Daily Cup of Tech

Google Shows How to Optimize for Beta Discover Follow

Miley on September 14, 2021

Google has a new feature called Beta Discover Follow. What is this feature all about? Are you aware of it? If you are into digital marketing, then you must have to know about this new feature. It is obvious that you need to optimize your website according to this Beta Discover Follow feature. Without knowing more about this feature you cannot leverage this feature. Don’t worry, you are not too late. You can benefit from this feature. Still, you can learn how to optimize for Beta Discover Follow. Here we are to help you with this.

What Is Beta Discover Follow?

Before you start knowing how to optimize for this feature, you need to know what this feature exactly is. Beta Discover Follow is a feature that enables webmasters and digital marketers to follow desired websites to discover every new content published.

Google discover feed is used in this feature. Users can now easily track the latest content of any website. This feature can help search engine optimization expert and digital marketing company.

Benefits of Beta Discover Follow

There are many benefits of the Beta Discover Follow feature. This feature is new but still, it has the capability to impact the whole industry. The first benefit of this discover follow feature is that it can be used to follow the websites accurately. It can help you a lot in content strategies. You can develop content strategies that can help you a lot. By following the websites and their content, you will better know their content strategy. It will help you compete with all the other publishers in content marketing. On the other hand, there is a huge benefit for publishing websites. Websites will get more followers and more readability.

How to Optimize for It?

This feature is easy to use for your website. You just need to optimize your blog or website in a way to avail the benefits. But how to optimize for the Beta Discover Follow feature? Here is the complete information about how to optimize your website for Beta Discover Follow feature. However, Google doesn’t need anything from the publisher’s side. Publishers can directly avail of this feature. But there is something that is really important when Google talks about the RSS feed of websites. RSS feed must be maintained when you are going to avail the benefit of Discover Follow. Other than RSS, the Atom Feed can also help you in this. Because it will help Google get all the latest content systematically.

Work On Feeds

Google has some guidelines for feeds. You need to manage feeds in a way to get more benefit from this feature. You need to optimize feeds in a better way. Hub and leaf feeds are required for this feature. Websites must have to add their feeds into Hub and Leaf pages. The leaf page feed can also be helpful in categorizing feeds. All the content categories can be created. It helps in structuring your content for feed.

Multiple Feeds

Multiple feeds are also required for this. Google’s documentation for the new Beta Discover Follow feature clearly describes it. Multiple feeds must be mentioned on the homepage of a website.

Summary

Google’s documentation about Beta Discover Follow is very clear to understand. This documentation tells that publishers can avail the benefits with more followers in the Google Discover feed. Users are given the opportunity to follow the websites in the Google Discover feed. Now is the right time to optimize the website according to the Beta Discover Follow feature.

Development

6 Ways Small Business Owners Can Stay Protected

Miley on September 6, 2021

Entrepreneurs have a lot to consider when establishing a company. Often, the proprietor is also in charge of sales, marketing, bookkeeping, and merchandising. While all of this is important, keep in mind that you are also the head of security. And, sadly, this is often a full-time job in and of itself. However, if you are aware of the dangers you face, you may ease your security role.

1. Install a Security System

It’s a good idea to put an alarm system on your property. In the case of a break-in, the alarm can notify both you and the authorities, thus minimizing damages.

Many thieves will avoid attempting a break-in if they are aware of the alarm, and if they do, the sound may be enough to frighten them away before they can steal anything.

Monitored alarm systems, or those that a remote center constantly monitors, are undoubtedly the finest option for commercial security systems. There may be a monthly monitoring charge, but the peace of mind often justifies the cost that someone is monitoring your property 24 hours a day for indications of unusual behavior.

Many of these systems are very comprehensive—assembling one on your own may be costly and time-consuming. Your time is undoubtedly your most valuable asset; thus, consider hiring a professional to save the trouble.

2. Appropriate Training

Believe it or not, the greatest danger to an organization is not usually the external adversary but rather its negligence. One of the most frequent causes of data loss or theft is employee carelessness. They misplace gadgets or keep sensitive company data on personal computers that may be less secure. Training workers in appropriate security measures is a simple activity that may save you a lot of hassle. Instruct them on the creation of strong passwords and the appropriate use of Internet security protocols. Assist them in identifying strange emails that may be phishing efforts. Additionally, establish explicit guidelines for protecting customer and organizational data when employees use their personal laptops at work.

