Artificial Intelligence (AI) is the rage now, but like all things tech, it is in a continuous state of evolution. Here is how Artificial Intelligence is expected to play out in 2019.

1. Complex AI-enabled chips in the Offing

The tremendous power of Artificial Intelligence, manifesting in the ability to undertake advanced mathematical calculations, number crunching, facial recognition, object detection, and other complex tasks, come with a hardware cost. Even the fastest and most advanced CPU is inadequate to improve the speed of training an AI model. Seamless execution of AI models requires additional hardware, in the form of specialized processors to complement the CPU.

Leading chip manufacturers such as AMD, Intel, NVIDIA, Qualcomm, and others, however, are working on removing the limitation, and are on the cusp of rolling out specialized chips that speed up the execution of AI-enabled applications. Hyperscale infrastructure companies such as Google, Amazon, Microsoft, and Facebook are also increasing investments in custom chip development. These new chips would be based on field programmable gate arrays (FPGA) and application specific integrated circuits (ASIC) and optimized for specific use cases and scenarios.

Needless to say, the new chips in the offing would make high-performance computing tasks such as query processing and predictive analytics very fast and seamless. Such chips would find application in a host of industries such as healthcare, automobile, and more.

Some of the early bird initiatives, such as Project Nitro from Amazon, Cloud TPUs from Google, Project Brainwave from Microsoft, Intel Myriad X VPU is a portent of the things to come in 2019.

2. Rise of ONNX to Facilitate Interoperability among Neural Networks

Developing workable AI based neural networks depends largely on selecting the right framework. While plenty of choices exist as to frameworks, developers are hamstrung by the lack of interoperability among such frameworks. This holds true for all the popular frameworks in vogue, including TensorFlow, Caffe2, Apache MXNet, PyTorch, Microsoft Cognitive Toolkit, and others.

Industry biggies such as AWS, Facebook and Microsoft are however are working on it, and have collaborated to build Open Neural Network Exchange (ONNX), which makes it possible to reuse trained neural network models across multiple frameworks.

ONNX is all set to become an essential technology for the industry in 2019, adopted by the stakeholders in a big way. Windows 10 ships already with ONNX runtime and Intel’s OpenVINO toolkit already supports ONNX, indicating the trend.

3. Automated Machine Learning to Gain Prominence

Machine Learning holds unbound promise but developing models is hard work, and the highly advanced expertise required stifles possibilities.

AutoML is however all set to change things. Applied the right way, it would empower business analysts and developers to evolve machine learning models capable of addressing complex scenarios without having to go through the usually arduous and vexatious process of training ML models, or going through elaborate workflows. Business analysts could focus on the business problem on hand, rather than worry about process and workflow.
AutoML offers the same level of flexibility that cognitive APIs perform, but also offer high portability and ability to co-opt custom data.

DataRobot, Google Cloud AutoML, Microsoft Custom Cognitive APIs, Custom Entities for Amazon Comprehend are some of the AutoML solutions already launched. The popularity of these tools indicates widespread popularity for AutoML in 2019.

4. Automation of DevOps through AIOps

AIOps represent the convergence of AI and DevOps. Such a convergence, which is all set to go mainstream in 2019, will benefit public cloud vendors and enterprises considerably.

Modern applications and infrastructure generate considerable log data, generated by hardware, server and application software, operating systems, and other sources. Such data finds a use for indexing, searching, and analytics, and is also aggregated and correlated to find insights and patterns. The application of machine learning models to such datasets makes IT operations proactive. Business managers and other stakeholders obtain insights in real time, allowing prompt and timely action. Enterprises could, for instance, leverage the improved and real-time intelligence to perform precise and accurate root cause analysis.

Some of the AIOps based tools already in vogue include Amazon EC2 Predictive Scaling, Amazon S3 Intelligent Tiering, Moogsoft AIOps, and Azure VM resiliency.

5. The rise of Virtual Agents

Businesses have started using Artificial Intelligence powered chatbots in increasing numbers. Chatbots answer questions, qualify sales leads and assist check out for online customers, among other applications. 2019 is likely to see an upgrade from chatbots to AI-powered virtual agents capable of handling even more complex customer service tasks, with even a face and personality of their own.

As a portent of things to come, Ava, Autodesk’s virtual agent, comes with a female face and a powerful persona that resonate the company’s brand image. Needless to say, such virtual agents are much more effective than human agents.

6. Increasing Role of Artificial Intelligence in Cyber Defense

Cybercrime has been a major issue for several years now. Cybercriminals target cloud infrastructure, IoT, and other cyber assets at will. 2019 will see an increasing application of Artificial Intelligence to fight cybercrime and keep cyber networks secure.

Artificial intelligence and machine learning are already applied to pick up subtle indicators of abnormal activities, detect online enemies in real time, and nip cyber threats in the bud.

