Category: Digital Transformation

Factors To Consider While Migrating Your Code To Python 3

It’s clear that Python 2 will be sunsetting on January 1, 2020. The Python Software Foundation (the organization behind Python) has stated that Python 2 will not be improved anymore after that day and no support will be provided to existing Python 2 users even if they find a security problem. The only option is to upgrade to Python 3 as soon as you can. Migrating your business suite from an old to a new software version comes with its own challenges. How can you ensure a successful and smooth migration to Python 3? Here is a guideline that addresses the prerequisites and key considerations. 

Related Reading: Switching to Python 3: Is It An Apt Decision For Your Business?

Steps To Successfully Migrate To Python 3

The recommended steps or course of action is to follow intermediate steps in modernizing incrementally and addressing issues progressively. Simultaneously, it is also important to aim for cross-generational compatibility without replacing the code entirely. A seamless migration process requires the following steps:

1. Drop Support For Python 2.6 And Older Versions

It is to be noted that Python 2.6 is no longer supported freely and is not receiving fixes for bugs. Hence, solving issues that come across while working with Python 2.6 or older versions will be difficult. For instance, Pylint which is used for setting up a Linter coverage is not supported by Python 2.6.

2. Specify A Proper Version Support In The setup.py File

In the setup.py file, a proper trove classifier has to be mentioned. This will help in determining whether all packages are Python 3 compatible. 

3. Ensure A Proper Test Coverage

Proper test coverage can avoid many bugs at production. For instance, your test suite must have at least 80% code coverage. The code coverage will let you know how much source code is executed during testing. coverage.py is the best-recommended tool to measure your test coverage.

4. Update Your Code

Most projects will include multiple third-party dependencies. It is thus important to ensure that all third-party packages are compatible. You can make a choice between two tools namely, Futurize and Modernize to port your code automatically.  

5. Division 

Python 3 evaluates 5/2 == 2.5 and not 2. That means, all divisions of int values in Python 3 result in a float value. Going through your code and adding from_future_import division to your files and updating the division operator to // or using floor division will do the needful.

6. Understanding The Confluence Of Text And Binary Data

It is important to decide which  APIs take text and which of them take binary data. For instance, Python 2 made sure that APIs that take text work with Unicode and APIs that take binary data work with bytes. However, Python 3 takes text as str, and binary as bytes. Additionally, Python 3.5 adds the _mod_ method to the bytes type. 

7. Utilize Feature Detection Instead Of Version Detection

Relying on feature detection helps in avoiding potential problems of compatibility errors. For instance, suppose you require access to a feature of importlib that is available in Python’s standard library since Python 3.3 version. Consider the fact that it is also available for Python 2 via importlib2 on PyPI. In this situation, it is very common to write code using the version. This will create issues with Python 4. It is thus better to utilize feature detection. 

8. Prevent Compatibility Regressions

Once the code is translated and made compatible with Python 3, it is important to ensure that the code does not regress. You can use the Pylint for the same. Example, pip install pylint.

9. Check For Dependencies That Can Block Your Transition

The caniusepython3 will help you determine all projects that directly or indirectly can block your transition to Python 3.

10. Continuous Integration To Ensure Compatibility

It is important to run your tests under multiple Python interpreters such as tox by integrating them with your system. 

11. Use Of Optional Static Type Checking

A static type checker such as mypy or pytype on your code will help in porting your code. It analyzes your code and checks whether it can run on Python 3 as well. For instance, if you tend to misuse a binary data type in one particular version of Python, running a static type checker will solve the issue.  

The Python Software Foundation offers a comprehensive guide on how to achieve cross-generational compatibility for enterprises that require Python 2 and 3 to run simultaneously. More guidelines and steps to be noted while migrating to Python 3 can be found in these places: 

• An official Python porting guide
• Reference to python-future
• Porting to Python 3 – Django Tips

To learn more about migrating to Python 3 seamlessly, stay tuned to our latest articles and blogs. If you are looking for a technology partner to help your business transform with the latest digital trends, then get in touch with our experts today!