3. Install surveillance cameras

If you have a physical site, security cameras are a must. Not only is the video useful in the case of theft or a break-in, but the mere existence of the cameras often serves as a deterrent to many would-be thieves.

Cameras are also reasonably priced these days. You can find security cameras for sale on various internet marketplaces that are cheap and effective. You don’t need a complex system; if you’re on a budget, a few wireless smart cameras can suffice. You’ll want to ensure that the cameras have sufficient resolution to distinguish faces with whichever configuration you choose. This precaution is critical if you find yourself in need of assistance from the authorities since it may be almost difficult to identify a suspect without a good view of their face. Additionally, night vision is critical for after-hours security.

4. Control of Permissions

Ascertain who has access to which data. Attempt to arrange things in such a way that no one employee has access to everything. Assign permissions per their work requirements. Additionally, never allow workers to install software without authorization. Third-party software is not always safe and may infect devices, stealing data, or deleting critical system files.

5. Utilize Robust Passwords

This advice applies to both brick-and-mortar establishments and companies that operate entirely online. Passwords should be safe, one-of-a-kind, and distinct across all platforms. Never use a password connected to your personal life in any way; you risk losing data to individuals who have access to your personal information. Additionally, you should avoid using the same password for several services since this makes it simpler for hackers to access your accounts.

6. Consult with a professional

Naturally, your budget may exclude the employment of a comprehensive IT staff. However, this should not prevent you from employing a dedicated expert capable of handling the needs of a small company. This is a prudent investment decision. An IT professional has the expertise necessary to assist you in making the shift to cloud computing or securing your Wi-Fi. They will be able to advise you on appropriate processes and identify suppliers that meet your specifications. Having to find things up and perform them on your own introduces the possibility of mistakes. Assign a knowledgeable someone to handle these problems, and your network’s security will improve tenfold.

It’s incredible how much impact technology has. These new technologies have simplified our lives in many ways, but they have also fundamentally altered the societies that accept them.

Products

What Are The Most Popular Headset Brands and Why

Miley on September 2, 2021

The pandemic has caused a lot of individuals to be forced to work from home. Also, since everyone has been forced to remain in their homes, gaming has seen a surge. Both reasons are why many people are looking for headsets. Below is a list of the most popular headset brands, in no order, and why they are the most popular headset brands.

Bose

Bose is currently the official headphone and headset of the NFL. This has contributed a lot to the popularity of Bose headphones since the NFL is a multi-billion-dollar industry.

Bose headphones are popular for their comfortability, sound quality, and noise cancellation features. These headphones are quite expensive and have received criticism for the build quality of their headphones. However, these headphones provide great sound quality, and the noise cancellation that is provided by Bose headphones is phenomenal.

Beats

Like Bose, Beats headphones are the official headphones of a major sports league. Beats headphones are the official headphone and headset of the NBA, USA Basketball, and the WNBA. This has led to Beats gaining popularity.

The Beats headphone brand had already been one of the most popular brands prior to being the official headphone of basketball. The company was founded by Dr. Dre, who is a famous music producer and rapper. This sponsorship of basketball has only increased their popularity.

Beats headphones have evolved over the 15 years that they have been produced. They now feature noise-canceling abilities and have become much more comfortable on the head and ears. This has also led to the popularity of the brand.

Sony

Sony is a very well-established company and because of that their headphones have become popular in the tech industry. Sony is the maker of the PlayStation gaming console, and headsets are a big part of gaming.

Sony’s headsets are used for gaming as well as casually listening to music. Sony headphones can cancel out noise. Also, Sony has produced earbuds for those who do not want a bulky headset.

JBL

JBL has been a growing headset brand in the last five to ten years. They have recently sponsored the entertainment group, 100 Thieves. 100 Thieves is primarily a gaming group that plays games like Call of Duty and CSGO. This sponsorship has led JBL headphones to gain popularity in the gaming industry.

JBL headsets are known for primarily being in-ear, but they also have actual headsets that you can use for gaming. The JBL in-ear earbuds are great for sport use as well as casual use. The headsets are great for gaming and can cancel out outside noise to help with your gaming experience.

Skullcandy

Skullcandy is a headset that was very popular five years ago, but recently they have not gained as much popularity. This is partly due to the other major headset brands that have been on the rise, but the Skullcandy headsets lack some of the features that other brands have.

