Category: Usability

How to Keep Visitors Glued to Your Website

How To Keep Visitors Glued To Your Website

December 7, 2018

Businesses often wonder what they can do in order to keep visitors for a longer time on their websites. This is very important in order to drive revenue and sales. Reducing bounce rates and enhancing website engagement help in increasing conversion rates. However, the process of achieving these goals can be complex and requires a holistic approach towards the problem. Keeping visitors on a website for a long time necessitates a multi-pronged approach that involves web development, design, marketing, testing, and behavioral analysis. In this article, we have listed 7 steps that help in keeping visitors glued to your website for a long time. Make Navigation Simple 67% of mobile web users will abandon the page they are on if they feel frustrated by the navigation. Even on desktop browsers, if navigation is too complex or cluttered, users will abandon and move to a different website. It is crucial to keep navigation simple and focus on UX/UI. To make sure that the navigation of your website is simple, here are a few things you can do: Do not use non-standard styles of navigation. Keep buttons in predictable locations. Name your menu buttons attractively and refrain from using generic labels. Some recommend against using labels such as “Products” or “Services” and instead suggests using key phrases that people are searching. For example: “Our web solutions”, “app development products”. Avoid drop-down menus and cluttering your navigation Your navigation should reflect your sitemap and should provide easy access to all web pages within your website. This helps reduce bounce rates. Reduce Page Load Time Even a single second delay in page load time can reduce conversions by 7%. If a page takes more than 3 seconds to load, you can very well assume that most users will not return to your website again. To keep people lurking on your web pages, it is important to make sure they load quickly. Compress your images and files to load pages quickly Consider using Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP) to load pages quickly on a mobile browser Many websites have complex codes that result in slow loading. Hire a custom development team to simplify the existing code. If you use a popular CMS such as WordPress or Drupal, upgrading it to the latest version helps too. Fix website errors such as the 500 Internal Server Error, PHP warnings, and errors, and inability to load dynamic library. A website audit helps fix most of the errors you may encounter. Understand your visitors’ needs Between 70 and 96 percent of web visitors never return to a website again, and this is mostly because the web page does not serve their needs. To eliminate instances of visitors abandoning your website and to encourage them to stay longer, you should start understanding what your visitors really want. Use predictive analysis to understand what your visitors want now and in the future, based on web traffic trends. Terracotta In-Genius predicts data processing requirements and helps fix slower data storage drives. Optimove offers bespoke predictive modeling that helps you implement persona-based segmentation. This insight is sourced from your business DNA and historical data. Use web traffic data to understand your demographics, search terms, most engaging content, etc. Conduct opinion polls and survey to directly ask your visitors what they want Google Analytics, Kissmetrics, Mint, Clicky, Chartbeat, and Woopra are some of the tools used to understand various user statistics. Engage your visitors You might be surprised to learn that people form an opinion about your website in just 50 milliseconds (0.05 seconds). To make sure that this opinion is positive, you will need to make your web content and layout attractive, as 38% will stop engaging if they are not pleased with either. Make your content shareable on social media and encourage visitors to do so Always have a call-to-action at the end of a page so that visitors are not left wondering what they should do next Add customer reviews, testimonials, polls, subscription options, and other features to keep your visitors engaged Be real and engage your visitors by actually interacting with them using AI-based chatbots Enhance content readability and usability Users spend only 5.59 seconds looking at the content on your web page. This means, the content you publish needs to be skimmable and your focus should be on readability more than anything else. In addition, the content you publish should also be useful to the reader. According to Smashing Magazine, these are some of the industry standards you need to follow: User-friendly headers Scannable text with focus points Lots of white space Consistency in the hierarchy of layout, font, colors, etc. Consistency in line height, length, and spacing An emphasis on important elements and density of text Accurate use of separators Organization of content and media Content that can be easily used, shared and consumed Focus on excellent videos Research shows that marketers who use video grow revenue 49% quicker than those who do not use videos. In other words, publishing engaging videos that act as infotainment will keep visitors glued to your website for a longer time and help you grow your revenue quickly too. Use explainer videos to present your services and products Convert presentations and blog posts into graphic videos Use animation to elicit emotions in your visitors, which can help in keeping them on the website too Consider voice over artists and professionally written scripts to take your videos to the next level Test and maintain your website continuously Bounce rate is defined as the percentage of people who visit a single page on your website and leave immediately. Reducing bounce rate should be an important goal if you wish to keep your visitors glued to your website. Conducting regular A/B tests and initiating ongoing website maintenance are crucial in reducing bounce rates. Bounce rates more than 25% are a cause for concern and need your attention. Engage in usability, interface, compatibility, and functional testing of your website. Google PageSpeed Insights, io, Google ngx_pagespeed, Google

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Here Is How to Set the Right KPI and Targets For Your Digital Journey?

