Category: Digital Transformation

SAP S/4HANA is a catalyst for business success, weaving its transformative power across the ERP landscape. SAP S/4HANA is more than just any software; it’s a realm of possibilities. It is like a digital fortress that integrates and orchestrates your supply chain, ensuring harmony and efficiency throughout your organization. 

With a single source of truth, it empowers organizations to make informed decisions based on accurate, up-to-the-minute insights. It’s like having a trusted compass that illuminates the hidden paths of your operations, empowering you to confidently navigate the ever-changing terrain of the business landscape.

Understanding SAP S/4HANA – A Visionary Leap Into The Future

SAP S/4HANA is not your ordinary ERP solution. It harnesses the power of in-memory computing, real-time analytics, and a simplified data model to deliver a seamless and intelligent ERP experience. It is a technological marvel that blends speed, agility, and simplicity into a single transformative platform.

The shift from traditional SAP ERP systems to SAP S/4HANA marks a significant milestone in the ERP landscape. It represents a move from a row-based data model to an in-memory, columnar-based data model, resulting in lightning-fast data processing and real-time analytics.

With the transition to SAP S/4HANA, businesses unlock a plethora of benefits. They gain real-time insights for faster decision-making, simplified processes for improved efficiency, and intelligent technologies for enhanced automation and predictive capabilities. It’s like upgrading to a futuristic command center that propels your business into a new realm of success.

Let’s begin by unveiling the key features and capabilities that make SAP S/4HANA shine.

• It brings the power of real-time insights, allowing businesses to make decisions based on up-to-the-minute data. 
• SAP S/4HANA simplifies processes, reduces data redundancies, and eliminates complexities to streamline operations. 
• It leverages advanced technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning, and predictive analytics to unlock automation, insights, and predictive capabilities.

Read more: A Beginner’s Guide To Implementing SAP S/4HANA

Key Benefits of SAP S/4HANA

1. Grasp The Pulse of Your Business at Any Given Moment with Real-Time Analytics.

With its in-memory computing capabilities, SAP S/4HANA processes massive amounts of data in real-time, allowing for faster and more responsive operations. With real-time analytics, you have the power to respond swiftly to changing market dynamics, identify emerging trends, and seize opportunities before they fade away. It’s like having a nimble and swift chariot that propels your business forward, helping you stay ahead of the competition.

2. Enthralling User Experience

SAP S/4HANA’s intuitive interface and personalized dashboards transform ERP navigation into a delightful journey. It’s like stepping into a realm of effortless elegance, where tasks are completed with grace and efficiency, where your teams can work seamlessly, unlocking their full potential and driving productivity to new heights.

3. Declutter Your Landscape with a Simplified Data Model

SAP S/4HANA can help you bid farewell to the tangled webs of complexity and data redundancies. It enables you to declutter your business landscape, allowing you to focus on what truly matters—innovation and growth. With a simplified data model, your organization gains agility, flexibility, and the ability to adapt swiftly to changing business needs.

Now that you are aware of the business benefits let’s discuss how you can prepare for SAP S/4HANA implementation.

Prepare For SAP S/4HANA Implementation

With the right foundations in place, organizations can embark on their SAP S/4HANA implementation with confidence, ready to unlock the full potential of this transformative platform.

1. Assessing Business Readiness:

Assessing the organization’s readiness for SAP S/4HANA implementation is like taking stock of your supplies before embarking on a grand expedition. Evaluating data readiness ensures that your information is accurate, complete, and compatible with the new system. Additionally, allocating resources appropriately – including skilled personnel and budget – ensures that you have the necessary support to navigate the implementation journey smoothly.

2. Building the Implementation Team:

On a voyage, each member has a vital role to play. Project managers steer the entire implementation process. Functional consultants bring their expertise in specific business areas, ensuring that SAP S/4HANA meets your unique requirements. Technical experts handle system configurations, integrations, and customizations. Together, this cross-functional team brings together diverse perspectives, fostering synergy and ensuring that all aspects of the implementation are addressed comprehensively.

3. Chart your Course by Defining Implementation Goals and Scope:

Defining clear goals and scope for the SAP S/4HANA implementation provides a clear direction and prevents aimless wandering. By identifying key business processes, you prioritize areas that will benefit most from the new system. This focused approach optimizes time and resources enabling effective project planning and increasing the likelihood of a successful SAP S/4HANA implementation.

Six Phases of SAP S/4HANA Implementation

Each of the following well-defined phases of the SAP S/4HANA phase brings your organization closer to harnessing its and unlocking new levels of efficiency, agility, and competitive advantage:

Phase #1 Project Planning and Preparation:

Planning and preparation are like laying the foundation for a solid structure. Activities in this phase include creating a detailed project plan, establishing timelines, and defining deliverables. By clearly outlining project objectives, tasks, and responsibilities, organizations ensure a structured and well-organized implementation process. 

Effective stakeholder communication is vital during this phase, keeping everyone informed and engaged. Change management strategies are implemented to address any resistance to change, ensuring the smooth adoption of SAP S/4HANA.

Phase #2 System Installation and Configuration:

System installation and configuration start with assessing hardware requirements and designing the system landscape, ensuring optimal performance and scalability. The SAP S/4HANA system is then installed, configured, and integrated with other systems, creating a cohesive IT ecosystem. This phase requires careful consideration of factors like network infrastructure, security, and software installation.

Phase #3 Data Migration and Conversion:

Data migration and conversion are like transferring belongings to a new home. Legacy data is extracted, transformed, and loaded into the SAP S/4HANA system. This process involves data cleansing, eliminating duplicates, and ensuring data accuracy. Data validation is crucial to verify the integrity and consistency of migrated data. 

Phase #4 Customization and Configuration:

This phase is like arranging furniture in a new space. Configuration involves setting up master data, defining workflows, and configuring system functionalities. This phase ensures that SAP S/4HANA aligns with the organization’s unique processes, enabling efficient operations and improved user experience.

Phase #5 Testing and Training:

Testing and training form the backbone of a successful SAP S/4HANA implementation. Thorough testing is conducted to validate the system’s functionality, performance, and data accuracy. This includes unit testing, integration testing, and user acceptance testing. 

Training programs are designed to equip end-users with the necessary skills and knowledge to effectively utilize SAP S/4HANA. 

Phase #6 Go-Live and Post-Implementation Support:

Going-live is like opening the doors to a new facility, enabling users to work with real data. Post-implementation activities include monitoring system performance, addressing user feedback, and providing ongoing support. Continuous improvement initiatives and enhancements are implemented based on user experience and evolving business needs. Regular system maintenance and updates ensure the system’s optimal performance and long-term success.

These are some best practices and lessons learned from previous SAP S/4HANA implementations. They offer valuable insights that can guide your organization toward successful implementation. These can help you avoid common pitfalls and maximize the benefits of SAP S/4HANA. 

Read more: A Simple Guide To Handling Common SAP Errors and Troubleshoots

Strategies You Can Use to Overcome Common Challenges

Challenges during SAP S/4HANA implementations can vary, but some common ones include data migration complexities, resistance to change, resource constraints, and technical integration issues. To overcome these challenges, organizations should:

• Engage experienced consultants and leverage their expertise.
• Invest in data cleansing and migration tools to streamline the process.
• Prioritize change management activities and communicate the benefits of SAP S/4HANA.
• Allocate sufficient resources and budget for implementation and post-implementation support.
• Collaborate closely with SAP experts and leverage their guidance and best practices.
• Monitor the implementation progress regularly and adapt the plan as needed.

How Can Fingent Help?

Fingent can provide comprehensive services to deploy SAP S/4HANA for better supply chain management. We at Fingent offer consulting services to assess your supply chain management requirements and design a customized SAP S/4HANA implementation strategy. Our advisory services provide expert guidance on how to optimize your operations and drive digital transformation.

Are you currently using an older version of SAP ERP? If so, we can analyze your existing system, assess the impact of the conversion, and guide you through the conversion process.

Fingent leverages SAP Leonardo’s intelligent technologies, such as machine learning, IoT, and analytics, to enhance your supply chain management processes. With our expertise in SAP S/4HANA and supply chain management, we can guide you through the entire deployment process, from strategy and implementation to ongoing support.

Reach out to us, and let’s work magic for you. 

The world of technology keeps evolving and waits for no one, so it is our responsibility to keep up with it rather than fall behind. The healthcare industry has for a long time been using software development systems to monitor and ease work-lifestyles; now it is time to customize this software to make them function and run exactly the way you need it to. Custom software development has made life and business significantly easier for innumerable industries and is poised to revolutionize the Healthcare Industry as well. This article will tell you all you need to know about it.

Importance Of Healthcare Software Development  

Healthcare software systems provide innumerable benefits to hospital management, from improved productivity to reduced medication errors. It streamlines the workflow, enhances data quality, drastically reduces errors, and boosts patient experiences. Rising technological advancements also help with hospital administration and operations. 

