Category: Web Application Development

Concerned about app development costs? Here’s all you need to know!

There will be more people with access to smartphones in 2021 than with access to running water! Well, then there’s no questioning the fact that app development has become the need of the hour to capture the huge rapidly growing market. Investing in app development is valuable to establish yourself as an authority in your industry. As much as you would like to build an app, you might have many queries. One most pertinent question is: How much does it cost to create an app? This will be answered in detail in this blog. 

How much does it cost to create an app?

Some people think that creating an app requires a gigantic investment and that the cost of app development is an expensive affair. The truth is, not all types of apps require a princely budget. There is a lot of thought and work that goes into building an app from scratch, so the cost may vary. But looking into what is involved will help us make a fair estimate.

It is important to understand that the cost to build an app depends on various factors like the type of app, the platform you choose, the design, and the number of pages required. For instance, an app that doesn’t require back-end features like an email subscription, calendar, or social login, and API integration will not need a huge budget. On the other hand, multi-lingual support, custom features, and real-time updates will need resources in terms of the development budget. Each app is unique and the cost of making an app is based on the time and effort required to build an app. 

HackerNoon rates Fingent in the Top 20 when it comes to Mobile App Development Services. Our mobile team has years of experience working with a range of cost-effective mobile application projects. We’ve helped some of the world’s biggest companies create applications to enhance user experience and integrate new-age technologies. 

What Are Some Major Factors That Affect the Cost to Build an App?

Let’s look at some of the specifics that we need to consider, that may affect the cost of building an app. 

1. Functionalities, Scope, And Features of the App

The cost of building an app is going to depend on what you are trying to accomplish. Determining that will give a measure of clarity to the scope of the project. If the business is looking forward to a broader scope and returns from the app, it will have to be extensively developed with many functionalities. However, if the purpose of an app is to just establish a mobile presence and develop another channel to connect with end-users, then a limited feature app would suffice. When the goal and overall business purpose is clear to the development team, they will be able to accurately estimate the cost of developing an app.

Read more: Mobile App Development: 4 Tips To Consider

2. Number of In-App Pages

Another vital factor that determines the cost of building an app is the number of screens in the app. The more the number of screens, the more extensive the work required from the designers and UX experts. More screens would also mean higher interlinking of pages through the app, which requires adjustment of conditions so that users can easily access any particular in-app page. Such complex apps demand more time and effort from app designers and developers.

3. Platforms and Devices

The complete cost of developing a native app for a specific platform is different from developing a hybrid app that runs on multiple platforms and devices. Further, the app development cost also depends on the type of device the app is developed for. 

Making an app for devices running on Android, iOS, Windows, or Blackberry needs different sets of integration for each type of device. Additionally, supporting different generations of the same device can be another factor that increases the cost of building an app. iOS apps will need to be built to support the latest as well as previous iOS versions. The complexity of the Android market adds to the difficulty in determining a single standard cost of developing an Android app.

Read more: White Paper- Choosing The Right Mobile App Development Approach For Your Business

4. Type of App Development Team

Based on the complexity of the project, the app development team may comprise a project manager, designer(s), developer(s), and quality assurance engineer(s). You also have the choice of opting for a basic team with a backend developer, admin panel designer, Android or iOS developer.

5. Elements of App features

• Third-party integrations: Mobile apps require third-party libraries, frameworks, and services. 
• Backend development: Backend implements the app’s business logic enabling the exchange of data between the mobile and database.
• Hardware components: Identifying the right approach for communication between hardware and software components will make a difference in the cost of building an app. 

6. Database

Apps that allow end-users to upload videos, photos, and submit comments or reviews take more time in development. This would increase the complexity of an app because the user’s information must be stored and made available for future use. Obviously then, the app development cost and time for database-driven apps would be more.

7. Post-launch Expenses

The total cost of creating an app includes the money spent on actual programming as well as post-launch maintenance and updates like cloud hosting, backend server maintenance, and app marketing.

8. App Type

Choosing the right type of application for the project will have a massive impact on the overall cost to create an app. Apps can be categorized as:

• Web Apps: Web apps use a responsive design for smooth user experience across various screen sizes and operating systems.
• Native Apps: Native apps could be more expensive because they are optimized for high performance on a specific platform.
• Hybrid/Cross-platform Apps: This approach is best suited for the needs of a large audience across different platforms. The development and maintenance costs of this approach are lower when compared to the other approaches.

Read more: Hybrid Mobile App Development: When and Why To Choose For Your Business?

9. License and Legalities

Businesses that want to protect app features that could be knocked off by competitors may want to obtain a Patent, Copyright, or Trademark which increases the cost of building an app.

10. Support and Maintenance

Adding new features and refining existing features of the app will cost you. This is unavoidable because technology is constantly changing, and new updates will have to be made for your app to function seamlessly. 

Are you ready?

As of August 2020, there are 3.50 billion smartphone users in the world. As mentioned in the outset, Cisco Visual Networking Index Global Mobile Data Traffic Forecast says that there will be more people with access to smartphones in 2021 than with access to running water. Additionally, App Annie forecasts that consumers will be willing to spend a staggering $157 billion on mobile apps by 2022, an increase of 92% from 2017. Now, these numbers should leave you with no doubt that you must make full advantage of this trend by building an app for your business. 

However, having a great idea for an app is one thing but making it available to end-users is another. This guide detailed the cost of making an app, with varying features, technologies, platforms, and more for you to make an informed decision, but if you have any questions or you want to get started on building that app, give us a call. 

