Charter Global

Friday, February 28, 2020

E-Commerce Trends on the Rise | Charter Global

Trends in eCommerce technology include mobility, digitization, customization, speed optimization, chat-bots, and more

According to research conducted by Big Commerce, 80% of people in the U.S. make purchases online at least once a month. While the majority of people shop on large marketplace websites like Amazon, roughly 30 to 40% also purchase from online retailers like web stores, independent boutiques, and category-specific e-retailers. This year we’ll see several e-commerce trends emerge with the potential to transform how we shop and communicate with online stores.

1) Mobile first

In 2016, mobile eCommerce services accounted for over $25 billion in sales, an increase of more than 25%. This figure is predicted to continue to increase, reaching over $30 billion in 2017, and $42 billion by 2020. Mobile traffic has overtaken the desktop. Google is working on a new, mobile-first web index and marketing strategy. According to these trends, it’s critical to business to put mobile first, rather than simply optimizing for mobile.

2) Digital payments

Mobile payments are on the rise as smartphone users adjust to the convenience of contactless payments. Starbucks was an innovator in mobile payments, becoming one of the first to offer products based on an online payment model. In 2016, an increasing number of customers adopted digital payment methods, using their phones, cards and even watches to complete contactless payments. PureNet predicts that every customer will expect to be able to complete their transaction using a digital wallet in real-time.

3) Personalization and Customization

The amount of data available increasingly allows content, ads, and products to be shown to the right people at the right time, across the web and social networks. The continuing sophistication of personalized recommendations will be trending for eCommerce this year. Retailers will embrace personalized experiences – even using e-mail marketing to cater personalized emails to consumers, rendering unique customer experiences. and Artificial Intelligence by starting to collect behavioral data like browsing history, geo-location, and social media from website visitors and developing highly targeted campaigns based on customer segments and previous online experiences.

4) Fast delivery

Ecommerce delivery timescales have reduced drastically and become much faster, boosting customer relationships with eCommerce sites. Delivery and returns have always been one of the pain points of the online shopping experience, but improvements in eCommerce technology have improved delivery significantly. PureNet predicts same-day delivery will continue to rise in 2017, and more eCommerce integration with drop-off point providers such as Doddle.

5) Competitive Platforms

eCommerce Technology will continue to play a greater role in automating the retail experience. With the help of the latest technology, salespeople will be able to focus on building relationships with customers to increase sales. In order to stay competitive, businesses must invest in high-performing eCommerce solutions. Providers such as Charter Global, apply leading technology tools to deliver customized eCommerce solutions to mid-size and Fortune 1000 companies. Experienced providers offer expertise across multiple, proven Cloud-based eCommerce platforms such as SAP HANA, SAP Business One, Magento, PCI DSS, Spring MVC (Framework ), Magnolia CMS/ Blossom module, HTML5, CSS3, JQuery, and Struts.

6) Chatbots

Chat-bots are AI-led automated messenger services that allow your customers to engage with your brand via instant messenger via machine learning. Over the last few years messaging apps have exploded in popularity, and thanks to eCommerce personalization, artificial intelligence technology has been adopted by many large retailers. This year will see these two trends combine to deliver a new way of shopping and communicating.

Charter Global offers SAP Hybris

SAP Hybris products are created for easy implementation to most businesses preexisting systems. The intergradation process is straightforward therefore fast to market. Each SAP Hybris applications is linked to one another. So, as a company grows and is in need for additional support in SAP Ecommerce Solutions, marketing, sales, billing, service or customer data, there is a SAP Hybris product for that. Its components are designed to work together in all settings and systems. This feature makes a company’s transition process to a full SAP Hybris system hassle free. Therefore, businesses do not need to completely change their current systems in one instance. The change can be done over time, which is cost effective and allows for a smooth transition.

Businesses that implemented SAP Hybris saw tremendous increase in their Return on Investment (ROI). The increase of the ratio between their net profit and cost of investment resulted from their integration of SAP Hybris systems. In a study commissioned by SAP these businesses saw a 307% increase. The study, “The Economic Impact of SAP Hybris Ecommerce Solutions for B2B,” focused on both qualitative and quantitative information from a number of businesses who run their website using Hybris.

