Category: Business

Mobiles have become all pervasive. Today’s customers and enterprise users alike prefer these devices as the medium of choice. Businesses are increasingly realizing the need to deliver mobile apps and solutions to power their business. However, certain mobile app myths inhibit businesses from leveraging the full potential of mobility to drive growth.

Myth 1: Developing enterprise apps is a long drawn out process

Conventional methods of development are indeed time-consuming. As a rule of thumb, it would take about six months before a new app hits the app store. Multiply the figure by the number of apps required for the business, and an app strategy becomes a non-starter even before it is conceptualized.

However, newer and innovative methods facilitate rapid development and deployment, dispelling the common app development myth of long drawn out process. In fact, using ready-made solutions that require no coding, it is even possible to roll out highly intuitive apps within a few hours or even less! Code-reuse, backend services that speed up integration and other developments also contribute to accelerated development.

The latest cross-platform development approach further reduces development time. Forrester estimates app developers using as much as ten different coding languages, such as JavaScript, HTML5, Objective C, C#, Node.js and more, making the task a complex and resource-intensive one. Newer app platforms, with a “bring your own toolkit” approach allow the use of any coding languages as the developer fancies, reducing the learning curve greatly. Platforms such as Xamarin greatly speed up development by requiring coding of key parts of the application just once and reusing the code across different platforms.

Ready to use cloud-based solutions, for hosting, testing, and other key functions make life still easier for the developer.

Myth 2. Mobile App Development is a One-off Project

One of the biggest app development myth is the development process being a one-off project. Launching an app is akin to starting a business. There is no end in sight, and one can never let their guard down. Just like cutting the ribbon is just the beginning, rolling out the app for users is just the start. Apps need to grow in response to changes in business requirements and changes in technology. If nothing else, the invariable bugs that crop out need to be addressed. A stagnant app will soon become obsolete.

A good approach to adopt is the minimum viable product (MVP) concept, by developing the core functionality, and adopting an iterative product development approach. It offers unbridled flexibility and makes it easier to make changes, as required.

Myth 3: More the function, better the app

A common mobile app myth is considering an app as a miniature version of the enterprise website, and packing in features into it, when the very concept of an app is to offer a specific and focused functionality to a targeted set of users. Apps trying to kill many birds with one stone are almost to a rule slow, difficult to control, bloated, and memory hogs.

High-quality graphics help, but enterprise users seek functionality and ease of getting their job done, over bells and whistles. A clearly defined success, usability (UX), simplicity and above all a clearly defined purpose are the crucial ingredients of success.

A related myth is business apps being data heavy, placing high loads on the device and backend systems. However, the reality is different. An average 4G smartphone is expected to use 5,114 MB per month in cellular data by 2017. The best mobile platforms take large amounts of data from the backend but transmit only a fraction of it to the handset, after filtering it as required. Intuitive developers limit the size of data transfer per app, to say 1 MB or less.

Myth 4: Mobile Applications Come Cheap

For some reason, many people equate mobile solutions with low costs and grossly underestimate the budget for delivering mobility solutions. While simple apps may be developed on the fly with minimal investment, development of highly functional apps requires a lot of effort. A simple UX and powerful features require a complicated backend. As a rule of thumb, more advanced the feature list, higher the cost.

Preparation of the concept, design of the architecture solution, the user interface design and graphics, testing, distribution of the app, user support, and training for end users, all require a sizable investment, more so for using the latest technologies that facilitate accelerated development.

Myth 5: Mobile Applications = Smartphones

Perhaps the biggest myth associated with mobile apps is equating apps with smartphones. While smartphone users are indeed the highest consumers of mobile apps, enterprise apps are equally useful for a host of other devices, including the quintessential tablets, handheld consoles, smart watches, smart glasses, sensor powered things, cars, appliances, and other post-modern devices, suiting a host of business purposes.

In all, mobile apps will be downloaded an estimated more than 248 billion times, and generate a revenue of more than $77 billion, by 2017.

Myth 6: Data Related Myths

Many enterprises, especially those having made large investments in enterprise resource planning (ERP) and other systems are hesitant to develop mobile apps that cannot plug in seamlessly into these existing technologies. Backend systems and APIs such as Sharepoint, MySQL, Oracle, and SAP may not necessarily be accessible through mobile. However, the emergence of enterprise-grade MBaaS (mobile backend as a service) solution with an API infrastructure solves most of these issues and enables mobiles devices to easily access legacy systems.

Myth 7. Mobile App Development Is About Writing Code

Developing a successful mobile app requires much more that coding. Knowledge of Android and iOS technologies is the basic requirement. The comprehensive application design, starting with the initial idea, and covering functionality design, user interface design, graphics requires good expertise, and preferably experience. There is also a need to keep abreast with the latest technology, react to new trends in double-quick time, adapt to latest hardware, and also cater to newer devices such as smart watches.