How e-commerce adoption benefits B2B healthcare providers and device makers 

The healthcare and life sciences industry is expanding at an exponential rate. The complexity and regulatory nature of the industry have made it imperative that technology catches up with its pace and offers solutions to meet this expansion. This need is being felt more acutely at the moment with the COVID-19 pandemic on the loose. As the pandemic spreads its poison and puts the B2B healthcare and life sciences e-commerce market into a state of flux, it forces large and small organizations to cope with a range of problems that include difficult purchase decisions, supply chain disruptions, and fulfillment and delivery issues. This calls for a technological solution tailored to suit the B2B healthcare and life sciences industry. 

With over 17 years of experience in delivering customized technological solutions including developing e-commerce platforms for B2B clients, we provide B2B e-commerce web application development services for manufacturers, wholesalers, distributors, and so on. Also, our mobile app development services specialize in the designing and development of custom B2B e-commerce apps. 

Case Study: Fingent’s solution for our client Bonanza – Streamlining Online Listing and Inventory Management

In this article, we will explore five specific ways in which B2B e-commerce is that solution and how it will transform healthcare and life sciences.

Immediate and lasting impact on the B2B e-commerce market

In the present scenario, especially from a healthcare and life sciences manufacturing and supply perspective, the impact is immediate throughout the entire supply chain. Manufacturing companies are unable to keep up with the demand, and distributors are rushing to create workflows in an attempt to mitigate customer complaints. Distributors are being forced to claw their way to the front of the line to obtain supplies from manufacturers, stock up on products, and take care of their customers.  

Healthcare and life sciences organizations typically have disaster preparedness plans, but dealing with such an unprecedented disaster is another ball game altogether. The question has shifted from purchasing to inventory, from buying to stocking.  It makes it challenging to find the space to hold extra products that these industries may need and that causes anxiety to all parties within the supply chain. 

B2B e-commerce offers irresistible opportunities for purchasers and medical suppliers

B2B e-commerce works largely on a distribution-based model where customers get their supplies from local distributors or dealers. Thus far, e-commerce has been disrupting the offline system of the B2B industry at a slow pace. However, with the spread of coronavirus and the subsequent lockdown, various industries including healthcare and life sciences are switching to online buying options to prevent human contact. This has resulted in B2B e-commerce experiencing an unprecedented boost in traffic and sales in just a matter of a few weeks. 

Read More: Contactless Retail Delivery Software –  How Retailers Can Revive Sales While Adhering To Social Distancing Norms

While buyers turn to an online purchase, many suppliers have adapted their strategy to foster online sales, dedicating a certain amount of their budget to digital marketing and communications. The current pandemic is imposing digitization of all B2B businesses that would help to communicate with the buyers and generate sales. Digitization of the supply chain is a crucial aspect of e-commerce because it encourages transparency and shows real-time availability of goods right from the manufacturers to the buyers. This makes it extremely important for suppliers to implement digitization in their supply chain. 

The present COVID situation has forced most suppliers to work from home. Those who have already been using digital media are able to manage work remotely. However, others need to think over and plan to reform their business model to adapt to the new era of e-commerce. The pandemic might be temporary, but this trend is not going to be! This is a breakthrough that will continue far into the future. Now is the best time to be innovative, leverage the benefits of the latest digital technology, data analytics, and AI and unlock the potential of digitalization and e-commerce in B2B business. An advanced e-commerce solution built on the latest technology facilitates seamless interactions online across marketing, product discovery, sales, and post-sale service in the B2B sellers’ space. 

Read More: E-commerce ERP Software

Five ways B2B e-commerce can be transformative

As B2B e-commerce forges ahead, the healthcare and life sciences industries will prove to be faster adopters than others. They can fully leverage real-time data tracking inventory and logistics between buyers and sellers. For manufacturers and distributors who sell to hospitals and nursing homes, the level of information presented to buyers in the B2B space can depend on the size of the organization or the customer that is doing the transaction. Depending on the frequency of the order, the level of sophistication of information may vary.  Shifting to B2B e-commerce will prove to be a much-needed transformation. 

Here are five ways that this transformation will be seen: 

1. Online Shopping Drives Online Presence

E-commerce is changing the way people and end-users (such as doctors) shop for healthcare products and the way those products reach the hands of customers. Instead of visiting a pharmacy, most customers are turning to the internet to perform the functions of a regular pharmacy. Healthcare and life sciences companies use a business model that features quick delivery to a patient’s door or to hospitals and healthcare centers. Investors see promise in this revolutionary approach to medication fulfillment, demonstrating that the market has confidence in this model despite the shifting healthcare and life sciences landscape. 

With more and more people turning to the internet to access products and medical care, the healthcare and life sciences industries have been increasingly concerned with the quality of their online presence. According to an online medical marketplace, 50% of their customers are referred by their primary provider or by hospital staff, and 20% are referred by family or friends. This highlights the need for the healthcare and life sciences industries to increase their online presence and maintain it. 

2. Helps explore new possibilities while cutting costs and time 

Shifting to an online B2B e-commerce process can help businesses recover 25-30 percent of their investment. Some of the more mature players might even see higher returns of their business through online orders. 

Migrating more orders online frees up time for sales reps. They can concentrate on introducing new products and capitalize on opportunities for new business. This allows industry leaders to use their time and ability to explore new channels of business and revenue streams. This can also help expand their client base and move into new markets. 

