Virtual personal assistance

The Satyam Scandal

We at GetFriday understand the concerns raised in the wake of the Satyam scandal. The scandal is unfortunate and particularly shocking given that Satyam is the 4th largest IT firm in India. But the Indian industry believes that this is an isolated cased and an aberration. It may be recalled that some of the best Indian firms like Infosys have earned their reputation through adhering to good business ethics and the highest standards of corporate governance. It should be noted that other countries and industries also have bad apples. The likes of Enron, Worldcom and the recent Madoff case come to mind. Even in this case, the audit firm involved was PriceWaterhouseCoopers, one of the big 5. No matter how well planned a system is there will always be people who will find a way around it. The Indian regulatory system is strong and robust and is expected to act as swiftly as possible to ensure that the hard earned reputation of India Inc. is protected. GetFriday: We are not a listed company with public investors. We are closely held with the majority stakeholder being the TTK Group, a business conglomerate that is synonymous with trust, since 1928. The group is known for its conservatism and its unblemished reputation. Over the last 80 years, the group has worked with many international companies and brands including Cadburys, Ponds, Sara Lee and Durex. Many of its brands have been household names in India now for decades. While being a client is quite different from being an investor, we would like you to know that GetFriday is backed by an 80-year-old group with a rock solid foundation. Issues that are relevant to the context: 1) Security of financial information Right from the inception of GetFriday in 2005, we realized that the security of financial information was critical to our success. So we implemented a system that does not allow the assistants to access any credit card information. While online shopping on behalf of clients is an everyday affair at GetFriday, we have ensured that assistants can go only up to the check out stage and then have to hand over the shopping to their team-lead for completion. This is thanks to our secure Safe-Access system that requires two levels of authorization for any transaction. Each transaction is tracked and the details stored so that there is a clear audit trail. This has ensured a trouble free and safe operation with zero fraud reported so far since 2005. With our online billing system, all information is double encrypted, password protected and then secured with a pass phrase (never stored on any system). The information resides on a secure network with firewall protection and is PCI compliant to ensure that the information is secure. Again, the audit trail clearly fixes accountability and responsibility based on access. 2) Confidentiality of Personal / Business information As a matter of utmost precaution we ask all our assistants to communicate and handle tasks only through our CRM system (Pivotal from CDC Software, a top ten ranked CRM vendor globally). This ensures the tracking and safety of client information. Communicating on personal email ids is prohibited and even on official email ids is allowed only when there is a maintenance break or unscheduled breakdown on the CRM system. Our privacy policy and confidentiality clauses as per terms of service require every assistant to not share information pertaining to one client with another. We conduct regular training sessions and sensitize staff on the importance of these measures. Employees are required to sign an NDA and confidentiality agreement as part of their employment contract with us. If some clients require specific NDA’s signed then we review them on a case-by-case basis and then take it forward on a mutually agreeable basis. 3) Business Continuity While business continuity is a cause for major concern if someone is outsourcing critical parts of their business, it is imperative in the case of a VA service that there are no long-term contracts and commitments. If clients want to drop out, all that is needed is a month’s notice. Similarly if GetFriday is unable to provide service for any reasons or if the contract is terminated, then it is our duty and commitment to hand over confidential information or destroy it within the specific time mentioned in the NDA and confidentiality agreement. In fact, there can’t be a better option than a service like us which protects and insulates clients from the issues of attrition, sudden surges / drops in business, and unavailability of assistants on account on normal issues like vacation, sickness etc. This is as nice and dependable as it can get for small outsourcing that is not worth a million dollars. We have maintained utmost transparency with our clients across the globe and always encourage clients who are on a visit to India to drop by and get to know us in flesh and blood. Outsourcing is here to stay, and this scam shall not affect Indian businesses adversely. Read more on this. If you have any concerns or question, you can post a comment here or contact us through our website, www.getfriday.com

The Satyam Scandal Read More »

