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Indian SMEs Boost Business in Bahrain

Over the years, Bahrain has maintained a steady economic growth prompting several foreign investors to explore its business environment. Bahrain’s free economy status in the Gulf region and a diversified industrial landscape are factors responsible for its attractiveness as a destination for large-scale investments. In recent times, a growing number of Indian SMEs are entering the Bahraini market to capitalise on the opportunities available for growth.

India’s total trade with Bahrain has increased substantially in the past few years. Notably, total trade between the two countries stood at around $1,081 million in 2007-08. India has been a major exporter of textile, fruits, machinery, iron and steel, paper, rubber and leather products to Bahrain. Alternately, Bahrain has exported oil, chemicals, pharmaceuticals, base metals, iron and plastic products to India.

Bahrain’s liberal tax structure that exempts all companies, except those in the oil and gas sector, from paying corporate taxes is the biggest draw for most foreign investment companies. In addition, Bahrain offers access to a highly skilled workforce, which makes it more lucrative for trade and Investment Guide .

Sectors of growth

Market analysts believe that Indian SMEs should target growth in sectors such as logistics, IT, automotive engineering, education and tourism in Bahrain. They further opine that Indian telecom SMEs should set up centres in Bahrain to maximise their return on investment (RoI).

Bahrain’s Information and Communication Technology (ICT) industry is another potential segment for growth. The sector is expected to touch $375 billion by 2010 and is expected to grow at a robust pace in the next 5 years. Indian ICT SMEs can, therefore, grab a considerable market share by addressing the increasing demand for innovative IT products and services in Bahrain.

Indian SMEs in the finance sector should also tap the potential that exists in Bahrain’s financial markets. Mutual funds, asset management and private banking are some of the most promising segments.

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How to Choose Time Tracking Software

Time billing software is a critical investment if you bill for your time or need to keep track of how time is spent, but you have to make sure that you get the right software. Several things are especially important when choosing a time and billing package:

• The time and billing software must be easy to use so that it doesn’t «get in the way.» If a time billing program is cumbersome, you’ll end up not bothering to track small periods of billable time. Those minutes add up, and make a big difference in your bottom line. Avoid a big, bloated software package which is slowed down by features that you’ll never use.
• If you’re like most people, you often bounce back and forth between different tasks. Time billing software must handle this well. Time Logger accommodates this «ping-ponging» with several elegant methods for tracking your back and forth workday.  To see how these work, download the Time Logger demo, and check out the F1 help topic «Ping-Ponging.»
• At some point, you’ll find that you want to share or analyze your time and billing data with other applications. Therefore the time and billing application should use a standard database format (such as Microsoft Access), and also make it easy to import and export the information, or copy it to a spreadsheet.  Responsive Time Logger has a flexible import and export feature, keeps all of its data in clearly documented Microsoft Access files, and lets you copy and paste time records to Microsoft Excel.
• The time and billing package should have a variety of those little features that make a big difference in your productivity. Time Logger has many user-requested enhancements that make it a pleasure to work with. For example, an optional scrunched up stopwatch that doesn’t use up much screen space, up to four simultaneous stopwatches, draggable clock hands and shortcuts for entering time, and fully customizable toolbars.
• Remote access via a Palm device or laptop lets you track your time when you are away from your desk.  With Responsive Time Logger’s free Palm interface, you can track your time wherever you are, and HotSync the data back to your main database for billing or analysis.  And Time Logger has multiple ways of sharing data between different machines.
• Finally, the application should have a functional demo that lets you make sure that it is compatible with the way you work. A 30-day money-back guarantee is also a nice feature to make sure that your purchase is 100% risk-free.  You can download the Time Logger demo quickly without filling out any forms.  If it doesn’t meet your needs, it can be simply and safely uninstalled.  Even if you purchase it, but wish to return it within 30 days for any reason, you’ll get a full refund.

At Responsive Software, we’re confident that after you give Responsive Time Logger a test drive, that you’ll choose it as your time and billing software.

Indian Importers and Exporters Promote Small Scale Industries!

Major contributor to country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is Small scale and cottage industries. The products produced by small scale and cottage industries can be found in variety. Hand woven sarees, textiles, sweaters and hand made incense stick, bibelots, socks, bangles, decorative items and a range of other products are manufactured at the small scale and cottage industries. These products which are hand made are quite popular world wide. Indian importers and exporters are sought after by companies world wide for their beautiful hand made items. The capital resources invested on plant and machinery buildings have been the primary criteria to differentiate the small-scale industries from the large and medium scale industries. A higher percentage of villagers and lesser educated strata of the society depends on these cottage industries for their livelihood. An industrial unit can be categorized as a small- scale unit if it fulfils the capital investment limit fixed by the Government of India for the small-scale sector.

Any information on artisans or craftsmen can be found online. Indian exporter acts as a medium between the customers and the craftsmen. They help showcase the Indian craftsmen’s talent. Their products are on sale online and one can reach out for such items through online directories. Find online buyers and sellers for a volley of products ranging from accessories to automobiles, Gems to jewelry, apparel to machinery etc.

