Category: SaaS

Top 5 Amazing IDEs for .NET Developers

Miley on November 19, 2018

Great variety of wide-known companies works with .NET. Among them are Dell, Accenture, HCL, Epic Systems. What is .NET and why is it so beneficial to create a product on this platform? Efficient and successful software development framework .NET is a platform for easy desktop and web application engineering. This free platform used for many various types of application providing environment for programming connected to most software development phases.

.NET goes well with business, as it involves a great range of tools like web-based services, desktop software, and cloud infrastructure support. The .NET can be divided into three branches: .NET Framework, .NET Core, and Xamarin. The whole group of these implementations is called .NET development platform. The .NET can work with C#, VB.NET, C++, F# programming languages and ASP.NET tool, which is among of the best web development tools for building web pages and websites with HTML, CSS, JavaScript and server scripting. 20 years have gone from the time the very first .NET was launched and this platform keeps gaining its popularity with companies’ to hire .NET developers for in-house or outsource work – find more information.

.NET Implementation

Fast forward and we’ve got three types of .NET implementation. Each of them has its features and kinds of products that can be created on these platforms.

The .NET Framework is the origin embodiment of the platform with three main app models – Windows Forms, WPF and ASP.NET Forms.

.NET Core was presented in 2016. This cross-platform is a rebuild of .NET Framework. Products from this platform can be used on both Linux and OS X, so they are not tied only to the Windows family. ASP.NET Core and Universal Windows Platform are also included in .NET Core.

Xamarin is the third implementation for mobile applications and Mac products development. From the very beginning, this platform was designed independently from Microsoft, but in 2016 the company made it a fully open source branch.

For simple and complex data, the structure of the .NET platform has a huge collection of class libraries. Hundreds of written codes by other developers are there, altogether with specific libraries for security, encryption, and database access.

IDE’s for .NET Development

IDE is an Integrated Development Environment that helps to facilitate the development of an application. There are some very useful and popular tools for .NET developers to advise:

Visual Studio is integrated with .NET including the specifics of language environments, from its earlier versions (VS 6.0). It is one of the most commonly used development environment as it provides single IDE for all .NET applications. Editing, compiling, debugging are available for a multiple-document interface. You can make your design up-to-date by placing the controls in the layout the display of the application. Visual Studio .NET supports Intellisense and code refactoring. Plug-in architecture helps to add tools for domain languages.

Visual Studio (for Mac) is newly created .NET IDE for Mac. It was launched as Xamarin Studio with a lot of additions. It is planned that the IDE will have precisely the same centerpiece code of editor like Windows VS has. Text editors will be easier to work with – for instance HTML, CSS or Razor. Unique Mac user interface and user experience altogether with Mac icons of Visual Studio native app will impress you. You can develop there with Xamarin and cloud development with .NET Core and ASP.NET Core.

SharpDevelop is an Integrated Development Environment (IDE) for .NET Framework applications. The IDE supports the creation of applications written in C#, Visual Basic.NET, and IronPython. It is in free access and provides code completion, code generation, project templates, and a form designer. It can be also compatible with Visual Studio Express if to use the same solution file format.

.NET Reflector is the class browser that explores and analyzes bugs through your application to see where the problem is – whether it is your own code, aside libraries, or components used by your application. With the help of this IDE, you can look inside the assemblies of any third-party platform to see the way they working.

Quest Comparison Suite for SQL Server Increases productivity and reduces costs protecting your data. You may simplify performance management and centralize administration. The IDE helps you to manage single/multiple database platforms.

Learning the .NET Framework

Microsoft gains a lot of credits for is how to learn .NET in an easy way for programmers as Microsoft Developer Network site has many resources for developers with documentation in details and sample code on different languages for using. It can be videos on Pluralsight for learning both the language and the web/mobile and Windows application code. Get acquainted with C# Yellow Book. This is a must-read for a solid base in programming. But practice goes at once, so the best way to get started is to take a project and start building.

The typical setup for a .NET application uses Visual Studio as the IDE. Editing, compiling, debugging are open for use in this IDE. Visual Studio for Mac is in process of development, but it’s already available with a variety of peculiar features of the iOS system. SharpDevelop creates applications in C#, Visual Basic.NET, and IronPython languages. It is in free access and provides code completion, code generation, project templates, and a form designer. A web developer can facilitate the process of programming and check on any bugs their application to see where the problem is. The last but not least IDE for .NET developers in this top 5 is Quest Comparison Suite for SQL Server. Controlling productivity and evaluating of data protection is available with this platform. Microsoft provides the variety of useful IDE’s for a developer that mean even bigger possibilities for getting involved in .NET development.

SaaS

Know how much you should spend on a mobile app like Uber

Miley on November 19, 2018

So, planning out to start an online taxi and car-sharing business, or you already have one and looking out for a mobile app for the advancement?

Regardless to say, Uber will be the first name that would come in your mind for the references to research about the procedures and would want to know about it.

Along with the process, you would be more keen to know how much would it cost you to develop a mobile app like Uber, am I right or am I right?

Well, today I will be discussing in this complete article about the process and cost of development of a mobile app that functions like the one for Uber does.

