Building Ground-breaking Customer Experiences With Augmented Reality

For the unversed, experiential marketing is a unique and effective way to build brand awareness through face-to-face connections with consumers. Unlike traditional or online marketing efforts, experiential marketing engages all the five senses that bring about emotions to form lasting memories and drive brand loyalty. It allows you to connect with your customers in the most relatable way while building brand awareness and loyalty.

So, how can companies effectively incorporate experiential marketing to make their products stand out? The answer is quite simple: by embracing Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality.

Augmented Reality technology boosts experiential marketing by allowing consumers to interact with products or services with improved personalization.

Read more: Augmented Reality, Virtual Reality, and Mixed Reality Detailed With Real-life Examples 

Benefits Of Using AR In Marketing

As stores closed their doors and people remained indoors, Augmented Reality has received a lot of attention over the last year and will become essential for retailers as stores reopen worldwide.

AR is bringing the in-store buying experience into consumers’ homes. Consumers can now virtually experience how a cute summer dress, a pair of sunglasses, or sneakers will look on them. As a result, AR boosts the customer’s confidence when buying online. AR is also an excellent solution for people who are worried about trying products such as garments or footwear that numerous other hands have touched before them. The technology allows consumers to make decisions safely, without physically touching sample products kept in the shops’ display racks.

Read more: How Top Brands Embrace Augmented Reality For Immersive Customer Experiences 

Sephora, a well-known cosmetic brand, has experienced great success with its Augmented Reality marketing strategy. The brand uses face recognition to help customers try makeup products before buying them in-store with their Virtual Artist app. Another example, Snapchat, which uses AR ads via snap filters.

Augmented Reality enables brands to show their customers what makes their products or services great instead of simply sending out marketing literature and thus allows them to connect with their customers better. This helps brands deliver memorable customer experiences and reduce costly returns.

Benefits Of Using AR In Experiential Marketing

1. Boost Sales

Let’s assume that you decide to re-decor your room. You will probably go through magazines and even visualize the furniture in the desired spaces. However, most often, you end up achieving a completely different outcome than what was intended.

So, that’s where AR comes into the picture. All you need to do is point your smartphone in the desired space, and you will be able to view (virtually) how your room would appear with all the desired items in place. This eliminates all the tedious trials and errors that can often lead to disappointing results. So, isn’t this unique and immersive approach a great way to attract your customers?

Read more: What are 3D Web Configurators? How do they Boost E-Commerce Sales and Drive Customer Satisfaction? 

2. Save Unnecessary Marketing Costs

If you think that the new-age technology of AR and VR would cost you a fortune, you’re wrong. With advances in technology, gadgets and other technology components are becoming cheaper. For instance, AR ads are more affordable than traditional mediums.

AR’s targeted and personalized approach helps save up a lot from your budget compared to the conventional ways of communication. Additionally, it can be used for marketing campaigns as it is a highly efficient tool for advertisers.

3. Overcome Language Barrier

There’s no denying that people are more attracted to visuals than texts. As a result, visual images seem to have a language of their own. Both AR and VR use visualization to their advantage and excel in the process of communicating through moving images. While you may need a language to operate at the base level, users can easily find what they are looking for using the multiple options available.

4. Make Content That Goes Viral In The Social Space

Given the situation we are living in, social media has never been more relevant. It has changed the rules of advertising, and everybody is adapting to it. Advertisers are leaving no stone unturned to ensure their content reaches every potential customer of their brand.

Both Virtual and Augmented Reality technologies have the potential to make your content go viral. It is not only engaging and entertaining but also fascinating. The content is compelling enough to attract people of targeted age groups and helps communicate the brand’s message correctly.

For example, recently, Inphantry, a Boston-based digital ad agency, orchestrated an immersive AR pop-up exhibition in a Houston shopping mall. This was done to promote Nike’s AJXX8 sneaker, its latest addition to the Air Jordan line. Customers were given challenges such as dribbling, jumping, etc., wearing the sneakers and the Jordan branded bracelet with an RFID chip to track their scores.

On completion of the challenge, the high-scorers could experience the Air Jordan pop-up museum and lounge. Additionally, the participants were encouraged to share their pictures (of their experience) on social media. This strategy attracted over 2500 users and created the much-needed buzz around the newly launched sneakers.

5. Conduct Virtual Events

The pandemic has wreaked havoc in our lives both physically as well as emotionally. Most people are still not open to the idea of going out in a crowd, even at the cost of missing something important. In such cases, AR and VR technology comes to the rescue. The immersive technology allows the audience to access desired events virtually. Considering the times we live, immersive technologies are indeed a boon!

AR and VR platforms enable brands to engage and launch their offerings by organizing virtual corporate events, expos, and conferences.

6. Fulfill Training Needs

If any of your products or services requires technical training to understand its aspects, VR technology is what you need. It provides a personalized and interactive experience where the user can understand the product/service virtually. Moreover, this approach is highly effective as it can be re-run multiple times.

Additionally, the user can practice using the VR headset for as long as desired. This reduces any operational risks that the user could experience while using the actual product and helps educate them about it skillfully. That said, using AR/VR technology for training your users is more fun than traditional training sessions.

Read more: How Virtual Reality Improves The Standard of Medical Education and Training

7. Enhance Customer Service

The main goal of any business is to ensure that their customers are satisfied and thus increase sales. AR and VR technology can help educate customers in a fun way and help them make informed decisions. This prevents any conflict of ideas that may arise in the consumer’s mind. Thus, Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality help in increasing customer satisfaction and sales.

Scale Your Marketing Efforts With AR

Summing up, it can be said that businesses must earnestly consider using Augmented Reality to boost experiential marketing and create ground-breaking experiences that will set them apart from others.

If you’re looking for a unique and one-of-kind opportunity for marketing and advertising, you can collaborate with Fingent. We offer immersive and interactive experiential marketing solutions using AR and VR. Explore our offerings by simply giving us a call, and we will be delighted to help.

Why Should Manufacturing Companies Leverage Odoo ERP?

As the manufacturing industry flourish, the need for a centralized control mechanism to ensure streamlined and effective operations is turning imperative. Processes like material sourcing, inventory, invoicing, purchase, order, accounts, and human resource management needs to be automated to make room for high-level practices and decisions. In such a scenario, how do you think Odoo ERP can help manufacturing companies accelerate efficiency and business success?

