Category: Software

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Software

Should Your Business Invest on Staff Monitoring Software?

Should Your Business Invest on Staff Monitoring Software
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Employee monitoring technology is crucial for the expansion and efficiency of businesses. It assists businesses in protecting data and keeping an eye on worker behavior. In order to ensure company continuity and efficiency, monitoring employee actions is more important than having trust issues with employers. It is important to emphasize that businesses found it difficult to remain productive and preserve company continuity throughout the epidemic. Employee monitoring software is installed on workers’ PCs and runs automatically in the background. Administrators may measure the amount of time spent on various websites by monitoring and analyzing employee activity using the dashboard. During difficult circumstances, which we have all struggled with, this strategy aids businesses in maintaining productivity and company continuity.

Maximize Results and Efficiency

Monitoring staff members may be a useful tool for seeing and fixing mistakes made at work. Managers may ensure quick corrections by continuously monitoring the activity of their staff and swiftly addressing any faults. In addition to improving overall efficiency, this also saves time when identifying problems later. Employee performance and productivity can be improved by proactively monitoring and resolving issues.

Establish a Plan for Remote Work

Remote work growth accelerates, but real-time workspace monitoring software enhances productivity and prevents workplace disruptions, enabling businesses to effectively manage online work and maintain an optimal work environment.

Boosting Efficiency in the Workplace

Monitoring programs motivates workers to perform their tasks honestly and enthusiastically, instilling discipline and reminding them of their obligations as employees. It promotes accountability, transforms empty hours into constructive projects, and delivers you the pleasure of tracking workers’ job actions.

Establish and meet objectives

Inability to execute a certain professional duty is an issue for the employer first and foremost, but it also affects the worker. Schedules can be adjusted by project managers based on the identification of non-compliant individuals through daily reports, which assist ensure future targets are met on time.

Decrease Wastage

By enabling you to measure employee productivity remotely and doing away with the requirement for a manager or staff person, employee monitoring software saves time and money.

Attendance and Punctuality at Work

Constant absences are a sign of dishonesty, which is affecting company status. Companies may check staff attendance, leave, and breaks with the use of monitoring software, which improves team productivity.

Identify Any Cyber Attacks

Businesses are growing significantly thanks to social media and websites. Cybercriminals employ diverse methodologies to get entry to certain websites, therefore it’s important to stay conscious of security flaws and safeguard your company. Monitoring programs find the source of hacking attacks and flag dubious links.

Payroll Features

Monitoring tools provide payroll features, including the ability to monitor employee payroll, integrate with external payment sites, view payment information, share invoices, and start fresh transactions.

Foster a Positive Work Environment

Software for employee monitoring promotes open contact between employers and employees by allowing for honest feedback and helpful criticism. It is important for supervisors to correct errors behind closed doors in order to promote a committed workplace.

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Software

The Ethics of Social Media Advertising: SMEs’ Responsibility

The Ethics of Social Media Advertising SMEs' Responsibility
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Introduction

The digital age has ushered in new possibilities for marketing and advertising, particularly for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). With social media platforms offering a vast and diverse audience, SMEs can harness these tools to reach potential customers effectively. However, with this great power comes great responsibility, and this article explores the ethical considerations that SMEs should take into account when engaging in social media advertising. Furthermore, we delve into the role of social media management UK in guiding SMEs toward ethical practices in their advertising efforts.

1. The Influence of Social Media Advertising

Social media platforms are brimming with opportunities for advertising. SMEs can create compelling ads that target specific demographics, and they can even harness the power of influencers to promote their products or services. However, the influence of social media advertising extends beyond just making sales. It also impacts society and consumers, making ethical considerations crucial.

2. The Responsibility of SMEs

Small and medium-sized enterprises must be aware of their ethical responsibilities in social media advertising:

Transparency:

SMEs should be clear about the nature of their advertising. Is it a paid promotion, or is it genuine content?

Honesty:

Advertisements must be truthful. Exaggerations and false claims can harm the brand’s reputation and mislead consumers.

Respect:

SMEs should show respect for users’ privacy and data. Unauthorized data collection or sharing can result in ethical breaches.

Inclusivity:

Avoid discriminatory content or targeting. All individuals should be respected and included.

Consumer Well-being:

Consider the impact of the product or service on consumers’ health and well-being.

