Role of Digital Marketing during Covid-19

-Dr.K.ThirugnanaSambanthan, Asst.Professor, SIMS

 

Due to this Covid-19 pandemic situation, most of the countries in the world are facing recession.  Many industries like cinema, tourism etc. is going to be in a precarious situation.  Traditional marketing is not going to work in your business.  The number of people reading Newspaper is drastically decreasing because of this pandemic.  Investing a lot in traditional marketing is not going to yield any result.

The role of digital marketing is becoming important.  Digital marketing will help us reach all type of customers.  Film producers are now trying to release their film in direct to OTT release.  This is a new era where normal type of marketing is not going to help.

The Benefits of Digital marketing during this period

1. Reaching the global customers.
2. Improving the customer conversion rate.
3. The Return on Investment will be higher.
4. Ability to compete with Bigger players in the market
5. Trust and Reputation of our company will increase
6. Revenues will be higher compared to traditional marketing.
7. Personalization for different type of customer is possible.

Leaving out certain disadvantages in digital marketing like high competition, security and privacy issues, skills and training it is important for all the companies to move to digital marketing to sustain themselves during this pandemic situation.

Healthcare Call Centres

The Next Generation Healthcare

Ms. V.Vidhya, Asst Professor, SIMS

 

Today’s consumers expect more and they have many options in their fingertips. It may be for ordering a food, shopping, booking a ticket and so on. The consumers interact with many different businesses in different ways. The consumers will take up the mobile and browse for the website to order or download the app of the particular business and order the product if they are loyal or not loyal to the brand. It makes a sense to the consumer that product is always available anytime anywhere.

Likewise, the healthcare industry is also emerging with many different concepts to make themselves available always. Unfortunately, the day-old health system i.e. consumer facing business is still inevitable in the health care industry. The healthcare call centre experiences are still poor as many consumers / patients have issues of lack of data integration, health systems that lead to patient frustration. Nearly 26% of patients report that if they contacted the health system over phone, the call will be transferred more often without resolution.

The next generation healthcare call centre starts with the in-depth analysis of existing patient experiences where we identify the unique and preferences. Patient journey mapping is a tool that healthcare providers use to find out those individual persons, recognizing that each department may have a different perspective on what that journey looks like. When evaluating the patient experience, we need to remember that their journey extends beyond the clinical experiences. Where the clinical journey of a person is linear the overall journey extends to period of month and years, or even generation

Each person has a different state of consumerism and has different beliefs, preferences to interact with the health system. Some patients prefer phone calls as they desire a “personal touch. Others may not want to be on the receiving end of multiple calls and they do not prefer their solutions through a phone call.

 

 

 

START UP COMPANY’S PROBLEMS AND ITS LIFE CYCLE

Dr.S.SUNDARARAJAN, Associate Professor, SIMS

            Start-up company is conceptualizing well define business idea into effective business model and implementing the same with entrepreneurial skills. A start-up is a young and fresh company created by one or more entrepreneurs to develop a specific product or service and bring it into market. A start-up is called as an entrepreneurial venture which seeks financial backings to get off the ground. These ventures are formed based on the entrepreneurs’ idea and growth to succeed. Startup companies are increasingly emerging in and around the country from last two decades. Government is also supporting entrepreneurs through Make in India and other governmental schemes even though the start up ventures are having their own problems to get it started and to proceed it in every stage of its cycle like infrastructure, government regulations and availability of finance etc. This article discusses about the process, challenges and the life cycle of a newly started business venture.

PROBLEMS

Competition

New businesses are often like a little kid in a very large, bully-filled playground. Rival companies that are already trading in similar markets to yours, already have the upper hand and advantage. They have been operating for a longer time, and have gained more knowledge in operating that sort of business, know the market better and can probably adapt to the market changes quicker.

Lack of Funding

99% of people thinking of starting a business won’t because of the realization of the costs and the lack funding available. It’s funny that we start businesses with the aim of making loads of money, but in fact you can’t make money unless you have money to fund the business from the beginning. Financial risk plays a huge part in small businesses, ensuring and maintaining a healthy cash flow is essential. Start-ups need substantial amounts of money to cover costs. When you’re starting from scratch there’s many things that need to be developed, for example, logos, website, accountants, marketing materials, staffing, launch programme, merchandise, the list goes on and the bill goes up and up.

Time Restraints

Starting a business is not a part time Saturday job, business owners need to be able to commit to extremely long hours in the start-up phase. There is everything from staff contracts and health and safety policies to marketing materials and websites to develop and the longer it takes the longer the business takes to be established and the higher the financial risk becomes. The owner will become responsible for everything from the grunt work to the office managerial responsibilities.

