Custom Software Applications: Your Organizational Gloves!

Let us begin with understanding what Custom Software Development is; it is the designing of software and mobile applications that are specially developed for some specific organization or other user. As such, it can be contrasted with the use of software packages developed for the mass market, such as commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) software, or existing free software.

Multinational corporations mostly make use of custom software for a wide range of departments or functions like inventory management, customer management, content management and sometimes just to fill gaps in the existing software.

If you are looking at streamlining your operations and enhancing intra-organizational efficiency especially in regards to small medium enterprises (SMEs), then, getting a custom software is the best choice for you.

Let us look at the many advantages of Custom Software Solutions –

A. Dependable Support & Maintenance

With a customized software you have the extreme ease of a support team that shall assist you and your firm/organization with any technical glitches.

B. Cost Effective

You save capital when you invest in custom software applications because when you purchase off the shelf and license it, they could come with an added cost – the cost of purchasing extra hardware that goes with it to make them run smoothly. Whereas, a custom software developer will tweak the program to both the vendor of your hardware and your hardware’s features, capabilities and structure. This in turn, helps your enterprise save money.

C. Provides One Stop Solution

Companies or businesses need a multitude of websites and softwares to seamlessly carry out day to day operations and maintaining a bunch of programs/softwares can not only be irksome but also chaotic. But if you employ a tailor-made software which can integrate all the processes, you won’t face the trouble of attending to every managerial function separately. Everything shall be dealt with beneath one software ceiling.

D. Runs as Per Your Wishes

Custom software applications operate as long as you want them to as opposed to licensed software where your firm is at the receiving end of software developer. If the developer of the purchased software decides to no longer maintain the application, you will be left with the sudden expense of replacing it with another software.

E. Immunity Against Hacking

Commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) software that is readily available in the market is often the target of hackers’ exploits. The hacking brigade tends to hit these off the shelf softwares because one attack gives them access to multiple businesses using the same program. Therefore, when you purchase commercial software, you are making yourself vulnerable to these threats. A bespoke software protects you from such situations as you have the choice of communicating all your vulnerabilities to the vendor before software development begins and all those factors can be assimilated to give you a software that is less likely to get hacked.

F. Scales With Your Business

As your business grows, so do your organizational needs. An off the shelf software falls back when this happens because it hasn’t been developed to accommodate your growing business processes. And when you purchase another software which seems better tuned to handle your firm’s status quo, you have to go through the entire process of training your team again. But when you hire an IT firm, to frame/design a custom-made solution, they maintain it for you in the long run and guarantee that it scales to support your firm’s needs as and when required.

Many companies run into the issue of having to go for a good-reliable software, capable of supporting a large-scale business but very expensive to license. Therefore, it is a wise choice to opt for a custom software or application and go for a firm that can be your long-term technology partner, like Consagous Technologies Pvt. Ltd.

Starting from the customization of the already existing software to the full-cycle custom software and hybrid app development as per the client’s requirements, Consagous is an experienced and trusted technology mate that can help you get cost-effective and reliable custom software solutions to serve your unique business requirements.

Consagous also offers high end blockchain development solutions.

Courtesy:-
https://www.consagous.com/custom-software-applications-organizational-gloves/

How to Use Push Notifications to Reduce App Churn

Firms creating or marketing mobile apps tend to give more weightage to acquiring new customers as compared to retaining those that are already existing as users which leads to ‘churn’, the abandoning, uninstalling of the mobile application. The focus has to be on the retention rate, else the user base is only going to diminish.

This is where mobile push marketing comes in, it helps you grow your app base and reduces churn. Push notifications can really change the way users perceive your app. Here are some strategies to see you through a competitive app market via push notifications. Begin with bringing in more users to opt-in for push notifications to further engage, encourage and re-engage inactive and active users.

Once your app’s user base opts in for the push notifications, you have established a direct communication route to target them with contextual and relevant messages. Here are some ways to go about them:

Pick Quality over Quantity

Every time you send notifications to your user base, make it worthwhile because it’s not the number of times you send but the value those notifications bring that counts. If you send too many alerts, you risk annoying your users and driving them to uninstall the application.