These artisans have immense talent and needs to be explored. Government of India realised this need and in order to encourage them they have issued grants. It is these grants that have helped in setting up more and more cottage industries which have catered to solve unemployment in the developing countries. The traditional units are highly labor consuming with their age-old machineries and conventional techniques of production resulting in poor productivity rate. Indian government has to address this issue as well. More such grants need to be provided in order to improve their machinery and train them about modern equipments too.

Most of them have become self employed and earning their own livelihood. It is the duty of Indian citizens to encourage such artisans and buy products made by them. This way you can promote such talent and avoid the death of such craftsmanship. Indian exporters are also safeguarding their interests and promoting such products in the online directory. Reaching out to talented craftsmen’s piece of art has been made much easier with the export import Indian directories.

Information Technology Services In Pakistan

The IT revolution can still change the destiny of Pakistan, but will require a readjustment of the sights. This readjustment will require her to work with what she has, and not what she currently doesn’t!

Pakistan has been unable to produce software developers in increasing numbers, but does possess skilled workers in reasonable numbers in other fields that can provide services to clients all over the developed world through the Internet. These services range from data entry to telemarketing to insurance claims processing to payroll management to computer-aided designing to financial analysis and forecasting.

Pakistan’s doctors can be employed for medical data analysis; lawyers can provide legal advice over the Web; graphic designers can produce animations. The possibilities are numerous and the opportunities lucrative. The Internal Rate of Return (IRR) and Net Present Value (NPV) numbers for many of these opportunities are similar to those for the software export business.

As an example, look at the function of an insurance claims processing company. Say an automobile accident takes place in New York City. The claimant fills a paper form describing the incident and providing his particulars and submits the form to the insurance company’s office in New York. The company scans the form and sends it to the offshore company in Lahore, Pakistan. That form will be automatically routed to the computer terminal of a claims examiner. The examiner goes through the form and (using some simple business rules) determines the validity of the claim and sends his decision to the insurance company in New York. End result: the New York-based company saves 50 per cent of the processing cost!

The customers for such IT-Enabled Services (ITES) are looking for more than one benefit: on the one hand, they want to achieve cost reductions of around 50 per cent, and on the other, they want an improvement in the current level of their services. By outsourcing the non-critical tasks, they also want to focus all their energies on the processes that form the core of their businesses.

Canada is the easiest market to get ITES work from, as it has the highest percentage of businesses that use outsourcing services. Number two on the list is Australia, followed by the US. A higher percentage of companies in the energy sector outsource, followed by the financial services and then, technology companies.

Companies that outsource look for service level guarantees, a proven track record and specialization in the business process of interest from the providers. Many outsourcing relationships fail because of organizational resistance in the client company, unclear performance metrics, or the client’s loss of control over the outsourced business process.

The primary advantage that Pakistan’s ITES businesses enjoy is the relatively low cost of labor. Secondary advantages are zero corporate taxes and low-cost infrastructure. The time zone difference between Pakistan and the US can also be an advantage in certain ITES businesses.

The key challenges that an ITES entrepreneur faces is marketing the service that he or she is striving to provide and ensuring the confidentiality and security of the client’s data. Another challenge is ensuring the quality of the service that can only be achieved by having a clear and continuous organizational focus on the training of the service providers.

Pakistan-based ITES businesses face three types of competitors. The most significant competition comes from prospective clients carrying out the non-core tasks themselves. However, if clients focus on non-core tasks, they suffer from higher costs and lower efficiencies. Hence, they can be enticed by offering high-quality service at a lower, fixed cost.

The second type of competition comes from developed-countries-based outsourcing operators. They run very efficient businesses but are hampered by higher labor costs. The final type of competition comes from outsourcing operators based in low-labor-cost countries like India and Philippines. Pakistan-based ITES businesses don’t really have any advantage over them, but can ignore that competition for now as the demand clearly exceeds the supply.

In summary, ITES is Pakistan’s irresistible value proposition because of the availability of the trained human resource in reasonable numbers. Moreover, increasing the size of this human resource is easier as compared with what is required for software development.

ITES is a lucrative opportunity for forward-looking entrepreneurs. While selecting an ITES sector, they should look for human resource-intensive business processes in which the difference in the cost of labor between Pakistan and the target market is the largest. They should focus on utilizing their existing strengths and should also try to develop contacts with Pakistan-origin expatriates for marketing purposes. To achieve long-term success, they should look for value-adding partnerships with international companies and focus on organizational excellence and customer satisfaction.

The US economy as a whole is depressed, resulting in squeezed revenues for almost all companies. To meet their profitability targets, most companies have no option but to cut costs. Pakistan’s companies can benefit from this situation by offering IT enabled services and software development services at attractive rates. These should be the best of times for Pakistan’s companies.

The economic downturn in the US is an opportunity for Pakistan’s ITES and software development companies, not a setback!