Poor Planning

Many business fail in the first year due to poor planning and preparation before declaring themselves as open for business. Before launching any business everything from suppliers to rates should be investigated. Noticing a hike in unexpected costs after you have just launched a business can bankrupt the plans in no time. Extra time should be taken ensuring that everything is covered; the best way to do this is by creating a comprehensive business plan.

No Historical Data

New start-ups often face the problem of just not knowing what is going to happen or what should happen. Launching a new business concept to the market or even for the business owner  with a little knowledge of the industry can be extremely hard to plan for, as there are no expectations.

LIFE CYCLE:

There are three stages in start-up life cycle, those are:

1. Bootstrapping stage
2. Seed stage
3. Creation stage

ENDNOTE:

We concluded that every newly started venture will have its own problem even when government provides support because new ventures are not getting enough financial funding in each of its life cycle.

TAXATION IN INDIA
Ms.K.Sindhuja
Assistant Professor, SIMS

 “THE HARDEST THING IN THE WORLD IS TO UNDERSTAND THE INCOME TAX”-ALBERT EINSTEIN”

A tax is a compulsory financial charge or some other type of levy imposed upon a taxpayer (an individual or legal entity) by a governmental organization in order to fund government spending and various public expenditures.

TAXES ARE ALSO USUALLY SPLIT INTO 3 GROUPS:

• Flat taxes: Everybody pays the same percentage. For example, Russia has a flat income tax and everybody in Russia has to pay 13% of the income.
• Progressive taxes: The more money a person makes the higher percentage of tax they have to pay. Most countries have progressive income taxes.
• Regressive taxes: Under this system of taxation, there is an inverse relationship between the tax rate and taxable income. The rate of taxation decreases as the income of taxpayers increases.. Sales taxes are usually called regressive as poor people spend a higher percentage of their money, than rich people.

KEY TAX INITIATIVES IN INDIA:

Export Promotion:

• Applicability: SEZ units operational before 1st April 2020

Incentive: Deduction of 100% of profits and gains derived from the export business for the first 5 years of commencement, 50% of profits and gains derived from the export business for the next 5 years, 50% of plowed-back profits and gains from the export business for next 5 years.

Research & Development:

• Applicability: Companies in respect of any expenditure on R&D in an approved in-house facility
• Incentive: Weighted tax deduction of 200% granted to companies Validity: 31st March 2020

Investment-linked

• Incentive: To incentivize investment in certain sectors, any capital expenditure incurred for specified businesses is allowed as a deduction in the year in which it is incurred.

Start-up India Scheme:

• Incentive: Tax incentives granted to eligible start-ups are the tax holiday for any consecutive 3 years (from initial 5 years) with respect to 100% of their profits, including fast-tracking of patent applications with 80% rebate.

International Financial Services Centre:

• Applicability: Caters to customers outside the jurisdiction of the domestic economy. Such centers deal with flows of finance, financial products, and services across borders.
• Incentives: Tax concessions on capital gains, Minimum Alternate Tax, and Dividend Distribution Tax

Though the taxation has come with a new look Covid-19 has complicated India’s economic slowdown throwing new challenges for both the government and citizens. Cash strapped government has increases taxes on petrol and liquor. People face an uncertain job future.

“You don’t pay taxes-they take taxes”-Chris Rock

Assessing the Financial Fitness

Prof. S. Thilak, Assistant Professor, Dept. of MBA, Sankara College of Science and Commerce

Financial Planning and Financial Fitness

            Financial Planning is a progress to take charge and manage the finance to ensure the financial well-being. It includes Managing cash-flow for the current needs and future goal for example purchasing an asset, managing exposure to uncertain situations during the loss of a dependent and Investment planning to meet financial goals like children’s education and retirement.   

             Financial Fitness is like Physical Fitness, a financial fitness assessment allows to have a better understanding of the financial health of a family. The following are the common personal financial problems that can affect the financial fitness.

1. Failing to plan ahead, or not planning at all.
2. Not spending within your means.
3. Spending on borrowed money, buying with consumer credit.
4. Delayed saving for Retirement.
5. Falling prey to Financial sales grounds.
6. Not doing your homework.
7. Making impulsive decision.
8. Exposing to High Financial Risk.

