How Video-on-demand Industry Will Be Like in the Next 5 Years?

Miley on November 15, 2019

Do you remember when was the last time you tuned in to your cable TV to watch a random series? If you don’t remember, do not worry, you are not alone. Soon the number of people owning a TV subscription will rapidly decline, thanks to video-on-demand.

Currently, over 70% of the young population watches TV shows and movies on the Internet. This clearly shows how important it has become for viewers to have control of what they watch when they watch, and how they watch it. This is the evolution of TV and the current scenario as we head into 2020. The Internet and modern technology have opened the door to video-on-demand.

However, have you ever wondered how the video-on-demand business will look like in the next 5 years? Let’s look into some future predictions on how video-on-demand business will look like in the future.

The era of game streaming

The majority of Internet users worldwide are familiar with Netflix and its video streaming offerings. In fact, it is obvious that Netflix is a current synonym for video-on-demand in general. That is the case of entertainment. When it comes to online video games, this type of entertainment has only started to evolve towards subscription-based services.

However, the industry holds huge potential for a “Netflix for video games”. With the online gaming industry growing more rapidly than other tech sectors, it is clear that big changes are going to be brought by the shift of gaming to the cloud. If you are thinking about how to start a streaming service like Netflix, focus on the gaming industry as the era of online gaming is already here.

The new cinema

Video-on-demand platforms are dramatically changing how we consume entertainment. It gives us enormous choices, the ability to watch movies in the comfort of our home provides us with the pleasure of binge-watching and whatnot. VOD services like Netflix are giving us many options to explore like some great originals and exclusive series. If you want to build your own Netflix, ensure that you offer a new viewing experience for your audience by offering unique content that is worth spending time on.

However, going to the movie theatre to watch a film along with friends and family is a personalized experience greater than the film itself. Nevertheless, what will happen if video-on-demand services offer the same experience right in the comfort of your own homes? That is what the next point is all about- Co-viewing?

Co-viewing for all

The future of on-demand video will be co-viewing where people will be watching, TV series, movies, and sports events remotely with their bunch of favorite people. The initiatives for the same have already begun. For example, a low-cost streaming platform Philo facilitates co-viewing to allow viewers to watch movies and shows together in real-time.

Philo offers this feature through synchronization technology where users can share links to invite their friends to watch shows with them. Nevertheless, it is not the very first initiative. YouTube has already launched its own experimental co-viewing app called Uptime. Facebook is also working on the same feature to bring in co-viewing for all. If you are looking for different ways on how to start your own streaming service, co-watching is one of the excellent features to add to your service.

Immersive branded experiences

Screen-based interactions are changing into connected experiences in our everyday lives. YouTube has already started offering immersive branded experiences in-display ads. Augmented reality is a powerful tool for brands to narrate richer and engaging stories about their products to customers. YouTube has introduced AR beauty try that allows users to virtually try on makeup while watching YouTubers for product reviews, tips, and more.

All credit goes to AR technology and machine learning developments; it provides virtual product samples that suit all types of skin tones. The feature is made available through Famebit; Google’s own branded content platform. MAC Cosmetics is the first brand to collaborate with FameBit’s beauty to try on campaign initiative.

With that said, 360-degree experiences to display ads will rule the industry in the next 5 years. The display format Swirl that allows zooming in, rotating, playing an animation, etc. will become a standard format in the coming days.

Accurate analysis

The major benefit of video-on-demand services is that it offers real-time data on who watches the content, how they watch it, their feedback and a lot more. In the next 5 years, the accuracy of analytics will be more precise. Businesses will gain better insights about identifying their niche audience, their behavior, preferences, mobile viewing, viewing trends, etc. with powerful analytical tools and features. The right analysis of user data also makes it possible to optimize ads in a way ultimately to win them over as customers.

Video-on-demand services will continue to rise

Fast forward to the next 5 years, you will see more video-on-demand services launching in the market. In short, there will be more rivals to services like Netflix and YouTube. As you might already know, Disney and Apple are all set to launch their video-on-demand platforms to grow equivalent to Netflix. With more corporates focusing on how to start a business like Netflix, the competition will be fierce in the next few years. The challenge is not just for existing video-on-demand platforms, but from traditional cable TV networks as well, to survive in this changing landscape of modern technology.

Wrapping up

The digital space is undergoing a revolutionary transformation and so is the entertainment space. The video-on-demand industry is still in its evolution phase and has a long way to go. In the next 5 years, we will see the VOD platform adopting future technologies like AR and VR reshaping the entertainment industry.

With the rise of VOD services, the viewing patterns and expectations of viewers have changed and it will continue to change in the next 5 years as well. Though the VOD trend has increased cord-cutting, businesses have to offer more in terms of service and values to establish themselves in the market. With competition becoming fiercer as years pass by, there will be a lot more coming in terms of user experience.

Let’s tune in for the upcoming changes that make it easier to satiate our entertainment requirements online.

