Zoho has launched Zoho Expense, the expense reporting software that automates business and travel expense management. Available immediately in web and mobile versions, Zoho Expense takes the hassles out of expense report management for sales representatives, employees, managers & finance departments.

Zoho Expense also works with the company’s online accounting & customer relationship management applications – Zoho Books and Zoho CRM – to unify customers’ front office and back office operations. Users can try a 14-day, free trial account of Zoho Expense at Zoho Expense website

Zoho-Expense-icon

Exploring Zoho Expense

In most companies, expense reporting and reimbursement is dominated by challenges such as lost receipts, long processing time, and violations of expense policies. In turn, employees delay expense reporting for as long as possible, and managers let their desks pile up with expense reports waiting to be processed for reimbursement.

Zoho Expense simplifies expense management for employees, managers, and back office staff with highlights such as:

Automated expense recording

Users simply scan and upload their receipts using Zoho Expense and the corresponding expenses are automatically created – no manual data entry required.

Import credit card statements

Users who regularly use credit cards for business spending can integrate their banks in Zoho Expense and import their statements. Importing credit card statements lets users instantly convert selected transactions into expenses and avoid data entry.

Faster approvals and reimbursements

Zoho Expense automatically notifies managers of expense report submissions. It also raises alerts for violations of company expense policies configured in Zoho Expense, so managers don’t have to analyze each expense.

Pre-integrated with Zoho Books and Zoho CRM

With the Zoho Books integration, expenses approved in Zoho Expense are automatically transferred and recorded in Zoho Books. With Zoho CRM integration, Zoho CRM users can be imported into Zoho Expense. Going forward, users will be able to create Zoho Expense entries directly from the Zoho CRM interface.

Expense management on the go

For travelling employees, Zoho Expense is available now for Android, iOS and Windows Phone devices. The app uses the device’s built-in GPS to let users track mileage when on the move, avoiding manual data entry. Users can also submit expense reports to managers while working remotely.

Google Apps integration

Zoho Expense works with Google for Work to simplify expense reporting at companies that use Google’s application suite. Google users can find Zoho Expense on Google Apps Marketplace at following link.

Pricing and Availability

Zoho Expense is available immediately & the mobile apps are for iOS, Android & Windows Phone as well.

Zoho Expense is $15 per month for 10 users. Each additional user is $2 per month. Annual plan subscribers receive a two-month discount, paying just $150 per year for 10 users and $20 per year for each additional user.

More information on Zoho Expense is available at https://www.zoho.com/expense.

Additional Zoho Resources

Zoho blogs – http://blogs.zoho.com
Zoho on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/zoho
Zoho on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/zoho

About Zoho

Zoho is a comprehensive suite of online productivity, collaboration and business applications for businesses of all sizes. Over 13 million users rely on Zoho apps. Zoho’s productivity and collaboration applications include Email Hosting, Document Management, Office Suite, Project Management & more along-side a host of business applications ranging from CRM and Campaign Management to Customer Support, Accounting and more. These applications are offered directly via Zoho or through hundreds of partners in the Zoho Alliance Partner Program

NASSCOM marked the second anniversary of its 10,000 Start-up Program to create 10,000 domain specific start-ups in the country by 2020. As the 10,000 start-up program keeps rolling to its fourth phase of shortlisting, Phase 3 had 500 startup shortlists who went through pitch & mentoring Konnect sessions.

Applications are currently being processed on FIFO basis till 22nd April for the next session of Startup Konnect which is a mini boot-camp program for shortlisted startups who will be eligible for connect-2-pitch with all ecosystem partners including leading Accelerators, Angel investor networks & venture capital firms.

Nasscom_10000Startups

Speaking at the occasion, Rajat Tandon, Senior Director, NASSCOM 10,000 Startups stated

Startups are the lifeblood of our economy. We today have the support of 150 volunteer mentors, industry specialists, angel investors & VCs, as well as a startup alumni network like no other.

We can proudly say that through its phases the 10,000 start-ups program has been able to carve out many success stories across domains. Now with the roll out of the fourth phase, we are looking to accelerate more startups who will re-define the technology landscape of the country.

