Category: Custom software

Fingent Receives High Praise from Leading Businesses Around The World!

In today’s increasingly digital marketplace, technology is key to gaining a competitive advantage. Of course, with technology advancing at an unprecedented rate, determining how to most effectively deploy the latest technologies is easier said than done.  As a top custom software development company, we build high-quality, cost-effective web and mobile solutions that deploy the newest technologies and meet all of your enterprise needs. 

We’re committed to delivering the best quality and customer service — and for that reason, we’re a trusted partner to some of the world’s leading enterprises and businesses. 

We know how important it is for potential buyers to peruse client testimonials and understand what it’s like to work with us before signing a contract, and that’s why we’ve partnered with the ratings and reviews platform Clutch.

Of more than 300 firms, Clutch ranks us among the top 3 software developers in NY! Clutch determines industry leaders based on market research and client feedback, so we’re immensely grateful to the clients who have left reviews for us. One of our recent reviews was from Wage CALC, a company that provides attorneys and legal professionals with a better way to manage their wage and hour cases with wage & analysis software. 

Wage CALC was in need of custom software development services. They were looking for a trustworthy, well-known developer — and they found us on Clutch! Deploying a Microsoft Excel prototype that they’d created, we built their cloud-based app from the ground up.

“I’ve had such an excellent experience with them. Fingent exceeded my expectations.” — Founder & CEO, Wage CALC

The client was impressed that we were able to break down their complex, formula-heavy prototype. They commended our professional and responsive team and were particularly appreciative of how our SVP helped to streamline communication between our team in India and theirs in California.

We received another 5-star review from a large transportation and logistics company that specializes in oil and gas equipment pickup and delivery. There’s a significant technology gap when it comes to processing orders, invoicing, and workflow management within the logistics industry, and we were prepared to change that.

We developed an end-to-end transportation management solution. The solution allows customer service representatives to assign vehicles for order pickup and delivery, while drivers can use a mobile version of the solution to send documentation and process tickets and billing. The company’s accounting team also uses the system to do invoicing, collect payments, and close orders. 
“The management system is light years ahead of anything else in our industry.” — IT Director, Transporation Company

The client appreciated our consistency and availability, along with our team’s impressive knowledge and talent.

Meanwhile, The Manifest, Clutch’s partner site listing market experts, ranks us as the #1 custom software development company.

Fingent is not just recognized by the Clutch! A few well-known rating sites like the Software World, have also appreciated Fingent for its expertise in software development and technology solutions.

Learn more on why Fingent is the most trusted Tech Partner for emerging enterprises, and how our expertise can benefit your business. Contact us today — we offer free consultations! 

It’s Time to Bid Goodbye to the Legacy Technology!

The decade’s end has seen numerous inevitable changes in the technology market. It hasn’t been long since we bid adieu to Python 2, and now Microsoft Silverlight is nearing its end-of-life!

This surely brings a million questions to your curious mind! 

Why did Microsoft decide to end all support for Silverlight? What are the next best alternatives available in the market? And most of all, is it okay to still keep using Silverlight? 

Read on as we answer it all!

What is Microsoft Silverlight?

Silverlight, an application framework designed by Microsoft, has been driving rich media on the internet since 2007. Created as an alternative to Adobe Flash, this free, browser focused developer tool facilitated web development by enabling computers and browsers to utilize UI elements and associated plugins for rich media streaming. With the emergence of video streaming platforms like Netflix and Amazon Prime, Silverlight turned out to be a great option to enable sophisticated effects.

So What Led To The Demise of Microsoft Silverlight?

A couple of things, but mostly Silverlight could not catch up with the rapidly evolving software market!

When Microsoft Silverlight was released in 2007, it looked like a huge success. Especially with the successful online streaming of the huge Beijing Olympics coverage in 2008, the political conventions of 2008, and the 2011 Winter Olympics, Silverlight was on a roll, later pulling in major video streaming platforms like Netflix and Amazon Prime onboard.

However, Silverlight could not shine for long. A few problems started to surface soon. Bugs in several applications were just one manifestation. The worst issues came about with Microsoft misjudging the real requirements of the market.