Insights

What is Big Data and Why it is Important?

Miley on November 14, 2019

While there are many things important to businesses, few are more important than data. Data can help businesses make a ton of important business decisions. These can ultimately save the company a lot of time, money and hard work. This data includes everything from personal information, customer behavior, gender, age, and many others. Think about the wasted opportunity that passes by you when you ignore these things. Data fluency has become an important asset for companies. Businesses, from small enterprises to business conglomerates, should look into hiring employees with a data science background or re-training their current employees. With a team of data scientists, you can navigate through company information and use it to create solutions to existing problems.

As you could imagine, there is a ton of data out there and the industry is only going to get larger and more important. In fact, experts believe that by 2025, there will be 463 exabytes of data created each and every day. For reference, that is 463 billion gigabytes of data, created daily. This shows just how much the data space is evolving and how important it has become.

One area of the data space that has been getting a lot of buzzes recently is big data. Unfortunately, the term “big data” can be a tad confusing at times. Thankfully, we’re here to help.

What is Big Data?

Big data is a definition that is hard to pin down. Several experts and publications have a different idea of what big data actually means. Generally, big data is a term for incredibly large, varied and complex sets of data.

Also, many follow the “3Vs” model for big data, which was defined by Gartner. It says that big data is data that is high in volume, velocity, and variety. In order to analyze these incredibly large sets of data and get useful information, it often requires robust, innovative and potentially expensive methods of information processing.

In the past, managing a few pieces of data was easy as most companies didn’t use robust data analytics and only tracked or held certain types of information. But in the modern-day, this has changed in a big way. Companies need advanced methods to analyze this data and extract helpful information from it. A software like BiG EVAL with high practical relevance will manage quality big data so the companies can profit most out of it.

Why is it Important?

So why is big data important? Well, in simple terms, big data helps companies gain a competitive advantage and make better decisions. The more stats, analytics, and data you have to help with business-related choices, the better those choices will likely turn out for you. Big data can help businesses choose which marketing strategy to use, which product to promote, how to improve their customer service and literally hundreds of other things.

Using and analyzing big data can also help make customers happier, deliver higher profits and generally have a more efficient company. Without big data and the method and processes to analyze it, businesses simply wouldn’t have as much at their disposal to help them make good decisions.

If you continue reading below, you will notice several high-quality resources focused on helping you learn more about big data. These resources will help teach you all you need to know about big data and the value it can bring to your company. Each resource provides a wealth of helpful information so be sure to check them all out!

This Is Why You Should Hire The Best Web Developers For Your Web Development Project

Miley on November 13, 2019

Mobile app and web developers are always ready to help new businesses grow and expand. They offer various customized services directed towards business support and development. Website development is the most popular service that you can get from web developers. Nevertheless, some business owners still practice the brick and mortar business. They seem not to understand the advantages of having a website. So, some of the advantages will be discussed.

Advantages of website development

1. To improve advertising

Having a website will help you to improve your advertising. By placing your website address on printed and/or promotional materials, you can attract more customers. Anybody that sees an e-mail address on the material will most likely search for that website. So, the more people view your website, the more your chances of converting them to your customers.

2. A website can attract direct customers

Top mobile app and web developers from top web development companies know how to optimize keywords for SEO so that your website can generate a lot of traffic from search engines. The benefit of this service is to increase your conversion rate. What this basically means is that as more people go to search engines to search for businesses that are similar to yours, if you have a website that has been optimized with researched keywords, your website will be among the search results. However, without a website, nobody will find you on the internet.

3. To improve productivity

When you have a website, most of the information that people may need will be available there. So, you have no need to start explaining about every product to every potential customer. This, in turn, gives you more time to concentrate and focus on more productive aspects of your business. Nevertheless, this does not mean that people will not make inquiries. You will always have inquiries because it is part of a business- without an effective communication process between you and your customers, your business may become shaky.

4. A website can serve as your information channel

When there is a new development, your website is the best place to go to; that is what you need to update. Let us say that you are offering a discount on any product, your customers and potential customers will get to know when they visit your website. You may also have new products that you want to advertise to your customers, your website is equally the best place to do so.

5. You can integrate your social networking platforms to your website

If you are already advertising your products on social media platforms, that’s a good development. However, you can achieve a much better result when a web and mobile app developer helps with social media marketing techniques. More so, when you have a website, you can integrate your social media accounts to your website to provide your customers and potential customers with more options and channels to reach you. This creates some level of trust and customer satisfaction for them.

6. A website can help to expand your business

If you want to expand your business then you need to go beyond that brick and mortar store by adopting modern business models or techniques. Website development and social media marketing are two cost-effective methods of marketing. However, you may include a mobile app to aid brand building. Nonetheless, the internet has made it possible to put your business before millions of people via your website. So, you can now do business with people from other countries, which is one of the ideas of IT specialists and what they intend to achieve with communication and the management of information systems. Moreover, top IT software solutions providers are now developing bitcoin and supporting the blockchain industry, and thus can be of great help should you plan on adopting bitcoin as a means of payment.

