TheMaxWorld

My World Cup XI

2023-01-01T19:05:00.005+05:30

It's two weeks now. All clubs are back in action. But the World Cup hangover is yet to be over. It was an incredible month of ‘Football’ and with a fitting finale. While we are getting used to week-on-week club football again, here is my World Cup 2022 XI. I am sure that you would have different choices for one or several positions. Share the same in comments with your own analysis.

Formation: 4-3-3

Goalkeeper: I liked Yassine Bounou (Morocco) and Dominik Livakovic (Croatia), especially Bounou whose excellent performances took Morocco to the semi-final as the first African team. But I have tentatively chosen Emiliano Martinez from Argentina. Martinez was reliable throughout the campaign - with special performances in quarter final and final tie-breakers. And, yes - his saves in the dying moments against Australia (in the second round) and France in the final were so crucial.

Defenders: For the first center back position, I opted for 20 years old Croatian defender Josko Gvardiol. For the second one, I am going with Cristian Romero over Otamendi from Argentina. Otamendi played really well throughout the tournament - sometimes beyond expectation. But Romero indeed impressed with his aggression, reading of the game and excellent positioning. So, I am going to pair Romero with Gvardiol at the heart of defense. Honorable mention: Varane from France. This year the French defense was not as good as their forwards, but Varane led a make-shift defense and took them to the final.

For the right back, it will be Achraf Hakimi from Morocco. Well known in European football, but he inspired the great Morocco team to take it to a new level. For the left back, it was a bit tougher with not many outstanding performers who can walk to this side. But I opted for the French left back Theo Hernández who came into the France line-up as replacement of his brother and then performed seamlessly well.

Midfielders: At the base of my three man midfield setup, I have ‘Young Player’ of the tournament Enzo Fernández from Argentina. It's incredible how far this young player has come in the last 6 months or so. Enzo made his national team debut in September 2022 and was taken to Qatar as a squad player. But he stepped up when the team needed to refresh the midfield formation in the context of some injury (Giovani Lo Celso) and off form (Leandro Paredes). Enzo was introduced in the second must-win match against Mexico as a substitute and then started all remaining five matches.

On the right side, I have the ever reliable Luka Modric. Modric was excellent again in this edition, after his golden ball winning performance in 2018. On the other side, I had several options to consider: Antoine Griezmann (France), Alexis Mac Allister (Argentina), Bruno Fernandez (Portugal), Cody Gakpo (Netherlands), Neymar (Brazil). But I have opted for Azzedine Ounahi from Morocco. This no.8 was really impressive and I won't be surprised if he gets a big move in this 6 months.

Forwards: For attacking half, I have GOAT Messi on the right side with Kylian Mbappé on left. Quite easy choices. But this also means that I need a more dynamic striker through the middle to press relentlessly. Apart from scoring goals Álvarez did this part so great for Argentina. So I take Álvarez over reliable scorer Olivier Giroud. That completes my best XI from the World Cup 2022.

Coach: To coach this side, I will go for Lionel Scaloni. Zlatko Dalic was very close as well. I considered Walid Regragui but did not go for him as he might struggle to manage this XI full of superstars. Also, I need someone who can get the best out of Messi and Mbappe at the top. So, Scaloni gets the call. Dalic of-course has experience of managing stars like Modric and consistency over multiple World Cups. Close call indeed.

Best XI: Emiliano Martinez (Argentina), Cristian Romero (Argentina), Josko Gvardiol (Croatia), Achraf Hakimi (Morocco), Theo Hernández (France), Enzo Fernández (Argentina), Azzedine Ounahi (Morocco), Luka Modric (Croatia), Lionel Messi (Argentina), Kylian Mbappé (France), Julián Álvarez (Argentina)

Subs: Yassine Bounou (Morocco), Raphaël Varane (France), Marcelo Brozovic (Croatia), Antoine Griezmann (France), Alexis Mac Allister (Argentina), Hakim Ziyech (Morocco), Olivier Giroud (France)

Coach: Lionel Scaloni/ Zlatko Dalic

And, here is the XI compiled by my 8 years old:

Best XI: Yassine Bounou (Morocco), Cristian Romero (Argentina), Raphaël Varane (France), Achraf Hakimi (Morocco), Joao Cancelo (Portugal), Enzo Fernández (Argentina), Bernardo Silva (Portugal), Luka Modric (Croatia), Lionel Messi (Argentina), Kylian Mbappé (France), Harry Kane (England)

Subs: Jordan Pickford (England), Luke Shaw (England), Aurélien Tchouaméni (France), Marcelo Brozovic (Croatia), Antoine Griezmann (France), Hakim Ziyech (Morocco), Olivier Giroud (France)

Coach: Lionel Scaloni (Argentina)

Einstein 101 - Salesforce AI Demystified

2019-01-27T13:32:00.002+05:30

Fourth Industrial Revolution is here! And, thanks to Industry 4.0 (also known as 4IR) we are experiencing a smarter and connected world than ever before. Going beyond the industry jargon: we have seen how computer and internet with technology advancement had changed our life in past decades. This digital revolution is now taken to next level with AI, Robotics, Blockchain, Quantum computing, IOT, 3D printing, Autonomous vehicles, Virtual reality and so on. As consumer our day to day experience is upgraded and taken to another level.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) are key cogs in this revolution. Your personal phone assistant (Siri on iOS, Google assistant on Android, Alexa), effective recommendations from your shopping apps or video streaming apps, GPS navigation to check best available route, Gmail smart composer and on. We have been using AI in our daily life knowingly or unknowingly for quite some time now.

While for consumers its the best ever experience, its not so easy for businesses. As consumers are expecting smarter, unified, connected experiences, businesses need to step up to power their processes with latest technology advancement including AI. And, implementation of AI is always complex and time consuming. Beginning with identification of right business use case to collecting & preparing appropriate data sets, examining data to create patterns & correlations, model generation & testing, computing power, appropriate skills - it takes quite an investment of money and time. Its get huge when a given business has multiple use cases and this investment is to be multiplied by n times.

Here comes Salesforce Einstein - the AI offering from Salesforce.com ecosystem. Salesforce AI focuses specifically around customer experience related scenarios so that businesses can have smarter business applications easily and faster.

Salesforce Einstein offers ready-to-use AI capabilities as extension to the Salesforce SaaS clouds. On-demand capabilities are built into the proven Salesforce Lightning platform. This leverages data from existing Salesforce ecosystem to spot correlations & patterns and combines seamlessly with other platform capabilities such as process builder, flows, workflow rules etc. Based on the given business problem, external data sets can also be used.

In the background, Salesforce deploys an automated machine learning framework which takes care of all necessary steps such as data enrichment, feature engineering, model selection, score calibration, training and develops unique predictive model for each Einstein customer. With this automation, customers don't necessarily need deep data science skill anymore to implement AI in respective businesses. Thanks to Salesforce Einstein - AI is for everyone!

Salesforce started this journey years back. But it achieved the breakthrough with acquisition of RelateIQ (a Sales automation company, now offered as SalesforceIQ) in 2014. More internal research & development and acquisition were followed. This included Tempo AI (Smart calendar assistant) in 2015, PredictionIO (machine learning startup), MetaMind (Palo Alto-based AI Company), BeyondCore, and Implisit Insights (Tel Aviv-based AI company) in 2016. It's in 2016 Dreamforce, Salesforce launched Salesforce Einstein, the AI offering from Salesforce.com. And, evolution through internal research and acquisition continued - with each release, we have better, easier, richer Salesforce Einstein capabilities.

Salesforce Einstein capabilities can be categorized into four high level groups.

Out of box Einstein Apps (Sales cloud einstein, Commerce cloud einstein)
myEinstein - Point and Click
myEinstein - API services
PredictionIO based custom model

Salesforce Einstein offering at a glance

Out-of-the-Box Apps

Built-in intelligent features with each Salesforce SaaS cloud covers most common AI use cases for respective business areas. Driven by the automated machine learning framework, these features are offered as out-of-the-box apps.

Sales Cloud Einstein - Features include: Einstein Lead & Opportunity scoring (to prioritize the most likely ones to convert), Einstein Account & Opportunity insights (to observe key developments on the accounts & opportunities), Einstein Forecasting, Einstein Activity capture & Einstein Automated contacts (to capture data and add new contacts automatically), Einstein Recommended connections (to retrieve insights about team’s network to identify who knows the customers and can help out on a deal). This app needs additional license fees (per user per month).

