Tag: custom software
As the world grapples with the challenges of climate change, soil degradation, and resource scarcity, agricultural organizations find themselves at a critical juncture. The urgency for adopting sustainable farming practices, amplified by the integration of custom software, has never been more pronounced. This blog explores the pivotal role of digital transformation in achieving sustainability, shedding light on why agricultural organizations should embrace this shift.
Why the Focus on Sustainable Farming?
The urgency stems from a dual challenge: preserving the environment and securing the economic viability of agricultural operations. Inefficient practices impact the bottom line, making sustainability not just a moral duty but a financial necessity.
The Impact of Digital Transformation in Agriculture
Digital transformation, powered by Artificial Intelligence (AI), Data Analytics, and Cloud solutions, represents a seismic shift in farming approaches. The focus isn’t on whether to adopt these technologies but on how fast agricultural organizations can leverage them for sustainable growth.
To understand why agricultural organizations should embrace digital transformation, let’s consider some use cases.
1. AI in Agriculture: Precision Farming for Optimal Results
Use Case: Crop Yield Prediction
One significant application of AI in agriculture is crop yield prediction. AI algorithms analyze historical weather patterns, soil conditions, and crop health data to forecast optimal planting times and expected yields. For instance, a predictive AI model can take into account variables like temperature, precipitation, and crop health data to help farmers make data-driven decisions, maximizing yield with minimal resource use.
2. Data Analytics: Informed Decision-Making in Real Time
Use Case: Soil Health Monitoring
Data Analytics plays a crucial role in monitoring soil health in real-time. Sensors placed in the soil collect data on moisture levels, nutrient content, and temperature. Data Analytics algorithms process this information, providing farmers with immediate insights into soil conditions. By understanding these factors, farmers can adjust irrigation, fertilizer application, and other practices to optimize crop growth.
3. Big Data: Navigating Trends for Long-Term Success
Use Case: Market Trend Analysis
Big Data is instrumental in analyzing market trends to help farmers make informed decisions about crop selection and pricing. By aggregating and analyzing data from various sources, such as global market trends, consumer preferences, and weather patterns, farmers can strategically plan their crop rotations and adapt to changing market demands.
4. Cloud: Scalability and Flexibility for Modern Farms
Use Case: Remote Monitoring and Management
Cloud solutions enable remote monitoring of farming operations. Farmers can access real-time data on crop conditions, equipment status, and weather patterns from anywhere. This level of accessibility enhances decision-making and allows for timely responses to changing conditions.
Use Case: Collaborative Farming Platforms
Cloud-based collaborative platforms facilitate information sharing among farmers. This includes sharing insights on best practices, weather forecasts, and market trends. Such platforms promote collaboration, helping farmers make collective decisions for mutual benefit.
5. In-Depth Custom Software: Tailored Solutions for Agricultural Challenges
Elaborating on custom software solutions, let’s explore specific examples of how custom software has been tailored to address challenges in agriculture:
Example: Crop Management System
A custom Crop Management System can integrate AI and Data Analytics to provide farmers with comprehensive insights into crop health, soil conditions, and weather forecasts. This solution tailors its algorithms to the specific crops grown on a farm, offering personalized recommendations for irrigation schedules, fertilization, and pest control.
Example: Supply Chain Optimization Software
Custom software designed for supply chain optimization in agriculture integrates Big Data analytics. It tracks the entire supply chain, from harvest to distribution, optimizing routes, storage conditions, and inventory management. This ensures that produce reaches its destination in optimal condition, reducing waste and maximizing profitability.
Challenges in Leveraging Technologies in Farming Processes
Although the decision to implement technology in the farming process seems like a no-brainer, there have been a few challenges on the way.
1. Complex Procedures: Navigating the Intricacies
The adoption of technology in farming processes is not a simple plug-and-play endeavor. Farming operations are intricate and interconnected. Addressing these complexities requires a strategic approach that acknowledges the nuances of each operation.
2. Legacy Systems: Breaking Free from the Past
Many agricultural operations are shackled by legacy systems that were implemented in a different era. These systems, while once effective, now hinder the integration of modern digital solutions. Overcoming this challenge involves strategic investments in upgrading or replacing outdated infrastructure.
3. Staff Onboarding: Bridging the Knowledge Gap
The success of digital transformation hinges on the people behind the technology. Onboarding staff with new technology presents a unique set of challenges, from upskilling the existing workforce to recruiting new talent. A comprehensive training strategy is essential to ensure that the human element seamlessly integrates with the digital landscape.
As the farming industry stands at the crossroads of tradition and innovation, the role of custom software becomes increasingly pivotal. So, let us explore how custom software serves as the linchpin in driving the right digital transformation for agriculture.
Custom Software: Tailoring Innovation to Agricultural Realities
Custom software addresses the complexities of modern farming, offering tailored solutions that off-the-shelf options often lack. It eases the digital transformation journey, ensuring a seamless integration of technology into existing processes. Here are some ways in which challenges can be addressed:
- Addressing Procedural Complexity: Custom software streamlines intricate procedures without disrupting established workflows, ensuring a seamless integration of new technologies.
- Compatibility with Legacy Systems: Designed to coexist with legacy systems, custom software serves as a strategic bridge, preventing the need for a costly infrastructure overhaul.
- Staff Empowerment through Training Solutions: Custom software includes comprehensive training modules, empowering staff to leverage the full potential of new technologies.
How Can Fingent Help?
At Fingent, we understand that the path to sustainable and efficient farming is paved with innovative, custom solutions. Our expertise extends across three crucial phases of the digital transformation journey: discovery, development, and implementation.
- Discovery Phase: Fingent collaborates closely with agricultural businesses to identify opportunities for digital transformation. Through meticulous analysis, we uncover areas for improvement in resource management, data utilization, and operational efficiency.
- Development Phase: Armed with insights, our seasoned developers craft custom software solutions designed to address the unique challenges of each farm. From precision farming tools to supply chain management systems, our goal is to optimize operations and enhance overall efficiency.
- Implementation with 24/7 Backup: The journey doesn’t end with software development. Fingent provides robust implementation support with 24/7 backup, ensuring a smooth transition into the digital landscape. Our commitment is to minimize disruptions and maximize the benefits of sustainable farming practices.
A Greener Tomorrow, Powered by Digital Innovation
In the journey towards a sustainable future for farming, digital transformation is paramount. Custom software is the linchpin, simplifying complexities and seamlessly integrating technology into agricultural operations. At Fingent, we stand ready to be your dedicated partner, discovering opportunities, crafting tailored solutions, and offering unwavering support. With the right custom software, your farm can lead the way to a greener tomorrow.