September 19, 2018

Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) help you understand whether you are achieving your target goals or not. KPIs also tell you how close you are towards achieving them. KPIs can help you track progress related to expenses, customer insight, revenue, etc. There are KPIs for every business function within an organization. Important sales related KPIs include number of wins, deals, and opportunities, sales qualified leads, etc. Return on marketing investment, customer retention, customer acquisition cost, etc. are examples of marketing KPIs. Measuring customer service KPIs is important too, as it tells you how happy or satisfied your customers are with your brand. Key performance indicators of customer service include Customer Satisfaction Score, first response time, customer retention rate, SERVQUAL developed by Valerie Zeithaml, which measures service + quality, etc. In this article, let us take a look at how you can choose the right KPIs and set targets so that you are always on track. Choosing the right KPIs to improve performance KPIs can be grouped under lagging and leading indicators, and you will need to monitor both. Lagging indicators are those which can be easily measured but hard to influence. Leading indicators, on the other hand, are easy to influence but hard to measure. An example of a lagging KPI is the number of orders placed on a certain day, while an example of a leading indicator would be return on marketing investments. Begin with choosing a KPI Key performance indicators should be SMART, i.e., specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and time-bound. Specific KPIs are easy to track and monitor than vague ones. For instance, a specific KPI would be “exact number of orders placed every week”. A vague KPI would be “Satisfactory order processing”. In other words, it should be reduced to a number in order for it to be tracked. KPIs should also be measurable. If we take the number of orders per week as a KPI, it can be averaged over months and years. KPIs should be realistic so that if employees work hard, they are attainable. If they are unrealistic and unattainable, you stand the risk of demotivating employees. KPIs need to be tracked over a period of time and measured against time too. Make sure you can evaluate your chosen KPI across time phases. An example of KPIs : Image Source: Flickr Monitor and measure KPIs and metrics However, you might wonder what a “metric” is. Metric is a quantifiable measure or that which can be reduced to a number. The number of orders placed on a given day is a metric. However, only when it is studied over a period of time (number of sales per week, observed over many weeks) does the metrics become a KPI. While a KPI helps you measure performance and success, a metric is simply a number that needs to be assessed within a KPI. Reward employees who achieve KPI targets Recent research reveals that setting realistic KPI targets help employees to perform better. Not just that, rewarding employees when they achieve or surpass KPI targets will incentivize their performance. This IBM white paper explores how the right employee behavior can be rewarded and motivated by using KPIs. An interesting observation of the paper is to reward teams instead of choosing individual employees for rewards. This motivates entire teams to work harder to achieve set KPI targets. Key Performance Indicators (KPI): The 75 measures every manager needs to know by Bernard Marr is an important book that can help you familiarize with using the right KPIs to evaluate employee performance and encouraging them to achieve KPIs set for other areas. Review and make changes to your KPI strategy Conduct regular audits of the KPI targets and assess the metrics associated with each KPI. If they are under-performing, you might want to set a more realistic goal. If you have been consistently performing high, set yourself a higher target that is tied around time phases. Choose a different KPI is the one you have chosen is not getting you the result you need. You may also need to vary your targets consistently depending on your business success. A neutral observer will help you take an objective look at your KPI performance, and provide you with a more realistic picture of your situation. Speaking to a consultant that specializes in KPI metric analysis helps. KPIs help businesses to get back on track KPI is a measurable value that helps businesses achieve targets. KPIs help businesses to understand and evaluate their performance so that they can be further improved over time. Choose the right KPIs carefully and make sure that they are specific in what they measure, quantifiable so that what you measure can be reduced to numbers, and that they can realistically be attained. They must also be relevant to your goals and success, and must always be measured against time. Once you choose your KPIs and set targets, you should continuously monitor and measure your chosen KPI metrics. Make sure to reward employees (preferably teams) who enthusiastically work towards attaining KPIs. Finally, always review your KPI strategy and make changes to it if need be.

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Five Ways to Transform Your Business through Right Digital Infrastructure

September 4, 2018

While most businesses have adopted digital infrastructure to some extent, many still do not have a holistic plan to transform their business using the right digital infrastructure. Studies show that most businesses tend to retain legacy tools while implementing the digital strategy, and what really happens is, there is a complete mismatch between digital and non-digital, leading to subpar organizational performance. In result, companies see results that are satisfying in some areas, while creating new risks and liabilities in others. Businesses need to have a 5-pronged approach towards digital infrastructure. This will help look at their entire business infrastructure as a single entity and build a strategy around it. In fact, the right strategy will help your business to transform itself into a lean and uber-efficient machine that can give your competitors a run for their money. Most importantly, having a digital strategy will help you to focus better on your business and enter new avenues. In this article, we describe our 5-pronged approach to make use of digital infrastructure in the right way and optimize your business to achieve new heights. Evaluate existing hardware and go for a major upgrade One of the first things you need to do in order to assess your hardware situation is to examine how your network infrastructure is. Network infrastructure includes both software and hardware components and is an integral part of IT infrastructure. For your software components to work efficiently, your enterprise network needs to be top notch. Evaluate existing routers, operating systems, network security applications, network operations, IP addressing, wireless protocols, etc. At the same time, evaluate data centers as well, as most businesses use subpar services which are often exorbitant. Consider seeking an external vendor’s help in choosing the right data center for your business requirements. To transform your business using the right data center, begin with creating a strategy. Implementing agile IT organization is crucial to this process, as is virtualization and cloud. Intel’s whitepaper recommends evaluating aging infrastructure by computing various metrics and KPIs. Please bear in mind that agile infrastructure can either be virtualized or nonvirtualized, and this solely depends on your organizational requirements. Nevertheless, virtualization is key to having a successful cloud strategy, which we shall discuss next. Move to the cloud whenever possible Today, you can practically move every legacy technology to the cloud and reap the benefits of reduced costs, increased efficiency, and access to technology which you previously didn’t have. Software as a Service (SaaS) helps you to access and use software programs which were probably out of reach for you if you are a small business. If you are a large business, SaaS is equally important to reduce dependency on physical infrastructure and keep your business agile and scalable. SaaS models offer pay-as-you-go schemes, which allow businesses of all sizes to scale or downscale depending on their situation. In addition, the cloud can also help you to access infrastructure via the cloud. Storage, data centers, and even networks can be used on an infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) model. Cloud computing helps businesses to eliminate organizational flab and grow lean and agile. If you are a service provider yourself, consider using PaaS (platform as a Service), which helps you to develop new applications and tools on cloud-based platforms, instead of having to invest in expensive platforms. In short, cloud computing provides the technological impetus required to make your business grow quickly. Integrate what you can With more businesses using tools to automate processes, ERP, CRM, and HRMS tools are almost an integral part of every successful business. However, they create unique problems of duplicate entries, repetitive manual exchange of information, and a continued lack of coordination between departments. Integrating these tools using available APIs is a popular method to reduce duplicate entries and increase automation. Most importantly, data can be shared between integrated tools, leading to richer insight and more accurate predictions. If you have an eCommerce business, for instance, you can integrate your ERP with your CRM, so that purchases made by customers online is immediately reflected the inventory department, which can replenish stocks automatically. The possibilities are endless, and such a heightened level of coordination is only possible when you integrate software tools. Before you decide to integrate, make sure that you have an integration strategy, and that you have spoken to vendors who will be able to do it for you efficiently. Integration strategy also involves training your staff so that they use the new interface effectively. In addition, you will also have to account in for security-related ramifications. Implement Internet of Things, Blockchain, and Artificial Intelligence These may seem like disparate terms often used by IT honchos, but they are very important for businesses of all sizes. IoT, or Internet of Things, uses sensors embedded in devices to intelligently communicate with servers and perform functions that ordinary devices cannot. These can further be connected to smartphones so that device-users have more control over how they interact with it. In a business perspective, sales and marketing teams can use IoT-enabled devices during promotional events, while logistics and product-handlers can use IoT enabled product tracking. Blockchain is another digital technology which can help businesses immensely. You can use smart contracts to ensure security, and distributed ledgers allow you to process transactions in a safe and secure manner. Blockchain has a number of applications for businesses, right from identity verification to automated approvals. Artificial intelligence is another emerging technology that has now become mainstream for business use. Regardless of the size of your company, you can use AI-enabled chatbots for customer service, social media management, and certain marketing tasks. These technologies are accessible, affordable, and easy to implement. Businesses only need to decide to embrace them before their competitor does. Focus on digital governance and security To ensure business success, it is not enough to have the best infrastructure in place. Digital infrastructure’s success depends on how secure it is against various kinds of threats, and how wisely you are

