Cloud Based ERP Implementations is On The Rise

A number of small and medium enterprises are now considering cloud based ERP solutions as they have come to realise that it is more cost-effective and its functionality is comparable to on premise solutions of enterprise resource planning. During the last six months, a number of large vendors and small players have invested in various new products and User Interface (UI) redesigns. A number of leaders are now accelerating their resources to make applications fast and less risky so that they can be used for a broad enterprise customer base.

ERPCompanies that do not showcase a cloud alternative will be increasingly marginalized as customers want to know that they have an option to opt for cloud based ERP for their future investments. As per a study in the first quarter of 2015, there is a continuous evolution in the ERP market and a number of vendors are highly investing in vertical capabilities that need fewer customisations and configuration capabilities that are accelerating time to value.

 

 

The move in the direction of configuration is largely because the market’s increased awareness of the benefits of cloud solutions. The best ERP solutions offer a cloud based option as they are better in comparison to on premise ERP. This number is continuously going to be on the rise as companies are maturing in their acceptance of the cloud and they are understanding the advantages and value of opting for cloud based solutions.

Though the shift to cloud is comparatively slower in ERP customers (compared to other decision makers), the ones that are taking this decision are benefitting with lower initial and ongoing costs and enhanced flexibility. There is also faster time to deployment advantage for the company (it takes average 5 months for cloud compared to 1.1 year for on premise ERP solutions). For extensions and changes, cloud based ERP solutions offer much better flexibility. Most of the emerging and rapidly growing vendors for ERP are native to the cloud and almost all other vendors have a cloud story in today’s digital times! As the awareness towards cloud and the demand grows, the vendors who are not offering cloud based solutions will face major challenges in the future.

Some of the important benefits of cloud based ERP solutions

Usability – Many enterprise applications are moving from record transaction systems to automating the work processes for users across the entire organisation. The focus is now to expose the key parts of the application data in the specific roles to boost productivity. The efficient ERP vendors have now introduced significant UI redesigns and they are increasing the availability of task-specific mobile applications.

Integration – Only a few companies are willing to replace their existing ERP footprint with cloud today. However, most are looking for an integrated method like cloud where they can take advantage by integrating other business applications in the supply chain and human resource areas like payroll to increase automation and reduce the duplication of data.

Cloud is definitely refreshing the way we use technology. Almost all business processes and systems are migrating to the cloud and ERP is surely no exception!

[tp_eyecon icon=’icon-right-hand’ size=’12px’ color=’#000000′] For Any ERP Solution Contact Us

Mobile Friendly Websites Will Now Rank Higher in Google Search Results

As per a recent update from Google, starting from 21st April 2015, mobile friendly websites will rank better in Google search results due to a change in their mobile search algorithm. As per the Google Webmaster Trend Analysis, mobile users prefer mobile friendly websites. If their website browsing experience is not good on their phones, they are unlikely to return on the site. Google wants to give users the most recent and relevant results, irrespective of their devices.

What has changed?

Towards the end of 2014, Google introduced a mobile-friendly label in their search results so that users know which sites would work on their phones. Now with the special ranking for mobile-friendly websites, if your site is mobile-friendly and it passes the Google test, your business will definitely have the edge over competitors.

Responsive Web Design on Blackboard

What’s the effect on your business?

With Google’s recent announcement of higher rankings for mobile-friendly websites, optimizing your site is a must. Most users check for information on their phones now so in order to boost your business, you must focus on creating a mobile-friendly site.

What’s the way to go for the future?

You can have a separate website for desktops and another one for mobiles but it will require a lot of resources for maintenance. Plus, users might not get a consistent experience while browsing through your site across multiple devices. The most effective and easiest way towards the future is to invest in a well-designed responsive website. They are search-engine friendly, offer better user-experience, lower bounce rates and higher conversion rates as well. Therefore, there is a higher chance of converting users into customers through your responsive website.

