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Jan 10, 2025

Artificial Intelligence in Application Modernization: Key Benefits and Real-World Applications

In this digital transformation era, businesses face the constant challenge of keeping their applications relevant, efficient, and scalable. Legacy systems, while critical to operations, often become congested and hinder innovation and agility.   Application modernization is the solution, enabling organizations...

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How Big Data and Business Intelligence Help to Improve Customer Retention

How Big Data and Business Intelligence Help to Improve ...

Customers are a major component of any business. No one can claim to be running a successful business without the need for a strong customer base. But there is always competition in business. If you are lax in the delivery of services or begin supplying your customers with bad quality products, you will lose them to the competition. Client loss, however negligible, may have a negative general impact on the future success of the business. You need to understand them to retain your existing customers. Thus, will be able to deliver precisely what they want.

Therefore, businesses should strive to retain their customers at all costs. That’s not always simple, but the arrival of big data and business intelligence have made it easier for businesses to understand their customers and learn new methods to keep them coming back.

What is Big Data?

To understand big data, you first need to understand what data is. It is the quantities, characters, or symbols on which a computer performs operations that can be collected and transmitted in the form of electrical signals and recorded on magnetic, optical, or mechanical recording media.

Big Data is also data, but it has an enormous size. Big Data is a word used to define a collection of data that is huge in size yet grows exponentially over time. In simple terms, such data is so large and complex that it cannot be stored or processed effectively by any of the traditional data management tools.

What is Business Intelligence?

BI (Business Intelligence) is a collection of procedures, architectures, and technologies that turn raw data into meaningful information that drives profitable business actions. It is a suite of software and services that convert data into actionable intelligence and knowledge. BI has a direct effect on the strategy, tactical and operational company decisions of the organization. BI promotes fact-based decision-making using historical data rather than assumptions.

BI tools undertake data analysis and create reports, summaries, dashboards, maps, graphs, and charts which provide users with detailed intelligence about the nature of the business.

How Big Data and Business Intelligence Work Together

Statisticians and data scientists have relied on predictive analytics to help them make daily business decisions. However, Big Data has changed this whole scenario. More and more data continue to stream online and is incorporated into current Business Intelligence (BI), CRM, ERP, and other major business systems. This sets the customer’s single view into focus. Although most customer service and field sales officials have not felt the impact, some businesses are striving to see how that can come to play soon.

Big data has created a tool mostly accessible to line-level executives for cohort and regression analysis. This has helped executives use non-transactional data to make strategic and long-term company decisions. Big data, however, isn’t about to overshadow traditional BI tools. It will actually make BI a more valuable and helpful tool for many businesses. You will always have to look into the past to be able to predict the future, but with big data, you will have to do more than that. Business intelligence will never go away, but it will be strengthened by big data.

How can you understand if the results you are obtaining in the initial stages of exploration will actually bear out in the future? For instance, many women love high-heel shoes than conventional heel shoes. So, preliminary data analysis may suggest that more high-heel shoes sell better than conventional heel shoes, and that implies that high-heel shoes sell better.

This is, therefore, a correlation, not a cause. If you closely study historical transaction data collected from your business intelligence tools, you may understand that, for example, because retailers put high-heel shoes at eye level your recent marketing campaigns are paying off. Social media is always going to have its importance. It lets distributors understand how customers respond to specific products and which stores sell these products the most. Through this, retailers can stock the stores as per the customer’s response. BI and big data help you look at these trends and correlate your brand with geographic location and customer responses. Without this, you can miss a small window of opportunity to sell your products.

Initially, many decisions were based on historical data, and the trend may have already passed by the time it happened. But Big Data Analytics enables a thundering speed. This is achieved by integrating open source technologies, that is, the sources of big data platforms. Today, the cloud can readily capture and store big quantities of non-transactional data that was once not appreciated, or individuals had no clue how to handle it.

Unstructured Data Works as a Catalyst

Unstructured data is often seen as the catalyst behind big data. It hardly plays a role in this, however. Usually, this information is correlated with geographic data, integrated with flat files of existing structured customer data and adding streams from new sources. This allows you to understand how users of a certain social media platform respond to your product.

There are two things that happened to big data. It helps to bring in more data from distinct sources, and this data can be micro-optimized. For example, at the stage where this tactical business decision has to be taken, you can easily change behavior using tools like smartphones.

Reducing ‘Time to Answer’ Key to Big Data Analytics

The biggest benefit of this type of analytics is to reduce the response time. Data scientists now require the shortest possible time to respond to queries and models that took them months to build to answer.

Big data and business intelligence technologies have made it all possible as they enable information to be worked with before it is optimized, rationalized or re-rationalized.

Strategies for Customer Retention with BD and BI

So, what is customer retention? It refers to the actions and strategies that a company incorporates to attempt and maintain existing customers. To enable these actions, customer retention analytics provide predictive analytics from which customers may churn — which allows them to get ahead of it.

How to Use Big Data Analytics to Increase Customer Loyalty

Better Big Data Analytics enables to boost customer loyalty. You will be able to act on the insights you gain quickly, providing you the chance to satisfy the consumer’s needs easily. One can use big data to build brand loyalty and gain more business. Here are some of the big data strategies that your business can use to derive insights from customer satisfaction, drive customer loyalty, and become more competitive.

Remember, the customer is always first!

With the help of predictive analysis, big data can predict which customers may experience problems or any type of inconvenience with a product or service, so the customer service can contact them before they call customer service line themselves. This offers the business with several benefits as the service representative will have a good idea of what the issue is before contacting the customer, so they can come up with a solution quicker. It also prevents customer annoyance with the held and long call waiting on the customer service line. Finally, customers who may have switched products due to a problem may be tempted to stay because the organization is proactive.

Know what your customers need

Big data also has the ability to define the requirements of new customers, so companies can match new clients with the best product choice for them. For instance, an insurance company can use call center notes, insurance claims, and other behavioral data to predict what type of insurance policy would be the best suited for a new customer. Using big data to increase customer retention is indeed beneficial. By immediately matching new customers with the right policy, customers are less likely to have complaints or begin looking for a better match anywhere else.

Strengthen Customer Experience

All thanks to social media that social media many companies can have a more personal conversation with their customers, but that completely depends on customers getting on and interacting on a particular social media platform.
Did you ever imagine being able to synchronize what a customer thinks even if they’re not on the Facebook page of the company? You can! With big data, you get access to real-time data about what a customer is purchasing, clicking on, and talking about. Big Data Analytics enables businesses to have a continuous discussion with the customer through tailored landing pages, mobile apps, and advertisements.

Customized Offer is the Key

A contemporary customer wants to feel valued, so if in any case, they feel their demands aren’t met, they would go for other options. So with big data, you can access information such as each customer’s sex, place, and social data and enable marketers to send different offers to each person depending on their interests. Say a marketer utilizes location-based marketing to send an offer when a potential client is near a store. Instead of sending a generic promotional offer with Big Data, the marketer could send a unique deal with the bag, the person talked about on Twitter along with several other complementary product suggestions to go with it.

Reduce the Proliferation of Products

What most businesses do to retain customers and cater to new ones is by providing more product alternative. If businesses were able to limit their products to what the consumer actually wants to purchase, instead of attempting to provide everything to ensure sales, customer loyalty, and revenue would be much higher. It can be understood by the instance that all the choices on the toothpaste aisle, however, often leave customers overwhelmed, so instead of making a decision, they grab something that looks fine and get out of there. By evaluating the data found in customer transactions and inventory turnover, businesses can determine consumer preference, then narrow their product offering to what is most profitable. Companies that take the time to understand the need of a customer will see a tangible benefit over their competition as the product that the customer really wants will not be buried in all the other decisions.

How to Use Business Intelligence Analytics to Increase Customer Loyalty

Here are three ways in which companies can use business intelligence to better understand their customer base and promote customer retention:

Understanding Customer Behavior & Profitability

Business intelligence can deliver countless analytical capabilities for evaluating customer profitability, as well as the ranking and score carding customers across a number of fields including net profitability, month-to-month client results, and channel productivity. For example, BI software could be used to rank existing customers based on the timeliness, frequency, and value of their purchases. This provides the company with the capacity to better organize its customers into more targeted opportunities groups for up-selling and cross-selling. Micro strategies business intelligence ensures that their sales and marketing efforts are targeted at retaining and optimizing the right customers and attracting the right prospects with the right offers, whether it is an upsell to an existing customer or an incentive to attract new customers.

Predict Customer Wants

Business intelligence can facilitate company planners to enhance forecast accuracy and the overall scheduling process for sales and operations. For example, BI software can monitor order and order line fill rates so the business is ready to manage seasonal spikes and drops in orders. A high-end food and beverage manufacturer can use this data to store their online (and in-store) shelves with the right products at times when demand is highest. When a decline in demand is expected, the producer understands how to cut back on production and save inventory space for other products. Business intelligence software also helps businesses to set the outlier limit to eradicate past events that could influence future customer demand forecasts so that the data is more accurate.

