How Logistics Companies Can Gain Competitive Advantage with Customized Software Solutions?

Fluctuating consumer demands, increasing client requirements, and complex business models are posing critical challenges for logistics companies today. According to predictions made earlier this year, two major drawbacks are to be witnessed in the industry.

With drastic changes hovering over the logistics industry, the players are bound to stay equipped with the emerging technology trends, or they might get caught off guard. While its turning imperative for logistics companies to transform with smarter technologies, the question of whether to choose a custom software or an off-the-shelf package still lingers in many minds.

Why Choosing Customized Solutions Over Packaged Software Considered Profitable In Logistics? 

Purchasing an off-the-shelf software would sound comparatively simple, stress-free and time-effective. But in the long run, it’s always a custom-built solution that pays off.

Most packaged logistics software, although sophisticated and deployed of disruptive technologies, pose standard solutions for the industry as a whole. Of course, they solve the major supply chain hassles. But with every business, possessing unique procedures, workflows, and objectives, “not everyone fits the same mold”.

So what happens when you choose a packaged software solution for your logistics business?

1. A packaged software often comes with hordes of features. This sure sounds exciting at the beginning. But when you have to pay for more than you use, it sure isn’t a happy moment! Off-the-shelf software solutions are often crafted considering the large players of the industry. Their features focus on resolving the common challenges faced by these companies.

However, in a complex industry like logistics, it’s not always necessary for every company to face the same kind of issue. Hence, with packaged software being available as a whole for a single price, businesses usually end up wasting money on features they do not need. 

2. Off-the-shelf logistics software utilizes the latest and advanced technologies to cater to the complexities of an industry. But however, at times these sophisticated technologies complexes situations even further. For companies with basic knowledge on latest technologies, would definitely find it difficult to carry out operations successfully with a sophisticated system.

Moreover, they would have to spend extra time and money on training staff, which is not reasonable in a highly competitive industry like logistics. As mentioned before, with plenty of features, packaged solutions often prove to be less user-friendly and more complicated. 

3. Although packaged solutions solve a list of logistics hurdles, their features might not provide a complete automated solution. You might find a good Transportation Management System (TMS) that enables real-time tracking and automated reporting, but you might still have to communicate with your customers, and assigned drivers manually.

Also, an efficient packaged TMS system might have an integrated warehousing management system, but might not facilitate an appropriate billing system, leaving the need to adopt alternate transaction processing systems. Hence, in a nutshell, complete automation is often unattainable with packaged software solutions.

4. The most eminent reason to not opt for a packaged solution is that they are rigid. There is hardly any packaged software company that allows customization. It’s not only rare to find a packaged software that caters to all your business-specific needs, but it also proves to be non-scalable in the long run.

Growth in your business and changes in the market will bring about an increase in your technology requirements. This will result in the need for a solution that can be customized with your growing business necessities.  

Customized logistics software eliminates all the above-mentioned drawbacks of a packaged solution. Plus, it always comes with continuous technical assistance to simplify the technology transition in your company.

Let’s take a quick look at how a customized Transportation Management System can help you battle logistics challenges better.

Digital Transformation of a Logistics and Supply Chain Company – A Client Success Story

How A Customized TMS Can Enhance Your Supply Chain Efficiency?

Investing in a customized TMS can enable you to create an Uber-like platform for your logistics business. Integrating the latest in web and mobile application solutions, you can create a platform that completely streamlines your driver, client, and cash-flow management.

Enabling centralized data management, transparent billing, delivery match capabilities, along with real-time monitoring and customer insights capturing; a customized software solution can be framed to automate your entire end-to-end logistics operations. 

A custom-built mobile application can further enhance productivity with less paperwork, better transparency, easy communication, and improved customer engagement. Implementing a customized solution would also let you add in innovative features that help you automate critical tasks, improve team collaboration, and increase your overall company efficiencies.

Here is a shortlist of benefits that you can acquire with customized logistic software.

1. A customized software solution gives the advantage of integrating with smarter technologies to simplify the minute challenges faced by the industry. For instance, along with assigning and managing truck drivers, a logistics company also faces difficulties in maintaining and verifying driver documents. Integrating with smart apps like Camscanner can simplify these documentation verification complexities.

2. A logistics company with varying client needs might often find difficulties in choosing apt carriers for a given order. A customized solution gives you the benefit to add in features that simplifies such decision making by suggesting the best available carriers for the orders.

3. Although packaged solutions streamline drivers assignment and management, yet they blackout on some eminent functions that logistics companies struggle to maintain. For example, calculating the detention hours/rates of the drivers are likely the most critical task of a logistics company. Through a customized logistics software you can straighten such bends of the industry.

4. With customized logistics software, a logistic company can embrace a completely streamlined and user-friendly accounting system that generates automated invoices as well as tracks any misleads or accounting errors.

Customized logistics software can simplify your logistics operations more than you can imagine. If you are looking for a tech partner to help you add in these features and more to your logistics software, then you have landed on the right page.

Fingent is one of the leading custom software companies providing advanced and user-friendly web and mobile technology solutions for logistics businesses worldwide. Contact us today to know how our custom software solutions can enhance your business abilities.

What Is Robotic Process Automation?

Robotic Process Automation is the process of applying automation to perform tedious business tasks of the workforce, such as data manipulation, response triggering, transaction processing, and other redundant tasks. According to a recent study by Snaplogic, 90% of the workforce are burdened with redundant tasks. This not only reduces their productivity but also consumes significant amounts of time with which they could perform higher-value tasks.

The Role Of RPA: Features That Enhance Business Process

Once your enterprise has decided to implement RPA, it is time for you to choose the right robotic process automation solution. 

Traditional RPA software bots are known to handle only a specific task at a given time. When it comes to addressing high volumes, there is a necessity to clone these bots and run them simultaneously. RPA providers usually charge users for each concurrent process. This can become a costly affair for enterprises, especially during volume spikes. Thus, undue extra costs are a key factor to consider while choosing an RPA solution for your business. 

