As businesses try to adjust to the new normal, many will be looking to technology to help them move forward. Digital transformation trends can give enterprises a competitive advantage but investing wisely means keeping abreast of innovations and up-to-date with trends and developments. To help, here are some of the main digital transformation trends keeping boardrooms excited.
Analytics
Analytics has transformed the decision-making process, providing data and insights that help businesses identify problems, opportunities and solutions. The vast quantities of data available for analysis, including real-time data, means companies which don’t make use of it are at a serious disadvantage. It has applications in all areas of business: procurement, operations, logistics, marketing, communications, security, finance and HR; and with sophisticated analytics tools easily deployable in the cloud, it’s becoming much more widely used.
AI and machine Learning
AI and machine learning trends are the ideal partners for data analytics and enable businesses to do much more with their data. They speed up analysis, automate large scale processing in the scalable cloud and remove the bottleneck caused by human analysts. They also learn and adapt from previous analyses while providing results in user-friendly, easily digested, graphical interfaces that non-IT staff can make sense of.
5G
While the consumer generally sees 5G as a way to improve smartphone c
onnections and speed up downloads, the deployment of 5G infrastructure will have a much wider impact that many businesses can benefit from. It will, for example, hasten the development of IoT infrastructures, such as smart cities, intelligent transport networks, smart vehicles and smart industry. At the same time, we’ll see a wider range of connected devices, making it easier for businesses to take advantage of the IoT and the valuable data it generates.
Wi-Fi 6
The next generation of wi-fi, known as both Wi-Fi 6 and AX Wi-Fi, provides up to three times faster processing and wireless connection speeds. Even better, it enables networks to handle far more connected devices, which is helpful considering the proliferation in wi-fi enabled gadgets being used in the workplace and the increasing amounts of data they send and receive.
Although it’s often associated with cryptocurrencies, blockchain has many valuable uses in businesses, such as tracking the origin and movement of goods in the supply chain and providing financial audit trails. It has applications in healthcare, real-estate, media, energy and local government and can be used for a wide range of purposes.
The reason for its increased use lies in the number of service providers, including Amazon, Microsoft and IBM, who are developing subscription-based ‘blockchain-as-a-service’ platforms and thus making it easier for businesses to put it to good use.
Robotics and automation
There is a historical pattern of businesses shifting towards automation in response to a recession. Following the 2008 crash, for example, 25% of supermarket checkout assistants in the UK were replaced by automated self-service checkouts. The crisis following the 2020 pandemic is likely to see the pattern repeated, however, with more advanced robotic processes and AI interfaces available, more skilled workers could see the brunt of redundancies. Where roles aren’t completely replaced, workloads may be reduced, enabling existing staff to be upskilled.
Connected transport
Although this is only happening on a small scale at the moment, automated and remote-controlled transport is already taking place. Drones are being used to ship medicines to remote Scottish islands, restaurants and supermarkets have been using automated robots, developed by a Cambridge company, to make local deliveries during the lockdown and the UK coastguard has just announced plans to use drones to assist with coastal searches.
Expect to see these technologies becoming more widely available and, thanks to 5G, being put to uses in more places. Many businesses can take advantage of these technologies, helping them deliver products and services quicker and without the need for a third-party delivery company.
Customer experience
According to a survey by Adobe, senior executives see customer experience as a bigger priority than investment in new products and services as it offers significantly more opportunities for growth. The key areas where development will take place are in omnichannel shopping, personalisation and frictionless payment, with technologies like data analytics and AI providing the insights needed to deploy these in the way that customers will appreciate.
By enhancing the customer experience, brands can develop both loyalty and trust. As a result, customers will engage more, share their needs and give feedback, enabling companies to develop their products and services in response.
Conclusion
Digital transformation not only affects all sectors; it also has an impact on all aspects of a company’s operations. Those that adopt and utilise the technologies mentioned here can reap the enormous benefits they offer. Being able to make use of these technologies, however, requires companies to make use of the cloud, as it is here where they are most easily and affordably accessible.
At Google I/O 2017, Google introduced new architecture components for Android. It is a new library which will help developers to maintain their activities or fragments lifecycle very easily.
This new library by Google provides some relief to the Android Developers by providing a complete solution to problems like memory leaks, data persistence during configuration changes and also helps in reducing some boilerplate code.
There are 4 Android Architecture Components :
Lifecycle
LiveData
ViewModel
Room
Lifecycle
Lifecycle class helps us in building lifecycle aware components. It is a class which holds all the information about the states of an activity or a fragment. It allows other objects to observe lifecycle states like a resume, pause etc.
There are 2 main methods in the Lifecycle class:
addObserver() – Using this method, we can add a new instance of a “LifecyleObserver” class which will be notified whenever our “LifecycleOwner” changes state. For example: if an activity or a fragment is in RESUMED state then our “LifecycleObserver” will receive the ON_RESUME event.
removeObserver() – This method is used for removing active “LifecycleObserver” from the observer’s list.
LifecycleObserver
With the help of this interface, we can create our Observer class which will observe the states of an activity or a fragment. We need to simply implement this “LifecycleObserver” interface.
LifecycleOwner
It is an interface with a single method called “getLifecycle()”. This method must be implemented by all the classes which are implementing this interface. This interface denotes that this component (an activity or a fragment) has a lifecycle.
Any class whose states we want to listen must implement the “LifecycleRegistryOwner” interface. And any class who wants to listen must implement the “LifecycleObserver” interface.
There are several events which we can listen with the help of the “LifecycleObserver” interface:
ON_CREATE – Will be called after onCreate() method of the “LifecycleOwner”.
ON_START – Will be called after onStart() method of the “LifecycleOwner”.
ON_RESUME -Will be called after onResume() method of the “LifecycleOwner”.
ON_PAUSE – Will be triggered upon the “LifecycleOwner” being paused (beforeonPause() method).
ON_STOP – Will be triggered upon the “LifecycleOwner” being stopped (beforeonStop() method).
ON_DESTROY – Will be triggered by the “LifecycleOwner” being destroyed (beforeonDestroy() method).
All these events are enough for managing the lifecycle of our views. With the help of these “LifecycleObserver” and “LifecycleOwner” classes, there is no need to write methods like onResume(), onPause() etc in our activities or fragments. We can handle these methods in our observer class.
We can also get the current state of the “Lifecycle Owner” with the help of getCurrentState() method.
LiveData
LiveData is a data holder class. It provides us the ability to hold a value and we can observe this value across lifecycle changes.
Yeah, you heard that right!
LiveData handles the lifecycle of app components automatically. We only need to observe this LiveData class in our components. That’s it and we are done.
There are some important methods of LiveData:-
onActive() – Called when there is an active observer. An observer is called active observer when its lifecycle state is eitherSTARTEDorRESUMED and the number of active observers changes from 0 to 1.
onInactive() – Called when there are no active observers. An observer is called inactive observer when its lifecycle state is neither STARTED nor RESUMED (like an activity in the back stack) and the number of active observers changes from 1 to 0.
setValue() – Used to dispatch the results to the active observers. This method must be called from the main thread.