We at GetFriday understand the concerns raised in the wake of the Satyam scandal. The scandal is unfortunate and particularly shocking given that Satyam is the 4th largest IT firm in India. But the Indian industry believes that this is an isolated cased and an aberration. It may be recalled that some of the best Indian firms like Infosys have earned their reputation through adhering to good business ethics and the highest standards of corporate governance. It should be noted that other countries and industries also have bad apples. The likes of Enron, Worldcom and the recent Madoff case come to mind. Even in this case, the audit firm involved was PriceWaterhouseCoopers, one of the big 5. No matter how well planned a system is there will always be people who will find a way around it. The Indian regulatory system is strong and robust and is expected to act as swiftly as possible to ensure that the hard earned reputation of India Inc. is protected. GetFriday: We are not a listed company with public investors. We are closely held with the majority stakeholder being the TTK Group, a business conglomerate that is synonymous with trust, since 1928. The group is known for its conservatism and its unblemished reputation. Over the last 80 years, the group has worked with many international companies and brands including Cadburys, Ponds, Sara Lee and Durex. Many of its brands have been household names in India now for decades. While being a client is quite different from being an investor, we would like you to know that GetFriday is backed by an 80-year-old group with a rock solid foundation. Issues that are relevant to the context: 1) Security of financial information Right from the inception of GetFriday in 2005, we realized that the security of financial information was critical to our success. So we implemented a system that does not allow the assistants to access any credit card information. While online shopping on behalf of clients is an everyday affair at GetFriday, we have ensured that assistants can go only up to the check out stage and then have to hand over the shopping to their team-lead for completion. This is thanks to our secure Safe-Access system that requires two levels of authorization for any transaction. Each transaction is tracked and the details stored so that there is a clear audit trail. This has ensured a trouble free and safe operation with zero fraud reported so far since 2005. With our online billing system, all information is double encrypted, password protected and then secured with a pass phrase (never stored on any system). The information resides on a secure network with firewall protection and is PCI compliant to ensure that the information is secure. Again, the audit trail clearly fixes accountability and responsibility based on access. 2) Confidentiality of Personal / Business information As a matter of utmost precaution we ask all our assistants to communicate and handle tasks only through our CRM system (Pivotal from CDC Software, a top ten ranked CRM vendor globally). This ensures the tracking and safety of client information. Communicating on personal email ids is prohibited and even on official email ids is allowed only when there is a maintenance break or unscheduled breakdown on the CRM system. Our privacy policy and confidentiality clauses as per terms of service require every assistant to not share information pertaining to one client with another. We conduct regular training sessions and sensitize staff on the importance of these measures. Employees are required to sign an NDA and confidentiality agreement as part of their employment contract with us. If some clients require specific NDA’s signed then we review them on a case-by-case basis and then take it forward on a mutually agreeable basis. 3) Business Continuity While business continuity is a cause for major concern if someone is outsourcing critical parts of their business, it is imperative in the case of a VA service that there are no long-term contracts and commitments. If clients want to drop out, all that is needed is a month’s notice. Similarly if GetFriday is unable to provide service for any reasons or if the contract is terminated, then it is our duty and commitment to hand over confidential information or destroy it within the specific time mentioned in the NDA and confidentiality agreement. In fact, there can’t be a better option than a service like us which protects and insulates clients from the issues of attrition, sudden surges / drops in business, and unavailability of assistants on account on normal issues like vacation, sickness etc. This is as nice and dependable as it can get for small outsourcing that is not worth a million dollars. We have maintained utmost transparency with our clients across the globe and always encourage clients who are on a visit to India to drop by and get to know us in flesh and blood. Outsourcing is here to stay, and this scam shall not affect Indian businesses adversely. Read more on this. If you have any concerns or question, you can post a comment here or contact us through our website, www.getfriday.com