Give us a call, and let’s get talking.
Home-grown might be the way to go when it’s to be put on your dinner table, but does it apply to your business as well?
The need for complete digitization of business processes has become a necessity in today’s day and age. Due to this demanding criterion, some businesses have taken it upon themselves to cultivate their own personal, home-grown software programs. This has proved to be exponentially advantageous to some businesses. The important question here is: Although your home-grown software helped you take a big step forward, is it going to hold up to other demands of the future?
What Is Home-Grown Software?
Home-grown software, also known as legacy software, is generally a custom-tailored software program fabricated by a consumer or software development team to complete business processes. It is typically created internally from scratch, and the reason for its creation is the lack of suitable commercial packages that fit a specific business need. These programs are affordable and can be extremely handy.
Although home-grown technology has proven to be an excellent path to customize business processes and cut costs in the past, it does not hold the same weight in the incessantly evolving market integrated with evolving advanced technology. The world’s capacity for technology and innovation is rapidly increasing, which places a lot of pressure on businesses that aim to progress. Due to this rise in customer expectations, most businesses are forced to migrate from their old home-grown software to modern cloud-based software.
Is It Time To Upgrade Your Home Grown Software Or Replace It?
Most software tends to fall apart over time, whether it is due to the changing market or its inability to scale as businesses grow. When this happens, you are faced with two choices: to either upgrade your software program or completely replace it. Here are a few indicators to look out for if you are not sure when is the right time to update or replace your legacy software:
- Unending Updates: If the “system update” notification starts popping up too many times, it’s time to consider an upgrade. When a system updates itself, it needs to shut down completely, and this directly affects the productivity of your employees. If there is an inconsistent workflow, motivation to work dies down.
- Security Scares: If your legacy software is incapable of encrypting and protecting your business data, you can potentially become a target for hackers and other security threats. Hence, security is a vital factor in determining whether you need to replace your software or update it.
- Trendy Technology: Analyze if your legacy software can keep up with current technology. If your home-grown software is unable to compete with modern technology and the technology it uses to run is outdated, finding personnel or employees to maintain it becomes close to impossible. This will add to your expenses and ultimately result in a business loss.
Read more: Take steps to modernize your applications before they fall apart. Here are excerpts from a CTO on Legacy Application Migration!
Technical Debt
Technical debt, also known as tech debt, is the cost businesses pay when they do not fix problems that will affect them in the future. It is essentially the price you pay for not foolproofing your business and its aspects. Tech debts are generally caused by insufficient information about company needs, pressure to release software quicker with quality checks, and underestimating the need for quality codes.
It can be said that they are shortcuts taken during software development; they tend to accumulate over time and can affect business. Technical debts take the form of codes that are difficult to read, maintain, and scale or technical infrastructure that is outdated and in need of updating. Postponing the process of adding extra features and maintaining poor records of documentation are also forms of shortcuts.
Consequences Of Technical Debt
There are several consequences of tech debt: increased cost for fixing problems that may arise; lower quality of service leading to poor customer service; tainting company image and reputation; stunted scaling, which leads to stagnant business; death of innovation and integration; poor security; obstructed workflow resulting in lower employee morale; and finally, overall increased risks. These consequences cannot be overlooked because if you ignore their existence in the beginning, they will stack up and slowly poison your business. Although cutting costs in the development phase of your home-grown software may prove to be economical initially, it is bound to cost you more money to repair in the long run. The average cost overrun of an IT project, according to the Harvard Business Review article “Why Your IT Project May Be Riskier Than You Think,” is 27%.
Integration For the Future
Every business owner plans their business with the bigger picture in mind. It is no surprise that the path of technology is decked with Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning, among many other advanced technologies. When creating software, it is of utmost importance to code it with features that help it integrate with other systems and advanced technology.
As a business owner, it is wise to keep all the cards on your side, and the advantages of Artificial Intelligence and Intelligence Automation cannot be overemphasized. The homegrown system you create must have the capability to sync with these evolving applications and intelligence tools. If you are not willing to completely abandon your legacy software and wish to update it instead, remember to consult the right professionals who can help you modernize your system to be up-to-date with evolving technologies and allow seamless incorporation.
Creating and maintaining the perfect home-grown software can be quite challenging. Hence, most business owners prefer to partner up with a reliable service provider to meet their business needs. Developing custom software that targets your specific needs and is customized to cater to them is beneficial for your business.
Just remember to be mindful of the choices you make while developing it. If you sense your legacy software falling short and notice that it is time for change, be bold and take that leap. Whether it is to replace the home-grown system or update it, keep your business’s future in mind and make your decision.
Talk to our experts and allow us to help you figure out the best solution for your business.
The world of technology keeps evolving and waits for no one, so it is our responsibility to keep up with it rather than fall behind. The healthcare industry has for a long time been using software development systems to monitor and ease work-lifestyles; now it is time to customize this software to make them function and run exactly the way you need it to. Custom software development has made life and business significantly easier for innumerable industries and is poised to revolutionize the Healthcare Industry as well. This article will tell you all you need to know about it.
Importance Of Healthcare Software Development
Healthcare software systems provide innumerable benefits to hospital management, from improved productivity to reduced medication errors. It streamlines the workflow, enhances data quality, drastically reduces errors, and boosts patient experiences. Rising technological advancements also help with hospital administration and operations.
Benefits Of Customized Healthcare Software Development
The overall benefit of using customized healthcare software is overall progress and betterment. This should be reason enough to convince anyone to adopt custom healthcare software but if it is not, listed below are a few of the other benefits of this type of software development:
- Increased security – Thanks to the inculcation of software in healthcare, hospitals are now sending, storing, and retrieving data through the web. Custom software solutions will guarantee the safety of this personal medical data.
- User-friendly experience – The target audience’s desired product is taken into consideration by software designers and user interface designers. Software designers can also consider specific aspects of an application to make it more alluring and interactive.
- Customizable features – Customization is the buzzword right now, and custom software provides it like no other. Customer feedback is prioritized, and the generated product is more streamlined and efficient. Customized software will handle specific problems, and this aspect makes it attracts and brings in more loyal customers or patients.
- Quality of diagnostics – Technology is well known for its brilliance in efficiency. Diagnostics run by a customized software solution have proven to have outstanding quality and accuracy because these solutions imbibe knowledge from innumerable sources and compare results faster. Hence, healthcare providers can proffer improved healthcare if they rely on custom software solutions.
Read more: How Can Custom-Made Software Provide Superior Customer Service In The Healthcare Industry?
