Tag: business efficiency
Technology is getting better and better each day. Several technologies and architectural patterns have emerged and evolved during the past few years, and it only gets better with time. Microservices architecture or microservices is one of those patterns. It emerged from the world of domain-driven design and persistence.
In this article we will cover:
- What is microservices architecture?
- The difference between microservices, monolithic architecture, and service-oriented architecture (SOA)
- The benefits and examples of implementing Microservices Architecture.
What Is Microservices Architecture?
Microservices architecture is a specific method of designing software systems that can structure a single application as a collection of loosely coupled services.
Microservices architecture is made up of several components in their own individual compartments in the software. This makes them independently upgradeable or replaceable.
Microservices architecture simplifies the process of building and maintaining certain types of applications by breaking them down into many smaller pieces that work together. Though this increases the complexity, it offers greater advantages over the monolithic structure.
Now you may wonder: Isn’t Microservices just another name for monolithic architecture and service-oriented architecture (SOA)?
Let’s clarify that for you!
Read more: Progressive Web App Development: 10 Benefits
Microservices Architecture Vs. Monolithic Architecture
In the current age of Kubernetes, Monolithic architecture faces many limitations. Please note a few:
- Monolithic architecture is a single application. It is generally released once a year with the newest updates. Whereas, Microservices architecture is cloud-based and can be updated as required.
- Monolithic architecture is slow. Modifying a small section may require complete rebuilding and deployment of the software. Microservices on the other hand are faster to deploy and quick to isolate any defects.
- Monolithic architecture is harder to adapt to the specific or changing product lines while individual models of Microservices architecture enable scaling and development.
Microservices Architecture Vs. SOA (Service-oriented Architecture)
Microservices architecture is distinct from SOA. Here are a few differences:
- SOA model is dependent on ESBs and so it is slower. Whereas, microservices is faster as it leverages faster-messaging mechanisms.
- SOA focuses on imperative programming style, while microservices focuses on a responsive-actor programming style.
- SOA has an outsized relational database. But Microservices architecture tends to use NoSQL or micro-SQL databases.
Read more: Ways To Accelerate Business Growth and Success in 2021
Business Benefits Of Microservice Architecture
Microservices architecture can help your business grow quicker, increase productivity, and innovate better to deploy competitive products into the market. Here are some specific benefits of the Microservices architecture:
1. Better organization for efficiency
Microservices architecture organizes business applications. It can extend those applications to support plugins for new features, devices, etc. You can easily add more features to each of those popular applications to generate more revenue.
2. Increased scalability
Microservices architecture divides applications into smaller modules. Each of these modules can operate independently enabling businesses to scale applications up or down, as required. As these modules operate independently, a fault in the single module does not mean disruption of the entire system.
If one module fails due to outdated technology or the inability to further develop the code, developers can use another module. In other words, the applications continue to function even when one or more modules fail.
This capability allows developers the freedom to build and deploy services as needed without having to wait for the entire application to be corrected.
3. Easy to maintain
It is easier to maintain and test a single module as opposed to an entire system. Since each module has its own storage and database, organizations can build, test, and deploy all the modules with less complexity.
4. Faster development
Since all modules are loosely coupled, change in one module does not affect the performance of the other. This means you can update a single module at a time leading to faster development.
5. Enhanced performance
Microservices architecture can enhance the performance of the application. It reduces downtime while developers take their time to troubleshoot the issue and bring the system back to normalcy.
6. Dynamic yet consistent
The individual modular approach in Microservices architecture is easy to replicate. This allows for consistency in applications, which in turn makes managing these modules simple and easy.
Prominent Examples of Successful Microservices Implementation
Prominent examples of Microservices architecture are Amazon, Netflix, Uber, and Etsy. Over time these enterprises refactored their monolithic applications into Microservices-based architectures. This move has helped to quickly achieve scaling advantages, greater business agility, and unimaginable ROIs.
1. Amazon
In the early 2000s, untangling dependencies was a complicated process for Amazon developers. It faced development delays, coding challenges, and service interdependencies.
However, Amazon assigned ownership to each independent service team. This allowed the developers to identify the bottlenecks and resolve issues more efficiently. Also, it helped them create a very highly decoupled architecture.
2. Netflix
Within a year of starting its movie-streaming service, Netflix was suffering from service outages and scaling challenges. It experienced major database corruption and was on standstill for three days! That is when it decided to move towards more reliable, horizontally scalable systems in the cloud.
First, Netflix moved its movie-coding platform to cloud servers as an independent microservice. This allowed Netflix to overcome its scaling challenges and service outages.
3. Uber
Uber, the ride-sharing service faced growth hurdles. It struggled to launch new features, fix bugs, and integrate its global operations. Besides, it became increasingly difficult to make minor updates and changes to the system.
Uber then decided to move to cloud-based microservices. This allowed its developers to build individual functions like trip management or passenger management. This boosted the speed, quality, and manageability of their services. Among other things, they achieved more reliable fault tolerance.
4. Etsy
Etsy experienced poor server processing time. However, with the help of Microservices architecture, Etsy created a variety of developer-friendly tools and went live in 2016. From that point forward, Etsy benefits from a structure that supports continual innovation, faster upgrades, and more.
Read more: Enterprise Resource Planning Software: A Complete Guide!
