With data now being a critical source of competitive advantage, enterprises are cutting across size and geographies seeking newer methods to identify and analyze the data they generate. Most enterprise decision makers are now familiar with intuitive graphs, pie-charts, and other forms of visualizations that try to make sense of sales, revenue, and other aspects of company operations. However, the usefulness of such data visualizations depends on the effectiveness of the data, or how the data is used to come up with conclusions. A balanced approach in data visualization and analytics is thus pivotal in formulating an effective data strategy.

Many enterprises confuse data analytics with data visualization. Both allow users to make sense of data and obtain the relevant metrics that helps in better decision making. In today’s age of information overload, where data generated is multiplying every 3 years, interpreting them turns out to be the need of the hour. On the other side, we have these forecasts and projections hinting at an exponential growth in revenue for the big data software market in the coming years. The confusion, however, stems from the fact that both data visualization and analytics represent data in visual interfaces.

While there is considerable overlap between the two, data analytics deals with data at a much deeper level, compared to visualization. An end-to-end business intelligence solution consists not just of the front end dashboard, which transforms data into a visual context, but also tools and algorithms at the backend.

Related Reading: Find out how enterprises are relying on business intelligence platforms to leverage data for driving innovation and growth.

Difference between Data Visualization and Data Analytics

Data visualization represents data in a visual context by making explicit the trends and patterns inherent in the data. Such pattern and trends may not be explicit in text-based data. Most tools allow the application of filters to manipulate the data as per user requirements. The traditional forms of visualization, in the form of charts, tables, line graphs, column charts, and many other forms, have of late been supplanted by highly insightful 3D visualizations.

Data analytics go a step deeper, identifying or discovering the trends and patterns inherent in the data. Data visualizations, while allowing users to make sense of the data, need not give the complete picture. Visualizations are only as effective as the data used to prepare the visualization in the first place. Feeding visualization engine with incomplete data will render half-baked, obsolete, or erroneous visualization.

Moreover, today’s enterprises gather data from multiple sources, and store data in multiple repositories, including many silos. In such a state of affairs, gathering comprehensive data for visualization is a tough ask. While visualization tools mostly deal with raw and unstructured data, end-to-end analytic tools employ data mining algorithms to cleanse the data, evaluates the cleansed data using different evaluation models and software tools, subject it to algorithms, and then decides how to display the results.

Data Integration as the first step of the process

The essential prerequisite of effective analysis is consolidating all data in one central place for effective analytics. While there are analytical engines capable of collecting data from multiple silos, consolidating data in one place enables a “single version of the truth,” preventing duplicating and contradicting data from distorting the visualizations. Until recently, many companies use to aggregate data manually, on an ad-hoc basis, as it was easier this way than invest time and effort in a solution for the same.

However, the sheer increase in the volume of data in recent times makes manual aggregation impossible. A number of software tools and platforms cater to the need, by providing automated solutions. The add-on benefit of such automated solutions is data cleansing, to eliminate misnamed, outdated, and messy data, inevitable in a set-up which involves disparate sources and users.

Data Analysis as the second step of the process

The logical step after aggregating and cleansing data is subjecting the data to analysis or performing calculations on the data. As today’s business environment has grown complex, data analysis also involves complex calculations. The need for speed introduced multi-stage formulas that perform a number of calculations simultaneously. Visualization tools focus on reporting data rather than analyzing it, and as such, most tools are limited, with restrictions in the possible aggregations per formula.

In contrast, truly end-to-end analytical solutions allow users to create complex formulas, working in separate sources. The software undertakes the required pre-calculations automatically, making life easy for the user. Businesses seeking to thrive in today’s fast-paced business environment need analytic tools which update data and facilitate collaboration in real-time. The leading analytics tool in the market today, such as IBM Cognos play into this need, by streamlining available data and leveraging plug-and-play interfaces to derive colorful dashboards.

Companies in the retail sector have already leveraged the power of data analytics to streamline their business processes and thus maximize revenue. Analytics and visualization have aided them discover patterns and actionable insights pertaining to customer behavior helping managers plan and develop initiatives. Find out how retailers are harnessing data analytics to aggregate their customer data for accentuating efficiency and profitability.

Comprehensive business intelligence analytics suites offer predictive modeling and other types of advanced analytics based on complex algorithms compiled using languages such as R and Python. Advanced data visualization, data warehousing and dashboards make up some of the key technologies used by business intelligence platforms currently. The best solutions offer unmatched flexibility to the user, with the ability to combine data any way the user requires or prefers.

Moreover, the latest analytical platforms apply modern tools such as natural language processing (NLP) and chatbots, making it easier for users to perform the required calculation or input their queries with ease. The latest advances, such as location-based intelligence increases the potential of analytics and actionability of the insights in a big way.

Data Analytics or Visualization: Which comes last?

While the most effective visualization is based on the data subject to analytics, visualization need not always be the end of the process or the culmination of the project. Many situations adopt data analytics and visualization in a cyclical spree.  

Consider the case of Zao, who runs a host of machine learning and predictive modeling applications to gauge the success of targeted email campaigns. Data visualization enters early in the process, with the analysts pulling out specific variables into a graph to identify any possible correlation, or to identify metrics such as mean and median averages, data spread and standard deviation metrics, to get a sense of the scope of the data.

