Tuesday, March 3, 2009

Nvidea

Maybe some don't know it yet, but since a short time Nvidea has
brought a 3D program and glasses on the market so you can create a 3D
game and movie experience yourself! Computer manufacturer Maingear now
equips his new prelude-2-systems with this hardware! With a
120Hz-monitor and an Nvidea graphics card, you are able to see depth
in your games and movies.

Manufacturer Maingear says their game systems are 'ready to go' for a
good price. The Prelude 2 I7 system can be bought for 'only' $1999,00
and has a Quad Core I7 920-processor, 3 GB DDR3 1066Mhz-memory, a 250
GB-HDD and a 9800GT. For the non-technical people who are reading this
article, these are all really high-end components that can pull of
about anything! Nvidias 3D Vision works only on monitors with a
refresh rate of 120Hz and that's why the Samsung Syncmaster 2233RZ
comes with the system. Of course you also get the 3D Vision hardware,
like the glasses and the special receiver.

In the beginning of the month February, The Tech Report reviewed the
Nvidia 3D Technology. It looks really promising, but The Tech Report
found many downsides. In many games the technique doesn't really work
100% and in those games the graphics settings need to be lowered or
even set back to the minimum settings. Only in the game Left 4 Dead is
seemed to work completely. It might look really cool, and promising
now, but the problems and flaws it still has outweigh that.

The biggest problem of most people will be the price. It's not really
something you see and immediately buy, because before it really works
you need to spend a lot of money. The 3D technology only works on
120Hz-monitors and they are very expensive if you compare them with
the normal monitors. The 3D hardware that Nvidea offers isn't really
cheap yet either. Another problem is that when you have 3D images,
then you need about twice as much graphics processing power because
every image has to be rendered twice, once for the left eye and once
for the right eye. To get this kind of power you need to buy a really
good graphics card and everyone who knows a little about computers,
knows they are really expensive.

My conclusion is that it is a great step into a bright 3D future, but
this hardware isn't really for the basic consumer. You need a really
deep pocket and you need to be willing to let some of your image
quality go, for a 3D vision. If they keep improving this technology
then I'm sure that one day, we will all have 3D Image at home!

Sunday, February 8, 2009

Financial Services Marketing

A highly unique and specialized branch of marketing, the marketing of financial services includes a gamut of complex activities - both pre-sales and post sales. Financial Institutions are always on the prowl to increase their account balances, increase their customer base, retain customers, post high profits and in turn acquire new customers. All this and much more relevance to the financial services marketing activity can be achieved through some understanding of the strategic perspectives of financial services. The Banks and financial institutions cited in this article are the ICICI Bank, the HDFC Bank, the UTI Bank, Reliance Money, Kotak Securities and Tata AIG.
 
A highly unique and specialized branch of marketing, the marketing of financial services includes a gamut of complex activities - both pre-sales and post sales. Moreover, a buyer's market has made its presence in the financial services industry, making it necessary to imbibe a strategic insight into this marketing activity. Predicting consumer behavior, market segmentation and targeting a niche market all form part of the strategies to market financial services. Competitive markets, intricate product characteristics and intangibility have made the job of the financial service-marketer very profound and challengingIn the direction of achieving excellence in marketing through easy and anywhere banking, it can be said that financial institutions have made great progress in educating their customers. A generous mention may be made on the recent proliferation of the Internet as a medium of knowledge and communication that has helped customers become aware of the various products offered by different financial institutions. A virtual relationship of trust is being established between the financial institution and the customer, given the increased access to financial data across the board about various products and services offered by the financial institution the customer transacts with and the competitor financial institution. This relationship remains the key substance when it comes to marketing financial services. It should also be kept in mind by the marketer that such relationships are built when right services are marketed to the right customer. Financial Institutions are always on the prowl to increase their account balances, increase their customer base, retain customers, post high profits and in turn acquire new customers. All this and much more relevance to the financial services marketing activity can be achieved through some understanding of the strategic perspectives of financial services.
 