7. It creates a strong online presence

A combination of all the marketing techniques mentioned will help to create a strong online presence. Although, adopting all may make you break the bank, so you can just design a website and support it with either e-mail marketing or social media marketing. All the same, that method alone will still make it possible to enjoy an online presence.

8. You can build an e-mail list if you have a website

If you need to prepare an e-mail list for e-mail marketing, you can make people subscribe to newsletters, this way you can automate the collection of their e-mail addresses for your e-mail list. Also, the advantage of using an e-mail marketing technique is that you can advertise your products to your target audience.

9. A website can help you to save printing costs

A website is not just your virtual billboard, it is also your online catalog. So, you do not have to spend additional money on printing brochures, shirt printing or catalogs like it used to be in the past. The internet has helped to bridge the gap between business owners and their clients or customers.

Finally, with all that was discussed, you should be able to understand the role of web and mobile app developers in business growth and expansion. Now, you can go ahead and set up that business you have in mind, but remember to hire only reputable web developers if you want your business to enjoy some business support.

Development Insights Martech SaaS

Essential Points To Consider For A Better Mobile User Experience

Miley on November 13, 2019

Presently, a mobile phone has become a precious possession. They are not only used to make and receive calls but also to write important emails, share content on social networks, entertain us with an interactive game, read the news, etc.

This growing need to be in front of our mobile devices makes many app development companies and designers begin to pay more attention to mobile web design, adaptive design and of course, mobile applications. For this reason, in this article, we mention some essential tips that can do a lot for the user experience on mobile devices.

Consider creating an application

The first step in being able to have an online presence is to create a website. If you already have it, you must ensure that this site is optimized for mobile devices. There is a growing number of people accessing the internet from their mobile devices, even Google has begun to take this factor into account in the positioning of search results. But it is not enough to have a website optimized for mobile phones, this is only the first step to create an online presence.

Social networks are an essential part of a plan to attract more customers. In these social networks, brands share content such as promotions or special discounts, images and phrases related to the brand and other content that strengthens the link between a customer and the brand. The success of social networks is also partly because each one of them has mobile applications designed by app development companies.

The reason why many social networks have versions of their site optimized for mobile devices and a mobile application is due to the number of people who are part of their target audience. Each of these people will have different preferences, some of them will not hesitate to install the mobile application, while others may be content to occasionally access the mobile version from their smartphones.

The “active” nature of an application demands more interaction from the users. If users frequently access your site either because you offer interesting content, then they will have no problem downloading your app designed by top app development companies.

The main benefits of an app translate into greater customer loyalty, greater interaction with the brand and greater possibilities to attract customers. You can offer your customers the news, discounts and new products. You can send information continuously to your customers and if this information is of interest to them, it is easier for you to form a more personal link between your customers and your brand.

Research your target audience before starting the design

Internet marketing is the future. Perhaps, the best part of this type of marketing is that it does not cost much money unlike making an ad on television or radio. Despite the ease that the internet gives us today to carry out a marketing campaign, it may not give the result we expect. Due to the great competition that exists on the internet and people’s expectations, we must know our target audience very well.

Conducting an in-depth study of the target audience is the first step to create an effective marketing strategy. With this information, we can make a more specific and user-centered design, thus offering a different experience from the competition. In this aspect, it is important to understand the limitations we have when designing for mobile. It is important to remember that both the experience of computers and mobile devices should be equally good.

Analyze other mobile applications

Currently, there are a lot of mobile applications. In both Google Play and the App Store, there are millions of applications. With this high number of apps and app development companies, it is quite obvious that users have various options to choose from. In the end, the application that is easier to use and offers a better user experience will be successful.

Before defining the interface of your application or even if you don’t know how to start, you can start by reviewing successful mobile apps. Study why they have succeeded. This may be the first step in identifying what makes a successful application different from the rest.

Evaluate your application statistics

Evaluating and analyzing the statistics of your website or mobile application is essential to identify possible problems and adapt your marketing strategy. Thanks to free services such as Google Analytics, you can verify the number of people who visit your site and from what device they do it. However, this information is not enough, you should also identify how many times a day they enter, the estimated time of each session, the most visited pages, etc.

This information allows you to determine if the objectives you have set in principle are being met and in a certain way, it allows you to verify if your application is succeeding or not and what possible improvements can be made in the future.

So, it is not only important to verify the most remarkable data at a glance, but also other types of data that can give you clues about consumption habits, about the parts of your application that are successful, about the parts that need to be improved, on the problems that exist and based on that analysis offer a series of possible solutions.

Put yourself in the place of your users

This is great advice for top software companies and firms creating their first mobile application. You are likely to be a user of some application, so to some extent, you understand what a good application should have. Each group is different and a lot of the design decisions depend on the research you have done on your target audience. But putting yourself in the place of your users is an excellent practice to achieve a usable mobile application. That way, you avoid unnecessary advertising that obstructs the screens or the use of some function of your application.

