Offshore Outsourcing : A Growing Practice

Easy,Flawless & Rapid : Built & Powered in Delphi

2008-10-07T01:22:00.001-05:00

Delphi, a high-level, compiled, strongly typed language that supports structured and object-oriented design is based on Object Pascal. Its benefits consist of easy-to-read code, quick compilation and the use of multiple unit files for modular programming. Its special features support Borland's component framework and RAD environment.

Officially released in 1995, it featured an incompatible syntax using the keyword class in preference to object, create constructor and a virtual destroy destructor, properties, method pointers. It continued to evolve throughout the years to support new language concepts such as 64-bit integers and dynamic arrays.

Delphi is based on components and thus requires a new way of optimizing applications. With Delphi, the application consists of components that interact together, so we can use a bottom up approach, where we leave the application itself intact, but focus on optimizing the underlying components.

For generation of the active server page the master page designation, the page title and the page name are employed from the table for subsequent code generation and for generation of the code behind Delphi code the page name from the detail record is employed to make the new code program name and class names required to make the program complete and functional.

Initially the creation of code generator used to take hours of repetitive coding. But now, simply key in only the particular attributes that comprises the active server page and the required code behind and then click the Make All option on the Primary Menu and the code is generated with in a few seconds that require zero testing and zero debugging.

A-1 Technology is a brilliant place to get best in Delphi . We have a team of experts in Delphi , enabling our clients to take maximum benefit. Here you would get best in class resources for Delphi that can help in leveraging the capabilities of Delphi to reduce development cost and time to market. We offer innovative and efficient Delphi solutions to our clients.

Dynamic Web development framework : LAMP

2008-10-06T05:36:00.007-05:00

LAMP is a popular web-development, technical jargon that stands for Linux, Apache, MySQL and PHP, sometimes P stands for Perl or Python. The key to the idea behind LAMP, was originally coined by Michael Kunze in a German magazine in 1998. LAMP is an excellent platform for web development solutions. LAMP can run both, server as well as websites. With this dynamic combo LAMP technology, you can establish a good software distribution package, acquire the components at a very low acquisition cost. This enables you to use the web browser to execute program and receive static and effervescent content above all it is a free of cost software.

LAMP platform is an effective alternative to commercial software for building and running dynamic and high performance web systems. It allows us to deliver online applications that are available anywhere, anytime online, where in the past applications stayed on the users desktop. With more and more complicated sites coming to the internet, you can create functional and attractive websites.

Benefits of the FOSS

Each of the components in the LAMP stack is an excellent example of Free or Open Source Software(FOSS). The benefit of the FOSS approach is three-fold.

First, the nature of FOSS means applications are available for free download, making them readily available to a wide range of people without payment.

Second, licenses are open and thus have few restrictions on their use and the deployment of applications based on the FOSS technology. It is possible to develop and deploy LAMP-based projects without paying any license fees for distributing the software.

Last but not the least, a major reason for the growth and use of FOSS technology (including LAMP), is that in combination with the open license, this simplifies the development process for many enterprises and gives them flexibility that simply isn't available within the confines of a proprietary or commercial-based product.

Using the LAMP in Your Business

Choosing to use LAMP in your business is not about cost although many enterprises will be attracted to the low-cost required for both development and deployment. Instead, choosing LAMP for your organization is all about the benefits it adds to your business.

Flexibility: There are no limits to what you can do with the LAMP stack, either technically or because of licensing restrictions. This allows you the flexibility to build and deploy applications in a method that suits you, not the supplier of the technology you are using.

Customization: Because LAMP components are open source, they have built up a huge array of additional components and modules that provide additional functionality. The open source approach enables you to do the same, customizing components and functionality to suit your needs.

Ease of Development: You can write powerful applications using LAMP technology in relatively few lines of code. Often the code is straightforward enough that even non programmers can modify or extend the application.

Ease of Deployment: With neither licensing issues nor the need to compile applications, deployment is often as easy as copying an application to a new host. Most hosting services provide LAMP-based environments as standard, or they can be deployed using a Linux distribution, such as Fedora or Debian.

Security: With many eyes developing the software and years of use by a wide range of users and community groups, LAMP technology is secure and stable. Problems are normally fixed very quickly, and without the need for a costly support contract.

Community and Support: A wide and experienced group of people is willing to provide help and support during the development and deployment of LAMP-based applications.

A-1 Technology has high levels of maturity and expertise in application design, open-source frameworks, methodologies and implementation on LAMP. We offer project development, maintenance and support of LAMP-based applications. A-1 Technology brings in superior skills in modern web-based technologies, databases and programming languages and has successfully delivered technically challenging and complex LAMP assignments across multiple domains.

For more information you can contact our local sales person

Richard Sarno
Project Manager
A-1 Technology, Inc.
115 Broadway, 13th Floor
New York, NY 10006
P: (212) 397-7481
F: (212) 931-8530

Java Application Development in new feature

2008-10-06T04:56:00.002-05:00

Web technologies have been evolving with greater pace in recent years. Java has achieved enormous popularity since it first materialized. Its rapid rise and wide acceptance can be traced to its design and programming features, particularly in its promise that you can write a program once, and run it anywhere. Java was chosen as the programming language for network computers (NC) and has been perceived as a universal front end for the enterprise database. No language is simple, but Java considered a much simpler and easy to use object-oriented programming language when compared to the popular programming language, C++. Partially modeled after C++, Java has replaced the complexity of multiple inheritance in C++ with a simple structure called interface, and also has eliminated the use of pointers. . That way, you can easily take informed decisions without relying on others for information.

To be effective, web technologies have to be:

1 Flexible
2 Interactive
3 Portable
4 Accessible
5 Secure
6 Usable

Java application development is one of the latest technologies to hit the net and it is an essential part of the evolution of business on the internet. Java is popular because it scores very high on all the above features. This is mainly because it has a prominent presence on both the client and server side. Another important facet of Java applications is that it can run anywhere. All you need is a JVM (Java Virtual Machine) running on the client’s computer. Fortunately, this is a feature that is shipped automatically with most browsers. So, you would not need to install new software or change existing systems on your machine to accommodate Java.