RPA works as a virtual assistant and can handle complex processes starting from performing complicated calculations, data capturing to maintaining records. 

In addition to prioritized work queues, user-friendly features, data analytics, and non-disruptive nature, the following are crucial features that enhance business processes:

• Non-disruptive nature:  An enterprise can easily implement RPA into their workflows without having to disrupt or change the existing structure or risks.
• Data analytics: Gathering critical data from multiple sources, analyzing and storing the data, and creating reports have brought digital transformation to businesses with RPA. This enables accurate forecasts of sales data along with other Key Performance Indicators (KPIs). 
• Prioritization of Internal Work Queues: Every RPA software consists of internal work queues. These work queues are used to extract data derived from various transactions for analysis. The extracted data is then stored on a cloud server and made available for access by the bots.
• User-friendliness: Employees can operate on the robots without any extra RPA knowledge. They only need to learn how the systems work. 
• Scalability: With RPA, it is possible to upscale and downscale various robotic operations. 

Related Reading: Learn more about how Robotic Process Automation is revolutionizing industries.

Types Of Robotic Process Automation Tools

RPA enhances robotic performance in different ways. The three major categories include Working Robots that are commonly used for Data Collection and Project Planning. Monitoring Robots detect faults and breakdowns, whereas Screen Scraping Robots provide data migration tasks for enterprises.

Robotic Process Automation tools come in varying sizes and shapes. Analyzing your business objectives is the most critical factor before deciding to choose a specific RPA tool for your business. A few of the major RPA tools are as follows:

• Attended Or Robotic Desktop Automation Tools

This type of automation always starts with the user via the user’s desktop. The user first launches the RPA code to perform required operations rather than waiting for the workforce to perform. 

• Unattended Automation Tools

This type of automation completes business processes in the background and is used mainly to perform back-end tasks.

• Hybrid Automation Tools

This type of automation combines both attended and unattended automation tools to perform start to end operations.

Related Reading: You might like to read more about ways to empower RPA for enhanced business growth.

How To Choose The Right RPA For Your Business

A clear set of objectives form the primary goal before opting a specific RPA tool for your business. The following are the key factors you need to consider before selecting an RPA tool for your business:

1. Easy-to-use Interface

Simple user experience is a major criterion for choosing the right RPA tool for your business processes. A simple user interface will ensure all employees work efficiently. 

2. Proper Deployment

An RPA tool that can be quickly deployed with the existing technology stack is what is required. 

3. Cost

Replacing tedious tasks performed by the human workforce is largely replaced by the bots. This process of automation saves costs. Employees can focus on their core tasks and spend time and effort on their skills rather than performing redundant and tedious tasks with the help of RPA tools. Purchasing an RPA software tool involves associated costs, such as cost of individual licenses, cost of the software, and other overheads.

4. Scalability

Implementing an effective RPA tool enhances the business processes and leads to the growth of the enterprise. This growth is accompanied by hiring more resources. Thus an RPA tool can enhance the scalability of a business in the long run.

5. Security

Data analytics, compliance, and financial transactions require a highly secure environment. A great RPA software tool ensures a secure solution for all business processes and updates as well.

6. Architecture

The architecture of the RPA depends on where you plan on employing your RPA tool. The deployment and maintenance of an RPA tool depend on factors such as layered design, component reusability, robust delivery, popular language support system, easy accessibility, and so on.

7. Features

Choosing an RPA suite that consists of solid inbuilt features is critical. Flexibility, scope, availability of wizards and GUIs, other extendable commands and supports are some of the features to consider. 

8. Exception Handling Support

A robust RPA solution can detect errors during automation and automatically resolve without human assistance. In other cases where human intervention is required, an effective RPA tool must be able to send error messages.

9. Extended Support

Different vendors offer different support. A dedicated support team is necessary to ensure strong maintenance and support. 

To make the best decision on choosing the right RPA solution for your business and access the full potential of RPA tools, get in touch with our experts today!

How Artificial Intelligence Is Simplifying Business Decision Making?

Technology in 2019 is moving with the speed of light. Immense breakthroughs in the field of deep learning and machine learning have allowed machines to process and analyze information in ways that we could never have imagined. 

The role of Artificial Intelligence (AI) is noteworthy in this regard. One definition of AI is that it is “a collective term for computer systems that can sense their environment, think, learn, and take action in response to what they are sensing and their objectives.” This makes it a powerful tool, which when used the right way can radicalize decision making and completely changes the way we do business. This article discusses how AI achieves that. 

AI – A Boon to Business

AI includes the automation of cognitive and physical tasks. It helps people perform tasks faster and better and make better decisions. It enables the automation of decision making without human intervention. AI can enhance automation thus reducing intensive human labor and tedious tasks. There are many more ways in which AI is making a difference. With smart weather forecasting, for example, AI is bridging the gap between data scientists and climate scientists. This gives companies the opportunity to fight disaster with algorithms. 

The world is about to witness a great impact of AI on the economy and humans. According to McKinsey Global Institute’s research, AI could deliver an additional output of $13 trillion to the world economy by 2030, which would boost global GDP by nearly 1.2 percent a year. Acting as a capital-hybrid, AI can aid the growth of both the economy and humans. It will definitely have a revolutionary impact on the decision-making process. 

Top Artificial Intelligence Trends to Watch Out for In 2024

AI the Game Changer

From tarot cards to time machines and more, the quest of man to know the future has been relentless. The ability to make decisions based on a knowledge of the outcome is no more fantasy, however. AI has brought this to the realm of reality and has revolutionized business decision making.  

In the recent past, we have embraced analytics-driven decision making. Along with ever-increasing data storage and computing power, AI has the potential to augment human intelligence and enable smarter decision-making. AI could eliminate the huge costs of a wrong decision because it can practically eliminate human biases and errors. This could in turn speed up the decision-making process. The focus of the next few points is to highlight the ways in which AI can make a difference in business.