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The Accelerator of Growth – Sales Automation

August 24, 2018

Globally, the sales team is crucial in helping businesses succeed and it is often the duty of top-level executives to breathe life into sales teams. Sales teams are often pressurized to identify and gather leads, make contact, manage opportunities and leads, convert them to sales, and prepare sales reports. In between these dreary-sounding tasks, they also need to make calls, write emails, answer queries and engage in a lot of repetitive manual tasks. In fact, across North America and Europe, manual and repetitive tasks take up sales teams’ time much more than actual core sales activities, which leads to reduced sales and conversion rates. Sales automation helps fix this problem and gives your sales team their mojo back. It helps them to get back on track and plan strategies and implement them, instead of writing repetitive reports. In this article, let us take a look at what sales automation is, and how it accelerates your business growth. What is the sales automation? Sales automation is a software tool that helps your business to automate repetitive tasks such as documentation, sending emails, controlling inventory, pricing, and contract management. It often comes as a part of your CRM or can also be purchased separately, if you want a specialized tool. It helps to reduce the burden on your sales team by automating repetitive and manual tasks so that they can focus on core sales activities. In result, your sales team finds it easier to nurture leads, to interact with them, and to help convert them into customers. The reduced time and effort leads to increased productivity at work, and of course, sales automation has a number of other advantages too. Here are its basic features: Close deals easily: Sales automation helps you to close more deals quickly. You can automate content management, collaboration, and use marketing tools that will help you to find leads as well. It is not a surprise that most businesses use sales automation to manage contacts and accounts and to manage sales opportunities. Find more leads: Sales automation also helps you to find more leads. you can track how well your marketing campaigns are doing, and access sales data on demand. This helps you to send out reports to decision makers quickly so that territories can be planned and campaigns can be launched instantly. Enhance productivity: Most sales automation tools are available on mobile devices, and you can perform sales activities while on the go. You can close deals while on the train or while waiting for your business lunch at a cafe. In other words, sales automation helps you to accelerate productivity. You can easily share files, sync data, and access visual workflows. All business processes can be automated using drag and drop features within a mobile app. Make informed decisions: Most importantly, sales automation tools help you to make informed decisions at the right time. You gain access to reports and dashboards from wherever you are, and accessing sales forecasting gets just as easy as well. With real-time access to your team’s forecasts, mailing to and fro and intra-departmental squabbles are a thing of the past. How sales automation accelerates growth In this section of the article, let us take a look at how sales automation accelerates growth and quickly improves your teams’ productivity as well. Identify your customers Sales departments spend a lot of time trying to identify who could be potential leads and customers. The more time they spend on identifying customers, the less time they can actually use to make contact with them. Sales automation helps identify customers and leads quickly using various metrics. This helps sales teams to quickly make contact and engage in actual sales activity to urge the customer to make a purchase. Businesses often waste considerable temporal and financial resources on customer identification and with a good CRM, that can simply be automated. Access customer information There is little wisdom in developing a sales strategy if we do not understand what the customers want. Knowing how the customers think, where they come from, and what their demographic tends to do are more important than blindly developing sales campaigns. Sales automation provides deep and rich insights about target audience so that intricate sales campaigns can be designed and developed. Targeted campaigns help drive up conversion rates and assist in company growth. Create and edit content Writing reports and documenting sales activities are crucial duties a sales team does. However, these activities can take a lot of time, and result in unnecessary delays in performing other core activities. A good sales automation tool readily creates reports and helps you to focus on more important activities that cannot be automated. Why not generate reports and then make a presentation in person, which has a better impact than just mailing the marketing department cold reports? With sales automation, there will be more time for your sales team to engage in such activities that enhance inter-team communication and collaboration. Follow-up with customers and leads Whether it is writing emails or calling customers over the phone, if you do not do it at the right time, you will not be able to keep a lead warm. To make sure that customers are followed and tracked continuously, and to ensure that leads are kept warm, automate the process of follow-ups. Sales automation can automate communication and help you to remain in touch with them. However, do not automate all communication with your leads and customers as that can have unintended effects. Analyze calls, emails and other communication platforms Call analysis provides valuable information about what customers want, and analyzing email texts can be equally important. CRM tools provide exquisite features that help you to track how email newsletters are read, by whom, and when. They also provide information related to how you can improve your email communication to enhances sales growth. Manual analysis is simply too tedious and sometimes not even accurate. Let us not forget about how important analyzing social media communication is for sales. A