Both data visualization and analytics deal with data. Visualization tools generate a beautiful and easy to comprehend report, but only robust backend capability, which handles the messy data and processes the data by applying advanced algorithms, gives an accurate report. Data analytics offers the complete picture, while visualization summarizes the available data in the best possible way. The best solutions co-opt both.

Your data is growing at exponential rates. The insights from data can help the managers and business owners make decisions that can improve turnaround times, efficiency and more.

Related Reading: Get an insight into the hows of using data analytics to scale and grow your business.

Fingent a leading custom software development company, we house a team of skilled business analysts and data visualization experts. With their expertise, we can offer you exceptional data visualization services. Our team can assist you in implementing robust data analytics software that seamlessly integrates data from various sources, providing rich and insightful visual solutions that uncover the true story behind your data. Partner with Fingent today to unlock the power of data visualization and make informed business decisions.

In 2017, technology played a crucial role in disrupting most of the brick & mortar based business models, and the real-estate industry was no different. Meanwhile, the national unemployment rate fell to a 16-year low of 4.3 percent in July 2017, and recruiting and retaining employees became increasingly difficult. In this environment, many companies have started riding the digitalization wave and consider technology to be a growth-driver.

Businesses are leveraging upcoming technology to boost their operational efficiency, staff productivity, stakeholder relationships, and in-turn sales, but they still have miles to go with respect to reaching a point of consolidation. It is, therefore, important to understand some of the major shifts in this space, to stay ahead of the curve.

Chatbots for superior customer service

Chatbots, also known as conversational agents, are essentially digital employees that can not only answer simple customer service questions instantly, but also seamlessly hand a customer over to live staffers when necessary.

According to a study by the Aspect Software Research, 44% of consumers said they would prefer to interact with a chatbot over a human customer service representative. Surprising? Not really. Chatbots can leverage internal and external databases to personalize interactions and provide specific data to each prospect, thereby resulting in higher lead conversions. They are available 24/7 to handle customer queries and can be programmed to push promotions or products depending on customer requirements. Also, by taking on routine, repetitive tasks, chatbots free time for real estate agents and other staff to focus on more complex tasks.

The universality of Mobile

In 2017, NAR reported that 58 percent of buyers found their home on mobile. Mobile usage is expected to continue to rise in 2018 as more and more Millennials and Generation Z buyers enter the market, and therefore it is not enough to have just a mobile-friendly website. The mobile app market is exploding; in 2017, there were 197 billion app downloads, and that number is expected to triple in the next three years. Real-estate agents are investing more in apps while looking to access IDX data from their phones or tablets. Estate agents are also looking to use mobile marketing to build an online presence, connect with local neighborhoods and create communities for a more targeted approach to lead generation.

Virtual walk-throughs to make the difference

AR and VR are two technologies that can take customer experience and involvement to the next level. A recent Goldman Sachs research report predicts that the VR and AR market in real estate will reach at least $80 billion by 2025. Real estate owners and developers can use a combination of AR and VR, known as mixed reality, to enable their clients to remotely view properties around the world. They can create a 360-degree immersive experience for the potential client and offer multiple finished site options. This can also help both agents and customers save time by speeding up the buying process. However, like any new technology, companies need to consider the return on investment from potential investments in these technologies. In addition, companies would benefit from understanding the flexibility and scalability of these technologies at various stages of use.

Can IoT have an impact?

Not only has IoT managed to become the buzzword after the “Cloud”, it has also managed to bring a revolution with Smart Homes that are intuitive and customizable enough to match the taste of the homeowner. Such homes come with everything that is electronic inside your house, connected to the internet and controllable with your handheld mobile devices. The emerging markets are using the potential of Smart Homes to increase comfort and to consolidate data to make homes eco-friendlier. By having IoT enabled homes, real estate companies will get another chance to rewrite how luxury is experienced daily. The sky is the limit for interior experts to make breathtaking functional homes using IoT.

Did anyone say Big Data & Analytics?

Big Data & Predictive Analytics is the key to every future product that a company would roll out because they know what their user specifically likes or dislikes and they have enough data points to ascertain their assumptions as facts. It will play an essential role in helping real estate companies improve deals and investments, mitigate risk, better understand tenants and their needs, and open up new profitable business possibilities. Such data would also help real estate companies target users with new real estate products which can increase sales exponentially. It would help build a loyal customer base as well.

We are still in the nascent stage of Predictive Analytics for real estate, but the opportunities for companies that embrace this technology in the right way is infinite.

Marketing automation and project management tools

According to a study, salespeople spend just one-third of their day actually talking to clients. They spend 21% of their day writing emails, 17% entering data, another 17% prospecting and researching leads, 12% going to internal meetings, and 12% scheduling calls. The automation of various tasks such as scheduling and the use of CRM tools can enable real estate agents to spend more time building relationships and less time on routine administration tasks. Tools like HubSpot and GetResponse can also help companies leverage online leads. The decisive driver for this trend is above all the possible simplification and acceleration of management processes.

Is Blockchain the future?

The Blockchain is basically used to validate all transactions and add the transactions to the stack. (If this sounds too complicated, head over to a Medium post here to read about Blockchain in more depth).