Odoo ERP can empower businesses with centralized management! From inventories to work orders, to customers and accounts, Odoo ERP enables streamlined management of the entire business processes, seamlessly. Leveraging Odoo ERP and using its open-source methodologies can enable manufacturing companies to derive the required speed, flexibility, and transparency to drive business growth and success.

Here at Fingent, we provide ERP solutions for various industries challenges including those of the manufacturing industry. But before we dive deeper into how Oddo ERP can simplify management for manufacturing companies, let’s take a look into the prevailing challenges of the industry.

Read more: Drive digital transformation in manufacturing

Challenges Faced By The Manufacturing Industry

From inventory to sales to the customer, the manufacturing industry deals with a huge amount of data, on a daily basis. As digitization is taking precedence, enterprises are looking for business models that are supported by intelligent systems. Therefore, companies must use an ERP system to manage their operations. Here are few challenges that organizations face without an ERP system in place.

• Forecasting demand – To avoid waste, spoilage or over/under production, businesses must gauge customer behavior and demands. As markets are becoming more volatile and unpredictable, it is becoming increasingly difficult to predict trends and plan production and distribution.
• Planning inventory – Inventory, if managed manually is bound to have errors that can cause inaccuracy of data, stock issues, and bad decisions, all of which can hinder returns. For the smooth functioning of a manufacturing company, data accuracy and consistency are important.
• Lack of skilled labor – To preserve the quality of services and reputation, manufacturing companies must hire and retain skilled workers. With fairly large applications and without a quick processing tool, HR may find it difficult to select suitable candidates.
• Minimizing costs and improving efficiency – One of the best ways to increase returns is to lower production costs while maintaining an efficient supply chain. However, this must not compromise quality. So, manufacturing plants need to automate their operations and management.
• Client Relationship Management(CRM) – Customer loyalty, though important does not come easy in today’s competitive business landscape. Businesses must invest in resources that help prioritize client data for current and potential customers and manage sales lead. A CRM will take into account the customer preferences and demands along with market trends.

Read more: Odoo Migration: Why Is It Crucial and How to Do It Seamlessly!

Top Features of Odoo ERP System

Manufacturing firms must implement customized software solutions with multiple functionalities that are tailored to the industry. Odoo is an open-source ERP software that acts as an effective business management tool with its robust functions. Here are a few highlighted features of Odoo ERP for manufacturing:

• Inventory Management
• Material Management
• Purchase Management
• Production Management
• Sales Management
• Quality Assurance
• Customer Relationship Management
• Accounting and Invoicing
• HR and Payroll Management

All these features can be customized based on your business needs.

In addition to the above features, Odoo ERP helps in automating the maintenance order for repairs and other preventive maintenance. It includes a scheduler functionality that uses statistical calculations to alert you in case of any failure.

Read more: 5 Salient Features of Odoo that Make it a Reliable ERP for Enterprises

6 Ways Manufacturing Industry Can Benefit From Odoo ERP

1. Automation

As digitization is gaining a lot of importance, companies must optimize workflows in the supply chain through automation. Processes such as inventory updates, payments and invoicing, tracking, distribution, and sales across different channels, even making decisions on high volume orders can be automated using Odoo.

Automation drives efficiency, productivity, accuracy, lowers operational costs, and ensures employee safety. All this helps in meeting the changing supply demands of a changing market.

2. Master Data Management

Odoo ERP comes with master data management capabilities that allow companies to incorporate business processes without duplication of data. The master data management ensures there is a consistent exchange of organizational data, eliminates redundancy, and simplifies business operations.

3.Quality Control

With Odoo ERP, companies can set quality checks for certain triggers. It can help schedule operations and even send maintenance requests automatically whenever needed.

The tool also allows enterprises to track different versions of a product(Product Lifecycle Management) and manage its routing accordingly.

4. Forecasting

Odoo ERP is equipped with analytical tools that locate patterns, observe huge datasets and forecast future trends, and enable manufacturing companies to create business strategies accordingly. These predictive capabilities allow companies to focus on production to meet customer demands and earn their loyalty.

Read more: How Odoo ERP Helps Leverage Business Intelligence and Data Analytics

5. Managing the workforce

Odoo’s HRM module automates the basic segregation process based on the required attributes for the post and enables better recruitment. It also includes training and development, capabilities and skills management, compensation records, and employee data.

Additionally, Odoo ERP comes with an employee scheduling feature that helps schedule and track tasks.

6. Returns

Odoo ERP helps businesses to maximize returns by improving operational efficiency, boost productivity and enhance customer satisfaction.

Conclusion

At Fingent, we maximize the potential of manufacturing companies with future-proof technologies. We develop ERP systems that integrate WFM, CRM, HRM, and accounting services for businesses of every size. For custom Odoo ERP development, talk to our experts.

Streamline And Enhance Your Warehouse Management Operations With SAP EWM

Worldwide, companies spend an average of €300 billion a year on warehousing, either in-house or through third-party logistics. The rise of eCommerce and the growth of global supply chains increase warehousing operations costs for enterprises. In addition, with the pandemic heightening consumers’ interest in eCommerce, they expect instant delivery of products. To cater to this dynamic demand, some logistic companies increased the number of their seasonal employees. With this demand continuing to rise, it becomes imperative that warehouse management processes be optimized.

Read more: Warehousing Management System: Simplify Operations & Scale Your Business  

Warehouse management is currently undergoing a modern-day makeover to meet growing demands. Therefore, industry leaders must take steps to optimize warehouse management to keep pace with faster requirements and ever-increasing volumes. SAP Extended Warehouse Management (SAP EWM) streamlines, simplifies and optimizes your warehouse operations. This blog considers how SAP EWM can benefit your business.

Challenges In Supply Chain Management Today

Supply chains are at the core of business operations. Therefore, supply chain management needs to overcome several challenges that impact the bottom line of their business.

Read more: Top Challenges Faced By Logistics Management Today

Here are some challenges companies should be aware of:

1. Identifying Bottlenecks In Customer Service

Customers’ demands have become extremely specific. Plus, they expect to be notified about any possible delays. Therefore, supply chain management can benefit from advanced planning and scheduling systems that can help them identify bottlenecks. This can help them prevent delays or notify the customer of a possible delay.

