The internet is the biggest thing introduced to the millennial, and they are certainly making the most out of this advancement. Apart from using it solely as a tool or source of entertainment, the internet is now becoming the source of incoming for a majority of enthusiasts who are on a mission to do something creative, hence earn money using the creativity.

This increasing trend of the internet has permitted the masses to earn money by way of previously non-existent channels. As a result, selling various products as well as services online has become a prevailing fashion for people to earn ample money.

Furthermore, the advent of easy-to-handle website building platforms, as well as the omnipresence of social media, has helped these individuals to reach to a great number of people and sell their respective businesses.

Starting an online business is neither a cakewalk nor rocket science. There are certain things that you are required to check to introduce your business on the biggest technical platform. If you are planning to sell your business online, here are a few things that you must know before giving your online business a launch:

1) Have a business plan.

Before you begin to start your business on to the internet, you must find out an appropriate business plan. Proper planning of the business is essential for its success. Your business plan should include a niche in which you are going to work, at the same time, it must also give an insight into an idea of the possibility of the success that you are going to achieve.

2) Focus on the customer and understand the market.

For transforming any business into successful trading, it is very important to master the skills of marketing and sales. Research all the demographics as well as psychographics of your potential customer base and keep a check on their buying habits. Also, watch your competitors indulge in dialogues with similar businesses, browse the websites of your competitors and try to comprehend the feedback of their customers on social media platforms. These strategies will help you to understand the market scenario.

3) Begin with a service and then move towards a product.

Starting an online business means having more time than money. Thus, it is always recommended to begin with a service before actually thinking about a product. Get acquainted with your client base and then try to get better at your craft. Although this strategy is very time-consuming, you will be able to learn a lot about your biggest aspirations and deepest pain points while working on the same. Keep working on the service unless it achieves perfection and then prepares to launch your product.

4) Pick the right product.

Even after outlining the idea of the business and finding out the niche of your business, it is very important for you to be very particular about the type of the product that you are going to sell. This is a very important piece of information for all the individuals who are looking forward to launching their retail business online – pick the right products. If you are not the manufacturer of the product, choose a competent supplier to serve the purpose for you.

5) Domain name and site location.

Once you are done mapping out the business idea and choosing the product, a good hosting provider shall come next in the list. After this, you can proceed to set up your very own website and begin with your online business. If you do not have any kind of knowledgeable experience on the domain name and site location, it is always suggested to pursue the advice of an expert.

6) Advertising is the key.

A well-planned advertising strategy plays a key role in the overall growth and development of your business. Once all your ideas and products are ready for sale, you must make way for proper marketing as well as advertising strategies to promote your newly-established business. This strategy will help you expand your business to the next level.

7) The right use of social media.

Marketing and advertising strategies could be well-executed by taking help from social media. Today, some social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram are taken into use to market and promote many business ideas. Using the platform provided by social media, you can easily outreach your target customers.

8) Plan an email list.

Starting and maintaining an email list is very important while you are setting up your business online. A number of business enthusiasts though begin with an email list, fail to maintain the same. Your email list should be well-maintained and regular. Using an email list, you would easily be able to connect with all your potential customers and prospects. Send all kinds of content-based emails to your contacts added in the email list.

9) Be quick with the email responses.

Again, starting an email list might be a cakewalk, however maintaining it is not. You must, therefore, be prompt with all kinds of inquiries and questions sent in your email list. If someone sends you an online inquiry, you must be prompt enough to reply it at the earliest. Helping all your potential customers is very important for the sound growth of your business.

10) Maintenance of the business activity.

Lastly, you must continue to figure out all the ways and means using which you can maintain your business in a sound manner. This process should always be a continuous process because maintaining your business is a refreshing act that makes your business running and evergreen.

For this purpose, you must take care of all kinds of technical aspects of your online business such as maintenance of the website, promotional strategies, managing the company inventory, etc. All the other things that you must take care of while maintaining your business include making decisions about the new as well as discontinued products, the introduction of discounts, planning new strategies, etc.

Every online business and entrepreneurship is a combination of guts and glory. There are highs and there are lows as well. While hustling for the reward, you must always remember that all these lessons would add to your experience of starting a business on a bigger platform. These ideas will surely improve and enhance the chances of startup success.

Keep these things in mind, start with the best and prepare for the worst. Good luck.

The post 10 Things You Should Know Before Starting an Online Business appeared first on ReadWrite.

We’re sure you’ll agree when we say: traditionally, the insurance industry worldwide has been dominated by massive national brands and legacy product lines and age-old technology.

The change is already here and more changes are expected to disrupt the global insurance industry.

The rapid evolution of insurance technology or insurtech that’s making waves in the global insurance industry is surely here and we can see evidence of this everywhere.

All thanks to the insurtech innovations, the insurance products has moved from manual claim settlements to robotic process automation. Experts predict that insurtech will keep evolving as the mobile Internet unlocks new consumer behaviors and new business opportunities.

The BIG QUESTION:

“What InsurTech trends will continue to grow stronger in 2019 and beyond?”

We’ll show you the top three insurtech trends that will disrupt the global insurance industry in 2019 and beyond.