How Fingent Can Help You Implement Microservices Architecture
Microservices architecture supersedes SOA and monolithic models. However, it has its challenges. This is where Fingent comes to your assistance.
Fingent top software development company can help you implement Microservices Architecture correctly to improve your productivity and ROI. Designing your architecture is not just a technological option. It is a necessity! It is a business decision that can directly affect your business growth. Fingent can help you take care of the technical aspect while you concentrate on your business goals. Give us a call and let’s get talking.
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How Organizations Can Embrace Transformation and Expedite Their Growth
From remote working and e-learning to sales and customer service to more critical cloud infrastructure and security, the COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated technology adoption across several key domains. The pandemic has made digital transformation crucial for business growth across various industries. Satya Nadella, the CEO of Microsoft, puts it that “We’ve seen two years’ worth of digital transformation in two months.”
That said, companies will have to change their mindsets and adopt new strategies to stay relevant and competitive in future. Here are six ways you can adapt to the new normal and taste business success.
Read more: How Business Owners and Leaders Can Set up a Successful COVID Exit Strategy
1. Adapt to change
Change is the only constant and more so today than ever before. Change is happening at a faster pace and is very crucial for small businesses. Today, old and traditional methods of winning clients and serving them do not seem to fit. The list of things you need to change may be long and only growing. Instead of reacting to these changes, the best approach is to embrace them and treat them.
So, when you treat the problem, you employ change to work with you and not against you. People are more likely to accept strategic changes now, especially if the initiatives are focused on improving their lives.
Bring agility and innovation to your business by implementing a quarterly strategic planning and review process. It will allow you to remain focused, actionable, and agile by adopting new learnings.
While you are in the process of adapting to changes, consider a few questions that you need to ask yourself.
- What can disrupt my business and change everything?
- How can I lead that change?
- How can I ensure that my business stays relevant and profitable in the next five years?
Read more: Top 5 Organizational Imperatives for Business Leaders to Become Winners in the New Normal
2. Customer always comes first
As consumer needs keep evolving, you have to think of ways to meet the new supply and demand to stay relevant and competitive.
Social distancing due to the pandemic has left many businesses struggling—for instance, physical retail stores, manufacturers, automotive, banks, etc. Many product-based companies face significant issues related to manufacturing and distribution. Service-based companies are also suffering due to poor customer demands. In short, business models should be revamped so that they are immune to new challenges.
The pandemic has even changed customers’ needs and preferences.
One of the best ways is to engage in a conversation with your clients to identify opportunities. You could probably start by asking a probing question at the end of the conversation with your client. You may also conduct surveys or quarterly client advisory groups to follow a more formal process.
To stay relevant, you will have to prioritize customers’ needs and problems. It is imperative for future growth and innovation.
View Infographic: Business technologies to boost customer experience and satisfaction
3. Implement automation wherever possible
Working smarter means hiring and collaborating with the right talent. Encourage teamwork for removing the bottlenecks and hurdles. It will translate to more revenue with the available resources. Effective workplace collaboration will also boost your team’s morale and reduce lay-offs.
Leverage technology and systems to streamline your business and allow it to run smoothly. According to Gartner, by 2024, businesses will see a 30% reduction in their operational costs by combining hyper-automation technologies with redesigned operational processes.
Identify processes that can be automated and evaluate how automation will enhance your customer service and experience.
Read more: What Makes a Business Process Apt for Automation
Automation of repetitive, routine, and mundane tasks saves your workforce’s productive hours and spares them for more crucial tasks. Automation enhances your organizational efficiency and offsets growth investment.
4. Speed is the key to sustain in 2021
The pandemic has made companies rethink their conventional organizational models and pushed them to adopt new ways of working at speed. Flat structures empowering decision-making are replacing the traditional management-led hierarchies. It enables companies to perform with improved speed and precision. For instance, PepsiCo adopted newer working models to enable fast and easy access to their products during the pandemic. Within 30 days (from concept to execution), the company launched two direct-to-consumer (D2C) websites.
5. Adopt digital commerce
The pandemic has spurred digital commerce like never before. Deloitte’s 2020 holiday retail survey reports that contactless shopping experiences enjoyed a huge spike in demand during the holiday season last year. Over 73% of shoppers planned to have orders delivered to their doorsteps as against 62% in 2019.
Read More: Contactless Retail Delivery Software – How Retailers Can Revive Sales While Adhering To Social Distancing Norms
Companies should accelerate and optimize both B2B and B2C digital commerce channels by developing custom retail software solutions to enjoy the benefits of e-commerce sales and ROI.
As customers demand efficiency and speed, organizations must give precedence to customer experience to overcome competition.
In 2020, Adidas established itself as a top digital commerce player targeting $4.9 billion in online sales, almost 12% of their overall business. In the future, the company expects it to rise to 25%. Also, they were quick to recover from the pandemic impact with an increase in online sales during the lockdown.
Read more: 5 Transformative Trends Ushered by B2B E-commerce in Healthcare and Life Sciences
Fingent leverages innovative and emerging technologies to help digital retailers and e-commerce businesses
Fingent custom software development experts helps retailers build custom retail software solutions, e-commerce, and mobile commerce apps that help you deliver exceptional customer service and experience, just like your physical retail store. Fingent helps retailers and e-commerce brands develop Augmented Reality-based solutions that allow their customers to preview objects in 3D. Using AR technology, both online shoppers and in-store buyers can choose their preferred products without the hassle of buying the wrong ones. We enable companies with an e-commerce presence to build AR applications through web platforms (WEB AR), avoiding the need for separate mobile apps.