Influence Customer Behavior

BI software encourages businesses easily plan, track and evaluate the success of their promotional activities to see what marketing campaigns/promotions your customer base reacts best. Marketing budgets can thus be shuffled and assigned to the more successful campaigns that generate the best possible ROI. For example, that same high-end food and beverage producer might like to track the effectiveness of a free shipping offer for the holidays versus the effectiveness of a 10 percent off coupon. What offer was used more frequently? What offer spurned clients to add more products to their online shopping cart? By comparing campaign companies ‘ actual outcomes with expected outcomes, they can “market” more smartly and better recognize opportunities to boost sales and growth.

Last Words

By developing customer understanding, building targeted and personalized product offers and picking the right retention audience, customer journey analytics can maximize your understanding of customer retention model and make better decisions about how to improve it. For even a better customer retention, every customer interaction should be differentiated on the basis of what worked in the past and what is predicted to work well in the future. Most importantly, it should be tailored to each individual customer and their distinctive customer journey.

Arpatech Website

Jul 11, 2019

Java vs. Kotlin: Which is the Better Option for Android App Development

Java vs. Kotlin: Which is the Better Option for Android...

The Kotlin community is expanding. Google acknowledged Kotlin this year, making it Android’s second official language. Android developers finally have the pragmatic and intuitive language they have been waiting for.

But the big problem before developers is whether they should learn Kotlin only or Java as well?

So, we’d recommend, if you’re a Java developer who wants to move into the profitable Android app development industry, then Kotlin is the answer! But if you’re a complete beginner who wants to learn Android development, then we’d suggest learning Java as well. Let’s dive deeper into the details of Kotlin vs Java performance and decide which side feels heavy.

 

Kotlin VS Java: Which Is Better for Android App Development?

There is no denying that Java has its place to compete, but with time we all need some advancement, so if we can find it, we always look for a better option. Each language has its pros and cons, with which you have to decide which language you can utilize well.

Java

Sun Microsystems developed the Java, an object-oriented programming language. And it is currently owned by Oracle. It was launched in 1991 and is such an old language; it has much more to offer to you. Even Java can offer you more job opportunities as you don’t want to develop android applications all the time. it can let you open your wings and fly to another field. Because Android itself is Java-based, mobile app development firms have always preferred Java over any other language. It becomes essential to see why Java is considered the first official language for Android app growth.

Kotlin

Kotlin launched in 2016, and at that time all developers need to have a modern language for Android development that can contribute to Java’s features and help in mobile development. JetBrains developed Kotlin, an open-source language based on JVM. It can be compiled and interpreted with Java due to its statically Java-based language. Developing Android Apps with Kotlin allows designers to readily update the old Java applications, and you can effortlessly carry their work from Java to Kotlin.

Pros and Cons

After the brief introduction of both the languages. Now, let’s take a look at what merits and demerits Java and Kotlin have in-store for you.

Pros of Java App Development

  • Java Android app development is easy to understand and learn.
  • Compatible with native cross-platform app development.
  • Android itself is dependent on Java.
  • Write it once, run everywhere. Java is the most versatile language. It provides developers the ability to reuse code and operate on various operating systems.
  • Java has a faster process buildup compared to Kotlin.
  • Java consists of an ecosystem that is mainly open source due to Google’s adoption of JVM for Android.
  • Java has a Gradle-oriented accelerated assembly and thus decreases overheads while developing big projects.
  • Java applications are predominantly compact and way too light compared to Kotlin. This is justified by the fact that Kotlin Development induces complicated structures that decrease overall efficiency.

Cons of Java App Development

  • Comparatively slow and require extensive memory.
  • Being verbose, Java Development has more code drafting demands and this accounts for bugs along with errors.
  • Limitations, as Java poses, lead to Android API design problems.

Pros of Kotlin App Development

  • Kotlin eliminates the induction of raw data types and leads to improved code.
  • Switching from Java to Kotlin is too easy and all you need to do is install your plugin.
  • It has no room for ClassCastException to minimize verbosity and leverage code security.
  • Smart expanded features to enable developers to build better APIs.
  • Brevity: Although readability is above precision, Kotlin still has the concision that Java Development lacks. It’s nature also decreases overhead development and is a bonus for all mobile app development businesses. Where a Java code requires 10 lines of code for calculator function, Kotlin requires half. In addition, Kotlin Development does not compromise comprehension while achieving brevity.
  • Interoperability: Right from the beginning, Kotlin developers concentrate on leveraging performance by enhancing existing knowledge and further inducing features that make it the top choice for all android software development companies. Simple modules drafted on Kotlin work seamlessly on Java codes. Moreover, the Kotlin compiler eliminates bytecode and fuses two languages in the same project.
  • Inbuilt Null Safety: Kotlin has inbuilt null safety. The renowned NullPointerException is mainly responsible for Android development errors. Android uses null to depict the absence of a value, but null can readily ruin an app. Kotlin solves this issue by integrating the inherent safety null. This addition saves developers from writing additional code to work around the problem.

Cons of Kotlin App Development

  • It induces complicated structures and thus decreases overall speed.
  • Auto-complete features are less efficient compared to the efficiency of Java projects.
  • Kotlin has a restricted community, so if you’re stuck with a bug, you need to take the pain to decode it all by yourself.

Will Kotlin Oust Java for Android Development?

Java is a reputable programming language with extensive open-source tools and libraries to benefit developers. With that said, there is no language without fault, and even Java is subject to complications that can render a developer’s job tedious. If anything, Kotlin will introduce solutions to prevalent headaches in programming and strengthen the Java ecosystem as a whole.

Over time, Kotlin has become a much more stable and congruous development alternative for Android Studio. Some developers also seemed to believe that in the coming years, it will oust Java for Android development. Other specialists see that Kotlin and Java coexist without one outweighing the other. For most, the strengths of Kotlin outweigh the setbacks of the language. There are definite constraints within Java that impede the design of the Android API. Kotlin is inherently lightweight, neat, and far less verbose, particularly when it comes to writing callbacks, data classes, and getters/setters.

In other words, it is specifically designed to improve existing Java models by providing solutions to deficiencies in the design of the API as android programming is based on Java programming language. Therefore, addresses numerous weaknesses of Java.

 

The Business Benefits of Switching to Kotlin

 

For a business, moving to a new tool is a well-thought decision; however, Kotlin app development services provide two indispensable business advantages that impact the decision.

Reduced Project Timelines – Kotlin’s brevity advantages imply that language can solve more problems with fewer lines of code. Its concise nature enables developers to read and adjust code more effectively, which can reduce the time-to-market of a project.

Less App Crashes – Again, Kotlin products use fewer lines of code than Java programs. Not only does less code decrease development time, but also fewer lines of code support maintenance needs. There is less surface area for bugs to hide, and improved language readability makes it simpler for designers to locate bugs, leading in fewer crashes and system failures.

Apart from that;

One of the reasons is the trust built up around Kotlin owing to Google officially supporting the language. This support will expand the Android app development ecosystem that will provide the companies with improved technical support and other capabilities. In the Android app development eco-system, Kotlin is all set for a promising future. The reduced development and maintenance costs of Kotlin projects are a big plus for any business. It has a plethora of great language features and offers brevity that guarantees greater performance with quicker turnaround time.

 

Who Is Using Kotlin in Their Development Environments?

Several leading organizations have already embraced Kotlin including:

  1. Pinterest
  2. Prezi
  3. Netflix
  4. Evernote
  5. Uber
  6. Corda
  7. Gradle
  8. Pivotal
  9. Coursera
  10. Atlassian

Some Help for Developers

 

Verdict

A comparison is always subjective. There are several factors and perceptions that matter a lot when we compare languages, frameworks, or tools. We know that Kotlin is based on Java and because of the influence of one on the other, you can’t easily compare these two languages. Many have embraced Kotlin and are enjoying tangible advantages from it, and there are developers who are stuck with Java in the development of Android apps. One thing is definite that Kotlin has the ability to substitute Java language, but it may take longer than we think.

When comparing Kotlin to Java for Android application development, two things are certain:

  • Java is not going anywhere, and it will be a long time until Kotlin phases it out entirely.
  • On the other side, android app development using Kotlin is here to remain and will become even more developer-friendly as time goes on. In particular, Atlassian, Pinterest, Basecamp, Coursera have all implemented the latest features of Kotlin in their mobile apps.

Arpatech Website

Jul 8, 2019

How to Build a Progressive Web Application with React JS Under Low Budget

How to Build a Progressive Web Application with React J...

Progressive Web Apps (PWA) reap the benefits of new technologies to bring users the finest of mobile sites & native applications. They are reliable, fast, and engaging. They stem from a secure source and load regardless of the network state.