Trend #1: Wearable Tech will be the New Talk in Town

One of the most promising technology trends that are fast becoming a fad in the insurance industry is wearable tech. In fact, it is one trend that made headlines in 2017-18 and is expected to go even stronger in 2019 and beyond. In fact, the wearable tech market is likely to grow at CAGR of 23% annually to reach over $150bn by 2026.

Some of the world’s leading insurance companies including Cigna and United Healthcare are already leveraging wearable tech to offer usage-based insurance to consumers. These companies use wearable tech to obtain personalized data to decide on the insurance premium rate on the basis of lifestyle, driving habits, etc.

In a recent development, the largest and oldest North American life insurance companies, John Hancock announced that it will only sell interactive insurance policies based on the data gathered by wearable tech devices.

Given the immense potential of wearable technology, we are hopeful that a large number of insurers worldwide will start using this technology to provide usage-based insurance, decide policy premium rates, and incentivize policyholders for a healthy lifestyle and safe driving habits in 2019 and beyond.

Trend #2: Chatbot Technology will Take Centrestage in 2019

Let’s face it: Chatbot technology was a big win for the insurance industry in 2017-18. In fact, Global Trends Study 2017 reveals that an average of $124 million per insurer is invested in Chatbot technology in the insurance industry worldwide. Yet another report by Credence Research reveals that the popularity of chatbot technology will grow exponentially by 2023.

Given that chatbots can easily amass customers’ geographic and social data for personalized interactions, a large number of insurance companies are already investing in the technology to facilitate customize insurance coverage.

QBE, global insurance giant recently invested heavily in HyperScience, popular chatbot development, and machine learning firm. In a recent development, Allstate insurance introduced its flagship chatbot called (ABIE) Allstate Business Insurance Expert to provide policyholders with lower waiting time, seamless support and hassle-free claim settlements.

Looking at the ever-so-increasing popularity of the Chatbot technology worldwide, tech experts predict that the demand for Chatbot technology in 2019 will be 5 times more than what it was in 2017-18 in insurance industry worldwide.

Trend #3: RPA will Make Waves in the Insurance Sector in 2019

Robotic Process Automation (RPA) is yet another insurance technology trend that will make waves in 2019 and beyond. In fact, RPA is one of the most widely accepted technology trends worldwide. In 2017, the RPA market was worth 443 million USD and it is likely to reach 1224 million USD by the end of 2021.

A large number of insurance companies are shifting to Robotic Process Automation (RPA) in order to ensure superior automation of workflows and operations. RPA reduces the claim registration and processing time by at least 50%. In addition, RPA can help insurers take the hassles out of the otherwise complex insurance cancellation process.

Also, RPA can help insurance companies issue policies in less than 2 days. Typically, the process of policy issuance takes at least a week’s time. With so much on offer for insurance companies, it’s not rocket science to understand why robotic process automation is one of the insurance industry’s biggest technology-based opportunities for 2019 and beyond.

Over to You!

So there you have it the top three insurtech trends that will disrupt the insurance industry in 2019 and beyond. We are sure that the global insurance industry is going to witness tremendous technological disruption in the near future to optimize interactions, improve operational efficiency and decrease the compliance costs.

The post 3 Insurance Technology Trends That Will Rule The Roost in 2019 appeared first on ReadWrite.

There has been a lot spoken and written about Big Data over the years. Many believe things will get a lot better in every field of life with more advancement in Big Data. However, experts are trying to find better, efficient and effective ways to manage Big Data.

What is Big Data?

Big data is the type of data that is characterized by informational and technical features. A huge and ever-growing data volume, a variety of data formats and a log of records nature belong to the informational aspects. Traditional solutions are no longer suitable for capturing, storing and processing the data distinguished with such features. That’s why specialized big data solutions appeared, which relied on distributed data storage and parallel data processing.1

How can Big Data Management be Useful?

1) Increase in Revenue.

As per a study conducted by Experian, 61 percent of those surveyed admitted that they experience an excellent increase in revenue because of data management efforts. While 82 percent of the surveyed executives were of the view that it was the data quality solutions that helped them with an exceptional growth in the revenue.

2) Better Customer Service.

The same study has thrown light on another important benefit of big data management. As per the findings, it improves the customer service to a very large extent.

3) Enhanced Marketing.

Over the years, a lot of companies experienced a major boost in marketing as a result of big data management and data quality initiatives. It has helped them with a much timely and personalized communications with their customers.

4) Cost Savings.

As per the New Vantage survey, 49.2 percent of the surveyed executives admitted that there has been a huge decrease in the expenses because of big data efforts.

5) Better Analytics & Competitive Advantage.

With big data management, good and reliable data is coming into the analytics. Organizations now have quality business insights. This eventually gives organizations a competitive edge and helps them stand out among the others.

5 Groundbreaking Tips for Managing Big Data

If you are one of those aspiring entrepreneurs who is trying to explore more effective ways to manage big data. Here are five groundbreaking tips for managing big data.

1. A Better Understanding of the Infrastructure.

For a better big data management, it is absolutely necessary to be 100 percent familiar with the infrastructure that can be achieved by comprehending the commodity processing and storage nodes.

It is important to be completely familiar with every SQL-on-Hadoop’s query optimization and execution model.

2. Data Transformation.

In the traditional systems of processing and storing data, the data used to be standardized and cleaned prior to storing. On the contrary, in big data, the data is presented in its original form — without any data standardization and cleansing.

