General Archives - Page 22 of 36

Beyond owning: From conventional to unconventional analytics data

Posted on 10/04/202015/06/2021 by Tushar

The scale of big data, data deluge, 4Vs of data, and all that’s in between… We’ve all heard so many words adjectivized to “Data”. And the many reports and literature have taken the vocabulary and interpretation of data to a whole new level. As a result, the marketplace is split into exaggerators, implementers, and disruptors. Which one are you?

Picture this! A telecom giant decides to invest in opening 200 physical stores in 2017. How do they go about solving this problem? How do they decide the most optimal location? Which neighbourhood will garner maximum footfall and conversion?

And then there is a leading CPG player trying to figure out where they should deploy their ice cream trikes. Now mind you, we are talking impulse purchase of perishable goods. How do they decide the number of trikes that must be deployed and where, what are the flavours that will work best in each region?

In the two examples, if the enterprises were to make decisions based on the analytics data available to them (read owned data), they would make the same mistakes day in and day out – of using past analytics data to make present decisions and future investments. The effect of it stares at you in the face; your view of true market potentials remains skewed, your understanding of customer sentiments is obsolete, and your ROI will seldom go beyond your baseline estimates. And then you are vulnerable to competition. Calculated risks become too calculated to game change.

Disruption in current times posits enterprises to undergo a paradigm shift; from owning data to seeking it. This transition requires a conscious set-up:

Power of unconstrained thinking

As adults, we are usually too constrained by what we know. We have our jitters when it comes to stepping out of our comfort zones – preventing us from venturing into the wild. The real learning though – in life, analytics or any other field for that matter – happens in the wild. To capitalize on this avenue, individuals and enterprises need to cultivate an almost child-like, inhibition-free culture of ‘unconstrained thinking’.

Each time we are confronted with unconventional business problems, pause and ask yourself: If I had unconstrained access to all the data in the world, how would my solution design change; What data (imagined or real) would I require to execute the new design?

Power of approximate reality

There is a lot we don’t know and will never know with 100% accuracy. However, this has never stopped the doers from disrupting the world. Unconstrained thinking needs to meet approximate reality to bear tangible outcomes.

Question to ask here would be – What are the nearest available approximations of all the data streams I dreamt off in my unconstrained ideation?

You will be amazed at the outcome. For example, the use of Yelp to identify the hyperlocal affluence of catchment population (resident as well as moving population), estimating the footfall in your competitor stores by analysing data captured from several thousand feet in the air.

This is the power of combining unconstrained thinking and approximate reality. The possibilities are limitless.

Filter to differentiate signal from noise – Data Triangulation

Remember, you are no longer as smart as the data you own, rather the data you earn and seek. But at a time when analytics data is in abundance and streaming, the bigger decision to make while seeking data is identifying “data of relevance”. An ability to filter signals from noise will be critical here. In the absence of on-ground validation, Triangulation is the way to go.

The Data ‘purists’ among us would debate this approach of triangulation. But welcome to the world of data you don’t own. Here, some conventions will need to be broken and mindsets need to be shifted. We at Anteelo have found data triangulation to be one of the most reliable ways to validate the veracity of your unfamiliar and un-vouched data sources.

Ability to tame the wild data

Unfortunately, old wine in a new bottle will not taste too good. When you explore data in the wild – beyond the enterprise firewalls – conventional wisdom and experience will not suffice. Your data scientist teams need to be endowed with unique capabilities and technological know-how to harness the power of data from unconventional sources. In the two examples mentioned above – of the telecom giant and CPG player – our data scientist team capitalized on the freely available hyperlocal data to conjure up a great solution for location optimization; from the data residing in Google maps, Yelp, and satellites.

Having worked with multiple clients, across industries, we have come to realize the power of this approach – of owned and seeking data; with no compromise on data integrity, security, and governance. After all, game changer and disruptors are seldom followers; rather they pave their own path and chose to find the needle in the haystack, as well!

Hadoop based Data Lakes: The Beast is Born

Posted on 09/04/202015/06/2021 by Tushar

1997 was the year of consumable digital revolution – the year when cost of computation and storage decreased drastically resulting in conversion from paper-based to digital storage. The very next year the problem of Big Data emerged. As the digitalization of documents far surpassed the estimates, Hadoop was the step forward towards low cost storage. It slowly became synonymous and inter-changeable with the term big data. With explosion of ecommerce, social chatter and connected things, data has exploded into new realms. It’s not just the volume anymore.

In part 1 of this blog, I had set the premise that the market is already moving from a PPTware to dashboard and robust machine learning platforms to make the most of the “new oil”.

Today, we are constantly inundated with terms like Data Lake and Data Reservoirs. What do these really mean? Why should we care about these buzz words? How does it improve our daily lives?

I have spoken with a number of people – over the years – and have come to realize that for most part they are enamoured with the term, not realizing the value or the complexity behind it. Even when they do realize, the variety of software components and the velocity with which they change are simply incomprehensible.

The big question here would be, how do we quantify Big Data? One aspect to pivot is that it is no longer about the volume of data you collect, rather the insight through analysis that is important. Data when used for the purpose beyond its original intent can generate latent value. Making the most of this latent value will require practitioners to envision the 4V’s in tandem – Volume, Variety Velocity, and Veracity.

Translating this into reality will require a system that is:

Low cost
Capable of handling the volume load
Not constrained by the variety (structured, unstructured or semi-structured formats)
Capable of handling the velocity (streaming) and
Endowed with tools to perform the required data discovery, through light or dark data (veracity)

Hadoop — now a household term — had its beginnings aimed towards web search. Rather than making it proprietary, the developers at Yahoo made a life-altering decision to release this as open-source; deriving their requisite inspiration from another open source project called Nutch, which had a component with the same name.