Skullcandy headsets are not capable of noise cancellation, which has become a popular feature. The Skullcandy in-ear earbuds are great for sport use and casual listening, but the headsets have suffered due to the lack of noise cancellation.

Logitech

Logitech is a well-known tech brand that also produces headsets. These headsets have seen a major boost in popularity due to the number of people that have been forced to work from home via Zoom.

These headsets are not bulky like some of the other gaming headsets that are on this list. A Logitech headset has a slim design and features a microphone that you can use for Zoom calls when working from home. These headphones are also not very flashy, so they are great to use in a business setting.

Conclusion

There are many other headset brands in the market, and many of those other headset brands produce products like the ones on this list. The headset market is very similar, and you may find a brand that you like that is not “popular”. The headset you purchase should depend on your budget and what you are using it for.

Insights

How to Convert PSD to HTML: Features and Steps

Miley on August 26, 2021

Nowadays, the process of converting PSD to HTML isn’t new in the technology area. This is a quick way to add interactivity to static content. You can design first in any popular image editing tool, then convert to HTML.

There are many approaches, including automated tools, self-coding, etc. The main thing is that you understand how to do this and what you need to pay attention to first of all dealing with templates.

What is a PSD template?

PSD template is a source code that is used for the layout of a full-fledged website. Such a sample contains the initial website’s elements size, layout, and design of all pages.

If you want to create a high-quality PSD template, adhere to the following:

Create each design element on a separate layer
Use psd or tiff formats to save the template drawing (they support the multilayer structure of images)
Make the background tones of all website pages uniform
Group all layers
Use fewer background images so as not to overload the web pages
Make minimal changes to the text, as its distortion will increase PSD template weight
Size the template at least 1000 pixels in width to avoid its display distortion in the browser
Use standard fonts

PSD into HTML: layouts steps

Now, when we get acquainted with PSD layout, let’s see what stages the process of converting a PSD layout into an HTML consists of.

Layout evaluation

After creating the layout, it’s passed to the designers. They determine its complexity, how it should work, whether the page contains additional dynamic elements, etc. When the assessment is completed, it’s time to deal with the next step.

Cutting design elements

There are some nuances at this step. If you want all the elements to look good, their size in bytes or kilobytes must be small. The best way to save images is jpg, gif, or png formats.

Layout

At this stage, each designer applies a different layout method. Someone makes it semantic or first creates a frame with the main blocks, then each in detail separately. For others, it’s best to build all at once in order.

Layout adjustment

There is such a layout type as a pixel layout that is executed exactly according to the initial sample.

It would be better if you check it against the layout, even when the customer doesn’t require an exact copy.

Page cross-browser compatibility testing

You need to test your website on how the site is displayed in browsers. The most popular ones worth checking out for are Chrome, Opera, Internet Explorer, Safari, Firefox.

Bug fixing

There are various reasons for bugs occurring – missing code elements, typos, ignorance of the features of browsers, etc. In any case, you should test your final product to ensure there are no bugs.

Things to take into consideration when converting a PSD to HTML

Layout types

Before converting PSD to HTML, you need to decide on the type of layout. The choice depends on the device you want to display – mobile, desktop, or tablet. There are 4 types of layouts:

Responsive – great for desktops (shifts a web page layout) and mobile
Flexible – designed for desktops and mobile devices (when minimizing the browser or reducing the screen size)
Fixed – suitable only for desktops, because layout elements won’t move when the window is resized
Mobile-only

Design components

Analyze the structure of a web page: a logo, a header with an image, a navigation menu, flash animation, etc., a body with text content, and an authorization module. If you need to convert a PSD based on Photoshop, then make sure that all components are put together in a specific order and won’t distort the page appearance.

Conclusion

So now, you have a general basic understanding of the PSD to HTML conversion process. The main thing here is the quick process. However, don’t forget about the key points that will help you avoid mistakes and get the quality basic HTML code of a simple web page.

Products

5 Business Tools You May Not Have Known Existed

Miley on August 26, 2021

Technology is constantly changing and evolving. Sometimes it’s hard to keep up with the latest trends or even know specifics you don’t know about technology. Read on to understand a list of 5 business tools that may not be on your aware but are powerful and useful for modern-day business owners.