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Why should you choose a CMS and not a custom development partner?

July 26, 2018

Every business has different needs, and this truism is reflected in deciding the kind of website a particular business must have. Each company’s web development requirements are different too and the only factor that’s common among business websites is that they all need a content management system (CMS) to function. A CMS helps you to add, edit, and manage content on your website. While there are already readymade CMS tools available (Joomla!, Drupal, WordPress, etc.), there is also the option of custom development of CMS, right from scratch. While readymade CMS helps businesses to get their websites up and running in no time, custom development of websites has its own advantages. Highly complex projects require custom development, in order to make sure that all the requirements of a client are met. Yet, even many complex projects can be undertaken with just Drupal if your developers are experienced enough. In this article, let us take an objective look at the differences between CMS and custom development, and what you should choose for your web requirements. What is CMS development and who is it for? A Content Management System (CMS) is uncomplicated and comes with all the features you would expect from a fully-functional website. Without the need to start from scratch, you will be able to choose from a template and set up navigation, file management, databases, libraries, etc. in a short period of time. Third-party plug-ins are always available for all the popular CMS platforms such as WordPress, Drupal, and Joomla!. Drupal, in particular, is suitable for extremely complex websites, while being perfect for simple business websites at the same time. An experienced developer can customise Drupal and program it to run better than any custom developed website at a fraction of the cost. Most importantly, it takes very little time to set up a CMS-based website and get it up and running. Multi-user management is easy and complex graphics can be displayed efficiently with no errors or bugs. Most importantly, regular updates keep your websites safe and secure, without you having to worry too much about security risks. CMS-based websites have very few errors and development community is widely accessible if you need any assistance. Of course, customisation can prove to be difficult if you choose the wrong vendor but when you find the right partner, using a CMS is the quickest, simplest, and the most affordable path to setting up even complex websites. CMS websites are great for just about anything. Whether you want to set up a simple website or a complex web portal that runs a number of online processes, a CMS-based website can handle it all. What is custom development and who is it for? If we are discussing custom development, you can expect your developers to code the website right from scratch to finish. It sounds like an attractive process but it is going to cost a lot more than CMS development. There are obvious benefits to custom coding, such as better control with respect to what you can do with a website or a page, and how quickly you can get it to load. However, the same results can be achieved with CMS as well. Developers will need to be proficient in HTML, CSS, JavaScript, PHP, SQL, ASP.net, etc., and should be able to decide if you really need custom development. Custom development costs significantly higher than regular CMS development because developers need to build a new website right from scratch. Most of the times, custom development is not necessary and is a bit of overkill. It also takes a long time to debug errors. If you ever change your development vendor, you might face issues if the next developer isn’t as proficient to read code written by someone else. While it isn’t hard to find agencies that specialise in all the languages required for custom development, the time and skills that they will need to utilise for building a website for you right from scratch will result in exorbitant bills. Most businesses that need a website for corporate or eCommerce purposes do not need custom development. Instead, they can get an open source CMS such as Drupal or Joomla! customised to suit their needs. In fact, we have engaged in Drupal development for some of the most complex projects pertaining to very large enterprises. Does your business need CMS or custom development? In most cases, you will not require custom development. As discussed, custom development takes a longer time to complete the project and is invariably very expensive and difficult to manage. On the other hand, CMS websites are quick to install, can be customised as per your requirements, and there are umpteen number of third-party plugins available if you need complex features. In fact, there are superior plugins that can do a lot more than you might imagine. Unless the situation calls for it, you only need to consider a good partner to set up a CMS-based website. Use Case 1 eCommerce business needs a website that can handle heavy traffic and payments Requirement: An eCommerce business required a website that would not only handle high web traffic but also to ensure that all payments went through in a safe and secure manner. The business wanted a website that looked unique and placed stress on ease of use. Solution: Indus Net Technologies developed a Drupal-based website that was sturdy and stable. Customizing Drupal code was enough to make the website appear the way the client wanted. As Drupal loads quickly, and is particularly suited for heavy traffic, the website we build for the client was a success. Results: The website was easy to use, could handle high web traffic, and payments went through secure PCI DSS-compliant servers. The business saw more people purchasing products due to an increase in customer trust. Use Case 2 A large financial institution needed a web portal to sell its insurance products and help customers manage their accounts. Requirements: The insurance giant needed a web portal which would

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How Digital Transformation is Revolutionizing Offline Retail Experience

