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How Software Development is Transforming the Future of the Automotive Industry

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Global Trade Daily, Software, Technology

How Software Development is Transforming the Future of the Automotive Industry

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Explore how software development is revolutionizing the automotive industry, from connected cars to autonomous driving. Discover the key trends shaping the future of mobility and vehicle technology.

Read also: Buying or Building Your Business Software – How Do You Choose?

The automotive industry is currently experiencing significant changes thanks to advancements in software development. Presently, the vehicles are more than just transportation and are equipped with software that improves navigation, entertainment, and safety features, making each drive smoother and safer. This shift is due to software that manages everything from fuel efficiency to automated driving. These changes are making cars more eco-friendly and user-friendly.

These technological advancements are not just enhancing individual features but are transforming the overall vehicle ecosystem. With the rise of connected cars, software development is enabling vehicles to communicate with each other and with traffic management systems, paving the way for smarter transportation networks. 

According to the reports, the global automotive software market is expected to grow at a CAGR of 7.88% to reach $116. 62 billion by 2032. Thus, if you are an automotive business looking to leverage these advancements, it is essential to collaborate with a skilled automotive software development services provider. They can help you enhance your product offerings but also ensure that you stay competitive in this rapidly evolving market.

This blog will help you understand how software development is transforming the automotive industry’s landscape and why it’s high time to get on the digital bandwagon. So, let’s begin. 

The Rise of Connected Cars

The automobile industry is going through changes caused by connectivity in vehicles, the most promising among which are connected car solutions. These vehicles are already becoming moving PCs, which are, in fact, in a continuous process of interaction with the surrounding environment.

That is why with the help of internet connection cars have become mobile centers of entertainment. Presently, infotainment systems comprise smartphone interfaces and cloud services. A vehicle’s occupants are able to listen to music, get navigational assistance and access relevant content on the go.

Real-time data collection and analysis have opened new possibilities for vehicle performance:

1. Predictive maintenance alerts drivers to potential issues before they become problems.

2. Traffic pattern analysis helps optimize routes and reduce congestion.

3. Contrary to customary insurance, usage-based insurance works under the terms of practice, and drivers are charged according to their driving patterns.

OTA updates have, therefore, transformed the way and manner cars progress after being bought.

Manufacturers can now:

1. Fix software bugs remotely without requiring dealership visits

2. Design changes may involve the enhancement of new features in the car or the modification of existing features all through the lifecycle of the product.

3. Strengthen protection against threats that exist and to newly-approved threats.

Such connectivity is changing the nature of information that drivers, vehicles, and manufacturers share.

Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS)

ADAS is an important progressive departure of the vehicle, to enhance safety and implement tactical features in automobiles. These software based systems provide additional functionalities to the vehicles increasing safety and efficiency of the drive.

Automotive safety features have turned out to be important features of recent cars and these are driven by software. Businesses can avail automotive software from dedicated providers that are backed by sophisticated algorithms that enable:

1. Automatic emergency braking to prevent collisions

2. Lane departure warnings to keep drivers within road markings

3. Comfort in motion where the vehicle maintains a safe distance from the vehicle in front of it

ADAS is steadily leading the way to autonomous driving since new developments are gradually adding layers to the technology. 

Key milestones on this journey include:

1. Level 1 autonomy: Driver assistance with single automated systems

2. Level 2 autonomy: Partial automation of steering, acceleration, and braking

3. Level 3 autonomy: Conditional automation with human override

4. Level 4 autonomy: High automation in specific conditions

Every new feature takes cars to the future level of autonomy gradually with an eye on full autonomy.

Electrification and Battery Management

Electrification represents a new revolution in the automotive domain, which is based on software. Software control plays an important role in electric vehicle (EV) performance and energy consumption profiles.

Optimization of power electronic software applications increases the efficiency of electric powertrains and energy control of automobiles.

Sophisticated algorithms control power distribution, regenerative braking, and thermal management. This optimization extends battery life and improves overall vehicle efficiency.

Range prediction and charging management are critical aspects of the EV experience. Software plays a vital role in:

1. Accurately estimating the remaining range based on driving conditions and habits

2. Identifying optimal charging locations and planning efficient routes

3. Managing charging speed and battery health to maximize longevity

Advanced battery management systems utilize real-time data analysis to optimize performance. These systems monitor cell temperatures, voltage levels, and charge states. By constantly adjusting parameters, they ensure safe operation and extend battery lifespan.

Software development continues to push the boundaries of EV capabilities. It addresses range anxiety and enhances the overall driving experience for electric vehicle owners.

In-Vehicle Experience and Personalization

Modern vehicles now feature intuitive touchscreen interfaces and advanced voice recognition systems. These technologies streamline interaction with vehicle functions and infotainment systems.