In above method observe() we pass the Lifecycle Owner as an argument, this argument denotes that LocationHelperLiveData class should be bound to the Lifecycle of the MyActivity class. This bounding relationship of helper class with our Activity denotes that:-
Even if the value changes, the observer will not be called if the Lifecycle is not in an active state (STARTED or RESUMED).
The observer will be removed automatically if the Lifecycle is destroyed.
Whenever MyActivity is in either PAUSE or STOP state it will not receive location data. It will start receiving Location Data again once MyActivity is in either RESUME or START state.
There can be multiple Activities or Fragments which can observe LocationHelperLiveData instance and our LiveData class will manage their Lifecycle automatically.
There is no need to remove observer in onDestroy() method, it will be removed automatically once LifecycleOwner is destroyed.
The world is getting smarter. Every day, devices and modern technologies that were once standalone are getting connected to the internet. From robots to running shoes, these smart devices contain sensors that allow them to be monitored and controlled remotely and to gather large quantities of data. Collectively known as the Internet of Things (IoT) these devices are transforming modern business. Here, we’ll take a look at how.
The IoT is a system that comprises the smart devices deployed by companies, together with the infrastructure and applications needed to connect, monitor and control them and to gather and analyse the data they generate.
In most cases, IoT systems are automated so that processes can be done with little or no human intervention. This often requires the use of cloud-based technologies, such as real-time analytics, artificial intelligence and machine learning. By adopting such modern technologies, highly complex operational processes can work smoothly while employee involvement can be radically reduced.
Today, IoT systems are used everywhere. Domestically, they are used by consumers to manage their homes: controlling lighting, heating, security cameras, etc., via their phones and smart speakers. Businesses and other organisations use them for a much wider range of purposes: logistics management, server monitoring, remote automation, personalisation, energy management, remote workforce monitoring and much more.
Here are some of the main ways the IoT is having an impact.
Inventory management
Inventory management is traditionally a time-consuming, labour-intensive process. The complexities of managing inventory mean data is rarely accurate or up-to-date and this often causes difficulties with procurement and order fulfilment.
Today, goods are labelled with RFID or Bluetooth tags and these are scanned automatically by IoT-connected scanners on entry to and exit from the warehouse and during transit. The scanners don’t just calculate stock levels, they also record the item’s location (making it easier to deploy warehouse robots, like Amazon) and the dates and times of movement.
Companies which use this modern technology always have accurate, real-time data about stock levels and can quickly find products in the warehouse. What’s more, the system can report issues with stock shortages, shelf-life, temperature control, travel delays and even flag potential theft from staff. On top of this, the company can be notified which stock items are in short supply and those which aren’t being sold, helping them make better decisions about procurement, product choice and pricing while ensuring that accurate fulfilment details are available.
Customer experience
The customer experience is a critical element of the modern marketing strategy, with companies going all out to satisfy the ever-increasing expectations of the consumer. Those that succeed benefit from enhanced brand loyalty and significantly increased customer lifetime value.
IoT plays a key role in enhancing the customer experience as devices are used to gather customer information from every available touchpoint. Data from mobile apps, social media interactions, home devices, customer communications, website browsing and sales histories are unified to glean insights that provide personalised customer experiences which meet the needs of the user.
Productivity
Sensors built into devices gather data that help companies drive up productivity in all areas. From production line processes to shipping delivery routes, operations and tasks can be completed quicker, more effectively and more cost-efficiently. Employee workloads are also reduced and the potential for automation is increased, enabling companies to reduce staffing levels or increase production.
Remote work and operations
IoT enables organisations to undertake remote working at levels previously inconceivable. An example which perhaps illustrates this best is the da Vinci robotic system, used by surgeons to carry out remote operations on patients. The surgeon views the patient in real-time while the connected robot holds the instruments and mimics their hand movements. Another advanced example is the real-time monitoring of aircraft engines during flight which enables specialised technicians to remotely deal with any issues that may arise.
On a less advanced level, IoT technology helps owners run their businesses or operations from anywhere in the world. During the lockdown, numerous companies have relied upon remotely connected devices to help employees work from home. Businesses that work on the go, such as plumbers, electricians, broadband installers, delivery drivers, etc., have been using IoT devices for a long time, helping them maintain schedules, track productivity, order and collect equipment and parts, obtain customer signatures and so forth.
Data-driven insights
IoT technology enables far more data to be gathered. That data can be analysed using advanced analytics programs, together with AI and machine learning, to provide previously unobtainable insights into the business. These can be used to improve efficiency, productivity, marketing and communications strategies; to predict market movements and forecast supply and demand; and to monitor machine health and improve security. When data is gathered from devices used by customers, the insights can be used to develop better products, offer better services and better meet the customer’s needs and expectations.
Conclusion
With so many connected devices for businesses to deploy, and with the infrastructure needed to make use of the IoT readily available in the cloud, IoT adoption is becoming increasingly popular amongst the business community. Its potential to bring improvements across so many areas of business operations is making it a technology hard for business owners to ignore, regardless of the industry they work in.
Talk about innovation and you’ll see Google at its forefront. This time Google is working to replace its existing operating system called Android. Google is working on its next OS after Android and Chrome which is called Fuchsia. Fuchsia is an open-source, real-time operating system. Earlier the OS was introduced only with commands but now they have created a new crazy UI called Armadillo.
Fuchsia is not a Linux based OS like Android and Chrome. Android is primarily designed for smartphones and touchscreen phones. Fuchsia has focused on voice control and AI. It is designed to better accommodate voice interactions across devices. It has extremely fast processors and uses non-trivial amounts of RAM.
There are mainly two reasons why Google is working on a new operating system-
Unlike Android and Chrome OS, Fuchsia is not based on Linux—it uses a new, Google-developed microkernel called “Zircon.” With Fuchsia, Google would not only be dumping the Linux kernel, but also the GPL: the OS is licensed under a mix of BSD 3 clause, MIT, and Apache 2.0
People love to write cross-platform frameworks for two reasons: First, they want to run their apps to run on both platforms without doubling the effort. And second, because Android programming is still so painful even after the Kotlin.
About Fuchsia
Fuchsia is based on newly developed microkernel called Zircon. The microkernel is basically a stripped down version of a traditional kernel (the core of an operating system that controls a computer’s underlying hardware).
Fuchsia, is partially written in Dart which is an open source programming language developed by Google itself. Dart compiles to JavaScript.
The fuchsia interface is written in Flutter SDK which is cross-platform and is also developed by Google.
Fuchsia has a new UI called Armadillo that has a different home screen containing a home button, a keyboard, and a window manager. It supports vertical scroll system where the user can adjust other icons like battery, profile picture, weather report and so on accordingly.
A user can also adjust the apps which are shown in the cards on the basis of how frequently or recently he/she is using the app.