B2B e-commerce enables the healthcare and life sciences companies to see where the business is coming from, where the segments are online and where they are offline. It also gives them the ability to offer variable discounts with certain customers, on certain products, or even just one customer. It will make drug prices more transparent and market-oriented. 

Read more: Odoo E-commerce – 5 Reasons to Integrate Your E-commerce Application with Odoo ERP

3. Transforms Logistics Operations

Synchronization of logistic operations is critical for the success of any business. Enterprise customers generally look for reliability, speed, traceability, and convenience in delivery along with effective product returns, and exchange policy of damaged products. 

Technology solutions for B2B e-commerce provide orchestration with an application that is to be hosted on an e-commerce website. The open standard in these applications facilitates information exchange that allows real-time visibility for seamless integration across supply chain stakeholders. E-commerce offerings can provide credibility and trust for transactions between companies involved in the supply chain. 

4. Enables Customer Personalization

B2B e-commerce enables customer personalization. Enterprise customers want personalized solutions. B2B e-commerce provides a customer portal with content organized around the parameters of their past purchase history and price optimization algorithms that are adjusted on the basis of the relationship. E-commerce offerings are simple, flexible, and convenient. B2B players can use a comprehensive suite of tools that are available to help their customers navigate the site. Certain platforms incorporate live online support to assist with any queries or issues which can improve conversion levels and facilitate buying decisions.

5. Sheer Momentum 

Many medical device companies are already selling products online to enterprise customers. The healthcare and life sciences market is ripe for disruption. Medical device manufacturers and pharmaceutical companies will continue to deliver to wholesalers and distributors, but e-commerce allows them to embark on direct-to-patient delivery. Logistics is ready to respond with tailored services for various products. B2B e-commerce is set to propel healthcare and life sciences forward in the extremely near future.

Take Action

Ultimately, healthcare and life sciences e-commerce will facilitate the redistribution of stakeholders’ offline enterprise transformation and reconstruct all the links of the value chain. Realizing the benefits of B2B e-commerce, many healthcare and life sciences companies are becoming believers. 

Read more: Top 5 Open-source ERP Systems for Medical Equipment Suppliers

E-commerce can effectively optimize operating processes, reduce costs, manage resource allocations, and address the increasingly diversified consumer healthcare demands. The healthcare and life sciences companies must understand that due to the conditions of accelerated technology change, it has become critical for enterprises to become more skilled in deciding their future course and be firm in taking action. If you need help with this, we at Fingent are here to help you take that next step. Get in touch with us and just let us know what you need. 

There are over 400 million active websites in the world, as per a report of hostingtribunal.com and this is good enough to state the importance web development holds in the expansion of any business. 

We at Fingent have the efficiency of rendering cutting edge web solutions and we are one of the pioneers in the industry. This is the reason why we are featured in a recent press release about the leading web developers of 2020 by TopDevelopers.co, a renowned research and review platform of IT service providers. 

In the past 17 years, we have provided technology solutions that inspire and enhance the customer experience. Moreover, we work towards streamlining business processes by providing industry-specific web solutions that will enhance all kinds of business activities. Being noted among the proficient web development companies since our inception, we efficiently provide exceptional web solutions that will tackle our clients’ critical business requirements and help them expand their boundaries. Our skilled developers and designers have provided their services to a wide range of services apart from web development like business process re-engineering, business technology consulting, custom software development etc. And, globally we are familiar as one of the top software developers.  At Fingent, we always employ dedicated quality analysis practices so as to consistently develop result-oriented and agile software solutions. Despite being the best in its class, our software solutions are highly cost-effective and that we are considered as a budget-friendly tech partner. Also, we make sure that the entire development process is transparent which keeps our client aware of the important project updates and deadlines.

With close to two decades of experience, we have provided our services in industries such as transportation and logistics, business services, utilities, education, retail, and many more. To have a quick overview of our previous works, visit our case studies.

Our industry focus and client focus areas, competitive pricing, client feedback, service specialties, and other ace qualities that justify why we are the right team to carve your next big step in the industry can be learned by visiting Fingent’s profile on TopDevelopers.co. The portal offers a genuine list of companies for the service seekers and a resourceful platform for the service providers to reach their prospective clients worldwide.

Who is TopDevelopers.co?

TopDevelopers.co is a widely respected directory and review platform for B2B IT service providers. They take a neutral approach in analyzing the companies. The team of analysts at TopDevelopers.co vets the companies through stringent parameters which ensure that only the most competitive firms, businesses, enterprises, and entrepreneurs are filtered through their process. This helps the service seekers in getting a ready to use pool of companies from which they can choose the appropriate firm according to their need.

Why your business needs to adopt headless CMS architecture

70% of companies are actively investing in content marketing and almost 60% of marketers rate content marketing as extremely important or very important to their marketing strategy, states HubSpot. Modern customer behavior is driving up the demand for a more flexible, customizable, and scalable CMS that is adept to deliver the experience your customers expect. When compared to traditional CMS, Headless CMS enables organizations to speed up delivery times while iterating quicker. This blog walks you through seven specific business benefits of headless CMS. Let’s begin by understanding what headless CMS is.

What is meant by Headless CMS?