This is why it becomes the ultimate responsibility of the users to apply the necessary transformations. However, it is important for a user to ensure that the transformations don’t conflict with each other.

3. Proper Stream Processing.

• Unlike in the past, wherein most of the data used to be generated and used within an organization itself, there is a massive amount of streaming data nowadays which is a mix of both human-generated data and machine-generated data.
• Human-generated data is the data accumulated from social media channels, blogs, and emails while Machine data is the data generated by sensors, devices, meters, and interconnected machines.
• More emphasis should be laid on finding the right technology for stream processing that will ensure the most appropriate scanning, filtering, and selection of the most meaningful data.2

4. Trained Staffs.

To ensure high-quality data processing, it is important to hire trained data big data analysts and at the same time, organizations can invest more in training its employees in big data. This can be a win-win for both the organization and its employees.

5. Identify and Protect Sensitive Data.

With the rise in cyber threats over the past couple of years, it has become absolutely necessary for organizations to lay utmost emphasis on security and safety — at both the corporate and the customers data entry points.

The data management team should work actively to identify the sensitive data and keep them secure using the latest data security measures.

Conclusions.

In this post, we tried to give you a very comprehensive picture of big data and the various it can be managed. If you read this post carefully, it should be pretty much clear by now as to how powerful big data can be if managed effectively.

The five tips we shared in this post will certainly worth your while. These tips can be powerful tools in your organizational growth if you give them a try.

The post Groundbreaking Tips for Managing Big Data appeared first on ReadWrite.

Are you looking for some easy and effective growth hacks to boost your budding business? This is a fast-paced environment especially due to the rise of the internet. Hence the proverb, “Slow and steady wins the race,” does not fit the slot much in today’s world. You need to be smart enough to implement different growth hacking strategies to get the desired results.

Seven growth hacks for small businesses and startups.

There are several methodologies to fast-track the success of your business or startup. By following proven strategies, one can easily improve the sales of his/her business. This growth-hacker technique has been developed by Sean Ellis. Ellis emphasizes the need to achieve the desired results quickly by using minimal expenditure.

Given below are some growth hacks that have been practiced by huge brand names. Used in early stages will an impact on the customers – and gain you hefty profits:

1) Target Social Media Platforms for Customer-Retargeting

The best way to engage with your potential customer is by targeting them when they first visit your website. This can be done by implementing targeted ads that help in linking the one-time visitor with your site. You want them to come back to your website soon. This early engagement encourages them to return to your site and tempts them to not miss any deal or offer which is live on that product.

Your strategy is to convert your visitors into regular customers. This targeting method is the best one to serve this purpose and will help you achieve your revenue target faster.

There are several startups who keep track of their visitors’ online footprints and follow them everywhere for a faster and large impact.

2) Increase Funds to Expand Your Business

It is true: “Money makes more money.” Investing money after you implement several growth hacks is crucial for your upward growth trajectory. You may ask your co-founders and other investors to invest in the development of the business.

Once your business attains a pre-determined target, venture capitalists start getting interested to invest into the expansion of the business.

As your product sale increases, more investors start investing and this increases the capital of the business. If you’re not able to increase capital with investors then consider using small business working capital loans to expand. Capital expansion plays a key role in bringing change in the growth of any company and help in building a better system of enhancing productivity.

3) Focus on Content Marketing and Use Content Upgrades

Content marketing is a useful tool to multiply the number of leads for your business.  Conducted by demand metric, this survey notes that content marketing tends to boost the business by reducing the costs by around 62 percent.

The first step is to add a blog on the website so customers get engaged with the solutions provided by your startup.

If you implement proper SEO on your blog, you will be able to watch the metrics go up visibility. You will witness the growth of your audience as their engagement increases. If there is an option of providing relevant content upgrades in exchange for your customers email, you will be able to collect a huge list of customers. These are your customers who want to be with you and your product.

Almost all the websites like google, amazon etc. use this simple strategy to bring their customers into confidence about its services.

4) Use Exit-Intent to Build a Large Email Base

There are several companies that rely upon gathering customer emails and forming a huge collection so that they can directly connect with the customers for amazing deals, promotional offers or discounts etc. that lures the customers back to their website.

Such small incentives and offers are loved by everyone, therefore, using these exit-intent popups to save their personal email so that the conversion rates rise up and you can keep track of all the customer activities and when he is about to leave your website, you can keep the customers engaged by adding this simple exit-intent.

5) Hire Like-Minded People to Accomplish Your Goal

To attain your goal fast, it is necessary to form a team of hard-working people who are dedicated to achieving the goals and have the enthusiasm to work as a team. Their goals must match the goals of the organization so that they can push harder for the growth of the team as a whole.

It is necessary as the growth of any company relies upon its human resources who are the assets of the company and always work to enhance the growth of the organization and reach the top position.

6) Work hard to Make Your Products Perfect

Your company must expand its resources to make your products an exhibit of excellent quality. This attention to detail will demand the value for your product. 

When you focus on crafting each product in the best way possible, the product will automatically be able to compete in the market. Your increased competition will lead to a flourishing growth of revenue for your company.

This will also lead to the development of future growth vision and prospects. You will begin to establish your business around the world. Having a premium product and marketing it well opens multiple avenues to operating your business internationally.