GPS Tracker

If you need an affordable way to manage your property, business, or even your company vehicles, then you need to know about GPS tracking. Tracking provides the ability to monitor one’s activities, and it has safety implications. Some GPS tracker has advanced tracking technology that keeps you in touch with your property without interruption.

GPS tracking provides businesses with insight into their employees. Employees can record information regarding the company’s profitability, how well a product is selling, and whether the employees follow managerial decisions. This information will help an employer decide where to take the business to increase productivity and profitability.

Google Sheet

Google Sheets is a free and easy-to-use spreadsheet app from Google. It’s available on the web, an Android tablet app, and an iOS device app. With Google Sheets, you can create data tables to help analyze information or track trends over time.

You can also use it to make charts and graphs for visualizing your data in new ways. You can also share those files with others, so they don’t have to enter the same data themselves—thus saving time and preventing errors along the way. Google Sheet will benefit your businesses by allowing you to save money by using fewer staff members for manual labor, such as entering data into spreadsheets one row at a time; this enables more efficient management of data and information by a few people.

Slack

Slack is a chat app for teams. It’s perfect for businesses that want to keep in touch with their clients, partners, and employees. Slack has Windows, Mac OS X, Android, iOS (iPad/iPhone), and web browser versions.

With slack, you can receive notifications from your team members about what they’re working on or have done while keeping up-to-date using the instant message system. You can even share files easily without attaching them to an email or sending them as attachments. Slack benefits businesses by providing better communication between staff members and clients, leading to more efficient workflow.

Microsoft Office 365

Office 365 is an online subscription version of the Microsoft Office suite. It includes all the desktop applications you need to work with your employees from anywhere: Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote, and Outlook. Office 365 benefits businesses by saving them money; they do not have to buy software or handle its maintenance and don’t have to provide the bandwidth for employees to download a huge file.

Microsoft Office 365 benefits businesses by removing barriers between colleagues that would prevent them from communicating effectively. This way, your business will reduce costs by not sending business documents via email as attachments, which is time-consuming and costly. It will also help reduce costs by giving employees access to the tools they need from anywhere without purchasing individual licenses for Microsoft Office for each employee.

Trello

Trello is a free project management system that organizes your work into boards, lists, and cards. You can use it for anything from managing your household to running a company. With this tool, your employees will have the ability to collaborate on projects with their coworkers and share files easily without attaching them or sending them as attachments. The tool also makes it easy to add other users to your boards so that the whole team is working on the same thing together.

Trello also helps small business owners stay organized while juggling all their responsibilities. This way, you will reduce costs by giving employees access to tools they need from anywhere without purchasing individual licenses for Microsoft Office for each employee.

Closing Thoughts

Whether you want to manage your team’s projects, track a shipment or keep tabs on the ever-growing number of social media channels out there, these five business tools can help. With all these tools, you will work smarter and make time for what is most important in your business. Using these tools, you will also keep track of where you are in relation to what needs to be done and assist those who need direction on how they should move forward with their work.

Insights

Simple Ways Tech Can Help Automate Business Admin Processes

Miley on August 21, 2021

Automating business admin processes can have a number of benefits for organisations, including reducing resource required, saving money, opening up capacity to take on additional, value added projects, as well as reducing the change of human error. Automating processes saves both time and money, key to keep an organization profitable and successful.

Technological advances in the last few years have made automating processes much quicker, easier and cheaper, as well as simple to implement in organizations of any size. The automations can support with many different areas of the organization, and can be divided into core and support functions: core functions are those that generate income (i.e. the primary reason the business exists), and support functions are the ones that allow that core activity to happen, such as HR and finance functions.

Customer Service

A number of customer service processes can be automated without losing the human touch. In fact, automating the behind the scenes processes can free up more time for organizations to give their customers the personal, human touch.

Systems can be implemented to provide an accurate and quick service at the initial stage, increasing customer satisfaction. More sophisticated software will also identify how customers like to be contacted, and additional follow up systems can keep customers warm, maximising sales potential and return on investment.

Finance

Organizations can use smart finance systems to monitor transfers of funds, payments from customers and payments internals and to third party suppliers. This overview across all platforms, such as digital wallets, bank transfers, credit and debit cards, and checks, means that it is much easier to spot if things go wrong.