Over the last decade, Hadoop with Apache Software Foundation as its surrogate mother and with active collaboration between thousands of open-source contributors, has evolved into the beast that it is.

Hadoop is endowed with the following components –

HDFS (Highly Distributed File System) — which provides centralized storage spread over number of different physical systems and ensures enough redundancy of data for high availability.
MapReduce — The process of distributed computing on available data using Mappers and Reducers. Mappers work on data and reduce it to tuples and can include transformation while reducers take data from different mappers and combines them.
YARN / MESOS – The resource managers that control availability of hardware and software processes along with scheduling and job management with two distinct components – Namely ResourceManager and NodeManager.
Commons – Common set of libraries and utilities that support other Hadoop components.

While the above forms the foundation, what really drives data processing and analysis are frameworks such as Pig, Hive and Spark for data processing along with other widely used utilities for cluster, meta-data and security management. Now that you know what the beast is made of (at its core) – we will cover the dressings in the next parts of this series. Au Revoir!

PMO with a new slant: Achieving Excellence in a Challenging Business Environment

Posted on 08/04/202015/06/2021 by Tushar

Go to any of the myriad analytics services providers that proliferate the industry today, walk up to any manager, and ask him if any of the analytics projects he works on is similar to the other. Chances are extremely remote that you will receive a response in the affirmative.

Let’s go one step further. Ask the manager how easy it is to hire people with the right skills for different projects, ensure they learn on the job, while being efficient all through. Be prepared for a long rant on the complexities and vagaries of finding good talent and utilizing it to the fullest.

PMO enables application of what we sell, analytics, to our own processes for betterment and continuous improvement

Challenges at scale

You would have figured out by now that analytics services companies enable their clients to solve complex business problems. And since each business problem is unique, the approach taken to solve it becomes unique as well. This leaves us with a large set of unique, mutually exclusive analytics projects running at any given point in time; each requiring a separate set of resources, time and infrastructure.

Small analytics organizations can handle this complexity because of multiple factors – a very strong and smart core team, fewer projects to manage, and lower layers of hierarchy within the organization. But as the analytics services company grows, it becomes increasingly difficult to ensure each project is running efficiently and on the right track. The problem is exacerbated by two facts: the flexibility of a startup is not easily scalable; and resistance in putting process to bring some order in to the system is something employees – especially old timers – chafe at. This is where the prominence of PMO kicks in.

Setting up, and moving beyond the traditional PMO

When a startup evolves into a mature, established analytics services company, it usually veils the fact that the company lacks strong processes to scale. In the absence of organization-wide standard processes for running projects, processes in silos start to take form, or in some cases the absence of it altogether.

But this leads to inconsistencies in how project delivery is executed. Similar projects are often estimated in different and sometimes erroneous ways; projects are staffed with people who don’t have the right skills, and knowledge often gets lost when team members attrite. Adding to the list of pains, projects don’t get invoiced in time, invoicing schedules are not consistent, and many projects are executed without formal contracts in place. Senior leadership also lacks a common view into the health of project delivery and the pulse of resources working on these projects, at the ground level.

A good PMO organization faces the same problems as a kite flyer – too many processes, and the kite will never take off; too few, and the kite flies off into the wind. But kite flying technique is important as well.

The focus of a traditional Project Management Organization (PMO) is more towards ensuring projects are completed on schedule, and processes are followed the right way. However, for true maturity in delivering analytics services, PMO needs to move beyond just process focus. It should allow improved project planning, monitoring and control

It should ensure the right issues are identified at the right time and addressed accordingly. It should ensure people across the organization speak the same language and terms, and provide the leadership team a single view into business performance. At the tactical level, a PMO group should help employees become more efficient and process-oriented. It should foster a culture of accountability, automation and quality control to ensure improved satisfaction for clients as well.

The right level of process

Setting up a PMO group is only half the battle won. The PMO setup needs to regulate the proverbial oxygen flow so employees don’t feel constricted in a mire of process bureaucracy; or on the other hand continue in a false euphoria of individual project flexibility. Internal change management needs to be a smooth process. While adding processes layer by layer, care needs to be taken to ensure that employees do not feel “pained” by the PMO “demands”, in addition to their day to day deliverable.

At Anteelo, the PMO drives improved quality and timeliness of work outputs, while also serving as a means to achieve work-life balance for our employees. Through a well-planned alignment of employees to the projects, which best match their skills, we ensure each team is best equipped to deliver more than the promised results to our clients. In our next blog, we shall discuss in more detail how our PMO group drives improved efficiencies within Anteelo and makes our employees more efficient and happy.

Just ask Alexa, the corner-room gadget.

Posted on 07/04/202015/06/2021 by Tushar

AGCS (Alexa, Cortana, Google, Siri), as I fondly call these services, certainly have taken over my life. I talk to them every day. I take their help in research. I tell them to remind me of important tasks. I even ask them turn on / off different appliances at home. And they never complain! Now who yells at me or more importantly who do I yell at?

The last few years have been a point of inflection in the area of personal assistants or PIP (Personal Informational Programs). They have gained a voice of their own – to say the least. Voice enabled assistants or voice assists are an evolution in human-machine interactions. When I say, “I speak with Alexa,” people are no longer surprised. They are just confused – am I referring to Alexa service or to a real person! Now that’s what I call the first step in machine takeover – the blurring!

Some serious business:

At Anteelo, we have been experimenting with Alexa for a couple of months now. What started out as an exploratory process (Who and What is Alexa and How can I have a communication with her) has led to a more objective driven program. We like to call this Voice Enabled Insights (VEI).