Service Cloud Einstein - Einstein Bots, Einstein Case Classification features are part of this app. And, more features are on the way. At this time Service Cloud Einstein is included with live agent chat feature license or unlimited edition licenses.

Marketing Cloud Einstein - Offered at additional license fees (subject to specific capabilities). Features include - Einstein Social Insights (analyze social conversations to get deeper insights about customers), Einstein Recommendations (suggest the next best product, content or offer), Einstein Engagement Scoring (predict customer's likelihood to engage with emails or convert on the web), Einstein Splits (send customers to right journey builder path based on engagement score or persona), Einstein Segmentation (From Salesforce DMP - Data Management Platform), Einstein Journey Insights (From Salesforce DMP), Einstein Vision for Social Studio (gather insights from customer's images on the social web), Einstein Lookalikes(From Salesforce DMP) etc.

Commerce Cloud Einstein - Features include: Einstein Product Recommendations (setup personalized recommendations for each shopper), Einstein Search Recommendations (personalized type-ahead search), Einstein Predictive Sort (tailored product sorts based on customer data), Einstein Commerce Insights (to transform customer data into actionable merchandising insights). Included with commerce cloud license.

Community Cloud Einstein - Einstein Recommendations (serves the most relevant and tailored content), Einstein Experts (to find certified experts on the topics that matter most to them), Einstein Feed Insights (to display the most interesting discussions intelligently), Einstein Feed Search. Licenses are included with Community cloud.

myEinstein - Point and Click

More than 80% of the records in Salesforce are on custom objects. And, every business has a different problem to address. Hence, Einstein allows to create customized AI model on any Salesforce object or field to predict business outcomes. There are several capabilities in this group and few are yet not available generally. But at the core, Salesforce Einstein offers automated machine learning framework which creates customer specific models; these models are self-learning and improve the more they are used.

Prediction Builder (beta) - Custom AI model for the given business scenario. Step-by-step wizard to configure prediction model through point-and-click. This supports Binary classification (meaning answers business problem in Yes or No) and Regression (answers business problem in numeric fields). The predicted outcomes can be stored in appropriate custom fields and can drive other platform based actions/automation.

Einstein Next Best Action (pilot) - Combines platform capabilities such as Recommendation object, Strategy builder, Flows with predictive models and provides optimal intelligent recommendations at the point of maximum impact. The given predictive models can be designed using Salesforce and non-Salesforce data. This feature can be used with or without AI capability.

Einstein Bots - Both standard and AI powered chat-bots are supported by Salesforce. Intelligent chat-bots leverage Natural Language Understanding (NLU). NLU trains chat-bots to create a learning model.

Einstein Voice (pilot) - New kid in the block. At this time, the Voice capabilities are offered in two folds: Einstein Voice Assistant (for employees) and Einstein Voice Bots (for customers). Einstein Voice leverages Automatic Speech Recognition (ASR) and NLU technologies in the background.
Audio frames are converted into sequences of text by ASR model and then, NLU model works on these unstructured data inputs to convert them into machine friendly structured form. Intents and entities are identified and mapped to appropriate Salesforce actions.

Einstein Discovery - This analytics cloud feature helps to find important correlations and make accurate predictions based on Einstein Analytics datasets. This feature can run on organization wide data (Salesforce as well as non-Salesforce) - including encrypted information to answer critical questions - such as What happened, Why, Predictions & Improvements, in context of the given business problem.

myEinstein - API Services

In addition to out-of-the-box app features and point-and-click platform features, API services are available for developers to create and train their own custom model and use the same as 'service' to predict relevant business outcomes. With APIs, these prediction services can be made available for business applications as easily as any other service.

Salesforce Einstein platform offers the following types of API services at this time:

Einstein Vision - Image classification and Object detection
Einstein Language - Intent and Sentiment analysis

At high level this group of Einstein features work in the following steps:

0) Prerequisite - Registration of Einstein Platform services, Download key file (.pem), Token generation

1) Define/create label/classes - This is the first step for any AI implementation with platform services. Identify the problem business needs to address and accordingly define appropriate label/classes. For example, (in context of Intent API services) we can create labels like sales, information, complaint for analyzing the incoming tweets from end customers.

2) Gather relevant data, prepare/cleanse, and upload dataset - In the next step, appropriate dataset need to be identified which can be used to spot correlations and patterns. This identified dataset to be cleansed as appropriate and uploaded to the Einstein platform using 'upload' api (…/vision/datasets/upload).

curl -X POST -H "Authorization: Bearer <token>" -H "Cache-Control: no-cache" -H "Content-Type: multipart/form-data" -F "data=@<zip file path>" -F "name=mercedesvsbmw" -F "type=image" https://api.einstein.ai/v2/vision/datasets/upload

This API can be consumed as REST service from apex or any other programming constructs.

3) Train the model - Once dataset is successfully uploaded, this is used to train the given predictive model. API (…/vision/train) is used to train the model/engine.

curl -X POST -H "Authorization: Bearer <token>" -H "Cache-Control: no-cache" -H "Content-Type: multipart/form-data" -F "name=mercedesvsbmw" -F "datasetId=<dataset id>" https://api.einstein.ai/v2/vision/train

Training is very important in the whole scheme and better & relevant data used in the training - better the predicted outcome is.

4) Make prediction - Once the model is trained successfully, it is ready for use to make prediction based on specific inputs. Once again, developers can use API service to request for prediction (…/vision/predict).

curl -X POST -H "Authorization: Bearer <token>" -H "Cache-Control: no-cache" -H "Content-Type: multipart/form-data" -F "sampleContent=@<image path>" -F "modelId=<model id from last step>" https://api.einstein.ai/v2/vision/predict

5) Feedback, Retrain, and Improve - Once the service is deployed and in use, the predicted outcomes can be assessed, corrected/enriched (as needed) and feed into the model through retrain/feedback API (…/vision/feedback).

curl -X POST -H "Authorization: Bearer <token>" -H "Cache-Control: no-cache" -H "Content-Type: multipart/form-data" -F "modelId=<model id>" -F "trainParams={\"withFeedback\" : true}" https://api.einstein.ai/v2/vision/retrain

This allows the model to improve its performance over the time.

PredictionIO based Custom Model

This fourth variation is not directly part of the Salesforce Einstein pack. This is more of custom AI implementation with or without Salesforce platform. This is useful if business needs to implement custom prediction model, custom algorithm, combination of more than one algorithms and customization in all elements. In this, the custom AI model is deployed using PredictionIO framework.

Apache PredictionIO® is an open source Machine Learning Server. PredictionIO's Event Server continuously collects data from different application(s). It can also unify data coming from multiple platforms. The PredictionIO engine then builds predictive model(s) with one or more algorithms using the data. Once deployed as a web service, it listens to queries and respond with predicted results in real-time.

PredictionIO template gallery offers number of engine templates which can fast track the implementation. Templates consist of D-A-S-E components ([D] Data Source and Data Preparator, [A] Algorithm, [S] Serving, [E] Evaluation Metrics) and are fully customizable for given use cases.

What next

Einstein has emerged as the key and focused offering from Salesforce.com stack for obvious reasons. This offers AI capabilities in an integrated and user-friendly manner. As next steps:

Visit the web sessions and demos at our YouTube channel. (Coming soon!!!)

Earn some badges (includes hands-on) on Trailhead.

Explore Salesforce Einstein documentation

Cloud Computing 101

2018-12-04T10:43:00.002+05:30

Characteristics

Key characteristics of Cloud Computing:
1) On demand
2) Self service enabled
3) Shared resources
4) Pay per use

Service models

There are three different service models in context of cloud computing:

Software as a Service (SaaS)
Consumers use application form service provider running on a cloud infrastructure; all aspects (including infrastructure and application features) are owned and managed by the provider except consumer specific setup/configurations.

Platform as a Service (PaaS)
Service provider owns & manages cloud infrastructure with predefined set of software (e.g. operating system, programming language execution environment, database, web server, libraries, tools etc.) and consumers can build & deploy their applications on the same.

Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS)
Service providers are responsible for providing cloud infrastructure with processing, storage, networks etc. and consumers can use the provisioned resources the way they want to. Consumers can have their choice of operating system, service variant, applications developed in their choice of language and so on.