1. Marketing Decision-Making

In today’s customer-driven market complexities involved in decision making is increasing every day. This includes understanding customer needs and desires and aligning products to those needs and desires. A handle on changing customer behavior is vital to make the best marketing decisions. 

AI simulation and modeling techniques provide reliable insight into the consumers’ persona. This will help predict consumers’ behavior. Through real-time data gathering, trend analysis and forecasting, an AI system can help businesses make insightful marketing decisions.

2. CRM

Organizations can identify a consumer’s lifetime value with the help of AI’s buyer persona modeling. It can help organizations manage multiple inputs. During a complex decision-making process, AI can efficiently manage and control different factors at the same point in time. It can source and process large amounts of data within minutes while providing valuable business-based insights. While we humans face decision fatigue, algorithms do not have such limitations, which make AI-based decisions faster and better.

3. Recommender System

Recommender system (engine) is a technology that recommends products or other items to users. Although recommendation systems were initially used for music content sites, now it’s used has expanded to various industries. In this, an AI system learns a consumer’s preference based on ‘explicit’ or ‘implicit’ feedbacks. This information can help the organization reduce bounce rate and craft better customer-specific targeted content. 

4. Problem Solving 

An expert system is a kind of problem-solving software which tries to replicate the knowledge and reasoning methods of the experts. This system uses expert thinking processes to provide data, which includes assessment and recommendations for your problem. This makes it easier to make the right decision and respond swiftly when faced with issues and problems.

5. Opinion Mining

AI has been able to provide reliable insight to decision-makers. For example, in marketing, AI has provided businesses invaluable insight about consumers, which helps them enhance their communication with the consumers. It also helps retailers predict product demand and respond to it quickly. 

To that end, opinion mining helps businesses understand why people feel the way they feel. Most often a single customer’s concerns might be common among others. When sufficient opinions are gathered and analyzed correctly, the information gleaned will help organizations gauge and predict the concerns of the silent majority.  AI has improved this mining process through automation, which is quicker and more reliable, helping organizations in making critical business decisions. 

6. Augmented Analytics

According to a recent press release by Gartner, Augmented Analytics is going to be the next big trend which will transform the way analytics content is advanced, expended and shared. VP analyst at Gartner, Rita Sallam said, “The story of data and analytics keeps evolving, from supporting internal decision making to continuous intelligence, information products and appointing chief data officers.”

Wise business decisions are made when business executives and decision-makers have reliable data and recommendations. AI not only improves the performance of both the individual members of the team but also the competitive edge of the business.

Make Bigger, Faster, Better decisions with AI

Common sense and experience are no longer enough to anticipate the risks and consequences of critical business choices. AI with its varied applications helps businesses make informed and effective decisions which will have a positive impact on their business. 

Implementing AI in your business isn’t as tall an order as you may imagine. It can be incorporated with your existing business applications to enhance them and make them invaluable. To explore how your business can leverage the full potential of AI, contact our team of experts at Fingent, a leading custom software development company, today!

Related Reading: You might also like to take a look at this guide to help you enhance your existing business app with AI.

Five Ways AI Is Accelerating Mobile App Technology

Artificial Intelligence (AI) has permeated the tech world. It is enhancing everything from your car to your toothbrush.  It is influencing the decisions that affect your life. Artificial Intelligence is the term used to define a machine’s ability to simulate human intelligence. Actions which were once considered unique to humans are now being stimulated by technology and used in every industry. This includes mobile app technology. 

Mobile phones have been using AI for some time now. The earlier generation of phones was cloud-based and Internet-dependent. The difference today is that the latest smartphones integrate cloud-based AI along with built-in AI. The rate at which AI is expanding is accelerating. 

Let us now discuss how AI is enhancing mobile app technology.

Related Reading: Take a look at the top AI trends of 2019.

AI is the Catalyst in Mobile Apps

As per a study by McKinsey Global Institute, AI expansion brought in an investment of $39 billion back in 2016 which was three times the amount invested in AI three years prior to that. Acting as a catalyst, AI is continuing to enhance mobile apps. It empowers the evolution of mobile apps by making them intelligent pieces of software that can predict user behavior and make decisions. AI allows mobile apps to learn from data generated by the user.

Mobile developers are adapting quickly to changing innovations. There are over 5 million apps in the leading app stores, which stands to show how AI is creating personalized app experiences for users and is adapting to various situations due to automated learning capabilities. Here are five specific real-life benefits of AI on mobile apps. 

1. The Wrapping of Artificial Intelligence with the Internet of Things (IoT)

The combination of AI and IoT is powerful in creating a personalized experience for users. A large amount of varied data is collected from the customer in real-time as he uses the device. Each usage has commands or interactions that are being used with mobile apps. AI can then leverage this real-time data to deliver an enhanced personalized experience.

IoT reduces app development time significantly. In mobile app development, IoT along with Artificial Intelligence can lead to better utilization of resources and higher efficiency. Together they free up a good part of employee bandwidth. It delivers modified and more efficient apps and strengthens data security measures, which is vital because the future of mobile apps will always be revolving around connected devices.

2. Enhances Search Engines

Text and voice have been the traditional search modes. But say, you saw something you would love to buy, but you don’t know what it is called or how to find it. Visual search helps you find what you want even when you don’t know the words to describe it. The smartphone is the best launchpad for visual search technology. An example of this is Google Lens. 

In some cases, visual search is more accurate and faster than a voice or a text search. Due to integrated AI in mobile applications, android developers are bound to develop an image recognition system and a voice recognition system. To increase conversion rates AI will provide localization of applications.

Related Reading: Learn more on how to build an intelligent app ecosystem with AI.

3. Empowers Real-Time Translation

There are so many translation apps which enable translation. However, most of these apps do not work without the internet. AI could enable your smartphone to translate different languages in real-time without the need for an internet connection.

