How to Create a Budget for Your Mobile App Development Project

You want to build an app but wondering how much will it cost you? This article will help you in planning an app by creating a budget with steps to consider and other useful facts.

At Deforay, we have been developing mobile apps for Android and iOS platforms for over 10 years. From the first project, our goal was to build robust, functional, and feature-rich apps for our clients within an affordable budget.

In 2020, developing an app for both Android and iOS or a cross-platform has become easy and budget-friendly without compromising the quality. It has become less expensive since we are using apps for many purposes including communications, games, lifestyle, business, e-commerce, food, and health calculators.

It takes a lot of steps to develop a custom mobile app. Let’s understand the different stages it goes through to become a user-friendly app.

Mobile App Development Stages

There are five stages involved in developing a mobile app. An app developing company requires 3-6 months to develop a functional app. They follow these steps,

1. Analytics

The first step in building an app is to analyze its requirements, purpose, and objectives. This stage takes 5 days to complete the functions, technical aspects, and conceptual components of the app.

2. Design

The design stage of app development is intensive and crucial. Most clients experience frustration and confusion in agreeing to the design of the app. They need to communicate back and forth with the development team to ensure the design is user friendly and pleasing to the audience. This stage requires 15 days. We can make a lot of changes at this stage to save time and money because once the app enters the development stage it might be difficult to make the changes.

3. Front-End

This is the foremost stage of the app development process. We will work on the front-end development processes after the design approval. The front-end process takes about 40 days. Project managers and developers will monitor the coding and technical aspects of the app to deliver the app on time to the customer.

4. Back-End

The back-end development process of the app will start after a few weeks of the front-end process. It requires 40 days. The back-end developers will develop the app based on the server to interface the database.

5. Quality Check

Once the app development reaches the completion stage, we start quality assurance to check its functionalities. A bug-free app needs accurate quality assurance. QA takes about 20 days. It helps detect the defects and rectify them before launching the app.

Every mobile app development company follows these steps based on the app requirements of the clients. If you are planning to build an app for your business, then you must know this checklist first.

Things to Consider in a Budget for a Mobile App

Before building an app for your business, have a detailed knowledge of the app you need along with its features. There are several factors you need to consider such as,

• Type: What type of app you need for your business? Do you need a gaming business, e-commerce, social networking, health, or lifestyle app? Decide the app you want to build for your business first.

• Platforms: Mobile app for Android, iOS, or Windows platform? Or you need a cross-platform app?

• Design: Simple, moderate, or complex design? Simple has no API and back-end components, moderate has custom UI, API integration, and back-end server while the complex has multi-language support, real-time features, and complex back-end support.

• Device: Smartphones, tablets, Tv’s, and smartwatches. Do you want your app to be compatible with all these devices or a specific one?

Pages: The more the pages, the complex the app.

Type and Versions: Native or hybrid app? We develop native apps for a specific operating system while hybrid apps can work on different platforms.

Database: Popular app databases are mongoDB, MySQL, PostgreSQL, etc.
• Mobile API: Application Program Interface (API) for apps includes JavaScript, HTML5, and XML-RPC.

CRM and ERP Integrations: Do you want to integrate Customer Relations management (CRM) and Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) tools with your app?

Analytics: You can install Google Analytics in your app to check the performance of your app.

Payments: E-commerce apps must integrate payment platforms such as PayPal, Stripe, Bitcoin, and others.

E-commerce Integration: Grocery and shopping apps need e-commerce integration based on their services. It can be a basic, advanced, or enterprise model.

Users: We create apps for users which makes it important to have features such as User login, Email Login, Social Login, Accounts, and Privacy settings.

Additional Features: Some apps may require additional features such as camera, 3rd party API, Chatbot, social sharing, geolocation, multilingual support, and backup.

After a thorough analysis and conceptualization of the app, you can know the exact budget for building your app. You can hire freelancers or an app agency to build the app for you. But the budget will vary because of their work ethics and pricing. When you compare the hourly pricing of freelancers, you can go with a mobile app development company to get the entire budget package. Here are the advantages,

Advantages of Hiring a Mobile App Development Company

• All-in-One Place: A mobile app agency has a full staff to complete the app development process. You don’t have to look for analysts, testers, and developers.

• Know What You Pay for: The company will give you a transparent invoice at every stage of the app development process. It will get the client’s inputs and feedback before adding additional features and integrations. This will help estimate your budget easily.

