Category: Business

Why should businesses invest in custom software development?

The need to transform digitally has created a scenario where enterprises are constantly investing in new digital solutions to either make life easier for operations or help them explore new revenue streams in the digital space. However, there are a lot of misconceptions that prevail in the market with regards to digital solutions. As soon as a business announces that it is ready to invest in digital, they get bombarded with ready-to-deploy and off the shelf digital tools that are provided by several players in the tech industry.

But is investing in readily available solutions the best way to gain a foothold in digital adoption? Not always is what industry experts say. It is important for enterprises to invest in custom software development to empower their business growth with a more personalized digital arsenal. Several executives may argue that custom software development is a costly affair, but buying commercial off the shelf software could do more harm than good in the long run if it is not tailored to your objectives.

Here are 5 reasons why investing in custom software development is important for your enterprise.

1. Complexities in Systems Integration

Different areas of your business operations may find tools from different vendors to be useful. However, these tools may each have their own technology infrastructure requirements, architectural differences, different development methodologies and varying levels of implementation support. As an organization, your technology ecosystem needs to work as a streamlined single unit, capable of delivering value across your business.

For integrating systems from multiple vendors, a considerable effort is needed and this could outweigh the advantages offered by individual systems. Such a scenario calls for creating a suite of operational enterprise applications, custom made to fit the objectives of your business. Every custom software, thus built would follow common standards in development and execution, thereby creating a flexible and interoperable enterprise technology stack.

2. Scalability restrictions

Ready to deploy enterprise solutions are often advertised to be scalable for large workloads. But when unique requirements of your organization require flexibility beyond the scope defined by the software development company, then you are left with expensive software that cannot scale up with your business demand. This is another area where tailored and custom software development can be the game changer in your technology landscape.

Components of such software can be built keeping in mind the objectives specific to your business areas and not just a standard industry requirement. Hence, when scalability requirements arise, a custom built enterprise software will be able to accommodate your unique business and process workflows accordingly without creating new challenges for the teams handling your enterprise applications. This is vital for SMB’s as their growth ambitions would definitely require a scalable technology backend to support a critical business process.

3. Future proof innovations

Innovation is at the heart of every competitive business environment today. The more you innovate, the greater will be your chances of satisfying diverse consumer interests. When enterprises buy expensive and ready to deploy software from reputed vendors, they often limit their own dimensions of innovation. Such businesses are often forced to either wait till the software vendor comes up with the desired innovation or they may have to again purchase a new software if their existing application vendor is not in a position to add the new feature anytime soon.

Having your own custom software built will enable you to experiment and bring on board innovative concepts faster and without depending on other technology vendors to do it for you. This can help in greater market competence as your brand would be recognized as a forerunner rather than a late adopter for innovations that consumer’s desire.

4. Existing technology support

Many times, businesses invest in new digital solutions by blindly following trends in the market. It could be possible that the technology that they already have may just need a few tweaks and upgrades to provide the exact same or even better features that a totally new commercial off the shelf software can provide. Bringing a new digital solution from a vendor into your existing technology ecosystem can cause challenges not just in systems integration as mentioned above, but may also create instances where large effort is needed to maintain existing software that serves other core business processes.

When businesses go for custom software development, they have the liberty to build new capability on top of existing enterprise applications and hence saving considerable effort in development as well as reducing cost escalations. Having a team to customize existing software is a better alternative than engaging one to implement a third-party solution from scratch and then follow it up with expensive customizations to further suit your business requirements and objectives.

5. Compliance with standards and processes

Even the best of digital solutions from world-class vendors may have compliance issues with the standard rules and processes adopted within a business. The makers of such software may have included recommendations from industry recognized standards, but very often a business may have to think out of the box while running their daily operations. This leads to their core processes and standards being subjected to deviations from what the industry follows.

When third-party digital solutions are directly brought into such deviation prone business scenarios, there will be issues with compliance policies and standards. This is yet another scope for custom software development to take center stage and empower businesses with the flexibility to meet their unique compliance requirements. This is also true when government and other geopolitical influences require custom standard or compliance implementation rules to be followed by enterprise applications. Areas such as data privacy and consent management would be under multiple legal and judicial networks.  A region and a third-party digital solution may not be flexible to handle such variances.

Any technology implementation done today should be closely linked to business objectives, and enterprises need to have a clear idea on the business use cases that a particular technology could solve. With custom software development, it is possible to have a clear picture of the quantifiable value every investment in enterprise application development is made.

This will prove to deliver more ROI than a fully-fledged third-party digital solution implementation where your business may often be at the mercy of the vendor’s technology prowess. If technology is not your core forte, then you need to have the right advisory and consulting partner to help drive the most value out of your custom software development initiatives.

With years of empowering some of the world’s best businesses with custom software development, Fingent can be the right partner to help you build the technology backbone of your business. Get in touch with us to know more.

Imagine you are a salesman and you have logged into your system with the dashboard pulled up in front of you. Viewing the dashboard with a horde of information on it can turn out to be a very overwhelming experience. Bar charts, pies, metrics, numbers, arrows, percentages, ratios and what not go swimming in front of your eyes. Do they make any sense or do they end up confusing you? Does it include an intuitive interface allowing seamless navigation or is it cluttered and poorly organized? Well, it all depends on how well the sales dashboard is designed.

Recently, Fingent was approached by a client to develop a sales dashboard for their customers who are real estate agents and brokers. The requirement was to develop a portal for the agents and brokers to log into and a dashboard which gives a snapshot of their business performance. With this real estate platform, realtors should be able to access third-party applications to help them with the various stages of their business process.

Related Read: The Tech Disruptors in the Real Estate Space: What to Implement First?

Fig 1. Wireframe of Dashboard Designed for a Real Estate Agent

Fig 2. Sample Mockup Designed for a Real Estate Agent

In the real estate industry, data is often unstructured and unaccounted. This platform allows agents to prospect leads, manage and follow up on them, view the status, close on them and ultimately account for the costs and commissions.

Fig 3. Wireframe of  Dashboard Designed for a Real Estate Broker

Fig 4. Mockup Template Created for a Real Estate Broker

Expectations from a Good Sales Dashboard

A well-designed sales dashboard is like a good storyteller. It tells you a story complete with the setting, the characters, the main plot, the conflicts, and a conclusion. This should all flow in a seamless, logical way as the eyes of the user move from the top of the dashboard to the bottom; gauging information, which is crucial to making accurate decisions.