Imagine a user gets to sign all his documents digitally and doesn’t have to keep a physical record! Now, all this is possible using Blockchain, but this technology is in its nascent stage. As more buyers turn to cryptocurrency for their financial transactions, building owners will need to accept cryptocurrency to stay relevant.  There are also emerging services that provides landlords and tenants a way to pay and receive rent in cryptocurrency.

To Sum Up

We discussed many of the technology trends in the real estate industry, but let’s not forget about the flying saucers. Well! Yes, we are talking about drones. Drones are presently being used for security and surveillance purposes, and they are also being used by real estate companies – More and more real estate professionals are turning to drone photography and videos to better market their listings. Drone photography is especially useful for large, unique properties that don’t photograph well from the ground.

We must ensure that we embrace new technology as soon as possible because the time required for a new tech to become a common tool is really short. Therefore real estate companies should quickly leverage that little time to capitalize on their market share perfectly.

The Prelude

Software Development has shaped the economic and social face of the world in the last three decades. What was once considered gibberish and confined to the elite minds that put humans on the Moon and cracked the German Enigma is now a popular profession that has created landmarks like the Silicon Valley and icons like Bill Gates and Steve Jobs. With the spurt in revolutionary product ideas in the late 90s, the need to put those ‘ideas’ into execution demanded the best development-skills, and this ‘demand’ has been only growing with time.

This brings us to an aspect of software development that has always been a vital business decision for companies – the most cost-effective engagement model. Business Software development has moved from being a mandatory in-house requirement by relaxing its rigidness and now accepting offshore and even freelance development. Choosing the right engagement model for software development is therefore essential to create state-of-the-art products without which it is impossible to survive in this cut-throat market.

Here is what we think about choosing the right engagement model:

1) The Package Tour aka the Fixed Price Model

Imagine this: You have decided that you want to visit a popular tourist destination, and it’s just to check an item off your bucket-list. The best bet you probably have is to take up a package that includes every attraction in the city; you may even fix the sightseeing spots which interest you before the tour starts!

This is a great option if you have done some meticulous research on the places you need to visit, the distances between them, the time spent in traveling from one location to another, the opening and closing hours of museums and galleries, and so on. The flip side is that you are in no position to experience flexibility. However, you can be satisfied that everything you’d asked for was provided and that you are not paying anything more or anything less than what you had agreed on initially.

Extend this to the realm of software development engagement; if you know your requirements, and your financial and temporal limits, this ‘Fixed Price’ model is the best choice for you. The Fixed Price model can also serve as a litmus test for hiring freelancers or development partners.

The Pros:

• It’s well-defined and well-negotiated. There’s no room for lapses.
• There is a push to get the complete picture of the software even before the development starts.

The Cons:

• There is no room for flexibility. Your eureka moment of a new feature should wait to materialize.
• Any gaps in communication would mean that the delivered product could be unsatisfactory.

The Fixed Price model works best for developing products on a short-term basis with features that are hot in the market, maybe with some additions and features that give it an extra garnish of appeal!

2) The Chauffeur-Driven Hired Car aka the Time & Material Model:

So, you’ve arrived at your destination, and you are feeling a bit adventurous and you are sure that you do not wish to confine your experience to a ‘package’. So, you decide to hire a car with a driver and pay that person for the time spent and distance covered (the experience and expertise of the driver would be an added variable).

In this manner, you are free to add items to your itinerary, and you are free to remove them at your will. You feel free to stop at any place and enjoy as much as you want, as long as cost and time are not concerns.

This is what the Time and Material model feels like for both companies and freelancers alike. Great products are not built because of a moment of realization, but by systematically accumulating and integrating ideas. For this to happen, flexibility is an essential attribute, which in this fast-paced market, in Sherlock’s words, is Elementary, Dear Watson!

This model also ensures continuous communication and a transparent and healthy vendor relationship.

The Pros:

• Super-Flexible
• You Only Pay For What You Get (If only there was an abbreviation like WYSIWYG!).
• There is a definite possibility for networking, not just on professional, but also on social lines.
• Granular Monitoring on a regular basis, especially in Agile Methods.

The Cons:

• You pay until you get what you want.
• In rare instances, in unethical companies, there could be a deliberate delay in development.

We’re yet to come across a situation or an industry where this might not work; who would not want to get into a development method that is so flexible, accommodative and modular.

3) The Self-Driven Car aka the Dedicated Developer Model:

You arrive at your destination, and instead of trusting a package, or instead of hiring a car by the hour, you decide to take a car all by yourself. It doesn’t matter whether you drive your car for an hour in a day or 23 hours and 59 minutes in a day, it’s all yours. Drive it on the road, and (if the car allows) offroad – there’s no stopping you!

However, this comes with a condition – you will need to know where you’re going, and everything about where you will go, maybe not the route map, but at least the time and distance. All this might sound difficult, but at least, the comfort-point you have is that the car you’ve hired is as good as yours, except that it’s not.

Hiring dedicated developers to work like that – you can take them in-house, and you need to pay them a fixed amount on a monthly basis. Once your product is done, you can, without the guilt of firing or the pain of attrition, ask them to leave. This also means that you have saved up on the recruitment costs, and you don’t have to keep paying for a resource you no longer need.