Armadillo can run on iOS and Android platform or any other platform that flutter supports easily.
Google hasn’t made any public, official comments on why Fuchsia exists or what it is for but as per their documentation it will overcome all the shortcomings of the previous operating systems and will provide the high performance which is not possible to implement in the existing operating system (Android).
The Fuchsia interface is written in Flutter SDK which generates cross-platform code that runs on Android and iOS.
Armadillo- The Fuchsia System Interface
Earlier, Fuchsia was based on commands but later its interface is designed in the language called Armadillo by Google which is pretty interesting now.
According to the picture of its UI- here is the description of how things will work in case of Fuchsia.
The center profile picture is a clickable area that will open the menu which is similar to Android Quick Settings. Battery and connectivity icon will be shown on the top bar. There is also a horizontal slider for brightness and volume and also icons for do not disturb, auto rotate and airplane mode.
The bottom ‘Google Now’ panel will bring up a keyboard which is not the Android keyboard but instead it’s a custom Fuchsia keyboard which has the dark new theme. Fuchsia keyboard functions are different from Android keyboard.
Summary
So Fuchsia is a brand new Google project which may be the answer to “How we will start writing Android again if we need to end the era of earlier stable OS”.
The biggest challenge to bring the brand new OS might not be developing the new OS but the risk in the transition idea from the world’s most popular Android Operating system to the new one. We can not say anything about the future of the Fuchsia. It can be successfully launched to the consumers by 2020 as quoted by some source or can be entirely trashed by Google before it sees the light of the day.
Baffled by all the different types of web hosting? Unsure what they all are or which is the right one for you? You’re not alone. To help, this post will look at each different type of hosting and explain what they are.
What is web hosting?
Before we discuss the different types of hosting, it is helpful to understand what hosting is and why you need it. Essentially, your website is a set of files that you are sharing over the internet with other people. As a website, you want these files to be accessible all the time and easily found by anyone looking for the information you publish. To make this happen, your website content and the software that makes your website work have to be installed on a special kind of computer called a webserver. A webserver is connected to the internet 24/7 and enables your web pages to be downloaded to someone’s browser for viewing or interacting with. The webserver, therefore, is where your website is hosted and the company that provides the webserver is your web host or service provider.
The other important thing to mention is the operating system. Generally, all hosting is either run on Windows or Linux operating systems. While Windows is the most popular operating system for home computers, most website software is designed to run on Linux. When purchasing hosting, you will need to choose the operating system that your software needs.
Here’s an overview of different hosting types.
Shared hosting
Shared hosting is the cheapest and most popular form of web hosting and is suitable for small business or personal websites. What makes it inexpensive is that the web host takes one large server and divides up the storage space for many different users. In effect, you will be leasing a small slice of a large hard drive.
While this slice can be big enough for all your website’s files and data, the downside of shared hosting is that you also have to share all the other web server resources, such as RAM and CPU. If lots of other users have busy websites, there may be times when your website is affected and loads slowly or performs poorly on people’s devices. It is similar to having too many programs running on your computer and finding that they lag or freeze.
Specialised shared hosting
Today, lots of web hosts offer specialist forms of shared hosting. In many instances, this is done by configuring the web server so particular types of website software can perform optimally. You may, for example, see WordPress, Joomla, Magento or Drupal hosting and these packages will also include other features to improve the hosting or make things easier for users of those types of software.
Additionally, some hosts offer shared hosting with particular types of control panel, such as the cPanel hosting here at Anteelo. cPanel is a leading control panel whose user-friendly interface and comprehensive range of tools make it a breeze to manage your website. You may also find shared hosting packages that are specially designed for business users or bloggers.
VPS
A virtual private server (VPS) is the next step up from shared hosting. It uses clever virtualisation technology to create several small, virtual servers on a single physical server. The difference between shared hosting and VPS is that your VPS is completely independent of all the other VPS on the physical server, so you don’t have to share resources or endure the issues this can cause. You even get your own operating system.
The other chief difference is that a VPS package is much bigger than a shared hosting package. In essence, it is like a mini dedicated server, giving you substantially more storage, CPU and RAM. This makes it ideal to run large websites, multiple websites or other types of application for your business. The surprising thing about VPS is that they are cheap, costing from as little as £15.59 a month (at time of publication).
Dedicated server
With shared hosting, a user gets a small share of a large webserver. The term ‘dedicated server’ simply means that you get that entire server dedicated for your own use. This provides you with enormous amounts of disk space together with substantial processing power and RAM. This is ideal for bigger businesses that need to run large websites, store lots of data and run critical business applications which need to be online all of the time. Compared to VPS, these can be much more expensive solutions.
Cloud hosting
The cloud is a vast network of interconnected servers hosted in huge data centres. Using virtualisation, websites can be moved instantaneously from one physical machine to another, even across geographical locations. This means if there is a problem with the physical hardware, a cloud-hosted website or application will never go offline.
Cloud’s virtual technology also means that companies that need extra computing resources at a moment’s notice, can instantly have it at their disposal – and in enormous quantities. What’s more, the cloud is paid for on a pay as you go basis, so you only pay for the resources you need as and when you need them. You can scale up or down at any time.
Accessible over the internet, cloud hosting brings with it many of the benefits of connectivity – flexible working, working from home, collaboration, etc. It’s scalability also makes it ideal for carrying out big data analytics or making use of technologies such as AI, machine learning or the Internet of Things.
There are three different types of cloud hosting: public, private and hybrid. Public cloud is where the hardware, software and other infrastructure are shared with all the other cloud tenants and managed by the web host, whereas in a private cloud those resources are used exclusively by you. Hybrid cloud is where a company makes use of both private and public solutions, often with dedicated servers included in the mix.
Managed hosting
Managed hosting is not a different type of hosting solution but a feature of many of the above. It is a service provided by the web host to manage your server for you. This will typically include looking after the physical hardware, ensuring the server is working optimally and updating the operating system on your behalf. For certain types of hosting, this form of server management is included in your package.
Enterprise hosting
Some companies have extraordinarily complex IT needs which require bespoke hosting and support solutions. Service providers, like Anteelo, have the infrastructure and expertise to offer these tailored solutions, often referred to as enterprise hosting.
Conclusion
As you can see, there is a wide range of hosting solutions available, ranging from the basic shared hosting needed to run a small website to the complex solutions needed by large companies to run a range of critical applications. Hopefully, this post will have given you a clear idea of what these types of hosting are and which is most relevant to you.
Blockchain is no longer a hyped technology. It made its own significant identity, beyond the technology behind cryptocurrency, and entered the business world significantly. The domain has made a room for itself in almost every niche industry and business, proving it to be nearly impossible to overlook the charisma of this technology. Seeing this, various startups and established brands entered the exciting space of Blockchain – with Samsung emerging as the torchbearer.