However, before we start discussing the cost, let me focus on whether or not you want to build an app highly functioning like Uber. Here we go!

Uber – Mobile Application

While thinking about mobile applications for taxis or car hires, what makes Uber the first one to come to our minds?

Well, it can be its brilliant services, the vast variety of features or the functionalities of the mobile application itself.

Uber, along with the services on the road, provides the best user experience on the app comprising of the highly efficient app functionalities.

It uses high-end functionalities like GPS tracking, Payment gateways, and Fare calculator which may not be functioning well with a weak or bug-full app backend.

Further, it is available on both the major platforms – Android and iOS.

The APIs related to the functionalities and their integrations is a different process in both the platforms.

Also, they come up with superb updates enhancing the riding experience and app’s user experience much better every time.

The app comes with a robust backend as the scaling, and the features of the application do not make it a heavy load on the user’s Smartphone.

Thus, when you are planning to create an app like Uber you need to justify with your app features and its robustness and yes, the service of course.

Then, how much does it take to create an app like Uber?

Here we come to the title topic what I started writing this article for.

The complete Interface of Uber, if considering the car sharing one only, includes a minimum of two platforms:

The driver’s app
The passenger’s app

Let us review the list of features each app may require.

Features for a Driver’s App include

Registration
Booking
Notifications
Map Navigation
Fare Calculator
Reporting
Messaging
Support & Contact Center

Also, to manage the complete schedule and circulation of the drivers from a center point, an admin panel will be required too.

Features for a Passenger’s App include

Sign up / Login
Booking Interface
Tracking
Fare Calculator
Payment options
Push Notifications
Messaging
Reviews & Ratings
Booking History

Looking at the list of features mentioned above, we can understand that a solid base of developers and technologies is sure to be required.

Uber, being thoughtful to this requirement, has disclosed its API to the public and the developers on its website to help them tailor-make their taxi hiring mobile app.

However, while considering its development, a company should be thoughtful enough not to consider hiring an offshore mobile app development company just by cherry picking the lowest cost one.

One thing you need to tie the knot in your head that developing a taxi hailing mobile app is not a one time task and it is never finishing the development.

Its development and maintenance will be termed as an on-going project only since the day you start planning and preparing it.

Thus, be prepared that you are going to get a dent, wait, not a dent but a bottomless pit on your bank balance while developing a correctly functioning taxi app.

Now when you know that you can’t outsource the project, you need to find and hire the best mobile app developers, both for iOS and Android and give them the in-house job roles on a full-time salary.

The complete development of an efficiently functioning taxi app may take up to 4500 to 5000 hours. You can count up to 12 months to launch it to the public with complete functions to use.

The Cost of Development

The cost of developing the complete app is broken into the phases of development each thing.

For iOS –

Backend Development – $5,000 – $6,000
App Development – $12,000 – $14,500
Frontend Development – $9,500 – $11,000
Testing – $6,500 – $8,000

The total of above development elements sums up to $33,000 to $39,500 for developing a basic taxi app for iOS.

For Android –

Backend Development – $5,000 – $6,000
App Development – $13,000 – $15,500
Frontend Development – $12,000 – $14,500
Testing – $8,000 – $10,000

The total of above development elements sums up to $38,000 to $46,000 for developing a basic taxi app for Android.

Total cost for both platforms

The total cost for developing a basic taxi app functioning on iOS as well as an Android platform will sum up to $71,000 to $85,500.

This is an estimate of a basic taxi app development, but as and when your business grows you would need to add up more features in the app and maintain it from time to time to keep it bug-free.

Its maintenance has its own cost. It would help if you instructed your team of developers to keep a timely check on all the features.

This particular category of application requires high maintenance of bug testing as it deals with the personal details of the users.

Further, if you are planning to outsource the project because of lack of skilled people in your locality or because you can’t keep a check on this aspect and want an experienced brain to look after the complete management or whatever the reason may be, you can count the cost adding up a few more thousands.

Talking about Uber

When we are looking at the development cost of a taxi app and referring to Uber, we need to see how much did the peer pay.

Back in 2016, the company had over 1200 engineers on the desks working over the app which probably would have touched the count of 1800 to 2000 by now and each costing the company around $270K to $350K a year on an average.

Moreover, looking at the services and the functionalities encompassed in the application, we can nod to yes that the investment of such a tremendous amount of development is making an asset to all, not the company alone.

Uber takes utmost care of all the features of the app such as the Geo-location feature, Payment Gateways, and others.

It keeps on working towards more and more integrations to various platforms such as combining to social media and maps which ease the lives of people on the go.

So, how much to spend on such an app?

Well, concluding this piece, we see about here that the referring platform is the one that has drawn the eyes towards itself for years now and to develop a same kind of app is a shoulder bending task.

Further, if you are looking forward to it as one of your business goals, you must give your hundred percent to its development and well-functioning.

The features in tech are never-ending, and if you want to walk head to head in the competition, you need to be up on your toes to stay updated about the tech and use it to make users’ lives better.

The above written are just the basic numbers as I mentioned earlier in the paragraph, but when you want to excel, you must try to invest as much as you can.

