Collaboration with Mango
From Dr. Mashiur Rahman :: ICT expert :: VoIP & Nanotechnology
Last November Mir Masud Kabir was invited in North South University to deliver a talk on Fiber Optic Submarine Cable: Present Status [1]. At that time Mr. Masud mentioned that although we are paying for full duplex internet connectivity but most of the upload connectivity to the world is un-utilized. If we can develop a good services at Dhaka, which will be used by the whole world, then it will help us. The whole world will need to develop connectivity to Dhaka/Bangladesh. At that time Dr. Mashiur Rahman also mentioned that we need to develop our content and can work in the education sector (e-learning). Later a collaboration project has been innitiated by Dr. Mashiur Rahman and Mr. Mir Masud kabir.
Below are the areas where we can work together:
- An accounting system for Mango based on open source solution.
- Hosting open source solutions to Dhaka to grab more upload from Bangladesh.
- Providing e-learning solution to Bangladesh
- Develop a conferencing system at Mango.
First meeting: 7 January 2010 at Mango office. Participators: Dr. Mashiur Rahman, Biplob Chakma, Mr. Niaz, NSU students: Sajjadul Latif Pavel, Tasnia Ahad, Kamrul Huda Khan Dodul, Ariful Haque, Foyez Ahmed, Manjurul Islam, Fauzia Sultana, Samiul Huq Meeting output:
- An accounting system will be developed for Mango.
- An e-learning system will be developed targeting SSC level.
- A conferencing system will be developed.
- Open source solutions will be hosted (mirrored) at Dhaka.
- We will develop ideas on websolutions.
Next meeting: 3PM on 11 January 2010 at NSU.
Team
Accounting team:
- Sajjadul Latif Pavel (Team Leader) (updated)
- Tasnia Ahad
- Kamrul Huda Khan Dodul
- Ariful Haque
- Foyez Ahmed (Accounting Expert)
E-learning team:
- Manjurul Islam
- Ariful Haque (Team Leader)
- Fauzia Sultana
- Samiul Huq
Home work
- What are the popular accounting, ERP solution? Narrow down the list to 3 to 5 products.
Ans. Best possible options will be between: 1. webERP. [2] 2. FrontAccounting.[3] Both of them uses PHP for front end and MySQL for back-end database. webERP has almost all the features Mango telecom required. FrontAccounting is also pretty strong but look is not that good.
- Open source e-learning solution.
1. Sakai[4] 2. Docebo[5] 3. Dokeos[6] 4. Moodle
- How we can develop a low cost cloud computing system for the hosting services.
- What are the open source solutions that we can provide. One of you proposed for sourceforge files. What are the things we can host at Dhaka?
- sourceforge.net server is temporarily not available from my BRacNet internet connection, I think we need to act fast to help ourselves to host it in BD.
- two important sites to follow: "How to set up a computing cloud and how it works?" [7], "Cloud Computing: What does it take to setup a Cloud" [8]
- Open source conferencing system: server and client.
ERP LAB Details information about the accounting solutions.
Open source conferencing system: server and client
See the discussion part
By Samiul
Homework Update: SourceForge as a mirroring server inBD
I advised for hosting the sourceforge server in bangladesh. I personally mailed at sourceforce official in BD, I have contact with them, and also have a good communication with BDOSN (Bangladesh Open Source Network). What I am thinking now is to contact with Mr. Ragib Hasan (BD-Wikipedia founder and the only BD member in Wikipedia community) about the cloud computing solution and hosting a google server in bangladesh. To inform you, Ragib hasan is among the very few bd employee who worked at google and now he is doing his PhD at University of Illinois at Urbana-Champagne. There are some other ideas popping in my mind, but let me explore them first, if feasible then I will let u know.
Written by-Manjurul Islam Posted by-Ariful Haque
Homework Update: How we can develop a low cost cloud computing system for the hosting services?
Cloud Computing Definition
The narrow cloud computing is a IT infrastructure deliver and usage model, means deliver and use the resource(hardware, platform, software) with on-demand and easy to scale through internet. The network to provide resource is called cloud (internet), the cloud seems like scalable infinitely, can get it anytime, and use and scale it on demand, pay per use.
The web hosting market is evolving rapidly and converging with cloud computing system infrastructure services, creating new opportunities, for cost saving and commercial quickness. These services are all unique, and merchants must be chosen with appropriate concern.
Web hosting is rapidly converging with cloud system infrastructure services. For the last several years, the market has been evolving toward on-demand infrastructure provisioned on a flexible, pay-as-you-go basis, but the introduction of cloud computing offerings has radically accelerated innovation in this market. The economic downturn has accelerated adoption of these offerings, thanks to the cost-savings that can be achieved by the move from physical to virtual services, and from purchasing for peak capacity to obtaining what you need only when you need it. The majority of hosting customers now obtain at least some of their infrastructure on-demand, and most new hosting contracts include on-demand services. This evolution has quickly changed the vendor landscape, bringing many new entrants to rapid prominence, as well as decreasing the relevance of hosters who have failed to make this shift.