Accelerate Your Transition to SAP S/4HANA With These Tips

Increasing digitization has caused businesses to face a multitude of challenges in their working environment. In order to map business processes and forecast better business decisions, your data and work processes to be analyzed in real-time. SAP S/4HANA is an intelligent ERP software designed to cover all your day-to-day enterprise requirements. It integrates crucial functions from various lines of businesses as well as industries and incorporates parts of SAP Business Suite Products. 

SAP will be offering its support for its ECC ERP software until December 31, 2025. Any business that seeks continued support from SAP will need to migrate to SAP’s flagship ERP software, SAP S/4HANA. Prior to performing SAP S/4HANA implementation or migration, you need to define your business needs and priorities. Having an appropriate migration strategy is crucial for achieving your goals with minimal disruption. 

Here are a few tips that will help you ensure a smooth transition to SAP S/4HANA. 

Tip 1: Analyzing The Right Platform That Addresses Challenges

Switching to SAP S/4 HANA successfully requires businesses to first analyze their requirements and budget. 

With the on-premise deployment of SAP HANA, the user gets to manage the entire HANA database, applications, OS, middleware, servers, networking, data centers, and virtualization. On-premise deployment of SAP S/4 HANA thus ensures control in addition to maximum risk reduction. This requires choosing a certified SAP HANA appliance from a hardware partner of SAP. Additionally, SAP HANA’s TDI (Tailored Data Center Integration) helps in reducing infrastructure costs.

Related Reading: How To Choose Best IT Infrastructure For SAP HANA

SAP S/4 HANA Cloud integration which is the SaaS version of S/4 HANA can function without the need for hardware, databases, or IT personnel. SAP HANA Enterprise Cloud is SAP’s very own cloud offer and provides improved flexibility, and scalability. 

TIP 2:  Providing User Support For Improved Decision-Making Process

The simple data model provided by SAP S/4 HANA makes it easier for decision-making and performance improvement. Hence, analyzing and identifying master grids in the system, specifically the key values that were not being used even after a key date provided by the user. This will prevent errors happening in the future. These benefits and necessary changes need to be provided to the users for better support to enhance the decision-making process. 

TIP 3: Real-Time Insights From Prepared Data To Ensure Reduced Down Times And Costs

Real-time insights are crucial for businesses to be able to optimize various processes involved. SAP S/4HANA platform involves a simplified data model that makes data migration quick and simple. SAP HANA provides advanced analytical tools that help in analyzing large chunks of data in real-time. A preparatory activity of cleansing data is crucial to avoid risks of licensing, downtimes, and so on.

TIP 4: Creating A Deployment Group Of SAP Experts

A proficient group of SAP experts is the key to ensuring a successful transition to SAP S/4HANA. The deployment requires conducting workshops on functional planning, which can be performed by an SAP partner or can utilize internal resources with adequate training as well. Getting the deployment group of experts on board might even require prototypes and test systems to be installed. This can be done quite inexpensively with the cloud.

Related Reading: SAP HANA Technology: The Game Changer

TIP 5: Creating A Detailed Road-map For Business

Mission-critical applications can now be separated from peripheral LoBs (Business line applications) with the SAP BIModal IT. These applications are developed on the SAP cloud platform and allow SAP S/4HANA to perform as the digital core of organizations. Additionally, SAP business services provide technical support services during implementation.

TIP 6: Planning Migration with High Industry Standards

All actions from the planning phase to migration are critical and require to be methodical. The SAP must be in its latest version for a smooth transition. Also, it is equally important to have backups and archive points to avoid unnecessary risks.

TIP 7: Create SAP Sandpit Environment Initially As A Proof Of Concept

Implementing a proof of concept is vital before performing the actual migration process. This helps in identifying various issues and resolving risks if any. It also supports the decision-making process and improves the overall performance of the project. 

SAP S/4HANA is the future of SAP. Ensuring a smooth transition to SAP S/4HANA is crucial for outcomes concerning data processing, analytics, overall performance improvement, and improved profitability. Get in touch with our SAP expert to get free guidance on migrating to SAP S/4HANA seamlessly.

How to Solve Accounting Challenges in Business with Augmented Intelligence

The challenges faced by finance and accounting teams are like the underwater icebergs that can crash a huge ship. The Titanic sank because of poor decision-making. Likewise, weak financial decisions can affect your business. This blog will help your finance and accounting teams to identify the hidden challenges and provide insights on how to use Augmented Intelligence to overcome complex business challenges effectively. 