7. AI to Power Smarter Retail Recommendations

The advancements in Artificial intelligence enable businesses and marketers to develop models that would recommend products based on not just the customer’s browsing history, but also the tone and sentiment. In 2019, companies will embrace AI-based solutions to offer their customers highly personalized shopping experiences. Such experiences would expand beyond e-commerce to brick and mortar stores as well, through digital interfaces.

It is interesting times ahead for AI. Smart enterprises would do well to tag tech companies who keep themselves abreast with the latest developments in this red-hot emerging technology and develop solutions to apply it to roll out workable solutions.

Related Reading : Unconventional Ways Artificial Intelligence Drives Business Value

The Healthcare sector is booming at a faster rate and the necessity to manage patient care and innovate medicines has increased synonymously. With the rise in such needs, newer technologies are being adopted in the industry. One such major change that might take place in the future is the use of Big Data and Analytics in the Healthcare sector.

According to an International Data Corporation (IDC) report sponsored by Seagate Technology, it is found that big data is projected to grow faster in healthcare than in sectors like manufacturing, financial services or media. It is estimated that the healthcare data will experience a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 36 percent through 2025.

Market research have shown that the global big data in the healthcare market is expected to reach $34.27 billion by 2022 at a CAGR of 22.07%. Globally, the big data analytics segment are expected to be worth more than $68.03 billion by 2024, driven largely by continued North American investments in electronic health records, practice management tools, and workforce management solutions.

Here are 5 ways in which Big Data can help and change the entire scenario of the Healthcare sector.

1. Health Tracking

Big Data and Analytics along with the Internet of Things (IoT), is revolutionizing the way one can track various user statistics and vitals. Apart from the basic wearables that can detect the patient’s sleep, heart rate, exercise, distance walked, etc. there are new medical innovations that can monitor the patient’s blood pressure, pulse Oximeters, glucose monitors, and more. The continuous monitoring of the body vitals along with the sensor data collection will allow healthcare organizations to keep people out of the hospital since they can identify potential health issue and provide care before the situation goes worse.

2. Reducing Cost

Big Data can be a great way to save costs for hospitals that either over or under book staff members. Predictive analysis can help resolve this issue by predicting the admission rates and help with staff allocation. This will reduce the Rate of Investment incurred by hospitals and in fact help utilize their investment to the max. The insurance industry can save money by backing wearables and health trackers to ensure that patients do not spend time in the hospital. It can save wait times for patients since the hospital will have adequate staff and beds available as per the analysis all the time. Predictive analytics also helps cut costs by reducing the rate of hospital readmissions.

According to a recent report by the Society of Actuaries, 47% of healthcare organizations are already using predictive analytics. It is also noted that over 57% of healthcare sectors believe that predictive analytics will save organizations 25 percent or more in annual costs over the next five years.

Healthcare & Big Data Facts: McKinsey & Company report states that after 20 years of steady increases, healthcare expenses now represent 17.6% of GDP, ie. nearly $600 billion more than the expected benchmark for the U.S. size and wealth.

3. Assisting High-Risk Patients

If all the hospital records are digitized, it will be the perfect data that can be accessed to understand the pattern of many patients. It can identify the patients approaching the hospital repeatedly and identify their chronic issues. Such understanding will help in giving such patients better care and provide an insight into corrective measures to reduce their frequent visits. It is a great way to keep a list and check on high-risk patients and offer them customized care.

4. Preventing Human Errors

A lot many times it has been noted that the professionals tend to either prescribe a wrong medicine or dispatch a different medication by mistake. Such errors, in general, can be reduced since Big Data can be leveraged to analyze user data and the prescribed medication. It can corroborate the data and flag potential out of place prescription to reduce mistakes and save lives. Such software can be a great tool for physicians who cater to many patients in a day.

Healthcare & Big Data Facts: The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services prevented more than $210.7 million in healthcare fraud in one year using predictive analytics.

5. Advancement in Healthcare Sector

Apart from the current scenario, Big Data can be a great benefit for advancement in science and technology. For Healthcare, Artificial Intelligence, such as IBM’s Watson can be used to surf through numerous data within seconds to find solutions for various diseases. Such advancement is already in progress and will continue to grow with the amount of research collected by Big Data. It will not only be able to provide accurate solutions, but also offer customized solutions for unique problems. The availability of predictive analysis will assist patients traveling to a particular geographical location by studying similar patients in that area.

Healthcare & Big Data Facts: Effective use of big data could add $300 million per year to the healthcare industry.

Thus, to sum up, Big Data increases the ability of the healthcare sectors to:

• Predict Epidemics
• Cure Disease
• Improve Quality of Life
• Increase Preventable Care
• Begin Early Preventive Care
• Spot Warning Signs Sooner

Numerous studies and researches prove that technology has tremendously transformed the healthcare sectors. Professor and researcher Ronda Hughes too explains in her research how big data is improving health services.

Improving health outcomes with big data | Source : TEDxUofSC

Although most part of Big Data generated is not fully utilized currently due to limitations of the toolset and funds, it is definitely the future. Invest in the future and use Big Data Analytics to be a part of an evolving Healthcare Industry by seeking an experienced company such as ours to assist you.

