Explore IdeasThat Shape the Future.

What is digital transformation?

Process of using digital technologies for remaking a process in order to make it more effective and efficient is known as digital transformation. One thing we need to understand is that, it is not just about replicating the existing system in digital form. Rather, use the technology to transform the existing system into something way better. It can include various technologies but AI, Cloud, IoT, Big Data etc are some hottest technologies. Digital transformation is not just about technology as change in business and corporate culture are also vital to the success of digital transformation. These initiatives are often taken by large enterprises to establish effective system to help them gaining competitive advantage over other rivals.

What is the importance of digital transformation?

Every large, medium or small sized business organization is spending fair amount on digitization including software, hardware and services. It is a $1.3 Trillion industry as stated by IDC in 2017. With the immense emergence of digital transformation, it is predicted that this industry will reach $2.1 Trillion by 2021. Digital optimization makes the services even efficient and effective. Globalization is the result of digital transformation. Just over half (54 percent) said that their digital business objective is transformational, while 46 percent said the objective of the initiative is optimization. As suggested by executives, revenue of organizations are affected by 46% with it. According to a survey, CFOs are planning to increase their investment in technologies that speed business change. Four out of ten CFOs claims that they’re going to take initiative within 12 months.

What are the drawbacks of digital transformation?

As far the critics are concerned, they claim digital transformation as another opportunity for the vendors to rebrand their offerings. It is common for them to see systems and services being sold as the answer to their digital transformation. With this kind of over-selling of services and systems makes the digital transformation approach the trough of disillusionment. Tech workers also express cynicism about grand talk of digital. No technology worker spends their working day digitally transforming, rather than coding, programming, and developing. And the phrase can be applied so broadly that it becomes effectively meaningless.

What is the future of digital transformation?

The hottest trends in technology such ads big data, cloud, AI and IoT are helping entrepreneurs to develop new business models and disrupting their existing business model model and operations. Executives state that these technologies are making them able to see tangible value coming out of it by improving their optimization and productivity. They are now more confident while tackling business challenges and addresses them even efficiently. Start ups are also approaching the innovative ideas in order to thrive through their new ways of work. Traditional organizations and industries are also trying hard to get their head around digitization with integrated approach to advanced technologies.

If you’re also interested in optimise your business operations by developing web application or other services, kindly contact us.

Future software is flipping and is seen as no-code. Digital computers were not really useful at their early phase. Punch cards and command oriented functions made it even complicated to use a computer. They were far from powerful but devilishly hard to program. Assembly codes were used to instruct, which was not only difficult but was ridiculously time consuming. With the introduction to FORTRAN in 1950s, it started to change. Command statement replaced assembly language with command statements that compiled the lower level code into something roughly resembled English. Later, high level languages built on basic logic was being used and turned low-level code into something even simpler.

Now, influencing companies like Zudy, Mendix and Quick Base are taking initiative to transform code into visual interfaces. Although the basic logic will be same as FORTRAN but it will replace coding and can be represented more simply and is considered as future softwware. These no code programming systems are expected to disrupt how software power enterprises.

“Visual interface is the key to no-code programming platforms”

Earlier, technology was in favour of big enterprises only as it would take huge investments and equipment. Expensive consultants were appointed to design and construct the system accordingly. Also., once they were built, it was not possible to modify or upgrade them as the procedure was time consuming and expensive as well. Attitude of developers was “we built it, you should like it”. But cloud disrupted this legacy by availing powerful system to the medium and small sized organisation via internet. APIs (application programming interfaces) makes it possible to connect with other possible systems. It basically changes the technical landscape by deploying agile services to SMEs but no-code software platforms are making it even simpler for the firms to gain competitive advantage over their rival firms using future software.

No-code platforms flipped the overall technical scenario, if we look closely. “A big part of the benefit to no-code or low-code platforms is that they let you access elements of a development environment visually rather than actually writing the code yourself. That accelerates development and improves quality at the same time.” visual interfaces are preferred because they are easy to understand and use for front-line managers and other non-technical people, not familiar to up-front technical programming. Visual interfaces enable them with better basic functionalities such as building their own screens, features and designs so that they can show developers what they want rather than try to explain it.

Now, computer systems are less high-tech and more user experience oriented. It offers more power to the users to utilise it for better use.