3. Ethical Challenges in Social Media Advertising

SMEs encounter several ethical challenges in the realm of social media advertising:

Deceptive Advertising:

Using misleading tactics to lure customers can lead to mistrust.

Invasive Tracking:

Ethical questions arise when tracking individuals’ online behavior for advertising purposes without their knowledge or consent.

Exploitative Practices:

Taking advantage of consumers’ vulnerabilities or lack of awareness is an ethical red flag.

Influencer Responsibility:

Influencer marketing can blur ethical lines if influencers don’t clearly disclose their partnerships with SMEs.

Data Privacy:

Collecting and handling user data must be ethical, ensuring security and respect for privacy.

4. Role of Social Media Management

Social media management UK plays a crucial role in helping SMEs navigate the complexities of ethical advertising. Their responsibilities include:

Compliance:

Social media managers must ensure that SMEs comply with platform policies and ethical guidelines.

Audience Understanding:

Knowing the audience’s ethical values is crucial for tailoring content.

Monitoring Campaigns:

Ongoing monitoring ensures that the campaign doesn’t veer into unethical territory.

Influencer Collaboration:

Social media managers can guide SMEs on ethical influencer partnerships and disclosure.

5. Benefits of Ethical Advertising

Ethical advertising is not just a moral responsibility; it’s also a smart business strategy. It offers several advantages to SMEs:

Customer Trust:

Ethical practices build trust, resulting in customer loyalty and long-term relationships.

Brand Reputation:

A strong ethical reputation can set SMEs apart from competitors.

Legal Compliance:

Adhering to ethical guidelines ensures legal compliance and avoids fines or penalties.

Positive Impact:

Ethical advertising can contribute positively to society, showing that SMEs care about more than just profit.

6. Case Studies

In this section, provide real-life examples of SMEs that have faced ethical challenges in their social media advertising campaigns. Discuss both the negative consequences of unethical practices and the positive outcomes of choosing an ethical path.

7. Ethical Guidelines for SMEs

Offer practical ethical guidelines that SMEs can adopt in their social media advertising strategies. This section can cover transparency, honesty, respect, and more.

Conclusion

Ethics should be at the forefront of SMEs’ social media advertising efforts. Small and medium-sized enterprises have the power to shape not only their brand’s reputation but also societal norms and values. By partnering with social media management UK to navigate ethical challenges, SMEs can make a positive impact on consumers, build trust, and ensure long-term success in an era where ethics and values play an increasingly vital role in business practices.

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Software

Enhancing Logistics Efficiency through IT Consultancy: A Comprehensive Guide

Enhancing Logistics Efficiency through IT Consultancy A Comprehensive Guide
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In the fast-paced world of logistics, the efficient movement of goods is crucial for businesses to thrive. With advancements in technology and the ever-evolving demands of consumers, logistics IT consultancy has become a vital component for staying competitive and optimizing operations. In this comprehensive guide, we will explore the role of a logistics IT consultant, the benefits they bring to the table, and how they can help businesses transform their supply chains into lean, agile, and resilient systems.

Understanding the Role of a Logistics IT Consultant

A logistics IT consultant is a seasoned professional who specializes in harnessing the power of technology to address supply chain challenges and streamline logistics processes. These experts possess in-depth knowledge of the logistics industry and are well-versed in various technologies, software solutions, and best practices. They collaborate closely with businesses, understanding their unique needs and pain points, before developing tailored strategies that cater to specific requirements.

Unraveling the Benefits of Engaging a Logistics IT Consultant

Process Optimization:

A logistics IT consultant conducts comprehensive analyses of existing logistics processes. By identifying inefficiencies, redundancies, and bottlenecks, they propose data-driven solutions that optimize workflows and reduce operational costs.

Inventory Management:

Keeping track of inventory levels and ensuring optimal stock levels is a challenging task. With IT consultants’ help, businesses can implement cutting-edge inventory management systems, enabling accurate demand forecasting and minimizing inventory carrying costs.

Real-time Visibility:

With the advent of IoT (Internet of Things) and smart sensors, logistics IT consultants can provide real-time visibility into the entire supply chain. This level of transparency helps in proactively addressing potential disruptions and enhancing overall efficiency.

Automation and AI:

Logistics IT consultants leverage automation and artificial intelligence to streamline repetitive tasks, such as order processing, route optimization, and warehouse management. This reduces human errors and frees up valuable resources for more strategic roles.