Apart from this, Java application development for web technologies have several other advantages. Java is easy to learn and understand. Therefore, you can easily hire java developers or even learn a little coding yourself. Java is platform independent.

Regardless of whether you are using Microsoft Windows server, Linux or UNIX systems, you do not have to worry about portability. The ability to run the same system on different platforms and machines is an important feature of web technologies because you cannot really predict what system your clients are using and what technologies can run on their systems.

Java persistence application programming Interface or JAVA Persistence API is the latest version of the Java Data Objects (JDO) technology which was the earlier persistent technology used by developers. JPA or the Java Persistence API is the latest Java Specification standard for java enterprise applications. The Java Persistence API is a java programming language framework that allows developers to manage relational data in Java standard edition and Enterprise Edition applications. Java Persistence API originated as part of the work of the JSR 220 expert group.
The java persistence API’s has been developed after drawing upon the best ideas from other prevalent persistence technologies like Top link, JDO, Hibernate etc. In simple words, Java Persistence API is a Plain Old Java Object API for object /relational mapping and supports a rich, SQL –like query language for both static and dynamic queries.Vendors involved in application development have found that the use of Hibernate technology with Java persistence API’s helps build flexible, database driven web applications that are highly scalable and involve complex business processes.

An important aspect of the popularity of Java application development for web technologies is the fact that it is an objects oriented language. So, programmers can easily create modules that can be used time and again. This obviously saves time and money. Rich internet application increases the overall productivity of the website and consequently provides a rich user experience for the visitors. It adds a flexibility to your web pages making them more alive, interactive and responsive.
You can use a variety of technologies and design elements to implement Web site navigation. As you consider different navigation techniques, keep the above seven basic comparison factors in mind. Visitors are becoming rare and rare in this competitive globe of e-commerce. Retain those who visit to your site for longer period in order to convert them as customers. Site navigation techniques help you to do so.

Java is popular with web developers because of its watertight security. Java has its own interpreter and compiler and its unique runtime environment too. These were developed with security in mind. Thus, Java offers great relief to merchant accounts and shopping cart systems that list security as a high priority.

Java application development is very popular with programmers because of its ease of use, robustness and portability. Its additional security features have helped make it the programming language of choice for internet solutions the world over.

A-1 Technology being a global leader in technology and IT-consulting firm is well known for delivering the best, cost-effective services and solutions. We possess experience in developing Java Application on different platforms. A perfect blend of our professional skills and experience makes us ideal choice for your Java Applications. A-1 Technology is your right source for best Java Application.

For more information you can contact our local sales person

Richard Sarno
Project Manager
A-1 Technology, Inc.
115 Broadway, 13th Floor
New York, NY 10006
P: (212) 397-7481
F: (212) 931-8530

Indian Pharmaceutical Offshoring, geared up to join global market

2008-10-03T23:11:00.000-05:00

The Indian Pharmaceutical Offshoring (IPO) is expected to become a US$2.5bn opportunity by 2012 says a research by Zinnov Management Consulting. According to the study, the Indian pharma sector is growing robustly and is expected to shift from domestic to exports by 2010.

A transition is also expected in the growth of pharmaceutical markets from the top seven established pharmaceutical markets to emerging markets like India, China, Brazil, Mexico, South Korea, and Russia – which will grow at 12-13 % in 2008, and become a USD 85-90 billion market, finds the study.

Pari Natarajan, CEO, Zinnov Management Consulting, says, “Influx of outsourced work from global pharmaceutical companies has given the necessary impetus for the creation of pharma Special Economic Zones (SEZ), which would be one of the key drivers of outsourced pharmaceutical services growth in the coming future”. Further he added, “Indian pharmaceutical companies need to penetrate further in generics market in regulated countries and also increase their investment in R&D to move to gain expertise in higher value chain processes. Today, pharmaceutical is one of the most happening industries globally, and India has the potential to become one of the key global pharmaceutical players and also become the backbone of offshored services in Pharmaceuticals”.

The Government has provided tax incentives to the pharmaceutical industry and has taken necessary steps to enact tough laws on data security and IP related issues to mitigate certain offshoring challenge which has given India the potential to join the key global pharmaceutical players and also become the backbone of off-shored services in Pharmaceuticals.

WordPress: Ideal choice for developing blogs

2008-10-03T04:53:00.002-05:00

WordPress is an open-source blog engine released under the GNU general public license. It is a blog publishing system written in PHP and backed by a MySQL database. It is the official successor of b2\cafelog, developed by Michel Valdrighi. It has two components, one is a free, Web-based blog-hosting service called WordPress.com. The other is WordPress.org, which provides users with software to run a more feature-rich version of the blogging tool on their own servers.

It can be considered as an ideal tool for developing blogs and though it is chiefly used for blogging, it can also be used as a complete CMS with very little effort. It is versatile and simple and thats why it has attracted a large, enthusiastic, and helpful community of users. WordPress has several benefits and is supported by a huge section of users and developers.

WordPress has gained huge popularity as an open source blogging and publishing platform. The abundance of free themes and plugins as well as its ease-of-use have contributed to the attraction and popularity for using WordPress. While there are some great free themes for WordPress, many only offer basic functionality and simplistic designs.

Whether users are working with a pre-existing theme or creating a new one from the ground up, WordPress Theme Design will give them the know-how to effectively understand how themes work within the WordPress blog system enabling them to have full control over their site's design and branding. Users only need to be comfortable with the basics of web development and this book will take care of the rest.

Not only feature rich - it supports categories, pages and track backs, just to name a few - it is constantly being updated through its core software as well as through software plugin's which are bonus software components that extend the basic functionality of WordPress.

A-1 Technology is a perfect destination to get the top quality service as we have expertise in WordPress. Our team comprises of specialists of WordPress enabling our clients to take maximum benefit in WordPress.

ColdFusion: Versatile and simple Web Solutions

2008-10-02T04:54:00.002-05:00

At the verge of the present Tech 3 generation's impulse for more adaptable and less complicated mode of programming has led Internet web designers, website owners and programmers find themselves some exclusive solutions, which resulted in the influx of ColdFusion and ColdFusion hosting, an advanced scripting language and hosting facility, which makes use of databases such as MS Access, Foxpro and Paradox.