5 Reasons Why Augmented Intelligence Is Gaining Importance 

Many businesses are embracing Augmented Intelligence because;

• Enormous volumes of data can be processed quickly and efficiently with Augmented Intelligence.
• Accounting tasks such as audits, payrolls, taxes, and banking can be automated using Augmented Intelligence.
• Due to its ability to continuously learn, Augmented Intelligence can constantly improve efficiency while eliminating the risk of human error.
• It enables humans to make crucial decisions without bias by providing fair information and recommendations.
• Tedious tasks such as bookkeeping can be automated and streamlined.

Top 4 Solutions Offered by Augmented Intelligence 

Challenge 1: Protecting the business from fraud

According to the 2018 global fraud and identity report, 63% of businesses still continue to experience the same number or more fraud losses than the preceding year. And only 54% are ‘somewhat confident’ in their ability to detect fraudulent activity. The wide variety of fraud types and the enormity of the work involved in reviewing the data manually or by rule-based systems can make the detection and prevention of fraud a huge challenge.

Solution: 

With the help of Augmented Intelligence, large transactions can be analyzed in real-time which helps in detecting fraud. Since Augmented Intelligence can even categorize the score of fraudulent activity, investigators are able to prioritize their work effectively. Once the fraud is detected, Augmented Intelligence allows you to reject the transaction outright. Since Augmented Intelligence continues to learn from past data, it can learn from investigators’ reviews and understand how to discern patterns that lead to fraudulent activities.

Related Reading: Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning: The Cyber Security Heroes Of FinTech

Challenge 2: Risk Assessment

While evaluating potential risks in lending money or providing credit, businesses could end up denying credit without assessing their current situation using traditional methods. Worse yet, they could end up approving credit to churners who could affect profits. The organization might also face the challenge of explaining to the consumer the reason for denying them credit.  

Solution: 

Augmented Intelligence helps you assess your customers’ current income and recent credit history based on the enormous data that is available at hand. This allows for a more realistic and accurate assessment of each borrower. Such kind of assessment allows financial firms to make more individualized decisions. Besides, Augmented Intelligence can provide reason codes which would explain the important aspects involved in credit decisions, making it easier to provide reasons why credit is being denied.

Challenge 3: Trading and Investment

According to a 2018 survey conducted in the US, 70% of millennials use mobile banking in the US alone. And this figure is steadily increasing all over the world. Businesses cannot function without mobile applications. It has become a channel of interaction with customers who would like to review transactions, pay bills and find customer service. Failed interactions would translate into increased customer churn, lost transactions and even lost revenues.

Solution: 

Augmented Intelligence can assist your business in detecting anomalies in transaction volume by identifying the triggers for such anomalies. Based on previous data patterns, the system can look at expected data volumes which can then be compared with real-time transaction values. This will help in your decision-making process because it clearly and quickly indicates the highs and lows of a transaction by suggesting solutions that meet each individual demand.

Challenge 4: Combating Money Laundering

It is estimated that the amount of money laundered globally in one year is 2 – 5% of the global GDP! And this seems to be increasing at an alarming rate. To combat money laundering, extensive investigations must be performed by the finance and accounting teams. 

Solution: 

Augmented Intelligence can detect suspicious and complex transactions and raise a red flag on such transactions so investigators can further examine them. Augmented Intelligence can learn from each experience and more effectively safeguard your firm.

Related Reading: The Future Of Communication and Security Using Augmented Reality

Discover New Growth Opportunities by Applying Augmented Intelligence

Augmented Intelligence can help finance and accounting teams reduce costs, improve operations, increase consumer satisfaction and reduce the time taken for various processes by 80-90%. It can also reshape your entire organization from internal operations to treasury services. It can assess the available unstructured content and help your business unlock valuable insights from them. This enables smarter decision making, which in turn helps in the growth of your business. 

When your business adopts Augmented Intelligence as part of your methodology, it gives your customers benefits that will lead to loyalty and growth. Fingent has been helping many clients achieve this, and we can help you too. Give us a call and let’s discuss. 