Although Silverlight reduced the user’s dependency on Flash to access rich graphics, animations, videos, and live streams online, it did so with a heavy reliance on Microsoft tools at the backend. Using Microsoft .Net Framework and XAML coding format, Silverlight offered the support for Windows Media Audio(WMA), Windows Media Video(WMV), advanced audio coding and the rest. 

This seemed difficult, as well as risky for developers, especially to depend on a single vendor’s framework. Meanwhile, constant push to upgrade Silverlight made things more complicated, leaving developers more comfortable adopting low cost opens source alternatives like Flash and JavaScript over Silverlight. With HTML5 -and other browser standards on the rise, Silverlight became an outlier in the market.

In 2013, the Redmond giant stopped the development of Silverlight but continued to roll out bug fixes and patches regularly. In September 2015, Google Chrome ended support for Silverlight, followed by Firefox in March 2017. Microsoft-edge does not support Silverlight plug-ins at all, and with modern browsers transitioning to HTML5, Microsoft did not see any need to keep maintaining this application framework.

So, it’s official! Microsoft has announced the support end date for Silverlight to be on October 12, 2021. 

And what is Netflix going to do? Well, Netflix currently supports Silverlight 4 and Silverlight 5. So Netflix viewers, using it on Windows XP or Windows 7 PC (both themselves now unsupported) can use either the Silverlight plug-in or HTML5 player.

What Happens After October 2021?

Not to worry, there won’t be a big boom on October 12, 2021! 

It is true that Silverlight will be completely unsupportive after the said date and will no longer receive any future quality or security updates. But however, Microsoft is not preventing or terminating any Silverlight applications for now.

So should you still be using Silverlight?

Well, no! Fewer users will be able to still use Silverlight driven apps. However, this would turn worse, with developers wanting to work in a dead-end development environment, which will immensely raise the cost of supporting Silverlight apps.

What Are The Next Best Options?  

No doubt Microsoft Silverlight has served as a great option for developing rich apps. However, with the end of support for Silverlight, here’s listing a couple of new tech stacks that promises to be more reliable alternatives. 

AngularJS, a popular framework maintained by Google is simply a great option for developers around the world. It is an open-source framework designed to address the challenges of web development processes and offers ease in integrating with HTML code and application modules. Moreover, it automatically synchronizes with modules that make the development process seamless, and following a DOM methodology, it focuses on improving performance and testability. Adding to this, AngularJS uses basic HTML that enables building rich internet applications effectively. Also, with an MVC built architecture and various extensions, this technology proves to be a great option for designing applications that are dynamic and responsive.  

ReactJS is another application framework that can easily be labeled as a “best seller”, based on the popularity and affection it has gained in the developer community. Launched in 2013, the ReactJS framework is today well regarded and used by leading companies like Apple, PayPal, Netflix, and of course Facebook. React Native is a variant of the ReactJS JavaScript library that combines native application development with JavaScript UI development, to build web pages that are highly dynamic and user-responsive. While native modules allow implementing platform-specific features for iOS and Android, the rest of the code is written with JavaScript and shared across platforms.

Related Reading: React Native Or Flutter – The Better Choice For Mobile App Development

With technologies running in and disappearing from the market, it can be quite difficult to decide on the stack of digital tools that would best fit your business. Our business and solution experts can help ensure that you transform with the right technology to meet industry challenges and enhance your revenue opportunities. To discuss more on how we can help you identify the right technology for your company, get in touch with our experts today!

Testing Types And Strategies: Choosing A Testing Method

Understanding the basics of software testing is crucial for developers and quality assurance specialists equally. To deploy a better software and to find bugs that affect application development, it is important to learn about the different types of software testing. 

Types Of Software Testing 

Testing is a process of executing a software program to find errors in the application being developed. Testing is critical for deploying error-free software programs. Each type of testing has its advantages and benefits. Software testing is broadly categorized into two types; Functional and Non-Functional testing.

Functional Testing Versus Non-Functional Testing

Functional Testing is used to verify the functions of a software application according to the requirements specification. Functional testing mainly involves black box testing and does not depend on the source code of the application. 

Functional Testing involves checking User Interface, Database, APIs, Client/Server applications as well as security and functionality of the software under test. Functional testing can be done either manually or by making use of automation. 

