We are now undeniably in a digital world, where even if information technology is not your product or service, it will touch every part of the products and services that you provide. This means we need to adapt, and traditional organizations must better position themselves for the exciting digital changes that lie ahead.
Provider, partner, promoter, peer
For many years, we have seen IT departments exist as Providers to efficiently deliver the systems and capabilities that the firm requires, with emphasis on reliability, efficiency and compliance. They have also been Partners working like consultants to the firm, advising/directing the use of IT to support the business change agenda. The emphasis on application/process modernization and know-how is crucial for ongoing success.
In addition, we now need a new cadre of technology leaders acting as Promoters and serving as technology evangelists, advocating how new technologies can improve the firm’s speed, agility, productivity and innovation advantage. These leaders act as Peers, working at the CXO level to shape the digital strategy and value proposition of the firm, while engaging in major initiatives such as smart products, M&A, intellectual property development/protection and learning.
In 2020 we anticipate that this shift to digital business leadership will gain real momentum as technology driven-marketplaces — with new capabilities, business models and disruptive possibilities — proliferate and companies need to effectively respond to rapidly changing external developments. This is a different mission, requiring different skills and a different culture to emerge.
5 steps to digital business leadership
As we transform the organization, leaders need to come along too, not just at the executive level but also in the middle layers, where inertia is often cited as a key obstacle to change. Most organizations acknowledge that this shift is happening, but turning abstract agreement into solid action is challenging. This is where the next generation of business leaders can emerge. To do so they must:
Build awareness – Scout the emerging technology scenes of Silicon Valley or China for trends and insights into the future.
Be more open – Participate in open initiatives and share with partner organizations or the wider marketplace.
Get access to R&D – Establish and maintain links to leading universities/academics or government agencies in relevant areas.
Build partnerships and alliances – Pick the right partners to help on the journey, as most organizations can’t make the changes necessary alone.
Push digital culture – Energize and engage employees and executives through immersive digital experiences such as hackathons, incubators and accelerators. Focus on multidisciplinary teams, experimentation and learning, and business outcomes.
We acknowledge that there are many reasons why this aspect of digital transformation is hard but now, more than ever, we must emphasize the value of becoming double-deep professionals — one of those leaders who not only has a deep understanding of their profession, industry or function, but who also embraces the technology that’s relevant to their role, as well as the required skills and learning that come with it. As these leaders come to the fore, we’ll see more tangible business value realized from the exciting emerging technology portfolio and organizational transformations will accelerate.
When water cooler conversation turns to movies and lands on The Matrix, what scene first comes to mind? Is it when the film’s hero-in-waiting, Neo, gains self-awareness and frees himself from the machines? Or Agent Smith’s speech that compares humans to a “virus?” Or maybe the vision of a future ruled by machines? It’s all pretty scary stuff.
Although it featured a compelling plot, The Matrix wasn’t the first time we’d explored the idea of technology gone rogue. In fact, worries about the rise of the machines began to surface well before modern digital computers.
The rapid advance of technology made possible by the Industrial Revolution set off the initial alarm bells. Samuel Butler’s 1863 essay, “Darwin among the Machines,” speculated that advanced machines might pose a danger to humanity, predicting that “the time will come when the machines will hold the real supremacy.” Since then, many writers, philosophers and even tech leaders have debated what might become of us if machines wake up.
What causes many people the most anxiety is this: We don’t know exactly when machines might cross that intelligence threshold, and once we do, it could be too late. As the late British mathematician I. J. Good wrote, designing a machine of significant intelligence to improve on itself would create an “intelligence explosion” equivalent to, as he put it, allowing the genie out of the bottle. Helpfully, he also argued that because a super intelligent machine can self-improve, it’s the last invention we’ll ever need to make. So that’s a plus — right?
There are other perspectives on the matter — that fears of a machine-led revolution are largely overblown.
Like technological advances that came before, artificial intelligence (AI) won’t create new existential problems. It will, however, offer us new and powerful ways to make mistakes. It’s smart to take some preventive measures, like putting in alerts that tell you when the machine is starting to learn things that are outside [of] your ethical boundaries.
Artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning and deep learning have become entrenched in the professional world. AI-style capabilities are being embraced and developed globally (over 26 countries/regions have or are working on a national AI strategy) for many different purposes — from ethics, policies and education to security, technology and industry, the scope is broad and multi-faceted. If, like many others, you are unclear as to what this new terminology means, below is a diagram depicting the hierarchy of AI, machine learning and deep learning for you to consider. In healthcare, the opportunities are vast and significant. Just from a financial point of view, AI has the potential to bring material cost savings to the industry.
But where should you start, and where do the opportunities lie?
Where to start with AI
First, look at where money is invested — in other words, which start-ups are attracting investors and what is their focus. Rock Health (the first venture fund dedicated to digital health) shows that the top four areas for venture capital investment between 2011 and 2017 were research and development, population health management, clinical workflow and health benefits administration. More than $2.7 billion was invested over 6 years, across 206 start-ups.
Another venture capital and digital health community, Startup Health, which also keeps track of global investments, found that funding is doubling every year for companies which use machine learning technology to enhance health solutions. The companies that focused on diagnostics or screening, clinical decision support and drug discovery tools received the largest share of funding for machine learning in 2018 — i.e., $940 million.
Delving into AI’s opportunities
Perhaps the biggest opportunity lies in assisted robotic surgery, with a potential cost saving of US$40 billion per year. AI-enabled robots can assist surgical procedures by analyzing data from pre-op medical records and past operations to guide a surgeon’s instrument during surgery and to highlight new surgical procedures. The potential benefit to the healthcare organization and the patient from this approach is noteworthy: a 21 per cent reduction in length of hospital stay because robotic-assisted surgery ensures a minimally invasive procedure, thus reducing the patient’s need to stay in the hospital longer.