By integrating Alexa with Tableau, we have managed to provide a short synthesis of how the business is performing. And the best part, the insights are refreshed every morning. Operational managers can now have free-wheeling conversation with this voice enabled feature, enhanced with tableau. What a way to consume your morning coffee insights! The icing on the cake is that our system also crawls the web to provide competitor information so you cover the complete landscape. And the, if you want to discuss, you can ask humble Alexa to schedule a meeting with your required stakeholders (let’s say territory manager) through O365 integrations.

So far, we have taken a small step towards a future that is closely integrated, connected and alive all the time – thanks to voice enablement. Looking into the future, imagine a situation where a patient’s family speaks to the panel and ask for the patient’s condition! They are received with prompt information on the room, current health parameters and in-operation status, if the patient is being recorded live. No more long waiting time and anxiety attacks at the help desk.

How about doctors? They can optimize their time by getting critical patients conditions and issuing necessary instructions to nurses, in near real time. The same goes for any enterprise where there is a lot of personal interactions between service provider and consumer.

Now that we covered the most important aspect from personal standpoint – ‘Health’, let’s move to industrialization and the phenomenon of IoT. There have been rapid advancements in the areas of machine to machine communication and the so-called intelligent machines. Add a larynx (voice-enabled feature) to this combination and I can simply step up to a panel and enquire: what has been the output so far, are there any issues with the systems, and issue commands to reroute if there is a line fault. All of this without even lifting a finger, literally “speaking”!

In most cases, what we discussed is the benefit of the voice-enabled feature in a B2B or B2C scenarios. But this is not just it. The corner room assistant can help provide on-demand and interactive directory services, serve as a knowledge bank, and project manage. She can facilitate efficiency, timely decisions, and can also gamify training using skill and stories based mode for self-learning. Simply put, all we need to be is creative; the tools are already getting quite smart to say the least.

It is a given today that Alexa and other services are changing the world and how we interact with it. With time to act constantly getting shorter, these disruptive innovations will play a greater role in how connected we are. Voice enabled insights, while not new in concept (remember IVR’s), is beginning to gain popularity owing the rapid propagation of machine learning and artificial intelligence. They are simply becoming more human in their interactions. It would be wise to get on the race sooner. But here’s the deal, start out on the journey in incremental ways and then scale. Soon there will be a time where we will adjectivize and say, ‘Just Ask Alexa!’

Blockchain of Things – The Perfect Fusion of Blockchain and IoT

Posted on 31/03/202015/06/2021 by Tushar

Who doesn’t know about Blockchain? Blockchain technology which was earlier seen as the driving force behind cryptocurrencies has now entered into every business vertical and process. The technology has transformed the complete economy and made it imperative for everyone to look ahead to a decentralized future. It has come up as a major disruptive emerging constituent of the contemporary internet-enabled era of technology.

But, what’s more interesting is that this technology has proven to hold the potential to be the catalyst for other technologies. Aka, help other technologies bring out the best of their possibilities.

Now while, we have looked into how it helps Artificial intelligence in our blog, titled: Blockchain and AI – What happens when the technologies merge, let’s talk about the alliance of blockchain and IoT, aka, Blockchain of Things here.

To start with, let’s take a quick recap of what the terms ‘Blockchain’ and ‘Internet of things’ mean.

In a hurry? Jump directly to –

A Brief Introduction to What is IoT and Blockchain

IoT challenges that blockchain resolves

Use cases of Blockchain in IoT

10 Blockchain of Things Projects Transforming the World

Challenges Associated with Merging Blockchain and Internet of Things

A Brief Introduction to What is IoT and Blockchain

When talking about the Internet of things (IoT), it is basically an ecosystem that connects digital devices and objects to each other for interacting and transferring information in real-time, and that too without any human intervention. The technology is gaining huge momentum in the market, a result of which is that it has been predicted that there will be around 75.44 Bn IoT-connected devices worldwide by 2025.

Likewise, Blockchain is termed as a shared digital ledger that records all transactions in public/private peer-to-peer networks, such that every member of the network can access the records but can’t change them anonymously.

Now as the definition of the two trending technologies is cleared to you, let’s look at what challenges the IoT ecosystem is facing and what are the benefits of merging Blockchain with IoT.

IoT Challenges that Blockchain Resolves

Despite the growing advancements in this ecosystem and businesses & investors showing an interest in learning about IoT trends, the market is still suffering from various issues. A few of which are as follows –

1. Poor security

IoT enables multiple devices to access, exchange, and share data within the ecosystem. However, in the absence of human supervision and any authentication standards, it becomes much easier for hackers to hack any of the devices and use them as an entry point in the network and steal private and confidential information. In other words, the following types of security concerns are possible to exist-

Software attacks – The connected device is infected via some kind of malware such as viruses.
Physical devices attack – This involves unauthorized device control.
Network attacks – Here, wireless vulnerability and denial of service attacks are considered for ruining the IoT ecosystem.
Encryption attacks – Activities related to password cracking are brought into practice in this scenario.

Blockchain, in this scenario, helps with keeping a real-time track of the history of all the connected devices and sensor data, checking for content duplicacy from harmful data sources, and providing consensus algorithms into the process to ensure identity verification and security advantages.

What’s more, blockchain acts as a decentralized database, making it difficult for anyone to gain access to sensitive information by hacking a particular centrally controlled system.

2. No liquidity

Though IoT has come up with innovative ways to make communication possible between industrial and domestic appliances, devices, and machines, the technology is still naive in terms of empowering machines to order their own replacement supplies and parts. This is yet another area where the potential of cryptographic blockchain for IoT can be applied.