7) Engage in Feedbacks From Customers

Feedback is the best way to uncover the weak areas in your product or service. This immediately makes your services more user-centric. Getting feedback from your customers regarding your service or product provides room for improvement. This feedback helps as customers get to engage with your support team and get solutions. which increases their loyalty to your company.

Customers are your best measure to gain knowledge about your product or service. You can then make immediate updates and changes. Your customers will bring in many ideas for future products.

Incorporate these growth hacks into your startup environment from the early stages. Your business will grow exponentially and this is the most cost-effective way to obtain growth. Say “no” to ineffective traditional marketing practices and brings these smart hacks into the picture.

The post 7 Growth Hacks for Small Businesses and Startups to follow in 2019 appeared first on ReadWrite.

The short answer is yes. Get ready for a transformation of your HR department and I’m talking about making it much better.

Do you really want to work at your current level of speed and productivity? AI is the key businesses have been waiting to make this department more effective: Getting more done, pursuing accuracy and playing a more dynamic role in attaining company goals.

But of course, it will only happen if you know about and implement these changes. So let’s summarize this so you can get prepared. As AI develops you need to be ready to accept the positive change.

Will AI Carry Risks or Disadvantages Too?

Of course, no change is only positive. It’s usually coupled with some stress and a learning curve. If you know what to expect though you can be better prepared to minimize the obstacles. Here’s what you need to look out for:

• You could trust AI to pick the best person for a job but a robot may not gauge certain characteristics that will come to the fore in a personal discussion.
• Your team may be overwhelmed with technology if not trained well. This often leads to programs uploaded to a system but old processes still begin following. That’s a waste of money.
• Employees may feel disconnected if they only interact with AI.

While these risks are mostly manageable—stay involved and give good training—you run a much greater risk if you don’t implement this: Becoming irrelevant in an ever-evolving market. Do you realize you must use modern technology if you want to be a preferred employer?

You want to attract the best employees in the market, right?

Will AI Cost You Your HR Position?

This is an unfortunate myth. It’s normal to be protective of your job but there’s little foundation for this fear. In general companies view AI and automation as an opportunity to retrain employees to cover other tasks—in conjunction with robots and high tech features—so the company can improve productivity.

And here’s an important note: An HR team will play a prime role in preparing companies to implement AI in all departments. Aren’t you responsible for the development of employees in general? That means you now have the privilege of training them for the exciting journey of working with AI.

There will definitely be more work rather than you losing your relevance in your company.

But then it’s important you keep up with the times. Luckily you’ll revel in these benefits coming your way.

The Benefits of AI for Your HR Department

So will it be an overnight win? Probably not.

For a start: For AI to be truly effective the machine learning aspect needs to learn from you and your crew what to do. Then certain tasks can be copied, automated and improved because it will be happening faster. You also must get used to new processes and customize the system to your preferences.

But if you need some motivation to keep going and embrace this new chapter in business functioning, here are the facts.

Benefits for the Employee

Employees are always complaining about having too little time to do too much work. For them, there will be no more reason to grumble since AI systems are designed specifically to combat time wastage.

One example is automating a process such as leave applications. Instead of booking a meeting with the HR department AI can gauge whether it’s an optimal time to take a break:

• Are big projects going live at that time?
• Did other employees book the same time, therefore necessitating your presence on site?

Even general HR queries can happen quickly since you can talk to a chatbot instead of waiting for an employee to answer, and humans usually want to make small talk first.

The bulk of the benefits will be experienced by potential and new employees. The future of AI in HR is closely linked to the recruitment process. When many aspects are automated applicants will benefit from:

• Unbiassed first impressions are drawn from resumes and background checks. Robots won’t be prejudiced to race, gender or even personality types so everyone can get equal chances.
• Fast feedback after applying because AI can work through Bid Data quickly to find the best candidates.
• Training—for new positions—done by AI will be standardized so new employees won’t get watered down teachings because a mentor is pressed for time.

This already helps build a more productive and happy team which will benefit the entire company. This is worth investing in, right?

Benefits for the HR Practitioner and Team

But AI is not only to make the rest of the business function well. Let’s pull it back to the HR department itself.

Firstly if a chatbot can answer general queries it frees up loads of an HR team member’s time. More time is also saved when AI can automate repetitive tasks such as logging work hours.

But once again the most exciting benefit comes from the recruitment process such as helping you to manage it with software instead of handling paperwork manually. This entire process can be managed from a platform such as Mitrefinch, One system that does it all for you.

As mentioned your AI system can identify the most promising individuals from a list of applicants. However its involvement starts much earlier than that.

AI can analyse data to determine which skills, personalities and positions are most needed in a company based on performance appraisals & other data. Instead of HR teams sifting through information AI can do this in record time and do it accurately. Let’s face it. Which human can handle the amount of data AI will be able to work through?

If you know what type of positions to advertise for you’ll empower your company to become more effective in the long run.

Why the drive to get HR departments involved? Because it’s time they play an active role in more aspects of the business. That takes us to the next point.

Benefits for the Employer/Business Owner

You can probably see that AI will make employees more productive but that’s only one benefit for the business owner. He or she can acquire more time and input from the HR team—because they’re less pressured with paperwork—so they can help drive the company towards its goals.

Since HR departments work with the most important asset of all—people—this is vital. Ready to prepare your team?

The post Is AI Going to Benefit HR in Future? appeared first on ReadWrite.