Related Reading: Find out how big companies are using the power of Big Data to enhance customer experience. 

Supercharge your field operations with ReachOut

Cloud-based field service platform to optimize service delivery for efficiency and cost savings. Schedule jobs, dispatch technicians, generate tickets, quotes, invoices & more.

Start Now

Artificial Intelligence is revolutionizing our lives. What used to conjure up images of robots taking over the world, is now a household word. Recommendation engines are reading our minds, virtual assistants are listening to our voices, and AI insights are transforming our businesses. AI is definitely here, and this blog will show you how.

Artificial Intelligence and Its Impact on Today’s World 

Artificial Intelligence in its basic sense is defined as intelligence demonstrated by machines. In application, we can say that Artificial Intelligence is the ability of a machine to assimilate information and use it to make intelligent decisions. The attributes of problem-solving, decision making and other cognitive abilities that are associated with humans becomes artificial intelligence when applied to a machine.

The lifeblood of AI is data and its pulse run by an algorithm. Algorithms assimilate data and make sense of it through analysis. The resulting insight is what drives the decision making and problem-solving capabilities of Artificial Intelligence. Learning is by far the greatest attribute of Artificial Intelligence. The ability to learn and emulate human thinking and behavior is what makes AI nearly unstoppable. Its application in business is unmatched and is predicted to offer $15.7 trillion to the global economy by 2030!

Advanced Benefits of AI 

The benefits of AI extend to much more than recommendation engines and chatbots. The ability of AI to make sense of data collected through the Internet of Things (IoT) will be a game changer in every aspect of our lives. Gartner predicts that 20.4 billion “things” will be connected by 2020. Artificial Intelligence can analyze the data collected by IoT technology and enable it in ways that we cannot even imagine.

A classic example of this is Idemandu, one of the most talked about topic in the AI world since the 2018 Consumer Electronics Show. In the words of its founder Pooya Abka, Idemandu is the first AI agent “that can understand customers’ service needs over voice, connect them to vetted service providers instantly, and learn about their personal preferences with time.”

Demonstrating what is possible with Idemandu, a Forbes article quotes this conversation:

You: “Hey Idemandu, could you ask my massage therapist to come to my place tonight preferably after 8? I’m feeling an annoying pain in my neck.”

Idemandu: “Sure, but your therapist is not available tonight. I found another very similar therapist who is available, would you like to see him at 8 pm tonight? If not, I can book your own therapist for tomorrow at 8:30 pm.”

You: “Okay, tell him to come tonight.”

Idemandu: “Okay, he’ll be there. I already briefed him about your pain.”

Imagine the possibilities with such an AI empowered assistant in every home and business. Google Duplex is another technology that is focused on helping us make hotel reservations. The Assistant will call your chosen restaurant, converse with the concierge, make a reservation for you, confirm with you if the reservation was successful or recommend another restaurant if it wasn’t!

The ability of AI and robotics to use concepts like AI-Augmented Contextual Analytics and Sentiment Analysis to better predict and direct customer experience was brought out in one of our recent blogs. You can read it here: https://www.fingent.com/uk/blog/how-robotics-and-ai-can-improve-customer-experience-ctos-guide

How AI Is Transforming Various Business Sectors

The biggest impact of AI is in business. A survey conducted at the EmTech Digital conference revealed that respondents saw AI affecting these top three business outcomes:

1. improve and/or develop new products and services
2. achieve cost efficiencies and streamline business operations
3. accelerate decision-making

We can see this impact in nearly every sector in business. Here are three sectors where the impact of AI has been seen the most:  

Healthcare 

86% of healthcare provider organizations, life science companies, and health technology vendors are using AI technology, says a 2016 report from CB Insights. These organizations are projected to spend an average of $54 million on AI projects by 2020. Few areas where AI is being used in healthcare are:

1) Data management – Medical records and other patient data can be accurately analyzed, stored and used to provide healthcare businesses with the right information at the right time. Time-intensive report analyses can be automated, diagnosis can be fast-tracked, and treatment can be better administered.

2) Virtual Consultation and Care – Healthcare apps using AI allow doctors, patients and, caregivers to communicate and coordinate effectively.  Speech recognition, machine perception, and other AI enabled technologies, help to monitor the patient’s condition and administer effective treatment.   

3) Precision Medicine and Drug Discovery – By screening complex compounds and existing medicines for specific attributes, drug candidates for pre-clinical drug discovery and development can be rapidly identified. AI can also help detect diseases and predict hereditary health issues more accurately and help design precision medicines for specific genetic make-ups.