 

Identifying Immediate and Long-Term Financial Goals

           There are few steps to identify the Immediate and long-term financial goals. The first step is to set the goals and priorities of the finance, and knowing about the resources that have to meet the future. The second step is to discover the financial fitness and plans to increase the financial status. The step three is to assess the financial situation of past, present and future and to also assess how to manage the resources. The step four is to develop a strong financial plan to reach goals and manage the resources. The step five is to implement the plan which was developed earlier and finally the last step is to Monitor and reviewing the strong financial plan.  

 Set S.M.A.R.T Financial Goals

SPECIFIC

            Be specific and clear about what is one going to do and how they are going to do? For example, completely pay off your housing loan in 20 years or working out how much needed for each goal and think about how to reach that goal. When projecting future value consider the current prices and projected inflation, which means being specific with one goal or a greater number of goals.

MEASURABLES

            Goals must be Measurable, so that it can be monitor the progress and action can be taken to find falling back. For example, if a person’s monthly income is Rs 3000/ and he/she is taking a renovation debt of Rs15000/ with a loan interest 5% and he/she have set aside 20% of monthly income to pay renovation debt monthly. The Measurable Outcome is that they can completely pay off renovation debt in 2years and three months. However if you are unable to set aside 20% of income each month, then you may have to look for other way to meet goals. One way to do is to cut back the expenses so that they can make more money to pay down their debts.

ATTAINABLE AND REALISTIC

            Goals must be Attainable and Realistic, even if they require some control to stay with the plan. Devise a plan or a way of achieving the goals which makes it realistic. This goal needs to be realistic and achievable based on the current economic situation.

 TIME

            Goals must have time frame, set a timeframe for the goal by next week, next month or next year or in a decade. Putting to an end point as it gives a clear target to work towards it. If the Time is not set to your goal, commitment to achieve that goal will be weakened. This leads to postponement as there is a lack of urgency to work on it promptly.

 Assessing the Financial Situation

            Assessing Liquid Assets like Bank Statement, Current Accounts and Fixed Deposits. Investment Assets Brokerage Statements, CPF statements, respective institutions funds, insurance policies statement updates and recent real estate transaction prices. Personal Assets for example Car can be accessed from the Professional appraiser. Liabilities like mortgage, bank loan can be determined by a person’s Financial Statement.

 

 

Gig Economy

Dr. Priya Kalyanasundaram, Hod, Dept. of MBA, Sankara College of Science and Commerce

      Gig economy is a temporary job positions wherein organisations hire independent workers for short term commitment. The term gig is a word for a job that last for specified period of time. “Gig Job is a temporary work where the employee often works on a specified project as a contractor or freelancer. The benefit of a gig job is that we can work on multiple projects at a time with flexi working hours. Nowadays the companies tend hiring independent contractors and freelancers instead of full time employees.

It is a challenge for traditional economy of full time employment where employees rarely changes his job position and sticks to the same job throughout his employment. In this digital era the workforce has become more mobile and it can be done from anywhere. This is more useful for freelancers as they can select their job throughout the world and for employer’s it can choose the right candidate for the project and more benefit is that the resources can be saved like office space,  training and even they can hire experts on contract basis for a specified period. The model is applicable only for independent employees who choose jobs with their own interest rather than people joining with some force to attain unemployment where they pick up any temporary jobs .Millenials are keener toward gig work for work life balance and the baby boomers and other generations as they are on the age of retirement are drawn to gig work for extra income.

Gig work is also a challenge like tremulous workloads, pay schedules, lack of benefits with lot of self discipline, as the market has become more competitive gig worker has to constantly upgrade their skills as per the industry trends.

 MAINTAINING OPERATIONAL EFFICIENCY IN WAREHOUSING DURING PANDEMIC

Dr.D.SathishKumar, Asst.Professor, Department of MBA, Sankara College of Science and Commerce

            Nationwide lockdown made non-operational for many businesses, Logistics played a vital role by operating in overdrive to keep the suppliers essentials and important items moving. The domestic warehousing industry is facing challenges to keep the business going among the pandemic situation. Warehouse is the significant part of any business infrastructure and is one of the key enablers in the supply chain. With the spread of pandemic, majority consumers changes in the behaviour leading to increased ecommerce demand and rapid adoption of alternate channel distribution models by companies. The demand from e-commerce, FMCG and Pharma industry will help push demand for warehousing in the nation and help it recover it faster among the pandemic.

Problems faced by warehouses in maintaining efficiency 

            The impact of covid-19, among the spread of the virus, many shippers have found more difficult to operate. Many state governments in order to contain the virus, restricted operations of warehouses despite it being exempted by the centre, causing severe disruptions in the operations and movements of essentials. According to the reports, companies among the lockdown are operating at a 40-60% capacity only, as only essential goods and services are operational.