Creating an efficient and effective employee schedule can be the difference between being stressed out or being relaxed as a manager. Your employees are your business and you always have to Ensure that your staff is where they need to be is critical for the smooth operation of your business.

Related Read: 9 Ways To Help Your Employees Step Up

The roster will always be a major focus of any business. In saying that, business is primarily about making money, and with this being the major goal of most business’ they will always be focused on ways to save time and money, and one of, if not, the biggest expense is payroll. Having a system such as an employee scheduling will cut time to an arduous and sometimes exhaustive process as rostering staff.

With efficient scheduling software, you can track staff shift times down to the minute, thus getting an exact calculation of your wage expenditure. Therefore with such accurate and real-time information, you can cut down on any unnecessary staff and wages.

With ever-changing technological advancement, workplace laws and requirements and changes to the workplace, running a business has more components than ever, and with this, the time pressure becomes even more problematic.

With scheduling software, you can avoid the pitfalls of not being compliant and be abiding by all workplace laws, scheduling software lessons the risk of accidentally flouting workplace laws with a multitude of functions to help make sure you’re in compliance.

From overtime to hours worked public holiday rates and different industry awards, keeping your finger on the pulse of all the different requirements that a business has to abide by eases the stress on a manager.

Implementing latest management tactics and processes with technology will keep you ahead of the game and will ease the pressure that occurs when you’re trying to build and keep, happy and loyal employees.

Staff Scheduling Challenges

Planning out a roster for the day, week or month can be challenging, having a central electronic platform to perform a multitude of tasks just makes your life much simpler. Flicking in between different applications and programs, emails and texts to work out the staff requirements, allowed wage budget and pay rates can fry a manger’s brain sometimes.

It can take hours for a manager to plan and sort through all of the above, to make a roster for the business, hours that can be saved quite easily, all the while being a more efficient and effective way of processing a staple requirement of any business.

Managers always have the pressure and responsibility of being compliant with organizational and workplace regulations, internal business requirements, employee upskilling, customer requirements and so much more.

With all these tasks, it is becoming a basic requirement of any business today to use employee scheduling software in order to always Staying Compliant with employee scheduling in any current and future laws and regulations of your business.

A well-managed and well-implemented employee scheduling system can help to keep your business moving smoothly as well as resolving a few difficult situations which can arise from rostering, payroll and compliance.

Importance of Employee Scheduling

Implementing and maintaining a consistent and efficient workplace schedule is important for the smooth function of your business. It helps to cut down wasted time, find inefficiencies and improve productivity. A great employee management system helps owners and managers to get more bang for your buck. Here are some key reasons why employee scheduling is important for your business:

• Add a professional touch that is cost-effective: To get the work done efficiently and effectively, employee software is becoming a requirement for all business’ today. It also reduces the labor cost and the maximum amount of work is completed in a shorter amount of time. Employees with the proper resources at their disposal can really maximize their efficiency at work.
• Reduce the stress: Creating an effective schedule ensures all the required tasks are done in a timely manner, without shift conflicts and to also ensure that your staff happy and a bit less stressed.
• Meeting deadlines: Managers can send alerts and notifications immediately to all staff if a shift needs to be filled, or priority tasks need to be done earlier, scheduling software can quickly alleviate your issues.

Utilising Employee Scheduling Software

It is always a challenge to coordinate with your staff members via email or text, regardless if you are part of a small cafe, or a large corporation, using employee scheduling software is a powerful and productive way to manage the employee schedule.

In real time you can quickly track your employees’ holiday leave, sick leave and also alert employees when there are scheduling conflicts. Managers and Employees can update their availabilities, see their hourly rate, receive their schedules and get notifications in real time on any mobile devices.

In addition to the preceding features, managers can customize compliance rules like overtime, break allocation, public holidays to suit your internal business policies and workplace regulations.

Here are some benefits that owners and managers can gain by using employee scheduling software:

• The software makes scheduling easy to manage and employers will know the employee availability, key details, pay rates, leave requirements, payroll and shift times. In addition, It will help to improve accountability of your staff and catch those staff members that spend a little too long on break.
• Managers can view and edit the schedule from anywhere in real time. Scheduling software helps employers save time and improve their focus on other parts of their business.
• Employee scheduling software is compatible on multiple platforms like Android, iOS, and available for desktop.

Conclusion

The old paper timesheets is a dinosaur of the past, the clock on a system on your old POS system is on the way out and being replaced in a very rapid movement towards all-encompassing employee scheduling software. Accurate and in real time, great all-in-one employee scheduling software is the future of your business.

The post How can Employee Scheduling Work as a Growth Booster for your Business? appeared first on ReadWrite.

As IoT or the Internet of Things is increasingly getting popular, a lot of thinking has already begun as to how we can make the most out of it.IoT is believed to offer an ocean of big data that can greatly help cities with accurate predictions, provide medical science with real-time insight pertaining to various complex things such as pacemaker, biochips and more, predictive maintenance of equipment and machinery.

Many believe that with the advent of IoT, there would be a massive level of advancement in smart homes and self-driving cars. In fact, there’s an unimaginable level of possibilities that are yet to come our way with IoT. As the Internet of Things continues to find its way, the amount of data that would be created by the expansion of devices and sensors will bring about high levels of accuracy in reaching various conclusions, be it business risks or opportunities.

