Tag: business software development

How CEOs Can Gain Value from Software Development Outsourcing

In-house creation of a complete and sophisticated software application requires large amounts of resources and time. Maintaining an in-house team amid the coronavirus lockdowns has added to this and become increasingly complex. Frankly, in these turbulent economic times, software development outsourcing can prove more profitable to your business than ever before. 

Software development outsourcing offers limitless possibilities to CEOs. As the world is connected by the power of the internet, you can access the talent you would normally be hard-pressed to find. Additionally, finding an expert offshore software development company that meets your fast-approaching deadlines is another benefit. 

As CEO of your company, before you take full advantage of software development outsourcing, you need to know how you can leverage outsourcing effectively. Here is a comprehensive guide that will help you understand various aspects of the offshore software development process and prepare you to face the challenges it can bring your way.

Does Your Business Need Offshore Software Development? 

For most businesses, hiring an offshore development partner’s services has helped them breathe easy and take the load off their shoulder. Here are a few scenarios where the offshore software development model will prove to be the best solution for your company.

1. Do you require talent with narrow expertise?

Software development outsourcing improves the quality of your team as it gives you access to a vast talent pool with narrow specialization. Such resources allow you to leverage both international perspectives and onboard the best talent. 

2. Do you need to scale your team?

If you lack an excellent in-house team that can undertake multiple projects simultaneously, it is time to consider offshore software development. This allows you to scale up your team of experts without spending a fortune or risking output quality. 

3. Do you want to concentrate on your product?

Software development outsourcing can help you automate most mundane operations such as payroll and accounting. This will help you concentrate on the growth of your company and innovation.

Read more: Offshoring Software Development: Here’s All You Need to Know

Advantages of Software Development Outsourcing

Software development outsourcing can help your company experience higher production levels without spending too much money or energy. Partnering with the offshore software development team will help you carry out temporary tasks, improve the pace of your growth, and reduce your labor costs. In other words, it gives your company a much-coveted competitive advantage by improving customer service while ensuring limited-budget product quality. Here are some specific benefits of offshore software development.

1. Saves costs

Cost-saving is one of the most significant benefits of software development outsourcing. Whether you want to scale up your employees or scale down, outsourcing a whole project is much cheaper than hiring each developer separately. The difference in salaries across the globe can save you millions of dollars. Offshore development allows you to get the same amount of work done, with the same quality, in the same amount of time at a much lesser cost as different countries have different living costs. For example, the average offshore software development rate in India per hour is $30, whereas, in the USA, the hourly developer rate will cost around $100.  

2. Flexibility  

Once you offshore your development requirements, you do not have to spend time recruiting, training, and housing new employees. Besides, it is impossible and impractical to hire a full-time in-house contractor for your short-term projects. Software development outsourcing gives you the option of choosing developers for a single project. You can find talent that fits perfectly without investing in a permanent position. This will give your core team some relief as they can concentrate on mission-critical activities essential to run the company and focus on the development process. 

3. Saves time

Offshore software development relieves you from searching for new developers and preparing them to suit your needs. It can also improve speed to market as it helps your management and key employees to focus on the core business. Since it can eliminate secondary tasks, you can redistribute your services for more essential aspects of the organization. 

4. Centered approach

One of the most competitive advantages is the ability to have a focused strategy. If the in-house team needs to deal with several projects simultaneously, they may be forced to compromise on quality. However, Software development outsourcing can streamline your business process. This will allow your employees to take a centered approach and produce high-quality output within the set timelines. 

5. Technological advantages

Businesses seeking to gain a competitive advantage will develop cutting-edge innovations using the latest technologies without expending an additional amount of time and resources in learning them themselves. This is possible when they team up with strategic offshore development partners with a proven track record. 

6. Compensate for the lack of in-house experience

Software development outsourcing can bring in additional knowledge and power to reach your business goals. Outsourcing offers the flexibility to use your resources where there is a need as it allows you to scale up or scale down as required. It means that you can either let go of certain talent in one field while allowing you to quickly add specialists to your pool of experts in another field. You can employ a team of varying size, complexity, and cost.  Such a team will be able to find optimal solutions contributing to the growth of your company.

Read more: Why Software Development Outsourcing is a Smart Move Now 

Best practices to follow while offshoring software development

Here are a few points to consider when you decide to outsource your software development project:

• Get introduced to all the developers who are supposed to work on your project.
• Ensure to have a full-time on-shore lead and an offshore lead to help establish necessary coding standards, solve technical issues, and mentor the offshore team.
• Use video conferencing to arrange regular meetings to handle any problems and resolve the same in a timely and efficient manner.
• Use appropriate tracking tools (project management tools) to plan tasks efficiently and prioritize work accordingly.

