Enhancing project management by extending the Scrum framework

How Effective is the Scrum Framework for Project Management

Scrum — a management framework that focuses on cutting through complexity to better meet business needs — maps out the elements required to run a successful project. However, many projects need to go beyond the typical Daily, Planning, Review and Retro meeting sessions used in the Scrum process to be truly successful.

There are ways to enhance your Scrum framework, increase control and improve cooperation with key stakeholders. Below are suggestions for additional meetings, taken straight from Anteelo best practices, that can help keep your process on track.

Scrum Master/Product Owner meeting (SM/PO)

Who Should Attend: Scrum Master and Product Owner

When Should They Meet: Recommended weekly, depending on the size of your backlog

As the name suggests, this meeting takes place between the SM and PO. Since neither is required at the Daily Scrum, they do not have a formal time to share any news, focus on issues or align the responsibilities. But for teams with differing agile experience, the responsibilities of one and another might seem fuzzy. This meeting is dedicated to clearing out that fuzziness.

In an ideal world, every scrum project would be 100% compliant with the Scrum Guide. However, these projects are very hard to come by. That’s why one of the main goals for SM is to create and implement the final vision of the scrum framework for the project, one that’s unique, tailored to your project and containing your own “flavor.” This requires cooperation and alignment between SM and PO.

A useful tool to manage your work is the SM/PO Backlog. This is a separate document with a list of issues or questions you should solve to keep your project running. Examples include trainings for the development team, documentation or stakeholder management.

Risks, Issues, Opportunities Management (RIOM) meeting

Who Should Attend: SM, PO, Program Manager, Development Team, relevant stakeholders

When Should They Meet: Recommended weekly, although it could be less often if merged with another meeting

The primary goal of RIOM is avoiding foreseeable issues. This is seemingly handled during the Daily Standups, when the development team shares any potential threats to the Sprint Goal. On the other hand, fixating only on the short-term risks may result in losing the big picture.

To counter that, we recommend having a separate meeting with relevant stakeholders. Inviting the development team makes sense, as they have hands-on knowledge of risks, issues or opportunities.

Steering Board meeting

Who Should Attend: Steering board, SM, PO

When Should They Meet: Should take place at least once a sprint. A rule of thumb is bi-weekly.

Every project needs control. Scrum makes it easier thanks to transparency and cooperation with the client. Ideally your Product Owner is part of the client’s organization, having a clear communication channel with business stakeholders.

As a Scrum Master, you still want to be able to inform or influence your stakeholders. Experience shows that Review meeting is not enough to avoid hazardous communication gaps. The overall status of the project needs to be tracked and managed closely. The more information shared with stakeholders, the more support you can muster from management.

Transparency is encouraged in the agile approach, and meeting with your Steering Board is crucial to ensure communication gaps are bridged before they cause delays or harm your project. Steering Board meetings can be successfully combined with RIOM.

Roadmap update meeting

Who Should Attend: Scrum Team

When Should They Meet: Quarterly and/or after major business changes of the project

Product Backlog is one of the key tools for Product Owner. Backlog is supplemented beautifully with the Product Roadmap. Product Roadmap outlines high-level directions, functionalities or areas of product development over a 1-year period (could be longer). In other words, it helps express the product vision.

PO is responsible for keeping the roadmap up to date. This document gives the Scrum Team a better understanding of how the sprints align with the overall direction of the project. Although roadmap is created and maintained by PO (in conjunction with the business stakeholders), it’s vital that the Scrum Team stays informed.

This is only a handful of meetings to enhance your Scrum framework, providing  guidelines about possible shortcomings. Ultimately, it’s up to the Scrum Master to tailor the framework to the needs of the project.

A New Approach For Designing Citizen Services

Citizen service

Most government IT solutions were created only with the intention of automating the back office and focusing on efficiency. Requirements were gathered from case workers and then converted into functionality. The resulting IT solution is entirely focused on the internal operating model.

A similar approach has been taken with most government websites, which are often designed based on a government agency’s internal organisational structure, resulting in a poor user experience for citizens. Far too often, citizens start out on a promising home page, only to get lost in the weeds of dead-end pages, incorrect forms, and even other websites as they try in vain to navigate the unfamiliar organisational structure of the government agency.

But citizens no longer live in an analogue world and they’ve run out of patience. They expect governments to present digital citizen services in an easy-to-use, always-on, self-service, personal, and proactive way.

How to deliver a digital government experience

citizen services

To deliver an experience that meets expectations, it’s clear that we need another approach — one centred around citizens. Requirements and functionality should be derived from the behaviour of the citizen as a customer – what information or service they need, what problem they need to solve, how they want to consume the content — and not from the organisational setup.

This also means that the government needs to provide a seamless and transparent interaction across channels. There is no time to develop a single application per service. Instead we must think in terms of platform models, where new services can be introduced quickly on top of existing services and a standard approach used to build applications.

This kind of transformation doesn’t just involve technology; it requires the transformation of the government organisation itself to improve how it provides services to its citizens via digital channels. It requires a strategy that is endorsed by the organisation’s leadership and mandates a transformation toward a new operating model, new capabilities and processes.

Balancing front- and back office digital programs

Back Office Management Software - How it Works and What it does?

Going digital is not just about revisiting current processes and modernising legacy systems. It is also about balancing programs in the front and back office. This is a critical strategic point. Most digital programs are focused on improving the front office, i.e. the websites or apps that citizens interact with. That’s good insofar as it suggests a focus on citizen interactions. However, that model is unsustainable when the back office continues on as before – manual and labour-intensive, using the same legacy applications, and creating a backlog of requests.

Balance your digital programs with these five enablers

Some governments have already got the message and are redesigning their services with this model in mind. In the United Kingdom, for example, the government has published a set of best practices for designing a good citizen experience. The United States is following along the same lines.

Based on these design principles and drawing on our own experiences working with government organisations, Anteelo has identified five key enablers of successful citizen experience transformation:

Use design thinking. Also called human-centred design, design thinking is a creative problem-solving process that makes the citizen the central focus designing a better experience. It is ideal for tackling front-office related aspects.

How to use design thinking to create a happier life for yourself |

Experiment in an agile way. Traditional approaches such as waterfall development take too long to deliver value. An agile, more iterative approach allows for the kinds of experimentation that can lead to process (and application) innovation in both the front- and back-office. This experimentation is a vital component of any digital journey and must be endorsed to get people, processes and technology aligned to optimise the workload.