Accurate Data Analysis; the Real Challenge

Also, it will help us reach important decisions pretty fast unlike ever before. This will undoubtedly offer a huge amount of data but the real problem would actually begin when it comes to analyzing the data. Considering the huge amount of data, the traditional methods will not work at all and it certainly would need a large number of highly competent data analysts.

Only with a fast and accurate data analysis, IoT could let its promises come true. On the contrary, with inaccurate data analysis, things may get extremely disastrous, irritating and even life-threatening with malfunctioning of the various devices and appliances. Machine Learning, the study of artificial intelligence wherein the sole emphasis is upon creating systems that can actually learn from data can be massively effective in capitalizing on the IoT generated data.

Huge Demand for Unbeatable AI Based Products Among the Companies

Also, there’s a growing awareness among the businesses about the massive deal of business opportunities that the IoT and AI stores and subsequently, IT industries are into a constant pressure to perform brilliantly and come up with unbeatable AI-based products to help many companies standout amongst the others in this aggressive race of competition nowadays.

This has, in turn, increased the demand for competent IT workers especially those with a deep understanding of Machine learning, multiple programming languages, and software. However, this is both bad and good news for IT workers. With more competent IT workers coming in, it could be a do or die situation for many other IT workers who have been working in the traditional pattern so far. Things are going to get a lot competitive in the IT industry for sure. However, the result is expected to be unimaginably advanced unlike ever before.

IT Industry Is Heading off to a Roller Coaster Ride

With IoT or Machine Learning and automation, there’s undoubtedly an increasing requirement for more IT employees who aren’t merely data scientists but professionals who can play with the data in all aspects besides data analyzing. Interestingly, with this huge need for competent employees thorough with IoT and Artificial intelligence, the IT sector is certainly heading off to a roller coaster ride.

According to a recent study, there has already been a 3% increase in the IT salary ever since IoT and AI have been introduced. As a matter of fact, the time has come when IT workers with the ability to handle multiple software can start expecting a higher salary. The demand for the popular data analytics tool, ‘R’ and the most popular programming language, Python is increasing even further.

The Success Story of AI So Far

In fact, few of the top-notch companies have already been able to incorporate artificial intelligence into their products and subsequently, achieve a considerable amount of success as well. One of such companies happens to be the Amazon. Amazon Echo with the voice assistant Alexa is increasingly getting popular among the people.

Also, it is believed to bring about a massive transformation in the perception of smart homes. Things are certainly going to get a lot better and advanced. Interestingly, every single thing nowadays is based on accurate data analysis and IoT along with Artificial Intelligence is certainly going to bring about a massive amount of convenience as well as advancement in every field of life.

The post How Are Salary Trends Changing in the IT Industry After the Introduction IoT and AI? appeared first on ReadWrite.

If we talk about the current world and its housing aspects, the home automation criteria are on a high scale of changing and converging. As of now, most people are aware of the term IoT and how it will magnify the whole dynamics of the current home system.

With the increasing hype of smart home labeled products as well as the future home planning scenarios, the concept of the smart and a more convenient home is straight on the cards and is more popular than ever.

In this article, you will get to know about the changing dynamics of the current home system and will also get to know how you can magnify your home to the next level of high-tech living provided with ease of satisfaction and fulfillment. So, let’s get started.

Related Read: Who are the right partners to get you into more smart homes?

According to a research in 2017 on connected home solutions, the connected home solutions were defined as follows-

“Connected home solutions consist of a set of devices and services that are connected to each other and to the internet and can automatically respond to preset rules, be remotely accessed and managed by mobile apps or a browser, and send alerts or messages to the user(s).”

For building your own Smart home powered by IoT and Artificial Intelligence, here are some of my own takes:

1) Don’t Go Completely Wireless

No matter how much you make your home transformed into an IoT beast, being wired will surely be the very best as well as a reliable option. If you are the one who has got exposed walls, you can install the Cat6 cable before the plaster pops out.

After all, Cat 6 is a good cable and can do pretty operations at a faster rate than just transmitting data. Also, it can carry digital signals too.

2) Don’t Fret About Different Platforms

Smart Home connectivity is nothing less than a confusing muddle for an average consumer. Ranging from a list of platforms, some of them are as follows:

• Nest
• HomeKit
• Wink
• Z-Wave
• Zigbee
• SmartThings
• Brillo

These are just a handful list of platforms which you can inculcate in building your smart home.

3) The Starting Point

A good start requires a deep amount of research and determination. At the start, you as a consumer will need to figure out whether you want to dabble in the smart scene or planning to go all out. If you are planning to go device by device, things can get a little cheap but can get a little messy and in the end harder to upgrade. Even for some devices which are not available at your place, you have to get it from another city or country for which you have to pay a high tax to the government, but there are many tax debt relief options are available in the market so you can get rid of taxes. 

While I will do the best to guide you through the hurdles and presenting you a kit which is a lot more compatible, to be honest, you can either automate your home appliances and control each and everything around your home or choose one central hub which can control every device right from a single location.

4) Taking a Piecemeal Approach

In today’s market, you can get plenty of devices which are pretty much impressive, and if you are planning to buy one, chances are that you will be delighted by their performance and workability as well.