A headless CMS allows us to edit CMS and database without an integrated presentation layer. The integrated presentation layer, which is referred to as a ‘head’, restricts the use of content only to one particular channel such as a website. Once CMS is severed from the head, it could be used across various other platforms such as a mobile, tablet, and smart devices, making it ideal for the current business scenario.

Read more: 5 Convincing Reasons To Adopt The Headless CMS Sanity.io

7 Business Benefits of Adopting a Headless CMS

1. More flexible

Since headless CMS is API driven, it allows you to build your own head or a presentation layer/ frontend. Besides enjoying the ability to pick your programming language, your developers can develop the website without having to conform to any proprietary development constraints. A single piece of content can be reused or combined with various other presentation outputs enabling faster project completions. 

A headless CMS allows secure and easy integration with any of your existing business systems. Additionally, since it does not have a fixed structure to code, your developers are at liberty to code for any type of integration. This gives them the flexibility to integrate with more complex systems. 

For example, Sanity.io is a popular headless CMS that allows you to embed editable data in running text and cache multiple queries on a single request. It also provides real-time collaboration, content versioning, and live previewing.

2. Supports Omnichannel Selling

For marketers to provide a customer-pleasing experience, each channel used by the business would require access to the current product information and availability. It can be quite a challenge to create iconic content that shines across all touchpoints. Instead, a headless CMS provides the capability to orchestrate a seamless experience across all touchpoints while maintaining consistency and relevance. For instance, Sitefinity empowers brands to deliver a personalized experience across channels.

3. Headless CMS is Future-Proof

A headless CMS enables businesses to future-proof their applications by separating the presentation layer from the data and logic layer. You can structure your content to facilitate future-proofing for new projects. Also, you would not be required to make any technical changes when re-branding one or more channels. Sitecore is a leading headless CMS that offers enterprise-class search and content targeting to boost personalization efforts, among other things.

4. Cost-Effective

It is a lot cheaper for your business team to create a new functionality because headless CMS requires little technical involvement. For example, if your marketing department chooses to create a new series of product mini-sites, they do not have to depend on developers to build CMS-based templates. Instead, the marketing team can directly go to the CMS and start creating the mini-sites as and when required, reducing your up-front costs. Kentico CMS, for instance, comes with tailored custom pricing. Websites of popular brands like Sony and Starbucks are powered by Kentico. 

Read more: Top 6 Tech Stacks That Reign Software Development in 2020

5. Offers Better Software Architecture

A headless CMS is architected to decouple CMS platforms and published content. This strengthens security because access to the CMS is restructured internally within the organization. It increases scalability simply by spinning up a new app server and pointing it to the content. It remains available against all odds because even when the CMS application goes offline, web applications will not have an impact. Episerver, the leading WCM platform supports editors to drag-and-drop content to create new digital experiences quickly.

6. Allows you to do more with less

Organizations will no longer need large teams of specialists with particular CMS knowledge, unlike the requirements for a traditional CMS.

7. Lets You Focus on Your Business

Worrying about your CMS can be time-consuming and distracting. A traditional CMS structure can take your attention away from growing your business. Whereas Headless CMS allows you to use your precious time and resources to grow your business.  Being a multi-tenant system, it is fully managed and upgraded for you. 

Read more: Top 5 benefits of outsourcing software development services

A Step Forward 

Apart from these, there are several other reasons why businesses must consider a headless CMS. The important aspect to consider is how you want to manage and store content for products and articles. This can have an impact on websites, application performance, and conversions. Hence, as marketers, it’s time to take a step beyond traditional CMS.

If you’re considering a headless CMS to improve your digital content experience, send us a message immediately. 

Fingent recognized as the Top PHP Development company by the TechRivewer.

Immense expertise, constant innovative thinking, and deep market understanding make the perfect blend to remarkable excellency. Proclaiming these qualities, Fingent yet again outruns its way to rank the Top PHP Development Company in 2020.

PHP is the most common programming language used in web development today. Be it the simplest applications, or the most advanced ones like Drupal, vBulletin, MediaWiki, or be it the most popular WordPress. Everything works on PHP today. And so it becomes imperative for businesses to find and rely on the right PHP development providers for best services.

Research and review hubs like TechReviewer makes it convenient for businesses to select from a vast pool of development companies. Analyzing through their capabilities, success stories, and client reviews, TechReviewer helps businesses connect with the right technology partners by compiling lists of the leading software outsourcing companies.

Related Reading: Find out how Fingent created Mohawk 360, an integrated day camp management platform, utilizing PHP.

Fingent, a web development company that has proved its worth by delivering upscale web solutions to clients across the globe, is recognized by the brand-new research & analytics agency, TechReviewer.co, as the Top PHP Development Company in 2020.

With extensive experience in delivering full-cycle PHP development services along with deep technology expertise, enables Fingent to hit the lists of leading PHP development firms, making it the most reliable, experienced and reasonable company to outsource software development.

Related Reading: Check out our case study to know how Fingent helped develop an Appointment Management System using PHP expertise.

Established in 2003, Fingent strives to solve complex business challenges with customized software solutions. With an active client base across 14 countries and expertise in over 20+ industries, Fingent is a front runner in catering PHP development services. Our research and development team is dedicated to analyzing products based on market trends and targeted audiences. This enables us to provide our clients with an extra edge that helps them sustain and relish the cut-throat market environment.

“We help our clients understand technology in a way that they can leverage the best tools to provide unique and innovative customer experiences. For us, it is not just providing software solutions to our clients, but to help them reshape and transform with technology.”