Let’s Begin With ‘Why’ and ‘What’ of PWA and React JS

Have you ever seen a “Add to Home Screen” banner while scrolling a website? The “application” installs itself in the background when you click the button. When you enter this application, which is now in your app drawer, you can browse the same experience you’ve had on your browser, but right now in your mobile phone. What you now have is a mobile app that has been downloaded from a web application. All this without even seeing an app store’s face.

Getting the app was just that easy! But it’s not even the best part. When you open this app, you’ll be able to browse the content even if you don’t have internet. You have access to the app offline! What you’ve encountered is a Progressive Web App (PWA). It allows you to install the application from the browser window itself, is accessible as a native app on your mobile, and works offline, just like a native app. Progressive web apps are a hybrid of regular web pages (or websites) and a mobile application.

But what does it imply to be progressive for a web app? Let’s take a closer look at what progressive web applications are, why I believe they’re better than native applications, and what makes them unique from traditional web applications.

What is a Progressive Web App (PWA)?

Progressive Web App is not a new framework or technology. It’s a set of best practices to create a web application similar to a desktop or mobile application. The plan is to have such a uniform and seamless experience that the user cannot tell the difference between a Progressive Web App and a native mobile app. It offers user experience via progressive enhancement. It actually implies that a PWA will perform the same operations on a new iPhone 8 as on an older generation iPhone. Although certain features may not be present, the app will continue to work and perform as it should.

Why do we need PWAs?

Progressive web apps take advantages of latest web development frameworks and tools. There are multiple reasons why we need them today, but here are a few of the top facilities it provides:

Integrated user experience: PWAs feel and act like native applications. They sit in the home screen of a user, send push notifications like native applications, and have access to the functionalities of a device like native apps. The experience is streamlined and integrated.

Fast: PWAs provide consistently fast experiences. Everything takes place really quickly from the time a user downloads an app to the time they begin interacting with it. Since you can cache the data, restarting the app is incredibly quick, even without hitting the network.

Engaging: Since we can send notifications to a customer, we can really fuel the engagement by keeping the user notified and engaged with the app.

Dependable experience: With the help of service staff, even when the network has failed, we can reliably paint an image on a user’s screen.

What is React JS?

ReactJS is basically an open-source JavaScript library that is used specifically for single-page apps to build user interfaces. It’s used for handling view layer for web and mobile apps. React also enables us to generate reusable UI components. React was first developed by Jordan Walke, a Facebook software engineer.

It is a “declarative, efficient, and flexible JavaScript library for building user interfaces” as described by its creators. Simply stated, it helps you to develop a quick, easy and scalable frontend for web applications.

Why you should choose React JS?

Now, the main question arises that why one should use ReactJS. There are so many open-source platforms to facilitate the development of the front-end web application, such as Angular. Let’s take a quick look at the advantages of React to other competitive technologies or frameworks

  • Development efficiency – Less development time and higher quality
  • Flexible and easy to maintain
  • High performance of your app
  • SEO friendly – more visibility for your site
  • Open source with rich toolset
  • Easy transition to React Native
  • Strong community

How to Build a Progressive Web App Using React JS

Google has published a checklist of Progressive Web apps items. We will explain here four minimum requirements for building progressive web apps using React JS:

1. Web App Manifest

To make your application installable, you must include a manifest.json in the root directory of the application. You can think of it as a description of your request, similar to what you could submit to the App Store. It contains icons, a splash screen, a name and a description. We can write this manifest file ourselves or we can use tools to create one for us.

2. Register a Service Worker

Service workers are event-driven employees who work in the background of an application and behave as a proxy between the network and the application. They are able to intercept background network requests and cache information for us. This can be used to store data for offline usage. They are a javascript script that listens to activities like fetch and installs and executes tasks.

3. Icon

This is used when a user installs the PWA in their application drawer to provide an app icon. A jpeg image is just going to be fine. The manifest tool helps to generate icons for various formats, and are very helpful.

4. Served Over HTTPS

In order to be a PWA, the React JS web application must be served over a secure network. Being a safe site is not only a best practice, but it also defines your web application as a trusted site for users showing trust and reliability and avoiding middle-man attacks. SSL provides an additional layer of security to the web, helping your consumers feel safe when using your site. HTTPS is crucial for using service workers with PWAs and enabling home screen installation. You can buy an SSL certificate from your domain registrar at a little cost and then configure it through your hosting service.

5. Analyze App’s Performance

Performance is PWAs’ heart and soul. Your app should be speedy on all network conditions for customers. Caching and offline functionality helps a lot, but your application should be fast at the end of the day, even if the user does not have the browser to help service worker technology. This is the definition of progressive enhancement–providing everyone with a positive experience, regardless of device modernity or network conditions.

Top Market Trends of Progressive Web App (PWA)

 

 

  • Conversational Interactions

Jumping into the first trend, conversational interactions are gaining popularity as a way to interact directly with a device (not just mobile as a matter of fact), in fact, a user can actually talk with the app. But this is nothing new for the mobile – Apple, Amazon, Google and Microsoft have introduced this in their products for a long time, not too many developers are conscious that you can use a mobile phone’s microphone through the recent HTML5 framework. So, anything is theoretically possible and the amazing thing about conversational interactions is that you can use your app without even touching the phone. Which is useful in certain situations, this can be a valuable safety characteristic –for instance when driving. But it can also simply give an additional layer of usability. We expect to see these become a key component of how applications are used in the future.

  • Access Data Offline

More and more individuals want to use their applications offline for different purposes. It’s good for those who want to frequent an app, or perhaps want to save information, and even cut battery consumption that can be a real advantage in everyday life. This is possibly one of the greatest benefits of native applications and one of the mobile web’s biggest pitfalls. Progressive web apps builders have opened the doors to offline installation with nearly no friction. This is all feasible owing to the service worker that can be integrated in PWA’s to allow the entire app to function without an internet connection. This effectively allows for a frictionless offline experience and is something that will be implemented with each passing year for more and more internet applications. We expect more and more businesses to make the leap for a PWA to access this functionality–particularly those with less updated websites that are primarily static. One of the more common benefits that are not frequently addressed is the sheer size of a once-downloaded PWA – it’s minuscule compared to a native app, in fact, they take up 25 x less space on a device.

  • Multi-Channel Push Messages

Push notifications are a great way to market a company in the contemporary age. Multi-channel marketing is nothing new, but it is using multiple channels and push notifications is one of them. The only way to use push notifications so far is to have a native app, but with a PWA you can use push notifications in your marketing operations when attempting to reach your audience on a mobile. But mobile aside, with the latest web standards it is also possible to send push notifications to desktops with a web push notification. It allows you to truly develop cohesive marketing campaigns that reach your customer on whatever platform they might be on at various stages of their customer journey. Although relying too much on push messaging may frustrate customers, there is no denying that it is one of the most powerful tools in your marketing arsenal and it will continue to grow in popularity for many years to come as a key element of your marketing plan.

  • Touch Gestures

Touch gestures are becoming a standard for how customers on the mobile web should communicate with content. It can shape the way your content is experienced. However, if you want it to be effective, you need to be sure to get them right. A clunky touch gesture is so much worse than just not having it at all. But executed properly, it’s one of the best features around. Generally, keeping it simple is what works like keeping it as effective and user-friendly as possible.

How it Cuts Down the Cost of Development

As per a research, an average person spends 80 percent of his total time on applications on only three of his applications (for instance Chrome, Quora and Medium). For most of this time, the other apps are just sitting idle consuming a valuable portion of the memory. It also costs about ten times to create an app instead of developing a website for the same. The price can be much greater if you plan to create and keep distinct code bases for different platforms such as Android, iOS, and the web.

Here I will mention some of the incredible ways to build a progressive web app under low budget:

Readymade templates

How to reduce app development cost? Go for ready-made templates. As useful as building things from scratch is, it’s not very cost-effective. There are many templates available for use online and would fit rightly with any app. Use of ready-made templates will reduce the time and cost of the app development process.

UI/UX Simplicity

One of the strategies to reduce the cost of developing apps is to go for easy yet elegant designs. The simple UI design is particularly essential for new customers since adaptation becomes easy. Most applications and websites opt for a minimalist design that is greatly inexpensive to design.

Outsourcing

Hiring dedicated engineering teams and outsourcing the project to them remains an absolute favorite cost-saving strategy for both large and medium-sized businesses. The obvious advantages it brings include time savings, end-to-end service rendering, and access to big talent pools. Hiring experts would be a wise idea as they provide advice to reduce the cost of developing mobile apps throughout the process.

Minimum Viable Product

MVP or a Minimum Viable Product is a prototype of your mobile application that is still in the process of development. Typically, an MVP would involve basic functionality, user interface, and business logic. This can prove to be a perfect tool for businesses to test how the target audience will respond to the app they are preparing to launch for them. You can begin adding all those secondary features once you verify that the demand exists and start getting revenue. It not only reduces expenses but also ensures against possible failure.