Speaking at the occasion Mary Grove, Director, Google for Entrepreneurs said

We are impressed by 10,000 Startups’ work to foster a vibrant ecosystem of innovation and entrepreneurship in India. We are very excited for the fourth phase of 10,000 Startups Program that enables entrepreneurs to connect with investors and mentors to grow and expand.

Ravi Narayan, Managing Director, Microsoft Ventures India said

Microsoft Ventures has been working with NASSCOM 10,000 startups to accelerate high potential startups and we are delighted to see the impact of our partnership. Many of the startups we have helped gain traction through our accelerator programs were previously incubated in the 10K Warehouse and the startups have benefited from both programs immensely. We are positive that this partnership will continue to build a stronger ecosystem for startups in India and provide them promising future.

Application Process for startups

  • Startups need to apply for the program here
  • Startups should provide a detailed overview of their business idea and the market opportunity.
  • Approximately 200 startups will be shortlisted for the 4th batch, handpicked by the ecosystem partners.

Benefits of the Program

  • Shortlisted startups will participate in the intensive accelerator pitch & mentoring connect sessions starting June 1st week across Bangalore, Delhi, Mumbai, Pune, Kolkata, Chennai and Hyderabad
  • They also get a Start-up Kit – a package worth $25,000 of value added services and credits from Google, Microsoft, AWS, Knowlarity, HackerRank and Kotak

About 10,000 Startups

Started in April 2013, 10,000 Startups is an ambitious attempt by NASSCOM to scale up the startup ecosystem in India by 10x. 10,000 Startups aims to enable incubation, funding and support for 10,000 technology startups in India over the next ten years. The initiative brings together key stakeholders of the ecosystem including startup incubators, accelerators, angel investors, venture capitalists, startup support groups, mentors, and technology corporations.

Since its launch in April 2013, they have done about 450+ events in 22 cities of the country which were attended by a whopping 25,000 attendees and received 9000 Applicants, 800 Startups Shortlists, and 150 Impacts.

Nasscom-Partners

The program is supported by founding partner Google for Entrepreneurs, Microsoft Ventures, Intel and Kotak Mahindra Bank.

Unicom Learning, a Global B2B platform for IT industry & KPMG India together presented the 2nd edition of World Business Excellence Summit 2015 at Movenpick, Bangalore recently with the theme Meet Leaders in Business Assurance.

Two contests viz. India Quality League 2015 & IT Manager Olympiad 2015 was held together under the World Business Excellence summit. The contest had several rounds including online written tests, on stage quiz etc. This event saw thousands of QA professionals from 112 companies participating from across the nation.

Mahindra

The Winners

Mrinal Chatterjee & Dipan Lahiri from Tech Mahindra emerged as the winners of the prestigious India Quality League 2015 whereas Samgram Das, Associate Director – IT-IS & Arvind Rao, Director – Development from Team Zyme Techno Camp. Zyme Solutions emerged as the winners & grabbed the Gold.

In the earlier edition of one day conference on World Business Excellence Summit, the best practices used like the Balanced Scorecard, Lean, Six Sigma, Agile, ISO, CMMI, Change Management, People and cultural issues were discussed.

This year the focus was on Lean, Kanban, Scrum Ban, DevOps, Innovation GamesMind Mapping along with other important frameworks and issues related to quality assurance and change management.

Congratulating the winners Nitesh Naveen, Co-founder and CEO of Unicom Learning shared

I wish all the best to the winners and my heartiest congratulation to Tech Mahindra and Zyme Solutions for having this year’s India’s most knowledgeable quality champions with them.

India Quality League 2015

1st place : Team Dark Horses [Mrinal Chatterjee & Dipan Lahiri] from Tech Mahindra
2nd place : Team Atos Excellence [Samir Umrikar & Ramesh Ramanathan] from @ATOS
3rd place : Team QRM Deloitte [Neetu Kar & Shrikrishna Pandey] from Deloitte Consulting

IT Manager Olympiad 2015

1st Place : Team Zyme Techno Champ [Sangram Das, Associate Director – ITIS & Arvind Rao, Director – Development] from Zyme Solutions.
2nd Place : Team Zyme IT Team from @Zyme Solutions [Santosh Phalle, IT Manager & Binaybhusan Nanda, IT Manager]
3rd Place : Team TechMighty [Pankaj Kumar, Test Manager & Piyush Sinha, Test Lead] from Tech Mahindra