Understanding Healthcare Software Development
Healthcare software development is the creation of any software for the healthcare sector to facilitate hospitals and improve equipment management. It also helps with administering electronic records, managing health records, providing diagnoses and treatments, improving patient care, and reducing costs.
Healthcare software development plays an important role in everyone’s life. For doctors – it reduces paperwork and increases collaboration with other specialists. For patients – it enhances patient outreach, improves healthcare quality, and eases access to medical data. Lastly, it improves medical business management and streamlines management processes for organizations.
Healthcare organizations, just like any other organization, have their own set of challenges that cripple them. Custom Software can address most of these challenges and fix them.
- Cyberthreats – The skyrocketing rate of cyber security attacks threatens to endanger the personal medical data of patients and, ultimately, the reputation of a healthcare center. Custom Software can fix this with its exceptional security firewalls and customized cyber security.
- Patient Experience – When patients experience favorable care, they are more likely to heed medical advice and this is essential for better healthcare outcomes, boosting patient retention rates and lowering malpractice risk. Custom software can help here, too by enhancing the user experience and user interface by creating more interactive, customized, and enticing products.
Key Considerations for Healthcare Software Development
Now that we have established the importance of custom healthcare software development, here are some key considerations:
1. Compliance And Security –
Medical records are very sensitive data, and it is the responsibility of the healthcare facility to protect them carefully. Abiding by the international security laws of HIPAA, PCI, and IOS is a must, along with deft investments in specialized medical data security. Ensure that your partner conducts adequate software checkups to detect any potential vulnerability.
2. User-Centred Design –
Customized healthcare software’s main target is its audience, so focusing on their comfort or ease is a top priority. Inclusivity of all kinds, from senior users to less literate users, is a crucial thing to keep in mind when designing an interface for the organization. Properly incorporated user-centered designs are vital for an intuitive and efficient workflow. Software Designers usually build a simple and easy-to-use user interface (UI) and a user experience (UX).
3. Interoperability and Integration –
Interoperability, in simple words, is the ability of a software or system to work compatibly with other products and systems. It helps facilitate organized and effective data exchange between data systems. To avoid complications with regard to personalized information or reports of customers while sharing data between systems, especially when introducing new versions of the same software to different platforms, efficient interoperability is important.
4. Scalability and Flexibility –
Scalability and flexibility are other critical considerations to remember. It is imperative to design a product capable of scaling up as your healthcare organization grows. Ensuring that your customized software developed is flexible and can change and segue according to wavering customer demands.
5. Data Analytics and Insights –
Data analytics is essentially the process of studying raw data in order to determine trends and enable enhanced decision-making. This transformation of data done by custom software into insights can drastically leverage data to enhance decision-making, patient outcomes, and overall operational efficiency.
Read more: AI in Healthcare – Know what’s trending and what’s upcoming!
Steps in Custom Healthcare Software Development
Let’s now get into the development itself. Here are some steps to ensure that the development goes smoothly and provides the best outcomes:
1. Requirements Gathering and Analysis –
It is always best to make a detailed analysis of your organization, its needs, and budgets before diving into a custom software development project. Consult well-versed software designers and healthcare professionals, jot the requirement details, and communicate with your team members to obtain an unbiased perspective.
2. Design and Development –
In this step, the analysis generated is used as input and software infrastructure for implementing software development. Software developers first draw a synopsis of the details for the application, including specific aspects such as User interfaces, System interfaces, Network and Network Requirements, and Databases.
Following close behind the design stage is the development stage. It is the stage where coding starts and all components of the software are implemented. The use of agile methodologies and interactive interfaces to improve user satisfaction, flexibility, and feedback incorporation is crucial during this phase of development.
3. Quality Assurance And Testing –
The testing period begins at the end of the coding stage. Here the modules are circulated for testing. Although testing may not seem like a necessary step, skipping it will ultimately result in the downfall of software. The developed software should be tested thoroughly, and developers fix any vulnerability discovered. There are various tests that need to be conducted after coding of software; these include – functional, usability, and security testing.
4. Deployment and Training –
After the product has been sufficiently tested, the software is deployed into the market or organization scheme. In the case of UAT (User Acceptance Testing), a production environment is created, and the customer, along with the developers, partakes in the testing.
Case Studies
Fingent has been a leader in custom software development for the healthcare sector and has created unmatched solutions for its clients. Here are a few examples:
A Data Analytics Solution for NHS: With the wide range of hospitals under its governance, the NHS required a data visualization tool that would help them compare healthcare performances across the hospitals and showcase the best ones. Fingent helped develop a solution that was customized to the NHS’s specific needs and designed an application with interactive visuals and real-time access to insights.
Fingent’s portfolio includes top-notch solutions like this, including an online engagement platform for NovitaCare and a patient care solution to promote effective communication in the healthcare ecosystem. Working with clients globally, Fingent has been able to have a direct impact on simplified patient care, operational efficiency, and cost savings for healthcare providers.
Future Trends In Healthcare Software Development
The future evidently holds great plans for healthcare software. We have only skimmed over the uses and possibilities that technology has introduced to healthcare; there are so many more possibilities.
1. AI in Healthcare
Artificial Intelligence is the most beneficial factor of technology for the healthcare industry. It can effortlessly mimic human cognition in analyzing, interpreting, and evaluating complex medical data. AI can perform data analysis through the healthcare system and can be widely used to predict patient admissions and improve clinical workflows.
2. IoT in Healthcare
IoT (Internet of Things) has the potential to enable healthcare professionals to supervise their patients more accurately. It can equip healthcare workers and professionals with the tools to deliver excellent care and treatment to patients. Exploiting this technology and several tech-powered wearables that enable real-time tracking, end-to-end connectivity, and remote monitoring are some of the other areas that IoT will assist.
Summary
Healthcare Software Development benefits institution staff, patients, and administrators. Although it might seem quite diverse and may come across as a daunting task, with the right partner on your side your journey will be successful.
Look for a partner in Fingent, and we will help you navigate the complexities and compliances that come with the development of healthcare software solutions.
Reach out to us today, and let’s get talking.
The right software can serve as a growth catalyst for your business. A robust software solution can empower your team to work more efficiently, better serve your clients, and optimize business performance.
But when searching for these software solutions for your business, you’ll have to make many different decisions along the way. One of the very first choices you’ll encounter is whether you want to buy off-the-shelf software or build a custom solution.
Either route can help your organization modernize its processes, improve efficiency, and scale effectively. Which approach will produce optimal results for your organization in the short and long term is still a question.
Because your decision will significantly impact your business for years to come, it’s critical that you get it right.
With that in mind, join us as we crack the code to smart software selection decision-making by exploring the pros and cons of building and buying software.