You must have observed that majority of organizations are moving towards data source outsourcing and must be thinking whether it is worth it? Will you have any operational or financial advantage by outsourcing the data centre? Embracing data centre will suffice your operational needs or not? Unfortunately, one yes will not suffice your concerns. Survey studies proves that most IT companies are moving to data centre outsourcing as it has various advantages to offer including low operational costs, access to servers, better utilization of available resources etc. But you are recommended to do some background check including available resources, available options, business perspective, budget analysis etc before deciding to outsource your data centres. Following are some facts which will give you a reason for embracing data centre outsourcing or not!

1. Higher scalability:There is great risk to the business agility as it can get compromised with the under or over utilization of capacities in an in-house data centre. However, outsourcing to third party means you can avail scalability, availability, flexibility and cost effectiveness, that too without having to worry about resource allocation and appropriate infrastructure.
2. Reduced operational costs:Considering that initial investment might be high but it will also save you from costs of IT labour, upgrades, equipment maintenance, physical space management etc. It companies are also offered with the option of moving their data centre operations to cloud. It doesn’t only reduces the cost of ownership but also reduces future equipment expenditure.
3. Better connectivity and latency:To improve the functioning of data centres, it is essential to ensure that the outsource providers are capable of offering better connectivity and latency when it comes to internet and other network related tasks. It will help organization to accomplish multiple-carrier offerings. Best offerings can help you choose from wide range of network carrier options.
4. Higher Uptime: Third party services are often governed by SLAs (service level agreement) which bounds them to contractual agreement. Stated services and state-of-art infrastructure will be offered by third party accordingly. They will make sure that they stick to their pre-defined contractual terms, meanwhile reducing the downtime and avoiding financial penalties as well. Which results in lowest possible downtime assured by  third party even during network delays or power outages.
5. Increased business focus: Firstly, outsourcing it will eliminate the need of building a new infrastructure as this responsibility is shifted to third party. Secondly, upgrades and maintenance is also offered by third party which will not only remove the overhead but will also help you focus on your business operations only. Immediate business goals can be focused and achieved in even better manner if organizations are more focused on their goals.
6. Speed and flexibility: Firstly setting up a data centre is time consuming and secondly it is expensive as well. Outsourcing data centre can be good idea as it offers better better services and eliminate the overhead of taking care of physical spacing and upgrades as it is the responsibility of third party. You will not have to worry about space or power challenges, rather you can have better speed and flexibility while considering an expansion.

Get in touch with us for more details and acquire data centre services.

 

As mobile phones has become inseparable part of business, it becomes necessary to adapt mobile application for business. Business apps can be as versatile as depending upon the business requirements. Industry is moving on a fast pace and has come a long way which enables mobile users to perform crucial tasks including check-in to their flights, generating invoices, keep track of their activities, keep track of their health and work out. Business apps also have many other tertiary benefits for users, while continuously improving their productivity and saving time and money. Right from an entry-level employee to the top management, today everyone is using a mobile business app to remain productive on the go.

1. Mind-Mapping apps: For effective planning and creating diagrammatic representation, mind-mapping application are used. They can create diagrammatic relations between new ideas, concepts, use cases or other piece of information. These applications are useful in improving the overall learning efficiency. People spend hours on such business apps for improving their productivity and concentration during work hours. Drawing apps, puzzles, quizes, iMindMap etc are some common instances of such application.
2. Mobile payment apps: “Touch to pay” can be the most convenient option for the users to make payments. Cashless transactions have become new trend as it is convenient and almost not time consuming at all. Mobile payment has major impact in banking, e-commerce, grocery stores and other industries. Best thing about mobile payment applications is that allows users to make multiple transactions to pay at multiple outlet. Also exciting offers and cash-back schemes are a plus-plus for users. Mobile wallets including PayPal, aliexpress, Venmo, Visa QIWI wallet etc are some instances of such applications.
3. Communication apps: For any business, it is necessary to form reliable communication line and here comes the communication application in picture. Such applications are capable of enabling remote access, multiple channel communication, exchange of files and data from one node to another. Such applications includes social networking applications, meeting centres, video conferencing applications, instant mail or messaging systems.
4. Enterprise-specific apps: Enterprise-specific application are exclusively designed for specific business enterprise, suiting its business requirements in order to address the unique needs and requirements of the particular organization. Such organizations can be schools, business enterprises, retailers, public sectors , interest-based groups. Salesforce automation apps, ERP apps, CRM apps, helpdesk apps, expense tracker apps, Zendesk apps etc.
5. Office productivity apps: These are usually personal productivity application, dedicated towards creating information like electronic music, documents, spreadsheets, digital videos etc. Core requirement of such application is to contribute in the improved productivity of the performance of employees. These applications are used in majority of the companies for employee management and increase the productivity of employees right from entry to top management level. Some common apps belonging to this category include calendars, schedulers, business card readers, tax calculators, time and expense trackers, and workflow apps. However, these applications can be taken off-the-shelf or business industry can have it designed from scratch to meet their specific requirements.