Benefits Of Customized Healthcare Software Development 

The overall benefit of using customized healthcare software is overall progress and betterment. This should be reason enough to convince anyone to adopt custom healthcare software but if it is not, listed below are a few of the other benefits of this type of software development:

• Increased security – Thanks to the inculcation of software in healthcare, hospitals are now sending, storing, and retrieving data through the web. Custom software solutions will guarantee the safety of this personal medical data. 
• User-friendly experience – The target audience’s desired product is taken into consideration by software designers and user interface designers. Software designers can also consider specific aspects of an application to make it more alluring and interactive. 
• Customizable features – Customization is the buzzword right now, and custom software provides it like no other. Customer feedback is prioritized, and the generated product is more streamlined and efficient. Customized software will handle specific problems, and this aspect makes it attracts and brings in more loyal customers or patients. 
• Quality of diagnostics – Technology is well known for its brilliance in efficiency. Diagnostics run by a customized software solution have proven to have outstanding quality and accuracy because these solutions imbibe knowledge from innumerable sources and compare results faster. Hence, healthcare providers can proffer improved healthcare if they rely on custom software solutions. 

Read more: How Can Custom-Made Software Provide Superior Customer Service In The Healthcare Industry?

Understanding Healthcare Software Development 

Healthcare software development is the creation of any software for the healthcare sector to facilitate hospitals and improve equipment management. It also helps with administering electronic records, managing health records, providing diagnoses and treatments, improving patient care, and reducing costs. 

Healthcare software development plays an important role in everyone’s life. For doctors – it reduces paperwork and increases collaboration with other specialists. For patients – it enhances patient outreach, improves healthcare quality, and eases access to medical data. Lastly, it improves medical business management and streamlines management processes for organizations. 

Healthcare organizations, just like any other organization, have their own set of challenges that cripple them. Custom Software can address most of these challenges and fix them. 

• Cyberthreats – The skyrocketing rate of cyber security attacks threatens to endanger the personal medical data of patients and, ultimately, the reputation of a healthcare center. Custom Software can fix this with its exceptional security firewalls and customized cyber security.
• Patient Experience – When patients experience favorable care, they are more likely to heed medical advice and this is essential for better healthcare outcomes, boosting patient retention rates and lowering malpractice risk. Custom software can help here, too by enhancing the user experience and user interface by creating more interactive, customized, and enticing products. 

Key Considerations for Healthcare Software Development

Now that we have established the importance of custom healthcare software development, here are some key considerations:

1. Compliance And Security – 

Medical records are very sensitive data, and it is the responsibility of the healthcare facility to protect them carefully. Abiding by the international security laws of HIPAA, PCI, and IOS is a must, along with deft investments in specialized medical data security. Ensure that your partner conducts adequate software checkups to detect any potential vulnerability.

2. User-Centred Design – 

Customized healthcare software’s main target is its audience, so focusing on their comfort or ease is a top priority. Inclusivity of all kinds, from senior users to less literate users, is a crucial thing to keep in mind when designing an interface for the organization. Properly incorporated user-centered designs are vital for an intuitive and efficient workflow. Software Designers usually build a simple and easy-to-use user interface (UI) and a user experience (UX). 

3. Interoperability and Integration – 

Interoperability, in simple words, is the ability of a software or system to work compatibly with other products and systems. It helps facilitate organized and effective data exchange between data systems. To avoid complications with regard to personalized information or reports of customers while sharing data between systems, especially when introducing new versions of the same software to different platforms, efficient interoperability is important. 

4. Scalability and Flexibility – 

Scalability and flexibility are other critical considerations to remember. It is imperative to design a product capable of scaling up as your healthcare organization grows. Ensuring that your customized software developed is flexible and can change and segue according to wavering customer demands. 

5. Data Analytics and Insights – 

Data analytics is essentially the process of studying raw data in order to determine trends and enable enhanced decision-making.  This transformation of data done by custom software into insights can drastically leverage data to enhance decision-making, patient outcomes, and overall operational efficiency.

Read more: AI in Healthcare – Know what’s trending and what’s upcoming!

Steps in Custom Healthcare Software Development

Let’s now get into the development itself. Here are some steps to ensure that the development goes smoothly and provides the best outcomes: 

1. Requirements Gathering and Analysis – 

It is always best to make a detailed analysis of your organization, its needs, and budgets before diving into a custom software development project. Consult well-versed software designers and healthcare professionals, jot the requirement details, and communicate with your team members to obtain an unbiased perspective.

2. Design and Development – 

In this step, the analysis generated is used as input and software infrastructure for implementing software development. Software developers first draw a synopsis of the details for the application, including specific aspects such as User interfaces, System interfaces, Network and Network Requirements, and Databases. 

Following close behind the design stage is the development stage. It is the stage where coding starts and all components of the software are implemented. The use of agile methodologies and interactive interfaces to improve user satisfaction, flexibility, and feedback incorporation is crucial during this phase of development. 

3. Quality Assurance And Testing – 

The testing period begins at the end of the coding stage. Here the modules are circulated for testing. Although testing may not seem like a necessary step, skipping it will ultimately result in the downfall of software. The developed software should be tested thoroughly, and developers fix any vulnerability discovered. There are various tests that need to be conducted after coding of software; these include – functional, usability, and security testing. 

4. Deployment and Training – 

After the product has been sufficiently tested, the software is deployed into the market or organization scheme. In the case of UAT (User Acceptance Testing), a production environment is created, and the customer, along with the developers, partakes in the testing. 

Case Studies

Fingent has been a leader in custom software development for the healthcare sector and has created unmatched solutions for its clients. Here are a few examples:

A Data Analytics Solution for NHS: With the wide range of hospitals under its governance, the NHS required a data visualization tool that would help them compare healthcare performances across the hospitals and showcase the best ones. Fingent helped develop a solution that was customized to the NHS’s specific needs and designed an application with interactive visuals and real-time access to insights. 

Fingent’s portfolio includes top-notch solutions like this, including an online engagement platform for NovitaCare and a patient care solution to promote effective communication in the healthcare ecosystem. Working with clients globally, Fingent has been able to have a direct impact on simplified patient care, operational efficiency, and cost savings for healthcare providers. 

Future Trends In Healthcare Software Development 

The future evidently holds great plans for healthcare software. We have only skimmed over the uses and possibilities that technology has introduced to healthcare; there are so many more possibilities.  

1. AI in Healthcare

Artificial Intelligence is the most beneficial factor of technology for the healthcare industry. It can effortlessly mimic human cognition in analyzing, interpreting, and evaluating complex medical data. AI can perform data analysis through the healthcare system and can be widely used to predict patient admissions and improve clinical workflows. 

2. IoT in Healthcare

IoT (Internet of Things) has the potential to enable healthcare professionals to supervise their patients more accurately. It can equip healthcare workers and professionals with the tools to deliver excellent care and treatment to patients. Exploiting this technology and several tech-powered wearables that enable real-time tracking, end-to-end connectivity, and remote monitoring are some of the other areas that IoT will assist.

Summary 

Healthcare Software Development benefits institution staff, patients, and administrators. Although it might seem quite diverse and may come across as a daunting task, with the right partner on your side your journey will be successful. 

Look for a partner in Fingent, and we will help you navigate the complexities and compliances that come with the development of healthcare software solutions.

Reach out to us today, and let’s get talking. 

Today we live in a world where machines possess an extraordinary ability to learn, reason, and make decisions, much like the human mind. This remarkable realm of technology known as Artificial Intelligence is not merely a product of science fiction or futuristic imagination. It has become an awe-inspiring reality that is transforming the landscape of countless industries.

But that’s just the tip of the AI iceberg.

In mobile development, AI can transform your customer’s device into a personal shopping assistant, a language guru, or a creative photographer all in the blink of an eye. 

The integration of AI in mobile app development doesn’t stop there. 

It unlocks a realm of possibilities for your customers, from personalized virtual assistants that organize their life, to fitness apps that act as their personal trainers, to healthcare apps that monitor their well-being.

But how do we understand the concept of AI in mobile apps?

Unraveling Artificial Intelligence in Mobile Apps

Simply put, AI is like the brain behind the scenes, making your apps smarter and more interactive. 

One of AI’s superpowers is Machine Learning (ML). It’s like a super adaptable brain that learns from data and experiences. Machine learning algorithms analyze massive amounts of information to get better at tasks. They can recognize patterns, make predictions, and even understand your preferences.

Another clever component is Natural Language Processing (NLP). It’s like an AI language translator that allows you can talk to your app, ask questions, and it magically understands and responds. NLP allows your AI sidekick to grasp the meaning behind your words, making conversations with your app feel more human-like. 

How does it help?

Read more: Understanding NLP: Will It Reign Supreme In Near Future?

From Mundane to Marvelous – Benefits of AI In Mobile Apps

Weaving the powers of AI into your mobile apps can enhance user experience. How? Like a brilliant and intuitive companion, AI-powered mobile apps can provide personalized recommendations. AI algorithms analyze user behavior, learn their tastes, and curate a world of suggestions. 

Plus, it learns and grows with them. The more your customers use your apps, the smarter those apps become, tailoring their suggestions to your customer’s ever-changing whims and fancies and predicting their move, and effortlessly serving up what they need.

Read more: https://www.fingent.com/blog/is-ai-powered-mobile-app-what-you-need-for-your-business-now/

Key Applications of AI In Mobile Apps

AI brings a layer of intelligence to your apps that takes them to the next level. Here are some key applications that this has made possible: 

1. Voice Assistants and Natural Language Processing

40% of mobile users use voice search at least once a day. – Comptia.