1. Gesture controls for hands-free operation

2. Customizable dashboards displaying relevant information

3. Multilingual voice commands for global markets

AI-powered personal assistants

These systems learn from user behavior to provide increasingly relevant suggestions.

1. Contextual recommendations for navigation and entertainment

2. Integration with smart home devices for seamless transitions

3. Predictive maintenance alerts based on driving patterns

Customizable driving modes and settings

The software enables drivers to tailor their vehicle’s performance and ambiance to their preferences. This level of customization was previously impossible in traditional automobiles.

1. Dynamic suspension adjustments for comfort or sportiness

2. Personalized climate control settings for each occupant

3. Customizable ambient lighting to match mood or time of day

These advancements collectively transform vehicles into personalized, intelligent companions on the road.

Cybersecurity in Automotive Software

Increasing connectivity of vehicles lays this cybersecurity as a major issue in automotive software. The industry has new risks in regards to digital threats and the security of users’ data.

Protecting against potential threats:

1. Implementing robust firewalls to prevent unauthorized access to vehicle systems

2. Utilizing encryption for all data transmissions between vehicles and external networks

3. Regularly updating software to patch vulnerabilities and enhance security measures

Ensuring data privacy and compliance:

1. Anonymizing user data to protect individual privacy

2. Implementing strict access controls for sensitive vehicle and user information

3. Adhering to global data protection regulations like GDPR and CCPA

Automakers are also educating users about data collection practices and providing options for data control.

Conclusion

The automotive industry is poised for a momentous shift that changes the landscape of automobile manufacturing and its markets. Software development is at the center of this change which is slowly turning vehicles into smart connected platforms.

Thus, if you are a business looking to leverage this global shift, it’s now the right time to partner with a leading software development company in Saudi Arabia  that can help you develop innovative solutions that address regional needs while meeting international standards.

The critical role of software in shaping the future of mobility cannot be overstated. It enables:

1. Continuous improvement of vehicle performance through over-the-air updates

2. Integration of vehicles with smart city infrastructure

3. Personalization of the driving experience based on user preferences

 

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Archives, Global Trade Daily, Technology

Maximizing ROI of Businesses with Software Development Consulting Services

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In this digital landscape, Software development is continuing to rise for the essential success of businesses in various industries. The complexity of software development can be challenging to navigate, especially for businesses without a specialized in-house IT staff or team. At this point, software development consulting services come into play.

Software development consulting provides enterprises access to specialized knowledge and direction from experts who are familiar with the software development process. These consultants offer a wealth of expertise and knowledge, assisting firms in making wise choices, maximizing their development efforts, and achieving their business goals.

Why are Software Development Consulting Services Important for Businesses?

The size of the US software consulting industry was estimated at USD 275.82 billion in 2022 and is projected to increase at a CAGR of 12.58% from 2023 to 2030. The software consulting services companies are growing continuously by upgrading their digital transformation processes and increasing their need to implement modernized software solutions to optimize complex business operations.

In times of financial growth, businesses profit from higher revenues and budgets, allowing them to spend more on consultants. With the continuous advancement of technology, and demand for software consulting services has increased. The necessary skills and software implementation are provided by consulting services to businesses to increase revenue and profitability.

The Benefits of Employing Software Development Consultants for your Company

Leveraging the benefits of software development consulting services offers you the opportunity to increase the business ROI. Therefore, employing a software consulting services company assist you in overall business project development. 

Give Insights into Best Software Process

Software development consultants offer comprehensive advice and suggestions for improving your business model, with an emphasis on reducing procedures, utilizing technology, and improving current systems. Their main goal is to match your existing procedures with your long-term firm’s needs.

Prioritize Software Work

Software consulting companies develop a strategic plan for expanding enterprises, maintaining their crucial tasks, and avoiding pointless side projects. They arrange software tasks according to requirements, consider expected commercial results, and leave room for experimentation and quick iterations. This optimized process makes the path of software development and changes efficient.

New Technologies Update

Companies working together with a software development consulting firm have a significant advantage because they not only give you knowledge of the newest technologies for your business model but also take on the development duties to successfully apply them.  Incorporating cutting-edge technology into your current model with the help of a software development consulting firm grow your organization faster.

Providing training on how to use Software 

By giving training, the software development consulting company helps business users understand how to use recently introduced technology. This will help your team understand the capabilities of the software in-depth and share practical hints and hacks, ensuring a hands-on approach to software usage.

Even a software development company can assist you in tackling digital transformation without any interruptions by quickly resolving any challenges, resulting in little revenue.