              – Dileep Jacob, Senior Vice President, Global Operations, Fingent.

Being featured among the leading PHP development companies is indeed a great honor for us. We take this opportunity to thank our clients and partners who have placed immense trust in our approaches and services. We will continue to justify the trust with utmost dedication, expertise, and innovative business solutions.

Learn how we can help transform your business for a better future. Get in touch with our experts today to know more about our services, expertise, and technologies.

Also, read more on why Fingent Stamps its authority as a leading CodeIgniter developer of 2020.

Top 5 benefits of outsourcing software development services

Software development outsourcing is empowering companies worldwide, including the most successful ones across their journeys. Leading players like Google, WhatsApp, Slack, and Microsoft have ample stories to share on their victorious feats with outsourcing development.

A study by Technavio reveals that the global IT outsourcing market will flourish at a CAGR of 5% during the period 2020-2024. The demand for outsourcing software development services keeps surging as organizations want to optimize their business processes and align their strategic planning with their operational strategies.

Outsourcing your IT necessities can be a boon in times of financial and natural adversities because outsourcing companies like Fingent implement business continuity planning and disaster recovery plans to fulfill obligations and deliver services without interruption.

If your company’s growth is dependent on software, and if you cannot afford your in-house IT team to divert from their core operations, it’s high time to outsource your software development needs. 

Why software outsourcing is good for your business?

Facts and testimonies speak the truth!

More and more businesses today are relying on software outsourcing companies to develop their projects. Working with an outsourcing company will help you mitigate the risks of running a project internally. Outsourcing can compensate for a lack of in-house skills and ensures that your product is delivered on time. 

At Fingent, we specialize as an offshore software development company. Many of our customers have shared their outsourcing success stories with us. A .NET based SaaS platform developed by Fingent has played a great role in the growth of the property management undertaking – SimpleRent. Here’s what SimpleRent’s founder told us.

PwC, one of our prominent customers, reports an 80% increase in productivity and a 67% faster ticket resolution rate after Fingent helped them implement a smart ticketing system. Thanks to outsourcing!

As an outsourcing development company, here are a few reasons why we think outsourcing makes your business more efficient and smarter.

Related Reading: Points to Consider Before Choosing the Best Software Development Company

1. Access to the finest talent and latest technology

Software development outsourcing helps in finding the right talents and minimizing your human-resource problems. If your country has a limited talent pool, outsourcing gives you access to a wider talent pool available anywhere on the globe.

Technology keeps evolving every day and your business needs to take advantage of its benefits. With outsourcing, you will gain access to new and innovative perspectives and an opportunity to utilize strong and diverse technology expertise.

2. Outsourcing cuts down your costs

The biggest benefit of offshore software development undoubtedly is the cost savings. Outsourcing software development companies do not necessarily demand you to make any upfront investments. By contracting work to other companies, you can cut down 70-90% of your labor costs, all while paying your outsourced workforce at competent rates. The cost advantages make your development project more attractive and reduce your overall workload. 

Adopting a cost-effective engagement model is crucial to the success of outsourcing. We help you choose the right engagement model essential for the creation of your state-of-the-art product. 

3. Improved flexibility and time management

When you outsource your work, you don’t have to spend time hiring and training resources. At Fingent, we take care of all the change requirements even when the project sizes vary or resource-related demands scale up. 

Outsourcing software development services accelerate your time-to-market. With people working around the clock, your competitiveness improves greatly and gives you an edge over your competitors.  

4. Take your business to the next level with a focused strategy

To win the technological race, you need to have a focused strategy. Every business needs to align its operational strategy with the changing people, process, and technology. When your software is developed by an outsourcing company, your business processes will be highly streamlined and optimized, allowing you to focus on the core activities that will take your business to the next level.

5. Managing risks and compliance

Partnering with a software outsourcing company like Fingent enables you to mitigate the risks associated with handling your project. We follow a high-quality project management system that has been tried, tested and proven across our past as well as ongoing projects. 

While outsourcing your software development needs, you are setting out to work with a global talent pool. We take care of all the legal compliance-related matters that have to be fulfilled while onboarding offshore resources as well as forging contracts with our clients. This lets you focus on other things that matter. 

Related Reading: The Pros and Cons of Outsourcing Mobile App Development

Ready to outsource your software development needs?

From resource hiring and onboarding to management training and payroll software, several functions can be outsourced by a company. In the age of globalization and technological competition, software development outsourcing is the key to your success. Share your queries and concerns about outsourcing with us. Our consultants can walk you through the best and most affordable solution that works for you. 

Re-Engineer your Business Processes with Superior Solutions Now!

How AI is bringing change to the software testing practice

Artificial Intelligence is penetrating into multiple functions performed by the software industry. In software testing, the technology holds the potential to be a game-changer. Imagine the capability of your software to test and diagnose itself and make self-corrections! This will lead to huge savings on your resources. With this in mind, let’s try and understand exactly how AI will impact the traditional way of software testing. 

Before we proceed, let’s get one thing clear – Do we really need AI in software testing?

Do We Really Need AI in Software Testing? 

Software testing came into existence as a result of the evolution of development methodologies. It fed the need for robust, error-free software products. Testing was a laborious task for sure. However, automating software testing required traceability and versioning, both of which were critical and needed careful consideration. Something was needed to resolve this.