Surgical complications were found to be dramatically reduced, according to one study into AI-assisted robotic procedures involving 379 orthopedic patients. Robotic surgery has been used for eye surgery and heart surgery. For example, heart surgeons have used a miniature robot, called the Heart Lander, to carry out mapping and treatment over the surface of the heart.
Another valuable use of AI is in virtual nursing assistants. One example is Molly, an AI-enabled virtual nurse that has been designed to help patients manage their chronic illnesses or deal with post-surgery requirements. According to a Harvard Business Review article, assistants like Molly could save the healthcare industry as much as US $20 billion annually.
Diagnosis is another exciting development for AI, with some promising findings on the use of an AI algorithm to detect skin cancers. A Stanford University report found that deep convolutional networks (CNNs) performed as well as dermatologists in classifying skin lesions. Other exciting breakthroughs in AI-assisted diagnosis include a deep-learning program that listens to emergency calls, analyses what is said, tone of voice and background noises to determine whether the patient is having cardiac arrest. Astonishingly, a study from the University of Copenhagen found the AI assistant was right 93% of the time, compared with 73% of the time for human dispatchers.
A fourth potential use for AI lies in digital image analysis, which could help to improve future radiology tools. In one example, a team of researchers from MIT developed an algorithm to rapidly register brain scans and other 3-D images. The result reduces the time to register scans with accuracy comparable to that of state-of-the-art systems.
With so much potential to be gained from AI, healthcare organizations will need to enhance their skills in AI and related capabilities. Decision-makers need to inform themselves about the potential and what is required to achieve those objectives, and then ensure that their teams are properly trained. Culture change in understanding how AI can be used to solve current and future problems is paramount to the future of next-generation healthcare and life sciences organizations.
Regardless of how well paying your job might be, finding the best side business thoughts and in the end turning out to be completely financially independent is significantly important than incredible compensation and strong advantages. Picking the way of being an entrepreneur, and taking a shot at discovering extraordinary business thoughts, is unquestionably more hazardous than being content with holding a 9-5 employment. It requires far more penance. Be that as it may, when you’re receiving the lifestyle rewards of working for yourself and hustling your way into getting fundamentally more cash with your business thoughts than you ever could at your normal everyday job, the difficult work will have all been justified, despite all the trouble. In this way, let’s talk about some trending startup ideas for 2020.
Top Startup Business Ideas
You can now start a business from scratch without investing a lot of money. Following are the best startup ideas for businesses in 2020:
Plastic Recycling or Alternatives
What if you can build a big business and save your environment at the same time. Sounds impossible, right?
But it is possible with the Plastic Recycling business. “Rethinking Plastic” has become a global consumer trend for the year 2019. Businesses that help people in lowering plastic waste find it easy to strike cords in their hearts.
You can recycle any plastic material or offer its alternative at competitive prices so that a consumer prefers to buy your product over the old fashioned plastic one.
For example, you can recycle plastic straws to make a lot of appealing decorative items. Plastic Recycling business requires less investment but will give you good returns.
According to the report from Statista, the value of the recycled plastic market will amount to nearly $57 billion all over the world in 2024.
Buy and Resell Used Goods
If you are someone who loves sales, flea markets or local auctions, then it can be a great startup idea for you.
You can buy antiques, art pieces, collectables, retro clothes, and furniture, etc. at low prices and resell them at higher prices to the respective market at much higher prices.
But if you want to grow your business, then you have to become an expert on the value of goods and the right place to sell them.
According to threadUP, the secondhand economy (a $24 billion market in 2018) is projected to grow to hit a staggering number of $64 billion within the next 10 years.
Senior care services rank as one of the best Startup Ideas for Businesses in 2019. Although seniors are expected to live longer lives as compared to previous generations, unfortunately, it is not valid. They are expected to spend more time in hospitals, daycare or sickness.
Fortunately, they are wealthy and can afford to pay for the services required to maintain their lifestyles. This includes continuing to live at home in their communities. According to research by the American Association of Retired Persons (AARP), nearly 90% of seniors want to live at home near their friends and family.
Many affluent seniors suffer from various health issues and find it challenging to drive and perform household chores such as cleaning, cooking or caring for their pets.
Therefore, plenty of opportunities exist for entrepreneurs who wish to start their own business from scratch.
Senior Care Services
Not all senior citizens are taken care of by loved ones and a significant number of them could utilize companionship and care-taking services all the time. At this age, senior citizens feel very vulnerable and regularly need to stay at home yet may require help because of handicap or action limitations. In the event that you’re passionate about this, this could be a considerable business idea for you.
Senior care services rank as one of the most trending Startup Ideas in 2020. Although seniors are expected to live longer lives as compared to previous generations, unfortunately, it is not completely true. They are expected to spend more time in hospitals, daycare or sickness. Which would affect their physical as well as mental health?
Home or Office Renovations
If you love construction and enjoy turning people’s dreams into reality, then Home Renovation business will suit you the best.
Almost everyone nowadays wants to renovate their homes or offices, but it is tough to find good contractors. It is a type of business that will do well even in the worst economic conditions.
According to Statista, an average homeowner in the US spends $3000 per year on home improvements. One of the most significant advantages of renovation business is that it requires less capital investment in tools and equipment than new construction. It is a perfect choice for individuals looking for a home-based business.
Virtual Reality
If you are tech-savvy and love to experiment, then Virtual Reality is the perfect start-up idea for you. Hardware and software vendors are working profusely to introduce new VR products in the market, and it is estimated to become a $40 billion market by 2020.
There are unlimited uses of Virtual Reality for either business or personal enjoyment. Real estate market is a great example.
Providing a virtual tour of an advertised house to a potential buyer can help in closing the deal. Hence, it can be a massive market for your Virtual Reality business to target on.
