Category: Technology

The mantra of success in today’s hyper-competitive and tech-neutral age is offering unmatched value, topped up by incredible experience, to customers. With the focus on the end product, most enterprises overlook the fact that the software development team are often the front lines in delivering superior service. The software developing a glitch when an urgent work is pending, searching in vain for an essential feature overlooked by the development team, a convoluted process to achieve a simple thing are an all-too-common experience which frustrates a customer or the end user of the software.

Often such drawbacks are not because of any deep-rooted incompetency or incapability, but a result of lack of focus, or not paying attention to development process it deserves. The name of the game in keeping software developers happy, engaged and productive, all factors which have a proven correlation with end customer satisfaction.

Facilitate the Developer

The basic requirement to make developers happy is facilitating them. It is innate human nature that creativity and mentally intensive tasks such as writing quality code thrive only in an environment of freedom, where one can express their suggestions without fear of repercussions.

An open and transparent culture, with free flow of information, and without data silos is the basic and essential requirement.

Developers need to be empowered to take their own decisions, without having to run to their project manager for every small thing. Allowing developers to engage with the customer or end users directly, and freedom to make any changes that do not alter the scope of the project, goes a long way in empowering them and making them happy.

Side by side with creativity, human beings need very high levels of precision, focus and concentration to be able to write quality code. They require a comfortable atmosphere, with ready access to resources required to do their job well.

Another essential requirement, almost indispensable, is flex-time, and freedom to work from home. Creativity and inspiration never follow a 8 to 5 schedule.

Empowerment often creates a level playing field, allowing small startups to compete effectively with large behemoths, where the salary may be higher, but where organizational morass has set in, with an entrenched bureaucracy stifling creativity and freedom. There, developers may have to spend more time in paperwork, playing by the “rules of the game,” or worse, pampering egos, than do what they are meant to do – writing high-quality code.

Offer Perks

Lucrative salaries attract top talent, but perks ranging from on-site massages to unlimited coffee breaks, the ability to work from home, and more are the real motivating factors that attract top talent. The trick lies in understanding what developers want and design the perks likewise. HR plays a crucial role in this dimension, by talking to developers, and understanding what motivates them, especially during the recruitment stage. Flexibility, topped up by innovation in the delivery of perks and other benefits help the enterprise scale new heights in job satisfaction. Happy, engaged software developers produce high-quality results, which impacts everyone else involved in the development, delivery, marketing and sales of the product.

Forge a Shared Culture

The time-honored management concept of “hire for a fit”  has never been more relevant than now. Competency aside, what matters above everything else is a cultural and emotional fit or shared values. Shared values, in essence, mean the company and the employee being on the same page with regards to striving to delight the customer, and seeking excellence in whatever work is done. On the software development front, this translates to the engaging the end user enthusiastically from the start to finish, resolving any questions and issues with calm professionalism. A solid project management system, complete with a collaborative platform, helps.

Create a Learning Organization

Peter Senge, the management guru advocates creates a “learning organization,” where the workforce continuously enhances their capabilities and keeps themselves relevant. From the individual, it requires inculcation of the attitude “Learning is a journey that has no end,” and the enterprise has to play the role of a facilitator, both by providing learning opportunities and forging a culture that encourages and value learning.  Developers especially like playing with flashy new technologies. A competent developer, confident of his or her knowledge, is sure to add immense value to the end customer.

Forge a Clear Career Path

A brilliant artist or a top developer needn’t necessarily be a good manager / a leader. A well-deserved promotion up the corporate ladder may actually do more harm than good, both for the individual, who find his expression of creativity stifled and for the enterprise, who is stuck with a bad manager. The onus is on the enterprise to forge a career plan for their power-employees, with lateral promotions, or flexibility to continue the same job with a higher position if the situation so requires.

The stakes are high. The problem with an inferior product rarely ends with dissatisfied customers. In today’s hyper-connected age marked by the dominance of social media, customers can and do vent their feelings, resulted in a spiraling effect of bad image and lost potential customers.
The scramble for top talent has made developers, a pampered lot. A software developer who is even just a little bit better than the competition has the potential to generate a result that will bring exponential non-linear returns on the investment. Just as in professional sports, even a one percent advantage makes a big different in the end result. However, enterprises needn’t necessarily enter the talent rat-race. They can just as well enter into a partnership with us, who have a ready team of highly intuitive and professional app developers, ready to do your bidding. We have a track record of delivering several highly customized and dynamic mobility and other solutions to customers across the globe, cutting across industries and sectors.

To cloud or not to cloud? That is the question. The need of the hour is to not just go beyond the hype thrown about by cloud providers to understand cloud services are indeed a better deal compared to on-premises hosting, but also distinguish between the various cloud options. Among the various cloud hosting options, Amazon Web Services (AWS), with its global presence offers the best all-around compute, database, storage, analytics and deployment services, ranks among the best options.

In 2017, AWS was ranked among the four largest public cloud providers in the world, along with Google Cloud, Microsoft Azure, and IBM Softlayer. AWS is also ranked as one of the leading information technology (IT) companies in the world, by revenue. Specifically, in the infrastructure as a service market, AWS has been noted to have a majority of the market worldwide. Amazon’s share of the IaaS segment was estimated at 44.2 percent. For Amazon, AWS’s IaaS revenue raked in 9.7 billion U.S. dollars in 2016.

