Untitled @ishubhamsharma - Tumblr Blog

Five Things to Check before Opting for a Chatbot Solution

If there’s something everyone is raving about today, it is Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML). Businesses and companies across all parallels of the industry are increasingly relying on the power of these two pioneering technologies and rightly so. Powered by AI and ML, enterprises are able to achieve such things today that were earlier considered to be the food for imagination!

One such incredible tool is a Chatbot.

Powered by AI, a Chatbot is a software/program that is specifically designed to communicate and interact with humans in their natural language. They can engage with humans quite naturally and respond to them using mediums such as SMS, messaging services, and chat windows across websites and a host of social networking platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and much more.

So, how can Chatbot create and add value to your business?

Thanks to mobile application development,The answer is simple – by increasing the customer/client interaction quotient with your brand/organization.

When you start using Chatbots, you’re opening the window for customer interaction, thereby allowing you to understand the pain points of your existing customers as well as a potential target audiences.

Chatbots – How they came into being and their evolution

Although Chatbots are the hot topic of discussion at present, their existence goes long back.

It was way back in 1966 that Joseph Weizenbaum developed what came to be known as the first chatbot – ELIZA. This chatbot was unique in the sense that it could imitate the language and behavior of a psychotherapist and interact with humans just as a psychotherapist would. After ELIZA, came PARRY in 1972. Both ELIZA and PARRY could only interact and respond to human queries or statements through textual commands and scripted responses.

Years later, Rollo Carpenter developed the first voice-operated chatbot in 1988 – came to the scene in 1988 – Jabberwacky project.

With the passage of time, Chatbots continued to get smarter and more intelligent (for instance, A.L.I.C.E and SmarterChild).

Cut to this day, we have access to some of the most intelligent Chatbots you can think of! Siri, Alexa, Watson, Cortana, Google Now – these Chatbots are used by individuals and businesses all over the world.

How can Chatbots help add value to your business?

The biggest advantage of Chatbots, as we mentioned before, is that it boosts customer interaction with your brand. By deploying chatbots in your company website would allow customers to make and maintain a meaningful conversation with you 24×7.

Your customers will know that they can have any and every information about your brand whenever they want it. Another catch for your business – you will not have to splurge a ton of money in maintaining an army of professionals to man the customer support system. All in all, it makes customer support and service smooth and seamless.

And the craze of Chatbots is catching on pretty fast.

According to Gartner, by 2020, nearly 25% of customer service and support operations will incorporate chatbot technology across various engagement channels (this number stood at just 2% in 2017).

Then again, Orbis Research predicts that the global chatbot market is projected to grow at a CAGR of 37.11% between 2017-20. And speaking of trimming down business costs, Juniper Research predicts that by 2022, Chatbots will reduce business costs by nearly US$ 8 billion!

Now comes the question of the hour – What to look for in a Chatbot?

While there is a wide range of advanced Chatbots out there, it is essential to find the perfect match for your business. This is where the features of Chatbots come to play. Here are five features that you must look for when choosing a Chatbot:

1. Built-in NLP (Natural Language Processing) support

The first thing to keep in mind is that whether or not a Chatbot harbors the basic support system for natural language processing. You must check for things like how many languages can the bot support, whether or not it can engage inappropriate conversations and maintain the same through text or speech, and so on. When a Chatbot features built-in NLP support, it can understand and interpret user queries/statements and the intent behind them, and reply accordingly.

2. Dialog flow design

A good Chatbot is one that allows you to customize and design the dialog flow, that is, maintaining a conversational framework. It should be such that it allows you to define and delineate distinct conversation paths. Also, the bot should feature exception handling capability.

3. Channel/medium agnostic

A Chatbot should be able to function seamlessly in multiple platforms, be it mobile apps, or websites, or social media platforms like Facebook. Furthermore, it should be able to interact with tools like Skype, Slack, etc. As such, you could deploy a single bot on multiple platforms and harness its full potential.

4. API driven

An efficient Chatbot would allow you to perform backend integration tasks with ease. It should either let you invoke APIs or it should offer an easy integration method combined with both SDK and platform configuration. So, make sure you check whether or not the bot allows you to invoke APIs easily and connect to various backends from the dialog flow and also the platform test support.

5. Easy to update and faster in production

The next thing to look out for in a Chatbot is whether or not it is easy to update. That is, if it allows you to smoothly introduce new dialog flows within your conversation model, or if it allows you to update and incorporate new utterances to existing intents, among other things. Another thing to keep in mind is that a Chatbot should run faster in production (for that is the whole point of leveraging AI).

Conclusion

With technology advancing to new arenas as we speak, there’s definitely more to expect from enterprise ai Chatbots in the years to come. Ever since their birth, Chatbots have come a long way and have today, become somewhat an indispensable part of our daily life. It may not be long before we get to see much more exceptional and advanced bots than Alexa, Siri, or Cortana. To conclude, the future looks promising and optimistic for Chatbots.

What do you think?

We at Affle Enterprise have developed chatbots for a number of business sectors, each built for a custom use case. Monitoring and witnessing the impact of their integration in real-time.

For chatbot & Mobile app development services drop us a line @ [email protected].

#mobile application services #Mobile App Development Agency #mobile app development

Chatbot for Hotels: Is it worth to Invest in AI?

Leaders and service providers from the modern hospitality industry across the world are competing with each other to exceed customer experience and provide their guests with a personalized and memorable stay.

A compelling technology that has enabled the realization of this goal is artificial intelligence. The application of AI, in the form of chatbot solutions, has gained much popularity in hospitality enterprises. If you are looking for a technological revolution for driving your hospitality enterprise to the pinnacle of success, here is how AI-powered custom chatbots can be leveraged:

Why Chatbot is a Good Option for the Hospitality Enterprises?