5) Amazon Echo

Ranging from a pool of IoT devices which can change the dynamics of your house, Amazon Echo can be the best option. With a designing around your voice, it has 7 microphones and comes with a beam-forming technology for performing various operations.

Intersting Read: Who are the right partners to get you into more smart homes?

With the all-new Amazon Echo, you can switch off or on the lights without the need of lifting your finger.

Also, it can be connected to Alexa for providing the daily news updates, weather conditions, play music and so much more.

Either, you can go for a Nest Thermostat or a Philips Hue Light bulb and can add a great amount of Intelligence to your existing home.

6) The Fusion of Artificial Intelligence and Wi-Fi

Thanks to the uninterrupted and the ever-enchanting Wi-Fi technology which can get the devices connected to it and let the control straight from the palms. As a consumer, you can get Smart Lights, Smart Locks and Smart Fridges from various online stores which can lift-up the game of your Smart home to the next level of high-tech living fantasy.

7) The Introduction of IFTTT

IFTTT was commonly known as If This Then That can bind together different smart home gadgets with a different set of skills. Under certain tricks, it can get your echo to talk to your Nest or can help in keeping heating and light synced. Yet, it’s still a confusing topic and will surely need some time to unwrap it to a simpler extent.

8) Choosing the Correct Platform

If you are throwing everything at one platform will surely leave you incomplete from the ins and outs of IFTTT. The easiest way as of today is buying a hub i.e. buying yourself an Amazon Echo or a Google Home and then picking the rest of the kit which is compatible with your current home system.

Altogether, choosing a great platform will depend on your home’s condition, and the Smart home desire will surely drive any consumer to buy one.

9) Zion Market Research

Based on the findings of April 2017 by Zion Market Research, the Smart home market at the global market is expected to reach an enormous $53.45 billion by the year 2022 which will be quite stupendous and stunning.

Final Verdict

In a world of changing, dynamics and many mobile app development companies and boasting a fantasized living situation which is slowly converted into reality, transforming your home into a Smart can be the best thing you can do in the present age time. As of now, go through the above article, eliminate the don’ts and implement the mentioned platforms to outburst with a shine to pave your way at a better living metrics.

The post How You Can Build Your Smart Home With The Help of AI and IoT appeared first on ReadWrite.

As the growing temptation for automated processes covers the varied industrial spectrum, Machine Learning is emerging into an ocean of possibilities while IBM’s Watson leads the marathon. From acting as a virtual chef of 65 recipes to embracing space programs, there’s a swathe of applications being ideated, built and rolled out to the public. Pulling large volumes of data and producing the most relevant possible results to user’s quest stays the flag bearer, Watson is amazing in churning higher revenues and upscaling business presence.

Related Read: How machine learning analytics can accelerate IoT results

Reduced Mortality Rate – More advanced treatments

Treatment for many of the world’s deadliest diseases is entirely dependent upon reference to past records. While browsing through them all using traditional analytics applications is unvaried, IBM Watson takes a giant leap with instant derivations from years of clinical research and patient data. Such accurate identification of potential risk factors helps try more effective pharmaceuticals.

The answer to the deadliest diseases is hidden in our history and cognitive analytics may exactly help us reach there.

Proactive QA – Brands are saving millions of dollars

Complying with legal standards and the brand repute, manufacturers are bound to bestow attention to detail so that superlative quality isn’t compromised with. IBM Watson is being applied to detect faults and ensure the end product is performing as per the standards. Not to miss, additional checks to qualify the product on safety parameters is also performed accurately by the cognitive analysis the platform has.
As a result, the best of brands in the world are saving millions of dollars that were by default drained in fighting lawsuits and liability cases.

High-Value Loans – Issued in minutes without manual verification

The eligibility towards loan offer is derived out of many metrics such as different sources of income, savings, age, banking record and the type of employment. Browsing through the details and calculating a specific loan amount that the customer fits into is a tedious process and usually takes up to many days before payout. At times, such a break in the customer interaction compels the customer to withdraw the request and look for alternatives; a major loss to business when hundreds of such leads don’t mature.

IBM Watson eliminates the need for manual scanning and verification does all the needed checks within minutes and lets the agent confirm the status instantly. Such a leap over traditional processing helps close deals faster and works as a terrific alternative for customers in need for extempore financial needs. Days of processing boiled down to minutes anchors in the portfolio.  

Predicting Farm Damage – Take due diligence

One of the most implacable problems of our times has been the inability to accurately predict potential threat to farmlands from unpredictable weather conditions or any human activity of mass impact. In complete sync with IoT, IBM Watson gets the best out of Cognitive Analytics by analogizing structured and unstructured data from multiple channels. Using historic and predicted weather data, published research notes, geographic information, identifying vulnerabilities and using real-time pictures from drones, an insightful report is being used to make pointed predictions and take safety measures in advance without any need for physical monitoring of the affected areas.

Resolving Resource Crunch – Enhanced remote functioning

Needed skilled force versus available resources stays a challenge today and may get worse in the decades to arrive, especially in rural areas. UN predicts a tremendous rise in urbanization with more than 60% of world’s population living in the urban areas and thus a scary shortage of skilled labor in farmlands. IBM Watson is being unlatched to automate processes and cut down drastically on the number of people working manually on land.

Remote Management has a wider acceptance and a productive impact on business processes. It helps improve workforce utilization and IBM Watson is surely an unquestionable tool to look out for.