SAP Hybris continues to be the first choice for many businesses due to its stability, large global implementation partner network, and vertical industry solution focus. The numerous applications for business problem solving and quick integration process makes SAP Hybris an industry favorite. There is also an application connector that can work with JDE applications providing easy implementation. Due to its enhanced functionality and seamless shopping experience, SAP Hybris is ultimately improved the buyers’ journey and overall experience.

According to the study, a composite organization using SAP Hybris E Commerce Cloud solutions over three years was able to:

Drive an additional 50% of revenue digitally.
Enhance customer experience.
Reduce order processing costs by 70%.
Improve productivity across teams.
Experience a 5% increase in average order value.

Marcus Ruebsam, senior vice president and head of strategy and solution management of SAP Hybris, stated: “As evidenced by this latest study, SAP Hybris E Commerce Cloud empowers organizations to make the buying process not only easier but more profitable.”

Read the full study at SAP Hybris.

Vendors, such as Charter Global, who understand the business value of SAP Hybris ecommerce solutions, have developed innovative pre-configured SAP Hybris, which can also be customized. Clients such as PPG have experienced rapid ROI from the solution.

According to Phil Bauer, VP Information Technology, PPG: “Charter Global enabled us to achieve our goal of deploying a full featured ecommerce solution that will help us to improve our online customer experience and allow us to stay competitive in our market.”

If you would like more information on pre-configured SAP Hybris ecommerce solutions, visit Charter Global.

4 Tips for Mobile Recruiting | Charter Global

Using mobile technology, an HR unit can engage mobile recruiting to attract, engage as well as convert candidates. Typical examples of mobile recruiting methods include mobile recruiting apps, mobile career sites, social recruiting, and recruiting by text.

Mobile Recruiting offers an evolving opportunity for employers to connect with candidates in a more efficient manner. A research study showed that more than 89 percent of job candidates confirmed that their mobile devices are going to be an essential tool as well as resource for job search.

No doubts, the use of traditional methods such as phone calls and emails have helped in time past in employment processes. However, the rise in mobile usage among people searching for job has made mobile hiring strategy a more viable tool for recruitment in 2019 and beyond.

What Research Results are Saying about Mobile Recruiting?

According to the outcome of the research carried out by Human Capital Institute; “While 70% of job seekers use their smartphones or tablets to search for job positions, only slightly above 30 percent of employers are leveraging mobile to recruit online — this set of employers call themselves ‘talent-centric.’”

What bell does this ring? Whether you want to attract candidates who are actively engaged in smartphone usage, or engage candidates in the course of hiring, you need to upgrade to mobile recruitment. But how? Keep reading to learn how.

Tip #1: Don’t Ignore Mobile or You will be Ignoring the Best Candidates

If you ignore mobile in your recruitment process, you may end up ignoring the top candidates for those positions you wish to fill. So, why is it quite important to feature your recruitment strategy on handy devices such as smartphones and tablets? The answer is simple…

“By not integrating mobile hiring strategy in recruitment, companies are giving up skillful and qualified candidates. This is because a good number of highly-talented people are changing the way they search for job, both the entry-level candidates and the senior executives”, says a recruitment expert. And, it’s a pity that a lot of companies are hesitating to swing into mobile recruiting.

Tip #2: Imbibe a Strategic Mobile Hiring Strategy

Wondering where to start when it comes to mobile hiring strategy? For now, don’t focus much on smartphone apps. The first step is to focus on making your company’s career website mobile-friendly. Be the judge of whether or not your career site would enable mobile users to apply for your positions by browsing the site on a mobile device – iPhone, Android phone or tablets. This will help you determine how best to repackage your site to suit the present day job seekers.

Tip #3: Take a Cue from Your Rivals

Another great way to do mobile recruiting is to take a cue on how your competitors are doing it. There’s no need reinventing the wheel — be smart and do less work by taking a cue from your rivals who are already taking advantage of mobile for recruiting. Take a long and insightful look at a well-structured mobile career site.