Each use case varies, resulting in the need for different development languages and toolkits, and requiring connectivity solution for different backend systems and data sources. In the mobile space, support across multiple versions of device operating systems also becomes critical. Cloud-based mobile application platforms make the developer’s life easy, though.

The average development project involves an average of 20 different stakeholders, such as business managers, project managers, developers, in-house IT representatives, employee or end user stakeholders, top management representative, and others. It requires a high level of collaboration to bring these stakeholders together, and ensure the development process takes place seamlessly.
Mobility is much more than developing apps. It requires a wider mobility strategy, and a concentrated effort to deliver cutting edge mobility solution. With our extensive experience cutting over several industries, and a rich talent pool, we are best poised to partner with you in rolling out high-quality mobile apps to further your business, leveraging the full potential of the mobile devices, while at the same time keeping expectations real, separating myth from reality.

The only constant thing in today’s world is change. Enterprise software is likewise going through a major churn, to reflect changes in the wider ecosystem.

Until not too long ago, enterprise software development took a rigid and predictable model of requisitioning-requirements gathering-code writing-testing-delivery. The end product, which often took months or even years to develop, was delivered through desktops and laptops. Many enterprises, risk-averse as they are, stuck on to such time-tested formulas. However, the times they are a-changing and enterprises soon began to find out the hard way that who do not change inevitably find themselves “drenched to the bone,” if they aren’t already.

1. Enterprise Software is Becoming Lean, Mean, and Fast

Competitive pressures force today’s businesses to become lean and mean. The fast-paced business environment also raises the need for speed. Businesses are now hard-pressed to take decisions, to take advantage of an opportunity during the short window while it lasts. Likewise, businesses have no option but to be flexible and agile, to seize opportunities in the way it comes, and to please highly demanding customers.  Unless the enterprise software, on which business processes and workflows run, are itself is not agile and seamless, businesses cannot position itself to be agile.

Today’s enterprise software seeks to leverage the power of simplicity. However, the need to deliver a simple front end, while ensuring the software is power-packed, often results in a complex backend. The wide range of emerging technologies both in the development and delivery process facilitates the reconciliation. A case in point is the emerging Docker technology that enables developers to create code that can run in their own containers, making the apps nimble.

Today’s enterprise software users are also far less tolerant of bugs and inefficiencies in software applications, and expect developers to implement fixes, and roll out updates rapidly.

2. Functional Programming is Gaining Centrestage

The high velocity of change forces IT leaders to innovate. One innovation that has caught on and now become the norm is functional programming. Many enterprises now build several small software components using functional components, and then architecture systems out of many such small software components

With the focus on speed and ease, enterprise apps are now becoming highly focused, including only what is really required, doing away with the frivolous. Instead of a single bloated one-size-fits-all enterprise app or software, enterprises are developing specific apps for specific functions. Tying the different front end apps together is a cloud-based backend and database, to which the apps sync seamlessly.

There is a new approach to the nature and structure of coding enterprise software as well. Developers are also abandoning the lengthy process of collecting specs and rather going ahead with a project through a new Minimum Viable Product (MVP) approach. The MVP may be regarded as a “lite” version of a feature concept, requiring just a fraction of the time that it takes to build the full feature. After releasing the MVP product and gathering feedback, developers upgrade it to a full blown version.

Time tested procedural programming languages such as C and Java still retain their dominance, but new functional programming languages such as Scala, Erlang and Clojure,noted for the power, are fast gaining ground.

3. The Rise of Collaboration

Enterprise software is increasingly becoming business driven by business users, rather than tech-heavy. While hitherto businesses adjusted their processes according to what the tech team dished out, today business managers are key stakeholders in the development process.

A trend fast gaining ground is DevOps, a spin-off from the time-tested agile and lean methods of software delivery. DevOps basically entails bringing together a cross-disciplinary community, who build and evolve highly flexible and resilient systems. The different stakeholders associated with enterprise software, including coders, operations engineers, managers, and others come together and involve in all stages of application development, right from design to testing.

4. Enterprise Software is Becoming Analytic Heavy

Today’s businesses are increasingly becoming data driven, and facilitating the trend is big developments in deep learning and analytical capabilities.

Most enterprise software today come with built-in analytic capabilities that allow users to scour available data and generate customized reports, on-the-fly. Technologies such as Apache Spark enable businesses to develop machine learning capabilities more easily than before.

However, the successful application of analytics to crunch data requires contextual analytics. In other words, enterprise software developers need to ensure the application of analytics to data is based on a deep contextual understanding of what is relevant.  Human judgment may work in some ad-hoc cases, but has its limitations, and in any case, impedes seamless operations. There is no workaround to develop a working contextual awareness model for data analytics.