Samsung, the tech giant based in South Korea, took various steps towards establishing its presence in the Blockchain market. A few of the announcements and efforts they put in this direction are:-
1. Investing in Blockchain-Specialized Startups and Tools
Last year, Samsung invested around USD 8.1M in a Blockchain-based company Blocco and $4M in ‘KZen Networks’. While, this February, they partnered with HYPR – a Blockchain biometric encryption firm in the USA – and made an investment of around $1M.
2. Developing its Own Ethereum-Based Blockchain
The tech giant also took a step towards developing its own ‘Blockchain mainnet based on Ethereum platform’, which was announced to be either a private blockchain or a hybrid one. Also, they announced working on their own crypto token, called ‘Samsung Coin’ which would be used for crypto exchange or as a payment solution in the Samsung Pay app.
3. Adding Storage for Private Cryptocurrency Keys
Earlier this February, Samsung added storage for private cryptocurrency keys in their Galaxy S10 model devices. They introduced a wallet that enables users to store Bitcoin, Ethereum, and other such cryptocurrencies on their devices as well as make contactless payments using cryptocurrency.
4. Declaring Blockchain a Part of their Digital Transformation Network
In the month of May, the president and CEO of Samsung SDS disclosed that Blockchain will be one of the top technologies they will focus upon under their ‘Digital Transformation Network’.
5. Announcing Launch of New Products for Blockchain Integration
Also, they announced last month that they will be launching three new products to simplify the process of Blockchain integration with other platforms for entities that are trying to embrace the technology.
6. Releasing a Software Development Kit (SDK)
Samsung also unfolded new opportunities for Blockchain experts. They released a new software development kit (SDK) having a myriad of tools and functions for developing Blockchain and dApps.
This SDK provides developers with an opportunity to handle their Blockchain accounts easily and effortlessly and make transactions seamless by abstracted transfer APIs for every cryptocurrency. It also offers a payment gateway to software developers for cryptocurrency remittance with its UI.
Above all, it gives an opportunity to link not solely to but also to any cold wallet including Ledger and Trezor devices. It renders access to a ‘Blockchain specialized browser’ for decentralized web applications that offers a set of features related to easing the process of crypto payments and tools to predict fees using live crypto exchange rates. And in addition to this, it provides Blockchain and Ethereum developers with a chance to retrieve transaction history from Samsung’s ‘blockchain proxy node’.
These efforts, as a whole, are making it easier to cut down the cost of App development, except when you already have your own wallet logic.
7. Connecting dApps to its Blockchain Wallet
Another significant step that the Samsung team took towards building their presence in the Blockchain arena is the integration of decentralized applications to its Galaxy S10 wallet. The tech giant introduced 4 dApps to its wallet back in March, added 6 more apps into the list the day before yesterday, and today, they announced the addition of one more application into the list.
With this, the list of decentralized mobile applications that entered into the environment of Samsung’s Blockchain wallet are:-
Cosmee – a dApp for sharing beauty content.
CoinDuck – a merchant payment service.
Enjin – a Crypto-based gaming platform.
CryptoKitties – a platform for Crypto-collectibles.
The Hunters – a Crypto-based gaming platform.
MyCryptoHeroes – a Blockchain-powered gaming decentralized application.
Berry Pick – a social media dApp that rewards active users.
Misetoktok – a dApp to monitor air quality and pollution level in real-time.
Syrup Table – a network for reviewing and rating restaurants.
X-Wallet – a decentralized wallet application that supports Ether, Binance Coin, and Bitcoin.
Lympo – a Blockchain-based health and fitness startup that rewards LYM tokens, which can now be transferred to Samsung Blockchain Wallet and converted in real fiat money.
Besides, they also hinted that Pibble, Forecasting, and many more apps might be a part of this list – giving an indication that Samsung is planning to turn its Blockchain wallet into an App Store – just like Google Play Store and Apple App Store.
8.Collaborating for Blockchain-based Self-Sovereign Identification System
Samsung went into a consortium with popular tech giants and banks –Telcos, KT, LGUplus, KOSCOM, KEB Hana Bank, and Woori Bank – to create a blockchain network for deploying mobile authentication service.
With this service, the companies will cut down the intermediaries in the process and add the functionalities of transparency and security. They will empower users to safeguard their own data, including that related to the institutions and companies they have been a part of. Or better say, the will aid users to have a control on their data.
Currently, they are aiming to employ this blockchain-based self-sovereign authentication system to simplify job and hiring process by making it easier for users to verify and upload their documents and apply for a job.
However, they are planning to extend this service to various other domains and processes, such as hospital and insurance services and membership services in holiday resorts.
These efforts and investments have not just brought Samsung into the limelight of innovativeness, but have also established it as an example for other conglomerates to follow.
While the rise of internet shopping has led to the slow decline of the high street, last year also saw a reduction in online sales. With trading conditions likely to remain challenging during 2019, eCommerce businesses will need to be at the top of their game if they are to make headway. Doing this means keeping abreast of the latest developments in eCommerce businesses and taking advantage of those which are likely to bring the greatest benefits. In this post, we’ll look at the new trends set to have an impact this year.
Improving the customer experience
Social media and review sites give consumers enormous power to influence each other in their buying decisions and one of the things they are increasingly making judgements about is the experience they have when shopping with a business. This experience covers every aspect of their interactions with you, from their first encounter (e.g., seeing an advert) to after sales and beyond.
What are they looking for? In short, quite a lot. They want brands whose values they can identify with; websites that load quickly, are easy to navigate and work on any device; and purchasing processes that are simple, secure and fast.
In addition, customers prefer ecommerce sites that provide personalised recommendations and offers based on their previous interactions and this means businesses will need to collect more data and do more analyses in order to make recommendations that actually appeal.
Following the purchase, they want a speedy delivery and an easy, no-quibble returns process. Ideally, they want standard delivery to be free and to have all this backed up by easy to contact, friendly, customer service.
Developing trust
The consumers’ concept of trust has developed over recent years and businesses need to take these changes on board. Yes, this still means they need to trust you with their banking details when making purchases – so things like SSL certificates remain essential. However, with so many data breaches taking place, they want guarantees that any personal data you hold on them is going to remain secure and not end up being sold on the dark net. Following on from the Cambridge Analytica scandal, trust also means not having their data sold or used by third parties – particularly for use by political analysts or by insurance companies.
Trust is also increasingly linked to a company’s values and this means having moral integrity. The recent case of the clothing brand that sold fake fur coats which turned out to be made from real fur, is a prime example of something that can damage trust. The high-profile cases of people dying from allergic reactions because food retailers didn’t adequately label their foods is another example. Indeed, the online demonisation of those companies perceived to be at odds with today’s shifting values means, in order to gain the trust of the general public, all businesses need to do the right thing, whether it concerns LGBT rights, race and gender equality or supporting the more vulnerable members of society.
Using AI
Live chat is a key tool for enhancing the customer experience, however, it can be an expensive service to offer. Having staff available 24 hours a day to deal with customer queries isn’t cheap and the more successful your business gets, the more agents you will need.