Product Discovery: ​A Practical Guide for Agile Teams (2021)

Invest to drive automation. Governments can greatly benefit from introducing new technologies to automate administrative tasks and interconnect and then dynamically manage public infrastructure. Back-office applications can benefit from a surge in efficiency in applying RPA for example.

Global Organizations Turning to RPA to Respond to COVID-19 Pandemic - Express Computer

Get new digital capabilities. Having the right capabilities and people with knowledge and experience is key to executing a digital transformation program. No organisation will be able to introduce new technologies and change the operating model if it doesn’t have the right capabilities among its workforce.

7 Capabilities Central To Digital Transformation

Become data-driven. Government organisations that embrace data can transform services and become more predictive, proactive, preventive and personalised. Becoming a data-driven organisation also brings internal value. For one thing, greater efficiency means better utilisation of resources. Most of all, it brings value to citizens’ experiences by better understanding their behaviour and engaging them in meaningful interactions.

Citizen services

 These enablers, of course, only describe a few key pieces of a more complex puzzle. We explore each enabler in considerably more depth and show how to turn each into concrete actions that drive better citizen outcomes, in our new white paper, Five enablers for governments to serve today’s digital citizens.

Failure of On-Demand Platforms- Reason & Solution

Forecasting the future of your on demand service platform and importance of having a plan to scale it - Odtap

The glaring success of the on demand era has given birth to a school of thought among the tech community. They have started believing that following the uber business model and entering the on demand industry will be the only move that is keeping them from reaching complete success.

While it has worked for a number of businesses like GrubHub or Airbnb, the number of businesses that have failed are also extremely huge. In fact, if you sit down to make an excel sheet comparing the on demand services fail vs success ratio, you will find that the number of businesses that struggled to survive were more than those which didn’t.

But does this mean that you should give up hope on your on demand platforms’ business success and give up? Of course not. What it implies is that when you plan to succeed in the crowded on demand market, you should also factor in the reasons behind the application’s failure.

The intent of this article is to help with just that.

Table Of Content 

  1. Understanding Uber’s Success in the on demand sector
  2. The List of on demand Brands That Failed Miserably
  3. Reasons Behind on demand Business Failure
  4. How Can on demand Businesses Save Themselves From Shutting Down Prematurely?
  5. Conclusion

Understanding Uber’s Success in the on demand Sector

Uber Loses License to Operate in London - WSJ

When you dissect the on demand economy, you will find that it is mainly built on three building blocks: delivery immediacy, consumption passivity, and a fixed cost. Uber did not just ticked all the three boxes of the on demand business model, but also aced some other factors that helped it build a seamless ride booking user experience.

Here are the two factors which added to the brand’s success, making it one of the most successful on-demand companies:

  • The company operates in populated urban cities where there’s enough liquidity for making the marketplace work.
  • The customer base were already very familiar with trusting a stranger to take them places. Thus, creating a trust in the market was never a problem.

The Uber model doesn’t care about the transaction’s intimacy aspect nor about the disintermediation challenges. Imagine once you on demand home service app users find a person they like for cleaning their house or planning their kids, how would you stop them from contacting those service providers directly, without going through your application? This disintermediation when continued can lead to greater burn, churn, and in some cases extinction of the business.

Since the Uber model didn’t include the need to care about intimacy, they could survive and grow on a much greater speed. But not every Uber-like story has a happy ending. There are a number of once top in the game on-demand platforms that have fallen owing to the on-demand challenges.

The List of on demand Brands That Failed Miserably 

1.  Happy Home Company 

The Happy Home Company | LinkedIn

Happy Home Company was a twist in the otherwise traditional home service market. The idea behind the brand was to offer users home maintenance plans which included recurring things that had to be kept in top working conditions. Inspite of bagging $7 million from investors, Happy Home’s founder wrote a shutdown letter which stated, “Ultimately we weren’t able to make the transition from a scrappy startup to self-sustaining company.”

2.  Pronto

Team Communication Software | Pronto works better

The business was set out for helping people get healthy meals faster. The UK based service had the work with the intent of connecting the users with chefs while enabling food delivery in under 20 minutes. It had every element to make it one of the most flourishing on demand delivery apps. Even though the idea sounded good to investors and adopters, the company couldn’t keep up with the promotion budgets of Uber and Deliveroo – one of the very commonly occurring on demand challenges.

3.  Workers On Call 

Why call centre workers love to use your name – and why it's really annoying

AI has changed the face of work, this is something that has been established over time. The Workers On Call services used AI systems for streamlining matching of employers with freelancers who needed jobs. The application that boasted of freelancers getting matched and started to work in under 30 minutes, although backed by a powerful vision, was a little ahead of its time. The brand even after raising $30K funding, signed off with a tersely message saying, “Bye Bye. Sorry Workers On Call is closed.”

4.  Homejoy 

Homejoy shuts down amid lawsuits over worker misclassification – The Mercury News

One of the textbook examples of failed the businesses is Homejoy. Started with $20,000 seed funding in 2000, the business became a big name in 2013 when it raised $38 Millions – making it one of the most successful on demand startups. But soon the customers started failing to convert past their first booking. In fact, only 15-20% people re-booked in a month. The numbers were simply not enough for the brand to survive. Add to this the legal battles against classification of workers a s independent contractors led to the business’s death in 2015.

[Further Read: Why Did HomeJoy Failed]

The truth of the hour that still remains is that even after these on demand platforms failure instances, the fact how the internet has trained consumers to get services in real-time is not stopping budding entrepreneurs from entering the on demand economy. But how can businesses ensure that they are not destined to become yet another name in the list?

While one way to get some satisfaction would be to partner with an on demand software development company that has worked with the inception of popular on demand businesses, it would also help to know the on demand services failure reasons that can lead to their failure.

Reasons Behind on demand Business Failure

1.  High Competition

Is competition in the workplace good or bad?

The upsurge of hyperlocal service demand has led to a rise in demand of on demand services attending to the complete needs of their customers. One way entrepreneurs are competing in the market is by lowering their service costs. This, in addition to the high operational costs of transportation, infrastructure, and labour has been keeping on demand startups from flourishing.

2.  Reluctance among Venture Capitalists 

Building Radar: Silicon Valley investor funds Bavarian technology start-up - Invest in Bavaria

With on demand failure stories shooting off the roof, investors have started becoming wary of where to put in their money. As it is, getting funded on your application has been a difficult process and when you add in the unsureties that the sector now comes with, the probability of raising money lowers even further.