Deployment models

Cloud computing has four commonly used deployment models as noted below:

Public cloud (Cloud infrastructure is owned & managed by the service provider and available for open use by general public)
Private cloud (Cloud infrastructure is exclusively meant for single organization with multiple business units)
Community cloud (Cloud infrastructure for specific type of consumers with shared concerns such as government sector, security requirements etc.) and
Hybrid cloud (Cloud infrastructure which is composition of two or more above mentioned deployment models)

A Nation which lost Compassion

2018-05-01T16:29:00.000+05:30

Yesterday on radio I heard about a student who drove on his bike from Bangalore to Jammu to spread awareness on Women Safety. After the Kathua rape, he made this plan so that he can create awareness on how women in our country are unsafe.

For a moment I was not sure how to react on this, are these the ways to create awareness but then the very next moment the only thought that came to my mind was whatever way is being adopted to create awareness, concern is bigger than the way ; “Women are Unsafe”.

It’s not that this is something which has started happening in India now, since ages women never had their place defined. Rapes and violence against woman was happening a lot earlier also and majority of these were actually happening in their own homes. Women were never allowed to speak against those. But today the cases are coming more out in open because now we are aware to talk about the same. Some people have now started believing that if a woman or a girl is raped its not her fault. I hope everyone understands this fact sooner.

First time i saw the country rise was after 16 December 2013, the Nirbhaya case. But what actually led to that, a girl was raped by goons but what we as a country did to that girl. People passed by even after looking at almost naked girl because they didn't wanted to get into any legal implications. You never know might be that delay in reaching hospital made her lose her life. After years of that, today when the girl’s mother is being felicitated in an function to honour woman, Ex DGP makes a comment which made us cringe ; "I see Nirbhaya's mother, she has such a good physique. I can just imagine how beautiful Nirbhaya would have been," When asked him to comment safety tips he commented "If you are overpowered, you should surrender, and follow up the case later. That way we can be safe, save life, prevent being killed,"

After hearing this I am actually not sure where we are going as a nation who has police officers like this.

Recent case of a small girl of 8 years who was raped and killed because she belonged to a certain tribe was even more appalling. What can make a man rape a 8 year old child. Yes people she is not even a grown up girl, she is just a small child. She was raped for 7 days by 7 men, one old enough to be her grandfather. The background came as people of one particular community didn't want a nomadic tribe to visit the specific area anywhere in future so they planned this crime. Even worst thing which happened after this incident was that when accused were arrested there were protests on the roads of Kathua which demanded release of the accused and the protest was carried out by hundreds of WOMEN and even ministers of the leading party.

If in a country where women can not stand for a small girl child, where ruling party supports accused rather than victims, I don’t know where we will go as a NATION.

People say that the dress of the girl is luring boys, if a girl talks more with boys she is giving an indication that she is available, she is going out to party in night then obviously she is available. Boys are boys, they will make mistakes.

Its high time we start educating our boys rather than girls so that these MISTAKES are not repeated.

SFDC 101 - Common Questions when Starting with Salesforce

2018-04-16T02:45:00.001+05:30

For somebody new in cloud world, Salesforce.com represents quite a paradigm shift. This results into many formal and informal questions in exploring mind. Here are some common questions you may like to be addressed at your first date with Salesforce.com.

Q: What is Salesforce.com all about?
Salesforce.com (SFDC) is a cloud based software platform, most commonly known for it's CRM (Customer Relationship Management) off-the-shelf offerings like sales automation, customer service, marketing automation etc. Around 20% of CRM implementation involves Salesforce.com platform.

But Salesforce.com platform is much more than just CRM. With wide range of capabilities offered by Salesforce.com, we can implement almost all kinds of applications addressing diverse business needs. These include custom business applications, web applications, website & portals, collaboration apps, e-commerce apps, machine learning & AI driven apps, analytics apps, and so on.

Salesforce.com based solutions can be integrated with external systems through industry standard protocols (like SOAP API, REST API, Web Services). Also, applications are enabled for mobile/tablet devices through Salesforce1 app.

More on Salesforce as company and Salesforce.com platform overview are at this link.

Q: Is Salesforce.com a new technology or platform or programming language?

Salesforce.com is essentially a platform built & offered by a software giant named Salesforce (4th largest software company). This platform supports out-of-the-box capabilities (already developed by Salesforce) as well as custom developed capabilities.

Apex is the programming language for custom development on this platform. Visualforce pages and Lightning components are used for custom front end implementations. Programming can be used for extending existing features as well as building new capabilities from scratch.

Summary: New technology - No, Platform - Yes, Programming language - Yes

Q: Does Salesforce.com mean a simple website which offers different CRM features?

While Salesforce.com is accessible over compatible browsers, it's definitely not a simple website. Under the hood there are complex hardware and software architectures which are abstracted from end users including developers. Good news is that we don't need to know those complex, state of the art architecture details while getting started with Salesforce.com.

Take away for now - there is a cloud based platform leveraging architectural marvels and on top of that there are number of out-of-the-box and bespoke applications. And, all these applications are accessible over internet using compatible browsers just like another website like Google, Amazon.

Q: Do I need to know about Cloud Computing for learning Salesforce.com?
Cloud computing technical knowledge/ experience is not must! Basic understanding of cloud computing (what is and how it works) would be helpful to understand working of Salesforce.com.

Q: I don’t have any CRM experience, is there anything I can do with Salesforce?
Yes; Salesforce.com offers number of non-CRM domains and roles. Depending on your background, expertise and interest, you may choose the right-fit one. You may use point-and-click as well as programming capabilities to develop different non-CRM business solutions. Salesforce also allows you to develop solutions around analytics, machine learning, collaboration, web portals, internet of things (IoT) domains.

Q: What is prerequisite skill-set to learn Salesforce.com?
Any software experience or programming knowledge would be enough to get started with Salesforce.com. For experienced professionals, you may use the following checklist for initial evaluation:

Hungry to take challenge of picking up a new software/ programming language
Experienced in other CRM solutions (e.g. Siebel, SAP, MS Dynamics)
Good understanding of OOPS (Object Oriented Programming)
Hands-on programming experience in technologies like Java, .Net
Understanding/knowledge of cloud computing
Experience with other SaaS or PaaS platform
Experience in java script framework like Node.js, Angular js

Not all of these are must though! For example: #1 is critical. Combination of 1+2+3 or, 1+3+4 or, 1+3+6 would make you strong starter.

Q: Can I learn Salesforce myself?

Yes, it's possible to learn Salesforce.com through self-paced-learning. Salesforce offers learning platform, documentation, references, video sessions, and even the development/practice environment for free. All you need to sign-up for a developer edition and start exploration using Trailhead learning platform and/or latest implementation guides.

Q: Salesforce has so many offerings and covers so many areas. Where do I start?
With offerings across technical as well as business domains, Salesforce.com platform is indeed vast. Its easy to lose track or focus even before taking off. Hence, its recommended to keep things simple while getting started. Depending on your interest and background, you may choose either configuration (also, known as administration) or customization (known as programming) track.

For configuration track, starting point can be point-and-click driven implementations. This may include Administrative features, Objects & relationships, CRM capabilities (like lead management, opportunity management, case management) etc. Apex development can be the initial focus area for customization track.

Q: What software do I install for Salesforce? How much I need to pay for the same?
Salesforce is 100% public cloud - which means, no software installation is needed. All you need is browser and a device with internet connectivity. Salesforce offers developer edition (i.e. practice environment) without any fees.

As you move on as Salesforce developer, you may like to have an IDE (Force.com IDE/ Eclipse with plug-in), Developer console, Apex data loader, Force.com migration tool, Workbench etc. All these tools don't need any license/subscription fees.

Q: Does Salesforce allow to write my own code?

Yes, Salesforce allows bespoke/ custom application development. Apex is the language for coding in Salesforce platform. For front end, there are Visual force pages (classic) and Lightning components (lightning).

Q: How do I execute/run my ‘hello world’ program?
There is NO server in Salesforce world for developers to deal with. All you need to do is to write the 'hello world' in an apex class and save it. Salesforce.com platform takes care of compilation & 'deployment'.

To run/test this 'hello world' program, invoke it through Developer Console (Setup gear icon >> Developer Console >> Debug >> Open Execute Anonymous Window) and check out the logs for output (Developer Console >> Logs).