Costs

Many business owners consider only the raw face value costs and remain oblivious to the total cost of ownership. For on-premise, the basic cost is the cost of the hardware and software required to put a solution in place. For the cloud, the basic cost is the recurring monthly service cost. However, there are other costs to consider for both models.

On-premises solutions are electricity hogs. Running the servers on a 24×7 basis, complete with cooling, consume much more energy than what normal PCs consume. An average in-house server consumes about $731.94 per year worth of electricity in the USA, including both direct IT power and cooling.

The savings on electricity alone would most likely compensate for the bandwidth costs cloud services attract. Amazon’s EC2 offers about 1GB of free outbound bandwidth per month anyway, allowing small users to get their bandwidth requirements for cloud storage gratis.

Another cost to consider is the replacement cost. Organizations replace on-premise systems every five years, on average. Stretching a server lifespan beyond this point carries the risk of unexpected failure and costly migration fees as the legacy software delves much further obsolescence than it would have after five years. Even where cloud services have higher recurring costs, the replacement cost makes it very cost effective in the long run. The economies of scale of the cloud service providers offset what it would otherwise cost them the same five-year replacement costs

AWS saves customers a sizable amount. Since AWS already has a staggering infrastructure in place, unmatched by just about anyone on the planet, the cost to provision for a new account is marginal. As such, AWS customers end up paying much less than what they would do for other solutions, both on-premises, and cloud. The cost savings extend to applications as well. The AWS Marketplace offers several highly intuitive products priced on an hourly basis, with no upfront cost.

Learn more about how to optimize cost with AWS.  

Bandwidth

The cloud brings a lot of potential savings, both in direct cost and by eliminating indirect costs. The elephant in the room is bandwidth, though. Unless there is adequate bandwidth, performance issues will sap the vitality of the system.

However, it is a fallacy to assume on-premises solutions do not have any bandwidth issues. It still requires an efficient and well-designed network of switches and cabling to serve bandwidth-hungry applications inside office walls. Moreover, cloud services are getting smarter with how bandwidth is used, offering viable solutions even for those with a small pipeline to the internet. For instance, Office 365 handles massive searches across a 365 mailbox server-side, downloading in real time only pertinent emails that need to be opened. Outlook keeps a local cache of email mailbox.

It is also important to remember all cloud hosting providers are not equal. The safe bet is to opt for market leaders such as AWS who has the capability to throw in virtually infinite storage, bandwidth, and computational power when needed. Increasing bandwidth on surges in traffic is easy with a few mouse clicks or swipes, and scaling down is likewise, to avoid paying for unnecessary resources. The cloud eliminates the vexatious and unpredictable task of provisioning. With AWS, it gets even better. There is no uncertainty and IT departments can be assured of elasticity at any time of the day or night, without any hassles.

Reliability and Uptime

The cloud offers much better reliability and uptime than on-premises servers. AWS offers 99.95% guaranteed uptime, and also robust backup protocols which ensure nothing uploaded to their servers will ever be lost. At a macro level, on-premises servers face 14 days of downtime in a year, whereas the average rate of downtime for cloud servers is just 30 hours a year. The total cost of downtime for businesses run into a whopping $26.5 Billion USD every year.

On-premise exchange servers are maintenance-heavy, requiring heavy infrastructure. Practical considerations mean the best practices are not always followed. In contrast, cloud giants such as AWS have dedicated teams and unlimited resources to throw into their core competencies, and they leverage the benefits of economies of scale, which they pass on to their customers. The vast technical backbones that power cloud data centers are technologies that are out of most individual users.

Robust Security

AWS makes affordable to small and medium enterprises many features, and the high quality of service, previously affordable only by big corporations. For instance, security has major implications, and often it is weak security that makes enterprises opt for on-premises solutions. AWS offers the same high-grade security features for a small proprietorship and a Fortune 500 firm since the security protocols in place for SAWS are for the system as a whole. And such security systems are far superior to anything on-premises systems can come up with.

The intuitive AWS Management console makes it easy to monitor and control the account, including add or decrease space, launch EC2 instances, add or remove a service, and more.

The success of moving to the cloud depending on getting the bandwidth and other configurations right, and also deploying cloud-optimized apps that allow employees to access their required functionality through the cloud.

Related Reading: Choose the right Cloud service model for your Business

Fingent is your perfect partner for delivering cutting edge applications hosted on AWS. With our wealth of experience cutting across industries, we are best poised to deliver the most optimal solutions, fully customized to our requirements, in the most cost-efficient manner.

The noted English poet A L Tennyson’s words “Let the great world spin forever down the ringing grooves of change” captures the impact railways and locomotives brought about in the 19th Century, transforming the world from a grouping of feudal villages to an interconnected urban and industrialized world. Today, the world is in the throes of yet another mobility induced revolution, propelled by artificial intelligence, IoT and a myriad of other technologies that promote convergence and connectivity. This new disruption will be just profound, and likely to change lives forever.

A portent of things to come is Venture investors placing $5.7 billion into transportation businesses in 2016, twice the level of investment in the previous two years combined. The big thing in transportation that happened during the period, Uber and its cousins such as Lyft and GrabTaxi would seem rudimentary compared to the technologies on the anvil.
 

Autonomous Vehicles

Think artificial intelligence, and the first thing that pops up into most minds is the driverless car.  Autonomous vehicles, which facilitate hands-free and feet-free driving are soon set to go mainstream. What works in favor of such vehicles is the ever decreasing cost of production. LiDAR laser sensors that Google uses on its autonomous vehicles cost $70,000 three years ago, it now costs just 10% of this amount now. New technologies now cost even less.