5. The Cloud, Mobility, and Security

The two big changes in recent times, the cloud and mobility have its impact on enterprise software as well. While some enterprises still run enterprise software applications on in-house servers, more and more enterprises are migrating to the cloud, and opting for the SaaS model. SaaS ensures greater flexibility, anytime, anywhere availability, and lesser total cost of operations (TCO.)  SaaS also facilitates mobility, or delivery of enterprise apps through mobile apps, which is now indispensable considering the prevalence of a highly mobile workforce and the need to remain connected at all times.

However, the cloud, the mobility, and the Bring your own device (BYOD) programs raise the stakes of security. Enterprise software developers are smartly but slowly realizing the need to develop robust code and plug vulnerabilities that prevent debilitating attacks from malicious intruders, both internal and external, out to steal confidential data, intellectual property, and trade secrets.

Enterprise software development is now evolving into a continuous process, a distinct shift from a one-off project approach.  In this constant battle to stay relevant and stay secure, your in-house IT teams, who has more pressing priorities, is sure to be swamped. Partner with us if you want to leverage the skill sets of our highly talented and resourceful team of developers, backed up by our experience in delivering hundreds of powerful and customized enterprise apps.

Enterprise mobility has come a long way in improving organizational efficiency and helping companies empower their workforce digitally. It has been estimated that by 2020 the global revenue generated by enterprise mobility software market would surpass $140 billion annually. With a compound annual growth rate of 15%, it is also expected to be spearheading nearly 15 to 20 percent of annual IT spending by global organizations.  The driving forces behind the growing market for enterprise mobility products are the increased productivity factor for mobile workforce and the availability of low-cost smart devices. 2016 is running to a close and so we decided to have a glance of what’s going to be the state of Enterprise Mobility in 2017.

Let us see the direction in which enterprise mobility will head into in 2017:

Market Focus

As usual, 2017 has a very robust growth outlook in existing markets especially North America, which will be the primary leader globally in terms of enterprise mobility adoption. However there will be a new name on the top of the list for fastest growing markets – Asia Pacific (APAC). With a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 21 percent, APAC markets are expected to be an area of huge focus for enterprise mobility product vendors.

Flexible Device Management

Very recently, Forrester claimed that mobility is of prime importance for 71% of organizations. This means they will promote almost all kinds of mobile devices amongst its workforce. Bring Your Own Device or BYOD as it is affectionately known globally, will create room for newer policies in device management and control. Integrating flexibility into the BYOD ecosystem will be a challenge as good majority of employees would utilize the same device for personal and office use.

Information on the Go

Taking a leaf out of the previous trend, the rapid rise in number of devices will pose another challenge for information access. Enterprise data or information would be scattered across multiple organizational departments, hierarchies, geographical locations, etc. But for the end user or mobile workforce, all they need is information on the go, at their fingertips. Cross channel and intra-organizational data communication policies would face increasing pressure to synchronize information across mediums so that more informed decisions can be taken by end users.

Cloud Synchronization

It is hard to call Cloud a buzzword now not because it is irrelevant but because it is a norm for the entire tech world. From music to high end computing, consumers and enterprises are exploiting the world of cloud computing to manage their data. Enterprise mobility is no exception as cloud computing offers room for workforce to retrieve mission critical data from the cloud on demand rather than having to pre-integrate it with their devices. Application development for enterprise mobility too will face increased smoothness with more and more dev teams focusing on creating simple front end applications for mobile devices, while heavy duty tasks get organized and executed on private cloud infrastructure of the organization.

Security

Perhaps for the last few years, when people speak about trends in tech, especially when it involved data communication across channels, security had been the number one point on the list. Today we pick security to occupy a lower position, not because it has become a guaranteed surety, but because of the huge improvements that have been witnessed in the world of data security. Thanks to cloud computing, it is easier for enterprises to have a focused area to spend on information security. Whether companies opt for established cloud service providers like, Amazon Web Services or Microsoft Azure, or whether they build their own private cloud infrastructure is not a relevant question in today’s cloud security context. Cyber-attacks are increasingly being reported globally and hence it is imperative for organizations to lay strict emphasis on security policies. The most challenging security scenario in the case of enterprise mobility would be the unmonitored usage of device on insecure public networks. Security applications would definitely find huge market scope in the coming years.

Internet of Things (IoT)

IoT today is what cloud computing was 5 years ago – the rising area of focus for businesses. The ability of devices, or more specifically sensors, to communicate user data will be instrumental for future marketing campaigns to attract genuine customers. For enterprises, IoT will enable field service agents to better track their core operational data, which would then be utilized at higher levels to arrive at better decisions. Devices such as smartwatches and other wearable will begin to serve dual purposes such as personal convenience and official data collection mechanisms. The future looks bright for wearable and IoT tech.

