1.
iBranch
Collaboration through Internet is critical for
state-of-the-art learning
environment in
professional colleges (a fact well recognized by NBA).
Its also a globally emerging corporate culture.
Introducing iBranch, a technology service using which a college can have its
official collaborative portal without buying extra hardware or software or
hiring ‘IT Guys’, … for as low as Rs.1750 per month!
1 2 3
Interact Share Information Share Knowledge
Online Online Online
with state-of-the-art collaborative features…
Announcements Event Calendar Discussion Forums
Blogs Repository White Board
---------------------------------------------------------
“What is an iBranch?” … “Why do we need it?” …Find all details at: www.iBranch.in
2.
Do you have an iBranch ?
Inside…
Frequently Asked Questions …… 1
Advantage iBranch …… 3
Collaborative Features …… 5
Contact Us …… 6
3. ‐1‐
Frequently Asked Questions
1. What is an "iBranch"?
Answer: "iBranch" stands for INTERNET BRANCH.
The iBranch of an organization becomes the “official portal” for its members to share day‐to‐day work related
information through Internet. Technically speaking, an iBranch is a 'web enterprise portal'.
For example, see our demo iBranch of a college ‐ International Institute of Learning (www.ibranch.in/iil).
2. How is it different from the “Website” of our organization?
Answer: Your “Website” is your interface to the outside world, like a detailed brochure which contains mostly
static information like 'About Us', 'Products & Services', 'Achievements', 'Clients', 'Contact Us' etc.
An iBranch is strictly for the members or employees of your organization to share day‐to‐day work related
information which is highly dynamic in nature (changing every day or hour).
Technically, both website and iBranch (web enterprise portal) need a web server for hosting, but the software for
a web enterprise portal is much more complex than that of a website. That’s because, a web enterprise portal is a
collection of various ‘web applications’ which allow people to collaborate in different ways.
3. Why Does my organization need an "iBranch"?
Answer: Interactivity and info‐sharing is CRITICAL to the core function of an educational institute i.e. imparting
knowledge. Hence an iBranch (web enterprise portal) is as important as classrooms & black‐boards (especially in
this Internet age). It would also help the institute management to organize the functioning of staff and activities of
students more easily.
Collaboration through Internet is required where there are inefficiencies in communication or info‐sharing
resulting in poor team work and haphazard functioning (which is commonly found in any kind of organization).
4. Why use Internet when all our employees/students have mobile
phones?
SMS or phone call is only suitable for personal messages. When you need to send an announcement to 50 people,
a lot of time and money would be wasted in calling or messaging. And apart from announcements, there are many
other ways in which you share information within your college.
Although you can send short notices using SMS, but you cannot guarantee whether all desired recipients have
received (and read) the SMS and you are never sure whether your purpose is solved. For the recipient too, it is
difficult to keep the announcements categorized and dated. So a student for example, will have to keep all the
messages from HOD, library, accounts and teachers etc. in the same inbox.
5. Why do we need more ways of collaborating when we use e-mail?
E‐mail, like SMS, is most suitable for personal communication. Although you can send detailed messages with
attached documents to a number of recipients at once, it is still unorganized. E‐mailing a message to a group of
people is like distributing photocopies of that message instead of putting it on a notice board (What if the message
needs a small correction after it has been distributed??). Inteeg.com provides you with a sophisticated notice
board on the Internet (along with lots of other features of course).
5. ‐3‐
Advantage iBranch
Opening an iBranch on www.ibranch.in has three major advantages over Behind the Curtain
developing and/or hosting your own portal solution:
What does a Web Enterprise
1. Cost advantage Portal service require at the
back‐end?
2. Continuity‐of‐service advantage
Infrastructure:
3. Latest technology advantage
Server class computer
1. Cost advantage:
Server operating system with
web server software
(Please see the box “Behind the curtain” to understand the infrastructure and
manpower resources needed for running a Web Enterprise Portal service). Portal software or a content
Following is a table showing the cost distribution across four critical areas: management system
Where are the costs? Database server software.
5% – 20% 5% – 15% 5% – 15% 50% – 85%
Initial Deployment Ongoing Ongoing Supporting software like anti‐
Infrastructure personnel Infrastructure Personnel virus etc.
‐ Hardware ‐ Design ‐ Hardware Repair / ‐ Scheduled
Replace Maintenance Internet leased line with at
least 2Mbps bandwidth.