ColdFusion hosting enables a fusion of most programming languages in a way that positively adds to the versatility of the website it is being used for. Truly, this is one good feature most web designers and potential domain-hosting customers should seek.

ColdFusion hosting has various levels. It can be basic or advanced, regarding on one’s preferences. The entire package for cold fusion hosting can actually stand on its own, having other features as add-ons.

It is very simple to use applications that can be accessed by everybody . Pages in ColdFusion application include server side CFML in addition to HTML. The tags written in ColdFusion are mostly in CFML that is ColdFusion Mark Up Language which simplifies integration with database and avoid the use of complex languages like c++ to translate the programs.

ColdFusion supports Action script and a few other programing languages besides programming languages, the use of ColdFusion means cost effective undertaking of the projects. It handles non standard installations and offers migration tools.

A-1 Technology is a brilliant place to get best in ColdFusion Technology. We have a team of experts in ColdFusion technology, enabling our clients to take maximum benefit. Here you would get best in ColdFusion Programming , ColdFusion development, ColdFusion e-commerce. A-1 is also home to experts in ColdFusion Programming. We offer innovative and efficient ColdFusion solutions to our clients.

ASP.net: Adding value to technology

2008-09-29T05:39:00.002-05:00

ASP (Active Server Pages) was first released in December 1996. Since then it has under gone several changes and has grown and tailored to the new methods of developing web sites and applications for the internet over the span of time.

In ASP.net major weight is on n-tier architecture in the applicationdevelopment and there is separation of data presentation, business logicand data access layers. It offers object oriented approach for the software development.

The .net compliant language is compatible with ASP.net like C# and VB.net,where both are server-sided languages. ASP.net process is separate from inetinfo.exe and the debugging process is easier in ASP.net.

Unlike traditional ASP it can run on Microsoft platforms as well as non-Microsoft platforms . In classic ASP the executable code cannot beseparated from the HTML making the page difficult to read and maintain. Thecode block has to be placed when ever the output is to be shown. This limitation of code is overcome in ASP.net by the use of server controls.The HTML and Web Server Controls created on the server require a The use of ASP.net pages gives a performance and security edge. It supports the usage of any .net language. There is no restriction over the use ofJava Script or VB Script on your Web pages.

Finally it can be said thatASP.net has opened up a whole new programming model with the blend andcombination of web forms, server-side controls, data binding along with webservices. ASP.net has just scratched the surface of the Microsoft Active Server Page technology, which will continue to improve in the coming yearswith the latest additions on the technology front.

A-1 Technology is a perfect place where you get the top quality serviceas we have expertise in ASP.net technology. Our team comprises ofspecialists of ASP.net technology enabling our clients to take maximumbenefit in ASP.net.

ROR – Super Productive,Powerful Web Application

2008-09-26T05:28:00.004-05:00

A trivial phenomenon has swept the web world in the last few years. Like several things in the of software, it was over hyped. Here we are talking about ROR.

ROR, is the latest technical jargon that stands for Ruby on Rails. ROR is an open source web programming application framework designed for faster web applications. The Ruby programming is a free program and is constantly improved by ROR Programmers to make it more better and user friendly. Ruby on Rails development comes with features such as Model View Controller architecture that separates data from logic i. e. presentation layer and helps in organizing application program. ROR database access library simplifies data handling. Rails framework has an extensive AJAX library which it uses to generate AJAX code and the required Java script is automatically generated.

ROR is acknowledged for its proficiency to build web applications rapidly and with ease. Even for first-time users of Java, it could take just a little time to build a moderately useful web application that will communicate with a database using accepted Java web best-practices such as separating business logic, from display logic.

Rails has an ORM database layer built into its framework called Active Record. Another useful feature of Rails is scaffolding ,Rails can generate code called scaffolding that can be used to quickly put up functional web pages that talk to a database and allow you to add, delete and change information quickly and with very little coding.

Another trait of Ruby on Rails that enrich developer productivity is the rapid feedback loop. The feedback loop is the amount of time between making a change in code and seeing the results in the execution of application on the screen.

In Rails, one gets nearly-instant feedback as you code. There is no compile or packaging phase needed. You can immediately load a browser page to see the results of your changes. Managers should take note of this feature, because with enhanced productivity comes improved client satisfaction.

A Content Management System (CMS) provides the foundation for an easy to maintain a website. The most important thing is to decide which CMS should be used .

Customization factor that means how difficult it is to develop custom functionality particular to a project. Some CMS systems make this simple while others may present more of a challenge.

The ROR market is all geared up for anything that gives them visibility into their applications, whether that is on the developer's desktop or the running production application.

Benefits of Ruby on Rails include:
1. Rails works well with various web servers and databases as it is really easy to deploy web solutions using Rails.

2. With Ruby on Rails work is done faster otherwise before web applications which were using languages such as PHP, Java, ASP, could take ages to complete and in the end you may just have a large stack of unmentionable codes.

3. Rails provide fast and easy development with quality results.

4. With Ruby programming language you need to write few lines of code in comparison to other programming language to reach the same result.

5. The Ruby on rails framework software also supports MySQL, SQL, SQL Server, DB2 and Oracle.

6. ROR CMS provides very flexible solutions, final output depends on user choice no pre-format is mandatory, image cropping, resizing, multi-language support, excellent usability, sort able tree-based admin interface, layout editor, scaffold template is created.

7. Rails applications are Tailor made to perfection for an individual or an enterprise and best fit for all kind of web application. Rails architecture is used and most preferred for development of CMS, e-commerce, portals, collaboration, and community.

The new performance management and profiling tools are important additions to the ROR development community as ROR moves from being a hobbyist development language to a bonafide enterprise development framework. Most of our attention now is moving over to the general rails environment and ecosystem creating tools and environments for development and production so that people can work better with and on their rails applications.