2. Gaining High Supply Chain Visibility

Overall production cost is affected by several factors that go unnoticed. High supply chain visibility will help the management increase the system’s efficiency and eliminate wasteful steps. Such visibility can contribute to cost control.

3. Finding The Right Talent

Hiring and retaining the right talent has become increasingly difficult. Hence, it is beneficial to have a performance tracking system that allows you to gauge employee productivity and spot the right talent that could be trained effectively.

4. Ensuring On-time Delivery

Delivering goods on time is another challenge that can make you lose your customers to your competition. You can resolve these challenges with planning and scheduling software. It can help you receive and deliver the material on time.

5. Maintaining An Agile Production Plan

Lack of an agile production plan that does not reflect market changes can lead to inefficiency of production. You can remain agile by having a planning and scheduling system. This system helps you keep a tab on the effect of market changes without disrupting your current schedule. Those insights equip you to make the best decisions in response to those changes.

How SAP EWM Can Benefit Your Business

Statista forecasts the global warehouse automation market to surpass 30 billion U.S. dollars. And, Zebra warehousing vision study shows that 80% of organizations plan to invest in new technologies to be competitive. And 27% plan to utilize full automation by 2024. SAP EWM helps you capitalize on this.

Read more: How Robotics In Logistics Helps Improve Supply Chain Efficiency

SAP Extended Warehouse Management (EWM) is fast, agile, and powerful. It is designed to future-proof current supply chain technology and help your business grow.

SAP EWM can be deployed into many business environments. It can support both simple and complex warehouse processes at the granular level. It is a high-speed system that makes supply chain management more accessible and more efficient. SAP EWM can be configured to the organization’s specific needs and can be streamlined over different locations.

Here are some other ways your business can benefit from SAP EWM:

1. Optimize Task Management

In a standard warehouse, one person can be seen going to the same stock bin several times during the day. This happens when all orders that need to be picked for a day appear together, making it difficult to break them down.

You can optimize the picking process with SAP EWM. The platform uses various algorithms to employ the most efficient way to complete as many tasks as possible. This prevents pickers from wasting their time as they have to tread the same path constantly. Plus, SAP EWM’s voice picking functionality enables shorter search time and minimizes errors.

Read more: How SAP Helps Realize Voice-enabled Warehouse Operations

SAP EWM can easily integrate all processes to provide easy end-to-end operations management. It can take the burden off your team for outgoing shipments allowing them to tackle inevitable snags that need to be addressed.

You can link SAP EWM with your transportation management system for greater accuracy for delivery targets. It provides your company a holistic outlook alerting your team when to expect delays and other time-sensitive information.

2. Streamline Labor Management

Efficient use of time, effort, and resources can contribute to business growth. This is another point where SAP EWM can integrate with your WMS. The platform can provide structure in the workplace. With a good framework, each worker knows their location and responsibilities. Such an organized structure will help your employees enjoy more efficient task allocation.

SAP EWM generates real-time insights on workers’ performance, enabling managers to offer more constructive suggestions to improve efficiency. Subsequently, your employees develop more efficient and consistent work habits.

3. Control Costs

Not following the first-in, first-out method for perishables and inefficient use of space and labor can increase wastage. SAP EWM can help reduce wastage of perishables by identifying which units need to be picked first.

SAP EWM can maximize the use of the warehouse space by optimizing the location for each pickup time. It optimizes your space and the travel path of the pickers. All this will reduce your on-hand inventory and reduce your space costs without compromising on quality.

4. Boost Customer Relationship

SAP EWM can reduce delivery lead times and order accuracy errors. This increases customer satisfaction and results in more sales. Thus, SAP EWM elevates and improves relationships with your suppliers and end customers.

Read more: Logistics Management Software – Everything You Should Know

Leverage SAP EWM Capabilities With Fingent

Logistics providers must evaluate the best warehousing management solution for their specific needs. If your business is at a crossroads in choosing the best option for your warehouse operations, Fingent is here to help. Feel free to contact us to learn more about how SAP EWM can transform your business.

Fingent is a certified SAP silver partner and has assisted global businesses in successfully implementing SAP EWM. Our experts can guide and help you explore the flexibility in deploying SAP EWM and ensure it is the best fit for your specific business requirements.

A Quick Guide on the Cloud Service Models – Saas, IaaS, Paas!

The world is changing, quickly and fast; and to adapt to these growing changes, businesses are experiencing unprecedented stress on maintaining a robust and cost-effective IT Infrastructure. But thanks to Cloud Computing and its various service models – Saas, IaaS, Paas, businesses now have the option to move beyond on-premise IT Infrastructure for improved processing and storage capacity.

The future of computing is in the cloud! Missing out on it can definitely slow down the progress and performance abilities of a company. But before we dig deeper on how to seamlessly deploy Cloud Computing, let’s shed some light on what is cloud computing and what are cloud service models?

What is Cloud Computing?

If simply put, Cloud Computing is a model that offers convenient, on-demand network access to a pool of shared resources. This may include data storage, databases, servers, networking, tools, or any other resources that can be accessed through the internet. Speaking of cloud server models, cloud computing is offered in various service models, each of which satisfies unique business requirements. These servers are mainly of three types: Software as a Service (SaaS), Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), and Platform as a Service (PaaS), about which you will read in detail below.

Once signed up with cloud service models Saas, IaaS, and Paas, one can leverage wider possibilities to bring flexibility and efficiency to support greater business growth. Enterprise cloud platforms like InfinCE makes this transition to the cloud even more seamless, providing the right security, control, and flexibility to scale and adapt with time.

Over the years cloud services have witnessed exponential growth worldwide. The global cloud computing market size was valued at USD 274.79 billion in 2020. It is expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 19.1% from 2021 to 2028. With the COVID19 pandemic giving rise to remote work culture, and with many industries gaining opportunities from advanced technologies like AI and machine learning, cloud computing is turning key with its ability to empower businesses with the flexibility to innovate and transform with growing technologies.

Fig: U.S. Cloud Computing Market, Source – Grand View Research

What these reports signify is a steady adoption of cloud services by businesses across the world to tackle the entire range of operations they do. Application development in cloud computing provides an extensive, flexible, and affordable way to implement cloud service models. Meanwhile, numerous leading players in the information technology sector now compete to deliver flexible cloud services for both the public and enterprises.