February 23, 2018

Before we go any further, allow us to declare that retail is here to stay. It is alive and kicking, and the boundaries between brick-and-mortar stores and online stores have already blurred, highlighting the importance of omnichannel marketing. Most online and offline resources discussed omnichannel experience as a novel concept in 2017, but conversations in 2018 will focus on the digital transformation that is already brewing in offline retail experience. With omnichannel experience taking centre stage, retailers and industry insiders have certain urgent priorities to focus on. These include, understanding technologies that are revolutionizing retail, setting up a budget for making changes, and promoting innovation within respective niche markets. With that in mind, digital transformation can be clubbed under these 3 categories which we shall discuss below. Technologies to watch: Bluetooth beacons, Internet of Things, Artificial Intelligence and chatbots, in-store applications, in-store push notifications Digitizing operations: Online access to inventory, communicating inventory needs before arrival, mobile wallets and digital checkouts, personalized recommendations, dynamic pricing Bringing digital to the store: Creating a multisensory experience, data and predictive analysis, enhanced customer support, social media tools, focusing on in-store experience Revving up the technology front at retail stores It would be foolhardy to assume that everyone wants to simply order products online without ever visiting a store. In fact, most people would rather walk into a store, physically touch the product they want to purchase, see it with their own eyes, or try it on themselves, before making a purchase. But they will use their mobile devices when they are inside your store. Using technology to create multi-sensory experiences for your customers is important to drive up sales. Retail stores across the world have begun to combine elements of Bluetooth, artificial intelligence, and the Internet of Things to create unique shopping experiences for customers who walk inside stores. Conversations are no longer about which technology is better to use in a store, but the focus is more on how all technologies can be used to create a holistic shopping experience for the customer. In other words, we are in a retail situation where various digital technologies intersect at retail stores to provide unique shopping experiences that are omnichannel in nature. Who is doing what: A number of retail chains began to experiment with Bluetooth beacons and internet of Things in 2017. While Sainsbury’s toyed with Bluetooth beacons, Singapore-based A Better Florist began to offer chatbot experience to clients so that they can track their orders quickly and easily. Sainsbury’s push notifications were delivered to customers when they arrived at the store, highlighting the importance of in-store applications and notifications. Here is what you can take from this: Consider speaking to digital consultants to understand how various emerging and existing technologies can be used together to create unique omnichannel shopping experiences for your customers in-store. Digitize your offline retail operations to deliver a friction-free shopping experience What could be worse than visiting an online store and realizing a product that is listed is not available anymore? What could be more unfortunate than having something in stock but not displaying it on the website because of communication and technology errors? A customer walking into a retail store and realizing the exact product that they want is not available. Nothing hurts a brand more than a customer walking away in disappoint from a retail store because a product that they wanted and assumed was available, isn’t. To avoid such situations, digitizing operations is a boon to retailers. When customers have access to available inventory at each retail location, they can simply look up on their mobile phones and arrive at the store, knowing for sure that what they want is indeed available. in fact, they could even call up your store (or text your chatbot) to inform you what they want to try or take a look at so that the product in question is ready to be tried or observed as soon as they arrive at the store. To ensure there are no literal abandoned shopping carts, you could urge them to pay via mobile wallets or ensure digital checkouts. Personalized recommendations based on various psychographic data will help you to cross-sell and upsell as well, right when they are at your store location. Want to tempt the reluctant customer who is looking at something longingly but is about to walk away? Deliver push notifications to their mobile phones and offer discounts and coupons, thanks to dynamic pricing. Who is doing what: Decathlon, the French sports apparel chain, offers online access to its inventory so that people can check beforehand what is available at their store locations before venturing out. Those who don’t want to try the products at a retail store can simply order them on the same website. Decathlon’s unique marketing strategies have helped it to digitize its operations and become a world leader in sports apparel in a very short period. Here is what you can take from this: understand how you can enhance the shopping experience by using technology and by digitizing your operations. A retail store that is efficient and that which operates flawlessly makes customers happier than anything else. Use the myriad technologies available to create a friction-free shopping experience for your customers. An immersive shopping experience keeps your customers hooked Another area that is transforming retail experience is the actual process of shopping. By providing a multisensory experience using technology, many retailers are making it cool to shop offline again. After all, it is a human tendency to rebel against what is the norm. If shopping online is the norm today, there is an equal number of people who would rather go to a store for a more immersive and sensual shopping experience. One way to enhance the shopping experience at retail stores is by understanding each customer personally, and by providing personal and customized attention to everyone that walks in. Let’s face it. Everyone likes to be treated like a king or a queen. This is

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Creating Better User Experiences and Better Products with Data