Much like a digital version of what interpreters do, Artificial Intelligence can provide a simultaneous translation tool which allows sentences to be translated almost instantly without a time lag. AI allows the translation tool to be adjusted for latency. This would mean that a user can set the lag between a spoken word and its translation. This would be especially useful for certain languages which would require a longer time lag for better translation. Example: Baidu.

4. Improved Security with Face Unlock 

Face Unlock was launched in September 2017 by Apple. Combined with Apple’s elaborate hardware, Apple iPhone X uses an AI-based algorithm for its face unlocking system. Using AI processing, the phone can easily identify the user’s face even with facial changes like specs or beard.

Recently, Google announced radar-based, hands-free gestures to face unlock. With its hands-free system, unlocking the phone would be easier, faster and secure. It claims that it can unlock the phone almost in any orientation.

5. Enhanced Mobile App Authentication

As AI is becoming easily available as a commercial technology, both criminals and organizations are taking full advantage of it. There are predictions by cyber-security experts that the world might witness many AI-powered cyber-attacks in the future. This necessitates the development of more sophisticated cyber defense systems. Also, with the increasing use of smartphones, we all need an advanced level of data security. Security has been one of the biggest concerns for Android developers. 

Thanks to enhanced artificial intelligence with machine learning and deep learning algorithms we can look forward to a time when authentication becomes a smooth experience, which allows users to enjoy security without trading convenience. AI can be enabled to give alerts to users about possible threats. AI can also add a level of augmentation to biometric authentication which makes it almost hack-proof. Another benefit of AI algorithms is that they can find and alert potentially compromised accounts in real-time.

A Guide for AI-Enhancing Your Existing Business Application

AI With You Now and Into the Future

AI presents numerous possibilities for innovation in the mobile app industry. AI is the future of mobile app development. Artificial Intelligence is changing how users interact with app services and products. Mobile app users will be linked to an ecosystem of intelligent applications and will work together to deliver a personalized user experience. 

Businesses developing AI-enhanced mobile apps will benefit from the predictive analysis these apps can create. According to a study conducted by Callsign, the user preference for authentication is shifting. Such changing preferences would mandate further enhancements in the development of mobile apps.

An intelligent ecosystem will gather a large pool of social data and behavioral interest, which can be used to further increase revenue and improve user experience. It is not an exaggeration to say that the smartphone industry is being revolutionized by AI. This makes it important to enable AI in your business and mobile applications. Give us a call to discuss how this can be done.

Robotic Process Automation Reflecting The Banking, Insurance & Logistics Industries

Robotic Process Automation is the fastest-growing segment of the global software market. Using this technology, companies can fast-track their digital transformation initiatives. Although RPA is useful in all industries, the biggest adopters of this technology are banks, insurance companies, and logistics. These companies traditionally have numerous legacy systems and choose RPA solutions to enhance or replace manual IT processes. This article discusses how Robotic Process Automation is revolutionizing the banking, insurance, and logistics industries. First, let’s consider what is Robotic Process Automation.

What is Robotic Process Automation?

Robots have fascinated humans for a very long time. From the futuristic robot Maria from the movie Metropolis in 1927 to this day of AI sci-fi, the possibility with robots is a topic of endless discussion. Interestingly, though, this word “robot” in Robotic Process Automation (RPA) does not involve a physical or mechanical robot. Instead, it is a software running on a virtual or physical machine. Aaron Bultman, director of Product at Nintex simplified the expression saying, “RPA is a form of business process automation that allows anyone to define a set of instructions for a robot or ‘bot’ to perform.” 

How to accelerate your business growth with Robotic Process Automation

According to Gartner, RPA grew by 63% in 2018 and continues to be one of the fast-growing technologies in many industries! RPA lets companies automate current tasks as if a real person was doing them across systems and applications. It interacts with each system just as a human user would interact. This does not require complex system integration. These functional RPAs are virtual workers and execute rule-based information processes, enhancing efficiency and accuracy. Additionally, it is easy to model and deploy. Let us consider the three specific industries where RPA is most beneficial.

RPA in Banking

The banking industry is completely process-oriented. Every activity is done meticulously to avoid errors in processing. The repetitive nature of the job and the high probability of human error could cause mistakes that might prove very costly. Therefore, in the recent past, leading banking institutions have started using RPA to minimize errors. According to a report by KPMG, RPA will perform almost 75% of the existing offshore jobs, which could save operational cost. 

Scalable Benefits of RPA in the Banking Industry

• Mortgage Lending. RPA can enable the banking industry to meet loan quality and cost concerns head-on. Automation of repetitive and time-consuming manual tasks will free up your team to focus on the more important details of loan applications. It speeds up the work, increases revenue. enhances customer experience, reduces operational costs, decreases risk and improves compliance. 

• Compliance and Risk Management. It enables the banking industry to automatically integrate and aggregate compliance information into business processes, streamlining the required work while reducing expenses. RPA eliminates the need for manual regulatory monitoring and data collection. It can empower risk management and compliance teams. It enables banking industries to avoid costly fines and damages to reputation. It provides accurate and complete information.

• Customer Service and Support. RPA ensures the longevity and loyalty of your customer relationship and the future of your bank. It helps you engage customers in real-time. It automates customer service activities so the customer is not waiting endlessly. It increases the productivity and efficiency of the team.  

Related Reading: Check out these 5 simple hacks on using banking mobile apps safely. 

RPA in Insurance

An insurance company receives hundreds of claim requests. Validating each request and handling them is not only a herculean task but also a painstakingly slow manual process. The entire process of the claim takes several days. Because this is a costly and time-consuming process, the company risks losing customers. To prevent further damages, insurance companies are now relying on RPA to help them improve operational excellence and reduce costs.