Natural Language Processing (NLP) enables the integration of voice assistants like Siri, Google Assistant, and Alexa into mobile apps. No matter how they phrase it, NLP enables your app to decipher the meaning and context of their spoken words. 

It is capable of unraveling the intricacies of slang, deciphering accents, and even understanding complex sentences with multiple layers of meaning. It’s like having a language expert at your beck and call. But it doesn’t end there. NLP allows voice assistants to learn from every interaction, becoming more intelligent over time.

2. Personalized Recommendations

AI algorithms can analyze user data to provide personalized recommendations in mobile apps by utilizing machine learning techniques:

• Data Collection: Mobile apps collect user data through various means, such as user registrations, app usage tracking, explicit ratings, and implicit signals like clicks, views, and interactions.
• User Profiling: Such data is used to create user profiles that capture individual preferences, interests, and behaviors. 
• Pattern Recognition: AI algorithms can identify similarities based on factors like item attributes, past behavior, and user demographics.
• Recommendation Generation: Based on the identified patterns, the algorithms generate personalized recommendations. For example, in a music app, the algorithm might suggest songs or artists similar to the user’s previous listening habits or recommend popular tracks among users with similar tastes.

The benefits of personalized recommendations for user engagement and satisfaction are significant:

• Enhanced User Experience: Users are more likely to discover new content they enjoy and spend more time using the app.
• Improved Discovery: Personalized recommendations help users explore new music genres, discover new movies or shows, or find products that suit their tastes, leading to greater satisfaction.
• Time and Effort Saving: With personalized recommendations, users can find relevant content more quickly and easily.
• Increased User Retention: When users receive preferred recommendations, they are more likely to remain engaged with the app. 
• Business Benefits: Personalized recommendations result in improved conversion rates and increased customer loyalty.

3. Image and Video Recognition Tasks

AI plays a crucial role in mobile apps across industries, including e-commerce, social media, entertainment, gaming, and more. For example:

• Facial Recognition: This technology is widely used in mobile apps for various purposes, such as authentication, photo tagging, and personalization.

• Object Detection: With AI algorithms, mobile apps leverage object detection for a range of purposes, such as visual search and safety features.
• Augmented Reality (AR) Experiences: AI algorithms are employed in mobile apps to enable applications like virtual try-on for shopping, gaming, and navigation.

Read Case Study: How Fingent helped build a unique mixed reality application for a leading university that enables users to identify people using facial recognition!

4. Intelligent Chatbots

The integration of AI-powered chatbots in mobile apps revolutionizes customer support and interaction by enabling efficient and automated communication with users. Using AI algorithms, chatbots recognize the intent behind user queries and quickly search and retrieve relevant information to address user queries effectively.

Success Stories

Mobile apps have been able to enhance user satisfaction, drive revenue growth, and achieve operational efficiency, resulting in their success in the mobile app market. Here are some examples:

1. Instagram

Instagram, one of the “big three” social media platforms, utilizes AI algorithms to provide personalized content recommendations in the Explore tab. This greatly improves user engagement by helping users discover relevant posts and accounts. AI is also used for content moderation, and identifying and filtering out inappropriate or spammy content, thus creating a safer user environment.

Impact: AI integration in Instagram has contributed to increased user engagement by facilitating content discovery and improving user safety by detecting and removing harmful content. Today it is 4th most used social media platform and 5th most visited website.

2. Uber

Uber, a ride-hailing platform, employs AI algorithms to optimize its dynamic pricing system. Machine learning models analyze supply and demand patterns, traffic conditions, and historical data to determine surge pricing, ensuring efficient allocation of drivers and meeting high-demand periods.

Impact: AI integration in Uber enables efficient pricing strategies, ensuring the availability of drivers during peak demand and generating increased revenue for the company.

In 2022, Uber experienced substantial growth with a revenue of $31.8 billion, marking an 82% increase from the previous year. Furthermore, the number of completed trips also saw an increase, with Uber drivers recording 7.6 billion trips, exceeding the previous peak of 6.9 billion trips in 2019. 

3. Amazon

Amazon, a leading e-commerce platform, extensively uses AI across its mobile app for personalized product recommendations, dynamic pricing, inventory management, and fraud detection.

Impact: AI integration in the Amazon app has led to increased user engagement by providing relevant product suggestions, improved customer satisfaction through personalized experiences, optimized pricing strategies, and enhanced operational efficiency.

In Amazon, it was observed that there is a 42% likelihood of a customer proceeding to a prospective product purchase. On the other hand, Walmart and Etsy have recorded figures of 16% and 13% respectively.

Amazon’s Alexa has taken over the world’s smart speaker industry, by securing an impressive 26.4% market share.

Emerging Trends in AI For Mobile Apps

Emerging trends in AI for mobile apps are shaping the future of mobile app development. Here are two key trends:

1. Edge Computing: Edge computing involves processing data locally on the device or in nearby edge servers, reducing the reliance on cloud computing. This trend enables AI-powered mobile apps to perform complex tasks and analysis directly on the device, leading to faster response times, enhanced privacy, and reduced dependency on internet connectivity.

Implications: The increasing adoption of edge computing enables apps to respond quickly to user inputs, process sensor data in real-time, and provide immediate feedback, leading to faster and more seamless experiences.

2. Federated Learning: Federated learning allows AI models to be trained collaboratively on decentralized data from multiple devices without transferring sensitive user data to the cloud. Each device performs local model training, and only model updates are exchanged, ensuring privacy and data security.

Implications: Future advancements will likely include greater transparency, explainability, and fairness in AI algorithms to ensure user trust and mitigate potential biases or discriminatory outcomes.

Personalize, Engage, and Future Proof with AI

In this era of technological revolution, artificial intelligence stands as a beacon of innovation and possibility. AI integration in mobile apps offers compelling benefits such as personalized experiences, improved user engagement, increased efficiency, advanced functionalities, data-driven decision-making, competitive advantage, and future-proofing. 

These reasons make AI integration a strategic choice for app developers looking to deliver exceptional user experiences and drive the success of their mobile app projects.

By partnering with Fingent, you can leverage our expertise in AI and mobile app development to unlock the transformative potential of AI in your app projects. From custom travel apps to apps using AI enabled chatbots and virtual assistants, Fingent has created unique solutions for clients across the globe. Our commitment to delivering tailored solutions, adherence to data privacy, and end-to-end services make us an ideal choice for AI mobile app development.

Contact us, the leading custom software development company, and let’s explore the possibilities together.

“A simple rule: always give people more than they expect.”    –  Nelson Boswell 

The cycle of business starts and ends with customers. Keeping them satisfied and happy is the number one rule of any business that dreams of being successful. Customer needs and expectations never cease, so businesses should always be prepared to meet and exceed their needs. Artificial Intelligence has been a substantial help in this area since the late 19th century, and it consistently finds new innovative ways to amplify its presence in modern businesses.

Meeting Customer Needs and Exceeding Expectations

Recent research reported that a good number of executives have already planned to invest more in rising technology to gain a competitive advantage. Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, almost all businesses were forced to move to an online platform to survive, further underscoring the need to adopt AI technology.

It is extremely imperative to recognize and address the needs, desires, and emotions of people which change from moment to moment. Businesses have to provide their customers and clients with care beyond purchases and respond to the intricacies in their lives. In a world that moves forward so fast, it’s best not to fall behind.

Read more: Realizing Self- Service in Modern Customer Experiences

What Is Artificial Intelligence and How Does It Impact Customer Experience?

The textbook definition of Artificial Intelligence is – a semblance of human-like intelligence processed by machines, especially computer systems. AI is used by developers to:

• efficiently perform mundane tasks that humans otherwise do.
• connect with customers.
• recognize patterns.
• solve problems.

AI Customer experience is when artificial intelligence tools are used to learn about customers and improve their business experience. The AI technologies that are famously emerging include machine learning, natural language processing, automation, chatbots, virtual assistants, and even enhanced customer experience platforms.

There are three major ways in which AI impacts Customer Experience –

1. Better Understanding Of Customer

Artificial Intelligence combined with machine learning enhances the gathering and analyzing of social and factual data of customers, which then facilitates businesses to gain an accurate understanding of their customers. AI is known for continuously learning and improving from the data it surveys. This enables it to predict customer behavior perfectly.

2. Real-time Decision Making

Making decisions in real-time is the ability of AI to collect fresh data from current interaction with a customer and make a decision with near-zero delay. It is a very effective marketing strategy and often leads to predictive analysis, which is the process of analyzing statistics, data mining, and modeling to make accurate predictions.

3. Hyper-Personalization

Artificial Intelligence, along with all its advanced technologies, proffers content that is specifically relevant to the customer. This eradicates the need to search for services the customer requires manually and adds a layer of comfort to the business and its customization techniques.

Top Ways Businesses Use AI To Tweak Customer Experience

Following are the top 8 utilities that Artificial Intelligence provides to boost customer experience –

1. Personalization

Businesses can easily gain a clear picture of their customer preferences and requirements by using AI and ML technologies which acquire and analyzes social, factual, and behavioral data. AI is built to predict client behavior by regularly surveying and improving the data it collects. This facilitates companies to analyze customer demographics and personal preferences. This, in turn, highlights the relevant products and resources during the browsing process.