Increasing competition means better delivery of services and innovations, which can deeply benefit scaling up your business. Hence, now is the right time to deploy a cloud model into your business infrastructure.

What’s Ahead?

• Why does your business need Cloud Computing?
• What are Cloud Service Models?
• Adopting Cloud – Choosing between SaaS, IaaS, and PaaS
• SaaS
• IaaS
• PaaS
• What should you know about DaaS?
• Why is it important to choose the right Cloud Service Model?
• How can Cloud support your Custom Software needs?
• Cloud Service Models SaaS, IaaS, or PaaS: What fits your business?

Simplified cloud orchestration by InfinCE

Flexibly scale your cloud assets - servers and storage based on real-time usage stats. Allocate resources on demand and control user access with a single click.

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Top Healthcare Digitalization Trends To Look For In The New Normal

Healthcare digitalization is reshaping the way we interact with healthcare professionals, share medical data or make decisions related to treatment and outcomes. There are plenty of examples that substantiate the digitalization of healthcare today, such as Artificial Intelligence-powered medical devices, telemedicine, blockchain, remote-patient monitoring, and electronic health records.

The main aim of healthcare innovation is to streamline the medical professionals’ work, optimize medical software systems, reduce human errors, improve patient outcomes, and lower costs through integrated web and mobile experiences.

Read more: The Application and Impact of Information Technology in Healthcare

Let’s look at the state of healthcare digitalization in 2021 and beyond:

1. On-demand Healthcare Will Grow

With the COVID-19 pandemic restricting many people to remain indoors, more and more patients seek on-demand healthcare. It is convenient as it helps patients seek guidance at their own time and from anywhere they need it.

DMN3 reveals that patients obtain online medical information primarily for the following reasons:

• 77% for booking medical appointments
• 47% for searching information about doctors and healthcare professionals
• 38% for searching information about hospitals and medical facilities

That said, on-demand healthcare is rising due to the growth of the gig economy. Here, freelance professionals from various industries hire themselves out per job or ‘gig’ instead of sticking to one company.

Read more: Patient Engagement Platforms: 7 Must-have Features

Many online healthcare marketplaces link doctors directly with short-term tasks, making it easier for physicians to deliver patient care in specific circumstances based on their expertise and schedule. Simply put, doctors are becoming on-demand healthcare providers to meet the changing needs of their patients in a better way.

2. Big Data Will Be Used To Improve Healthcare Management

Big data is the information gathered from various platforms such as eCommerce, social media, online transactions, and financial transactions. It helps identify patterns and trends for future use.

Read more: 5 Ways Big Data is Changing the Healthcare Industry

For healthcare, big data offers benefits such as:

• Reduced medication errors: Patient record analysis allows the healthcare software to flag any inconsistencies between a patient’s health and drug prescriptions. This alerts the health professionals and patients in case there is a potential risk of a medication error.
• Simplifying preventive care: Many recurring patients stepping into emergency rooms are “frequent flyers.” These frequent flyers account for up to 28% of clinical visits. Big data analysis helps identify these recurring patients and create preventive plans to keep them from returning.
• Improved staffing: Using big data’s predictive analysis, hospitals and clinics can estimate future admission rates enabling these facilities to allocate proper staff to deal with the patient. This will help save money and reduce emergency room waiting time, especially when a facility is understaffed.

Case Study: How did a data analytics solution help NHS gain financial, clinical, and geographical insights to improve visibility over their KPIs? Read Now! 

Big data analytics, visualization, and insights generation can improve healthcare operations management and transform the patient experience.

3. Virtual Reality Will Transform Medical Training & Care Delivery Models

Virtual Reality is one of the most outstanding healthcare digitalization trends that change the way patients are diagnosed, and medical residents are trained.

• VR in medical diagnosis & treatments: VR is increasingly used in treatment segments in healthcare, such as patient education, robotic surgery, physical and psychological therapy, etc. For instance, medical professionals can use VR to construct a 360° patient-specific video detailing how the surgery will help the patient cure and the consequent results. Virtual Reality has been found effective in treating anxiety, post-traumatic stress disorder, and stroke.   

Case Study: Find how Fingent developed a unique mixed reality application for a leading university that enables users to identify people using facial recognition.  Download Now!

• VR for medical training: Other uses of VR technology include doctors and medical residents using VR simulations to hone their skills (learning in near-real situations) and safely plan complicated surgeries. In addition, VR headsets are used post-surgery to encourage patients to exercise and follow physiotherapies. The technology also enables autistic children to learn and navigate the world.
• Growth of VR in the medical field: From startups to established pharma companies, everyone recognizes the role of VR in healthcare. Experts estimate that by 2025 the global virtual and augmented reality in healthcare will reach $5.1 billion market value. So, if you’re a healthcare company wanting to improve your digital marketing strategy, you should consider investing in VR.

Read more: How Virtual Reality Improves The Standards Of Medical Education And Training

Virtual Reality technology offers a powerful communication channel that allows you to understand customers’ needs better and virtually engage them with your products and services.

4. Wearable Medical Devices Will Enjoy A Wider Market

Another major healthcare digitalization trend is companies collecting their health data from medical devices such as wearables. Previously, most people would check in with their doctors only when something went wrong and were used to undergoing physical check-ups once a year. However, technology is changing that. Today, people highly focus on preventive maintenance and are interested in knowing about their health status frequently. This trend forces several healthcare companies to invest in wearable technology devices that allow patients or family members to track health vitals and seek medical aid when needed. Wearable medical devices enable up-to-date monitoring of high-risk patients and determine the likelihood of any severe health risk.

Experts estimate that the wearable medical device market value will cross USD 27,200 mn by 2023.

Following are some of the widely used wearable devices:

• Exercise trackers (Google Fit, Fitbit, etc.)
• Heart rate sensors (Samsung Heart Rate Sensor, Pulse Sensor, etc.)
• Sweat meters: to monitor blood sugar levels of diabetics
• Oximeters: to monitor the amount of oxygen carried in the blood

Wearable devices in healthcare offer the following benefits:

• Personalized healthcare experience: Medical devices help patients improve their health and give them a sense of ownership regarding personal healthcare management.
• Insurance pricing: Wearable devices provide insurers with insights that enable them to rate a patient’s risk for illness more accurately.
• Insurance incentives: Wearable devices allow patients to take preventive measures to improve their health. Such patients are more likely to obtain lower insurance premiums.
• Gamification opportunities: Fitness watches can help create competitive goals for users to achieve through diet, nutrition, and exercise.

