Microsoft has made the technical world very simple and smooth. Ever since Microsoft has come up with ASP.NET there has been a widespread debate among programmers as to whether it is better than any existing open source language like PHP. If we compare ASP.NET with PHP, ASP.NET wins as being an object oriented it is more organised and maintainable than scripted PHP. Newer version of PHP supports OOP but its very limited compared to ASP.NET. When we talk about flexibility too ASP.NET  is one step ahead of scripting languages. ASP.NET is much faster and has a great debugging support. PHP being a scripting language promotes messy code which lead to poor handling capability. We have experience with ASP.NET as well as PHP and over the period realized .NET is much better for high tech web applications. Once we had to convert a PHP based jewelry website to .NET. After this conversion, we compared the load test and realized that there is slight reduction in hosting cost because of inbuilt support in ASP.NET for session scaling like state server and SQL server based sessions. PHP need more processing power than ASP.NET. Scripting Language like PHP is scalable but ASP.NET is more scalable & provides a good support.

Its not that PHP does not work well but its like PHP is simpler, quicker to learn, faster to deploy smaller applications, but when we talk about large applications ASP.NET is prefered due to its robust programming  model and excellent support. When we search about the speed of PHP and ASP.NET, PHP wins the race theoritically and is total a myth, actually when we practically observe ASP.NET is much faster.It has become much like religious arguments that ignores facts .

Not only this there are many questions that come when we think of Microsoft technologies. Will OSS ever displace traditional Software from its market leadership position? We already discussed the framework now lets see some points regarding operating system too. If we take Operating System Linux, a OSS and Windows, the Microsoft product, both differ in philosophy, cost, ease of use, versatility and stability with each seeking to improve in their perceived weak areas.

One big advantage to Microsoft technologies is the Market Share and the popularity. But still neither side is likely to be forced from battle field. OSS offers too many benefits to the users even then most important thing that is the market share which is with Microsoft technologies. Because the value of Operating System that is Linux or Windows depends on the number of users so traditional  softwares has an advantage here. Sometimes the behavior of these technologies are like the customs and religions . People are following certain trends and traditions because it is coming in hierarchy , ancestors are following the chain cycle . Similar happens with the traditional software which people are using and do not want to change ,they think it is providing all facilities that the new OSS are providing them so why to switch to new one to waste time and energy. Cost  assymetries plays a great role, since OSS are freewares. So here in the absence of cost assymmetry windows took the first movers advantage. Oss can never displace Microsoft technologies of its leadership position. Now the question arises to make this cost factor symmetric. Can the Microsoft use piracy strategically to improve its market position?  Now we check the effect of piracy on Microsoft. When we compare the piracy rate of Microsoft and penetration power of other new OSS. We find the piracy is highest. Now this shows Microsoft can use piracy and people are using them instead of using available open source softwares. 

Open source softwares are coming into market showing their importance  but it cannot displace Microsoft Technologies from its market position. Every successful Corporation like Microsoft takes the responsibility to provide more user friendly, robust and scalable platform to its customers and leave a positive impact on the world and its people.

We @ Rigel Networks are Microsoft Partners delivering robust software solutions based on Microsoft Technologies as well as OSS.

45% of techies after getting 5+ years of IT experience undertake software projects as independent consultants or start a software company. Software services like web, desktop and mobile development need penny investments of computer, software tools and internet connection. In this fast growing digital world, youngsters seek rapid personal growth and have an indepedent working mindset which says "I Can Do Better Myself". Open source software  has fueled commoditization of software solutions and IT services and has given customers options to choose from multiple low cost service providers. Again with recession laying off techies, we expect more and more independent contractors coming out with application development and maintenance service. Softawre companies are "Mushroom-Like" growing rapidly all over in quick time. However in many cases, customers business is burnt and affected as small start up companies and contractors are unable to meet deadlines and deliver quality projects. Tech companies need to demonstrate past success, consultative proactive approach and develop an end to end service portfolio to act as one stop shop. Customers need to check YoY growth of IT service provider, interpret extent of successfully executed past projects in growth of customers business, interview service providers executive management, processes followed, get customer references and do an overall background check before getting associated for a long term project. After awarding the project,  regular monitoring of progress and cross checking delivery in alignment to business objectives helps customers and software service provider build and maintain a long term mutually beneficial business relationship. Beware of start up freelancing companies and individual consultants.

We @ Rigel Networks help customers with technology consulting, design, delivery, maintenance  and support of application along with third party integration, server maintenance and hosting.

Collaboration in real time is helping businesses to know whats going on in market. Hi-Tech companies like Oracle, Microsoft, Dell enagage with communities on Facebook and invite users to share their ideas and expectations. Tweets are the buzz word these days & it was proven when US Government requested Twitter to hold on their upgrade. Hi-Tech companies look for faster innovation and making money from information. Huge amount of unstructured information is available to organizations from external and internal sources. Collaboration helps utilizing this pool of unstructured information to innovatively co-create products with customers and offer a superior customer experience. Innovation in collaboration is being realized with tweets, video sharing, blogs, wikis, widgets, podcasts, and social networking sites. 

Facebook recently announced Developer Contest in India inviting users to develop applications for it and integrate the social networking portal with other applications. Internet companies are opening up applicaitons promoting collaboration via modular architecture, APIs and third party alliance. It is very important that business leaders draw inspiration from such instances and enhance their collaboration touchpoints. Collaboration must evolve traditional technologies and innovate current technologies. I believe that companies that judiciously adopt Innovation In Collaboration will be better positioned to create competitive advantage in this highly competitive world.

- Overpromising during the sales process, creating unrealistic expectations on the customer’s part
- Inappropriate structuring of the relationship, resulting in a divergence of interests over the life of the engagement
- Lack of attention to transitional details, resulting in relationship problems at the outset
- A lack of flexibility by both parties as business needs and operational requirements change
- Cultural mismatches between the organizations
- The use of benchmarking data to defend existing positions instead of generating improvements
- A high rate of turnover, especially among individuals responsible for managing the relationship
- Implied expertise in relationship management that does not exist
- Customers failing to think through their business objectives, especially as these change during the engagement
- Business leaders use a multidimensional approach when measuring alliance success as opposed to the one dimensional measures (cost savings, relationship factors, or resource access factors in isolation)
- A variety of financial, supplier competence, responsiveness, relationship, and resource access measures should be used to determine the success of alliance relationships
- Suppliers should offer more than lower costs to potential strategic customers

Experience transformational outsourcing with Rigel Networks.