Read more: Technology Investments: How to gain maximum value?
6. Ensure customer data privacy and protection
Data transparency is imperative. With the rise in going digital, the total amount of data created, captured, and consumed will more than double by 2024 globally. A 2019 Factual survey reveals that more than 50% of the US smartphone users will be ready to share their geolocation details with a service provider only if they are aware of how the information will be used. When customers realize the benefits of sharing personal data, such as online behavior, shopping history, mobile app usage, or geolocation tracking and trust that their data will be protected, they will be more willing to share it.
Jersey Mike’s Subs, a US sandwich chain, has a transparent privacy policy that lets you know which customer data they collect and how it is stored and used. Approaches like these that give consumers clarity and control over their personal information will define personalization and enhance customer experience.
Consumer data privacy acts such as General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) for the European Union (EU) and European Economic Area (EEA) and the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) aim at ensuring consumer privacy rights and data protection under the respective regional, state, and federal laws. These acts allow consumers in the respective regions to see all the information companies have saved on them and how the data will be protected and used.
We help ensure smooth business transformation
As we try to recover from the crisis, it is essential to consider what the future looks like for your business. Your organization must adopt new technologies, innovation, and new practices to ensure a smooth business transition. It also helps you meet the growing customer demands.
Reach out to us and let us help you accomplish a seamless business transition through modern technology adoption.
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Top Digital Alternatives to Go Paperless and Survive the Recession!
- Introduction
- Document Management Software
- Electronic Invoicing System
- Digital Signature
- Remote Work Collaboration Software
- Virtual Hiring and On-boarding
- Workflow Automation
- Mobile Payments
- Choosing the Best Way to Implement Paperless Initiatives
Introduction
Running a manual, paper-based organization in the digital age is inefficient and costly. It escalates the total cost of operations and carries a higher risk of errors. Paperless solutions offer process automation that saves valuable time by streamlining operations, releasing useful resources, and improving business efficiency.
A paperless structure can help businesses keep their data more safe and secure. Digital alternatives like a Document Management System store and search your digital documents quickly and securely. Workflow automation helps improve the efficiency of document processing through automatic document routing. Digital signature policies help you significantly increase your document turnaround time. You can store, edit, and manage digital documents from anywhere in the world.
Digital Transformation is leading the way to a paperless future. If you want to empower your business with digital alternatives, you have to adopt the right digital transformation solutions. At Fingent top software development company, we provide digital transformation services to businesses around the globe. Simply enhance your business operations productivity by going paperless. It’s the right time to embrace digital alternatives to stay productive and competitive.
In this blog, we discuss at length, the various paperless initiatives that can make your business recession-proof and other benefits of going paperless.
Document Management Software
The pandemic has brought about lasting changes in customer and business behavior. While weathering the storms of recession, you need to have a robust document management software.
A document management system surpasses a digitized record room. A contemporary document management system will help you find records and documents in a few clicks that would have otherwise taken days to dig out. You can also access documents and records in their business context. All changes are carefully logged. Versioning ensures that a new document version is automatically created and stored. That way no one accidentally overwrites content. When one team member works on a document, she can leave comments for her colleagues making teamwork much smoother.
Post-its, slips of paper, and verbal agreements are things of the past. Document management software supports your daily work. All processing steps of your documents like invoices, purchase orders, etc. are seamlessly recorded, making them audit-proof and compliant with regulations. It’s high time that you bid adieu to those dusty file cabinets in your office.
Read more: Features of a Document Management System
Electronic Invoicing System
Electronic documentation is the need of the hour. A typical paper invoicing process involves multiple steps. Assembling data from spreadsheets or ERP systems to delivering the invoice to your customer and getting paid eventually takes a long time. You can get rid of most of these steps with e-invoicing services, as it connects your billing and the recipient’s invoice processing system.
Rather than connecting to the receiver’s web-based servers for sending the invoice, you can use service providers that are connected. This allows both you and the receiver to use your preferred service providers and send your invoices to any recipient without any additional hassle. Thus, the e-invoice travels from your computer to the receiver’s invoice processing system through servers instantly. The recipient can pay the amount with the click of a button, without having to resort to any paperwork. This saves you both manual work, lowers invoicing costs, and speeds up your cash flow.
Digital Signature
Once you improve your business processes and adopt digital alternatives like document management systems and e-invoicing, you’ll need to ensure that the documents you send or receive are authentic and have not been tampered with. This is where digital signatures come in handy.
A digital signature is an advanced and secure type of signature that authenticates all electronic documents like spreadsheets, emails, pdf files, and text files. A digital signature is unique to every signer. It uses a mathematical algorithm that creates a digital fingerprint to electronically sign the document, thus validating the signer. You can purchase a digital signature from a trusted certificate authority only after submitting your ID documents. So, a person receiving a digitally signed document can easily find out who has signed it.
The digital signature and the document are encrypted and secured with a seal that makes tampering conspicuous. The recipient cannot open the document unless he receives the public key from the owner. These features make digital signature ideal for e-commerce, software distribution, and other businesses that are prone to document tampering.
Digital signatures reduce the steps involved in signing a document and help replace the traditional paper-based approval process with a faster and cheaper digital process. You not only move towards a paperless office but also reduce costs involving printing, shipping, delivery, filing, archiving, and so on. Digital signatures help improve workflow efficiency as document tracking and organizing become much easier.