On-Time Delivery: When you work with freelancers, your app might get delayed at different stages. But a company will assure delivering high-quality apps within the given time frame.

Consistent Support: Apps require post-development maintenance support for updates and bug fixes. The company staff will provide these services.

The cost of developing an app depends on various factors and if you spend $1000 on building the app, then 20% goes into app maintenance per year.

We hope this detailed analysis of creating a budget will help estimate your app idea. If not, our team of experts is available any time to help plan your mobile app budget.

How to Conduct a Successful Social Media Audit

Social media sites have become popular platforms for showcasing brands, products, services, and marketing strategies in recent times. Many startups are building their companies on the internet depending on the sales and revenue through these online entities. If you have adopted social media marketing strategies to publicize and grow your business, then conducting a social media audit can do wonders for your business.

What is a Social Media Audit?

Social Media Audit is a simple process of monitoring and analyzing your brand’s performance through social media posts, videos, photos, and other digital data across all social media channels. It includes; noting page aesthetics, content quality, web traffic, audience demographics, channel-specific metrics, and publishing strategies.

5 Steps to Perform a Social Media Audit

Many brands are enthusiastic about creating several social media channels across several popular platforms such as Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, YouTube, Pinterest, and Instagram. But, after a period, they wonder why their channel is not performing to their expectations. They fail to monitor and track their social media channel performances to improve their brand recognition traffic and visibility.

Here we list the steps to perform a social media audit for your brand channels to rate their performances and find which platforms to focus more.

Step 1: Find Your Social Media Platforms, Profiles, and Pages

The first step to conduct a social media audit is to find all your social media platforms, pages, and profiles. Make a note of your brand’s profiles on LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube. 

  • Check whether the business profile is complete with brand info, contact number, and website links.
  • Make a note of brand name and URL for Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn and Twitter Profiles
  • Check for Profile completion including Brand Info, Contact Info and Website Links
  • Double check on aesthetics including Profile Picture, Cover Photo and Theme, High Resolution Images, Verification Check, Company Logo
  • Improve quality of content with creative Taglines, crisp descriptions, grammar and punctuation check

Step 2: Analyse Each Social Media Profile

The next step is to analyze each of your social media profiles separately. Check for Facebook Insights to find who your audience is, the growth of your page and newer strategies to create. For Twitter, you can assess analytics data of your page to the performance. Hashtag engagement and visual content matter the most for your Instagram account. Check for regular maintenance, consistency, and frequency of posts.

Check these factors in respective social media accounts,

  • Analyze Facebook Insights
  • Monitor your posts, visual content, comments generated
  • Hashtag engagement
  • Access to Analytics data
  • Check Frequency of posts

Step 3: Check for Most Shared and Viewed Content

It is important to identify your top social media posts across all platforms to check the recognition, visibility, and reach of your brand. Check for the most shared and viewed content to know which posts are getting the most shares and views. You can adopt similar strategies to develop the quality of your content. This data can help create unique content for each social media platform.

Check for most shared and viewed content like,

  • Most Facebook Engagements
  • Most Instagram Shares
  • Most Retweets
  • Most YouTube Views
  • Most Pinterest Shares
  • Most Page Views

Step 4: Know Your Audience Engagement

Followers are the key to the success and growth of your business. Online Branding and marketing strategies must be developed based on the rate of web traffic and audience engagement. When there is a disconnect between your Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn followers drastically, then you should know that something is not working properly. Consistency is crucial. Audit your followers and know your web traffic rate. The more people connect with your posts, the higher will be your engagements.

Check these factors to know your audience engagement,

  • Facebook Fans, Instagram Followers, Twitter Followers, LinkedIn Followers
  • Web and App Users
  • Visiting Countries
  • Age and Gender
  • Comments Generated
  • Per Individual Follower

Step 5: Determine the Social Media Platforms to Use

It is not necessary to have brand accounts on all social media platforms. Know which suits you the most and concentrate only on that. Choose the most popular and working platforms based on business and web traffic to achieve greater success in the future. Initially, it might take some time to determine which ones are useful and performing in the best manner but with time, you can understand it. Your brand should focus only on the target market and audience.

Statistics show that most companies prefer these social media platforms in this ratio,

  • 70% of businesses prefer having a Facebook Page
  • 40% of brands are active on Instagram
  • 20% of brands use Twitter
  • 85% of companies have LinkedIn accounts

Apart from these, many brands use YouTube, Pinterest, WhatsApp, and Snapchat to deliver their messages to the target audience.