3. Lack of trust

Another challenge prevailing in the IoT marketplace is lack of trustability.

Since every digital device can connect in the IoT network and gain access to information independently, there is a higher risk of collusion and distrust. The top IoT development companies fill this gap and add trust to the ecosystem with the involvement of blockchain in the IoT ecosystem. Aka, the technology having the characteristics of transparency, immutability, and decentralization.

4. Lower scalability

Since IoT systems operate via centralized architecture, it is becoming increasingly tougher for one to connect billions of devices into the same network. An impact of which is rise in network issues and hacker attacks.

Blockchain technology, here, introduces smart contracts in the networks that enable devices to function anonymously and securely by creating agreements that executes only when a specific task is completed.

5. Higher processing overhead cost

Currently, various third-parties are being asked to check and authenticate each micro-transaction to ensure security in the IoT network. This is not solely a time consuming process, but also an expensive affair.

Blockchain-based smart contracts mitigate these challenges by introducing the power of automation and eradicating the third-parties dependency.

Now while we have studied what Blockchain means to IoT, let’s take a look at some of the Blockchain of Things applications across industries.

Use Cases of Blockchain in IoT

1. Supply chain and logistics

As you might have been already aware of, a global supply chain entails many stakeholders like brokers and raw material providers, and multitude of payments and invoices. This makes the process complicated, time consuming, and with less-to-no transparency. Besides, the risk of delivery delays is also common.

Here, the adoption of blockchain in the supply chain management process introduces transparency, ease of payments, and saves time & cost by removing intermediaries and decentralizing the ecosystem. The technology empowers the businesses to enjoy a secure data exchange and a tamper-proof repository for cargo documents and shipping events, eventually resulting in less delays and frauds.

Whereas, IoT enhances traceability throughout the shipment process by empowering machines to share details in real-time across the network.

This way, the combination of Blockchain and IoT (aka Blockchain of Things) helps companies cope up with the challenges related to supply chain and logistics.

2. Smart Homes

Various smart home organizations are embracing Blockchain technology to make the data gathered and shared by smart devices immutable and prevent the risk of hacking.

They are also turning towards the idea of collaborating blockchain and IoT technology to provide users with an opportunity to share specific areas and devices with others safely and securely with giving them access to everything. For example, Comcast employs a permission-based ledger that enables smart home product users to grant access permissions remotely to others from their devices, such that these permissions can be revoked at any point of time. This could be particularly useful in situations like giving a virtual key of your house to a friend.

3. Healthcare and Pharmacy

Another industry that is revolutionizing with the adoption of Blockchain and IoT is Healthcare and pharmacy. The two technologies are helping the industry mitigate their traditional challenges like lack of data security, longer waited time, data inconsistency, and higher attached cost.

While the former technology eases the clinical research and drug development, supply chain management, and patient medical verification impact by introducing the power of decentralized distributed ledger and immutability of data, the latter ensures end-to-end connectivity and data sharing in real-time.

Likewise, Blockchain speeds up the processes by replacing third-party intermediaries with smart contracts. Whereas, IoT makes it possible for healthcare practitioners and pharmacists to get familiar with any uncertain medical signs and prepare for new chronic diseases quickly and efficiently.

4. Automotive

Automotive is also one of the business verticals experiencing the impact of blockchain on IoT. The industry depends on the two disrupting technologies to leverage a wide range of benefits such as –

The two technologies are easing the process of finding a vacant space for parking and is automating the payments via crypto wallet; making it termed as smart parking.
Using RFID tags, car manufacturers are finding it easier to ensure proof of provenance for the spare auto parts and track the exact location of any particular car in the IoT-connected world. Whilst, blockchain is helping with storing and sharing this information globally in the form of a public distributed ledger.
Blockchain of Things (BIoT) is also making it possible for customers to claim for insurance immediately and effortlessly using the power of smart contracts.

Learn more about the use of blockchain and IoT in the automotive industry via this video –

5. Fintech

Again, Fintech is also experiencing a significant change in its working environment with the advent of Blockchain and Internet of Things.

When talking about the role of Blockchain in Fintech, the technology is helping with reducing paperwork, making data immutable and publicly accessible, performing transactions in the form of cryptocurrencies, identifying money laundering issues, and much more.

At the same time, IoT is changing the fintech scenario by offering a myriad of benefits such as immediate support and personalization services, introducing smart banks and ATMs, enhancing spending visibility, and assessing risk related to insurance and loan. An example of this happening is Hyundai, who showcased its ad in IIFA, is developing a platform where Blockchain supports the payments that happen between the devices, making the web of devices immune to hacking and malware attacks.

6. Sharing economy

Another industry that is gaining a huge momentum on integrating IoT with blockchain is the sharing economy.

The technologies are enabling companies to consider each property and device, be it house, car, washing machine, or bed as an IoT-connected device and share or sell on lease to others in the network without involving any third party intermediaries. Something that you will be able to understand better by looking into the working of Slock.it, a real-life use case of blockchain and IoT in the sharing economy.

With such potential, the Blockchain of Things (BIoT) market is growing exponentially. It was recorded to be valued USD 113.1 Mn in 2019 and is anticipated to be worth USD 3,021 Mn by 2024, growing with a CAGR of 92.92% during the forecast period.

Seeing this, if you are eager to harness the power of the convergence of blockchain and IoT in your business, it is likely that you wish to come across some existing projects so as to be fully sure about the investment.

Taking the same into consideration, let’s take a look at the existing projects working with the alliance of blockchain and internet of things.