Read more: Selecting the Right Engagement Model for Business Software Development 

Offshore Software Development with Fingent

Since 2003, Fingent has been a reliable and capable offshore partner for leading global brands, including many Fortune 500 companies. With an impeccable track record as an offshore software development team, Fingent has helped improve cash flow and increase business efficiency for many clients. We help your organization scale up as required without the need to hire or fire any of your team members. 

Our diverse offshore talent pool includes experienced developers and tech professionals who leverage the latest software development trends, such as automation, cloud computing, Artificial Intelligence (AI), Internet of Things (IoT), Augmented Reality (AR), Virtual Reality (VR), 3D Web Configurator, Robotic Process Automation (RPA), Mobile application development (native, hybrid), Microsoft solutions, SAP solutions, and so on. 

Our experts are available to provide you with inputs on your project. Let’s get talking and find out which process fits your project.

A Complete Guide to Understanding Offshore Software Development

• What is offshore development?
• What is the difference between onshore, nearshore, and offshore?
• What makes offshoring software development so popular?
• How does offshore development work?
• What are the advantages of offshoring software development?
• What are the disadvantages of offshoring software development
• What are the latest trends in offshore software development?
• How to choose the right offshore software company?
• Best practices to follow while offshoring software development
• Final thoughts

Exploring the different types of application software that businesses need today!

• Introduction
• What is Application Software?
• Different Types of Application Software Used by Businesses
• Types of Application Software Based on Shareability and Availability
• Functions of Application Software
• Business Benefits of Application Software
• The Cost of Application Software Development
• Develop Your Application Software with Fingent

Why your business needs to adopt headless CMS architecture

70% of companies are actively investing in content marketing and almost 60% of marketers rate content marketing as extremely important or very important to their marketing strategy, states HubSpot. Modern customer behavior is driving up the demand for a more flexible, customizable, and scalable CMS that is adept to deliver the experience your customers expect. When compared to traditional CMS, Headless CMS enables organizations to speed up delivery times while iterating quicker. This blog walks you through seven specific business benefits of headless CMS. Let’s begin by understanding what headless CMS is.

What is meant by Headless CMS?

A headless CMS allows us to edit CMS and database without an integrated presentation layer. The integrated presentation layer, which is referred to as a ‘head’, restricts the use of content only to one particular channel such as a website. Once CMS is severed from the head, it could be used across various other platforms such as a mobile, tablet, and smart devices, making it ideal for the current business scenario.

Read more: 5 Convincing Reasons To Adopt The Headless CMS Sanity.io

7 Business Benefits of Adopting a Headless CMS

1. More flexible

Since headless CMS is API driven, it allows you to build your own head or a presentation layer/ frontend. Besides enjoying the ability to pick your programming language, your developers can develop the website without having to conform to any proprietary development constraints. A single piece of content can be reused or combined with various other presentation outputs enabling faster project completions. 

A headless CMS allows secure and easy integration with any of your existing business systems. Additionally, since it does not have a fixed structure to code, your developers are at liberty to code for any type of integration. This gives them the flexibility to integrate with more complex systems. 

For example, Sanity.io is a popular headless CMS that allows you to embed editable data in running text and cache multiple queries on a single request. It also provides real-time collaboration, content versioning, and live previewing.

2. Supports Omnichannel Selling

For marketers to provide a customer-pleasing experience, each channel used by the business would require access to the current product information and availability. It can be quite a challenge to create iconic content that shines across all touchpoints. Instead, a headless CMS provides the capability to orchestrate a seamless experience across all touchpoints while maintaining consistency and relevance. For instance, Sitefinity empowers brands to deliver a personalized experience across channels.

3. Headless CMS is Future-Proof

A headless CMS enables businesses to future-proof their applications by separating the presentation layer from the data and logic layer. You can structure your content to facilitate future-proofing for new projects. Also, you would not be required to make any technical changes when re-branding one or more channels. Sitecore is a leading headless CMS that offers enterprise-class search and content targeting to boost personalization efforts, among other things.

4. Cost-Effective

It is a lot cheaper for your business team to create a new functionality because headless CMS requires little technical involvement. For example, if your marketing department chooses to create a new series of product mini-sites, they do not have to depend on developers to build CMS-based templates. Instead, the marketing team can directly go to the CMS and start creating the mini-sites as and when required, reducing your up-front costs. Kentico CMS, for instance, comes with tailored custom pricing. Websites of popular brands like Sony and Starbucks are powered by Kentico. 