Read more: Going paperless – Machine Learning To Accelerate Paperless Offices
Remote Work Collaboration Software
Today, working remotely is no longer an office perk but a new normal. With businesses grappling with an economic downturn and ongoing lockdown restrictions, remote work can help reduce expenses and keep up the morale of your team.
While adhering to the rules of social distancing, you may have to allocate some or all of our staff to remote work. This situation has further highlighted the need for remote work collaboration software. These solutions help you to automate business processes and save costs in paper, office space. However, without the right set of remote work collaboration tools and communication platforms, a company would be dealing with a staff that is adrift.
Today you have a wide variety of tools that keep an office running even while on-the-go. Mobile app versions of these tools enable collaboration anywhere and everywhere.
1. Video Conferencing
Web conferencing tools have gained prominence around the world as face-to-face communications keep everyone in the loop and foster better visualizations of new projects and ideas. A short video call can solve issues that would have taken endless emails or phone calls to sort out. Video conferencing software like InfinCE, Zoom, Microsoft Teams, Remo Conference, and MeetFox provide solid video quality and inbuilt interfaces that facilitate video calling and screen sharing.
2. CRM Software
When you have a teleworking team that handles clients all over the world, you need a CRM software to reduce the gap. The right CRM will help your team to connect as though they were sitting next to each other in an office even when they are actually in different countries. A CRM software gives you a 360-degree view of your customers in a single page. When all your customer data is aggregated, you gain a better understanding of customer behavior helping you make informed decisions. Today, most CRM software have built-in analytics tools that help your sales team analyze their performance while on the go, thus enabling them to better focus on their targets. Odoo, Microsoft Dynamics, Zoho, Salesforce, Hubspot, etc. are some of the best CRM software available out there.
3. Team collaboration tools
A common problem that managers face with remote teams is not knowing what their team members are working on. This can be easily sorted with online team collaboration tools. These tools help streamline your team’s communication by providing a consistent and common digital space for your team to collaborate. They can share project updates, files, and comments within the company to create an efficient and cataloged communication channel. Integrated features such as instant messaging, video conferencing, and task management make workplace collaboration effortless.
4. File Management
An efficient file management tool is unavoidable for organizations aiming to go paperless. A scalable document management system is essential to automate and streamline workflows. Besides storing and sharing documents, a file management system with features that help secure data, track changes, maintain audit trails, and map workflows can improve the performance of your organization. Since document handling is key to many business processes, your document management system needs to integrate with other business apps. So, before making the choice, you should find out what pre-built integrations or APIs the file management system has to offer.
Virtual Hiring and On-boarding
Traditionally, hiring and onboarding have been manual processes. Automating these processes can promote employee engagement and retention. This, in turn, brings in business value by reducing HR man-hours through employee retention and cost savings. A comprehensive and recession-proof onboarding process requires digitization, automation, and personalization. These three steps bring various business processes together, streamline them, and create a seamless onboarding experience for your new hires. This further reduces the cost of hiring and time-to-hire.
Collecting digital feedback and reviewing video interviews help in tackling prejudices if any. Virtual recruitment drives can centralize the entire process by involving many interviewers from within the organization. This instills consistency in managing candidate RSVP, sending reminders, and establishing prompt communication channels.
Though switching to the process of virtual hiring and onboarding is challenging, the right tools and training can ensure successful execution. Organizations must refine their recruitment and onboarding processes by employing remote tools, recording the processes accurately, and training their staff on best practices. While the lack of face-to-face interaction with candidates may bother your team, appropriate training and adaptation will help you improve efficiency.
Read more: Digitalization of Business – Why Digitalization is Inevitable for Businesses
Workflow Automation
This technology is used to replace paper-based and manual processes with a single platform that combines business processes thus eliminating errors. Workflow automation helps to transform legacy processes that require a lot of paperwork into digitally automated tasks. Most organizations grapple with digital transformation since communications via whiteboards, post-its, and spreadsheets control their task management. These tools hinder smooth collaboration and visibility as they rely on human intervention. Workflow automation reduces this reliance on human intervention by ensuring communication within the platform and maintaining a record of all relevant data. Later, anyone with permission can access this information easily.
Workflow automation software can help you automate almost all processes from IT, Sales, HR, Marketing, Finance, and so on. Once you bring all your applications under a common platform, with a workflow automation software, you can do away with the monotonous work of transferring data between these applications.
Workflow automation gives you a competitive advantage by helping you deliver better quality services at a lower cost and speedy decision making. The benefits of workflow automation include better accountability and communication within the organization, reduced costs and errors, improved employee engagement, improved business processes, and better efficiency.
Read more: How Automation Helps Business – How Automation Ensures Businesses Stay Afloat During COVID-19 Crisis
Mobile Payments
The new normal brought on by the pandemic demands digital transformation. One technology that has helped businesses and economies stay afloat in quarantine and social distancing is mobile payment. As regulations stipulate the reduction of in-person transactions to prevent consumers from stepping out of their homes, mobile payment facilities have come in handy.