Case Study: Read more about how Fingent helped create a fitness Regimen app for trainers.

5. Healthcare AI Investments Will Increase

By 2025, the healthcare AI-enabled tools market is expected to exceed $34 billion globally. This indicates that healthcare AI investments will peak soon as Artificial Intelligence is set to transform various segments in medicine.

AI-powered chatbots and virtual health assistants fulfill many roles in the healthcare industry, such as customer service representatives, diagnostic tools, or even therapists. Hence AI in healthcare is gaining immense popularity. According to a report published by MarketsandMarkets, the global healthcare chatbots market is estimated to reach $314.3 million by 2023.

Read more: 5 Leading Chatbot Use Cases Explained with Real-life Examples

That said, we can witness the real power of AI in diverse areas such as medical imaging, drug discovery, precision medicine, and genomics. For example, the first-ever drug designed by AI is showing some promise to help patients suffering from obsessive-compulsive disorder. The AI-made drug molecule, DSP-1181, is in clinical trials currently. Researchers and scientists expect that the use of AI will make drug development faster and more efficient.

Overall, AI is projected to bring USD 150 billion by 2026 in annual savings for the US healthcare economy. As start-ups are lapping up the opportunity, the number of active AI start-ups has increased 14 times since 2000.

Why Keep A Close Eye On These Healthcare Digitalization Trends

These five healthcare digitalization trends will spill over in the future as the industry will innovate and adapt to meet the patients’ demands. As a result, organizations that embrace healthcare digitalization will see dividends sooner.

Fingent helps you navigate the digital healthcare space and adapt to the ‘Next Normal’ with our transformative experiences. Our custom healthcare software solutions have helped many of the leading healthcare providers worldwide. Contact us to learn more about how your healthcare organization or clinic can leverage healthcare digitalization effectively.

3D Web Configurator Tech: Run Your Home Improvement Business Safely During The Pandemic

COVID-19 pandemic’s impact has ushered in a dramatic shift in the behavior and preference of customers. However, this shift was not restricted to customers alone. Social distancing and isolation protocols put industries like home improvement in a state of dilemma, as their business depends highly on showcasing products to customers in a physical space, preferably in-store. Almost overnight, businesses like interior designs and home decor had to adapt and adjust how they presented their products. Today, home improvement companies are increasingly relying on 3D web configuration technology to ensure that their customers gain personalized product experiences and can shop from the comfort of their quarantined couches.

Forbes reports that by replacing static 2D images with interactive 3D models, businesses have gained a 40% increase in online conversion rates and a 30% improvement in average sales prices. Moreover, they also managed to reduce online returns by 80%.

As a customer begins experiencing the ease, personalization, and speed of online shopping, there is no going back. Businesses can leverage this cemented habit when they use a 3D web configurator. In the world of e-commerce, 3D web configurators are already a breakthrough. Unquestionably, it is the need of the hour!

Like e-commerce, the home improvement industry is also a crucial beneficiary of 3D web configuration. This article discusses how the home improvement industry uses 3D web configurators to enhance customer engagement and accelerate business growth.

How the Home Improvement Industry is Utilizing 3D Web Configuration

According to Statista, the projected total home improvement sales in the United States will touch 510 billion USD by 2024. Such an exponential increase is only made possible by the power of 3D web configurators. From sofas to paints and bathroom essentials like faucets and sinks, there are various configurations available today.

3D visualization software can help customers project a 3D model of the product against the background of any room. This does not mean a customer must invest in special equipment. Instead, they can view using their phone camera.

For instance, if a customer wants to see how a beige wardrobe would appear in their bedroom, they can simply point the phone camera and project that wardrobe onto the background. Plus, a 3D configurator allows customers to customize the product before they click on the “purchase” tab. So it is no surprise that 3D visualization software can build your customer’s confidence in their purchase.

Read more: What are 3D Web Configurators? How do they Boost E-Commerce Sales and Drive Customer Satisfaction?

3 Ways 3D Visualization Helps the Home Improvement Industry Thrive

3D visualization gives your customers an overall impression of their living room. It can provide an in-depth view of both real and surreal aspects. In other words, it will help you increase professional accuracy as you incorporate your customer’s requirements.

Here are the three advantages that 3D visualization can bring to the home improvement industry:

1. Color Match

Most people tend to research products online before buying. Besides, homeowners prefer to select their wall color from the comfort of their homes. An excellent 3D configurator case that can influence a consumer to move from the consideration stage to the purchase stage is Dulux. Using 3D visualization helped them to provide a better user experience across various channels and devices. In addition, it benefits both the customer and the consultant as they can pick and choose from all available colors.

The primary goal of 3D configuration is to help customers visualize how they can decorate their homes using various combinations. It generates accurate visualization of the selected paint on the walls and ceilings. Plus, it allows a shopper to import, tweak, process, view, and save the final visualization. This is an excellent feature for tradespeople and DIY renovation enthusiasts as they spruce up their homes.

2. Engaging Visualization

Home improvement businesses can use 3D configurators to educate customers about their products. It enables them to blur the lines between the consideration stage and point-of-sale decision-making. For example, 3D web configuration technology will let shoppers measure what size of furniture would look best in their living room. Once they decide on the size, the configurator could narrow it down to other furniture features and help customers make purchase decisions.

A 3D web configurator can do more than sell a product. It enables a business to be transparent and open about its products in detail. This assures the potential customer and increases decision-making comfort whether they commit to buying or not.

When customers cannot visit a store in person, they may want to inspect the purchase in detail. Having 4k zoom on your product page allows your visitors to scrutinize your products, feel the texture, and choose the right shade of color. This can be made easy when you add 360-degree images. Interactive 3D models can significantly improve your web session duration.

Typical case: Timothy Oulton

Timothy Oulton is a British handcrafted leather furniture brand. From 360-degree views to detail shots, it uses various 3D configuration features to create an engaging product page experience.

3. Interactive Imagery

With more people shopping online, having a 3D interactive website has become increasingly important. It can give your shoppers a degree of interactive imagery that photographs cannot render. You can achieve this by combining the background and the product to create an in-context image. Those combinations will help you convey a certain quality, tone, or mood that will influence a shopper’s perception of your product.