Read more: Why Should Your Business Invest In An End-to-End Software Solution?
The Build or Buy Conundrum
The buy option is relatively straightforward: You select software that aligns with your organization’s needs, purchase a license, and deploy the technology. When evaluating your options, you will encounter purpose-built solutions for your industry and more generalized options, like basic accounting software.
Conversely, custom-built software for your organization will include specific tools you need — without superfluous features that distract users and get in the way of critical business functions. It’s important to understand that you won’t be building the software unless you have an in-house team of highly experienced software engineers. Instead, you will need to partner with a talented software development firm.
Pros and Cons of Buying Software
Before providing a decision-making roadmap, it’s crucial to outline the pros and cons of each option.
The primary benefit of buying pre-built software is that it is already deployment-ready. As such, you can easily purchase the software and begin implementing it almost immediately. You’ll also be able to demo the product before you buy, giving you an idea of precisely what to expect. This expedited timetable is particularly appealing if your business’ current technology suite cannot keep up with your present needs.
However, some notable drawbacks exist to buying software instead of taking the custom route. First and foremost, off-the-shelf software is less likely to align perfectly with your company’s needs. After all, off-the-shelf software is designed to appeal to as broad an audience as possible, and naturally, it will include some features you don’t need. Evaluating software can be time-consuming, and applications of any complexity may be impossible to assess fully in a reasonable amount of time.
In addition, pre-built software typically has recurring license and maintenance costs that need to be considered and may change over time. There is also the risk that vendors of pre-built software may stop offering that edition or software or go out of business entirely. Pre-built software may depend upon older technologies that are no longer “leading edge,” which can lead to long-term viability concerns.
For some software categories, you may only be able even to consider a few contenders, or what you find may lack some tools or capabilities your business is looking for.
Read more: Choosing between Custom Software Solution and Commercial Off-the-Shelf Product!
Advantages and Drawbacks of Building Custom Software
Custom software is tailored to help your business meet its organizational goals and overcome its most significant growth hurdles. Every feature, tool, and capability of custom software is purpose-built for your business. As such, it can significantly impact your business more than an off-the-shelf alternative.
The two potential downsides to custom software are cost and the deployment timetable. When there is an off-the-shelf alternative, building custom software will typically require a larger upfront investment, but you will have more control over the software. That means you can change your schedule without being tied to the vendor’s schedule or priorities. If the custom software meets important business requirements, you can expect a strong return on investment.
It’s important to remember that developing and deploying a custom-built software solution will take slightly longer. Fortunately, you can streamline the build process by partnering with a highly experienced software development firm.
How to Determine Which Option Fits Best for Your Business
As you prepare to weigh your best opportunities with each approach, you can streamline your decision-making process with a refined approach.
1. List Your Organizational Goals and Needs
When choosing to buy or build, the most critical question you need to ask yourself is: What do you hope to accomplish with your new technology?
Create a list of goals, objectives, and needs. In addition to providing more internal clarity, you can use this list to compare products during your search. If no single off-the-shelf solution meets your needs, it may be more pragmatic to build custom software. However, if you need the solution sooner rather than later.
2. Analyze the Current Ecosystem
Once you have created your list of goals and objectives, you can start analyzing the current ecosystem. Businesses operating in specific sectors — such as the healthcare industry — will have dozens of options when searching for off-the-shelf software solutions. As such, it is much more likely that a healthcare organization will be able to find a readily available solution that meets its needs when compared to a more niche sector.
Even if you are already leaning toward building a custom solution, you should consider what options are available for your industry. Explore all known choices to see how these solutions align with your needs and goals. This tactic can also provide you with ideas to put on a must-have list for your custom software partner.
3. Calculate the Potential ROI of Each Option
While you must regard the upfront costs associated with buying vs. building software, calculating the potential long-term ROI of each option will be more useful for guiding your decision-making process. Start calculating ROI by assessing the likely cost-savings and additional profits that can be expected once the new software is in place. While this impact can often be difficult to predict fully, it may be easier to consider how large the impact would need to be to recover the cost of the investment — the break-even point.
Building a custom solution will cost more on the front end, but this higher initial investment can yield a significant return over the software’s lifecycle. Conversely, going with a cheaper option could solve today’s business challenges, but you may quickly outgrow that software’s capabilities and find yourself looking to upgrade again in the near future.
Read more: When does your Business need Custom Software Solution – Evaluate Now!
Making Your Final Decision
Whether you buy a readily available option or want to leverage the power of custom-built software, you will need an experienced technology partner to oversee your deployment. Fingent is that partner.
Our team of technology experts specializes in building dynamic, custom software solutions for our diverse array of clients. We can also assist with deploying solutions from Microsoft, SAP, and other leading technology development companies.
To learn more about our deployment and development services, contact Fingent today.
Custom software tackles the specific needs of users more comprehensively than traditional off-the-shelf packages. Efficiency, scalability, lower integration cost, uniquely tailored features, functions, profitability, and independence are a few of its major benefits. In simple words, custom software creates a more customer-centric approach to your business, which translates to more business.
Globalization has pressured companies to take bold steps in expanding their horizon and potential. The rapid increase in market trends, technological innovations, and increasing competitor growth has changed and raised customer expectations. Deploying custom software development solutions in your business can be a strong weapon in this vicious battle. This blog will show you why and also help you see if this might be the right time to implement it for your business.
Why Is There a Need For A Custom Software Solution?
Evolving times have made it necessary for businesses worldwide to step up to the challenge of being bold, unique, and versatile. “Be different or be forgotten” has never before been more relevant than today. Custom software gives you the tools you need to satisfy your customers.
Here are some more reasons why custom software development is the current need for businesses on a global scale:
1. High Security
Security nowadays is a prime preference provided by most companies. Getting hacked by cyberpunks is a nasty affair that not only compromises your company’s data and security but also ruins the reputation of your business. Compared to commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) Software, customized business software is better in terms of security and competence in saving data.
Mobile app formulating corporations exemplify this feature by merging features like two-way authentication and data encryption.
2. Efficiency
Custom Software is purpose-built to support unique operations and workflows promptly and productively. It refines the workflow by removing unnecessary factors and automating monotonous and tedious manual jobs. This way, it fulfills the fundamental goal of improving your company’s and its employees’ operational efficiency and productivity.
3. Scalability
Since customized software is created based on the unique needs of a business, it can easily be modified and embellished depending on the growing needs and requirements of the company. Scalability is one of the greatest significant advantages of custom software. It allows you to construct relatable software based on your business requirements. It can also cut costs associated with purchasing extra licenses and subscriptions to commercial software.
