Today, organizations are interconnected. So they need a lot more from their corporate communication solutions in addition to dial-up capabilities. To meet these demands, companies are increasingly adopting collaborative communication solutions that bring together all the essential elements of business communications, including voice, messaging, video conferencing and contact center, in a single, easy-to-use solution.
The ultimate goal is to enable mobile and distributed teams to communicate and collaborate in the way they choose, from any device, from anywhere. Only the cloud can meet these expectations.
The implementation of telephony in the cloud represents great benefits in terms of savings and flexibility for all types of companies, also allowing them to respond more efficiently and effectively to their customers’ calls.
Why move your corporate phone system to the cloud
You minimize capital expenditures
A traditional telephone system generally has a considerable initial cost. These capital expenditures include servers, phones, network upgrades, and deployment costs. Moving the phone system to the cloud is not that demanding in terms of budget. In most cloud phone system installations, the only capital expense is the purchase of IP phones.
You use the equipment you want
A cloud phone system is a basic or standards-based product. That means you can use equipment from different vendors.
You use the company’s resources
Today’s communications setup in most offices requires two separate lines: one for voice and one for data. Moving your phone system to the cloud allows you to consolidate those lines into a single network. Voice transmission over your data line increases the traffic over that connection and better utilizes all capacity.
You simplify the budget
Traditional phone systems have unpredictable costs. Costs change to accommodate organizational changes, usage patterns, and aging or obsolete components. A cloud phone system allows you to accurately predict telecommunications expenses. Other variable costs don’t come into play either, such as software updates, licenses, and hardware maintenance.
You enjoy transparent pricing
Most on-premises systems charge for each feature. That’s because, in many cases, the features are not native to that system. To support the latest features, you must modify your existing solution with additional hardware, software, or license costs. With a cloud phone system, all functions are natively integrated into the system. Major cloud service providers can offer all voice features at a single, transparent price, with no per-feature add-ons or hidden charges.
You eliminate the risk of obsolescence
With a cloud solution, the responsibility for keeping the infrastructure up-to-date shifts from the customer to the service provider. Software updates are also under the responsibility of the vendor, allowing you to enjoy up-to-date technology without spending budget and resources to maintain it.
Provide greater system reliability
A cloud phone system hosts your service in secure data centers. When service from one data center is interrupted, your provider can easily redirect calls through other data centers. Therefore, your voice service continues without interruption.
Access options with many functions
In the cloud, you can access a wide range of business voice features. Leading providers offer unlimited features like voicemail mailboxes, automated attendants (IVRs), dial plans, conference bridges, and more, at no additional charge to your basic monthly price.
You make remote work easier
A business phone system in the cloud eliminates technological limits. Because these systems are cloud-based, they can route phone traffic to any device with an internet connection. It’s just as easy to route calls to your worker’s central office as it is to your office phone. Additionally, office-associated voice features and functions can be used remotely, including voicemail and call transfers to other business extensions.
Improve employee mobility options
By moving your company’s phone system to the cloud, mobility becomes an option for all employees, not just remote workers. Employees are increasingly using their personal devices for business tasks, a trend called BYOD (“Bring Your Own Device”). With the applications
The coronavirus pandemic is pushing ventures from manufacturing, retail, and service providers for reevaluating their business models where the traditional ‘social’ and ‘in-person’ setting is the norm. As a result, ventures started to realize the requirement of integrating a bigger portion of their business process with an advanced ‘contactless method of offering their services and products. Otherwise, they will confront the alternative option of closing operations until the pandemic is over. Given the present status of the pandemic, that is equivalent to a death sentence for those businesses. SMEs are no diverse, if not more frantic, for reconsidering their business models for overcoming the present crisis and similar future circumstances. Here comes the role of digital transformation consulting.
When it approaches SMEs adapting to the COVID-19 pandemic, governments acted a vital role in directing SMRs for weathering the storm. Governments offered both unprecedented and swift support at a bigger scale than in the aftermath of the financial crisis of 2008. Support came in the shape of tax deferrals, direct loans, and grants to lead temporary redundancies, wage subsidies, and assistants for minimized working hours. The logic of these measures is ‘verify later, give money now’, which was the justified approach, but SMEs should comprehend, these are temporary measures and the assistance of digital transformation consulting services is the key for dwelling in the current and future crises.