Quickbooks offers a range of options for businesses of any size to maximise their fraud prevention, thus minimising loss and insurance costs. By providing business with fraud-proof checks that offer protection against counterfeiting and tampering, they support with the other automated processes that limit the potential financial risks to organizations when dealing with multiple payment methods.

Management

By having automated systems in place to monitor time and attendance, leave, sickness and performance, managers are able to spend more time on value added activities with their teams. Not only are business costs better managed, a consistent approach is taken across the board to employee management, helping to boost morale.

Additionally, at all management levels, it becomes possible to view areas of concern, where things are working well, and guide strategy going forward to help grow the business, and KPIs can be set in line with corporate strategy across the board.

Increased Employee Productivity

By automating repetitive processes not only is human error eliminated, but processes can also happen faster, as variations in speed due to staff morale, sickness and so on no longer impact these processes. It also means that as these things happen faster, the support activities that go alongside these can happen more swiftly and with greater certainty. For example, automating payroll means that amendments, which would need to be manually entered can be done more quickly and with greater accuracy.

Staff retention

By investing in technology, organizations better equip their employees to be successful, which tends to lead to a happier workforce that is less likely to leave. Investing in technology also signals to employees that the organization is current and keeping up with the competition, instilling confidence and loyalty from employees. Technology also provides flexibility for home or remote working, allowing a more flexible approach to work, improving the all-important work-life balance.

Automation of certain processes can be hugely beneficial to organizations. Repetitive data-driven activities can be improved through the use of technology, eliminating human error and freeing up resource for other work. However, automation must not come at the expense of a tailored approach that supports all internal and external stakeholders.

Insights

Top Tips for Successful Digital Advertising

Miley on August 12, 2021

Using The Tools Available

Pay Per Click is PPC and Search Engine Optimization is SEO. Which will be best for you? It could be both. Usually, it will at least be one or the other. See, SEO applies even if you’re not specifically calibrating marketing for search engines. The way search engine algorithms works doesn’t care how or why you wrote content.

Because modern marketing must co-opt social media, there is a bit of a “system” in place. For example, if you’re on Facebook, and you just “share” something, there will be a limit to how “visible” it is. You might think this has to do with the ideological foundation of the statement, but not necessarily.

It seems outreach avenues like Facebook ads couldn’t compete if the field were entirely level. Test this for yourself. Make a post about something funny, make a post about something political, and make a post about some business pursuit you’re trying to build awareness around. Likely, the funny post will contend with the political post for prominence.

However, the post you made to advertise services or products will only get limited engagement. You will, though, see an ad to buy Facebook marketing for your “business” post. Accordingly, you can’t just trust in organic visibility on Facebook, and the same is true of YouTube. “Virality” isn’t as spontaneous as many would hope. In fact, on any social media avenue, relying on purely organic means of visibility likely won’t produce ROI.

ROI stands for Return On Investment. PPC and SEO can produce ROI, but they must be properly applied. With SEO, you want keywords, word choice, sentence size, paragraph structure, and imagery to align with known best practices. Said best practices shift as the “powers that be” intend.

To digitally advertise successfully, you must not only understand which avenues of outreach best match your business, but design associated content utilizing associated best practices such as using digital flyer, and those best practices change. With these things in mind, this writing will help you make the best choices for the digital marketing of your business.

MUST DO’S!

Personalize ads as much as possible – Drill down to what your prospects really want and need. Use messaging (their language) that will resonate with a specific problem – or personal interests like fitness – to grab and hold their attention.

Be creative! – If you want to catch the eye of prospects and customers and stand out from the competition, quit doing what everyone else is doing. Be bold and try different color schemes. Write headlines and copy that make people click on your ads. Like it or not, you must rise above the noise because ads are everywhere, and yours better be noticeable

Embrace data – Like it or not, data is a foundational piece to successful digital advertising. It doesn’t make sense to launch campaigns if you don’t understand the metrics, from exposure to visits, inquiries, leads, conversions, etc. See what patterns show up and adjust your plan and strategy accordingly.

Choose your platforms wisely – Focusing on one platform may not yield the best results, but focusing on too many produce unfavorable results. Learn where you target audience hangs out the most, and be on those platforms. Otherwise, you’ll waste your time, energy, and money.

Offer ungated content – The first impulse is to ‘gate’ content. However, decision-makers may not want to fill out another form and may go to your competitor who makes it easy for prospects and customers to get what they need and want. When reviewing your channels and funnel metrics, go outside of what looks successful because you may realize that you’ve been missing out on quality leads.