For more applications of AI in the healthcare industry: https://www.fingent.com/uk/blog/5-ways-big-data-is-changing-the-healthcare-industry

Finance

The assimilation and analysis of financial data is where AI shows its true potential, but there is much more that AI can do in the financial sector. AI in the Finance industry reduces costs, saves time and improves accuracy and efficiency in all areas of Finance. Here are a few applications:

1. Security from Fraud – Security is the number one concern in the financial sector. AI helps in this by simulating fraud and cybercrime scenarios and coming up with preemptive security measures to combat security breaches. AI also helps in monitoring whether all security measures and regulations are being followed in the design of financial technology.
2. Wealth Management – AI engines help analyze data associated with wealth management and provide insights on how to provide optimal benefits to clients. Creating personalized and tax-optimized investment offerings for clients becomes much simpler and accurate with the help of AI. AI also helps mitigate the unpredictability of the stock market, by incorporating features like blockchains and distributed ledgers.
3. Digital Assistants – AI now assists with banking transactions and finance in nearly every household. AI assistants like Alexa, Siri and others are used to make financial transactions. Voice assisted banking is being made possible with banks like Barclays coming up with technology to enable money transfer through voice assistance software.

Read more about how predictive algorithms and AI will rule financial services:  https://www.fingent.com/uk/blog/how-predictive-algorithms-and-ai-will-rule-financial-services 

Transportation 

AI is being used widely in the transportation sector and these are a few areas where it is making an impact:

1. Automation – While driverless cars are what comes to mind when we talk about AI and automation, the role of AI in automobile manufacturing is of equal import. Tesla’s automated manufacturing systems in its factories is an excellent example of the capabilities of AI in automobile manufacturing.
2. Cloud based conveniences – With the help of AI and cloud computing, automobiles are being packed with features like suggestions for gas stations when the fuel is low, favorite restaurants on the route and shopping reminders when approaching stores.
3. Intelligent Maintenance – Features like predictive maintenance, repair scheduling, and even sensors to detect medical emergencies for drivers can be enabled with AI.

Read more about how connected transportation will disrupt the world: https://www.fingent.com/uk/blog/how-connected-transportation-will-disrupt-the-world

Keeping up with AI 

As you can see, the implications for AI in business is tremendous. It is important that businesses capitalize on AI-based technologies to keep up with the competition. Fingent has helped businesses from every sector to implement AI and drive revenue. Drop us a message if you have any questions!

Custom Software Development Vs Packaged Software – Tips to select the right solution for your business

Custom software and off-the-shelf solutions come with their own pros and cons. Organizations should assess their requirements closely and opt for one that suits their workflows and processes.

In this video, Dileep Jacob, Head of Operations at Fingent shares his insights on helping businesses choose between off-the-shelf and custom software offerings. He elucidates on how custom software and off-the-shelf solutions bring efficiency improvements within an organization. The benefits and limitations of the two platforms are dealt with to help pick the best choice for your business.

Conclusion

INFINCE was showcased at the  NY Business Expo held on October 30, 2018, at the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center in New York. The New York Business Expo is an annual B2B trade show for small and mid-sized businesses. The expo brings together business owners and executives of small companies who converge on this day-long event with conferences, sessions, and networking.

As a part of the exhibition, Stephen Cummings, the Senior Vice President at Fingent, took to the stage to deliver a session on running profitable small businesses in the age of digital technologies. He elaborated on how small-scale businesses can be empowered with technology to become competitive and highly productive to thrive in today’s market.

“Every company today, one way or another, depends on information. Successful companies are resilient and adopt the right mix of technology and processes as their appetite for information technology grows. We’ll present ways a small business can take advantage of recent advances in technology to compete more effectively, even against much larger companies.”

                                                                                          – Stephen Cummings, SVP, Fingent

Small Businesses and Technology

Technology should remain accessible to businesses of all kinds, whether big or small. Stephen highlighted on this very aspect in his 45-minute presentation. Technology comes with its own jargons that prevent smaller businesses from taking advantage. However, the onus is on bringing technology to businesses with smaller investments and workforce, so that they can thrive competitively.  

There is a perceivable gap in adopting technology among small businesses. He attributes it to the increasing costs and lack of adequate tech support, Besides, on-premise IT infrastructure was dissuaded in favor of alternatives like the cloud, where small companies can get computing resources at reasonable costs. This is where Stephen put forth INFINCE, Fingent’s own enterprise cloud platform to the spotlight.

About INFINCE

INFINCE is cloud technology optimized for small businesses and a platform to run IT without any hassles. Stephen highlighted on some of the key traits of INFINCE that makes it different from other cloud platforms. Quick deployment is one such, where a company can set up and run INFINCE within minutes. INFINCE is also economical as it integrates optimal cloud configurations that cut down cost without sacrificing on performance.

INFINCE’s concierge IT services together with 24/7 support help small companies deploy the right technology. With it, small businesses get the advantage of a true enterprise cloud with all the functionalities at half the cost. In addition, the huge array of productivity tools and utility apps integrated with INFINCE helps automate marketing, improve customer engagement, open up collaboration across all levels and monitor workforce productivity through its streamlined dashboards.