Q: Is it possible to change default Salesforce look and feel (branding, color scheme etc.)?
Yes; Salesforce.com allows to use custom stylesheets (CSS), scripts (JS) and suppression of standard stylesheet in custom developed pages. For lightning component too, custom styles and branding can be implemented.

Q: What is the Salesforce 'lightning experience'?
Salesforce.com currently offers two different user experiences. The default (when you register for a new environment and login) experience is known as the lightning experience. The earlier one (which can be enabled by choosing Switch to Salesforce Classic option) is known as Classic experience.

Q: What kind of career I can build with Salesforce?
Salesforce engagements offer different roles and depending on your aspirations, experiences and expertise you may choose the appropriate one. Salesforce Roles include:

Salesforce Administrator
Salesforce Developer (Classic | Lightning)
Salesforce Architect
Salesforce Business Analyst
Salesforce Scrum Master
Salesforce Functional Consultant (<Product Specific>)
Salesforce Integration Specialist
Salesforce Data Migration Specialist
Salesforce Quality Analyst
Salesforce Release/Deployment Specialist

Q: How long it takes to learn Salesforce?
This depends on your earlier experiences and ability to grasp new technical concepts. It should take between 7-15 weeks to be part of a Salesforce project team.

Q: How to keep myself updated with latest release/offerings from Salesforce?
Salesforce makes three release a year and each release is accompanied with respective release notes. But it can bit tedious and mostly overwhelming to follow the whole platform release note. Better to follow release highlights on Trailhead, release specific partner webinars, release preview access etc.

Do you have more questions while taking up Salesforce.com? Post here and we shall address the same. Happy Learning!!!

Managing Salesforce Applications - Six Points

2018-04-08T00:55:00.001+05:30

Like any other software solution, Salesforce.com based solutions are also subject to Application Management (AM) services. Once deployed, AM services are enabled to support the application users and to improve user experience continuously. But for Salesforce.com, being 100% public cloud and SaaS based service model, the pertaining AM services differ from traditional application support offerings.

Salesforce based applications/solutions are deployed as part of the larger enterprise ecosystem and in most of the cases, the application management model for Salesforce apps are defined as part of the enterprise wide support model. This means that the 'difference' in services are to be enabled within a generic model applicable to the enterprise. This is one of the key challenge while putting together a consistent and sustainable AM service model for Salesforce ecosystem.

Salesforce Success Plan
Every Salesforce client has subscription to Salesforce Success Plan - either Standard or Premier, based on the subscription type. Salesforce Success Plan refers to the product related support, developer support, admin assist, guidance, expert advice, accelerators, training as provided by Salesforce for its customers. This essentially means that any AM service model must complement services offered by Salesforce Success Plan.

Few key questions to answer in this context include:

Which success plan is activated for the given enterprise?
Does the enterprise need an AM service model on top of the subscribed success plan (Possible, even if it's bit ambitious)?
Which stakeholders have access to the Salesforce support/ helpdesk (make sure that they are trained & aware of services provided through Salesforce support)?
Is there a consistent process defined to assess and identify when to leverage Salesforce support (should be part of the AM service model)?
Does the success plan have any impact on the process flows like incident management, problem management, change management etc.?

Focus is beyond 'Keeping the Lights On'

Keeping the lights on is not a concern - thanks to Salesforce.com reliable & scalable architecture and cloud based infrastructure. In Salesforce world, there is no server management, server monitoring, load balancing & scaling, performance monitoring, patch deployment activities. Salesforce manages all the relevant infrastructures and responsible for related services like capacity management, backup management, business continuation & disaster recovery, compliance to security standards etc. Salesforce also makes three releases/updates per year and all related overheads are taken care of by Salesforce. While defining the Salesforce AM model, it's important to understand these out of scope services for Salesforce ecosystem.

Routine activities exist, but with different flavor
Some of the routine activities from traditional application support model are still applicable, but with different perspective and bit more automation. For example, many enterprises perform manual/automated data and metadata backup activity. This backup activity is in addition to backup performed by Salesforce. This is useful as restoration from Salesforce backup may involve additional fees.

Similarly some of the monitoring activities are still applicable. For example, periodic analysis of login history, event log files are highly recommended. Events include login, logout, API, ApexExecution, LightningPageView, LightningPerformance and so on. This analysis helps to detect abnormal access events, monitor intentional/unintentional data loss, increase adoption, and optimize application performance. If needed, Salesforce Shield services (additional fees) enables more features and flexibility in this regard.

While server management, capacity management etc. are not applicable anymore, license usage monitoring and optimization is key to make the best of Salesforce.com subscriptions. Different organization/environment specific limits are needed to be monitored (email notifications are available) to ensure optimized & continuous business experience. Let's take benefit of Cloud Computing.

Software upgrade, patch deployment are replaced with three releases a year by Salesforce. Salesforce owns all relevant overheads and these updates are superbly stable - all your custom codes and configurations are supported. But some due diligence are recommended in this context - e.g. reviewing release readiness for the given ecosystem, release preview, post release sanity testing etc.

Service requests are applicable for Salesforce AM model too. In fact, there are scenarios where service requests cover lions-share of the AM scope as compared to incidents. Salesforce service requests primarily refer to the administrative activities which are not resulted from any production incident. Example of such activities include: adhoc data import for business group, adhoc/periodic communication of reports/dashboards to business user/group, addressing reporting needs and so on.

Revisit Service Levels and Processes with Salesforce context
With Salesforce.com solutions, the standard service definitions and service level agreements may need to be adjusted. This will depend on several factors including the application architecture, degree of best practices adoption and customization quotient in implementation landscape. Point-and-click implementation (configurations) capability means that a lot can be achieved without any code change. This implies that Level 2 and Level 3 service definitions for Salesforce applications can be re-calibrated and service level agreements (resolution times) for Salesforce components can be re-defined.

Most of the ITIL processes are relevant in Salesforce world. Its recommended that these relevant processes are revisited to validate consistency in context of Salesforce specific differentiators. Strategy function processes, Security management, Demand management, Service catalogue management, Transition function processes, Operation function processes like service desk, incident management, event management, request fulfillment, problem management, access management etc. processes are recommended to be consistent and tailored to Salesforce applications.

New focus areas, plan for the same
While Salesforce AM model eliminates many traditional application management concepts and support activities, this also introduces few new ones. Its recommended to take these into consideration while rolling out the AM model. Focus areas or services include:

Salesforce introduces new & revamped features and innovations thrice a year. How to take this opportunity to refresh applicable business processes with latest technical advancement through Salesforce platform?
How to ensure the ever-going evolution in Salesforce ecosystem is consistent and compliant to the respective enterprise standards?
With ever increasing enterprise capabilities and growing number of business users on Salesforce platform (mostly in single production org), how to ensure environment sanity and compliance to security requirements?
Measures/activities are to be undertaken in context of Salesforce releases - release readiness, release preview, change management etc.
Salesforce AM model does not only support specific application(s), but also enables support & management of the entire Salesforce ecosystem. This means set of additional activities like org. level configuration tasks, sandbox management, license management, access management, data visibility between different applications and so on.
The given AM model should periodically review optimization opportunities and best practice adoption (e.g. optimizer tool, audit exercise) to improve the overall experience with Salesforce.

Diverse skill set and Team organization

Last but not the least. Team organization is one of the most critical aspect in delivering AM services effectively. Having right mix of expertise with a lean team to support already deployed solutions as well as capabilities required to realized future business architecture is the objective.

Salesforce ecosystem landscape is quite vast; this includes platform offerings (like Sales cloud, Service cloud), acquired offerings which are and to be integrated with the unified platform (like Marketing cloud, Commerce cloud), industry specific offerings (like Health cloud), and partner ecosystem offerings through AppExchange (like Vlocity, Veeva). The first consideration in defining AM team structure is which components are deployed in a given solution or enterprise. For example, same consultant/ team can realistically support solution built around Sales cloud, Service cloud and App cloud. But Marketing cloud, Commerce cloud, Analytics cloud will need specialist in respective components.

Next consideration is around type of implementation - Point-and-click solution, Apex customization solution, Lightning customization solution, Hybrid (configuration+customization, most common) solution. While many (not all) Salesforce consultants have expertise in both configuration and customization areas, dedicated Administrator(s) and Lightning specialists can be considered based on services in scope.