Some other examples include- 3D movies, gaming, social media, training and meditation. Even the trend of VR lounges is also growing on a rapid scale.
Meal Kit and Delivery
How many times have you ordered food online in the past week or month?
Whatever the number is, it must be higher than the number of times you have gone out to eat?
Yes.
Customized Healthy Meals delivery is becoming more popular day by day as people don’t have the time to shop and prepare healthy meals at home. It has already become a billion-dollar industry on its own.
The primary purpose of this start-up business is to make sure people get to eat healthy and fresh food whenever and wherever they want. If you enjoy cooking or love to bring a positive change in others’ lives, then meal kit delivery business will be the best for you.
Digital Detox
In today’s digital world it has become nearly impossible to stay away from modern gadgets. Life has begun revolving around smartphones and taken a toll on people’s health and lifestyle. The initial step towards coming out of this addiction is to accept that we are addicted to digital temptations. Luckily, countless individuals are attempting to detach and decrease their screen time. It has gotten well known to such a degree, that on the off chance that you look for the term Digital Detox on Google, you will get around 101 million outcomes. The year 2020 will be the time of advanced detox, and consequently, there are a lot of chances for new companies/organizations to assist individuals with eliminating screen time. For instance, a few new companies arrange a bunch venture out occasions to remove individuals from gadgets and find new encounters.
Luxury Pet Care
This year we’re seeing extravagance in pet care, which is basically childcare or providing a better and healthy lifestyle for pets. Regardless of whether that is taking pooches for strolls in the open country, offering a rich settlement for felines while individuals leave or throughout the day dog-sitting services in a customized setting, many pet guardians presently need these services for their adored hairy little companions. Owners need the best services and care for their pets, and they couldn’t care less about the amount they need to spend on this. From dog-keeping to premium pet care organizations, there is a huge requirement for growing business people who love furry friends and can fulfil owners high expectations. It is a sort of childcare administration for pets.
Inclusive Beauty
Gone are the days, when the market was flooded with make-up products for mainly 2 types of skin colour-Fair and Dark. Many international brands and models within the beauty industry such as CoverGirl, Missguided and Rihanna, have realised the importance of making beauty or skincare products for people with different gender, age, colour and race.
This type of industry is still quite nascent and hence offer a golden opportunity to aspiring beauty startups and beauty entrepreneurs.
Whether you want to start your make-up brand line for men or women of all colours, you can also begin to your vlogging channel to help women get their make-up perfect.
Internet of Things Security
Various difficulties forestall the verifying of IoT gadgets and guaranteeing start to finish security in an IoT situation. Since systems administration appliances and different objectives are moderately new, security has not generally been viewed as top need during an item’s plan stage. Moreover, on the grounds that IoT is an early market, numerous product designers and makers are progressively keen on getting their items to showcase rapidly, instead of finding a way to assemble security in from the beginning.
Event Planning
One of the primary things you have to do is visit each potential area in which you intend to work. Work with the marketing manager to visit each site and realize what is accessible in every area. Start a database that will permit you to sort settings by differing highlights, for example, the number of individuals each site holds, AV hardware accessible on location, on the off chance that you should organize rental seats, and so on. At that point when you are starting to plan an event with a customer, you can discover what the key parameters are for the occasion and effectively pull up the three or four locales that meet the essential criteria. also, engagement parties, etc.
Vocational Consultant
On the off chance that you are leaving a corporate job with a decent understanding to begin your very own endeavour yet have no clue where to start, this one might be for you. There are a few people out there who need to figure out how to excel at a promotion interview or request for a raise, or just land a lucrative occupation. On the off chance that you have valuable tips for them, you can simply begin your very own consultancy and individuals will pay you great bucks to gain proficiency with the subtle strategies. In the event that you aren’t prepared to fire up your very own site or simply need to try out the waters, you should see joining to platforms such as The Muse or Coach Me where others are searching for individuals like you to guide them.
Web designing
Web designing services have become a key piece of the market and have developed as the need of great importance. The main venture required in this business is a PC, internet connection, and significant aptitudes. An occupation as a website designer includes web organizing and content creation. You can complete this duty all the more easily when you are outfitted with the data, ability, and involvement with this area. You can likewise work from home as a freelance website designer.
So there you have it, 12 startup ideas that can help you get big bucks in your pocket. Most of us don’t have the advantage of having the option to leave our day job to seek after beginning a business idea today, without stressing over how we’re going to meet our money related commitments pushing ahead with no salary. That is the reason were an immense backer of continually beginning a side business while working all day, with the goal that you can test your way into your new product or services, get input, approve the thought, and start creating pay before you quit your day job. On the off chance that you can ace the craft of scaling one of these business thoughts while keeping your normal everyday employment, you’ll experience no difficulty succeeding once you’re completely independently employed. With such an extensive range of choices that span across different market segments, you should hopefully be able to find your next startup idea and transform it into a money-making machine.
CONCLUSION
The market is bursting with opportunities for tailored security solutions. So, gear up for your new and exciting startup journey. You can also go out and meet people and take advice from other entrepreneurs, but ultimately, you have to decide which business idea fits your budget and aspirations. And, if you still find yourself stuck or want to build your business idea, then Anteelo can help.
The world that we’re living in today, is almost entirely technological. And it is evolving every day with the wonders of Artificial Intelligence (AI), Business Intelligence, BlockChains (like NFT), etc. In order to make people’s lives easier, these smart technologies use complex algorithms and theories to quickly compute and summarize data. This data is then provided to users in the name of ‘useful information’. But a question that needs to be asked here is that what is the point of this data if the users can’t understand it? And if so, they might not even find it beneficial for themselves or their purpose. Hence, this is one of the most important reasons as to why dashboard design has grown significant over the last few years.