Bracing competition
In the era of increasing financial priorities, maximization of financial goals and achieving income through financial investments, the Indian financial sector has seen mushrooming growth of financial institutions. Offering a gamut of services and attracting new customers with unique services has been an age-old tactic used by these financial institutions. Competition for banks and financial institutions is in the form of rival institutions that adopt unique marketing strategies to attract new customers and retain old ones. UTI Bank, in an attempt to carve for itself a special position in customer service and support, started offering call centre facilities to its customers, in order to address issues faced by customers, and eliminate the load that branch operators would handle. A dedicated helpdesk and a single window service helped in standardizing replies to customers. Tata AIG's introduction of a new health plan in 2003 was a laudable move towards bracing competition. It introduced HealthFirst, a comprehensive health policy. As Soumya Sundar put it, this innovative product of Tata AIG' "is a comprehensive health policy that pays out a flat sum, rather than reimbursing, your medical expenses - for hospitalisation and post-hospitalisation, critical illness and surgery."[1] Offering benefits like hospital cash allowance of up to Rs. 250 per unit per day, surgical illnesses benfits of up to Rs. 12, 500 per unit per surgical procedure and critical illness covers of about Rs. 1.25 lakhs per unit, to its policy holders this policy became one of its kind in the insurance market.[2]
 
Kotak Securities started targeting small time investors in 2006 when it initiated its new offer to small time investors with more than Rs. 5000 of surpluses to invest in capital markets.[3] Considering the low risk appetite of these small investors, Kotak Securities took a step to unleash a new scheme called "Auto Invest" that allows these small investors to invest in safe and
slow moving stocks. As Prasanth Prabhakaran, Senior Vice-President, Kotak Securities said, "The product will open the doors of capital markets to potential investors who dread the risks involved."[4] This new product was well-received in the Indian consumer market.
 
Leveraging technology
Technology helps Financial Institutions identify where they are lacking and how these gaps can be sealed. Services like online banking, online bill-payments for insurance premiums and credit cards, online trading and E-Broking have all become very popular in recent times, thus helping financial institutions overcome the challenge of reaching customers and making financial services more user-friendly.
For example, the ICICI Bank offers mobile banking that has many perceived advantages.
The iMobile service launched by the ICICI Bank is a downloadable Mobile Banking Application. Working on GPRS and SMS, this application works on all GSM mobile phones. This free-to-use application offers facilities like fund-transfer, demat, credit card and bill payment services, mobile recharge, locator services, and others all on the cell phone through a single, secure application. Working with ICICI Bank through this initiative is Obopay India, a mobile payments solutions company.
 
Source: www.ciol.com
"HDFC Bank's "NetSafe" cards are a stupendous invention in the field of online banking. (Box No. 2)
NetSafe - a hidden gem in secure online shopping
Online shoppers are often concerned about revealing their credit card information. The way NetSafe works is that it uses the balance in your account (Savings account or Credit Card Balance) to "generate" a temporary credit card - a valid Visa Credit Card no, expiry date and CVV number. However, the credit card number is valid for use only for 24 hours, and only upto the limit that you set (which limit must of course be within your account balance). Therefore:You don't have to reveal your own credit/debit card number and the only risk you carry is for the limit that you set for your Netsafe card and that too only for 24 hours
 

Sunday, February 1, 2009

Data Transfer

These days, in an all-out effort to get your business, web hosting companies offer a bewilder ing array of choices. The competition for your business is one of the factors that makes web hosting a great buy for prospective webmasters. Here are some things to consider when choosing a both web hosting company and your individual hosting plan.

Web site hosts offer an often bewildering array of features for a prospective customer to choose from. In an effort to compete with other web hosting companies, primarily the competition is in four areas:

1. Storage space
2. Data Transfer (bandwidth)
3. Extra features like scripts, extensions, statistics, etc.
4. Price for the above.

Consumers often base their web hosting purchase on just these four features. Their choice often boils down to who offers the most space, bandwidth, and features for the least amount of dollars. But well informed consumers should also consider these other factors before making any web hosting purchase.

1. Are you going to be hosting more than one domain? How many domain names are you eventually going to register? Does your plan allow for this?
2. How much space and transfer does your website really need? Most web hosts count on sites using a small portion of their plan's assets.
3. Do you really need add-ons like shopping carts, automated script installs, FrontPage extensions, and site builders?
4. Is your web host offering a Windows package when you really need Linux or vice versa?
5. Does your web host offer flexible payment plans and advertise them truthfully? Many of those "low monthly rates" apply to accounts paid ahead a year or two.
6. Is your primary purpose blogging or starting a forum? Make sure your host's PHP and MySQL are up to date and can handle the latest offerings.
7.Do you need to host large files such as audio and video without storage and bandwidth issues?
8.Do you need complete stats? Does your web hosting plan offer a stats package at no extra charge?
9. Is the control panel flexible and easy to use? CPanel and Plesk are two of the standards.
By keeping all these points in mind you, as a prospective web hosting customer, can choose a web hosting company that will meet your needs, as well as the individual web hosting plan that is most affordable for you and offers the features you really need. Educate yourself, and make the choice that makes the most sense now, as well as for any additional future hosting needs you'll require.