Conversational UX or chatbots have become an efficient tool and means for the hospitality business to stay connected to their customers. Each chatbot can be customized according to customer needs to understand and fulfill the customer intent. Although there are SAAS based chatbots which can be utilized however custom chatbots are the perfect fit for a hospitality enterprise considering the following benefits:

AI Capabilities

A custom chatbot can enhance customer experience using AI. It can provide personalization to the customer based on context and intent. They can be combined with LUIS API & Google Dialogue Flow that develops a conversational intelligence with the customers and is able to evolve from each conversation.

Data Security

Since the custom chatbots are not hosted on a solution provider’s server, the generated customer data including name, profile picture, email ID and contact number of the guests remain secured with hosting providers e.g. AWS, GCP & Microsoft Azure. Also, the functioning of the custom chatbot is independent and does not get affected by outside server platforms.

Scalability

A custom chatbot allows enterprises to upgrade the existing features or add more features such as intent, dialogue or entities depending upon the business requirement. For example, you can feed your chatbot with thousands of conversational logs as per your need, that will be used by the bots to respond to each query in a personalized manner. This can be achieved with the help of machine learning and help to save cost in the longer run.

Seamless Customer Experience

Chatbots help the customers to organize their haphazard tasks into a seamless experience, eliminating all the glitches by providing round-the-clock customer support. A well-executed custom chatbot makes the customers’ interaction organic and intelligent as if they are being tackled by a human.

How AI-powered Chatbots are Transforming the Hotel Industry

AI-powered chatbots integrated with your hotel business ecosystem can bring tremendous growth and revenue. Here are some ways they are changing the traditional scenario of the hospitality market:

Handling Customer Inquiry

The chatbots can take care of all the customer related inquiries between pre-arrival to arrival. They can answer the customer queries 24×7 and can also become a reservation channel, facilitating direct booking for the guests. From the hotel’s website to social media channels such as Facebook, chatbots can be integrated anywhere, walking the visitors through the process of hotel bookings.

Enhanced Room Service

The AI-based chatbots can eliminate the need for hotel guests to interact with hotel staff, instead, establishing a virtual interaction through devices like mobiles. AI-driven bots will make it easy for the guests to perform tasks like ordering meals, getting suggestions for special dishes available in the hotel’s kitchen, regulating room temperature and lighting, receiving recommendations on sightseeing and visits etc. This way hotels can cut down on time, capital and human labor considerably.

Upselling Opportunities

A custom chatbot can easily cross-sell and upsell hotel services like spa, cafe or a bar. The chatbots can send hyper-personalized messages through push notifications or SMS, drawing insights on customer journey using their machine learning algorithms. They can use these insights to offer additional services to the guests depending upon their requirements.

Keeping in Touch Even after Check out

The custom chatbots can also engage with the guests even after they have checked out. Conducting personalized surveys to rate the customer’s hotel experience and sending them tailored discounts and offers via email marketing can essentially build customer loyalty and brand recall for the hotels.

Some of the popular chains of hotels that are using AI technologies include:

Wynn Las Vegas integrating Amazon Echo to all their hotel rooms to allow the guests to access various hotel room features using voice command.

Edwardian Hotels offering virtual hosts for enabling the guests to interact with the AI chatbot digitally and allowing self-service.

Accor Hotels with their digital concierge named Mercure Bot that converses with the guests and helps them to know the local destinations better

AI-driven chatbot for hotels can essentially perform iterative tasks without roping in the hotel staff. While chatbots take care of the monotonous requests, the hotel staff can engage in more productive tasks. Providing efficient guest communication and exceptional customer service, utilizing less time, capital, and human resources have made custom chatbots the smartest revenue-generating technology for the hospitality industry.

For hotel enterprises that are serious about skyrocketing their sales, developing a custom chatbot can be a bit of a challenge. However, with customized chatbot solution, you can move one step closer to realizing the perfect hotel experience for your customers.

If you are looking for mobile app development company, Drop us a line at [email protected]

#chatbot solutions #mobile app development

Mobile Application Development to Automate & Optimize the Workforce

In a world that has now become increasingly mobilized, large and small-scale enterprises alike have started embracing internal applications for workforce automation to improve productivity. Mobile applications can provide organizations with a number of options to optimize their businesses processes, thus improving their overall workflow:

Automation and Management of Processes

The automation provided by internal apps not only streamlines processes, but it drastically reduces the time employees have to spend in training to understand a particular operational framework.

According to a survey, approximately 98% of the organizations based in the U.S. are now formulating their automation strategies.

Automation also allows for better employment for a company’s human resources. Enterprises enjoy significant cost savings by transforming manual & mundane tasks into automated processes.

Collaboration Across Different Teams

Mobile application development provides enterprises with an internal platform that they can use for communication or for even to train workforces for better outputs.

When adapted on mobile, this collaboration can allow teams situated at remote places to combine their expertise to solve problems in structured and innovative ways.

These applications allow more tasks to be done when teams are working from offshore locations.

Dashboards for Greater Visibility

Internal mobile applications can be clubbed with a web interface to provide employees with intuitive and easy-to-navigate dashboards that enable greater visibility, thus resulting in getting more work done.

The improved user experience provided by these dashboards streamlines processes, thus enabling teams to create a workflow that is more in line with the organization’s goals.

These applications can also be integrated with the legacy ERP platforms like SAP, Oracle, etc. for integrated data collection and visibility.

Geo-Location Tracking

Workforce automation apps also provide enterprises with the opportunity to be geographically flexible, a feature that has the potential to promote greater cooperation. Line Managers can make use of geo-location services to track the resources across teams in real-time.

Data Security

Data security is a common concern while digitization of the processes.

According to a study, breaches in a company’s data can cost as much as 4% of its global returns.

Features like two-factor authentication help protect company data by authenticating employee information once through the workforce apps, and then through the authentication in the virtual system. Mobile applications help companies to manage their data repositories better to ensure complete usability with protection.

How Workforce Automation Apps can Benefit Businesses

By incorporating mobile applications into their operational models, businesses can benefit not just in term of security and collaboration, but also through productivity and improved transparency:

Increased Employee Productivity

Internal applications not only automate repetitive tasks, but they also cut down the number of time employees spend on a certain process.