One of the first things to understand is that as much as UX of the dashboard is important, so is the UI of the dashboard. They are both equally essential. Before jumping into our main motive, let’s take a quick sneak peak into the most prominent features of a great dashboard:
A good dashboard allows its users to interpret, analyse and present the key pointers, or say insights.
What an efficient dashboard do is present the user with useful information that can be put to use. As well as compile a visual representation of the otherwise complex set of data.
The desired dashboard will always be customizable and it generally is quite intuitive.
As an additional point, they are always organized when it comes to use of space. There might be a lot of data on the dashboard but it won’t seem like a mess that is cluttered all in one little space. Rather it looks neat.
NOW WE’RE AT THE HERE’S HOW SECTION
CONSISTENCY MAKES IT EASY
The dashboard should always be consistent. Considering that the users access the dashboard through different devices that also vary in screen size. It is important that the design looks consistent, whether it’s with respect to the colours, font, style of charts or navigation. The user should not get distracted because of the inconsistency in the dashboard design and so sheer attention should be paid to how the design dashboard looks on multiple screen sizes. The key is to start with smallest screen size and then move up along the way. This way of approaching the design is a golden rule, this helps in creating a visually appealing dashboard, which gives both a great UX and a great UI.
SIGNIFICANT INFORMATION APPEARS FIRST
Let’s talk about the heart of designing a dashboard, ‘content hierarchy’. Although this goal is achieved at the UX stage of designing, but is essentially through visual design that conveys the most important information in the most efficient way. This not only guides the layout but also the design guidelines. A couple of things to note here is that; (a) Centre alignment is the most recommended as found out from the users’ behaviour pattern on the dashboard. They acquire that part of the information in the first place ; (b) Another thing is that 18 pixel font is the maximum to be employed and information should be highlighted through the use of distinctive colours.
COMFORTABLE CUSTOMIZATION
Never use the ‘one size fits all’ approach. There are different users with varying business needs and requirements. Designs should be scalable, so that the user experiences customized dashboard. Now this in turn will empower the users, which is the designers’ ultimate goal. Users should feel that they can adjust their fit in consideration to their individual business requirements. This can be as simple as adding or deleting a column, or even adding a whole new table or sheet. The things to remember here are: (a) Always allow for easy modifications like addition/deletion of modules; (b) Give different yet comfortably usable options for viewing and deleting data separately; (c) And lastly, try using easy drag and drop interaction for the users to experience customizable dashboard design.
CHARTS? LESS IS MORE!
When it comes to presenting data visually, i.e., via pie charts, bar graphs etc., they should always be put in simpler form. Cluttering the charts with heavy tools and representation techniques only hinders the user from understanding and using the said data. Instead of using 3D graphs and animation, using flat-laid charts and graphs makes it a lot more comfortable for the users. Colour differentiation although, is sheerly appreciated, since it allows the users to understand the separate sets of data clearly.
ICONS CATCH THE EYES
What is generally ignored in the process of designing a dashboard UI is the ‘icons’. The best dashboard designs always include icons that are familiar to the users. For example, the pen/pencil icon is usually the edit tool. Likewise, the trash icon is for the option of deleting anything. This way, the user would have less time wasted in processing what the icon means and would have more utilized time in wrapping up their work. Thus, familiar icons help create great UX and UI.
RIGHT FONT REMAINS IMPORTANT
Employing the right style of the font and its size is equally important in both the UX and UI designs. It is advisable that while designing, not more than two fonts shall be employed. This is done in order to maintain a clean dashboard design. Creating a visual hierarchy by employing the inverted pyramid style in all the written content is quite significant. This can be done by putting the most important sets of information in the largest and the not-so-important sets of information in the smaller font, along with a hint of colour differentiation.
FILL COLOURS IN DESIGN AS MUCH AS IN LIVE
The concept of colours is such that, it might seem simple, but it also has a complex side. Different colours signify different things. Just like red colour is usually employed to denote danger and green colour is used to denote ease and agreement. Now, imagine if their use is reversed, won’t it be confusing? Therefore, designers are required to be really mindful whilst working on the colour palette of their designs. Besides, it is best not to go overboard with the colours, even if you’re tempted to do so. A good start would be picking two colours in the initial stage, that too something like contrasting contemporary colours.
MAKING THE FINAL POINTS
All of this would be worthless if you don’t know your users’ preferences. Whatever the studying concept maybe, if you don’t have the emotional connection with your users and if you don’t know their choices and requirements, then the whole work would just remain pointless. Therefore, besides knowing the tips and right ways of employing the tools to create a great dashboard, you should also know your users. Research, understand, analyse and imply your methodologies and tools.
Taking your leave with,
“Graphic design will save the world right after rock and roll does.”
Syncing the phone book contacts in an android device with your application is being used by various android applications today. These applications include Whatsapp, Google+, Skype and various email applications. In this way, contacts syncing allows the user to access contacts from various social applications from the phone book itself.Now I will explain with an example Android application how the syncing process happens. This Android application runs in the background as soon as its launched and synchronizes itself with the device’s phone book contacts. Following is a screenshot of a contact synced with the app.
Clicking on MyData will take us to the desired screen on the application.
Contacts syncing requires three components to work in order which is:-
Contacts provider
Authenticator service
Sync service
Contacts provider
Contacts provider is the standard access provider to the device’s data about people. All the contacts in the phone are managed by the contacts provider through tables that can be queried to get data. There are basically three tables that store data for a person.
ContactsContract.Contacts is the table that contains the aggregated data from raw contacts rows that represents different people in the contacts list.
ContactsContract.RawContacts table contains the person’s accounts and type data summary.
ContactsContract.Data table contains other details corresponding to each raw contact like email address, phone number, etc.
I made use of the ContentProviderOperation to handle the table insertion operations on the table to add a raw contact and the data corresponding to my app and finally to apply the changes to the database as a batch operation.