VCs are now becoming all the more cynical about the startup’s longevity. Businesses that are promising a strong long-term vision with a cash flow picture backing it have become the only answer to the types of apps investors will be backing in 2020.

3.  Product Incompetence 

Article: Overcoming the Unconscious Incompetence Hurdle at Work — People Matters

If there is one event that follows every successful startup, it would be the fact that competitors are soon to follow. The value that your business once offered starts getting challenged and bettered by the competitors. This, in turn, is leading to the product becoming incompetent in the market, irrespective of the efforts that went behind on demand app development services.

Brands that are failing to keep up with the changes with timely pivots are soon finding themselves crawling out of the on demand space.

4.  Inefficient Resource Set 

Human Resource Insights #2: 4 Signs of Inefficient HR Departments | Credait

The lack of an experienced set of people can most often than not result in the failure of on demand companies. The same applies for the on demand industry. Irrespective of which on demand domain you pick, you will find that the ones that survived were known for their skilled workforce. A lacking on this front can lead to on demand business losing their worth in the industry and thus get closer to their demise.

5.  Not Being Able to Solve Real Problems 

6 Ways to Enhance Your Problem Solving Skills Effectively

A number of on demand companies that fail deal with band-aid type of problems in place of emergency room type problems that make the solution extremely non attractive to the end users. Example: For example, imagine an on demand car wash service. Just how frequently would users demand the service? But the expenses a business will have to make to keep it afloat would be huge. In short, the business neither ends up being cost-efficient nor effective.

6.  Under or Over Valuing Demand and Supply 

Demand And Supply Balance On The Scale. Business Concept Royalty Free Cliparts, Vectors, And Stock Illustration. Image 87121470.

The last in our list of reasons that tend to lead directly to business failure is under or over valuation of demand and supply that your on demand business would garner. Businesses, more often than not undervalue the demand that they would attract and thus plan low on supply. Likewise, they at times think too much of demand and end up with an underutilized supply of resources.

Now that we have enlisted the most common reasons behind an the app business failure, let us dive into the way outs – how can on demand businesses prevent this fate.

How Can On demand Businesses Save Themselves From Shutting Down Prematurely?

Market Expansion

A Complete Guide to Market Expansion Strategy – Welp Magazine

One of the biggest issues with today’s top-on-demand businesses is that they don’t expand from their existing markets. The entrepreneurs who are very new to the industry end up being limited to a pool of loyal customers and don’t think of expansion opportunities. The problem with this is that the moment a new competitor with deep pockets enters the market, the probability of them getting out of business increases.

Here’s a look into the expansion roadmap that we generally share with our clients when we assist them with on demand app development.

Make Your Customer Needs Your Bible 

Build Your Business on Faith: 55 Bible Verses About Business

In the fight between what you can offer and what your users need, your offerings should always prevail. Although it can be a sweet attraction to invest in tomorrow’s big need, it can be extremely unwise to let go of your customers’ present day needs.

The truth is that you will get a multitude of opportunities and time to pivot your startup. But what you won’t get is the current time and your users present day needs. Getting insights into this information is what a sound on demand mobile app development company can help you with.

Think of Being Monetarily Prepared First 

The matter of the modern day fact is that it is very difficult to get funding on an application. No matter how well propositioned your application is or how green your cash flow statement looks, there is zero guarantee of you getting funded.

The solution on this front can only be to look into alternate financing options and not remain limited to VCs.

Conclusion

The growing cases of on demand industry failures have led to the sector getting the image of being a house of card. The only way for entrepreneurs to enter and succeed in the domain would be to do extensive user research. One way we suggest to achieve this effortlessly can be through the mode of product design and development sprint – one of the key practices that on demand app developers follow.

The Biggest Cybersecurity Threats for 2020

The Biggest Cybersecurity Threats for 2020

Cybersecurity has continued to be a major issue throughout 2019 and as organisations begin to rely even more on IT, it remains a serious concern. While most companies are by now aware of how important cybersecurity is, many have yet to implement the necessary measures needed to adequately protect them. In this post, we’ll look at what security threats 2020 is likely to put in their way.

1. Lack of cybersecurity education

The Biggest Cybersecurity Threats for 2020

Perhaps the biggest cyber threat to any business is the lack of knowledge and understanding within a company about cybersecurity. Today, the digital revolution is affecting the working practices of employees throughout companies big and small. With more and more employees using connected technologies as part of their everyday jobs, it is more important than ever to ensure all staff are aware of what cybersecurity risks they face and how they can work in a way that will enhance security.

In 2020, expect to see more organisations putting cybersecurity strategies into place that include ongoing training for staff on the latest technologies and threats and, importantly, letting them know how to work responsibly and respond to incidents.

2. The threat of data breaches

Chris Vickery: AI Will Drive Tomorrow's Data Breaches | Threatpost

The enormous value of personal data to the criminal underworld means that data is a principal target for hackers. As a result, the threat of a data breach will continue to be one of the biggest issues that businesses will face in the coming years. This means companies will need to ensure personal data is secure end to end, from the moment it is sent to them to its safe disposal. The use of SSL certificates, encrypted data storage, logical access, password management and the rapid patching and updating of web applications is vital in this area.

For those who succumb to a data breach, tough fines, reputational damage and even lawsuits await.

3. Skills shortages

The Biggest Cybersecurity Threats for 2020

The complex nature of cybersecurity means that increasing numbers of organisations are employing the services of highly-skilled, security experts. Unfortunately, as these professionals are in short supply, there is a considerable skills gap in many companies just at the time when the need is the greatest.

In response, many companies are now implementing the use of intelligent, automated security tools that use advanced technologies to scan and block attempted intrusions, infections or other forms of attack like DDoS. These services can often be delivered by your service provider.

4. Leaky clouds

Leaky Cloud Buckets: How Enterprises Can Protect Against Data Exposure

The majority of enterprises use the cloud for at least part of their IT solution and it is increasingly becoming popular as the place to store data and run operational processes. However, its popularity has not been kept a secret from cybercriminals and the number of cloud-based threats has continued to rise.

In 2020, companies will need to maintain the security of critical data and make sure they have real-time threat intelligence in place, to minimise the risk of data breaches or critical operations being taken offline.