About Fingent

Fingent is a global IT company specializing in developing custom software solutions that help businesses succeed. Starting operations in 2003, Fingent has grown over the years with more development centers spread across three countries. By building sustainable business practices across different industries, Fingent has become the preferred partner for leading enterprises like Sony, Johnson & Johnson, PwC etc.  The industry expertise combined with a robust workforce have enabled us to consistently deliver strategic solutions for a global clientele.

Find out more about the NY Business Expo here

What Machine Learning is and why it is important in business

Given the increasing prevalence of data today, machine learning has evolved rapidly to advance computing a step forward. Enabling computers to automatically learn and improve performance using data, ML is viewed as a disruptive technology with the potential to transform areas like enterprise, manufacturing, healthcare, e-commerce etc. Global ML adoption rates points to huge investments and diverse use cases in the coming years making it one key technology to focus your efforts.

This infographic focuses on the essentials of machine learning together with how it helps in uncovering insights from huge data stacks. Besides, its applications, global adoption rates, and future developments are also dealt with to give you a basic understanding of machine learning so that it can be put to use for uplifting your business processes and operations.

Deploying proper machine learning systems can uplift your business and maximize the ROI. Get in touch with us today to discover and implement the right machine learning solution that will transform your business altogether.

AI continues to positively disrupt businesses around the world by empowering them with automation and data-driven insights.

In this video, Deepu Prakash, Head of Process and Technology Innovation at Fingent shares his expertise on deploying AI within the context of the modern business environment. He puts forth five crucial steps that you can begin right now to shift your company into an AI-driven model systematically.

Opting for the Best Property Management Software

Leasing out condos or premium apartments to buyers does not end with the handover. Instead, it goes a long way almost in a cyclical manner to oversee the operations and management via close monitoring. Dynamically managing multiple residential or commercial real estate establishments could, in fact, prove to refine it all together as well as endow a consistent experience to the tenants.

The landowner or a real estate company benefits from able to supervise every cent of property they own and leases. It equates to improved productivity enabling the owner to gain a competitive advantage by striving for customer satisfaction at every fronts. This could be a rather not brief definition of property management. And with technology like software integrated into it, we can christen it aptly as property management software.

Investing in an apt property management software elevates and rethinks how realtors or landlords manage their swathes of property. Whether small modular condos, high rises or dedicated commercial hubs, property management using software takes it to the next level. The need to switch becomes more prominent as conventional methods have often failed to demonstrate exemplary levels of property management.

Software alters it into a convenient dashboard, where the owner could simply manage, monitor and operate day to day activities linked to a piece of real estate. Ensuring timely rental payment, maintenance and upkeep, searching tenants for occupying could all be effectively carried out using a property management software. The key is to opt for the right one since the wrong choice would end up curtailing existing practices by cutting out efficiency.

Clinging to Conventional Practices Risks Lagging Behind

As it turned out, property management involves a lot of hurdles that leave the owner frustrated and stressful at times. The job profile when it comes to managing multiple portfolios of real estate assets dispersed across varied locations coupled with maintenance requests, tracking lease expires, routine inspections, ensuring regulatory compliance, responding to inquiries concerning vacant properties and lot others would be equally challenging.

Extensive documentation remain a core aspect when it comes to property management. Besides, the above-mentioned aspects when not managed appropriately could add up to the inefficiency of the job, which reflects in the productivity and performance. Property management software is new and adopting it will definitely warrant less clutter involved in the process. Still, adhering to conventional practices like paperwork or documentation proves time consuming and cumbersome.

The right property management software makes life easy for property managers, improving their productivity and contributing to improved customer satisfaction in a big way. In fact, the right software becomes a valuable source of competitive advantage, enabling the firm to gain a one-up on competition through efficiency improvements and by spawning innovative business practices.

However, the trick is to have the right property management software on hand. Here are some ways to identify and deploy such software.

Good Property Management Software Distinguishes with Ease of Use

The whole purpose of deploying software is to ease things. Software with poor UX, and or convoluted processes, which is a pain to operate, defeats the very purpose. The best software has a smooth interface and navigation, and simple, yet powerful dashboards.

Handy property management software automates routine processes related to rental collections, renewals, and other repetitive functions.

It offers basic functionality like search with multiple fields such as tenant name, property id, or any other relevant identifier, to access the required information easily, and throws up what is required in an easy-to-consume way.

The software is now delivered as mobile apps, making it very easy and convenient to get access to the latest and relevant information on the field and capture field-based inspections as well. Responsible design or a mobile-first design approach improves the ease-of-use of such mobility solutions.

Good Property Management Software Feature Robust Technical Stack

Enterprises vary with regards to their technical maturity. Some enterprises may be perfectly at ease experimenting with newer but unproven technology, which may offer huge benefits but also come with the risk of crashes. Other enterprises prefer stability over potential. Either way, the cloud is fast becoming indispensable.