Salespeople usually juggle with a lot of numbers. They have numbers related to revenue, sales pipeline, products and services, customer base, forecasts, financial data etc. These numbers help them analyze and make critical decisions on the next move to steer their business forward to success. If these numbers are all scattered around, a salesperson may end up spending precious time gathering data and in the process slip on making important decisions.

Now, imagine if all these numbers come across as a story. Accordingly, the salesperson is able to quickly view the Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) of their business, make a conclusion and plan for the next moves. That is what a good sales dashboard aims to achieve.

A good sales dashboard gives an unbiased true picture of the day to day workings of one’s business. It provides an illustrated view of KPIs and other information crucial in the sales process.

Related Read: Ok Seriously, How Important Is Data Visualization?

Besides, a well-designed sales dashboard should also offer access to real-time data. With this real-time data, salespeople can continually monitor the sales pipeline and activities for making crucial decisions.

The design is yet another leading factor in ensuring better user experience. The logical arrangement of the metrics and other information contribute to effortless navigation all the while ensuring that the most important information is accessed first.

Designing a Sales Dashboard

Now, on the other hand, designing a sales dashboard is an equally daunting task. How do we represent all those numbers in a visually pleasing and logical manner? Furthermore, which numbers to choose from the many, that would ultimately matter the most to the client.

Keeping in mind the following tips will help you design an effective sales dashboard.

1. Getting Your Story Right

A good understanding of the client’s business and its KPIs will help you build the story. Identifying the pulse of the business by tapping on which will give you a correct understanding of the business’s lifeline is the key. Following are some metrics that are generally used in sales –

• Revenue 

This is the key indicator denoting how well the business is doing. Revenue is compared over time (monthly, quarterly, yearly) or with the projected versus actual revenue.  It can also be compared to the costs and expressed as a return on investment (ROI). Another way of representing it is to show profits after all the costs are deducted from the revenue. Finding out from your clients which figure would best be useful to them will help you in the design.

• Forecast

  The client can integrate a system to predict their future sales and revenue based on their past backlog, current pipeline, employee performances, market conditions etc. Showing this data on the dashboard will help them see the direction their business is taking.

• Sales in Numbers and Value

From where is all the revenue coming? Is it from just one product or are all the departments making enough sales? These questions can be answered by displaying the sales in numbers and value. This will give more clarity on the inner workings of the client’s business.

• Sales Pipeline

 The sales pipeline reflects the number of deals in each stage of the sales process. The stages can be open leads, qualified leads, face to face meetings, proposal stage, and closed deals. The number of deals in each stage will help the salesman asses whether they have enough incoming leads to sustain their business, and also whether they have an appropriate distribution of deals to meet their sales targets. It also helps in forecasting revenue in the near future.

• Lost Deals or Backlog

Negative metrics such as the number of lost deals or the backlog from the previous financial cycle, on the dashboard help in critical decision making. It can tell the salesman where their business is lacking and what it is that they need to focus on.

• Conversion Ratios

Conversion ratios tell the efficiency of the various stages in the sales process. Numbers such as these – the ratio of open leads to qualified leads, the ratio of qualified leads to closed deals, the ratio of open leads to closed deals etc. help in understanding where the work is getting piled and identifying the bottlenecks faced in the business.

• Attention Required/Overdue items

Salespeople would appreciate if they can get hold of a list of items on the dashboard, which needs their immediate attention. Overdue tasks is another area which needs to be highlighted in the day to day functioning of the business.

• Performance

 A metric that reflects the sales effectiveness or achievements of a salesperson in line with the company strategy and targets would summarize their performance and also act as a motivating factor to push them towards achieving more.  

2. Making Data Comparisons for Deriving Insights

One can gather meaningful insights from data when a comparison is made. Therefore, the way these metrics get compared side by side to derive a logical conclusion is downright important.

Should the metrics be compared with respect to each other? For example actual revenue against forecasted, lost deals versus won deals, sales backlog against the pipeline etc.

Or should it be compared with respect to time? Daily, weekly, quarterly, year on year, year to date etc. Making a comparison should ultimately help the salesperson answer the right questions.

3. Building your Story on Actual Data

Getting real-time data is really helpful in determining the best way of representing it. If it is fictional data, then one must stick to keeping the proportions right. Each chart has a specific type of data that it represents. For example, a pie is used to represent parts of a whole, a funnel represents a progression and a line displays variation over time of different series.

When you use actual data, you tend to realize that some charts do not look as good as you expected and maybe you should think about representing it in some other way. Or, that some numbers are better off shown as numbers itself and not compared to other figures as part of a chart, because it might end up skewing the chart in one direction.

4. Following General UI/UX Principles

Following the general UI/UX principles of good design makes the dashboard visually pleasing and easily navigable. Since most people read from left to right and top to bottom, aligning the widgets on the dashboard in the same order as the story progresses, helps in seamless navigation. The top left space on the dashboard is where the eye falls first. Placing the most important piece of information there ensures high visibility.

Leaving enough white spaces and keeping the dashboard uncluttered will help the user assimilate the information better. A sales dashboard should be concise with just the right amount of information for the salesperson to make an assessment of their business.

5. Keep Reinventing

Nobody gets it right the first time. Redesigning the dashboard a couple of times gives you a better perspective each time and helps you discover the one which will ultimately win your client’s heart.

Related Read: Make Your Data Visualization go Viral: 10 Quick Tips

Wrapping Up

Bringing things into perspective or distilling the essence from a mix of information is what a sales dashboard is all about. Companies have been relying on such visual representations to get an overview of what needs to be done. Particularly in the area of sales, such close visualizations of a range of data can indeed prove helpful for salespeople to gauge information as it is intended and make decisions crucial to the sales process. Owing to its importance, it is downright necessary to build and design a sales dashboard in accordance with certain principles.

By taking into consideration the key metrics that define the sales process, it is possible to delineate the entire workflow and pipeline to an easily identifiable visual form. Such a dashboard brings more clarity in the process, enabling salespeople to understand and apply the necessary changes. We did just that with our client by formulating an effective sales dashboard. This would ultimately help them leverage sales data to contrive practices that push their business forward, all the while accelerating efficiency and ROI.

A workshop to get you technology-ready for business challenges

District Hall, 75 Northern Ave., Boston  6 pm, April 4th, 2019.

Register Here!

INFINCE is sponsoring a great opportunity for small business owners to learn new and overlooked ways they can adapt technology that lets them serve their clients better and more cost-effectively. On 4th April 2019, INFINCE is sponsoring a workshop to guide new and growing businesses to recognize tech-addressable business challenges, evaluate their implications, and to assess technological available options.