10 Blockchain of Things Projects Transforming the World

IOTA
Waltonchain
IoTeX
Ambrosus
IoT Chain
Moeco
Power Ledger
Atanomi
FOAM
Chain of Things

Now as you know the types of BIoT projects ruling the marketplace and the type of competition you are going to face, it is obvious that you would be eager to connect with a reputed blockchain app development company and enter this space.

However, it is not easy as it seems. When talking about merging the two most disruptive technologies into the traditional business model, developers face various challenges that often delays the process or demands higher fundings.

So, with a motive to make you aware of those challenges and support your development team in the right way, let’s wrap up this article focusing on the same.

Challenges Associated with Merging Blockchain and Internet of Things

1. Scalability

The foremost challenge being faced in Blockchain and IoT convergence is the ability to scale the requirements of services over a dynamic network of devices. The consensus mechanisms followed by the blockchain technology saves us a lot of time and offers services like information neutrality, authentication, and fault tolerance. However, it also leads to issues like unsustainability of processing a wider network of nodes for every transaction, limited bandwidth, cloud-based architecture, and traditional data storage structures.

2. Varied Processing Time

In an IoT ecosystem, a wide range of devices with varied computing capabilities operate. These devices have different potential and thus, run the encryption algorithms at differing speeds. This makes it difficult to maintain a particular processing power consumption and time.

3. Wider Storage Requirements

Blockchain technology reduces the need for a central server to store transactions and device IDs. However, it demands storing data on the nodes, which increases the size of the ledger. This makes it difficult for smart devices to manage the data.

4. Legal Issues

Since the convergence of blockchain and IoT is still a new territory to explore, IoT manufacturers and service providers have to follow certain legal compliances. This is yet another challenge that scares off various businesses from introducing blockchain into their IoT-powered system.

5. Interoperability

Another challenge faced during the blend of blockchain and IoT is interoperability. This is so because the integration of private and public blockchains, maintenance of common standards for compliance, and integration of multiple open source platforms is still not possible.

6. Security

Blockchain-based architecture serves the world with a promise of data security. However, it is still challenging to meet other blockchain for IoT security parameters like privacy, authentic identity and prevention of data theft, unless a new design consideration is considered.

Here are 10 Tips to Hire Android App Developer {2020 Edition}

Posted on 28/03/202015/06/2021 by Tushar

Due to recent technological advancements and innovation, mobile apps have become need for every business. And, Android is one of the emerging platforms that every business need for its promotion and branding. Android’s popularity has made the businesses reach customers easily, but at the same time, the fragmentation that the platform comes with has made Android app development one of the most challenging task for developer. And, for developing a market-centric Android app, we need to hire the top android app development company with proficient developers. So, let’s take a look at the tips for finding the right team of Android app developers for your business:

#1. Look For Proficient Team of Android App Developers

When you are looking to hire a team made of experts in the Android developer profile, the important thing to consider is their experience. Developing a market-centric and business-centric app is really a tricky task, which needs to be done proficiently and that requires experience developers.

#2. Don’t Make Cost A Primary Focus

Many businesses in a race to hire a cost-effective android app development company, end up with a poor quality app, which in turn, is of no use for their business. So, instead of taking risks with such low budget developers, one should always hire a team of Android app developers that hold the potential to develop a feature-packed and quality-rich app at cost-effective prices.

#3. Check The Past Projects Of Developers

By going through the past projects of Android developers, you can understand their approach and quality of their delivery. The answer to ‘How to hire Android app development company’ lies in their past working portfolio. You should always go through the developer’s app’s functionality, designing capabilities, and the time taken to complete the project. It helps you to understand, whether the Android app developer fits the app’s requirements or not. Even we can also look for the app’s reviews, ratings and feedback for the developer’s app.

#4. Sound knowledge Of Open Source Platforms

Android being an open source platform, gives the flexibility to developers to design an application that suits user’s needs, thus making it a necessity for the developers to have a sound knowledge about these open source platforms. So, one should look for Android app development companies that are familiar with the emerging open source libraries.

#5. Connect With The Previous Clients

Before hiring an Android app development company, you need to consider many aspects. And, one of them is connecting with previous clients. By connecting the previous clients, we should know how the developer has treated with its previous clients. And, how they work after getting the project, how responsive they are, how often do they communicate, how they solve the challenges, etc.

You can get the past client information from company’s Clutch or Extract profile

#6. Do They Have An Innovative Approach?

You should see – What’s the approach of the Android developer or the Android app development company that you are looking to hire? – For hiring an adept Android development service provider, you should check if the developer understands the business needs, e capability to improvise the design and is capable of providing best-in-class user experience along with the innovative ideas.

#7. Go For A Reputed And Certified Company

Although, hiring a freelance Android developer can be low-budget, but it’s a risky way to get an android app developed. Choosing freelancers may result in a negative outcome. By wisely choosing a reputed and certified Android app development company, you can go for the safest and most cost-effective way to develop an app.

Also, when you invest in an Android app development company, the speed of app development process is also much faster since they work as a team of designers, testers, and coders.

#8. NDA And Privacy Agreements Are Mandatory

Always start working with an Android app development company or freelancer, once you sign an NDA or privacy agreements. By signing such a bond with the Android developers, you can ensure the safety of confidential business information. Additionally, we should also take care of the property rights of the Android app to avoid future discrepancies.

#9. Inquire About The Team Of Developers

Look for the team of an Android developer, who claims to provide services for the android app development. For many times, it’s been observed that many companies and brands hire freelancers for the app development process without having any prior information to the client. To meet this challenge, while hiring app developers, one should connect with the development team members and inquire about their team.

#10. Discuss The Post Development Tasks And Supports

Before hiring an Android app development company, we should discuss the post-development tasks including app submission, app testing, bug fixing, support & maintenance etc. before handing the project to the app development team. By selecting an adept Android developer, you can get a perfect app.