February 19, 2018

In 2018, it almost sounds repetitive to say that user experience trumps features, and designing a better product depends on understanding what it feels like to use it, and best to design a product that can be used intuitively. Intuitive user experience and a great product depend on a number of things including great design. However, there is something far more important and basic than design, which is data. Data in the form of customer feedback, customer expectation and motivations, system performance and errors, and the ability to make sense of data is collected over weeks, months, and years in the right context is what helps develop great products and superior UX. Yet, data is often ignored or given just lip service simply because product designers and developers do not have the resources or interest to process complex datasets concerning customer feedback and expectations. Let us admit it. Customer feedback, surveys, and reviews build up over a period of time, and most companies simply toss the accumulated data to the side, quite literally. Yet, it is this very data that is needed to create better experiences and better products. Why the reluctance to use data when it is so freely available? Every business gathers data, even if they do not realize that they are. However, most companies are reluctant to use the data that is already available on their systems. This data may stem from customer feedback forms, web traffic figures, purchase trends, social media conversations, and just about anything that results due to the intersection of business, customer, and the product. The reluctance stems from distrusting data and feeling overloaded by data that is continuously collected by systems. With many products being “intelligent”, data overload has led to data daze, as a Forbes article puts it. The same article describes data daze resulting in analysis paralysis. The answer is simple. Most companies hesitate using data or downrightly avoid anything remotely related to data because they feel paralyzed by it. How can a business avoid this state of data paralysis, and confront it to make it something useful? 84% of CEOs do not trust the quality of data they have on hand It is psychologically proven that too much information reduces cognitive ability process it. This means, too much data leads to data daze. Overanalyzing data can lead to analysis paralysis, similar to what happens to an individual with psychological difficulties. While distrusting the quality of data and feeling overwhelmed by data that is available is natural, so is feeling paralyzed by over-analysis of data. The truth is, no company can process all the data that it collects. It needs to know what it wants to know with data that is already available, and how it is going to process it. This brings us to the question of processing and placing data in meaningful contexts. How to place data in meaningful contexts When it comes to understanding and using data, context matters more than anything else. Cognitive overload of information results in inefficient use of that information. For example, a boy that is given a dozen books on his birthday may not value them, or even feel intimidated by them, even if those books are classics. However, if he learns to categories those books in a shelf, or is helped to do so by someone who understands those books, he will not only pick up those books, by also put to use what he learns from them. Similarly, every business must put the data that they collect into context. Without placing data in context and simply processing it using analytical tools will result in an analysis that may not be relevant at all, resulting in analysis paralysis. With the Internet of Things, location-based applications, wearable tech, and sensors contributing to the data deluge, one must really know how to place all that data in context. While this may seem difficult, it is not impossible. Ask yourself these questions: What am I trying to improve? What might my customers want? How can make it easier for customers to use my product? Which variables could help me understand what customers want? How can reduce the amount of data that is analyzed? As you can see, asking yourself or other C-level executives in your company will help you to develop a frame of reference with which you can handle data. Once you know what you are looking for, it is easier to find it. Usually, you can find all these answers with the assistance of your customers plus with a little help from your friends (IT department and technology). 3 important sources of data to develop better products and UX As you might have learned to question yourself in the previous section, the answer to your data quandary lies with your customers and your IT department. Collect customer feedback: To make sure that you understand your customers better so that you can design a product that is inherently more intuitive to use, you should start collecting customer feedback. Customer feedback can be collected in umpteen numbers of ways, both online and offline. Customer feedback, opinions, and reviews can be processed using linguistic and data crunching tools so that you understand the prevailing opinion about your product, and how it can be improved. This axiom holds true whether you have designed an application as a product, or an actual physical table as your product of choice. The fewer customers you have, the more opportunities you have to seek detailed and intimate feedback from them. If you have a large number of customers, feedback forms can be statistically analyzed. While this may sound time-consuming, which it inherently is, improving user experience and creating better products are ongoing processes too. Customer expectations, and what motivates them: Next, make sure that the features that you offer alongside your product meet customer expectations and motivations. This is the part that answers “why does my customer want to use my product” question. Knock the door of your IT department:

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Home is where the intelligence is: Smart home trends for 2018

January 16, 2018

Who doesn’t love a comfortable, easier, secure and convenient lifestyle? The alarm goes off and your perfect cup of hazelnut coffee is ready in no time. Rich and nutty, just the way you like it. And the best part: you can make the coffee without having to leave your bed. Smart homes give you the ultimate power to control and manage your home-sweet-home (office too) through advanced software and networks that are becoming increasingly easier to monitor, grasp and use. Even a few years ago, this would sound straight out of a fairy tale or a sci-fi movie. But today with smart homes, you can make a pot of coffee from anywhere using your smart device. That’s the power of technology and that’s how home automation is changing our lives. From voice-activated smart speaker Amazon Echo, who will be at your beck and call, to smart lighting which would automatically turn on the moment you ring the doorbell, now even the shades of your window can be adjusted via mobile apps without getting up from bed in the morning. Smart home and Internet of Things (IoT) are completely redefining our way of life. Home automation is a booming market with the US having the highest smart home penetration rate, followed by Japan and Germany. According to the global smart home market, the market size would reach a value of more than 40 billion US dollars by 2020. This is extremely encouraging news for both tech giants and venture capitalists who are pouring money for further innovations in the smart home sector. The real estate scenario has also undergone a sea change because of this. Realtors and builders are increasingly adapting to these new innovations and helping to increase awareness about smart homes in the buyers’ market, informing them about how these “intelligent homes” communicate with the residents. It is not surprising that the largest consumer segment is constituted by millennial, a bunch of tech-savvy citizens who have a completely different approach when it comes to investing in properties. Their preferences are now being taken into account to make the homes more modern. According to a report by Coldwell Banker LLC, more prospective home-buyers are looking for their homes to be automated, or at least for those that have the potential to be automated. In India, the concept of smart cities has been gaining ground more than ever. It shouldn’t be long before India starts adapting smart homes in a larger way. Startups in India are already jumping onto the bandwagon on home automation and technology students are also trying to make breakthrough innovations in this domain. According to a report published by RedSeer Consulting in 2015, home automation market in India is expeditiously growing and is expected to reach Rs 8800 crores by 2017! Santanu Mukherjee, head of digital marketing, Indus Net Technologies, admits that India too is welcoming home automation with open arms with several players already ruling the market. However, he also agrees that it will take some time before home automation finally finds its stronghold in India. According to Mukherjee, the primary reason is the lack of awareness in this sector. “Till now, the majority of the buyers in India consider a property with smart IoT devices as too luxurious an investment. The high product cost of home automation is also inhibiting consumers from exploring this space. As of now, smart homes are a super luxury component in a developing nation like India,” he says.     Here are 5 ways to turn your home into a smart home:  1. Let’s get connected The entirety of your home must first and foremost be connected by WiFi  “so powerful and fast” that all the smart home IoT devices in the house are connected. Here are five WiFi systems you might use when implementing smart home technology: Samsung Connect Home Smart Wi-Fi System Google Wi-Fi system Eero Luma Home WiFi System Linksys Velop 2. Safety matters No one wants to compromise when it comes to the security of your most-prized possession, your house. IoT has made it easier to set up smart security systems. Today you can control the security and comfort of your home remotely, via a smart device which monitors feed from the security cameras (indoor and outdoor), window sensors, door locks, motion detector, smoke detectors, water sensors to garage door openers, thus connecting your home to the above-mentioned Wi-Fi network. You can keep a watch on all the activities 24X7 using your smartphone and apps. Alerts in the form of emails and text messages are sent to you on the go. “Security is a big issue, especially for working couples who depend on external help to manage their kids. However, reliability on external help is questionable. To address this issue, a smart home can be a great help. You can monitor what’s happening at home from afar”, says Mukherjee. Here’s a list of five smart home devices, which will keep your home safe: August Smart Lock Nest Cam Outdoor iSmartAlarm Netatmo Presence Samsung Digital Door Lock SHS-P718 3. Look who’s talking “Alexa, switch on the light. Alexa, adjust the thermostat.”- Smart homes today enable you to prepare a hearty meal, book a cab or play your favourite song by just talking to voice-activated smart-home systems such as Amazon’s Echo and Google’s Home. Thanks to advancements in AI (artificial intelligence) and Machine Learning (ML), speech recognition technology has revolutionized home automation. Through Amazon’s voice assistant, Alexa (you can talk to her through Dot, Fire TV, Echo, Fire Tablet and the Tap) you can remotely control many functions of your house. Google Home is also integrated with a number of smart home systems such as thermostats and water leak sensors. Microsoft’s virtual assistant Cortana already works at your command, but now the tech giant is planning to launch Cortana soon in the home automation market. According to reports, it won’t be long before Apple’s Siri smart speaker participates in home automation market. 4. Let there be light How many