True, you can have multi-angled images, but you cannot rotate them. However, 3D product rendering enables immersive interaction between the customer and your product. Now, a shopper can rotate, enlarge, or shrink the product to view it from all directions. Such context enables shoppers to visualize how your product looks in a real-life setting.

Typical case: Neptune

A British interior design and lifestyle brand, Neptune, designs and creates furniture, lighting, and accessories for the entire home. They use context images to tell a story. Their product pages are filled with high-quality room scenes that highlight the beauty of their products.

Tangible Results of Implementing 3D Web Configurators

3D rendering is a distinctive way to present your home improvement products to your customers. It is less expensive in part because it can be used throughout the process of design and sale. Plus, it nudges them along in their buying decisions.

3D web configurators can help increase your customer engagement, boost online sales, and reduce returns. Thus, more businesses are likely to embrace the power of 3D configuration to ensure business continuity during the pandemic and beyond. So, yes, product visualization is the new reality of the future. But, are you ready for it? If your answer is yes, get in touch with us at Fingent and help us give you a 3D view of your business’s success!

Streamlining SAP S/4HANA Migration with Selective Data Transition

Though the COVID-19 pandemic accelerates digital adoption among industries, the journey towards Intelligent Enterprise can be complex. Typically, this begins with establishing an intelligent core like SAP ERP. However, even migrating to a new system is more than just a simple upgrade for many companies. With several years of historical business data across complex system landscapes, companies will have to adopt a specific migration approach to SAP S/4HANA. A well-defined migration approach will help businesses ensure business continuity, embrace innovation, and stay relevant and competitive. This post will look at SAP S/4HANA Selective Data Transition Engagement and how this approach accelerates SAP S/4HANA migration.

Read more: Deploying SAP S/4HANA: Tools and Methodologies to Adopt

Two Popular SAP S/4HANA Migration Methods

There are two popular methods to manage SAP S/4HANA migration.

1. Greenfield migration

The first option is the Greenfield approach or a complete re-engineering (new implementation). However, the limitation of this approach is that you cannot migrate your historical data and so cannot take advantage of the latest intelligent features you need for your company’s historical data to work.

2. Brownfield migration

The second option is the Brownfield approach that allows migrating high volumes of historical data (system conversion). However, moving a vast amount of historical data could leave you with more data that could be non-compliant with data privacy laws. Also, this approach could leave you with a lot of irrelevant data in your newly configured system.

As both these options offer certain limitations, SAP formed a brand-new approach, the SAP S/4HANA Selective Data Transition Engagement, that makes your data migration to SAP S/4HANA a lot easier.

What is Selective Data Transition?

Selective Data Transition, also known as Hybrid Approach or Landscape Transformation, is an alternative to the New Implementation approach (Greenfield) or System Conversion approach (Brownfield). It allows you to consolidate several ERP systems to one central SAP S/4 HANA system. Selective Data Transition is vital for companies moving from an existing SAP ERP solution to SAP S/4HANA on-premise or SAP S/4 HANA cloud (private edition).

Just like an inland river delta flowing into the ocean, Selective Data Transition allows you to migrate only a relevant selection of your existing ERP data to SAP S/4 HANA. So, if you’re on SAP ECC planning for transition to SAP S/4HANA, then selective data transition is one of the best approaches to move to SAP S/4HANA.

Case Study: Thermo Pads partners with Fingent to migrate from ECC 6 to SAP S/4HANA. View Case Study

Business Benefits of Selective Data Transition Approach

• Selective data transition avoids business disruption when moving to SAP S/4HANA and enables you to go live according to your business needs. In general, this approach allows for a single go-live, moving several organizational units or roll-out in multiple phases, for example, by country.
• This approach enables you to migrate only your relevant historical data and retain a consistent process chain while leaving behind obsolete data, for example, outdated company codes.
• Selective data transition helps you define your speed and combine single projects such as a new go-live implementation, finance management, etc. while moving to SAP S/4HANA in a single step or a phased approach.
• With SAP S/4 HANA, you can introduce new business processes and manage your historical data while protecting good practices and previous investments.
• The near-zero downtime approach restricts the technical downtime to just a few hours.
• Selective data transition can help change your landscape by either splitting or consolidating existing systems.

Read more: 7 Tips to Ensure a Seamless Transition to SAP S/4HANA

Customize Your Selective Data Transition Approach with Fingent

Selective Data Transition Engagement is a great way to balance between redesign and reuse. It can happen across various scenarios for companies of different sizes to support a smooth transition to SAP S/4HANA. This approach provides a suitable IT landscape for every company’s unique needs. Selective data transition goes beyond the standard implementation as it offers several options for customers to choose from, based on their current landscapes and future needs.

You can work with Fingent and define the appropriate structural changes that need to be considered during data migration, along with any business processes that may need to be modified or redesigned. Our tailored approach has helped many of our customers to increase their flexibility to adapt data and processes in just one step.

Read more: SAP S/4HANA journey: 8 ways C-level leaders and executives can derive business value 

With Selective Data Transition Engagement, companies can even take advantage of select innovation and modify their business processes to facilitate the use of the latest tools and functionality without the need to start from scratch.Companies having mature SAP landscapes can clean up their environments while retaining those investments that matter most and lower their transitions by bypassing preparation projects.

Selective data transition can even help split some of your projects between the cloud and on-premise. It also allows you to restructure and consolidate your environments as you want. But, most importantly, this approach helps you save time by combining all tasks in just one step.

Read more: 6 capabilities of SAP S/4HANA that will help you become an intelligent enterprise 

So, if you are interested in learning how the SAP S/4HANA Selective Data Transition Engagement can help your organization accomplish successful migration, don’t hesitate to contact Fingent. We are an SAP Silver Partner and have the expertise in this area to expedite your intelligent enterprise journey.