2. Chatbots

A chatbot is a conversational AI using machine learning and natural language processing. It is automated and programmed to pretend to be human and carry out programming tasks based on specific triggers. Its unique ability is to conveniently and efficiently generate conversations between two people.

The most commonly found type of chatbot is a “question-answer bot” —this form of chatbot refrains from using advanced artificial intelligence but instead accesses a smaller knowledge base and utilizes pattern recognition.

Artificial Intelligence powered Chatbots make a business’s presence accomplished by allowing customers to find what they are looking for while simultaneously delivering a seamless experience.

Did You Know: 35% of customers want to see chatbots being used more often to improve communication and offer a better experience overall.

The best examples of Chatbots are – Apple’s Siri, Amazon’s Alexa, and Google Assistant.

Using simple rules and past interactions, bots provide insightful replies to any query, making their responses accurate, short, and creative.

3. Predictive Analysis

Predictive analytics, by definition, is to use data collected to predict a business’s future. It utilizes statistical algorithms blended with internal and external data to foresee future trends, ultimately enabling businesses to optimize inventory, enhance delivery times, boost sales, and reduce operational costs. A more accurate and punctual prediction occurs when Artificial Intelligence is added to the mix. Predictive analytics can be used by advanced analytics tools and machine learning models across any industry or business function.

4. Voice Recognition

The voice recognition model functions purely with the aid of AI to

• analyze the user’s voice and language,
• learn the words spoken,
• and then bring forth outputs with transcription accuracy as text data on a screen or model content.

With the help of this technology, devices can interact and respond to human questions in uncannily natural language.

With the ability to understand and converse with human language, Voice AI has opened up great opportunities for businesses to serve their customers better. It efficiently speeds up processes, increases productivity, and scales operations.

Approximately 55% of virtual assistant users prefer speech recognition apps be they proffer a complete hands-off operation of devices.

Examples of businesses that integrated AI for voice recognition and have successfully replaced touch-screen devices are – Amazon Echo, Siri, Google Assistant, Google Home, Amazon Alexa, and a few others.

5. Sentiment Analysis

A sentiment analysis system collects specific customer feedback and uses it to improve company products and services. When AI technologies are fused with this system, it can identify objects or situations that customers feel any negative emotions towards as expressed in text. AI understands the undertone of a statement rather than simply noting a negative or positive connotation.

Sentiment Analysis is majorly utilized by marketers to better understand their consumers’ sentiments, beliefs, and motives perfectly to make advertising to specific groups effective. It has a wide array of benefits ranging from patient insights and online reputation management to competitor analysis and product development.

Almost all social media platforms use Sentiment Analytics powered by AI. This way brands and companies can keep track of the content being shared and censor or filter content that could evoke negative emotions and cause problems.

6. Customer Journey Mapping

A customer journey map as the name suggests, is essentially the visual representation of the customer’s journey from brand discovery to purchase and post-purchase. It enables businesses to retrace a customer’s footsteps and see where their services might need any improvements or upgrades.

All through this journey, AI and Machine Learning play a vital role in ensuring a headache-free shopping experience. There are three essential stages to customer shopping: the Pre-Purchase, purchase, and post-purchase. With the assistance of AI and ML, customers thread these maps and help brands analyze and prioritize activities that impact customers, boosting internal collaboration and coordination.

The benefits of creating a customer journey map are that it helps:

• streamline the customer experience,
• optimize customer service costs,
• accelerate proactive sales solutions to customer problems, and lastly, boost customer retention rate.

Examples of businesses using customer journey mapping are – Home Depot, JPMorgan Chase, Starbucks, and Nike.

7. Fraud Detection

Fraud detection is another surprising area that AI has a distinguished hold over. AI can work with internal security to help organizations improve and protect corporate activities. Businesses can use AI to examine large quantities of exchanges and unravel misrepresentation patterns.

In the case of online fraud detection and prevention, machine learning consists of a collection of AI algorithms that are specially trained with the company’s data to suggest risk rules. The business owner can then enforce the rules to block or allow certain user actions, such as suspicious logins, identity theft, or sketchy transactions.

When fraud detection is handed over to AI and Machine Learning, businesses reap great benefits like – faster and more effective detection, reduced manual review time, faster predictions with bigger databases, and cost-effective solutions.

8. Personal Data Protection

AI and Data Protection are like two sides of the same coin; both are very important, and one cannot progress without the other. We all see and know that AI technology is advancing rapidly; it raises important questions about the use of personal data and the protection and storage of said data in AI systems.

AI is frequently used to minimize the risk of privacy breaches by encrypting personal data and detecting potential cybercrime incidents. It is, therefore, pivotal for businesses to maintain a balance between technological advancements and artificial intelligence with respect for data protection rules and guidelines.

The main benefit of Data Protection Artificial Intelligence is the elimination of human errors and its keen sense for spotting new trends and patterns.

Amazon, Apple, Facebook, IBM, Microsoft, and many other grandiose organizations have implemented this system, and many more are predicted to follow.

Read more: How AI and ML are reshaping customer experience.

AI In Action – Use Cases

AI has been implemented in virtually every facet of our lives and in every industry imaginable. Here are 3 Use Cases that will give you a gist of how they can be applied successfully.

1. Chatbots Creating Engaging Learning Experiences

Learning experiences become unique and personalized when the right assistance is provided at each stage of learning. That’s where leading educational institutions are now deploying Automated Intelligence-driven ecosystems to facilitate students to interact with AI-enabled Teaching Assistants (AiTA). The system, when tightly integrated with other Teaching Assistant Bots, enables improved interaction, easy instructor-led training, and enhnaces student-instructor relationship.

2. Simplifying Claims Management for Legal Firms

A typical compensation claims processing takes up to three years for case settlement costing an average of $85000. It’s often challenging for legal firms to balance time, money, and the cases in hand. That’s why they are now implementing AI and machine learning to improve performance efficiency. Utilizing AI and machine learning to settle claims can help legal firms reduce costs up to 57%.

3. Netflix Gets You!

Netflix is the largest streaming platform, with more than 200 million customers globally. It gained a majority of its popularity due to its personalization feature. This streaming service uses AI to create a personalized home screen interface for individual subscribers and accounts. When viewers create a new account, they are directed to pick a few of their favorite TV series and movies. The AI at the crux of Netflix analyzes the data fed to it and provides recommendations similar to the favorites picked by the user. It continues to customize the suggestions displayed based on what the user watches.

4. Rolls-Royce Rolls Out Smart, Responsible Manufacturing

To exemplify the impact of AI on Predictive Analytics, we can look at Rolls-Royce, one of the world’s largest manufacturers of aircraft engines. It deployed predictive analytics to help drastically reduce the amount of carbon produced in its engine’s product while simultaneously optimizing maintenance to assist clients and keep their planes flying longer.

5. Ask Julie!

“Ask Julie” is Amtrak’s virtual assistant. Amtrak, the national passenger railroad company of the United States has implemented this chatbot to the best advantage. Ask Julie has successfully helped provide Amtrak provide a seamless customer experience to “over 375,000 customers on their website each day and over 30 million passengers on over 300 trains each year.” The result – an 8X return on investment, more effective customer services. and reduced email costs.

Finding The Right AI Partner – A Few Tips

Digitalizing a business can be very daunting, especially when you want to integrate Artificial Intelligence into its core. Finding a partner who understands you and can communicate well with you is quite hard to find, but you must not give up hope! Keep looking because it is better to spend a little more at the start and have a quality setup rather than spend less and have a wobbly foundation that could jeopardize your whole AI implementation. Here are a few tips to keep in mind while looking for a capable AI partner –

1. Priorities

When looking for your potential AI partners, choose someone who can help the business and its employees prioritize and manage workloads.

2. Comprehend The Difference Between Machine Learning And Artificial Intelligence

Although the two may sound like they perform the same functions, do not be fooled. They each have their own region of expertise so look for someone who acknowledges that.

3. Invest In The Right Tools

In the current economy, businesses can not afford to splurge money on luxuries. Pick a partner who understands your company’s budget and can plan a perfect setup for you.

How Fingent Can Help Seamlessly Leverage AI For Customer Experience 

Artificial Intelligence is a wide ocean of opportunities, if you have the right swimming gear, you can glide on its surface. Making the right decisions and trusting the right people with your projects should not be taken lightly. Fingent is committed to providing impactful software solutions to meet business goals seamlessly. Our certified experts focus on client-centered transparency and offer complete services with a wide range of Artificial Intelligence capabilities. Our team can boost your business to be more efficient and robust through intelligent technology. We have nearly two decades of experience and completely understand our client’s needs and requirements. Give us a call and let us know how we can help you.

SAP is widely known for its brilliant abilities and functionalities, the foremost being Data Analysis. The newest version of SAP ERP is the SAP Data and Analytics Solution. It has been making great strides in helping businesses make sense of their data and make intelligent decisions.

But before we dive into that, let us briefly understand what SAP is.

What is SAP ERP?

SAP, or Systems Applications and Products in data processing, is a powerful tool revolutionizing data handling. Its extraordinary data integration capabilities have helped businesses streamline data flow while storing common information securely and efficiently.

As SAP has evolved, it has become an ERP software compiled of many fully integrated modules that have found vital applications in human capital management, data analysis, production planning, plant maintenance, quality management, and more.

Read more: SAP S/4HANA: The Definitive Guide!