This model brings the best of both the above models – you have agreed for a fixed payment on a monthly basis (with no hard restrictions on the product-features) and you are free to alter the product or the features, or even shuffle the resources based on their skill-sets!

The Pros:

• You are in complete control. It’s almost like having an in-house team.
• You don’t have to go through the hassles of administration and hiring.
• There is a sense of ‘belonging’ for the dedicated developers in terms of both- the product and the organization.

The Cons:

• It needs management skills and a blue-hat vision of the product to get the best out of a dedicated team.
• If you have both in-house and dedicated developers, there is a chance of conflict.
• Or even worse, there can be possible siphoning of talents!

The Verdict:

You might have already sensed that we’re leaning towards the Time and Material model as it gives significant control, and with strategic planning, it could be cost-efficient as well!

Our recommendation is still strong towards the Fixed Price model for smaller products with limited functionalities, and for short-term projects like developing a module for an already robust tool. Conversely, if your project is long-term and extensive, it makes more sense to hire dedicated developers.

Bill Gates: ‘A.I. can be our friend’ | CNBC
“AI can be our friend,” says Gates, speaking with “Hamilton” composer Lin-Manuel Miranda and his wife, Melinda, at Hunter College in New York City on Tuesday.

5 Things CEOs Should Start (and Stop) Doing in 2018 | Inc.
With the new year comes a new set of business trends leaders need to be monitoring. What will deliver the biggest impact this year?

How Cloud Computing Is Changing Management | HBR
How will management be changed by the most impactful information technology of our time: cloud computing. What does it allow us to do differently, and how will that change the way we do things in the future?

Innovation shapes the future of transportation technologies | Bloomberg
Together with new software and hardware technologies, including machine learning, blockchain, and the Internet-of-Things, today’s emerging mobility innovations and technologies could allow consumers to move more seamlessly between different modes of transport, as well as improve how the system is managed and controlled, with significant benefits to those who live and work in cities.

Google’s Vision for Mainstreaming Machine Learning | The Next Platform
Google has been a vocal proponent of the idea of democratizing AI by making it easier for mainstream businesses to use.

Automation in the retail space improves efficiency, enhances the quality of service, and reduces the cost for all stakeholders. Retailers who realize this fact strive to offer innovative products and solutions, based on automation technology, to differentiate themselves from competitors.

Here are some of the ways in which retailers leverage automated solutions to optimize their operations and cut costs.

Digitalization of Tasks

Digitalization boosts the efficiency of manual and tedious, time-consuming internal tasks. While most progressive retailers have already applied IT applications and solutions in a big way, the emergence of IoT has given rise to newer solutions that take efficiency and quality improvements to a whole new level.

IoT based solutions like leveraging components such as RFID tags, NFC, sensors, and smart devices are primed up to disrupt the retail space in a big way. Retailers apply such solutions in almost all retail functionalities, including product search, checkout, analytics, inventory management, security, PoS, and vending machines.

NFC based payments systems, for instance, facilitate contactless payment systems, speeding up the process considerably, and doing away with queues.

Amazon GO, the checkout free, fully automated grocery store in Seattle offers a prototype of the future store. The store uses cameras and sensors to track what shoppers remove from and place back on the shelves. Amazon bills the customer automatically when they leave the store, using the credit card stored on file. Check out lines, often the major pain point in a retail store, become superfluous.

Starbucks’s “Order & Pay App”, allows customers to pre-order items when on the move. The order is ready when customers enter the store, sparing them the hassles of having to stand in a line. The app, in essence, replaces the POS terminal.

Retailers who invest in such solutions reap huge savings as a result of reduced employee and infrastructure costs. They also gain through increased sales resulting from increased customer satisfaction.

Automation of Key Processes

Automation of critical processes such as inventory control, filling out employee timesheets, invoicing, entering information from various PoS terminals to the accounting platform, financial management, point of sale transactions, etc., can improve efficiency and bring about big cost savings. An integrated point-of-sale system, for instance, spares the need to manually key in transaction information into the card reader or other systems.

Many retailers have identified robots as a key tool to automate their processes. Evidence on hand suggests big efficiency gains and cost savings through the implementation of such innovative automation solutions.

A case in point is Walmart that has patented the use of robots in retail stores. Robots offer an effective and reliable solution to key issues such as insufficient staffing during peak hours, cleaning messy aisles instantly, and identifying theft with precision. Robots are excellent workers, and an HR department’s dream-come-true; they do not need a vacation, never get sick, arrive at work 100% trained, and do not slack. The deployment of such robots has saved millions of dollars for Walmart, in the form of reduced HR costs.

Another success story that retailers can set as a benchmark is that of Amazon’s Kiva robots. Amazon deployed these robots across its warehouses, in 2014, to automate the retrieving and packaging process. Amazon has already saved about $22 million per fulfillment center by deploying these robots, according to Deutsche Bank.

There is the added benefit of automated technologies attracting youth. A recent study by Fisch Restaurant estimates nearly one out of three customers in the 18 to 24 age group prefer ordering from the drive-thru at restaurants because “they don’t feel like dealing with people.” Likewise, McDonald’s automated ordering kiosks are a rage across Europe, relegating manual ordering to the second spot.