Cloud-based software spares the cost and hassles of installing software or managing the databases on in-house servers. The data resides on the Internet, enabling anywhere, anytime access, from any device. Besides, it spares enterprises from cost-center activities such as taking backups, updating the code at regular intervals, and other administrative hassles.

Property management firms placing their key data such as rental information, financial reports, documents and everything else on the cloud can streamline operations, thus saving time and reducing costs.

Sync with Technical Capabilities Enhance the Dynamism of the Suite

Smart solutions, especially mobile-based solutions leverage the latest that technology has to offer to enhance the capabilities of the property management suite. A case in point is a messaging system to engage with landlords, tenants and service providers on a direct, real-time basis, to close and resolve issues or deals quickly, and with clarity.  

Such a system could either be custom developed or more easily achieved by seamless integration with Skype or some other messaging tools. Similarly, many property management suites integrate with QuickBooks for accounting.

Likewise, good property management suite improves internal processes, making the overall business more efficient. The easy tracking capabilities on offer make stakeholders, especially service providers, more accountable. An optimized navigation system renders role-clarity to employees and agents.

The Feature List is a Double-Edged Sword

A lengthy bucket list of features is no indication of having the right software. In fact, an application with too many features may become bloated and deliver poor user experience. The trick towards deploying the right software is ensuring it has all the relevant features required for seamless operations, nothing more, and nothing less. All things aside, a decision to opt for a reliable property management software starts with assessing the needs.

A realtor or property management company owner first need to consider, whether software indeed can prove to be an advantage and uplift their business process. They need to figure out up front what they want the software for, in terms of their biggest challenge, and prioritize the functionality list towards resolving such challenges.

One could ask themselves some noteworthy questions in the interest of choosing the right software such as:

• What are some key issues faced and how would software resolve each of them?
• Is mobility an option for the work – which require the software to come in a compact and handy mobile app version?
• Are self-service portals needed in the software to serve the needs of customers like residents or clients?
• Is the software having accounting features and capable of dealing with large volumes of maintenance requests?

For instance, if the biggest challenge is managing rentals, make sure to co-opt features that alleviate specific challenges to this end. Other features, such as compliance reporting or communication capabilities are handy add-ons, and should not be the core focus of the suite.

Mobile apps especially work well for specific purposes, with different apps for different objectives of stakeholders. For instance, a property manager could have apps helping them keep track of rental expiry, invoice and payment tracking, maintenance schedule and more. An app for a field service executive could have features such as open service tickets, directions to get to the property, and more.

Apps for tenants could integrate features to initiate maintenance requests, pay rent and fees online, auto-renew lease, and more. Above all, it should integrate stringent security measures such as two-factor authentication or high-end encryption to protect vital customer and company data from any intrusion attempts both internal or external. A comprehensive property management suite could integrate all functionality, leading to seamless integration and better coordination.

Work Orders are Core to an Intuitive Property Management Suite

Intuitive property management software facilitates creating and managing work orders, either through a ticketing system, or some other method. Successful deployments integrate the entire workflow connected with the process, right from raising the issue, assigning work to the relevant service provider, keeping track of work execution, and invoicing. This spares property managers from the hassles of manual monitoring and tracking.

Advanced systems come with the ability to incorporate images and videos, facilitating visual work orders, property viewing, and more. Such innovative functionality helps property managers get more work done without the time-consuming activity of making site visits.

Reporting Capabilities are Integral to Software for Property Management

Another crucial consideration for sound property management software, regardless of the functionality, is the reporting capabilities on offer. The ability to generate dynamic reports easily saves property managers time and enables them to stay on top of the game. The greater insights on offer contribute to improved customer satisfaction as well.

The best software for property management facilitates dynamic reports, in the format of choice, rather than straight-jacketing the reports to a few fixed forms. An intuitive software integrates report with analytic capabilities, allowing property managers to gain insights from raw data in easy-to-consume actionable format.

The property manager’s life will become considerably easier if the software integrates full double-entry accounting, with flexible reports.  A spin-off benefit of such functionality is the ability to meet various financial and regulatory compliance requirements.

The Best Property Management Software is Optimized for the Budget

Many enterprises get carried away by the potential on offer and ignore the crucial cost competently. There is no free lunch, and even supposedly free open source software comes at a price to develop and customize. The costs for server space and hosting, and ensuring security is another crucial consideration to decide up front. Successful property management firms engage smart developers who can optimize the features and functionalities within the constraints of the available budget, without sacrificing quality.

Professionally managed real estate investment market is worth $8.5 trillion globally as of last year, but it has traditionally lagged behind in technology. However, innovative companies are changing things and technology is all set to improve the owner-tenant experience significantly via a major technological disruption soon.

Selecting the right software is both a science and an art. Apart from the science of carefully evaluating the feature list and the technical specs, comes the challenging, yet often underestimated “art” of identifying vendors who “fit.” Any software, no matter how robust or comprehensive requires continuous support for upgrades and bug-fixes.

