EPF - Training made Easy

Training is a universal phenomenon and there are several challenges faced. One of the primary challenges faced in mass training is maintaining the quality as well as the consistency of the training material. Traditionally, Power Point presentations are created. These are then distributed to the trainers, who are typically located across a large geographical area. And as and when changes take place, and in most cases this happens as often as several times a month, these are communicated by mail, and the trainer is expected to make the changes. What has been found is that this process is difficult to monitor and several inconsistencies happen.

The second problem that takes place is that there are several versions of the same presentation available and quite often, an older version gets used. And finally, in cases of multi session training, there is major confusion and wastage of training time in locating the right presentation. Amongst several other limitations, there is also the limitation of the presentation being linear in nature and hence not amiable to spontaneous change by the trainer. Another limitation is the ability to seamlessly use surround material, such as applications, websites, et al.


 EPF was created to overcome all of these limitations. Add a few necessary tools. And make training material, easy and effective to use. EPF is a training tool that embeds presentations (Video, Flash, PowerPoint, etc.) and makes them all available to the trainer in an easy-to-use manner.

EPF solves the following customer need, essential in effective training:

• Consistency in Training
• Non edit ability
• Ability to easily access required content
• Ability to easily access online content
• Ability to access and use external applications
• Ability to convert projection into white or blackboard
• Ability to highlight or mark content being displayed
• Ability to magnify certain areas being displayed

And in case you're wondering EPF is an acronym for Executable Presentation Format. EPF has been successfully used by over 4 leading telecom BPO providers. We love the product. But that's not important. What's important is that the users have universally loved it. Here's what one of them had to say:

"The EPF as a training delivery vehicle has been a huge success in terms of what it was designed to achieve for us -

1. Visual appeal
2. Ease of use for the program facilitator (therefore learning delivery)
3. Very high navigability across width and depth of the program schedule (10 days +)
4. Ability to support other training tools (videos/emulators etc) which become an integral part of the EPF
5. Non-Editable feature - ensures program content consistency
6. Security features for IP protection"
   

We have been using the EPF over almost a year across multiple locations, end users and facilitators with considerable success. Thanks to the support we have received from you and your team the project has been a great success.

And finally, the EPF was responsible for us making it to Nasscom's IT Innovators list.

Humanizing Technology for Project Stakeholders

On Feb 12th, I was invited to conduct a webinar by the PMI's (Project Management Institute), Mumbai Chapter. The topic I chose to speak on was Humanizing Technology for Project Stakeholders.

This was my first experience of speaking at a webinar. This one had around 25 participants. The biggest difference I found between a seminar speaker and a webinar speaker was the participants. At a webinar, you are talking into thin air and have no idea that anybody out there can even hear you.

More important, because the interactions are limited and typically at the end of the session, during Q & A, there is no way to modify your presentation or what you;re saying based on the reaction of the participants. To encourage a little more interaction, I had inserted 3 surveys during the presentation. At the time of planning I had thought that this will allow me to decide the direction of the next part of the presentation.

I had no idea at that time, that it was these surveys would be the saving aspect. At periodical intervals of 20 minutes it allowed me to see that a large number of the participants were still awake.

The webinar was scheduled for around 90 minutes and went on for almost 2 hours. So I guess, at least some of the participants really participated. And surprisingly, many felt that the surveys added a lot, since it seemed like they had the same problem I did. They had no idea if the guy at the other end knoew or cared that they were participating.

I guess that given the savings in cost and time and the convenience offered, webinars are likely to be the future of seminars and conferences. Whilst I don't think they will completely replace them in the near future, I do feel that they will substitute for a large number of them and seminars will be reduced to the important ones to be conducted infrequently.

You can view or download a copy of the webinar presentation here.

Humanizing Technology 

Along with this, I shared with the participants 2 e-books on project management that I found interesting. You can download them and have a look.

ProjectMinds Quick Guide to Project Management by Manjeet Singh 

A Project Management Primer by Nick Jenkins

The Birth of a Product

Most births are planned, or so the parents would have us believe, but we all know that most births are accidents. And this is probably true for all things, including software products. One of my favorite products, ScreenPen was born in a very normal fashion. By pure accident. And for the record, all of WA's products are one of my favorite products.

During one of our design projects, we had created a presentation that was used by our client over 800 times, in less than 1 year. And the feedback must have been good, because they invited us to create a brand new presentation for the next year. Having tasted blood the first time, satisfying this client was going to be a nightmare. And to add to our woes, they wanted the presentation to convey their technological competence. This, their think tank, felt could be achieved by using various transitions, readily available in PowerPoint. Telling them that it was amateurish and only something to be attempted by 6th graders & incompetent sales managers, who had no creativity, fell on deaf ears.