According to a report by Digital Strategy Consulting, “companies that use mobile technologies in their internal processes experience a 34% increase in their overall productivity. “

Mobile applications give teams a greater level of flexibility, which can make them optimize their work during peak time, thus improving overall performance.

Simplified Processes

Workforce automation apps simplify complicated business processes into a few taps and swipes while enabling easier information sharing among employees.

The simplification of processes enables employees to better manage their workflows while improving operational efficiency & effectiveness.

Improved Transparency

Mobile applications help enterprises to achieve more transparency across their processes. They provide teams with a single platform on which they can collaborate, and track progress through features like tasks and checklists.

Managers can use internal applications to track employee performance, results, and geolocation, among other operations. This provides them with increased transparency over the tasks that are lined up in the workflow.

Data Collection & Hierarchy Management

Enterprise Mobile app development allows businesses to securely store, retrieve, and manage critical company data, and also allows them to track data across different workflows.

Businesses can utilize mobile apps for coordinating and collecting data through platforms such as Salesforce and AWS, through integration into their overall app design.

Internal mobile applications not only promise efficient collaboration and optimization, but it also provides enterprises with greater flexibility in their operational models.

While collecting the data and provide feature access the application takes care of the team hierarchy & reporting structures.

A survey conducted by Vodafone concluded that 83% of enterprises record improvements in productivity due to flexible operational models. The streamlining of processes achieved by internal mobile apps not only promises flexibility but also ensures improvement in productivity.

If you are looking for enterprise ai chatbot, Drop us a line at [email protected]

#chatbot solutions #ai chatbot #mobile app development services

How Artificial Intelligence will Rewrite Mobile App Development?

As we are well aware a popular trend for current businesses and leading technology companies is the use of AI (Artificial Intelligence), and it’s not too different for the Mobile App Development services business. Over the past few years, the growth of affordable mobile internet services has seen a vast increase in usage of mobile, so much so that we are now truly in a mobile-first world.

Be it social media usage or e-commerce transactions, mobile is the leading channel where these actions are taken, hence making the use of AI in Mobile devices and applications imperative.

Quick FAQ

What Is Artificial Intelligence?

AI or call it Machine Intelligence (MI), is intelligence demonstrated by machines with a likeness to that of human intelligence. AI is likely to become an integral part of technology processes and has significant impacts on how automation, learning, and inferences will improve the performance of technological systems, including that of Mobile Applications.

Role of Artificial Intelligence In Mobile Application Development

1. Smarter Analytics 2. Context-Aware AI 3. The ‘no-touch’ app – Voice AI

1. Smarter Analytics

Use of AI in in-app mobile data analytics solutions can have far-reaching improvements to help automate and optimize in-app or on-site user experiences.

AI could help build, in real-time, custom experiences by shifting the placement of banners, key sections or even buttons basis user behaviors and on-screen device click data. When applied to conversion flows such analysis could enhance Revenues too.

Such advancements will not only be advantageous for businesses in getting higher usage engagement but drastically change the user experience.

With the constant change in mobile app technologies, there is a growing need to reach a new level of sophistication.

2. Context-Aware AI

When thinking of re-engaging Mobile App users, many times the re-targeting system does not assess the context of where and how we show the ads to users.

While your Mobile App’s ads might be showing the last product browsed or items added to cart, and are hence personalized and targeted, they are not necessarily factoring in ‘context’.

The context of what they are browsing or when they are browsing, or even where from. AI systems can be useful in understanding, interpreting and setting a context for re-targeting systems hopefully impacting conversions from such ads to improve your mobile app’s advertising spends.

3. The ‘no-touch’ app – Voice AI

Even within AI one interface has broken and perhaps will continue to break, many barriers – Voice. Be the Amazon’s Alexa powered Echo devices, or Google Home products or even AI systems such as Microsoft’s LUIS, Voice interpretation is becoming key to AI systems.

These voice interfaces are enabling users to associate with apps seamlessly and intuitively with familiar everyday language.

But the interesting question is how can such Voice-enabled systems impact Mobile Applications? There are use cases coming up for Voice controls within apps where action can be initiated without having to touch the screen at all.

In Summary

Artificial Intelligence is going to help users and developers be it with the power of understanding context or with voice-enabled innovations while using mobile applications for multiple tasks.

With mobile phones, this power of AI will likely get compounded as a Smartphone’s ability to provide multiple user attributes be they location related or device sensor-based – mobile devices will be able to ‘feed’ such relevant, anonymized, datasets for smarter outputs based on AI. or AI seems to have geared up for the momentum notably in 2018 with business sectors like healthcare, education, finance all ready to invest in AI. Dedicated mobile app developers have an important role in guiding this adoption across such sectors.

If you are looking for ios outsourcing or mobile application development agency, Drop us a line at [email protected]

#ios app development #mobile app development #chatbot solutions #ios outsourcing

How Digital Transformation is Reshaping Healthcare Industry?

In the modern world, Healthcare industry attained a great integration with the wide socio-economic landscape. Healthcare sectors are mainly divided into various aspects that include goods and service to treat the patients with the preventive, curative, palliative and rehabilitative care. Healthcare system became the fastest and largest growing industry that broadly classified with sub-segments that includes

Healthcare and facilities – Doctors, nurses and hospitals services

Medical equipment, devices, and hospital supplies

Medical insurance managed care and medical services

Pharmaceuticals and Related Segments

Every sector is much interlinked to provide the complete medical facility that includes the lab tests, rehabilitation, therapies, and treatment. Healthcare industry mainly requires extensive function precisely and executing the high-quality services in the much more efficient way.

Healthcare is of utmost importance mainly used for all the sectors and arena that efficiently builds the partnership for developing a patient-centric system.

Thanks to mobile application development, The main objective of the healthcare industry is to easily deliver high quality of care with greatest customer satisfaction. With the advancement in technology, Digital health becomes highly improved with enabling the complete customer experience.