Robots For Customer Support – Personalized interaction with Chatbots

Chatbots are the trendiest advancement in interactions with automated conversations with end users. Being able to decode natural language and inculcating machine learning techniques, these virtual assistants are already a rage in customer support across retail, media, services and travel industry. Still nascent in their ability to pull off longer conversations and with a personalized touch, Chatbots are one of the most hugely anticipated applications from IBM Watson towards sharing insights and giving suggestions.

Find the Perfect Diamond with ROSI

This could possibly be one of the most innovative ways to utilize a proprietary algorithm enhanced by IBM Watson’s deep capabilities.  Deciding upon the most suitable diamond for her is a tough task at hand that men wish was as easy as one-two-three. By creating, ROSI, the world’s first AI-powered digital diamond expert leading online diamond retailer RockHer, has actually achieved it. ROSI correlates your needs for diamond shape (round, princess, cushion, and oval etc) and budget, with preferential choices, the online store’s integrated AI platform does the work and produces the most relevant results in seconds. RockHer also offers instant insurance approvals through Jewelers Mutual and Free Overnight FedEx shipping making the overall diamond purchasing process as quick as a few clicks.

The post How IBM Watson is powering every other business with AI appeared first on ReadWrite.

Conducting a meeting in your conference hall, in earlier days, was considered as a hectic task. Arranging everything and turning the meeting into something fruitful, without using technology, was difficult. Almost every office has a conference hall where they can conduct their meetings. In the current scenario, technological advancements have gained success. It provided us the freedom, which compelled us to conduct conferences with much more perfection and in a computer-aided environment.

Clients, on the other hand, pose great value to any business. The happier they are with your services, more will be the business profit and success of your company; as simple as that. Moreover, you will interact with your clients in the conference hall, it serves as the front image for your company. In case you want to impress your clients, you should upgrade your conference hall from the traditional one to a smart one.

Since you are integrating all the latest technologies to ease your work, why not upgrade the conference hall, where you crack all your deals? It will have a more personified and effective impact on your clients. At an average, conference rooms are used for about four to five hours a week, but it is important that the overall design of your room does not hinder your business agenda.

Related Read: 4 Public Companies Investing Large Sums in IoT

Here are the ways by which you can impress your client by transforming your conference hall into a smart one.

1. Make it simple to Connect

Productivity always depends on time, therefore, use it effectively. The more you are productive in your business; the better will be the profit and success ratio for your business. In a conference hall, eliminate all the time wasting barriers and focus on things which will impress your client to the fullest level of satisfaction. Use a laptop or a Smartphone to connect the projector, it will not only save your time but will also give a positive effect on your clients.

Keep your conference meetings simple. Make sure everything is arranged properly and all the gadgets like laptops, smartphones, etc. are working properly. Upgrade your wired connections to wireless and reduce the chaos. Investing in wireless technology will simply enhance your working to an enormous extent.

2. Sharing Visual information on Multiple Screens

By placing some visual screens in your conference halls, you can impress the clients with unbelievable boundaries. When we talk about the smart conference rooms, we think about how efficiently all the modern technological resources we can use. With multiple screens available in your conference hall, it is advisable to use them to get the most benefits. It may include the devices or displays present in your conference hall. Ideally, all the contents which you have made for the clients will be visible on devices as well as on the display.

Hence, doing this will create a context for the larger device and content being shared from each device. The more you visualize your content; better your company’s reputation and revenue will be.

3. Use Smartphone’s and tablets

Gone are the days when company’s used the traditional whiteboard and pen to depict their ideas in the conferences or meetings. In this technology dominant world Smartphones, laptops and tablets have become the greatest tech giant as well as a boon to millions of business all over the globe. Allowing the use of such devices in conference hall can impress your client at the first go. Well, everyone wants simplicity and nothing can be better than holding a Smartphone and having each and everything at your fingertips.

It’s easy to work with the smartphones or tablets, instead of using a desktop or laptop. Any projector can connect to these devices for displaying your business proposals to the clients that too in an easy way. It eliminates the use of wires and cables which usually remains tangled most of the time. Apart from this, mobile app development company in India provides a range of apps for conference calls and other useful business purposes for making business meetings easier.

4. Better Security

One of the major key points in building any smart conference hall is security. Without adequate security, none of the business will achieve anything in the long run. You should levy tight security constraints upon every business policy for preventing any intruder to have access to your confidential data being shared in your conference hall.

It is important to seek out smart conference room technologies to attain the highest level of satisfaction regarding security. Information should be encrypted properly and should also meet the desired security guidelines. You should impose the security constraints in such a way that only those individuals who are in the conference hall can access it.

5. Don’t ever forget the basics

With the upcoming technology devices, videos and audio still stand as the baseline for any smart conference meeting. Thus, it is advisable to invest in good audio, video resources for your conference room to meet the requirements. Visualizing and hearing have always been a key to every successful business meeting. With the latest Dolby Atmos sound coming into the limelight, you can use them in your conference halls to make a great and long-lasting impression on your client.

The main thing to keep in mind is to make your conference room smart yet effective. Making your client feel comfortable in your conference hall should be taken care of. It will help them in paying more attention towards your proposals. Hence, in modern day world where things are changing drastically, making of a smart conference hall should be the top priority for any business organization to attain new heights of success.

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