Read more: Top 6 Tech Stacks That Reign Software Development in 2020

5. Offers Better Software Architecture

A headless CMS is architected to decouple CMS platforms and published content. This strengthens security because access to the CMS is restructured internally within the organization. It increases scalability simply by spinning up a new app server and pointing it to the content. It remains available against all odds because even when the CMS application goes offline, web applications will not have an impact. Episerver, the leading WCM platform supports editors to drag-and-drop content to create new digital experiences quickly.

6. Allows you to do more with less

Organizations will no longer need large teams of specialists with particular CMS knowledge, unlike the requirements for a traditional CMS.

7. Lets You Focus on Your Business

Worrying about your CMS can be time-consuming and distracting. A traditional CMS structure can take your attention away from growing your business. Whereas Headless CMS allows you to use your precious time and resources to grow your business.  Being a multi-tenant system, it is fully managed and upgraded for you. 

Read more: Top 5 benefits of outsourcing software development services

A Step Forward 

Apart from these, there are several other reasons why businesses must consider a headless CMS. The important aspect to consider is how you want to manage and store content for products and articles. This can have an impact on websites, application performance, and conversions. Hence, as marketers, it’s time to take a step beyond traditional CMS.

If you’re considering a headless CMS to improve your digital content experience, send us a message immediately. 

Top 5 benefits of outsourcing software development services

Software development outsourcing is empowering companies worldwide, including the most successful ones across their journeys. Leading players like Google, WhatsApp, Slack, and Microsoft have ample stories to share on their victorious feats with outsourcing development.

A study by Technavio reveals that the global IT outsourcing market will flourish at a CAGR of 5% during the period 2020-2024. The demand for outsourcing software development services keeps surging as organizations want to optimize their business processes and align their strategic planning with their operational strategies.

Outsourcing your IT necessities can be a boon in times of financial and natural adversities because outsourcing companies like Fingent implement business continuity planning and disaster recovery plans to fulfill obligations and deliver services without interruption.

If your company’s growth is dependent on software, and if you cannot afford your in-house IT team to divert from their core operations, it’s high time to outsource your software development needs. 

Why software outsourcing is good for your business?

Facts and testimonies speak the truth!

More and more businesses today are relying on software outsourcing companies to develop their projects. Working with an outsourcing company will help you mitigate the risks of running a project internally. Outsourcing can compensate for a lack of in-house skills and ensures that your product is delivered on time. 

At Fingent, we specialize as an offshore software development company. Many of our customers have shared their outsourcing success stories with us. A .NET based SaaS platform developed by Fingent has played a great role in the growth of the property management undertaking – SimpleRent. Here’s what SimpleRent’s founder told us.

PwC, one of our prominent customers, reports an 80% increase in productivity and a 67% faster ticket resolution rate after Fingent helped them implement a smart ticketing system. Thanks to outsourcing!

As an outsourcing development company, here are a few reasons why we think outsourcing makes your business more efficient and smarter.

Related Reading: Points to Consider Before Choosing the Best Software Development Company

1. Access to the finest talent and latest technology

Software development outsourcing helps in finding the right talents and minimizing your human-resource problems. If your country has a limited talent pool, outsourcing gives you access to a wider talent pool available anywhere on the globe.

Technology keeps evolving every day and your business needs to take advantage of its benefits. With outsourcing, you will gain access to new and innovative perspectives and an opportunity to utilize strong and diverse technology expertise.

2. Outsourcing cuts down your costs

The biggest benefit of offshore software development undoubtedly is the cost savings. Outsourcing software development companies do not necessarily demand you to make any upfront investments. By contracting work to other companies, you can cut down 70-90% of your labor costs, all while paying your outsourced workforce at competent rates. The cost advantages make your development project more attractive and reduce your overall workload. 

Adopting a cost-effective engagement model is crucial to the success of outsourcing. We help you choose the right engagement model essential for the creation of your state-of-the-art product. 

3. Improved flexibility and time management

When you outsource your work, you don’t have to spend time hiring and training resources. At Fingent, we take care of all the change requirements even when the project sizes vary or resource-related demands scale up. 

Outsourcing software development services accelerate your time-to-market. With people working around the clock, your competitiveness improves greatly and gives you an edge over your competitors.  