Also, the development of the app is not the only thing you need to do to make millions out of it.

You need to invest in the marketing of the app and your services related to that.

For marketing, you must consider hiring an excellent digital marketing specialist with great market experience and knowledge of the trends.

Author bio:

Manan Ghadawala is the founder of 21Twelve Interactive which is one of the best mobile app development company in India and the USA. He is an idealistic leader with a lively management style and thrives raising the company’s growth with his talents. He is an astounding business professional with astonishing knowledge and applies artful tactics to reach those imaginary skies for his clients. Follow him on @twitter

Development Insights SaaS

SEO Basics Small Businesses Should Know

Miley on November 17, 2018

The market nowadays is highly competitive and crowded with various businesses. Small businesses that are new to the market will have difficult times competing against other companies that have already built their presence on the market and are favoring good incomes. However, just because something is difficult, it doesn’t mean that it’s impossible. There’s always a way for small businesses to outrun even the more-developed competitors. A good example of this is search engine optimization (SEO). SEO allows companies to establish their online presence, visibility, and awareness, among other things.

Simply put, SEO helps your website become more visible and accessible on search engines, such as Google. The main reason SEO is important is that, as mentioned before, the online market is highly competitive and overcrowded, which means that your business needs to find a way to stand out and cut through all that noise. Moreover, aside from being a cost-effective marketing strategy, SEO provides many more benefits to businesses. However, it takes a bit of time before the results kick in. That being said, here are a few SEO basics small businesses should know.

The importance of keywords

Every small business must know how important keywords in SEO are. Keywords are the core of every SEO effort. They are words or phrases that match the content on your website and individual pages to that of user intent on search queries. Ranking for the right keywords will bring you closer to your target audience. For instance, if you own a small business that focuses on dog food, you’d want to rank for keywords that have “dog” or “food” in them.

You must also consider long-tail keywords most commonly used by your audience when searching for dog food online, such as “the best dog food” or “affordable dog snacks”. Comprehensive and detailed keyword research is simply a must for your SEO strategy. That includes conducting a competitive analysis to determine which keywords your main competitors are ranking for as well. The more you understand which keywords to opt for, the more successful your strategy will be.

Local SEO

Many small businesses are mainly competing on their local market before they grow enough to tackle the global one. That’s where local SEO is crucial. Local SEO strategy slightly differs from a regular one, as its primary focus is on your local market. You must adapt content, keywords, your business information, and other factors to match the needs of local customers. For example, you must update your business information, such as location, phone number, address, work hours, etc. on Google My Business listings feature.

It’s also important to sync that information with other local business listings. For instance, if your small business is in Hong Kong, you must ensure your local SEO strategy is optimized for local customers and that you have your business information on every local business listing. However, Hong Kong is a big and busy place, so you might consider opting for SEO services in Hong Kong to help you with creating a local strategy. Once you’ve established a good presence on the local market, you can aim for expanding your dealings to an international or country-wide scale.

Content is king

Yet another SEO basic every small business must know about is content. Content is king and there’s no doubt about it. The main reason content is considered as the most important factor in SEO is that it delivers value to your customers or target audience through information, entertainment, and education. Content is crucial for SEO both on your website and outside of it. Website content helps you provide relevant information to visitors while helping you include keywords your rank for into it, in order to boost rankings for your pages and your website in general.

Moreover, content is vital for your off-page SEO activities, such as guest posting and link building, as it helps build authority, credibility, and exposure. What’s more, content is the number one ranking factor alongside backlinks, according to Google. In short, there’s no SEO without good-quality content. However, not just any content will do. In fact, when developing content for either your website or off-page activities, you must ensure that it’s top quality and highly relevant to your target audience.

Website performance

Every business these days needs a website, small business included. Without a website, you simply don’t exist in the online world and you certainly won’t need SEO. Most of your SEO efforts are regarding your website. However, all of that is in vain if your website isn’t performing well. In other words, you can simply say that website performance is a ranking factor as far as search engines are concerned. But what is that? Simply put, customer satisfaction on your website is a ranking signal and there are plenty of performance factors that influence customer satisfaction in the first place.

For example, website speed is a factor for both SEO and customer satisfaction. Sluggish websites won’t rank well on search engines because most consumers aren’t patent enough to wait for your pages to load. In addition, mobile friendliness is also an important factor. If your website isn’t responsive or mobile-friendly, you won’t have good rankings. Other factors include navigation, security, user-friendliness and so on. For website security, install an SSL certificate that encrypts the information pass between browser and server. Therefore, if you want your SEO strategy to succeed, you must ensure your website is performing well, to begin with.

Every small business must know about the basic rules regarding SEO. If you don’t understand how it works or you don’t understand its purpose, then you won’t be able to utilize the full potential of SEO.

Development Products SaaS

Domestic Chip Industry Adds New Crisis, Two Big Sound Module Manufacturers Fight Inside

Miley on November 15, 2018

As we all know, for the whole Asian semiconductor industry, China has been subordinate to South Korea and in a weak position, and often subject to the United States squeezing. However, the Chinese rise and the country’s strategic objectives make the domestic semiconductor industry has been rapid development after the efforts of several years.