Data Analytics:

By harnessing the power of big data analytics, IT consultants can derive valuable insights from vast amounts of data generated across the supply chain. These insights aid in making informed decisions, identifying trends, and improving customer experiences.

Key Areas of Expertise of a Logistics IT Consultant

Transportation Management Systems (TMS):

TMS is a critical component of logistics IT consultancy, enabling businesses to optimize transportation routes, track shipments, and manage carrier relationships effectively.

Warehouse Management Systems (WMS):

An efficient WMS is essential for seamless order fulfillment and inventory management. Logistics IT consultants help businesses select, implement, and integrate WMS solutions tailored to their specific requirements.

Supply Chain Visibility Platforms:

These platforms provide real-time tracking of shipments, inventory levels, and demand, enhancing decision-making capabilities and improving overall supply chain performance.

Last-Mile Delivery Solutions:

Logistics IT consultants focus on improving the last leg of the delivery process, making it more efficient, cost-effective, and customer-centric.

The Process of Engaging a Logistics IT Consultant

Initial Assessment:

Businesses need to conduct a thorough evaluation of their logistics processes and outline their specific objectives before engaging a consultant.

Selecting the Right Consultant:

Researching and choosing a reliable logistics IT consultant with a proven track record is critical. Evaluating their expertise, client testimonials, and case studies can help make an informed decision.

Collaboration and Planning:

Once the consultant is on board, collaborative planning and strategizing begin. This phase involves analyzing data, defining project scope, setting targets, and outlining the implementation plan.

Implementation and Integration:

The actual implementation of IT solutions takes place during this phase. The consultant ensures seamless integration with existing systems and provides training to relevant personnel.

Monitoring and Continuous Improvement:

A reputable logistics IT consultant continues to monitor the performance of implemented solutions. They make necessary adjustments and updates to ensure sustained improvements in logistics operations.

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Software

The Solutions Offered by an API Tester

The Solutions Offered by an API Tester

An API is the “middle person” between both the layers and structures of a software or application. API (application program interface (API) Testing is done at the message layer without a graphical user interface. It is a component of the testing phase that defines whether the APIs meet the testers’ expectations regarding capability, reliability, achievement, and security.

The API’s purpose is straightforward – Understanding the API’s purpose will provide you with a strong foundation for preparing your test data for outputs and inputs. This step also aids in the description of the verification strategy. For instance, for some APIs, you will affirm the responses against a database, whereas, for others, it is preferable to validate the reactions against the other APIs.

Common Tests on API

  • Common Tests on API Return Value associated with The input Condition – The API return value is checked based on the input condition.
  • Check to see if the API returns nothing.
  • Check to see if the API causes other events or calls another API. The output of Events should be monitored and verified.
  • Check to see if the API is updating any data structures.

Why the need for an API Tester –

Development and testing teams use API Testing tools to validate software performance before it reaches users’ hands. Agile principles now guide the main benefits sought by QAs and developers, and they include:

  • Previous testing and responses without having to wait for the entire software to be built
  • More efficient test upkeep and refactoring
  • Compared to UI tests, more bugs and concerns were discovered in less time.

Conclusion

An API, or Application Programming Interface, is a collection of software features and procedures that allow other software applications to be obtained or implemented. In API Testing, you utilize software to make API calls, receive output, and log the system’s response.

The vast majority of the services we use daily rely on various interconnected APIs. If one of them fails to function properly, this same entire service may be jeopardized. Fortunately, several Confirmed tools on the market can assist us in ensuring that it all runs as smoothly as possible.

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Software Technology

Ultimate Guide Data Management Software

The world of data centers is, in many respects, controlled by storage software. The code is what connects the workloads, manages the cloud storage, and is the source of the automation for the hardware.

The software storage market includes all software-managed storage platforms, and it is not only expanding from a monetary aspect, but is also fast evolving through the implementation of a technological infrastructure that is undergoing a digital transformation.

Different kinds of storage applications

Virtualization: The underlying hardware is hidden from view when dealing with virtual storage, which is typically accomplished with a shared storage area network (SAN). The use of virtualization makes it possible to take advantage of features such as thin provisioning and block-level deduplication.

  • Software-defined storage, often known as SDS, is a part of software-defined infrastructure that allows the software to handle all of the hardware resources. SDS helps businesses save money by only utilizing the storage resources that are required at any one moment. This is possible because software management pools storage more accurately than human administration does.