How 5G Will Drive Enterprises to Invest More in Cloud

5G or the fifth generation of cellular networking technology is poised to create a breakthrough for enterprises, especially ones that rely on cloud and IoT. This is due to the ability of 5G to receive and transmit large volumes of data; approximately 10 times more than the capacity of the incumbent 4G-LTE network. For industries on the verge of transformation, 5G is expected to help them leverage the advantages of technologies like cloud, robotics, AI, IoT, and analytics. 

It’s getting hard to imagine a single day without cloud technology. Right from putting your files into Dropbox to streaming the latest shows on Netflix to working remotely from home, cloud computing is impacting our lives. In this blog, we take a look at what effects 5G will rollout on cloud computing and why enterprises need to invest more in the new wireless revolution.

The Positive Effects Of 5G On Cloud

5G is capable to bring in 10 Gbps of capacity which is 10 times more than that of what 4G networks bring in today. 5G thus brings down the cost of a mobile network and thereby improves network efficiency. Its delivery latency is 50 times lower than that of 4G. While the current 4G LTE offers 5-12 megabits per second of speed at its peak, 5G users are expected to witness a speed of about 200 GB per second. The speed increase of 5G as compared to the 4G LTE is significant. This massive speed difference between 4G and 5G proves that 5G will enable the connected devices to communicate in speeds that are of high magnitude than before. All these facts denote that businesses will be adopting 5G as their primary network, not just as a backup.

Why Your Enterprise Needs 5G

With 5G technology, enterprises can utilize mobile cloud applications for streamlining their workflows as well as their offerings to customers. Businesses that use unified communication services can leverage the improved speed and service reliability features of 5G.

A large number of enterprises are now making significant investments in cloud-based mobile applications which offer them the advantages of reduced operational costs, increased time-to-market, improved workforce productivity, increased customer satisfaction, and so on. 

Related Read: How AI and IoT are Creating an Impact on Industries Today

3 Ways 5G Will Grow Enterprise Investment In Cloud

5G is a viable option for enterprises to connect to various cloud providers in a cost-effective manner because of its wide bandwidth availability and improved security features, enhanced via network slicing and edge computing technologies. 

1. Enabling Digital Transformation 

Cloud has become the foundation for enterprises keen on digitally transforming their operations. The growing numbers of cloud-native platform providers such as Salesforce, AWS, and Microsoft Azure allow enterprises to move their current on-premises workloads to the cloud. This is where 5G can support enterprises to connect cost-effectively to these cloud platforms.

2. Preventing Bandwidth Restrictions

According to GlobalData, a third of 924 enterprises have deployed over 1000 IoT connected devices, most of which offer features such as smart grid and location tracking that utilize sensors. A large number of these sensors reach their maximum capacity while working with the already installed wireless technologies. For instance, most WiFi units have access points that support only up to 250 devices. Another concern is the interference of other devices as well as networks with the WiFi. This bandwidth limitation issue of enterprises can be addressed by using 5G features such as service-based architecture, network slicing, and so on.

3. 5G Offers Increased Mobility

Enterprises are increasingly using cloud-based applications from mobile devices via public cellular networks. Most of these applications have rich data. When enterprises use 5G, their enterprise mobility solutions can easily manage devices, ensuring great user experience as well as end-to-end security. 5G provides solutions to the concerns of security, reliability, and bandwidth, in addition to bridging the gap between cloud and mobility.

Related Read: Cloud Service Models – Choose the Right One for Your Business

5G Use Cases: Motivating Enterprises to Maximize Cloud Investments

Bandwidth and latency are important for enterprises. 5G enhances the network for enterprises in the following ways:

• An Alternative To Fiber

Enterprises can make use of 5G that offers fiber-like bandwidth and latency features. It takes a shorter deployment time as cables are not required. 5G can thus be a great alternative to fiber utilized for the enterprise data network. 5G can also be used as the primary connectivity for businesses in branch networks, especially in rural areas where fiber deployment is difficult. 

• Working With Existing SD-WAN Solutions

Many enterprises require quality WAN services for increased throughput. This is possible through 5G network slicing. Through logical partitioning of networks and creation of new environments via a fixed or mobile-based capability, and by ensuring security, networks can be purpose-built for enterprises. These networks can be deployed with existing SD-WAN solutions or fixed networks to become more responsive to applications as well as the environments they work on.