4. Take your business to the next level with a focused strategy

To win the technological race, you need to have a focused strategy. Every business needs to align its operational strategy with the changing people, process, and technology. When your software is developed by an outsourcing company, your business processes will be highly streamlined and optimized, allowing you to focus on the core activities that will take your business to the next level.

5. Managing risks and compliance

Partnering with a software outsourcing company like Fingent enables you to mitigate the risks associated with handling your project. We follow a high-quality project management system that has been tried, tested and proven across our past as well as ongoing projects. 

While outsourcing your software development needs, you are setting out to work with a global talent pool. We take care of all the legal compliance-related matters that have to be fulfilled while onboarding offshore resources as well as forging contracts with our clients. This lets you focus on other things that matter. 

Related Reading: The Pros and Cons of Outsourcing Mobile App Development

Ready to outsource your software development needs?

From resource hiring and onboarding to management training and payroll software, several functions can be outsourced by a company. In the age of globalization and technological competition, software development outsourcing is the key to your success. Share your queries and concerns about outsourcing with us. Our consultants can walk you through the best and most affordable solution that works for you. 

Re-Engineer your Business Processes with Superior Solutions Now!

Fingent Stamps its authority as a leading CodeIgniter developer of February 2020.

When talent is met with persistence and skill, it reaps out rich results. Fingent keeps this mantra in focus and works tirelessly in giving the best possible CodeIgniter solutions to the clients. Our efforts have been appreciated by TopDevelopers.co, as in their recently done press release of top CodeIgniter Developers they have ranked Fingent amongst the leading developers for February 2020. 

CodeIgnitor is a framework based on PHP. The CodeIgniter framework includes libraries and drivers that help build websites much easier and faster. Fingent excels in this technology and empowers businesses with CodeIgniter solutions to make procedures smarter and achieve a competitive edge.  

Fingent was established in the year 2003 with the core objective to provide customized software solutions that solve complex business challenges. We have been front runners in catering CodeIgniter development services and have an active client base in more than 14 countries in the past 17 years. 

In an interview with TopDevelopers.co, Deepu Prakash – Senior Vice President Process and Technology, Fingent, emphasized on maintaining top level client satisfaction technique and why it is important to shape the culture in the company.  “We are highly proficient in providing cloud computing, Hybrid app development, Digital Transformation, IoT services and much more apart from providing top class CodeIgniter development services.”

Our elite clientele includes market leaders such as Sony, PwC, Johnson and Johnson, NEC, and many more. Our skilled app and web developers have experience in providing services in more than 20 different industry verticals. We have also proven our excellence in offering great software solutions for businesses, which lists us among the renowned web development companies. 

We have a dedicated research and development team to analyze products based on the market trend and the targeted audience. The dedicated team enables us to give an extra edge to our clients that allow them to thrive and relish the cut-throat market scenario.

Visit Fingent’s profile on TopDevelopers.co and understand our procedure of work, areas of focus, industry focus, client feedback, and service updates in detail. Or directly get in touch with our experts to know how we can help you solve complex business challenges with the right technology.

Find Business Success with Agile Software Development Methodologies

Agile software development methodologies have proven their mettle in recent years and “agile” is becoming a buzz word in software development and project management. It makes sense, therefore, to understand what drives the success of these methodologies and consider if your business could benefit from implementing it.

What is the Agile Software Development Methodology?

Agile Development works on the principles of iteration and incremental development. It does not rely on a linear method approach but focuses on rapid delivery of fully functional application components. The focus is not on tasks, but on time phases called “sprints.” These sprints are of specific duration and begin with a detailed plan of what is to be delivered at the end of a sprint. Continuous testing, feedback, and improvement are vital aspects of the agile methodology.

At the heart of the agile methodology is its focus on individuals and interactions rather than processes and tools. Rather than focusing on comprehensive documentation to prove a project’s worth, the primary measure of progress in agile methodology is delivering working, tested software. This serves as a basis for collaboration between teams and customers, gaining feedback and swiftly responding to change. Value-driven development is given prime importance with the focus on delivering visible results and business value continuously. This way, stakeholders and projects have complete visibility on where the project stands and the business value they can expect at any given point of the project.

Scrum is an important aspect of the agile methodology and deserves a mention in the context of discussing agile methodologies. Using the principles of agile methodology, Scrum advocates a self-organizing and cross-functional team. The Scrum method is supported by two specific roles – the Scrum Master (who acts as the coach to direct teams towards agility and high performance) and the Product Owner (who helps the team build the right product and represents the company and end users).