Personalize Customer Experiences

A major objective of applying automation technology is to enhance customer experience. Customers are the lifeblood of any business. In today’s age where choice is plenty, customers who feel dissatisfied or have to put up with difficulties to complete the transaction will leave. As such, retailers strive to create high-value, personalized interactions with customers.

The first step towards facilitating the customer is to understand their preferences and requirements. Today’s customers demand highly personalized services. Research by TimeTrade reveals 36% of shoppers do not like to wait for items to ship,  30% of shoppers prefer advice on what products to buy, and 90% of customers will make a purchase when they receive assistance from a knowledgeable store associate.

Retailers may personalize each customer’s experience by harvesting the growing volumes of customer data available across social and other channels.

Retailers could use such data to offer location sensitive offers. In the past, retailers strove to deliver contextual product recommendations. Today, they strive to rationalize the shopping opportunity. 7-Eleven, the global convenience brand targets customers based on location and weather and delivers customized and time-sensitive offers. For instance, if it has started raining in the city or a specific area, the company may offer discounts on umbrellas to customers who are outside their homes, and in the vicinity of the stores.

Lowe is all set to introduce LoweBots – multilingual, autonomous customer assistance robots. The pilot program has been announced in 11 locations across the San Francisco Bay area.

Personalizing customer experience goes far beyond creating brand loyalty and increasing sales. By understanding the customer, the retailer can target and optimize the effort and investment on the customer, without wastage. For instance, if a customer is known to prefer shopping alone without the aid of a salesperson, the retailer can spare the time and cost associated with deploying the salesperson to serve the customer.

Integrate the digital ecosystem with the real-world shop

The most common manifestation of integration of the digital ecosystem with brick and mortar shops are customer apps which aid the shopper as they shop in the physical store. Such apps make shopping easier by listing detailed product features, offering demo videos, and providing customized geolocation-based offers. Such apps also facilitate omnichannel sales. The shopper, may, for instance, opt to shop at the store and get the product delivered through an e-commerce channel.

Retailers need to complement such apps by installing beacons to identify customers who enter the store premises. They could then personalize the experience based on the customer’s preference and demographics. For instance, leading brands such as Sephora and American Eagle identifies each customer to deliver discounts on their birthdays.

Retailers would also do well to take the transaction to the customer without them having to wait in a long, slow-moving checkout queue. Even if red-hot IoT based technologies such as “Amazon’s Go cashless store” is beyond a small retailer’s budget, they can still adopt the Tablet PoS system that allows their staff to check out customers in aisles, doing away with the cumbersome check-out queues. There could also be a facility for online app-based checkout.

Examples of retailers who have applied innovative new automation-based products to enhance customer experience are many. Westfield London, for instance, applied an RFID technology driven smart card system, enabling customers to park their cars without needing a ticket. This is a big improvement over the manual process of refunding parking tickets, sparing the hassle of customers having to present the parking tickets and claim a refund from the store.

Likewise, augmented reality chat bots not just enliven the customer service experience, but also offer greater insights into the customer, reducing the effort and time for the customer service agent.

Audit and Redesign Internal Procedures

A sure shot way to boost internal efficiency and reduce costs is by reducing internal processes by adopting Lean methodologies.

The prerequisite is to conduct a thorough audit to identify supply chain strengths and weaknesses and identify and quantify waste. Retailers can optimize inventory, and pinpoint other areas of improvements.

Constructing an end-to-end lean value stream flow, focused on minimalistic procedures, improves transparency, and makes it easier to review and eliminate avoidable procedures. It creates a standardized workflow with all glitches and kinks ironed out, while co-opting abnormal workflows, catering to all contingencies such as a power failure which results in many POS terminals going down.

Automated retail workflows come integrated with analytics and a CRM suite, creating a highly powerful system, and facilitating further cost-saving methods such as just-in-time inventory, and real-time stocking.

Optimize the Workforce

Automated algorithmic-based labor scheduling tools calculate store workload and optimize staffing, with a high level of accuracy. Custom made algorithms consider factors such as store format, operating hours, backroom configurations, labor regulations, ergonomic considerations, and all other factors, to schedule shifts seamlessly. Such automated systems optimize staff at peak hours and ensure they remain at their productive best. It also reduces absenteeism. The investment is such a solution also delivers a big motivation boost for the workers, reducing turnover rates and decreasing HR costs considerably.

An advanced workforce optimization software, powered by advanced analytics, integrates the customer journey with the employee’s schedule. For instance, if an employee has already struck up a relationship or a rapport with a customer, the employee is assigned to the same customer as far as possible. Such software also ensures high levels of compliance to deliver operational control and business confidence.

Optimize Merchandising

Retailers do not make money by blindly stockpiling inventory. The inventory has to sell. When introducing a new product, smart retailers ask pertinent questions such as “Will the product sell?” “Can the store make money selling the product?”, and so on.

Having introduced a product, a retailer’s prime focus is to optimize the handling of the product inventory; the ordering processes has to be streamlined by identifying the most optimal order-quantity and should be integrated with the sales forecast to eliminate stock-out situations. A good, automated inventory management suite automates all these processes, boosting efficiency and reducing costs.