The various types of Functional Testing include the following:

• Unit Testing
• Integration Testing
• System Testing
• Sanity Testing
• Smoke Testing
• Interface Testing
• Regression Testing
• Beta/Acceptance Testing

Non-Functional Testing is done to check the non-functional aspects such as performance, usability, reliability, and so on of the application under test. 

The various types of Non-Functional Testing include the following:

• Performance Testing
• Load Testing
• Stress Testing
• Volume Testing
• Security Testing
• Compatibility Testing
• Install Testing
• Recovery Testing
• Reliability Testing
• Usability Testing
• Compliance Testing
• Localization Testing

The 7 Most Common Types Of Software Testing

Type 1: Black-box Testing

Black-box testing is applied to verify the functionality of the software by just focusing on the various inputs and outputs of the application rather than going deep into its internal structure, design, or implementation. Black-box testing is performed from the user’s perspective.

Type 2: White-Box Testing

The White-Box software testing strategy tests an application with access to the actual source code as well as focusing on the internal structure, design, and implementation. This testing method is known by different names such as Open Box testing, Clear Box Testing, Glass Box Testing, Transparent Box Testing, Code-Based Testing, and Structural Testing. White-box testing offers the advantage of rapid problem and bug spotting.

Type 3: Acceptance Testing

Acceptance Testing is a QA (Quality Assurance) process that determines to what extent a software attains the end user’s approval. Also known as UAT (User Acceptance Testing) or system testing, it can be testing the usability or the functionality of the system or even both. Depending on the enterprise, acceptance testing can take the form of either end-user testing, beta testing, application testing, or field testing. The advantage of acceptance testing is that usability issues can be discovered and fixed at an early stage.

Related Reading: Quality Assurance in Software Testing – Past, Present & Future

Type 4: Automated Testing

Automated testing is a method in which specialized tools are utilized to control the execution of various tests and the verification of the results is automated. This type of testing compares the actual results against the expected results. The advantage of automated testing is that it avoids the need for running through test cases manually, which is both tedious and error-prone, especially while working in an agile environment. 

Type 5: Regression Testing

Regression testing is a testing practice that verifies whether the system is still working fine, even after incremental development in the application. Most automated tests performed are regression tests. It ensures that any change in the source code does not have any adverse effects on the application.

Type 6: Functional Testing

Functional Testing tests for the actual functionality of the software. This type of testing focuses on the results of the system processing and not on how the processing takes place. During functional testing, the internal structure of the system is not known to the tester. 

Type 7: Exploratory Testing

As the name indicates, Exploratory testing is all about exploring the application where the tester is constantly on the lookout for what and where to test. This approach is applied in cases where there is no or poor documentation and when there is limited time left for the testing process to be completed. 

Related Reading: A Winning Mobile Testing Strategy: The Way to Go

All the methods mentioned above are only some of the most common options of software testing. The list is huge and specific methods are adopted by development vendors based on the project requirements. Sometimes, the terminologies used by each organization to define a testing method also differ from one another. However, the concept remains the same. Depending on the project requirement and scope variations, the testing type, processes, and implementation strategies keep changing. 

Like to know more about Fingent’s expertise in custom software development and testing? Get in touch with our expert. 

Fingent Tops Among The Global B2B Companies Listed By Clutch

We can expect software development to go to new and exciting places in 2020. At Fingent, we couldn’t be more proud of what we’ve accomplished this year and look forward to what’s to come. We are thrilled to announce that Fingent has been included in the Clutch 1000, a list of the 1,000 top global leaders on Clutch! 

We are ranked #5 on the Clutch 1000, which puts us in the top 1% of the over 160,000 companies on their site! We are also one of over 140 custom software development companies on the list, as well as the only company based in White Plains, New York. 

Clutch is a Washington, DC-based B2B ratings and reviews platform. Their team of independent analysts conducts interviews with the past clients of service providers. These verified reviews form the basis of the ratings and rankings on their site! Fingent is thankful to all of our past clients who made this award possible by leaving us reviews on Clutch!

“We are thrilled to have been featured among the Clutch Top 1000 Companies by Clutch!” – Varghese Samuel, CEO & MD, Fingent

Looking for more? Clutch has two sister sites, the Manifest and Visual Objects! The Manifest compiles company shortlists based on service lines and geographic location. We are proud to be one of the leading businesses on the Manifest under the software development category! On Visual Objects, users can look through our solution portfolios to find the best fit for their next project.