Africa to join India and China in the Outsourcing Arena

2008-09-23T05:48:00.000-05:00

The first African Outsourcing Summit, hosted by the Commonwealth Business Council (CBC) and Cyber Media, will be held on the 27 and 28 November 2008 in London. According to Dr Mohan Kaul,director general CBC, ' The summit is being held at a time when outsourcing is going through major change'. He further added 'It is expected that the global outsourcing market in 2008 will be worth $150 billion, with the potential to double in the next year.' The growth and potential of the industry has led countries such as India and China to look for partners offshore to match growing capacity needs. This need has led to the emergence of African countries as favorable outsource destinations.

The summit will bring together senior government policy makers and industry representatives from African nations, key decision-makers, outsource service buyers and other stakeholders from the European and global outsourcing industry.

A joint research report by CBC and Cyber Media will be presented at the summit. The report will benchmark the outsourcing initiatives of selected African countries, according to parameters that measure the capability and capacity of the outsourcing industry in those countries. CBC said the report aims to be a starting point for discussion for countries considering outsourcing in Africa, and highlights the key issues facing these countries.

Ruby on Rails: Making its Way towards The Top

2008-09-22T05:58:00.002-05:00

Ruby on Rails is an open source web application frame work for the ruby programming language. It is projected to be used with an Agile development methodology, which is often utilized by web developers for its suitability for short, client-driven projects.

Ruby programming language was created in the late 1990's. It had a cult following but it failed to reach high status. In 2004, a company called 37 Signals released a Web programming framework called Rails, which was originally developed for their own in-house projects. Rails was written using the Ruby programming language. So it is the combination of Ruby and Rails together that has generated great anticipation in the development community.

Rails is a full-stack framework for developing database-backed web applications according to the Model-View-Control pattern. From the Ajax in the view, to the request and response in the controller, to the domain model wrapping the database, Rails gives a pure-Ruby development environment.

It is an integrated framework that utilizes the dynamic nature of the object-oriented Ruby programming language. Rails developers emphasize features of the framework for productivity rather than tools, and they take a common approach to Web architecture that should satisfy the needs of a large portion of the Web application projects .

Ruby on Rails is known for its ability to build Web applications quickly and with ease. Even for first-time users of Java, it could take just about five to ten days to build a moderately useful Web application that will communicate with a database using accepted Java Web best-practices such as separating business logic, from display logic. With no prior training on Ruby on Rails, it takes about one day to accomplish the same goal using the Ruby programming language. In few more days, it enables user to build a relatively complete Web application with Ruby on Rails.

Rails has an ORM database layer built into its framework called Active Record. Another useful feature of Rails is scaffolding ,Rails can generate code called scaffolding that can be used to quickly put up functional Web pages that talk to a database and allow you to add, delete and change information quickly and with very little coding. As previously mentioned, in other languages you have to select naming conventions and define the general structure of the file system, while Rails utilizes conventions and the Ruby programming language so that all of that is provided for you.

Another feature of Ruby on Rails that enrich developer productivity is the rapid feedback loop. The feedback loop is the amount of time between making a change in code and seeing the results in the execution of your application on the screen. In Rails, you get nearly-instant feedback as you code. There is no compile or packaging phase needed. You can immediately load a browser page to see the results of your changes. Managers should take note of this feature, because with enhanced productivity comes improved client satisfaction.

It is essential to note that introducing a radically different framework such as Ruby on Rails can be detrimental to a company's development, testing, and production infrastructure. For example, Rails applications are installed differently than common development platforms such as Java or Microsoft's .NET. Operations managers need to understand how to deploy it effectively.

A common question regarding Ruby on Rails relates to its performance relative to its peers. Some companies claim that Ruby on Rails does not perform as well as comparable systems. Comments such as these must be looked at objectively and balanced against productivity gains. Managers then need to make the decision of whether it is cheaper to hire people or purchase additional hardware, and chances are they will find that purchasing more hardware makes better financial sense.

A-1 Technology, an offshore software outsourcing company is working on Ruby on Rails technology . Various small and large organizations can greatly benefit from this wonderful technology. A-1 technology has best in class resources for Ruby on Rails technology that can help in leveraging the capabilities of Ruby on Rails to reduce development cost and time to market.

For more information you can contact our local sales person

Richard Sarno
Project Manager
A-1 Technology, Inc.
115 Broadway, 13th Floor
New York, NY 10006
P: (212) 397-7481
F: (212) 931-8530

M7 Aerospace to join the BPO Business arena

2008-09-20T00:59:00.002-05:00

The M7 Aerospace LP has joined the arena of marketing the services of its supply chain management business support unit to outside customers.

The entity previously had been supporting M7's five commercial units by buying and managing the supply of aerospace components. M7's Supply Chain Management organization had been supporting some of the company's commercial and government businesses, including FedEx, The
Boeing Co.(NYSE: BA), Sikorsky, Lockheed Martin, Agusta Westland Bell and the U.S. government.

Brian Dannewitz, vice president of supply chain management for M7 says, 'We can substantially reduce indirect expense and increase cost savings for virtually any materials management operation.' Further he added, "Customers wishing to concentrate on their core competencies
can now achieve higher performance and efficiency gains in their purchasing and supply chain activities by subcontracting those functions to M7."

Under this latest move, the Supply Chain Management business will formally become a stand-alone Business Process Outsourcing provider.

As a Business Process Outsourcing provider, M7 will surely be able to offer staffing services and contract purchasing; logistics and shipping services; and procurement audit services.

M7 Aerospace is based out of San Antonio International Airport and operates from a 426,000-square-foot factory complex previously occupied by Fairchild Aircraft. M7 acquired the assets of Fairchild in December 2002 and began operating under M7 on April 1, 2003. At
present the company has more than 500 employees worldwide, including 300 in San Antonio.

Affordable, Comprehensive and Flexible Business Management System : SAP

2008-09-19T04:09:00.001-05:00

SAP is an acronym for "System Application & Products" which creates a common centralized database for all the applications running in an organization. SAP is a single, affordable business management solution that integrates the entire business. The application has been assembled in such a flexible way that it handles all the functional department within an organization. Today major companies like Microsoft and IBM are using SAP's Products to run their own businesses.