Automating the merchandising and product exposure process offers retailers the infinite capabilities offered by machines, as opposed to the finite capabilities of a human employee. It also facilitates easy integration of disparate data sources, and comprehensive analytics based on live data. Customers who enter the store are presented with the most optimal inventory, in the best possible way. The analytic engine, could, for instance, draw up the price-point resulting in maximum sales, and tweak the pricing and merchandising strategy accordingly. The net result is the elimination of wasteful trial-and-error methods and saving time. It also ensures the exposure of more products to more people, increasing sales.

Embrace analytics to improve processes

The application of IoT based sensors has taken data analytics to a new level. Retail analytic solutions now aggregate data from video camera feeds, beacons, Wi-Fi, POS systems and other components, and subject such data to big data analytics.

Retailers could gain valuable insights from such analytics. They could measure various elements in the buying process, such as the products each customer inspected in detail, tried, and compared. This information, available in easily digestible reports and graphs, allows retailers to optimize their inventory, eliminating slow-moving inventory. They could also fine-tune prices to boost uptake of inventory. More importantly, such processes become automatic and precise, with a high degree of accuracy, reducing the costly trial-and-error methods usually associated with the processes.

Mindtree’s 2017 study, “Sixth Sense of Retail“, reveals how rapidly evolving digital trends such as social media, mobile applications, and automation reshape the way retailers engage with customers. About 51% of young shoppers (16-24) are comfortable with automated technologies and would visit robot-driven stores, but as high as 78% of older shoppers (55+ years of age) were apprehensive about this trend. Likewise, while 44% of men, cutting across age groups are comfortable with automated technologies, only 30% of women are similarly comfortable. As such, retailers would do well not to blindly embrace automation, just because someone else is also doing it. Rather, they should study their business, understand their customer, and apply automated technologies judiciously.

Why do retailers undertake operational improvement?

Enhancing operational excellence will improve customer satisfaction, reduce compliance cost and optimize procurement. Today, retailers are taking a closer look at different aspects of their operations to improve customer experience. Top-notch retailers implement new technologies and processes on a continual basis to boost operational excellence.

This infographic lists 8 ways to boost operational excellence in retail stores.

Whether you’re a retailer, an online seller, a consumer, or have plans to venture into e-commerce, this must-see infographic is tailored for you. It provides valuable insights into the digital retail landscape. Contact us top custom software development company to access this essential infographic and stay ahead in the online marketplace.

We are living in an era of unprecedented changes.The industrial revolution brought in an entirely different range of new material good which improved people’s lives. Today, we are witnessing the next big revolution which is transforming the lives of millions better known as revolution 4.0 or popularly coined the Internet Revolution.

The e-commerce dilemma

The e-commerce Industry faces a bunch of problems like maintaining customer loyalty, unwanted product returns, price wars & the real competition with brick & mortar based businesses.

Let’s focus on one problem for now & understand how we could solve it properly. Customer loyalty is very core to many businesses, as they believe that their customer is their king. But, customer loyalty between e-retailer and customer is built on various factors like shopping experience on the mobile app/website, prompt delivery of goods and finally the real quality of goods as well.

When it comes to building customer loyalty, e-retailers don’t solve the basic problem i.e on-time customer support. Instead, e-retailers usually try to build customer loyalty by offering hefty discounts, unwanted promotional activities and at times with gamification.

Taking customer support offline

Customer support should be the first priority in any type of e-commerce business because at the end of the day your customers should remain happy. Any business can provide support to its customers based on the infrastructure and resources available. It can be done online & offline depending on the support requests received every day. Offline Support can be done simply by sharing a helpdesk/customer support number with your customers.

Few things to take care while setting up an offline support desk is as follows:-

• 24/7 availability

A 24-hour open hotline is an added advantage as well as a USP for e-commerce business, usually, customers tend to buy things from places which provide round the clock support. The hotline reaffirms the trust and raises the credibility of the customers online.

• Special number

It is very easy for people to remember a special or fancy number.  The key here is to have a number that resonates the brand value of the website as well. Moreover, with a special number, the brand positioning of your website gets a certain level of upliftment.

• Open lines

Generally, customer support centers miserably fail to provide support to everyone who calls in. The call drop rates are very high for support centers which receive a high number of requests. It would be impossible to attend to each and every call so that customers need not wait for a long time and have enough support staff to take support requests.

• Interactive Voice Response System

IVRS is an “easy to implement” the system for businesses who receive more than 150-200 calls/day. IVRS has many options which can be configured manually and the IVRS System can be integrated to the main Support Network of the business to make things easier for the customers as well as the support staff. Care should be taken about how perfectly the IVRS can be integrated into the existing system.

• Customer support script

Customer support script which reflects the values & ethics of the business must be followed by the support staff and customer support managers should ensure that the script is being adapted promptly because they are the voice of the business and whatever they say has a direct impact on the reputation of the business. If the median age of users in your user base is more than the age of 40 years then offline support is the best, because that generation still believes in the power of telephone.

Taking customer support online

Online Support can be provided using many platforms which is readily available in the market. Conventionally, online support is done using support tickets & Live Chat, essentially a helpdesk software where support agents resolve or escalate the support request from the customers ensuring that every customer is given equal priority. Innovation in this space is always a plus provided it increases customer loyalty, retention and most importantly brings in value.

Few things to take care when providing Live Chat or Ticket Based Support is as follows:-

• Proactive & quick response

Customer support executives must be trained to provide support proactively & ensure that the customer doesn’t have to wait for a long time to get the response.