Virtual Assistant

Getting snowed in

Tim Ferriss’s book has done wonders for the popularity of this service. The number of people who want to sign up has increased dramatically and the credit goes to Tim for opening people’s eyes to the potential of outsourcing. We have been keeping an active eye on blogs about comments on the GetFriday service. Quoting from Tim’s own blog he says “Even GetFriday, which has done great work for me, is getting snowed under with work since their mentions in the book. The price of success! Be careful what you ask for ;)”. This is very much true. Though we had prepared well for this, you aren’t ever completely prepared for the reality. So it is a fact that we are struggling to keep pace with the enquiries. However our processes have evolved so well over the last year that we have been able to cope with the influx amazingly well. We also found some blogs where prospective clients had posted that our sign up process was not online and that our service was good post the sign up. Let me explain this. The sign up process is intentionally not online. While the sign up and payment for our other sister service “YourManInIndia(YMII)” – the Indian concierge service is completely online, we kept it offline for GetFriday. It is nice to think of a factory situation where you sign up online, pay for a plan and get alloted a human robot automatically as an assistant. It may work well in a highly automated supply chain and manufacturing system where parts are sourced as you place your order for let’s say a computer (like Dell), or even in the world of digital downloads, software etc. But here we are dealing with providing human assistants and it requires a great deal of resource planning and fitment before we can assign an assistant to a client. Hence the sign up process is kept intentionally offline wherein we study the requirement, send an appropriate form, get a secure fax sign up from client before commencing service. In our opinion it is better to have a slightly longer process of understanding client requirements and sign up than have a prolonged process of waiting to get an assistant assigned after an instant sign up. This isn’t instant coffee or Nirvana. Again this may change in the near future if we are able to automate resource fitment and allocation. Another article that has brought quite a buzz for us in Canada is this one by Patrick White for the Globe and Mail, Canada’s national newspaper. Thanks to Patrick we are now known in Canada as well. On a closing note, we are getting snowed in but we aren’t finished yet with taking on new clients. We remain as keen as ever to serve more and more people globally and make their lives better. If there has been a prolonged wait with our service, kindly bear with us we should be having you on board soon. -GetFriday Management

Getting snowed in Read More »

Tim Ferriss’s book has done wonders for the popularity of this service. The number of people who want to sign up has increased dramatically and the credit goes to Tim for opening people’s eyes to the potential of outsourcing. We have been keeping an active eye on blogs about comments on the GetFriday service. Quoting from Tim’s own blog he says “Even GetFriday, which has done great work for me, is getting snowed under with work since their mentions in the book. The price of success! Be careful what you ask for ;)”. This is very much true. Though we had prepared well for this, you aren’t ever completely prepared for the reality. So it is a fact that we are struggling to keep pace with the enquiries. However our processes have evolved so well over the last year that we have been able to cope with the influx amazingly well. We also found some blogs where prospective clients had posted that our sign up process was not online and that our service was good post the sign up. Let me explain this. The sign up process is intentionally not online. While the sign up and payment for our other sister service “YourManInIndia(YMII)” – the Indian concierge service is completely online, we kept it offline for GetFriday. It is nice to think of a factory situation where you sign up online, pay for a plan and get alloted a human robot automatically as an assistant. It may work well in a highly automated supply chain and manufacturing system where parts are sourced as you place your order for let’s say a computer (like Dell), or even in the world of digital downloads, software etc. But here we are dealing with providing human assistants and it requires a great deal of resource planning and fitment before we can assign an assistant to a client. Hence the sign up process is kept intentionally offline wherein we study the requirement, send an appropriate form, get a secure fax sign up from client before commencing service. In our opinion it is better to have a slightly longer process of understanding client requirements and sign up than have a prolonged process of waiting to get an assistant assigned after an instant sign up. This isn’t instant coffee or Nirvana. Again this may change in the near future if we are able to automate resource fitment and allocation. Another article that has brought quite a buzz for us in Canada is this one by Patrick White for the Globe and Mail, Canada’s national newspaper. Thanks to Patrick we are now known in Canada as well. On a closing note, we are getting snowed in but we aren’t finished yet with taking on new clients. We remain as keen as ever to serve more and more people globally and make their lives better. If there has been a prolonged wait with our service, kindly bear with us we should be having you on board soon. -GetFriday Management