Once you start the process of social media audit by using these steps, it becomes easier for you to create a stronger social media presence with greater content and audience.

Top 10 Things to Keep in Mind Before Custom Enterprise Software Development

Many organizations opt for a custom Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system to expand their business ahead of their competitors. Implementation of ERP software comes with its own advantages and disadvantages as it is based on the aspects related to several business verticals. But, most of the companies understand that customized ERP software can streamline their processes, systems, and procedures with robust functionality and productivity. 

Deciding to move to an integrated ERP system can be an enormous step for both small businesses and established ones. Therefore, it’s important to look for certain factors when developing custom ERP software for your business. 

1. Know your Core Business Requirements 

Developing custom ERP software requires robust research in understanding the core requirements of the business. Before implementing an ERP system, check for the total solutions offered by it. Single end-to-end software works better than buying additional point solutions. Build a list of the company’s key objectives and goals before buying an ERP system. Key Performance Indicators (KPI) will help develop a cost-efficient and functional customized ERP system for your company. 

2. Better Scalability 

Scalability acts as the most important factor in creating custom software for any enterprise. The key objective of any business is growth, which necessitates the option of developing software with greater adaptability. Custom software can give businesses the exact functionality as their software can be reconfigured to the company’s needs. 

3. Built-in Analytics and Reporting System 

A custom ERP software with built-in business intelligence, analytics, and reporting is crucial for boosting business trends and performance. It is a waste of money to buy a separate reporting system when you can customize the ERP system with the same built-in functionality. 

4. Affordable Budget 

Businesses must know that the total cost of an ERP system comes the custom software along with its implementation services. Companies can choose on-premise ERP solutions which may include additional costs for servers, IT maintenance, perpetual license fees. While the latest technology of cloud-based ERP solutions will include the option of paying in installments based on the company-specific features and functions. 

5. Integration with Social Media 

Social media marketing has become a key aspect of next-generation ERP systems. Ensure to choose ERP software with the ability to share information on social media sites. This will help members of the industry to stay connected through their social media accounts. 

6. Flexibility and Functionality 

A custom ERP solution needs to be a flexible and comprehensive solution that delivers greater productivity and functionality. The greater the functionality; the greater the productivity gains for your enterprise. Custom ERP solutions with modules for inventory management, planning, forecasting, data warehousing, security, finance, sales, and risk management promote better functionality.

7. Industry-Specific Features and Functions 

An ERP system must be customized with industry-specific features to make it modern and user-friendly to the employees. A consistent User Interface (UI) will help access each module easily and reduce time to learn unfamiliar parts of the software. With integrated software, you can communicate better with other members of the team while company-specific features will improve productivity. 

8. Choose the Right Implementation Partner 

One of the crucial decisions to make when building custom ERP software for your business is choosing the perfect implementation partner. Go for companies that create their own cloud-based custom ERP software as they help in configuring the system as per your business requirements. These companies will be better trusted options as their team will be available for repairs and bug fixes at all times. 

9. Proper Testing 

It is best for businesses to schedule thorough testing after developing their ERP system. This will help understand whether the software is tailored-made to suit your business needs and functions. Proper testing will help fix errors and reduce unnecessary surprises after years of implementation. Even during the implementation process, it is very important to monitor the developments and key performance of the ERP system. 

10. Build a Stable Team 

A powerful team can help in achieving the stable success of the ERP system as they will be responsible for help desks, testing, training, documentation, and other operational issues and details. Implementing a custom ERP software is a team project involving the software partner, executives, and representatives from the varied business departments. Make sure that roles and responsibilities are made clear within the executive body and to the employees.

4 Tips to Work from Home During Coronavirus Pandemic

The world has come to a standstill and humans are adapting to newer ways of working during this unprecedented crisis; Coronavirus Pandemic. With offices, stores, malls, and industries shut, people have moved to technological innovations to be productive and monetize their accomplishments. The IT industry has become non-functional as gatherings of masses in skyscrapers, hi-rise buildings and air-conditioned malls have been banned. As a precautionary measure, the employees are being asked to work from home to stay safe and be productive at the same time.

If you are working from home and finding it difficult to adapt to this alternative work lifestyle, here are a few tried and tested tips to make remote working a breeze. Having a positive approach to this unfamiliar work environment can make adapting to it much simpler and effective. Let’s dig into the ways to handle this extraordinary situation and stay on top of our professional life.