Scalable Benefits of RPA in the Insurance Industry

• Improves customer service because RPA effectively reduces the turnaround time in resolving customer issues.
• Processes and workflows could be tracked and recorded at each phase. This reduces staff workloads and improves process efficiency.
• Reduces the processing time by 40-80%.  This frees up the team to focus on more important activities such as acquiring new clients.
• Reduces errors made during data entry significantly.
• Speeds up and organizes the processing of claims through a systematic underwriting process.
• Based on the demand, intelligent bots can scale up or down, which delivers consistency in service and operational efficiencies.
• Improves audibility and operational risk management due to the accuracy level of RPA.
• The time for the cancellation process could be reduced by one-third.

Related Reading: Here’s how machine learning is accelerating paperless offices for legal firms. 

RPA in Logistics

The logistics industry depends on several processes to facilitate the proper distribution of products, materials, and services from B2B or B2C. The need for an intelligent logistics system increases as the industry along with competition advances every day. Here’s how the RPA can contribute to the logistics industry:

Scalable Benefits of RPA in Logistics.

• Better data management and customer service.  Negative experiences and a multitude of errors with logistics providers are causing customers to lose their trust in online shopping. With the benefits of automation and digitalization brought about by RPA, logistics providers no-longer need to rely on huge amounts of paperwork, which was the underlying cause for errors and poor customer service. Logistics companies are enabled to manage real-time monitoring of flow and resources, availability, costs, staffing, transportation, suppliers and so on more efficiently. 
• Improved work safety for employees. Through the use of automated machines in unsafe environments and the reduction of repetitive stress in manual tasks, work injury has been dropping steadily with the aid of RPA. This results in savings in terms of injury compensation and loss in reputation. It can also increase productivity, improve employee satisfaction and loyalty, and increase their efficiency.
• Improved efficiency and precision. RPA can help logistics companies easily manage the supply chain processes more efficiently. The anticipatory logistics system helps companies gauge the demand from their customers and adjust their production volume accordingly. It can help in managing and analyzing huge amounts of data within seconds, resulting in fewer human errors, faster deliveries, and fewer errors in delivery.
• Cost reduction. Fewer errors from human decision-making result in cost savings for logistics companies. Also, RPA reduces the need for human workers, which results in fewer paychecks and more profits. Where workers are still needed, it can raise their productivity, margins to a whole new level. It improves customer satisfaction and creates a safer work environment for the workers.

Related Reading: Know more about how AI is reshaping the supply chain and logistics industry.

Empower Your Business With RPA 

According to Global Market Insights Inc., the RPA market is expected to reach $5 billion by 2024. It is increasing capabilities and improving performance while reducing costs in several industries. Fingent Technologies has been one of the top software companies empowering industries globally with robotic process automation capabilities. Give us a call and let us discuss how we can transform your business with RPA.

Is Applicant Tracking System The Future Of Hiring Process?

 “Hiring the right employee has always been the key element for a successful organization. When you choose the best, you automatically get the best results!” _ Deepu Prakash, Senior Vice President, Process and Technology, Fingent

While candidates come aplenty, finding the right talent from the pool has always been an enormous challenge for recruiters and staffing agencies. Thankfully, technologies like AI-powered Applicant Tracking Systems are changing that in a big way.

An Applicant Tracking System (ATS) is a software that automates the recruitment process. It electronically filters, organizes and streamlines job applications according to job postings. ATS simplifies the complex process of recruitment by providing a centralized platform to view applicants. AI-powered Applicant Tracking Systems enable filtering applications based on set criteria and helps recruiters a big way, in tracking the advancement of applicants through the hiring process. In this article, we will consider how ATS can prove beneficial to recruiters and staffing agencies in particular.

How Does ATS Transform Hiring Norms?

ATS collects and maintains a database of candidate resumes and applications within itself. ATS tools help in hiring managers and corporate recruiters track and filter resumes in the hiring funnel. The major difference between traditional hiring and hiring with the help of ATS can be compared to the difference between fishing with a hook and fishing with a net. The benefit of the latter is a much bigger catch! ATS allows recruiters to track hundreds of applicants more efficiently rather than handle each applicant manually.

 Companies that outsource talent can benefit greatly from ATS. Since they are not limited by geography, they can cast their net globally. It is not uncommon for a company to receive thousands of applications for a remote job they have posted. With ATS, they can filter out the right candidates for the job and save time and cost. 

How HR and IT Combine to Deliver Real Value to the Enterprise

 How Does ATS Empower Corporate HR?

ATS empowers the recruitment process in the following ways: 

• ATS enables recruiters to post jobs online, receive and sort applications, screen out unsuitable candidates, process applications, communicate with candidates quickly, organize interviews and even handle the hiring process online.
• The AI integration enables ATS to identify patterns and segregate resumes/candidate profiles according to various departments and customized fields.
• One of the most important benefits is that it saves time. It is estimated that resume screening and candidate shortlisting can take 23 hours and making a hire could take four months. ATS can make this task easier, faster and automated, thus reducing the cost-per-hire and the time-to-hire.
• ATS allows corporate recruiters to be proactive and create jobs on platforms, which can be published on social media networks as well as targeted job boards. 
• ATS assists corporate recruiters to screen candidates, to ensure they progress through the workflow process and store all the documentation in one place. It helps them to monitor applications at each stage and identify any issues early on thus reducing the time-to-hire period.
• Another important recruiting goal and challenge are accessing the right candidate skills. ATS includes features for customizable interview scorecards and questions. It allows recruiters to customize them based on the most important characteristics. This makes candidate evaluation easier and efficient.
• With AI-enabled ATS, recruiters can also set match levels for various job roles under different departments.
• An ATS with good reporting functionality will be able to help corporate recruiters measure the effectiveness of marketing. A good reporting engine will help recruiters, quickly pull out reports which show things like diversity statistics and the source of the application.
• Online job boards make it quick and convenient for candidates to apply for open positions resulting in a load of unrelated applications. An ATS is capable of quickly weeding out those unqualified candidates even before humans open a resume.