  • Replication: The data that has been stored can be copied using either arrays or networks. The data that is being communicated to a device on the network can be split when using network-based replication, while array-based replication allows many server replications to be managed from a single place.

  • Archival storage: Archives, which are typically a public cloud tier such as Amazon Glacier or Azure Archive Storage, store data that is “cold,” which means it is accessed only seldom, at prices that are cheaper than those for “hot” workload data.

  • Storage and device management: A storage and device management system will carry out responsibilities such as monitoring storage networks, configuring devices, and performing deduplication.

  • Data protection and recovery: All data that is stored needs to have some sort of protection and regular backups in case there are any security breaches or cyber-attacks. Software that provides data protection and recovery helps reduce the amount of time needed to retrieve lost information if a storage system fails.

What is ArchiverFS?

The solution for archiving files on servers and other types of network storage systems enables the use of any device as secondary storage. Along with full support for cloud computing, Distributed File Systems (DFS), replication, de-duplication, and compression, it has a very small footprint on the host system. ArchiverFS enables you to utilize any network-attached storage (NAS), storage area network (SAN), or cloud platform as storage for your outdated unstructured files. If you can format it with NTFS and share it on the network using a UNC path, then you will be able to use it as second-line storage

AchiverFS Offers Benefits in Both Agility and Scalability

Enterprises can more dynamically grow their storage pools when they use software-based storage systems like the cloud, containers, or software-defined infrastructure. These are all examples of software-based storage systems. Additionally, the software offers faster insight into storage infrastructures: An application that makes use of artificial intelligence (AI) technology is in a better position to automatically communicate to a storage system when it requires more resources to be able to manage a workload. Therefore, you shouldn’t be afraid to give it a try.

Cost Savings

Because they more accurately allocate storage resources, the vast majority of AchiverFS platforms result in cost savings for commercial customers. AchiverFS will only use the amount of energy that is necessary if it is aware of the specific hardware or cloud resources that are required by a job. Human administrators or systems that are limited to hardware will often be unable to use resources as accurately as software-based systems.

Bringing Together Different Types of Data Sources

It is of the utmost importance in the data storage market to have the capability of connecting data sources and reducing the number of data silos that exist in enterprise storage environments. According to Dan Kogan, vice president of product management and product marketing at Pure Storage, a supplier that specializes in all-flash storage, API connections help bridge the gap between storage and other applications. Pure Storage was founded in 2012. Just click here to clear all of your doubts.

It is essential to have storage that is quick, reliable, and driven by APIs. The data mobility capabilities that are required to enable this are required to ensure that API-driven storage is both quick and reliable. To avail such benefit you should at least give it a try. The use of case-driven storage platforms that are powering software that we refer to as storage-as-code is how this requirement is now being met. This program makes it possible to have a consistent experience in locations where previously there had been no such consistency.

When a company wants to pull data from five distinct application workloads, it will rely on a storage system that has an application programming interface (API) that can readily connect to business applications. APIs of this kind makes it possible for enterprises to utilize more data.

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Software Technology

Technology that Can Help to Better Manage Your Payroll

Technology has been making our lives easier for quite a long time now. Since the day of its inception, technology has showed us ways of working smarter, not harder. Now it has become one of the major parts of human life. We can barely think of modern life without the tough of tech. It has also showed us how to manage with most of the tricky things like salary details. The systems and rules that the organizations have to follow these days are not only tricky but also necessary. This makes it a huge necessity for the companies to find ways that will ultimately help them to comply with all those things without wasting much time.

But salary calculation is not actually that easy. An organization has multiple employees having different amount as salaries. The bonus and benefits they get are also different. Along with contractual employees or temporary forces make up a significant part of a business. It is not easy to handle these things without the help of technology. There are huge chances of tiny mistakes that can ultimately ruin the reputation of a company as it can get audited. Salary calculator software (คำนวณเงินเดือน, term in Thai) can add more ease and accuracy to all the complicated calculations.

The software can assist with new rules and regulation

Rules, especially regarding taxes are subject to certain changes. While people get easily informed about the changes, it is tough to apply them properly. But it is ultimately necessary to apply all the rules and comply with all the regulations. The software can itself successfully help to put things in place. When you choose to automate the whole process, all the things will be done by the software without human intervention.

