BT Dot.com: What's Hot! [Pg.2]

STATS & STRATS
The Whole Truth

How to get click-n-mortar businesses certified.

Miklos Konkoly-Thege: let me in

When the good old economy meets the new, the future of the net becomes clearer. Established brick-n-mortar companies, keen on expanding business and increasing efficiencies, are launching their own websites for self-help and stakeholder enrichment worldwide. These click-n-mortar entities need loads of luck but in an unknown area, a certificate of trust helps greatly.

This is where Det Norske Veritas (DNV) emerges from the Norwegian woods. In plain English, DNV stands for 'the Norwegian truth'. In 300 offices across 100 countries, the DNV foundation forks out internationally recognised certificates and consultancy services. Now 137 years old, DNV's main strength lies essentially in classifying safety on ships.

From there to the uncharted waters of the net doesn't seem a particularly long haul. Says Miklos Konkoly-Thege, COO, DNV: ''We believe that for e-commerce to survive, a strong brick-n-mortar foundation is vital before taking on the world online.''

DNV-which has since 1972 been certifying safety in ships in India-offers EBtrust, a set of customised guidelines or methodology that assesses the capabilities of a company and dishes out compliance certificates. When a company wants to be noticed worldwide, DNV offers its services as a 'discerning' assessor, before handing out the coveted badge of honour, the DNV EBtrust certificate.

The EBtrust analysis varies according to the nature of the company's business, its complexity and its life-cycle maturity. There are five elements against which a company may elect to be assessed: ethics, infrastructure, security, process/organisation, and web marketing. When the company meets the analysis criteria applicable to its business profile, it becomes a 'Trusted Company', a DNV symbol on their website certifying that the company is worthy of the trust of its clients.

From companies with about 100 employees and a turnover of between Rs 30-50 crore, DNV hopes to charge Rs 1 lakh for a three-year period. Three-fourths will be cash-down, the rest in three annual installments.

-Moinak Mitra

Wired Wisdom

Thou Shalt Celebrate
The optimism around indian e-commerce.

Despite the tech gloom, the faith in the light at the end of the tunnel is everlasting. The latest projection for e-commerce turnover in India is Rs 25,200 crore by 2005. Could it happen? Ask Richard McCormick, the president of the International Chamber of Commerce, who dished out the figures in Delhi. The present numbers: Rs 250 crore in b2b and Rs 50 crore in b2c (yes, those funny acronyms are still alive). McCormick says many of the building blocks for future growth are in place.

Thou Shalt Mourn
The passing of ms-dos.

The most widely used operating system in the 1980s and early 1990s, was officially buried when Microsoft boss Bill Gates typed 'exit' at the ms-dos command line during the launch of its latest progeny, Windows XP, on October 25. Present at its demise were a host of CEOs of companies that had made money off the ancient OS. With that act, the famed 16-bit code was permanently removed from Microsoft's code base.

"We Managed Growth In Adverse Conditions"

In the autumnal gloom of the dotcom era, Ajit Balakrishnan stands by his promise of last quarter break-even. Rediff.com, now a ''global consumer media company'', announced q2 results with revenues at $6.08 million (Rs 28.84 crore)-an increase of 4.5 times over the previous Q2. If it sounds impressive, remember it's because Rediff acquired a newspaper, India Abroad, along the way. While the net loss for Q2 was $8.8 million (Rs 36.78 crore), operating cash burn for the same period was approximately $2 million (Rs 9.60 crore). With conditions worsening in India and the US, which contributes 88 per cent of the company's revenues, the break-even will be eagerly watched. BT's Vinod Mahanta chats with Ajit Balakrishnan.

Ajit Balakrishnan: man of promise

Q. What are your comments on the results?

A. The results have been good, I think. The advertising revenues are 40 per cent and the revenue from e-commerce comprises 60 per cent (including value Communications). The ad scene is dismal this quarter. It was a tough quarter and we have managed an overall business growth of 6 per cent in adverse conditions.

Has Rediff made the transition from a dotcom to global consumer media company?

Ours is a mix of online and offline strategies. It's just an evolution, our model is evolving. If we see the elements of the mix, 75 per cent are from the US and 25 per cent from India. We want it to be 50:50 over a period of time, be it e-commerce or advertising. Besides, all our businesses are in the developing stage.

What are your comments on the dismal stock performance?

I know how to run businesses, not stocks. If you see other websites that can be compared to Rediff (Ina.com in China and Starmedia.com in South America) and compare their performance with ours, we come off looking better. We are part of a sector that has some problems.

How was Rediff affected by the September 11 incidents?

My office looks into the WTC and I saw both the buildings fall. I thought it was the end of the world. For that week, the revenue were down by 50 per cent, but they have climbed back. Our revenue streams are not directly affected by the incidents. The first week was bad and there was immense amount of pessimism in the streets. The situation is not as bad as it is made out to be.

Why has Rediff taken a write-down in the value of investments?

I think we are just being conservative. We are heading towards being profitable; we want every investment to be written off to zero before that. We want to head towards profitability with no backlog.

There was a lot of talk of synergies and cross-promotions across businesses? How has Rediff worked on these during the last quarter and how is Rediff benefiting from it?

Our efforts at deriving greater synergies between our various businesses in India and the US are aimed either at lowering operating costs when facilities are shared or maximising revenues when the same consumer is sold multiple products and services through common brands. At India Abroad, we have drawn synergies through common ad sales force in the US and India, joint rate for classified ads in Rediff's US portal, online subscription booking.

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