4. Cost-Effective
COTS software generally fails to work with existing and legacy applications. Businesses must invest further to ensure the software works well with their existing infrastructure. On the contrary, custom software can be built to adapt easily to an organization’s needs and integrate with any environment. Custom cloud software development goes one step further and enables you to build cloud-native applications at a much lesser cost.
Read more: Know What’s Driving Custom Software Development Cost This 2022!
5. Independence
Deploying custom software means freedom from the clutches of a commercial software vendor. You can avoid incessant price hikes for licensing and support. You will also remain unaffected when packaged software goes out of business, or a vendor terminates a product. With custom-developed software, you are in charge of creating and maintaining the software, which means you can update and modify it as regularly as you need.
These are just a few reasons for the increasing need for custom software solutions. It can effectively meet the demands of businesses irrespective of the company’s size. Technically progressive solutions can give you a stepping stone over opponents.
Using custom applications reports a 77% reduction in manual data entry! Learn more about why choosing custom software works over commercial off-the-shelf solutions. Scroll through our Infographic now!
Does Your Business Need Custom Software Solution Right Now?
Now that you know the benefits of custom software, the question is: do you need to implement it right now, or can you put it off for a while? Here is a checklist of symptoms. If you tick any of these boxes, it might just be time to get that ball rolling on a custom software solution:
1. Lack Of Efficiency
Are your employees struggling with mundane manual work? Is it resulting in delays, lower productivity, and errors?
Custom business software developed according to your requirements will empower your business to tackle these challenges by providing an all-in-one environment for employees to plan and execute the workflow, communicate effortlessly, and procure data anytime. By enabling automation and AI in the software, you will be able to eliminate the element of human error and conserve your human resources for more focused tasks.
2. Data Management Issues
Do you often struggle to access and track crucial data? Does it take ages to make sense of the data and put it to good use? Are you struggling with the threat of data leaks?
Data is probably the essential asset of any business. It is usually challenging to store, analyze and track crucial information, and keep the data secure from theft to maintain the data integrity in your industry.
A custom software solution can be built to include Business Intelligence (BI) solutions that can help you convert data into actionable insights. This will help you make intelligent data-driven decisions for your business. You can also customize security layers for your software to address the particular security risks associated with your business.
3. Low Customer Satisfaction
Have you been receiving more customer complaints lately? Are they dissatisfied with their interaction with your business?
Nobody knows your customers as you do. Integrating this knowledge into your software can be priceless in ensuring customer satisfaction. Custom software allows you to do just that. You can work with your developers to integrate insights from your customer base and market analysis and provide features that your customers will be happy with, which can lead to a seamless customer experience.
4. Business Expansion
Is your business expanding? Do you need to grow technologically?
Expansion and development are two constants in a business owner’s mind. Whether your business is expanding in terms of location, the number of employees, or customers, you unquestionably need to grow technologically.
You don’t want to add technological issues to the chaos of a quickly expanding business. Looking for new software solutions every time a component of your business grows will be a real challenge. With custom software, you can easily build on the existing software and add features as you scale.
How To Get Started?
As you can see, custom software can play an integral part in the operation and success of your business by improving productivity and increasing efficiency. It is an excellent investment in time-saving, cost-effectiveness, and risk reduction.
The first step is hiring a professional technical team to help you develop custom software. Fingent, a leading custom software development company, excels in crafting tailored software solutions for clients, perfectly aligned with their unique requirements. We can help you too.
Give us a call, and let’s discuss your requirements.
Your Financial Service business needs software solutions that fully consider all the individual features of your services.
Why?
The best financial advice must be provided in real-time and should be based on customer behavior. Their services must be original and unique for successful business development. This is what will make you different and will help you stand out from your competition and emerge a winner.
How do you achieve that?
Custom software for financial firms can solve complex challenges of business workflow. With custom software leading the way, the finance industry is seeing a significant shift in multiple areas including customer experience and business operations.
You see, to stay competitive it is important not to cut corners when dealing with customers. To win a customer and retain his financial services, you need versatile capabilities that will help you stay customer-centric despite the rigid nature of the industry.
A financial custom software application can help financial services match customers’ high expectations while managing the company’s unique needs. They offer simplified transactions between people and enable financial institutions to create a wider customer base.
In this article, you will find out how you can deliver services that separate you from your competition.
Read more: Digital Transformation in Financial Services: All You Need to Know!
What Is Custom Software and Why Do You Need It Now?
Unlike off-the-shelf solutions, custom software is designed and developed exclusively for each customer’s tasks and requests. The custom software solution can be designed to handle the roadblocks specific to you. Given that, you can choose to eliminate features that your business does not need.
1. Custom software is built around your business landscape
Off-the-shelf applications are rigid and do not allow you to adapt quickly when market dynamics change. Whereas custom software can be responsive to your customer base and market advancements.
2. Ensures robust data protection
The foundation of financial services is based on trust as it deals with private and sensitive data that demand robust protection. Custom software gives you control over the level of security you need to keep your customer’s data and your reputation uncompromised.
Trust is a fragile thing in the finance industry. A small mistake or a performance issue can drive your clients away from you to your competition. Essentially, one mistake due to data vulnerabilities can cost your company and your customer millions.
There are hordes of hackers looking for opportunities to steal financial data. Custom software ensures your security requirements are adjusted to keep your customers’ data secure.
While keeping your customers’ data secure is of paramount importance, those measures should not jeopardize customer engagement. This balance can be achieved through custom software development as it allows you to create an engaging digital tool that also helps keep your data safe.
3. Competitive advantage
Custom software is dedicated to achieving the results that you want. So, it is a strategic initiative and investment that allows you to align with your business. When you custom-build your software with a futuristic outlook, your business can outperform your competitors in the long run.
4. Address errors in real-time
When customers encounter a bug while making a transaction, they will expect an immediate resolution. Custom software allows your team to provide a quick response without depending on scheduled maintenance.
5. Scale up as required
The market is always in flux with changing customer demands. Responding quickly to those changes is only possible if the software is flexible and agile. Custom software can be built with the ability to scale as and when required. It allows you to add new features and integrate 3rd party services that enhance your app’s performance. The ability to scale as required can support rapid business growth.
6. Seamless customer experience
Today’s customers expect convenience, speed, and seamless experience across multiple touchpoints. Custom software can make it easy for your organization to intelligently and adequately handle any business challenge.
To become customer-centric, financial services need to integrate digital capabilities to keep up with market dynamics. It provides the technological backbone that can adapt to your organization’s growth.
Custom software is personalized to meet customers’ business needs. With a simplified business process, and operations your customers will find it easy to use. As a result, tailored software always scores high on the customer satisfaction front.