Understanding SAP Data and Analytics Solution

Now that we clearly understand what SAP is and what it does let us look into SAP Data and Analytics Solution. SAP has taken the same approach as any reliable technology that would find room to grow and improve itself. SAP Data and Analytics Solution titled SAP Datasphere was launched on March 8th, 2023.

SAP Analytics for cloud, also called SAP Datasphere, is a cloud-based Business Intelligence (BI) tool designed by SAP Company to provide all the vital functionalities of an analytic tool to business users.

Carefully engineered by SAP, this tool provides analytics compatibility from data received from various databases. This tool essentially converts the raw data collected from the transactional system into comprehendible insight to assist business owners in making better decisions.

The SAP Analytics feature solely depends on data algorithms, programming, and operations research to get data insight and to find meaningful information from data cumulated from multiple data sources. This data insight and information ultimately leads to better business planning and forecasting.

Key features provided by SAP Datasphere are – Business Intelligence, Augmented Analytics, Planning, Modelling, and Smart Transformation. Some benefits that business owners can reap from this solution include – high market profitability, more accuracy in the decision-making process, reduced downtime and performance obstructions. This is a reliable solution for many challenges faced by businesses.

How SAP Data and Analytics Solution Helps Businesses Maximize Data Value

SAP solutions are famously known for making the collection, storage, management, and analysis of Big Data from multiple sources easy and seamless. It takes out the complexity of data management with its suite of products and enables businesses to handle greater chunks of structured and unstructured data. SAP uses powerful AI-driven analytics, and this is an added benefit to organizations that want to enhance operational efficiency and customer engagement.

SAP’s new platform, in addition to all its predecessor’s capabilities, also allows businesses to gain meaningful insights into customer trends and likings in order to navigate smarter decision-making across the organization.

With SAP Data and Analytics Solution, a business can get greater value from their data in three notched forms:

1. Database

It effortlessly streamlines and upraises your landscape with advanced database technology that provides flexibility, multi-cloud support, and mixed workload processing to deliver impressive results.

2. Data Management

It caters to a set of technologically advanced tools such as Artificial Intelligence (AI), Machine Learning and The Internet of Things (IoT) to identify, compile, analyze, and draw out the most context-relevant data throughout the business enterprise.

3. Analytics And Planning

Finally, it freely gives people the power and freedom to discover, plan, and act on real-time on-site insights with technologically advanced tools to assist with planning and analytics. All this is combined with a trusted semantic layer.

Watch more: How ERPs like SAP help CFOs make crucial decisions simpler!

Overview Of SAP’s Analytics Tools

Among SAP’s many nifty and beneficial tools are three major analytics tools – SAP Lumira, SAP Business Objects, and Analytics Cloud. We will now look at the basic functionality of these tools and what they bring to the table.

1. SAP Lumira

SAP Lumira, earlier known as SAP Visual Intelligence, possesses many unique features allowing it to visualize and analyze data from many different sources. In a short period after IT had prepared a robust data model and exposed it to a Presentation Layer tool, business users flocked to create impactful visualizations with numbers, charts, filters, and rankings.

2. SAP Business Objects

This tool is a more centralized data reporting, visualization, and sharing suite. It transforms chunks of data into meaningful insights and is available anywhere at any time. Using a flexible architecture, the SAP Analytics platform simplifies, personalizes, and creates dynamic information consumption.

3. Analytics Cloud

SAP Analytics Solution with Analytics Cloud combines analytics and planning with a unique integration, allowing seamless access to multiple data sources. This tool facilitates trusted insights and integrated planning processes throughout the enterprise to help business owners make quick, informed decisions.

How To Identify the Right Tools for Your Business Needs

Selecting the right SAP Analytics Cloud tool for your business can be a daunting job, but it can be made easy by keeping these pointers in mind:

• It is imperative first to analyze your business needs. Gather your organization’s tech team, its investors, and all the people you need to make this decision.
• Once you have sorted out what aspects of your business could use a little push or improvement, scout out a suitable partner to team up with.
• Next, do a thorough background check on your new potential business partner and ensure that you contact referrals before you trust your business’ future in their hands.
• Lastly, take any advice your SAP service provider may offer and keep communication clear.

How Fingent Can Help in Leveraging the Best SAP Data and Analytics Solution

Fingent’s certified experts focus on client-centered transparency and offer complete services with a wide range of SAP products.

Selecting the perfect SAP product fortifies the success of your business. A few extra benefits you receive by partnering with Fingent are – improved security, efficiency in task completion right to the deadline, automation of the data collection process, and an overall 55% gain in productivity. Want to know more?

Give us a call, and let us help you.

For more than a decade, businesses in all industries have undergone a digital metamorphosis. This evolution is marked by a transition from on-premises software solutions to cloud-based computing technology.

By leveraging cloud-computing resources, businesses can gain access to scalable assets, increase organizational performance, and optimize digital agility.

It’s a mistake to think about cloud solutions primarily as software-as-a-service (SaaS) applications. While these technologies are a valuable component of business modernization, they’re only the tip of the iceberg.

Businesses that create their own cloud-native applications can truly harness the power of discrete cloud technologies to deliver long-lasting competive advantages. As their name implies, cloud-native applications are “native” to the cloud computing environment. In other words, cloud-native software development involves creating applications in components optimized for deployment in the cloud instead of a physical computing environment.

What Is Cloud-Native Development?

In simple terms, cloud-native software development is the process of creating applications using core cloud-computing principles and resources. The architecture of cloud-native applications is highly scalable, responsive, and dynamic.

Cloud-native applications are designed to be deployed and run in cloud computing environments, and as such, they offer a number of benefits to developers. Some of the advantages of developing cloud-native applications include:

• Scalability: Cloud-native applications can easily (and often automatically) scale up or down to meet changing demand with consistent performance levels, making them well-suited for applications with fluctuating usage patterns.
• High availability: Cloud-native applications can be designed to be highly available, meaning they can withstand failures and continue to function even in the event of a hardware or software failure.
• Elasticity and Agile development: Using independent microservices isolates the effects of changes, making it easier for developers to iterate on their products and respond to customer needs.
• Cost efficiency: By leveraging the economies of scale offered by cloud providers, businesses can reduce their infrastructure costs and invest in building and improving their applications.
• Integration with cloud services: Cloud-native applications can easily integrate with other cloud-based services, such as databases, messaging systems, and analytics tools, which can simplify development and improve the functionality of the application.

Overall, the main advantage of cloud-native applications is that they are designed to take full advantage of the capabilities of cloud computing environments, which can help developers build and deploy applications more quickly, efficiently, and at lower costs.

Additionally, many cloud-native applications are “cloud-agnostic,” meaning they can be run on a range of cloud providers (hyperscalers) or function in multi-cloud environments. Much of the appeal of cloud-native software development lies in the ability to yield adaptable and versatile applications. Sometimes applications can benefit from services that are only available from certain cloud providers, which risks “vendor lockin,” so it pays to consider the trade-offs carefully.

Read more: Can Moving to Cloud Native Improve Business Agility?

Why Modern Businesses Need Cloud-Native Development

Like on-premises computing resources, software created with traditional application-development practices are bound by the limits of that technology. As such, they can’t provide the quality of experience that modern audiences expect.

Additionally, applications developed in an old-school environment often need re-factoring to try to match the performance of cloud-native alternatives when the former is introduced to a cloud environment.

By leveraging cloud-native development services, modern businesses can facilitate their digital transformation on a faster time horizon. Cloud-native processes enable businesses to serve their customers better and deliver a frictionless user experience.

Top businesses in virtually all industries leverage cloud-native development. Those that neglect to do so will fall further behind these trailblazers and find it challenging to maintain a foothold within their respective markets.

Adopting cloud-native processes is no longer an optional step—it’s become necessary for businesses that want to thrive in the digital marketplace.

Top Benefits of Cloud-Native Software Development

Your business can tap into the multiple benefits of investing in cloud-native software development. Specifically, your organization can:

1. Streamline the User Experience (UX)

When the goal of cloud native is to develop applications that can serve your business while adjusting to the speed of changing technology, the end user is always the priority.

Because of the improved speed of development and the ability to make changes during the development process, cloud native puts UX first. While there are many ways to enhance the UX, investing in cloud-native development is one of the most effective approaches.

2. Improves Development Strategy

Cloud-native applications enable developers to leverage two essential UX-centric methodologies: continuous integration (CI) and continuous delivery (CD).

Continuous integration is the process of merging code changes using automation. Multiple developers can merge code changes into a centralized project to streamline app development and generate a cohesive, fully functional product.

Continuous delivery addresses post-release application software updates. Instead of occasionally pushing out massive updates, CD involves delivering smaller updates more frequently. This short-cycle approach improves software delivery and performance while yielding a super UX.

Moreover, microservices can be easier to implement with quality assurance automation, which elevates achievable levels of code quality.

3. Protect Business Continuity

Making dynamic, user-friendly applications a central part of your business model can give you a competitive edge in the modern marketplace. However, if your application goes down, customer frustrations will mount, and your brand could experience lasting reputational damage as a result.

Since cloud-native apps can tap into stand-alone, scalable cloud resources, these products are far less likely to experience extended outages due to spiking utilization. Developers can more rapidly isolate and remedy the issue, as well as rapidly test changes when a cloud-native app experiences downtime, thereby protecting business continuity.