The reason for going digital
Digitalization and digital tools have confirmed they can benefit SMEs. It has been analyzed that companies implementing digital tools improved their productivity by 16% and value by 25% on average.
Besides, digital tools can assist in avoiding an absolute economic halt for SMEs in the COVID-19 pandemic era. Having the capability to go digital became a matter of life and death as it was observed across the world. Various SMEs demonstrating their capability to change their business model have survived; some have become failures to afloat.
As with each business, SMEs vary in size, industry, and level of experience. No matter what the dissimilarities are, proceeding digital is evinced to be a major benefit pre and post COVID-19 pandemic. Digitalization and digital tools can succour SMEs in reducing expenses, standardizing and automating business processes, and minimizing the reliance on manpower. Besides, going digital will enrich SMEs’ competitiveness and recognize customer behaviour.
Ensuring the digitalization of SMEs
After spotting the light on ‘Why’, SMEs should transform digitally, a nature follow-up ‘How’; to
effectively transform should be addressed to confirm constant profitability in times of economic disruption and challenges and ‘Who’ are stakeholders engaged in the process.
For instance, governments secure a key role in aiding SMEs and this role begins by identifying the significance of SMEs digitalization for economic escalation, job formulation, and productivity. They are integrating SMEs’ digitalization high on the policy agenda as they are a robust game-changer for the economy. It ensures SMEs for transforming and competing on a bigger scale and touch worldwide markets by executing business online.
Technological implementation of digital tools is especially useful for micro and small businesses. However, there is a crack in digital tools implementation between SMEs and large businesses, especially in e-commerce and cloud computing. Governments can mitigate this gap by furnishing SMEs with skill development, process innovation programs, and organizational change.
Another crucial role for governments is offering proper infrastructure to direct B2B transactions and using digital tools to optimize public services such as E-government portals to ease license issuance and other services to SMEs.
Similarly, large tech organizations have a role to perform in heading the digitalization of SMEs. Identifying the requirement of SMEs and offering digital tools and solutions to direct the transfer of SMEs businesses for going online is a crucial factor in the continuity and survival of various SMEs.
SMEs role in digital transformation
While the private and public sectors have pointed their significance out in digitalization and
implementation of digital tools for SMEs, they appear in second place and some scenarios last when compared to the role of SMEs should embrace.
SMEs should reconsider and recraft their business with a focus on the ways of leveraging social media, data analytics, mobile connectivity, cloud computing and integrate these tools into their business model. The digital transformation advisory services for SMEs need to be incorporated into all business areas for delivering value to consumers and for ensuring business continuity.
SMEs’ digital transformation has shown to be pivotal long before the COVID-19 pandemic and after it hit, that significance only escalated apparent and stronger to cover SMEs business sustainability. It is a constant process of challenging the present status as technologies keep progressing and for SMEs to cope up, they should elicit this process to thrive and grow.
Bottom Line
With the expansion of the digital economy and the present COVID-19 pandemic, the future of the economy worldwide will have everything to do with digitalization. Cutting-edge technologies like blockchain, 5G, IoT, robots, AI, cloud computing, data science, and the appearance of new digitalized business models, will change the worldwide economy radically. SMEs are a linchpin of the economic progress of most regions of the globe.
When confronted with changes, SMEs need to harness digital technologies and endorse
digitalization. Also, they need to learn from successful digital transformation consulting firms and other new business models and hunt for opportunities for scaling up their own added value in the wave of digitalization. SMEs need to overcome also the deficiency in resources, deficiency in experiences in the adoption of new technologies that will let them become successful and attain a wider market.
SMEs’ digitalization will improve their competitiveness and benefit society also. Additionally, as the core driver of regional economic extension and advancements, SMEs’ digitalization acts an important part in improvising a sustainable and inclusive economy. Recently, digitalization solutions have greatly contributed to the sustainable development goals and minimized wealth cracks, optimized gender equality, and replied to climate change, securing people access to the resources vital to their survival. As the world carries on to go digital, also digitalization has much to do with the progression of governments and the effect of their policies on the digital transformation strategy consulting trend.
While almost any company can benefit from custom software, some industries need it more than others. We’ve listed those industries below.