Moreover, implementation is often a challenging exercise, involving training end users and documentation. Choose a software vendor who is competent and has proven their worth in all these facets.

Nearly 2.6 billion people across the world today have access to a high-powered smartphone, at all times, and seven out of every ten people will have access to a smartphone by 2020. Android phones constitute a bulk of such devices. Businesses are slowly but steadily discovering the merits of rolling out an outstanding Android app to improve branding and customer engagement. A well-designed app allows the brand to communicate the brand message effectively, and develop a sustainable relationship with the customer.

Here are the ways in which a standout business app allows an enterprise in branding and customer engagement.

Delivers a Streamlined Experience

Enterprises need to be able to assess and refine the usability of the app and identify pain-points such as why high volumes of app downloads are not converting into customer registrations or conversions. They need to quantify the impact of the app experience on the customer’s overall brand perception. 

Making things simple and easy for the customer is a sure-shot way to raise the value of the brand in the eyes of the customer. Brands need to identify pain points in customer interactions and work to mitigate it in all earnest. Rolling out an app invariably helps the enterprise streamline their engagement with the customer.

The best apps are highly focused, based on delivering a specific or much sought-after functionality for the user. For instance, the app could make it easy for customers to interact with the brand, offering an easy way to search the FAQ, do self-service, get in touch with customer support, and more. Such an app plays into today’s overriding sentiment of instant gratification.

An app could also be used as a single point access to the social media pages and other digital assets of the brand.

The best app encourages active feedback and co-opts such feedback in newer versions of the app, with a central focus on improving customer experience and delivering more value to users. An app not updated frequently creates potential compatibility issues when the mobile operating systems are revised, and moreover, users are reluctant to risk downloading or using something seemingly abandoned.

How Business App Offers Proactive Communications

Unlike a website which the user has access every time by typing in the URL, an app once downloaded remains in the user’s phone, and may be accessed conveniently, even when offline. 

When a customer installs an app, the business may send notifications directly to the app, bypassing the often-ignored email inboxes. Such push notifications gain high visibility and also allow the brand to reach out to the customer on a 24×7 basis.

Push notifications are invaluable in grabbing customer’s attention, even when users do not actually use the app. Push notifications boost app engagement by a whopping 88%, with Android users way more receptacle to such notification compared to iOS users. The best push notifications, with the highest click-thru rate, are personalized and contextual, such as being based on the product last viewed by the user, including the user’s name, and co-opting other nuances. 

Today’s consumers want information within seconds, and service in double quick time. Very few take the pains of seeking out the brands’ website or social media page. If the customer can be persuaded to download an app as a one-time effort, the brand can easily push the required information and engage with the customer proactively. Customers can get the required information or make the purchase equally easily, creating a win-win situation.

Delivers Deep Customization

The most successful customer-facing apps personalize the user experience. The business co-opts emerging technologies like near field communication (NFC), artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning to understand the user’s choices and preferences.

Smart marketers leverage the apps location tracking capabilities, beacon and geofencing technology to send location-specific, contextual, and timely data-driven content to customers. A case in point is leveraging beacons to push location-based offers and promotions, promote loyalty programs, and facilitate mobile-based proximity payments.

The Pew Research Center estimates nine out of ten smartphone users in the USA enable location services on their mobile phones.

Complements Brick and Mortar Buying

Many retail businesses now offer apps to can enhance customers’ in­-store experiences. The app could, for instance, allow the user to scan the barcode of the product, to check availability, different variants, price, product reviews, and other information. Some businesses also offer the possibility of adding the item to the cart and even ordering the item online, sparing the hassles of queuing up at the till or even carting the item home by oneself.

Customer facing apps go a long way in delivering a consistent and seamless omnichannel experience for the user and integrate the physical and digital world.

Businesses could take a cue from 2016 Coachella music and arts festival, where fans who downloaded the app received out location-based notifications about artists and vendors to attendees, and offered beacon-enabled mobile payments to attendees, sparing the need for a physical wallet.

Another success story worth benchmarking is Domino’s Pizza’s new mobile app which allowed customers in the UK to order delivery or in-store pickup. The app has been downloaded more than 10 million times and resulted in a 24.4% increase in e-commerce sales.

Brands, however, cannot afford to rest on their laurels of having successfully coaxed customers to install their apps. The app itself needs to be updated regularly, co-opting new content and features. App developers also need to remember users are doing the brand a favor by installing the app on their smartphone. The brand should not misuse the generosity by taking up too much space causing the system to hang, or offering vulnerabilities which allow potential hackers access to the smartphone. It takes the services of a sound a competent developer to create sound and robust apps which offers real value to users.

DevOps is a markedly different way of doing things compared to traditional software development, with an overriding focus on high velocity. Enterprises adopting the DevOps approach use tools, techniques and practices in a way to deliver services and applications at a fast pace, without compromising quality.