You can equip your mobile customers by investing in contactless payment technologies like facial recognition, QR codes, and NFC technology. COVID-19 will have a lasting impact on the way we conduct transactions. Companies struggling in implementing mobile payments need to find ways in establishing payment systems that are on par with the global standards. Businesses may hesitate to spend on digital payment technologies, during such unaffluent times. However, you need to remember that by enabling mobile payments, you are expanding your customer base and making it easier for customers to buy.
Read more: How Retailers Can Revive Sales While Adhering To Social Distancing Norms
Choosing the Best Way to Implement Paperless Initiatives
Advances in IT and organizational design can drive cost reductions while improving quality and timeliness. To equip your business with these digital alternatives, you need to have clear goals and instructions for upgrading business processes. These tools have to be used in a systematic and coordinated way to improve efficiency and avoid chaos. Once these digital tools are managed in the right order, they enable restructuring of processes and building up resilience resulting in higher productivity.
Going paperless ultimately narrows down to improving processes. The real value of the aforementioned paperless technologies can be realized only once you go back to the beginning of a process and retool it making the whole process electronic. So going paperless is not just an afterthought, but you have to go for redesigning whole processes, making them more electronic. This, then helps you save time and money by streamlining your work and improving the efficiency of what you’re doing.
In other words, you should not opt for paperless technologies to just manage your storage needs. If you simply convert all of your paper into a digital format, you’re just converting your problem from one format to another. When you’re scaling paperless, you need to view it as an opportunity to look at your processes from A to Z and check whether you can make improvements. Then paperless becomes a part of the good business that you practice.
Read more: Prepare for the Future of Digital Innovation with these 10 Services From Fingent
If you wish to know more about how paperless initiatives can recession-proof your business to survive and succeed in the new normal, send us a message right away!
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10 Services Offered by Fingent to Prepare Your Business for the Future of Digital Innovation
- Introduction
- Robotic Process Automation
- Business Continuity Planning
- Contactless Services
- Custom LMS | eLearning
- Business Process Re-engineering
- Reality Technologies
- Data Analytics
- Internet of Things
- Mobile Technologies
- Cloud Computing
- Innovation beyond digital transformation
Introduction
It’s been more than half a year since we started battling the global pandemic COVID-19. While it shows no sign of waning and continues to dwindle economies, business leaders are still exhibiting a streak of optimism. Thanks to digital technology and infrastructure!
The American management consulting firm McKinsey states that business executives expect profits and consumer demands to rise within the next six months. However, households across the globe have reduced their spending due to low income and savings. This poses a challenge for business sectors such as banking, retail, telecom, healthcare, and utilities. The organizations belonging to these sectors have to find new ways to support customers as well as preserve shareholder value in these ambivalent times.
Read more: Fingent’s response to COVID-19 business implications
In spite of several unsuccessful attempts to curb the virus spread, promising vaccine tests give us hope. The good news along with it is that businesses are managing to meet their urgent requirements and are optimistic for a time when all employees can return to work safely. Business leaders need to focus on supporting their employees by building up trust and providing clear communication.
If not anything, the pandemic has taught us the necessity of digital innovation and management. The business-as-usual approach is bound to fail in these difficult times. Business leaders have to make fast decisions, use technology in new and different ways to improve productivity and accelerate digital innovation. Organizations that embrace technology and new tools to reinvent business processes will see better results. This blog enlists 10 ways by which Fingent can help you re-engineer your business processes and overcome the challenges efficiently.
1. Robotic Process Automation
In light of what’s happening, the demand for automation has fundamentally increased simply because the business dynamics have changed in various industries. Since most employees have to work from home, repetitive and data-intensive processes could be handed over to Robotic Process Automation. Once employees are freed up from performing mundane tasks, they can concentrate on other important operations that require cognitive skills.
The payroll, onboarding and offboarding processes in HR can be automated using RPA technology. In the banking sector too, RPA bots can fasten activities such as loan application processing, account opening and make them error-free.
Read more: How HR and Banking Sectors can Benefit from RPA
Fingent combines technologies like Machine Learning and AI with RPA to design smarter processes for businesses. Our focus is on utilizing RPA software bots to enhance the cost-effectiveness and efficiency of business processes. We help companies to automate business processes by identifying areas that require automation, deploy the most appropriate tools, and provide the necessary maintenance and support.
2. Business Continuity Planning
A business continuity plan is crucial to ensure the effective recovery of organizations from a disaster. From conducting virtual site inspections to document collaboration to human resources and payroll management, Business Continuity Planning helps keep track of all your crucial tasks.
Fingent utilizes a wide range of technological frameworks like SAP, AWS, Microsoft technologies, public cloud services, and custom software solutions to help you come up with a strong business continuity plan. Our Business Continuity Planning (BCP) services enable you to make faster decisions, reduce costs, and retain customers. We help you create and implement a sustainable business model that allows you to keep pace with the rising customer demands.
Read more: How SAP Supports Effective Business Continuity Planning
3. Contactless Services
COVID-19 has changed customer behavior w.r.t what and how they buy. This shift has given rise to a demand for contactless services. The demand for smart deliveries, self-service facilities, and other technologies such as QR codes, mobile payments, tap-and-go are expected to rise.
Read more: Contactless Services: The New Normal in Retail
Maneuvering these challenging times may seem daunting. But Fingent can help you turn the tables with our innovation capabilities and technology consulting. We guide organizations to expand their existing set of offerings and capture new markets.