How to Use Google Analytics 4 Effectively – from Digital Marketing Consulting

The increasing importance of digital analytics tools needing to keep up to pace with changes in business and consumer behavior:

– Even the last standing bastions of brick and mortar are moving online and facing pressure to make sure their marketing budget is spent wisely.
– Major changes are seen in consumer behavior in the past two years, with mobile becoming the dominant method of doing research and shopping

Google is adapting to meet the needs of the current business environments and the people they serve. Hence, the launch of Google Analytics 4 came not just with a focus on helping businesses make better analytics-based decisions, but also with a focus on meeting consumer digital needs and their expectations of privacy.

Trends from Google’s data have shown that there have been significant shifts in the way consumers expect their online experience to be, as well as their perception of the way their data is being handled.

People are expecting their search intent to be understood by companies and at the same time, expect more transparency with how their data is used. These insights fueled GA4’s functionality which is to be a digital analytics tool that:

– Adapts to customers’ desire for privacy first
– Gives businesses a clearer picture of consumer behavior to help them adapt to their customers’ needs and gain long-term wins that improve the bottom line

Guide to Google Analytics 4 is here to help businesses ride the wave of change in their customers’ behavior and adapt to doing business post-pandemic. Here are a few quick points from Vidhya Srinivasan on how GA4 will help:

– Alerts on important trends where you need to take immediate action
– Predictive metrics to gauge the potential income from a specific customer group
– Google Ads integration
– App and web measurement in one platform
– Measurement that’s centered on the customer instead of by platform or device to gain a clearer picture of customers’ interaction with your business
– Simpler reports that will give you the ability to focus on specific parts of the customer journey
– Machine learning to help fill in the data gaps that come from the phasing out of cookies.

Development

Retail Test automation benefits that are generally neglected

Miley on August 11, 2021

One of the most influenced industries with digital transformations is none other than the retail industry. The overall reputation of a retail organization is at stake and customer experience is at high risk when it comes to online commerce. But have you ever thought about what retail has to do with software and test automation solution? Well, this makes sense. The importance of security testing either by manual or automation means is essential in order to prevent the high tech systems, software, applications, and websites from any malicious activity.

Developing, testing, deploying, and maintaining IT-based solutions that can provide today’s shoppers with a seamless customer experience has become a very critical requirement of this modern age. E-commerce websites need to be constantly transformed to meet the demands of a highly competitive market.

Many retailers are now heading towards online stores because they think of online stores as a big financial hit for their respective businesses, yet they are unaware that online stores cannot guarantee success because these are the platforms or applications that are designed and run by imperfect creatures called humans. But if a business is successful in implementing best software testing policies and practices either via partnering with third parties for testing purposes.

No doubt testing is essential but automation testing can bring wonders to your business if done accordingly. Various IT companies are providing automation testing services and selenium alternatives in this regard but you need to have an owl’s eye while deciding to partner with a third-party service provider. Because the more your application is safe, the more benefits you can reap.

Now let us direct you towards what automation has for retail businesses which many companies may neglect;

Cost-cutting and time-saving – Retailers of today, are under increasing pressure to innovate quickly and deploy reliable and effective digital solutions. Software testing must be repeated frequently during the development cycle to ensure quality. Each time the source gets updated, software testing must be repeated on all supported operating systems and hardware configurations. Repeating these tests manually demands heavy costs and long durations as well.

However, test automation drastically reduces the time and therefore results in relatively low costs.

Enhanced precision – Even most serious testers make mistakes in dull and boring manual testing. Each time test automation is executed, it performs exactly the same steps and records detailed results.

Testers freed from repeated manual testing have more time to create new test automation software scripts. For retailers, this means a few mistakes, better customer experience, and valuable brand protection, and potential sales growth.

Deployment of seamless omnichannel – To improve the quality of software, the depth and scope of test scripts can be raised via automation testing. With the help of it, one can have an inside picture of the application and can also view the memory contents, data tables, file contents, and internal program status for the purpose of determining if the product is working as it was expected or not.

Improved Security

Mobile payment solutions, POS applications, and credit card mobile applications make retail companies easily exploitable to security threats. Hence, testers must pay attention to the performance analysis, authentication, and encryption of application to prevent these threats. Testers introduce a testing framework to increase security checks and used automated testing for this purpose.