In recent years, the development of smartphones has been calculated by leaps and bounds. Its screen fingerprint technology has received a lot of favor, so far the most popular principle of photoelectric fingerprint technology is to illuminate the finger texture in the form of light, and through the OLED screen panel reflects back to the sensor, and eventually form a fingerprint image and complete identification and authentication. Although there is no advanced high-pass ultrasonic technology, the cost is low and can be widely applied.

The fight inside has been a disaster, GOODIX and SILEAD come to blows

Two of China’s largest fingerprint chip manufacturers, GOODIX Technology and SILEAD Technology, fought a big patent lawsuit on both sides, which had been involved into a total of three A-share listed companies, and the row between them could not be undone. On September 29, Shanghai SILEAD Microelectronics Technology Co., Ltd. announced that GOODIX Technology had formally declared to the Shenzhen Intermediate Court that SILEAD and Shenzhen Tripod Infinite Technology Co., Ltd. had invaded their three patents, demanding a total compensation of 210 million yuan, and immediately suspended the sale of their products.

Influenced by this incident, the holding company behind SILEAD has now stopped falling, and the share price of GOODIX Technologies has plummeted by 5.26%, which can be said to have a huge impact on both sides. In response to this matter, some netizens said: “regardless of the final outcome of the lawsuit, this situation will certainly cause great losses to the domestic voice IC industry, it is really not appropriate.¡± However, there are netizens who believe that there will be progress only if there is a competition, and the dispute over patent infringement on both sides will help to establish a legitimate professional order, and will not present a mixed phenomenon.

According to statistics, since 2017, the global shipments of fingerprint recordable sound module for toys have been gathered in the hands of FPC, GOODIX Technology and SILEAD. The former belongs to Swedish companies, while the latter two belong to domestic enterprises. Among them, GOODIX Technology takes second place with 34.5% and SILEAD takes third place with 6.50%. Therefore, the infighting between GOODIX and SILEAD is likely to allow the FPC to seize the opportunity once again, continue to expand the leading advantages and open the distance between them. And it is believed that it is really what the Chinese are certainly reluctant to see.

It is understood that GOODIX Technology pointed out that SILEAD and Tripod Chip sold a capacitor fingerprint chip made by the former and sold by the latter without authorization. The chip is involved in the scale of three patents aggressed against GOODIX, thus GOODIX raised a lawsuit and demanded compensation and suspension of sale.

China’s USB Push Button Sound Module road is not only about technology and talent. We should also calm down and lengthen the timeline, pay attention to the changes of the times, and keep pace with the times and help each other. Thus, we can create unique advantages and occupy a niche in the chip industry.

SaaS Startups

How Do I Know I am Hiring the Best iOS Developers?

Miley on November 7, 2018

The market for smartphones is increasing constantly and usage of mobile applications has increased a lot. Apple has been known for their innovative features and every year they introduce some innovation that amazes the world. As a business owner, you have two options for developing a mobile app. The first one is developing a mobile application with your in-house team and the second option is to hire an app developer from an eminent mobile app development company. The in-house developer is not affordable for small to medium size companies, as once application is built, there are no further tasks for mobile app development. That will lead you to the second option which is hiring a mobile app development company. So as a business person, you might have decided to build an iOS application for your business but you don’t have an idea how to hire an iOS developer that provides you with the best iOS application for your business without ruining your project, money, and time. Before choosing any app development company, you need to ensure a few things that give you a better idea about the company and their development team’s skills. Here we are trying to provide you with a few key factors you should consider before hiring an app development company.

Past Projects

This is the key aspect that needs to look. You can request the iPhone developer to display some of their past work for your acknowledgment. Please ensure that all those links are live and available to download. It will be an advantage if a developer has developed something similar to your application.

Past clients’ details

This is another key factor to identify best iOS developer for your job. You can talk with their past clients and understand what are the pros and cons of app development company. Moreover, if you get a chance to speak with the client of the same industry then it will boost your confidence while hiring iOS app developers. You can ask their past clients about how company handle timeline, manage the project and resources, communication skills and many more. Through all these questions, you can set your mindset and able to deal with work was chosen development company.

Proficiency

This is an important factor as every application has unique features. Before hiring, you should ensure that they have the expertise for the features that you are looking for your application and able to give details what is the procedure they will follow to complete the required functionality in your application.

Experience

Another important factor that you need to check before hiring app developers. Experienced developers can provide you with the best quality code and error-free application for your business. The bug-free application will help you increase your user experience.

App Support

This is another most important factor that should not be ignored. Every application requires some support after completion of the development and that should be properly managed by mobile app Development Company as it will allow you to improve your application once it launches and live on the app store to download.

Other development services

Application development is not enough for any client and every client expect more than that like quality assurance, business analysis, launch application, post-development support etc. So based on their different services, you can choose the best development company for your application.

Good Communication

Communication is another important factor while choosing an iOS developer. The developer should be a good communicator and able to communicate easily as communication gap will surely affect your project. You should ensure that iOS developer asks all the requirement related questions at the initial stage of the project so your project can work smoothly. The developer should also be able to suggest good ideas for your business so you can generate better revenue and having a few USP features in your business application.