Save your precious time

Businesses, especially the small ones require all its efforts towards the development of the business. But there are a few things which take too much of time. Salary calculator happens to be one such thing. Some members of your team will just remain busy with salary related things for most of the time. As you take the hep of the software with automation option, your members will be free of this responsibility. They will be able put all their efforts towards the important projects and goals to help the business achieve success faster.

Increased productivity

Any discrepancy with the salary details can actually create a problem within the workforce. When there is a problem with someone’s salary, that employee will remain preoccupied with the problem. There will also be a hectic situation as the people dealing with salary details will also try to get things right as soon as possible. This will ultimately reduce the productivity of the people working for the company. This problem can be solved with the software easily. The automation feature will credit the amount to the accounts at the perfect time after calculating all the details properly. Make the most of technology by investing software to ease up your salary calculation process.

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Software

CRM Software for Small Business: 4 Ways It Can Help Customize Your Relationship With Customers and Potential Customers

Are you a small business that needs help tracking your relationships with existing, new, and potential customers? Don’t want to pay an arm and a leg for CRM software? There are solutions built specifically for you that won’t break the bank! Keep reading to learn more about CRM software for small businesses, and the many ways it can help you build a better relationship with your customers!

Advantage #1: Increase Company Efficiency

Expand your brain and increase your company’s efficiency by keeping all of your customer data in one place. Consolidate information across employees. Keep all historical events, quotes, and invoices in a single tool. Retain essential conversation details that can be recalled later through a simple search. Use the CRM software as an extension of your brain and have it work for you!

Advantage #2: Low Barrier to Entry

Most CRM software is Cloud-based which means you don’t need any hardware investment nor an I.T. department to keep it running. It’s a low barrier to entry solution. Keep expenses low and productivity high!

Advantage #3: Create a Personalized Experience for Customers

Give customers exactly what they want. Track leads, meeting notes, and every stage of your sales cycle in a CRM. Schedule and be notified of important follow-ups with your customers to create a personalized experience. Track the history and outcome of every interaction to build a database of successful tactics so you can add value to each customer.

Advantage #4: Grow Your Future

Keep pace with your growing customer base. You can use this database of customer records and build upon it over time. Evolve your strategy as your customer base grows. Allow the system to create meaningful data points between your customer interactions and provide analytical reporting and actionable insights. Use that information to build a strategy and plan for your future that works best for your business.

Why CRM Software Is Necessary

Small businesses don’t have the resources and capital that mid-size or large companies have. However, your problems are the same. Does the following sound like you? You aren’t good at automating your operations in a way that generates sales. You never have enough staff to help you understand where your sales come from. And you don’t know where to begin to maximize your return on investment, or “ROI”.

CRM (Customer Relationship Management) software helps you collect, organize, and consolidate each detail of your customer data. Long gone are the days where notes can be made on a business card or tallied mentally in your head. The sea of customers is vast and it’s time to track them with modern technology.

Looking for the Best CRM for Small Business? Visit Anthem Software today to take a 120-second tour of our CRM software. We specialize in business management and marketing systems for small businesses. We are committed to high-quality customer service, increasing your ROI, as well as providing value through the integration of your back office (business operations) with your front office (sales). We would love the chance to earn your business!

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Software

Defining Moona.com in an Uncomplicated Manner

Moona is a method of payment. Every time you use this, to shop at one of the retail partners, you will be unlocking £5 of discounts. This is an automatic savings and there are not any strings attached. It ought to be noted, every transaction is encrypted and secure in every way. The £5 is an instant savings. This payment method has completely reinvented the shopping experience for those who love to do this online. The checkout process, for online shopping, is a vital aspect and can be efficient and convenient for the consumer. Every checkout experience must be a smooth process from start to finish because it has a powerful impact on the shopper.

Benefits: How is Moona Useful?

There is an abundance of valuable benefits, offered with the Moona payment option. This is a very disruptive approach that has transformed the standard checkout style in outstanding ways. Moona is a very useful option for payments. The following are included :

  • Technology that is easy-to-use.
  • Instant discounts (on an unlimited basis) ;
  • One-click buying ;
  • Free returns are coming soon ;
  • Anti-fraud guarantees ;
  • Various payment options (pay later or make installments) ;
  • Checkout benefits (simplicity in shopping) ;
  • Larger carts ;
  • A free payment option for merchants ;
  • Affordable yearly memberships (for shoppers).