5. Mobile device risk  

Get off your mobile phone. 5 hours of daily use can lead to obesity and cancer - Lifestyle News

For many employees, the smartphone is now an essential work tool used not only to access the company system but to store important data. This puts organisations at risk from poorly secured connections, mobile malware and device theft. It is critical, therefore, that all mobile devices that can be used to access the organisation’s systems are secured. One solution is to ensure access is carried out via a secure web app.

6. IoT vulnerability

Top 10 IoT vulnerabilities | Network World

Mobiles aren’t the only remote devices that are vulnerable to attack; perhaps even more at risk are the IoT devices which have proliferated in use over the last few years and on which many organisations increasingly rely. They present a plethora of potential vulnerabilities that organisations need to protect themselves from, such as insecure wi-fi connections, hard-coded credentials, unverified firmware and unencrypted data. In addition, a compromised router or network attached storage server gives an attacker access to data and can serve as a platform to launch more attacks. In 2020, organisations which use the IoT will need to look carefully at how to ensure these vulnerabilities are protected against.

7. Rogue states

Rogue state | Military Wiki | Fandom

It is not just cybercriminals that are out to steal data and cause chaos, unfortunately, some governments are at it too – and these rogue states will have more advanced technologies, IT expertise and financial backing than the average hacker.

While cybercriminals are usually financially motivated, state-sponsored attacks can have a number of purposes, such as causing major security breaches to undermine companies, taking critical services offline using a DDoS attack, industrial or political espionage, spreading fake news to influence elections and even taking those who oppose them offline.

State-sponsored cybercrime is the new cold war and while major companies, public utilities, defence and political organisations are particularly at risk, all organisations need to be aware of their risk of attack and how to protect themselves.

8. Intelligent malware

Using artificial intelligence to prevent hacking! — Steemit

The war between cybercriminals and cybersecurity teams isn’t being carried out simply by the human brain anymore. Both camps are now using artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning as tools in their armoury. Unfortunately, this means that cybercriminals are now able to create extremely sophisticated malware and methods of attack and at a pace that cybersecurity companies are finding challenging to deal with. It may only be a matter of time before one of these stealthy attacks strikes with devastating effect.

Conclusion

In 2020, cybersecurity will continue to challenge organisations big and small. We’ll see persistent risks like data breaches remaining high on everyone’s agenda, while the development of new technologies brings new threats, such as intelligent malware and IoT vulnerabilities. As companies expand their use of IT, we’ll also see a need to protect the cloud and mobile devices while ensuring that there are highly skilled IT experts driving security strategies and educating everyone else how to stay secure.

JVM Language for 2020- Choose Kotlin vs Scala

Kotlin vs Scala: What Measures Slither Them In Popularity Over Java?

One man’s misery is the fortune of another”. This saying has become true for the JVM world. With the fall of Java – the programming language that entered the market in 1995 and changed the complete story, various other languages are gaining huge momentum. Developers have not only started using those JVM programming languages, but have also proposed them as the right Java’s alternative for app development.

Three of such programming languages that are enjoying limelight in the market are Kotlin, Clojure, and Scala.

While we will talk about Clojure some other day, let’s focus on the ‘Kotlin vs Scala’ battle today.

Here, in this article, I’m going to paint a picture of ‘What’s what’ scenario to help you make a smart and profitable decision of switching from Java to other JVM language on yourself.

TABLE OF CONTENT

  1. What is Kotlin Programming Language?
  2. A Concise Introduction to Scala
  3. Kotlin versus Scala: A Detailed Comparison of Java Alternatives
  4. Kotlin vs. Scala: Which is Right JVM for 2020?

So, Let’s dive into the Kotlin world first.

What is Kotlin Programming Language?

8-Minute Crash Course on Kotlin Programming Language. | by Tanu N Prabhu | Kt. Academy

Kotlin is an open-source, cross-platform, statically-typed programming language developed by JetBrains in 2011. It was recognized as an official Android programming language by Google back in 2019 and has reached the latest version, Kotlin 1.4.

[As we have mentioned about cross-platform nature of Kotlin above, you can learn about it in detail here –  Kotlin Vs Flutter: Who Will Rule the Cross-platform App Market? ]

The language offers developers with ample benefits as an answer to Is Kotlin better than Java. A few of which are as follows:-

Benefits of Kotlin Programming Language

1.  More Reliable

5 Strategies to Achieve More Reliable Service - Simplesat

Unlike other conventional languages like Swift, Kotlin has undergone various Alpha and Beta stages before entering into the market. Because of this, the latest version of Kotlin is highly mature, compatible and reliable to operate with.

2.  Kotlin’s Higher Development Speed

The Benefits of CRM for Business Banking - Salesforce.com

Kotlin encourages developers to perform any functionality by writing a less number of code lines. This not only enhances productivity but also speed up the app development process.

3.  Fail-fast System

Speed Wins: Fail Fast, Fail Cheap ! – Business Audit Compliance

Another advantage of going with Kotlin language is that it avails a built-in fail-fast system which reduces the risk of errors in coding.

4.  Easy to Maintain

Easy To Maintain - Designation Icon - Free Transparent PNG Clipart Images Download

The language offers extensive support for various IDEs including Android Studio. This makes it possible for developers to build solutions on different platforms and maintain them timely.

Because of such advantages, Kotlin programming language has received support from various recognised brands. A list of which is as follows:

Limitations of Kotlin Language

1.   Less Kotlin Developer Experts Available

The Retail Revolution: 5 Ways to Adapt, Survive, and Thrive – MarketBridge

Despite the sky-high popularity of Kotlin, there are only a few programmers with expertise in Kotlin development in the market. This is the prime limitation of considering Kotlin for JVM based application development.

Now, before you find yourself inclined towards Kotlin language, let’s jump to Scala.

An Overview of Scala Programming Language

Scala (programming language) - Wikipedia

Designed by Martin Odersky back in 2004, Scala is an open-source language that facilitates a perfect blend of object-oriented and functional coding in a statically typed programming environment. The language was devised to address the cons of Java programming language in terms of general-purpose and thus, can be an ideal Java alternative.

Scala, whose latest version is 2.13.1, is highly appreciated by various reputed brands, including:-

And the prime reason behind this is the following set of benefits it avail.

Pros of Going with Scala

1.   Statically Typed

Dynamically typed vs statically typed languages | by Haydn Morris | Medium

Scala comes with a highly expressive typing system that demands application of statistical abstraction in a particularly consistent and secure manner. Primarily, the type system supports:

  • General Classes
  • Upper and Lower typing limit
  • Clearly written self-references
  • Polymorphic methods
  • As a member of internal class and abstract type items
  • Variable Annotations

2.  Concise Coding

Creatively Concise Coding | by Brian Foutty | Swift Teacher | Medium

One of the prime reasons why Scala is gaining a huge momentum these days is because it is highly concise. The language, when compared to other programming languages like Java, requires less number of code lines to perform the same activity.