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Rivu Chakraborty’s Reactive Programming Book for Developers Gets Listed on Kotlin’s Official Website

December 1, 2017

We are excited to announce the launch of Reactive Programming in Kotlin, authored by Indus Net Technology’s Rivu Chakraborty. It is listed on the official website of Kotlin as an important resource, and on the official GitHub Repository of RxKotlin. The book is a hands-on guide that lucidly explains the theoretical and practical foundations of reactive programming in the context of Kotlin. Reactive Programming in Kotlin is a master-resource for programmers who seek to understand, learn, and practice Reactive Programming using Kotlin language. Reactive programming, as a concept, is not very well understood, and resources available currently do not make this complex topic accessible to developers. Rivu Chakraborty’s Reactive Programming in Kotlin aims to provide the necessary tools, resources, and self-training to Kotlin developers who wish to revolutionize their programming skills. To be fair, Reactive Programming has intimidated even the most seasoned programmers simply because it is an advanced topic with a complex learning curve, and not many currently specialize in it. Kotlin is a statically typed language and is officially supported by Google and Pivotal (Spring custodian). It is often considered to be the best combination of Object-Oriented and Functional Programming Paradigms. Like Reactive Programming Paradigm, Kotlin language is comparatively new, and globally, very few resources are available in either print or web. Rivu’s book helps programmers to immerse themselves in this new programming language. Why reactive programming? The problem with today’s programming techniques is that it is difficult to write stable and reliable code for programs that are increasingly asynchronous in nature. Programmers also need to consider the scalability of the application, as most apps tend to grow with time, both in size and complexity, as new features are added. Kotlin is best-suited for developing stable, reliable and scalable programs, and is often the programming language of choice for many developers today. However, Kotlin isn’t without limitations. It is still difficult to consider all aspects such as asynchronicity, scalability, and intuitiveness, while also keeping the application responsive. Reactive programming is a completely new paradigm that helps developers to take their programming skills to the next level. Working with asynchronous data streams becomes a walk in the park, when Kotlin developers employ reactive programming. Rivu’s groundbreaking book helps you do just that. The story behind the book A Google-certified Android developer, Rivu Chakraborty is a force to reckon with when it comes to Kotlin. Rivu is the right person to author a book on this topic, as he is a pioneering developer in Kotlin with around two years of experience in using the newly emerging language. Many developers who use Kotlin did not have a proper resource to refer to, or to self-train themselves in the field of reactive programming. Rivu wanted to change that. Upon being asked why he was motivated to write this book, he revealed, “I realized not many people use Kotlin, especially not with the reactive programming paradigm. I wanted to share my experience, knowledge, and skills with other programmers so that they can quickly learn how to develop programs written in Kotlin, using Reactive Programming.” What does the book cover? As most people are new to reactive programming, the book begins with the basic concepts of Reactive Programming and slowly moves towards asynchronous data streams. Usually, this is where even the most seasoned programmers feel stuck. After introducing the reader to general Reactive Programming concepts, they will be introduced to functional reactive programming, which helps programmers to apply what’s learned in practical use cases. It is at this level that the book helps Kotlin enthusiasts to create dataflow-based systems and RxKotlin library, both of which are necessary for reactive programming. The book also helps programmers learn how to manipulate time in data-flow and customize operators and providers. Further along, readers can learn more about the concept of asynchronicity and how they can use concurrency model to asychronicity that occurs within the code. Keeping applications scalable is one of the most challenging areas of programming, and this book helps programmers to use modular programming, which helps in scaling apps. Last but not the least, readers can expect to gain a fair knowledge of Springmicroservices, and learn to work with Spring 5 functional web framework and Spring boot 2. Also, this book will help Kotlin developers and programmers to create future-ready Android applications using a reactive programming paradigm. Reactive Programming in Kotlin covers the following concepts Extensive coverage of RxKotlin 2.0 and Reactive Framework Building future-ready Android apps using RxKotlin Learning to use Kotlin with Spring Framework 5.0 Working with reactor Kotlin extension Build scalable, reliable, and responsive Android applications in Kotlin Using Sping, Hibernate, and RxKotlin to build Rest APIs Test RxKotlin applications using test Subscriber Indus Net Technologies has been at the forefront of Kotlin and reactive programming revolution Indus Net Technologies has been a pioneer of sorts in bringing scalable, reliable, and efficient Android applications using Kotlin and reactive programming. Rivu Chakraborty’s book is a step in the same direction, of making this valuable knowledge available to other programmers and developers, in a mission to create a better development atmosphere. We wish Rivu Chakraborty luck and hope that his book achieves the success it merits. Reactive Programming in Kotlin is published by Packt, and is available in both print and Kindle versions. It probably makes sense to buy both the versions, as Packt is offering interesting deals. You can grab Reactive Programming in Kotlin on Packt’s website directly, or place an order on Amazon and other famous distributors.