• Think of the customers as brand ambassadors

The sole reason a customer leaves a place of business is based on the way they are treated hence always think of customers as your brand ambassador.

• Controlling the nerves

There would be moments when the customer might be on a rage and is berserk with different kind of provocative words. Responding to the customer with a cool head and best way out is to think ahead and provide a solution for the customer rather than respond aggressively to the moment. Always be prepared for such scenarios.

• Staff training

Training the staff to use the helpdesk software is an added advantage it would reduce the fatigue in the initial days of support

• Self-service

Maintaining resources online like a knowledge base, FAQ, forums, tutorials which to close to users and in doubt-generating places.

• Measure, monitor and improve

It is often forgotten that support efficiency can be measured. Keeping KPIs and finding ways to constantly improve them would certainly add tremendous value to your business as well as the Happiness Index of the customers. Come what may, the ultimate goal of the customer executive should be to provide 100% customer satisfaction.Taking support online or offline completely depends on the nature of business & the value addition you wish to give your customers. And,  it is important to keep a check on the additional expenditure incurred to keep the support infrastructure in place.

The era of chatbots is here

Powered by cutting-edge Artificial Intelligence & Machine Learning Algorithms presently there are many chatbot services available in the market which can be easily used by any e-retailers to give an immersive & intuitive support mechanism for the customers in almost any messaging platform.

Chatbots are a simple to setup and can be integrated into any website, with many services online chatbots are presently being used by many small-scale e-retailers to run their support system. The advantages of having chatbots are the control you get over the scripts and the knowledge base the chatbot has access to. Moreover, compared to real human, the cost required to maintain a chatbot support system is very less. Chatbot certainly is a lucrative option for entrepreneurs who wish to cut cost on the operational side but customer support without a human touch has its own limitations as well.

Major Takeaways from Having a Support System in Place:-

• Retains customers

When your customers are happy, he would come with repeat orders often. The relationship you build with the customer would have a lifelong impact on the success of your business

• Creates word of mouth

A good customer service certainly generates excellent word of mouth and there is nothing better than word of mouth to promote & market your business. If we look at the success of many e-commerce websites, we would find that word of mouth has played an exceptional part.

• Profitability

When the service is good, word of mouth and references are also good. It is very certain that your business would acquire more customers at a fraction of a cost you were supposed to. The returns you earn would be certainly much more than the returns you get by using the conventional form of marketing to promote your business.

• Motivation for you and your employees

When a customer praises your business, it also boosts your employee morale. Naturally, over a period of time, your confidence rises on your business and you now know that giving good customer service is the key to build confidence in your employees, who will be empowered enough to keep their customers happy.

• Competitive Advantage

Last but not the least, your customer service and the manpower that you employ for service can become your competitive advantage. If your employees themselves are building relationships with customers, then they will not allow a competitor to enter or place toehold. Hence, your business becomes sustainable and competitive and difficult to beat.

Thus, as you can figure it out yourself now, an extraordinary support system is key to the success of your business and it not only impacts your customers it keeps your employees also on the run to grab a pie in the market. Grow your retail firm multifold by seeking our expert advice. The sooner you build a competitive advantage, the better it is for you and your business.

Making a detailed business plan is a tedious process that takes a long amount of time and doesn’t exhibit dynamic properties. Apart from the hassles of writing a traditional business plan, there is no guarantee that someone will read it properly. Also, due to the ever-changing market, chances are that the plan is outdated by the time it has been finished. To resolve this issue and help kick-start businesses in very little time, Lean Business planning is the right way to go.

What is Lean Business Planning?

As the name suggests, the Lean Business Planning is one of the latest and effective methods that replace lengthy business plans with a 20-minute planning process. It basically takes the essence of major points in a business plan and focuses on the smaller steps to review results and create incremental results. Such a dynamic planning that is simpler and faster helps in starting and growing successful businesses quickly and at the same time reduce the risk of failure.

How does it work?

Lean Business Planning is a method that uses smaller steps with consistent course tracking and corrections. It wastes very little time by streamlining the essential points required for the business to function or start smoothly. The plan will include answering the following questions –

1. What does your Business intend to do?

This is highly important as it forms the key value proposition to your customers. Your identity for the business is the beginning of any lean plan and should be described in a single sentence. It is pretty much identical to answering a personal ‘What do you do?’ question.

2. What are the problems you are solving?

Every business’ intention should be to solve a problem that a customer faces. This should be the space where you define the problem that you have surveyed and plan to provide a solution to.

3. What is the solution?

Here you have to define the product or service that you will provide in a single line. Basically, it should end up being a solution to the above problem question. The answer should be crisp and clear without adding too much meat in the description.

4. What is the market you have identified?

Here you will have to put a few pointers that will describe your ideal customers. This is an important part that shows how much potential you have to build a sustainable business plan. It requires In-depth market research that helps in putting forth your point in a strong way.

5. What is the competition in this segment and how are you different?

This section should be used to put forth the competition you have identified in this segment. Also, phrase down a sentence or two describing how your business will be better or different than them to achieve market dominance.