Why Agile Methodology Trumps Traditional Development Methods

There are many reasons why Agile Methodology is being favored over traditional methods worldwide. We have listed out a few:

Faster and Better Workflow:

Agile Methodology is completely different from traditional Waterfall Methodologies, where projects follow a linear approach and progress from one step to another only after the previous step is completed. The traditional time-consuming method of relying on comprehensive documentation and analysis before the design and commencement of the project is eliminated.

Implementation and development begin almost immediately in agile development and the processes and development is refined in increments based on continuous feedback from customers and project teams. This also cuts out the verification and maintenance stage in the Waterfall Method, where the end product is tested, bugs are fixed, and the code is maintained. In the agile method, this testing and bug fixing is already being done continuously throughout the project, ensuring that the final product is refined and ready to be deployed.

Multilevel and continuous planning:

The absence of detailed analysis before implementation in agile methodology does not mean that the project is initiated without any substantial planning. On the contrary, multi-level and continuous planning is a vital feature of the agile development methodology. The planning follows a just-in-time approach, which aligns the information available with what details are necessary at the time.

The planning usually happens on at least two levels – the release level and the iteration level. At the release level, planning involves identifying and prioritizing the necessary features required in the software. This gives a basis to decide which features must be worked on first. Planning at the iteration level involves which features must be implemented next and the optimal size of batches which can be practically delivered in a single iteration.

Customer Focus:

The most important feature of agile methodologies is that it places the customer at the center of the development process. Teams are directed to think of product design through user stories and use cases, which ensures that customers are always kept at the heart of the process. User stories specify the needs of the end users and the various scenarios that they will use to fulfill that need.

Use cases show how the product developed will help end users achieve the outcome they want in the user story. In this way, the whole development process becomes focussed on what the customer needs. This is the foundation of Customer Experience (CX), which is fast becoming the defining success factor for companies today.

Related Reading: Read on to know how customer experiences reshape a company’s brand identity. 

Business Success with Agile Software Development Methodologies

Businesses the world over are embracing and implementing agile methodologies in their efforts to improve their project management capabilities and improve performance. The 9th Global Project Management Survey, which surveyed 3,234 project management professionals from all over the world attests to this fact.

According to the survey, 71% of organizations use Agile approaches in their business. “We believe that agility could also be used in multiple ways— in everything we do,” says Phillippe Husser, a survey respondent and Senior Partner of Progress Direction Michelin.  “In fact, the world is changing very quickly around us, so much so that we cannot afford anymore to have projects taking two to five years to deliver, because, during this time, the initial requirements have changed.”

Case in Point: Ericsson

Ericsson is a leading provider of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) to service providers and covers 40% of the world’s mobile phone traffic. The company with around 100,000 employees is a classic case in point to show the successful implementation of agile methodologies even in large-sized companies.

The company used to use a plan-driven software process but switched to agile in 2012. One of their main areas of focus was to develop a XaaS platform and services that the customers would use as a service. The results have been phenomenal.

Steve Dennings, an expert on agile methodology and author of The Age of Agile, summarizes the success points of Ericsson’s adoption of agile methodologies this way: “Now with Agile management, Ericsson has over 100 small teams working with its customers’ needs in three-week cycles. The result is faster development that is more relevant to the specific needs of the customers. The client gets value sooner. Ericsson has less work in progress. And Ericsson is deploying one to two years earlier than it otherwise would so that its revenue comes in one to two years earlier.”

Find Success with Agile Software Development

Agile development and methodology is an integral part of Fingent Technologies and creating agile software products for different industry sectors such as healthcare, finance, education, entertainment and media, real estate and retail amongst others. Get in touch with us so we can discuss how you can get effective in your agile journey and find success.

Related Reading: Check out these custom software development trends that every business should know.

The importance of security can never be understated in today’s age of big-time security breaches, where cyber-criminals strike at will. However, the enterprise app development team needs to make sure that the security does not impede usability, or in other words, security is not self-defeating.

Most apps and solutions tap into the corporate database and handle sensitive data, including personally identifiable information. The implications of a breach can be ruinous and even sound the death-knell of the company. However, at the same time, today’s demanding workforce and highly pampered customers seek intuitive and easy-to-use apps. Customer satisfaction is critical to the survival of the app.

The conventional approach to security is akin to adding more number of locks to the door of a house. While it makes it difficult for thieves to penetrate such a house, it also makes it difficult for the occupants themselves to enter.  In the digital world, forced to log in every time, forced to log in first into the device, then log into the software, and then enter a transaction password, being forced to change all these passwords once every two weeks, being said the password is not long enough or was used previously, and more, all strengthen security, but are major irritants and impede usability greatly.