Updated With the latest trend

The iOS developer should be updated with the latest trends in iOS. iOS developer should able to code in Swift language rather than Objective-C. The main reason for Swift development is that you get an idea about the developer and their approach towards new technology. Swift programming language is quite clean and time-effective compare to Objective-C. Another advantage of Swift is it’s cost-effective as well as more productive.

Monetize App

Most of the business applications are developed to engage with consumers as well as generate revenue for the business. You should also need to understand their strategy for generating revenue from your application. There are many monetize technique like in-app purchase, pay per download or display ads. App development company should able to give you the best advice to generate revenue from available option.

Summary:

Based on the above details you can identify the good iOS developer with the following qualities:

Have the quality of works done
Keen to learn new technologies and a good approach to develop new skills.
Understand your business and help to find the best way to make your application popular into the market.
Work with you as your technology partner, not as just developer.

SaaS

How The Cloud Helps FinTech Companies Disrupt The Banking World

Miley on October 15, 2018

For the average person, the cloud is a relatively incomprehensible service that lets them store files and photographs online. For the FinTech startup, it holds the key to their rise in popularity. It transforms the way they can store and share financial data, making it faster and easier to do both than ever before. As a result, cloud technology gives FinTech the edge it needs to disrupt the traditional banking world.

Data storage that affects speed and flexibility

Traditional financial services are so named because of their long history as the primary provider of banking products and services to customers. It’s also an apt name because of the way they store data. In the past, the typical branch was built around old-fashioned IT silos. These legacy systems made it difficult to make universal changes or share information between branches. It required a dedicated team of IT employees willing to put in the hours to merge this data using conventional methods.

The cloud represents a newer alternative to data storage and data sharing. It relocates data from siloed, on-site devices accessible only in person to a network of off-site servers accessible to anyone with Wi-Fi. The cloud connects these networks (or data farms) with the Internet, giving its users fast, easy, and affordable access to data.

Why does the cloud favor FinTech?

Unlike traditional services that are stuck with their legacy systems, FinTech startups are fresh to the market. Many of them are younger than cloud technology itself, so they don’t have to retrofit their data storage at all. They can start from scratch with just the cloud.

The cloud is also the reason why they could challenge the traditional banking system. Old-fashioned silos relied on expensive equipment that took up a lot of space and money in maintenance. Its size and costs out-priced fledging startups that didn’t have the capital needed to invest in these legacy systems.

By comparison, the cloud is relatively inexpensive. Startups don’t need to provide the same investments upfront to cover the space and equipment involved in department silos. That’s covered by a third-party provider, which also covers its ongoing maintenance. This has given startups the chance to provide alternative financial services that offer a faster and easier way to bank.

FinTech offers a different way to bank

Convenience and simplicity are two major features consumers expect from their financial experience, and FinTech wouldn’t be able to deliver on these promises without the cloud. Cloud technology helps FinTech companies achieve scalability with rapid data sharing. They can be flexible and nimble when launching new products or maintaining services that solve existing issues.

Though data-driven, FinTech is a broad term for customer-facing services that put value on user experience. Traditional banks, by comparison, put less value on a personalized and adaptable user experience. Even now, as it’s trying to recapture the market share stolen by FinTech, it’s failing to mimic FinTech’s rapid scalability. They’re having to partner with existing FinTech startups or they’re buying them out right to achieve the same responsivity.

So what are these alternatives?

FinTech describes a wide-ranging group of services just as varied as those found in the traditional financial world. If it already exists in the bank, then a FinTech company has moved it online. That includes simple things like cashing a check or transferring money. A mobile bank like Chime offers these services only through their website and app; they don’t need a physical branch for their customers todo these things.

Another FinTech sector without a physical presence is the growing number of online lenders. These lenders facilitate online cash advances that lack the complexities of traditional loans. Their digital platform makes it easier for companies like MoneyKey to process online loans at every stage of the borrowing experience.

Other companies are solving old problems with new online features. The founders of ChangEd leverage FinTech’s automation to help graduates pay down their student loans faster. The app syncs with their bank account and automates savings by rounding up purchases made on these accounts. For example, if you spent $35.01 on gas and $3.45 on coffee, it would charge your account $36 for gas and $4 for coffee. It would then invest the difference into your debt payment.

According to the latest data, FinTech has made massive ground in the market, while the traditional banks are struggling to retain customers. They’re trying to make up for their loss in many ways, including adopting the cloud for themselves. In the meantime, FinTech has a competitive advantage. The cloud lets them make fast changes as their customers need fluctuate.

Development SaaS

3 Ways Mobile Apps Are Revolutionizing Entertainment Industry

Miley on October 8, 2018

In last five years, Mobile apps have dominated the world with its powerful solutions and superior services. From live cricket scores, food and online shopping to games and health management, there is rarely something where mobile apps would not help. Prevalence of mobile app technology has swept through the smallest corner of our life, creating digital solutions even in the entertainment and media industry.