With superior and massive retail approach, many consumers also tend to switch towards the healthcare industry. Smart communication devices have been widely used to help the healthcare providers as well as patients to easily monitor then manage the treatment, recovery, and illness.

Healthcare App Development: What’s the future?

Digitization is the extensive way to look forward and much easier to see more changes in all the facets of the organization. In fact, Digitization also plays the important role in the whole leadership, strategies, management, delivery, solution, quality, sales and marketing, and alliances.

Digital transformation in healthcare mainly focuses on current services as well as verticals; it would be easier to strengthen more options with advance digital space to the maximum. With the use of advanced technology and devices, it is quite easier to offer the innovations in solutions with the customer-centric organization.

Cloud Computing in healthcare

Telemedicine in healthcare

Artificial Intelligence in the healthcare sector

Wearables in healthcare

Robots in healthcare

Fast information handling

Automated responses

EDI Modernisation

Point-of-Sale Technology

Pharmacy Solutions

Claims Management

Clinical Trial Solutions

Knowledge Management

Data Warehouse

Cloud access technology has abundantly increased the accessibility of doctors and patients alike. Patients could easily access the test result with convenient reach. According to a recent research, more than 60% of interactions with healthcare experts as well as facilities take place with mobile devices. Nowadays, many doctors are using the Medical app to easily gain access to the drug info to enable instant help.

Evolving with the Operational Process

The modern healthcare industry is continuously evolving as it faces more challenges in the sector of modern day. With the rise in the technology, the healthcare industry has been reshaped with more features.

Using the Data Management system, it is much easier to get 24/7 access to medical records as well as test results. Technology also enabled the strong presence in the healthcare industry with technology and applications that meet specific needs.

We at Affle Enterprise have developed numerous apps for the healthcare industry, each built for a custom use case. Monitoring and witnessing the impact of their integration in real time.

For any queries regarding healthcare mobile app development, drop us a line at [email protected].

#healthcare apps #healthcare mobile app development #mobile app development company

Smart TV Apps: Boosting Customer Engagement for Telecommunication Industry

TV. There is practically nothing that we do today for which there isn’t an app to make it simpler for us, whether it be reading, watching videos, or listening to music. With the advent of the Smart TV, the world of apps stood revolutionized: no longer were they limited to the small screens of our phones or the relatively larger screens of our tablets – with an introduction to smart TV apps they became available to be used on much bigger screens.

The Smart TV gave the old idiot box a new life: it could be connected to the Internet, and with it, the world of an online video opened up. This allowed people to have greater flexibility in terms of what they viewed.

With Chromecast, viewers could stream video content seamlessly on an HDTV, while Apple TV and Amazon Fire TV could make a standard TV provide a tremendous 4K experience!

With Android TV (or its alternative, Tizen OS for TV) the range of apps is now so vast. One can browse various weather apps, have a virtual dashboard and watch live sports!

Moreover, one can also play games on a TV without any console required – and not just basic games like Tetris or Ping-pong, but extremely resource-intensive modern games like Asphalt 8 and Dead Trigger 2.

Who would’ve thought that the Television, once thought to be one of the most passive modes of consumption, could become such as an active source of engagement? Who would’ve thought that the viewer of a TV would eventually become its doer?

Thanks to mobile app development solutions, Smart TV apps are today boosting customer engagement on a whole different level than was previously imagined.

Whether it be an individual binge-watching Netflix late at night or a family getting together to play a game in the evening or watching the news coverage at any time of the day – the experience of TV viewing has shifted drastically.

Smart TV apps – How telecommunication industry is using this to grow?

The popularity of TV apps has skyrocketed over the last decade or so, and an increasing number of customers are taking the leap and buying a Smart TV.

As the business environment steadily becomes more and more competitive, businesses are realizing the value of smart TV apps and how they can facilitate a different customer experience.

Here are some ways through which this happens:

Creating Brand Presence

Smart TV apps are constantly leveraging their ability to create a brand presence in the minds of the customers.

Through this, they can not only provide an exceptional presence on a different platform altogether, but they can work specifically to create an experience suited to this new platform.

This enables a whole different array of possibilities in terms of engagement, and can even influence a customer’s buying process. Just think of the ubiquitous nature of Netflix now, and how popular it is as an app!

More Personalised Location-based Content

Location-based advertising is shaping up to be a sure-shot way of increasing customer engagement.

The ads which users see on their TV are not ads which were designed with a broad demographic in mind; more often than not, these ads are specifically designed for the person who is viewing the particular TV!

For an example, Discounts based on the location is an effective way of marketing effectively using location-data.

Putting Analytics to Use

Based on how users interact with an app on their Smart TV, a lot of data is produced. And this data can be valuable for analytics, which can provide valuable insight into how to understand a customer better.

This data can become the basis for strategic decision-making for the maker of a particular Smart TV app.

While this application of data can specifically address retail apps, it also goes a long way in creating personalized customer engagement for other kinds of apps.

One example of this is Shazam, an app which could create customized ads based on the data it had collected of various users’ musical preferences.

Linking with Social Media

The omnipresence of social networks lets marketers share their content across a variety of different platforms so that they reach as many people as is possible.

Smart TV Apps can facilitate this desire to reach out to people by letting people share their experiences.

Not only does this increase the popularity of a particular app by keeping it in social media circulation, but it also provides multiplier effects by getting more downloads and, in turn, more online shares.

This improves users’ retention rates and also enhances user experience as well. That’s a whole host of benefits from one simple fact!

So we can appreciate the massive effect that Smart TV apps are having in the telecommunication industry! Not only are they boosting customer engagement, but they are also creating different modes of relating to a piece of electronic equipment in its more contemporary form.

At a certain level, these apps are changing the playing field entirely by giving unprecedented competition to satellite TV providers, who must now work outside their framework to beat this scourge of the internet.

On another level, it has completely changed the way we imagine broadcasting media to begin with – no longer do have to wait for weather updates on the radio, or wait for our favorite music video to play on a channel on the TV.

It’s all there for us now, almost literally at the tip of our fingers.