1. Create a Workspace

A dedicated workspace will help change your mind about the remote working environment. If you keep carrying your laptop to different corners of the house, it may reduce your concentration and interest to complete tasks on time. And never use your bed as a workspace. It’s a strict no!

Here’s how a home workspace should be,

Ventilated Rooms Work Better than Unlit Spaces: Choose an ideal workspace that is comfy and well-ventilated. Gloomy rooms can lead to tiredness, lethargy, and sleepiness because of the lesser circulation of oxygen. A window with ample sunlight can boost your mind, energy, and focus.

Use an Ergonomic Chair and Desk: Choose an ergonomic chair and desk as your home office furniture to keep your spine well-supported throughout the day. Uncomfortable furniture can cause back, shoulder, and neck pain. The right chair and desk can make all the difference when working long hours at home.

Clean Space is a Productive Space: Once you have set up a dedicated workspace at home, make sure you take care of it. Plenty of sticky notes, stationery, papers, and trash all over your desk can make you anxious, irritated, and unproductive. Clean your desk as the first thing in the morning and throw away unnecessary notes in the trash every day.

2. Stick to a Schedule

The home environment can make everybody lazy and procrastinate time. But when you must work from home, then creating a routine can help in managing time better and completing your tasks as per schedule. Make sure you create a simple schedule that fits all your daily activities and to-do-lists.

Here’s how to stick to a schedule while working from home,

Know Your Work Plan: Communicate with your team every day to know your work plan. Write your tasks along with the submission date to keep track of your schedule. Have a notebook with a pen on your desk at all times to check the completed tasks.

Work at Dedicated Hours: Having a dedicated working time will be good for your mind and body. If you want to be productive, then follow the same office hours. i.e. 9-5 or 10-7 am or pm according to your lifestyle. In this way, your body will adjust better to the new working environment and be productive. Wear nice clothes and makeup to be fresh and energetic throughout the day.

Put To-Do-Lists at Eye Level: It’s a waste of time to write notes on bits and pieces of paper and search for it the next day. Use sticky notes to create to-do-lists and put it on a visible space. Therefore, whenever you look into the notes, you will know your tasks on hand. You can even break your tasks into categories and do color-codes to save time.

3. Take Effective Breaks

Working at home can be strenuous for newbies as they need time to adjust to the unfamiliar environment and schedule. Especially, moms with kids find it difficult to concentrate on their work because of confined spaces. There’s nothing wrong with taking breaks while working from home because it can keep your mind and body at ease.

Here’s how to take effective breaks while working from home,

Use Pomodoro Timer: Pomodoro method can be a boon for people constantly looking at their laptops for hours. Taking a break after 25 mins of work can reduce stress on your eyes, brain, and body. Roll your eyes and do simple yoga every 25 mins to relax.

Walk for 20 minutes: It is important to be active even if you are just working from home. Make sure you spend at least 20 mins every day strolling in the garden, terrace or outside your house. This will loosen your muscles and improve blood circulation in your body.

Schedule Downtime: Many people forget to take breaks while sitting in front of their laptops immersed in work for hours. It is better to take a quick coffee break in the morning and evening to relax your mind. Scheduling downtime at a particular time of the day can help you work better.

4. Have a Work-Life Balance

When you are working in an office, you understand that home is where you can relax and be away from work pressure. But when your home itself becomes your office; you may find it difficult to maintain a work-life balance. The blending of work and home obligations can cause stress, anxiety, depression, and poor cognitive performance. Our body and brain must have routines of sleeping, eating, working, and relaxing to function properly.

Here’s how to have a work-life balance while working from home,

Stay Away from Distractions: Keep your work and life activities separate at all times. Do not work when you are playing with your kids or feeding them. Stay away from phones, games, radio, and television when you are working at home.

Have Dedicated Family Time: Make sure you spend quality time in the evenings or at bedtime with kids and family members. Play games, watch movies, cook, and dine together. Interact with family members and plan your day to ensure the needs of family and work are met at the same time.

Call Friends and Loved Ones to Socialize: Maintaining good socializing time during work from home can improve your energy levels. Make video calls to co-workers, friends and loved ones to distract your mind from work stress.

In these testing times, be thankful for your employment. When you are grateful for your work, you can establish coping strategies to adapt and respond to newer circumstances better. Have a great work from home experience!

5 Signs Your Business Needs a CRM

Is something bothering you about your business at the back of your mind? Even though your sales and profits are doing well, you still feel a lag in your company. It could be a lack of proper management system and engagement with your employees and potential customers.