Tip #4: Find out and Implement Mobile Users’ Needs

You should also research on the needs of mobile users. The message is simple; learn about your target audience. Locate a group of persons/candidates critical to your recruiting. Subsequently, you should sit back and find out their needs in terms of what your company has to offer better than the other rival company.

Finally, get to the essentials of mobile recruiting by developing robust mobile devices’ landing pages.

Thursday, February 20, 2020

Usability Guidelines and Website Design Standards | Charter Global

Usability is a crucial part of the application development process: So what exactly is “usability” with respect to software and application development services? Usability means making products, systems, websites and web applications easier to use, matching them more closely to user needs and requirements. A website very often serves as the first impression to your customers – and you need to ensure it is a good one to keep them coming back. Good usability and user experience should capture the best possible human-computer interaction.

The primary benefits to users are that they can achieve their tasks easily and efficiently. This sounds simple, but the feeling of achievement that people get when they use a computer system without frustration should not be unpredictability is a crucial part of the application development process.

Usability means making products, systems, websites and End-to-End Application Development Services easier to use, matching them more closely to user needs and requirements. A website very often serves as the first impression to your customers – and you need to ensure it is a good one to keep them coming back. Good usability and user experience should capture the best possible human-computer interaction.

A highly usable system doesn’t just offer benefits to the users, but to your business as well.

Components of Usability:

Effective – Effectiveness is the completeness and accuracy with which users achieve specified goals.
Efficient – Efficiency can be described as the speed in which users can complete the tasks for which they use the product.
Error – The ultimate goal is a system which has no errors.
Easy to Learn – How easy is it for users to accomplish basic tasks the first time they encounter the design?
Satisfaction – How pleasant is it to use the design?

How to Improve Usability:

There are many methods for usability, but the most basic and useful is user testing.

User testing is different from focus groups, which are a poor way of evaluating design usability. Focus groups have a place in market research, but to evaluate interaction designs you must closely observe individual users as they perform tasks with the user interface. Listening to what people say is misleading: you have to watch what they actually do.

Usability’s Role in the Design Process:

Usability plays a role in each stage of the design process.

Before starting the new design, test the old design to identify the good parts that you should keep or emphasize and the bad parts that give users trouble.
Conduct a field study to see how users behave in their natural habitat.
Make paper prototypes of one or more new design ideas and test them. The less time you invest in these design ideas the better because you’ll need to change them all based on the test results.
Refine the design ideas that test best through multiple iterations, gradually moving from low-fidelity prototyping to high-fidelity representations that run on the computer. Test each iteration.
Once you decide on and implement the final design, test it again. Subtle usability problems always creep in during implementation.

Usability Guidelines and Standards:

Usability guidelines and standards can be useful to provide ideas about usability issues, but they must be assessed to determine whether they are relevant to the users and context. Read More

Software development continues to develop and change each year. By researching the latest trends and keeping your process relevant, your business has a greater chance at success. If you are looking to build a scalable digital solution for your business, you should approach a software development company that works on the latest technology trends and implements the above technology stack.

Get in touch with our team to discuss IT staffing and software development solutions that can supersede your existing solutions on mobile and web applications.

Three Types of Mobile Apps: Native, Hybrid, and Web - Charter Global

A breakdown of the 3 types of apps and a list of the best cross platforms to use in mobile app development -

Smartphones have become an inseparable part of our daily lives. Activities like waking up with a morning alarm, checking Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, Twitter; listening to music, reading news, watching YouTube videos; adjusting the thermostat and lighting, updating project status; and the list goes on. All of these mutually exclusive applications run independently on main operating platforms; seamlessly bringing our smartphones to life – all in real time.

We see hundreds of new apps in the market every year, and the demand for mobile application development continues to increase. Although we’re familiar with operating systems (i.e. iOS and Android), chances are, we’re not clued-in on the specific technology platforms software developers use throughout the design and development process in building apps. We hope that after reading this blog, you will better d ifferent t ypes of m obile a pplications and cross platforms, including a few you’ve never heard of – in your journey to understand progressive web development.