Related Reading: Check out how Odoo can help meet HR requirements.

How Does ATS Empower Staffing Agencies?

 More than 98% of Fortune 500 companies are using ATS. This is a clear indication that ATS is an indispensable software for staffing agencies. Here are a few reasons why:

• An ATS helps staffing agencies grow their business. The bigger the staffing agency, the more complex their database. Communication, tracking candidates, and other recruiter activities can become difficult to manage. AI-enabled ATS identify patterns and sorts resumes according to job profiles helping recruiters choose the best candidates among the large pool.
• ATS empowers staffing agencies to source candidates more efficiently. The existing candidate pool within an ATS is often a very good resource for finding quality candidates. 
• A good ATS has an open ecosystem where you can match solutions to needs effectively. This allows users to customize ATS to meet a client’s specific needs by adding partner extensions, integrating third-party vendors, and building new applications on the platform. 
• ATS improves the candidate experience. According to key findings in a Global Recruitment Insights and Data study, respondents said that “candidates will matter most in 2019, with sourcing (61 percent) and candidate engagement (36 percent) leading the pack.”  ATS along with its integrations can help in this regard by simplifying and enhancing every step of the candidate experience.  
• It helps agencies keep their clients happy by improving client management. ATS can log all of your conversations with a client automatically. 
• ATS helps staffing professionals to be more productive because it allows team members to work from anywhere and still collaborate effectively. 
• The conventional recruiting process causes a lot of friction between hiring managers, the HR department, and others involved in the process. An effective AI-powered ATS will help smooth things out and reduce disagreements, thus making it easier for all involved to work together. 
• A shorter time to hire always works better for the organization. Not only does it save resources, but it also ensures that suitable, qualified candidates are selected and hired quickly before the competition has a chance to snatch them away.

Power Charge Your Hiring Process with ATS

As discussed, a good ATS will illuminate and guide all aspects of the recruitment process. It will help corporate recruiters and staffing agencies better understand their candidate pool and make quicker and more effective hiring decisions. It is reported that 86% of staffing professionals were able to hire faster with the help of ATS. Understanding and using the candidate database to improve hiring performance helps the business act more quickly. Quicker onboarding process results in increased productivity, which translates to more profitability.

Fingent top custom software development company, will understand the need to keep pace with the requirements of today’s market. Bringing together smart AI and recruitment practices, we create purpose-built software to help you reach your ideal candidates faster. So let’s get you started with an Application Tracking System that will transform your business and beat the competition.

Watch more about Applicant Tracking System.

Chatbot or Chatbaby: Why Chatbot Technology Needs Time To Mature?

Automation is at its height in this digital era and artificial intelligence is the core technology behind successful industries today. A chatbot is a computer program that interacts with human users via the Internet. These auto-operating conversational bots, artificially replicate the patterns of human interaction. This is made possible via Machine Learning algorithms.

Amazon’s Alexa and Apple’s Siri are well-known examples of chatbots. They respond to queries based on the data they are provided with.  Since a chatbot is programmed to perform tasks independently, it can respond to queries based on predefined scripts and machine learning applications as well. 

Enterprises that have enhanced IT infrastructure, implement chatbots in varying departments. For instance, ERP, on-premises to cloud, etc., improve customer experiences and increase business value. 

Chatbots As Conversational Tools In The Workplace

The potential benefits that chatbots provide to companies are immense. On one hand, when chatbots provide personalized and efficient search results, on the other hand, companies find cost savings a prominent feature on implementing chatbots. 

Enterprises enhance their workflows and operations increasingly with the help of chatbots as co-workers. This helps companies in serving a larger market segment. Chatbots automate redundant tasks that sap the productivity and efficiency of the workforce and enable them to focus on their core functions. Chatbot technology enhances customer experience by providing them with personalized content. 

Chatbots: Influence In Industries Today

• Enhances Customer Service 

According to a recent survey, 83% of customers need online assistance to complete their shopping. Customers will need online real-time assistance from a real store. The assistance required by customers include areas like during registration, logging in, adding products into the cart, payment, checkout, etc. This is where chatbots serve as a salesperson by interactively communicating with customers via text, voice and so on and provide them with rich content. 

Additionally, chatbots provide automated answers to redundant queries of customers. It also forwards the queries to real sales personnel when the need arises. This saves the time of human customer service resources, avoiding the need for customers to wait for responses. This scales up operations of enterprises to new markets globally as well. 

Customer service that chatbots offer is proactive. This means that chatbots facilitate a 24/7 service for interacting with its customers real-time. Initiating communication with the customer periodically, is another benefit of the prevailing chatbot technology, thus enhancing your brand perception considerably.

• Monitors Data To Provide Critical Insights

An enterprise benefits from gaining traction of customers on its website’s landing page. But it is equally important to ensure that the landing page also generates enough organic traffic. Chatbots reaches out to the customers who visit the landing page and gathers critical data as to why the customer left the page without a purchase and so on. 

Online customer behavior and buying patterns are tracked effectively via monitoring the data thus derived. 

• Generate Leads Effectively

Chatbots ensure a better lead generation by helping in determining leads via KPIs such as timeline, budget, etc. Chatbots thus ensure higher conversion rates.

• Saves Costs 

Implementation of a fully functioning chatbot is much faster than hiring individual employees for each task. With great speed, chatbots also ensure error-free operations. It is also easy to implement and maintain. This reduces costs and other overheads significantly. 

Related Reading:  Read on to reveal the top Chatbot Security measures you need to consider.

Chatbots In Its Chatbaby Phase: Conversational Limitations In Current Chatbots

Chatbots have evolved into a phase where it can integrate Natural Language Processing or NLP technology to support the workforce in performing extensive searches. That being said, chatbots currently face a limitation. AI-based chatbots, for instance, are restricted to duplicate results. For example, a flaw in a chatbot can result in the chatbot responding to a high engagement level content such as an office party album instead of retrieving business-related documents. 