3.  Highly Scalable

Quickly building an highly scalable and customizable real-time chatting platform on AWS | by Rahul Golwalkar | Medium

Another advantage of Scala-based development is that it is highly scalable. Developers can merge different paradigms and introduce a vast range of features into the development environment while working with this JVM language.

4.  Typesafed Language

What is Type-safe? - Stack Overflow

Scala emerges as a good resource in terms of type safety. Besides, it enables you to create your own data types on the top of primitive ones and write a DSL for your project.

5.  Enhanced Quality

Enhanced quality of product without costly design flaws – Ananyaimpex

Since a minimum number of code lines are written in Scala environment, it becomes easier for developers to deliver a bug-free experience, a.k.a, get better results from the Quality assurance process.

6.  Multi-Platform Presence

How Multi-platform publishing can manage your social media presence for you? -

Though Scala primarily targets JVM platforms, it can be a good option for creating software that runs on multiple platforms.

Cons of Preferring Scala

cons – Thinkexam Blog

1.   Difficult to Understand

Since Scala codes are an amalgamation of functional and object-oriented concepts, the information sometimes gets a bit hard to comprehend.

2.  Slow Compilation Speed

Another disadvantage of Scala is that it takes a longer time to compile complex codes. This results into slow compilation speed when compared to what is observed in the case of Java or Kotlin.

3.  Issues with Binary Compilation

It is not binary compatible with a few versions. For example, a code that is compiled with Scala 2.1 might not compile with Scala 2.11. This is yet another limitation of picking Scala language.

With this, you have gained all-inclusive information about the two JVM titans. Which implies you might be curious to hop over to the difference between Kotlin and Scala to see which one wins the JVM war.

But, wait.

Before we move on to the section where we compare Kotlin and Scala, let’s have a quick look at how Kotlin’s an improvement over Scala, and vice-versa.

Kotlin versus Scala: A No-Nonsense Comparison of Java Alternatives

1.   Market Popularity

Coronavirus Crises to Drive the Global Empty Capsule Market Outlook 2020- Global Trends, Size, Investment Share, Regional Trends, Analysis by Top Companies and Industry Forecast to 2023 | Medgadget

Kotlin, with support of Google, has achieved success in making its presence dominant  in the market much faster than expected. As per Google trends, there’s a surge in searches related to Kotlin when compared to Scala. This gives a clear indication that Kotlin is more in trend than Scala.

But, if you focus entirely on the job posting platform, you will come across the fact that Kotlin is behind Scala with significant numbers.

Likewise, if you check for the developers’ salary for distinguishing Kotlin vs Scala, you will realize that the values are much uniform.

This, as a whole, concludes that both the languages are far popular and liked by the developer community in one way or the other.

2.  Ease of Learning

Computer Vision Syndrome: What Is It, and How Long Does It Last? | NVISION Eye Centers

Scala is a powerful language with highly-advantages features and flexible syntax. So, it is quite difficult for newbies to get their hands on this JVM programming language.

But, it is not in the case of Kotlin.

As reported by Java developers in various organizations, one can easily understand basic Kotlin syntax in just a few hours and start coding within 1-3 days. Also, Google introduced free Kotlin courses for Android developers, which again streamlines their journey in the Kotlin market.

So, the winner of Kotlin and Scala war is the former, if the entire focus is on ‘learning curve’.

3.  Functional Programming of Kotlin and Scala

An Adequate Introduction to Functional Programming - DEV Community

It’s true that both languages are known for their functional programming paradigm. But, when it comes to looking into Scala vs Kotlin comparison in terms of functional programming, the former wins.

Scala is more swayed by functional programming languages like Haskell than Kotlin. It encourages the use of functional coding along with some additional features like pattern matching and currying. Besides, the attempt of possible functional programming is more considerable in the Scala environment.

4.  Pattern Matching

12 of The Best Wooden Toys for 1 Year Olds | Toys for 1 year old, Educational toys for toddlers, Wooden toys

As already unveiled above, Scala offers better opportunities for pattern matching than Kotlin. Its match statement enables developers to match any type of data, including its own. Also, it shows full support for higher-end and macros types.

A result of which is that Scala is termed as “Java’s switch on steroids” and is considered as a good fit for Big Data processing tasks.

5.  App Performance

3 Mobile App Performance Issues You Can't Ignore | Application Performance Monitoring Blog | AppDynamics

Though app performance depends highly on the nature of the app, let’s consider an Android application for comparison of JVM languages.

Scala is a good option for employing highly scalable Android app development services. Whereas, a Kotlin-based application will be easy to code and debug. As a consequence, app performance will be higher in the case of Kotlin when compared to the other JVM language.

6.  Inline

In the case of Scala, you are required to request the compiler to inline a method by annotating it with @inline.  For example:-

@inline final def f1(x: Int) = x

Here, the compiler has the choice to see if the function is actually inlined or not.

But, in the case of Kotlin, the compiler will automatically consider functions with ‘inline’ keyword as inline. It is the developers’ responsibility to be careful with manual inlining to prevent the risk of inlining duplicates. Something that makes developers favour Scala over Kotlin for using inlines.

7.  Null Safety Management Efficiency

One of the prime reasons why developers are showing an interest in other JVM languages is that they offer a better facility to handle hate-bound NPEs (Null Pointer Exceptions). So, it is again the main factor to consider while deciding the right Java alternative.

When comparing Kotlin with Scala, the latter’s approach is quite incompetent. One has to introduce null values with the option in Scala programming, which further adds to code complexity.

So, clearly, the winner of the battle here is Kotlin.

8.  Operator Overloading

How to work with operator overloading in C# | InfoWorld

Though Java does not support Operator overloading, both Kotlin and Scala come loaded with this functionality. So, it is again important to consider this factor to know whether to choose Scala or Kotlin for JVM-based development needs.

Kotlin focuses on making a balance between power and readability. It empowers developers to overload the basic operators, but refrain them from defining new ones. This makes it easier for one to understand Kotlin operators (even to novice developers), but reduces the flexibility.