Every business thrives on customer relationships and it becomes vital for employees to offer excellent service to keep them. Most companies face difficulties in customer retention and generation of new leads. As circumstances are transforming, it is necessary to create accurate and timely information of the customers to gain their loyalty.

How can you build trustworthy relationships with your customers and gain their satisfaction? The simple solution; Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software.

CRM is a cloud-based software that can perform an array of tasks including storing data, organizing data into a user-friendly database, generating leads, managing customer relationships and building brand awareness to potential customers. It is the perfect tool for creating stronger and everlasting relationships with both existing and target customers.

It is estimated that spending on CRM will increase by $40 billion this year. And worldwide, CRM is gaining massive recognition in various industries including the healthcare field. It comes in various shapes and sizes as it is designed and customized based on the client’s needs.

CRM can be a great add-on for your growing business but how can you know if you’re really in need of one? Check if your company is facing or going through these 6 signs listed below to make informed decisions.

1. Stuck with Google Docs and Spreadsheets

Let’s rip off the band aid first; Spreadsheet is not a database! It doesn’t matter if you always prefer having your data in spreadsheets and Google docs; the truth is they don’t act as a proper database.

As a business owner, data becomes vital for managing your workflow and tracking everything happening in your organization. Even though you think a spreadsheet can handle your small business tasks perfectly, it can become a hassle in the long run.

Databases are designed to manage large pools of data with a user-friendly interface. CRM is cloud-based software which can store your employees and customers’ data efficiently and helps you alter and manipulate data within a shorter span of time. So, if your business still depends on manual records, then you need to take a leap from spreadsheets to a database.

2. Admin Work Takes all your Time

Many entrepreneurs complain about tedious and time-consuming admin work which keeps interfering with their workflow. If you are constantly asking many people for one task and receiving “not my work” as the answer, then you must think ahead of your current system.

Having to deal with plenty of recording, editing, reassessing and redundant paperwork can suck a lot of your precious time. If five of your employees are held up with paperwork, filling forms and editing data regularly, then imagine how customers will react to your service. If you want to bring administration work under control and let your employees focus on customer service, then opting for a CRM will be the ideal choice.

3. Faulty Records and Disorganized Workflow

Do you often find mistakes and errors in your recorded documents? Have people complained about incorrect and poor management of data? Most companies have a senior executive to take care of records but often end up in digital chaos because of lack of accountability. Because of these misleading documents, the workflow gets automatically disturbed.

It is best to switch to “paperless” or sustainable record management system such as a CRM to streamline workflows and keep the information secure. If you store correct information of your existing customers, then it becomes easy to design personalized solutions and provide good service to them. And it is easy to alter, scan and get the right data from the CRM saving valuable time and storage costs.

4. You Never Know Your Employees Capabilities

Most businesses take a lot of time in analyzing and understanding the target customers but fail to know their employees, who are a vital part of the organization.

Have you wondered what does that person who sits in front of your cabin does all day? Do you ask him how his day was? What did he work on today? Is he facing any issues in the task he is handling?

By knowing your employees better, you can definitely understand who will suit best for the task at hand without wasting time in choices. You can assign tasks and make them accountable for it. By tracking your staffs everyday work, you can easily know where they work and how can you motivate them to achieve more.

CRM is the best tool to track your employee’s everyday activities, milestones reached and completed tasks. You don’t have to worry about incorrect spreadsheets when everything gets digitized in the CRM. This simple tool will help you understand and manage your staffs in a better way.

5. Fumbling Manual Forecasts

Does your every annual meeting end up with random forecasts that neither of your team understands? Manual forecasts are a risk because you never know who came up with it because it’s always a group which designs it. Too many cooks spoil the broth perfectly describes the outcome of manual forecasts.

If your business still depends on manual forecasts, then you can never imagine your brand making a statement in the market. Even you are planning to hire the best mathematician in the country and pay him an extra salary, the forecasts will always be a failure.

The best way to make your forecasts work is to get a sales forecasting CRM. It is a great tool to analyze, compare and predict future economic trends and fine tune your business accordingly. From allocating resources to generating strategies, CRM can add finesse to marketing and customer service. By knowing your projections weekly, monthly and yearly, it is easy to make informed decisions for the future.

If you are business is facing any of these glaring signs, approach us to customize a customer relationship management (CRM) software for your company.

6 Reasons Ecommerce Mobile Apps Will Revolutionize Your Business

“There’s an app for that”, a trademark phrase of the technology giant Apple emphasizes the growth of ecommerce industry through mobile apps.