Although most businesses in today’s world are “internet companies”, yet a major portion of the small scale industry remains technologically challenged. Plenty of factors like lack of time, tight budgets, and limited infrastructure often restricts the small and medium business owners from transforming digitally. Moreover, replicating what other small businesses have done can not only be costly, but can lock a business into outmoded technology.

“Many a time small business owners turn down digital adoptions as they consider technology as too complex or too costly an affair or are unaware of the benefits they could acquire from such transitions.”

Dileep Jacob, Head of Global Delivery, Fingent.

Considering the many challenges faced by business owners today, INFINCE has pulled together this workshop to help organizations make better technological decisions for rapid business growth. The session, on 4th April 2019 from 6 PM to 8 PM in the District Hall of Boston, will include information about a variety of digital tools and solutions applicable to growing businesses.

Our objective is to better prepare the owners of small enterprises to choose and use the right technology that arms them for constant business battles; the workshop will present cost-effective and streamlined ways of organizing a firm’s IT options. Whether this is the first step towards business innovation or accommodating the needs of a growing business with changing technologies, the workshop will walk business owners through many do’s and don’ts of technology transition.

“In today’s world innovation is no longer an option but a necessity. The workshop aims at leaving attendees well informed on choosing the right digital options to solve their prevailing business situations and prepare their whole organization for a remarkable future”, said Stephen Cummings, Senior Vice President, Fingent.

The workshop – A Technology Guide For Small Business, presents a great opportunity for business owners who are making their first digital steps toward a technology future within an immensely competitive market. After the workshop, those interested will be able to have a hands-on introduction to INFINCE, a new platform designed expressly to provide small business owners control over their digital capabilities now and in the future.

For free registration sign up at: https://www.infince.com/workshop

About INFINCE

INFINCE is cloud technology optimized for small businesses and a platform to run IT without any hassles. Stephen highlighted on some of the key traits of INFINCE that makes it different from other cloud platforms. Quick deployment is one such, where a company can set up and run INFINCE within minutes. INFINCE is also economical as it integrates optimal cloud configurations that cut down cost without sacrificing on performance.

About Fingent

Fingent is a software development company, with an office in Cambridge, that develops custom software to enable our clients to operate more effectively, more efficiently, and with more resiliency. Since 2003, Fingent has developed web and mobile software solutions that have been key to our clients’ business success. Our technology and industry expertise enables us to deliver sophisticated solutions rapidly and on budget. For us, it is not only about delivering software but also about partnering and playing a part in business efforts to shape a brighter and smarter future.

Over the past couple of years, digitization has enabled technology-driven small companies to outclass established business houses worldwide. With industries ranging from taxi-services to banking, transforming digitally, more and more enterprises are realizing the importance of making digitization their number one priority. The tech-savvy consumer base, which consists of the population below the age of 30 and covers 50% of the global population, is considered to be the key driver behind this realization. Such folks have the rising affinity to expect every business organization they interact with to provide the fastest and most satisfying experiences each time. As a business, turning deaf ears to customer’s expectations can lead to unrevivable consequences. From AI to blockchain, IoT and RPA, the list of digital innovation you need to pay attention to are huge.  

We thought this is the perfect time to show you the digital innovations that we believe will reshape businesses in the coming months and future years. Here are our top 5 picks from technologies that enterprises need to watch out:

Flexible Cloud Computing

When cloud computing became mainstream a couple of years ago, there was a rush from enterprises to build their technology competence on the cloud. This resulted in several businesses having their own private cloud ecosystems that supported their own limited digital innovations. Today, many available digital tools require a complex network of cloud resource. This has reshaped the cloud computing ecosystem which has now transitioned into intelligently connected networks that have Public, Private and Hybrid cloud partitions working in sync to help businesses derive value from technology running on these platforms.

Different IT workloads may need to be run simultaneously over multiple cloud platforms to achieve enterprise goals and this has resulted in the so-called Multicloud saga. This is one area which will see more developments and interest from the business community in coming years as the previous year saw major cloud service providers acquiring or developing solutions to club their multiple cloud ecosystems to serve client interests.

Related Reading: Find how a cloud platform like INFINCE can help businesses leverage technologies more efficiently.

Blockchain in Mainstream

The past couple of years saw considerable investments from the business community in the blockchain. We believe there will be mainstream applications coming out in future that will revolutionize areas such as data security, digital identity verification, and intelligent automation. Sectors such as BFSI, logistics, regulatory bodies, and government agencies have already started using blockchain to set up complex autonomous verification and validation systems that require minimal human intervention, thanks to the capacity of blockchain to be immutable.

In the coming years, more mainstream consumer-facing areas of businesses would be driven by blockchain based autonomous operational interfaces and it could set the stage for innovations akin to self-driving cars. Many technology companies would be coming out with mainstream solutions having blockchain essentials embedded into their core and these would further enhance business capabilities for enterprises worldwide.

Related Reading: Find how blockchain technology can transform the supply-chain industry.

Digital Modelling

While this concept has been around for a while, we think it will make more impact this year as more companies are investing in this front. The idea is to create a digital persona for every product or service business has to offer its customers. This persona would be used to arrive at choosing the right supporting digital enablers like data generators (sensors, IoT enabled devices, etc.) as well as the right decision path (data models and implementations of data science to arrive at success models). Such persona would be used to ascertain an offering’s readiness to the market, the cost required to maintain it viable, the processes and business models that need re-defining to support it and so on. The entire exercise though a bit complex will bring about a strategic advantage to adopters as their business offerings would be more aligned for digital success than competitors.

Related Reading: Digital innovation is transforming today’s business. Find how your business can benefit from digital transformation too.

Immersive Experiences

In future we will see consumer experiences moving to a more immersive phenomenon where almost everyone from a local retail shop to an e-commerce giant will offer interactive experiences courtesy of technology like augmented and virtual reality. Gartner says that by 2022, nearly 70% of all businesses would be using immersive customer experiences in some form on an experimental basis. Such immersive technology will find its way into numerous consumer-facing scenarios like demonstrations, virtual assistants, field services and so on. With gadgets supporting immersive experiences like smart glasses and wearables being available for very affordable prices, the consumer base requiring such experiences will grow tremendously in the coming years. The possibilities are limitless and businesses small or big can capitalize on this opportunity to improve their competence.

Related Reading: Check out the ongoing battle between AR and VR and find which technology has the potential to mainstream first.

Conversational Intelligence

Artificial intelligence is no longer a trend to watch out for because it has already gone mainstream over the last two years. Today, the focus should be on solutions that have been made available by harnessing the power of AI. One major solution that has gained attention now are conversational bots. From websites to major apps, a multitude of consumer-facing interactions is now handled by programmed bots that can interpret queries and respond intelligently.