Scala, in contrast to Kotlin, goes with quite a lenient approach to operator overloading. This makes it easier for developers to write more human-readable codes, and thus, makes it a good fit while creating internal domain-specific languages. But, at the same time, it can result in confusion if used incorrectly.

9.  Java Interoperability

Munich Clojure Workshop - 04 - Java Interop - Speaker Deck

Though both Kotlin and Scala are interoperable with Java, Kotlin leads the show if you wish to maintain full compatibility with existing Java-based projects and technologies.

Kotlin is designed to be 100% interoperable with Java. So, you can easily call Kotlin code from Java and vice-versa effortlessly. Likewise, you can employ existing Java-based frameworks like Java Server Faces (JSF),  and ‘Vert.x’ framework while considering Kotlin for server-side development.

Whereas, when it comes to Scala, accessing Java classes in the development environment is easy. But, it is not possible to call Scala classes in the Java environment, especially when working with advanced features of Scala as they might lack Java equivalent.

10.  Libraries and Frameworks

When talking about libraries and frameworks, both JVM languages are doing wonders in the market.

On one hand, Scala – taking advantage of its long span in the market – facilitates developers with a wide range of libraries and frameworks to work effortlessly with APIs and applications. This includes Cats, Slick, Shapeless, Akka, and Play Framework.

While, on the other side, Kotlin has also come up with a lot of offerings in terms of community libraries & frameworks. A few of which are Ktor, Exposed, and Arrow.

11.  Documentation

Javascript Code Documentation - My Approach to Documenting Project

When talking about Scala, its API documentation is simple, straightforward, and well-structured. It offers search functionality and an option to restrict the number of displayed elements with a filter. However, sometimes you might find it  tough to search for pages on a particular topic.

Whereas, using the Kotlin API documentation is a bit tiresome. There’s no search function or filter option. However, it comes with a reference which explains all the concepts in a detailed manner (with examples). This helps Kotlin remain in the competition to Scala in terms of documentation.

12.  Use Cases

Though both Scala and Kotlin prove to be good alternatives to Java in the JVM world, they come with different unique use cases.

Kotlin, besides Android app development, can be used for web development and server-side development. Whereas, Scala is a good fit for projects requiring a blend of OOPs and functional programming concepts, for Big Data-based solutions, or for operating with complex Machine learning patterns.

13.  Community Support

Free Community Support Sessions | Modern Health | Modern Health

Being in the market for the past 15 years, Scala has a bigger community than that of Kotlin. This makes it easier for app developers to find tutorials, solutions, and other resources related to Scala over Kotlin.

In fact, if you check in Q&A site Stack Overflow, you’ll find nearly 3.8K questions related to Kotlin and 68.5K tagged with Scala.

So, when focusing on community support, Scala beats Kotlin in the JVM war.

Most Frequently Used Service Names and Their Port Numbers

IPv6 Subnet Cheat Sheet and IPv6 Cheat Sheet Reference | Broadcast | Crucial

Service names and port numbers are used to differentiate between the various services that execute over transport protocols, such as TCP/IP, UDP, DCCP and SCTP. The authority responsible for assigning service names and port numbers is the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA). IANA also maintains the registries which store service names and port numbers.

The port registries for transport protocols are divided into three number ranges: those for System Ports, User Ports and Dynamic/Private ports. Their associated number ranges are:

  • System Ports (0-1023)
  • User Ports (1024-49151)
  • Dynamic / Private Ports (49152-65535)

For services to work effectively, hosts that run them and those that access them, together with intermediate devices, such as firewalls, have to agree on which specific destination port is used with the particular service. Often, many services use a default port and it is these that are recorded in the IANA registry.

The growing use of Windows and single-user Linux systems over the years, however, means that the original port model above is not strictly adhered to. It can no longer be assumed that a specific port number necessarily denotes a particular service. For example, if a host runs multiple instances of a service, they cannot all listen on the same port. Similarly, if there are multiple hosts behind the same NAT gateway, they cannot all map the same port on the external side of the gateway.

Today, there are thousands of applications and application-level protocols which have been assigned service names and port numbers and this number is set to rise in the future. Further confusion over port numbers can arise because IANA can de-assign a number no longer in use and reassign it to another service.

Common service names and their port numbers

The most common service names and their ports are listed in the chart below:

Service Name Port Number
FTP 20, 21
SSH 22
Telnet 23
SMTP 25
DNS 53
DHCP 67, 68
TFTP 69
HTTP 80
POP3 110
NNTP 119
NTP 123
IMAP4 143
LDAP 389
HTTPS 443
IMAPS 993
RADIUS 1812
AIM 5190

On Linux machines, the /etc/services file stores the information about the various services that client applications might use. The file contains the service name, port number and the protocol it uses, as well as any aliases.

On Windows machines, the service names, port numbers and protocols can be found in the C:windows\system32\drivers\etc\services file. The file tells Microsoft services which ports to use.

Cloud Computing Technology : Advantages for Schools

Why is a cloud-based school management system considered the best?

Cloud adoption is not just something for big business. Today, schools across the globe are adopting it for the numerous benefits it brings, including for staff, students and parents. Here, we’ll look at the ways cloud technology is transforming education and bringing schools into the 21st Century.

1. Cut costs

How to Cut Costs & Plan for a Future Beyond COVID-19

With staff costs swallowing around 80% of school budgets and changes to school funding having an impact, business managers are hard pushed to make ends meet. Over recent years, school savings that have taken decades to accrue have dwindled. At the same time, schools are increasingly having to modernise their IT infrastructure in order to keep pace with technological developments and keep their curricula up to date. This often requires the purchase of expensive servers, as well as paying for the additional IT expertise to manage them and the ongoing energy costs to keep them running and cool.

Moving to the cloud technology eliminates the need to buy on-site servers completely, replacing them with a vendor-hosted infrastructure that is paid for with a more manageable monthly cost. And with no hardware to manage and maintain at school the burden on IT staff is reduced, freeing them up to work on more important, school-related tasks. In addition, with no 24/7 air-conditioning and power to pay for, further cost reductions can be made.

The hardware savings and reduction in other costs is even bigger for multi-academy trusts, as they will only need a single cloud package to cover all of their schools. This trust-wide system can then be controlled by a single team at the trust’s HQ, rather than needing staff in each school.

2. Everywhere accessibility

Powering passenger information everywhere, for everyone - Papercast

One of the biggest practical advantages of moving to the cloud technology is that it enables data and information to be accessed anywhere with an internet connection. This means teachers and pupils can access files, documents and other learning resources anywhere – something that has been absolutely critical during the pandemic. They can also collaborate and communicate far easier using a wide range of devices, communication channels and specially developed education platforms.