Here is the sample code for the class that handles this functionality:
Authenticator Service
The authenticator service is used to create an account for our app on the device. It plugs into the Android accounts and authentication framework through which an account type is created on the device corresponding to our app. Accounts for standard social applications like Whatsapp, Skype, Facebook, etc. can be found if you visit the accounts screen in settings on your device.
Sync Service
The sync service is made up of two parts the sync adapter and the sync service itself. The sync adapter is used to synchronize data between the server and the local database. My app doesn’t fetch any data from the server but still, it is required to implement the sync adapter. The sync service is what binds the sync adapter to the android sync framework.
The authenticator service runs in the background when the app is launched to create an account for the app on the device. The sync service is called in a periodic cycle to constantly sync the data.
When you tap on the Whatsapp icon on the contacts screen, it will take you to the chat screen of that contact. Similarly, in the phonebook contacts, your app icon can be seen which is clickable to access the app screens that correspond to that contact’s information on the app. The contact data can be sent through the intent extras to the activity that launches.
For a few years now technology has been a driving force behind innovations in the real estate sector. But when it comes to complete digitalization, real estate tech has not been one of the pacesetters.
A situation that the industry was forced to correct in 2020.
COVID-19 driven traveling restrictions and the fact that it brought open houses to a halt brought the usage of technology to the forefront, marking a new beginning for several real estate tech firms on the way.
As the present situation stands, the longer the pandemic stays, the greater will be the chances of digitalization efforts sticking with the real estate software development process in the long run. For an industry whose technology adoption spotlight was substituting home viewing with a video, the technological advancements in store will be nothing less than a true revolution.
When you look at these forced real estate technology advancements from a real estate tech firm front, will be nothing less than good news. By using next-ge technologies like Blockchain, AI, AR/VR, etc. the proptech industry will be able to keep its growth momentum intact.
Let us, deep-dive, into the state of real estate and technology combination and how it is setting a new trend for the real estate technology startups – one that would continue post-pandemic.
The pandemic has dramatically expedited the merger of real estate and technology in a way that the sector is on the path of becoming contactless and technologically rich. With a plethora of new efficiencies been brought about by technological innovations, the functioning of property management stands to change for the good.
Here are some of the most glaring technologies which are helping the sector sail through the coronavirus crisis:
1. Automation of business practices
One of the most important and yet common examples of technology in the real estate industry has been the arrival of automation. Touted as the by-product of artificial intelligence in real estate, automation can be seen across marketing, engagement practices, and business processes. Here are a few automation areas that have risen in popularity during the pandemic:
Lead generation through website forms
Omni-channel syncing of leads
Lead nurturing through drip emails or automated workflows
Transaction and tasks management
Financial and accounts automation
Property inspection automation through Spectora
2. Virtual home tours
By far one of the most loved pandemic-driven technology in the real estate industry is the virtual home tour. Going by an AppFolio survey, “71% of property management companies said their priority of virtual showings has increased,” and “64% believe they’re here to stay.”
The technology going beyond 2D photographs, video conferencing tools, and interactive 3D models pose to be a tool that makes COVID showing process an unprecedented success.
Virtual showings come with the value of extending beyond the current climate. It offers prospects greater flexibility in the apartment hunting process. With conveniences ranging from easing schedules, visiting houses in far-away areas virtually, etc. virtual property showing is something that is going to stay.
3. Cloud adoption
The one issue that real estate technology ventures have been trying to solve across the years is the reliance on papers. Streamlining real estate procedures keeping digital platforms at the center is a grand step businesses could take for continuing to serve buyers/sellers through stay-at-home orders.
The benefits of this disruptive technology in real estate can be seen in:
Reliable security and storage
Reduction of operational costs
Gives real-time sharing and accessibility feasibility
4. Streamline paperwork with Blockchain
In a traditional real estate economy, the property management process is considered to be highly complex, especially since multiple stakeholders are a part of it.
Property management can either be done offline through manual paperwork or through independent software. A result of this is that information remains confined to a database – a problem that property technology startups aim to solve.
However, with the increasing role of blockchain for property transactions, the future of real estate can be changed.
Real estate mobile app development done on the premise of a blockchain-based property management system uses smart contracts that can ease the process surrounding signing the lease agreements to complying with filing maintenance requests and cash flow.
A secondary field where a real estate software development company can see Blockchain impacting the real estate apps sector is deed management.
Defect in deed paperwork can make it illegal to proceed with the deed management process until the issue is resolved. In case an issue emerges, property owners are liable to pay heavy legal fees ensuring the accuracy of property titles. The application of Blockchain in real estate can be applied here to make the paperwork secure and transparent.
Parting Words
Looking at the future of the real estate sector, technology inclusion would continue to grow and restructure how transactions are conducted, thanks to COVID-19. One key factor that pandemics won’t change however is the need for personal relationships. Property agents, investors, brokers, and lenders must continue to develop their influence sphere. When you partner with a real estate app development company you must keep the human part of the process into consideration.
The digital movement is real. Consumers now possess more content at their fingertips than ever before, and it has impacted how we do business. Companies like Airbnb, Uber and Waze have disrupted typical business models, forcing established players in different industries to find ways to stay relevant in the ever-emerging digital age. This post is not about that. Well, not in the strictest sense. There are countless articles explaining the value of being digital. On the other hand, there are very few articles about how to get there. Let’s explore how to get there together, through an approach that I have named Risk-Based Transformation. RBT’s strength is that it puts technology, application, information and business into one equation.
An approach that fits your specific needs
I’m relocating very soon, and with that comes the joys of a cross-country journey. Being the planning type, I started plotting my journey. I didn’t really know how to start, so I went to various websites to calculate drive times. I even found one that would give you a suggested route based on a number of inputs. These were great tools but they were not able to account for some of my real struggles, like how far is too far to drive with a 5- and 3-year-old.