Dedicated Mobile App Development Centers of Excellence

This is a culmination of all the above trends. With such a huge emphasis being directed towards enterprise mobility, organizations would require dedicated developer teams to build customizable solutions for enterprise mobility. These developers would be groomed as an agile workforce to support the massive amount of organizational activities being migrated to enterprise apps.

So there you have it folks, 7 trends we feel will shape the future of enterprise mobility in 2017 and beyond. Enterprise mobility is here to stay and is definitely moving in the direction of becoming a hotbed for tech innovations in the near future.

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

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

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

1. Have Clarity of Purpose

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

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

2. Treat Documentation Seriously

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

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

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

3. Value Progress over Perfection

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

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

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

4. Invest in Collaborative Workflows

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

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

5. Automate the Process

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

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

Mobility is the in-thing now. The BYOD wave, coupled with a highly mobile workforce means most employees now access the enterprise network through their mobile devices. However, mobility poses security risks as well. Lurking cyber criminals can easily exploit a vulnerability or security loopholes in a mobile device to gain entry to the network, and wreak havoc. CIOs understand most employees regard mobile devices as the most critical tools for getting work done, but 83% of them are still reluctant to embrace the trend, owing to security concerns.

The following are some enterprise mobile security best practices to prevent such security nightmares from coming to pass.

Get the Approach Right

The basic aim of enterprise mobility security is similar to conventional network security, which is to limit exposure to unwanted or uninvited access, and to implement “in depth defense” to harden the system against attacks. Most security systems have multiple layers of protection in place, so that the system remains safe until help arrives, even if one or the first few layers are breached. However, beyond this basic approach, the needs of enterprise mobility security are markedly different.

Securing mobile devices requires a new approach, radically different from protecting conventional endpoints. Mobile devices are moving targets in use outside the organization’s perimeter, and as such traditional security layers such as the firewalls, spam and content filtering, and many other tools are ineffective.

Mobile operating systems such as Android and iOS are especially susceptible to malware attacks, in the same way Windows and Linux are vulnerable. Anti-malware software, updated on a regular basis, is the basic security tool for mobile devices. Any sound enterprise mobility security policy would recommend a sound anti-malware suite, with policies for keeping it updated.

Likewise, encryption is the name of the game for keeping corporate data and intellectual property safe in the Wild West that is cyberspace. Wireless communication is easy to intercept and snoop, making a strong case for encrypting all sensitive communication going in and out of mobile devices. There is also a good case for using VPNs that include encryption and strong authentication capabilities, to access cloud based systems or other remote services from mobile devices.

Remote wipe and lock, and ability to track the location of the mobile devices are also basic security features for enterprise mobility.

Have Strong Authentication in Place

Mobile devices are especially vulnerable to theft. Eight out of ten CIO’s believe smartphones increase organizational vulnerability through interception of data in transit or through device theft.

Any enterprise security best practice requires strong authentication mechanisms that go beyond conventional passwords.

Built-in biometrics, leveraging the smartphone’s facial recognition capabilities, fingerprint scanners, and voiceprint recognition offer a high level of security. Opt for multi-layered authentication, with add-on device passwords, so that the system does not give automatic access to sensitive information through any endpoint device.

Hypersensitive companies could program to wipe off data from the smartphone automatically, on encountering repeated failed login attempts.

Control Third-party Software

Third party software, which may come with latent vulnerabilities, such as black gateways, built-in back doors and drive-by download of rogue software, are loose ends in enterprise mobile security. In a perfect world, the enterprise could eliminate third-party software in favor on in-house enterprise mobility apps, but such an approach is a non-starter for most enterprises, owing to practical considerations and limitation of resources to develop custom apps. The next best thing for enterprises is to lay down policies that regulate the use of third-party apps. The policy could also white-list safe apps, or black-list apps dangerous for the network.

Many enterprises are now toying with developing their internal app stores that vets apps suitable for download by enterprise users.

Have Effective Control over the Network

There is no shortcut to having an effective control over the network. In the BYOD era, it is essential to have an up-to-date inventory of all devices authorized to access the network, and nip access of unauthorized devices in the bud.

Creating secured mobile gateways also enhances security in a big way. Securing the network is a team effort. The IT manager and the business manager needs to work together to list down the use-cases, systems and applications mobile users really need to access. Mobile traffic could then be directed through special gateways, complete with customized firewalls, content filtering, and other security controls enabled.

Another best practice is to make BYOD users log on to a remote virtual work environment, through VPN. In such sessions, only the screen output from work applications and systems transmits to the mobile device, and the data does not persist once the remote session ends.

It is also a good idea to conduct penetration testing on the network on a periodic basis, to identify and fix any loose ends.