• Private Wireless Networks

Several enterprises are using sensors and remote equipment in private wireless networks, which are highly customized. These networks require a highly secure environment. The dedicated network offered by 5G is aimed at reducing cyber threats. A private 5G network can ensure high security, reliability, and improved bandwidth.

5G: What To Expect in 2020 

According to a recent forecast by Gartner, worldwide 5G wireless network infrastructure revenue is expected to reach $4.2 billion by the year 2020. 5G is increasingly enabling new service-based models and use cases, bringing about a new wave of innovation. Recent research showed that service providers can benefit up to $619 billion globally by the year 2026. 

In a nutshell, 5G will be completely resetting the experience of cloud computing through mobile devices. Fingent offers custom cloud application development services for businesses across the globe. To know more about how you can leverage 5G on the cloud, call us right away and talk to our strategists!  

6 Ways Cognitive Analytics Contributes To Business Profitability 

The ocean of data is deep and seemingly limitless, and its levels are rising exponentially. To stay afloat in the competitive market today and reap good ROI, businesses must learn to connect their data analytics strategy to their business decisions. Here, we are discussing the multiple ways in which cognitive analytics can help your business maximize revenue by converting your data into actionable insights. 

What is Cognitive Analytics?

Cognitive analytics is a field of analytics which equips a computerized model to imitate the human thought process, which in turn supports business intelligence and a better decision-making process. 

In other words, this branch of analytics draws inferences from the patterns deduced from data provided, and then draws conclusions based on the available knowledge. It then puts the findings back into the knowledge base and thus keeps building a system that gets smarter with time, just like a human mind. These patterns, inferences, and conclusions enable businesses to make smarter decisions and reap increased ROI. 

Related Reading: What is Cognitive Computing?

The leading market research firm MarketsandMarkets estimates that by 2022, the cognitive market size will increase by USD 10.95 billion at a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 42.9%. 

The report forecasts that many businesses are turning to cognitive analytics to increase their ROI. The challenge is in knowing how to churn data into useful insights that will augment your business growth. 

Churn it Right to Get True Insight

Economic Scholar W. E. B. Du Bois once said: “when you have mastered numbers you will in fact no longer be reading numbers, any more than you read words when reading books; you will be reading meanings.” How true that is with cognitive analytics! When you do it right, you gain incredible insights that help you make smarter and better decisions; which in turn will help you reap ROI. 

Here are a few ways to effectively apply cognitive analytics in your business:

1. Start small, with a focus on the long term

As businesses are moving from preserving data to sharing it, they also need to learn how to create and capitalize on new opportunities. To achieve your goals, you need to make detailed plans in collaboration with technology experts. Since cognitive technologies generally support individual tasks, scaling up would require integration with processes and existing systems. 

Approach cognitive analytics with the focus on modernizing your existing systems. Such an approach minimizes risks, maximizes revenue, solves business issues, and redefines customer experiences. 

2. Don’t get hung up on perfection 

If you are trying to source data either through commercial or open sources, it is smarter to have specific use cases in mind. Additionally, to drive new insights, it is helpful to have different data sets interconnected. This helps you fill the gaps between data and increases the quality and usability of the data. Clearly, it is not enough to achieve or build up complex data, which could take years. Aim to start with what you already have. 

3. Do not hoard data ownership and access

Cognitive analytics can successfully reap ROI when the organization gives data access to as many people as is necessary. This includes all those who are involved in data definition, data verification, data creation, data curation, and data validation. If you want to tap into the true value of data, it is imperative to design an effective data governance policy.

4. Ensure talents matches the task 

If you want to get your frontline staff to use the data insights, it isn’t enough to upgrade your software. It is important to integrate insights into everyday workflow. Find ways to eliminate the underlying distrust of analytics among individual members of your staff. Ensure that everyone involved receives the necessary training and analytics literacy. Matching the right talent with the right task ensures that your organization has better insights and can help you make better decisions which leads to higher ROI. 

5. Use a secure and reliable hybrid cloud

Having a secure and reliable hybrid cloud enables your organization to link data across multiple cloud environments. It also makes sure that your staff can search and locate data quickly from the cloud.

Related Reading: Why Cloud-First Businesses Should Consider Hyper Hybrid Cloud?