As businesses move towards digital transformation and the software market continues to grow, businesses expect a real-time risk assessment across all stages of the software delivery cycle. AI in software testing is the right response to these challenges. AI can develop error-free applications while enabling greater automation in software testing. This helps meet the expanded, critical demands for testing. It improves the quality of engineering and reduces testing time allowing the tester to focus on more important things. The verdict is clear then – We Really Need AI for Software Testing!

Five Impressive Ways AI Impacts Software Testing

1. Improves object application categorization

AI is widely used in object application categorization. When tools and testers are created, unique pre-train controls can be created. Once the hierarchy of the controls is categorized, testers can create a technical map to obtain labels for the different controls. 

In the near future, AI will become capable of observing users perform exploratory testing on the testing site. And once user behavior is assessed, it can assign, monitor, and categorize the risk preference.

2. Automation of test case writing 

Gone are the days of web crawlers. As automation is picking momentum, AI tools have become capable of learning business usage scenarios of test applications. 

Related Reading: Unconventional Ways Artificial Intelligence Drives Business Value

They can automatically collect insightful data such as HTML pages, screenshots and page loading time and eventually train ML models for expected patterns of the app. And as soon as they are executed, any variations are marked as potential issues. This makes it easier for the tester to find and validate differences and fix issues. 

3. Enhanced accuracy

To date, source analysis requires human resources to accomplish the task. Unfortunately, because of the enormity of the data, even the best experts could overlook, or miss out on observing certain critical defects. Human error and the tendency to lose focus further impairs the experts involved in software testing. It can be disastrous if bugs caused by these errors are caught by consumers before project stakeholders. Product positioning and brand reputation can be jeopardized. 

Thankfully, AI can teach systems to learn source analysis and, in the future, apply this acquired knowledge. This ensures that testers have greatly enhanced accuracy. It eliminates the probability of human error and also shortens the time to run a test and increases the possibility of finding defects or bugs. 

4. Automation without the user interface

AI-based techniques can be applied for non-functional tests such as performance, security and unit integration. It can also be applied on various application logs which assists in developing auto-scaling capabilities such as bug prediction.

AI algorithms can enhance UI testing, predict the next test, determine the outcomes for subjective and complex tests and much more. In other words, AI could increase the overall test coverage while it increases the depth and scope of the test itself.

5. Reduces cost and decreases time to market

The need for manually repeating a test is time-consuming and extremely expensive. But with AI, such tests can be automated to repeat several times over. Each time the software test is repeated automatically, the source code gets modified to correct any bugs. This eliminates the additional cost of repeating the test and increases the speed of the test from days to hours, which in turn saves more money.

Related Reading: Quality Assurance in Software Testing – Past, Present & Future

Allow AI to Revolutionize your Business

AI has proven to have a significant impact on software testing with its benefits ranging from optimization to extraordinary savings. It enables testers to move beyond the traditional route and dive toward precision-based testing processes. This can prove invaluable to your business. To find out how you can make this happen for your business, contact us. 

What 2020 holds in store for software testing automation 

Enterprises are constantly on the hunt for trends that improve their application’s effectiveness, expedite development cycles, reduce downtimes, and improve cost savings. In such cases, they often resort to methods that can automate mundane testing procedures. Why is it the right time to leverage test automation trends? Here we discuss a few software testing automation trends expected to dominate in 2020. 

The automation testing lifecycle

Automation testing provides testing teams the ability to improve the coverage of their software tests and additionally offers improved quality, cost savings, shorter testing cycles, and a multitude of other benefits. To reap benefits out of automation techniques, the key is to incorporate the right skills, planning, as well as the right testing tools.

Let us walk through the various phases involved in an automation lifecycle:

1. When and what and how to automate?
2. Selecting the right tool
3. Test planning, designing, and strategy selection
4. Establishing the testing environment
5. Development and execution of the automation test script
6. Analytics
7. Report Generation

Related Reading: Understanding The Different Types Of Software Testing

Factors that drive the adoption of test automation in 2020

• Ability to strategize and plan.
• Finding resources and skills to make use of automation tools and frameworks.
• Ability to assess related risks.
• Exploration of tools.
• Providing instant feedback so that developers can gain insights into various areas that require improvement.
• Conducting multiple tests throughout various phases.
• Increasing efficiency to reduce risks.
• Reducing defect fixing time and effort.
• Investing more time for the development and enhancement of features.
• Analyzing strategies to capture data to assess various releases.
• Ensure API testing to determine the functionality, performance, security, as well as reliability of the application tested for.

Automation testing trends to watch out in 2020

1. Test automation to improve quality for Agile and DevOps

As businesses face constant pressure to meet the changing customer demands and expectations, agility becomes the key to success for coping with the transformation. Additionally, enterprises lookout for agile processes and software delivery approaches such as DevOps to ensure a faster delivery time of applications to the market. Agile-DevOps transformation has brought about higher levels of quality, flexibility, efficiency, and productivity to achieve faster release cycles, improved quality, and increased ROI.

Related Reading: Myths About Load Testing in Agile Environment

2. Usability testing to ensure improved user experience

Mobile and eCommerce applications are great enablers for businesses today. User Interface, as well as the operational flows, play a critical role in determining whether the visitors continue to be users or not. A quick application loading time can enhance your brand loyalty and improve customer experience and retention. 

3. Big Data testing to tackle huge volumes of data

Historical data helps enterprises gain critical insights on future plans and objectives and helps them to be proactive through predictive maintenance, machine learning, and AI techniques. Mining structured, as well as unstructured data, are hence important for effective testing. 