Investing in PWA

If you are one of the growing startups and want to keep up with the pace of ever-changing technology then this is the high time to invest in the progressive web app framework. Here are a few factors that might motivate you to invest in progressive web applications.

  • Increase Reach – Google Chrome announced 1 Billion active monthly customers in just 4 years from its first launch. Growth is anticipated to be more than double in the coming years. Check out the recent information published by ComScore, which says consumers spend 2.5x times on mobile web applications versus the top 1000 native/hybrid applications.
  • Improved Conversion – Conversion is another important matrix that explains the real transactions made by acquired customers. Flipkart, AliExpress and other big players, have effectively used this strategy to move to the PWA and have seen massive improvements in their conversion rates.

For different platforms, PWAs do not require different versions. They cost much less to develop and maintain. Unlike native mobile apps, PWAs do not require installation and are indexable by search engines, leading to increased discoverability and fewer hindrances to adoption. PWA (Progressive Web Apps) development is cheaper and more effective. Thus, it is the best choice for your business to boost conversion rates.

Arpatech Website

Jul 3, 2019

How to Increase User Retention with Mobile App Onboarding

How to Increase User Retention with Mobile App Onboardi...

According to mobile app user retention rates from Statista, 55% of mobile app users will abandon an app one month after downloading it. That number grows to 68% after three months.  Today’s users will not even stick around to experience the app after downloading it. This means that user retention should be taken into account during the entire app design and development process, and should guide decision-making whenever possible.


So, What Is Retention Rate?

According to Google:

“A retention rate is the percentage of users that remain active on your mobile app after a certain period of time.”

Defining a good retention rate for the app depends heavily on the industry, client base, business model, and retention definition of the app. For some applications, retention is about recurring subscriptions. While for others, it is about one-off visits or purchases. Product teams should benchmark their retention in their industry against similar companies. For instance, retention of 33 percent is regarded outstanding in e-commerce.

For starters, here’s how we define retention:

Returning to the app at least 1x within 30 days

Switching the Focus from Acquisition to Retention

If you’ve been in the app world for a couple of years, you understand that acquisition was once regarded the most significant mobile metric. Mobile app marketers targeted on attracting as many new customers as possible to the app, touting a number of users as the greatest pillar of achievement. What people didn’t take into consideration, though, is the fickleness of these consumers, with 21 percent of them using an app only once. It is now increasingly obvious that we need to move beyond just measuring app installations and concentrate on in-app conduct to encourage engagement and retention with customer engagement ideas. But despite this revelation, too many brands have yet to move their mind away from acquisition to retention.

Simple Ways to Boost Mobile App User Retention

You might wonder what we have learned and what makes for an excellent retention rate. Although mobile is how customers like to interact with brands, brands are not delivering on experience, so consumers are churning. So how are we going to solve this? Take the opportunity of the strategies below that have been proven to have a positive effect on retention:

  • Get Easy On-Board

Your customers must understand your app’s value and for that purpose, you need to give them obvious reasons. It emphasizes the value proposition of the app; highlights key features and asks customers only about the information they need with clear CTAs. After an effective mobile app onboarding experience, you’ll witness app user retention rates boost by 50 percent.

  • Provide Useful In-App Messages

You receive an in-app message while you are using an application. They are critically important and also make it even easier for people to travel through the app experience. Plus, retention has been known to boost by 3x. Useful in-app messages will inform a user new features, highlight what is different, and share essential information, such as letting customers know about surge pricing within the Uber app.

  • Reach Users Beyond the App with Push 

Push notifications are an important feature as they are sent directly to the beloved home screen of a user, the stakes are high to get it right. Which implies having convincing messaging that is personalized to the user and pairing that with the latest push notification technology.

  • Provide People What They Are Looking for

App users want their interactions to be customized to their priorities, location and in-app behavior. In fact, a study found that personalized push and in-app messages performed significantly better than broadcast.

  • Predictive Insights

If you know in advance which of your customers are at risk of churning gives you an opportunity to redeem them. Mobile marketers should design extremely personalized messaging campaigns to re-engage these individuals before it’s too late and they have closed an app for good

  • Re-Engage with Lapsed Audience

Almost half of the iOS users opt-out of push messaging, making it really difficult to get them back in. So, what to do now? Remarketing. Approaching these individuals with a convincing reminder outside of your app — through email, social, or search advertisements — is an effective means to re-engage them. In doing so, be sure to leverage insights into their behavior, interests, and preferences to assure that you remain relevant. Such a user-engagement strategy will bring back the lapsed customers

  • A/B Testing is a Must

Through A/B testing identify which strategies — such as calls to action — are working and which are missing the mark. With these insights, you become smarter and more productive in deploying campaigns and help you concentrate on messaging and features that stimulate commitment and conversion. For instance, A/B test CTAs to check what help convince users to move through your main app funnels as well as different push and in-app offers to see which drive greater conversion rates. The more in-app activity and conversion activities a user has, the more they will visit the app.

  • Offer an Omnichannel Experience

Marketers make a big mistake when they do not integrate their app into overall marketing platforms. Due to which apps become isolated from the rest of the marketing strategy, leading to the user’s disconnected brand experience. Marketers should encourage and infuse their applications across channels to generate a seamless user experience — which converts into having a very sticky app, thereby boosting retention rates.

  • Make Data Your Guide

As with any channel, to be a real winner on mobile, you’ve got to lead with data. Which implies arming yourself with the ideas required to know how well you are retaining customers and how impactful your marketing campaigns are in shifting the needle. Having the right data insights will enable you to improve your user interactions, eventually leading in a favorable retention upswing.

  • Incentivize Users

Another interesting strategy for lowering the churn rate is to incentivize customers to remain with the app. Sometimes, all that users need to stick around is a reason to come back to the app. Things like gamification, rewards, or loyalty programs can be the difference between a lifelong customer and the simple afterthought of your app. Your app’s nature will dictate the sort of incentives you should roll out. For instance, if you’re hoping to increase in-app purchases, attempt time-sensitive discounts. Whereas if you operate under a freemium model, you can incentivize your customers for the period they spend using your app with usage-based benefits.

Last Thing

Although it may feel like customer retention and app engagement are difficult to achieve, hope is found in the fact that as consumers continue to demand better products, we will continue to grow to satisfy them. This is the way progress is accomplished by setting greater and greater objectives for ourselves. So, when you come up with your customer retention approach or work hard to improve your app statistics, keep in mind that you are only making the process better for future users. As Bill Gates says,

‘Your most unhappy customers are your greatest source of learning’

Retention rates are one of the greatest concerns for businesses developing an app. Acquisitions and downloads are crucial; however, the real success of the mobile app is evaluated by high retention rates because they demonstrate that consumers find continuous value using your app. We mentioned some good examples of customer engagement above. Following these best practices will not only drive user-engagement but will also improve user experience.

Arpatech Website

Jun 28, 2019

Staff Augmentation VS Managed Services: What to Choose?

Staff Augmentation VS Managed Services: What to Choose?

IT outsourcing is a procedure involving the delegation of components of a web-based application development process. Many outsourced services such as testing, coding, and design can be used in production, although outsourcing entails risks triggered by the client’s low degree of control.

 

That’s why a business decides on staff augmentation vs. managed services. Departments of information technology that need to introduce new projects will need to outsource them to fulfill their objectives as planned. IT outsourcing can be used to supplement the skills of permanent employees.

 

The two models used to strengthen the workforce include IT-managed services vs staff augmentation. They are two trusted alternatives that should be thoroughly evaluated and understood before selecting one that works well with the chosen projects to meet the goals.

 

First, we’ll give you a brief comparison like the description of both the models:

 The Orientation of Staff Augmentation

Staff augmentation developed from a need to tackle short-term resource constraints, budgetary pressures, and headcount requirements. This method served the organization greatest when skills were needed for immediate and short-term commitments. IT and operating executives used external resources to fill inner resource gaps while avoiding recruiting individuals in fixed roles. When the project was finished, the external resource would no longer be on the budget of the manager. Most of the short-term experts work remotely or from the augmentation Company’s premises, thus also reducing infrastructure expenses. In addition to being cost-effective, it prevents the undue burden and time wastage of going through a strict recruitment drive. Rapid growth in staff augmentation (ten billion of dollars worldwide) is due to various market factors, such as profusion of experts preferring to work as independents, continuously decreasing rates, seemingly never-ending marginal pressure facing most companies, and hiring-restricting corporate policies. However, staff augmentation, from a budgetary view, only works when the contract for an external resource runs for a brief period of time. The best feature of staff augmentation is the retention of the management of the additional staff by the parent company. This makes the temporarily employed professionals accountable to the parent company.