Insights

How to Hire An App Developer

Miley on November 13, 2019

Finding an application programmer isn’t that difficult these days, it’s finding just the best one for your company that can be complicated.

As somebody who has built an app development company as well as collaborated with clients throughout sectors on their applications, I can inform you that locating the appropriate companion is more important than conserving a couple of hundred or thousand dollars in constructing your product. The best partner can include value in even more means than simply advancement, which will certainly aid you to make the best use of earnings for your app business.

Allow’s get going with what you need to look for in an application programmer to make the appropriate decision for your application organisation.

Seek a programmer that thinks about your company, not just the advancement.

An excellent growth business ought to have the ability to not only direct you with the procedure of growth, however likewise provide you imaginative input based upon their experience with comparable apps.The good ones recognize what jobs and also what doesn’t on the app shop due to the fact that they’ve worked with lots of clients.

Analyze their portfolio.

A great developer has to also have exceptional U/UX skills. When looking at their profile, watch out for attractive looking applications with exceptional user interfaces. Sixty percent of your application is about how an individual connects with it.

Inspect client recommendations.

Search for designers that will conveniently extend client contact details so that you can get actual responses on their company.

Pick someone you can construct a relationship with.

Mobile app growth is not a one-time activity. Apps need to go with numerous advancements and also cycles based on constant customer responses. Try to find a designer that will certainly stick to you via the lifecycle of the item as well as not abandon ship once the first development is done and the app is hosted.

Don’t let rate drive you.

Do not, as well as I repeat, do not choose a growth partner based upon an estimate. You need a fantastic product, not the least expensive product.

Every start-up or entrepreneur has a budget. However commonly the most affordable cost choice can turn out to be more expensive in the future, if, say, for example, it’s essential to renovate the app with another programmer because it really did not turn out as anticipated.

Think of the entire plan, not just the coding.

Building an app is not almost coding. It’s likewise concerning developing a functional design as well as thinking about the individual experience. Do not select independent app developers unless you currently have access to a team that will certainly do the rest of the features such as layout, usability, and screening.

Make design a leading concern.

Just how a web site or an application looks is as crucial as just how it works. Go an action additionally as well as take a look at partners that can add worth to the used facet of your web site or mobile app, which will certainly specify how individuals engage with your product.

Concentrate on the appropriate aspects of your business and you’ll have a far better shot at choosing the ideal app programmer. It’s an essential decision. The awareness of your vision frequents your designer’s hands. Pick wisely.

Development Insights Martech Products SaaS

Creating Push Notifications That Improve The User Experience

Miley on November 12, 2019

Do you really know what push notification means?

Push notifications are messages that are sent through the server of a mobile app to notify about news, offers or updates. Every type of business always has some news or last-minute information that it wants to share with its customers. Before now, reaching all your audience takes time and was complicated. Thanks to the technological advancement that has taken place in recent years, we no longer have to wait for the courier company to deliver the correspondence, or for our commercials to call all customers to comment on the offers. Today we have the famous Push Notifications!

Push notifications can be a very effective communication channel for your business, since, unlike emails, which can often be blocked by anti-spam filters, they can speak directly with the users through their most personal device.

We are all attracted to our mobile devices and this becomes something that we hardly manage to control. The impulse to look at it appears especially when we receive a push notification. However, it should be noted that our curiosity continues to insist on looking at our mobile phones, even without receiving any notification.

Given this change in behavior and receiving information, brands must learn to take advantage of the enormous potential that communication using mobile app offers. However, special care must be taken, since no one likes to receive notification that adds no value. Brands can take advantage of this marketing channel in several ways, including to:

Promote and advertise products and services
Increase sales and brand awareness
Improve the experience with the brand and ensure loyalty
Turn app users into loyal customers

Currently, people, having access to the internet from their mobile devices receive numerous notifications not only from their social networks and applications but also from the system itself. This, as expected, becomes frustrating for users as there is no way of knowing if that notification is of importance to them unless they review it.

However, as app developers, you know that notifications are necessary, not only to report critical errors or new available versions, but they can also be used as a form of marketing. If you deliver the correct information at the right time, your users will develop a link with your application and that way, the user experience will be improved.

We list 5 points to keep in mind to improve your notifications and therefore the user experience.

1. Importance

Before designing notifications, you should ask yourself if it is really necessary. Previously, we have said that keeping the user informed is essential to improve their experience with your application. But many times the user does not need to know, that is, many times the notifications are purely informative and there is no action that the user can take. On the other hand, if these are critical errors of application performance that could result in loss of data and that depends on some user action, in that case, notifications are necessary.

2. Relevance

The best form to determine the relevance of your push notification is to analyze user information. When designing notifications, pay special attention to the behavior patterns of your users, any other type of information about your target audience will help you at this stage.