Here are some ways to balance the security-usability conundrum, or ensure security does not end-up self-defeating the very purpose of the app.

Implement Security by Design

The best approach to security is “security by design” or co-opting security during the development process itself.

When security is embedded into the planning, design and implementation phases, developers may code with security in mind, use secure frameworks, and co-opt security testing a part of the app development process.

Adding security layers at a later stage makes the entire process awkward, and hinders usability. Often tweaks have to be affected, and well-written code redone. The analogy is to manufacturing a door with a single tamper-proof deadbolt lock built-in, as opposed to adding multiple locks after the door is installed, to get the same strength.

Collaborate with all Stakeholders

App developers need to collaborate with security experts and business managers, to assess the security risks and determine the best solutions to solve underlying security issues.

If bringing the security and development team together is a challenge, establishing common ground is an even bigger challenge. Developers seek to make things as easy as possible for their customers or users. The security team remains obsessed with the safety of data, often with the attitude if someone has to wait a few extra seconds to access the data, so be it. They remain oblivious to the implications of the harried customer moving on elsewhere rather than wait or put up with a convoluted system.  Google usability studies reveal even a tenth of a second delay in an app’s performance adversely affects the user experience.

A collaborative team effort, where every stakeholder is part of the prototype, design, and testing tasks make finding a common ground and workarounds easy. For instance, with a security team in the mix, developers will no longer have to figure how to securely connect to the enterprise every time they build an app. Inputs from the security team would help them build a secure connection, VPN or otherwise, which may even be reused for other apps. In the same way, security could design a secure way for users to log into these apps.

Opt for Hardware-Based Authentication

Developments in hardware technology offer an effective antidote to security vulnerabilities, without having to compromise on usability. A case in point is Apple’s Touch ID fingerprint scanner and compatible Android systems. By deploying such hardware-based security and authentication, users do not have to wrestle with irritating passwords, and developers are spared the cumbersome work in securing data and authenticating users through the application code. It also leads to faster development lifecycle and a much cleaner code.

Limit Availability of Sensitive Data

If data is not there to be stolen, it won’t be stolen.

Businesses would do well to reconsider their business model and limit the availability of data online only to the minimal extent required. Hypersensitive data may be stored in impregnable silos, using military grade authentication, quite contrary to the much-touted logic of eradicating silos to facilitate big data analytics. Only the data required for analytics may be released, on a need-basis.  

Developers could also make use of Security Information and Event Management (SIEM). SIEM collects security log events from numerous hosts connected to the enterprise servers, to identify normal patterns. An abnormal usage pattern triggers alerts, and even lockdowns, safeguarding the data. At the same time, normal, routine usage is allowed unobtrusively. The challenge lies in the complexity of configuring the SIEM.

Leverage the Power of Simplicity

Leverage the power of simplicity. Simple apps, with a minimalist design, and lean coding are not just easy on the users but contain lesser vulnerabilities. Such a set-up also minimize the chance of users doing anything to compromise security. A case in point is Amsterdam-based Usabilla putting in the minimal security necessary, and nothing more for its consumer feedback service. The simplifying services and features encouraged users to follow the right path rather than take actions having potential security implications.

Hire Competent Developers

Often skills gaps, poor planning and poor understanding of the business model by the developer aggravates the usability-security conundrum. Hiring competent enterprise app developers, who have considerable experience and exposure to the business, who are able to work closely with business managers, and who are able to deploy the best tools and techniques of the trade, is the key to develop highly intuitive apps, which are highly secure at the same time.

In today’s age of hyper-competition, businesses need to focus their systems on the customer. A critical area of focus is business software. Much of business software hitherto focused on internal efficiency. However, competitive pressure mandate a realign, with the focus on the customer, and specifically customer support.

Businesses Need to Roll Out Mobile Solutions

Nowadays, the basic support for customer commerce is through customer-facing mobile apps. About 80% of shoppers use their mobile phones for product reviews, to compare prices, and find store locations. A good chunk of these customers completes the purchase process online as well. About 54% of Millennials and 49% of Non-Millennials prefer shopping online. Businesses need to roll out customer-facing mobile apps and responsive websites, to facilitate e-commerce and other customer interactions.

The Rise of Virtual Reality (VR) and Augmented Reality (AR)

E-commerce websites offer a world of convenience to the customer. It brings the shopping experience anywhere, from home to office, and from the boardroom to the bathroom. However, such convenience comes without the “touch-and-feel” experience of physical stores. Virtual Reality (VR) and Augmented Reality (VTR) technologies bridge the shortcoming and offer the best of both worlds.