 

 The Orientation of  Managed Service Provider

Managed service customers look far beyond traditional outsourcing criteria or hiring short-term contract staff to get the long-term advantages they expect from a solution partner. The idea is to look beyond the initial saving plan and ask “what’s next.” A traditional managed services model enables an organization to outsource process management, activities, and delivery efficiently to reduce the complete expense of a business. Managed services are the additional assistance that saves your day. With managed services, you will be free from the necessary but time-consuming activities. You will be able to focus on the right people and resources on the right stuff. Your strategic measures will all take place while improving effectiveness and productivity. That makes the model an interesting long-term strategy. The pricing structure, based on regular monthly billing across service levels and volumes, rather than per diem charges connected with staff augmentation, guarantees that company expenses stay within the forecast. Reduced cost volatility encourages accurate and predictable budgeting. MSPs cope autonomously with projects and do not consult with the parent business on any decision. Both parties agree to formal commitments prior to collaboration. Following such agreements, MSPs function to perform their commitment according to their procedures.

 

Staff Augmentation VS Managed Services in Focus

Here is an in-depth view of the Staff Augmentation VS Managed Service Provider

  •       Pocket Friendliness vs Targeted Results

The first and most important difference between the two is the objective of the parent company.
Businesses according to their preferences pick any of the two models. Staff augmentation facilitates offers a capital-efficient model of staffing, considerably reducing operational costs. It is the best pick for the companies who want to expand their business scope while it ensures cost friendliness.  Moreover, the business has particular requirements go for Managed Services. These companies are partnering with MSPs and directing them towards a set of goals. MSPs then have discretion over the process to be followed to accomplish the specific outcomes. Staff augmentation, therefore, meets the cost reduction goal, whereas managed services encourage the fulfillment of desired results.

  •       Authority vs Discretion

Though both the models weigh equally heavy yet the second main difference between staff augmentation and managed services is the autonomy and discretion on the management and execution of the project. In the case of staff augmentation, the parent company holds a great position in the management of processes. Hence, the final call continues to remain with the parent company.

But if we talk about managed services, it includes the transfer of discretionary authority. In MSP, there is a shift of project autonomy from the parent business to the MSP. Management under staff augmentation is thus the responsibility of the parent business, while managed services transfer this duty to the MSP.

  • Flexible Recruitment vs Accountability

The two IT outsourcing models have different strengths and weaknesses. Staff augmentation enables the parent company to perform hiring procedure readily, i.e. on the go, taking into account the requirements of the project.  The flexibility provided in this model is also noticeable in the parent company’s ability to hire staff for short periods of time. On the other hand, MSPs emphasize their accountability to the parent company. MSPs, while undertaking any partnership, prepare a list of goals and objectives they commit to. Therefore, MSPs are responsible for all commitments and are also accountable for the timely delivery. Thus, these two outsourcing models meet distinct sets of demands. While staff augmentation provides a flexible model of supplementation with qualified experts, managed services guarantee accountability and are accountable to parent companies.

 

  • Short-term Relationship vs Long-term Relationship

Another point of distinction is the time span of their relationships with the parent company. Staff augmentation only have a short-term relationship between the service seeker and the provider. Most of this connection is transactional and short-lived. Once the parent company drills staffing assistance from staff augmentation companies the relationship reaches a hibernation period. The relationship is often resurrected when a new need for staffing occurs.

On the contrary, MSPs have a very close bond with the parent company. This relationship is based on mutual trust and sharing of information. The parent company is then reliant on the MSP for technical expertise and dissemination of information. The relationship between an MSP and the parent company for both partners is long-term and mutually reinforcing. Hence, staff augmentation has short term service provisions while managed services build a long-term relationship.

  •   Operational Scaling vs Project Scaling

Staff augmentation and managed service both have their own pros and cons when it comes to scalability. IT staff augmentation has the capacity to provide significant choices for project scaling in terms of the enhanced need for qualified professionals. Any additions to the present workforce are considerably convenient to meet the scalability requirements and demands. It does not, however, give any feasible solutions for scaling operations and sharing knowledge. On the other hand, managed services have the capacity to provide full consultation when it comes to scaling operations. In fact, adding duties to an existing project is simpler than incorporating a new task force. Despite the flexibility, the latter may be time-consuming in the event of continuous operation. Thus, the two models give different scalability alternatives, meeting diverse needs.

 

Downsides

The perfection of any model is accompanied by the disadvantages as well so let’s have a look at the downsides of both the models:

Staff Augmentation:

  • You may never find the ‘all-knowing’ team for a fair price, so it can happen that the augmented staff may need some extra expertise to accomplish any given task. And that needs education, which implies extra time and financing costs.
  • The businesses that use staff augmentation are only getting the resources. Preferably, the company gets resources of the top quality, but not the outcome. The company that uses the staff augmentation business model is fully liable for the development process and quality control, so the outcome is also the responsibility of the company.
  • If there are some weaknesses in the internal business procedures, the additional staff augmentation costs may damage each of the in-house team and the general workflow of the company.

Managed Services:

The downsides of managed services are somehow comparable to those associated with staff augmentation.

  • The vendor reliability is the first and primary risk in the managed services. Like outsourcing, the client puts his resources at stake, having no significant impact on the workflow. Recommendations and remarks from prior customers are the most secure fact that helps to prevent such risk.
  • Despite the inquiry for the complete execution of the work, responsibility for the result lies with the client-company. This means that compensation outgoings are also the responsibility of the client in the case of a shortcoming. In turn, expenses may exceed the cost of the contract.
  • The benefit of the managed service provider is the availability of rare abilities and/or technical facilities. Not all of these tools are so simple, inexpensive, and easy to get. The services of the skilled and experienced vendor will demand substantial costs. Of course, it’s comparatively cheaper and significantly quicker than if you’re doing this on your own, but the cost is still high, making it a major disadvantage when comparing staff augmentation vs. managed services.

Arpatech Website

Jun 27, 2019

What is Staff Augmentation and How it Can Help Businesses Remotely

What is Staff Augmentation and How it Can Help Business...

Staff augmentation is rapidly becoming a buzzword in the IT job market. Since the world is moving at a quicker pace, businesses might experience a new barrier to their recruiting route by hiring permanent employees to meet the company’s current and future requirements. The global market for skilled talent has been tightening for years. This often leads to endless months of recruitment procedures for positions including interviewing, testing, etc., which brings you back to square one.

A market for extremely qualified professionals is quite restrictive, so staffing difficulties have become a routine for many organizations around the globe. To overcome this challenge, staff augmentation is the solution. Designed to address business needs, it provides companies with experts with the right education, experience, and skill set.

What Staff Augmentation Actually Is

Staff augmentation is a way to contractually hire skilled resources instead of permanently hiring them. Simply put, you’re bringing highly skilled and qualified employees from a staff augmentation company to provide you with the edge to meet your project objectives. Staff augmentation as an industry buzzword helps businesses to grow their teams without any costs involved. Technical or non-technical resources function along with your internal staff throughout the duration of your project; in fact, they may also work from their workplace or home.

Knowing staff augmentation process flow helps you to evaluate your current team members, enabling you to decide whether or not to employ an external resource.

To keep things simple for you, we have precisely defined what staff augmentation is.

“An immediate solution to satisfy your adhoc & temporary staff requirement for a prompt turnaround of projects.”

Currently, staff augmentation services are a popular way to employ a dedicated workforce. In fact, Resource Augmentation/Staff Outsourcing /Resource Outsourcing / Project Outsourcing / FTE are almost the same concepts with miniscule differences in terms of execution, costing or legislations. Companies are now recruiting industry specialists via staff outsourcing to meet their aggressive project deadlines and requirements. It is flexible and viable for both employers and employees to indulge on a project-only basis. A resource engagement differs from a short-term to a long-term basis. To remain competitive in a diversified marketplace, you need top-notch talent that commands a strong grip on all market trends to stay head-to-head with industry best practices.

How Staff Augmentation Actually Works

Staff augmentation works almost like any outsourcing strategy that you may encounter. But still, it’s quite different. Here’s how.

Consider if you are going to onboard a resource from any staff augmentation business. Firstly, you need to fully explain your project along with its development and deployment phase. You are then needed to give the job description (JD) and resource expectations in terms of performance, working hours, duration, etc. After you have given the job details, the staff augmentation company ensures complete integration with your project. They will get you the greatest talent for that job available in the market.

How IT Staff Outsourcing Works

 

To make things clear, we have defined the process in brief steps:

1. Identify what you need

First, you need to understand who to look for before you start searching for applicants to join your team. You need to identify the precise number of individuals you want to employ and candidate specifications. These should include abilities, qualifications, years of experience, and so on.

2. Find & Review

Once you properly understand who you want to hire, the next step is to start the search process. Find and review appropriate applicants. Conduct interviews and have them pass tests to assure that they are suitably eligible to join your team.