Final Word
Its easy (and common) to generalize Salesforce application management services. Many try to realize Salesforce.com AM services with traditional application support model without factoring in the differences. But its important (for both clients/enterprises and service providers) to put together Salesforce AM model which functions on top of the enterprise level support model, achieves enterprise level KPI and SLA, and addresses Salesforce.com specific problem areas with right solutions as well.

ত্রিভূজালয়

2018-03-04T00:39:00.000+05:30

by Dipankar Mandol

তিন কোনা করে কাগজ কাটবো --
আমার পৃথিবী তোমাকে
মেলাইনি বলে।
একবার হিমালয় চুড়ায় দাঁড়াব
আমরা কোথায় আছি দেখতে
সমতল আমাদের পথই চিনিয়েছে
প্রতীক্ষালয়ের সন্ধান দেয়নি।
তুমি সম্ভব হলে বারান্দায় দাঁড়াও
কথা আছে --
একটা গাছ কাটব
একটা প্রাণ পাইনি বলে --।

- দীপঙ্কর মন্ডল

জয়শ্রীর জন্য

2018-03-04T00:30:00.000+05:30

by Dipankar Mandol

কেমন আছো জয় --
দুঃখকে ভালোবেসে --?
তোমাকে বলে বলে
যে পুতুলগুলো ভাঙলো - ভালোবেসে
তার স্বপ্নে এখনো কি
তুমি ওঠো সিঁড়ি বেয়ে ?
নাকি -- তুমিও
ভোলার স্বপ্ন দেখো - ভালোবাসে ?
কেমন আছো জয় ?
মাটি-পাথরের সঙ্গে - বোবা হয়ে --

- দীপঙ্কর মন্ডল

রূপ চন্দনা

2018-03-03T00:22:00.000+05:30

by Dipankar Mandol

কখনো বুকের মধ্যে উঁচু হয়ে ওঠে
কথা না শোনা পাহাড়
উচ্চতার খোঁচায় চোখে আসে নদী
ও নদী তোমায় আমি ভালোবাসি
তোমার যমুনায় ঝাঁপ দিয়ে আমি
মরতে মরতে সাঁতার শিখেছি।
- দীপঙ্কর মন্ডল

কর্তব্য

2018-03-03T00:16:00.000+05:30

by Dipankar Mandol

রাত্রি জড়ানো হাত
উষ্ণতা ছড়ানো বুক ছেড়ে
মাথা উঁচু দেখাতে হবে হিমালয়
বন্ধনহীন টান-টানে
যেতে যে হবেই
আরেকটা রাত বসে দুয়ারে -

- দীপঙ্কর মন্ডল

অসমাপ্ত অনন্যা

2018-02-03T01:22:00.000+05:30

by Dipankar Mandol

মুরগীর মতো খুঁটে খাওয়া জীবন

হাঁসের মতো সহজে গিলে খেতে চাই না; চুনোপুটি

নিম্নবিত্ত মন নিয়ে মাংসের কাছে ঘোরাঘুরি

হতাশা সংযত রেখে -

নিজের যাতায়াতের পথটা রেখে

জাল বুনতে দিয়েছি মাকড়সাকে।

এ পথ দিয়ে এসো না অনন্যা -

কাঁটা বিঁধবে বুকে

তোমাকে আমি মাথায় করে রেখেছি

কালিতে ঝরবে বলে।

- দীপঙ্কর মন্ডল

অনন্যা Latest

2018-02-02T01:26:00.000+05:30

by Dipankar Mandal

যদি যাই দূরে চলে

সঙ্গে না হয় নিলে এই জীবনে

ভালোবাসা থাক -

ঘৃনায় রেখো মনে

যদি ফিরে না আসি

ভুলে যেও - একবারে।

- দীপঙ্কর মন্ডল

ছায়াময় জীবন

2018-02-02T01:14:00.000+05:30

by Dipankar Mandol

পাথরের ইতিহাসে - সাক্ষ্য লাগে না

জল - বাস্প - লবণ

চিনেছে লোহাময় জীবন।

শিরনি প্রসাদ ঠিক খুঁজে

নেবে নিরন্ন অভুক্তকে।

যন্ত্রনাময় হিমালয়

এখনো চুপ -

দুচোখের জল কি

সব কথা বলতে পারে -

অজানা - নির্জনে পাখির ডাক

কি চিনিয়ে দিতে পারে

হারানো সেই রাস্তা

যা তোমার বাড়ির পাশ দিয়ে গেছে।

- দীপঙ্কর মন্ডল

গাছে গাছে অনন্যা

2018-02-01T01:08:00.000+05:30

by Dipankar Mandal

সব ভালোবাসাই একদিন

মরে যায় - জলের অভাবে

কান্না দিয়ে বাঁচিয়ে রাখা

খুব কঠিন কাজ -

যে মেয়েটা এখনো ফুঁপিয়ে কাঁদে

সান্ত্বনা তার অদৃশ্য চাঁদর

ছুঁয়ে দিও না কখনো তাকে

গাছের ঘুমে চুপ করে থাকুক

গোপন প্রেমিক নাম লিখে

রাখুক আজ গাছে গাছে।

- দীপঙ্কর মন্ডল

Sanitizing Salesforce Ecosystem

2018-01-01T19:31:00.001+05:30

In this age of Cloud and SaaS adoption Salesforce.com has emerged as #1 in CRM domain with 150K customers (4BN per day transaction, and 10BN revenue). But not all customers have embraced Salesforce.com solution with a big bang approach or with long term strategy & roadmap. While some companies had clear vision on how respective workloads would be powered with Salesforce platform and approached accordingly, many others started their Salesforce.com journey in relatively small scale - either to experiment with the solution fitment in respective organization culture or to create Salesforce.com footprint with simple & new workloads only.

Many customers started small & tentatively to experience value of Salesforce.com offering and then gradually moved critical & bigger workloads (existing as well as new) to Salesforce.com. With three releases each year Salesforce.com also evolved over the years to offer more features and new cloud capabilities. Driven with technology advancement and improved ROI, many companies are going for enterprise wide Salesforce.com implementation.

As the initial adoption happened in not so structured way and Salesforce.com went through (and still going through) quite an evolution as product, companies are unsure if their existing Salesforce.com ecosystem is quite ready to be leveraged as the baseline. Questions customers are facing in context of transforming the existing Salesforce.com ecosystem into large scale implementation include:

If the as-is Salesforce.com architecture is robust enough for enterprise wide implementation
If the existing implementation is scalable to support additional business groups, regions or countries (as appropriate)
If the as-is solution is being found short in improving customer experience and adoption rate
If the implemented business processes can be improved/ re-engineered with new features & capabilities
If the existing architecture is optimized & up to date with latest Salesforce.com offerings
If the existing implementation complies with best practices & industry standards
If the as-is security model addresses enterprise level scenarios and compliance requirements
If the company is facing challenges in rolling out new app/solution on the existing Salesforce.com platform
If there is possibility of having redundancies & unnecessary overlaps in both data, configuration and customizations
If there is a possibility of losing out Salesforce.com (as well as cloud computing) benefits – including reduced application TCO, reduced maintenance overhead, increased agility in IT environment etc.

With this context the technical assessment of the as-is ecosystem and addressing the critical limitations is becoming one of the prerequisites for scaled & enterprise level Salesforce.com implementation. While problem areas & assessment focus vary across customers, the ecosystem sanitization process can be categorized into three high level heads:

Organization specific analysis: This includes studying of organization level configurations cutting across all business applications, different environment administration related setup, utilization of Salesforce licenses, consolidation of orgs (if applicable) etc. Organization level assessment ensures best practices & standards are complied, better leverage of platform out-of-the-box capabilities, compliance to customer's corporate policy & standards, and improved return of Salesforce investment.

Application level review: This segment includes review of overall architecture as well as application specific design & implementation (both configurations and customization) details. Scope may vary depending on as-is landscape and respective customer objectives for this assessment. Review of data model, application specific security configurations, design best practice, integration architecture, configurations & customization implementation, adherence to coding standards & naming convention, compliance to secure coding standards, business process improvement with new capabilities, usability & adoption, lightning readiness etc. are all included in this category.

Governance model & processes study: This covers study of processes involved in managing Salesforce.com ecosystem - applicable for both implementation and application management. Focus areas include tools & enablers being/to-be used during application life-cycle, deployment architecture, release readiness, configuration management, change management, release management etc. The as-is application management processes are also reviewed to check appropriateness in context of Salesforce.com solution.