Designing relevant notifications also requires you to be timely and those notifications are sent at times when the user is less likely to ignore them.

3. Customization

It is a good idea to give users some control over the notifications they want to see. This is especially useful if you don’t have enough information about your target audience and you don’t know which notification might be relevant to your users. In a while, you can see which notifications your users consider more useful and timely and which not.

The option to customize notifications also generates user satisfaction, since they will never see a notification they don’t want. This will greatly improve the user experience which is important in every interface.

4. Clear and understandable message

Regardless of the type of content of your notification, be sure to use a language that the user understands. The message must be clear, concise and completely understandable. Remember that notifications are just one more part of your image as a brand or company, so you must take into account the communication tone, and above all, be creative.

5. Effective delivery

There are many ways to send notifications: by text message, by email, pop-up windows, etc. To determine which delivery method is appropriate for your notifications, it is important to differentiate two types of interaction: “Product to user notifications” and “user to user notifications”. Depending on the purpose of your application, these notifications have different levels of priority. For example, a Facebook user would be more interested in seeing their notifications about the photos they have been tagged in than seeing a notification about a survey.

You should contact app developers for animated, personalized, interactive and geolocated images push notification through your application. It has become the most efficient digital channel for your communications and helps you improve customer loyalty and conversion. App developers can create push notification service for your application and website that integrates with all major CRM and CMS platforms.

Improve the loyalty, retention, and conversion of your users and increase the value of your brand, especially before your brand with strategy well suited to ensure that you use notifications that improve user experience.

Author Bio

Ricky Brown is an energetic content strategist and marketer at App Development Companies, the platform that helps you to find best IT Partner for your app, web and software requirements across the globe.

Insights Products SaaS

How To Perform Test Order On Shopify

Miley on November 8, 2019

Do you want to make sure that your order settings are correct or not?

Say no more!

There are a lot of situations when people get issues with their orders on Shopify. The sole reason for these problems is the lack of testing and pre-planning. A good Shopify store needs to make sure that the process of checking out and other order settings are working well.

A Shopify test order can certainly help you with this. With it, you can check various things such as inventory, shipping, taxes, notifications, etc.

Moreover, you will not be charged even a penny to make a test order. Therefore, it is recommended for every shop owner to make at least one test order before setting up the store, or at the time when you make some changes in the payment system.

You can use these three ways to make a Shopify test order:
Using bogus gateway by Shopify to make a pseudo transaction
Placing an actual order and canceling it afterward immediately

Using Shopify payments

To learn how to set up configurations for testing orders using Shopify payments, refer to this article.

Let us have a look at the first method in a detailed manner:

Placing a test order with bogus transaction

The bogus gateway provided by Shopify can be utilized for simulating a transaction in it. It acts as a payment provider and with the help of this; any store can be used for test order.

Moreover, all the orders will be treated as test orders when the bogus gateway is settled up.

Note that you are still required to provide the payment information in order to checkout. The information details are provided in the latter part of this post.

Here are the necessary steps that are required for setting up the Shopify test order:

1. First off, visit the settings panel in your Shopify admin dashboard and then navigate to the option that says “Payment providers”.

2. Make sure that you deactivate any credit card service that you’ve enabled. Also, deactivate the Shopify payments service and then confirm the action through a prompt.

3. This should provide you an option that says “accept credit cards”. Navigate to add a provider button in that section.

4. From there you are required to navigate to the section that says “third party credit card provider” and then you need to open the drop-down menu of providers.

5. Then you have to select the category that says “others” under the drop-down of providers section. There you will see the bogus gateway option, select it.

6. Then just click on the continue button followed by the activate button.

7. Then just visit your store and make an order as a customer. At the time of checkout, you are required to put credit card details. The fun thing is that these details act as the controller of the simulation. To know-how, keep reading.

The details of the credit card

The first field is the name field where you are required to enter a bogus gateway as the value.

Next up is the number of credit cards and that is where the real fun part comes. Here are the different inputs that show a different output every time you enter them:

If you will enter 1 as the input then the simulation will be for a successful transaction.
If you will enter 2 then it will land you to a failed transaction.
Upon entering 3 as the input, there will be a unique error that will indicate that the problem exists due to the provider.

Rest all the details can be put random.

Conclusion

So that was all about Shopify bogus orders. If you are looking for an online Shopify store builder, then Liquidblox certainly fits the bill.

Development Insights Martech SaaS

5 Helpful Tools for Software Development Startups

Miley on November 6, 2019

You have a great idea, drive, and you’re ready to get your feet wet with a startup. But where do you begin? And how are you going to figure out how to run all the complex areas of a business?

Trying to get a company off the ground can be overwhelming. And keeping costs low while making sure you have all of your operational tools in line can be a challenge.

Fortunately, there are a number of tools to assist you in getting your startup off and running. From financials to marketing, creating a virtual team of tools will give you a well-rounded business plan. Here are 5 that are worth checking out.