4. Meet Evolving Demands for Services

In the digitized marketplace, it seems as if customers’ expectations and demands are in a constant state of flux. Unfortunately, it can be difficult — if not impossible — to pivot rapidly using legacy application development processes.

Cloud-native architectures can give your organization the agility it needs to respond to sudden shifts in customer expectations. For instance, you could add a new feature that enables customers to communicate easily with your brand. You could also frequently update your app’s capabilities to improve overall performance and stay relevant in the digital marketplace.

Read more: Cloud-Native Application Development: How It’s Powering App Delivery

When Should Businesses Shift to Cloud-Native?

The short answer is “yesterday.”

In the long run, cloud-native software development outperforms traditional application development practices at every turn. Cloud-native development reduces risk, has broader scalability, and allows developers to make changes more quickly. Most notably, the speed of delivery is far and above one of the most compelling advantages of shifting to a cloud-native approach.

Your organization is undoubtedly using cloud-based computing resources in at least some capacity. You can complete the transition by modernizing your cloud-native development processes, too. Doing so will empower your business to regain a competitive edge within your respective industry.

At the same time, one should consider the downsides of cloud applications. Some cloud-native applications can be more complex than traditional applications, due to the need to integrate with multiple cloud-based services and manage distributed systems. This can create more opportunities for something to fail.

While cloud native applications can be cost-effective they can also be more expensive than traditional applications in certain situations, particularly if they require a large number of resources or if they have high usage patterns.

The Nexus Between Cloud-Native Development and Business Modernization

Today’s customers want the freedom to interact with brands across multiple touchpoints. This holds true whether your target audience consists of individual consumers or business-to-business (B2B) clients.

Modern businesses live up to this customer expectation by providing their clients access to user-friendly, intuitive, and dynamic applications. These organizations can expand their reach in the digital marketplace, connect with a broader audience, eliminate friction from purchasing processes, and generate more revenue, all by transitioning to cloud-native development.

Conventional, monolithic application development practices often present a significant hurdle to large-scale integrations, digital transformation and business modernization efforts. Your business can’t achieve its digital transformation goals without fully embracing the cloud-computing environment and its many resources.

Examining the Business Impact of Cloud-Native

The notion that cloud-native software development is the new gold standard isn’t just pure conjecture. This fact is supported by numerous case studies and research projects, including a recent business impact brief by 451 Research.

In the brief, the organization’s team reported that:

• 64% of companies develop at least half of their applications using cloud-native technology
• 49% of companies have partially or fully adopted Kubernetes
• 55% of companies have partially or completely adopted containers

451 Research analysts concluded that cloud-native software development has gone beyond the development process and evolved into a full-fledged methodology. As such, it should continue gaining momentum among brands passionate about actualizing digital transformation.

And that’s just the barest overview. Managers can review 451 Research’s business impact brief by downloading the report.

Why Choose Fingent for Cloud-Native Development?

Fingent’s suite of cloud-native software development services is designed to deliver maximum value to our clients. When leveraging Fingent’s cloud-native development services, your organization will experience:

• Consistent, High-Quality Results: As a client-oriented cloud-native development firm, Fingent focuses on providing high-quality, consistent results that exceed expectations. Our robust, agile teams and dynamic quality assurance practices ensure that our deliverables expressly meet your needs and address your most significant organizational pain points.
• Best-of-Breed Solutions: Fingent’s unique approach enables us to provide world-class cloud-native software development services that produce best-of-breed solutions. These cost-effective solutions will align with your budget and delivery timetable. With Fingent, you won’t have any last-minute surprises like budgeting issues or missed deadlines.
• Prebuilt Services: Fingent’s talented team can build truly custom solutions for your organization. However, we can also expedite development by leveraging prebuilt frameworks, applications, and microservices for common functions that are a staple of virtually all industries. Some of these prebuilt services include cognitive AI, shipment, and payment service functions.
• Pay-as-You-Go Models: With Fingent, you can transition away from speculative technology spending — that is, purchasing new machines and acquiring more infrastructure in anticipation that you will succeed. While it’s important to believe in your business and plan for its success, tying up resources on unneeded equipment for months or years will only harm your bottom line. But Fingent enables you to break the cycle of speculative spending and rely more on operational expenses (OPEX). Instead of letting new hardware gather dust in the data center until its eventual use, you can access additional servers on-demand via a cloud-native infrastructure.
• Scalability: As your business grows, you must have the flexibility to support additional users at a moment’s notice. However, scaling IT capabilities can too time-consuming, and costly if you are limited by monolithic software architectures.Take advantage of Fingent’s expertise to create your cloud-native capabilities that are able to support more users in more locations, all while accommodating a dynamic array of devices.
• Speed of Delivery: Fingent can help you stay on top by providing an expedited speed of delivery via cloud-native solutions. Skip the need to field a development team with the right mix of skills but assigning your project to Fingent. We facilitate an accelerated speed of delivery by shifting away from a “big bang” approach to project management when practical and instead focusing on achieving meaningful milestones across the project’s development life. We have the deep bench of personnel needed to keep projects moving ahead at the optimal speed.
• Transparent Project Management: At Fingent, we always keep our clients in the loop. We’ll routinely provide you with updates regarding the status of your cloud-native development project. We pride ourselves on setting firm deadlines and adhering to them.

If you’re ready to achieve business modernization and make your organization a standout player in your industry, take advantage of Fingent’s cloud-native services. Contact us to discuss your latest project.

Digital technologies are evolving at an unprecedented rate. Major innovations, such as artificial intelligence tools, machine learning software, cloud computing resources, and big data, have already reshaped the landscape of countless industries and actualized new financial concepts such as blockchain and cryptocurrencies.

As business leaders apply these technologies to their digital transformation initiatives, many focus on functions like sales, customer support, and demand forecasting. While these are mission-critical functions, finance must be front and center during any digital transformation discussion.

Whether your team manages a standalone financial business or is responsible for overseeing an organization’s financial functions, you must embrace the digital world. Let’s take a closer look at the financial technology (FinTech) landscape, identify some ongoing challenges facing the financial industry, and shed light on some tech trends you can adopt to strengthen your competitive advantage.

Read more: Top Ways Business Intelligence In Finance Can empower CFOs Today!

The Financial Business Technology Landscape

FinTech is primarily responsible for the evolution of the financial business landscape, and over the last few years, the FinTech sector has exploded. As of 2023, there are more than 26,000 FinTech startups globally, as well as hundreds of pre-established FinTech developers.

The growth of the FinTech market has largely been supported by venture capital (VC) funding. Though numerous FinTech sectors have received significant financing from VC rounds, three stand above the rest.

Between 2016 and 2021, the following three sectors received over $5 billion in VC funding:

• Capital markets ($8.07B)
• Payments ($6.03B)
• Wealth management ($5.43B)

Digital lending, FinTech tools for small-to-medium-sized businesses, and banking-related projects also received significant funding, though these amounts fell below the $5B mark.

The Top Challenges Facing the Finance Industry

The modern financial business landscape has largely been shaped by uncertainty, market volatility, rapidly shifting consumer trends, and the emergence of increasingly sophisticated technologies.

Businesses in virtually every industry continue to face disruptions and supply chain challenges, hurdles that have placed an additional burden on finance teams, as they are tasked with helping their organizations prepare for the unexpected. Unfortunately, antiquated solutions and strategies don’t provide the agility necessary to promote adequate resilience.

From the financial business perspective, the digital world has led to the development of two new core challenges: accessibility and racing to keep up.

First, consumers expect to be able to access services, accounts, and support on their terms. To meet this demand, financial businesses must develop user-friendly mobile apps that increase the accessibility of their services and work to empower consumers.

The second challenge is interconnected with the first: New technologies are arising so rapidly that some businesses need help to keep pace. Those that struggle fall behind in the digital arms race will cause financial organizations to lose valuable market shares, potentially fading into obscurity.

Read more: Technology in Finance: What to look out for in 2023!

Changing Finance to Thrive in the Digital World

Fortunately, organizations can overcome these challenges by adopting finance technology trends and implementing robust new software solutions.

Organizations committed to reinventing themselves must develop a cohesive digital transformation strategy. As part of the process, business leaders must identify any functions and processes that need to be retired, updated, or improved. From there, they can then begin exploring solutions to enhance the agility and versatility of their business.

Conducting extensive market research is also essential to digital transformation. Financial businesses need to step into the minds of their audience and determine what features, capabilities, and tech services are at the top of their priority lists. Only then can businesses strategically invest in new technologies and solutions that will align with the needs of modern consumers.

Read more: Data Analytics in Financial Services and Banking

Finance Technology Trends that Can Give Your Business an Edge

If your organization is on the precipice of a digital transformation but is still determining where to focus its efforts, examining current FinTech trends is an excellent place to start. A few of the trends in the finance industry include:

1. Self-Service Tools

Most consumers lead hectic lives, which means that many of them don’t want to have to stop in a branch or waste precious time seeking phone-based support. Instead, they’d prefer to have access to user-friendly self-service tools so that they can access support or manage their account whenever is most convenient for them.

Therefore, you should implement customer-facing tools and features that empower your consumers. The easier your services are to access, the better, so make sure that clients can reach these tools via various channels, including desktop and mobile devices.