Healthcare
The healthcare industry is one of the largest in the global marketplace. According to Deloitte’s Global Health Care Outlook study, the value of the global healthcare market has reached $7.724 trillion. In the infographic below, you can see how spendings on healthcare industry’s software have increased during the year of the epidemic.
The healthcare market includes all companies that provide clinical services, healthcare support, and drug and medical device development. So it is natural that the need for custom healthcare software development is so acute.
Healthcare work goes far beyond treating patients and writing prescriptions. Having a custom software solution that allows the medical center to provide superior customer service, efficient facility and data management is critical to thriving. By implementing it, among other things, facilities are able to:
Store electronic medical records and access structured patient information from anywhere, anytime. The data will be organized based on your wishes and the specifics of your institution, whereas template solutions will focus everything on the largest segment of the market;
Apply the individual approach to the patient, solve atypical medical tasks that ready-made solutions cannot;
Implement AI to solve problems that people or software solutions can’t;
Allow patients to create their own profiles so they can access their medical data and schedule appointments whenever they need them;
Track health care orders and health insurance claims to avoid doubling or missing bills;
Collect data to identify and track treatment patterns;
Securely store and process patient data and level the possibility of regulatory issues by complying with all industry standards regarding security and regulations such as HIPAA and GDPR.
Custom healthcare software development will transform a rudimentary paper-based system into a digital one that will certainly provide portability as well as improve patient safety and make your healthcare facility more efficient. Medical Records Software for Hospital Group is a successful example. MassMedia Group developed this web-based application to streamline hospital records and medical records. It has allowed hospital services in U.S. hospitals to be set up and managed on a whole new level.
Also worth noting is the use of artificial intelligence in patient care. It has reached a fairly large scale in the market and thus is expected to be around $33.1 billion by 2025. Even greater use of artificial intelligence can also be expected in robotic surgery, fraud detection, pre-diagnosis, reducing dosing errors, and other areas.
Here are some notable examples of the use of AI during the COVID 19 pandemic:
Google’s DeepMind is helping scientists study various features of SARS-CoV-2 (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus) and has predicted that the virus has a protein structure.
Several artificial intelligence-based computer vision systems have been deployed in China and around the world to scan crowds for COVID-19 symptoms and monitor people during isolation.
FluSense, a non-contact syndromic surveillance platform, is used to predict outbreaks of seasonal influenza and other respiratory viral diseases such as pandemic COVID-19 or SARS.
Autonomous service robots based on artificial intelligence and Cloud Ginger (aka XR-1) humanoid robots are used in hospitals in Wuhan, China. The former is used to help medical workers deliver food and medicine to patients, and the latter is used to entertain patients during the quarantine.
The AI BlueDot can be used as an early warning system for disease outbreaks. The AI-driven algorithm not only successfully detected the Zika virus outbreak in Florida but also detected COVID-19 nine days before the WHO issued its statement warning people about the disease.
Researchers from Huazhong University of Science and Technology (HUST) and Tongji Hospital in Wuhan, Hubei Province, have developed an artificial intelligence diagnostic tool (XGBoost machine learning-based predictive model) that can quickly analyze blood samples to predict survival rates of patients infected with COVID-19. The software is 90% accurate.
In Wuhan, China, an artificial intelligence diagnostic tool is used to distinguish COVID-19 from other types of pneumonia within seconds by analyzing patients’ chest CT images. The creators of the software claim that their new model has great potential to reduce the workload of advanced radiologists, improve early diagnosis, isolation, and treatment, and thus help control the epidemic.
COVID-Net, a deep learning model, is designed to identify COVID-19 positive cases with chest X-rays and accelerate treatment for those who need it most.
Rarely boxed solutions contain full AI-based functionality, so if you decide to enhance your workflow with innovative technology, custom software is a must-have for you.
Hotel business and hospitality
Custom software is especially popular in the hotel industry. Running a hotel or real estate agency without a software solution that automates and thus supports most business processes is extremely difficult, if not impossible. Most customer interactions happen online, so having a custom web platform is a necessity to cover all needs. In particular, a good custom solution can allow property managers to:
Address all the nuances of the business model in the software;
Reduce human to human contact;
Make the software uniquely tailored to your brand, so it is recognizable;
Store all rental agreements and other documents in the cloud, so you can be sure that confidential customer details are protected;
manage advertising campaigns, implement a customer loyalty program, satisfaction surveys, evaluations, and more;
Offer flexible rate management for different room types, policies, value-added services, incentives, etc;
Accept online payments and enable customers to pay online to get paid faster;
Conduct online checks to save hours of administrative work;
Provide residents with access to their profiles to make their stay easier and improve communication;
Manage maintenance requests online to speed up the maintenance process.