Be it ordering food from a restaurant, booking a cab or even carry out a banking transaction, tech-savvy consumers are increasingly depending on personal digital assistants or bots to aid them in every step of the way. The proliferation of smart devices like smart home speakers, wearables and other IoT enabled home and personal electronic devices have created immense possibilities for a business to connect more effectively with end users. Today, you can ask your smart coffee maker to brew a coffee in the most precise variants of taste and smell without even having to touch the coffee maker. You can simply ask the personal assistant on your phone to do so.

Related Related: Find unconventional ways Artificial Intelligence is driving business value.

The top technologies mentioned above concludes that years to come is going to be a breakthrough year for several technological innovations. Business leaders need to hone their digital skills to keep pace with the rapidly growing market. On the positive side, most of these technology platforms or solutions come in affordable subscription basis and hence it is pretty much accessible to any enterprise despite their business size. However, the biggest differentiator for your success is the right technology advisory and implementation.

This is where our consultants at Fingent can become your best asset. With years of experience in empowering multiple businesses to achieve their digital aspirations, our world-class services can help you achieve your digital dreams seamlessly. Talk to us to know more about how we can help you embrace the above innovations and much more into your mainstream business operations.

Despite the industry buzz over the past few years, benefits realization and simple operational stability after go-live are arguably the biggest challenges companies are facing when implementing their new ERP systems. Recently, 60% of organizations failed to realize the business benefits they expected from their ERP implementations!

Among the business management tools available today, numerous studies illustrate the key factors to consider before choosing an ERP system for your business. The “Clash of the Titans” report by Panorama Consulting summarized quantitative results from hundreds of ERP implementations across the globe. The results showed that implementing the SAP ERP system, and implementing the Oracle ERP system produced very different results for different businesses!

For instance, an Oracle customer spends less on its implementation. Compared to this, a SAP customer is able to offer an implementation timeline that is relatively close to what was forecasted to be.

Another research considered a data set of over 2000 respondents from 61 countries, to illustrate the value of the people’s respective ERP implementation. The results showed that SAP held the largest market share of three vendors, with a 22% share.

The Key Factors That Make SAP Stand Out

• SAP or Systems, Applications, and Processes deal with data planning.
• The use of SAP has been compatible with large corporations such as Microsoft and IBM. Oracle, on the other hand, stands for Object Relational Database Management Systems (ORDBMS) and can be hosted in a number of platforms.
• SAP is a business management tool that allows real-time tracking in addition to the management of sales, finance, accounting, and human resources.
• SAP does not follow the traditional information system management where each management tool is considered as an individual system that operates independently.
• SAP integrates business applications using ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning Software) and on the other hand, Oracle, an Object Relational Database Management System (ORDBMS), is used in enterprise environments.
• Development and deployment in SAP can include Oracle as a database system as it can be integrated with numerous databases.
• SAP performs with a single information pathway alone for their entire enterprise and all other common information.
• SAP applications cannot interact with their own systems but can interact with other processes in order for tangible business events to happen.
• SAP ensures easier functions of management. This includes integration and other functions.
• The SAP model runs on a programming language of the fourth generation. It is known to us as Advanced Business Application Programming (ABAP).

Related Reading: Check out how SAP HANA technology is the new game changer for industries.

On the other hand, Oracle is an Object Relational Database Management System (ORDBMS) that comes from the massive Oracle Corporation.

The Oracle Database Management System is created with at least a single instance of a particular application. These specific instances are specific processes of the operating system, also benefit the storage!

In a nutshell, the key differences between Oracle And SAP are as follows:

Related Reading: Find reasons why you should use SAP and how you can plan a budget for it.

Who is King In The Area Of Business Software?

SAP and Oracle compete mainly in the areas of Business Software like ERP, CRM, and SCM. SAP is said to have more installs than Oracle in bigger companies. Let’s have a walk-through across some key reasons:

• SAP Being The Pioneer

SAP ERP ran to the list first. SAP was already well established as a full ERP solution when Oracle was just starting to establish a Financials package for companies! By virtue of being first, SAP is well embedded in this environment.

• A Much Better Integrated Solution

The core SAP ERP modules were built from scratch to full integration. So when a change is made, all other related modules are updated immediately. This comes useful when you extend it with a CRM or SCM functionality.

• Mind-Share And Brand Recognition

Most companies/ people tend to have considered ERP implementation also as a status decree! They believe it increases their brand value.

• Support Factors

SAP has a much larger pool of developers and consultants with a much larger installation base!

Read: 5 Tips For Getting The Best Out Of Your ERP System

CIO Strategies Matter! – How SAP Drives Ahead Of The Game!!

There are several case studies to validate why SAP is preferred over Oracle by many Business and CIOs. They are as follows:

• SAP being the pioneer in ERP implementation

As SAP has been the leader and the pioneer in implementation, it preferred over Oracle with a brand value which indicates ERP leadership and preference.

• SAP is an in-house built product

SAP was built in house. It has worked with industry experts to evolve the ERP processes and is able to build a robust solution. It allows customers to customize SAP functionality and yet get the client specific processes defined in ERP.

• Robust integrated and scalable ERP

SAP has designed a highly integrated ERP which has world-class performance and scalable to multiple solutions. It also easies integrations with 3rd party solutions.

• IS –Solutions

SAP has provided additional IS solutions which are optional but they allow businesses to have specialized processes on single ERP which is well integrated and reap benefits for “best industry solutions”

• SAP Analytics

Integration on ERP and BI is notable and provides unbeatable performance and flexibility to define reports. Analytics based reporting Management to take real-time decisions

• SAP Support services

SAP provides class support services which give Business assurance of resolution in critical situations.

• SAP provides implementation methodology and Best practices and Tools

These tools provide a fool-proof implementation road map and reduce risks during the course of implementations. Following this guidance one can implement SAP in as less as 4 months; which means faster ROI.

• SAP Hana Features

SAP HANA with its “in memory” capability ensures super speed of processing data. The new UI solutions via Fiori give top class User experience.

In a nutshell, hiring the best qualified, focused and unbiased ERP can make your business more successful. So stay focused with our latest articles and blogs on SAP versus Oracle ERP implementation to go-live successfully!!

Why is SAP HANA considered a Game-Changer?

Advanced data crunching abilities of today’s technologies are hungry for their watermark moment! The older technologies are not being dexterous enough to meet with the needs of today’s businesses. So, in February 2015, SAP released ‘Business Suite 4 SAP HANA’, or ‘SAP S/4HANA’ for short, as a replacement for its predecessor, ‘SAP R/3’ and ‘Business Suite’ platforms.