After you have dived into answering these questions, you will have to strategize a way to start testing these plans. Float these plans across and go to the market to see the response. A good thing about a lean plan is that it doesn’t take a lot of time to read and get feedback. Once you have a list of issues identified, you can start to revise the plan. Remember, Lean Business Planning is a continuous process where you keep revising and testing the plan over and over till you achieve the most efficient of result suitable for your business.

If you still have doubts, a good way to make a plan is to check few online template or better to seek help from professionals who are highly trained in making foolproof plans and suggest the right path to help start or grow your business.

The open source revolution is on. More and more enterprises are joining the open source bandwagon, to develop their internal and customer-facing apps. Free availability of source code, unbridled flexibility, gross reduction of app development time, resilience, and several other advantages prompt the move. But with great advantages come great risks as well.

The very nature of open source leaves the enterprise app development team with little control over the source and nature of their code. The odds are high that open source code may come with vulnerabilities, open for hackers to exploit.

Technological advances cut both ways. While technology may be used to beef up security, it also enables hackers to update their toolkits, and add any newly discovered vulnerability to their automated scanners. The odds of any application using flawed code being quickly found and exploited are generally high, more so when the open source library in question is a popular one. To make things worse, such hacker toolkits are freely available now.

So how do enterprise counter the hacker menace and ensure they can still reap the benefits of open source?

Be Very Careful of Downloads

With dozens of different open source libraries, tools, frameworks, and code snippets freely available over the Internet, there is a very good chance the variant chosen by the enterprise may have vulnerabilities. Even the hugely popular Ruby on Rails web application framework, with a very wide user community known for prompt updates, has been inflicted with several security vulnerabilities, placing 200,000-plus sites at risk of attacks that could lead to remote code execution.

Opt only for versions of open source libraries maintained by established consortium, dedicated to the cause of enhancing and maintaining the software. Such consortium would have a stake in the code. They would almost certainly be supported by grants from generous sponsors, enabling them to issue prompt patch updates, when a vulnerability is discovered.

Enterprises, for their part, need a clear policy on the usage of open source, loaded with:

1. A white-list of trusted websites, from where the source libraries may be downloaded. The most reliable options are the websites recommended by Open Source Initiative.

2. A list of security do-and-don’t, to prevent system admins and other users from downloading spurious open source software from dubious sources. Have a well-documented security policy, with clear guidelines on installation and maintenance of open source.

Prefer source code to binaries wherever possible. Most open source products are available either as source code or in package formats or binaries. Binaries offer a far greater level of risk, as there is no telling whether it has complied with the associated source code after all. The best practice is to download the source code directly, verify it against the provided MD5 checksums for integrity, and analyze the code for any latent vulnerabilities, before using it to develop apps.

Establish a System

A commercial closed sourced suite is developed through a structured and formal procedure, such as conducting a requirement analysis, defining the acceptance criteria, evaluating the product, comparing the product with competitive options, testing the functionality and security features, and more. Open source code may not necessarily undergo such kind of scrupulous evaluation or validation. There is no short cut but for the app development team to establish a method in the madness themselves.

Have a process in place to ensure adequate control, and to update all third-party code promptly.

Analyze the environment to identify possible threats. For instance, using popular open source libraries makes it that much convenient for attackers to identify vulnerabilities and launch attacks. However, at times, the biggest threat may not even be external, but malicious insiders. Understand the various ways in which the system could be attacked, and protect data accordingly.

Also, have a policy in place to govern code sources. Some teams may find they need to reduce the number of different code sources they use in order to manage them effectively. Within the framework of such policy and analysis:

1. Create and maintain an up-to-date list of all third-party code in use, including all dependencies and sources. Designate a point person for each such code, to track mailing lists, news and updates.

2. Avoid ad-hoc installations. Evaluate any open source considered for an enterprise use, and gather accurate information about the product.

3. Institute an emergency response plan to execute critical releases. Internet facing apps often require a swift response to prevent attackers from exploiting a newly discovered vulnerability.

4. Institute a dedicated team of system, network and security administrators to implement the policy and also review the policy from time to time, depending on the changes in business environment.

Apply Security Tools

Policies and safeguards can only safeguard to an extent, and require reinforcement through effective security tools.

Many open source projects do not issue patches, and rather just release a new version that fixes the problem.

The following are some of the tools worth considering:

Source code scanners such as FlawFinder and RATS (Rough Auditing Tool for Security) identify potential security problems in the source code. These source code scanners undertake pattern matching to highlight the areas of the code that has potential vulnerability and pose security risks such as buffer overflows, racing conditions, shell meta character dangers and poor random number acquisition.

• Vulnerability scanners such as SARA (Security Audit Research Assistant) and Nessus scan the network for vulnerabilities.
• Adopt a defense-in-Depth strategy, or a layered approach to securing the network, deploying the most effective security tool at all levels, from, application to the network.
• Configure the network properly. Disable all unwanted services, adopting the policy of “deny by default unless explicitly permitted.”
• Assume the network will be breached, and have effective measures in place to contain the menace, such as encryption of sensitive data.

The stakes of security breaches are high. The penalties, damaging lawsuits, and erosion of customer confidence can bring down the enterprise in itself. The most effective and risk-free approach towards adopting open-source is to partner with an experienced partner, like us. With us, you can leverage our considerable experience in not just developing cutting edge solutions using the most relevant open-source tools, but also take the most effective measures to ensure top-grade security.