Focusing on Business-Centric operations

You can gain a competitive edge by investing in software consulting services by streamlining business procedures, creating efficient technical strategies that produce positive results, optimizing efficiency while lowering costs, increasing the productivity of business users, and easily tracking software performance.

  • Changing the operational procedures
  • Developing a technical strategy that works
  • Boosting efficiency while minimizing time and money spent
  • Increasing employee output
  • Monitoring the operation of the software

Get a chance to select various experienced and skilled expertise 

A significant benefit of hiring a software development consulting company is getting access to various experts and teams with a variety of skills. These companies frequently have expertise in design, development, and deployment, which enables them to offer advice on the best tech stacks and methodologies, as well as comprehensive development and deployment services. This collaboration makes it possible to deliver excellent software in a shorter amount of time.

Improvement in Business Productivity 

Hiring a software consulting company for your business provides various benefits, such as streamlining operations and boosting employee productivity for businesses. Even you may efficiently plan and manage resources by accepting software development and usage paths and foreseeing the anticipated outcomes. This enables your staff to discover areas that may be temporarily postponed while prioritizing important activities, thus increasing overall productivity.

How a Software Consulting Firm Can Aid in the Development of Your Business?

A software consulting company is essential for developing a brilliant idea into software that is ready for the market and complies with industry requirements. Working with a software consulting firm has many benefits, one of which is its capacity to help you refine your project from conception to completion.

Software consultants provide all-inclusive assistance, from initial advice to in-depth analysis, so you may focus on your most important business objectives. At every level of your project, they offer advice and assistance, working directly with you to help you reach your objectives quickly and successfully.

Takeaway Points

In conclusion, utilizing software development consulting services can be instrumental in helping firms get the most out of their investments. In the software development lifecycle, these services offer valuable knowledge and direction, assisting businesses in making wise choices and maximizing the ROI of Businesses. Overall, This knowledge speeds up software development, cuts down on hazards, and raises the standard of the software.

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Archives, Global Trade Daily, Software

Why Your Supply Chain Software Has to be User-Friendly

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When it comes to supply chain software, companies are quickly learning that user experience or “UX” is everything. Put simply, it doesn’t matter how much a company invests in technology systems that provide all of the latest bells and whistles, if employees either don’t know how to use it – or, if they simply won’t use it – then those supply chain solutions will gather “virtual” dust in the corner as workers go back to their old ways of doing things.

Digital Natives’ Expectations

This is particularly true for the younger generations who are entering the workforce, and who know a good (or, bad) user interface when they see one. These digital natives grew up with mobile phones, devices, and applications in their hands, and expect the same experience with their business technology.

As the Baby Boomers continue to retire—and as they take their memories of using IBM Green Screens with them—Generations Y and Z are becoming the next supply chain managers and leaders. These new entrants to the field expect to have technology tools that make their jobs faster, easier, and more accurate.

Professional and End-User Friendly

“Making things as easy as possible for the end user is the best way to ensure successful adoption and use of any new communication tool,” InformationWeek states. “While organizations are understandably keen to arm workers with the best technology to boost productivity, end users’ needs aren’t the only priority. Throughout the evaluation process, it’s important to remember that the user interface (UI) is just as vital for IT professionals as it is for the end user when it comes to adoption.”

What is UX?

As the name implies, UX is all about creating an immersive experience for the user while keeping costs of development and implementation under control. In the context of software development, user experience looks like something focused purely on design and entertainment.

“UX has become a cornerstone of custom software development. Companies aiming to develop customer-facing software use this as a top competitive advantage, while those creating enterprise applications for internal use have learned to pay attention to this dimension to improve user acceptance of new software,” UX Planet explains. “This is no longer just a nice-to-have layer added at the end of the development cycle, but a significant aspect included right from the design phase.”

It’s important to note that where user interface (UI) is the collection of tangible elements that allow a user to interact with an application or website, UX is not defined by a specific set of visual objects, but rather what the user takes away from interacting with those visual objects that make up the experience. In this sense, UX is all about the subjective, internal feelings of the user. For example:

-How does the experience leave users feeling?
-Are users empowered or inhibited?
-Are users engaged or distracted?
-Are users encouraged or frustrated?

“In a world where we spend most of our workday interacting with technology,” bakertilly writes, “shouldn’t we at least feel empowered, engaged, and encouraged while we are doing it?”

Functional, Intuitive, and Easy to Use

When supply chain software has a good UX, the typical user can learn the program by simply using it, rather than reading a manual or taking lessons. For example, a program with intuitive icons and simple menu bar options may be easy for a new user to understand, TechTerms points out. “However, if a developer creates a program with non-standard icons and complex menu options, it will make the program less intuitive, likely resulting in a negative user experience.” Efficiency is maximized when a solution such as a WMS enables users to streamline their processes in the easiest way possible. Find out more about ease of use and results, click here.