This change will not only affect their existing clients but also the systems integrators (SIs) because they have built their businesses by promoting firms adopt and customize SAP applications!

In-Memory Technology of SAP HANA – The Game Changer

S4/HANA will run on the SAP HANA database platform alone. The previous enterprises could prefer databases from other vendors such as Microsoft, Oracle, and IBM. SAP HANA is considered much more innovative in functionality than its older version. Let’s find why exactly SAP HANA is considered the game changer!!

Related Reading: Learn why should you choose SAP and how you can plan your budget for it.

What Makes SAP HANA Create A Material Difference To Business Success?

HANA is a High-Performance Analytic Appliance. It is an in-memory platform for processing high chunks of transactional and operational data in real time. The in-memory technology provides prompt responses to queries without any waiting time. This is considered a game changer in the industry as the whole database is stored on the server memory for real-time analysis. The processing is with the data stored in disks where analysis is done in increments via redundant disk read-write activity.

According to SAP, adoption trends of SAP HANA by clients is constantly mounting across multiple industries with already 6400+ customers using this platform. This number is likely to grow in the year, according to SAP.

• Rapid forecasting and business strategy development without delays
• Business performance can be monitored better in real time
• Improved marketing campaigns through data analytics
• Prevent unplanned disruptions and avoid risks in business operations
• Accurate business decision making.

Time To Enable Some real-time functionality to analytics – SAP HANA does it ALL!

Enabling real-time functionality to analytics, business applications and data services are the highest priorities of CIOs. SAP HANA is the biggest, game-changing technology to impact these initiatives.

Key business drivers for SAP HANA adoption

• Real-time Analytics and Dashboards – SAP HANA permits information to be displayed dynamically without the need for aggregation. It can be presented in different dimensions for decision making and also for verifying business progress. Using real-time or historical data with prebuilt predictive libraries, analytics can be performed well.
• Data warehousing – Streamlining of data is important for better management. SAP HANA does this by offering predictive analytics. Thus trends are identified and it becomes easier to take better decisions on business strategies.
• Optimized Business Functions – SAP HANA runs with the in-memory technology that accelerates application performance. It helps in providing real-time reporting and also in offering BI tools. SAP HANA can run complex ERP or MRP applications to customize information using real-time data. This is how the firms that use SAP HANA are able to act promptly and adapt to changing business requirements or the latest market trends!
• Big data Rules – Gaining business insights and targeting clients with personalized offerings is the prime motive for any business. Big data analytics is used for the same. For this, HANA suite offers big data development and analytics tools.
• Swift And Accurate Decision Making With Automation Advances – Advanced analytics feature in SAP HANA can be used to transform business insights into actions for swift and accurate decision making in businesses.

Adoption Of SCRUM Framework – SAP HANA is Undoubtedly A Game Changer

SAP has adopted SCRUM as the framework and this helps in performing operations in short, iterative cycles.

SCRUM uses ‘time-boxed’ iterations. These iterations are termed “sprints. The objective of every sprint is to build a tested, workable piece of the system, that is ready to be released to production. These iterative cycles are based on the ‘Lean’ principles of software development. This helps in carrying out detailed analytics in real-time and on a transactional system directly. This is exactly why in-memory computing and SAP HANA are termed game changers because they function with such a powerful framework. This platform also provides a package for integrating multiple data sources. It also helps to perform various types of analytics that is, predictive, spatial, text, and so on. It can run simultaneously with SAP ERP software where analysts can access real-time transactional data instead of waiting to run daily or weekly reports.

Related Reading: Confused between Odoo CRM and SAP CRM? Learn how to make the right choice.

SAP HANA To Provide Real-Time Access To Business

Eliminating duplicate data and expensive data storage and improving query performance are features provided by SAP HANA along with real-time data analytics and support for end-user adoption. HANA Enterprise provides the most value and flexibility for higher BI solutions along with providing solutions for organizations that have a lot of non-SAP data, need real-time replication or require complex data transformation, cleansing or merging,

SAP HANA does not need additional software for data access. HANA Enterprise enables business users to immediately access their analytical data in real time, in a single environment, without affecting existing applications.

Read more: Transforming Business with SAP S/4HANA Cloud

SAP HANA Technology – The Economic Impact

With the cost-saving efficiencies of SAP HANA, the software development costs for enterprises reduced by almost 70%, administration costs reduced by over 20% and hardware spending reduced by 15%. Thus, SAP HANA is clearly proving to benefit organizations in both ways, that is, to business and technology.

SAP discloses that the adoption of S/4HANA has doubled year over year to more than 5,400 customers as it published its full-year financial results.

With its potential to process large chunks of data in server memory by combing the capabilities of database, data-processing and application platform execution. SAP HANA is considered to be the next major breakthrough in enterprise IT.

All of us in IT are aware that better business decisions are made only when data is available in a meaningful format and at the right time. It is time to extract the benefits out of SAP HANA for successful business execution. Keep your eyes clapped on our latest articles about SAP HANA to learn more!!

Over the years the real estate market has witnessed a tremendous change in the way it runs the business. Intense market competition has compelled the real estate firms to rethink traditional strategies and innovate. Therefore, modern realtors are considering various real estate innovations as opportunities to build up their valuation.

One such innovation prevailing in the real estate market today is the concept of an amenity-packed mobile app. Applications connecting tenants with a pool of amenities are the latest makeover tools adopted by realtors. These apps are now the trending treats offered by real estate companies to retain their existing tenants and attract new ones.

Amenity Apps – The Next Big Thing In Real Estate Market

Recent reports have revealed that the vacancy rate of offices in New Jersey and Westchester County, has increased to 20%. Even the overall vacancy rates of Manhattan is above 8.5%, approximately. With such high vacancy rates in the most competitive real estate markets, realtors have realized the need to adopt differentiated strategies to retain tenants. Hence, realtors are now stepping out of their specialty to foster services beyond the boundaries of property business. The most innovative approach through which builders are now keeping their buildings 100% leased is by introducing amenities.

Why Amenity Apps?

In today’s world where competition is at its peak, workers often fail to maintain a work-life balance. While striving to beat the nerve-racking competition of the modern world, employees are missing out on the necessary routines of life. Regular exercises, health checkups, haircuts, laundry or even picking up a meal becomes a hassle when work is tough.

Realizing these challenging situations of today’s workforce, some prominent realtors like Tishman Speyer and Sterling Bay, created amenity apps for their employees in New York. These apps are helping the workers to achieve a balance between personal and professional life. With these apps, property builders are extending their services to bring in amenities to the doorsteps of their customers.