‐ Software ‐ Configure &
Integrate ‐ Network ‐ Unscheduled
‐ Security Maintenance Firewall (hardware or
software)
‐ Test & Tune ‐ Security
‐ Monitoring / ‐ Outage Response
Management Tools ‐ Ancillary Upgrades ‐ Bandwidth
‐ System Monitoring Deployment Personnel:
‐ Ancillary Upgrades ‐ Launch ‐ Software
Maintenance
‐ End User Service System design and Information
& Support architecture.
‐ Facilities ‐ IT staff Training & Upgrades
‐ End User Training ‐ Redundant Systems
‐ End User Training Portal software or content
Staff Training management system
& Awareness development (or
‐ Capacity Adds ‐ Admin, Reporting & customization).
Cost Allocation
‐ Add on Feature Sets
Infrastructure deployment.
‐ Planning,
‐ Monitoring/ Engineering, Testing
Management Tools
Ongoing personnel:
‐ Deployment of
‐ Facilities Upgrades and Add‐
ons Infrastructure maintenance
‐ Other (help desk
etc.) ‐ Security Monitoring Portal administration (user
memberships and roles
‐ Marketing management)
Awareness
& Adoption End user training and support
Original source: IDC. Direct source: White paper from WebEx™ – [pdf] “On‐demand Vs. On‐premise
collaboration”.
6. ‐4‐
Just the initial infrastructure with an entry‐level server and free open source software would cost more
than Rs.70,000 and it would incur a recurring cost of more than Rs. 25,000 per year for power and
internet connectivity (excluding maintenance costs). This assumes that your IT department has reserve
manpower to do things mentioned in the second and fourth column of the above table. Even if a shared
hosting service is used and just one person is dedicated to these tasks, the effective recurring costs
shoot beyond Rs.100,000 per year!
On www.iBranch.in, subscription prices for a Web Enterprise Portal start at Rs.1750 per month.! So
how do we provide this service at such low prices?
The infrastructure costs get shared among various clients. Operational costs per portal, which are the
highest among all costs, are recovered through sponsorships and ads (limited and strictly relevant
advertizing).
2. Continuity‐of‐service advantage:
Once members of an organization start using a Web Enterprise Portal, it gradually evolves into a critical
service (just like any other communication service). Therefore its availability must be high (24x7) and
functionality must be error‐free. This requires all the processes mentioned under “Ongoing Personnel”
column in the above table to be executed periodically. For a non‐IT organization it’s difficult to have
such a team in‐house. At iBranch.in, we are here to do just that. So you can use your iBranch anytime
anywhere.
3. Latest technology advantage
With specialization in the domain of Web Enterprise Portals, we are in a better position to adapt to
technology changes and pass‐on the benefits to our customers (as compared to a general IT
administration team). So with www.iBranch.in, you always get to use the best and the latest technology
7. ‐5‐
Collaborative Features
A simple and secure way to broadcast notices & announcements, and publish news.
It comes with ‘display‐in‐future’ and ‘expiry date’ facility. Useful when you want to
create a “virtual notice board”.
Announcements
Important events can be displayed (with details‐on‐click) under specific dates on a
calendar. E‐mail reminders can also be sent optionally. Useful for exam schedules,
meetings & conferences, deadlines etc.
Event Calendar
An online platform for members to discuss topics asynchronously (unlike chatting).
Saves & displays discussions topic‐wise. Useful when you want a group discussion on
a topic. Also when you expect a reply for a query from anybody within your
Discussion Forums organization.
Blogging, the latest trend in the Internet world, allows members to write articles,
essays, comments etc. and share them publicly. Useful when you want to just write
about something and express yourself subjectively.
Blogs
Upload documents (like text files, spreadsheets, presentation slides, pdf etc.) from
your computer. It can then be downloaded by authorized users from anywhere.
Useful when a document/file needs to be distributed among a group or made
Repository available for reference anytime in future.
A custom defined table which can be used to build online lightweight databases. For
example time‐table, task allocation table, member records etc. Useful when multiple
users need to view or edit tabular data which traditionally requires group‐sharing of
Custom tabular
excel files through e‐mail.
data
Its a plain and simple white board! You can write any text on it or even create
advanced displays using HTML.
White Board
It’s the newest way of co‐authoring documents. It maintains a single active copy of
the document online and also tracks the changes made to it. Useful when more than
one persons work on a single document. For example a team working on a client‐
Wiki proposal.
@ An easy to update contact directory. Maintain contacts of your members (or clients)
online, hence it can be accessed from anywhere.
Contact Directory
8. ‐6‐
Contact Us
Office: Citywala Infotech Pvt. Ltd.
C‐45 Parijat Commercial Complex
Bittan Market, Bhopal – 462016
Phone: (0755) 4202423
93008 21326, 98933 06861
e‐mail: info@citywala.com
w w w . i B r a n c h. i n