3. Integrate new team members

It’s a mistake to assume that all the hard work is done once you’ve signed contracts with the new team members. The onboarding procedure is ahead of you, you should continue to support your new employees to successfully integrate them into your team. Throughout that time, they should meet other team members, learn your company’s main processes, procedures, values, and rules. They should get comfortable in the new workplace.

4. Support Persistently

After the integration phase, you must continue to provide ongoing support to your new staff. Picking up feedback and building potent relationships with them is essential to efficient cooperation.

How Staff Augmentation Can Help Your Business Remotely

More and more businesses are turning to staff augmentation in order to fit the time and budget constraints. No freelancers or in-house team can beat the benefits of staff augmentation.

 

 

Operational Efficiency

Some small companies incur elevated operating expenses, particularly during lean periods, with minuscule return on investment. Staff augmentation supports operational efficiency by enabling flexible work platforms. When businesses partner with supplying organizations, they do not have to bear the infrastructural expenses of constructing and conducting activities at a new place. The experts either work remotely or from the supplying companies ‘ workspaces. Despite remote work, staff is fully accountable to the employing company and its management. In order to minimize infrastructure expenses, the costs of operating offshore are considerably reduced.

Hire on the Go

One of the main benefits of staff is its flexibility. This enables companies to employ staff to meet short-term requirements. Companies can replace their permanent employees with qualified professionals for a specific period of time to fit the need of the hour. This efficient hiring prevents companies from incurring additional hiring expenses, such as employee provident fund and health benefits. On the contrary, it also provides professionals the flexibility to work on a project basis and only participate in projects of their choice and excellence. This creates a win for both parties, yielding mutual benefit. This fills the gap between professional skills demand and supply in a cost-effective and efficient way. Hence, staff augmentation serves the interests of employees and employers in a creative manner by enabling recruitment on the go.

Caters to Skilled Professionals

Staff augmentation as a means of short-term recruitment offers companies with access to a very large pool of qualified professionals. Permanent hiring restricts the ability of a company to leverage the available market talent. On the other side, it aims for greater hiring of millennials with extensive skill training. Its recruits are mostly domain-centric and hence the methods they carry to the ground are distinctive and useful. Moreover, it helps companies to interact with skilled experts who may not be in a financial state to hire on permanent roles but may benefit from their skills for a brief project. Thus, by allowing the hiring of specific skill sets, staff augmentation improves any company’s talent pool.

Cuts Down Overhead Costs

Extending the significance of the above point, staff augmentation guarantees a cost-effective means of leveraging from specific skill sets. Since experts are recruited for a specific project, the company does not have to endure the long-term cost. Hiring project specific recruitment enables businesses to pay for the skill only during the specified period. Furthermore, this skill-specific talent offers an edge over all competitive brands by adding domain-centered expertise to the operational framework. The existence of external talent also enables companies to reach larger markets by showcasing the pool of talent available to them. This brings the companies a double victory. First, they get access to an enormous talent at the fraction of a traditional recruiting cost. Secondly, this talent pool brings them a greater position compared to their competitors who lack such flexibility in hiring.

Expansion and Adaptation

Flexible hiring encourages companies to expand their operations on a trial basis without spending in a full-fledged workforce. Companies often aspire to ramp up their businesses and benefit from the prevailing market circumstances. The associated risks of failure and the drowning of investments, however, serve as an obstacle to such scaling. Staff augmentation comes to the support of such companies. By encouraging businesses to hire on a project basis to test their acceptability in the new industries, it opens new opportunities for firms desiring expansion. In addition to the expansion, such flexible hiring enables businesses to keep up with the changing market conditions. With new skills and capabilities obtained by millennials day after day, market demand is constantly evolving. Companies unable to react to such changes succumb to failure. Therefore, staff augmentation equips businesses with responsiveness. This enables them to respond to changing conditions by using project-specific workers to meet new standards.

Put Forward Contemporary Perspectives

Although it’s true that experience comes with age, the millennial generation has a lot to offer in terms of modern worldviews. Having a specific network of employees often results in a stagnation of opinions and thoughts for business development and growing revenues. The newly evolving enterprise demands often call for innovative means to achieve results. Accordingly, staff augmentation encourages companies to participate with the outlook of a diverse set of experts than to operate time and time again with a box of recycled thoughts. Project-specific hiring provides companies with the capacity to leverage new concepts to propel their operations.

Sustained Authority

While businesses leverage from hired professionals, they still keep control over their job and management. In contrast to project outsourcing where the entire work of a project is transferred to an external unit, staff augmentation assures that only the human resource is obtained from an external agency, while the management is still in hand. This management control helps companies to retain a stronghold over their projects and shape them in any required manner. Project outsourcing often leaves parent businesses out of any say in project management and execution. It helps prevent this aberration by allowing parent companies to remain in charge of the final call.

Conclusion

Software development staff augmentation has moved beyond its inception stage. It is readily identified as an alternative staff outsourcing model. Companies benefit from this flexible recruitment by leveraging professional competencies with extensive skill sets in a cost-effective and productive way. It stands as an effective bridge guaranteeing an ideal pathway of talent for companies that are available for a specific time period.

Arpatech Website

Jun 25, 2019

How Custom Mobile App Development Benefits Your Real State Business in 2019

How Custom Mobile App Development Benefits Your Real St...

The real-estate market is full of competition. You attempt different approaches to get ahead of your competitors. There are multiple benefits to native mobile app development. You may be able to enhance your service, attract real estate agents to your website, and add new offers. Another thing you could attempt is to build a mobile application and create value that your competitors can only dream of.

 

Just a few decades ago, buying a house or finding an apartment for rent people traveled to real estate companies as they only had access to various listing services. Or people were forced to count on newspapers. How’s things going now? The Internet has pioneered the hunting of real estate beyond what one can imagine. In our daily life, a mobile phone is as much a necessity as the air we breathe. A mobile device is more than just a computer, it’s always with the user. According to Statista, the number of smartphone consumers globally today is about 2.5 billion, and the trend is that this amount is increasing year by year. Everything is moving towards digitization and many professionals need to adapt to these changes. Sometimes to increase profit and sometimes to continue professional activities at all.

 

There are many reasons to use mobile apps in a real estate company. People no longer have to purchase the newspaper to find a home or apartment; all they need is an internet connection and house purchasing applications.

 

Let Us See Why a Real Estate Business Needs an App

 

The customer has no time- Many customers lack time and cannot wander around searching houses.

Lack of information- Conventional way of hunting for a property includes asking friends and family members. Usually, customers consult people around to discover comfortable yet well-built home for themselves. However, this idea does not always work.

Budget-Several people don’t get houses in their budget, and that’s the reason why they use real estate applications. How to discover the right location in the budget and that as quickly as possible? Without mobile apps for real estate, it is not possible. Moreover, real estate agents charge a fair quantity that adds to the price.

 

Reasons Why Creating Real Estate App Is Beneficial For Your Business

Gone are the days when people had to use a phone book or newspaper to look up a business. To keep up with the emerging market requirements of small and medium-sized enterprises, businesses must adapt to the worldwide mobile movement. The bottom line is that you need to have an app for your business to the boom where the real estate sphere is no exemption. Developing a mobile app for your real estate sales company can bring multiple advantages and ROI to you like never before. In fact, there are some best free apps for small business owners to try. Even the app development cost for small business isn’t as heavy on pockets as it is assumed.

If you need more convincing, here are five reasons why your real estate sales company will begin to achieve more advantages with a mobile app.

 

Provide customers with a remarkable value like never before

Aside from boosting your online presence and extending your marketing reach, your mobile app can do so much more. It can add or generate value for your customers and give your business a positive impression, which in turn will translate into a good ROI. Imagine a useful app where your customers can maintain all their favorite properties in one place, revisiting them when they are willing to make a decision. In addition, having a mobile app opens up the opportunity for customers to interact and communicate easily with your business— making it more valuable to them.

A great idea is to add a booking feature to your app. This is where customers can book appointments through a built-in booking form and where you can set availability to customers.

Your mobile application can directly translate into better sales, enhanced consumer perception and general healthier customer experience.

 

Build your brand

You don’t have to spend heavily on advertisements any longer as creating a helpful mobile app alone can boost your brand’s awareness and allure tremendously. An app with satisfying features is enough to fascinate your crowd. It even works better as a marketing tool than setting up a costly billboard — just go and create a functional app, and you should be great to go.

Apps offer your brand more presence than your website can because, unlike a browser bookmark, your app is always noticeable on people’s mobile screens — this contributes to customer loyalty as your business is always in front of them and just a tap away.