1. Track Tasks with Asana

Created by two Facebook founders, there is a reason Asana is used by over 70,000 companies worldwide. The user-friendly, social media-style format and intuitive tools are essential in staying organized. It’s a great tool for teams to track and collaborate who is doing what and when. It is essential to communicating and delegating among your team.

Like a virtual project manager, Asana makes large projects more manageable. Bigger projects can be easily broken into smaller tasks. Assigning and transferring tasks among employees is easy and convenient. Timelines and milestones can be created to manage deadlines. The activity feed, to-do list, and reminders will keep employees on track.

Asana can be used for communication and meeting planning. You can make managing schedules easier with Asana’s calendar tool. With everything from marketing tools to sales tracking, Asana is the well-rounded tool your startup needs to function efficiently.

The basic version is free but is limited in features. Higher priced plans are reasonable in cost but include access to more features and greater customization. A free trial is available so you can check it out before committing.

2. Manage Your Finances with Wave

One of the most intimidating tasks in starting a business is managing the financials. Especially if you don’t have any background in accounting or banking. Wave is a reasonably priced option to take the guesswork out of the large variety of financial tasks involved with running a business.

Wave’s payroll system can manage internal financial needs like direct deposit. Employees have access to tools for budgeting, investments, and other personal finance needs.

Wave can also be used for billing with customizable invoice templates. Sales tax can be added easily, and the generated invoices can be easily mailed to customers. Customers then have the option to pay their invoice by credit card.

The reconciliation tool gives businesses the ability to connect their bank, PayPal, and other financial accounts. Receipts can be recorded in the system, and transactions can be easily categorized. This combination of features makes generating accounting reports quick and efficient.

Wave is incredibly affordable. The accounting, invoicing, and receipt features are free. Each credit card and ACH transaction is charged a service fee. Payroll features have a monthly subscription cost with a per-employee fee.

3. Using Mailchimp for Marketing

Letting customers know that you exist is a huge hurdle in the startup world. Get the word out about your company using Mailchimp. Design and send your company’s emails from this easy to use program. The program allows you to create eye-catching, professional-looking emails with little to no design experience.

Priced reasonably, the company even has a free version of the program available. This option has a 10,000 email per month sending limit and access to basic email templates. Still, it may be enough to meet the needs of a start-up at no cost.

The paid versions gain you access to great features. Additional email templates are available for customizing messages. The plan also includes chat and email support. The ability to target on social media is a valuable feature of the paid plans.

Not ready for the commitment? Mailchimp offers a pay as you go option. Credits can be purchased, then applied to your communications individually. This is a great option for a startup that’s not emailing a ton yet.

4. Handling HR with Recruiterflow

Good employees can be tough to find. Finding and attracting high-quality applicants can be challenging, especially when trying to avoid the costs associated with agencies. Simplify your recruiting process and keep costs low with Recruiterflow. The simple to use interface makes the hiring process more efficient, and the low cost makes it an attractive option.

Recruiterflow makes it easy for you to post job openings and track their engagement. It also stores easily-searchable resumes to keep a candidate database. You can quickly screen applicants by qualifications and reach out to candidates. Interview instructions, as well as candidate scorecards, can be managed in the system.

The system enhances the communication of everyone on the hiring team with email and calendar synchronization. Reports can be generated to find potential improvements in your recruiting process.

There are several plan options available. Recruiterflow even has a plan tailored to new and growing businesses. There is a 14-day trial available before committing to a monthly plan.

5. Manage Documents with ContractZen

You don’t need a full legal team to keep your company secure and in compliance. ContractZen can manage your legal documents and help you minimize risk. Use this cloud-based program to transfer, sign, and store documents securely.

You can send and request signatures on contracts digitally with the E-signature feature. This makes getting legal documents signed from third parties safer and more efficient.

The unique Virtual Data Room feature gives you the ability to access your company’s documents from anywhere. The Full-text search feature allows you to search for documents easily. Tax documents are stored securely, and easy to find should an audit arise.

The program also gives you the ability to better coordinate meetings. The scheduler allows meeting attendees to agree on the best time. Meeting documents can be exchanged, and meeting minutes can be signed right in the program.

This easy-to-use service also comes with a reasonable price tag. The less than $10 per month is worth the legal peace of mind. A thirty-day trial is available before committing.

6. Administrate Employee’s Attendance With factoHR

The difficulties that occur in recruiting a top talent continue as well in retaining them for a longer span. With factoHR’s attendance management system, the crucial and daily task of employees’ attendance marking will be simplified. How will it remain if you can bring more flexibility and engagement in performing such actions? Surely you can get such benefits using this attendance management tool.

It is an integrated and automated platform that determines the total working hours of the employees by allowing them to punch in and out using a mobile app, web portal, and biometric machines with geo-tracking, geo-fencing, and face recognition authenticity features. All these features together enhance punctuality in the workplace and make the employees more efficient.