About UNICOM Learning

Unicom Learning is a leading player in the Knowledge Forum industry giving a Global B2B platform for the IT industry founded by Professor Gautam Mitra [Chairman & Co-Founder] & Nitesh Naveen [CEO & Co-Founder]. The organisation holds 150 knowledge conferences (forums) across the globe annually, out of which 100 are held in India. UNICOM has close to 10,000 professionals attending each of these conferences cum training platforms. Over the years, Unicom Learning has gained deep insights with organising knowledge forums in multiple disruptive technology domains like, Agile, Big Data, Cloud computing, Internet of All Things among others. UNICOM Learning’s knowledge partners include KPMG, CISCO, INTEL, Tech Mahindra and Mahindra Satyam among others.  For further information, please visit Unicom Learning

Image Credit – Tech Mahindra

We had earlier covered about latest edition of ‘Runway To Success”, Season-3. The registrations for the program are now open & startups can sign up before 15 April 2015.

Lufthansa

Registrations for the program can be done here. Irrespective of the industry in which you operate, this program gives a platform for entrepreneurs to get valuable feedback from an elite list of mentors which could definitely prove to be a game-changer for your business.

About Run Way To Success

Runway to Success TV series is an unprecedented reality programme that celebrates the spirit of Indian entrepreneurship. Runway to Success is an inspiring programme on ET NOW that showcases the best of India’s entrepreneurial talent, and helps discover, mentor as well as reward India’s future business leaders.

What is in it for startups

I had a brush with startups few years back & from that experience, I can comment that any word of “Feedback” can be very helpful. That feedback becomes much more valuable if it comes straight from the horse’s mouth i.e. Fellow entrepreneurs, investors etc. This program is a great platform for startups to get “noticed” !!!

The grand-prize is definitely something to watch out for –

  • A seat at Stanford University’s prestigious Design Thinking Boot Camp.
  • A free Business Class ticket to the US.
  • A coveted TiE mentorship.

So as mentioned before, go ahead & register your startup for the program before 15th April.

You can find more information about the program below:

For more information about Runway to Success,Season 3 can be found here.

Startups, fasten your seat belts & give wings to your startup with Runway to Success !!!

Image Credit – lhrunwaytosuccess

Selling cars was a challenge during the olden days [1900 period] until an extra-ordinary salesman & entrepreneur William Billy Durant, founder of General Motors introduced the concept of “Auto-mobile Financing”. Auto-mobile loans were not very common during that period in India & were only restricted to certain standard of society. All that has changed post the liberalization era.

Change in Indian mindset

Consumer mindset of 1980’s was that of ‘caution’. People were only interested in government paying jobs since they were secure even though many of them were low paying!!! Also, in terms of saving; buying a house was only a priority. Owing a vehicle was definitely a distant dream.

Banking sector was also impacted because of this mindset. During the 1980’s, percentage of vehicle loans were minuscule compared to the asset size of the bank.

Emergence of automobile finance

With the increase of foreign investment in India, it impacted many sectors including automobile. This not only impacted the buying capacity of the consumers but also impacted the automobile job sector. Special focus was on the passengers cars & multi-utility vehicle since it impacted the overall economic conditions of India.

Changing consumer mindset

With the changes in the overall landscape in economy & with the Privatization wave during the 1990’s; many things changed for the country. There was an increase in the “overall disposable income” of the Indians & now the consumers were less risk-averse. Now the consumers had the additional help of “loans” whether they wanted to purchase their dream home or buy a car!!!

In order to lure the growing demand of cars among consumers, banks also came up with various types of loans. This definitely helped them to manage their finances in much better way.

Some of the various categories of affordable home-loans are below:

  1. Margin Money Scheme
  2. Advanced Equated Monthly Instalment Scheme
  3. Security Deposit Scheme
  4. Hire Purchase Scheme
  5. Lease Financing Scheme

[Source – SurfIndia]

Game Changer – The internet Era

With the rise of mobile phones in India & the data-rates becoming lesser day by day, consumers made Internet the primary medium for only buying via e-commerce websites but also for securing affordable car-loans. Internet not only provided a medium for the young-trendy consumers to compare prices of cars but also helped them to get car loans at lesser interest rate.