With consumers expecting easy-to-use and seamless apps, entertainment domain is also experiencing an unforeseen transformation. It is evident that by now different entertainment segments relies on the mobile app revolution mainly due its convenience and usability. So how exactly mobile apps are revolutionizing entertainment industry?

Discussed here are 3 primary ways mobile apps have significantly changed entertainment space.

Updates and trends

Social media has developed a virtual hub of realities that eloquently displays the expressions of global communities. In the absence of social media platforms, it was quite a challenge to monitor and discover the latest hot trends in the relevant market. With a powerful disruption of social media, human society realized the importance of digital technology and began to share their mind with the world, which in turn resulted in honest valuable trends.

Social apps have a dedicated, most updated space for suggesting trending topics. Entertainment apps keep popular movies, music, shows and games embedded in a trending section for users to view what is making a rage. Due to such instant updates and recommendations, entertainment is accessible and available anywhere for anyone. This is why entertainment app development companies are working passionately to optimize user experience within apps.

Information-driven engagement

Mobile users are predisposed to interacting with social media platforms for a daily dose of news, updates, life hacks, and tips and more. It is not a surprise that people quickly check the homepage wall of Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram as they are the best reliable source of authentic information. Entertainment apps integrate social posts to enable users to share useful media information on the platform.

Apart from these, video content leader Youtube also facilitates a unique, highly engaging and visual platform for exploring creativity, information, and entertainment. It has innovative features with individual channels, vlogs and more. Engagement is the crucial essence of entertainment mobile apps that allows users to interact with their favorite artists and idols and know more about them. Businesses can thus interact with their customers and address their requirements with more confidence.

The scalable capabilities of platforms

Many YouTubers make videos to show off their product or to review one for example a fitness blogger selling their fitness program, gamers reviewing games and certain pranksters using different tools for pranks such as a prank call app, loaded with pre-recorded voice lines. This proves to be an effective way to educate and entertain their subscribers.

Entertainment app platforms are equipped with the superior capability to suit business needs and user perspective. Today’s apps are integrated with movies, music, live streaming experience as well as gaming to deliver exceptional user experience. Scalable platforms complete with all the vital features also create a potential opportunity for artists to bring their talent in public and reach the audience.

Application development is less complicated with many readymade platforms introduced now and then. Due to many incredible features in place, users have a lot to gain by leveraging the scalable app platforms focused on enabling users to share their content online on any platform to exhibit their flair. These entertainment applications set a comprehensive flow of content including articles, videos, blogs, and other rich media, which further enhances app’s usability for entertainment purpose.

Most popular Entertainment apps

NETFLIX

NetFlix has risen to be one of the most sought-after entertainment platforms for a viewer who rely majorly on their mobile devices for distraction and amusement. It is enriched with unlimited fun movies, dramas, and comedies and also connects with TV. It has quickly changed the satellite TV market, is the world’s 10^th largest company.

SPOTIFY

Spotify is another phenomenon in the world of music services and allows users to browse through songs and listen to their favorite music from favorite artist legally and save them offline. The app is highly successful with more than 24 million existing users.

Future promises

Like all other industries, Mobility is something that has swept deep through media and entertainment, bringing a new shape and dimension to its sphere. Technology translates into opportunities, especially for businesses that look to capitalize greatly on digital solutions to develop consistent growth potential. By integrating IoT and Wearable technology, entertainment mobile apps are likely to experience a much brighter future. Businesses should adopt more capable technologies such as VR and AR to make entertainment more engaging and influential.

Conclusion

Mobility has become the need for any business to reach expected growth target in the relevant market. Entertainment and media market has transformed its structure in the last couple of years by shifting to digitalization and enhanced user engagement based on the precise understanding of user behavior. We hope entertainment mobile apps will continue to amaze and fascinate more users in the coming days.

Author:
Helena Spaculus
https://www.spaculus.org
info@spaculus.org

Development Insights SaaS

Answered: Your Most Burning Questions About Salesforce

Miley on July 20, 2018

Whether you are looking for a Salesforce app to use in a business operation or you want to make a position in the Salesforce world, you need to understand what Salesforce offers and what it does to help you win more customers. Being a pioneer in Salesforce, people, experienced or fresher, come to us with so many questions regarding the utility, features, and technicalities of Salesforce. Through this post, I have answered a few repetitive questions that Salesforce enthusiasts continuously ask us.

What are the benefits of Salesforce CRM?

The topmost benefits of Salesforce CRM are:

You get more opportunities to increase your sales
The use of the analytical approach to ensure customer acquisition.
Minimizing the cost to improve customer satisfaction.
The complete automation of repetitive tasks.
Upfront communication with improved efficiency

To unlock these benefits, you need to master the concepts and aspects of this CRM tool, which Salesforce training can help you achieve.

What are Salesforce’s custom objects?

Salesforce.com contains all enterprise-level data. There is a requirement for Junction Object, which has a master-detail relationship. This allows you to create a master-detail relationship between two objects and plug in a child object to a related list. You need to define these custom objects if you want to take the following steps.

Integrate records with custom objects.
Custom lists display the custom object data
Build a custom tab for a custom object.
Developing page layouts.
Developing a dashboard & report to evaluate custom object.
You can share the custom tab, app and object.