Related Reading:  Can ChatBots redefine your real estate business? Read on to know more!

Why Do Chatbots Need To Mature?

Though chatbots support customer services, they lack a human element in them. A full-fledged implementation of a matured chatbot requires addressing numerous technological gaps. Only then the services of these chatbots can be extended from a chatbaby level, offering just employee assistance to a serious enterprise level. 

Even when chatbots interact in an automated manner, they sometimes cannot answer even simple queries. For instance, chatbots lack becoming conversational in a detail-oriented manner. Thus, it is necessary to learn the complex machine learning technology and its bottlenecks initially before you proceed to implement it in your business.  

Around-the-clock support is what customers look forward to while they search via queries online. This 24/7 ability to converse with the customers real-time is what is yet to be achieved. 

In 2019, chatbots are still in their chatbaby phase and need to mature. 75% of global consumers prefer human interaction rather than a chatbot or any other automated service at the time being. 

The data required to establish a fully conversational chatbot is immensely huge. This explains the need for a much higher understanding of machine learning and challenges around natural language processing technique implementation. 

Can There Be An Alternative To Chatbots?

Chatbots can handle simple tasks to help the human workforce. But when it comes to complicated tasks, assistants that can proactively work to streamline interactions with customers, are required. For this, employees must be able to access from a centralized location.

Employee Intranets, for instance, are hubs that allow organizations to access data in real-time and whenever required. This not only allows them to store data in an easily accessible manner, but also help in connecting with resources and tools at a fast pace. This now becomes a perfect collaboration system. 

https://www.fingent.com/insights/portfolio/using-chatbots-to-create-an-enhanced-and-engaging-learning-experience/

As more and more employees become tech-savvy and with the growing requirement of companies to expand their mobile technologies and strategies, connecting remotely is a necessity. With the growing remote working, it is important to implement social media features into various communication channels as well. This enables a human element to be present and can act as an alternative to chatbots.

2019 can be seen as a year to understand machine learning technology and to develop the digital workplace. With evolving technology, it is also important that an organization ensures a perfect environment where resources and tools support these digital assistants and help in making critical data simple and accessible. Call our strategists right away to learn more about how chatbots can improve your business effectively and productively.

Top Five Barriers To Growth and Adoption Of Virtual Customers

“There is only one boss. The customer. And he can fire everybody in the company from the chairman on down, simply by spending his money somewhere else.”

Wise words from Sam Walton, the founder of Walmart. Yes, customers can either make or break an organization. The key then is to know how to treat them the way they want to be treated. In this blog, we will discuss a particular segment of these customers – virtual customers. We will also consider some of the challenges for growth and adoption of these customers.

The Customer Is The Only Boss

Every day, we see significant developments in technology. The rate at which consumers and companies are adopting such technology is astonishing. For example, the adoption rate for computer technology grew from 0% to 50% in just a five year period, and the use of tablets grew from 3% in 2010 to 64% in 2017. 

Customers create customers, and so will virtual customers. Virtual customers will be able to communicate with each other and encourage knowledge creation and knowledge sharing, thus aiding the growth of the business. In this regard, innovation and new ideas are rising at an exponential rate. Here is where dealing with virtual customers become extremely important.  Many large firms have integrated virtual customer assistants (VCA) or chatbots as part of their strategy.

Emphasizing the support operations, which integrate VCA, the managing vice-president at Gartner, Gene Alvarez says: “As more customers engage with digital channels, VCAs are being implemented for handling customer requests on websites, mobile apps, consumer messaging apps and social networks.”  He adds that “this is underpinned by improvements in natural-language processing, machine learning, and intent-matching capabilities.”

According to Gartner research, companies report a reduction of up to 70% in calls, emails and/or chat inquiries after implementing a VCA. They also reported greater customer satisfaction and a 33% savings per voice engagement. Yet, we may have to wait for several years before we can create autonomous virtual customers that can function without human intervention. Meanwhile, certain hurdles need to be acknowledged and overcome by live customer support and services. Consider a few of them.

Related Reading: Check out how AI is redefining the future of customer experience.

Barrier 1: Brand Strategy

Without the benefit of face-to-face interaction, businesses will need to work out how to maintain their relationship with the customer. A business might design a VCA and forget it. Instead, they should continue to check if their design is functioning as they would like it to function.

Brands should continue to collect data from their customers and ensure that they treat them not just as a number. In this regard, algorithms play a major role. Engaging aspects of humanism provide the best virtual customer support.

Barrier 2: Capability and Capacity

One of the advantages of having a virtual customer is the ability to record and process data quicker and more efficiently than humans. For it to be fully automated there are two things to consider. The first is the capacity to understand a customer’s preference and the second is the capability to influence the actions of the customer. Both of these are equally important to balance business transactions.

In machine-to-machine communication, compatibility issues may run the risk of slowing down the pace of acceptance and deployment with virtual customers. Employing VCAs that can learn from each interaction, detecting preferences, and making recommendations based on past requests is the solution to this challenge. 

Related Reading: Read more on how Machine Learning is boosting customer experiences. 

Barrier 3: Legal Impact

Legal liability can become a major issue if the virtual customer assistant goes ‘rogue,’ and offers wrong information or misguides a customer. Internal policies will have to be put in place and disclaimers should be considered for failed transactions and adjudications which could follow. 

Barrier 4: Data Privacy 

According to Gartner, 80% of all internally developed software are now cloud-native or cloud-enabled. In the course of interaction with the virtual customer, VCA may be exposed to and may collect a vast amount of personal data and other commercial information. Therefore, it is very important to be careful about security and privacy. Companies should ensure that their data controller registrations and privacy policies are up to date. It must be clear where the data is collected and if it is protected under constitutional law. Data protection measures must be put in place to safeguard data.

Appropriate measures must be taken to safeguard copyright-protected data. Companies should ensure that the virtual customer is real and that they can understand and use the equipment. Also, they should decide if they want to provide virtual customer support to devices which may affect their sales and service channels. 