With smartphones ruling the 21st century, mobile apps seem to have become an integral part of everybody’s life. From booking tickets to grocery shopping, there’s a mobile app for each and everything. Apps have made life easier and comfortable by making our presence confined to the cozy abodes.

There was a time when shop owners and businessmen used to open their premises early and close late in the night expecting humongous customer traffic. But, nowadays, they don’t even need to look for a physical store because a simple app can not only bring in sales and profits but also promote the brand and attract repeated customers.

Mobiles apps can boost ecommerce business by,

• Promoting a brand
• Building great customer rapport
• Sending personal greetings and messages
• Helping customers to search for products
• Reminding sales, discount deals and cashback offers

Mobile apps are reshaping the ecommerce industry by establishing reliable customer relationships and improving profit margins. Ecommerce apps can be built in both Android and iOS platforms for serving customers and gaining newer ones.

If you are looking for reasons to create a custom mobile app for your ecommerce store, then here are a few to help you out.

#1 Ecommerce Mobile Apps are a Great Shopping Alternative

People are migrating from websites to mobile apps because of its ease of use. These apps contain all the information required to complete a certain task. Nowadays, people prefer shopping from home than dressing up and driving on the crowded streets. A simple click on the shopping app or the brand app is enough to purchase a product. It saves time and energy while browsing on the website makes it strenuous.

#2 Start-Ups Love Launching their Store on an App

Many start-ups, entrants and enterprises choose a mobile app for launching their business and attracting customers than opening a store in a popular location. With real estate rates skyrocketing, mobile apps and online delivery is bringing much more profit than a local store. Both emerging and popular brands can make use of it.

#3 Mobile Apps Help Recognize a Brand Easily

One in ten find it difficult to remember a store name they have recently shopped from because they don’t notice it, unless required. This makes it tough for brands to increase the influx of customers to their store. However, a mobile app with your brand name can be found in the app store and once downloaded it stays on the screen.

Developing a mobile app for your business is less complex and expensive because there are plenty of companies willing to create a unique one for your brand. An ecommerce app helps people recognize your brand and suggest it to their friends and family.

#4 Ecommerce Apps Attract Customer Attention

Statistics show that people spend 90% of their screen time on mobile apps. About half of the time is spent on ecommerce apps. People are browsing for clothes, gadgets, decor, kitchen accessories and gifts for occasions through ecommerce mobile apps. So, naturally, having an app for your store will bring in more customers.

#5 Apps are Effective Communication Tools

Mobile apps are a great channel to send notifications, greeting messages, offers, coupons and discount deals to your customers instantly. Data shows that app coupons and cashback offer make customers stay intrigued for brand updates and also boost recurrent customer visits to the app.

#6 Ecommerce Mobile App Customers Are the Future

The future of mobile app business is what the world is entering! Apps are a perfect marketing and brand building strategy for all industries. We can use it as a channel for boosting sales, profits and reputation and success of your brand. Without a doubt, we can conclude that ecommerce and mobile app is definitely a match made on the internet!

Top 5 Advantages of Automating Your Business

One of the richest men in the world and a business tycoon, Bill Gates, once quoted that, “Automation applied to an efficient operation will magnify the efficiency while automation applied to an inefficient operation will magnify the inefficiency.”

With technological innovations flourishing every day, it becomes vital for businesses to automate certain monotonous and repetitive tasks to keep their productivity and profits in check. Automation is among the most popular technologies used by big and small businesses to be competitive in the market. This can be a wonderful tool, if used in the right way, to improve businesses without spending a large sum of money.

What is Automation?

Automation is a simple process of developing software tools to perform repetitive tasks automatically with no real-time human intervention. This is an ideal tool for both established and developing businesses to improve their performance every day.

Why Automation is a Strategic Business Tool for Success?

Many successful businesses have automated many of their crucial tasks to ensure that the work process flows organically and the tasks gets completed on time with no interruption. Over 80% of top companies have used automation as a key to their success.

Automation depends on the business you operate which makes it important to find the exact processes that needs to be automated to improve the overall productivity and efficiency of your company.

If you are finding it difficult to identify the key areas where you need to automate your businesses, then we list a few important benefits of automation that can help you make informed decisions.

Here are the five advantages of automating your business,

1. Saves You Time

Time is the most valuable tool for operating a big business successfully. Most businesses struggle because of lack of time to complete crucial tasks which harm their productivity and workflow. By automating your routine tasks, you can not only save time but also find time to create strategies for expanding your business.