Work life balance

The Four Hour Work Week

It was towards mid May of 2006, that Timothy (Tim) Ferriss got in touch with GetFriday(Sister Concern of YMII) requesting for virtual assistance. He was writing this book for Random House and wanted to test out different outsourcers offering virtual assistance to experience and test the limits of outsourcing. Now that the book “The Four Hour Work Week” is out, debuting on the Amazon top 10 and going strong at #7 at the time of writing this blog, we quite know what he set out to do. Here is a very young man who at age 29 has done an amazing variety of things in his life. Much more than what most people can’t imagine doing in a whole lifetime. There are a lot more young millionaires who probably have earned more than him at his age. But doing what he set out to do, why? Was it to write a book about it and make tons of money. Apparently no, the money is incidental. According to Tim, he was succumbing to the more you work, the better you are – culture that is all prevalent in today’s workaholic world. He wanted to make a change in the pursuit of happiness ;) and set out to really pursue what he wanted out of life without having to be a monk. Making more money doesn’t necessarily mean you get to do what you want in life. He calls his 4 steps to achieving his goal as D-E-A-L. Definition Define the kind of lifestyle you want to pursue. Most of the time, that can be achieved without having to make huge sacrifices and waiting till you actually retire. His book takes a very practical approach and tells you how to do that through his life experiences. Elimination Once the definition is made, then you come up with the biggest obstacle to this pursuit, which is TIME. Making time and time management have been oft-repeated topics with many authors and books offering cliched advice, Tim actually gets around to showing numerous practical examples that can really work for anyone. Eliminate all unproductive (that which does not make your life better) usage of time. Automation A large part of what you do can actually be outsourced (locally or across the globe) without the world coming to an end. In fact, the whole concept of GetFriday revolves around being able to handle anything that can be outsourced either to save you time, or for more efficiency or to give you the advantage of pooled expertise. Outsourcing ensures that you spend your precious time on the things that are really important. If you don’t have the time today, to take your son to the football game or to read bedtime stories to your little daughter, remember the day is not far when you would have all the time in the world after giving up on the rat race, while your children won’t have any. It is a different story that AJ Jacobs, Esquire Editor most funnily tried to get us to read bedtime stories for his kid son just to push and test the limits of personal outsourcing. It obviously doesn’t make good sense to outsource fatherhood to a remote organization in the long run. Liberation Don’t tie yourself up to a routine or an office setup. Embrace a mobile lifestyle without getting hooked onto gadgets that turn you into slaves. And it is about adding life to fill the void created by subtracting work (unproductive). It’s rather funny that 99% of people in this world would not know what to do to pursue their ideal lifestyle if they were suddenly thrown into a situation where time is not the constraint. As an aftermath to most such books and articles, a question being raised very frequently is whether outsourcing is all about cheap labor. We would say ‘no’ to that. Yes, cost arbitrage is the basic factor on which world commerce happened (from the days of the spice trade) and still happens across the globe but to be able to sustain it, one (companies, nations, cities) needs to develop what you would call as competitive advantage in a global world. The competitive advantage apart from cost in services like GetFriday being: 1) Ability to provide flexible work plans according to your need. 2) Ability to be available during your business hours and outside it. 3) Ability to provide a pool of expertise and knowledge that you may not get with a single assistant in your office or even by doing it yourself. 4) Ability to work on a faster learning curve as against an assistant hired locally by virtue of specialized training and being exposed to multiple work cultures and clients. The obvious dis-advantages with services like these being: 1) Not being able to be physically present to fix you a coffee. 2) Not being able to help in the absence of clear directions and rules from the client. The assistant while being trained to handle things independently will still be rendered rudderless if the client does not spend some quality time sharing expectations and guidelines for work in the beginning. If you want to make more time in your life for the more important things, then get yourself a copy of the “Four Hour Work Week“. To get updates on some great ongoing thoughts from Tim, check out his personal blog.

The Four Hour Work Week Read More »