The right option was to give in. But that would have been easy, and we, like most people with pretensions of being creative, refused to take that route. Our only option was to create something that would get the client think-tank to change their mind. Like Bush's Shock and Awe theory, which may not have worked, but sounded real good, our think tank came up with a plan. So simple, that it almost got thrown out, until better sense prevailed, and we decided to give it a shot. The idea was a product that could solve the top 3 issues while making a presentation. Not having a million dollar R&D budget or a market survey budget, we made a few guesses, and came up with our list of top 3 problems. They were, writing - you need an independent white or black board; highlighting - you use a laser pointer, but it’s not very effective and magnifying - you want to make a point, but no one can see it. And thus was born the 1st functionality requirements of a software.

And then was the easy part (or difficult part, depending on your point of view). We also concluded that, if we could get our product to work across other material typically used at presentations, like web pages, pdf files, excel sheets, ... then it would be even more wonderful. And if you could highlight, instead of just writing wouldn't that be nice? And if you could choose your own colors and thickness of pens, wouldn't that be super cool?? ... And thus was born the wish list. This was getting complex. And the mantra for successful products, we believed was that it should be simple to understand & simple to use. And surprisingly, this was the biggest challenge. Not creating the features or even the wish list, but making all of this simple.

And ScreenPen was born. A super cool, simple to understand, simple to use product. And here's where it gets really funny. We didn’t even know we had a product. We created a presentation for the client, just the way we wanted and requested that they allow us to make it before passing their final judgment. And we did. And boy! Did we use ScreenPen!! The first time we used it was when there was a heated debate in the room. We just made a big question mark on the screen in bright yellow. The most beautiful question mark I've ever seen. And there was silence.

And then the head honcho spoke. "What’s that ?" "Just a tool to help you enhance your technologically superior positioning.” we whimpered. "And how much does it cost?". We almost fell off our chairs. We had not been prepared for this. And we blurted "Nothing". Everything got approved. And they lived happily ever after, actually just for 1 more year. And we realized that we had a brand new baby "ScreenPen".

Our baby has since grown and has traveled to over 10 countries and over 500 schools and over 3000 PC's and over ..., but then that’s another story.

Try ScreenPen Now!!

Life's unfair

My daughter, Freia is planning a holiday to the US. And recently went for her visa. She was fortunate, she got it. On the way back from the embassy, she told me about a friend of her's - Osama. He along with his brother Osaid had gone sometime last year for their visa. They were 13 and 9. Their parents, both of whom already had US Visas wanted to take them there for a holiday.

It goes without saying that if you can afford it, the US is the place where one can have a great time. Truly one of the most wonderful countries. Almost as good as India. :-)

And here's the twist in the tale. Their visa was refused. No one knows why. But going by the age of these 2 young boys, it's reasonable to assume that their names may have played a part. My daughter was Osama's lawyer in a class "court session" on the issue. And I think her closing line said it all
"The name Osama means Lion, not terrorist".

My daughter and I then had a discussion on where the issue was. We agreed that it was a kind of a Catch 22 situation. Countries that felt threatened by a certain group of people were likely to look at them with suspicion. And because of that suspicion, even nice people could get easily swayed by extremist propaganda, especially since they have experienced what they consider unfair.

I guess we do not have enough knowledge on the subject to suggest solutions. What we can do is educate our children not to take extremist positions. To evaluate facts and not get swayed by emotional rhetoric. To listen to facts objectively and to make wise choices for themselves, and when they are in a position for their communities and country. If we are able to inculcate good values, I guess we'll have good and sensible world citizens.

And world peace not a myth, but a possibility.


p.s.: April 2010
Subsequent to my posting this blog, my daughter spoke about it with her friends. And an interesting thing happened. It turned out that all of the above was the result of a series of embellishments at various stages by the kids involved, including Freia. My apologies to the US Immigration authorities for having said something not true.

But I guess this makes the point of the article even more relevant. Perception is not only greater than reality, it is reality. And unless we are careful and avoid labeling, peace will remain a myth.

Networking

As part of my project 365 for 2010, I've been to a couple of networking events. And there seem to be some people who are very good at it. And who enjoy it.

Unfortunately I'm not one of those who enjoy networking. Probably because it has work in it. Walking up to a complete stranger, exchanging cards and discussing each others business does not seem to be my cup of tea. I SUCK at it.

And to make matters worse, most people try to sell you their services, and if they realize you are not a target disappear before you can blink. And then there are the really suave ones. They pretend to be interested in your business, try and say that they would like to discuss working together and then try and do a hard sell and convert you into their client.

There are several networking games that get played. Such as introducing a contact. This typically means giving a telephone number or an e-mail address. Am not at all convinced that this helps in getting any kind of advantage. Most of this information can in any case be got relatively easily. The issue is to get a meeting. And that can only be got by a personal introduction. Which I'm guessing can and should only happen when 2 individuals become good friends. Not meet for a few seconds at networking events and give contact numbers. How do you recommend someone when you don't know them well enough. And I guess this is one of the failure points of these meetings. No one has the time to get to know another well.