6. Encourage generating counterintuitive insights and new ideas quickly

To keep your business on the cutting edge, your staff should feel free to come up with new ideas and try them out before you finalize or discard an idea. To this end, it is vital to provide the appropriate environment, tools, and technology to your staff. Encourage them to find new features quickly, run correlations and perform the analysis. 

Set up Fundamental Building Blocks 

We have seen the fundamental building blocks of cognitive analytics. 

Besides transforming the execution of core business functions, it is also changing the nature of competition. To achieve the true purpose of cognitive analytics, that is, churning data into insights, you must strengthen your business’s fundamental building blocks. 

Stay ahead of your competition by utilizing Fingent’s analytics and visualization services. Develop the ability to read not just data or numbers, but to infer insights, and use them to increase your return on investment. Take the next step in analyzing your big data by connecting with our expert. 

Why Businesses With Matured Cloud Footprints Should Move To The Hyper Hybrid Cloud?

The Cloud is no longer an option. It is the revolution that has become inevitable for businesses and more and more businesses are recognizing this and moving their data into the cloud. They are implementing mature cloud strategies that call for comprehensive cloud management solutions. They need a solution, which can handle the scale and complexity involved in advanced integration and orchestration. The hyper-hybrid cloud becomes extremely important here and is paving new operational avenues for all businesses. 

This blog explains the reasons why and how your business can benefit from moving on to the hyper-hybrid cloud.

Understanding What Hyper-Hybrid Cloud Is

The hyper-hybrid cloud is the best of two cloud services, private and public. Let’s break it up to get the complete sense of the term. 

In business terms, the word ‘hyper’ means greater, or more than usual, and ‘hybrid’ means mixed. As the name suggests, hyper-hybrid makes use of both on-premises private cloud, as well as third party public cloud resources but with increased diversity, and complexity. 

The hyper-hybrid cloud forms an inter-routed plumbing system, as it were, between private and public clouds with greater flexibility according to the businesses demand, needs, and cost changes. It also provides virtualization and virtualization software management so that businesses can easily visualize hardware assets and move them to a private or public cloud as the need may be. This is the reason why many industries are moving towards the hyper-hybrid cloud instead of getting locked in with only a private or public provider.

Related Reading: Core Challenges While Enterprises Move to Hybrid Cloud and DevOps

Should Your Business Move to the Hyper-hybrid Cloud?

With the massive array of options available at hand, businesses are adopting a “multi-cloud” strategy as opposed to the cloud strategy. This means that they are adopting a hybrid cloud with at least one public cloud and one private cloud. What they need is a system with multiple applications and infrastructure services on both the cloud platforms with flexibility and maneuverability. That is what ‘the hyper-hybrid cloud’ is.

Although some businesses are successful with public cloud providers, a few others have found it necessary to keep some resources private due to cost, performance, and compliance considerations. Consider these questions to check if your business is suitable for a hyper-hybrid cloud model:

• Is your business serving a number of verticals, each with a different IT security and performance requirement?
• Do you want to optimize cloud investment without compromising the value proposition of private or public cloud technologies?
• Do you want to improve security on existing cloud solutions?
• Do you want a cloud solution where you can conveniently switch between public and private clouds depending on your needs and what the market offers?

If your answer is yes, then moving on to the hyper-hybrid cloud is your best option.

Related Reading: How Secure is Your Business in a Multi-Cloud Environment

Five Incredible Benefits of the Hyper-hybrid Cloud

• Flexibility: Varying IT demands can be managed with greater flexibility. The distribution of workloads across private and public infrastructure based on performance, cost and security can be easily handled in line with your business policies. 

• Increased automation and consistency: As your business grows, you cannot afford to spend too much time on your resource utilization projects which must remain accurate, nonetheless. The hyper-hybrid cloud helps your business automate processes by implementing rules which allow you to access the resources according to your business requirements. This way, it ensures that the process is consistent even if it must be repeated over multiple environments. 

• Scalability: When it comes to managing intensive workloads, the hyper-hybrid cloud is highly scalable. It can scale down to utilize the private cloud or scale up to utilize the public cloud according to the need of the hour.