As travelers become younger and more demanding, personalization and ultra-fast service become keys to their hearts. Indeed, why wait to make a reservation in front of a desk at a hotel instead of tapping your smartphone a couple of times? What’s more, why not use your smartphone instead of the pesky key card to check-in and check out of your hotel? It’s all forming into a new industry called TravelTech. No wonder hotels around the world are adopting new digital solutions for their guests and considering options for a hotel management program.
Statistics also prove that the hotel industry relies heavily on digital technology. According to Socialtables, about 92% of hotel guests carry smartphones, while about 40% of them already use hotel apps for a range of services. In addition, about 74% of hotel guests surveyed were willing to join individual hotel loyalty programs, receive customized email offers, and share their personal information such as gender and age.
Manufacturing
Regardless of the type of product, large-scale manufacturing means the need to implement custom software. In a globalized world, businesses need to reduce order dispatch times, generate and prioritize orders, and manage their production to improve customer service and thereby gain a competitive edge. A quality custom software solution can contain functionality for all of these purposes, allowing its users:
automate business processes they need;
establish a clear management system that suits their business;
establish and automate supply chains;
implement innovative technologies to improve production and get ahead of the competition;
transform a proposal into a purchase order with the click of a mouse to speed up production and shipping processes;
synchronize all processes from all departments to gain control over production;
create financial reports to better manage savings;
create an advanced and multi-level Bill of Materials (BOM), without relying on spreadsheets, to access the database from anywhere, anytime.
No company can afford to fall behind the new industry performance standard. Manufacturers understand that their products are only as good as their production methods, which is why they are all unique and know-how-based. This is why the choice of software is especially important. If the software doesn’t match the production method, people work around the system, leading to duplication of effort, efficiency leaks, and possible errors. And simple errors can have costly side effects in an industry where expensive parts are ordered in bulk. Obviously, custom software gives manufacturing companies more flexibility and options than they ever had.
Finance
According to a recent Statista report, global growth in financial app usage during COVID-19 was highest in Japan at 55%. This was followed by South Korea (35%), the US (20%), China (20%), Germany (15%), and Italy (15%). Even before the pandemic, global investment in financial technology was on the rise. Although with a slight decline in investment in 2019, at $137.5 billion compared to $141 billion in 2018, FinTech showed positive growth in most of its sectors.
One way or another, the average use of Fintech applications around the world is only expected to grow. So it’s time for financial technology companies that are developing innovative technology solutions to gain momentum, find their niche, and expand their business. And it can be done with the help of custom software.
Development of custom fintech solutions gives an opportunity to implement unique ideas and business models in a particular web/mobile application, or set of applications. The creation and implementation of such software allow to increase profits, reduce costs, improve user experience, and increase the number of users. By closing the needs specific to your business, the target audience increases, which positively affects the further development of the company. Such software will be a strong competitive advantage and will help to break into the leaders of the financial industry, which is proved by the example of Defero. It is a service that allows authorized users to receive a report on financial activity. The report is updated on a monthly basis using statistical and objective assessment. During registration, the user goes through a two-step registration procedure, which first confirms the identity through authorization in the BankID system, which means increased security measures. With such examples, it is not surprising that there are hundreds of new companies working all over the world developing original solutions for their clients.
The regulatory area uses technology to help banks enforce compliance in the easiest and most cost-effective way possible;
A custom solution allows you to implement a unique idea that traditional banks don’t have, to create something revolutionary;
Custom software enables the usage of advanced innovations such as AI, ML, and Blockchain;
Technology is changing insurance models. Today’s systems pull information from public databases and immediately provide an estimated cost of insurance;
Loans are made by individuals to each other. This provides risk mitigation through the use of real-time software analysis tools;
The use of financial technology has significantly transformed the lending industry. Innovations include p2p lending, obtaining financing at the interest of unpaid bills, and crowdfunding;
Expanding access to financial services is one of the most interesting applications of financial technology because we are talking about attracting about 4.5 billion people to the financial services system who previously had no access to such services.