With the transformation in the paradigm of web development, developers are more prone to make mistakes in developing websites. Also, with the recent surge towards mobile browsing, there are a lot of cool and unique designs available. With the wide range of options, it is possible to develop a website which looks perfect but need a lot of improvement. Some of the common mistakes made by the users are as mentioned below:

Forgetting about actual website design element: Most of the website developers are guilty of forcing over the top designing or just simply flattening out the designing component. Too many customization can also lead to too complex and complex designing of the website. Whereas, flattening out the designing of website can make the website look totally unattractive to the visitors. There should be balanced number of photos, videos, banners and other graphics as well. The overall designing must redirect the user towards the focused action.

Lack of responsiveness: With the increasing popularity of smart phones, forty percent of search is run upon smart phones or tablets which makes responsiveness an essential element. Responsiveness is making the website capable of responding to different devices with different screen sizes. Making the website responsive can make it suitable for different users despite of their device choice. However, recent estimates show that less than seventeen percent of the world’s 876 million websites have been created with responsive web design. Since Google introduced a search update that penalizes non-responsive sites in mobile searches, this is a major problem for those who generate leads online.

Lack of input forms: There are websites displaying too many ads whereas others spending a lot of dollars to redirect consumers over their website, only failing to capture the attention of consumer over the main content. But they miserably fail in attaining the lead and odds are against that missed consumers will return back to the website. This problem can be largely eliminated by creating a homepage opt-in offer that will appeal to your visitors and acquiring consumer information.

Adding unnecessary information: Some developers are also guilty of going completely over the board for developing website and forgetting the actual content to be placed in the website. There is a sole purpose behind developing a website and it must be focused on that purpose. But going over the top with designing elements can make it difficult for user to find the actual purpose of website. The number one ranking criteria for the search engines has always been the quality of the content displayed on websites. Yet, domain owners frequently spend thousands of dollars to build a sleek, beautiful site and then treat the actual writing as an afterthought. This affects far more than search results though, because it is also the number one way to engage visitors and increase conversion rates.

Out of date website: A lot can happen in one day and in digital era, a lot is changing on daily basis. There are amazing technical advances available out there, which also makes cybersecurity risks more threatening to businesses. Websites must be kept updates, not for adding new functionalities or technicalities but for also keeping it secure.

“Experience of the future” initiative is taken by McDonalds announced their plans to launch digital ordering kiosks by replacing cashiers in their about 2500 of locations. Company is about to extend their services in about 14,000 locations by deploying mobile ordering system, ultimately extending customer self-service. Now the question arises, where does the future lies in the age of robotics and automation. Well its nowhere near what we see in science fiction. We might picture robots as human like (credits to transformers) but they are actually different and look more related to functions or tasks they performs. In early stage, they were more of like big machines, with significant brawn and little else. They were dull, dirty and dangerous. But with passing time, they have became more portable and easy to handle. For instance, in 1980, robots transformed from being hydraulically powered to electrically driven.

Industrial robots currently at work

Currently there are about 1,000,000 functional unit of robots in the world and 50% of the number can be found in Japan alone, whereas US acquires 15% of them. In early stages, 90% of these robots are functioning in car manufacturing for the dirty work, typically in assembly line. But today, the ratio has slipped to 50% of robots in automobile plants, as it is spreading its roots in various other sectors including laboratories, energy plants, warehouse, factories, hospitals and other industries. Currently, robots are handling all the dirty and dangerous work including assembling products, spray painting, handling dangerous materials, cutting and polishing and inspection of products. Robots are also being used for most critical and dangerous tasks including cleaning sewers, detecting bombs, performing intricate surgeries etc. By observing the criticality of the tasks and productivity offered by robots, it has the potential to turn the technology upside down.