What are Governor Limits in Salesforce?

Governor Limits controls the volume of data and the number of records you can store in shared databases. This is because Salesforce is designed on the basis of multi-tenant architecture. Simply, Salesforce stores the data of multiple clients/ customers using a single database. To avoid the monopolization of shared resources, Salesforce is driving the concept of Governor Limits based on the Apex run-time engine. Whenever the Apex code goes beyond the limit, a run-time exception is what the expected governor issues that are not possible to handle. Therefore, being a Salesforce developer, stay cautious while developing your application. The governor Limits of Salesforce are:

Per-Transaction Apex Limits
Force.com Platform Apex Limits
Static Apex Limits
Size-Specific Apex Limits
Miscellaneous Apex Limits
Email Limits
Push Notification Limits

What can cause data loss in Salesforce?

Reasons responsible for Data loss in Salesforce are:

Changing date and time as well as data
Moving to currency, number, and percentage from other data types
Shifting from the multi-select picklist, checkbox, auto number to other types
Changing to multi-select picklist from any type rather than picklist
Moving to auto-number except for text
Taking advantage of text-area for e-mail, phone, URL, and text

What are the different dashboard components?

The different Dashboard components are: Chart: A graphical representation of data. Gauge: You can display a single value amongst custom values. Metric: You can show a sole key value – By clicking on a blank text field next to total and then entering the metric label straight into components. All metrics are correctly aligned in the console column. Table: Display report data in column form using the Table. Visual force-This helps generate custom component or showcase info not accessible to other sections. Custom S – component: It involves the content that runs or exhibits a browser like Excel file, Java applet, ActiveX Control and custom HTML web form.

Can you explain the details of Salesforce SaaS functionality?

The important features of Salesforce SaaS functionality are:

You get a pay-as-you-go framework that resonates well with all clientele.
You don’t need to bother about substructure management.
Retrieval of all requests via the internet.
Easy to integrate along with numerous applications.
Uncover newest features without any postponement.
High uptime and safety.
Excellent presentation for various operations.
Connect anywhere through mobile devices

If you know about CRM, you must have heard of Salesforce. It offers robust customer relationship management software, which performs real-time analytics by evaluating customers’ data. It has become a need of the hour to meet the requirement of the client end to end.

Development SaaS

Top 3 Machine Learning trends in 2018

Miley on July 10, 2018

Machine Learning has been growing at an incredible pace in 2017. We’ve witnessed many breakthroughs such as AlphaGo beating the best world’s Go players, the comeback of evolution algorithms meta-learning, or WaveNet generating speech that mimics any human voice. Deep Learning research has been skyrocketing since 2012, and it’s not going to stop. Carlos Perez – Co-Founder of Intuition Machine – predicts that the number of research papers related to Deep Learning will triple or even quadruple in 2018!

The beginning of the third quarter of 2018 seems like a good time to take a closer look at the top Machine Learning trends in 2018.

Generative Models

One of the core goals for AI is to understand the world as a human does. In order to understand the world, one is required to build meaningful representations of abstract concepts. In particular, generative models are very good at this task. There’s nice intuition behind this taken from Richard Feynman who said:

What I cannot create, I do not understand

Since their introduction in 2014, Generative Adversarial Networks (GANs) are probably the hottest topic in unsupervised learning research, along with Variational AutoEncoders. A GAN is a generative machine learning model that consists of two neural networks: a generator and a discriminator. During training, the generator tries to generate realistic samples, while the discriminator needs to determine whether they’re fake or real. As the training proceeds, both the generator and the discriminator get better at their tasks. In the end, the generator is capable of generating data that looks like the real thing. GANs have a lot of interesting applications, such as an image to image translation, or improving the quality of low-resolution CT scans.

The classic problem with GANs is that they are really good at generating synthetic images in a bunch of different domains, but they struggle to model aspects of images that require the understanding of the whole, like getting the number of animal legs right.

Recently the father of GANs, Ian Goodfellow, has published a work on Self-Attention Generative Adversarial Networks (SAGAN). Introducing a self-attention module to the generator resulted in generating images in which fine details at every location are carefully coordinated with fine details in distant parts of the image.

There are already almost 4000 papers on Google scholar related to GANs this year, and there’s much more to come!

Interpretability

Many machine learning models, for example, Deep Neural Networks, are considered to be black boxes. However, the typical end-user of machine learning based system prefers solutions that are interpretable and understandable. For example, you may ask yourself if you would trust a neural network diagnosing cancer without explaining its reasoning. Would you choose an AI doctor with 85% accuracy that can explain its reasoning or an AI doctor with 90% accuracy that cannot?

Interpretability of machine learning models seems to be crucial for applications in healthcare or law. Last but not least, machine learning engineers benefit a lot from interpretable models, as it’s much easier to validate and improve them.

Again, we can borrow an intuition from Richard Feynman who said:

If you can’t explain something in simple terms, you don’t understand it

We can notice an increasing amount of research in the area of explaining machine learning models. One may distinguish model-agnostic methods and model-specific methods for explaining machine learning models. For example, LIME is a simple technique that uses local linear approximation via K-Lasso regression to provide model-agnostic explanations. You can find a Python implementation of LIME on GitHub. There are a lot of techniques for producing visual explanations for Convolutional Neural Networks, such as saliency maps. If you’re interested, I strongly recommend this compiled list of resources on interpretability by Michał Łopuszyński.