Where are the best rest stops where we can “burn” energy — ones that have a playground or a place to run? (After being cooped up in a car for hours, getting exercise is important!) How about family- and pet-friendly places to visit along the way to break up the trip? What about the zig-zag visits we need to make to see family?
The list goes on. So while I was able to use these tools to create a route, it wasn’t one that really addressed any of the questions that were on my mind. Organizations of all sizes and across all industries are on this digital journey but often the map to get there is too broad, too generic, and doesn’t provide a clear path based on your unique needs.
A different approach is needed, one in which you can benefit from the experience of others, whilst taking the uniqueness of your business into account. Like planning a trip, it’s good to use outside views in particular to give that wider industry view; however, that’s only a piece of the puzzle. Each business has its own culture, struggles and goals that bring a unique perspective.
RBT framework
To help with this process, I have created a framework for RBT. At a high level, RBT takes into account your current technology (infrastructure), application footprint, value of the information, and risk to the business. From left to right, the least weight to the highest. This framework gives a sense as to where to where to start and where the smart spend is. See flow below:
Following this left to right, you can add or remove evaluation factors to this based on your needs. Each chevron has a particular view, in a vacuum if you will, so the technology is rated based only on itself. It will gain its context as you move through each chevron. This will give you a final score. The higher the score, the higher the risk to the business.
Depending on your circumstances, you can approach it David Letterman style and take your top 10 list of transformation candidates and run it through the next logic flow (watch for a future blog on how to determine treatment methodology). Or, as we did with a client recently, you can start with your top 50 applications. The point is to get to a place that enables you to start making informed next steps that meet your needs and budget to get the most “bang” for your investment.
The idea behind this framework is to use data in the right context to present an informed view. For example, you can build your questionnaires on SharePoint or Slack or another collaboration platform that also allows the creation of dashboard views. You can build dashboards in Excel, Access, MySQL or whatever technology you’re comfortable with in order to build an informed data-driven view, evaluating risk against transformation objectives. The key is that you need to assign values to questions in order to calculate consistent measurements across the board.
Service management example
Let’s take service management as an example. Up front you would need to determine what “good” looks like, and then based on that, have questions like these below answered:
These questions could be answered by IT support, application support, business owners, the life cycle management group, or other relevant groups. When we ran through the first iterations of this framework, we had our client fill it out first. Then we filled it out based on our data points. Our data points looked different, as it was an outsourcing client in which we owned their IT. We had the view in a vacuum of what we had both inherited, the equipment from the existing estate that had been transferred to us, and what we had newly built.
We also had access to the systems that the client did not have, as they no longer had root access to these systems. The client’s context included future plans for life cycle, as they owned life cycle management. With those combined views, we had a broader sense of the environment. This methodology could be used with business units, allowing them to give their view of these systems, which gave IT an even more rounded view because it enabled us to see how the client (business) saw their environment versus how we (IT support) saw it.
That data was then normalized to give a joint view for senior leadership. The idea is that this became a jointly owned view, backed up with data, of the way forward that IT leadership could confidently stand behind. The interesting part is although the age of the server estate was 5 – 10 years old, we realized that upgrading the infrastructure was not the smartest place to start. In fact, the actual hardware was determined to be the lowest risk. The highest risk was storage, which was quite a surprise to all.
A living framework
Many years ago, when you plotted your cross-country drive on your map it was based on information from a fixed time. This was the best route when I drew the line on the map. Now, personal navigation devices hooked into real-time data change that course based on current conditions. In the same way, the RBT model is a living framework; it should have regular iterations in order to have course corrections as you go forward.
The intent with this framework and thinking is to build a context that makes sense for your needs, and then present data in context that allows for better planning. That better planning should lead to a more efficient digital journey as we all continue to stay with, or ahead of, the curve.
If you have enjoyed this, look forward to my next post. There I will detail how the RBT framework is applied and the treatment buckets methodology.
What does the term precision medicine mean to you? Typically, people think of precision medicine as being about genomics, but it goes well beyond molecular biology to encompass everything that moves us away from a one-size-fits-all approach to medicine. As far back as 1969, Enid Balint, formerly in charge of the training and research course for general practitioners at the Tavistock Clinic in London, published a paper on “The possibilities of patient-centered medicine,” and described precision medicine as the field that understands the patient as a unique human being.
The question, therefore, is: How do we do that? Certainly, genomics has been widely touted. But another area at the forefront of precision medicine is digital health technology, which Steven Steinhubl, MD, of Scripps Research Translational Institute, addressed in his presentation, “Precision Medicine and the Future of Clinical Practice.” Digital technology moves us in the direction of understanding each patient and away from the current practice of defining health in ways that make little sense to many people. Further in this blog, I am expanding on key elements of Steven’s talk to present a different perspective on precision medicine. While many of the messages in this blog have been raised by Steven, I’d like to offer my perspective as well.
So, what exactly is wrong with current practice in our healthcare system? For starters, the current model is based on a model in which, when you get sick or hurt, you see a doctor and you get fixed. There is little to no incentive for doctors to keep you healthy, and the system rewards them on what is called “activity-based funding” rather than “outcome-based funding” or “value-based care”.
As for population-based benchmarks, they actually don’t work for you as an individual. Let’s take wellness recommendations, such as walking 10,000 steps a day or eating a certain amount of proteins and carbohydrates each day. We know that some people need more and some need fewer carbohydrates and that the 10,000-step benchmark is fairly meaningless at an individual level.
Time to stop the generic trials
As mentioned by Steven, precision medicine is, in fact, already here in several settings. The most prominent is optometry, where an eye exam determines your specific needs, and an optometrist prescribes a pair of glasses tailored entirely to your current condition. You can also pick a model of frame and material that fits your lifestyle (e.g., sports or work) and your taste in fashion. Without this specific focus, you would end up with a generic pair of glasses that might not suit your needs and lifestyle.