The opportunities that arise from autonomous vehicles are endless. Improved fuel efficiency and greater safety owing to the elimination of “human error” from the equation are the direct benefits, but the indirect benefits are much more. Autonomous cars can plot the best route to the destination, saving time and money, and deliver freedom from traffic jams. Cities can reclaim public spaces devoted to parking. The smaller mass and weight of the autonomous cars enable propulsion by compact, efficient, and environmentally friendly powertrains, reducing energy consumption considerably.
 

Collaborative Consumption

Collaborative consumption brings most of the benefits of the cloud to the mobility space. Instead of investing in owning and maintaining a vehicle, technology makes it increasingly viable to rent a vehicle on demand, hassle-free, and reliable.

The fleet of autonomous, shared vehicles, fully integrated to the road infrastructure and connected to the internet will create incredible value.

At a macro level, the automobile market is worth $20 trillion, but the utilization rate of this asset class is just 4% to 5%. Uber-inspired on-demand mobility technology would increase efficiency to a potential 10% utilization and at the same time considerable capital which can be diverted to other productive uses.

At the individual level, users are free of the hassles of maintaining the vehicle, navigating traffic, speeding tickets, finding parking space, charging or fuelling up the vehicle, and several other non-productive tasks, time which they can put to better use realizing their core competency.

From a business perspective, the simultaneous rise of fully autonomous networks of long-haul trucks can operate for extended time periods, covering longer distances, with lower costs. The direct benefits are quicker deliveries and decreased costs.

There would be direct cost savings as well. As collaborative consumption gain traction, average costs per passenger mile is expected to dip from around $1 per mile today to about 30¢ per mile.
 

Revamped Public Transportation

The rise of autonomous vehicles and connected vehicles would also revamp and revolutionize public transportation as we know it today. The sci-fi take “Beam me up, Scotty” may just become closer to reality as individuals can access a reliable, fast and transportation at just a few swipes of their smartphones and get to their destination in the most comfortable, fast, and cost-effective way possible.

Uber-like solutions for public transportation, combined with autonomous vehicles, would mean public transport vehicles becoming flexible enough to cater to real-time demands of mobility, rather than individuals being forced to adapt to timings of public transportation.

Fully autonomous cars, accessible on demand, anytime, anyplace, would make last-mile connectivity hassles a thing of the past, and would in many cases deliver seamless end-to-end transportation in a single vehicle, putting an end to public busses and trains.

As seamless multimodal transportation becomes the new norm, commuters would achieve seamless interoperability, enabling them to reach their destination using multiple, connected modes of transportation, on a single fixed price charged on a single payment system, with minimal walking and wait times. The integration of robotics to the mix may also allow them to travel hands-free, as their luggage, be it files or handbag reaches the same destination at the same time, through its own route.
 

Efficient Multimodal Network Solutions

Several start-ups are already working to improve transparency and reduce friction in public transportation. Some of the methods already popular include crowdsourcing transit data, moving ticketing to the smartphone, and calculating prices for multiple trip options. Infusing artificial intelligence to make predictive analysis, linking IoT data to automatically calculate the demand for routes, and more are rich possibilities for the future.

A case in point is the Caltrain, the fastest and most cost-efficient way to travel between San Francisco to San Jose. The trip, however, involves long wait times and cumbersome schedules. Effective integration of data from users’ calendars, user’s geo-location, and travel preferences would allow smart apps to plan highly efficient trips, using real-time data. Integrating such data with sharing services extending from cabs to e-bikes offers an effective solution to “last mile” challenges as well.

At the backend, technology would be put to increasing use to develop and manage the vehicle-operating and traffic network information system that helps direct and control the movement of autonomous vehicles and shared mobility fleets.

In the new scheme of things, enterprises that can capture aggregate, and analyze mobility-related data in real time can aspire to gain a foothold in the “virtual” value chain. Enterprises would do well to forge a strategic partnership with tech solution provider companies who have the talent and the expertise to deliver cutting-edge solutions that allow businesses to stamp their digital competency so essential for success. We have the right talent and wealth of experience to serve your needs well.

Small and medium businesses are discovering the value of mobile apps, both for the sake of engaging with customers better, and also for their internal business processes. As the practicality of mobile apps increases, way over “branding” for which apps were used not too long ago, the task of creating app has never been easier before.

Non-game app downloads are estimated to grow by 23% on average every year, until 2020, to touch $182 billion in revenue. The increased adoption of smartphones in emerging markets would result in an even greater popularity and adoption of an app. In fact, the number of downloads from mobile app store downloads is expected to double from 2015 levels, come 2020.
 

The Wind is Blowing in Favour of Apps

Several macro and micro level factors favor the development of enterprise apps.

App development kits are now very affordable and deliver high-quality apps in double quick time. No code and low code kits facilitate the development of apps without requiring any technical or coding expertise. Such kits automate several critical processes and offer intuitive templates which reduce the developer’s work greatly.

The success of any app depends on a sizable user base. The popularity of social media plays into the popularity of apps as well, with consumers now more open to engaging with brands on a day-to-day basis, even if they are not overtly loyal to the brand, or make regular purchases. As long as the app is entertaining and offers something of value, users will continue their patronage. Marketers can leverage the interesting or informative content with a strong call-to-action.

Customer demographics favor mobile apps.  An average individual spends 174 minutes on mobile devices each day. Sales conducted through mobile devices are increasing at an exponential phase, and the figure is likely to get better with every passing year as the millennials show a greater affinity to purchase using mobile devices.
 