The use cases are
• Self-managed hosting, for cost-effective agile replacement of a traditional data center.
• Mainstream managed hosting for Web content and applications of low to moderakte complexity.
• Highly complex managed hosting, for rich Internet applications.
• Global solutions portfolio, for a diversified set of interactive marketing needs.
• Enterprise applications hosting, for infrastructure underlying complex applications such as SAP
First of all, we need to choose a provider based on its ability to provide a cost-effective architecture and high-quality customer experience for our envisioned use case.
Critical Factors to Consider Before Choosing a Cheap Host
Even though cheap hosting has become more prevalent in recent times, there are many factors we need to consider before signing up for service. Because we never know what is behind that unbelievably low price, here are some critical factors we should keep in mind:
Downtime
A web host could provide us with all the tools needed to create a professional, feature-rich website that garners the attention of our audience. However, if our site is constantly unavailable, its beauty will not mean a thing to the users who cannot access it. Realizing that excessive downtime is one of the easiest ways to kills our online popularity, it is critical to find a cheap host that is more committed to reliability than a low price.
Limited Bandwidth
It is a known fact that bandwidth is a key component needed to support website traffic and plays a huge role in its success. If our site has a large number of visitors, it will obviously require more bandwidth. The challenging part of it all is that we may experience traffic spikes when least expected and be left with a sudden shortage of resources. If traffic is of any importance, make sure our cheap hosting plan comes included with enough bandwidth to support our current and future traffic requirements.
Technical Expertise
The technical expertise of the hosting provider is one area that doesn’t get enough attention. This doesn’t necessarily refer to the company’s infrastructure or hardware, but the people behind all the technology. Web hosting providers must be technically inclined for the simple fact that many of their customers are not. This expertise will be needed to provide us with support and encounter all the technical issues that might arise. We may not know a thing about servers but there is no excuse for our web host, cheap service or not.
Level of Support
One of the biggest drawbacks of cheap hosting services has been the lack of support. It seems as if some companies are cutting cost in various areas to provide affordable service and the critical department of support is often the one to suffer. Support is very important and should come at no additional cost. Even if we are only paying a couple of dollars per month, ensure that our plan comes with world-class support that makes we feel like a million dollar customer.
Evolution
At the end of the day, it is not impossible to find a company that provides a cheap service yet works hard to keep up the reliability. However, it may take us a little extra time so exercise a bit of patience and make our selection wisely. After doing our research, it should be much easier to find a premium service that comes at a bargain price.
References
• http://www.slideshare.net/liuliming/introduction-to-cloud-computing-presentation
• Gartner RAS Core Research Note G00168687, Lydia Leong, Ted Chamberlin, 2 July 2009, R3158 08252010
Posted By-Ariful Haque
Homework Update: Content Management System (CMS)
What is a Content Management System
Content Management Systems come in all shapes and sizes. Chances are, if we've put up a Web page on a free Web page server or ISP we've had access to a rudimentary content management system.
Some of the features a good CM System will provide are:
a) Data management
b) Web Life-Cycle Management
c) Web Templating
d) Personalization
e) Syndication
f) Digital Rights Management
Within a corporation, a content management tool does a lot of things:
• provides Web access to Web page content owners directly
• allows for faster updates of Web pages
• provides an easy-to-use interface where content owners don't need to know HTML
• creates accountability, as most content managers can track logins and changes to various pages within the site
• upholds standardization rules
Posted By-Fauzia Sultana
Meeting # 2: Jan 11'2010
3.00-5.00pm SAC 9th floor IP Telephony Lab, North South University
Chair: Dr. Mashiur Rahman Participators: Sajjadul Latif, Tasnia Ahad, Ariful Haque, Samiul Huq, Midad Arif
Discussion Topics:
- Road Map to the collaboration with Mango
-phase #1: presentation & demo to Mango
-phase #2: deal with Mango
-phase #3(optional): further support to the Company (Mango)
Meeting Outcomes (Homework):
task 1:e-learning:study on moodle, dekooS, dekobo, sakai
task 2:find out a name for the upcoming e-learning website
task 3:integration the above tasks
posted by: Ariful Haque Jan 11' 2010 12.30 am
Meeting#3, January 18,2010
Location: Mango Teleservices conference room. Time: 11.00 a.m.
Participants: Sajjadul Latif, Foyez Ahmed, Tasnia Ahad, Ariful Haque, Fauzia Sultana.
After going through a number of open source web based ERP solutions for entriprises we came up with two of them, which are: 1. webERP 2. FrontAccounting
We had had an opportunity to present these two open source web based software program in fornt of the officials of Mango teleservices. They seemed to approve us for further progress so we chose to work with webERP for further customization.
Mango Teleservices had some particular requirements which we hope to fulfil. They are:
- Without changing the PO how can the different installments be made at different time intervals?
- If intervals changed how can we adjust it?
- If purchase order is predefined, later if it is changed how it is affected(for example in the Balance Sheet)?
- How can we break the link so that it affects only the particular transactions or journal entry without affecting the balance sheet?