Points to remember while optimizing your website:

• Remove flash components from your website as mobile devices do not support flash. Use HTML5 for effects instead
• Analyse your themes. If you are using a customized theme, make sure it is responsive or mobile-friendly
• Take a backup of your website before performing any changes
• Update the CMS of your website and ensure you upgrade the security updates time to time

Is your business website mobile-friendly? Take Google’s Mobile Friendly test and find out!

To get a free web analysis CONTACT US

How to Play the E-commerce Game in 2015?

In the upcoming years the E-Commerce industry is expected to grow further and reach a whopping 1.5 trillion US dollars in global sales by 2018. The one question treading through the minds of the industry players is how much of this huge pie is going to be theirs.
Here are some smart trends and knacks to take advantage of the exploding growth of the ecommerce industry.

Revamp your Website with Better Aesthetics and Unique Functionalities

The ecommerce website design is about to take a whole new turn in making your business bigger. Create flat websites that are device agnostic and showcase high resolution product images. Use full page background image and apply background effects to add to that extra oomph factor to your online store.

Use the Big Data for Effective Segmentation and Personalisation

Pioneering strategies like segmentation, personalisation and a customer centric business model will provide broader opportunities for competitive advantage. E commerce players may invest in capturing the big data to analyse customer behaviour and apply these inferences in redefining their approach.

Promote Spontaneous Purchase through Social Media

Social media marketing techniques for the ecommerce industry are like the strings of a trampoline. There is no better platform than the top social media forums to promote the spontaneous as well as the “discovery” purchases of your products and services. Maximise your social presence in the upcoming years to stay ahead in the race.

Mobile Gadgets become the Real Buying Device

Robust ecommerce website development for the online store is undoubtedly the most important requisite. However with the increasing number of shoppers turning to mobile devices, ecommerce firms must provide a safe and simple mobile shopping platform that is compatible across all type of smartphones and tablets.

Do not Neglect the Opportunities of Content Marketing
The opportunities for successful ecommerce marketing lie largely with developing the right content for your website. Curated content, user-generated blogs, newsletters, press releases and attention grabbing info graphics are some the great tools that help enriching your content.
To conclude, ecommerce is about to change the future of the retail industry. Retailers must keep in pace with the dynamic changes of the industry to sustain themselves

5 Ecommerce Design Trends to Wow your Customer in 2015

A good ecommerce website design is like a well decorated sales machine! Most web designing companies believe that the website design is in reality a part of the firm’s marketing mix and customer service.

From enhanced web typography to micro interaction tools, ecommerce website designs are evolving and 2015 is the year to revamp your website in order to drive up sales and to offer a better shopping experience.

Engage visitors through exciting micro features

Little fun features when put together enhance the overall personality of the website and engages the shopper. For instance the animation or colour changes on the navigation bar, simple UI animations, and the hover effect on product images surprise the visitors and offer a better shopping experience. Your web design company can also use striking videos are also a great tool for attracting customers.

Maximise the use of images in the foreground as well as the background

Images are generally more captivating than text boxes. Increased use of image tiles offers a precise view of what is in store for the customer. High resolution product images used in the slider and larger images presented in the background without any extra chrome create a vibrant look for the website.

Flat Design features continue to rule the roost

Flat design features combined with material design will give your website the “real life” look. The flat design for websites has already been successfully endorsed by industry giants like Google and Apple. Flat design for your website combines a colourful accent with subtle elements that focus on the product representations.

Ghost buttons add to the minimalist feel of the website

Ghost buttons have been a fresh addition to most ecommerce websites already. The feature is great for mobile clients as it helps to present the website more precisely rather than just a filling of text and images.

Finally, almost one third of the online shoppers have turned to mobile technologies for their shopping needs. Websites that respond well to all kinds of smartphones and tablets and allow customers to seamlessly navigate through the process will be the most important web design trend in 2015.