Apps Unlock Many Possibilities

The potential functionality possible with apps is also on the rise, making apps more viable than ever before. Enterprises increasingly find making a one-time investment in developing apps, say allowing customers to complete a booking, as well worth the effort, considering the increased business and savings from process efficiency such an app would bring about. If nothing else, apps enable push notifications that place the brand name and the marketing pitch directly in front of the smartphone owner.

The Red Hat Mobile Maturity Survey 2015 reveals about 35% of IT decision makers considering mobile apps as the best way to evolve the business, whereas 37% of them reveal the ability to automate routine tasks as the major motivation for developing apps. About 24% of decision makers developed apps to upgrade web-based processes to mobile. About 90% of enterprise increased their investment in mobile apps in 2016, with the average amount of investment rising by as much as 24%. In addition, a mobile app unlocks various possibilities, such as a field executive being able to present data or portfolio offline to a client, and close the sale immediately, without the risk of losing the prospect to a competitor.

All benefits notwithstanding, the underlying motivation behind enterprises adopting apps in a big way is the positive ROI it generates. About 74% of respondents in the Red Hat Survey attested to ROI from mobile app integration proving the value of implementation, and 78% of companies attest to mobile apps contributing to their success.
 

The Ease of Making Apps

Small businesses can now easily make both consumer dedicated and internal facing apps. Several services facilitate the creation of professional-looking apps, offering advanced features and functionality such as push notifications, location-based services, social media integration, e-commerce capabilities, mobile optimization, and more. Many services offer highly intuitive templates which allow even technically challenged users to create apps on the fly.

Several popular tools such as Xamarin, Appcelerator, IBM MobileFirst, and others make it easy to develop functional and working apps in double quick time. Rapid app development tools, backed up by databases, such as AlphaAnywhere, no code app creators such as AppPress, cloud-based drag and drop editors such as EachScape, template dominated development providers such as iBuildApp, ready-to-use sample app such as ViziApp, and scores of other options offer a host of ready-made options for enterprises.  

Nevertheless, according to Gartner demand for enterprise mobile apps is outpacing development resources 5-to-1.

Enterprises seeking to ride the app wave by simply conjuring up an app and sitting back are in for a rude surprise. The success of an app depends largely on how well it is developed. A big reason for the widespread adoption of mobility is the device being easy to use and fun. Success apps are no exception. The best apps are highly focused. The UX especially make-or-break an app. Users seek powerful apps, yet prefer simplicity.  There is also a need to consider the enterprise side of the equation, which is getting all stakeholders on board to reconcile what users want with enterprise requirements, and also ensure the app delivers positive ROI. Mobile apps cannot afford to remain static either, and require constant attention, upgrades, and feature enhancements, to stay relevant amidst an ever-fickle user base.

Only apps designed after understanding the needs of users and facilitating the same in the simplest and easiest way succeed. It takes the right blend of experience and talent to conceive such apps, and we have such experience and talent. Partner with us for your enterprise app development process, and leverage our highly resourceful team, who come with a wealth of experience cutting across industries.

B2B ecosystems constitute the backbone for several critical functions in the enterprise including supply chain optimization, sales, marketing, product development, knowledge management, and even innovation. Such B2B ecosystems thrive on the exchange of information and uninterrupted collaboration.

The growth in popularity of mobile devices is all-pervasive. It is not just retail customers who prefer mobile devices for shopping, but also internal enterprise users, who prefer to get things done through the convenience of their smartphones. The proliferation of the BYOD culture, where employees access the corporate network through apps downloaded on their mobile devices and get the job done even when on the move, has further fueled the growth of mobile services in the enterprise.

In such a state of affairs, the business-to-business (B2B) segment is also seeing a surge in mobile services, side-by-side with the much-publicized business-to-customer (B2C) segment. With mobility now becoming central in the scheme of things for B2B ecosystems, here are key trends in the future of B2B enterprise mobile services.

Mobility Solution Management to Mature from EMM to Seamless Integrated Experience

Enterprises are moving to enterprise mobility management (EMM) solutions to gain control over their ever expanding mobility ecosystem. EMM facilitates laying down policies and structures for mobility management, offering a unified, integrated place for the management of devices, apps, and content, and also to enforce security.

In today’s fast paced tech world, organisations have started moving beyond such traditional EMM functionality as well. Enterprise apps, dealing with distinct processes such as procurement, sales, and more, are still independent to one another, existing in silos, without any functional integration between them, and not factoring in conditions relevant to the user. This is changing, with mobile devices now slowly but surely becoming a central node in a connected ecosystem. In such a changed scenario, B2B app users transition from a broken to integrated frictionless experience, with the mobile experiences evolving in terms of channel, context, and construction.

In response to the changing scenario, EMM is evolving from simple device management, to incorporate advanced features such as user credential distribution, single sign-on (SSO), access control, and more, deeply integrating itself into the core IT of the enterprise. Advanced EMM also offers software development kits (SDKs), enabling app developers to offer content control, encryption, data loss prevention policies, and other security-enhancing features.

Artificial Intelligence to Become Well-Entrenched

All the hype surrounding artificial intelligence and automation notwithstanding, most mobile devices still rely on direct user instructions, forcing business users to move in and out of apps to get things done. However, the spread of AI technologies means many tasks now done manually, even with the convenience of apps, will soon be automated, requiring no human intervention, or at best only validation. The proliferation of new AI inspired technology such as Google Glass and more would also decrease the dominance of apps in the scheme of things, offering users more touch points to get things done in a much easier way. The key to such next generation B2B enabling devices is present and upcoming technology innovations.