SAP Services help you to maximize your success through a combination of SAP experts, methodologies, tools, and certified partners – plus a comprehensive portfolio of service offerings. These offerings span all phases of your solution life cycle, from planning to building to running. So you can align your IT and business strategies, get your software up and running fast and keep it operating at peak levels – ensuring that IT supports your business goals.

SAP's applications are built around R/3 system which provides the functionality to manage product operations, cost accounting, assets, materials and personnel. It generally focus on Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP). The R/3 system of SAP runs on majority of platforms including windows 2000 and it uses the client/sever model.

It is very useful even for small accounting and financial firms. SAP jobs with companies are just getting off the ground. The right professional with the specific SAP knowledge can improve the growth of a company. Investing time and energy into these positions can lead to great rewards for SAP professionals. And for SAP professionals who work with smaller companies can also make their SAP experience for the next job hunt.

A-1 Technology, an offshore software outsourcing company is working on SAP technology . Various small and large organizations can greatly benefit from this wonderful technology. A-1 technology has best in class resources for SAP technology that can help in leveraging the capabilities of SAP to reduce development cost and time to market.

Latest Buzz in the Technology for CMS Solutions : Joomla!

2008-09-18T01:03:00.001-05:00

Joomla! is an award-winning content management system (CMS). That offers flexibility and power which is appreciated even by the new or intermediate web developer. Joomla! enables you to build web sites and powerful online applications. Many aspects, including its ease-of-use and extensibility, have made it the most popular web site software available. Best of all, Joomla! is an open source solution that is available free of cost.

CMS is a software that keeps track of every piece of content on your web site, like a local public library keeps track of books and stores them. A major advantage of using a CMS is that it requires almost no technical skill or knowledge to manage.

Joomla! is used all over the world to power web sites in ,corporate web sites or portals,corporate intranet and extranets ,online magazines, newspapers, other publications,e-commerce , online reservations,government applications,small business web sites,non-profit and organizational web sites ,community-based portals,personal or family home pages.

It is specially designed for ease to install and set up even if the user is not an advanced user. Many Web hosting services offer a single-click install, getting your new site up and running in just a few minutes. As a web designer or developer, you can quickly build sites for your clients. Then, with little instructions, you can empower your clients to easily manage their own sites themselves.

Many companies and organizations have requirements that go beyond what is available in the basic Joomla! package. In those cases, its' powerful application framework makes it easy for developers to create sophisticated add-ons that extend the power of Joomla! into virtually unlimited directions.

Since Joomla! is based on PHP and My SQL, it builds powerful applications on an open platform anyone can use, share, and support that too with extreme ease.

The core Joomla! framework enables developers to quickly and easily build: inventory control systems, data reporting tools,application bridges,custom product catalogs, integrated e-commerce systems, complex business directories,reservation systems and communication tools etc.

A-1 Technology, an offshore software outsourcing company is working on Joomla! technology . Various small and large organizations can greatly benefit from this wonderful technology. A-1 technology has best in class resources for Joomla! technology that can help in leveraging the capabilities of Joomla! to reduce development cost and time to market.

Pace Up your Business With Wonderful Technology : Flex Programming

2008-09-17T01:17:00.006-05:00

Flex is a framework that enables you to build dynamic and interactive,Rich Internet Applications or RIA. Flex applications are delivered onInternet via the Flash Player or to the desktop via Adobe Apollo. Itprovides a modern, standards-based language and programming model that supports common design patterns. MXML, a declarative XML-basedlanguage,Action Script 3, is used to describe UI layout and behaviors,and a powerful object-oriented programming language is used to create client logic. You can also build applications using the free Flex SDK or Flex Builder, an Eclipse based IDE.

It is a complete, powerful application development solution for creating and delivering cross-platform RIA within the enterprise and across the web. Flex, makes it possible to program real-time systems that can respond to dynamic environments. Even when certain resources are not available, the program can produce approximate, imprecise results.

Adobe Flex Builder 3 accelerates Flex application development. It is an Eclipse based development tool enabling intelligent coding, interactive step-through debugging, and visual design of the user interface layout, appearance, and behavior of RIA.

Flex Builder 3 is available in both Standard and Professional editions. Both editions allow import of assets from Adobe Creative Suite 3 software, making it easy for designers and developers to work together. Flex Builder 3 Professional further adds powerful data visualization capabilities, the new Advanced Data grid, memory and performance profilers, and support for automated functional testing for developing business-critical applications.

It delivers business benefits across a wide range of industries, as well as meet the specific needs of enterprise customers. It has remarkable speed letting you to wind up your projects in the minimum time.

A-1 technology an offshore software outsourcing company is working on Flex technology. Various small and large organizations can greatly benefit from this wonderful technology. A-1 technology has best in class resources for Flex technology that can help in leveraging the capabilities of Flex to reduce development cost and time to market.

On the Verge of Latest Technology Market : i phone Technology Software

2008-09-16T05:07:00.002-05:00

The most hyped consumer electronics device ever created,The Apple iPhone Third Generation(3G) has finally landed in India. The good bits of the Apple's cool box include a stylish Hi-T mobile with extremely snappy features like i pod,3G,Multi touch,Global Positioning System (GPS),Sensors,Accelerometer etc.

Especially designed for the tech-3 generation, it is a revolutionary combo of a stylish and ease and includes a phone , wide screen i pod, breakthrough Internet device enabled with fast 3G wireless technology, Techno savvy 's can now surf the web, download email, get directions, and watch video even while they're on a call.

For music animals, it is one amazing i pod with wide screen display and multi touch controls. With its GPS mapping you can get directions and see traffic as it combines GPS, Wi-Fi, and cell tower location technology with the Multi-Touch interface,

It supports for enterprise features like Microsoft Exchange, and the new Application Store, It responds to motion using a built-in accelerometer. Using your movements you can rotate, change the display and control games.

The iPhone SDK was released on March 6, 2008, which allows complete access to the phone. The iPhone Developer Program provides a complete and integrated process for developing, debugging, and distributing your free, commercial, or in-house applications for iPhone. Complete with development resources, real-world testing on iPhone, and distribution on the Application Store, you have everything you need to go from code to customer.