Medicine needs to adopt the same approach by moving away from a generic approach to clinical studies and towards trials that focus on individual responses to therapy. In his article titled, Personalized medicine: Time for one-person trials, Nicholas J. Schork looks at the 10 most-prescribed drugs and notes that for every person they help, they fail to improve the condition of between three and 24 people. Some drugs, such as statins, benefit as few as one in 50 people, and some are even harmful to certain ethnic groups because clinical trials have typically focused on participants of European background.
Dosage is also seldom geared towards the individual. We know it’s possible to do this because the company provides dose recommendations based on pharmacokinetic drug models, patient characteristics, medication concentrations, and genotype.
Generally, however, we don’t know who will benefit from a drug and who won’t. While genomics plays a key role, there are multiple other factors that have an impact on outcomes, including our environment (e.g., city vs. rural), having access to good produce or being limited to convenience store food (e.g., doughnuts vs. fruits and veggies), whether we live in a cold or hot climate, whether we live in an industrial area with pollution, and what our work and family environment is like. Taking all these factors and more into account is essential if we are to treat each person as unique.
With the growing realisation about these effects, more clinicians are turning to digital technology, deploying internet of things (IoT) sensors and smartphones to improve patient outcomes. A study of 2,000 Americans shows that the average person uses his or her smartphone 80 times per day, so why not leverage it as part of a care plan? The fact is that people are already using their phones for health, with one out of 20 Google searches being health-related.
Setting baselines with sensors
Sensors and apps are being used by many people to check their vitals and provide far more relevant information than using standard measures for what is normal with sleep patterns, heart rate, blood pressure, glucose, temperature and stress. The context in which these measures are taken varies dramatically. For example, maybe it is normal for my stress and blood pressure level to rise when I’m rock climbing, and perhaps a pregnant woman can expect her sleep pattern to change.
Expanding on Steven’s idea, wearable IoT devices are redefining the human phenotype (i.e., all of the observable physical properties of an individual) by performing unobtrusive and continuous monitoring of a wide range of characteristics unique to each of us. This will allow us to define our “normal” blood pressure when we are stressed. After all, do you really need to worry if your blood pressure rises when you’re stuck in traffic after a busy day at the office?
Sensor technology enables continuous monitoring, so you can create a baseline and compare your own readings. When something doesn’t feel right, you’ll be able to go back and compare it to a day when you did feel right the month before. This is a far better measure of your own health.
For example, a study into temperature shows that although your normal temperature should be around 37 degrees C, the normal temperature of a person can vary from 33.2 degrees C up to 38.4 degrees C. This means that if your normal temperature is 33.2 degrees C and you have a 37-degree C temperature, you’re having a pretty severe fever, but most doctors won’t realise this because they don’t know your normal temperature.
Another study shows that although the average daytime heart rate is around 79, the normal heart rate of a person varies from 40 to 90. This makes a big difference when treating a patient for a heart condition. This data comes from Fitbit’s analysis of 100,000 persons’ resting heart rates. So obviously, you can’t apply a population average to your own body. This is important because with the trends in your heart rate, we’d be able to find early signs of influenza, for example.
The challenge for people who have wearables (like me, yeah, I own a Fitbit … how cool am I?), is that we’re not quite sure what to do with all that data.
Following this trend, the National Institutes of Health in the United States has created the All of Us Research Program, the largest precision medicine longitudinal study ever performed, which aims to follow 1 million people from all walks of life for decades. The program will provide a set of IoT wearable sensors to the participants and then correlate this data with their clinical data from the healthcare ecosystem — hospitals, family practitioners, specialists, etc.
This study differs from your typical research study because this program will provide insights on the data to its participants, so they can improve their health in real time.
Today, anyone has access to wearable technology; it’s relatively cheap and easy to use, and it gives you real-time insights into your own health. Don’t be afraid to build your own baseline and talk to your doctor. As more people and clinicians embrace wearables and apps, we’ll start to see a broader shift towards precision medicine supported by both genomics and digital health.
The insurance industry is known to maintain multiple touchpoints with its clientele. Thanks to business models that safeguard people from unexpected circumstances, they are detail-oriented and require heavy paperwork at most stages of customer enrollment.But the rapid, and recent, technological advancement has seen the finance sector introduce fleets of new digital solutions that place them right at the fingertips of people.
As a result of this wave of digital transformation, pre-existing companies and startups in the insurance market, are exploring the prospect of mobile applications. Lest we forget to stress, aggressively. The new insurance applications, if we can call them that, would need a touch of finesse considering the diversified nature of operations. So what should software developers concentrate on when it comes to Insurtech apps.
It is to answer this throbbing question that we have this mini mobile application guide ready for you to take your first steps towards creating innovation in your insurance business.
Why Does An Insurance Company Need a Mobile App?
Insurance, by tradition, has been powered by middlemen. Although taking them entirely out of the picture may not be plausible, mitigating their involvement will grow profit margins, naturally.
Mobile apps allow real-time B2C interaction, without intermediaries. The positivity also flows down to the customer experience, which can never be exaggerated. And insurtech would be too smart for its own good, not to explore this option.
There are three main components that play a vital role in formulating the proverbial pyramid of an insurance company. The pyramid. which had played a major role in helping Wefox raise $110M in 2019.
This includes first the insurer that incorporates and markets financial products. Second, are the third-party entities that provide the services covered by the insurer. And the third is the end-user, the customer who has opted in to be insured.