As output of this study companies will realize respective mission readiness and improvements/upgrades to be implemented before embracing enterprise level implementation. This should also help to plan the overall journey in structured way and thereby, driving the success parameters without compromising business objectives.

Sources for the figures used:
https://www.salesforce.com/campaign/worlds-number-one-CRM/
https://www.salesforce.com/company/recognition/analyst-reports/

অনন্যা -১

2018-01-01T00:54:00.000+05:30

by Dipankar Mandol

আমার বাড়ীর পাশ দিয়ে

যে নদীটি বয়ে যায়

লাল পাড়ের শাড়িতে

আমি জানি সেও কাঁদে প্রতিরাতে

যে পাড় ভাঙতে পারলে না বলে

নদী তুমি শুকিয়ে গেলে

আমি তাতে জল দিয়ে রেখেছি

ইচ্ছে মতো কাঁটা খাওয়ার আশায়।

- দীপঙ্কর মন্ডল

ভালোবাসাহীন ভালোবাসা

2017-10-16T02:07:00.003+05:30

নিঃশব্দ নৈরাশ্যের পৃথিবীতে

ভালোবাসার গুড়ি গুড়ি বৃষ্টি;

সময়টা হঠাৎ পেছনে ফিরে তাকিয়ে দেখে

ক্লীশে নগরের কীর্তি -

পথ চলতে গিয়ে থমকে দাঁড়িয়ে পড়া পাড়ার দাদু

অবাক চোখে আকাশপানে চেয়ে

চশমাটা দুচোখে এঁটে নেয় শক্ত করে,

ভালোবাসামুখর পৃথিবীতেও

ভালোবাসার জন্য দুচোখ বেয়ে তার জল গড়িয়ে পরে।

সৃষ্টি আজ বন্ধ্যা হয়ে সমাজসেবীর খপ্পরে

বেহায়াপনা আর রিমিক্স এর তালে নাচে,

হাজারো রোশনাই চারিধারে

তবুও ব্যালকনি হতে অন্ধকার রাতে ডেকে নেয় কাছে -

কতকটা সত্যি কতকটা মিথ্যা

হিসেবটা পূর্ণতা পায়না;

সময় হঠাৎ থমকে দাঁড়িয়ে পড়ে ভাবে

শরীরের এ ব্যাধির ঔষুধ কোন কবিরাজি সৃষ্টি।

ভালোবাসার বর্ষা আজ ফিরেছে
টুকরো হয়ে যাওয়া ছবিগুলো আজও

জোড়া লাগেনি;

চারিদিকে নতুনের ছড়াছড়ি,

আমার পুরাতন প্রেয়সী এখনো নতুন হয়নি।

সিগারেটের প্যাকেট মুচড়ে নীলকণ্ঠের হাতছানি

রেস্তোরাঁ আর বার উল্টো হয়ে গেছে -

কিনতু আমার পাশে আজও তারই স্পর্শ

কতকটা মিথ্যে আর কতকটা সত্যি।

Speeeeeeding

2016-07-03T18:36:00.001+05:30

Few weeks back I came across an interesting awareness while attending an orientation session at my kid's playschool (first of it's kind for me). I had experienced the given effect before, but never thought about the cause. In the session, the parents were being advised not to expose their kids to too much of screen media like mobile devices, TV, video games etc. While type of screen media content (e.g violence), screen-time (how long kids are exposed), type of device etc. can cause detrimental effects to kid's physical and mental growth, the speed of the audio-visual representation is equally critical.

Due to this 'speed' factor kids may exhibit impulsive behavior and find it really difficult to be attentive. High speed content may impact the brain in such a way that they may not be able to adjust to standard pace of classroom teaching. They may even find 'human' teacher speaking too boring. Their brain is habituated to faster content & representation and finds relatively slower contents very difficult to accept.

True indeed! Many times I have experienced that phenomena myself. I have been a fan of Fifa (the leading edition of virtual football games) since my college days. Even today I notice that I find it hard to concentrate after an hour session of the game. During my college time I exercised a self-made solution to tackle this: I used to navigate slowly - from video games to reading magazines and then to serious study. Never been able to dive into study after a game session immediately.

I have also experienced the same with music. Fast music hardly register in our mind. We dance to it, party with it - but it would be surely exceptional if we carry the song with us. Of-course lyric matters, music matters. But probably slower music registers faster and get us in the mode!

Today I experience the same in many other spheres of life. While our life has become faster than ever, I wonder how little we care to think, to introspect and to imagine. No wonder I observe so much insistence on to have planned dedicated time for talking to yourself at peace (i.e. self introspection). Be it social posts, recipes from successful personalities, or professional training sessions - all agree to this. This is why every organization needs so much of communications around innovation, with encouragement for thinking out-of-the-box and so on!

Most of the times our individual goals are derived through templates (hence, not personalized) and conflicting in nature. One is expected to write whitepapers, contribute in multiple forums, achieve couple of certifications per cycle, demonstrate innovation in day to day work, helping or mentoring other individuals, setting goals for respective team members on top of 'critically' weighted timely, zero defect delivery, higher customer satisfaction, achieving internal stakeholders alignment and so on. Not everybody is a superman, so speeding is the only way to 'manage'.

Through different patterns of modern and successful life-style, like many other natural things - we have sacrificed our imagination, thinking hat to speed of life. We are in a competitive world and we have to achieve a lot more in less time (simply, productivity matters). But whats the point if we can't bloom our strength to its limit. Its a criminal when an idea strikes our mind and we can't see it through because we have immediate higher priority activities planned. And, during the 'planned' introspection session next morning, we failed to reach that state of the 'idea'! Unfortunately 'innovation' is not success proof and does not have Standard Operating Procedure!

শুধুই তোমার খোঁজে !

2016-06-21T16:00:00.004+05:30

অনেকটা রাস্তা পেরিয়ে এসে আজ পেছনে ফিরে

দু চোখ শুধু তোমার খোঁজে !

ওয়ান ওয়ে রাস্তায় ট্রাফিকের মাঝে দাঁড়িয়ে

হঠাৎ তোমায় দেখতে পাই অন্য পাশে;

আমার চিৎকার ডাক - কোলাহলে চাপা পরে যায়,

ডিভাইডার টপকে ছুটে যাওয়াটাও কোনো অপশান নয় -

পেছনের হর্ন শুনে এগিয়ে চলি শম্বুক গতিতে,

উল্টো দিকে তোমার সাদা হেলমেট যায় দুরে মিলিয়ে।

সাত মাথা রাস্তায় দাঁড়িয়ে সেদিন
প্রথম দেখায় তোমায় চিনতে পারিনি -

তুমি পাশেই ছিলে, তোমায় দেখেও দেখিনি।

ঝা চকচকে রাস্তার হাতছানিতে এগিয়ে গেছি;

আজ এতটা রাস্তা পেরিয়ে

সামনের সাইন বোর্ডগুলোতে জিজ্ঞাসা চিহ্নের ছড়াছড়ি।

আজ তোমায় খুঁজে ফিরি - ল্যাপটপ এর রিজুমে তে,

ইন্টারনেট এর জ্ঞান সমুদ্রে;

খুঁজি তোমায় সফল মানুষের ব্যার্থতার কাহিনীতে।

কখনো ছাদের অন্ধকার পাংসুটে কোন -

কখনো কফি শপের ঠান্ডা কোণের টেবিলে।

খালি বাসের পেছনের সিটে বসে -
তোমার মুখছবি ভেসে ওঠে গলিরাস্তার মুখে -

ঠিকানাটা ভালো করে দেখার আগেই

কন্ডাকটর এর টিকেট এর তাগাদা -

বাস গলিরাস্তা পেছনে ফেলে ছুটে চলে;

পেছনে ঘুরে দেখি - তুমি তখনো দাঁড়িয়ে,

আমি শুধু দূরে চলে যাচ্ছি প্রতিটা মুহুর্তে !

আমি শুধুই - তোমায় ফিরে পেতে চাই !

2016-04-24T03:29:00.001+05:30

আমি শুধুই - তোমায় ফিরে পেতে চাই !

