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Informative article

The topic on Infrastructure Management was very informative and full of wisdom. It is good to see people like Nitin Paul taking such initiatives and writing such good articles. Please keep up the good work.

Regards,
Manojit Majumdar,
Country Leader, Linux Software, IBM India

Dear Manojit,

Thank you very much for your encouraging words. We have already been carrying and plan to carry similar stories from industry thought-leaders. Please do keep the feedback coming so that we can further improve our content.

Help with VSATs

We are writing to you from MITech Pvt Ltd, Pune. We want to set up a VSAT link for our franchise network. How can you help us in this regard?

What will be the cost and who are the service providers who can help us with this kind of requirement? It will be really helpful if you can guide us on this.

Regards,
Sudam Choure,
Director, MITech

Dear Sudam,

Many VSAT service providers offer a variety of charges that are bundled or pay-per-use. I have attached a link to a buyers guide page published in our sister publication Express Computer. Look up the section on managed connectivity service providers.

www.expresscomputeronline.com/20050523/networking01.shtml

The meter-reading project

I am a student at the DAV Institute of Engineering & Technology, Jalandhar, Punjab, pursuing a BTech in Electrical Engineering. I read your article on power billing in Network Magazine. I am working on the same project, that is, automated meter-reading. I feel that you can help me out in this project since the topic is similar to what I am working on. I have already studied the facts mentioned by you in your article, and I wanted to know more about the technical aspects of this project.

Reetu Raj,
EE, IIIrd year DAV IET,
Jalandhar, Punjab

Dear Reetu,

If you want to know about the technology, then the initial plan was to connect each reader via CDMA to the centre so that the system could automatically pull information without travelling.

However, at the moment, the person still has to go to the machine. The high-end models can communicate over infrared or RF, but generally a representative from the power company goes to the meter. He connects his handheld reader and the data is uploaded to the device.

Info Management

The Readerware section has highlighted concepts in general management such as leadership (Leadership roles) and those affecting the industry like outsourcing (The black book of outsourcing). They have not only given people like me tips to improve efficiency, productivity and profitability, but have also been a source of information on issues affecting the IT industry. I would however like you to review books that focus on CIOs and CTOs, and how should they go about tackling issues that hinder the smooth functioning of the modern-day enterprise.

Regards,
Rakesh Singh,
Minneapolis, USA

Dear Rakesh,

We try to cover a mix of general management and technology-specific topics in our book reviews. In addition to the books you mentioned, we have also reviewed a book on what CIO’s need to do (CIO Wisdom, December 2005) to groom themselves to be the business leaders of tomorrow. We understand the critical role the CIO plays in ensuring that processes and information flow happen as per specifications. With IT playing a key role in today’s enterprises, our focus will be firmly on the person leading the charge.