The only thing that remains to be seen is how long it’ll take for the Smart TV app development revolution to completely take over all of the broadcast media – both as we know and do not know it!

We at Affle Enterprise have developed applications for enterprises, each built for a custom use case. Monitoring and witnessing the impact of their integration in real time.

For any queries regarding enterprise mobile app development, drop us a line at [email protected].

#mobile application services #mobile application development #mobile appl

Android App Development Agency/Company- Questions to Ask before Hiring One

If you are looking to hire an android app development agency/company for your app idea, don’t make it a hasty step!

With over 8 million apps currently to be found on the Google Play store, you would want your app to stand out in the crowd.

Given this ever-increasing demand for mobile apps, it is even more important to create an app that not only meets the needs of users but one that ensures those needs are met with an experience that enables stickiness and adoption of service.

While you are in conversation with a prospective android app development agency/company, ask them these simple (yet Important) questions:

Questions that you must ask yourself:

Have you done a user dipstick?

The most important question when making an app is – does anyone even need it? As an entrepreneur looking to create an app around a concept can be blinding. While you wholeheartedly believe in your concept, you must validate if others value it just the same.

Casual research amongst friends can do the trick, but you must try and cover as many people to validate your concept. You must also research if apps like the ones you want to create already exist – reading and researching online is an easy way of doing this.

If you are an Enterprise, a user dipstick may not be enough, and you must back your app outreach strategy with deep market research that can often lead to invaluable data about competitors and precise figures about what worked and didn’t work for them and hence looks into what may work for your app. Without deep market research, you may miss out on such important signals.

Are you providing something different?

Mobile apps are at par with any other commodity – one can lose interest in them just as quickly as they gain it. For this reason, constant innovation needs to be the order of the day.

Simply a rehashing of what has already worked well not be tenable in the longer run. So, ask yourself – is this unique? Is this being a Zero to One concept?

Questions to ask from an Android app development company:

How heavy will the app be?

Depending on the markets in which you are launching your app you must factor, and be aware of, the size of your app. Say your focus is to launch in emerging markets and these typically have devices with lower me memory and storage caps of 8GB.

When this happens, users are mindful of the space your app takes up. A 100 Mb app will be the first to get deleted. Aim for an app with no more than 5 to 10 Mb and remember that the lower you can keep it the better it is. It significantly impacts user conversion and uptake when your app is light.

Will the app they make be data efficient?

You need to make sure that your app doesn’t consume excessive amounts of data on 3G or 4G. An app that does so is likely to be relegated to the Apps directory of a user’s Google Play store account until they one day realize that it drains the battery – and then it’ll be deleted.

Will the app they make be fast?

It’s 2018 now, and nobody likes slow apps anymore. Your app must be at the top of the list when it comes to speed since, in this fast-paced age, a difference of so much as a millisecond can be the difference between having or not having a user

How will they use the Android platform to their advantage?

If you are making an app on the Android platform, there needs to be something in it that leverages core OS features to make the app better. Without this little edge, it might as well be a generic app on a generic platform. Moreover, with constant updates coming out for Android, your app will have to continuously factor those in as well.

These are some small questions through which you can get a concrete understanding of which factors your android app development agency/company will be considered while they make your app. Always keep in mind that they may or may not be taking into account the factors discussed above – it’ll depend on the nature of your app and which purposes it’ll exist to serve.

Once you have a clear idea of what you want, and whether the company serves needs like stated above, you can be surer of the value they will add – and you can then focus on making the app tick, while they partner you to ensure it does.

We at Affle Enterprise have developed applications for enterprises, each built for a custom use case. Monitoring and witnessing the impact of their integration in real-time.

For any queries regarding mobile app development agency, drop us a line at [email protected].

#mobile application services #mobile application development

How Digital Transformation will impact the Hospitality Industry in 2020?

Already valued at $1.2 trillion by 2015, the tourism and hospitality industry is poised to grow even further as the years’ pass. And like all industries, the digital transformation in hospitality industry has left an indelible mark across all forms of tourism.

Gone are the days when one had to physically approach a travel agent and wait till he made the bookings — now it all happens online, and at a very fast pace. Travelers are picky about where they will travel and when; the digital transformation of hospitality not only allowed for this to happen but is also ensuring its sustenance.

By 2020 the world of hospitality might look somewhat different than it does today!

Let us make some estimates as to how digital transformation in hospitality industry will look like in 2020:

1. Remote Access Will Improve – We are already living in an era where we can open our hotel rooms from outside and can order room service without having to get out of bed. This scenario will surely change to some extent if the Internet of Things (IoT) gets integrated with the internal circuitry of a room, among other things.

Thanks to mobile app development services, So we may expect our room to be heated or cooled to just the perfect temperature at which we prefer them, even before we have entered it! The devices that can make this happen have already been created, one example is the Nest thermostat.

2. Data Science Will Serve More Purposes – Used in fields as diverse as tax fraud and weather forecasting, data science is sure to be a bigger part of the hospitality industry by 2020.

We might find that we get personalized messages from hotels we are likely to choose – offering us discount coupons as well! – because of extremely accurate predictive modeling. This can radically change the customer satisfaction as well as the user experience of travelers around the world.

3. AI Bots Will Become More Important! – A reality in certain hotel chains already, AI chatbots for hospitality are more likely to play an important role in the coming years to do clerical work like changing or canceling reservations, verifying discount coupons, checking account balances, and more.

There might even be actual robots who play the role of concierge, giving detailed information where it is pertinent, ensuring that your room is clean, that your stay at the hotel is smooth and more. In Japan, the Henn na (or Weird) Hotel already has a robot concierges – and one of these robots is a dinosaur!

These are some of the ways in which digital transformation might end up impacting the hospitality industries in the years to come. The predictions made above might just hit the mark completely, seeing as how they’re already nascent realities.

But technology teaches us that there is, even more, to learn and to achieve than we may believe at a certain time. So let’s wait and see where exactly we will end up after the digital transformation in hospitality! One thing is for sure: it’s bound to get even more convenient!