4.  IoT testing  for well-connected devices 

According to the latest reports published by Statista, the entire installed base of the Internet of Things connected devices is forecasted to amount to 75.44 billion worldwide by 2025. This figure was just 6.4 billion during the year 2016. This increase in the figures illustrates the massive requirement for effective IoT strategies in test automation. This testing includes testing of OS, various software and hardware of the IoT connected devices, different communication protocols, and so on. 

5. AI and ML testing  for technological innovations

The global AI software market is forecasted to grow to $14.7 billion by the year 2025. AI and ML technologies such as gesture recognition and speech recognition are taking over the world by storm. Similarly, technologies such as neural networks and predictive maintenance also require high-quality testing methodologies for technological innovations.

6. Blockchain Testing 

Blockchain Testing enables smart contracts and prevents fraudulent transactions, especially when dealing with digital currencies such as Bitcoin. Blockchain debugging is thus crucial for enabling streamlined and smooth financial currencies. 

7. Cyber Security Testing

Cyber vulnerabilities increase day by day and tackling them requires effective testing practices. (CEH) Certified Ethical Hackers with key security tools and technologies can safeguard applications from malfunctions and cyber attacks.

8. RPA Testing

RPA (Robotic Process Automation) testing ensures enhanced output, facilitates high-end performance and reduces the efforts required while performing end-to-end testing. For instance, robots can enhance a workspace with its capability to perform redundant tasks. RPA testing is thus crucial for effective applications with faster development cycles. 

Related Reading: Quality Assurance in Software Testing – Past, Present & Future

Integrating automation testing into your workflow requires you to take into account how it will impact the people, process, and technology of your organization. It’s also crucial to measure if automation fits into the cycle of continuous integration and delivery and how it will merge with your software development lifecycle. Fingent helps you reap the benefits of test automation. Contact us to know more. 

It’s Time to Bid Goodbye to the Legacy Technology!

The decade’s end has seen numerous inevitable changes in the technology market. It hasn’t been long since we bid adieu to Python 2, and now Microsoft Silverlight is nearing its end-of-life!

This surely brings a million questions to your curious mind! 

Why did Microsoft decide to end all support for Silverlight? What are the next best alternatives available in the market? And most of all, is it okay to still keep using Silverlight? 

Read on as we answer it all!

What is Microsoft Silverlight?

Silverlight, an application framework designed by Microsoft, has been driving rich media on the internet since 2007. Created as an alternative to Adobe Flash, this free, browser focused developer tool facilitated web development by enabling computers and browsers to utilize UI elements and associated plugins for rich media streaming. With the emergence of video streaming platforms like Netflix and Amazon Prime, Silverlight turned out to be a great option to enable sophisticated effects.

So What Led To The Demise of Microsoft Silverlight?

A couple of things, but mostly Silverlight could not catch up with the rapidly evolving software market!

When Microsoft Silverlight was released in 2007, it looked like a huge success. Especially with the successful online streaming of the huge Beijing Olympics coverage in 2008, the political conventions of 2008, and the 2011 Winter Olympics, Silverlight was on a roll, later pulling in major video streaming platforms like Netflix and Amazon Prime onboard.

However, Silverlight could not shine for long. A few problems started to surface soon. Bugs in several applications were just one manifestation. The worst issues came about with Microsoft misjudging the real requirements of the market.

Although Silverlight reduced the user’s dependency on Flash to access rich graphics, animations, videos, and live streams online, it did so with a heavy reliance on Microsoft tools at the backend. Using Microsoft .Net Framework and XAML coding format, Silverlight offered the support for Windows Media Audio(WMA), Windows Media Video(WMV), advanced audio coding and the rest. 

This seemed difficult, as well as risky for developers, especially to depend on a single vendor’s framework. Meanwhile, constant push to upgrade Silverlight made things more complicated, leaving developers more comfortable adopting low cost opens source alternatives like Flash and JavaScript over Silverlight. With HTML5 -and other browser standards on the rise, Silverlight became an outlier in the market.

In 2013, the Redmond giant stopped the development of Silverlight but continued to roll out bug fixes and patches regularly. In September 2015, Google Chrome ended support for Silverlight, followed by Firefox in March 2017. Microsoft-edge does not support Silverlight plug-ins at all, and with modern browsers transitioning to HTML5, Microsoft did not see any need to keep maintaining this application framework.

So, it’s official! Microsoft has announced the support end date for Silverlight to be on October 12, 2021. 

And what is Netflix going to do? Well, Netflix currently supports Silverlight 4 and Silverlight 5. So Netflix viewers, using it on Windows XP or Windows 7 PC (both themselves now unsupported) can use either the Silverlight plug-in or HTML5 player.

What Happens After October 2021?

Not to worry, there won’t be a big boom on October 12, 2021! 

It is true that Silverlight will be completely unsupportive after the said date and will no longer receive any future quality or security updates. But however, Microsoft is not preventing or terminating any Silverlight applications for now.

So should you still be using Silverlight?

Well, no! Fewer users will be able to still use Silverlight driven apps. However, this would turn worse, with developers wanting to work in a dead-end development environment, which will immensely raise the cost of supporting Silverlight apps.

What Are The Next Best Options?  

No doubt Microsoft Silverlight has served as a great option for developing rich apps. However, with the end of support for Silverlight, here’s listing a couple of new tech stacks that promises to be more reliable alternatives. 