Most companies follow a certain workflow that includes a set of mundane tasks that must be done every day before proceeding to the crucial part of the project. Automation of mundane tasks with the use of software can complete the work on time and save time to concentrate on other projects.

Automating one or more work processes with the help of technology will reduce the repetition time while generating free time for working on other tasks. Many repetitive tasks include emails, reminders and messages that must be sent every day across to the internal team. These can be automated using an online system that will help take care of the reminders, emails and spend less time on scheduling meetings and reminders to the particular individual.

Automation is an excellent way to improve the efficiency of your workflow and reduce unnecessary wastage of time in doing manual tasks repeatedly.

2. Cuts Down on Human Error

As the famous saying goes ‘To Err is Human’; the same luxury can become costly when errors happen at crucial stages of a business. All businesses involve a lot of human interventions and plans which can sometime end up on the wrong side, leading to a massive loss in profits.

Most tasks may not require smart individuals to carry out the process and even a layman can understand the process and do it efficiently. Those tasks can be automated using online software to cut down on human errors which may become costly, if ignored.

Automated systems are flexible which helps us to change the task and create it according to our needs to improve the workflow process and reduce errors from time to time.

Many employees may get bored or frustrated when they have to do a certain task repeatedly every day making them lose focus on the work at hand. This can lead to errors in the entire process affecting other individuals too. Therefore, it is important to set up an automated system which will never get bored with the same task and help complete the task on time at greater speeds without making errors.

3. Improves Customer Relationships

Customers are the backbone of a business. When your customers are happy and fulfilled, they stay loyal to your brand for a longer time. Many customers expect a prompt response from the company to their queries and delay in responses can frustrate them.

The most important factor that determines the success of a business is customer relationship management. Employees must be available through chat, emails and phone calls regularly. Sometimes, they may have to attend to the same issue again and again repeatedly to help the customer. However, the employee may not attend to all the queries from customers at all times as it can add a lot of pressure and stress.

Customer Relationship Management System is an automated software that can help in handling the customer relationships effectively causing no problems to the customer. The customer details can be recorded and whenever there is an issue the system can send a prompt reply to the customer with no human intervention.

Most companies send regular anniversaries, birthdays, celebrations, festivals and other wishes to the customers which can also be automated to save time. The customer will receive automated messages on time and feel happy by the attention given by your brand. These little nuances will impress the customers to stick to your brand and even refer to their friends and family.

Another advantage is that you can gain insights about customer behaviors to develop strategies for improving your brand. Every customer behaves differently and has varied tastes in a brand and it takes a lot of analysis and continuous monitoring of customer relationships to understand how to serve customers in a better way.

Gaining insights into customer behavior will help expand your business to reach audiences across different global platforms. The analytics will send weekly and monthly reports to understand how customers interacted with your business regularly and help better your customer services.

4. Reduces Productivity Killers

Every business hire workforce to improve the productivity and profits of the company. But employees may not be productive because of missing of steps and overturn of events. If you are planning to grow your business globally, then it is vital to reduce productivity killers in your company.

Every day there can be certain unexpected delays and events that may lead to a change of schedules and detours. Meetings may get cancelled or rescheduled which might lead to disturbances in the already planned events. Such impromptu schedules and meetings can disturb the harmonious workflow in the organisation leading to confusion among the employees.

Productivity killers can be avoided by automating scheduling of meetings, events and other corporate routines with the help of a dedicated system that can be operated both by the employees and the management. This will schedule meetings automatically and intimidate to the concerned individuals by sending direct reminders. The system can also inform about cancelling of client meetings in advance to reschedule your plans to save time.

An online calendar can help automate the meetings and schedules with prompt reminders which can save your productivity time and prevent bigger damage.

5. Boosts Employee Efficiency

Most employees feel happy and productive when they are happy, stress free and able to understand the workflow of the company. When employees are forced to adjust to an uncertain schedule and perform different tasks at different times, they may find it difficult to cope with the workflow and produce tremendous results.
Success of a business will depend on the customers, but the sales force and marketing strategies will speak volumes when the employees work together as a team.

When employees are supported by an automated system to help them do their tasks perfectly, they will be happy to work for the company as most of the mundane tasks are already taken care by the automated system. This will help them get a lot of free time to focus more on the important tasks in expanding the business. Automating systems will help boost employee job efficiency as they can have more time to brainstorm, generate ideas and experiment more to enrich the brand.