Rise of Rapid Application Development and Containers

The latest trends in mobile app development, such as the use of low-code and no-code option for rapid application development, the use of containers, and other trends will apply equally in B2B space, just as it shakes up the B2C space. Mobile app development is increasingly becoming agile as well, with greater thrust on design reuse, modular approach, and more.

In the quest for efficiency, the thrust of application development will not just be on creating new apps and solutions, but also on ensuring online workflows work seamlessly with offline mobile contexts. There will be a greater focus on innovation as well, by applying in-vogue and emerging concepts such as mechanisation, machine learning, natural language,  immersive analytics, and more. There will be increased integration of voice, video, and images in B2B apps as well. The application of MVP (model-view-presenter) architecture will improve user experience significantly, and drive the application of new technology to spur innovation.

B2B Enterprise Seek Increasing Value from Mobility

In an interconnected ecosystem, the real value of mobility goes beyond the value of a particular function or app. The true value realizes when the app completes a piece of the jig-saw, or enabling well-timed business moments that enables the continuation of a relationship, and or opens up additional value. In such a scenario, the focus shifts from data models to service models, where customer or client experience is the overriding concern as opposed to the data or asset the enterprise holds. What the enterprise has is no longer relevant. Rather, what they do with the available resources makes all the difference.

Enterprises are now forging a tighter integration, and even merging mobility with IT team, to ensure the agility brought about by mobility rubs off on the rest of the enterprise.

In the quest for operational excellence, improved engagement with customers and clients, and also a competitive advantage in an increasingly tough business environment, B2B enterprise mobile services are embracing big changes. Those who miss out stand to lose out big time. For instance, mobility-lagging organizations face the risk of key employees becoming frustrated with the lack of productivity enhancing apps, and resigning.

In such a scenario, it pays to rope in a strategic partner who is competent in the mobility space and has solid experience helping enterprises roll out highly successful mobility campaigns and implementations. We are the right partners for you, as evident from our list of satisfied customers, cutting across sectors.

Technology is always in a constant state of flux, and 2017 promises to be no different. Successful are those companies who keep an ear to the ground, and discern the latest trends, to gain early mover advantage. Here are the top tech trends unfolding in 2017.

1. The High Demand for Enterprise Mobility Apps

If there is a sure shot winner in 2017, its enterprise app development. As enterprises discover the tremendous potential that mobility brings in terms of productivity improvement, unlocking new possibilities, improving coordination between field staff and the main office, enabling on-the-move executives to remain connected, facilitating real-time decision making, and much more, they are scurrying to develop mobile app solutions for all their critical functions.

Gartner estimates the demand for mobile apps to outstrip supply by a whopping ratio of five to one. The challenge posed by the extremely fluid technology space, where technology changes by the day, is worsened by the severe talent crunch. New app development technologies that promote low-node and no-code options are becoming popular, but there is no short-cut to seasoned expertise to roll out intuitive apps that tick all boxes of customer satisfaction. Here is a list of top enterprise developers. 

2. User Experience Becomes All-Supreme

The competition for eyeballs has never been so intense before. With more and more players scrambling to gain the attention of a finite number of customers, enterprises are not just offering multiple points of contact, such as websites, mobile optimized websites, mobile apps, and more, but they also ensure all these channels come fully optimized for the device, to deliver an immersive user experience.

Users able to navigate the website or app easily, finding what they are looking for without putting in much of an effort, are likely to stay long. This raises the stakes of web development and web designing, to offer powerful yet simple user experience, optimized for the device. Web development now becomes a strategic activity, packing in the optimal list of features, in a simple easy-to-navigate design, and ensuring good UX at the same time. This trend of rolling out simple, yet powerful UX will gain further ground in 2017.

3. Collaborative Tools Gain CentreStage

The cloud and mobility are well entrenched, offering executives a world of convenience to work from anywhere, at any time. However, online collaboration still requires supporting infrastructure. Among the various solutions that have come up to facilitate collaboration, Microsoft SharePoint leads the pack, and is likely to continue its domination in 2017. Microsoft SharePoint is basically a collaboration and document management platform, enabling groups to set up a centralized space to share documents.

In 2016, Microsoft launched SharePoint Hybrid, which is in a sense the best of both worlds, an enterprise platform residing partly on-premises and partly within the Cloud. There is now also the provision to link on-premises version of SharePoint with Office365. As the New Year unfolds, further advancements are in the offing, especially in facilitating better content collaboration, mobility, intelligence and trust. As the cloud become even more popular, the cloud version of SharePoint will likely see big improvements.

4. The Return of the ERP

Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) is in a revival of sorts, after years of lull. ERP may seem as anarchism in today’s fast paced world, considering deployment of ERP required complex rollouts running into years. What pushes the case for ERP is top ERP vendors reinventing themselves and delivering a far faster and smoother rollout. The game changer is cloud based ERP, or a SaaS offering, allowing enterprises the unprecedented flexibility of picking and choosing the modules they like for their ERP implementation. SaaS-based ERP is likely to gain considerable ground in 2017, as a means for enterprises to remain organized on a structured and connected way. Success would depend on the ERP solution that continues to deliver traditional service, and leverage the available big data to the hilt.