AngularJS, a popular framework maintained by Google is simply a great option for developers around the world. It is an open-source framework designed to address the challenges of web development processes and offers ease in integrating with HTML code and application modules. Moreover, it automatically synchronizes with modules that make the development process seamless, and following a DOM methodology, it focuses on improving performance and testability. Adding to this, AngularJS uses basic HTML that enables building rich internet applications effectively. Also, with an MVC built architecture and various extensions, this technology proves to be a great option for designing applications that are dynamic and responsive.  

ReactJS is another application framework that can easily be labeled as a “best seller”, based on the popularity and affection it has gained in the developer community. Launched in 2013, the ReactJS framework is today well regarded and used by leading companies like Apple, PayPal, Netflix, and of course Facebook. React Native is a variant of the ReactJS JavaScript library that combines native application development with JavaScript UI development, to build web pages that are highly dynamic and user-responsive. While native modules allow implementing platform-specific features for iOS and Android, the rest of the code is written with JavaScript and shared across platforms.

Related Reading: React Native Or Flutter – The Better Choice For Mobile App Development

With technologies running in and disappearing from the market, it can be quite difficult to decide on the stack of digital tools that would best fit your business. Our business and solution experts can help ensure that you transform with the right technology to meet industry challenges and enhance your revenue opportunities. To discuss more on how we can help you identify the right technology for your company, get in touch with our experts today!

Testing Types And Strategies: Choosing A Testing Method

Understanding the basics of software testing is crucial for developers and quality assurance specialists equally. To deploy a better software and to find bugs that affect application development, it is important to learn about the different types of software testing. 

Types Of Software Testing 

Testing is a process of executing a software program to find errors in the application being developed. Testing is critical for deploying error-free software programs. Each type of testing has its advantages and benefits. Software testing is broadly categorized into two types; Functional and Non-Functional testing.

Functional Testing Versus Non-Functional Testing

Functional Testing is used to verify the functions of a software application according to the requirements specification. Functional testing mainly involves black box testing and does not depend on the source code of the application. 

Functional Testing involves checking User Interface, Database, APIs, Client/Server applications as well as security and functionality of the software under test. Functional testing can be done either manually or by making use of automation. 

The various types of Functional Testing include the following:

• Unit Testing
• Integration Testing
• System Testing
• Sanity Testing
• Smoke Testing
• Interface Testing
• Regression Testing
• Beta/Acceptance Testing

Non-Functional Testing is done to check the non-functional aspects such as performance, usability, reliability, and so on of the application under test. 

The various types of Non-Functional Testing include the following:

• Performance Testing
• Load Testing
• Stress Testing
• Volume Testing
• Security Testing
• Compatibility Testing
• Install Testing
• Recovery Testing
• Reliability Testing
• Usability Testing
• Compliance Testing
• Localization Testing

The 7 Most Common Types Of Software Testing

Type 1: Black-box Testing

Black-box testing is applied to verify the functionality of the software by just focusing on the various inputs and outputs of the application rather than going deep into its internal structure, design, or implementation. Black-box testing is performed from the user’s perspective.

Type 2: White-Box Testing

The White-Box software testing strategy tests an application with access to the actual source code as well as focusing on the internal structure, design, and implementation. This testing method is known by different names such as Open Box testing, Clear Box Testing, Glass Box Testing, Transparent Box Testing, Code-Based Testing, and Structural Testing. White-box testing offers the advantage of rapid problem and bug spotting.

Type 3: Acceptance Testing

Acceptance Testing is a QA (Quality Assurance) process that determines to what extent a software attains the end user’s approval. Also known as UAT (User Acceptance Testing) or system testing, it can be testing the usability or the functionality of the system or even both. Depending on the enterprise, acceptance testing can take the form of either end-user testing, beta testing, application testing, or field testing. The advantage of acceptance testing is that usability issues can be discovered and fixed at an early stage.

Related Reading: Quality Assurance in Software Testing – Past, Present & Future

Type 4: Automated Testing

Automated testing is a method in which specialized tools are utilized to control the execution of various tests and the verification of the results is automated. This type of testing compares the actual results against the expected results. The advantage of automated testing is that it avoids the need for running through test cases manually, which is both tedious and error-prone, especially while working in an agile environment. 

Type 5: Regression Testing

Regression testing is a testing practice that verifies whether the system is still working fine, even after incremental development in the application. Most automated tests performed are regression tests. It ensures that any change in the source code does not have any adverse effects on the application.

Type 6: Functional Testing

Functional Testing tests for the actual functionality of the software. This type of testing focuses on the results of the system processing and not on how the processing takes place. During functional testing, the internal structure of the system is not known to the tester. 

Type 7: Exploratory Testing

As the name indicates, Exploratory testing is all about exploring the application where the tester is constantly on the lookout for what and where to test. This approach is applied in cases where there is no or poor documentation and when there is limited time left for the testing process to be completed. 

Related Reading: A Winning Mobile Testing Strategy: The Way to Go

All the methods mentioned above are only some of the most common options of software testing. The list is huge and specific methods are adopted by development vendors based on the project requirements. Sometimes, the terminologies used by each organization to define a testing method also differ from one another. However, the concept remains the same. Depending on the project requirement and scope variations, the testing type, processes, and implementation strategies keep changing. 

Like to know more about Fingent’s expertise in custom software development and testing? Get in touch with our expert.