Safety and Moona

Fraud protection is vital in this modern day and age. Moona will deliver safety and security to those who choose this trustworthy payment method. Moona uses Stripe technology. It was built for safety within the internet. Stripe is known for being one of the very safest payment methods in the world. Moona has make grand strides to protect your security and privacy. Prevent unauthorized use and protecting your personal information is vital and it is taken very seriously at Moona. When you make a payment, you can trust that it will be safe and secure with Stripe. Stripe comes with certification and stringent guidelines :

  • PCI Service Provider (Level 1) ;
  • Security is of the very highest levels ;
  • HSTS and HTTPS ensure very secure connections are upheld ;
  • communication and data is safe because encryption is included.

A Defined Vision

Moona has very defined values, in place, to ensure your trust. Moona does not become idle, in terms of quality offerings, Generating hyper-growth is ongoing. This is a company that will push limits and step out of comfort zones because magic happens when it is weaved into up-to-date practices. The following components are included in the values of Moona :

  • Simplicity: The goal has been to make certain that online shopping is uncomplicated for all ;
  • Focus: Moving forward and remaining up-to-date is a Moona promise because the consumer deserves excellence in payment methods and secure options;
  • Ambition: Ongoing growth by stepping up the offerings and payment solutions for the online shopper.

Eliminating Personal Information Concerns

When you opt to use Moona for your payment method, you eliminate concerns about your own personal information. Moona will not collect credit card numbers. This is responsible way to complete your online shopping. Accountability is included and personal information is secure. Eliminating concerns and fears is part of this payment option.

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Software

The Best Foolproof Ways to Streamline Your Remote Business in 2021

There are simple ways of streamlining and improving out remote business so as to achieve optimum efficacy and efficiency. The concept of Work From Home has gained impetus, thanks to the tough situations that we have been thrown into this year. Until now, not all organizations managed to adjust to the manner in which we work by logging in using remote connections day in and day out on workdays.

On the market is offered a bunch of different software for remote work that can help you through task planning, monitoring, time tracking, project implementation and much more. Mainly remote monitoring software became quite popular nowadays thanks to the particular mode of working that many of companies have adopted. Work Examiner is a remote employee monitoring software that might become a vital tool in improving business processes within a company. In case you thought before or just realized now that you want to integrate such software in your company, go to site for more detailed information.

Setting Day to Day Goals

Setting practical and achievable targets for every workday is important so that your day runs smoothly and you do not miss anything planned. To make this you can organize daily calls or online meetings within your company or team and plan everything in advance for each team mate, since one is never sure of what could derail you on your road to achieving it. Setting schedules and specific daily goals also helps, because this gets back normalcy and the goals might be discussed and set for individuals, work teams, or the whole company, which depends completely on your projects and way of working. Set aside few minutes daily for goals not only at the start of each day but towards the end as well. Jot down the tasks and the time taken to complete these.

Experiment with the resources available

It is important that you provide the right resources to employees so that they are able to do a good job. Do not try to force and implement processes that are inconvenient for your employees, as it would only make it difficult for them to adjust to the new remote work process. Make sure that each employee knows what he or she should do, the way of how to perform the task remotely, and to whom may be addressed all the questions.

Automating your work

The best way to streamline the remote business is to automate the teamwork and some of the processes. This not only provides adequate structure to your work but will also save on a great deal of time that you would have otherwise spent on repeatable processes that turn into a boring routine.

Flexible performance

Flexibility is the greatest advantage that remote working offers anyone. A working schedule that is flexible enables the employees to perform better so that one is able to adjust to the specific schedules around their lives. If the employees are able to complete their work within six hours instead of eight hours, it means that they are optimally working. At the same time, remote work can be very unusual for an employee, and if there is insufficient self-discipline or other distractions, the quality of his work can be greatly reduced. Therefore, the introduction of convenient software for monitoring working hours will help you assess the quality of work and the involvement of your employees.

Final Thoughts

If remote work is a temporary phenomenon in your company, try making some simple but effective changes to keep the quality of work at a high level and keep your employees happy. If the transition to remote work is foreseen for a long time, choose good software that will suit your requirements and in which it will be convenient and comfortable for your employees to work. Also, take care of their training so that the transition to remote work does not become great stress for them, because happy employees who do their job well are the key to a successful business.