A product that provides a positive user experience is:

-Functional: It does what it says it can do.
-Intuitive: The program was built with a friendly interface.
-Easy to use: It doesn’t make it too hard on the user.
-Reliable: It’s there when the user needs it.
-Enjoyable: The software is easy and fun to use.

When shopping around for supply chain solutions, such as WMS, look for user-friendly software that not only comprises functionalities that can benefit the user, but also makes it easy for users to access all its features. “The goal of efficient software development is to make the product reliable and compatible for end-users,” software development firm Rezaid states. “To deliver an excellent user experience, it is important to know your users well.”

As companies continue to invest in digital supply chain technologies to increasingly automate the supply chain, the ones that put their users first will surely get the best return on investment (ROI) and results from those applications. By seeking out software that features intuitive, easy-to-learn interfaces, companies can more readily integrate those new solutions into their busy operations without missing a beat. Those that ignore this advice may find themselves up against a formidable force when it comes to putting new innovation to work in their supply chains.

Generix Group North America provides a series of solutions within our Supply Chain Hub product suite to create efficiencies across an entire supply chain. Our solutions are in use around the world and our experience is second-to-none. We invite you to contact us to learn more.

This article originally appeared on GenerixGroup.com. Republished with permission.

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Archives, Global Trade Daily, Software

Three Tips to Break the Ice between Your Software Development Team and Product Backlog

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Helping agile teams to improve, I often saw one problem, especially with the teams recently migrated from old-school methods, such as RUP. In these teams, product owners are the only team members proactively involved in backlog management. Such a situation contradicts the Scrum ideology and dramatically decreases team performance. However, just a few simple steps would help to break the ice and improve the situation substantially in weeks.

During the last few months, I prepared four separate articles describing how good old requirements management methods may improve your backlog-fu. Now I want to demonstrate how these methods may help to engage your development team into backlog management.

First of all, you don’t want to force them into the backlog. It is against the whole idea of people management in Scrum. Instead, let’s see how you can create an environment where the development team becomes engaged in this job. Or, in other words, let’s facilitate their engagement.

Tip number one. Make sure that your development team can understand the stakeholders.

Developers are skilled in communication with computers, not other people. Do your homework on learning your stakeholders and their language and share this information with the development team. In other words, establish the common language and the frame of reference!

Read more about learning the stakeholders:

https://gehtsoftusa.com/blog/make-sure-your-team-knows-the-client/

Tip number two. Help your development team sympathize with the client.

If you help the development team feel the pain that stakeholders suffer, the boring day-by-day routine will turn into the mission to relieve the pain and solve the problem. This feeling motivates the development team to understand the business values and outcomes and apply their efforts to do the job in the best possible way.

Read more on how to start with the problem analysis:

https://gehtsoftusa.com/blog/backlog-analyze-problems-first/ 

Tip number three. Let the development team apply their knowledge and experience in the areas where they are better than you are.

The requirements are something more than just the “list of stories.” Sure, telling “what the system should do” is your primary responsibility, you are trained to do it, but there are a lot more. All these scary words, such as usability, reliability, and supportability, are as important as functionality is. And your team knows better about these things than you do and often than the customer does. After all, this is their “bread and butter.”

Let the developers understand that their opinion matters. Ask the developers the proper questions. Use URPS from FURPS and development-related attributes from the five-attribute model as a template for your questions.

That would magically turn a scary and odd job of “backlog management” into knowledge sharing and expertise application within clear and well-structured patterns. And I rarely see developers who hesitate to demonstrate their competence in these conditions.

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Archives, Global Trade Daily, Software

Software Development Trends in 2021

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As you might have already known, 2020 has been a year like no other. COVID 19 has in a way forced a lot of companies and organizations to review their digital strategies, and at the same time manage new technical challenges. This happened beyond the implications of the health crisis.

Because of the situation we’re in, software development services are now more important for a company than they’ve ever been. Now companies more than ever rely on the expertise of software developers to help them improve their customer experiences and performances.

This being said, as 2020 comes to an end (thank god), the year 2021, promises new innovations and trends, making it more competitive and starting a new era. In this article, I will try to walk you through some of those trends which I believe will influence the software development

Native Apps will dominate the market

As it is now, Native Application development is unparalleled, but going forward, people can expect this trend to dominate the software development services.

These services are meant to run only on devices that are specific, for example only on smartphones. Native apps usually provide powerful performance and better user experience compared to hybrid apps, given the fact that they are designed only for specific devices.