While DevOps is the flavor of the season owing to its obvious advantages, very few enterprises are actually able to execute it right. For the majority of the enterprises, their efforts fall short of expectations. A recent Ponemon Institute survey reveals 74% of surveyed enterprises believing that Hybrid Cloud and DevOps enablement capabilities as essential, or important for their enterprises, but only one in every three enterprises believing they actually have the ability to execute it. Likewise, a whopping 80% of enterprises believe microservices and container enablement to be essential, very important, or important for their enterprise, but only one in four of them believing they have the capability for it.

Here are the key reasons why enterprises struggle with DevOps and hybrid cloud.

The Trappings of Culture

Legacy systems and entrenched work culture pose a big challenge to the successful implementation of DevOps.

Quali’s 2016 annual survey on DevOps and cloud computing ranks company culture as the biggest barrier to DevOps. For DevOps to succeed, enterprises need to inculcate a collaborative culture where stakeholders have shared goals, and are willing to take the initiative. This includes identifying employees ready to be DevOps champions in the organization and entrusting ownership of DevOps initiatives to them. There is a need to sell the initiative to the rank and file employees, convincing them of what is in it for them, and buying their support. The buy-in should be backed up by robust training programmes on the new methods and initiatives adopted.

The Menace of Shadow IT

Shadow IT is a major reason why cloud implementations, and by extension, DevOps end up more costly and less effective than expected.

Many employees, owing to practical exigencies, deploy ad-hoc tools and create silos, incompatible with the rest of the enterprise systems. Such end users bypass the enterprise level IT and cloud management technologies, and communicate directly AWS, Microsoft Azure or other clouds, using native APIs or their own public cloud accounts. The net result is a patchwork mess.

With shadow IT in vogue, the enterprise cloud becomes complex and opaque, and almost impossible to manage. Several CSOs find themselves unable to implement the required security protocols and watch helplessly as things go out of control. They are unable to identify the location of their machines or worse, even their data. They have little or no control over the network layer and even the application layer. Such lack of visibility and control expose the enterprise to cyber-attacks and other shocks.

In an ideal cyber-world, enterprises have a single integrated user interface through which they can view and control the entire environment. The Ponemon Institute survey reveals 68% of respondents lacking such capability.

The Problem of Legacy System

Quali’s survey on the major impediments to DevOps lists testing automation, legacy systems, complexity, and budget constraints in the pecking order of the major impediments to DevOps, after culture. For a majority of the enterprises, success depends not just on delivering on new innovations but also the extent to which they can modernize or upgrade their incumbent software and systems.

About 44% of enterprises find their traditional IT environments too complex for the cloud. Installing new hardware or software to coexist with older systems is always difficult.  However, the hybrid cloud model, where some applications reside within the traditional data center and other applications are hosted on public cloud platforms such as Amazon Web Services or Microsoft Azure, offer a viable solution. Such a hybrid-cloud based model co-opts legacy infrastructure and applications in the DevOps plans. 

Hybrid IT usually develops organically, without the involvement of IT or security, as shadow IT sets in.  It requires management with an iron first to end turf wars and demolish silos.

Enterprises which succeed in DevOps display a high level of hybrid cloud maturity. They use an integrated cloud management platform (CMP) for provisioning, capacity rightsizing, automation, cloud governance, workflow orchestration, self-service, single-pane-of-glass visibility, and cost management. Newer CMP 2.0 platforms go a step ahead and reduce the friction and complexity associated with microservices, containers, cloud-native applications, and DevOps.

Challenges of Integration – Hybrid Cloud and DevOps

Developers deploy different tools for their DevOps efforts. The most popular tools in use include Jenkins, Docker, Puppet, and Chef. the favorite tool of the developer may however not be the best to integrate various systems and applications running within the enterprise. The net result is a fragmented toolset adoption, which leads to loss of control, and also adds to the costs.

Lack of central governance and automation are key stumbling blocks towards the smooth implementation of DevOps.

A sound DevOps plan requires:

• A clear and solid architecture based on on-premises, cloud, and containers, early on in the process.
• An action plan co-opting milestones and well-defined deliverables
• Standardized and automated cloud sandboxes and other tools.
• Due attention to test automation

Cost-Benefit Analysis

While DevOps and the cloud offer many benefits, implementation comes at a price. Many DevOps initiatives can be pricey, and failing to factor in the price upfront can lead to the project stalling midway, and a half-baked implementation, which may make things worse than before.

While many open source solutions abound, does not mean free. The enterprise still has to pay development and often support costs as well. Most enterprises also underestimate the cost to integrate the existing enterprise ecosystem and resolving the ensuring operational complexity.

The average DevOps and microservices enablement costs of an enterprise is $34 million per year, which works out to about 23% of the average per-capita annual enterprise cloud management budget.

Related to the budget is top management support. Getting top management buy-in upfront is an important prerequisite for DevOps success. Top management listens to numbers, and as such, the benefits need to be quantified, in terms of dollar spend. Done right, DevOps offer innumerable benefit to the enterprise, but done wrong, the investment and the effort go down the drain!