• Enhanced security: Since the hyper-hybrid cloud integrates the public cloud model with on-premises cloud hardware, it provides your business total control over systems, security, and policies. Similar to a private cloud model, the hyper-hybrid operates behind a firewall. The security of sensitive information is guaranteed as it operates from a private cloud. At the same time, this allows your business to manage the day to day enterprise operations on a public cloud that can easily be scaled according to your needs. 

• Well balanced: The hyper-hybrid cloud structure makes it easy to divide the workload between both the cloud computing models and provide the maximum capacity to accommodate the demands of your business. It enables your business to stay competitive with the aid of such a versatile platform. 

Related Reading: Hybrid Cloud Infrastructure: How It Benefits Your Business

Experiencing Success With Hyper-hybrid Cloud

The hyper-hybrid cloud plays a crucial role in helping your business respond to the changing market needs and demands. It is both beneficial and critical for a business that wants to enhance productivity and security, and improve scalability and consistency. Fingent can help you successfully meet the challenges of implementing a hyper-hybrid cloud solution. Talk to us to understand how we can solve your dilemmas related to cloud platforms. 

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.

Facial Recognition Technology – What’s In Store For The Future

When Facebook started automatically tagging faces in uploaded images, nobody realized that this facial recognition technology would hike up to tracking people down while walking on the streets. In the past several years, this disruptive technology has gained immense popularity, that it is now used everywhere, from airports to shopping centers, to law enforcement. With its growing predominance in national safety and security, the face recognition market is estimated to reach USD 11.30 Billion by 2026. 

“Facial recognition has been around for a long time—like the 1960s. Perhaps the father of facial recognition, Woodrow Wilson Bledsoe, an American mathematician and computer scientist who classified photos of faces all by hand, (RAND tablet), even he might have been alarmed at how facial recognition technology is supercharged today by advances in computing power, 5G speeds and AI paired with machine learning.”   

– Tamara McCleary, CEO of Thulium, and a unique advisor to leading global technology companies such as SAP, Dell, Oracle, IBM.

Moreover, the advancements in artificial intelligence and machine learning are bringing about an active expansion to this technology. It won’t be long when the automation of facial recognition technology will fundamentally change the way we do many things. However, many minds still doubt on the path this revolution is leading to. 

Let’s dig deeper into the advancements of the facial recognition technology, what it holds for the future and whether it’s completely safe to rely on such a disruptive technology that fiddles with personal identities.

Facial Recognition Technology In-Depth

So what is facial recognition technology and how exactly does it work?

Facial recognition is a biometric technology that utilizes unique facial features to recognize individuals. Today’s plethora of innumerable photos and videos make the dataset for this technology to work. Through artificial intelligence and machine learning capabilities, software mathematically maps distinguishable facial features, to compare patterns in newly available images with visual data stored in the database. Such a recognition process allows the simple unlocking of phones to security checks at airports. 

In a way, artificial intelligence plays a vital role in the complete identity recognition process. A branch of artificial intelligence known as computer vision works through measuring nodal points on a face to make a face-print. This faceprint is a unique code that is applicable only to a particular person. This enables identification.

“I believe AI in Facial Recognition could add great value to society but we have to be careful to use clean data and we have to educate the public for the need for good, clean, accurate data to be sure we do not accidentally disenfranchise certain groups even more in the future. We must assure the data does not include unconscious bias or even deliberate bias programmed into the code. It is also important to note that we have a major lack of data for many disenfranchised groups including the community of persons with disabilities.”

– Debra Ruh, CEO, Ruh Global IMPACT, Global Disability, and Aging Inclusion Strategist.

Once this faceprint is made, the technology runs through an identity database to match this face with a name and other required details. Thus, the probability of error is near to rare; maybe an eight out of 1000 scans could mistakenly identify the person. This is what makes this technology an excellent prospect for performing crucial functions.

Read more: How Fingent helped develop a unique mixed reality application for a leading university to identify people using facial recognition

Innovative Uses Of Facial Recognition Technology

As facial recognition technology evolves with time, few industries and countries apply the technology in innovative ways.

China is rising to be the leader in facial recognition technology. Although part of the technology remains a perspective, its innovative use is what amazes the audience. A few other countries following the trend are Japan and the United Arab Emirates. The US doesn’t stand back either. Look at these impressive ways of face recognition technology implementation.