Fingent top software development company, will help you bring your brick-and-mortar store online by developing highly responsive, secure, and scalable ecommerce CRM solutions, customize your existing application to integrate contactless payment features, configure new offers or discount codes and also helps you leverage AR/VR technologies that allow customers to view your project sites or prototypes.
4. Custom LMS Development | eLearning
According to a recent study, 42% of organizations in the US have increased their ROI through eLearning. Over 90% of students say that they prefer eLearning to classroom training- a trend created by the COVID-19 forced lockdowns. eLearning systems are highly beneficial in times of a global pandemic like COVID-19 to ensure uninterrupted learning.
Fingent helps schools, universities, colleges, educational institutions, NGOs, and training centers to develop customized LMS platforms that come with aptitude-based smart learning tools.
Read more: E-Learning Taking A New Front: How Can LMS Technology Help
5. Business Process Re-engineering
Business process re-engineering involves the fundamental rethinking and redesigning of processes to achieve significant improvements in performance, efficiency, and alignment of processes with organizational strategy. Fingent’s BPR services enable enterprises to revamp existing business processes to improve productivity, quality, and cycle time, especially during a crisis.
Here’s the difference that Fingent’s BPR brings to your table:
- Re-engineer and optimize your processes from the ground up
- Eliminate redundant processes and enhance workflow efficiency
- Coordinate and integrate multiple functions/ teams quickly
Business process reengineering offers nearly all benefits- increased revenue, improved customer service, reduced cost, higher employee retention, faster processing time. Though the risks are considerable, the crisis presents an opportunity for your business to build resilience and reshape your future roadmap by leveraging BPR.
Read more: Business Process Re-engineering: Facing Crisis with Confidence
6. Reality Technologies
The latest advancements in Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality technologies are helping businesses explore new ways to reach customers and take their innovation efforts to the next level. Perkins Coie LLP reports healthcare and medical devices as one of the top potential growth areas for AR and VR technologies. Visual-based immersive learning experiences, virtual events and conferences, virtual showings and site tours, etc. ensure sustainability, safety, and remote collaboration.
Fingent helps accelerate your move to new and emerging technologies such as Augmented Reality, Virtual Reality, and Mixed Reality.
Read our case study: The Future of Communication and Security Using Augmented Reality
7. Data Analytics
The COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted supply chains and has brought about dramatic changes in customer behavior. Given the current volatility, it is nearly impossible to track real-time changes in consumer mannerisms and aptly respond to them. Fingent offers Predictive Analytics from SAP as well as other data analytics solution providers that can help you detect hidden trends and make quick decisions.
Sectors such as healthcare, retail, sports, insurance use predictive analysis in various ways. Fingent’s data analytics services guide you towards increased ROI by turning data into valuable insights.
8. Internet of Things
Business executives believe that the disruption brought on by COVID-19 will cause an increase in the demand for IoT devices. Robust 5G networks are necessary to realize the power of IoT. Join forces with Fingent to leverage the benefits of IoT in your business. Gear up for IoT with our vast portfolio of technologies that can help you create new IoT processes and manage your devices. We provide customized IoT services to meet your unique business needs. Our cloud-based IoT data management solutions help you gather insights from your IoT data.
9. Mobile Technologies
As stay-at-home and social distancing are the new norms, mobile technologies can keep business running. At Fingent, we utilize leading mobile technologies to support businesses. Being scalable and secure, our mobile solutions deliver value to your customers.
So you want to build an app, but don’t know how to get on with it? While finding the right mobile app development company may seem an obvious answer, you first need to get your requirements on paper. Fingent offers a mobile app specification template that can help you define the scope and functionalities of your app. This erases ambiguity in the development process and keeps all stakeholders on the same page.
Click here to download our free mobile app specification template!
10. Cloud Computing
The Cloud has proved to be a lifesaver for businesses whose offices are closed and employees are scattered across various locations. Those who were skeptical of the Cloud are now changing their opinions and have come to benefit from the flexibility that it offers.
Fingent’s expertise in cloud architecture models has helped many organizations realize their goals. With our proficiency in various cloud platforms such as AWS, Microsoft Azure, IBM, and Google we aim to make organizations flexible and agile. We also provide cost-effective cloud application development solutions that can be easily implemented in your current infrastructure and tailored to suit user requirements.
Innovation beyond digital transformation
As the pandemic seems to gather strength, organizations scramble to find ways to keep business running. Business leaders have to prepare for recovery by supporting their staff, establishing effective communication, and balancing costs. If nothing else, these turbulent times have brought to light the significance of digital transformation. By resorting to innovative digital technologies like the ones mentioned above, businesses can reinvent themselves and keep going.
Read more: 7 Ways for Your Business to Overcome the COVID-19 Aftermath
We at Fingent focus on supporting businesses by equipping them with these smart technologies to ensure business continuity. Leveraging smart technologies, Fingent can help you understand the pulse of your customers and make the necessary changes in your business models. It has become increasingly clear that given the serious health implications on people returning to work, creating a post-pandemic organization would take longer than earlier perceived. Companies have to seize this opportunity to build new capabilities like remote work environments, virtual collaboration, automation, eLearning, eCommerce, and so on.
Our business solutions have already helped various industrial sectors solve problems and eventually succeed. Fingent top custom software development company can help you capitalize on this opportunity to create a digital innovation strategy. Contact us to know more.
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Knowledge Representation in AI and Its Business Significance
What is Knowledge Representation?