Blockchain: The Revolutionizing Mobile App Security

Posted on 18/03/202015/06/2021 by Tushar

Blockchain has become the definition of Security in the present digital world. With a number of industries and even governments applying the technology to add a whole new level of security and decentralization to their processes, the technology has penetrated itself into the world beyond IT and Finance.

A trend that is visible in the market growth forecasts of Blockchain technology.

With forecasts as these, Blockchain has become a technology that is worth looking out for.

The trend of making technology a part of the business cycle have now moved into the world of mobile applications as well. While still ruled by a handful of Blockchain based apps, the technology is an open playground for brands to experiment and emerge as a champion in. A move that is also bringing in a demand for the presently very limited group of excelled Blockchain App Development Companies.

Let us look at how you can implement Blockchain in your next mobile app for an added security level.

The start of your aspiration is knowing everything about the technology. In this article, we will look at what the disruptive technology is about, the elements that will come together to give numerous advantages to your mobile app. In the end, we will also look at ways to implement the technology in your app, to make yours the category’s most secure application.

So let us start by looking at how Blockchain works.

Blockchains are sets of interlinked transactions. Every party involved in the chain, sign their transactions with the help of strong keys, which ensure that every transaction has been authenticated.

Next, two hash are being introduced in the block, one that gives tamper protection to the block and the other that safeguards the data transaction that went before the one added. These hash help in recording the data of all the events that happened in a block, making it impossible for any of the involved party to tamper with the block without alerting the other parties.

A deeper dive in the Blockchain technology will open doors of new unheard concepts and algorithms that the world of Blockchain live in. The world which is too deep and complex for brands to get a grasp on, keeping them away from utilizing the technology to its utmost potential. So, without going too deep, I’ll now highlight the significant elements of Blockchain that are the technology’s foundation.

As a brand owner who is new to the complex world of blocks and chains, read these elements as the features that your application would be based on, to be called the next big new age, disruptive mobile application

1. Mining

Mining in Blockchain stands for extracting data from the various transactions and creating a block of them. With each new addition to the transaction, the miner keeps extracting the data and adding them to the block, thus making a chain of the transaction.

2. Hash

By now you must have gathered how Blockchain has been introduced in the technology world as the torchbearer of Digital Security. When we talk about securing a system or an application, the implying notion is to secure the data, file, document, or the contract that is or will be saved in the mobile app.

In Blockchain, when a document or file is stored, a hash is created. Hash is that feature of Blockchain that converts the data in a unique output of fixed length for every transaction. Specific to Hash, every block contains the previous block hash, which has the reference to the hash the next one will be built upon. The block also has the hash of current transaction which will then be connected to the next hash, when the new block gets added.

The authenticity of the block can be identified by verifying its hash.

3. Decentralized System

Every digital asset ranging from a contract and property related papers to even the chain of related events documents was earlier a part of mesh which had to be broken down into several pieces and middlemen to get access. But, with Blockchain, every information is now available online, in a decentralized system.

Now every activity whether it’s record-keeping or keeping it up to date is handled by the users themselves. Irrespective of whether you wish to change the address in your official document or you have to extract the property tax paper related to the first property you purchased ages ago, you will no more have to go through intermediaries.

4. Distributed Ledger

The Blockchain is an open ledger that contains all information related to digital transactions they are meant to handle. By keeping the information in the sequential format as blocks, the ledger allows real-time tracking as soon as a new block of information is added.

By involving a group of users in the ledger who all have access to view and add real-time information of every transaction, Blockchain enables transparent and tamper-proof management of the ledger. For securing the internal communication within your mobile app, Blockchain uses metadata for communication, which is scattered in the distributed ledger and is impossible to collect at any one central point, thus making it impossible to hack.

5. Keyless Security Infrastructure

To store all the data hash and run a hashtag verification algorithm for their verification, Blockchain makes use of the Keyless Security Infrastructure. This enables spotting of any data manipulation in real time as the original hash is always available on other blocks linked in the system/chain.

So, here were the five elements that lay down the basis of Blockchain Technology. While still on the technical side, it’s time that we look into things from your perspective – a perspective that we have detailed in our Entrepreneur’s Guide to Blockchain.

Let’s look at how Blockchain will take your Mobile App Security to the next level by using the features that the world swears upon.

Benefits of Adding Blockchain Technology in Your Next Mobile Application.

1. Protection of Data

By using cryptography to assign private keys to the users, your users will be able to store, view, and manage all the transaction specific data and information in one place.

2. Data Transparency and Validation

Taking data identity to the next level, Blockchain allows users to make their data available in a decentralized system which every one of the involved parties has real-time access to. Blockchain makes it impossible for any single party to tamper with the information in the block and go unwatched, thus maintaining the integrity of the data and making it transparent for all, thus eliminating the need of middlemen.

3. Protection of Infrastructure

By storing the DNS entry on the Blockchain, the mobile app owners can shift the risk of hack to Blockchain’s secured platform. The distributed, transparent DNS that the technology offers, make it impossible for even the government to get into without the permission of the involved parties.

4. The End of Passwords

Blockchain allows the authentication of users, their devices, and the transaction that they do, without the need of entering a password. Its network decentralization feature helps create consensus among the involved parties for the authentication of Blockchain-based SSL certificates.

Blockchain, while still a new entrant in the mobile app market will soon become mainstream at the back of these and various other advantages that the technology has been introduced to the IT world with.

For you, who have decided to cut ahead of the competition and introduce the feature that will soon become a part of a major number of mobile apps, here are some tips on how to successfully implement the revolutionary technology in your next mobile application.