We are thankful to all of our clients who have allowed us to be part of their projects! Your success is our success. Looking to start a new project? Get in touch with us today!

Address Your Parking Woes With Intelligent Parking Management

Many of you might have experienced the frustration of finding a spot to park your vehicle while going for shopping in the crowded shopping plazas. In today’s rapidly growing urban centers, the first touchpoint for a business to focus on is to eliminate the frustration that accompanies the search for a parking space. The objective of this blog is to help businesses enhance their customer experience with an intelligent parking system. 

How Crucial is Parking Space in Enhancing Customer Experience?

Traffic congestion has been a major problem in many cities around the world.  As a result, hours are lost in search of a parking space. A commuter in Sydney spends around 156 hours annually trying to find a parking space. This definitely adds to their frustration and creates a bad experience even before customers have stepped into your store. 

One in three customers will walk away from their favorite brand after just one bad experience. Hence, it’s important to ensure that your customers have convenient parking spaces while they visit your store. This can go a long way in mitigating the risk of losing your customers and saving your reputation on social media. 

The role of parking facilities in a customer’s decision to visit your store is emphasized in the Google Reviews feature as well, where visitors are prompted to mention if the store has parking facilities or not. Parking is, therefore, an important aspect of your customer experience. 

Read More: Ways to Leverage Smart IT Solutions for your Retail Business

What is an Intelligent Parking System? 

An intelligent parking system uses technology to help drivers find and navigate their way to a parking space quickly and easily. It also helps them find alternative routes when there are traffic congestions. This way, intelligent parking systems offer your customers greater convenience.

An intelligent parking system draws customers to your business by using automated parking systems, mobile apps, and street-side sensors. The advent of smart technology has given rise to complex systems that can integrate with other connected systems. This means that businesses can now have a platform that uses relevant information to improve parking management.

What adds to the appeal of these sophisticated parking management systems is that they are extremely easy to use. They just have to download the application from app store to their smartphones. The intelligent parking management system enables parking operators to maintain real-time information on parking availability in street-parking locations, vertical parking structures, underground parking areas, and more. Your customers can access all of this information through the application on their phones. 

Read More: How Connected Transportation Will Disrupt the World

How Does the Parking Management System Work? 

A parking management system depends either on vehicle movement detection or vehicle video tracking. This uses technologies based either on sensors or on cameras. Each parking area can be installed with sensors or cameras at the access and exit points. This helps in tracking incoming and outgoing vehicles. 

Sensors are being successfully used at a single level, multi-level and even on-street parking spaces. When these sensors are installed at each parking spot, accurate data about specific vacant parking spots can be obtained by the customer that delivers a hassle-free parking experience. 

Five Benefits of Intelligent Parking Management 

• Reduced stress leads to happy customers: Driving through the same street several times trying to find a parking spot increases stress levels. But with the intelligent parking system, a customer can navigate straight to a vacant parking spot and then into your store.

• Saves customer’s time: Your customer will have more time to explore your business offerings instead of driving around your premises looking for a parking space.

• Reduced fuel expenses and increased sales: Since your customer does not have to go in circles searching for a parking space, they tend to save more on fuel expenses. This can even prompt the customer to purchase more from you. 

• Lowers pollution: Reduced pollution will contribute to better health for you and your customers.

• Reduces traffic snarls: When there are fewer vehicles on the streets, moving painfully slow searching for a parking spot, congestion on the roads is reduced. This, in turn, attracts potential customers.

The benefits of an intelligent parking management system are manifold. The most crucial factor is that it contributes to enriched customer experience and consequently to an improvement in sales and customer loyalty. At Fingent, we help clients develop applications with advanced technologies such as IoT, AI, cloud, AR, and VR. Reach out to us to discuss more. 

What considerations should be part of a company’s digital transformation strategy?

Smart business leaders are waking up to the fact that they need to get digital transformation “right” for their very survival. The widespread adoption of technology, rapidly changing consumer behavior, and innovation-triggered disruptions are making digital transformation a must-have for businesses. 

In a recent survey by Gartner, 87% of senior business leaders responded that digitalization is a company priority and 79% of corporate strategists said that digital innovation is crucial for reinventing their businesses.