চলতি পথে লুকিয়ে এক ঝলক তোমায় দেখা,

সাদা শাড়ি নীল পাড়ের মাঝে কালবৈশাখী তান্ডবে
ধূলিঝড়ের মাঝেও চোখে চোখ রাখা।

রাতের ব্যালকনিতে জোসনাতে ডুবে জেগে থাকা

কখনো নথিহীন সপ্ন, কখনোবা চাঁদের সাথে কবিতা,

তোমার সাথে না বলা, না শেষ হওয়া অফুরন্ত কথা।

শীতের সকালে বাবার কাছে গ্রামার শিখতে শিখতে

সৃষ্টিতে মেতে ওঠার ডাকে -

কোদাল হাতে নেমে পরা ব্যাডমিন্টন এর কোর্ট কাটতে।

গলিপথের ভাঙ্গা দেয়ালে পা ঝুলিয়ে বসে

বেলা কাবার কত না ছক কষে।

ওপাড়ার বুলেট ক্লাবকে শিক্ষা দেয়ার মন্ত্রণা,

কখনো 'রাস্তা'ভোজন, কখনোবা 'রানার' হয়ে

পাড়াদাদার প্রেমপত্র পৌছে দেবার পরিকল্পনা।

অপ্রকাশিত সব গল্পের ঝুলি,

পেছনে পেছনে বড়দের শাসনের বুলি -

দুরে মিলিয়ে যায়

কফিশপের অশালীন নিস্তব্ধতা আর ঠান্ডা শীতল হাওয়ায়।

অনর্থক সোশ্যাল কোলাহলে - আজ শুধু যেন কান বাজে ;

এত বন্ধুর ভীড়েও ওরা এখনো নিখোঁজ রয়ে গেছে।

সুভাষ বাবুর ক্লাসে সেদিন 'বিদ্রোহী' শুনে

আমার হঠাৎ বিদ্রোহী হয়ে ওঠা মনে মনে -

সেবছর স্বাধীনতা দিবসে

একটা আলাদা রকমের অনুভূতি

আশ্চর্য রকমের প্রতিজ্ঞা দেশ আর দশের প্রতি।

সোশ্যাল মিডিয়ার বানানো দমকা হাওয়ায়

আমার দেশপ্রেম, সেই আত্মপরিচয়

আজ নিভু নিভু প্রায়।

ভীড়ের বাসের এক চিলতে জানালা দিয়ে

আমার মূল্যবোধ আর শিক্ষা গড়িয়ে পড়ে বাইরে।

আমি এক চোখ বন্ধ রেখেই বোতাম টিপে যাই ;

ব্যঙ্গে চোখরাঙানিতে ওদের দেয়াল কালো হয়ে যায় -

আমি আর আমরা ছাড়া বাকি সব নষ্ট,

তোমাদের সবকিছু ভুলে ভরা, তোমরা পাপী - ভ্রষ্ট।

আজ আমার দৃষ্টি তোমার ভরা বুকে

দামী রেস্তোরার অন্ধকারে কিংবা ডিস্কে -

সতীর সত্যিটা আজ চাপা পড়ে লাউড মিউসিকে।

আজ তোমার সাথে মাতলামি এক্সক্লুসিভ ডেটে -

আমার প্রেমেও উষ্ণতা - উষ্ণায়ন আর বিশ্বায়ন এর চোটে !

অস্থিরতার চরমে আমি প্রাচুর্য্যের মাঝে হাবুডুবু খাই -

আমি শুধুই - তোমায় ফিরে পেতে চাই!

Managing the Digital Persona!

2016-01-03T01:02:00.000+05:30

FC Barcelona signed a player (Sergi Guardiola) for their B team earlier this week and then released/ sacked him within few hours because of few offensive tweets posted by the player about the club and Catalonia. Reportedly, one of those tweet was posted a month back (during a match between Real Madrid and Barcelona in November 2015) while others were as old as from 2013.

Now that's the age we are heading toward - or, rather we are already in. Social activities are not fun and light-weight any more. These are becoming decision making drivers more than ever before. Be it marketers gaining useful insights about you, or employers evaluating candidates credentials, or government/ non-government agencies are probing into your privacy - you are accountable for each of your clicks.

Have you ever wondered why tariff of same holiday package is different on different devices (with different IP)? How the prices go up every time you repeat the search? Have you ever noticed how you are bombarded with advertisements of a particular product which you looked up in an e-commerce portal week back? These are just few simple examples how cookies and related analytical tools are looking into all your online activities - accept it or go off the world-wide-web.

You may recall how you had looked up candidates' linked-in profiles before entering into recent interview conversations. May be you looked up customers or stakeholders profiles before your first meeting with them. Social mediums are empowering us to have valuable insights about individual or institution and prepare accordingly before the real action. Isn't it awesome? Isn't it making us more comfortable and confident for the given situation in advance?

Indeed, it is! But on the other end - if we are not careful and focused with our online/ social presence, it may turn our success into a failure. Like the case I mentioned in opening about that football player, our employers may (or, should I say 'must') be looking into our social profiles & activities and making decisions hugely influenced through gained insights. Good or bad - our activities (however older and less contextual those are) may have an impact on our present and future.

I heard about cases where IT professional was stripped off the job offer due to (significant) mismatch between submitted resume and social job profiles. In another case, employee took time off due to personal exigency and his manager communicated the same with customer. Next thing: customer was commenting on a holiday snap uploaded by the employee and sharing a piece of his mind with that manager. Without getting into judgement, our presence on public forums can't be undermined any longer.

And, here is the trickier part! If we want to nullify our social presence, it may not help the case either. Many employers, now a days, are looking for credentials like publications made over social channels, contributions in open forums, technical contribution to open source projects and so on. I can remember a case where potential employer allowed the candidate additional time to build social credentials (in terms of contribution in forums, open source projects and all) even after successful completion of all interview rounds. That's the future!

Now the big question is: with already so much to take care of, how do we manage our social presence in right way? What do we do to ensure that our social life is positively influencing our present and future? Well, I can't think of a shortcut here. But there are few easy basics we can probably start with.

Being humble in social presence - never get involved in online bullying and more importantly, don't get provoked either.
Express thoughts, observations and ideas; but never engage abusive words/ phrases.
Add a pause and be thoughtful while posting on public mediums - don't get carried away by trending topics.
Identify favored/ best suited/ prioritized channels and focus only on the identified ones.
Put efforts in being consistent across platforms - being different face on different channels does not help. Leverage technology wherever possible to synchronize your actions across channels. E.g. your posts on Linked-in or Twitter can be posted on Facebook automatically real time.
Categorize engagements over social mediums - e.g. don't mix-up personal activities with professional ones. Keep in mind that brand presence and individual presence should have different perspective and different strategy.
Understand visibility settings (who can see your post, tweet, comment) of the given platform convincingly. For example, Twitter is all public - your tweet can be essentially accessed by whole web. On other hand, Facebook or Google+ have different layers: like share with friends, visible with friend of friends etc.
Be aware of the fact that though platforms like Facebook or Google+ empower you with different security layer/ settings - basic information about your profile like your profile picture (which you can control too) are accessible to public. Also, all social platforms keep changing their policies, features etc. quite frequently for different reasons.
Understand your current employer policies and guidelines around social media usage.
Consider your social persona a long term one and be convinced how you are being watched by humans as well as robots.

Even after all the efforts, some of your activities may not be liked by an institution or other. I assume that is something you got to accept. I don't believe in suppressing individual thoughts, opinions and ideas just because it can't make everybody happy. But being logical, thoughtful, non-personal can surely help. And, who knows - this challenge can open up a new business avenue where one provides professional services to manage our individual social images. Future is here!

Making Decisions and making it right

2015-12-29T16:20:00.000+05:30

How difficult or easy do you find in making decisions? Be it personal spheres or professional aspects, are you a hesitant or a proactive decision maker? While decision making is an art (soft skill as more commonly known), but it is as much as your mindset.

In my experience, I have found very minimum % of individuals who try and make a decision. Most are reluctant and try to dodge the situation by some or the other argument. Political inconclusive statements, demands for additional information are couple of very commonly used reasoning to encourage the hanging situation. While this indecisiveness may prove very costly for respective organizations or for a matter in personal lives, many of us still prefer to be that way.

But why? Why are we so reluctant to make decisions and hold ourselves accountable? Is it because all of us are not up to mark aptitude-wise to take a call? Is it because we don't realize the importance in a given context? I perceived it in other way.