Attaining competitive advantage  `

Robots and automation not only increases the productivity but can also help organizations to gain competitive advantage. Take the example of websites with chatbots enabled. They can keep their clients engaged with the help of chatbots by offering them 24x7 services. It overcomes the communication barrier and tend to bring more business to the organization. General motors, with ability to bring more intelligence, is currently acquiring about 40-50k robots for utilizing and developing new utilities. Robots are offering them with significant new strategies to improve their productivity and manufacturing. The focus of robotic manufacturing technology is to minimize the capital investment by increasing flexibility. New robot applications are being found for operations that are already automated with dedicated equipment.

Envisioning future

Although experts envisions robots in human form by emulating human appearance with machine intelligence but it is not that simple and is not happening anytime soon. Despite a small number of industrial robots are integrated with machine vision systems, robot industry still has to cover a very long distance to reach that level. Industrial robots are currently integrated with machine vision, which is why they are called machine vision rather than robot vision. Today, simple pattern matching vision sensors can be purchased for under $2,000 from Cognex, Omron and others. The price reductions reflect today's reduced computing costs, and the focused development of vision systems for specific jobs such as inspection.

Process of executing the application or software to locate a bug or error is known as software testing. Programs are checked for the errors and mistakes in the system. It is possible that the syntax and grammar for the program is correct but the logic isn’t which may open doors for security vulnerabilities. With the software validation and verification of the program can be done using several tools by any human and the errors can be detected easily. It might seem like a single activity but rather a continuous process. It’s good to introduce software testing in the initial stage to make it error and mistake free.

Static testing

In static testing, the procedure identifies the error or mistake in the verification process and rectifies them without needing to execute any extra code. Usually static testing includes reviewing the documents and source code and static analysis. Walkthrough, reviewing, inspection etc are some common examples of static testing.

Dynamic testing

Dynamic testing is conducted to check the errors in the running program and rectifying the coding issue in the running process. It is conducted during the validation process. Integration testing, unit testing, system testing etc are its example.

Testing is important and after reading some of the historic failures, you’ll realize the importance of software testing:

• On April 26, 1994, 264 innocents were killed in China Airline Airbus A300 crash due to a software bug.
• Once, some of the Amazon third party retailers experienced 1p reduction in their product and they faced heavy losses just because of a software glitch.
• Due to software glitch in air bag sensory system, Nissan have to recall over 1 million cars from market. Two accidents were reported due to this failure.
• Bloomberg terminal in London crashed glitch in April 2015, which affected about 300,000 traders.
• In May 1996, nearly about bank accounts of 823 customers were credited with 920 million US dollars, courtesy to software glitch.

Benefits of testing

1. Software testing can be helpful in learning about reliability of the developed program or application.
2. Testing is required for offering various available facilities to users like delivering high quality software or program along with lower maintenance costs and reliable results in most accurate manner possible.
3. Testing is conducted to assure the clients or end users regarding the reliability and satisfaction of the system.
4. Testing is required as it is included n project plan, which helps in staying in business.
5. Testing is majorly conducted to understand the fault errors in software during the development phases.

Technology is witnessed to from on a rapid pace in recent years and it will continue to grow. From artificial intelligence to augmented reality, there are dozens of emerging technologies making their way towards successful future. In 2018, disruptive technologies like cloud computing, Big data analytic, artificial intelligence, machine learning etc are maturing and going to be the game-changing ideas to foundational tools for business. Lets find out some of the disruptive technologies turning the business upside down.

Health and Smart Telehealth tech

Amazon recently announced a smart healthcare technology as “simplified, high-quality and transparent healthcare at a reasonable cost.” They joint a venture with a focus on delivering smart healthcare system to the patients and their family for making the healthcare sector better. It will mainly include IoT technology with connected monitoring system to monitor the patients even in remote areas. Chronically ill patients can be monitored 24x7 by healthcare experts even when they’re not around. Data regarding them will be collected and used for research and analysis, so develop new medication. Tech market reports that business will widely adopt 18 million wearables incorporated into corporate wellness programs.