The iPhone Developer Standard and Enterprise Programs provide the development resources you need to create your iPhone applications, test directly on iPhone and distribute

You can develop an application for it using your existing web tools the SDK for the iPhone is standard Dynamic HTML (DHTML) through the Web browser. So, you can use all the familiar HTML, Cascading Style Sheet (CSS), and Asynchronous Java Script™ + XML (Ajax) front-end technologies in combination with your choice of back-end technology: PHP, Rails, Java™ technology

Even though Apple created iPhone as a closed device, several developers bought them with the express purpose of designing and running third-party software. Who have run third party applications on their iPhone, but its concepts and code examples have shown to be remarkably similar to Apple's official SDK,

We at A1 technology make iPhone Developer Program, which means that by delivering your software or web service on iPhone, A-1 Technology aims to enter into a new and exploding technology market. You can have one of the first third party applications on this new technology devised either by porting an existing application or developing a new. Our iPhone developers are professional in iPhone programming and softwares which would be required for the development. So you can opt for hiring our iPhone SDK Programmer or Outsource iPhone SDK Programmer. We are experienced in the field of developing mobile applications on various platforms.

We have a perfect combination of our professional skills and experience that makes us the ideal choice for your iPhone application development.

A1 Technology, an offshore software outsourcing company is working on i phone development technology . Various small and large organizations can greatly benefit from this wonderful technology. A-1 technology has best in class resources for i phone development technology that can help in leveraging the capabilities of i phone development to reduce development cost and time to market.

For more information you can contact our local sales person

Richard Sarno
Project Manager
A-1 Technology, Inc.
115 Broadway, 13th Floor
New York, NY 10006
P: (212) 397-7481
F: (212) 931-8530

IRS cancels Outsourcing contract with IAP

2008-09-15T02:49:00.000-05:00

IRS has decided that it will cancel a multi million documents-management contract which is expected to bring more than 700 outsourced IRS jobs in house. The agency announced last week that it will no longer contract with IAP Worldwide to manage and store taxpayer files. The Federal employees will resume performing those duties from Oct. 1. It is expected that IRS will take three months to fill the needed positions with seasonal and full-time employees.

The company has won a $103 million contract for the work after a controversial public-private jobs competition was held which was won by the IRS employees and then successfully challenged by IAP. IAP at present is well known for storing and managing taxpayer files at seven regional tax return processing centers since last two years. Arlene Mellinger, a IAP spokeswoman told that IAP will continue to perform the work throughout the transition to the in-house team.

According to Colleen Kelley, president of the National Treasury Employees Union,'This marks the first time since this administration launched its aggressive contracting out program that I have seen a major contract ‘in-sourced.’ He further added “Turning over the sensitive work of filing and maintaining tax returns and their related documents and correspondence was a bad idea from the start.”

“Federal agencies should take a long look at the private-sector companies doing the work of the federal government and bring that work back in-house,” Kelley said and further added, “When federal employees are given the tools and resources to do their jobs, there is no one who can do the work of the federal government better than federal employees.”

According to NTEU, IAP failed to meet two deadlines to begin managing the documents, leaving IRS to staff the centers with federal employees for part of 2007. After IAP took over the work, there were lengthy delays in retrieving the information stored in those facilities.

However the IRS declined to comment on why it canceled the contract with IAP.

Indian IT stepping towards Japan

2008-09-13T01:57:00.000-05:00

Indian IT services companies have turned to Japan as the right market , Japan being one of the most IT spending nations in the world. Considering Japan as a major automobile and consumer electronic manufacturing destination in the world and as one of the most IT spending nations, Nasscom, an IT industry body is presently undertaking a study to evaluate the out sourcing opportunities in Japan.

According to Ameet Nivsarka, Vice President, Nasscom , 'Revenue from Japan hardly contributes to three percent of our total software services exports. We believe that Europe and Japan offer huge potential for Indian vendors.' Nasscom, an IT industry body is presently undertaking a study to evaluate the out sourcing opportunities.

Sabyasachi, Senior Director, neoIT added that currently Japan's outsourcing requirement is for embedded software and solutions and a lot of low end work testing and coding. When it opens up for more complex solutions, Indian services majors will see a traction coming from this region

Some of the Indian companies have already attempted to enter the outsourcing market of Japan. For example India's second largest IT company, Infosys has signed a pact with Nihon Unisys to combine its global delivery model with the latter's strength in the Japanese market.

Another major Indian IT company, Wipro has tied up with some of the leading Japanese corporates including NEC. Around 3 percent of Wipro' s IT revenue comes from Japan. Similarly, Infotech Enterprises, Patni Computer and KPIT Cummins have substantial presence in Japanese market.

In an IT analyst 's opinion In Japan it takes a considerable period of time to build the relationship and get a contract as local talent and understanding of IT buying behavior of corporations in Japan were critical to make a foray into this market.

EJB With three tier structure, expecting a great future ahead

2008-09-12T02:25:00.001-05:00

Java beans are Java objects and its application determines the methods and properties available in an object using reflection. Its methods and properties can be determined by an application at run time and customize it's properties using the methods available for that object.

Description of Enterprise Java Bean (EJB) application development is incomplete without the understanding of what a java session bean actually is. So Java session beans are Java components that run in either stand -alone EJB containers that are part of the standard java platform enterprise edition application servers. These java beans are typically used to model a particular task or use case such as input of customer information or executing a process that maintains a conversation state with a client application.

Most of the database driven applications are developed using open source technologies having a three-tier structure. The web application itself runs in the browser of a desktop or a laptop. Users can only access the front end of the application to input data or search strings. Java being platform independent allows applications to be accessed on any device say a pda ,cellphone or telnet device.

EJB application development occurs by employing a three-tier architecture consisting of a front end known as the web container, an EJB container, the third tier being the database. This three-tier structure has proved to be immensely useful for enterprise application development.

EJB container manages the server side components .Their similarity to Java Beans r is only to the extent that they both share the name Bean and both are customizable components. A normal Java Bean is basically an Intra-Process Component,where as an EJB is an Inter-Process Component. That means that an EJB component can be accessed and used by many processes existing in different JVM s.