Life hacks provided through prompt mediums like mobile and tablets are making buildings more attractive for tenants to stick on. Extending real estate services to provide better lives for tenants are not only upgrading the value of buildings but are also turning office markets to service businesses.

Related Reading: How Top Real Estate Companies Leverage Technology to Soar New Heights.

How To Woo Tenants With The Perfect Amenity App?

With amenity apps creating a hue in the real estate market, property builders are striving to introduce spellbinding services through innovation. Office landlords and building owners are integrating technology with small-scale businesses to woo their tenants. But to create an impact in the market, it is necessary to load these amenity apps with captivating features. To help realtors deduce the best amenities for their apps, here’s a short list of the popular ones that are boosting the customer retention rates for some leading real estate enterprises. While food services have already become the baseline of several amenity service apps, few other amenity types are also achieving an eminent position.

Health & Fitness

With healthcare activities gaining popularity among the current young workforce, several real estate firms are loading their amenity apps with wellness services. On-suite fitness programs like massages, meditation, yoga, and other healthcare programs are the prominent features of multiple amenity apps. hOm introduced by the Brookfield Property Partners is one such innovative example of technology-packed amenity provider that offers unique fitness events to create healthy communities.

Closer Communities

Leading real estate providers are trying their best to create active and lively communities. Lack of time and rush life often makes it difficult for residents to engage well with their neighborhood.  With a motive to diminish such hostility and create more engaging communities, property builders are now incorporating emerging technologies to implement amenities that bring people together. Services like group discussions, ride sharing, community meetings, travel management, human resource services, etc. are attractive features of amenity apps.

Access to Building Amenities

Gated communities often extend a wide range of amenities for their residents. Generally, these amenities are offered through common communication channels like emails and telephones, which makes it difficult for residents to reach them. Hence, property owners are now featuring portals to bring these building services closer to tenants. Recently Silverstein Properties introduced the Residential Community App which allows tenants to access rent payments, tenant referrals, community and neighborhood maps, shuttle services, discounts, offers and much more through their smartphones and tablets.

Eco-Friendly Environment

With the increased concern of protecting nature, property owners are now focusing on amenities that serve both tenants and nature. The SL Green Realty Corp., initiated a suite called SL Living Green that connects residents with group discussions, educational talks, recycling projects, eco-friendly waste disposal schemes, etc. to enhance their wellness and style of living. These amenity features allow tenants to feel responsible towards nature which attains them a unique experience.

Other Popular Amenities

Few other personal styling and emergency medical care amenities are popularizing among tenants. Medical aids like backup child care, health screening, drug delivery etc are some of the highly accepted medical features of amenity apps. Also, few real estate firms are designing their amenity apps to deliver styling amenities like blowouts and manicures, shoe shining, hair styling etc. to desired locations.

Related Reading: Self Showing App, an IoT application built by Fingent streamlines the complete inspection and leasing procedures of real estate firms. Find more in the case study here.

How Are Real Estate Amenity Apps Winning Hearts In New York?

Isolated lives of metropolitans have marred the quality of life. The struggles to socialize, stay fit and even to groom well, are becoming the increased concern of the modern generation. Hence, the leading real estate firms are empowering their amenity apps with services to sort these hassles of the modern world. One such enterprise is Tishman Speyer, who has integrated technology with small-scale services to create unique experiences for its tenants.

Tishman Speyer, a diversified real estate firm operating properties of worth $89 billion, including the iconic Rockefeller Center in Manhattan, rolled out an app called Zo. The Zo. app is winning hearts in New York, by exclusively connecting its employees to an unparalleled collection of services. They offer exclusive deals which include wellness programs, social and interest group gatherings, backup childcare, on-site health screening, and medical services, dry cleaning pick up and delivery, personal styling, individual meal delivery, catering, and much more. These services are enhancing the living standards of Tishman workers and tenants by creating a hassle-free work environment for them.

Another leading real estate developer in New York, entering the emerging war of landlord amenities is Sterling Bay. They have introduced their own app offering expanded eye-catching amenities for their workers.

Extreme competition in the real estate market is determining the growth of property businesses on the basis of the number of people in it and not by the square footage. More than magnificent buildings, residents are now attracted to communities that deliver unique and lively environment. Tenants prefer buildings that provide amenities through advanced technology channels that enhance the living experience. Incorporating smarter technologies and utilizing real estate software, is emerging to be an essential ingredient in real estate business today.

With emerging technologies transforming communities, the real estate market is witnessing a new era of property services beyond bricks and mortar.

Related Reading: A Property Management Software can be a boon for real estate managers if adopted the right one. Find the secrets of finding the right property management software here.

Read More: Mobile App Development : 4 Tips To Consider

While most sectors have battled their respective digital disruption by enhancing their own digital capabilities, the real estate sector has been considerably slow to react. This is rather astonishing when you look at the size of the real estate business globally where it surpasses all other sectors to form the most valuable commodity valued at over $217 trillion.  In the digital era, no industry is safe from disruptions and this includes the real estate sector as well.

How will custom software transform the real estate business?

With the overwhelming majority of today’s buyers belonging to the millennial group, the sector is witnessing an increased demand for digital innovation. From finance to aesthetics, there is a wide range of applications for technology in the real estate sector and this includes both commercial and residential assets.

What drives the need for digital in the real estate sector?

The three main driving forces behind digital adoption in the real estate sector are

• Buyer Experience
• Transparency
• Compliance

The buyer experience is the ultimate selling point for any property today be it commercial or residential. From the discovery of the property to guaranteed maintenance operations after a sale, today’s buyers need seamless services on all fronts. This could be made possible through a highly connected digital ecosystem that is spread across the entire buyer journey. There is a need for bringing a mature and trustworthy operational model for real estate dealings. Custom digital software can help bridge the gap between realtors, property managers, landlords and tenants in a multitude of ways and bring about transparency and accountability in matters where large financial transactions are involved. Besides the real estate sector draws quite a big eye from the authorities and compliance standards for safety which are amongst the toughest of all sectors. With a digital backbone, it becomes easier for compliance requirements to be validated and audited by government agencies. For buyers, this provides peace of mind and a hassle-free tenure with all risk aspects sorted, at both individual and government level.

What can digital transformation do for the real estate sector?

Now that you are well aware of the need to drive digital innovations, it is time to have a look at ways in which digital transformation can reshape the real estate sector. A gamut of technology innovations exists today that can deep dive into the various nuances in the sector and create lasting experiences for buyers and tenants and transform properties into global commodities. Let us examine the top 5 ways in which the real estate sector can transform with custom software.