Edge Computing

The Internet of Things is going to revolutionize our world. All of these devices, such as mobile phones, beacons or Raspberry Pis, are able to provide tons of data. However, IoT alone is not smart technology. On the other hand, machine learning is fueled by data. These incentives are crucial for machine learning meeting edge computing.

There are several advantages for running machine learning applications on edge devices. Firstly, we can highly reduce latency when communication with the cloud is not required. It’s possible because of several reasons, such as hardware improvements, software improvements, and last but not least – compact deep learning architectures without losing a lot on accuracy (MobileNet v2). For example, MobileNet’s forward pass only takes about 20 milliseconds on the newest iPhones.

One cannot omit the importance of the existence and development of frameworks such as CoreML and TensorflowLite. Currently, it’s very easy to implement, train and evaluate a model in one of Python’s Deep Learning libraries and latter deploy it on an Android device or an iPhone.

Privacy has always been an important concern on the Internet, and it seems that this year this is truer than ever. Machine Learning algorithms cannot be trained without data. However, if you train a machine learning model on an edge device, your data doesn’t need to leave it.

And last but not least, since Deep Gradient Compression has been introduced at ICLR 2018, distributed training on many edge devices seems to be possible on 1Gbps commodity Ethernet.

Guest post by Mateusz Opala, Machine Learning Tech Lead at Netguru

SaaS

Measures that determine the success of CRM performance – The screw gauge for KPIs

Miley on July 6, 2018

Peter Drucker rightly said, if you can’t measure it, you can’t manage it! Nowadays more and more organizations are increasingly focusing on quantifying the CRM performance to enhance the level of customer experiences and to better handle organizational data. CRM indeed provides a significant return on investment. However many companies fail to quantify it. This is where the CRM software with its analytics engine can help measure performance so that your business does not land on the unpaved runway!

So, how does one measure CRM performance? Don’t worry! Let’s slice through the royal cake.

CRM performance can be measured through balanced scorecards, value driver analysis, customer knowledge management and ROIs. It gets quite technical from here! I feel you. I will try my best to simplify it.

Balanced scorecards!

The balanced scorecard was developed by Robert Kaplan and David Norton. It is one of the foremost measurement tool used by highly successful management firms to align business activities to the vision and strategy of the firm. Robert and David analyzed many successful businesses and found out that all those successful businesses had one thing in common. They had a clear vision and strategy aligned with key areas such as finance, customer service and internal operations.

The balanced scorecards allow decision makers to view businesses from 4 different aspects.

They are:

How businesses view stakeholders in terms of financial aspects?

Are the businesses providing value from a customers’ point of view?

From an internal process point of view,

Are the business operations aligned with the company goals and values?

And finally from a learning and growth perspective,

Is the company providing the right training for its employees?

These aspects create a roadmap for analyzing and understanding smaller objectives within the larger framework.

As the famous Occam’s razor principle states “the simpler one is usually better.” So, the balanced scorecard helps businesses to focus on smaller things so more can be achieved!

In case you were wondering, this is the secret formula for businesses.

Value driver analysis

This is the second layer of the royal cake! The concept of value driver analysis was developed by DuPont several years ago. This is the extension of the infamous money flow analysis which allows companies to take more informed decisions thereby improving their day to day operations.

This hits you hard on the face!

Yes. Literally speaking, this method helps enterprises understand the value of a project. The value may have a strong impact on the organization’s finance or it may create a lasting impression on the society. The variables are usually controlled by the project management team who create a “driver tree’’ to map out the major drivers of value.

For example, for a stadium construction project, the seating capacity can be a major point of focus. The key value drivers for the seating capacity may include public transport, location, and ticket prices.

Customer Knowledge Management

It refers to the mechanisms and procedures used by the company to record, quantify, categorize and analyze data about its customers. This enhances organization’s sales processes. The data may be related to customers’ previous transactions, feedbacks, demographics and other miscellaneous personal information’s.

All data is stored in a single database!

Through customer knowledge management, customer experiences can be taken to a whole new level by minor tweaks or by fixing any loopholes in the business operations.

ROI

This is the icing on the cake for organizations trying to measure performance. Technically speaking, ROI is defined as the profit divided by the stock or funds invested. ROI is generally expressed in terms of percentage. Calculating ROI usually requires an incubation period of six months or more after the crucial data has been gathered from various sources. ROI analysis can drastically improve organizations performance and help achieve greater success.

CRM software can help with all the analytics and can act as a screw gauge for KPIs. CRM software would have a Business Intelligence engine which would efficiently handle all the analytics. It can also act as a database for customer knowledge management.

The report engine would also allow one to view and generate multiple reports for further statistical analysis that would help give your business a boost!

Indeed! CRM software is a must for any industry for analyzing the measures that would determine the organization’s CRM performance.

Guest Post by:
Kapture CRM