I'm guessing there would be good people out there too. People who would like to make a network without any ulterior motives. And do get in touch if you think you fit the bill. :-)

If at some point it results in a mutually beneficial business opportunity, that's a bonus. But I believe that any relationship that starts of as a business opportunity is doomed to failure. And I'd like to make this a success. So am looking forward to meeting people, some of who will become good friends for life.

Irrespective of whether or not we ever do business.

Being effective and productive isn't EASY !

We are in the process of shifting office and we are having a tough time. Every 10 minute job is still incomplete after 10 days. And its very tempting to just try and complete it yourself.

Our CEO Bipin, who is probably more frustrated than us, since he has to handle the issues, made an interesting comment. "These guys have done everything twice. If only they planned well, they could have got everything done so much faster and saved such a lot of money, thereby increasing their profitability." And I realized as he was saying this, that it was a 100% true.

At that point, I realized another fact. Many of us, definitely me seem to also do a lot of things twice and sometimes even thrice or four times. Image the increase in productivity and efficiency if only I could figure out a way to plan well and do everything just once, correctly.

I'm trying a few things to become more effective and some of them work pretty well.

1. E-Mail
I try and respond whilst reading it the first time. That saves the bother of going through them again and then replying, etc. The one I can't reply because I don't have some info or need more data, I mark. That way e-mail consumes very little time.

2. Paperwork
Same as e-mail. Ensure it leaves my desk asap. Ideally a few seconds after it gets there. That way paperwork too takes very little time.

3. Project Planning
Give the data to the team leads. They work on it, do the first level of planning. Have a look at it, modify it if required and you're ready to roll.

4. Project Tracking and Monitoring
Here I think I have miles to go. Although we have a web based PMS, its not as effective as we'd like it to be. It ends up with us having to spend a lot of time collecting data, multiple times. The data itself is usually created when asked for and hence majorly faulty, and projections are not as accurate and quick as they should be. We've started building our own PMS. We hope to launch it by April and then maybe then, I'll have nothing to do. :-)

5. Client Interaction
This is one place where I'm extremely ineffective and have no clue on how to improve. 80% of the time is spent in traveling. And I don't think at this stage we can build our own transportation system. Fortunately a large section of our clients are in the US and so we make do with conf calls. Next step, video conferencing ?

6. Doing nothing
Guess what. Believe it or not, this takes up the maximum amount of time. Whether its meetings at which you don't contribute, or just general small talk or actually doing nothing. This I think is where a large portion of time disappears and is the major area of improvement. Starting tomorrow, lets see if I can try and do a little less of "Doing nothing."

Any ideas any of you have to increase efficiency and productivity will be appreciated.

So much to do, so little time.

Mumbai Traffic

Amongst its various virtues, Mumbai has the distinction of having a perpetual traffic jam. Even on the highways. And like most of Mumbai's other issues, this is a self created problem.

Following traffic rules is something that most Mumbaikars are not familiar with. And frankly, why should they. In every single traffic jam, the offenders who flout the rules, get to their destination much faster than those who follow the rules. The fact that they are the ones who cause the traffic jam in the first place is something that neither they nor the traffic police appreciate.

And these offenders are not the usual suspects. Bus, Taxi or Rickshaw drivers. They are the affluent in their expensive cars, either at the wheel or encouraging the driver, whilst they sit with their laptops at the back Many of these persons are well educated and are frequent international travelers. Whilst they are vocal in their criticism of this country, they seem to be blind to the fact that they are part of the problem. When they should have been part of the solution. 

The traffic police are a hard working lot that try and do the best they can, given their limited resources and powers. The fine for breaking a rule is a princely Rs. 100 ($ 2) and most people just pay a bakshis (bribe) of between Rs. 20 and 50 (< $1). And then they complain about the traffic cop being corrupt. How can we, who encourage and actively participate in this corruption, not take responsibility for it. Interestingly, I've never been asked for a bribe by a traffic police in the 20+ years I've been driving in the city. And on checking with several of my friends have never come across anyone where a bribe has been demanded. Its always we who offer it to reduce the money we need to pay for our mistake and the hassle of a visit to the police station. I guess having the ability to pay fines online and on the spot would reduce the corruption.

There is actually an extremely simple way to get rid of  70-80% of the traffic jams and delays. The cost of flouting the rules should be unaffordable. The fines should be made 10x. The erring driver should be made to park his/her vehicle and assist the traffic police for an hour. And repeated offenders should have their licenses confiscated.

The traffic police used these methods for tackling drunken driving and they've been hugely successful. Most people in Mumbai are careful not to drink and drive and on those occasions when they go out, make alternate arrangements like a cab or a driver to get home.

And finally, what exactly am I doing about it. Nothing and everything. Nothing at a macro level, since I don't have the ability, At a micro level, I follow all the rules, even at the cost of being called stupid by many, including my kids. And getting my car hit from behind whilst stopped at a traffic signal early in the morning. But its my hope that some, if not many of you will start with yourselves and who knows. Individually it may not make a difference, But enough individuals will start making a huge difference.

Have a good week ahead !