Thankfully, there is now an alternative and cheaper solution that is expected to take eCommerce businesses by storm over the next couple of years and that is the AI chatbot. AI chatbots are essentially computer programs that can understand a customer’s questions and provide human-like responses about your products and services. Unlike humans, they can deal with unlimited customer enquiries at once and operate at all hours of the day.
The other advantage of a chatbot is that it can be used to generate sales. It can do this by sending automated prompts to get users chatting about a product they are interested in, it can offer them discounts or even make personalised recommendations based on their session data.
The progressive web app
With 60% of internet surfing taking place on mobile phones, the key focus over the last few years has been to develop responsive websites. However, the majority of our mobile surfing time is spent on apps, not websites. Rather than developing their own apps, many businesses are using a new format to tempt app-loving mobile surfers – the progressive web app.
The progressive web app is a website that uses APIs to let it function and appear just like an app. It works on all types of devices but, unlike a website, doesn’t need to be downloaded on a phone as it is cached and stored on the home screen. It also gets rid of the issues that businesses with separate apps and websites have, such as when a customer puts an item in a basket on the app but finds its not there on the website.
The use of progressive web apps will enable businesses to provide a multipurpose web portal that better suits our preferences of surfing on mobiles and computers but which works seamlessly between the two.
Conclusion
Hopefully, this post will have given you an insight into the emerging trends set to develop eCommerce over the next year. With the trading challenges facing online business, adopting some of these trends can be a way to keep your company ahead of the competition and help you meet your targets for the coming year.
The growth trajectory which brands like Salesforce and Dropbox find themselves operating in year after year is the same that drives thousands of entrepreneurs to make an entry in the SaaS business.
In this event where Newton’s third law comes into play – success of the SaaS companies leading to more entrepreneurs willing to enter the segment – the end result is almost always the same – High Growth of SaaS market.
Software as a Service model – at the back of the plethora of benefits that it offers has reached a stage where the discussions around the benefits that they offer are negligible in front of the queries that surround How to bootstrap a SaaS startup.
We are here to answer the query and its several strings. All through our SaaS startup guide.
Let us take you through the stages that you would have to take to mark your SaaS startup growth strategies.
Stage 1: Create Traction
Once you have gathered the details of individual user demand and have established what you need to offer in your SaaS product, the next step that comes is validating your idea.
Now idea validation would be your one stage where you will not just get the idea checked for its viability but would also get primary level attention from the prospective users.
The steps that you should follow in case of getting early-stage user traction can be somewhere in the lines of –
1. Posting and Promoting Your Idea on ProductHunt
ProductHunt is a haven for entrepreneurs who are at the stage of testing out an idea. The community-like website is home to a number of entrepreneurs and investors who are looking to invest in up-and-coming ideas, along with a number of prospective users.
To get the early stage feedback, you can share your SaaS idea on ProductHunt and mark it open for the community to look into and ask questions about. In fact, seeing the benefits that ProductHunt presence can get to an entrepreneur, it can be a wise move to mark it as one of the best practice to grow early stage Saas startup.
2. Developing and Promoting Your Landing Pages
Your landing page which contains information related to your SaaS offering can be a great way to share your idea with the prospective users along with helping you build an email list.
The idea of a landing page is to have a space where you can show-off your product/service and use the emails collected to share regular updates about your SaaS offering to the users who showed interest in your offering.
3. Becoming Active in Business and Technology Communities
There are a number of communities present on the internet which discusses and dissects new software offerings which are developed and launched with the intent to making processes smoother and answer how to promote SaaS business.
At this stage when you are looking to get the right traction for your business these communities can be a good starting point to pass the message of your arrival along.
Stage 2: Design Prototype
This is the stage which would start with you having an idea of what the users want from your SaaS product. You now know that the problem you identified actually affects masses and the world need answers to them.
And now that you have given the users a theoretical insight into what you are planning to offer, the next step would be to give them something to interact with.
This is the step of designing prototypes.
There are a number of prototyping tools and software that help you design prototypes if you plan on doing the work yourself.
Once you have the whole process of your idea having been converted into a prototype covered, the next step would be its promotion. While you can follow the route of social media and the ones we mentioned in the above mentioned points, a shortcut to get feedback would be to pass along your prototype to the users who showed interest in your SaaS product through eMailers.
You can even gather all the people who showed interest in your idea and do a meetup by making your prototype the center of attraction. It can even be a great place for you to invite investors if getting investment in your prototype is on your agenda.
We will talk about funding later in our SaaS startup guide. For now, let’s move our focus on the development part of it.
Stage 3: Development of a SaaS MVP
Now that you have the SaaS prototype which has been worked around according to the feedback shared by the prospective users, the next stage that you will be entering now is the Minimum Viable Product stage.
The idea of an MVP development is the creation of a working model of your SaaS offering – one that contains all the must-have and unique features that places your product at the top of the competitor’s.
Identification of the features that should be present in the MVP holds a crucial place in the whole development process and then in deciding the future of your business in the domain. Something that is handled by the development agency you will be partnering with to get the idea converted into a working model.
In fact, it is not just the features that have to be paid attention to at this stage but also the tech stack and the development approach that your partnered SaaS app development company would be working around.
When it comes to the right development approach, the one that should be followed in order to take out maximum efficiency off of the whole SaaS development process is Agile development.
The approach comes with a series of attached perks like timely delivery, quick response to changing demand, low cost of development, etc.
Leaving it on your partnered agency to walk you through the many perks of Agile approach of SaaS app development, let us turn our attention on the technology stack that you can rely on to give a great experience to your end-users and the investors alike.
While the focus of the development of a robust SaaS system almost always comes on how strong its backend development ecosystem is, there are other technical frameworks that comes into play as well. Frameworks that are not simply restricted to Firebase.
For a better understanding, let us look at the technology stack choice of some of the top SaaS companies operating in the world.
Once you have devised an MVP on the basis of the right set of technology stack, the next step that comes up in any SaaS startup guide is making the MVP live taking feedback.
Stage 4: Making MVP Live and Working on the Feedback
Right after you have developed your SaaS MVP, the launch stage comes up.
This is the part where you make your SaaS app live for the users to work around and explore. At this stage your partnered agency will come in the picture again. They will work around the final testing of the MVP and making it live on the world wide web.
Once the MVP is made live, your promotion work will take the front seat. At this stage, you will have to look into getting it as many relevant eye-balls as possible.
The first agenda once your SaaS product is launched will be to connect with business reps and entrepreneurs for whom you have developed the software – an effort that would require a sales team. And persuade them to incorporate it in their everyday process.
The second agenda would be to take feedback of their experience. You will have to make note of how they interacted with your offering’s features and what experience they had to share at the back of every individual session.
The success of the second agenda will be deemed fruitful when you ask your agency’s engineers to sit with your test group as they work around the software. This way the speed with which resolutions are attended to will increase by manifold. And your SaaS offering churn rate will also be several points behind what the industry’s statistics show.