It doesn’t look like the native app will go down any time soon, definitely not in 2021 or in the near future, given the fact that the popularity of iOS and Android operating systems is growing each day.

Cloud technology is here to stay

The cloud services industry only in 2020 generated more than 40$ billion in revenue.

Did you know that in 2020, the cloud services industry generated almost $40 billion in revenue, Now cloud service’s market value is 266.5 billion, which is a 17%  growth from 2019, crazy growth in one year.

In the software development industry, it is a well-established fact that the big money is in cloud services. In 2021, cloud vendors such as Amazon, Google, and Microsoft will continue to invest big money in cloud technology.

The reason behind this is simple. The number of companies using cloud services is quite enormous, and the number of companies that will start using cloud services is even bigger.

It doesn’t matter the size of the organization, big, medium, or small, they all at some point will be moving to cloud services.

The reason behind cloud technology’s success so far is that it offers flexibility, scalability, and security that will prevent the threat of ever-present hackers that could lead to your organization’s security breach.

5G Technology will be unparalleled

At the beginning of 2020, 5G technology made a lot of waves, undeservedly when it was accused as the cause of the coronavirus outbreak. This rumor was disapproved by the world’s biggest scientists and has been left behind in 2020. Software developers can expect that the 5G tech to return as a trend, but now for all the right reasons. 5G technology is roughly 100 times faster than 4G networks. The tech experts predict that in 1.4 billion devices it will lead to data transmissions.

Virtual reality, augmented reality and other 4k video streaming are the reasons why 5G tech was specifically designed. Software developers will find this technology useful, especially if they are interested in creating designs and features that for a business will enhance their performance.

Investment in Artificial Intelligence will increase

We cannot deny the impact of Artificial Intelligence in the software development service, it will offer so many more options. Artificial Intelligence-based analytics are already being used by the tech giants like Google, Facebook, and Apple. Now the AI is progressing at a very fast pace and in 2021 it will be better in decision making, delivering relevant user experience details, etc.

Final thoughts

Software Development will be dominating the tech industry in 2021 and beyond, that is for sure. And businesses that pay attention more to trends will be moving towards this industry or incorporate this industry in their business somehow.

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Frank Holman is a Full Stack Developer with 8+ years of well-rounded experience in development, object-oriented, and user-centered design. Adept at studying system flows and data usage to develop and maintain the software according to production and quality standards. He built products for desktop and mobile app users meeting the highest web & mobile design standards, user experience, best practices, and speed.

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Archives, Global Trade Daily, Software

How No-code Process Automation is Shaping the Future of Work

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The business world is moving at a dizzying pace, where today’s innovation quickly becomes tomorrow’s norm. To gain a competitive advantage, organizations need to close the gap between business problem identification and deployment of a solution to address it. However, without enough developers on hand, organizations are looking for technology solutions to help transform themselves into a more agile and flexible entity. They are constantly on the lookout for technologies that can bridge the gap between two important employee groups: employees who write code and power users who can’t write code.

In a traditional setup, employees submit requests to an IT queue and then must wait for the results to come back. Often, this wait time is lengthy, with no feedback loop, and backlogs the engineers who perform the tasks. By the time your results are delivered, most requirements have changed and employees are already submitting new requests. A no-code process automation platform can shorten this loop, democratize innovation, and accelerate business growth.

No-code process automation platforms are software programs that require no coding knowledge and empower users with the ability to create enterprise-grade, high-fidelity bespoke applications that automate otherwise manual intensive processes. Such platforms enable organizations to stay proactive, rather than reactive, by bringing far more people with varied skillsets into application development. It speeds up business processes and reduces errors, while freeing employees from mundane and repetitive work. According to Forrester, low/no-code platforms are slated to become a $20 billion industry by 2021.

Enables organizations to tackle challenges with the technical talent shortage

The shortage of technical talent is an issue, and the situation is bound to get even more dire in the future. The demand for engineers from organizations across the industry spectrum has surpassed supply. This has resulted in spikes in compensation, prolonged talent searches, and higher costs to develop business applications and automate business processes. Without enough developers, organizations are looking to technology solutions to help overcome the talent shortage.

While several solutions have emerged, no-code platforms are the most disruptive ones. No-code has replaced the skill dependent, arduous, slow, and inflexible hand-coded application development and process automation methods. It has made it easier for employees without any coding skills to build both simple and complex applications to transform business processes. While these platforms were historically primitive and considered mostly as educational tools, the latest generation of no-code platforms has the potential to change the definition of who can be a software developer.

Allows developers to focus on the bigger picture

While no-code platforms are a viable option to overcome the ongoing talent shortage, they are not meant to replace developers, but rather complement and fast-track the efforts of developers. However, the emergence and rapid popularity of such platforms have caused immense panic, whereby many developers fear that their job will disappear with the adoption of a no-code platform.