We at Affle Enterprise have developed applications for enterprises, each built for a custom use case. Monitoring and witnessing the impact of their integration in real-time.

For any queries regarding Mobile Application Development agency, drop us a line at [email protected]

#mobile app #Mobile application development #mobile app development company

How do Startups Benefit from Technology Outsourcing?

Times we live in are extremely exciting for any startup company. They are not bound by technological inhibitions and can achieve whatever they set their mind to. However challenges still remain.

If you have an idea of how do you bring it to fruition? What if you’re not a technologist yourself or don’t know the one you can partner? Does that mean you can’t bring your idea to life?

Not really. The best way to test ideas is to do them without much investment at all – a company offering nearby delivery set-up a WhatsApp group to get people to place orders and when they saw a whole lot of people wanted the service they went on to build an app.

When you reach this stage you still may need help, but this time professionally. Thankfully perspectives on the way businesses need to operate has seen a major paradigm shift we are now well and truly in the ‘gig’ economy.

A few decades ago, just the thought of an entrepreneur working with someone halfway across the globe would’ve been dismissed, because it sounded ludicrous and impossible back then. Today, it’s not only easy but effective to operate as distributed teams.

According to the findings of Deloitte’s 2016 Global Outsourcing Survey, companies currently outsource 72 percent of their IT function and plan to increase it further.

This is completely understandable, as the success of top tech companies such as WhatsApp, Slack, and Skype can be credited to outsource development.

For instance, when Skype launched its operations in 2003 in Luxembourg, its founders hired a development team from Estonia.

They communicated their vision and made available resources they had to the technology outsourcing team. In two years, eBay acquired Skype for $2.5B and was eventually acquired by Microsoft for $8.5B.

What is it about distributed our outsourced teams that allow companies to maximize gains? Let’s look at some reasons for the same:

Higher scalability

When you are sure that your idea is showing signs of taking off, you automatically focus your energy towards scaling up your business. But scaling your technology team to keep up the pace can be tough.

Moreover, you’re not really sure if you’ve hit the traction train i.e. you’re not yet sure if you’re definitely on to something. This is where having a technology outsourcing partner with a distributed team helps – because these are contractual terms and typically have resources on the bench, hiring is quick and scalable.

Having an in-house tech team can be costly, more so if you operate in a developed market, that not only burdens the organization but also restricts it from adapting to fast-paced changes – be it downsizing or scaling up.

Technology outsourcing can eliminate this and allow startups to remain lean and nimble.

Clearer focus

With the technological-front handled, startup founders and stakeholders can focus on more important tasks surrounding growth and functioning of their business.

Technology is only one aspect of any business, and it should be leveraged to scale up, and not hinder progress. Outsourcing tech allows organizations to have a clearer focus on business, eventually helping them drive better strategies, and grow.

Level playing field

Outsourcing gives startups a boost towards success because it provides them with access to professionals and tools that may only be available to larger companies. This becomes more true for non-technical founders who may otherwise find taking their idea to market rather difficult.

From brainstorming with a mobile app developer on functionality feasibility to letting outsourced experts drive User Experience strategies – a good outsourcing partner can help across multi-skill sets.

These outsourcing experts even work on a per-project basis and can deliver quality results at par with solutions from large companies.

Improved efficiency

Outsourcing tech allows startups to focus on important aspects and layout better plans of action, and that too, quickly.

This is because outsourcing providers have everything in place to get the job done – people, processes, tools, equipment. This allows startups to channelize energy on crucial tasks, improving efficiency.

Cost Effective

More often than not, it is quite a task to get such people onboard who are not only technologically equipped but fit well within your culture and vision, let alone that they may be expensive experiments.

When outsourcing, startups don’t need to invest in carrying out extensive interview procedures and catering to the needs of employees (from training to salary and benefits).

Furthermore, most startups today focus on a mobile app for their platform, and in-house mobile app development teams can be even more costly. Outsourcing tech will allow you to cut these costs while achieving your outcomes.

A study by Intetics reveals that outsourcing can help companies save at least 60 percent of their overhead costs.

Technology can become a niggling monkey on any business stakeholder’s back. While Outsourcing is not about getting the monkey off your back, it about partnering someone that can tame that monkey – and hone it to deliver all the tricks for your trade.

If you are looking for ios outsourcing or chatbot solutions, Drop us a line at [email protected]

#mobile app development company #mobile application services

Why Cricket Boards and Franchise Teams Should Invest in Mobile Apps

Of all the sports that are played and enjoyed in India, Cricket is the only sport with the largest fan base. Indians revere and treat Cricket like religion – although the sport did not originate in India, it sure has become one of the most loved and followed sports in the country.

India is the land of many diverse religions and cultures, and if there’s anything Indians bond over the most, it is Cricket. Over the years, India has given to the world some of the best cricketers like Kapil Dev, Sourav Ganguly, Sachin Tendulkar, M.S. Dhoni, and Virat Kohli, to name a few. These players have set such a high bar that they are now an inspiration for aspiring cricketers all across the globe.

In India, Cricket constitutes a multi-billion dollar industry, and today, it is a pivotal contributor to the Indian economy. While there are over one billion fans of Cricket globally, Indians account for nearly 90% of that fan base!

With the Indian Cricket industry growing bigger each year, now is the time to invest in mobile apps for Cricket. Mobile apps can both fuel Cricket’s popularity and also generate a substantial amount of money for the Indian Cricket industry.

Why should Cricket Boards and Franchise Teams invest in Mobile Apps?

The mobile app market for Cricket has been there for quite some time now. Apps like CricBuzz, ESPNCricinfo, and Cricket Line Guru have gained immense popularity with Cricket enthusiasts in India. In fact, in 2019, CricBuzz became the second most downloaded mobile app in the world!

Mobile apps allow fans to view Cricket scores and get match updates from anywhere, anytime. That is, perhaps, the most useful feature of mobile apps for Cricket. And while mobile apps for Cricket isn’t a new thing, the concept of Fantasy Cricket sure is. This is the reason why Cricket boards and franchise teams are now readily investing in Fantasy Cricket mobile apps such as Dream11 and My11Circle.