2. Sophisticated Mobile Apps

The rise of digital-only banking has forever changed customer expectations regarding financing. Digital financial institutions have shown consumers that managing every aspect of an account is possible without ever setting foot in a branch.

While you do not necessarily have to transition to a digital-only business model, you need to provide your consumers with access to a high-quality mobile app that is easy to navigate, simple to use, and reliable.

3. Embedded Finance

The embedded finance technology ecosystem has become too big to ignore. By joining this growing sector, you can create new revenue streams and expand your organization’s reach within the finance industry.

Of the various types of embedded finance solutions, “buy now, pay later” (BNPL) has become especially popular. It is a sales model that allows customers to make purchases immediately but pay for the goods via a set number of more-affordable installments. In 2021, BNPL transactions totaled over $120B, and they are expected to reach a value of $576B by 2026.

Read more: How Embedded Finance will Transform the FinTech Landscape in 2023!

Reinvent Your Finance Business with Fingent!

According to Deloitte, the rapidly-growing FinTech industry will reach a market size of $188 billion by the end of 2024. This statistic illustrates how bank executives and business leaders across the financial industry are embracing digital transformation. In fact, 66.7% of bank executives believe FinTech will “impact wallets and mobile payments globally,” according to Statista researchers.

If your organization wants to keep pace with forward-thinking financial businesses, it must reinvent itself for the digital world. Fingent can help you do that via our financial software development services. We develop highly-secure, purpose-built solutions, such as cash management software, mobile and internet banking apps, digital finance and accounting tools, and other applications that will enable you to thrive in this rapidly evolving industry.

Over the years, digital evolution has transformed the way we shop!

The lockdowns and store closures due to the unprecedented events of 2020 has moreover accelerated this evolution and mainstreamed online shopping.

Today consumers don’t just make purchases online. They compare brands, shop for deals, join communities, and engage in immersive experiences. According to Forbes, roughly 21% of all retail purchases will be online in 2023.

There’s no denying that digital technologies are changing the retail industry as we know it. The only question that remains is whether your business is ready for the future of retail.

To help you prepare, we explore the state of the retail industry and shed light on some of the most significant challenges your business faces. Most importantly, we reveal some technology trends you can leverage to compete with major players in the retail space.

Read more: Custom Software Solutions for Retail: All You Need to Know!

The State of the Retail Industry

In a 2023 retail industry outlook report, Deloitte researchers examined how labor challenges, supply chain hurdles, and market volatility would impact retail businesses in the new year.

Of the various predictions made in the report, the most notable is that retail sales growth in the U.S. – barring a recession – will be minimal due to a meager GDP growth forecast of just 0.9%.

Additionally, researchers found that nominal average weekly earnings rose by 8.3% between December 2020 and December 2022. However, real earnings decreased by approximately 5% due to inflation. In other words, consumers have less purchasing power even though their weekly earnings have nominally increased.

In light of these predictions, retail businesses must remain fluid and agile. In 2021, many retailers increased inventory volume by 11% on average to contend with supply chain volatility.

Continuing to maintain an extensive inventory with a potential recession just over the horizon would be unwise, as doing so would leave retailers with less liquidity and could hinder their ability to capitalize on emerging technology trends or shifts in consumer spending habits.

Retail Businesses Must Evolve or Fail

Like many others in the retail industry, you probably hoped 2023 would represent a continued progression toward “normalcy.” However, many of the changes affected by the global pandemic are here to stay. Modern consumers expect a more technology-centric retail experience, even if they choose to shop in-store.

In addition to adapting to the new consumer, you must also navigate the aforementioned economic challenges poised to persist throughout 2023 and beyond. To make matters worse, the quit rate of employees in the retail industry remains at about 4%, significantly higher than the national average.

While these interconnected issues seem to have created a perfect storm, it’s possible for your business not only to survive the future of retail but thrive in it. To do so, you must familiarize yourself with the latest tech trends and how they might affect your reimagined business model.

Key Tech Trends Shaping the Future of Retail

To stay relevant and competitive, we suggest you consider how adopting the following key tech trends can impact your business:

1. A Shift to Digital Goods and Services

Even if your company sells physical products, offering digital goods and services is an excellent way of differentiating your brand from retail businesses that aren’t so forward-thinking.

For instance, you might commission a development agency to create a custom mobile app for your business. You could then use this app to connect with customers, deliver digital goods (i.e., coupons or top customer badges), and nurture feelings of loyalty among your target audience.

You can take this concept further by creating a digital community that lets shoppers share how your products and goods make them feel or improve their daily lives.

2. Omnichannel Shopping Options

The shopping experience is no longer linear. Instead, customers typically interact with a brand along multiple touchpoints and channels before actually making a purchase. With this in mind, you must adopt interconnected technologies to seamlessly guide leads through each phase of the purchasing journey.

What does that look like, exactly? First and foremost, you should have a dynamic, user-friendly, mobile-optimized website in place.

You’ll also need to give consumers multiple ways of interacting with your brand, such as your website, mobile app, and brick-and-mortar store. The top brands are already doing this — your company should follow suit.

Read more: Leading the Powerplay With Retail Business Intelligence

3. Social Media-Centric Campaigns

While you already have social media pages for your company, you may not be using these channels to their full potential. The most successful brands have tapped into meme culture, hashtags, influencers, and other trends that are native to social media to reinvent the customer journey.

Putting social media at the center of your marketing campaigns allows you to fuel online shopping in new ways and connect with younger audiences.

There are many ways to up your social media marketing efforts, including hosting live events, holding Q&A sessions, and interacting with followers in the comment section.

4. Automated Pricing

Automated pricing involves using software to set prices according to variables of significance to the store. Automated pricing technologies have become a valuable resource for big-box retailers in recent years. Smaller businesses are catching on, using this convenient technology to ensure that product prices are set to optimize profitability for both online and in-store products.

Implementing pricing automation solutions will reduce the workload on your staff, as they’ll no longer have to set prices manually. This will help you overcome labor shortages and improve productivity. Automated pricing tools also allow you to deliver better value to customers by running short-term sales or discounts.

Read more: How To Power Your Retail Business with Augmented Reality?

Stay Ahead of the Curve with Fingent

A mixture of in-person shopping experiences and tech-centric journeys will shape the future of retail.

While many modern consumers still like to make purchases at brick-and-mortar shops, 63% of all buying journeys start online. As such, your organization must embrace the latest retail industry technology trends to provide consumers with an experience that seamlessly transitions between channels and mediums.

To achieve such fluidity, you need a technology partner like Fingent that understands the thoroughly modern challenges retail businesses face.

Fingent provides end-to-end custom application development services for retailers. Our dynamic team can create tailor-made field sales applications, inventory management tools, omnichannel fulfillment solutions, and other digital technology resources you need to maintain your edge.

Connect with us today or submit a request for a proposal to learn more.

The automobile industry is one of the largest sectors in the world. In just the U.S., the car & automobile manufacturing industry boasts a market size of $104.1 billion.

However, even an ecosystem as large as the automotive industry is not immune to the unprecedented challenges over the last few years. The coronavirus pandemic and subsequent semiconductor chip shortage forced manufacturers to cut 11.3 million vehicles from production in 2021.

In addition to supply chain challenges, automotive manufacturers have contended with labor shortages, shifts in consumer demand, and pressures to create a sustainable work environment.

But, like any resilient industry, the automotive sector has leaned into these new challenges and has begun to address them proactively. Let’s take a closer look at what these hurdles entail and, more importantly, how automotive businesses overcome them via technology’s strategic implementation.

Challenges and Trends Reshaping the Automotive Industry

While many challenges and trends prompt the automotive industry to evolve, three stand out above the rest. These roadblocks include:

1. Ongoing Worker Shortages

Like many other business verticals, the automotive industry has been plagued by worker shortages. Manufacturers need help to fill vacancies at every level of the organization, including line-level staff, decision-makers, and engineers.

This worker shortage has made it nearly impossible to rebuild supply and catch up to runaway consumer demand for new vehicles.

2. Supply Chain Disruptions

Various legs of the automotive supply chain have faced disruptions over the last few years. Of these, the shortfall of semiconductor chips had the most significant impact on production and vehicle inventory.

Unfortunately, many experts predict the shortage will continue well into 2023, if not beyond. It is too late for automakers to prepare for this extended chip shortage. All they can do now is adjust manufacturing strategies to align with consumer demand and cut back production on less popular vehicles.

3. The EV Revolution

Despite these other concerns, the electric vehicle (EV) market continues to grow. By Q4 of 2022, EV sales represented 5.6% of all auto transactions. This percentage doubled from the year prior when EV sales made up just 2.7% of the total auto market.

This statistic demonstrates that consumers are becoming more environmentally conscious and are interested in decreasing their impact on natural resources. Government incentives and tax credits are further contributing to the surging popularity of electric vehicles.

But what does all this have to do with the future of work in the automotive industry? It means that automakers will need to implement new and more sophisticated production processes and hire better talent if they hope to push the envelope in the EV space.

The New Industry Focus: Creating a Sustainable Work Environment 

One of the biggest drivers of change in the automotive industry is a global push toward creating a sustainable work environment.

Historically, the automotive sector has been anything but sustainable. Traditional assembly line-based production strategies focus on efficiency at the expense of almost anything else. These tactics result in the consumption of excessive amounts of power and often produce an unnecessary amount of resource waste.