Tips on How to Implement Blockchain Technology in Mobile App

The first step to successful Blockchain implementation in your mobile application is to identify the app features that would need players to act on it. Only by having players and an incentive plan to keep them to contribute is how you can ensure the authenticity of how fail-safe your Blockchain app is.

The next tip to successful Blockchain implementation is to know the exact transactions that Blockchain will be authenticating. Majorly, Blockchain mobile applications focus on one of the two activities: mediating the ownership of a shared resource value or record facets of multiparty events, such as quotes/bids or bills and payment specific.

When thinking of Blockchain as a service model, plan a strategy around the notion of community. You will be able to get the most of the technology’s value and security feature when you include a community of members who would be a part of your Blockchain based app.

Now that you know what Blockchain is and how you can design your app’s security plan around the disruptive technology, the next step is the groundwork. Contact our team of Blockchain Application Developers today, to get a walkthrough on not just the technology but also its various applications beyond assuring security.

Remote workforces kept productive by IT support automation

Posted on 06/03/202015/06/2021 by Tushar

Enterprise clients have looked to automate IT support for several years. With millions of employees across the globe now working from home, support needs have increased dramatically, with many unprepared enterprises suffering from long service desk wait times and unhappy employees.

Many companies may have already been on a gradual pace to exploit digital solutions and enhance service desk operations, but automating IT support is now a greater priority. Companies can’t afford downtime or the lost productivity caused by inefficient support systems, especially when remote workers need more support now than ever before.

Digital technologies offer companies innovative and cost-effective ways to manage increased support loads in the immediate term, and free up valuable time and resources over the long-term. The latter benefit is critical, as enterprises increasingly look to their support systems to resolve more sophisticated and complex issues. Instead of derailing them, new automated support systems can empower workers by freeing them up to focus more on high-value work.

Businesses can start their journey toward digital support by using chatbots to manage common support tasks such as resetting passwords, answering ‘how to’ questions, and processing new laptop requests. Once basic support functions are under digital management, companies can then transition to layering in technologies like machine learning, artificial intelligence and analytics among others.

An IT support automation ecosystem built on these capabilities can enable even greater positive outcomes – like intelligently (and invisibly) discovering and resolving issues before they have an opportunity to disrupt employees. In one recent example, Anteelo deployed digital support agents to help manage a spike of questions coming in from remote workers. The digital agents seamlessly handled a 20% spike in volume, eliminated wait times, and drove positive employee experiences.

Innovative IT support

IT support automation helps companies become more proactive in serving their employees better with more innovative support experiences. Here are three examples:

Remote access

In a remote workforce, employees will undoubtedly face issues with new tools they need to use or with connections to the corporate network. An automated system that notifies employees via email or text about detected problems and personalized instructions on how to fix them is a new way to care for the remote worker. If an employee still has trouble, an on-demand virtual chat or voice assistant can easily walk them through the fix or, better yet, execute it for them.

Proactive response

The ability to proactively monitor and resolve the employee’s endpoint — to ensure security compliance, set up effective collaboration, and maintain high-performance levels for key applications and networking – has emerged as a significant driver of success when managing the remote workplace.

For example, with more reliance on the home internet as the path into private work networks, there’s a greater opportunity for bad actors to attack. A proactive support system can continuously monitor for threat events and automatically ensure all employee endpoints are security compliant.

Leveraging proactive analytics capabilities, IT support can set up monitoring parameters to match their enterprise needs, identify when events are triggered, and take action to resolve. This digital support system could then execute automated fixes or send friendly messages to the employee with instructions on how to fix an issue. These things can go a long way toward eliminating support disruptions and leave the employee with a sense of being cared for – the best kind of support.

More value beyond IT

Companies are also having employees leverage automated assistance outside of IT support functions. These capabilities could be leveraged in HR, for example, to help employees correctly and promptly fill out time sheets or remind them to select a beneficiary for corporate benefits after a major life event like getting married or having a baby.

Remote support can also help organizations automate business tasks. This could include checking on sales performance, getting recent market research reports sent to any device or booking meetings through a voice-controlled device at home.

More engaged employees

With the power to provide amazing experiences, automated IT support can drive new levels of employee productivity and engagement, which are outcomes any enterprise should embrace.

Matter of mobility to the clinician: Connected healthcare

Posted on 05/03/202015/06/2021 by Tushar

Technology experts will often talk about the benefits of mobility in healthcare, but to understand why mobility matters and how it might improve both workflow and clinical benefits for patients, it’s vital to get a user’s perspective.

As a clinician, my view of mobility is influenced by my own experiences in different medical settings. Clinicians — by which I mean doctors, nurses and other allied health professionals — work across multiple hospital wards, often across several hospitals or medical facilities, with multiple parties involved in the care of the patient. For example, a cardiologist might review a patient in the hospital’s outpatient department, in the emergency department or in the cardiology ward. As a result, the cardiologist may need access to medical records across various locations, which potentially could be sourced from multiple systems of record.

The key is being able to access those records in real-time and on the go. If clinicians are required to interrupt a patient evaluation to access information from a file or computer, valuable time can be lost, affecting the care of the patient. If clinicians can access the right information at the right time and in the right place — at the patient’s bedside, on the go, or in various locations — they are better equipped to make informed and accurate clinical decisions, enabling them to spend more time with the patient and ultimately improving patient care.

Furthermore, clinicians don’t work in isolation. Mobile access to clinical data and the ability to share information with other health professionals — for example accessing blood results from pathology or rehabilitation progress notes from a physiotherapist — give everyone involved in the patient’s care the right information as and when needed. These also ensure that clinicians make good use of their time. For example, if a doctor can see that the patient is scheduled for an X-ray at 11:45 a.m., he or she knows a midday appointment is not feasible.