             The lockdown and shutting of borders have turned out to be a speed bump in the way of the logistics warriors. Not only has it resulted in reduced manpower but also caused difficulties for logistics professionals to get necessary permissions.

Maintaining safety and health of workers

             The safety of the workers in the warehouse is one of the most crucial factors to be considered, lack of precautions could lead to closing down of the warehouse for an indefinite period of time. Companies and  their operations on the fly to ensure their warehouses keep up with the demand for groceries and other essential supplies while prioritizing health and safety during covid-19. To ensure health and safety warehouses have done sanitation, including the main entrance, vehicle parking area, drainage chambers, driver’s room, outside sanitary facilities of all warehouses.

            Apart from sanitation companies are advising employees to ensure social distancing and are providing them with essentials as mask, sanitizers, gloves etc to ensure hygienic and safe operations.

Limitations of On-Line Learning

Dr.S.SUNDARARAJAN, Associate Professor, Department of MBA, Sankara College of Science and Commerce

India has been under lockdown for more than a month in a desperate attempt to contain the covid-19 pandemic. Even when the lockdown gets lifted eventually, the government may not allow large congregation in restricted physical spaces. It is almost certain that educational campuses will not be fully populated anytime soon.

The need for online learning

Universities and colleges were in the middle of the second semester of their academic year when the lockdown was enforced. There was a great deal of anxiety, particularly about the graduating batches of students, in case the ongoing session should be declared a “zero semester”. This prompted a number of local initiatives in response to the necessity. There were periodic attempts from individual teachers to reach out to their students and keep them engaged. A few universities made quick arrangements for teachers to continue to hold their classes virtually through conferencing services such a Zoom. The transition to virtual modes was relatively less difficult for those institutions that had even prior to the lockdown, adopted learning management system platforms like Blackboard or Moodle. All the above were well-meaning attempts although somewhat unplanned, to keep the core educational process going through this period.

Strategy to enhance enrolment

There was a report in the media on April13^th, 2020 quoting the chairman of the UGC as saying, among other things, that to maintain social distancing, online learning and e-education were the only way out, and that it was the need of the hour for students, teachers and education system as a whole. This statement was clearly meant to prepare the higher education community for the necessity of a protracted and indefinite period of closure of campuses. However, close on the heels of this, it was also reported that online education was likely to be adopted as a strategy to enhance the gross enrolment ratio in higher education. It is important for improvement in the gross enrolment ratio in the country. This prompts several questions about the appropriateness of what may well be an effective contingency measures to tide over the pandemic crisis to be deployed as a long-term strategy for enhancing enrolment in higher education. The following are three such questions: one, how far will online education help support greater access to and success in higher education among those who are on the margins? Two, how equipped are online and other digital forms of education to support the dept and diversity of learning in higher education? And three, is there an unstated political motivation for this apparent shift in strategy? We will address these questions briefly here.

Higher education today has an unprecedented influx of students who are first-generation aspirants. They have no cultural capital to bank on while struggling their way through college. Access is not merely enrolment; it also includes effective participation in curricular processes, which for those on the margins would mean first, to negotiate through language and social barriers. These students are also from the other side of the digital divide which makes them vulnerable to a double disadvantage if digital modes become the mainstay of education. Unless they receive consistent hand-holding and backstopping from teachers and peers, they tend to remain on the margins and eventually drop out or fail. It is therefore necessary to think deeply and gather research-based evidences on the extent to which online education can be deployed to help enhance the access and success rates.

What learning involves?

Acquisition of given knowledge that can be transmitted didactically by a teacher or a text constitutes only one minor segment of curricular content. It is this segment that is largely amenable to online and digital forms of transaction. Disciplines, particularly at the undergraduate level, lend themselves somewhat to such transaction but learning in higher education means much more than that bookish knowledge. It involves development of analytical and other intellectual skills, the ability to critically deconstruct and evaluate given knowledge, and the creativity to make new connections and syntheses. It is also a means to acquire practical skills, explore, inquire, seek solutions to complex problems, and learn to work in teams and more. All these by and large assume direct human engagement not just teacher-student interaction, but also peer interactions, including informal ones. Learning often happens through osmosis in social settings. Deconstructing given knowledge in relative isolation is never the same as doing it through a dynamic group process. Arguably, some of this can, to some extent, be built on to a digital platform. But curricular knowledge has a tendency to adjust its own contours according to the mode of transaction and the focus of evaluation.