However, the next-generation automotive industry will likely be unrecognizable to the pioneers of the last century. Modern manufacturers are reimagining every aspect of the supply chain, from material sourcing to assembly and distribution. Visionaries and thought leaders are also encouraging a shift away from old-school engineering and development processes in favor of AI-powered practices prioritizing efficiency.

Even the retail sales aspect of the automotive industry is changing. Many dealers are shifting toward online transactions, and some are transitioning increasingly to a made-to-order sales model. The end result is a more agile and less wasteful automotive supply chain.

Technologies that Can Fuel the Auto Sector’s Metamorphosis 

The future of work in the automotive industry will focus on sustainability, resilience, and agility while prioritizing efficiency. To realize their aspirations of a sustainable work environment,

industry executives, managers, and workers must embrace leading-edge technologies, including:

1. Predictive Analytics Software

Predictive analytics software will influence numerous aspects of the automotive industry. Organizations interested in forging sustainable work environments can use these analytics tools to identify production waste and increase operational efficiency. Additionally, they can leverage these solutions to create more energy-efficient vehicles that produce fewer greenhouse gasses.

Predictive analytics technologies will also assist with demand forecasting — organizational leaders can use these insights to prioritize in-demand vehicles as they contend with ongoing chip shortages.

2. Automation Tools

Automation tools will prove invaluable amid labor and talent shortages. Businesses in the automotive industry can use automation software to streamline redundant back-office processes and improve communication across the entire supply chain.

Manufacturers can also use automation tools to ramp up production while conserving energy and reducing waste.

3. Machine Learning and AI Solutions 

Machine learning and artificial intelligence technologies can transform every link in the automotive industry supply chain. Businesses can use these complementary technologies to optimize raw material sourcing, vehicle distribution, and production.

Because they allow for a more data-driven approach to manufacturing and sales, these technologies can reduce waste while simultaneously creating more agile and resilient supply chains. In turn, this will help keep the costs of vehicles manageable, thereby increasing accessibility to energy-efficient automobiles and EVs.

Read more: AI and ML for Faster and Accurate Project Cost Estimation

Accelerate Your Transformation with Fingent

When your business is in the automotive industry, creating a sustainable work environment should be one of your top priorities. Doing so will help you attract and retain top talent, meet consumer demand for more efficient vehicles, and align your business model with the latest regulations and compliance frameworks.

To achieve these goals, you will need access to purpose-built technologies designed for your business’s unique needs. That’s where Fingent top custom software development company, can help.

Our development experts can create dynamic software for your business. From customer-facing applications to internal solutions that empower your staff to be more productive, we build the software you need to thrive.

To learn more about our wide range of technology development services, connect with Fingent today.

How the insurance industry delivers service has evolved significantly in the last decade.

Regardless of what form of insurance sales or policy management your organization is engaged in, you can attest that face-to-face interactions are no longer routine and are, in fact, an oddity.

As the insurance industry’s new normal, more and more interactions between customers, industry experts, other organizations, and adjustments claims occur digitally. Though phone-based communications will continue to be a part of the customer service process for the foreseeable future, customers, care providers, other insurers, and virtually anyone else with whom an insurance company interacts have come to expect a largely digitized experience.

For any organization to thrive in the insurance industry of tomorrow, it must take steps to evolve its processes today. That means creating a cohesive modernization strategy and investing in leading-edge technology solutions.

Read more: Answering the Burning Questions of Business Leaders on Digital Transformation!

Top Challenges Facing the Insurance Industry

To understand what a modernized strategy looks like in the insurance industry, it’s vital to examine some of the top challenges businesses will face in the coming years.

1. Staffing Shortages

Historically, the insurance sector has contended with turnover rates somewhere in the range of 8-9%, according to Insurance Business America, but that span climbed to 12-15% by September 2022.

That additional turnover significantly impacts business continuity and diminishes the customer experience. It can also negatively influence insurers’ ability to replace members of leadership that are retiring or stepping away from the industry.

2. Skyrocketing Costs

Inflation and numerous other factors have contributed to rising costs of everything from healthcare to vehicles higher than ever before. Naturally, some of these cost increases are passed onto insurers and their customers, so insurance companies must find ways to absorb some of these expenses while mitigating rate increases for their clients.

Insurers should also explore ways to reduce their operating costs to keep coverage prices lower. Otherwise, businesses may find it challenging to retain customer accounts, particularly in sectors like automotive insurance, where consumers can freely shop around and change policies in six-month intervals.

3. Antiquated Legacy Systems

Some legacy systems hinder the ability of many businesses to embrace digital transformation. These aging platforms can make it challenging to comply with relevant regulatory requirements and increase an organization’s overall operating costs.

The longer that insurance companies cling to antiquated systems, the harder it will be for them to streamline traditionally tedious practices, such as claim management. Therefore, insurance companies must replace these inefficient, disjointed platforms with modern, unified alternatives.

The Role of Digital Transformation in Solving These Challenges

Digital transformation can bring modern technologies to any business process to improve its operation. Fast-growing digital transformation technologies include machine learning, artificial intelligence (like ChatGPT), customer relationship management platforms, and intelligent document processing software.

Digital transformation holds the key to solving the insurance industry’s most significant problems, and it appears that many in the industry realize this, as recent projections estimate that insurance technology spending will increase by 25% between 2022 and 2026 in the US and UK.

A cohesive digital transformation strategy will lay out a roadmap for replacing aging technologies with modern alternatives, and once these technologies have been replaced, the cost savings are almost immediate.

In one example of how a digital transformation strategy led to practical innovation, Fingent joined forces with the California law firm of Sapra & Navarra, LLP to develop Ambit, an AI and ML program that simplifies and enhances the management of workers’ compensation claims. Claims may include hundreds of pages consisting of a variety of letters, affidavits, forms, and other documents from claimants, doctors, lawyers, investigators, employers, and witnesses, among others. Utilizing both artificial intelligence and machine learning, the Ambit system streamlines the claims management process, reducing claim costs, and helps break the old practices of:

• Taking too long to assess claims
• Treating similar claims inconsistently
• Not equipping claim adjusters with modern tools

Instead, Ambit improves the efficiency of all parties — insurance carriers, self-insured companies, lawyers, and claim adjusters — while reducing costs for insurers by 57%.

The Ambit solution was designed to:

• Easily ingest the many documents in the claims process
• Quickly identify missing, processed & corrupted pages
• Review structured and unstructured documents automatically
• Identify areas of concern
• Suggest potential legal defenses
• Automate calculations and reminders for important legal deadlines
• Generate case summaries, with action plans

These automation capabilities not only make life easier for claims managers but enable organizational leaders to offset productivity issues created by ongoing labor shortages by reducing onboarding time for new hires. These capabilities result in more uniform handling of the claims while speeding their resolution and lowering their overall costs.

In general, automation technologies, such as those implemented during a digital transformation initiative, will also decrease operating costs, enabling insurance companies to increase their profitability and offer their customers more competitive premiums.

Read more: How AI Drives Digital Transformation In The Insurance Industry

The Essential Components of Digital Transformation

The technology trend in insurance is clearly moving from the strictly paper-based methods of the past to the digital. Beyond static websites to mobile apps. Beyond email to text and chat. Beyond processes driven by people to more and more intelligent automation that speeds up and uniformly handles all kinds of processes from marketing, and operations, to customer service.

Every organization’s digital transformation roadmap should be as unique as the business itself, but every digital transformation strategy must include a few core elements:

• Clear objectives
• An integrated plan
• A leadership-driven approach
• Investments in the right technology

When creating your organization’s digital transformation strategy, you should start by defining your “why.” In other words, you must identify the reasons you are undertaking this initiative in the first place.

From there, work with a digital transformation partner who can help you create an integrated plan that includes everyone from executive members to line-level employees.

Digital transformation efforts — even small ones — require the active support of top management. Change is the hardest thing to achieve in the organization and without the sponsorship of the corporate leaders, the effort is unlikely to succeed.

Finally, you will need to replace outdated, inefficient technology with modern, robust solutions. When appropriate,

partner with a custom software development firm that can provide you with a purpose-built solution you need for your business. They are equipped with the personnel and experience to generate a solution in the minimum timeframe and without the need to increase in-house headcounts.

If your organization has been exploring ways to improve the customer service experience, increase productivity, improve profitability, and streamline its operations, it is more than ready to embrace digital transformation.

Successfully facilitating digital transformation requires a cohesive strategy, some cutting-edge technologies, a commitment to doing things better, and the right development approach.

Read more: Digital Twin Improving Predictability and Risk Management in Insurance!

How Fingent Can Accelerate Your Process

Naturally, the cornerstone of any digital transformation initiative is technology choices. These may be an off-the-shelf system for standard processes, the integration of existing systems or, your transformation may demand a custom solution that can accommodate your business needs unlike systems available to anyone else.

At Fingent, we specialize in creating resilient custom software solutions that are able to change and adapt according to your requirements. We work with insurance industry clients to help them streamline mission-critical business processes, and – as in all our projects – we accomplish this by providing dynamic, unique software that incorporates the most appropriate technology, such as the latest in machine learning and artificial intelligence technologies.

Connect with Fingent today to accelerate your digital transformation with the help of an experienced software development partner.