Read more: FinTech: Safeguarding Customer Interest In The Post Pandemic World.
7. Technologies under control
Preconfigured software does not offer much control over the choice of technologies. But custom software can make any technology more competent, sustainable, and efficient. You can tailor it to meet your expectations and deploy it into your existing business process.
8. Exclusively yours
Each finance service is unique, and fulfilling the unique needs of the business is only possible with tailored software. This makes customized software a requirement and not an option.
It will work exactly the way you want it to work. Instead of you adjusting your business process according to the software, custom software fits right into your business process to help you achieve your business goals.
9. Optimized cost control
As mentioned earlier, customized software allows you to choose preferred features and functionalities based on your business priorities.
You are at liberty to opt-out of a particular functionality if you feel it is irrelevant to your business. So, you pay only for the features and functionalities that you need. This can considerably save your technology investment costs.
10. Real-time reporting
Finance services rely heavily on reporting. You may have to spend hours digging your way through a number of excel sheets and other files. Customizing your software can spare you that pain and save you time as it can give you a summarized report.
11. Compatible with your existing process
You may have been using many useful tools and technologies. Creating custom software does not mean you have to revamp your entire business process.
Conversely, since the custom development process involves consideration of the various tools that you already have, the software can be built to be compatible with your existing process.
12. Reduced risk factor
With off-the-shelf software, your business will be highly affected if you decide not to maintain your application, or your business goes bankrupt. During such dire circumstances, you will have to either change your business process or find another vendor to develop another software.
This can mean extra expense on your business investments. On the contrary custom software can be maintained as long as you need it to be maintained.
13. Relieves you from constant concern
Each business has its own concerns. When a custom software does its work perfectly and serves its purpose optimally, you will be relieved to focus on your core job instead of spending enormous amounts of time finding solutions to your routine business concerns.
An Essential Boost for Your Business
Custom software is the right decision for your business and within your budget. It works more efficiently and can provide your business model with the much-needed lift.
So, take time to analyze the needs of your business and choose the right software for your business.
Give us a call and let’s discuss what that is for you.
Every small business requires an array of software to run its operations smoothly and successfully. When starting a new business, it may seem like your off-the-shelf software would suffice all your needs. As your business grows, your business management software should scale to meet your team’s evolving needs, boost the efficiency of your workflows, and be flexible to support new use cases. Custom software or a software application tailor-made to address your specific business requirements helps improve your market competency and realize ROI at a faster pace.
How will you determine if custom software is the right fit for your small business?
Read on this post to learn more about custom software for small businesses.
Read more: 5 Reasons Why Custom Software is Important for Your Business
Top Signs Indicating Why Your Small Business Needs Custom Software
The classic “build vs. buy” decision is a pertinent question that every small business faces when addressing their software needs. Considering the cost, time, energy, and resources dedicated to custom software development, many SMEs adopt packaged software in a haste. Look out for these warning signs before deciding whether to build or buy.
1. Employee Discontent
Find out if your employees are satisfied with your existing off-the-shelf software. Do they still stick to old-school tricks or find manual methods faster and more convenient? Are your employees forced to discover alternative workarounds to use the software? Do they still rely on spreadsheets and how-to guides for using the software? All these signs indicate that your off-the-shelf software lacks employee approval and can fail your business eventually.
2. Existing Tech Isn’t User-friendly
Rolling out enterprise-wide canned software that commands an advanced level of technical expertise will inflict more harm. It will complicate the processes for your employees and incur heavy training costs. Complex shelf software will fail the very purpose of technological innovation, that is, to simplify human efforts. If only less than 20% of your employees find the software workable, it’s better to build a customized solution.
View Infographic: Custom Software vs. Commercial Off-the-shelf Solutions
3. Wasting Time on Mundane Tasks
Is your software forcing your employees to spend their valuable time on routine activities that don’t require human thought and creativity? If your software isn’t allowing you to leverage the potential of automation, it can minimize your employees’ productivity and workplace efficiency. Automation of mundane tasks with minimal or adequate supervision is a must for small business growth and success.
4. Software Spend Drains Your Wallet
Adapting a rigid off-the-shelf solution for your small business needs requires you to subscribe to third-party apps and pay multiple licensing fees. Most biz owners end up paying full price for unwanted features. Some companies would want to integrate estranged business applications to increase the usability of their shelf software. All these challenges lead to increased software spending.
5. Unable to Make Data-backed Decisions
Your business data comes from multiple sources such as your website, emails, social profiles, chat, and conversation histories, helpdesk, and so on. How far is your canned software allowing you to make use of this data? Are your decisions driven by live data? If your dashboards aren’t getting updated in real-time and reports throw only past information, it’s time to consider custom software. Integrating multiple business systems and exporting all the useful data insights onto a centralized, user-friendly platform in real-time will empower small businesses to make rightful decisions.
Watch Video: Why Your Business Requires Custom Software
How Can Your Small Business Benefit from Custom Software?
Small business competition has intensified in recent years. Thanks to the increasing democratization of digital innovation! Access to technological advancements is no longer limited to large enterprises. With a custom-built software, your small business can stay relevant and competitive.
1. Own Purpose-built Software
Custom software development guarantees 100% alignment with specific business needs. You can rest assured that no crucial operations are left unsupported and there aren’t any wasted features. Share your unique requirements with a trusted custom software development company like Fingent and get exactly the features you would require on a long-term.
2. Uncompromised Security
Ready-to-use software is highly vulnerable to cyberattacks due to the widespread availability of code and proliferation of users. Owning custom code places your small business under lock and key and keeps your sensitive information hack-proof. Customized solutions offer built-in security with a specialized approach to development. Better compliance and data governance improves your organization’s reputation and trust.
3. Improve Workflows and Efficiency
Attaining profitability amid stiff competition needs your employees to put in their best performance. Experienced custom software companies like Fingent can help you identify the workflows or business functions that can be improved with the right technology. This makes your business more efficient and maximizes the productivity of your employees.
4. Keep Costs Under Control
Improved business efficiency transforms to lower operational costs. Technologies like automation enable your employees to complete more tasks in less time, without feeling monotonous. Custom software actually costs lesser than off-the-shelf solutions, considering the extra dollars you would spend on subscriptions, licenses, third-party integrations, software upgrades and maintenance, and other overheads required to make the shelf software workable.
Read more: Know What’s Driving Custom Software Development Costs in 2022
5. Round-the-clock Support
Modern business might come to a standstill if technology stops working. A typical readymade software provider puts you into a long wait with back-to-back support tickets and repeated calls, whereas a dedicated custom software development partner offers access to a direct line of technical support to resolve your issues immediately.