- Whether the webERP is updating the changes? Will it show any notification?
- Options for disabling and enabling certain features of webERP according to their needs using the user login time.
- Dealing with exchange rates -generate payment structure automatically.
- Security should be maintained.
- Backup should be provided.
- Reports should be generated automatically.
- Role management.
3 main requirements are:
- Invoicing.
- BTRC revenue sharing.
- VAT
posted by: Tasnia Ahad January 18, 2010.
Work Analysis : 19th Jan 2010
Location: Mango Teleservices Office.
Participants:
- Sajjadul Latif.
- Tasnia Ahad.
- Foyez Ahmed.
- Ariful Haque.
- Fauzia Sultana.
After the meeting and discussion we created the following worklist.
- Software must have a listing of BW purchase and sold.
- Unsused BW goes to cost of goods sold.
- There should not be any inventory items for BW.
- Invoice tracking needed.
- Problem with invoice making. (need to find logic behind it). Lots of brainworks required at this field.
- In case of custmer revocation, SD should be clear. (need to find a way to do it).
- Revenue sharing with BTRC and VAT should be included in Ledger.
- SD adjustment depending on slab. (upgradation and downgradation). Lots of brainworks required at this field.
- VAT clearing and signatory avalibility issue upon check recieveing. Mango wants both manual and auto system at the same time . (contradictory, May not have a solution).
- VAT clearance problem upon bounced check or bad debt.
- Mango did not provide us the list of attribute (columns and fields) for general ledger.
- List of roles according to authorization permit.
- MRF(material requisition form) --->sent to boss ---->aprove?------>sent to accounting dept -----> approv? ------->issue PO ----> create payable---> partial/slabbed payment method.
- Budgeting: Revenue forecasting, cost analysis(need to discuss more about it).
- Change option of forecasted budget ----->approval?
We need to find a way to solve the above problems first. So please all start thinking about the process could be integrated.
We need to redisgn th software as Mango ERP. First phase would be the outlook and graphics. Please start work ASAP.
Next meeting on 24th Jan 2010, Location: Mango Office.
Possibe participants:
- Sajjadul Latif.
- Foyez Ahmed.
- Ariful Haque.
Softwar graphical remodelling: Location: home.
- Tasnia Ahad.
- Fauzia Sultana.
If you find any question, mail me or call me at anytime.
Pavel.
Homework Update
Based on the experiments of last 4/5 days I have some important updates to share through wiki.I would like to classify the homework into the following categories’-
1.evolution of the proposal'Jan 20
2.understanding the work function of the present system (tally)
3.understanding the prob of the present system (tally)
4.studying the demand of Mango
5.our limitation according to demand of Mango
A details about the above list-
1.evolution of the proposal'Jan 20
our first initiative will be to introduce a modification in the graphical user interface of weberp.I have already done this part as far as possible. There are 5/6 Integrated themes in the wweberp user interface. I tried to express those themes as a Mango Application by changing their color, table formation, page architecture, main & other menu features and so on. To be informed u all, it was not that much easy what was seemed before starting the task for me.
2.understanding the work function of the present system (tally)
since it was a major task for us to understand the work function of the present system-tally that is used by Mango for our further steps, i have studied on the it. I have acquired a moderate knowledge on the system functions of tally.In fact, tally is a well-known accounting software which has a good number of user in the market.
3.understanding the prob of the present system (tally)
even being a good product to the solution of the accounting procedures the tally does not provide an error-free service to its customers. Moreover it is a popular item to the corporate world user due to its low cost. The goal to reduce the cost for buying the software as well as its maintenance introduce a lot of probs to its user and Mango is not out of them. The major prob of tally is its non-automation system support. Every work is done there manually. It takes max input from the user that increases the hardness of the operation and kills good time. One more prob is that it is not secured.
4.studying the demand of Mango
the demand of Mango is huge and very customized. I want to describe those terms in my next post.
5.our limitation according to demand of Mango
time is our main concern in the field of our limitation. the company should allow a moderate time to produce a web based accounting solution that can fill up their max demand.
posted by- Ariful Haque Jan 24'2010 3.01 AM
Dear All Team Members(Account), I would like to meet with u all at Mango Tele service office to discus about Accountancy Software project. SO please confirm me, when you all will be available? I shall available at Mango from 11:30pm to 2:00 Pm. Thanking you All Apon Cell: 01819252109
Homework Update
After two meetings with Apon vai on Mango Office i have completed several tasks of the project. Some of them are listed below:
1.the need analysis is almost finished (over 90%)
2.it's the time to think of coding, not a great extent but just planning-how to code, where to start...
3.it was the earlier assumption that "open-source" soln might not be applied on the later task
4."editing is always tough"-based on the theory i have understood to design the code in an alternative way
5.the database design is almost completed by me-Ariful Haque
6.the accounting module of MnagoERP has started to customize according to the demand of Company
7.an outline of the main menu of MangoERP has established after a lot of thoughts by me
8.the invoice of MangoERP is about to finish to present to the authority
posted by-Ariful Haque Jan 28'2010 1.09 pm Mango Office
