsourcing" transition as transparent as possible, to make our clients feel at home.

Approaching the one year mark since the formation of the partnership, DigiCal has not only been able to increase its number of clients and project load, but do it all while keeping expenses minimal. More importantly, however, FSD Solutions has been able to provide a sense of security and peace of mind which was DigiCal's utmost concern.

"We've been using FSD Solutions for 1 year and we've been very lucky to find a great company like FSD Solutions. FSD has been very dependable and never misses a deadline. They always get the job done - even if it requires more work beyond the budgeted hours and cost. If our clients are not happy, they make sure the client is happy 100% and will do what it takes to get the job done. FSD always find the resources to make sure the project is 100% acceptable by our clients. We highly recommend FSD."

Ross M. Gile
President - DigiCal, Inc.

New Trend in the Industry - Web 3.0

This month, we chose Web 3.0 trend that are expected to grow further in 2010.

As we all know the internet is constantly evolving. Looking back at first generation internet sites, we find they primarily served to network people through providing static content. However, with the rise of websites such as facebook, youtube and wikipedia the web 2.0 generation was launched which allowed for increased networking and interactivity through content provided primarily by the users. The rapid popularity of blogging, tagging, social networking and social bookmarking has paved for another generation of the internet, web 3.0.

So the question is "what is web 3.0?" Its focus is to create a more intelligent or "semantic" web. Many of these experts believe that the Web 3.0 browser will act like a personal assistant. Wouldn't it be neat to type in a single sentence such as, "I want to see a funny movie and then eat at a good Mexican restaurant, what are my options?" the next time you are planning a night out and have the internet retrieve everything like your personal assistance? Once your computer begins to understand what a person, place or event is and the relationship between them, it can better help you interact with those things- which is the goal of the new generation.

Another way the "semantic web" will be useful is to power search engine results with far more accuracy. The current setup requires search engine to rely on keywords and tags to retrieve websites, however, the more intelligent approach would be if it could also understand and interpret a website, just like me and you. This would lead to a much more personalized information retrieval system.

Quote of the Month

"The toughest thing about success is that you've got to keep on being a success." - Irving Berlin

If you have any feedback, feel free to reply to this email, submit a contact us form or contact your point person at FSD Solutions. For past newsletters, you can visit our website at www.fsdsolutions.com.