Related Reading: Is Big Data evolving retail customer experience? Read on to know more!

Barrier 5: Human Acceptance

No technology can ever replace or replicate human empathy. Though VCA can eliminate the awkwardness of technology, it cannot really emulate the human element. Ultimately, humans will make the decisions. When customer service is on the spectrum of high-emotion and high-urgency, getting people to trust technology will undoubtedly be a challenge. 

Virtual customer communities affect the relationship between absorptive capacity and organizational innovation. Many firms are investing in virtual customer communities as they are capable of reducing communication barriers between firms and costumers.

Get On the Virtual  Path Now

Companies would do well to consider these five challenges and use them to advance their virtual customer services. While this is an aspect of technology that is sure to grow by leaps and bounds, organizations would need to act wisely to stay on the cutting edge, or they risk being thrown off the bus, or losing out on the possible benefits, at great loss to themselves. Give us a call if you need help with getting this started for your business.

How Is Augmented Reality Revolutionizing Education Industry?

Augmented reality is the latest breakthrough technology in the digital space. It has been almost half a century from when the concept of Augmented Reality first appeared in 1968, and as Augmented Reality (AR) is penetrating deeper, its uses continue to increase. 

By 2022, worldwide shipments of smart glasses are estimated to reach 32.7 million units. And by 2025, the global augmented reality market is anticipated to grow noticeably to about 198 billion U.S. dollars. With such significant growth, it makes sense to consider how AR can benefit our daily lives. In this blog, we will discuss its impact on the education sector in particular. Let’s begin by understanding what AR is.

Read More:

What is Augmented Reality?

Augmented Reality is the bridge that connects the real world with the virtual world. Its popularity is growing rapidly in every industry from social media filters to surgical procedures. As the word augment suggests, AR enhances what we hear, see and feel. It has categories based on various technologies. Some of those categories are marker-based AR, markerless AR, projection-based AR, and superimposed AR. This makes AR useful for various industries. 

There are various industries such as public safety, tourism services, entertainment and so on that are leveraging AR. For example, AR aids the automotive industry by assisting with various parameters such as navigation and speed. It helps people not to lose focus while driving because the application can be projected from a console on the glass which only the driver can see. In Healthcare, there are numerous AR applications that support the video platform and can project augmented hands on the patient. Wherever the surgery is taking place, a senior surgeon can guide a beginner in his surgery.

With many more industries benefiting from AR, let’s see how the education industry is revolutionizing with AR.

The Role of Augmented Reality in Education

AR is set to revamp the world’s conventional learning model. It can bring about a positive change in the location and timing of classes and make learning more engaging. Today’s learning process is becoming much more tuned to bring in the elements of interaction and creativity. By providing visual representations, AR helps students acquire, process, and remember information. Thereby, it helps them to test out their knowledge in practice.

AR technology has also helped students to learn and understand their surroundings. The British Museum has already begun using AR technology to help students understand certain displays. It has proved useful in providing students practical knowledge of subjects such as math or science. Let us look into a few more benefits of AR in the educational sector.

1. Edutainment versus Education

AR makes lessons fun learning. Today’s generation is not a chalk and board generation. Studies reveal that students are easily bored with standardized methods of teaching. The reality is that students tend to remember what they see more than what they learn by rote.  AR takes them to the next level by helping them not just to see, but also experience and participate. As a result, AR delivers a positive impact on the students by giving them edutainment.

2. Simplify Complex subjects and Exemplify Abstract Concepts

AR breathes life into complex subjects that students are expected to learn. It can bring added creativity, interactivity and engagement to complex and abstract subjects. It simplifies the learning process. Both the teachers and the students likewise can thus take control of the educational process through AR. 

Each student’s level of understanding and the pace of learning differs. Certain AR apps allow you to create personalized learning materials. Such apps allow the tutor to create content for the individual needs of each student. This way, students will get to learn complex subjects quickly and easily.

3. AR-Enabled homework

AR can also help students do their assignments and homework better. The fact that today’s generation is tech-savvy can be harnessed to promote education in a way that will appeal to the students.

AR emphasizes important concepts. By making images and information “pop out” of a textbook, AR can break the boundaries of textbook learning, which has been sidelined as boring and tedious and make it interactive and absorbing.

4. Use what they already have

According to the Pew Research Center, 95% of teenagers have access to smartphones. It makes sense to use this to their advantage in education as well. Neither parents nor teachers have to spend extra dollars on buying gadgets for AR learning. The AR app on an existing smartphone is all that is required for interactive learning.

5. Practical Knowledge at AR Labs

For various reasons, schools may choose to limit the scope of practical demonstrations. This is another fact that will change through the use of AR technology. With AR, students can perform practical experiments without the need of the physical lab. This is extremely helpful for professional courses. Students can also gain knowledge about safety procedures and potential hazards in the lab. 

Augmented Reality is the Real Future of Education

According to a survey on the impact of interactive technology on marketing students, it is said that 87% were likely to attend the class, 72% were likely to participate and 70% students said that they improved their understanding of specific concepts. If this is true with interactive technology, how much more of an impact would AR have on the student’s attendance, participation, and understanding? 

The children of millennials who are born between 2010 and 2025 are called Generation Alpha, which is considered the most technology-infused. AR education is poised to be the norm rather than the exception. According to the forecast, the AR market is expected to reach $60.55 billion by 2023, growing at a CAGR of 40.29%. Undeniably, AR is the real future of education. 

Watch more on how Augmented Reality is creating an impact on the Education Industry.

This video is made using InVideo.io

Fingent is on a go, to revolutionize education sectors with AR technology. With various education application platforms, Fingent is already helping organizations create effective collaboration between students and teachers. To know more about how Fingent can help you provide an effective and efficient learning ecosystem with emerging and trending technologies, get in touch with our experts today!