It’s clear that organizations have started thinking about digital innovation. What they need to know next is the best approach to start, lead change, and transform.

In this interview, our Senior Vice President – Process and Technology, Deepu Prakash shares his expert opinion by answering these questions:

• How do you define digital transformation?
• What does digital transformation mean to your company?
• How can a brand identify what digital transformation should mean to them?

How do you define digital transformation? 

Digital transformation is the strategic, deliberate, and sustained application of modern digital technologies to deliver highly unique customer value propositions, by making fundamental changes to how a business operates.

Can you explain what digital transformation means to your company?

I look after the process and technology practice at Fingent. To us, digital innovation broadly means three things.

1. Strategic shifts

Our focus has shifted from developing products to developing platforms, both for us and for our customers. We are moving away from a value chain-based model towards managing the entire ecosystem that impacts our customer base. Today, we are on the constant lookout for partnerships that can help us provide a competitive difference to our customer base. We expect cross-industry consolidation in the near future.

Related Reading: Why Business Leaders Must Embrace Digital Adoption

2. Developing operational agility through digitally-enabled processes

We are using digital technology to cut across organizational and departmental silos to provide a better Customer Experience. This results in increased cross-department and cross-organization project management, collaboration, and integration. We are reorganizing our processes to enable experimentation and evidence-based scaling. 

From a technology perspective: DevOps practices, APIs, and Unified Identity management are being rolled out across the organization. We are setting up practices to actively leverage third-party developer innovation, to reduce the time-to-market for us and our customers. In fact, one of our products INFINCE is empowering small businesses to achieve digital agility without the need to own infrastructure or an IT practice.

3. Culture and competence:

Despite being a young technology company, we have to work hard to develop the mindset needed to adapt to the massive technology shifts, across all departments. While training helps, it takes continuous coaching and mentoring to help deal with the culture shock that such transformation brings in. Roles and job descriptions may not be so clearly defined as it used to be before. Hence, there is less certainty around outcomes and an increased need for greater transparency than what we had previously.

The ability to exert influence without direct authority is a critical skill for career growth.

How other brands can identify what digital transformation should mean to them?

• Successful digital transformation is less about technology and more about leadership. Hire the right leadership talent to create a digital transformation strategy that would work for your customers and your people.
• Start by deeply re-examining your core business through your customers’ eyes. Ask yourself whether your business will continue to stay competitive or will it be sustainable going forward. 
• Map out the entire set of customer journeys.  Include customer interactions with your allied products and services. Map modern digital technologies to all these journeys. Identify new channels, new opportunities, and see how you can reach out through all these channels. 
• Analyze your state of competition not just with the established players, but also with the startups in your industry segment and adjacent segments, especially with a view to identifying the relevant technologies, platforms, and vendors. 

Related Reading: 4 Questions to Ask When Your Business Goes Digital

Need help with your digital transformation goals?

Fingent’s team is highly experienced in helping businesses solve their digital transformation challenges. 

We have partnered with businesses worldwide in their digital transformation projects. 

We can help you define your vision and create robust digital transformation plans that enable your business to transform and grow. To take advantage and get the ball rolling, please get in touch with Fingent.

Fingent Emerges as a Leader in Node.js Development 

Fingent is proud to announce that we have been featured in a recent press release recognizing the top Node.js development companies by TopDevelopers.co, a renowned review and research platform of IT service providers. 

The importance of Node.js

Node.js is a versatile server-side environment that lets the developer create powerful server-side applications with JavaScript. The availability of a large repository of codes, speed and the efficiency of Node.js are the factors that have contributed to the rising popularity of the platform.

About Fingent

Fingent was established in 2003 with an aim to provide custom software services to our clients. With determination, hard work and a constant focus on the requirements of our customers, we have expanded and today we are serving clients across more than 20 industrial sectors and have an active client base in more than 14 countries covering 4 continents.

With a curious mind and a constant zeal towards customer satisfaction, we have been able to achieve this milestone of entering the coveted list of top Node.js developers.

Why do clients consider Fingent as an efficient service provider?