Cases of retailers supporting customer commerce through VR and AR-based software abound.

• Swedish furniture giant IKEA’s VR app allows customers to view different kitchen decors. Customers can walk around IKEA kitchens virtually, using a VR headset and app.
• Sephora’s app allows users to take selfies and apply the brand’s cosmetic products to their images. Customers can get conclusive proof of whether a shade of lipstick will look good on them, rather than debate endlessly or speculate.

Artificial Intelligence Systems Facilitate Personalization

Personalization is the order of the day.

Most businesses already use Google Analytics tool to segment customers. They target segmented groups with different discounts and deals. Marketers also use various other predictive analytics tools to analyze historical data. Advanced solutions deliver accurate predictions about demand. Enterprises could focus their efforts on products having the greatest potential for profits.

However, such a superficial approach will undergo a sea-change by 2018. More-and-more shoppers now leverage Artificial Intelligence, to source products, bargain prices, and pick up products. As a case in point, connected smart fridges detect when the stock of milk becomes low, and trigger an automatic reorder with a linked e-commerce store. Enterprises who can roll out business software to align with such smart systems, and leverage “A-Commerce” or Artificial Intelligence-based commerce, stands to gain big.

Adaptive Design Comes Centrestage

Customers’ needs are never set in stone. Smart businesses keep track of changing customer preferences and the underlying influencers of such change. Business software which connects with potential clients on a personal level, in real-time, is central to such efforts.

Use-cases abound for businesses leveraging technology, to adapting its products and services to serve real-time customer needs.

• Curve, a credit card company allows customers to switch cards even after completing the purchase. An executive purchasing a computer for the company with his personal card, to take advantage of a bargain, could later change the billing to the company card, after getting authorization.
• KLM’s new clip, attached to the traveler’s bag, offers real-time directions, suggestions, and alternatives. For instance, when a user is stuck in a long line at the Eiffel Tower, the clip suggests the nearby hot-air balloon at Parc André Citroën. The clip also directs users to specific in-house services, stealing customers away from the competition.
• Tesla recently increased the range of its electric vehicles for customers struck in places affected by Hurricane Irma. Range limitations in Tesla’s vehicles meant owners couldn’t evacuate the area.

Virtual Companions Become Mainstream

Most smart businesses now empower their workforce, especially support agents with virtual assistants. Such virtual assistants automate daily tasks in ways CRM can never enable.

Virtual assistants offer agents deep real-time insights on information hidden inside the company databases and other systems. Locating such information manually is a time-consuming task, in the absence of clear-cut information on where such information resides. The obvious benefit is a speedier resolution of consumer issues, leading to improved customer satisfaction and accelerated sales cycles.

Virtual assistants also take the shape of chatbots, replacing the manual assistant altogether. Technology has evolved considerably on this front, and businesses are co-opting it in a big way. In 2018, even the most basic bots will become more interactive than Siri and Alexia of today.

AI infused bots learn from users, to offer highly relevant insight and suggestions. It could open the database and pry a solution even before a manual agent has the chance to comprehend the question. Further, the technology to make bots understand emotional intelligence has arrived. Such Emotional Intelligence capable bots would know how exactly to respond to a frustrated customer. Going forward, bots would handle most normal queries, leaving human agents only with long-tail and complicated queries.

Social Media Rises in Importance

Social media caught on big-time, with estimates suggesting a 394% increase in social media use in recent years. The widespread popularity is mainly on account of the transparency, the social media delivers. The best businesses leverage such transparency to further their business model.

Traditionally, businesses had complete control over their products and services. The business model essentially boiled down to a “take-it-or-leave-it” approach. The transparency infused by social media has changed the power equations. Customers now have unprecedented choice and ability to gather real feedback from real users of any product or service. If something goes wrong, rest assured everyone will come to know about it.

Smart companies cope with such change by giving more power to its customers. They listen to the customer eagerly and align their business software to take feedback. This ensures that the business and the customer work together, for mutual benefit. Businesses roll out more collaborative systems and link it to their key product development and management channels.

Enterprises need not always go in search of new technologies. What is important is the way in which any technology, new or old is applied. Any business today needs to adapt and change its services and products to meet the changing needs of the customers. Customer focused business software is a major enabler in this direction.

The importance of software has never been so evident than in the present times. Not only do critical enterprise systems now run almost entirely on software, but mobile apps and other digital touch points powered by software are being used increasingly to deliver efficiency, make work easy, unlock new possibilities, facilitate the customer, and improve customer satisfaction.