Native mobile apps:

Native mobile apps are designed to be “native” to one platform, whether it’s Apple iOS, Google’s Android, or Windows Phone. The native platform can be advantageous because it tends to optimize the user experience. Because it was developed specifically for the platform, it can operate more quickly and intuitively.

Hybrid mobile apps:

These apps can be installed on devices just like native apps, but they run through web browsers. All hybrid apps are developed through the HTML5 programming language. Though hybrid apps are not as fast or reliable as native apps, they have a greater capacity for streamlining the development process. Because you don’t have to build and maintain mobile apps for separate platforms, your business can save on time and resources. It’s ideal for apps that primarily deliver content.

Web apps:

Responsive websites switch to a different design when they are accessed from a mobile device. Adaptive web application, on the other hand, scale to fit the different screen sizes of mobile devices. For these apps, the design doesn’t change. Web apps are built using the most popular programming languages, but they can’t use hardware on mobile devices or be sold in any app stores.

Best Cross Platform Mobile App Development List:

Xamarin:

Xamarin delivers native Android, iOS, and Windows apps, using existing skills, teams, and code.

Adobe PhoneGap:

PhoneGap is a mobile application development framework based on an open source project (Apache Cordova).

Appcelerator:

Appcelerator is an enterprise-focused development platform that lets developers write JavaScript with its Alloy MVC framework.

Kony:

Kony offers a range of tools as part of its enterprise Mobility Platform to help business create apps from a single codebase.

Sencha Touch:

Sencha Touch is the leading cross-platform mobile web application framework based on HTML5 and JavaScript for creating universal mobile apps.

Appery.io:

Appery.io is the best cloud-based mobile app builder platform that the mobile phone application developer can use to create best apps for Android, iOS, and Windows phone, and includes Apache Cordova with access to its built-in components.

Charter Global leverages its experience across multiple, proven app lication development services and ecommerce cloud-based platforms: SAP Fiori, SAP HANA, SAP Business One, Magento, PCI DSS, Spring MVC (Framework), Magnolia CMS/ Blossom module, HTML5, CSS3, JQuery, Struts. Charter Global is also the only Oracle partner that offers native pre-configured customizable mobile apps for JD Edwards users.

Get in touch with our team to discuss IT staffing and software development solutions that can supersede your existing solutions on mobile and web applications.

Top 3 Trends In Microservices | Charter Global

Microservices is a software development methodology, or Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) style responsible for application structuring. From the performance of microservices leading up to 2019, experts have identified some trends that will characterize microservices in 2020.

1: Test Automation

Conventionally, individuals structured test cases for determining whether or not software will work correctly across a wide range of circumstances. QA Automation Testing Services engineers were often responsible for creating and running test cases. The current trend is for software engineers to be in charge of testing, instead of the traditional QA team. This is the result of test-driven development that requires developers to carry out tests throughout the Continuous Integration (CI) pipeline.

Businesses and organizations look forward to a software testing services that automates design and has the ability to run and report the results. So, there should be no friction with this solution. It should smoothly connect to CI systems, add comments as a human engineer would do, and analyze new code in real time

2: Incident Response

The rise of Site Reliability Engineers is a response to the intricately distributed systems. These systems suffer resiliency challenges often. So, the engineers automate manual processes that were previously performed by system admins. Now, they are in charge of efficiency, performance, latency, availability, capacity planning, and emergency response.

The financial implications of downtime can be quite significant, which necessitates a fast solution. According to Gartner, this financial implication is up to approximately 6k average revenue loss per minute. In fact, big retail sites, such as Amazon, may encounter up to $220k revenue loss per minute. Overall, it is not just money that is lost, the brand’s image is also at risk with such downtime issues.

Solutions are expected to be geared towards providing innovative incident response. Therefore, any centralized platform should also list out the impact and status of the incident, including the event timeline, status and effect on the long run, in addition to assigning roles and kicking off workflows.

3: CD/Verification for Enhanced Productivity

CD simply stands for Continuous Deployment. There’s always pressure on businesses to speed up software release cycles. With CD, any code that passes testing is applied to production in an automated manner. Compared to CI, the task of ensuring code can be safely and rapidly deployed to production is accomplished by a set of design. Continuous Deployment goes further to manage the full deployment.