With highly secure logical access control in place, schools can restrict access to information so that only those given permission can have access. This can be done on an individual basis so that each person is given the right access to the information they need. With logical access in place and school data and files stored centrally online, the possibilities for extending learning beyond the classroom and enabling staff to collaborate are endless.

3. Better parents’ evenings

If there's one good thing to emerge from lockdown, it's the virtual parents' evening

The cloud opens the door to a new way to hold parents’ evenings. Over the last year, we have seen many schools using the cloud to replace face to face parents’ evenings with video calls – something that both parents and staff have found favourable. Parents are happy because they can book appointments to suit online and don’t need to travel to the school, struggle for a parking space or wait endlessly in a queue while appointments drag on over the allocated times. Online, they last exactly as long as the school sets them, usually five minutes.

Online parents’ evenings are also good for the school. They reduce the burden on staff as no one has to timetable the appointments and send hundreds of print outs, the school doesn’t need a super-clean and furniture rearrangement, and there’s no need to provide refreshments or pay someone to serve them. Teachers, meanwhile, can hold their appointments from home instead of having to stay late and wait for hours before the event actually begins. Online, they’ll also have access to the data they need for the meetings and can even share it on screen. Additionally, the school doesn’t need to be heated or lit and the caretaker doesn’t need to be paid overtime. There are also benefits to the wider community as local roads won’t be blocked by traffic, residents won’t find their parking spots filled and there’ll be less pollution.

4. Real-time data – on tap

Using Real-Time Data to Tap New Talent Pools

The use of data has become vital for schools in helping them drive everything from whole-school initiatives to improving the progress of individual students. Increasingly, school leaders, classroom teachers, pupils and parents need to access that data and want it up to date. This is incredibly difficult to achieve when that data is not held centrally. If individual teachers or departments store their most recent data on local machines or even portable drives, what’s available to everyone might be out of date and won’t give the current picture.

The cloud can transform the way data is stored, managed and accessed. Held centrally, everyone can access the data they are permitted to access and be assured that it’s the most up-to-date version available. What’s more, data held centrally doesn’t get lost when people accidentally delete it from a machine or lose their portable drive. It also means data can be backed up online quickly and securely, instead of IT staff having to make daily backups to other drives or disks in school.

5. Cut the costs of print and paper (financially and environmentally)

How to Reduce Your Printing Costs in 7 Simple Steps - Xcel Office

Schools spend a fortune on paper and printing, much of which, today, is unnecessary. Instead of handing out numerous worksheets for students to complete classwork and homework with pen and pencils, they can be completed and marked online. This also ensures there’s a permanent copy of them which doesn’t go missing and reduces the amount of old schoolwork taking up valuable storage space in stockrooms across the building.

The same goes for the copious amount of literature that schools send home: letters to parents, newsletters, consent forms, pupil guides, uniform regulations and so forth. All of these can be made available online and parents can be sent text messages or emails with a link to download them. What’s more, making them available online means parents can go back and relook at them at a later date which is hard to do if paper and email versions have been put in the trash.

Of course, the financial benefits are boosted by the environmental ones. The CO2 generated by manufacturing and transporting paper and printing out messages are vastly reduced. That’s not to say that sending electronic communications is carbon-free, it isn’t, but the environmental impact is significantly less.

6. Personalised environments  

Personalised Learning: next-generation engagement for the new generation of learners | Times Higher Education (THE)

Personalisation is one of the major benefits of cloud technology and has been seized upon by businesses to improve the customer experience. Just think of how your Amazon homepage is personalised for you when you log in. This is something that the cloud also enables you to achieve as a school.

Its main benefit is for students. Here children can have personalised learning environments created for them, helping schools address accessibility issues for individual students and providing all pupils with schoolwork that is customised for their individual needs. It’s a highly effective way to provide all students with individual learning plans that can be easily managed and implemented. This, indeed, is a far more beneficial project for your IT team to work on than managing an on-site server.

It’s not just pupils that benefit either. Teachers can have personalised areas of their school portal making it easier to access the data, files and information they need, helping them do their jobs more effectively, instead of having to sift through a portal designed for everyone’s use. The same applies to parents. Overall, it improves everyone’s experience of accessing the school online.

Conclusion

Schools can no longer ignore the digital transformation that is taking the world by storm. Digital products and services are benefitting users in all aspects of life and staff, students and parents expect to be able to make use of these technologies in the school environment. From a school’s perspective, adopting cloud technology is essential to make use of these digital services and benefit from the advantages they bring.

WHAT’S NEW IN SOLUTIONS?

Demystifying Machine Learning for Global Development

Dell, HP, IBM have all tried to transform themselves from being box sellers to solution providers. Then, in the world of Uber, many traditional products are fast mutating into a service. At Walmart, it is no longer about grocery shopping. Their pick and go service tries to understand more about your journey as a customer, and grocery shopping is just one piece of the puzzle.

There’s a certain common thread that run across all three examples. And it’s about how to break through the complexity of your end customer’s life. Statistics, machine learning, artificial intelligence can’t maketh the life of store managers at over 2000 Kroger stores across the country any simpler. It sounds way too complex.

Before I get to the main point, let me belabor a bit and humor you on other paradigms floating around. Meta software, Software as a Service, cloud computing, Service as a Software… Err! Did I just go to randomgenerator dot com and get those names out? I swear I did not.

The cliché in the recent past has been about how industries are racing to unlock the value of big data and create big insights. And with this herd mentality comes all the jargons in an effort to differentiate. Ultimately, it is about solving problems.

In the marketplace abstraction of problem solving, there’s a supply side and a demand side.

demand side | TO THE BRINK

The demand side is an overflowing pot of problems. Driven by accelerating change, problems evolve really fast and newer ones keep popping up. Across Fortune 500 firms, there are very busy individuals and teams running businesses the world over, grappling with these problems. Ranging from store managers in a retail store, to trade promotion manager in a CPG firm, a district sales manager in a pharma firm, a decision engineer in a CPG firm and so on. For these individuals, time is a very precious commodity. Analytics is valuable to them only when it is actionable.

On the supply side, there are complex math (read algorithms), advanced technology and smart people to interpret the complexities. And, for the geek in you, this is a candy store situation. But, how do we make these complex math – machine learning, AI and everything else – actionable?