Discovery of properties

In the 1980s, close to 22% of home buyers relied on newspaper ads and 8% relied on their friends to discover new properties to buy. In 2017, more than 51% relied on the internet to make a property or a home purchase decision. The internet has become the hotbed for real estate marketing and if you are not out online with full guns blazing, chances are that your listed property or home may not attract any potential interest from the buyers of today. Real estate developers and sellers need to have an attractive website for their property in addition to maintaining a sizable listing on the most popular property portals amongst buyers. Doing your homework on SEO and taking steps to include feedback from powerful search analytical tools provided by search engines like Google themselves, you can improve the online presence of your property considerably.

Related Reading: A Property Management Software can be a boon for real estate managers if adopted the right one. Find the secrets of finding the right property management software here.

Changing the role of real estate agents

Most digital disruptions have focused on massively reshaping the roles of personnel involved and here too, the picture is not different. With the rise of digital portals and custom software, buyers and sellers can connect more directly without losing a hefty price in terms of commissions. But agents are not completely left out as well. They, on the other hand, have a plethora of marketing and customer service tools to offer more privileged and customized services for buyers. The transformation can, however, be a bit painful for real estate agents dealing with residential properties as they can be choked out by a large number of digital listing portals wherein sellers can directly provide information, arrange site visits and even proceed with legal documentation without the agent’s help.

Transforming site visits

By the year 2025, nearly 20 million households in the US would be owned exclusively by folks in the millennial generation. If you expect them to drop by after work or on a Sunday for a property visit, then chances are you will never hear from them after the first inquiry. In the digital age, you can use custom software to schedule and arrange for a suitable site visit time slot that is favorable for both the potential buyer and the agent. It can even facilitate pre-visit conditions such as a deposit, online application, valid document proof, etc. Going a step further, virtual and augmented reality embedded apps can provide a 360-degree walk-through of the property on the buyer’s mobile phone anytime and anywhere. With such digital innovations, the target market would not hesitate in spending an extra premium thanks to the splendid buying experience.

Related Reading: Self Showing App, an IoT application built by Fingent streamlines the complete inspection and leasing procedures of real estate firms. Find more in the case study here.

Setting the terms of leasing or buying

Gone are the days, when you needed hours of documentation to create a transparent lease or buying agreement that aligns with regional laws and complies with all relevant risk management standards. Today custom real estate software can provide digital lease or buying agreements that can be validated by local, regional or national government authorities directly without middlemen leading to significant cost reduction in the entire process. A digital portal could record every transaction from the first site visit pre-requisites to valid document audits, payment information, terms and conditions of the agreement including periodic rental revision agreements, automated payment schedules, etc. Such a massive transformation can bring about significant changes to both residential and commercial real estate properties.

Preventing fraudulent transactions

Having a digital backbone brings with it guaranteed transparency and accountability for every transaction or commitment made between a buyer and a seller. Besides, digital portals having direct validation credentials with government authorities can provide digital verification of documents, identity proofs and other associated legal requirements for every transaction. This can aid in transparent pricing schemes, elimination of bribes and middlemen fees, provide streamlined tax revenue to governments for every deal in the real estate sector thereby eliminating fraudulent transactions.

Related Reading: Read through the case study to know how Fingent developed a customized all-in-one property management solution for one of their leading real estate client here.

Summing up

Though much of the transformation mentioned above is in various initial stages, the real estate sector holds immense potential for future digital innovation. Custom software for the real estate sector can challenge traditional buyer-seller relationships and even wipe out middlemen in the long run as we mentioned in one of the possibilities above. However, staying ahead and relevant at the same time in the digital era is what key players in the sector need to focus their attention on. Write to us to know how our digital transformation specialists can enable the best of real estate innovations for you.  

The real estate industry has traditionally been a technology laggard, with antiquated systems, ad-hoc processes and manual documentation ruling the roost. However, things are changing, with innovation and tech disruption set to change the fundamental paradigms of the real estate sector.

Can real estate technology advances actually predict property prices?

Leveraging Machine Learning Algorithms to Predict Real Estate Property Prices

Smart purchasers and investors look at the value of the property rather than the price. Just as the price of a stock denotes nothing about its inherent value, and one needs to delve into the PE and other ratios to estimate the value of the stock, the price of a property says little about its actual worth, and one has to dig into the underlying data to get to the true worth of a property.

The opacity and lack of access to underlying information surrounding property hitherto inhibited a proper and objective analysis of the true worth of property. Often, the only information available to the stakeholders is the prices at which previous properties of a similar nature, in the same locality were sold. As such, the asking price for properties has always been subjective, depending on what the seller thinks the property is worth, with a loose estimate of the prices other properties have sold in the locality and other subjective insights constituting the basis for asking price.

However, things are changing, and changing fast. Real estate data sets are growing larger and larger with every passing day, every single day, thanks to the ever-improving computing power and cloud storage capabilities.  Smart retailers and other stakeholders have already deployed several new tools and services that leverage such data, and many more tools and services are in the offing.

The National Association of Realtors estimates about 42% of buyers looking at property online as the first step in their home buying process. Most of them now delve into further details, such as the crime rates in the neighborhood, availability of public transit, the profile of local businesses such as gyms, groceries, restaurants, and several other factors.

It gets better. Machine learning now infuses objectivity and transparency in property pricing, besides promising a scientific basis into price fixation of property.

Machine learning models, comprising of hundreds of explanatory variables, offer insights into almost every aspect of a specific property, to a very a high level of accuracy and objectivity. Such models scour through piles of data and are capable of not just identifying an accurate price for the property, but also identifying hidden gems among the swathes of properties available for sale. Buyers and may use such insights to quote a fair and accurate price for the property, Sellers may likewise quote a fair price and sell their property faster, without the risk of under-selling themselves. Banks and financial institutions may use the insights to offer loans based on the predicted future value.

Related Reading: How Top Real Estate Companies Leverage Technology to Soar New Heights.

Identifying Correlated Variables

Home buyers and investors often end up making unscientific comparison among two properties and are often deluded by a lesser price for a property, oblivious to the far inferior value on offer.

While the obvious variables such as the number of bedrooms and square foot area may be obvious and explicit, some variables remain hidden or not too obvious.

Some variables are also closely correlated with others. Some pairs, correlated by nature, such as “Basement finished area” and “Basement unfinished Area,” and other pairs, correlated by deduction, such as “Overall condition” and “Year built” help to identify the true worth of a property relative to the asking price.

Machine learning models not only factor in such variables but also give proper weight to each variable. For instance, two homes may seem similar while considering the obvious variables, but property A may offer far better value owing to the superior quality of plumbing materials used in construction and availability of groundwater compared to property B.