The power to create tech solutions has been the role of software developers for years. However, no-code solutions are democratizing the development process, with some industry experts saying that the future of coding is no coding at all. Quite contrary to software developers’ fears, no-code solutions can free up their time to do more of the complex work, rather than the repetitive, mundane tasks.

Compliments well with Edge Computing

Edge computing, which pushes “computational” work as close as possible to the point of data collection, is being heralded as one of the top technology trends in 2021 and beyond. Recent reports suggest that more than 50% of new enterprise IT infrastructure will adopt edge computing as an alternative to massively centralized data centers, for proprietary data or in situations (such as transportation or defense) that need to make real-time decisions and can’t afford the delays caused by multiples trips to the cloud. Additionally, 34% of global manufacturers plan to incorporate IoT technology into their operations and products this year.

No-code platforms sync well with edge computing. No-code apps can easily extract actionable data and business intelligence from connected devices to empower better decision-making, optimize all manner of operations, and explore new opportunities for innovation.

Supplements Remote/Hybrid Working

After 2020’s annus horribilis, 2021 will be a year of returning to normal. However, the transition will be slow and steady. Organizations will need to stay prepared for a prolonged tryst with a remote or hybrid model of work. No-code platforms, which enabled business users across organizations to deliver quality apps quickly during the pandemic, will continue to dominate the business app development landscape. Such platforms will continue to enable business continuity and inspire innovation in the post-pandemic future.

Helps unlock Speed and unleash new levels of productivity

No-code platforms help boost the autonomy of non-development teams within large organizations. Business users can utilize such solutions to fulfill their business application requirements, without inundating IT with mundane and time-consuming tasks. With these capabilities, business users without development skills or expertise in coding can build functional enterprise apps with modern user interfaces that can integrate into core business systems and automate business-critical processes. This alleviates a major burden on the busy IT and development teams, while increasing the overall pace of innovation within an organization. It also enables cost reduction by eliminating the need to hire specialized talent or purchase new enterprise products every time the need arises.

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Arindam Ray Chaudhuri, COO at AgreeYa Solutions, has over 25 years of rich industry experience in the technology domain. He has greatly contributed to AgreeYa’s software, solutions and services portfolio, by integrating a global team, defining the technology and business vision of products and services, establishing large scale client engagement and leading time, cost and quality driven value via project governance and solution engineering.

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5 DevOps Trends that Demand Your Attention

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One of the great things about my job is that I get to go-to software developer conferences all over the world and listen to people being extremely smart. When you watch enough smart talks, read enough articles, and talk to enough people trying to get stuff done on the ground, it gets easier to spot trends—just like it’s easier to see irrigation patterns from the air than from the ground.

Here are the five trends I think you should watch for in 2020.

1. Continuous Integration and Continuous Deployment, but not Continuous Release

I was just at DeliveryConf (which was great and you should try to go next year, but in the meantime, here is a link to the talks ). At the conference, companies of all sizes and maturity levels described how they were working toward the CI/CD goal of getting code into production more quickly. The hesitation we were all feeling our way around was that we want continuous deployment to production, but most consumer and B2B businesses don’t want to change the user experience that often. Simply put, we don’t want Continuous Release.

In fact, customers frequently resent change, especially when it forces them to retrain users in a new workflow. The thing a user knew how to do automatically is now moved or missing, or there is some new option that no one knows how to use effectively. Interface changes in popular software can mean that companies spend millions of dollars in retraining. Anything that interrupts a user’s unconscious competence and forces them to think about what they’re doing slows them down.

Release is a business decision, and it often is safer and cheaper and better for users if all the changes come at once, so they can all be discussed and taught at the same time. CI/CD, on the other hand, is a technical choice. But that doesn’t mean customers need to experience that cadence, as long as you can deploy without releasing.

2. Leveraging existing workflows

Similarly, there is no reason users should have to learn new workflows just because the tools their software group is using have changed. I think this year, we’ll see a lot of SaaS vendors work with existing enterprise tools to make those tools more powerful, without changing the user experience much, if at all.

I think of this as leverage. It doesn’t matter to a user if a form is backed by a spreadsheet that needs to be manually imported or if it’s wired directly to a CRM. The user has applied the same amount of effort, but the new tooling has moved the fulcrum point, and the user’s work is more effective.

3. Personalization

We don’t all want the same things, as we can tell from the Dark Mode Wars. As our bandwidth and information have changed, so have our expectations about how much we can make our technology spaces personally comfortable.