Now the end result of this stage would be elements that would come in very handy in the next stage you will be entering now.
Step 5: Getting SaaS Startup Funding
The outcome of stage four, which ended at you validating your MVP’s worth would have brought you at the updation stage – where your partnered SaaS developers worked on the feedback that your real users shared.
Now while updation is happening on the back stage, there are a few things you will have to get into control at the front stage – Funding and Deciding on the SaaS Business Model (latter coming in before the former).
As the engineers work on the technicalities, your team will have to work on the business side of the software – The SaaS pricing strategy, Set of features that would be offered sans any price tag, Markup of the recurrent cost, Scalability feasibility, etc.
The one thing that we would want to put an emphasis on here is the power of offering Freemium. Instead of keeping your product under the paid mode from day one, give users the freedom to enjoy the product before they are asked to spend a penny.
But since no two SaaS companies are same, it can get a little difficult to decide on the SaaS pricing strategy that would work for your business. But no matter how confusing it is, it is of prime importance that you settle on a pricing model for the absence of one can be a reason for your SaaS business failure.
Book a Free Consultation With Our Team of SaaS Consultants to Get Help With the Business Side of it all.
While we handle the business and technical side of your SaaS offering, you will have to move to the next important task at hand – Getting funds for your startup.
Until and unless you have a hefty bank balance (one that entrepreneurs generally don’t have), you will have to focus on getting investors interested and funding in your SaaS product.
The step of finding answers on how to get funding for SaaS startup, crucial as it is, is not easy to achieve. There are a number of equations that you would have to attend to in order to get money on your product. Equations that would mainly depend on how your targeted users responded to the app.
Along with the collection of numbers that your SaaS offering witnessed, you will have to look into the business model that you have set – ensuring it is what keeps you in a profit zone while not being too heavy on the pocket of your users.
Only when you have given the picture of stable profit and a positive user response, the investors will show an interest and give you funding and their experience, readily.
What follows now is the constant process of updation. You will have to constantly keep building on your SaaS software to ensure that the user experience is always kept on a high priority in your SaaS business model.
Well now that we have covered all the stages of setting up your SaaS business, let us give you a peek into the factors that went into defining the success of top SaaS companies across the globe, as the parting note.
With the secret of the top SaaS companies now at your fingertips, it is time for you to get on the path of success chart.
Artificial Intelligence is no longer science fiction. More and more businesses are showing interest in understanding the basic mechanisms of AI and ways to use the technology for enhancing customer engagement and experience.
But, is the technology really effective? And can it really make a difference in upgrading your customer experience strategy?
Let’s find answers in this article – starting from the very basic, i.e, why you should pay attention to Customer experience.
Table of Content
Why Should Businesses Focus on Customer Experience?
Role of AI In Customer Experience
Different Industries Delivering Higher Customer Experience with AI
Future of Artificial Intelligence in Customer Experience
Steps to Use AI for Delivering Better Customer Experience
Other Technologies that are Innovating Customer Experience in 2019 & Beyond
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) about AI in Customer Experience
Why Should Businesses Focus on Customer Experience?
“Customer Experience is the new battlefield” – Chris Pemberton, Gartner
With people understanding the difference between User Experience and Customer Experience, the latter term is becoming the key to unlock unparalleled opportunities in the business market. It has become imperative to the process of understanding your customers and planning a marketing strategy using these insights to give a personalized experience. Thus becoming imperative to gain higher success in the marketplace.
And this can be clearly proven from the following statistics:-
Now as we have taken a glance of why to focus on customer experience, let’s jump directly into where AI stands in all of this. What does AI means to the CX world in 2019. Or better say, what are the advantages of using Artificial Intelligence in your Customer Experience strategy.
Role of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in Customer Experience
1. Know Your Customer
One of the foremost reasons why you should use AI to improve customer experience strategy is that it serves you with ample real-time user data. It helps you gather and analyze user data in real-time and in this way, enable you to remain familiar with the change in their behavior and expectations.
2. Simplicity, Efficiency, and Productivity
Another reason for using AI to improve customer experience is that it adds simplicity, efficiency, and productivity to the business processes.
The technology, in the form of Chatbots and self-driving software, automates repetitive processes which means the efforts and time required for performing repetitive tasks cut down to a half.
It also gathers and analyzes the user data in real-time to help you introduce the features and concepts that they want and in the way, they wish to interact with. Moreover, the inclusion of AI in quality assurance helps you to design an innovative mobile application with a higher scope of efficiency and simple structure.
Besides, these AI-powered bots and platforms perform most of the routine work and give the workforce an opportunity to perform other productive tasks.
3. Better Decision Making
Artificial Intelligence is also acting as the right companion for business in terms of the decision-making process. The technology looks into the user interaction history as well as the current market trends, which makes it easier for businesses to predict the future. This eventually provides them with clarity of what feature/functionality to introduce in their business solution for gaining huge momentum in the market.
4. Streamline Purchase Process
In the present scenario, various customers add products into their cart but never proceed due to slow loading, complicated check out process, and more. Artificial Intelligence, in this context, helps in understanding the challenges faced by the customers and deliver a seamless purchase experience – something that helps businesses to lower down app cart abandonment rate.
5. Fraud Detection
One of the prime uses of Artificial intelligence in finance, retail, and other industries, in terms of customer experience, is that it helps in detecting fraud. The technology, using its potential to gather, store and compare user data in real-time, is making it easier to identify any change in the actions of users, and thus, helping with taking a timely preventive measures against frauds.
6. Customer Analytics
Artificial Intelligence is also showing a remarkable significance in the customer data analytics process. The AI-enabled tools and platforms are simplifying the process to gather a heap of user data from different sources and arrange them effectively as per the key factors.
Furthermore, Artificial Intelligence is making it possible to predict the context of user interactions and build better customer engagement strategies using the right use cases of the technology and insights gained from the data quickly and precisely.
7. Self-Service
Many customers these days prefer doing everything on their own rather than hiring an agent or taking help from any machine. This is yet another reason why investing in AI is becoming the need of the hour.
Artificial Intelligence, as we already know, provides you with valuable insights about where customers get stuck and what doubts/queries make them connect with your support team. Using these insights, you can provide users with some options or FAQs that give them a feeling that they have found out the solution to their problem without any interaction, or better say, on their own.
8. Visual, Text, and Voice engagement
AI-powered platforms are also providing the opportunity to deliver optimal customer experience to the targeted audience based upon their voice or facial expressions.
The technology, using Facial recognition and Virtual assistants, is making it easier to get an idea of the users’ emotions and sentiments at any particular time, and identify ways to deliver an instant positive effect to them through offers or refunds, etc. such that businesses gain long-term profits.
9. Predictive Personalized Experience
Last but not least, AI is making it easier for startups and established brands to analyze the user interaction history and predict their next move and hence, use the information gained to provide them with a perfect marketing offer. And in this way, gaining higher customer engagement and profits.