We have been able to achieve a satisfactory rating of 4.9 out of 5 on the 650+ projects that we have completed. In all these years, we have never lost our focus on understanding the problems of the clients and offering innovative solutions to them. We have established a dedicated research and development center in India to focus on delivering innovative solutions to our customers.

More than 30 companies including brands such as Sony, NEC, PWC, and Johnson & Johnson have named us as their Global IT partners.

We provide a plethora of exclusive and efficient IT services to our clients which includes services like enterprise software development, hybrid app development, Internet of Things, IT consulting, product development services, mobile application development services, Artificial Intelligence, custom software development, cloud computing, iOS app development, and SAP.

We have happily worked with clients from a diverse set of industries like retail, logistics, real estate, oil and gas, healthcare, fitness, legal consultants, chemicals, to name a few, but we have never let them go without a smile of satisfaction after project delivery. Working with diverse industries and varied client requirements has helped us in learning the nuances of each industry, which has ultimately helped us in serving our clients in a better manner. 

We helped a client in designing a solution that uses the data of NHS (National Health Service) in the United Kingdom as input and gives interactive visually rich graphs as output. The aim was to analyze the data and provide the users with a list of the best hospitals in the U.K. The solution we developed provides the users with every detail about the hospitals listed.  Our portfolio has more details about NHS and a deep insight into our projects, work proficiency, technical product development skills, and professionalism.  

“We take a holistic view, considering for instance – the role of the app in the larger ecosystem that may include AI, Big Data and IoT, whether it connects to 3rd party systems, and most importantly the desired Customer Experience across the entire customer journey.” is what our Senior Vice President – Process and Technology, Mr. Deepu Prakash, expressed in an interview with TopDevelopers.co. 

The profile of Fingent on TopDevelopers.co has all the interesting details on how Fingent has successfully been maintaining a remarkable balance between the clients we cater to, the various industrial sectors we serve, and the wide range of services that we provide.  

Who is TopDevelopers.co?

TopDevelopers.co is a directory and review platform for B2B IT Firms. They offer unbiased service to service seekers, by providing them a listing of genuine and highly professional IT firms, that can help the service seekers in achieving their goals by providing high-quality technical services.  The research team of TopDevelopers.co chooses the best firms by filtering a vast list of companies and introduces only the competitive names to the businesses, enterprises, and entrepreneurs to partner with. The company has a friendly team of researchers and a hassle-free communication system. They provide the listing service for various technologies and services, which makes it a one-stop destination to find your perfect technology partner. To give its clients a broad range, TopDevelopers.co reviews companies from all across the globe and you can filter the companies according to the country of origin, size, cost and other parameters. 

To know more about why Fingent is rated as the top Node.js development company by TopDevelopers.co and how our skills and expertise can bring your business the competitive advantage to excel, contact us! 

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

How A Customized TMS Can Enhance Your Supply Chain Efficiency?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Custom Software Development: What To Do and Not To Do

The “build versus buys” debate in software development seems to have tipped in favor of custom software development as more and more businesses recognize the implications of customization on their growth. With rising competition, it has become imperative for each business to differentiate itself from its competitors in every way and custom software development rests at the core of this differentiation. 

That being said, software development has seen its fair share of fails even when it is labeled custom. This makes it extremely important that your project is carefully planned out and well-executed. With many years of experience as custom software developers, we have put together a list of do’s and don’ts to help make your custom software development project a success. This blog will discuss 5 of them. Before that, let’s drive home the reasons why custom software is imperative for businesses. 

Related Reading: Check out the top reasons why custom software development is important to your business.

Custom Software: The Backbone of Business

 Custom software fulfills specific business requirements, which are unique to specific businesses. This helps businesses gain a competitive advantage and leverage the software to build processes that define an effective USP. While this in itself is an uppercut to reckon with, let’s have a look at a few more points that will help deliver the knockout punch in favor of custom software development.