Moreover, employees can be involved in the attendance management process using the mobile application and ESS portal. Here they can perform attendance regularization, request for OT and comp-off, manage late coming and early going actions with the leave balance.

The system enhances its usability by allowing you to download various reports related to the employees’ attendance, like in/out punches, late coming, and early going based on specified months. What’s more? You can directly link the attendance data with payroll to accurately calculate employees’ salaries. Thus, factoHR is a unified solution that entirely handles all the aspects related to the workforce, making it a perfect choice for your organization.

Conclusion

Starting a business can be a scary feat. There are so many working parts and pieces to fit together. Like the CICD pipeline, you have to make sure you’re being organized, especially when the business you’re starting involves software development.

There’s a lot of effort involved in researching what tools are best for you, and the effort can be a little daunting at times. You might be tempted to go with whatever tools you find first on a Google search, but it’s best to forgo that idea. Making sure you have the right tools in your arsenal will give you confidence and be your best chance for success.

Development Insights Products SaaS

Reasons to Choose Flutter for Next Mobile App Development Project

Miley on November 4, 2019

Mobile applications are the newest way to promote business along with expanding the reach of a product or service to the maximum number of users. Seeing the potential of mobile applications, many businesses as well startups are making up their minds to invest in the mobile app development project.

Also, businesses, on the other hand, are expecting that mobile app development companies should bring up something to them so that they can easily target a different set of audiences from a single application. In short, businesses seeking better growth in the market are willing to target iOS and Android users at the same time or better say a cross-platform application.

Seeing the constant demand for the same, Flutter mobile app development companies are continuously evolving their way of developing an application in order to provide maximum benefit to the clients that too in their estimated budget.

Meanwhile, developing a cross-platform application sometimes looks a bit problematic for mobile app developers as users experience lags behind in comparison to actual native apps. To give a cure to such issues, various mobile frameworks like React Native, Xamarin, AngularJS, and now Google’s Flutter are making a big around the Flutter mobile app development industry.

Among many frameworks, Flutter is taking the lead and entering the app development industry in a full form making it mandatory for users to know its introduction to the core. Here are the reasons showcasing how Flutter is flourishing in the app development company giving ease, and comfort to the mobile app developers.

Reasons to choose Flutter mobile app development

1. Flutter is overcoming traditional cross-platform approaches

Earlier it was difficult to go ahead with offering one app on two different approaches (Android and iOS) for users who often complain of great user experience in comparison with native applications.

This is the reason, with Flutter the headache of writing too many substitutes with a “write once” approach. By using so, one can create a high-performance application and in return offer a native experience to the users due to Ahead of time compiled, machine binary executable.

2. Productivity increases in mobile app developers

Due to the feature of hot reload in Flutter and Hot Restart, it allows developers to notice and see changes when developing an app that too in less than one second. Also, using Flutter, it is easier for developers to make changes in the overall app structure in a few seconds.

3. Coding for both- Backend and Frontend

As compared to Android coding which uses View for frontend and Java for backend, Flutter uses a single language called Dart for both frontend and backend.

Dart has been built from the amalgamation of popular features of other languages without losing the essence of Java while keeping the developer’s ease in mind.

4. It is more powerful

Flutter offers the ease of creating powerful UI experiences that too out of the box. Thus, it helps mobile app developers in producing a smooth, glitch-free, lag-free, crisp experience similar to the experience one gets when using native application.

Also, flutter consists of widgets that implement Human Interface Design specifications for iOS offering a great native feel on Apple’s devices.

5. It got the support of various IDEs

When using Flutter, developers can choose the codes from a number of Integrated Development Environments. This is the reason, Flutter is everywhere, be it in the process of developing an application or putting it in the process of MVP app development.

6. It got widgets too

Almost everything in Flutter is said to be a widget like Appbar, Snackbar, Drawer, Scaffold, etc. Also, by using Flutter, it is easy to wrap one widget inside another. This is the reason, Flutter thus offers a great experience to the users.

7. 2Dimension Flare makes Animation easy

Animations give actual life to the overall mobile application. 2Dimension is the tool that creates extraordinary UI or animations that too with ease to the app developers. Furthermore, it tapes the gap between the UI designer and the developers by reducing the overall time required to apply UI or animation related changes.

8. Flutter is for both- Web and App

Flutter also has prototype flutter apps that work in a web browser too. A top-secret project called hummingbird was unveiled during the flutter live to prove its potential in the market. Sooner, Flutter will be able to use the same codes for creating apps for mobile, desktop and web in an effective and easeful manner.

9. Support from team and community

Flutter is getting a lot of support and encouragement from the flutter team as well as the community formed for it. It has been said that every Wednesday, many of the Flutter community comes up on Zoom to offer live help to the people around the globe. By doing so, it is easy to get the necessary information and required help in a collaborative manner.