IoT and smart offices

With the emergence of IoT, it is determined that IoT devices are helping to reduce the costs and improving the technologies. Organizations are now capable of attaining many benefits from adding connectivity and intelligence to their physical infrastructure. They are increasing their productivity and enhancing the work culture by automating the annoying and time-consuming work such as copying and printing document. Smart offices and factories are equipping their infrastructure with sensors and other smart devices. Equipping such devices are proved to be result in reduction in process waste, energy consumption in waste and equipment downtime.

Voice controls and voice assistants

In early days, it was just about digging the depth of technology but now voice-activated assistants have begun permeating the business setting. With the discovery of Alexa by Amazon, rise in demand of voice activated assistants has been observed. To power today’s evolving business setting, we need to propel these businesses with trainable digital assistant technologies that are smart, predictive, have the capability to learn, and can quickly adapt to the new and changing environment.

3D Printing and Smart manufacturing

With the emergence in IoT, automation and 3d printing technology, manufacturing is also improving. In early days, it was considered as a dangerous job but with automation and robotics, this sectors has turned upside down. Various organizations are taking advantage of robotics, automation and 3D printing to improve their manufacturing, productivity and reduce wastage. Technology-driven manufacturing, lean manufacturing innovation is greater than the sum of its parts for players in industrial end markets, which are generally large, with a set of well-understood needs and slim margin.

Video conferencing and VR

Investment in video is increasing as employees determine that videos make a great impact over their employees. It is determined that investing in video will lead to tremendous innovation and will improve collaboration as well. Dery predicts that video tech will continue to simulate and improve face-to-face communication with new features, like virtual reality (VR) and other immersive tech (see below), especially as organizations work to fill the skills gap with distributed teams.  

In the competitive market customers are attracted towards unique but simplified applications. It is essential for the business, whether it is small, medium or large, to offer customized application for increasing their productivity. Majority of businesses confessed that opting for customized application has helped them earning additional business revenues and also increased their consumer base. Customized applications are basically altered according to the core requirement of business to fit their basic requirements. It addresses a particular audience rather than offering a solution which caters to a large group by fulfilling their varying requirements. It makes the customized mobile application development a feasible and attractive option to the business.

Reports state that about 7.5 hours are saved by per employee per week by using customized application and 82% of businesses opt for customized mobile application

Greater elasticity

Developers develops an application according to a limited audience by allocating limited number of resources. With the increase in business, audience can also increase which might need increased number of resources and can make the current application useless. But customised application can enable you with the capability of increasing resources as they are built accordingly and the resources can be increased as per the requirement.

Improved efficiency

Customized applications are built from scratch to meet the core requirements of your business. Customized application will act like a comprehensive app performing wide range of diverse actions and eliminates the need of multiple applications. It ultimately eliminates the need of switching from one application to another and increases the efficiency. It will enhance the working style and productivity of employees ultimately increasing the business ROI.

Efficient integration

It is possible that general applications are working smoothly with the existing software. But custom built applications are designed to work with you current business efficiently. Hence, dodging every possible integration error and function efficiently.

Secured application data

General application cannot guarantee you the greatest security features and may put you business data on security risks. From the security aspects, customized applications are always recommended as they are solely developed according to your business. Custom built applications can reinforce data security system depending upon the relevant security measure required by the type of data you’re using for your business.

Improved relations with customers

As customized application allows you to send personalized updates associated with your services and products to your existing consumers in real-time. Furthermore, it allows business to gain access to your client’s data including feedback and personal information, which can be utilized to improve long-term consumer-business relationship.

Ease of new client data retrieval

For instance, you want to make your application even more effective, there comes custom applications. It will allow you to add forms and questionnaires to conduct surveys by collecting data to acknowledge their preferences. Acknowledging the preferences of the consumers are the best way to keep the engaged and happy. Plus it saves your time and resources as it saves you from collecting data physically using documentations.

Real-time project maintenance  

Customized applications can proved to be very useful as it offers easy access. For instance, if you’re travelling you can have access to the documents in portable manner. You can easily synchronize your phone with your device and can have access to your calendar, files, documents etc.

If you have any kind of custom mobile app development requirement, feel free to reach us by filling the contact form or contact one of our representative.