While this is all about how Artificial Intelligence (AI) improves Customer experience in general, let’s figure out what the technology mean to different business verticals and their customer experience efforts in 2020 & beyond.
Different Industries Delivering Higher Customer Experience With AI
1. Retail
When talking about industries that AI is transforming, the very first business domain that comes into the limelight is Retail.
The technology, using a heap of transactional data and machine learning, is making it possible to track and analyze purchase history and behavior of customers, which in turn is helping with determining when and what promotional offer/message to be delivered for getting attention of customers and thus, gain higher ROI.
A clear evidence of the impact of AI in retail is that, as per a survey of 400 retail executives by Capgemini, it was highlighted that the technology will save around $340B annually for retailers by the year 2022.
The survey also revealed that the use of Artificial Intelligence in Retailing customer experience has resulted in a 9.4% increase in customer satisfaction and a 5.0% decrease in user churn rate. An example of how brands are focusing on the usage of AI for bettering customer experience can be seen in Nike’s acquisition of Celect for predicting users’ shopping behaviour.
The technology is proving to be the nervous system of the healthcare user experience ecosystem by making it easier to analyze the patient health history and come up with medical treatment (or surgery) that offers higher chances of success.
It is also helping healthcare organizations in providing the best assistance to every patient in the form of Virtual Nursing assistants and thus, taking care of everything – right form notifying about the medicine intake timings to sharing real-time health data with the corresponding doctors.
An impact of this is that the AI health market is predicted to cross $6.6B by the year 2021, with a CAGR of 40%.
3. Entertainment
AI and its subset, Machine Learning are also leaving no stone unturned in delivering exemplary customer experience in the Entertainment domain. Clear evidence of which is Netflix.
The Entertainment platform is able to get a clear idea of the user behavior, needs, and expectations, and thus, showcase personalized options onto the screen. This is improving the customer retention rate as well as boosting customer loyalty – eventually resulting in higher profits.
To know further about the use of Artificial Intelligence in delivering impeccable customer experience on the Netflix platform, check out this video:-
4. Mobile Banking and Finance
Artificial Intelligence is also revamping user experience in mobile banking and finance apps. The technology, in the form of Chatbots, is providing 24×7 assistance to users and helping them in determining the right financial plan for themselves. It is also detecting and lowering down the risk of fraud in the processes – ultimately resulting in better customer engagement and retention rate.
As we have covered in this article so far, Artificial Intelligence is helping industries in revamping customer experience one way or the other. But, will this continue to happen in the future also? Will AI be a part of customer experience in upcoming years?
Let’s look into what is the future of AI in the field of Customer Experience to find definite answers to these questions.
Future of Artificial Intelligence in Customer Experience
The AI market has grown exponentially in the past few years. Over 1,500 companies including Microsoft, Google, IBM, and Amazon have invested their efforts into developing next gen apps for delivering higher customer experience and it is expected that many more will join the bandwagon. Many more companies will trust the AI’s ability to boost productivity and reduce the time and cost involved – something that can be predicted from the statistics shared below.
The technology will revolutionize the future of the business world and the customer experience in numerous ways, such as:-
It will automate routine work and encourage humans to focus on creative things. It will help pay attention to their vision and not on every minor detail of production.
It will make the business-customer interactions go from ‘one click’ to ‘zero click’ – giving a seamless and timeless experience to the target user base.
AI will also leave a significant impact on connectivity networks. It will encourage the idea of pattern analysis to troubleshoot any problem, pull out important user information from multiple channels to quickly and effectively get an idea of what users need.
Above all, Artificial Intelligence will also put the practice of gaining biased data to an end, eventually resulting in a better quality of information gained.
Now as we have covered what, when and how Artificial Intelligence drives customer experience, it’s the best time to head towards how businesses can integrate this technology to gain better insights and improve customer experience in 2020 and beyond.
Steps to Use AI for Delivering Better Customer Experience
1. Design a Customer Experience (CX) Strategy.
Before looking into how AI improves customer experience, it is necessary to have a clear understanding of your CX vision and strategy. So, bring your team on board to discuss your ‘CX-based’ expectations and ways you follow to meet those expectations. And, based on the insights gained, create/update a robust Customer Experience strategy.
2. Plan and Analyze User Journeys
Right from discovery to pre-sales, sales, customer support, and beyond, a user connects with your brand at different touchpoints and platforms. So, invest your time and effort into getting a comprehensive knowledge of all those connecting points, and deliver an AI-based omni-channel customer experience.
3. Have a Clear Understanding of AI solutions
The first step of AI project management lies in understanding that the technology can be used in different forms to improve customer experience strategy, such as Recommendation engines, Virtual assistants, Predictive search engines, Computer vision, Sentimental analyzing tools, etc. However, not all can be the right fit for your business needs and expectations.
So, the next step to employ AI in your Customer experience strategy is to determine what all forms of technology can be integrated into your business model.
4. Decide Whether to Create/Buy AI solutions
When talking about how to improve customer experience using AI, the next step to consider is to determine whether to integrate AI in your existing application or invest in a pre-made CX/AI solution.
Here, the former one will be the right option for your business, if you have a well-qualified AI expert team in-house or have a partnership with the right AI specialized mobile application development agency. Whereas going with the latter option can be a profitable deal when you have less time to develop an application and the vendor understands your customer issues and has the caliber to focus on critical points.
5. Track and Measure Success
Lastly, taking the backseat just after incorporating Artificial Intelligence in your CX strategy is not enough. It is imperative to keep a watch on key performance indicators (KPIs) and metrics to track the success ratio of combining Artificial Intelligence (AI) and customer experience. And hence, improve your strategy for a better future.
ALSO READ: Key Metrics to Evaluate Your Chatbot’s Performance
While this is all about how the use of Artificial Intelligence in Customer Experience can bring better outcomes and what steps to consider for implementing it in your strategy, let’s take this conversation further by exploring other possibilities.
Or better say, let’s look into what all other technologies can aid in the process to improve customer experience strategy in 2019-2020 and beyond.
Other Technologies That Are Innovating Customer Experience in 2019-2010 & Beyond
1. Internet of Things (IoT)
In 2019-2020, the number of connected IoT devices will reach 26 billion. Besides, the 5G technology will become more significant in the market with high-speed, lower latency, and other such features.
This will open new doors for universal connectivity – making it possible for the companies to find better insights to understand customer behavior and lifestyle and thus, come with valuable data points and strategies to deliver memorable customer experience.
Or better say, it will help companies to work with facts and not just assumptions about customer needs and expectations, and eventually redefine their Customer experience strategy.
2. Machine Learning
With a rise in IoT-based solutions, the volume of data points will also increase gradually. Clear evidence of which is that there will be around 45,000 Exabytes of data volume in the market the year 2020.
Now, with an increase in data volume, the process of gathering, optimizing, and operating data will become a challenge – something that Machine Learning will help with.