• Solution Matches Need: Since custom applications are developed with your specifications in mind, the final solution will effectively address your needs. Therefore, it simplifies the entire business process saving time and effort.  
• Minimal training: Tailored features make it very easy to use and require minimal training to get started on the software. When the software is optimized for each department, the interface requirements will be customized to match the needs and skill level of your employees.
• Works with your Business Model: As the custom solution is built around your business model, it will have the user roles and interoperability functions that your departments need to function effectively. 
• Unique Code and Enhanced Protection: By developing a unique code that is specific to your software, custom software minimizes external threats and unauthorized access. 
• Long Term Cost Benefits: Custom software helps automate several manual processes and thus saves on manpower. It also eliminates the licensing costs that accrue with off-the-shelf solutions.
• Increased Scalability: Custom software developers work on a long-term basis and can easily scale the software according to the growth of the business.

https://www.fingent.com/uk/insights/portfolio/choosing-custom-software-over-commercial-off-the-shelf-solutions/

The Dos and Don’ts

There are several key steps involved in creating custom software. It involves a combination of foresight and creativity. Here are a few time-tested Do’s and Don’ts to help avoid the usual pitfalls that have been known to crop up in this process.

1. Pre-Planning

Don’t: Do not Ignore Preparation

Clients who are looking for a quick solution for their app requirements generally hire developers who agree to unreasonable deadlines. Under such circumstances, the planning and research step is often ignored and that has a ripple effect on the following stages. Not acquiring the necessary materials from the beginning can leave the company unprepared. This can lead to additional changes and the timeline for your project will have to be pushed back, not to mention escalating the costs involved.

Do: Prepare, Prepare!

The planning stage is crucial because it allows the developer to do a thorough SWOT of the idea. At this stage, some have found it helpful to include sketches or outlines and functionality options of the application. It works best to gather all the necessary information at the earliest stage to ensure your project stays on budget. This allows the project to stay on schedule.

2. Ensure its Customization

Don’t: Create for Yourself

You must have heard of the False Consensus Effect, where one thinks that others also think the same way he/she thinks. This can happen while designing the app. It is easy to put our ideas into a design and expect others to like it just because we liked it. That works contrary to the thought of customization. 

Do: Keep it User-Centered

Consider carefully what the general user would appreciate. Developers must stick to the requirements drawn up at the planning stage while continuing to give their inputs on the initial ideas. Take pride in creating a user-centered app.

3. Technical Feasibility and Prototype

Don’t: Allow Misunderstandings

Misunderstanding the business’ requirements, miscommunication about the platform and the format can lead to major issues in creating the app.

Do: Keep Lines of Communication Open

Actively communicate with the team about the technical requirements and provide a timeline for building the prototype. It is difficult to visualize what an app would look like and how it will function unless there is a prototype. Ensure that you communicate frequently with management and obtain feedback at every stage of the development. 

4. Design and Development

Don’t: Ignore Key Requirements

Design and development are the stages that take the most amount of time. Ignoring key requirements might lead developers to spend valuable time coding for a bad end-product. Functionality demands might be misread which leads to a loss of time and missed deadlines.

Do: Understand the Needs

It is vital to understand the UI/UX needs of the business to gain clarity and minimize work. The app will go through a lot of different changes. When changes are required, ensure that the development team and management are on the same page. Once decisions are made, stick to them.

5. QA Testing

Don’t: Be Negligent

The testing team should not be negligent towards post-development issues such as bugs, form functionalities, and security licenses. This could negatively impact the launch of the application. It could either be delayed or the app might face a post-launch backlash. Ensure that the app is not launched until all aspects have been tested and are up to the standards required.

Do: A thorough QA Test

App testing is a tedious job, but it is an important final stage. Compatibility, interface, security, and performance are some of the factors that should go through a rigorous check. Remember, after this whatever happens with the app will be in full public view.

Achieve Efficiency and Growth with Custom Software Development

Leading companies save time and costs in the long run when they customize their software according to their business model. Whether it’s creating accounting software or an HR solution or a customer-facing application, custom software allows you to choose the features you need for your business and employees. If you want to find business flexibility and growth, custom software is the right answer. It meets the needs of the company while allowing the business to grow without being limited by on-the-shelf software. To find how custom software development can do wonders to your business, call our experts today!

Is Applicant Tracking System The Future Of Hiring Process?

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

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

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

How Does ATS Transform Hiring Norms?

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

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

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

 How Does ATS Empower Corporate HR?

ATS empowers the recruitment process in the following ways: 

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

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

How Does ATS Empower Staffing Agencies?

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

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

Power Charge Your Hiring Process with ATS

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

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

Watch more about Applicant Tracking System.