These are a few of the reasons which made Flutter the most prominent part of the mobile app development industry. Also, in the coming years, it is also true that Flutter is going to get a huge fan base and developers’ interest all the more.

Development Insights Martech SaaS SEO

Some Key Features to Consider While Using a Bootstrap Template to Build your Portal

Miley on October 31, 2019

You could spend thousands of dollars on hiring an expert design agency or a freelancer to construct each of your websites for e-commerce or trading business. However, even with spending that much, it is not always ensured that you get the best results. The call is yours, and many also agree to the fact that usage of pre-built Bootstrap templates to custom-weave your website is also a brilliant approach to try. There are many websites out there, including that of the top brands, which are custom-built based on the Bootstrap templates. Such custom-built sites can make a big difference in your business, too, someday, but if you are in need of charming and professional websites, then neglecting the scope of Bootstrap may not be ideal. However, once you start to explore it, you may come across thousands of Bootstrap templates and design options with a handful of feature sand options out there. There are limitless possibilities in terms of Bootstrap templates, and you need to have a professional and picky approach to get the best out of the ocean. So, in order to help the users focus more on the top features, let’s explore the key features to consider while picking the ideal Bootstrap templates for your purpose.

Key features to look for in a Bootstrap template

The major advantage of Bootstrap templates is that it is highly portal and super easy to start with. You don’t have to code at all, and these basic CSS and HTML templates could do the rest for you. The readymade code blocks, as in Designmodo free Bootstrap templates, can save a lot of time as well as effort, which could have been otherwise billed in thousands by skilled developers and designers. Some of the features to look for while picking the ready-to-go Bootstrap templates are as below.

A mighty grid system

Bootstrap is equipped with a 12-column responsive fluid grid system, which is Flexbox-based, which makes it easier for the users to get benefitted instantly. It helps the website builders to scale the site automatically and take your design down or up based on the resolution of the destination device. So, by dividing the screen size into 12 columns, this is made easier for the website builder to see how to group them more effectively or how to use each individually. Building this way, by adding appropriate classes to desktops, tablets, or smartphones of varying screen sizes, you may decide whether you have to hide the content or make it visible.

Easy integration

Bootstrap is much easy to integrate with other frameworks and platforms, either with the existing platform of the new frameworks. With such an ability to ensure seamless integration, Bootstrap will make your life easier and make your dreams true. If you simply want to use, just download that file and simply link it up. You can also hotlink it to even the social media platforms like Twitter and get the best results using Bootstrap. By being just CSS based, it is much easy to integrate and modify the content.

Browser Compatibility

As we have seen above, Bootstrap is compatible also with the latest browsers for mobile and desktop use. With this, you can create a site that could work the best irrespective of being used for Firefox, Safari, Chrome, or IE. On using Bootstrap templates, you can keep your results uniform across all the platforms and browsers.

Instant and easy customization

Based on what types of websites you build; Bootstrap can do it most effectively. Developers can tailor-make their applications using Bootstrap based on the project specifications. The major advantage of Bootstrap is that it comes with everything that you want in order to develop and functionalize a professional portal. You can be choosy in order to include or exclude various components based on your requirements. With this approach, you can easily get rid of what you don’t require, and you can also create the most customized websites.

Excellent community support

With vast community support from across the globe, Bootstrap offers a large number of upgrades and updates than any other such web building frameworks. On GitHub, you can find about 16,000 commits, and here are about 868 contributors always alive to help the developers with whatever points they face an issue with. Besides these, you may also enjoy the Bootstrap blog, which could be your one-stop-shop to many of the unsolved queries. There is no need to mention apt documentation available with easy examples and demo, which will further make things easier for novice users.

A handful of pre-designed HTML, CSS, and JavaScript elements

The designers and developers, while building a website, need to take care of various elements, including but not limited to headings, tables, buttons, anchors, and lot more. Each of these has its significance in terms of creating a professional-looking website, which is also functional. Used properly, Bootstrap can save the day for fellow developers as it comes with many pre-designed elements, which are so easy to learn and use.

Plugins

A dozen of Bootstrap offers a large number of upgrades and updates available with Bootstrap will help the users to start quicker and easier. If you need to get some additional functionality like a dropdown list, carousel, or sliders, then one needs to simply make use of the corresponding plugin offering the functionality to the website design. It should also be noted the fact that Bootstrap plugins can be best used for your benefit without the need to write even a single line of code.

Go far beyond ensuring consistency

Even though developed to encourage and ensure consistency among internal tools, Bootstrap now has the potential to go far beyond this purpose. Effectively backed up by many expert Twitter employees, now Bootstrap is the first of its kind open-source application version, which further got enlarged with the major idea to pair designers and developers to reap success out of the web. TO effectively connect between the dots, Bootstrap could be a real choice for the developers who want modern responsive websites. It is also consistently developing, and so it is enough wasting time on coding and manual designing of your websites, and everyone should effectively explore Bootstrap templates in a better way.