Essential Steps for Web Designing

The design of your website is the key to its success or failure. Gone are the days of wholesale website designs where every other website looked and behaved similarly. Today, business demands the website to be customised to suit the needs and purpose of the specific company. A website serves several objectives, from being the first impression of a business to driving online conversations but the user experience determines if customers are going to return to your site again.

To create a smooth and sleek user interface, we need to keep certain points in mind when designing a website. Let’s take a look at the steps involved in web designing.

Web Designing Steps

Web Designing Steps

  1. Gathering Information : The most important part of your website is the content. Sure, you can attract visitors with an eye-catching design but no one will go beyond your homepage if you have nothing meaningful to say. Taking the purpose of the business, the goals, and the target audience into consideration is essential for creating winning web content.
  2. Planning : From the information gathered above, a site map is made, listing all topics and subtopics on the website. This is an important step to create a smooth, consistent navigation system and to understand if technologies like interactive forms, WordPress, and CMS should be applied.
  3. Design : Implementing the information collected above, the look and feel of the website is determined. Target audience is the key factor in determining the site design. A website aimed at young-adults will need to be designed differently than the one meant for an educational institution. Company logo, signature colours, and any other identifiable feature of the business are incorporated into the design.
  4. Development : In this step, all individual graphic elements are brought together to create a functional website. The images, logos, content and everything else is taken and distributed throughout the site in appropriate places.
  5. Testing and delivery : Here, the files are uploaded to the server and essential plug-ins are installed and configured in order to enhance the site. It is important to test if the files have been uploaded correctly before launching the website.
  6. Maintenance : The development of your website is an ongoing process, even after the site has been launched. Maintaining the site and constantly updating it with new information and features is important for bringing back visitors and converting them into paying customers. Things change, and keeping yourself abreast with the latest changes and developments is essential for a successful website.

 

Your business website is your company’s first impression to the world. Putting in time, effort and care to design a well thought-out website will make your online presence stronger and help your business on the way to success.

Overview on Social Media Marketing

Getting recognized among its target audience is the most important aim of any business. Whether you are an online business or a brick-and-mortar company, marketing your business through traditional methods is time-consuming and expensive. If you want your business to shine amongst the hundreds of similar companies, then you have to reach out to the maximum number of potential customers in as short a time as possible. And the easiest way to do this is through social media marketing.

Your business website is a powerful tool to market your products and services as well as generate income. It is often the first impression of your business to the world. Social media marketing is the marketing done via social media platforms. That could be sharing news, views and offers on your business’s Facebook page, or tweeting announcements on your Twitter profile, sharing stimulating and attention-grabbing images related to your business on Instagram, or maintaining an updated blog. With the proliferation of social media platforms and the amount of time people spend on them, your business website could get millions of visitors a day, and many of them could convert into customers.

The two most important ways this can be done are:

1. Creating a buzz: This can be done by sharing updates on social networking sites and attracting audience with catchy, impressive messages. Once the buzz is created, it spreads over the internet from person to person. When someone ‘likes’, shares, or retweets your message, it is seen by the followers or contacts of that person, and thus the cycle continues. The buzz could result in increased followers and visitors to your business website, which indicates more interest in your company, and hence, more customers.

2. Garnering followers: Social networks like LinkedIn and Facebook allow creation of groups that let people with shared interests to interact with one other. If you’re a business owner, you could create a group for your business where existing customers and new followers could interact with each other and share views and opinions on your product or service. This will result in more publicity for your business and you would also get to know the opinions of your customers and followers.

Social networking and online marketing help businesses to rapidly reach out to more people. Local search and review websites are another great way to create awareness about your business and also serve as a platform for customers to share their views about your product or service. Effective social media marketing is a great source for web traffic and if done properly, it could help you create awareness for your business and gain customers in a short time span at a low cost.