Read more: The Dos and Don’ts of Custom Software Development
Tips to Choose the Right Software Development Partner
Hiring the services of an experienced custom software development agency will help you focus on developing a sustainable business model. How can you identify the right software development partner for your small business? Here’re a few tips we recommend:
- Identify your needs. Decide what you expect the software to do. List out your objectives. Use an application specification template to fill out your needs. This improves your communication with the software development vendor. It helps the vendor understand your expectations clearly. This can go a long way in finalizing the project’s scope.
- Check the partner’s technical skills, expertise, and experience. Have they handled projects related to your domain? Read up their case studies and analyze their portfolios. Arrange catch-up sessions to learn more about their software development approaches and project management methodologies.
- Ask for references. It helps you understand their reputation and trustworthiness. Use top B2B review platforms like Clutch and GoodFirms to evaluate their performance. Connect with the company’s past clients for more candid reviews.
- Cost is as important as the experience and reputation of the software development partner. Bestow your project only if you’re confident of guaranteed ROI.
- Is your development vendor passionate about your project? Figure it out over the initial meetings before the formal kick-off. Do they come up with unique ideas that improve your application’s value in the future? Make sure that their ideas are backed with convincing use cases or POCs.
- Choosing a software development partner also depends on the quality of after-sales service and technical support. Do they provide cloud-based updates, software upgrades and maintenance, and other troubleshooting services when you need them?
Selecting the right custom software development partner is a meticulous job. Check out our earlier post covering these and more crucial tips in detail.
Also read: How to Choose the Right Custom Software Development Firm
Why Choose Fingent as Your Custom Software Development Partner?
Over the past two decades, Fingent has been serving as a reliable and capable tech partner for many leading global brands, including Fortune 500 companies. With an impeccable track record as a successful custom software development partner, we’ve helped improve cash flow and business efficiency for many clients. If hiring in-house developers is costing you a fortune, extend your development team with our dedicated talent pool at reasonable rates.
Read more: Top Benefits of Outsourcing Software Development Services
We’re in track of the latest tech development trends and help our clients explore new and emerging tech such as Augmented Reality (AR), Virtual Reality (VR), Internet of Things (IoT), 3D Web Configurator, Robotic Process Automation (RPA), Artificial Intelligence (AI), and so on. If you’re an aspiring small biz owner trying to make the most of technology without burning a deep hole in your pocket, connect with our team and get started. Let’s help you build scalable and robust small business software.
Is custom software poised to fulfill business needs?
From small firms to established companies, the COVID-19 pandemic has forced businesses and leaders to embrace digital transformation. Businesses are spending more on custom software solutions to ensure smooth workflow as they switch their operations to virtual workspaces. Custom software development and mobile application development have become inevitable for business growth and success. As technology advances, intelligent interfaces and highly intuitive cognitive capabilities transform businesses in unimaginable ways.
Custom software solutions appeal to tech leaders and companies of all sectors globally. In today’s dipping economy, software development companies like Fingent help businesses restart or rebuild what they lagged with custom software solutions.
Read more: 5 reasons why custom software development is important to your business
What is a custom software solution?
A custom software solution is the best response for both clients and customers to adapt to the new normal. Currently, many organizations are allowing their employees to work from home, thereby limiting physical interactions. Such organizations adopt customized software applications tailored for specific use by their employees. Remote working software tailored to meet specific workplace requirements and maintain privacy without affecting the workflow allows businesses to better serve their customers.
Simply put, custom software development involves designing, developing, implementing, and managing a particular software application used by a specific set of audience, functions, or organizations.
A software development company first analyzes the business and its product requirements to develop customized scalable, dynamic, and cost-effective software solutions. It helps meet the needs and preferences of the customers, clients, and the organization at large.
The new normal is making it difficult for businesses to obtain a competitive edge, so they resort to custom software applications rather than off-the-shelf software development. Thanks to these tailor-made solutions, work is becoming easier and enabling businesses to take a step ahead.
What is the difference between custom software and commercial software?
Custom software solutions are designed and built to adapt to the changing market demands. Off-the-shelf software allows businesses to adjust to their expertise. Commercial off-the-shelf applications come pre-packaged and are purchased by enterprises to carry out their tasks. Custom software enables you to retain only the features you use and supports scalability in the future.
View infographic: What are the advantages of custom software over commercial off-the-shelf solutions?
Why do businesses need custom software development services?
Custom software solutions are one of the best ways for businesses to survive in today’s uncertain market. Moreover, custom software development assures that your data remains secure and confidential as there is a high amount of data security risk with off-the-shelf software. Custom software is the best option today, considering your business’s privacy, security, and accountability. As custom software is made exclusively for in-house use, the associated risks are low.
What are the benefits of custom software solutions?
1. Improves efficiency
Custom software is designed to support the specific processes followed by a business entity and its users. Hence it improves the productivity and operational efficiency of the business and its employees. By automating mundane tasks and tweaking the workflow to eliminate unwanted elements, custom software implementation adds business value.
2. Reduces integration costs
Most of the commercial off-the-shelf software fails to work with existing and legacy applications. If it does not comply, businesses will have to invest further to ensure that the prepackaged software operates with the existing infrastructure. On the other hand, custom software integrates well with the current environment and adapts to a business’s needs.
3. Scalability
Custom software can grow as the business expands or changes. Developers can assess future requirements and incorporate them into the application. It can save costs associated with purchasing additional licenses or subscriptions of commercial applications.
4. Profitability
Investing in custom software development increases the profitability of a business. Depending on the project’s terms and conditions, the organization that creates custom software can own it or license it or sell it to other organizations.
5. Independence
As you will be free of a commercial software vendor, you need not worry about price hikes for licensing and support or whether the vendor terminates a product or goes out of business. However, the business that develops and uses custom software should bear the cost of maintaining and supporting the software. So, every organization must carefully decide whether it’s better to buy or build.
Read more: How to Choose the Right Custom Software Development Firm
Technologies and practices to consider in custom software development
1. Open-source
Open-source indicates that the software source code is open to the public and the development community to use. For example, Microsoft, Linux, and Google. Open source can significantly improve development productivity through software component reuse and improve interoperability by avoiding proprietary architecture.
2. Artificial Intelligence (AI)
Artificial Intelligence allows the software to replicate human decision making and learning. It can enhance the development process. For example, natural language processing (NLP) is used to analyze requirements from elaborate texts and recommends improvements based on best practices. AI technologies such as machine learning and modeling may also be incorporated into applications through application programming interfaces (API) and cloud services.