When we talk of internet, we cannot leave behind Bangalore. If you are looking for automobile loan in Bangalore, there are plethora of options that are available with them. Also, considering the traffic situation in Bangalore, there are many people interested in buying cars since it provides them more convenience. Interest rates become very important since many terms & conditions of banks & financial institutions are cryptic, so better to have a look at the car loan interest rate in Bangalore

When it comes to car financing, we have already looked at couple of useful options that might help our readers take an intelligent step in buying their “dream car” but insurance of the car also becomes an integral part of car.

Car Insurance

Car Insurance or motor insurance covers for losses that you might incur if your car gets damaged or stolen. The premium amount of your car insurance is decided on the basis of Insured Declared Value or IDV of the vehicle.

The insurance helps to get coverage against loss/damage, theft, accident, fire & coverage against financial liability [injury/death]. Since, Bangalore is our city of focus, hence you need to properly choose car insurance in Bangalore

Conclusion

The automobile market in India is growing at a very rapid pace & with the recent “Make In India” movement, many companies are keen to setup their “manufacturing plants” in India. This is already happening & it would not only affect the country’s GDP but also prove to be a boon to the consumers & young Indians aspiring to enter the automobile industry…

BITS Pilani’s Annual Startup Conclave – Conquest is back with it’s 2015 Edition. Conquest has had ten successive editions over the past and this year, the model has been revamped to make it even more grand. Last edition of Conquest saw around 2000 applications from all over India. Conquest provided a platform to support our teams raise millions of dollars of investment upon completion of the Grand Finale held at FICCI Auditorium, New Delhi.

Conquest_Conclave

Highlights of Conquest 2015

  • Close to 2000 applicants would be fighting it out to win the challenge.
  • Last year 3.5 Lakhs equity-less cash was handed over to the winners of Conquest. However in this edition, along with the equity-less cash, winners would also get $1 million worth CRM and other support services.
  • Freshmentors, an online mentoring platform that was backed with angel investment of Rs 1 crore in 2014 would  seek personalized mentoring on college admissions and their careers via live video chats. It caters to its customers with the help of over 300 mentors spread across 150 foreign universities.
  • The short-listing process of the top 50 startups would be done by a panel of Investors and mentors.

Some of the jury members include:

  1. Rohit Bansal, Co-founder Snapdeal
  2. Amit Ranjan, Co-founder of Slideshare
  3. Ankur Warikoo, CEO of Groupon India
  4. Alok Kejriwal, Founder & CEO of Games2Win
  5. Dev Khare of Lightspeed Ventures &
  6. Rajesh Sawhney, Founder of the GSF Accelerator & GSF Superangels

For providing comprehensive feedback to all the applicants of Conquest,2015; they have partnered with Applyifi, a private platform for startups to create a comprehensive pitch-book & thereafter apply to multiple investors or accelerators/incubators.

How to apply for Conquest,2015

  • Registrations for Conquest are open from 31st March & would be open through the month of April. Registrations would close on 1st May.
  • The list of 50 short-listed startups would be announced in the month of June.
  • Any startup which was registered after 1st Jan 2013 is eligible to participate in Conquest 2015.
  • Startups can register at Conquest website. Applicant has the option of saving his form & filling it at any time before the registration closes.

The networking sessions meant to connect every startup with their mentor will be held in 5 cities namely Delhi, Mumbai, Hyderabad, Bangalore and Chennai in the month of July.

Previous winners of Conquest

Some of the success stories of previous editions of Conquest are listed below:

  1. I-Traveller – Runners-up, 2013
  2. Solar Town – Runners-up, 2012
  3. PosterGully  – Finalist, 2012
  4. Phyzok – Winner, 2011
  5. GharPay – Runners-up, 2011
  6. iViz Security – Winner, 2006
  7. Mobile Medics – Winner, 2005

The title sponsor of the event is DCB Bank.

Startups, please make the most of this opportunity & head over to Conquest website for registration & more details.

* We would update this post once we receive more details from the Organization Team of Conquest. Stay Tuned !!! Please leave a comment in case any information on Conquest is required.