The manual activities of DevOps engineers are being replaced by CD. Because of this, CD will be aided to become a point of intelligent control for multi-cloud environments. It will make predictive abilities available. Such predictive capabilities include insights into the best region, cloud, as well as configuration for service deployment in line with its circumstances.

Finally, experts have predicted that more developers will be tooling around the deployments of microservices, which would cut down the cost associated with complexity. So, organizations can keep on the trend of migration to microservice architectures.

Get in touch with our team to discuss IT staffing and software development solutions that can supersede your existing solutions on mobile and web applications.

Machine Learning Services: A Valuable Enterprise

Machine Learning is a valuable player in the realm of the Internet of Things. ML and Internet of Things (IoT) have gained tremendous popularity over the past few years, considered by many as revolutionary, game changing tech. Yet, much confusion exists in terms of understanding the purpose of Machine Learning Models, along with it’s benefits and suitability for use.

Here’s a breakdown of Machine Learning, benefits of ML in AI and IoT, when it should be used, and it’s real-world applications today.

When Is Machine Learning Valuable?

In general, machine learning is valuable when you know what you want but you don’t know the important input variables to make that decision. So you give the machine learning algorithm your stated goals, or inputs. Based on Machine learning systems, and then it “learns” from the data which factors are important in achieving that goal.

The data models that are typical of traditional data analytics are often static and of limited use in addressing unstructured, fast-changing, sequestered amounts of data. When it comes to IoT, it’s often necessary to identify correlations between dozens of sensor inputs and external factors that are rapidly producing millions of data points.

In addition, m achine l earning d evelopment s ervices has the ability to accurately predicting future events. Whereas the data models built using traditional data analytics are static, machine learning algorithms constantly improve over time as more data is captured and assimilated. This means that the machine learning algorithm can make predictions, see what actually happens, compare against its predictions, then adjust to become more accurate.

The predictive analytics made possible by machine learning are hugely valuable for many IoT applications. Let’s take a look at a few concrete examples.

How are Machine Learning Applications used in IoT?

1. Cost Savings in Industrial Applications:

Predictive capabilities are extremely useful in an industrial setting. By drawing data from multiple IoT sensors in or on machines, machine learning applications can “learn” what’s typical for the machine and then detect when something abnormal begins to occur.

Predicting when a machine needs maintenance via IoT data is incredibly valuable, translating into millions of dollars in saved costs. A great example is Goldcorp, a mining company that uses immense vehicles to haul away materials.

When these hauling vehicles break down, it costs Goldcorp $2 million per day in lost productivity. Goldcorp is now using machine learning to predict with over 90% accuracy when machines will need maintenance, meaning huge cost savings.

2. Shaping Experiences to Individuals:

We’re actually all familiar with machine learning applications in our everyday lives. Both Amazon and Netflix use machine learning to learn our preferences and provide a better experience for the user. That could mean suggesting products that you might like or providing relevant recommendations for movies and TV shows.

Similarly, in IoT machine learning can be extremely valuable in shaping our environment to our personal preferences.

The billions of sensors and devices that will continue to power connected devices, smart homes, and IoT devices in the coming years will generate exponentially more data. This huge increase in data will drive great improvements in machine learning, opening countless opportunities for us to reap the benefits.

Not only we will be able to predict when machines need maintenance, we’ll be able to predict when we need maintenance too. Machine learning will be applied to the data from our wearable to learn our baseline and determine when our vitals have become abnormal, calling a doctor or ambulance automatically if necessary.

Beyond individuals, we’ll be able to use that health data at scale to see trends across entire populations, predicting outbreaks of disease and proactively addressing health problems.

Although both machine learning and IoT can be over-hyped, the future of machine learning applications in IoT are worthy of that hype. We’re really just scratching the surface of what’s possible.

https://www.charterglobal.com/machine-learning-a-valuable-enterprise/

Get in touch with our team to discuss IT staffing and software development solutions that can supersede your existing solutions on mobile and web applications.