Among the many ERP vendors, SAP, the time-tested old warhorse leads the pack, as the most popular ERP suite preferred across sectors and company size.

5. Artificial Intelligence and Augmented Reality Goes Strong

That Artificial Intelligence (AI) has awesome potential is never in doubt. AI powered tools such as Google Translate, Amazon’s Alexa home assistant, and more have already become well entrenched and hugely popular offerings. More and more such apps would go mainstream in the coming year, with the power of Artificial Intelligence tapped for everything from driver-less cars to medical research.

Side by side, virtual reality will continue its golden run, but it eventually stands to be supplanted by Augmented or Mixed Reality. Virtual Reality based products such as Oculus Rift, Sony’s PlayStation VR and HTC Vive are the rage now, but in 2017, AR based products such as Pokémon Go, which allow superimposing information or content of any kind on real world settings will take over.

6. Internet of Things Gets a Reality Check

The Internet of Things received it first big challenge in September 2016, when some malware took control of millions of internet-connected devices and launched what has been the largest-in-class attack to date. The attack left large swathes of internet inaccessible for days. Undoubtedly, 2017 will see several such attacks, much more potent, bringing a reality-check to the hype surrounding the Internet of Things. There will be a major focus on security as well in the IoT scheme of things.

IT stakeholders are still like hares caught in headlights, when it comes to cyber attacks. To counter security threats, encryption has now become mainstream, to the extent the New York Times is now accepting news tips via the encrypted app Signal. However, it would require much more innovation to truly secure networks, and it remains to be seen whether any path-breaking security paradigms emerge in 2017.

7. Convergence Inches Closer to Reality

2017 will also witness a convergence of the internet and television, or live TV, allowing us to see television when we want it, rather than fix our schedule around television shows. YouTube is already putting together a live TV package, and players such as Hulu and Amazon are positioning to enter the fray.

Mere knowledge of the top tech trends is useless unless the enterprise is capable enough to leverage the trends, to roll out cutting edge solutions that confer early-mover status and significant competitive advantage. This is where most enterprises, faced with talent crunch and an already overburdened IT team, falter. We can help you here. Our team of highly experienced and talented developers is always on the top of the game, having successfully executed several mobility and other solutions for enterprises cutting across sectors and industries.

Digital technologies have permeated and disrupted almost all sectors, and logistics companies are no exception.

Optimization and efficiency, combined with speed and seizing the moment are the keys to success in today’s highly competitive advantage. Technology is the key enabler allowing companies to realize these aspects.
 

Leveraging Technology for Strategic Planning

A report by transport and logistics analysts Oliver Wyman reveals transportation and logistics companies increasing revenue, yet having reduced profits, over a 10-year period, and come with the recommendation to “standardize and streamline structures and processes, developing industry oriented and innovative solutions, thinking and acting in terms of networks.” Technology is the key enabler in this regard.

On average, transportation companies invest about 5% of their annual revenues in digital operations, with the main focus on digitizing their customer interface. The thrust these days is especially on mobile apps and solutions, to offer a personalized experience for their customers, and track the movement of vehicles accurately.  However, side-by-side companies are also increasingly using digital technology to unlock new business models, focused on the creation of value-added services and innovative solutions.
 

The Use of Big Data to Improve Operations

The need to cut cost and take real-time action, in a competitive environment where margins are wafer thin, require logistics companies to take greater control over their supply chain and ensure the processes take place seamlessly, at great speed. Towards such ends, logistics companies are increasingly applying Big Data technology, to capture and analyze data, to streamline their operations and optimize the supply chain.

Computers apply algorithms to crunch Big Data, unlocking insights and opportunities not possible before. Such insights enable streamlining operations and optimization of the supply chain.

• Data based automation, especially automated load building and optimizing the inbound and outbound movement of cargo, enable optimal usage of available resources, reduction of waste, and facilitate lean operations.
• Effective real-time fleet management solution facilitates “uberization” of trucks and other delivery vehicles, where empty containers may be utilized immediately by matching it to the nearest load. Mobile solutions enable greater transparency into the operations.
• A comprehensive data based inventory and supply chain management system unlocks silos, and facilitates end-to-end visibility to inventory, orders and shipments across the supply chain. Such transparency allows improved tracking of inventory movement, facilitates the reduction of network-wide inventory levels, and enable managers to respond dynamically and in real-time to any events or issues that disrupt or hinder the supply chain.
• Analytical data makes explicit greenhouse emissions and carbon footprints of truck and machinery operations, allowing companies to take steps to become carbon-neutral, thereby contributing to the cause of “Green logistics.”
• The combination of machine learning with supply chain management enables turning reams of passive data into actionable business intelligence. Logistics companies apply the wealth of data related to the movement of their goods and trucks to identify patterns related to customer trends, identify what works well, unearth market insights, and gain competitive advantage.

Digital Improves Security

Supply chain disruption is the number one global business risk for logistics companies. Technology enables fortifying the supply chain in many ways.

• Digital locks make the inventory more secure, offer a robust layer of security, in addition to physical security.
• Optimal route planning, combined with real-time tracking of cargo movement through mobile apps enable routing of cargo by avoiding congestion points and trouble spots, to minimize risks and interruption.

Internet of Things (IoT) Enhances Operations

The earliest applications of RFID and nascent IoT technology have been in asset tracking and warehouse management. For instance, rather than simply tracking inventory of pallets and crates, enterprises use sensors, beacons, RFID and other technology to gather information on the state of the connected item, such as when the “thing” requires maintenance, the expected life of the “thing,” and more.