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Hiring In a Post-Weinstein World : Blockchain to the Rescue

November 10, 2017

In the immediate aftermath of the Harvey Weinstein saga, human resource departments across industry verticals have had to deal with a tsunami of harassment complaints, leading to dismissals, compensations, and expensive lawsuits. Every hiring manager, whether at BBC or at a smaller organization, has asked the same question to themselves: “Why didn’t I learn more about whom I was hiring? How could I have avoided the embarrassment that my hiring decision caused to the company?” They could not have made a better decision anyway. Because they simply didn’t have access to verified and validated information about every candidate that applied. They probably had access to a one-sided, colored, and mostly favorable review of the candidate. If they had access to blockchain, they would have made better hiring decisions and avoided complex and unsavory situations. What is blockchain? Often described as a digital ledger, blockchain securely records every transaction, communication, or event that must be recorded and verified. Consenting parties contribute data to a shared network where a varying number of people record transactions in a ledger that only grow over a period of time. Once recorded in the ledger, information can never be altered or edited. Instead, blocks of transactions get stacked on top of one another in a permanent manner, with each block lending itself to be accessed by those who have the authorization to do so. Every block forms a chain with its preceding and succeeding block, thus validating the entire chain of blocks from the beginning of time to eternity. All these complex and encrypted recording of transactions take place automatically in the backend with the help of blockchain software. In other words, information stored in blockchain is literally indestructible. To tamper with information stored in blocks, a malicious entity will have to edit information on every computer where the block is stored, at the same time, which simply isn’t possible. Digital ledgers can be public, private, or semi-private. They can vary in size and may grant anonymous access or may not. How blockchain revs up the hiring process Blockchain technology has been around for many years now, and people usually associate it with Bitcoin. However, blockchain technology has many other important implications, especially in the hiring process. With every event that could influence a hiring decision recorded in blockchain, forming that perfect team gets so much easier. As a norm, hiring managers have depended on background checks, recommendation letters, references, qualification assessment authorities, etc., to access a wide range of opinions regarding a candidate. On top of these varied sources, a hiring manager also has to qualitatively evaluate a candidate during many rounds of interviews. BBC alone saw more than 25 claims of harassment after the Harvey Weinstein scandal kicked off. Somewhere, every hiring manager knows, if they had access to verifiable insight into a candidate’s character and conduct, all this could have been avoided. Blockchain not only helps you verify a candidate’s credentials and identity, it helps you evaluate his or her character and past conduct. As blockchain isn’t controlled or stored on a single server, data stored cannot be tampered with. Blockchain technology is all about transparence, made possible by decentralization of technology and distribution of digital ledgers across nodes. No block is stored only on a single computer but is rather stored on shared networks, which makes tracking and verifying each event and data so much more credible. In other words, a candidate cannot present only their most favorable reviews, while keeping unfavorable evaluations hidden. To put things in perspective, blockchain encrypts every verified document or event related to a candidate, right from the recommendation letters written by processors to certifications earned, appraisals in previous organizations, any legal issues, defining events in social media activity, and helps build a psychographic profile of the individual over a period of time, all backed by hashes stored in previous blocks. Clear benefits of using blockchain during hiring: Execute hiring contracts when certain conditions are met Conduct audits in a super-efficient manner Store and access verified files Use blockchain in combination with predictive analysis to foresee employee outcomes Use smart contracts to protect all your intellectual property, and prevent employee fraud and theft Track and analyze social media content Use distributed ledgers to develop and access universal digital identities Avoid expensive lawsuits and claims Create a safe working environment for the rest of your team Add value to your organization and team by hiring someone who will fit in Evaluate candidate’s compatibility with your work culture Between you and your candidate, there will be no middlemen Blockchain removes the need for middlemen and intermediaries, ensuring that information sought about the other entity is validated and guaranteed as “true” by blockchain technology. If you plan to hire a new senior-level manager for your organization, you can not only make sure that he actually got that Yale degree he claims to have, but also make sure that he did not bully someone at a job he held 10 years ago. As an employer, you will have access to his education, grades, conduct, and character, joining and exit dates at previous organizations, performance scores, etc. In other words, blockchain acts as an instant background check, especially when it can correlate events and information recorded in social profiles. For example, if you gain access to Blockcerts, you can immediately access verified and validated records of an individual’s qualifications. What makes blockchain truly remarkable is, you do not have to depend on just the quantifiable measures such as scores, certifications, and lack of criminal history. You can access qualitative information about a candidate built up over years, thanks to recommendation letters, appraisals, performance reviews, etc. Combine all this with predictive analysis and social media data, the sky is the limit. Build better teams, and a safer workplace In the end, blockchain helps you foresee whom you are hiring if they are fit for your team, and how you can reduce risks associated with hiring someone you don’t know much about. You

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