 

Connect better with customers

Interaction is a huge component of every company, particularly in real estate. And an app will be useful for that. Your mobile app can be used as a system for providing customer support and is an outstanding way to encourage individuals to contact you or offer feedback. Mobile apps are the solution to increased customer satisfaction and loyalty. They are the gateway for your customers to communicate with your business or buy your real estate services. If you are unreachable, you tend to lose an important number of high-quality leads. Imagine sending targeted push notifications to a group of users when new listings become available. This kind of strategy will immediately quadruple the number of leads you will receive! A mobile app allows this kind of reach.

 

Stand above the competition

A mobile app for your company will assist in distinguishing you from your competitors. While some of your competitors choose not to take advantage of the power of mobile apps, you can use this efficient communication and marketing tool to capture a bigger part of the estate market. With a full proof digital marketing strategy, you will be able to create a customer experience that will offer prospective home buyers or sellers value, and a run for their cash to your competitors.

 

More accurately target your market

It has now become easier and quicker to target important clients with location-specific and time-sensitive messages through mobile apps. This type of strategy will help you reduce your expenditure, narrow your focus and deliver targeted advertisements to customers at the right location and moment. Furthermore, your mobile app can provide you with valuable customer information through an in-app data capture form. It can include their demographics, geographic locations, and preferences that can assist you fulfill individual requirements. You could also use GEO listings where you can feature location-based properties in specified categories. GEO tagging enables users to discover nearby properties. Because you market more directly, you will be able to provide helpful data and filter out only the highest quality leads.

How Do Real Estate Applications Make Money?

Here are certain ways through which real state mobile apps can make enough money.

  • Subscription Fees for Featuring on Application

Users can purchase monthly or annual packages to be mentioned on your application. The best option here is to provide a free trial period, so a person can see if this model is suitable for their needs. If yes, they may choose to upgrade the subscription for a certain payment.

  • Charge Fees to Sellers

Real property applications can earn by charging fees to sellers. Property owners who exhibit their property information have to pay the app development company a certain price. The charges may be on a monthly basis. The fee is determined from the type of land/property. Commercial property has to pay different fees. Residential properties must pay separate charges.

  • Sell Advertisements

Your real estate website may also sell advertising space to various companies such as mortgage lenders, interior designers, contractors, distributors, and insurance experts. For instance, Zillow takes charges from mortgage lenders based on price per click or price per thousand impressions.

  • Fee for Additional Valuable Features

Another option is to charge for such extra features as realtors analytics, notifications, online booking, etc.

  • Employ Virtual Agents

Virtual agents are individuals who promote the services of your real estate website with the assistance of various tools. The virtual agent is responsible for submitting estate owners ‘ names and phone numbers. After that, the unique advisors will contact them. If these individuals place their listing on your app, a commission will be given to the virtual agent who introduced them.

Tools and Latest Features to Add to a Real Estate Mobile App

 

A mobile application helps you make the most of the functions available for the smartphone, covering tasks that need to be resolved quickly on the go. There’s no reason why you shouldn’t boost your real estate business with app. Here’s a short summary of the features that the finest real estate applications should have.

  • Interactive Map feature

The mapping technology enables you to see the entire image of listings in the area while driving around or sitting in a chair. Commercial real estate applications and various listing services such as Trulia and Zillow use GPS-based search technology to demonstrate which properties are for sale or sold in a certain geographical area. With this feature, the real estate app makes home searching very simple.

  • Using the camera of a smartphone

This function enables you to create floor plans rapidly by moving your phone around the room and using the camera. Viewing 3D space, editing floor plans in a single tap, adding objects, furnishing home-this is a treasure trove for real estate agents. Another way to use the camera in real estate agents and buyers applications is for search, e.g. in HomeSnap where you can take a picture of any house with your smartphone and check estimated value, number of rooms, interior pictures and other information.

  • 3D VR tours

VR technology is an incredibly helpful offer in the real estate sector. Apps with VR tours allow individuals to look around a home without having to visit it in person, which saves a lot of time and enables them to see more properties with less effort.

  • Signing documents online

When it comes to having documents signed, which realtors have to do continuously, the electronic signature function app is the quickest way to do it on the go. It’s also good to have an app that can link to cloud facilities like Dropbox, Evernote, Google Drive to import and save files, monitor their status, and send reminders.

  • Mortgage calculator

A realtor’s app that can provide accurate information on mortgage rates and payments is the ideal tool when a real estate agent wants to find out the cost of the home or determine which loan is more appropriate for the client. Zillow’s mortgage calculator is a good illustration of this function that may function.

  • Keeping real estate team organized

CRM and realtors task management applications can increase the productivity of your real estate team. With such an app, you can see what each agent is working on, sends notifications about new leads to each team member’s phone, set to-do’s and schedule reminders.

  • Push Notifications

Push notifications obtain two most significant objectives. First, they retain customers and remind them of your app so that they use your application more frequently. Second, they enable you to reach users and alert them of important events such as:

  • Price modifications
  • New properties in an area
  • Any property updates.

Push notifications must be customized: send only relevant messages that will add value to customers.

Summing Up

Creating your mobile app is among the most rewarding solutions for gaining an edge over your competitors. There are various best platforms available in the market for building a mobile app and they offer negotiable app development cost for real estate. The successful launch of your mobile app puts you at the cutting edge of the property market, retains customer loyalty and, overall, increases the quality and quantity of the sales lead you can produce. If you decide to develop a custom mobile app with more flexibility and features, you can reap better benefits. With innovative thinking, focusing on targeting the needs of your users and solving potential problems, an app can go a long way to achieving your business goals.

The idea is that the real estate company should strive for development to persist on the wave of new technologies and respond to developments that can make it more effective. While websites have become the norm for home searching, a real estate app opens up enormous possibilities and can push your enterprise to a new level.

Arpatech Website

Jun 19, 2019

Android or IOS: Important Features for Healthcare App Development

Android or IOS: Important Features for Healthcare App D...

Overview & Guide to App Development for Healthcare

 

Technology is gradually transforming every venue of your life, beginning with how you wake up to how you live longer. Technology controls your food habits, fitness habits, and even your lifestyle habits. Many of you tend to rely on technology to perform menial tasks that would otherwise take more time. With technology-oriented solutions, productivity has been enhanced.

 

Among others, the healthcare industry is implementing digital technologies and using mobile devices for the development of healthcare apps. MHealth (refers to mobile health) is a general term used for the application of mobile technologies and devices (smartphones, wearables, tablets) in medical and public health practice. The development of mobile apps for healthcare provides several benefits.

 

Imagine that in 2017 around 3.7 billion apps were downloaded offering mHealth mobility solutions. The heavy use of smartphones and smartwatches has contributed even greater growth to the mobile health consumer app market. Moreover, FDA cited that by 2018, 1.7 billion smartphone users will adopt mobile apps for healthcare. Therefore, this is certainly the right time to develop mobile apps for healthcare.

 

How to Design and Develop a Mobile Health Application

 

The use of technology to improve healthcare in amazing and meaningful ways is an advanced task that requires cooperation and participation from various parties. Best healthcare app development ideas need to undergo medical and ethical analysis after presenting a proposal to the development core. Design and development must adhere strictly to all regulations developed and enforced by laws protecting critical health information in order to prevent data breaches.

 

To build a successful medical mobile app, the patient’s best interests should be a primary concern. Effective medical apps must be developed in a way that they can be easily adopted, and developers should understand that the ultimate goal of any app is to assist its users.

 

Present State of Healthcare Mobile Apps

 

Consumer tests conducted in the U.S. report that a quarter of adults in the U.S. are using one or more health tracking apps and a third of physicians have suggested an app to a patient in the previous year. Internationally, around a billion smartphone users consume a health or wellness app, and this stat is predicted to triple in the coming years.

 

App stores already have over 165,000 health apps and as this innovative technology-enabled type of healthcare continues to grow, hospitals and other relevant stakeholders have started developing medical mobile apps to offer patients new, more helpful ways to effectively collect and share health-related information.

 

Not all of these digital interventions are successful, however. Due to poor user experience, confusing user interfaces, and unsatisfying functionality, many medical mobile apps do not live up to customer requirements.

 

To create an incredible mobile app for patient care, it is important to understand where the development of hospital apps has so far failed. The primary weaknesses of many apps currently on the market are:

 

  • An unclear structure which does not resolve a particular problem
  • Low user-friendliness
  • Absence of clinical inputs
  • Refusal to comply with strict privacy regulations and security practices

Latest Must-Have Features of Healthcare Mobile Apps

 

We have observed an enormous level of growth in the healthcare industry over the past few decades. Thanks to mobile healthcare apps which not only refined our health-related needs but also helped us to maintain our health effortlessly with just a few clicks. The constant evolution of the mobile healthcare app’s operating capabilities has brought about a huge improvement & progress in the healthcare unit.

As according to Statista, it is being predicted that;

“Digital health market is expected to reach 206 billion U.S. dollars by 2020 specifically by mobile and wireless.”