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Software

The inconvenience of using the software (application). How to improve your company’s reputation through usability testing

Every day each of us deals with numerous software and applications in order to perform work tasks, entertain, order and buy some services and goods, conduct fund transfer, and so on. Some of these applications at once become our favorites and indispensable helpers, others we avoid to use or even quit them after the first sight. Why does this happen? Why some apps are doomed to success while others lag behind and seem to be useless, even offering great functions. As a rule, the cause lies in the inconvenience of using.

Sometimes users put off some applications because of their sophisticated design or too bright colors of font or background that start to irritate them at first glance. Many applications are often ignored due to non-intuitive navigation, lack of learnability and customization, and tasks that require too many users’ efforts. Being displeased with their experience, in the best-case scenario, users just never use an inconvenient application again, and in the worst-case scenario, they submit numerous bad reviews.

Oleh Sadykow (Co-Founder at DeviQA – leading software testing company) told this story about the failure of the use of the application:

Once a friend of mine, who is a travel agent, had booked and issued airplane tickets for regular customers in a new booking system, later passengers applied to her asking whether they would be able to call off their trip in case of necessity. My friend checked the refund amount and pressed the “Cancel” button, being absolutely sure that in such a way she would interrupt the refund procedure, but tickets were refunded. It was awful as new tickets for the same flights were available just in the business class, and she had to buy them for her own money. There is no need to say that after that painful experience, she left furious feedback and never used that application again. In this story, both sides were harmed: my friend lost money while the booking system lost its customer and reputation. All these troubles could have been avoided if usability testing had been conducted. Usability testing would have defined users’ way of thinking, and maybe developers would have provided a pop-up window with a request to confirm refund or renamed the button. As you can see, this type of software testing plays an important role in successful product development, and it should not be ignored.

So let’s consider mobile app usability testing in detail. Usability testing is a process of software assessment by observing real users’ interaction with an application in an attempt to understand their behavior, way of thinking and preferences, uncover difficulties in user experience, and highlight obstacles to good usability. As a rule, recruited test participants carry out particular tasks while a person in charge keeps watching, listening, and recording important information that can be used for product improvement. Users can be asked to make comments and express their thoughts and feelings during task execution. If completion time is important and measured, users are interviewed later. In recent times the method of eye-tracking is also widely used during usability testing. It helps track the motions and focus of users’ eyes to ensure that the most important elements and information draw users’ attention. Special tools are used for this purpose, among them are CrazyEgg, HotJar, RealEye, OGAMA, Feng-GUI, etc.

It is strongly recommended to conduct usability testing repeatedly and as early as possible.

Depending on time and purposes of usability testing execution, two types of research can be conducted:

  • Behavioral research reveals users’ actions, how they actually interact with an app, and how they feel.
  • Attitudinal research reveals what users think and say about an application and its performance

It is very important to differentiate these two types of research as what users say and what they do are often two very different things.

As mentioned before, it is a good practice to conduct usability testing in the early stages of SDLC (software development life cycle). It can be performed as soon as you have mockups and prototypes. Carrying out usability testing at the start, you can receive useful tips on information architecture. For example, you can hand out cards with items and section names of the future product and ask users to group them in a way that is most suitable and convenient according to their opinion. Besides, uncovering usability defects at the very beginning, you can make necessary changes that will not lead to considerable wastes of time and money.

Taking into account the foregoing, let’s specify the benefits of the usability testing conduction for your application and business in the whole:

  • Conducting usability testing, you can get reliable early feedback about your product and make necessary adjustments into the development process.
  • Usability testing can uncover bugs that could have been omitted by QA engineers and developers.
  • Usability testing reveals users’ behavior and thoughts that are a valuable resource of information on how to make app more user friendly.
  • This testing can prove that an app meets all users’ expectations and that they can easily and intuitively use it.
  • Conduction of usability testing for mobile applications in the early stages identifies possible usability defects, and you can save your time and money on recoding and redesign while fixing usability defects founded by the end-users after release can cost you a fortune.
  • Usability testing helps create a perfect, user-friendly application that satisfies all desires and needs of the end-users. As a result, you can be sure that your application will be in great demand.
  • Usability testing helps you stand out from your peers, as it guarantees high quality of your application that will not be unnoticed by end-users and rivals.

So why is usability testing important? This type of testing not only simplifies the development process and cuts down corresponding expenses but also significantly boosts the quality of your product, and the high-quality product makes your users satisfied and happy. All these provide you with good karma and an excellent reputation. Good reputation, in its turn, is very important for any business as it proves reliability, helps attract new customers and partners, and establish strong and long-term relationships.