Have Effective Control over the Device

The configuration of mobile devices is just as important as the choice of mobile devices. Best security practices dictate hiding Bluetooth from discovery, or disabling it altogether, and configuring the device to avoid unsecured wireless networks. A management client application, downloaded on the BYOD device, enable users to comply with such regulations.

Mobile hyper-visors and containers, especially useful for BYOD devices, enable enterprise system administrators to manage apps, data, policies and settings within a container on the employee’s personal device without such interventions intruding into personal content.

While there is a strong case for security, going overboard with security can impede usability. The trick is to strike a fine balance between effective security that is non-disruptive, and UX. It requires considerable experience and expertise to strike such a fine balance, and we have such expertise. Get in touch with us today, to leverage our talented team, who have several years of experience in securing even the most complex and diverse of all enterprise mobility networks.

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

The World Will Increasingly Go Mobile

The world is increasingly going mobile. Small businesses have slowly but surely realized the tremendous potential embracing digital technologies can bring to their business, and many of them already have websites, apps, and other digital assets. Already more people access the Internet through their smartphones compared to websites, and 2024 is likely to be the year when the dominance of the mobile will become well-entrenched.

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

 E-commerce Will Get More Innovative

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

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

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

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

Big Data will Enter Small Business Space in a Big Way

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

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

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

The Cloud and IoT will Drive Backend Operations

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

2024 is also the year when the Internet of Things (IoT) will permeate into everyday lives, and change how business is run. Small businesses will be able to leverage IoT to improve connectivity among their workforce. For instance, a smart app that integrates a wearable camera could improve connectivity among geographically dispersed employees, and also improve accountability. Connected devices could report low inventory and reorder automatically, reducing costs.  The possibilities are endless.

New Paradigms will replace the Old in Marketing

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

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

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

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

Mobile payments are of a recent origin but have caught on like wildfire. Mobile-driven commerce now exceeds US$972.25 billion, and mobile payments are expected to touch US$3 trillion by 2021. This figure will equate to about 11% of all consumer card payment  volume, up from the present levels of 6%.

Here are the top trends shaping mobile payments market.

Demographics Shape Mobile Payment Growth

The bulk of the growth in mobile payments market is from the Asia-Pacific region, especially China. Chinese customers now make more payments through mobile devices than through desktops. The high level of smartphone penetration cuts across both urban and rural areas.

The mobile-first mindset is catching up in the US and the UK as well. By 2020, more consumers in these countries will make payments for goods and services over smartphones than through desktops. About 46% of all digital commerce in the US and 38% of all digital commerce in the UK would be through a mobile device by 2020, up from 20% and 12% respectively, in 2015.

It comes as no surprise that cutting across geographies, the up-and-coming generations are in the forefront of adopting new technologies, and embracing mobile wallets in big numbers.

Convenience of On-the-Go Consumption Drives Growth

The chief factor driving the growth of mobile payments market is convenience.

M-payment allows consumers to transfer money for the purchase of goods and services, pay utility bills, collect paychecks, take insurance, make loans, and do much more, all with just their smartphone or tablet. People can either retain some money in their mobile wallet or link their bank account to the mobile wallet.

Furthermore, mobile devices make it very easy for people to conduct online transactions when commuting, or in the middle of doing something else. A consumer, having seen a hoarding when commuting to the office, no longer need to wait to get in front of a computer, but can rather pick up her smartphone and purchase the product immediately. Such a high level of on-the-go consumption is facilitated by the availability of user-friendly apps, which in turn is powered by mass subscriber volumes resulting from high levels of smartphone penetration, and widespread internet connection.

The Rise of Biometrics

Even as mobile payments surge, security remains a prime concern. Considering 70% of online fraud taking place through identity theft, the stakeholders of the mobile payment industry are increasingly looking at biometrics as a means to contain fraud. Biometric authentication involves validating the transaction based on the user’s fingerprints, iris and retina scanning, facial recognition, voice, or any other unique feature. With more and more smartphones now featuring fingerprint scanners, and other biometric enabling options, biometric authentication will become a common feature in the coming years.

The Quandary of Proximity Payments

The bulk of mobile payments today is remote mobile payments. The other side of mobile payments, proximity payments, is yet tot to gain sufficient traction, despite the potential. Gartner estimates money transfer to continue dominating mobile transactions, with an estimated 67% share in 2017, and predicts an overall annual growth of 35% in mobile transaction value, between 2013 and 2017. Nevertheless, with more and more traditional cash-only services, from taxis to hairdressers and from cleaning services to bakeries now able to accept mobile payments, proximity payments is sure to catch up in the near future.