Taking a holistic approach to Healthcare

We also need to realize that healthcare doesn’t happen in isolation from the rest of our lives. Most people now access information through their mobile devices. It makes sense, therefore, that clinicians would want to access clinical data in the same way.

And patients are also more connected in every way. They expect to be included in decisions driving their own healthcare. They want to understand their diagnosis and what it means. If the clinician can access the patient’s data on a mobile device, it’s much easier to have an informative bedside discussion with the patient. For example, the clinician can pull up the patient’s X-ray or blood test results on a mobile device and show the patient areas of concern or trends in the results.

The clinician might want to go further and share information about a procedure — for example, videos of a procedure or hyperlinks to information that might be helpful to the patient. Or the clinician and patient can watch the video together on the mobile device, giving the patient an opportunity to ask questions and be properly informed.

A truly mobile, integrated solution will also be able to aggregate information from multiple sources — the patient’s medical record, pharmacy record, nurses’ notes — and have it all in one place.

In an age where data security, patient privacy, and accountability are under the microscope, mobility gives healthcare systems the ability to track information. The system will show that a certain clinician has seen the results. It’s possible to also require that clinician acknowledge receipt of the information as he or she receives it.

There’s no doubt that challenges exist — technical, logistical, user-specific, and more — but the benefits are worth the pursuit of a solution. Healthcare organizations have the information required to ensure quality patient care, increase patient satisfaction and reduce the rate of mortality and morbidity. But, they want to be able to get that information about their patients in real-time and on the go. Ultimately, clinicians want mobility. After all, it’s how most people — clinicians included — interact with the world in their daily lives. Why should healthcare be any different?

Learning complexities: Best practices of work in the future

Posted on 04/03/202015/06/2021 by Tushar

Today’s high performing organizations know that the world of learning has undergone tremendous change, and they need to put employees at the center. Employees require a lifetime of continuous learning to keep pace with change.
An innovative approach to learning can help tackle the workforce skills gap, retain talent, increase performance and improve productivity.

Organizations need to create a learning culture and environment that welcomes knowledge seeking and employee self-improvement. The next generation of learning technology expands access, personalizes experiences, offers actionable insight and helps track how learning affects business outcomes.

Learning leaders must work together and share the same vision to successfully engage and prepare their employees for the future of work. Here are five best practices we view as critical for successfully overcoming the challenges and complexity within learning today:

Take advantage of new learning platforms. Standardizing on a single LMS is not the only option to address learning complexity. Having multiple systems is fine, even preferable, provided they can be accessed through a single platform. What’s important is to implement a multi-platform, agile methodology where the learner’s experience is the focus.

Meet learners where they are at. Employees do not have as much time as they would like for formal learning, informal “in-the-flow” work learning is necessary for training and development.

Embrace evolving workforce demographics. To address learning diversity, investing in next-generation learning technology and fresh approaches includes mobile learning tools and personalize learning paths needed to improve performance and retain talent.

Up-skill for the future of work. Closing the skills gap requires prioritizing learning development programs that empower employees to seek new skills that meet evolving business needs.

Ensure employees remain relevant in the digital workplace. Employees need to build comprehensive skill sets that are applicable to a variety of roles that will eventually be in high demand with the adoption of automation, robotics, and artificial intelligence.

In today’s changing world of work, employees need access to anytime, anywhere learning that’s relevant and meaningful to their development. An active learning community encourages employees to become insight experts and share actionable knowledge that enhances organizational intelligence.

It is time to pursue an innovative approach to learning and to take full advantage of next generation learning technology that prepares employees for change, aligns with business goals and connects a global workforce to deliver performance that accelerates growth.

Power of unconstrained thinking

Power of approximate reality

Filter to differentiate signal from noise – Data Triangulation

Ability to tame the wild data

Challenges at scale

Setting up, and moving beyond the traditional PMO

The right level of process

Some serious business:

A Brief Introduction to What is IoT and Blockchain

IoT Challenges that Blockchain Resolves

1. Poor security

2. No liquidity

3. Lack of trust

4. Lower scalability

5. Higher processing overhead cost

Use Cases of Blockchain in IoT

2. Smart Homes

3. Healthcare and Pharmacy

4. Automotive

5. Fintech

6. Sharing economy

10 Blockchain of Things Projects Transforming the World

Challenges Associated with Merging Blockchain and Internet of Things

1. Scalability

2. Varied Processing Time

3. Wider Storage Requirements

4. Legal Issues

5. Interoperability

6. Security

#1. Look For Proficient Team of Android App Developers

#2. Don’t Make Cost A Primary Focus

#3. Check The Past Projects Of Developers

#4. Sound knowledge Of Open Source Platforms

#5. Connect With The Previous Clients

#6. Do They Have An Innovative Approach?

#7. Go For A Reputed And Certified Company

#8. NDA And Privacy Agreements Are Mandatory

#9. Inquire About The Team Of Developers

#10. Discuss The Post Development Tasks And Supports

1. Mining

2. Hash

3. Decentralized System

4. Distributed Ledger

5. Keyless Security Infrastructure

Benefits of Adding Blockchain Technology in Your Next Mobile Application.

1. Protection of Data

2. Data Transparency and Validation

3. Protection of Infrastructure

4. The End of Passwords

Tips on How to Implement Blockchain Technology in Mobile App

Innovative IT support

Remote access

Proactive response

More value beyond IT

More engaged employees

Taking a holistic approach to Healthcare

Delivering excellence, collaborating across time zones.

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