In order for a container to be able to manage bean instances,EJB classes must implement certain interfaces that contain the call back methods that a container invokes to notify the bean instance of any change in it's properties or to inform the bean instance of any specific action that it has to take

An EJB is written as if it is a single threaded application. In fact,EJB classes can never be multi threaded. They can not be threads themselves nor can they start any new thread. It is the job of the container to manage instances of EJB classes.

However all the fields available in a class are not directly accessible. The application inspecting the java object can manipulate only those for which there are public methods available to get or set the fields of the object. Further, if an application has to create an object and set it's properties,the class defining the object must have a public default constructor which the application can call.

Hence it is quiet important for a normal Java object to qualify as a Java bean and the class that defines the object must have a public default constructor which should implement the serial interface if the bean state which has to be stored provided it should have methods that allows the application builder to customize their properties.

For this the server side application should monitor data on each bean instances and update the modified value of all bean instances. Again,providing a private bean instance to each client can be a load on system resources such as memory. To make a balance between performance and resource utilization,it becomes essential that limited number of bean instances are shared among a larger number of clients,with the server side application managing the problems related to consistency of data among all the shared bean instances.

Any of the above-mentioned technologies JSP,JSF, java servlets can be used to call a session bean. Since the Enterprise java bean container is connected to the database, it is capable of processing the queries of the users. Once the session bean is invoked , it processes the request and sends a feed back to the web application. The web application then formats the response as required and returns a response to the client end.

Being open source EJB application development is expecting a very bright future in the enterprise application development space in coming time.

A-1 Technology, an offshore software outsourcing company is working on java technology . Various small and large organizations can greatly benefit from this wonderful technology. A-1 technology has best in class resources for java technology that can help in leveraging the capabilities of java to reduce development cost and time to market.

Source Net Solutions No. 1 APOV for III Consecutive Year: Brown Wilson group

2008-09-11T01:19:00.000-05:00

According to the list compiled by the Brown-Wilson Group, authors of The Black Book of Outsourcing. Source Net Solutions ranked No. 1 among the Accounts Payable (AP) outsourcing vendors for the third consecutive year on the 2008 Top 50 Best Managed Global Outsourcing Vendors.

On this occasion, Leon Busch, the president and Chief Executive Officer of Source Net Solutions said, "Receiving this recognition for the third consecutive year underscores the extent to which we've institutionalized our commitment to out performance in support of our clients, enabling them to focus on building new revenue streams while reducing corporate risk,"

Source Net Solutions is a division of The Bank of New York Mellon's Treasury Services group which secured first overall rank, by beating all vendors surveyed in 11 different categories, which included support and customer care; trust; best-of-breed technology and process improvement; reliability; customization; and deployment and outsourcing implementation.

The Brown-Wilson Group analyzed more than 24,000 validated responses from outsourcing users globally and investigated more than 700 functions and 40 sectors to determine "best fit" vendors within multiple industry specifications. The 2008 listing is based upon 18 operational excellence key performance indicators completely from the perspective of the client experience.

The Bank of New York Mellon Corporation is a leading provider of financial services for institutions, corporations and high net-worth individuals, providing superior asset management and wealth management, asset servicing, issuer services, clearing services and treasury services through a worldwide client-focused team. It is a global financial services company which at present has more than $23 trillion in assets under custody and administration, more than $1.1 trillion in assets under management and services $12 trillion in outstanding debt. focused on helping clients manage and service their financial assets, operating in 34 countries and serving more than 100 markets.

Legal Outsourcing Catching Popularity in India

2008-09-10T01:12:00.003-05:00

Legal outsourcing is the latest movement catching up with the audience and following the tendency that many countries are going for India. Tough economic conditions bring pressure to cut the price of legal services and the simplest way of cutting costs is by allocating the work to cheaper suppliers. This is of particular interest to in-house lawyers who are already working to reduce their expenditure on external law firms while streamlining their own departments.

Both back office work and the front line provision of legal services can be outsourced and law firms are already outsourcing work such as word processing, graphics and design, accounting and IT. India is among the most popular current locations for this.

India having a large number of well-qualified English speaking lawyers adds to the world's largest supplier of outsourced legal services. Usually the junior Indian lawyers are less expensive to employ and Indian law firms have spotted this opportunity and set up their own outsourcing operations.

The outsourcing of legal service is challenging and many lawyers are intuitively uncomfortable with the idea that some of their work might be parceled out to third party providers but the reality is that much of the work that lawyers do today is relatively routine and does not need to be kept exclusively to traditional law firms.

Looking forward, it is unlikely that the ongoing efforts to reduce the costs of legal service will stop at outsourcing Just as outsourcing enables routine work to be done more cheaply, so too can technologies such as automatic document production and work flow systems.

Whereas outsourcing costs are likely to rise as a consequence of inflation in the more popular outsourcing locations in the coming years, in contrast, technology costs will tend to fall over time. Accordingly, those who are considering outsourcing should always investigate whether there is a technological alternative that may be less costly and allow lawyers and clients to avoid some of the tricky legal and regulatory obstacle

Outsourcing hike lead to domestic growth in India:IT Industry Survey

2008-09-09T01:53:00.001-05:00

As a result of maturing outsourcing market, India's IT market has hiked so high for the first time in over a decade to 34 per cent in 2007 -08, as compared to 27 per cent for exports, which is the opposite of what happened the last fiscal, says the annual IT industry survey. In value terms, exports, at Rs.1,897.92 billion 47.45 billion, still account for two thirds of total revenues while the domestic sales were estimated at Rs.990.18 billion.

The creditable performance of India's domestic IT market, with 65 per cent growth in business process outsourcing BPO industry has made it possible. The value of outsourcing depends largely on the structure of the relationship. This is where Indian domestic transactions in the BPO space underwent a major shift in fiscal 2007-08. At 24.5 billion, the Indian domestic IT market is not exactly a small market. In terms of dollar it grew 50 per cent the survey adds.