A comprehensive guide to web application development in 2021

• Introduction
• What is a Web Application?
• What is Web Application Development?
• Web Apps vs Mobile Apps
• Types of Web Applications
• Technology Stacks for Web Application Development
• Benefits of Web Application Development
• Web Application Development Process
• Web Application Development Validation & Deployment
• Web Application Development Trends
• The Cost of Developing a Web Application
• FAQs About Web Application Development
• Develop Your Web Application with Fingent

Progressive Web Apps: New Cutting-Edge Trend in Web Development

Speed and convenience have become crucial in keeping online shoppers engaged. Progressive Web Apps development is a solution that allows the shopper to enjoy an app-like experience via a website (using web browsers). Users can install the PWA application from the browser window and access it just like a native app. In addition, progressive web apps improve the quality of your web applications, making them reliable, fast, and engaging.

Are you considering PWA for your business growth? Is it worth exploring this option? This blog will help you take a closer look at why Progressive Web Apps are turning to be the new cutting-edge trend in web development.

What is a Progressive Web App?

Frances Berriman and Alex Russel coined the buzzword “Progressive Web Apps” in 2015. To date, PWA has been a big player in this mobile-first world. Progressive Web Apps (PWA) have caused digital marketers to rethink how they design and deliver sites.

Progressive Web Apps can deliver a blazingly fast and slick app-like shopping experience to the end-user. It combines the best of two worlds: your website and the native application. It can be called a hybrid app as users can now browse your website on their mobile. Besides, PWA promises to solve two vital issues:

1. Performance and usability
2. Mobile-web conversion rates

Read more: Native Apps vs. Web Apps: Choosing the Best for Your Brand

Business Benefits of Progressive Web Apps

Several companies that focused their efforts on PWAs instead of having a separate native app have experienced increased conversions. A best case in point is the world’s largest online B2B trading platform, Alibaba.com. Alibaba.com increased its conversion rate by 76% across browsers after upgrading its website to PWA.

Here’s how your business can benefit from PWA:

1. High-performance rate

Response time is crucial for audience engagement and better conversion rates. PWA responds quickly as the browser uses caching to save the elements of the layout that are repeated in the template. This improves the speed of downloads and reduces page load time. Subsequently, better performance leads to a better user experience, which in turn increases customer retention rates.

2. Ease of use across multiple devices

Progressive Web Apps are built with a responsive layout in mind for an improved user experience. A responsive design will fit into any size of the screen with ease. In other words, PWA will adjust the experience as per the device screen size. You can further improve the user experience with a PWA manifest file that controls the full-screen view.

3. Seamless browsing experience

A traditional website is virtually useless without a stable internet connection, but not a Progressive Web App. PWA can be easily viewed offline as service workers automatically cache important application features and information from the user’s last online access. This way, the user can access it without any network. Plus, you can add a brand logo, product descriptions, and few advanced features to your offline page.

This is an additional incentive for shoppers to choose businesses with a Progressive Web App over those that use native apps. Such a seamless browsing experience rewards you with better engagement rates and customer retention.

4. Resembles native-built applications

PWAs can be designed to look and behave like native apps, or they can be designed to let users know they are browsing the Progressive Web App. Regardless of the developer’s choice, it can contain a complete set of traditional app functionalities with database access. The best part is that you can seamlessly integrate the application into an existing website or an app.

Watch Video: Fingent can help you choose the right mobile app development approach by evaluating your requirements.

5. No installation is needed

Shoppers can download your app directly onto their devices. Once downloaded, it gets its own icon on the screen, just like a traditional mobile application. This will avoid the slow and complex installation process, improve user experience, and reduce user abandonment.

Here is another way it can benefit you: users can easily access the PWA via a URL. In other words, a user can easily share this link with a friend contributing to increased leads.

6. No manual updates are required

Native apps must be updated periodically through mobile internet or a WIFI connection. Such updates can consume large amounts of data, which may be costly for some users. Fortunately, Progressive Web App updates are performed “on-use,” much like how a website is updated.

7. Low development cost

Developing a mobile app can be a costly process, especially for small businesses and startups. Thankfully, PWA development is much cheaper than traditional app development but provides a better option for companies to generate a positive ROI.

Read more: Mobile app development: 4 tips to consider 

8. Wide range of features

The most prominent feature of PWA is push notifications. Publishers and developers can use this feature to implement creative advertising solutions. As the push notifications appear on a shopper’s device screen, it is read more often than emails or updates on social media. This can lead to valuable brand awareness and promote products or services.

9. Improved app and data security

Security has been a concern for both users and developers. According to new standards of web design, all customer information must be moved to HTTPS. So it is highly convenient to launch Progressive Web App within a safe environment. Moreover, it builds customer confidence in the security of their personal information as they enter sensitive data into your PWA.

10. Low data and low storage

Data is costly in some developing nations. That is why it is a bonus that Progressive Web App consumes only a fraction of data usage compared to native apps. Moreover, it does not take up significant storage space on devices, so users are more inclined to use a lighter app on their smartphones. Also, it contributes to better performance.

Read more: Building a Business Mobile App in 2021? Here’s What You Need to Know 

Progress with Progressive Web Apps

Progressive Web Apps are the future of web-hosted apps as they can overcome the inherent limitations of web performance and insufficient or unavailable internet connections. Since PWAs can run on any modern platform, soon they will overtake truly native apps. Yes, PWAs have the potential to change the way the web works. However, Progressive Web Apps will not replace websites and mobile apps altogether. It is still in its infancy. To know which option is best for your business, have a chat with the technology experts at Fingent.

Custom patient engagement platforms improve caregiver-patient interactions today. Here’s how. 

With the COVID-19 pandemic restricting face-to-face engagement, patients have started using telehealth (telemedicine) technology and other digital channels to receive healthcare services. The growth of digital healthcare will increase the demand for healthcare technologies in the future. 81% of people (patients) want healthcare providers to know them individually and deliver more personalized and meaningful experiences.

While support programs like teleconsulting do not replace the physical presence of healthcare providers, they offer valued information, which is the need of the hour. With stay-at-home mandates, social distancing, and lockdowns, telemedicine is the vital care model that boosts patient engagement today. Personalized patient engagement fosters trust among patients and ensures continuity of care. So, in times of pandemic and beyond, patient engagement platforms will play a crucial role.

Read more: 5 ways to optimize the revenue of your medical practice and clinical processes 

Patient engagement and its growing significance

In simple terms, patient engagement is a concept where patients are actively involved and considered important decision-makers in their care.

Engaged patients are:

• Informed- as they understand their health status and the treatment.
• Empowered- as they believe they can change their health outcomes.
• Heard- as they can communicate with their providers better and participate in shared decision-making.