Group Your Users

Based on your app analytics, insights, user behaviour and level of engagement, segment your users and then send them notifications with context. Past preferences combined with relevant content shall lead to increased engagement and activity.

Customize User Notifications

Personalise the content of your notifications based on the user’s past preferences to drive engagement rates. Giving users what they want is key to make the most of user analytics for achieving desired results.

Spring up User Engagement

To prompt inactive users into action and regular engagement push notifications can be of great help. Sending offers, incentives and live updates regarding the product/service via in-app marketing campaigns triggers engagement. Tracking engagement metrics on grounds of location, device and purchase frequency will give you a clear picture of app performance.

Tell Your Users you Missed Them

When your most active app users turn inactive or slip into an engagement lull or skip your hybrid app for a different one, don’t fret, you can still show them your app’s potential by sending a personalized notification/message saying you miss them coupled with reasons (new features, design, etc) to come and re-check the app.

Hopefully, the above five strategies will help you chart your mobile and web push marketing in a better format. Consagous offers niche digital marketing strategies to amp your app reach increase its user base.

Consagous also offers high end blockchain development solutions.

Courtesy:-
https://www.consagous.com/use-push-notifications-reduce-app-churn/

Common Mobile Application Development Challenges Which Can Kill Your Project

Developing an application with a clear roadmap? No matter what is your level of clarity, during the development phase, one encounters numerous challenges. Whilst, every project comes with its own roadblocks but there are few generic challenges that surface regardless of the character of the project.

Let’s address 3 of generic mobile app development challenges that may kill your project and the possible solutions which will facilitate overcome the above challenges.

1. Product Delays and Budget Overruns

Someone stated it well that ‘time is money’. Now no one like to lose their money just because manufacturers’ operations were not planned properly. This is a major drawback which happens for a diversity of reasons. Naming a few of them, improper capability mapping, dependencies, and a gap of talents.

Also, budget overruns are usually expressly tied to product delays.

The longer it takes you to unleash and the more you push your project on the verge to collapse.

How to Overcome

The product delays and overruns in the project can’t be simply avoided but we can always scale back budget risks and time in projects.

a) Iterative Development

We always aspire for obtaining unblemished performance from the version one of our product whether it is web, mobile or  a custom software which is why our time estimates are very less than they actually should be. Iterative development should be encompassed in the time estimate to avoid a rush at the later phase of the project.

b) Capacity mapping

Often improper capacity mapping leads to product delays and budget overruns because if the capacity mapping is not done properly, a reliable estimate of time and budget can’t be made.

If planning is to be done on actual parameters a method needs to be devised which permits one to determine team capability and compare it to the project necessities which in turn allows the user to predict speed with a good degree of accuracy.

Now that the speed is known, one can tell what proportion of task at hand team can accomplish in given amount of time.

c) Flexibility

Time and budget are enormously affected in the quest to adapt to the dynamic wants of the client. If the app development method is agile, time and budget can be easily managed and hence product delays & budget overruns can be avoided.

2. Lack Of In-House Experience

Usually, organizations tend to assume that the existing development and QA groups can be used for any mobile technology task. But more often than not there are wide talent gaps.

The assumption that in-house teams will learn the mobile technology quickly enough to converge the company’s mobile development necessity can be harmful. As hybrid mobile application development is a different discipline and like any other discipline expertise is crucial here.

How to Overcome

The simplest way to do get a job done is to find and hire a professional in the field. But, the wisest option will be partnering with professionals in the field. The motive should be filling talent gaps apart from meeting the following requirements:

1. Ability to integrate along with the existing team
2. The process of information transfer and retention
3. Experience with similar engagements
4. Change management processes
5. Overall development method

3. Many Stakeholders With Differing Priorities

This is especially tough to deal with as diverging priorities will throw off timelines, affect the scope, and kill budgets. rigid method of app development like ‘waterfall’ is bound to fail in such circumstances as it will fail to cope up with modifications.

How to Overcome

Effectively converging differing priorities can all be done with an agile and adjustable method. Following practices like rolling wave mapping will let you accommodate modifications as they come.

For more troubleshooters, stay tuned!

Consagous also offers high end blockchain development solutions.