Machine learning, with its self-learning algorithms, will enable companies to perform better actions on the data and find new approaches to improve customer experience.
3. Blockchain
Blockchain is also acting as a catalyst in the process of improving customer experience. The technology, with its key features like decentralization, transparency, and immutability, is making it possible for companies to store user behavioral and demographic data on blocks securely, make them portable and letting users decide with whom to share their immutable details with. The technology enables users to know what exactly is happening with their personal information and thus, experience a sense of security and trustability throughout the process.
4. Voice Technology
Not only Artificial Intelligence, but Voice technology will also be seen playing an indispensable role in improving customer experience.
The technology, in the form of Voice search and Digital assistants, will continue to help businesses in delivering a faster, seamless and flexible experience to their target audience. It will enable businesses to engage users in a profitable manner and facilitate them with better actions.
And this can be proven by a study by Pindrop, which states that around 28% of companies have already embraced voice technology in their CX strategy while 57% are planning to deploy in the next one year. Also, another 88% believe that voice technology will give a competitive advantage in enhancing user experience.
5. AR/VR
Lastly, AR/VR is also one of the technologies that are reshaping the world of customer experience.
The technology takes users to the virtual world and enhance their customer journey effectively. It presents feedback form in different ways and increases the chances of getting a positive reply. And above all, it helps in product testing by exposing user/product to different situations and places.
With this, we have covered all about the process and use of Artificial Intelligence in Customer Experience. We have also unveiled what is the future of AI in the CX world as well as what all other technologies will disrupt the world of Customer Experience.
If you still have any doubts, feel free to check the FAQs shared below or directly get in touch with our AI mobility experts.
Frequently Asked Questions about AI in Customer Experience
1. What is the Role of AI in Customer Experience?
AI plays a crucial role in improving customer experience in the business domain in terms of automating repetitive tasks, streamlining processes, reducing the risk of fraud, and above all, delivering personalized options to every individual.
2. Why use AI to improve Customer Experience?
Artificial Intelligence, with its power to gather and analyze customer data in real-time, is helping in getting a better understanding of customer behavior and needs, and eventually creating a personalized customer experience strategy.
3. How AI and Machine Learning are improving Customer Experience?
AI and Machine learning are enhancing customer experience in multiple ways, including streamlining shopping experience, reducing the risk of fraud, and delivering personalized marketing schemes.
4. How to Start using AI to improve Customer Experience?
There are four steps to start using AI to improve customer experience:-
Design a Customer Experience (CX) Strategy
Plan and Analyze User Journeys
Have a Clear Understanding of AI solutions
Decide Whether to Create/Buy AI Solutions
Track and Measure Success
5. How AI will shift Customer Experience to the Next Level?
AI will bring a drastic shift in Customer experience in the future in the following ways:-
It will encourage users to focus more on their vision and creativity, rather than looking into minor details of production.
It will turn ‘One Click’ experience to ‘Zero Click’, providing target audience with a quick and seamless experience.
It will improve connectivity networks.
It will encourage the idea of gathering and employing unbiased society data and deliver quality to all.
2018 saw important technological advances in cloud computing that made businesses take a fresh look at how it could help them achieve their goals. In 2019, we are likely to see a further shift towards the collection and use of data, including that gathered from business processes and external data sets.
To enable businesses to make the most of this, we’ll see organisations move from standard infrastructure as a service (IaaS) solutions to cloud services with more advanced features, such as AI, machine learning, blockchain and analytics. Hand in hand with this, we are also going to see more organisations adopt hybrid and multi-cloud environments which provide them with a more effective infrastructure and a better set of tools to achieve their aims. As a result, here at Anteelo, we believe the cloud trends mentioned below will become increasingly widespread as more businesses continue to develop their use of cloud technology.
A shift to hybrid and multi-cloud infrastructures
While many businesses have adopted cloud technology in some form or other, performance concerns and compliance requirement mean the majority of companies still run mission-critical applications and handle sensitive data in-house. In order to continue their move towards a cloud environment, companies will look at using a wider range of cloud options.
Public cloud will still be used as a cost-effective way to handle many processes, however, rather than rely on a single provider, many organisations will opt for a multi-cloud approach using a variety of hosting solutions for different purposes. At the same time, some workloads are more suited to private cloud networks and this means we’ll see an increase in the use of hybrid cloud infrastructures being developed.
While this mix of in-house, private cloud and public cloud architecture is obviously more complex, their integration will give enterprises the opportunity to build the most effective infrastructure it needs to drive the business forward.
A move towards open cloud technology
The shift to hybrid, multi-cloud environments naturally leads to the adoption of open cloud technologies. Doing so helps companies avoid vendor lock-in and gives them greater freedom to choose the right solution providers. Indeed, using open cloud technology improves the interoperability of platforms, apps and data which is ideal for businesses looking to create diversely hosted infrastructures.
Increased adoption of containers
Another consequence of companies moving towards a multi-cloud strategy is that they will want to deploy their apps across their multiple cloud platforms. This will lead to the increasing adoption of containers which will enable migration between various IT environments to take place easily and quickly. Key to this will be the use of the open source tool, Kubernetes, which enables the deployment and management of container-based applications.
Any move to a hybrid cloud setup means enterprises will need a more sophisticated approach to security. Using the services of multiple cloud providers means they will need to consistently manage all the threats to their applications and data across all vendors. An important aspect of this will be the need to get developers to integrate security features into their apps during development in order to ensure better app visibility, protection and control.
Skilling up
Adopting a hybrid, multi-cloud approach means IT teams will need to develop new skills and practices in the way they operate. While relying on managed services may still be appropriate in some situations, there will be an increased need for staff with skills in using cross-platform tools, automation and data integration. The training up or recruitment of specialists, such as cloud architects, service brokers and automation engineers may be a necessity.
Rapid growth in edge computing
The huge rise in the numbers of connected devices and the emergence of 5G networks means that 2019 will see edge computing grow rapidly. Its use will enable companies to significantly benefit from the analysis of all the valuable data being harvested from sensors and other IoT devices in operation. Whether to gain customer insights, improve operation efficiency or for real-time condition monitoring, the use of interoperable technologies enables edge locations to remain synced with the company’s system to ensure it has a consistent overview of the wider network.
Conclusion
As you can see, the big development in 2019 is the move towards a hybrid, multi-cloud strategy where enterprises create bespoke IT solutions that combine public and private cloud service with in-house IT. Hand in hand with this will be a move to open source cloud technology, the increased adoption of containers, a stronger emphasis on security, the skilling up of IT teams and a rapid growth in the use of edge computing.
onnections and speed up downloads, the deployment of 5G infrastructure will have a much wider impact that many businesses can benefit from. It will, for example, hasten the development of IoT infrastructures, such as smart cities, intelligent transport networks, smart vehicles and smart industry. At the same time, we’ll see a wider range of connected devices, making it easier for businesses to take advantage of the IoT and the valuable data it generates.
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