Here are five reasons why Cricket boards and franchise teams should invest in mobile apps for Cricket:

Attracts new users and fans

Mobile apps can provide a level of flexibility and convenience like no other. No matter where you are, you can always use a mobile app to stay updated with the latest news on Cricket, watch live matches, view scores, and so on. Hence, mobile apps designed for Cricket can attract Cricket fans by the bulk and encourage them to engage with your brand, and ultimately contribute to the bigger picture – expanding the Cricket fan base in India.

Delivers high return on investment

Since the mobile app market for Cricket is only gaining momentum now, there’s not much competition in this domain. So, this presents an exciting opportunity for franchise brands to make huge profits within a short period. Since there’s relatively low competition in the Cricket mobile app market, you can launch a unique mobile app and steer the Cricket crowd towards your brand.

The best part – mobile apps for Cricket usually don’t require a large amount of upfront investment, but they promise to deliver a high return on investment. If you can design the perfect UI for a mobile app, it will automatically appeal to users who will continue to download and use your app for top-notch customer experience, thereby improving the brand’s ROI.

Expands brand reach

It is a well-established fact that mobile apps can be a handy tool for branding. Given the massive numbers of smartphone users in the world, mobile apps promise to expand your brand’s reach to a broader network, thereby increasing your brand exposure significantly. The more extensive your target network, the higher will be the profits generated each quarter.

Improves customer engagement

As competition increases in the industry, more and more Cricket franchise teams and organizations realize the importance of improving business value through mobile apps by boosting customer engagement.

By rolling out Cricket mobile apps in the market, companies can fortify their presence in the mobile domain and design customized interfaces to provide best-in-class experiences to Cricket fans and devoted customers. Mobile apps allow users to engage and interact with brands whenever they please and from any location in the world.

Increases support for the sport

Each year, Indian Cricket teams take part in numerous tournaments like T20, One-day Test Match, and IPL. Since mobile apps are an excellent tool for increasing customer engagement, they can take the Cricket buzz to a whole other level by pulling in Cricket fans by the bulk.

This helps increase the awareness for Cricket and expands its fan base, which translates to more money pouring into the Cricket industry.

With opportunities galore, mobile apps for Cricket have the potential to boost the popularity of the sports in general while simultaneously creating tremendous profits for the Indian Cricket Board (BCCI) and franchise teams. Most importantly, through mobile apps, Cricket can enjoy both real-world and digital presence.

We at Affle Enterprise grasp your business challenges & ideate a personalized user experience to solve complex business problems. Connect with our team at [email protected] for a quick enterprise ai chatbot, ios outsourcing & mobile app development consultation.

#chatbot solutions #mobile app development company #mobile application services

How Mobile apps are Transforming the Tourism Industry

#mobile app development #mobile app development company #mobile application development

Factors to Consider before Outsourcing iOS App Development

In today’s digital environment where thousands of mobile apps are launched on a daily basis, only launching a mobile app does not guarantee profitability and customer satisfaction. Factors such as app optimization, an interactive and appealing User Interface (UI), and safe transactions dictate the response of the customers.

iOS is a platform that dominates the mobile app market and the majority of developers focus on the apps that run on it without any hassles. Developing an iOS app that successfully fulfills its purpose and ensures customer satisfaction requires the developers to be mindful of several important factors. Therefore, businesses have to hire the services of the right iOS app development agency.

(Quick FAQ) Factors to Consider before Outsourcing iOS App Development

* Developer’s Portfolio and Expertise * Pay Attention to the Attributes of a Reliable App Development Agency * Employee Turnover * Cost-Effectiveness * Post-Development Services

A few factors are explained here that can help a business while outsourcing iOS app development.

Developer’s Portfolio and Expertise The main reason behind outsourcing iOS app development is the level of expertise that an experienced agency offers contrary to freelance developers. However, each app development company specializes in apps that belong to a specific industry.

A company has to look for an agency that has years of experience in developing the type of apps that they require. Every industry has specific requirements related to its products, customers, clients, etc. The agency must also understand various constraints including operational procedures and bureaucratic issues to rightly figure out the aspects such as layout, positioning, media, navigation, transactions, information security, accessibility, and ability to integrate with other devices/apps.

For instance, the company can ask for the mobile app development company’s portfolio and verify their client history to ensure that they are going on the right track. In addition, an agency with years of experience and a strong portfolio should be a preferred choice over the others.

Pay Attention to the Attributes of a Reliable App Development Agency The market is full of both professional and unprofessional app development agencies and it is for the businesses to decide which one to choose. Almost each one of these has similar processes but their professionalism reflects from their will to take their one processes seriously.

If a business can trust an agency for developing a platform for its business model, it has every right to inquire about the various aspects of their processes such as developer’s expertise, team size, additional services, quality control, etc.

For instance, every app development agency commits to maintaining proper client communication during the whole process but only a few actually implement this. Maintaining communication is a crucial part of the development process as it dictates the quality of the app and it also ensures that the app is in-line with the client’s business objectives and expectations. In addition, an agency that maintains effective communication with their clients should certainly be preferred.

Employee Turnover App development is a highly competitive field that also has a high rate of staff turnover. An agency that has a high rate of employee turnover rate is never a good choice. The reason this factor becomes crucial is that if an important person of the developing team leaves in the middle of a project, it negatively impacts the whole assignment. No company wants to get stuck in such a situation.

This is why it is important to check for the employee turnover rate of an app development agency. However, there is no sure-shot way to do that but asking their previous clients may help. This is also a good indicator of an agency’s professionalism as employee turnover may also be a result of poor policies.

For instance, an agency that does not appreciate an independent work culture or prohibits employees from taking ownership of their work usually has a high employee turnover rate. Such agencies also have a fluctuating growth rate and average levels of client appreciation.