Image Credit  – Conquest

Pitney Bowes Inc., a global technology company that provides innovative products and solutions to power commerce, called for entries for the second phase of the Pitney Bowes Accelerator Program in India. The program focuses on startups that leverage software for customer information management, mobile, data analytics, location-based services, E-commerce management & Machine learning.

Selected startups will be informed by April, 2015 and invited to present before a jury panel. After the selection process, the names of the selected startups for the six-month long acceleration program will be announced in May, 2015.

Last year, Pitney Bowes named eight startups to the program.  Participants last year included Audianz, Tagalys, Teritree, RetailNav, Heuristics, Ideata, Yo-app and Brown Tape.

More details about the program

  • As part of the program, Pitney Bowes will shortlist entrepreneurs/startups that will have a choice to be located in the PB offices either in Pune or in Noida for incubation and mentorship.
  • Startups in the program will have access to Pitney Bowes’ software, application programming interfaces [APIs] and data for the duration of the program.
  • Training, technical and business guidance and mentoring will be provided to the start-ups from Pitney Bowes engineering and innovation leaders, and from software industry experts.
  • In addition to these strategic connections, start-ups in the Pitney Bowes Accelerator program will also be networking with prospective investors.

Speaking on the of launch of the second batch, Manish Choudhary, Vice President, Global Engineering and Managing Director, Pitney Bowes Software India said

Pitney Bowes guides its clients through the complex worlds of digital and physical technologies to drive growth and create meaningful impact. Startups are vital to technology innovation and India is a hotbed of startups. The talent fostered through the Accelerator Program has the ability to develop disruptive technologies that can be scaled globally.

Pitney Bowes continues to build its presence as a strong organization in India centered on innovation by becoming an incubator partner to NASSCOM’s 10,000 Start-ups initiative. 

About Pitney Bowes

Pitney Bowes is a global technology company offering innovative products and solutions that enable commerce in the areas of customer information management, location intelligence, customer engagement, shipping and mailing, and global e-commerce.  More than 1.5 million clients in approximately 100 countries around the world rely on products, solutions and services from Pitney Bowes.  For additional information, visit Pitney Bowes at www.pb.com

Businessmen and commuters can now check their emails and deal with work issues on the go, thanks to portable computer devices like the Samsung Galaxy Tab and the Apple iPad. Those who love gadgets are also never far from playing their favorite games or accessing the internet, because the tab comes equipped with WiFi and an array of downloadable apps. Unlike mobile phones – where BlackBerry’s are intended for business, while iPhone’s are perfect for social networking and gaming uses – the tablet computers seem to incorporate both. What are the main benefits of owning a portable computer tab?

Portable computer tablets, such as the Samsung Galaxy Tab or the iPad, are beneficial for both business people and gadget fans alike because they offer both easy access to emails and word processing programmes, plus they are equipped for gaming and listening to music on. Busy work people can reply to emails, edit word documents or even host online calls, which makes dealing with work issues convenient and accessible at any time. Many commuters can now do some work on the train, meaning they can relax when they get home.

Alternatively, portable tablets are perfect for those who love socializing and gaming. The Wifi allows users to go online, chat to friends using instant messaging and browse their favorite websites. Users can view sites like Facebook, YouTube or even do some online shopping. Plus, the large screen makes reading online magazines, newspapers and E-books easy and clear.

With the growing penetration of internet in India, many consumers are using the tablet not only for consuming internet content but also using the Calling Tablets which is definitely an add-on while using the tablet. Users always have the option to “Auto-Sync” their content when they are connected to the internet. “Auto-Sync” not only saves the pain of manually updating the data in the central servers i.e. Gmail Server etc. but also ensures huge time-saving when there is more data to be synced.

Battery life plays a very important role since Modem would be active constantly paging to the network & when there is “Background Sync” enabled, consumption might be much more.

In addition, these tablets can keep any film fanatic or music lover occupied for hours. Recent models provide a large memory capacity, allowing films to be stored and watched at any time. Plus, the tablet can be used as an MP3 player. Music fans can either upload their music onto the device, download new tunes from the web or stream free, live music off software such as Spotify, Saavn

Do share your experience with the tablet & how you use it for your day to day use, be it personal or official 🙂