Off the Shelf Software

Catering to the trend of software dominance, several vendors offer ready-made software and applications, for just about all processes and functions. Enterprises or users simply need to purchase such software off-the-shelf, fill in fields or go through a setup wizard and hit the ground running. Such ready-to-use ERP suites, CRM suites, collaboration systems, and even e-commerce portals where the company can upload products are commonplace. With the spread of cloud computing, several providers offer intuitive ready-made cloud-based pay-as-you-go-solutions.

However, what such software offers in ease and speed, it restricts in flexibility and functionality. Very often, the benefits of such ready-to-use software are superficial; to the extent, the very purpose of installing software may not be realized. In the extreme case, installing such software may leave critical gaps to key processes or the customer engagement, making such installation counterproductive.

Custom Software

Custom software is tailor made, or specifically designed for the enterprise, keeping specific functionality in mind. It offers several advantages over ready-to-use software.

Custom software, being developed specifically for the enterprise, is not a hodgepodge of some general functionality. It accommodates not just the specific functionality, but also any particular preferences and expectations required in the suite or app.

Custom software may be developed in iterative processes, factoring in all nuances and hidden risks, with the scope to include functionality or tasks not mentioned in the original requirement specifications. The latter is critical in today’s highly fluid business environment where change takes place very fast.

There is no such thing as one-size-fits-all in any enterprise. Every business is structured and managed in its own unique way, and custom software is best placed to cater to such uniqueness. Custom software development enables fitting the software to the business model. It does require adjusting the business model to the software flow, and in the process risk productivity, effectiveness and even the vitality of the business.

The adoption of custom software is highest among large enterprises

Enterprises use custom software for most of their functions, including content management, inventory management, customer management, human resource management, and more. The odds are most of the key enterprise level software, such as CRM, ERP, and more being custom developed. The custom software helps in effective integration across key systems, enables seamless capture of data for big data analytics, facilitates compliance and other external transactions easy, and overall equip the enterprise to respond to events and situations in a proactive way.

The challenges of adopting custom software for small and medium size business

For all the benefits, custom software offers, it is pricey. There are also the delays associated with getting the custom software up and running. However, this is not a universal rule. Instances of enterprises ending up paying more for unnecessary features and functionality are all-too-commonplace. With custom software, the enterprise pays for leveraging technology only to the extent they need.

Enterprises would do well to consider the total lifecycle costs and the net value on offer. Custom solutions save money by ensuring improved efficiency in the long term. While off-the-shelf software may come at a lower upfront price, investment in custom software would reap rewards on a sustained basis throughout the lifecycle of the software, in terms of improved efficiency, better productivity, better sales, or whatever else the software seeks to achieve. Custom software being fully optimized for its objectives would enable doing the thing in a much better way than generic off-the-counter software.

Custom software enables the enterprises to become more nimble. For example, in the case of bugs, the Enterprise could get to fix it right away, rather than wait for the next round of update to come, which may be months away. With ready-made software, the enterprise takes a big risk living with vulnerabilities. Small and medium enterprises can strike a person rapport with the developer, ensuring a transparent flow of information between the enterprise and the development partner, enabling tweaks as part of regular maintenance, without obstructing normal business.

Optimizing business processes to be lean and seamless through custom software delivers several spins off benefits as well, transforming the entire organization. Having a highly functional customized software helps the enterprise have a greater level of control over all operations, and also take control of the growth process, which can often be chaotic. A digital driven enterprise enables a culture shift to a more open and proactive enterprise, seen as key to success in today’s highly challenging economy.

Start-ups are basing their entire business model on custom software

Start-ups face the same time and cost constraints of small and medium enterprises, and they may not yet have a viable business model to consider investment worth its while. However, in today’s tech-centric age, start-ups have the potential to base their entire business model on the custom software itself, as several households names from Uber to Travago, and from Zomato to Lyft, and more.

Start-ups would do well to invest in scalable custom software and reap the benefits of highly lean and optimized systems from the word go, without being disrupted by a change that entrenches companies to digitalize their systems. The easiest way for startups to leverage the latest technology is through developing custom software for the process.

The positive impact of custom software realizes most when the software is well developed, fulfilling enterprise requirements well, at the same time being flexible enough to suit the exigencies of the business. Well-designed and well-implemented custom software enables the enterprise to become more flexible. Considering the importance of the development, the task is best outsourced to a professional agency, for whom the task is a core activity.