What has restrained proximity payments so far is the big security hole in NFC, the enabling technology, as exposed by Charlie Miller, a smartphone hacker, in a 2012 Black Hat security conference. The rise of Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE), an alternative and more promising technology, coupled with several providers such as AliPay offering hassle-free mobile wallets means proximity payments is on the cusp of being the next big thing in mobile internet.

The Rise of Virtual Currencies

E-money ranging from bitcoins to Facebook Credits, and from egold to merchant loyalty points are becoming more and more popular. Such virtual currencies create a lock or loyalty, as it cannot be transferred outside of the system easily. While mainstream m-payment solutions steer clear of many such payment options owing to its legal gray area, there is increasing interest in the technology that drives such cryptocurrencies.

Supporting virtual currency such as bitcoins is peer-to-peer payment infrastructure, which allows making payments to any payee in the network, without routing it through a central agency or middleman. Such transactions are more robust, and is now very popular in the dark internet, for under-the-hood and illegal transactions. Whether currencies such as bitcoins will become mainstream is to be seen, but infrastructure such as peer to peer networks is sure to be adopted by legit providers as well, displacing existing m-payment systems, owing to its inherent security advantages.

The payment industry is in the midst of a new Gold Rush. In 2010-2011, about 700 companies invested about USD $3.4 billion in innovation related to the payments sector, and many of such investments are bearing fruit now. Gartner estimates global mobile transaction volume and value to average 35% annual growth between 2012 and 2017 and forecast a market worth $721 billion, and more than  450 million users, by 2017.

Despite the current limitations such as lack of a universally enforceable standard, m-payment is on its way to becoming a viable alternative to physical currency. E-tailers and other businesses are certain to lose out if they do not prepare for the mobile payment space. Success depends on setting up a robust and easy infrastructure, and this is best served by partnering with an experienced and resourceful provider, who has both the experience to do a good job, and the ingenuity to leverage the latest advancement and develop cutting-edge solutions. We fit the bill in all counts. Contact us today for all your m-payment requirements.

Prep Up for the New Overtime Regulations! Go Digital!

One of the biggest changes that the business world has seen in the recent years, is the rapid rise in social media usage. It started off as a passing fad among the youth, and then went on to become one of the most powerful medium of communication and marketing, among businesses.

To be specific, there are about 1.55 billion active users on Facebook on a monthly basis, which basically accounts for 1 in 5 people. That explains, why it has so much of an influence, right?

You are probably in terms with this social media surge in business by now. Here let’s talk about another similar big change that is about to happen again in the business scenario- the recently updated overtime regulations.

Overtime Regulations

Just to quickly sum it up, the Department of Labor, recently made a significant change in the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), by which a large number of employees that were classified as exempt, will be facing the changes. This means that a lot of employees who previously did not have to track their work time, will have to from now with >overtime, and will have to punch in and punch out like regular employees, with effect from December 1, 2016.

Much to the surprise of many SMBs, this amendment is indeed going to affect many of their employees, especially those whose salaries come near the margin of $47,476 per annum.

While this may prove to be an expensive regulation to comply with for many organizations, not keeping up to speed on the same is likely to cost a lot more.

According to several estimates, almost 70% of businesses are not compliant with even the existing FLSA, because of which they have had to suffer the most number of lawsuits with regard to wages. This was because a lot of employees had been misclassified as exempt, and had been missing out on overtime.

What you can do to keep up

To save yourself from such trouble, it is crucial for your business to automate your timecards. Before getting on to that thought, here are some tips:

• Make proper note of which of your employees are covered by the new rule. According to the new rule, even those employees who had previously been exempt, and earn less than $47,476 will be covered. You might want to check with your attorney about this.
• You might want to start tracking their work hours, even though the rule doesn’t come into effect until this December, so that you get a base record of their work time.
• You need to get a proper strong automated system in place, instead of those paper-based time cards, as they are no longer effective, slow down the whole process and can get you in line for lawsuits.

A good and accurate, cloud-based automated attendance system is the right way to go.

Since the timesheets and cards can be filled in by employees right from their mobile devices, it gets updated on the supervisor or manager’s system immediately, and hence everyone is in the loop, as to the worker’s timings. There are several other advantages of using a digital system.

Here are some:

Automatic Update on Accounts

As the whole system of attendance gets automated and each of the devices, like the ones with the employees,  the ones with the managers and the centralized office system, are all integrated into a comprehensive mechanism, it becomes easy for all users to monitor the data. The same systems can also be linked to your accounting system, which makes the calculation of wages all the more effective.

Audit Trail

An integrated attendance system helps to maintain a proper audit trail, in case of any issues or complaints related to non-compliance of regulations. At the event of an audit, you will be able to pull up all the information and documentation you need, in a matter of minutes.