Mobile insurance solutions offer the following advantages to insurance companies at the top of the pyramid:
Establish Customer Contact
Buyers are more conscious of spending than before. As per stats, 85% of the customers conduct online research before placing their purchase order. Insurance mobile apps make a fine impression in convincing people of instant support in dire need. A study discovered that up to 63% of its sample population was inclined to communicate with a chatbot. Therefore we have reason to believe registered policy-holders will favor to download and track policies over mobile. Building on this, they can draw a comparison between multiple products and shortlist the ones with better benefits.
Increase User Reach
Provide good customer service and turn clients into business affiliates. Referral programs can get you more buyers to loop in provided your mobile insurance solutions are state of the art. There are dual benefits to this. First, optimizing customer recruitment cycles would free up time for insurance agents to target bigger, better clients. And second, you can advertise your mobile insurance platform in related apps to target more customers with semantics marketing.
Study Customer Data
The insurance industry can tap into mobile analytics which they can analyse to an extent like never before. Insurance applications can easily gather the following types of structured data:
Identity Data – This includes name, D.O.B, physical address, telephone information, email Id, and or links to social media profiles such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc.
Quantitative Data – This is transactional data such as bank account details, credit score, frequency of payments, etc.
Descriptive Data – Insurers may need their customers to disclose property details, car ownerships. professional standing, educational background, along with the family tree.
Qualitative data – This includes subjective/behavioral details such as favorite color, hobbies, etc.
Collecting such vivid information, companies operating in the insurance market can subsequently filter the best-fit prospects for upselling.
Facilitate Convenient Services
One of the most common KRAs of those in the finance-frontline is client visits. This could be either for background checks or personal form submission or a routine update of information. Be that as it may, the current COVID-19 crisis does not permit face-to-face screenings. Moreover, the coronavirus onset has led to a rise in demand for insurance applications. As per a study by Lincoln Financial Group, digital alternatives increase the likelihood of people opting in for life insurance. Make hay while the sun shines.
Universal Features for Insurance Apps
Anteelo, as one of the renowned financial app development company, has appreciable experience in creating cutting edge on-demand digital products. Coupling experience with client feedback, we recommend against loading an app with features just to make it look fab. There has to be synergy between the color palettes, smart use of white spaces, typographic fonts, and strategic positioning of icons and images. Only then does an app have a life of its own. After taking care of such design elements we can refocus our aim towards integrating the right feature sets.
To give you an overview of the Fintech sector that is attracting investors’ attention, there are four categories of apps that can be developed in the insurtech domain:
Life Insurance
Car Insurance
Travel Insurance
Health Insurance
Apps must have a strong backend. They should be able to withstand peak rises in traffic, or if the company decides to implement a new software system without many amendments to the architecture.
Based on our experience, we will first list the mutual features that can be found in all of the above categories. These features formulate the kernel of a general application guide for Fintech app ideas. Barring few niche specifications, the following features remain steady and ever-present especially during a fintech app development of any kind:
1. Admin Panel
This is the introductory page where the basic information about the insured person is displayed. Make sure it is lean, clean along with clear call to action buttons. Take the Geico insurance app for instance. It’s a car insurance app and hence the profile page displays information related to vehicle IDs, roadside assistance, payment buttons and an option to switch policies. Pretty simplistic.
2. Policy Details
This page displays the details of the policy, the manner, and the extent of your benefits. Continuing the same example, since Geico is an auto insurance app, it displays information about several policies that a single user could be enrolled into such as one for the car, the other for a bike, and so on.
3. Quote & Filters
A very useful feature particularly in finance app development. In the previous section, we listed the kind of data that an insurer could collect through a mobile app. The Quote tab offers a feature where the app can fetch your data from its records and either connect you to an insurance agent or directly state the price of a policy. Assuming the company has the resources to work with Big Data, it can pitch discounted prices or more benefits to customers based on their frequency of asking/exploring new policies.
4. File a Claim
Integrating a claims-filing section remains the most prioritized stage of financial application development. The run-around days to lodge claims are a thing of the past. Submitting proofs should be as simple as clicking a picture, be it from the scanner of the app or the camera of the phone. If the entire process can be concluded on a single page, all the better.
5. Payment Gateway
No points for guessing, integration of payment gateway is super necessary for any form of finance mobile app development. The gateway should accept payments from all major network providers such as Visa, Master Card, etc. In addition to that automated billing for EMIs or a single click payment process should be integrated.
6. Customer Support
Chatbots are not extraordinary anymore. Automated responses act as a quick-fix for run of the mill questions. But what about accidental circumstances. You can’t expect a user who’s stranded with a broken vehicle to rely on pre-feeded answers. As a result, integrate a Request a Call Back or Connect with a Representative option. Such in-app call functionality will serve to make the app what it actually is, a disaster averting, quick response machinery.
7. Push Notifications
Businesses, in general, don’t miss opportunities to enter a new market segment, let alone insurance companies. The latter might even tweak its business models, should the need present itself. Whereas seasonal offers are heard of, the idea of a flash sale was experimented with by Liberty Insurance in the not quite distant past. You need an excuse for giveaways and so do the customers for buying your products. Therefore, send regular push notifications informing people of their outstanding sum and any upcoming policies they can swap their current ones with.
8. Document Upload/Storage
How would the customer upload their documents, let alone a photo, if the Fintech application development did not incorporate it? Not only must the mobile app allow document upload from local file directories but also import, if need be, from third party servers as in the case of emails.
*Images Source
Based on this grind, we can say that the above features are commonly found in most Fintech apps, if not all. But what about domain-specific areas. Of course, the features would differ as would the architecture. But at a B2C level, we can broadly state in-app features for a few domains, as we’ve done below.
Where Does Your Business Go From Here?
To the stratosphere if you shake hands with one of the most promising Fintech app development companies. We don’t like self-glorification. It would suit you more to go through our comprehensive product suit and decide for yourself. But just so we know we did our bit, if there is anything under the sun in Fintech/insurtech, that you’re interested in, we’d be happy to burn our night lamp for you.