Its about playing safe, avoiding ownership and passing on the given responsibility. Fear of individual failure is too deep to make decision. We are negatively preoccupied with the thought that our mistake won't be taken rightly by our bosses (hence, by our organizations). The fundamentals of leadership and team work is at stake here!

Sir Alex: Decisions
Sir Alex was a master at making decisions. Listen to his advice on the topic from his new book... Leading: www.manutd.com/leading
Posted by Manchester United on Wednesday, September 9, 2015

Now is there a way to get through this negativity? At organization level, I am not aware of any institution who does not welcome mistakes. At least in principle, everybody supports learning through mistake. But practice of that principle is more important!

With a reality check: all such principles get tossed down during pressure and instant-result oriented situations. Most of the supervisors forget how to foster new ideas through calculative risks, rather they seek ready-made solutions. And, we all understand what our bosses expectations are! Results follow accordingly!

We all (decision maker, supervisor, stakeholders) need to adjust our mindset to overcome this barrier. Its about making decisions based on given set of information, making decisions keeping best of the outcomes in mind. Decisions must be taken towards success: Make decision, take accountability and put all your weight behind to make it a 'Successful Decision'.

Errors may happen - but its more important to understand where and why it went wrong. Not making decisions and keeping yourself away from ownership are not going to help any party. Its important to make decisions and making it to get it right.

Integrate Salesforce with Box.com

2015-12-29T02:49:00.000+05:30

Box is a leading cloud based online file sharing and content management solution for enterprises. Box Enterprise File Synchronization and Sharing (EFSS) solution is secure, fit for easy collaboration, ready for all kinds of devices and can easily be integrated with your other apps (like Office 365, Salesforce.com, DocuSign etc.). The notable use cases supported by Box includes: Secure file sharing, File synchronization, Digital asset management, Document management etc.

Here is a quick look at the integration with Salesforce.com.

Salesforce.com is an awesome platform for configuring as well as developing cloud based applications. While it comes with features of its own (e.g. Salesforce CRM Content) to store and manage documents, you may prefer to explore other cloud based file storage and management solutions for your apps and enterprise. This can be due to cheaper costs for storage, matured enterprise level file synchronization and sharing capabilities, and on. Few other solution option (like Box) can be considered for Salesforce apps are: Google Drive, Amazon S3, MS OneDrive.

Integration Options
There are couple of options when we are integration Salesforce.com with Box:

Integration using Box.com AppExchange app for Salesforce

Probably the easiest way to bring in Box capabilities into your Salesforce application. All what you need to do is to install the Box.com app package from AppExchange marketplace into your Salesforce org. and configure the same. Once configured you would be able to access all Box capabilities through Salesforce - it can using standard object page layouts, custom object page layout and visual force pages (for custom use case needs). The Box.com app for Salesforce comes with custom tabs which facilitates app configuration and access to Box capabilities.

+ Easy and quick installation and setup
+ Minimum customization needed - hence, quicker to production

- Minimum flexibility for branding and customized use cases
- iFrame based integration
- No integration at metadata level

Integration through Programmatic approach using Box API

This option needs custom coding to integrate. Box API are used as per given use cases to integrate Salesforce with Box. API uses REST to communication between the two cloud platforms.

+ Flexibility how you want to design your integration between platforms
+ Custom use cases can be handled easily
+ Need for Box account for your application end users can be avoided

- More customization needed which may take longer compared to app based integration
- Manual intervention may be needed if interface is unused for 60 consecutive days

Few lines about Postman option

Postman is a handy tool (chrome extension) to make API calls. You can install the extension in your chrome browser and then, make Box API calls to test, evaluate and experiment Box API before deploying the same in your applications. You can also import all the collections (list of API grouped by category) into you Postman tool and create your own collections to make your Postman life smooth.

The following link talks about latest pilot to enable Box content seamlessly through Salesforce.com features. Read More on this!

Hiseb Meleni - (Miscalculation)

2015-12-29T02:41:00.000+05:30

হিসেব মেলেনি !

গণিতে সবসময় ই নয়ের ঘরে পেয়েছি-

তবুও আজ হিসেব মেলাতে,
জীবনের differentiation আর integration এর
ফর্মুলাতে বার বার হোচট খেয়েছি ।
না পাওয়ার অনেক লম্বা লিস্ট দেখে
হাল ছেড়ে -
নিয়ে বসেছি পাওয়ার দিকটা দেখতে -
শেষ হয়ে এলো vicks , seridon
লিস্টে তবুও null pointer exception !
সবাই শূন্যতায় ভরিয়ে একে একে সরে গেছে,
অপরাধগুলো আজও বুঝিনি !
সময়ের তাচ্ছিল্য নিয়েছি মাথা পেতে -
শাস্তির মেয়াদও কেউ বলেনি !
বারবার অতীতের হুঙ্কার -
পেছন ফিরে দেখতে সাহস হয়নি -
অসহায়ত্বের চরম ছোবলে নীলাভ শরীর
নিয়ে তবুও এগিয়ে চলেছি ।
আজ ২১শে -
হাতের ঘড়ির দিকে তাকিয়ে মনে পড়েছে
সে কত দ্রুত উল্টো দিকে ছুটেছে -
সময়ের আবেশী আবাহনে
ছুটে চলেছি আর্কটিকের পানে -
সাফল্যের মঞ্চে দাড়িয়ে ফ্যালফ্যাল চোখে দেখেছি
অচেনা - অজানা - চারিপাশ
পিঠখানা চাপড়ে দেবার কেউ নেই !

How much power is good enough?

2015-12-01T21:01:00.004+05:30

1) How much power do you need to succeed? You may have come across aspiring or recently appointed leaders at your workplace and their complains of lack of power to influence and drive the team to success. They are talking about 'power' to be responsible for team members' appraisals, promotions and compensation/ bonus decisions etc. They are not looking for 'Expert' and 'Referent' modes of power for sure!

2) In last couple of decades, hung parliaments and coalition governments became very common in India. And, lack of absolutely majority and dependency on regional coalition partners have been highlighted as the defense for ineffectiveness and non-functioning of the system.

3) At the end of 2014-15 football season, Real Madrid sacked their coach once again. In pure football sense this was a surprise and the only explanation can be Real Madrid president Mr. Perez's absolute dictator-like power in the board. With money power and near zero opposition in ranks, Perez was already known for EA sports manager mode like decisions.

4) Now suspended FIFA president Mr. Sepp Blatter and company! Criminal investigations (over dealings of last 25 odd years), arrests and suspensions of high profile officials prove how given absolute power was misused over years. Not to forget, they all got elected repeatedly with huge majority (they clearly know how to use numbers - be it votes or money). Their absolute power not only influenced deeply rooted corruption, but also eliminated any opposing voice.

5) Another similar example is former BCCI president N Srinivasan. He and his group acquired ultimate power and leveraged the same to benefit followers and to eliminate oppositions. Even board policies were amended to ease his re-election and business goals. No voice was raised against him (within board) even when Mr. Srini was proven ethically and legally wrong. What a mean use of power!

6) In West Bengal, the current governing party was given absolute mandate and the oppositions were shown doors for contextual reasons. Unfortunately this introduced power driven ruthlessness and sense of zero accountability. Be it sponsored violence against oppositions, proactive police actions against free voices and 'cartoons', or nonsense comments by responsible ministers - megalomaniac instances are demonstrated too alarmingly.

7) Even in central government, we have absolutely majority for a break! Through absolute majority, a political party was given with responsibility to drive the nation to success. Its not about acting as moral police, or controlling eating behavior, or deciding where to go, what to do! Uncensored remarks from ministers and governing party leaders, ignoring mode of government to unpleasant happenings, agenda driven bullying (both online and offline) to choke sensible voices - are just examples which is taking sheen out of the majority.

POWER is something we all crave for in our respective context. While lack of power slows down decision making, discourage sense of responsibility - clearly (from above scenarios) the absolute power is not a proven success either. Question is: how to judge how much power is good enough for success? Unfortunately there is no formula or theorem to guide this power distribution!

Sense of accountability and institution welfare can be the bible to ensure appropriate use of given power. Only this can explain ruthlessness of 'Fergie' and resulting success era of 'ManU'! Undoubtedly, power/ enablement is necessary to perform the job satisfactorily. But, its our responsibility to consciously control the power from being limitless and autocratic. Our ability not to turn blind to wrong and avoid becoming ego-slave can take this a long way.