• Face recognition is on its go, replacing cash and credit cards. At fast-food units like KFC, customers can just smile into a self-serve screen to automate the identification and withdrawal of cash from banks. Some banks are also allowing customers to use face recognition instead of bank cards.
• The automobile brand Subaru has integrated facial recognition cameras to its Forester brand of SUVs. This is intended to detect when a driver is tired or about to sleep to take necessary actions to prevent accidents. This indeed is a tremendous innovation towards road safety.
• The 2020 Tokyo Olympics, is reported to make use of facial recognition to boost their security systems. Instead of relying on ID cards that have a high probability of being fake, the authorization is now implementing the FR technology to allow media, competitors or other such people to enter the premises.
• Dubai Airport also makes use of the FR technology to strengthen their security. A virtual aquarium fitted with 80 facial recognition cameras examines every passerby to easily recognize criminals or offenders. Also, police cars are on their go-to implement FR cameras to identify criminals and wanted vehicles quickly.
• Facial recognition technology is no doubt making a great impact on national security systems, promising a safe and crime-free future. The US government is also making use of biometric exits and AI cameras to track people crossing their international boundaries without proper documents. 

The Growing Concern

Though face recognition technology offers innovative and impressive use cases in security and surveillance, there are numerous challenges that it faces. Privacy being a major concern, not everybody is happy with the storage of sensitive and personal data. A potential downside of this technology is the data and privacy breaches. The databases containing facial scans and identities are being used by multiple parties such as banks, police forces, and other defense firms and are hence prone to misuse. 

Considering the face recognition tech as a threat to their citizens’ privacy, many cities including San Francisco, Massachusetts, Cambridge, and others are planning to put a complete ban on real-time face recognition surveillance. 

“Concerns around AI’s practical applications like facial recognition have begun crystallizing over the last few years and will continue unabated. Current AI-based face recognition systems possess a grave threat to individual privacy, which if unregulated may end up jeopardizing sensitive user data to the wrong hands in times to come.” 

– Varghese Samuel, CEO & MD Fingent.

Moreover, how much can this technology eliminate crime is still being discussed. The accuracy of the system in detecting people who cover their faces from cameras or disguise themselves is yet a topic of dispute. However, to everyone’s relief, the technology is showing constant improvement in this matter. According to the U.S. National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), facial recognition systems got 20 times better at finding a match in a database over a period that covered 2014 to 2018.

“Artificial intelligence has made great strides, but still has a long way to go. It is powerful to use on a daily basis, when the stakes are low (for example, in tagging photos or recommending advertisements), but not yet trustworthy enough to stand fully on its own in high-stakes applications, such as driverless cars, medical diagnosis, and face recognition, where errors can deeply affect people’s lives. 

– Gary Marcus, Founder and CEO, Robust.AI Professor Emeritus, New York University, Author of book: REBOOTING AI

The Untold Future

It is pretty much tough to predict where the facial recognition technology would be in the coming years, but the increase in AI advancements is sure to widespread this technology around the globe. Major industries have already capacitated the FR capabilities to replace the traditional process of paying bills, opening bank accounts, checking controls at airports, and such. A few of these industries include healthcare, retail, marketing, and social media platforms. 

In a nutshell, face recognition technology is expected to predominate the globe in the near future. The increasing usage of mobile devices and demand for robust fraud detection and prevention is predicted to majorly drive the implementation of this technology. As per the predictions made by Markets and Markets, a prominent research firm, the global facial recognition market size is expected to grow from USD 3.2 billion in 2019 to USD 7.0 billion by 2024, at a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 16.6% during 2019–2024.

“The more people grow accustomed to using facial recognition products and services that enhance efficiency and that can, at the moment, seem altogether too fun or mundane to be harmful — whether it’s tagging photos, unlocking a phone, or projecting how your face might look in the future — the more facial recognition technology becomes normalized.”

– Jarno M. Koponen, Head of AI & Personalization at Yle News Lab. His work has been covered by The New York Times, New Scientist, Oxford Reuters Institute, Mashable, TechCrunch.

Face recognition technology is revolutionizing the world more than you think. It’s time to figure out how this technology could bring added value to your firm. Contact our experts today!