A great example of this is the Google Now app on Android phones. You can tell it what sports team you follow, and then the app will deliver more news about that team and sport. But it also gives you the option to hide gameday spoilers if you’re not going to be able to watch it right away. They aren’t hiding that information from everyone, or even fans of that team, but they are personalizing the experience by protecting you from knowing the score of the game before watching it.

Personalization gives users more control over their experiences. It also provides more options than would otherwise be feasible to present globally. We can’t be all things to all people, unless we allow people to choose which subset of all things they want, and then allow those subsets.

4. Accessibility

The other exciting possibility of increased personalization is better support for different accessibility needs. The US has had web accessibility standards since 2000, but they haven’t been enforced or adopted evenly. That said, we have seen some recent exceptions.

The Supreme Court just ruled against Dominos in a lawsuit alleging that the pizza company failed to comply with accessibility standards. I’m not going to say “this changes everything”, but I will say this might be a good time to be an accessibility consultant who can help teams retool quickly.

The interesting part, and the thing that meshes with personalization, is that different people can have different accessibility needs. Someone with low vision needs solutions that may be incompatible with tab-based navigation, which again may be hard to align with screen readers. Rather than trying to make a single “accessible” page that meets none of those needs well, we’ll use personalization to tune for exactly what different people need.

5. Scientific thinking

This is an interesting outflow of our emphasis on data and metrics. Now that we are doing a better job of democratizing access to statistics and metrics, it’s easier for everyone in the company to understand how changes affect user behavior. Rapid releases and Progressive Delivery make it much easier for us to see how our choices work out in near-real-time. That means it’s possible for anyone—not just the UX team—to see how changes play out. With that visibility, we also can form a hypothesis about how a change will affect the data and then look to confirm or reject the hypothesis.

The scientific method is not heavily taught in most computer science programs, because it wasn’t until recently that we had the fast feedback loop that would make it useful. However, at least in the US, most schoolchildren are taught the basics in elementary school. They learn to ask critical questions like:

-What is the current state of the system?

-What change am I making?

-How can I measure a change’s impact?

-Was the impact what I expected it would be?

-Do I have any evidence for why or why not?

We need to be able to ask these questions at the team and individual level and get meaningful answers. We can then use those answers to iterate rapidly and stay attuned to what users want and find useful. What’s more, we can avoid spending months building things that virtually no one needs or wants.

What do you see coming in 2020? How will this play out in your company or industry?

________________________________________________________

Heidi Waterhouse is a developer advocate at LaunchDarkly. She is working in the intersection of risk, usability, and happy deployments. Her passions include documentation, clear concepts, and skirts with pockets. As a developer advocate, Heidi bridges the experiences of external and internal developers and spends time listening, thinking, and learning deeply about the business and technical challenges that face each group.

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Archives, Global Trade Daily, Software

5 Tips for Launching New App Features

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Plan the release. 

While you’re still in the planning phase for a new feature, it’s a good idea to also think about how you will release it. This is something often done within the design process.

Things you should incorporate into this include: 

-Who will see this feature first? (Are there internal or external beta groups?)

-What is success for this feature?

-Who will see the feature once it’s in a steady state? (Is this for VIP customers or everyone?)

-Is there important timing tied to this release, such as an event or special time of the calendar year?

Tools that will help you with this include product delivery and tracking tools. 

Build awareness.

Awareness around a release is important for both internal and external groups. Within your organization, do teams have the support they need to be successful? Think about what your sales, marketing, customer success, or any other team will need in terms of understanding the feature being released, and how to answer any questions they might face. Externally, awareness should be tied back to how you will measure success. 

Tools that will help you accomplish this include go-to-market plans, centralized information repositories, and any other tools that will help your teams (and customers!) stay connected, informed, and collaborative. 

Measure your release.

After the release has happened, how will you know if it was successful? Because you already thought about success metrics in the planning stage, you should be ready to measure whether or not it was successful. 

Tools that will help with this include those that surface sales and ops metrics. Also, it’s important to consider these together—look at performance and monitoring metrics, support requests by volume, and qualitative feedback from customers and prospects.

Celebrate and recognize.

Take time to celebrate your wins. Shipping software is like a muscle, the more frequently you do it, the easier it is to execute. If you ship less frequently, the process begins to atrophy and the action becomes more difficult. Celebration (even for small wins) provides motivation to continue practicing the act of shipping, and results in more stable services and products.

Reflect and iterate. 

Software is never done, and neither is a process for software delivery. After the release has occurred and you’ve paused to enjoy the moment, now it’s time to reflect back on what went well and what didn’t. Reflect on both process and product.

Tie process back to culture—consider the tools that you use for process, what enabled you to do more and what was a hindrance? Use this feedback and apply what you learned from measuring success in the planning phase for the next release. Learn how you can adjust and improve upon what you shipped.