IoT contributes to highly integrated warehouse management solutions, enabling precision movement and accurate tracking of movement of goods.  The applications of IoT instruments in logistics are virtually endless, ranging from tracking transportation goods in a temperature controlled way to ensuring the correct package reaches the correct location at the specified time and more.

The trends in the immediate future include connected and ‘autonomous’ trucks, warehouse robotics, and smart warehouse solutions, all of which will improve efficiency manifold, speed up operations, and improve accuracy.
 

Technological Innovations Unlock New Possibilities

Logistics companies use technology not just to improve efficiency of operations, but also transform the way operations take place in itself. The use of robots in large warehouses, and to handle hazardous goods is already widespread, as is the driverless, remote-controlled vehicles.

The next big thing is the use of drones, especially for last mile delivery. The U.S. Government is already piloting a drone-based traffic monitoring system. Countries such as Spain, France, and The Czech Republic and others have several research projects looking into the use of drones for traffic management. The widespread use of drones would speed up things considerably, reduce the hassles, strain and inefficiency associated with maintaining an army of delivery boys, and also reduce costs considerably.

A start has already been made, with Amazon Prime Air already making legit deliveries using drones, in less than 30 minutes from the time customers place an order. When the technology becomes widespread, logistics will change like never before.
 

Improved Customer Satisfaction

Proactive transportation and logistics companies go beyond improving their operational efficiency and retaining greater control over their operations, to enhance customer satisfaction.

Technology propels a shift to a customer obsessed operating model, enabling the delivery of personalized and customer-focused logistics, with faster cycle times.

Hyper-connectivity facilitates not just big data, but also speed data. Speed and timeliness, manifesting in seizing the moment enable companies to match customer expectations and deliver competitive differentiation over its competitors.

It requires considerable expertise in both business operations and the latest cutting edge technology to roll out successful technological solutions acceptable by the rank and file. By partnering with us, you can piggy-bank on our vast and extensive experience in delivering highly intuitive apps and other solutions for transportation and logistics firms. Our rich talent pool, combined with extensive experience allow us to add value to your strategy, and roll out seamless apps that make your processes highly efficient, allowing you to cut costs, unlock new possibilities, and take customer satisfaction to new levels.

Here are the ten emerging and strategic business and technology trends that will shape the way individuals and businesses will derive value from technology in 2017. Vice president and Gartner Fellow, David Cearley, mentioned 3 themes, viz., intelligent, digital, and mesh that will be the disruptive technology forces for the coming years.

Inspections are an inevitable part of life in enterprises for quality checks and compliance purposes. Such inspections, though unavoidable divert resources and distract focus from the core business activity, as such, is seen as a drag on resources.

However, a smooth and streamlined inspection workflow, integrated to core business processes can minimize the disruption and actually leverage the inspection process for the benefit of the enterprise.

Here are five ways to streamline inspection workflows for the New Year

1. Have Clarity of Purpose

Have clarity of purpose, and understand the exact deliverable required out of the inspection workflow. For instance, if the inspection is carried out as part of legal compliance, make sure the workflow captures all the required information necessary to populate the reports, and the process flow complies with the requirements of the regulations. If the objective is adherence to quality standards, keep the end in mind, and plan on how the workflow will track the required statistics.

Big is not always beautiful. Resist the temptation to introduce wholesale or big changes, just for the sake of it. More often than not, small incremental tweaks made at the right place can deliver huge improvements.

2. Treat Documentation Seriously

Strange as it sounds, at times even the best-oiled enterprise may overlook the obvious. Documenting or defining processes is one such instance of the often overlooked obvious. Documenting the inspection workflow lends clarity and order to the process. It also makes explicit complex, convoluted, or roundabout processes that can be eliminated or bypassed.

While there is a need to make the documentation as exhaustive or thorough as possible, to capture all processes, there is also a need to keep it simple. Infusing the documentation with illustration and flow charts serves the purpose, and makes it doubly easy to identify complexities, and make amends.

Break down the process into discrete steps, with more granular the process the better. Also, rank each process in order of importance, giving priority to streamlining processes that actually matter, or are the most critical. Many processes are interdependent, and as such streamlining such processes may be best effected together with such interconnected process, for greater effectiveness.

3. Value Progress over Perfection

Many managers fall into the trap of perfection. No workflow is perfect, and even the best-laid plans falter in the face of practical exigencies.  Aim for progress, or getting the work done in the fastest possible time, with minimal effort and resource, rather than artistic perfection. The caveat is to ensure no process mandated by regulatory or compliance requirement are skipped or bypassed in the quest for speed or efficiency.

In any case, contemporary business is extremely fluid, where workflows need to change rapidly, to cater to the evolving requirements. Trying to cope with the requirements of an ever-changing infrastructure with stagnant workflows and technologies would be like trying to compete in a drag race with a jalopy.

For greater effectiveness and accurate results, match the changes in business processes, brought about by technology, with changes in workflow inspection methodologies. A case in point: IoT may enable turning lighting systems on and off automatically, depending on the time of the day, sensors detecting movement of people, and other considerations, An inspection schedule that offers a checklist involving switching on and off the light at set times becomes counterproductive and disruptive.

4. Invest in Collaborative Workflows

The world is increasingly becoming collaborative. No initiative to streamline processes works without involving the key stakeholders in the mix. With regards to inspection workflows, the field staff, or employees who actually conduct the inspection would know better than anyone else how to improve the process, how to enhance it, and how to remove roadblocks. Such stakeholders may have suggestions for even trying something radically new to achieve the same thing.