Integration across platforms and different parties

A successful digital retail system demands integration between different parties and across various platforms. It is very challenging for testers to integrate several devices, applications, and networks. These challenges can vary from managing promotions on digital and physical platforms.

Enabling Quick Feedback

In the verification phase of any software project, automated testing is essential. It heavily improves the communication between developers, designers, and product merchants, and leaves room for immediate resolution of potential failures, thereby improving the efficiency and effectiveness of the development team.

Conclusion

With the transformation in the digital world, the retail business has become too complicated. Every feature of the digital system or software application requires careful and rigorous testing. That’s why automation testing has a prominent and significant role. Automation aids in the improvement of user experience reduces threats and security vulnerabilities and enables high-quality software development to gain as much as possible from the retail sector. There is an utmost need to utilize automated testing as the top-notch preferred method to defeat the challenges faced by testers. It can be absolutely concluded that automation testing has revived the retail sector and is of great importance for testers to help them to achieve their objectives without any hassle of heavy investments.

Products

How Can Microsoft Office 365 Power Your Business

Miley on July 29, 2021

Businesses had an eventful year in 2020. In the face of change and disruptions, companies that had a strong digital infrastructure not only survived the year but many also soared exponentially. Microsoft Office 365 led the way by bolstering the backend ecosystems of enterprises and enabling them to facilitate remote work environments.

If you haven’t yet adopted the comprehensive and scalable suite of Microsoft Office 365 services, now’s a good time to do so. Here’s how Microsoft is ushering the next generation of business productivity:

Collaboration

Collaboration has always been a critical aspect of businesses and Microsoft Office 365 has taken the challenges head-on. Microsoft SharePoint along with OneDrive and Exchange create a seamless ecosystem that’s always accessible in the cloud. Businesses can use SharePoint to build an intranet of different parties, delegate tasks, stay on top of updates, and handle file sharing and email communications. The web-based versions of classic apps like Word, Excel, and PowerPoint empower teammates to collaborate in real-time and share documents to work in real-time with third-party teams.

Traditionally known for their classic desktop installed versions, Microsoft 365 today gives you the freedom to tweak the services however you want and access them from wherever you want.

Communication

With remote work finding a strong foothold in business operations, collaboration is not the only issue anymore. The lack of physical presence in an office makes efficient communication a key factor in success. Microsoft has led the remote communication revolution during the pandemic with Teams. With the hardest days now behind them, businesses look to leverage the true power of Microsoft Teams to redefine their internal communication structure.

Microsoft Teams offers a streamlined UI for users to navigate elements quickly. The chat groups have granular threads, powerful search control, cross-channel communications, OneDrive, SharePoint, Calendar, and popular third-party integrations. In terms of calling, features like breakout rooms, data loss prevention, dynamic view, intelligent capture, and Microsoft Whiteboard support make it the most powerful collaborative tool for remote teams.

Security

With the rising case of cybercrimes in virtual workplaces, security has become a cause for concern for businesses. Microsoft has rolled out a state-of-the-art enterprise solution that’s end-to-end secure. All the files being uploaded in the OneDrive cloud are encrypted and the security center gives you a detailed analysis of security status so that you can control the activities on a granular level. Administrators can also activate multi factor-authentications with the Azure Active Directory Admin Center and the Authenticator app. Microsoft regularly pushes out security patches to keep the systems secure for all businesses.

Flexibility

At the end of the day, Microsoft Office 365 gives you peace of mind. Thanks to a host of plans, ranging from Microsoft 365 Business Basic to Microsoft 365 E5, you can pay only for the services your business needs and not for additional features you don’t need.

With each new week, Microsoft is rolling out new features and services that aim to make business operations simpler, seamless and entertaining. To know more about how you can make Microsoft Office 365 work for your business, get in touch with certified Microsoft partners today!

Development

How to Setup and Use a VPN in Windows 10

Miley on July 21, 2021

Microsoft Windows operating system has evolved a lot with lots of privacy and security features. One of them is the inbuilt VPN client that offers advanced privacy protection. Before subscribing to a VPN service, it is better to try out the free VPN for Windows that comes inbuilt with the OS. Here in this article, you’ll explore, why and how to use a VPN client.

What is a VPN?

A Virtual Private Network (VPN) is an extended private network that connects to a public network and allows the user to connect to the internet. You can send and receive data across any public or shared networks with secured encryption.