What is a patient engagement platform (PEP)?

A patient engagement platform is an application that enables patients to interact with healthcare providers via their mobile device, tablet, or computer. The patient engagement platform keeps the patients involved beyond the four walls of the hospital.

When implemented effectively, patient engagement platforms can help streamline access to medical records, provide appointment reminders, enable self-scheduling for patients, and deliver patient education or awareness.

How do patient engagement platforms help?

Patient engagement platforms (PEPs) can help automate the following processes.

• Send reminders to patients regarding their postoperative treatment protocols
• Allow patients to update mobility reports and pain score
• Deliver educational content
• Manage images of wounds
• Record and monitor health vitals like BP, FBS, BMI, etc.

Read more: 7 major impacts of technology in healthcare

What are the benefits of a patient engagement platform?

1. Ease the patient engagement process

A customized patient engagement platform helps improve your patient experience by assisting them in scheduling medical appointments. It can also help notify patients about their next visit to the clinic, or when they need to check their health vitals, or when their current medication course will be over. In addition, caregivers can use the patient engagement platform to track a patient’s medical history and use the data to channelize treatment plans when the patient pays a second visit.

2. Enable caregivers to focus on core competencies

With a patient engagement platform in place, patients can fill in medical forms, electronically scan their insurance cards, and consent from their mobiles, laptops, or computers. It will allow healthcare providers to focus on their core competencies and saves patients from standing in queues or long wait times. In addition, it can expedite the care delivery process during an emergency.

Case Study: Fingent partnered with Casenet’s Advanced Solutions Group to develop TruCare Insights as a reliable population health management platform. Download Now!

3. Empower care providers to make informed decisions

Healthcare organizations can use information like satisfaction scores, online appointments, wait times, and ROI to make informed decisions related to staffing and identify opportunities for improvement. Custom patient engagement platforms allow clinicians to track all this information effectively. It goes a long way in supporting clinical decision-making.

4. Optimize healthcare throughput

Patient engagement platforms allow online registration that ensures patients have less waiting time in the clinic. It enables healthcare providers to attend to more patients in a given time and improve data accuracy and demographics. In addition, patient engagement platforms spare medical professionals from time-consuming and manual data management processes so that they get time to receive advanced medical training. Nurses, physicians, administrators, and other hospital staff members can streamline their communication, increase staff satisfaction, and utilize data analytics to make strategic decisions.

Benefits to the patients:

• Patients are aware of the next steps, such as diet plans, exercises, medication plans, or next clinical visit
• Consistent and transparent care will be available 24/7
• Augmented patient engagement and experience
• Improved communication lowers preoperative stress and anxiety

Case Study: How did a data analytics solution help NHS gain financial, clinical, and geographical insights to improve visibility over their KPIs? Read Now! 

What to look for in a custom patient engagement platform?

Given the changes in patient behavior, expectations, and changing healthcare landscape, healthcare providers will have to ramp up patient engagement strategies and implement the latest engagement technologies. Patient engagement platforms must enable providers to determine the best ways to deploy their expertise and services to their patients.

Read more: Digital tools reshaping the healthcare industry

So, make sure the patient engagement platform has the following capabilities.

1. EMR integration

The patient engagement platform should integrate with Electronic Medical Records (EMR). For example, the platform should receive data from the EMR, such as a referral or recall, and revert to the EMR.

2. Sentiment analysis

The main aim of patient engagement is to understand patients on a deeper, emotional level. So, it is crucial to leverage sentiment analysis technology. This will enable providers to recognize when a patient is happy or frustrated and respond accordingly.

3. Real-time and interactive patient communication

The platform must encourage bidirectional communication, specifically text-based messaging. In short, patients must be able to communicate with their health system easily.

4. Chatbot functionality and keyword actions

The use of chatbots and keywords in patient engagement platforms is trending. It helps reduce human intervention. So, the patient engagement platform should allow for automated responses to common questions such as “where are you located?” The platform must also enable keywords to trigger automation, such as scheduling a ride for patients who need a lift.

Read more: 5 leading chatbot use cases explained with real-life examples

5. Patient on-boarding

The platform should drive patients to the patient portal and help them register quickly and conveniently to get medical support on time.

6. Integration with other vendors

A single app can’t solve it all. It is just not feasible and is also not in your patient’s best interests. Make sure that your patient engagement platform integrates seamlessly with your other vendors. For example, the platform can offer billing features or even integrate with medical billing software, medical invoice management software, etc.

7. Boost employee adoption

Your staff must like and accept the patient engagement platform. If they don’t appreciate the new technology, it won’t fulfill its potential. In addition, you must ensure that the patient engagement platform enjoys enterprise-wide adoption and has a user-friendly UX and UI.

8. Offer multilingual support

As not all patients speak English, you will have to ensure that the platform supports different languages used or spoken widely by your patients.

Read more: 5 essentials to an effective healthcare application 

Why should you adopt a custom patient engagement platform?

A custom patient engagement platform is specifically developed for your organization to cover your unique healthcare requirements and cater to your internal processes.

As such a platform is built from scratch, it gives you the freedom of choice for technology. Additionally, you can easily integrate this platform with third-party systems because you get to control the code entirely. Also, you will have full ownership of the final product and customize the software according to any relevant changes in your organization.

Benefits of a custom patient engagement platform

• High scalability
• Seamless integration to your existing infrastructure
• Enables integration with any new services you are willing to include in your medical practice
• Freedom to choose the technology
• Gain full ownership of the resulting solution

Custom patient engagement platform is best suited for medical practices that:

• Offer a wide range of services
• Plan to expand in size and services
• Have rigid workflows that are difficult to adapt
• Want to integrate the new solution with the existing system

Read more: The application and impact of information technology in healthcare

Develop your custom patient engagement platform with Fingent

At Fingent, we have the expertise and work closely with you to build a custom patient engagement platform to suit your business needs. Our experts help you select the best web development frameworks, database and backend technologies, data visualization formats, and leading front-end technologies to develop your patient engagement platform or any medical software that you would require.

Fingent helps you develop healthcare application platforms tailored to your needs, with top features like appointment scheduling, medical billing, patient feedback management, payment processing, chatbot, and fundamental to in-depth analytics. To know more, please get in touch with us.