3. Blockchain technology
Developers are leveraging open- source hyper ledger technology and blockchain ledgers to build new types of secure transactional and financial applications that can boost business processes.
4. Cloud-based development
It brings the advantages of cloud computing by hosting development environments in the cloud. It supports design, coding, integration, and other development functions to build on-premises and cloud-native applications. These environments also promise cost control, speed, and on-demand convenience.
5. Mobile application technology
With the customers’ buying behavior shifting from products and services to experiences, mobile application technology is a must. So, developers have to connect mobile apps with data to improve and enrich the user experience.
6. Analytics technologies
These technologies enable software applications and their users to understand data through dashboards, visualizations, and predictive capabilities. AI, cloud-based services, and automation make it easier to incorporate analytics into applications.
The health crises and economic uncertainties brought in by the COVID-19 pandemic have compelled businesses to adopt solutions tailored for use by their employees and customers. So, opting for custom software solutions is a wise decision as they can be customized to suit your business needs.
Read more: 5 Custom software development trends every business should know
While the initial investments seem a bit high, custom apps will get you a higher ROI in the future. If you are looking for a custom software solution for your business, all you need to do is select a trusted and reputed company like Fingent. We first understand your requirements and help preserve your accountability in the market. To know more, please don’t hesitate to get in touch.
Experience remote hiring success with custom hiring and onboarding platform
Even before the pandemic hit, the number of employees working remotely has grown considerably over the past few years. The number of people telecommuting in the US increased by 159% from 2005 to 2017.
Even if the threat of COVID-19 ceases, we may not return to the traditional office structure any time soon. In other words, remote work will matter to business much more than it did earlier. Employers, therefore, need to find ways to facilitate remote work. This includes creating the best remote hiring and onboarding experiences for employees. Strong onboarding processes improve new hire retention by 82% (Glassdoor).
By making a switch from a traditional to a digital workplace, organization across the globe are embracing the new normal. While there are many off the shelf remote hiring and onboarding platforms available in the market, for long term flexibility, it is necessary to fine-tune the features, user experience, functions and so on to fit your organizational requirements. Fingent, as a top custom software development company, can help you create custom applications to power your recruiting and onboarding.
Challenges of remote hiring and onboarding
Companies want all of their employees to feel inclusive and want a collaborative environment. But how do you make people feel that they are a part of something when you’re working remotely? Remote working is not just video conferencing and chatting, but a comprehensive set of practices that organizations need to develop. Remote employees require more trust. This is what makes hiring remote employees so much different. With remote employees, you don’t have any physical control or direct supervision to know whether or not people are on Netflix or YouTube all day. Building trust over time is the main challenge that organizations need to address while bringing in remote employees. While hiring a remote employee, we’re investing in a person where we’re going to trust him/her to represent our company.
Read more: Check out how Odoo can help meet HR requirements
Remote employee hiring and onboarding is here to stay
Despite these unprecedented challenges that COVID-19 has presented, various organizations have reacted positively and made rapid changes to their remote workflow management priorities and expectations. This ultimately shows us that the need to hire and onboard new staff will continue. Businesses will have to come up with innovative ideas and creative best practices to continue with their hiring and onboarding processes.
How can a custom platform for remote hiring and onboarding help you?
The hiring and onboarding process of each company is unique. Employers always look to incorporate the requirements of a particular LOB into their induction programs. A customized remote hiring and onboarding platform helps you edit your workflows the way you want. You can use different task types to create a unique workflow for a new hire, through which you can send forms, trigger emails, conduct training sessions, and much more. You can even generate reports to review the progress of each workflow.
Let’s see how a custom platform can add value to your organization:
1. Digitization of your recruitment process
With traditional HR practices becoming archaic, organizations look for recruitment technologies that help streamline processes, giving them the best talent available in the market. A remote recruitment and onboarding platform that is customized to integrate ATS (Applicant Tracking System) allows you to post jobs, screen applications, conduct interviews, and centralize all this information in one shared place. When you’re hiring remotely, you have to find the best fit for your company from a large pool of candidates. Incorporating functionalities like intelligent screening, document parsing, video capabilities help you gain a better understanding as well as organize your recruitment process.
Read more: Applicant Tracking System-Transforming Hiring Norms
2. Electronic documentation helps you go paperless
A custom platform that takes the paper out of paperwork is what you need today. An online onboarding solution with features that enable your new hires to complete their documentation procedures from wherever they are, using any smart device makes the workflow as painless as possible. This custom platform automatically triggers email reminders to employees if they have not completed their documentation before their joining date. The onboarding platform can be configured to give automatic error notifications and tips to resolve those errors to ensure that all your employee documents are accurate. Additionally, functionalities like fingertip signatures, photo upload, and OCR make paperwork a breeze.
3. Self-Service onboarding improves employee engagement
Remote employees do not have the liberty of walking to their managers’ desk time and again for necessary guidance. Employee self-service onboarding comes to the rescue here and acts as a key to employee engagement. Self-service portals help to organize the onboarding process of your new hires helping them find all the information they need in one place. A customized remote platform with self-service onboarding capabilities helps your recruits access essential documents that help them learn and get up to speed quickly and with confidence. Thus employees are satisfied as communication channels are improved leading to higher productivity.
4. Project management on-the-go
Onboarding and managing a remote team requires overcommunication. An online project management tool helps you do this with ease. You can opt for integrating a project management tool with your remote hiring and onboarding portal to reap the benefits in a single solution. This helps remote workers track the progress of their projects, collaborate effectively, and complete projects efficiently from anywhere, using any smart device. New hires can interact effectively, helping them learn fast. Managers can also track time and analyze what needs to be done in their projects. With a real-time overview, you easily get an idea of who’s working on what. Inbuilt video conferencing tools help you to stay in constant touch with your new hires working remotely.
5. Virtual mentoring and training programs
Mentoring and training programs are an indispensable part of onboarding. They help an employee get accustomed to her new job, learn about the company culture, and update her skills to better perform his duties. You can integrate virtual mentoring programs in your onboarding process helping new hires know about their roles and get personalized training wherever they are.
Read more: Optimize Workforce Management with SAP SuccessFactors and Qualtrics
A company is indeed as good as its employees. Hiring and onboarding new employees was a time-consuming process traditionally. When all or most of your staff works remotely, things become complicated. A tailored platform for remote hiring and onboarding helps you deliver awesome onboarding experiences to your employees, fostering productivity, efficiency, and better employee retention. It also allows you to promote your company brand and culture which gives your remote employees a sense of belonging.
So did you get a custom platform for hiring and onboarding remote employees? Now is the time if not done yet. Partner with us to develop a tailored platform to meet the unique needs of your company.