Benefit and Demand of Digital Marketing

With the explosion of technology, digital marketing and social media is having a significant impact on businesses. Any company that doesn’t yet have a digital marketing strategy is losing out on the benefits of online marketing. Continue reading →

Benefits of Using Open Source Technologies

With an increasing number of businesses and government institutions relying on open source technologies, it is even more evident that price isn’t the only advantage that these platforms offer. Free and open source technologies hold a variety of other compelling benefits of businesses that are far more valuable than its price.

Security

The recent discovery of a number of defects in the Android Kernel makes an interesting point that the only reason such detection was possible was because the kernel code is open to the public. While the Android platform may not be entirely open source this example helps illustrate the fact that the more the number of people who can see and test a set of codes, the higher are the chances of the flaws being identified and quickly fixed.

Quality

It is evident that a software package that is developed by thousands of developers is bound to be much better than one that is created by a handful. Just like there are a countless number of people working to enhance security on open source platforms, there are an equal number of people working to innovate new features and enhancements for these products.

Open source technology helps deliver products that are closest to what a user wants. This is because the user, he or she has a chance to contribute in its making.

Customizability

Businesses can easily take a piece of open source software and alter it to suit their specific needs. Whether it is internal software, a website, a blog or an application that you wish to build, all you need to do is modify it and add the functionality you wish to have.

Top Reasons to Use Infographics in your Content Marketing

Considering the sheer amount of information that is developed especially for the internet every day, one of the biggest challenges you will face as a marketer is to make sure that your message is read. Infographics help in the aesthetic exhibition of large amounts of information that would otherwise look mundane and subsequently be ignored. By finding the right balance between design, content and analysis, infogrpahics make it easier for audiences to consume big data in small portions.

Here are some reasons why infographics now make a critical part of your content –

  • Infographics help reinforce your brand position effectively when the subject matter is able to complement your brand’s marketing goals.
  • Infographics attract individuals that prefer to learn through visual aids. It is said that 405 of the consumers tend to respond better to visual information as against plain text.
  • The colors and designs of these graphics helps appeal to the human eye, hereby bringing otherwise mundane stories to life.
  • It is possible to make large sets of information more coherent and interesting.
  • Infographics can be easily shared on social networks giving technical businesses a chance to go viral
  • Infographics are also proving to be an effective tool from an SEO perspective. These tend to score well with Google’s search engine algorithms, giving you a chance to bump up your rankings.
  • With attention spans and time both going down, using these graphics allow you to stand out in a mass data environment.

By making effective use of analysis, industry expertise and information and balancing it with the right design skills, it is possible for businesses belonging to a variety of industries to attract customers. Considering that content is still king, infographics allow your business to make its presence known across social platforms as well.

SEO Benefits of Opting for Responsive Web Design

Desktops are no longer the only medium used to surf the World Wide Web. Evolution in technology has resulted in the introduction of a variety of devices that allow us to surf the internet on the go. Responsive Web Design is a result of these evolutions that compel website designers to offer flexibility to users in accessing portals on devices that come in a variety of shapes and sizes.

In addition to easy accessibility, there are a number of SEO benefits too that are exhibited by websites that opt for responsive web design –

Improved Ability to Utilize

Google almost always wants to sends its users to websites that are most useful and relevant to them. If a visitor browses through your website and immediately returns to the SERP, the search engine notices that your site may or may not be of relevance to the user. With about 46% of consumers leaving a website that doesn’t work well on their mobile phones, make sure you incorporate responsive technology becomes important.

Avoiding Duplicate Content

With the help of a responsive website you needn’t worry about being hit by Panda for having the same content on your mobile and desktop website. With a responsive website, the content serves both visitors from the same URL.

Contributing to Mobile Search Rankings

Google is known to give special preferences to websites that are compatible to all devices such as desktops, tablets and mobiles.

Link Building

It also aids your link building initiatives, since when another website links to your main site they are automatically linking to its mobile version as well.

Finally, local search is further leveraged on since studies show that 50% of mobile users end up visiting stores or establishments after a successful search. Other benefits related to bounce rates, URL structure and optimization of images are also experienced.