Courtsey:- 
https://www.consagous.com/common-mobile-application-development-challenges-can-kill-project/

WHY RETAIL SHOPPING SITES ALTER INTO MOBILE SHOPPING APPS

According to the study, “the number of smartphone users is expected to increase from 2.32 billion this year to 2.87 billion by 2020”. This uptrend in smartphone pushing online retailers to amend their strategy and take a closer look at the preferred way of shopping of their potential customers. With the help of mobile applications, it becomes much easier to reach your target audience and allow them to shop only by pushing a few buttons.

Because of convenience and better customer experience, people prefer online shopping, and this is the reason why developers become more focused towards the development of mobile apps. Let’s take a closer look at the latest scenario of retail market:

1.      Today users spent their most of the time on mobile phones instead of desktops.

2.      The cart abandonment rate of mobile applications is much lower than the mobile sites: apps – 20%, desktops – 68%, mobile sites – 97%.

3.      Today customers spend more money on mobile apps as compare to desktops or mobile sites.

4.      “The average order value on mobile apps is 140% higher than on mobile sites and 130% higher than on desktops”.

5.      Customers like to return to a mobile e-commerce application within 30 days than to desktop.

These are some insights that show that now retailers prefer to shift their business to mobile apps. Other than this, an app has much more to offer, let’s discuss the benefits of mobile apps over websites.

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THE IMPACT OF ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE ON MOBILE APP DEVELOPMENT

It is safe to predict that Artificial Intelligence will continue to be at the top in 2018. There are so many jaw-dropping ways through which AI is used behind the curtain to impact our day to day activities. But a few years ago, the scenario was different as those days AI was just the stuff of sci-fi, it was only novel and animated movies where we can see it well in the future. Now, it becomes part of our lives as it includes in our almost every modern device.

From chatbots to analytics tools, it is everywhere, and developers are trying to find out innovative approaches to use AI in their Artificial Intelligence Mobile App Development to deliver better client services, new items and re-engineer business processes. Today both AI and machine learning continue to dominate the world as people become increasingly comfortable leaning on technology and virtual assistants to make life smoother. Before discussing how developers and software development companies can take the advantage of that to address challenges in the development industry, let’s discuss some insights that might help you to know this technology more closely.

The AI opens a world of new possibilities for app development process, it helps companies to capitalize on lubricious opportunities and allow applications to drive revenue for businesses by creating a seamless and profound personal user experience. 

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Why Architecture is Considered As Backbone of Mobile App Development

According to StatCounter GS, “mobile app access has risen to 36.54% in the US as of January 2017 and has overtaken desktops as the primary means of accessing the internet by approximately 4%”.

But its development comprises many challenges like security, integration, usability, connectivity, speed etc and if mobile app development of complex applications not executed carefully than it will quickly lead to some major issues. With the increasing demand of mobility adoption, developers are typically shifted their focus on the architecture of the app and as a result, ingrain adequate security protocol into software and applications to make it successful in the market.

Though it’s not facile to select the right technology for your mobile app development and which mobile application architecture to be used but with the help of user experience and expert mobile app developers you can get the idea about most appropriate application architecture for your app.

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The Necessity of Mobile Apps in Beauty and Wellness Industry

Beauty and wellness is one of the few channels right now where multi-brand retailers are successful and generating huge revenue by offering on demand services. According to the report of FICCI “Indian wellness industry is expected to grow at a compounded annual growth rate (CAGR) of 12% for the next five years to achieve a Rs 1,50,000 crore-turnover by 2019-20”.

The ecosystem in the beauty industry is solitary which is driven by consumers, mostly by women, who are always curious about new products and want to try numerous products before buying. As the customers have become more demanding and fashion invigorated, cosmetic stores like Sephora, Bobbi Brown, Ulta and other retailers are started providing a great environment for new product experimentation so that they can provide complete satisfaction to the customers.

To meet the needs of customers, it is good to have a mobile app that can deliver most expedient and affordable on-demand salon services experience in one touch, only you have to browse through the options according to your choice.

Being one of the leading mobile app development company, we have developed many on-demand services based mobile applications and we know how these apps can influence the growth of any business. Let’s discuss some reasons why every salon needs a mobile app?


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