It is best to start small with automation and gradually create many automatic technologies for building your business effectively. Automation can not only help overcome repetitive tasks but may also generate repeat business for the future.

Top 5 Reasons Your Business Can Benefit from Custom Mobile Apps

With increasing usage of mobile apps, businesses are looking to develop their own customized mobile apps. Many companies are willing to shift towards mobile app development because of the current emerging trends in increasing profits and visibility through mobile apps.

Mobile app statistics show that mobile point-of-sale revenues are expected to rise from $6.6 billion to $50 billion by 2021.

And it is estimated that an average human uses mobile apps for about 4 hours per day which rises the importance of developing customized mobile apps for your businesses to sell products and build loyal customers.

 If you are still questioning whether developing a mobile app will provide any massive benefits for your company, then let me suggest you the best 5 benefits your business will reap by creating a customized mobile app for your customers.

  • Build a Stronger Brand Recognition

Creating a custom mobile app for your business can improve your brand and recognition by greatly contributing to its awareness. A mobile app is like a blank canvas which can be modified according to your business needs and preferences by making it informative or technologically sound.

Customers will love a brand which creates an app with user-friendly interface, plenty of features and beautiful designs. They will immediately recommend this app to their friends, family and colleagues which can in turn, boost your company’s recognition.

The more often you get your customers to use your app, the more recognition and awareness you can get for your business. We cannot rule out the “word-of-mouth” popularity that brands gain by simply letting their customers speak volumes about their customized mobile apps and the features it provides.

When you let people to see and use your brand name frequently, it will definitely build your brand and recognition effectively. This can be achieved by developing a customized mobile app for your business and getting it noticed among your peers.

  • Better Connectivity with Customers

Customers are the backbone for the success and sustainability of a business. It doesn’t matter if you are selling flowers or technological products, you should create a way for customers to reach you. And custom mobile apps can be the best way to improve relationships with them by engaging in a more personalized way.

 Just think how many customers will be willing to pick up the phone and call you every time they have a question about your product or send a text asking the query and waiting for your reply for hours? Many don’t have the time or the patience to call customer care and talk about their issues. A simple app does the work thousand times better than a phone call or text message.

 If you are creating a customized mobile app with a messaging feature or help desk, you can definitely improve your customer service by automating the process of communication. A recent study in 2018 showed that 85% of customer interactions will be handled without humans. This clearly shows that mobile apps will be taking over the world of businesses and customer interaction by 2020.

  • Boost Profits and Market Value

Recent survey stated that India has become the fastest-growing market for apps in the world. The revenue generated through mobile apps is estimated to be $47 million in India and $3.2 billion in the United States. Other countries are also facing a sharp hike in their revenue across both platforms of Android and iOS apps.

This increases the importance of creating a customized mobile app to improve profits and the market value of your company in the internet business. As more than 300 million people using internet every day, the number of profits businesses will generate is inexplicable. Mobile app is the best way to improve the wallet-engagement from your customers. You can promote sales and provide a level of value to your customers which they cannot get anywhere else.

Many companies use mobile apps to their advantage by speeding up the whole purchasing process. Digitizing the entire process of selling products through a mobile app will help boost sales instantly and motivate customers to make repeated purchases.

  • Become Popular by Providing In-app Information and Offers

One of the biggest benefits of a customized mobile app is that you can provide all the information about your products and promote special sales and offers directly to your customers. You can push notifications, send instant messages and reminders about deals and much in-demand products to your customers within a jiffy.

 On-hand information will help them gain rewards and also collect loyalty points directly via your mobile app if you are creating a dedicated loyalty program for your customers. Many services create smartphone-based loyalty programs to enable customers to use them wherever they feel like and stick to the brand for future benefits. This is one of the best ways to create loyal customers for your brand and also retain them in the longer haul.

  • Be the First Among Your Competitors

 Running a successful business demands you to be always on the top and stand out from the competition to greatly improve your business. Creating a customized mobile app will help you take a big leap ahead of your competitors by becoming popular among your customers.

Nowadays, people prefer brands that enable them to buy products through apps instead of websites or making in-person purchases. If you are choosing a forward-thinking approach to make your business stand out via a mobile app for your company, you will be astonished to see customers regularly visiting your app.

Bottom Line

About 90% of companies have invested in mobile apps because of customers and profits they gain through this incredible technology. If you are planning to create a customized mobile app, then contact us for getting the best knowledge about the processes involved in developing a tailor-made app for your business!