It was towards mid May of 2006, that Timothy (Tim) Ferriss got in touch with GetFriday(Sister Concern of YMII) requesting for virtual assistance. He was writing this book for Random House and wanted to test out different outsourcers offering virtual assistance to experience and test the limits of outsourcing. Now that the book “The Four Hour Work Week” is out, debuting on the Amazon top 10 and going strong at #7 at the time of writing this blog, we quite know what he set out to do. Here is a very young man who at age 29 has done an amazing variety of things in his life. Much more than what most people can’t imagine doing in a whole lifetime. There are a lot more young millionaires who probably have earned more than him at his age. But doing what he set out to do, why? Was it to write a book about it and make tons of money. Apparently no, the money is incidental. According to Tim, he was succumbing to the more you work, the better you are – culture that is all prevalent in today’s workaholic world. He wanted to make a change in the pursuit of happiness ;) and set out to really pursue what he wanted out of life without having to be a monk. Making more money doesn’t necessarily mean you get to do what you want in life. He calls his 4 steps to achieving his goal as D-E-A-L. Definition Define the kind of lifestyle you want to pursue. Most of the time, that can be achieved without having to make huge sacrifices and waiting till you actually retire. His book takes a very practical approach and tells you how to do that through his life experiences. Elimination Once the definition is made, then you come up with the biggest obstacle to this pursuit, which is TIME. Making time and time management have been oft-repeated topics with many authors and books offering cliched advice, Tim actually gets around to showing numerous practical examples that can really work for anyone. Eliminate all unproductive (that which does not make your life better) usage of time. Automation A large part of what you do can actually be outsourced (locally or across the globe) without the world coming to an end. In fact, the whole concept of GetFriday revolves around being able to handle anything that can be outsourced either to save you time, or for more efficiency or to give you the advantage of pooled expertise. Outsourcing ensures that you spend your precious time on the things that are really important. If you don’t have the time today, to take your son to the football game or to read bedtime stories to your little daughter, remember the day is not far when you would have all the time in the world after giving up on the rat race, while your children won’t have any. It is a different story that AJ Jacobs, Esquire Editor most funnily tried to get us to read bedtime stories for his kid son just to push and test the limits of personal outsourcing. It obviously doesn’t make good sense to outsource fatherhood to a remote organization in the long run. Liberation Don’t tie yourself up to a routine or an office setup. Embrace a mobile lifestyle without getting hooked onto gadgets that turn you into slaves. And it is about adding life to fill the void created by subtracting work (unproductive). It’s rather funny that 99% of people in this world would not know what to do to pursue their ideal lifestyle if they were suddenly thrown into a situation where time is not the constraint. As an aftermath to most such books and articles, a question being raised very frequently is whether outsourcing is all about cheap labor. We would say ‘no’ to that. Yes, cost arbitrage is the basic factor on which world commerce happened (from the days of the spice trade) and still happens across the globe but to be able to sustain it, one (companies, nations, cities) needs to develop what you would call as competitive advantage in a global world. The competitive advantage apart from cost in services like GetFriday being: 1) Ability to provide flexible work plans according to your need. 2) Ability to be available during your business hours and outside it. 3) Ability to provide a pool of expertise and knowledge that you may not get with a single assistant in your office or even by doing it yourself. 4) Ability to work on a faster learning curve as against an assistant hired locally by virtue of specialized training and being exposed to multiple work cultures and clients. The obvious dis-advantages with services like these being: 1) Not being able to be physically present to fix you a coffee. 2) Not being able to help in the absence of clear directions and rules from the client. The assistant while being trained to handle things independently will still be rendered rudderless if the client does not spend some quality time sharing expectations and guidelines for work in the beginning. If you want to make more time in your life for the more important things, then get yourself a copy of the “Four Hour Work Week“. To get updates on some great ongoing thoughts from Tim, check out his personal blog.

virtual personal assistant

In the beginning….

As you might be able to tell from the title, this blog is dedicated to Virtual Assistants and Remote Offices. This first entry is about the creation of GetFriday. Let’s set the scene: It was the summer of 2005. Your Man In India (GetFriday’s sister service) had been around since 2000, providing services in India and carrying out physical tasks in India for non-resident Indians across the world. They were approached by AJ Jacobs, an editor-at-large for Esquire. He had just finished reading The World is Flat, and had an interesting idea: Can individuals outsource their personal tasks across the world. YMII took up the challenge and launched a brief pilot. You can read Jacob’s article here. GetFriday was officially launched in August of 2005, dedicated to providing outsourcing solutions for small businesses and busy individuals across the world. A simple story launching a simple but incredibly powerful service. Stay tuned to this blog to see the things that GetFriday is capable of.

In the beginning…. Read More »

As you might be able to tell from the title, this blog is dedicated to Virtual Assistants and Remote Offices. This first entry is about the creation of GetFriday. Let’s set the scene: It was the summer of 2005. Your Man In India (GetFriday’s sister service) had been around since 2000, providing services in India and carrying out physical tasks in India for non-resident Indians across the world. They were approached by AJ Jacobs, an editor-at-large for Esquire. He had just finished reading The World is Flat, and had an interesting idea: Can individuals outsource their personal tasks across the world. YMII took up the challenge and launched a brief pilot. You can read Jacob’s article here. GetFriday was officially launched in August of 2005, dedicated to providing outsourcing solutions for small businesses and busy individuals across the world. A simple story launching a simple but incredibly powerful service. Stay tuned to this blog to see the things that GetFriday is capable of.

Categories