The survey further finds some interesting trends in the outsourcing industry where the players are evolving from short term, project driven deals to longer term, comprehensive outsourcing initiatives will help the IT industry. Over the next few years, staff augmentation and project based deals would gradually dwindle to be replaced by more comprehensive outsourcing engagements is expected.

During the year, the market saw IT services companies bag multi million dollar deals for periods ranging from 5 to 10 years, apart from large outsourcing deals in the e governance and e procurement space. IBM Global Services bagged the accounts of Vodafone, Idea Cellular and IGI. HP secured Bank of India and Britannia orders. TCS clinched a huge passport processing contract.

This change has been an eye opener of sorts because, for the first time, people seem to have woken up to the potential of the domestic BPO market, the survey says while pointing towards other reasons for the domestic IT growth.

Canadian company geared up to provide outsourcing to Sun Trust Banks

2008-09-08T04:04:00.001-05:00

Symcor Inc a Toronto-based company has signed a 10-year agreement to outsource "a significant portion" of the Sin Trust bank's back-office banking operations. In addition, Symcor will handle bank's check clearing, lock box processing and statement production functions. Symcor is already well known in providing similar back-office services to five of the 15 largest North American banks.

Symcor will purchase or lease those facilities from Sun Trust in those locations, which adds to the Canadian company's existing operations in Chicago, Atlanta, Orlando, Fla., Charlotte, N.C. and Los Angeles.

As part of the deal, about 1,500 Sun Trust employees will be moved out of the bank and, according to a company spokesman, 54 positions could be eliminated. However, the bank did ensured transparency in the process. In fact last year, the bank sold branches and office space across its southeastern footprint in a sale/leaseback agreement and cut staffing.

For Sun Trust, the latest move is part of the bank's company-wide cost-cutting initiative announced last spring, dubbed "Efficiency in Execution," or E Squared, as told by company spokesman Mike McCoy. He further added,"This is consistent with the rest of our E Squared program'.

However the financial terms of the deal were not disclosed in the statement, nor did the bank disclose possible cost savings as a result of the deal.

Expected outsourcing opportunities India: TCS

2008-09-06T01:38:00.001-05:00

BPO companies have taken a fresh look at tapping the domestic outsourcing opportunity in India.

Indian economy is growing and so is the opportunity to outsource given the need to cut costs in a difficult environment. And, global BPOs like Infosys and TCS are expected to go all hammer and tongs to grab a slice of the USD 16 billion domestic outsourcing pie.

According to VK Raman,Head-BPO Services, TCS , "We have a small BPO presence in the domestic market, which is in single-digits. We believe that if we put our mind to it we will find the right solutions. The scope is very large, so growth can be there. We need to solve equations like cost and margins among others."

And experts adds that question arises from the absence of wage arbitrage and lack of Indian companies fully appreciating the benefits of outsourcing. However, TCS, which ventured into and long before it was fashionable, begs to differ.

Joining TCS in that view are BPO bigwigs like Genpact and WNS who recently announced efforts to concentrate on the Indian market. big companies are willing to invest in the long-term despite not seeing immediate profits on the table.

IT and IT-enabled outsourcing latest upsurge in Cebu economy

2008-09-05T01:13:00.001-05:00

Information Technology (IT) and IT-enabled outsourcing investments have emerged as the latest growth driver of the Cebu economy after export-oriented industries and tourism, Though outsourcing in software development and data transcription services have been in Cebu since the 1990s, but the industry received a pace only after 2K.

According to the Cebu Education Foundation for IT (C Ed F-IT) the number of software developers raised from 850 to more than 5,000, while IT-enabled service workers increased from 7,000 to more than 20,000 from the 2001 to 2007. Between 2001 to 2007, around 70 percent of investments were in information and communication technology (ICT).

Among the challenges faced by the industry was, the supply of the right quality of human resources. As it requires high quality workers able to work in a global work environment, communicate with international clients and colleagues, technically competent in their fields and computer literate. Outsourcing companies have to compete with other industries in attracting qualified workers. As a new industry, many people are still not familiar with outsourcing and the many career opportunities that it offers.

Potential workers, particularly high school students who are still deciding on what career path to take, need to be informed about career opportunities in the outsourcing industry, especially in higher valued BPO, ITO and ESO services.

Cebu gave a good response to the initial challenges of the development of the outsourcing talent pool by upgrading the skills of workers and through the development of training programs in higher education institutions. As a result of which the challenge is generating more interest and attracting more people to invest in a career in the outsourcing industry.

Excellent opportunity for outsourcing market expected in INDIA

2008-09-04T03:37:00.000-05:00

India and other low Cost Countries (LCC s) are expected to tap the multi-billion dollar global component. According to Automotive Component Manufacturers Association (ACMA), the number of car models up soared from 503 models in 2007 to an estimated 644 in 2015, Experts find huge opportunity for outsourcing market in India.

“ As a result of cost competitiveness that India and BRIC nations like China and Brazil offer, the automobile industry has undergone two big changes. Firstly there has been relocation of manufacturing facilities to LCCs as they manufacture more value-added products at lower rates as compared to developed countries, secondly even R&D is gradually shifting to these countries.” says John Hadley, partner, Price Waterhouse Coopers–Automotive Practice, he further expects the emerging markets to contribute 49% to the total global auto component industry which is pegged at $25 billion.

Sontosh Mohan Dev, minister for heavy industries, finds full potential in India to be the global R&D center with twin advantage of having one of the largest pool of talented engineers and scientists

But according to RC Bhargava, chairman, Maruti Suzuki India, “India has still not reached the stage where we can design products on our own without assistance from our foreign counterparts due to lack of strong design capabilities. This is largely due to low expenditure of just 1.65% of the total revenue that goes into R&D vis-à-vis 7% in Japan,”

He further adds to his statement , “Since engineering resources are very expensive in Europe and other developed countries and are not available at short notice, it is an opportunity for India to develop design capabilities that will reduce the time cycle in an economy where the product life cycle is shrinking,”

While Sanjay Labroo, president, ACMA, finds the slump in industry due to high interest rates. According to him 'high inflation has given us an opportunity to invest in improving efficiency and developing design capabilities.'