Make the process collaborative, and involve the field staff to buy their support for the initiative. Failure to do so will invariably result in a disconnect, with the manager sitting in the cabin, looking at flowcharts and powerpoint presentations, deciding on what would make the process efficient, when the actual situation on the ground may be completely different.

5. Automate the Process

Many businesses, in fact about 70% to 80% of them, still use spreadsheets to manage their workflows.  Spreadsheets offer convenience, but are error-prone, require lots of manual work, and can create serious versioning clashes. It makes sense to invest in modern field inspection software that automates the process, to improve accuracy, reduce manual entries, and speed up the process. Such inspection suites capture key information automatically, leveraging the camera, bar-code scanner and other features available in the smartphone, populate fields seeking duplicate or derived information automatically, auto generate reports, and issue automated alerts as required. Intuitive workflow inspection software makes it easy to change workflows as required by simple drag-and-drop mouse clicks, to meet the exigencies of the situation, or to reflect the changing needs of the business.

Inspections are not easy. A mobile inspection app that eliminates paperwork, streamlines the workflows, and makes the process transparent goes a long way in reducing the drag, and ensure the inspection meet its realized objectives.

The world of business and technology is ever on the move. Businesses that do not change with the time invariably face obsolescence. Here are the top five developments small businesses can expect to impact their business, in 2017.

The World Will Increasingly Go Mobile

The world is increasingly going mobile. Small businesses have slowly but surely realized the tremendous potential embracing digital technologies can bring to their business, and many of them already have websites, apps, and other digital assets. Already more people access the Internet through their smartphones compared to websites, and 2017 is likely to be the year when the dominance of the mobile will become well-entrenched.

More are more customers now prefer mobile apps for browsing products conveniently on the move, quick and easy checkout, and other benefits. For the business, mobile apps offer loyalty, as customers who download an app are less likely to go elsewhere. It also allows a convenient way to reach out to customers. About 50% of small businesses will have a mobile app by 2017, and as much as 70% of their online traffic will be through this medium. Through mobile apps, 55% of the small businesses aim to increase sales, 50% of them aim to improve their customer service, and 50% of them aim to become more competitive in their niche. Even sectors where mobile apps have traditionally not found a strong footing, such as restaurants, event organizers, churches and funeral services, and others, is expected to roll out mobile apps in a big way by 2017.

 E-commerce Will Get More Innovative

E-commerce is already the lifeblood of many businesses. This will continue in 2017, but competitive pressures would force several changes, all aimed at making things easier and seamless for the customer.

Newer, fully integrated and easy-to-use payment options will take center stage. Options such as Google Pay, Apple Pay, Samsung Pay and even PayPal checkout options will become common.

There will be greater integration between online and offline, with customers using apps while shopping in brick and mortar stores to make comparisons, or conversely, online customers picking up orders from physical stores. About 11% of US consumers prefer using their smartphones to make in-store purchases.

With too many e-tailers all vying for the same market, the thrust will be on innovation as the means to stand out and gain competitive advantage.

Big Data will Enter Small Business Space in a Big Way

Hitherto, the costs and efforts associated with big data meant only big businesses could leverage it for their benefit. But the times are changing. By 2017, big data will become “democratic” enough, with new solutions enabling even small and medium businesses to embrace the technology in a big way.

Small businesses would increasingly rely on the mountain of customer and historic sales data available at their disposal, before taking marketing and other decisions. 82% of marketers already opine big data as vital to their campaigns. More and more small businesses would leverage big data to personalize product offerings, explore untapped offerings, and engage with customers in a personalized way, and thereby gain competitive advantage.

The big thrust will be on the infrastructure required to collect, analysis, and formulate the required insights.

The Cloud and IoT will Drive Backend Operations

Small businesses already use a variety of popular cloud services for email, storage and application solutions. For instance, Google Apps for Work, DropBox, Microsoft OneDrive, and Office365 are already widely used collaboration tools. In fact, about 95% of small businesses already use the cloud in some form. However, businesses are still hamstrung by lack of resources and expertise to leverage cloud optimally. New solutions that hit the market in 2017 is likely to resolve such issues, and also improve cloud security.

2017 is also the year when the Internet of Things (IoT) will permeate into everyday lives, and change how business is run. Small businesses will be able to leverage IoT to improve connectivity among their workforce. For instance, a smart app that integrates a wearable camera could improve connectivity among geographically dispersed employees, and also improve accountability. Connected devices could report low inventory and reorder automatically, reducing costs.  The possibilities are endless.

New Paradigms will replace the Old in Marketing

Digital marketing is going through a churn. Banner ad click-through rates continue to decline, and organic reach for businesses via social media is now almost non-existent. About 49% of consumers now employ some type of ad blocking. In such a scenario, businesses are exploring newer ways to reach out to their target market.

One method likely to go centre stage in 2017 is permissions marketing. Here, consumers give marketer the privilege, rather than the right to offer highly personal and relevant content. Needless to say, only high-quality content and authoritative content will make the cut.

Another method likely to gain big ground in 2017 is influencer marketing. Word of mouth is already the driving force behind many purchases. Influencer marketing is the next stage. Influencers are persons of authority in their network. Small businesses will look to curate employees as influencers within their circle, or invest in developing external influencers.

What other trends do you foresee for 2017 for small businesses? Drop in a comment.