There are two primary concepts in Knowledge Representation:
#1Knowledge
#2Representation
- Objects: All the information related to the objects present in our world. For example, buses need drivers, cars have wheels, guitars have strings, etc.
- Events: Numerous events that are taking place constantly in our world and the human perception of the events. For example, natural disasters, wars, achievements, etc.
- Performance: Deals with how humans react in various situations. Representing this knowledge is essential for the AI agent to understand the behavior side of knowledge.
- Facts: Knowledge based on the factual description of our world, such as the earth is not flat but also not an exact round.
- Meta Knowledge: Meta knowledge deals with the knowledge that we already know and allows AI to perceive the same.
- Knowledge Base: A knowledge base is a collection of information related to any discipline. For example, a knowledge base on road construction.
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Different Types of Knowledge Represented in AI
Declarative Knowledge
Refers to the facts, objects, and concepts that allow us to describe the world around us. It shares the description of something expressed in declarative sentences which is simpler than procedural language.
Structural Knowledge
Constitutes the problem-solving knowledge that describes the relationship between various concepts or objects and their descriptions.
Procedural Knowledge
Also known as imperative knowledge, procedural knowledge is used to complete any task with specific rules, strategies, processes, or agendas. It’s the type of knowledge which is responsible for knowing how to do a particular task and hence relies on the task we are trying to finish.
Meta Knowledge
As mentioned above, meta knowledge refers to predefined knowledge about things that we are already aware of. This knowledge typically includes the study of tagging, planning, learning, etc.
Heuristic Knowledge
Also known as shallow knowledge, heuristic knowledge is highly used in the process of reasoning as it can solve issues based on the experiences of past problems. Thus, it provides a knowledge-based approach to define a problem and take action.
Four Fundamental Knowledge Representation Techniques in AI
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Cycle of Knowledge Representation in AI
- Perception: With the help of this component, the AI system can retrieve information from the environment through audio, video, text, time, or any other form of sensory input. Data derived from various sensors will make the AI system familiar with its environment and help in interacting with it.
- Learning: The knowledge gained will equip the AI system to run the deep learning algorithms that are pre-written to make the AI system transfer the needed information from the perception component to the learning component for better learning and understanding.
- Knowledge Representation and Reasoning: These are the most important components of the AI knowledge cycle that help demonstrate human-like intelligence in machines. The goal of these components is to understand and build intelligent behavior by focusing on what an AI agent needs to know in order to behave intelligently. The KRR components go through the knowledge data of AI systems and find the relevant knowledge to be provided to the learning model.
- Planning and Execution: These are independent components that work in tandem with the knowledge and reasoning blocks. These blocks collect information from the knowledge and reasoning blocks to plan and execute certain actions depending on the analysis of knowledge representation and reasoning.
Approaches to Knowledge Representation in AI
- This approach is the simplest way of storing facts which uses the relational method.
- In this method, each fact related to a set of the object is laid out systematically in columns.
- This approach is widely used in DBMS (database management systems) to represent the relationship between different entities.
- One drawback of this approach is that it limits the opportunity for inference.
- In this approach, all the data should be stored in a hierarchy of classes, arranged in a generalized form or a hierarchical manner.
- This approach helps apply inheritance property in order to gain inheritable knowledge.
- Unlike the Simple Relation method, this approach helps us to identify the relations between instance and class.
- All the objects are represented as nodes in this approach.
- Inferential knowledge is a formal approach that allows us to retrieve facts with a high level of accuracy.
- This approach represents knowledge in the form of formal logics with correctness guaranteed.
- Procedural knowledge approach uses small programs and codes such as simple if-then rules that describe how to do specific things or how to proceed with a specific task.
- Some of the popular coding languages used in this approach are LISP language and Prolog language.
- Though this approach is not capable of representing all cases, it’s highly useful in representing or storing heuristic or domain-specific knowledge.
Properties of a Good Knowledge Representation System
Representational adequacy
The knowledge representation (KR) system should be capable of representing each kind of required knowledge in a way the AI system can understand.
Inferential adequacy
The KR system should be flexible enough to manipulate existing knowledge to make way for new knowledge corresponding to the present structure.
Inferential efficiency
Inferential efficiency refers to the ability of the KR system to direct the inferential knowledge mechanism toward the most productive directions using appropriate guides.
Acquisitional efficiency
Acquisitional efficiency is the ability of the knowledge representation system to automatically acquire new knowledge, integrate the new information into the existing knowledge base, and use the same to improve efficiency and productivity.
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Why is Knowledge Representation Important for AI Systems?
- Derive information that is implied by the AI agent,
- Communicate with people in natural language,
- Decide what to do next,
- Plan future activities, and
- Solve problems in areas that normally require human expertise.
Benefits of Knowledge Representation in AI
- Simplifies knowledge discovery in your business by capturing, storing, and retrieving knowledge through techniques like semantic search, natural language processing, and machine learning.
- Allows organizations to connect and combine knowledge across multiple processes and consolidate data from disparate sources.
- Keeps your company’s knowledge base up-to-date by removing unwanted and outdated information and prompts your workforce to update knowledge (data) regularly in the systems.
- Makes it easy to track your organization’s performance and knowledge management metrics such as individual and team performance, first call resolution rate, average call abandonment rate, average turnaround time, and so on.
- Helps in gathering feedback and recommendations from your employees, customers, partners, and community users to continuously update and improve your products and services.