Accuracy

As the new regulation involves paying all workers who earn below the new threshold, for any overtime hours worked, you need to have an accurate track of the hours worked by your employees. It is pretty much impossible to achieve a good level of accuracy with paper-based systems. They are prone to human errors and of course, loss of data.

Decision Support

By having access to all accurate information on employee working hours, you get to take better, more informed decisions on their compensation. As the relevant authority on the matter, you can effectively remunerate the deserving employees, based on real-time evidence.

With all the above benefits, you can easily handle the huge change that is just around the corner, and any other changes that may come up, in the face of uncertainty.

According to the Aberdeen Group, companies that shift to an automated attendance system, are likely to witness huge benefits including a 100% increase in human capital ROI. It also led to a 32% decline in unplanned overtime.

December 1st is just a few months away. Now is the time to make the shift to automated time cards and get well acquainted with the new changes. Talk to our software experts to get a better idea of the whole digital attendance system, and get started.

By the late 1980’s the prominent sound of  “ding, ding, zip” of the typewriters that reverbed through the office halls gave way for a softer, mimicked,  mechanical feel of the typewriters. The computer keyboards with time evolved, making it the familiar yet a distinct avatar of the faithful typewriters of the past. What changed was more than just the mechanical clinker in the office halls; they gave rise to a new status quo on how work was performed and what could be achieved by ideally leveraging the computers.

A Digital Revolution

A little bit of reflection on the successful business of our times like Facebook, WhatsApp, Zynga, Twitter, Square, Netflix,  points to the fact that, these companies were either born digital or made efforts to alter their business to becoming digital. The companies that innovated, the ones that laid the old to rest, followed a process of creative destruction. What businesses have to remember is that, most of the times the employees and the customers have got a faster affinity to adapt to changing technology. This adoption would only be followed by an expectation that the business that they interact with, also follows suit. For B2B players it becomes important that they use Mobile, Big Data, IoT, 5G, and augmented reality for revolutionising the customer experience, optimising operational and industrial processes, innovating rapidly, bringing faster cash cycles, driving employee productivity and for improved service enhancements.

Statistics shows that there would be 6.1 billion smartphone users worldwide, 56% of all web traffic is through mobile and the global mobile data traffic is expected to reach 6.2 Exabytes/ month! That’s a lot of numbers indicating the importance of a Mobile strategy.

Digital Business Transformation through Mobility

Mobility is not just about going wireless. It focuses on the business process and the work models that effectively utilise mobile. Internally it is about the business models and processes that can enable marketing, HR and operations to utilise the benefits of going mobile like improved and faster decision making, increased productivity of the employees, faster resolution of internal issues, brand perception enhancements, reduced sales cycle time and increased revenues. But there are concerns of network security, compatibility and security of the devices, corporate and customer data security, regulatory requirements that always make the C-Suite executives think twice before they tread on these unsure waters.

Transforming a business through mobility has to have a well-rounded view of the entire business and a thorough recognition of the priorities of going mobile. It can be as simple as supporting more mobile handheld devices, extending internal systems for mobile access, offering incremental BYOD, providing more mobile support to the customer, implementing corporate mobility policies and so on. With Mobility, work becomes something that people do and not a place they go to, it has the capability to bring transformations with regards to:

Increased Revenue Potential

Mobility is pervasive and the ever trusted smartphone has led the march, becoming the go-to device, people use for work, pleasure or to kill boredom. Living in the comfort of your pockets, the mobile becomes the first medium of choice for one to interact with the outside world. This gives business a chance to connect to the customers at any point of time. Similarly, mobile apps that can help the customer consume products and services would invariably help to increase revenues. Employee empowerment and customer engagement are the two critical interactions for a business to make. Having a solid mobile strategy would help them both to be connected on the move, thus effectively enabling contracts and deals closures on real-time.

Flexibility

The first signs of going digital would be improved employee freedom. An employee would no longer be restricted to the cubicles, instead he/she will get a chance to work on ‘wherever whenever’ style. Through cloud-based applications, the staff would be able to access resources and attend to important work, no matter where they are. Such apps are now even built with offline connectivity that can help the field workers to sync things later into the cloud while effectively helping them perform their work. Reach out is one such app that has been developed with the offline connectivity, for managing work orders and jobs in inspection and audits. This goes a long way into providing flexibility, responsiveness and faster turnaround times, which in the end translate to excellent customer satisfaction. This sets up a win-win for both the customer and the business as it enhances the way you work and the way the business serves the customers need.

Collaboration

Another major contributor to employee productivity is the way mobility enables workplace collaboration, regardless of the physical proximity of individuals and teams. When effective collaboration is required among individuals and teams spread across multiple locations, mobile truly makes the effort more streamlined and natural. Cloud-based enterprise collaboration software can help teams to break down barriers of location and time, bringing the best of talents to work in unison.