 

 

So, if you are developing a healthcare mobile app, include these features in your app. They will ensure the success to your app:

 

Blockchain – Healthcare transformation

 

The blockchain is a leading technology that has not only transformed the fintech industry, but has also changed the world the of healthcare industry. Incorporating Blockchain technology into the mobile healthcare app will leave patients with decent & synchronized healthcare ecosystem and assure high-end security & confidentiality for patient data. Blockchain actually works efficiently on the established cryptographic network that establishes a secure supply chain to secure it from any fraud. The robust & protected Blockchain network will surely take safety & security of the mobile healthcare app a step ahead of user expectations.

 

Telemedicine Services

Long appointments for hospital visits or doctor meetings are the big concern in the healthcare industry. This scarcity of medical healthcare facilities often gives rise to health deterioration. But Telemedicine has addressed this concern extensively. Telemedicine is an innovative feature which takes the app’s functionality a step ahead. This feature helps ensure a network for patients & doctors in which they can easily manage their doctor visits & appointments through remote communication. It is the latest healthcare mobile apps trends.

 

With the help of this technological feature, doctors can look deeply through mobile devices to their patients without any visit. Now the patient can be diagnosed with their sickness through a video call process. Telemedicine helps patients receive medical attention from their doctors without visiting a hospital or clinic.

 

Data Security for Healthcare Apps

The greatest concern typically arises after installing or using the healthcare app on mobile phones is data security. Being a healthcare mobile app development company, you must ensure that your patient has complete data security including personal information, login credentials, financial data & credentials, and much more. In this respect, the latest mobile health apps are constrained by specific rules and regulations that help companies protect patient data. The high-end operating capabilities of mobile healthcare apps are always focused on data encryption and risk management. A highly secured app will thus provide doctors with accessibility in a secure manner.

 

Healthcare Cloud-Based Solution

The introduction of mobile healthcare apps has made the complex process of visiting a doctor, advising on health issues an easy task. Thanks to cloud-based support from the mobile apps. Cloud computing services not only enable patients to access information anytime and anywhere but also provide them with various benefits. Like, Electronic records via which cloud computing healthcare assistance guarantee’s an easy and synced archive of patient records and medical images. Through Health Data Analytics, you can easily track data in the cloud with more personalized care. And with Simplified communication cloud computing helps to store data, mobile devices or any healthcare app that supports cloud computing will speed things up and ensure streamlined communication even at a distance. Among the best ideas for healthcare apps, cloud-based solution are the best ones.

 

Connecting Wearable Devices

The year 2017 left us with several notable technological development & ideas that are still dominant in the digital & health industry as well. One of them is IoMT (Medical Things Internet), this is essentially a process of connecting your devices over the internet. This concept of a connecting device over the internet has introduced a new device in the digital space that is ‘Wearable Device.

 

The higher number of audiences agree that wearable devices such as fitness bands & activity tracker have enabled them to care for their health concerns seamlessly. These devices automated their health-related issues without going heavy in their pocket. Several technically graded wearable devices and mobile apps include high-end operating features that quickly monitor significant issues including heart rate, blood pressure, sugar level, and much more. Moreover, it provides a seamless medium where medical reports can be readily available anywhere, anytime.

 

Types of Healthcare Apps

 

There are 7 different categories under which mobile apps for health care fall into. Although there may be more types, here we will put the emphasis on the main parent categories and see how each of them works.

 

1. Emergency/Urgent Care Apps

These apps prove to be extremely useful in emergency situations. Offering patients and general consumers with information including the location of the nearest clinic or hospital, directions, estimated travel time and waiting time, and physician availability at that location, such apps help patients hit the right hospital as quickly as possible.

 

2. Medication Tracking Apps

This kind of apps motivates patients to follow their prescription regimen by tracking their doses, time intervals, meals, and reminding them to take medicine timely. Such medication tracking apps also prove to be among the best and most useful healthcare apps.

 

3. Apps for Maintaining a Healthy Lifestyle

Apps falling into this category tend to help educate patients, keeping them on schedule with a pregnancy tracker for appointments and care. Put it simply, this category includes health apps for pregnancy and baby development, diet monitoring apps, healthy nutrition, exercise manuals and fitness tracking apps.

 

4. Doctor Related Apps

Such apps are intended for those directly involved in the healthcare industry, including hospitals, independent physicians, and other healthcare professionals. Doctor apps are designed to store patient-specific information, offer good access to medical records, pharmaceutical recommendations, and pill prescriptions depending on the patient’s current health status.

 

5. Women’s Health and Menstruation Tracking Apps

These apps are available specifically for women, enabling them to schedule appointments with doctors and obtain information related to the menstrual cycle, pregnancy, fertility, breastfeeding, child care, etc.

 

6. Medical & Diagnostic Assistant Apps

These kinds of medical app features generally offer additional access to personal health records, including electronic charts review, digital imaging (X-Ray), laboratory test details and results, and information about specific symptoms.

 

7. General Hospital Apps

Hospital mobile app features can highlight branding and messaging. This sort of healthcare apps typically includes hospital information, hospital virtual tour, list of doctors and their availability, types of health services offered, and waiting lists for ER.

 

Cost and Time Estimation for Healthcare App Development

 

You must be wondering how much does it cost to develop an app for healthcare?

A health or medical app’s price will depend greatly on the nature of the app and the number of hours spent developing it. The time and healthcare apps cost for every medical app development company offering medical app creation services differ. Making a mobile health app for Android will approximately take 40-50 days, and developing an app for the iOS platform will require the same amount of days. It will take about 20-25 days to design both operating systems.

 

As for cost estimation, the cost will vary depending on the requirement and the complexity of the app. If you want our help with developing a mHealth app or personal healthcare app for your concept, we’re all pleased to provide cost estimates for your project. Contact us and we will get in touch with you within 16 hours. The consultation is completely cost-free.

 

Why Mobile Apps are Beneficial for Healthcare Businesses?

The technology advances & innovations undoubtedly put a stop to the endless lines in the hospital hall, patients’ desperation to get inside the doctor’s chamber, and hurdles to arrange diagnostic tests that require proper monitoring of past health conditions. Mobile healthcare apps devoted entirely to multiple categories including emergency care, healthy lifestyle and fitness, general hospital appointment, clinical and diagnostic consultants, and medication tracking not only disrupt the delivery of healthcare but also help clinicians/physicians to take proactive decisions.

 

Here are the top benefits of using mobile apps for healthcare businesses:

Great Blessing in Remote Regions

We are living in the internet era today where smartphones are reaching every nook and corner, individuals living in rural areas can also expect to get the best health services. Healthcare apps assist them to make an appointment with doctors and purchase medicines directly without having to travel to the hospital. Moreover, they can also get information about important healthcare tips from time to time through push notifications.

Boon for Doctors and Medical Staff

Healthcare apps have become a boon for hospital-associated doctors, nurses and various other medical staff. The apps help to update doctors about their patients’ health condition. Indeed, even the doctors ‘ prescription has been digitized, which means it can be accessed on your device. It helps medical professionals to examine all your reports through the app, making it much easier to make quick and appropriate decisions in emergency cases. The information can be traded within no time. The apps adequately prepare a customized approach to treat each patient as every ailing person needs special care.

Decrease the Risk of Misdiagnosis

Any flaw in a patient’s medical diagnosis can cause severe damage to a patient’s health condition. Mobile healthcare apps with intelligent diagnostic functionality can minimize error rates and provide drug predictions. The feature is not constrained to accurate diagnosis, but also help physicians to use cloud-based mobile applications to store patient records. Hence, errors resulting from poor deduction from patient history or mixed/missing records can be minimized to a great extent.

The Rise of New Business Models and Opportunities

It’s not that the healthcare apps showed their special emphasis on doctors and patient, but it also offered new business models and opportunities. The medical staff no longer use outdated practices, but instead mobile apps for making referrals. This is essentially a referral management system based on the cloud. They can also write resourceful referrals, which in turn affect healthcare organizations to digitally promote themselves through the upsurge in patient information.

Recently, the healthcare industry’s exposure has extended and become much diversified by leaps and bounds. People install healthcare apps for multiple purposes such as weight reduction, women’s health and pregnancy care, elderly healthcare, etc. which opens up new vibrant opportunities in the process.

Hassle-Free Payment of Bills

Before the introduction of healthcare apps, paying for medical expanses wasn’t that easy. You don’t need to stand in a queue to pay the bill; but with a highly secured payment gateway integration, the app is supported allowing users to pay the amount swiftly. In fact, you may also pay your bill on time and select a payment plan accordingly. If you forget to make the deposit, you will receive a notification as a reminder to do what is necessary.

There are other payment options, such as paying by debit or credit card or using online banking in addition to the mobile wallet app.

Arpatech Website

Jun 1, 2019

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