To help teams/individuals embrace the complexity and thrive in it, nature has evolved the concept of solutions. Solutions aim to translate the supply side intelligence into simple visual concepts. This approach takes intelligence to the edge, thereby scaling decision making.

So, how do solutions differ from products, from meta-software, service as a software and the gibberish?

Meta-software | Service as a Software| | Mu Sigma

Fundamentally, a solution is meant to exist as a standalone atomic unit – with a singular purpose of making the lives of decision makers easy and simple. It is not created to scale creation of analytics.
For example a solution created to detect anomalies in pharmacy billing will be designed to do just that. The design of this solution will not be affected by the efficiency motivation to apply it to a fraud detection problem as well. Because the design of a solution is driven by the needs of the individual dealing with the problem, it should not be driven by the motivation to scale the creation of analytics. Rather, it should be driven by the motivation to scale the consumption of analytics; to push all the power of machine learning and AI to the edge.

In Anteelo you have a partner who can execute the entire analytical value chain and deliver a solution at the end. No more running to the IT department with a deck/SAS/R/Python code, asking them to create a technology solution. Read more about our offerings here.

Making Change Management Work for You

Change Management Process: 8 Steps for effective Change Management

“The illiterate of the 21st century will not be those who cannot read and write, but those who cannot learn, unlearn, and relearn.”

– Alvin Toffler

“Times have changed.” We’ve heard this statement ever so often. Generations have used it to exclaim “things are so complicated (or simple) these days,” or expressing disdain – “oh, so they think they are a cool” generation. Whichever way you exclaim, change has been truly the “constant”.

This change is bolstered by a tech-enabled world where the speed at which machines are learning is accelerating – the speed of light.

Let me set this in context with an example from the book of Sales. Unlike in the past, today sales reps are not gauged by the amount of sweat trickling down their foreheads. While they continue to be evaluated in terms of business development and lead conversions, it is not all manual and laborious. Technology advancements have made the process of identifying, prioritizing, scheduling, conversing and converting agile and real-time.

But just knowing change, gathering data and appreciating technology will not suffice. The three will need to be blended seamlessly to yield transformation. Applied to deeper organizational context, “Change” needs to be interpreted – its pace needs to be matched, or even better, its effect needs to be contextualized for differentiation.

Change management in this sense is the systematization of the entire process; right from the acceptance of change to its adoption and taking advantage of it to thrive in volatile times.

But what would it take for complex enterprises, that swear by legacy systems, to turbo charge into the Change Management mode?

To answer this, I will humanize enterprise change management with the Prosci-developed ADKAR Model.

Three Ways Associations Can Build Brand Awareness Using Technology

Awareness (getting into the race) – Where can I set up the next retail store, what is the most optimal planogram, how do I determine the right marketing mix, what is my competition doing different, how do I improve customer experience, how do I ensure sales force effectiveness – the questions are ample. By the time you realize and start strategizing, a competitor has dislodged your market position and eaten a large portion of your pie. And while these business problems seem conventional, volatility in the marketplace cry foul. Compound this with high dependencies on dashboards, applications, and the likes for insights, and you’ve seen the side-effects – established enterprises biting the dust.

To survive, organizations will need to be knowledgeable about data that matter viz a viz the noise. They will need to interpret the data deluge in relevance and context; after all, not all data is diamond.

Mass Desire: The First Unbreakable Law of “Breakthrough” Copywriting | by Aaron Orendorff | Medium

Desire (creating a business case for adoption) – Desire is a basic human instinct. Our insatiable urge to want something more, even better, accentuates this instinct. When it comes to enterprises, this desire is no different; to stay ahead of the curve, to make more profits, to be leaders. But there is no lock-and-key fix to achieve this mark. Realizing corporate “desire” will require a cultural and mindset shift across the organization – top-down. And so, one of the most opportune times could be when there are changes at the leadership, followed by re-organization in the rungs below.

Gamification could be a great starting point to drive adoption in such cases. Allow the scope of experimentation to creep in; invest consciously in simmer projects; give a freehand to analysts to look for the missing piece of the puzzle outside their firewall; incentivize them accordingly. Challenge business leaders to up their appreciation for the insights generated, encourage them to get their hands down and dirty when it comes to knowing their source, ask the right questions and challenge status quo – not just rely on familiarity and past experiences.

Career Exchange - Career Advice: Knowledge, Skills and Abilities - What is the Difference and is it Important?

Knowledge and Ability (From adoption to implementation) – In business context, “desire” typically translate into business goals – revenue, process adoption, automation, newer market expansion, launch of a new product/solution, etc. Mere awareness of the changes taking place does not translate into achievements. It needs to be studied and change management needs to be initiated.

But how can you execute your day job and learn to change?

The trick here will be to make analytics seamless; almost second nature. Just as the message alert from the bank about any suspicious transaction made on your account, any deviation from the set course of business action needs to be alerted.

Such technology-assisted decisions are the need of today and the future. Tredence CHA solution is an example in this direction. It is intuitive, convenient and evolving, mirroring aspects of Robotics Process Automation (RPA).

Knowledge Retention And Reinforcement Clipart (#3049608) - PinClipart

Reinforcement (Stickiness will be key) – Your business problems are yours to know and yours to solve. Like my colleague mentioned in his blog, a one size fits all solution does not exist. Solving the business challenges of today requires going to the root cause of it, understanding the data sources available to you, and being knowledgeable about other data combinations (across the firewall or within) that matter. Match this stream of data with relevant tools and techniques that can give you the “desired” results.

Point to keep in mind during this drill is to ensure that you marry the old and new. Replacing a legacy system with something totally new could leave a bad taste in your mouth – with less adoption and greater resistance. Embedded analytics will be key – one that allows you to seamlessly time travel between the past, present and future.

To conclude, whether it is about time to implement change, improving customer service, reducing inefficiencies, or mitigating the negative effect of volatile markets, Change Management will be pivotal. It is a structured, on-going process to ensure you are not merely surviving, rather thriving in change.

Remote workforces kept productive by IT support automation

Are remote workers more productive? A data-backed answer

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.

Startup Deploying AI Chatbots With “Conversational Memory” for More Natural Exchanges

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

Windows 10: Manage Remote Access (2016)

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

NSA's Reactive Security Measures Too Late to Stop Snowden | Threatpost

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

How To Drive Your Team To Value Beyond The Ordinary

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

Blog: 3 tips to make your employees feel more engaged — People Matters

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.

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