Benefits of Using a VPN

There are several benefits of using a VPN and most of them are related to enhanced privacy and security. Here is why you should configure a VPN for Windows.

Enhanced Security on Public Networks: VPN offers additional security on public Wi-Fi connections or hotspots. If you travel a lot and connect to free Wi-Fi at airports, coffee shops, or restaurants, your confidential information can be compromised. Your online activity, browsing history, banking password and more can be accessed by someone.

Hides Your Data from ISP: When you connect to your private connection or to your home network, your ISP knows everything about your internet activity. Hide your interest, activity, data, from your ISP as it can always be accessed by your ISP.

Avoid Apps Tracking Data: There are several apps that track your personal interest, activity, location, browsing history, etc. A VPN works as a shield to prevent this confidential information to be tracked by different apps installed on your computer.

Helps you Go Anonymous: A VPN not only hides your IP Address, Subnet Mask, DNS but also helps you go anonymous by changing your location and masking your PC information.

Keeps Cybercriminals Out: VON enables advanced security and privacy features and keeps hackers and cybercriminals out of your network.

Allows Access on Unlimited Streaming: There are country-specific limitations on different streaming websites like Amazon Prime, Netflix, Disney+, BBC iPlayer, Hulu, YouTube, and others.

How to Set up a VPN on Windows

Windows inbuilt utility can help you set up a VPN however you always need a VPN client or service to configure. A free VPN for Windows may not offer you a lot of security features or services however if you consider connecting to the best VPN for Windows 10, you can add up additional security to your device. Alternatively, you can also check out the Microsoft Store for a free VPN for Windows.

Step 1. Check for the Best Free VPN for Windows on Microsoft Store.

Step 2. Go to the VPN provider’s website and collect the connection settings.

Step 3. Press (Win + I) to get into System Settings and go to Network & Internet.

Step 4. Click on the VPN tab in the left-hand side panel.

Step 5. Toggle ON the ‘Allow VPN over metered networks’ & ‘Allow VPN while roaming’ options.

Step 6. Click on the + Plus sign for ‘Add a VPN connection’ on the top of the Settings page.

Step 7. Enter all the required fields like VPN provider, Connection Name, Server Name, VPN Type, etc.

Step 8. Click on the Save button once done to save settings. If your company has provided you with network settings, you can enter that or edit using the Advanced option.

Connect to a VPN

If you have configured the VPN, now it’s time to figure out how to use a VPN. Connecting to a VPN is just a toggle key away!

Step 1. Once you have configured a VPN client, it will list up in the available networks list. Click on the Wi-Fi icon or the network icon at the right bottom on the Task Bar.

Step 2. Click on the configured VPN client to connect. Click on the Connect button next to it.

Step 3. You can also click on the Notification button at the right-bottom and click on VPN. It will take you back to the VPN settings page to configure or select the VPN to use.

Configure the Best VPN for Windows 10

We have tested, compared and reviewed dozens of the best VPN clients available in 2021 and ranked Systweak VPN as the best VPN service based on multiple parameters.

Systweak VPN

Number of Servers: 4,500+

Max Connections: Unlimited

OS Supported: Windows All Versions

Price: $9.95/Monthly or $5.95/Yearly

Moneyback Guarantee: 30-days

Download Link: Get it Here

24/7 support: Yes

Systweak VPN is a great tool to keep you connected through a secured tunnel and offer AES-256-bit military-grade encryption for high-end security. Its biggest USP is its vast coverage throughout the globe that never let the connection drop or gets weak. You can connect through 4500 plus network servers in over 200 plus locations in 53 plus countries worldwide.

Systweak VPN hides your IP, DNS, Server, device details, and makes you go anonymous. You can bypass ISP throttling, censorship to different websites, bypass global content, maintains a no-logs policy, opens restricted websites, Kill Switch & DNS leak protection, and more features. You can connect to Open VPN & Internet Key Exchange Version 2 (IKev2) to keep your IP address masked all the time.

Summing Up

If you were not aware of how to set up a VPN or how to use a VPN, this article is a summary of the manual methods to configure a free VPN for Windows and use the best VPN for Windows 10 in 2021. It is always safe to use VPN all the time to hide your identity, privacy and enhance security measures. VPN for Windows is a necessary utility to keep your confidentiality private!