Related Reading: Find how Fingent developed a customized solution to streamline all the processes in a property management life cycle. Check out the case study – Rentmoji: All-In-One Property Management Platform.

Unearthing Seasonal factors

Seasonality has an impact on property prices, but the impact may be subtle or hidden. Crunching historical data makes explicit trends in sales prices associated with seasons. For instance, sales may be more surfing summer months, when the new school year starts, leading to a spike in prices. Such seasonal prices help property investors leverage their buys, property sellers price their property more accurately, or postpone their sell for a few months to get a better price, and more.

Related Infographic: Major Challenges of Big Data in The Real Estate Industry

Identifying the True Value of Extraneous Factors

Buyers always consider the neighborhood of the property, in terms of crime rates, the quality of grocery shops in the vicinity, the proximity of schools, and other factors. However, such analysis is often done ad-hoc, and on a generic basis. The “devil” in the detail may often be overlooked. Machine learning models factor in the extraneous factors at a much deeper level, correlating factors such as frequency of power cuts in the locality, unemployment in the locality, frequency of transportation links, school ratings and more, all of which not only offer an objective and scientific basis on the true worth of the property, but also have an immediate bearing on the property prices.

However, the true value of machine learning is the ability to derive valuable trends and insights from the data. For instance, analysis of police arrests and the chemical compounds in sewers indicate the use of crack cocaine, indicating that gentrification could soon arrive. When the crack is replaced by cocaine, it may indicate that gentrification may already be complete. Such insights may not be available at plain sight and may be impossible to decipher without the analysis of such underlying data.

While real estate technology now makes it easy to predict property prices with a high level of accuracy and objectivity, the challenge is creating the underlying data models in a robust way. The machine learning system is only as good as the algorithm which powers it. Success depends on creating linear models, co-opting all possible categorical variables and historical data associated with each variable.

Related Reading: Read through to find how trending technology is disrupting the real estate industry.

The digital transformation wave that is transforming businesses across the world has had major influences on the way custom software development is treated by technology teams. Today software development is all about improving the experiences at multiple levels for businesses. Experiences include customer experiences from their end customers during a transaction journey and operational experience of staff who utilize technology solutions to drive more customer love. Technology is bound to change and business owners must be willing to meaningfully bring about changes in their custom software development concepts to incorporate the best solutions to run their business smoothly.

Reap your success in the digital age following these 5 custom software development trends

Let’s have a look at the changing trends in custom software development that warrants big attention from businesses across sectors. Following are our picks of the top 5 contenders in technology trends that every team engaged in custom software development must be aware of:

1. The growth of open source technology

A decade ago, you might not have found too many takers for open source technology. But, today only less than 3% of worldwide businesses do not use any form of open source software in their enterprise technology stack. In the initial days, it was largely seen as a playground for beginners in software development to try out building applications for free. Today the world’s biggest technology companies like Google and Facebook utilize open source software to run their most mission-critical systems. They also contribute significantly to the maintenance and growth of developer communities around these open source technologies. Take a look at all the leading application development technology available today like Java, PHP, Angular, React, Hadoop, etc. They are all open source and powers some of the world’s biggest enterprise and consumer-facing digital applications. If your business has frequent technology requirements, then this is a trend in custom software development that definitely needs to be on your top priority.

2. AI-ready software

AI is already a mainstream component of almost every digital platform that people use today. From e-commerce to movie streaming, companies are rolling out machine learning capability to help software learn more about its users and automatically provide them with great experiences. AI-powered chatbots are today serving queries of billions of people online and businesses are investing heavily in making these bots more intelligent by the minute. For software developers, it is essential to know the in and out of writing code that blends well with self-learning algorithms to provide optimal value for businesses utilizing applications that run this code. AI has a key role to play in the future when it comes to interacting with end customers directly. Hence custom software developers need to focus their skills on creating meaningful front-ends that can resonate AI actions, scalable back end engineering that can supplement complex AI algorithms and powerful databases that can deal with the huge volume of data that needs to be handled by AI systems to create meaningful experiences.

Related Reading: Find the top AI trends of 2019.

3. Cloud takes new dimensions

The world’s best run businesses today run their technology core on the cloud. From platforms to infrastructure, cloud computing has transformed the way enterprises use software applications. 73 % of the world’s businesses have at least one application or an infrastructure element on the cloud. From becoming more agile in terms of application engineering to saving fortunes by removing on-premise infrastructure costs, businesses are re-inventing themselves in the digital age. The benefits are endless – scalability on demand, global availability, top gun service providers in every niche, etc. With cloud computing, your technology workforce can be empowered with mobility i.e. the freedom to work wherever they want and with whatever resources they need. This is yet another trend that every business needs to take seriously to improve their ROI on technology investments.

Related Reading: Find how a cloud platform like INFINCE can untangle technology for business.

4. Security to be given a top priority

While the rise of cloud computing and the transition of on-premise software engineering to rich internet applications have created better digital experiences, they have opened new cans of worms for developers to deal with. In the US alone it was reported that there are over 130 large scale targeted breaches of confidential user data residing on enterprise applications of businesses. This figure is growing at an exponential rate of 27% every year as well. Security aspects cannot be overlooked now not even for the smallest of applications. Any vulnerability in your code will turn into a feasting ground for cyber threats in an increasingly internet dominated world. It’s not enough to write a great code but also to practice secure coding standards to enhance safety and ensure customer data is never compromised.

Related Reading: Find which option is a better choice for your business, Custom Software or Off-the-shelf.

5. Customers are the heart of everything

Today it is not just your sales process or your customer relations team that needs to have end-consumer centric thinking on their operations. Even your custom software development team needs to have a work objective centered on a customer-first philosophy. Human behavior of your target digital audience needs to be modeled and referred to while creating applications. This is crucial for recommendation systems, lasting user experiences and above all improve brand loyalty by creating wonderful digital experiences. Feedback systems need to convey responses directly to core technology teams and they need to drill this feedback into the very depths of every implementation and every programming logic they use to achieve business goals.

These are our picks for the top 5 trends in custom software development that businesses of all sizes need to consider today. In an increasingly digital age where customers dictate the fate of every single of your investment, it is imperative for organizations to have a comprehensive look at how these trends can be incorporated into their technology roadmaps. Those failing to do so are in for massive repercussions as it doesn’t take decades for big corporations to fall to their heels for lack of innovation. The examples are right in front of you. Investing in the right technology with the right advisory is crucial for businesses to continuously innovate and stay relevant in changing times.