Communication

With the flexible and collaborative nature of work, there comes a need of precise and timely communication that can draw the line between being successful or crashing out. It becomes highly essential that the mobile workforce is appraised with relevant metrics that help them to take the right decision and also to update crucial project updates. Aware mobility helps to accelerate performance by having this view of important metrics right on your trusted iOS or Android device. This can help to get on time information that helps you take that important decision when required.

Operational Efficiency and Productivity

Businesses would have to change the way they have conducted themselves over the years. They would need to get re-organised, to accommodate the task oriented usage style of mobile users and deliver them efficiently, without having any security concerns. Real time statistics of location and direction have already helped logistics and field service, to come up with strategic ways in which these could be leveraged. This leveraging should ideally result from a re-envisioned business process. Mobilisation of Salesforce interactions, supply chain management and innovative charging models can be devised by having mobile at the hub of the transformation, for a truly digital organization.

Business leaders, often focusing on the immediate and the more pressing, relegate internal processes to the secondary. As a result, inefficiencies of various hues creep in, over time.

Inefficiencies manifest in many ways. Business processes and systems may be aligned to suit the technology rather than technology being applied to conduct business in the most seamless way. Additional processes may have come up to complete a part of the original process. Often, critical gaps in business processes and data silos make employees struggle to find the right information, or the right tools. The Boston Consulting Group estimates the amount of “procedures, vertical layers, interface structures, coordination bodies, and decision approvals” having increased by anywhere from 50 percent to 350 percent over the last fifteen years, in US and European companies, with managers spending as much as 40% of their time writing reports, and 30% to 60% of their time coordination meetings! The net result is invariably business executives having to work harder than necessary.

One knee-jerk reaction when such inefficiencies become too disruptive to be ignored is automation. However, mere automation of inefficient processes only accentuates waste. While automation is indeed a step in the right direction, businesses need to also make their processes smarter.

Here are a few ways in which business processes can be tweaked to enable working smart instead of working hard.

1. Standardize processes, but one size does not always fit all. What works well in one division may not work well for the company overall. 3M found this out the hard way when they applied Six Sigma not just in accounting, but across-the-board, resulting in stifled innovation in a company where innovation is the key USP.
2. Innovate. A 2011 PwC study reports 80% of CEOs believing innovation to drive efficiencies and providing a competitive advantage.
3. Leverage on-demand and scalable cloud solutions such as PaaS and IaaS to optimize resources, reduce costs, create innovative products and services, and add value to existing business systems.
4. Apply technology to tighten collaboration between stakeholders, including customers. Celina Insurance Group implemented a highly collaborative extranet to bring the company employees, 500+ independent agents and customers closer, and offer easy access to all relevant information, resulted in massive gains.
5. Integrate the supply chain with business processes, across the value-chain, in real time, to connect people with the information they require. Diary major Danone reduced the timeline of its production optimization plans from two days to a mere 15 minutes now, by updating and integrating its production planning and scheduling technology.
6. Leverage analytics to get a 360-degree view, and derive value, from available data. Apply emerging technologies to unlock data and information resident in physical and digital systems, and subject such data to analytics. Ensure such new intelligence is readily available to those in a position to use it, and actionable to make better decisions.
7. Enable a mobile workforce capable of collaborating anytime from anywhere. Today’s executives and customers are always on the move. Mobile apps and workflows save time, improve efficiency, and also unlock new possibilities.

About 70% of CEOs invest in IT to reduce costs and to become more efficient, and 54% of them focus on growth initiatives powered by emerging technologies such as mobility. About 80% of manufacturing businesses expect mobile apps to increase their productivity by at least six percent. Mobile phones powered by cloud-based storage and apps allow employees to save a whopping 57 minutes a day, on average.

Smart employees are already up to the task. They often cobble up their own solutions, taking advantage of the tons of resources available online, when existing business resources do not meet their requirements. About 90% of all employees use cloud-based services, such as Skype and LinkedIn, for their work, and 79% of employees use cloud-based file sharing and collaboration tools, such as Dropbox or Microsoft OneDrive. Needless to say, such improvisations do not do away with all inefficiencies and come with grave security and data privacy risks.

Businesses need to facilitate smart employees by developing custom apps that automate workflows, provide digital forms, and sync offline data. A major stumbling block is the extensive time and resources that development of new custom apps requires. IT departments, already hard-pressed to keep existing systems running, often find the task of designing and updating apps that need to work with multiple platforms and disparate devices, too onerous. The solution is to partner with experienced providers, who not only make available complete and customized solutions, but also chips in with their specialized expertise and experience, to realise smart business processes.

Partnering with us allows you to have the best of both worlds – ability to roll out apps that leverage the latest cutting edge technology to enable smart business processes, without straddling your already overburdened and resource-crunched IT team with more responsibilities.