 

Adam Zimman, VP of Product and Platform, LaunchDarkly

Adam has over 20 years of experience working in a variety of roles from software engineering through to technical sales. He has worked in both enterprise and consumer companies such as VMware, EMC and GitHub. Adam is driven by a passion for inclusive leadership and solving problems with technology. One additional objective is to be a part of a diverse and equitable company. Not simply an organization that accepts diversity, but one that actively pursues a more diverse and inclusive team as an imperative for building better products and services. Adam is also an Advisor for a number of startups and nonprofits. His perspective on life has been shaped by a background in physics and visual art, an ongoing adventure as a husband and father and a childhood career as a fire juggler.

Archives, Global Trade Daily, News

Fortune 500 Companies Boosted with ArrowPlus & Freelancer

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A new platform specifically designed for leading Fortune 500 companies and technology inventors has created a platform designed to enable access to over half a million skilled electronic and electrical engineers. Arrow Electronics and Freelancer.com are the two companies behind the platform. The primary goal of the new platform is to support efforts for new hardware product creation.

“This breakthrough strategic alliance with Arrow Electronics represents the first launch of Freelancer Enterprise. We are absolutely delighted that Arrow chose to team with Freelancer.com on this landmark initiative,” said Freelancer.com CEO and Chairman Matt Barrie. “Freelancer.com is the number-one marketplace for talent and skilled workers. We have seen increasing demand to solve difficult and complex technology problems from larger organizations. For example, NASA and the United States Department of Energy are using Freelancer.com to crowdsource technology solutions.”

“We are excited to form an exclusive alliance with the most trusted guide in technology creation, Arrow Electronics, to break down barriers for larger companies with more complex needs to utilize our platform to accelerate technology,” he continued.

“ArrowPlus brings the serious know-how of Arrow’s 80 years of engineering, tools, technology, and services into the platform economy with Freelancer. Arrow has become one of the world’s largest technology solutions companies in the last five years and beyond our own engineering we have built a proprietary network of certified 3rd party Arrow Certified engineering partners. Our Arrow Certified Engineering network has worked with marquee Fortune 500 clients to make products and technology.” said Arrow’s Chief Digital Officer Matt Anderson.

“We anticipate in the future that up to 30% of R&D spend could leverage a model where Arrow provides a technical concierge and project management to a vast network of high-end engineering talent. The products and services Arrow has helped design are helping people every day from paraplegic veterans regaining their sense of freedom and independence to mothers in undeveloped regions of the world giving birth more safely. If you are a company that wants to build a product, there is no better way to get started than with Arrow and Freelancer.”

 

 

 

Archives, Global Trade Daily, Software

Series C Attracts $44 Million Investment

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Feature management platform, LaunchDarkly, announced they will invest big bucks along with Redpoint, Vertex Ventures, DFJ, and Uncork Capital. The company confirmed the investment will support company initiatives in risk management while increasing efficiencies.

“Our goal is to help product development teams worldwide, from small teams to huge enterprises, to keep up with the speed of innovation while reducing risk,” said Edith Harbaugh, CEO and co-founder of LaunchDarkly. “We believe the future is built on software, and the additional capital will allow us to further impact the world of feature management and meet the needs of our customers in delivering fast results and excellence to their own customers.”

“In the past year the LaunchDarkly platform has evolved both in scale (we now see over 200 billion feature flag requests per day) and capability– we’ve become a key piece of the puzzle for software teams practicing continuous delivery,” said John Kodumal, CTO and co-founder of LaunchDarkly. “This latest funding will help us scale the platform even further to meet the growing demand we’re seeing in the market and build new functionality to help our customers deliver better software experiences to their customers.”

This announcement closely  follows the company’s confirmation of the hosting of the upcoming April  Trajectory conference for software development professionals. The conference will be held in Oakland, California from April 8-9.

“The sheer speed of innovation today makes it more difficult than ever for enterprises to release product changes quickly and reliably,” said Ethan Kurzweil, partner at Bessemer Venture Partners. “Having invested in developer platform companies for nearly a decade, it was instantly clear that LaunchDarkly has the product and market vision to be the central platform for feature management. We are extremely excited to partner with Edith and the rest of the talented team at LaunchDarkly!”

“The LaunchDarkly platform enabled BMW to go from 0-60 in one Agile Release Cycle”,  said Chuck Medhurst, President & GM at BMW Technology. “The ability for BMW to test, develop and deploy variable feature sets across our premium brands, markets and platforms results in delivering the optimal value to our customers!”

For more information on the upcoming conference, visit:  https://trajectoryconf.com.

 

Source: LaunchDarkly