While digital forms of learning have the potential to enable students to pursue independent learning, conventional and digital forms of education should not be considered mutually exclusive. Several institutions of open and distance learning had been established in India and other countries during the mid-1960s to 1980s. This was a consequence of explorations for less expensive models for provisioning access to higher education to new generations of aspirants.

Endnote: Higher education in India should be blended of virtual as well as face to face learning in the class room. There are many discussions happening in the class and students can get multi-dimensional ideas, views and innovative thinking from their peer groups. Because online learning may be suitable for 10 to 30 percent remaining 70 to 90 percent should be in the face to face interactive mode of learning in the classroom, then only students can understand the concept right and in-depth manner.

Robots after Covid

– Dr.K.Thirugnana Sambanthan, Asst. Professor, Department of MBA, Sankara College of Science and Commerce

Robotics is the intersection of science, engineering and technology that produces machines, called robots, that substitute for human actions.  There are different types of robots Humanoid Robots, Semi Humanoid Robots, Delivery Robots, Pre-programmed Robots, Tele-operated Robots, Augmented Robots, Autonomous Robots etc.

We have seen many live cases of doctors being infected by Covid while treating covid patients.  Some of the workers at the cremation ground were afraid to cremate the body of patients died due to covid 19 infections.

  Dr Simon Hercules, a Chennai-based neurosurgeon died after being infected by Corona virus.  We all are aware what happened at the crematorium. To avoid all these Robots can be used in all places where humans are afraid to work. 

In most of the developed countries in hospitals they have started using Robots.  Delivery Robots are used to analyze patients temperature, deliver drugs and essentials to the patients.  Most of the Covid infected patients were treated by Robots.  Since these robots can be easily sanitized and reused most doctors prefer to use robotic technology in treating infectious diseases.  

In Hotel Industry serving  food has been a big issue, since it requires more man power.  During this Covid period social distancing is not possible in Hotel, since the server has to go near the customer to serve.  Even before Covid many hotels have been using Robots for serving foods to the customer.  Robot Restaurant in Coimbatore have tested and implemented successfully robot servers in serving the food.  These robots can work 24/7. 

Robot Dogs can be used for herding sheep, guarding the house and it can do number of work.  These robots can also be used in military activities.  Singapore has started using Robotic dogs which has a pre-recorded message to visitors to remind them of the importance of social distancing.

This era is an Era of Robots and post covid the need of Robotic technology has grown a lot.

Artificial Intelligence in fight against COVID 19

Ms. V.Vidhya, Asst Professor, Department of MBA

The Pandemic Covid 19 has resulted in high demand of digital services for healthcare. To combat the crisis, we need to first know who has the disease, who is likely to have the disease, and what resources we need to fight against it. AI is one of the helpful applications for this current crisis. AI will help us to reach the goal of social distancing, quarantine, facial recognition and chat box. Using AI tools can help people to assess the risk and figure out if they need to be tested.

AI powered digital triage and virtual assistance is important now in the pandemic situation. Right now, walk in directly to the hospitals are not allowed. They need prior appointments before stepping inside the hospital. In many hospitals now they have implemented a self-kiosk which measures the temperature of the people stepping inside the hospital, asking certain basic questions to the person and transform the data to the concern physician. The physician sees the patient or person through his computer system and advices the treatment. Even some hospital has deployed printer options to take a print of the medical advice given by the physician.

In order to support the initiatives taken by the Government to combat the pandemic recently Hindustan Institute of Technology of Science has developed a AI tool called SEVILI, meaning care taker by Centre for Automation and Robotics. Sevili is designed to navigate to the isolation ward to deliver food, Medication and other necessities. It helps in connecting the medical frontline with quarantined patient through Video/Audio remotely.

Automated finger print technology has gained its importance in the new era before the pandemic. The work staff attendance, identity verification in government offices, as well as entry restrictions in various areas were the application of the biometric technology. Now due to this pandemic situation the fingerprint technology has become not only redundant but also had become potential risk carrier of infectious disease. An alteration to this technology facial recognitions technology has emerged which detects the faces within milliseconds when embedded into the system. New version of facial technology is facial recognition and temperature sensing technology. This new AI helps to detect the facial biometric and senses the temperature of the person who requires authentication.

While the world continues to fight against COVID 19 it also fights with the economic drop-down. Meanwhile Healthcare has shifted its goal towards Healthcare with the help of AI technology which has paved way for many new innovators to innovate new technologies to combat with pandemic situation in the upcoming years. A quote says “A light end of this tunnel shines brighter” creating much needed hope in this intense situation. As a new era we can expect to emerge AI supporting Healthcare.