It’s no exaggeration to say that digital banks with a high-quality, custom solution in their arsenal represent a real threat to traditional banks, as they attract younger, Internet-connected customers who want easier ways to manage their finances. According to a CASI report, from 2017 to 2022, the number of consumer visits to banks will decline by 36%, while the number of mobile transactions will increase by 121% over the same time period.
This news is good not only for tech companies, but primarily for customers, who should expect stiff competition for their attention and, as a result, better service. Custom digital banks have the advantage of flexibility, and what’s more, they typically offer innovative services at much lower rates than traditional players.
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Of course, there is a wide range of industries that have not been mentioned in this article. Basically, almost any company would benefit from custom software. They don’t have to be unique or large enterprises. Often organizations that can buy off-the-shelf software still choose to do custom to gain a competitive advantage. Anyone who needs improved communication with their customers, a better understanding of the customer experience, and enhanced security should certainly have such software. And to do that, you need to have the support of a reliable team of specialists, but you can read about them in another article.
Distance learning, internet shopping, and the quest for content, not to mention home-based job and communications channels, have all seen exponential growth. People and companies have had to evolve more rapidly than ever before, and, as always, in times of rapid shift in technology and trends, they have to respond to the demands of the consumer and battle their corner.
With so many big shifts around the world over the last year, brands have not been able to take many design changes last year. They’ve got to do a lot more in fewer this year, too.
3D Typography Design
Geometric or herbal, the next pattern appears to be 3d typography, using the same principles but contributing to rather than going on. Typography innovation had it in 2020 with artists using all kinds of playful ideas and concepts and fans taking it in a big way. Typography design is increasingly becoming a major emblem of creativity in graphic design, using all the most trendy methods, and using them in beautiful and innovative ways. The 2021 projection is that the 2020 successful typography designs will be translated into 3D. Ultra-realistic lettering that looks like you should get in and touch it.
Design of Emoji
The web designers have a tone of voice or a little smile at the end of the sentence, and they are becoming more and more common, also the core feature of communication. Emoji are now the universal medium of pictograms that allow designers to add a sentiment to statements, blogs, or print media. The same can be said of all your creations, the use of Emojis produces emotions and reactions, lightens the mood, and expresses the underlying feelings. For all these factors, the trend of using Emojis in design is expected to pick up momentum over the next few years. The theme for 2021 would be the increasingly innovative and inventive use of emojis.
Cartoon Illustration
Custom Graphics has been a smart way to make the design stand out from the general blur of websites with their heavy graphic features, a clean digital look, and minimalist theme. We’re all in the scenario, and they’re not going to slip off the radar pattern soon. But the next popular fashion theme in animation will be custom cartoon characters. Great for unforgettable branding, fantastic for building a product or web environment, and extremely multifunctional. A format that retains the variety, is adaptable, creative, brings playfulness, and raises a grin. You can use your character on the business cards, presentation items, flyers, website, there just are no restrictions. And everyone loves cartoons without exception.
Design of geometric forms
This style pattern is something we’ve seen coming for a while, but it all looks likely to peak in 2021. Big blocks and solids frequently combine and unite with powerful colors and outlines to create creative combinations. geometric shapes can be of 2 types one is a 3D geometric shape and another is a simple geometric shape. This theory appears to break free from reality and, in some ways, underlines how basic blocks are going to develop and evolve into more rounded, identifiable concepts.
Design of optical illusion
Optical Illusion architecture is perfect, and 2021 will be the year that designers get funky with this fashion. If your brand has something all the better connected to the concept of motion and strangeness or spirituality, but even if you just want the design to stand out, repair in the memory, get the wow factor, then it is worth considering illusion design.
The graphic design world is a world that is undergoing exponential growth, a world in which you have to keep running if you want to be on top. technology pushes on, Taste changes, and either we ride on keeping up with their coat tales or we drive to the front. These 2021 top architecture trends are here for you to see, to inspire you, to steer you in the right direction, to disagree over, to dismiss as absolute nonsense, to ignite your mojo-up it’s to you.