Cost-Effectiveness Getting the maximum value for money is different from choosing a low-cost option. Here, cost-effectiveness refers to a situation where clients get the best possible quality of products and services for their spent money. Agencies that claim to have the lowest charges often provide substandard services. On the other hand, the charges of a highly professional agency may seem slightly high but their quality of services and professionalism usually guarantees client satisfaction. A good example of this situation is the Waterfall method and Agile method of development where clients spend some time understanding the methodology of the agency in the initial phase and speed up the process later through Agile practices.

Post-Development Services Software is made up of algorithms that act as mechanisms and it is inevitable that there will be several breakdowns. Therefore, iOS app development requires a sound understanding of a variety of post-development aspects such as error tracking and debugging, offshore maintenance, product upgrades, product enhancements, user support, technical troubleshooting, performance monitoring, quality assurance testing, and documentation development and maintenance.

iOS app development is a comprehensive process and client requirements should be the top priorities in it. The agency working on an iOS app development project should be precisely aware of the client’s requirements such as compatibility with the latest iOS (10.3), customization features, improved UI, etc. These are ultimately going to be the parameters on which a user likes or dislikes the whole experience.

We at Affle Enterprise are enabling thriving startups & giant enterprises to solve complex business challenges through our Chatbot & Mobile app development services. Please get in touch with our team at [email protected]

#mobile app development #mobile application development #Mobile App Development Agency

Android App Development Agency/Company- Questions to Ask before Hiring One

If you are looking to hire an android app development agency/company for your app idea, don’t make it a hasty step!

With over 8 million apps currently to be found on the Google Play store, you would want your app to stand out in the crowd.

Given this ever-increasing demand for mobile apps, it is even more important to create an app that not only meets the needs of users but one that ensures those needs are met with an experience that enables stickiness and adoption of service.

While you are in conversation with a prospective android app development agency, ask them these simple (yet Important) questions:

Questions that you must ask yourself:

Have you done a user dipstick?

The most important question when making an app is – does anyone even need it? As an entrepreneur looking to create an app around a concept can be blinding. While you wholeheartedly believe in your concept, you must validate if others value it just the same.

Casual research amongst friends can do the trick, but you must try and cover as many people to validate your concept. You must also research if apps like the ones you want to create already exist – reading and researching online is an easy way of doing this.

If you are an Enterprise, a user dipstick may not be enough, and you must back your app outreach strategy with deep market research that can often lead to invaluable data about competitors and precise figures about what worked and didn’t work for them and hence looks into what may work for your app. Without deep market research, you may miss out on such important signals.

Are you providing something different?

Mobile apps are at par with any other commodity – one can lose interest in them just as quickly as they gain it. For this reason, constant innovation needs to be the order of the day.

Simply a rehashing of what has already worked well not be tenable in the longer run. So, ask yourself – is this unique? Is this being a Zero to One concept?

Questions to ask from an Android app development company:

How heavy will the app be?

Depending on the markets in which you are launching your app you must factor, and be aware of, the size of your app. Say your focus is to launch in emerging markets and these typically have devices with lower me memory and storage caps of 8GB.

When this happens, users are mindful of the space your app takes up. A 100 Mb app will be the first to get deleted. Aim for an app with no more than 5 to 10 Mb and remember that the lower you can keep it the better it is. It significantly impacts user conversion and uptake when your app is light.

Will the app they make be data efficient?

You need to make sure that your app doesn’t consume excessive amounts of data on 3G or 4G. An app that does so is likely to be relegated to the Apps directory of a user’s Google Play store account until they one day realize that it drains the battery – and then it’ll be deleted.

Will the app they make be fast?

It’s 2018 now, and nobody likes slow apps anymore. Your app must be at the top of the list when it comes to speed since, in this fast-paced age, a difference of so much as a millisecond can be the difference between having or not having a user

How will they use the Android platform to their advantage?

If you are making an app on the Android platform, there needs to be something in it that leverages core OS features to make the app better. Without this little edge, it might as well be a generic app on a generic platform. Moreover, with constant updates coming out for Android, your app will have to continuously factor those in as well.

These are some small questions through which you can get a concrete understanding of which factors your android app development agency/company will be considered while they make your app. Always keep in mind that they may or may not be taking into account the factors discussed above – it’ll depend on the nature of your app and which purposes it’ll exist to serve.

Once you have a clear idea of what you want, and whether the company serves needs like stated above, you can be surer of the value they will add – and you can then focus on making the app tick, while they partner you to ensure it does.

We at Affle Enterprise have developed applications for enterprises, each built for a custom use case. Monitoring and witnessing the impact of their integration in real-time.

For any queries regarding mobile app development, drop us a line at [email protected].

#android app development #mobile app development #Mobile application development

Smart TV Apps: Boosting Customer Engagement for Telecommunication Industry

It was only a matter of time before the world of apps extended even to smart TV. There is practically nothing that we do today for which there isn’t an app to make it simpler for us, whether it be reading, watching videos, or listening to music.

With the advent of the Smart TV, the world of apps stood revolutionized: no longer were they limited to the small screens of our phones or the relatively larger screens of our tablets – with an introduction to smart TV apps they became available to be used on much bigger screens.

The Smart TV gave the old idiot box a new life: it could be connected to the Internet, and with it, the world of an online video opened up. This allowed people to have greater flexibility in terms of what they viewed.

With Chromecast, viewers could stream video content seamlessly on an HDTV, while Apple TV and Amazon Fire TV could make a standard TV provide a tremendous 4K experience!

With Android TV (or its alternative, Tizen OS for TV) the range of apps is now so vast. One can browse various weather apps, have a virtual dashboard and watch live sports!

Moreover, one can also play games on a TV without any console required – and not just basic games like Tetris or Ping-pong, but extremely resource-intensive modern games like Asphalt 8 and Dead Trigger 2.

Who would’ve thought that the Television, once thought to be one of the most passive modes of consumption, could become such as an active source of engagement? Who would’ve thought that the viewer of a TV would eventually become its doer?

Smart TV apps are today boosting customer engagement on a whole different level than was previously imagined.