- Ensures that all your employees are on the same page and are working with the same information to deliver a consistent customer experience.
- Allows you to extract insights and patterns from large sets of data in order to make predictions and provide your users with relevant and real-time information required to address their specific needs.
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Frequently Asked Questions
- >> Declarative Knowledge: Constitutes the facts, objects, and concepts that allow us to describe the world around us.
- >> Structural Knowledge: Includes the problem-solving knowledge that describes the relationship between various concepts or objects and their descriptions.
- >> Procedural Knowledge: Used to complete any task with specific rules, strategies, processes, or agendas.
- >> Meta Knowledge: Constitutes the predefined knowledge about things that we are already aware of.
- >> Heuristic Knowledge: Used in the process of reasoning as it can solve issues based on the experiences of past problems.
- >> Derive information that is implied by the AI agent,
- >> Communicate with people in natural language,
- >> Decide what to do next,
- >> Plan future activities, and
- >> Solve problems in areas that normally require human expertise.
- >> KR system should be extensive, well-represented, and easily decipherable
- >> Should cover a wide range of standard computing procedures to support large scale application
- >> Must be easy to access and provide the options to identify events and decode the reaction of different components
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Can Augmented Reality Improve Conversion Rates For Businesses?
Augmented Reality (AR) is a powerful tool that brands are using to bridge the gap between their products and their digitally empowered customers. With the power of AR, customers can see and experience their products without actually trying them on, helping them make purchase decisions instantly. AR is being widely used by many brands as the most cost-effective way to convert strangers into customers and promoters.
Let’s consider why and how top brands are embracing Augmented Reality for immersive customer experience.
Top Brands Embracing AR
When AR technology was pioneered by Ivan Sutherland in 1968, he described his concept of the Ultimate Display as: “The ultimate display would, of course, be a room within which the computer can control the existence of matter. A chair displayed in such a room would be good enough to sit in. Handcuffs displayed in such a room would be confining, and a bullet displayed in such a room would be fatal. With appropriate programming, such a display could literally be the Wonderland into which Alice walked.”
Today we are witnessing the massive affect AR is having on immersive customer experience. Wonderland looks close!
Here are a few examples of top brands that are using AR effectively to achieve this.
LEGO Wear’s AR Shop
LEGO Wear’s first limited-edition clothing line for adults was featured on Snapchat with a uniquely designed Snapcode. This virtual cloth store had no clothes on display but allowed customers to shop virtually on a Snap-triggered portal. Studies reveal that Snachatters engage with Augmented Reality naturally on a large basis.
Around 70% of them play with an AR lens every day. So with the combination of AR and e-commerce leading to exciting customer experience, the company was able to drive sales rapidly.
Watch how AR simplify equipment maintainance
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Patron Tequila’ s Immersive Distillery Experience
Patron’s AR app is designed for its tech-savvy customer persona. Understanding the mindset of today’s socially connected generation to know more about the products they consume, the Patron AR app allows its customers to take a virtual tour of their distillery in Mexico giving them a glimpse of the history and origins of the distillery.
Speaking about the success story, the app-enabled more than a million consumers to have a memory of visiting Hacienda without even physically going to the place. Also, thousands of people have interacted with a virtual Patrón bartender, who is actually not a real person at all, but a robust data processing tool to simulate a real-world interaction.
Nike Snaps Up Customers
The Air Jordan Brand in collaboration with Snapchat and Darkstore, out together a virtual experience that brought in record sales last year. Using a special 3-D AR world lens of Michael Jordan circa 1988, taking off from the free-throw line in the slam dunk contest, Nike was able to target Snapchat users around the Staples Center where an NBA All-Star Game was taking place.
Users could walk around the lens and see Jordan changing into the All-Star uniform and the new AJ III Tinkers. In the following event, Snapchat brought out a QR code that users could use to buy the shoes from the Snap Store. The shoes would be delivered within 2 hours. The shoes sold out in 23 minutes!
MAC Cosmetic’s AR-enabled Video Tutorial
In June of this year, MAC cosmetics launched AR-enabled shoppable video tutorials on YouTube in partnership with the beauty influencer, Roxette Arisa. As the tutorial is playing, a ‘try on’ button appears below the video, allowing viewers to try on different shades of lipstick as they continue to watch the tutorial.
Once they have made a choice, they can order the lipstick without leaving the app. MAC sees a huge potential in this as beauty-related content generated more than 169 billion views on YouTube last year.
Speedo’s Customers Try It On Virtually
Early this September, leading swim gear company Speedo launched a mobile app that lets their customers try out their goggles before they buy it. This app is compatible with both Android and iOS phones. Commenting on this feature, Pentland Brand’s head of innovation Ben Hardman said, “This technology will undoubtedly enhance our customers’ shopping experiences by allowing them to interact with the product before they make a purchase. In this instance, it helps them address a well-documented human pain point: leaky goggles.”
AR Is the Future – Are You Ready?
AR technology is working wonders for the sales and productivity of many brands. It is improving its business operations while giving their customers a more immersive and fun experience. Brands are able to market their products in fresh and interesting ways and are seeing great returns.
Fingent works with brands to achieve this for their business. By using AR technology like Microsoft HoloLens and more, we are making AR possible for our clients.
Reach out to us and know how Augmented Reality technology can be used to improve your customers’ experience and scale your business.
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