Currently, we are experiencing a wave of businesses moving online. This may be accredited, in large parts, to the world pandemic situation. In fact, from March 2020 to February 2021, online shopping grew by $183 billion. As per recent calculations, the US will grow at a compound annual growth rate of 4.68% in terms of retail eCommerce development between 2020 and 2025. 

Moving on, the rapid technological developments also contributed to the growth of the eCommerce industry. From artificial intelligence and improved automation to augmented and virtual reality, eCommerce has witnessed a massive boom. Lastly, it may just be a natural process of business evolution that people have shifted to the online platform. 

Whatever the case may be, it is safe to conclude that eCommerce has passed an inflection point, and has now become mainstream for people of all ages. Consequently, it is important to identify the most notable eCommerce trends for 2022 and keep pace with them. These trends showcase the future of e-commerce and are anticipated to prominently modify the online shopping experience. 

Evolution of eCommerce

Talking about 2021, e-commerce is a mammoth industry. But just 25 years ago, the scenario was completely different. 

Amazon and eBay were practically the first marketplaces to leverage the benefits of e-commerce and buy and sell goods online.

The two e-commerce giants got their start merely two and a half decades ago. During this time, consumer interest and participation in online shopping also grew massively. As per Statista, over a quarter of the world’s population (2.14 billion) will become digital buyers by the end of 2021. 

Leading Ecommerce Trends & Technologies Impacting the Industry

‘The customer is always right’, a notion popularized in the early 1900s. The attitude was certainly novel and influential for its time. However now, we live in a world where the customer may not always be right in your view but is definitely armed with many choices. They hold power in the market as they have a plethora of offers to pick from. 

Thus, apart from offering a stellar product, you also need to ensure a wholesome shopping experience to keep your customers engaged. Everything from a seamless checkout process to new payment gateways and quick delivery, your brand must ensure a customer-centric experience. 

Here are some eCommerce trends that you must watch out for to give your eCommerce brand a competitive edge. These trends are the future of eCommerce that are set to shape the industry in a big way.

Personalized Product Recommendations

The customers have become much more aware. They value a differentiated and individualized service. And if you want your eCommerce brand to stand out, you need to tailor personalized customer experiences. 

Personalizing the product makes a huge difference in customer satisfaction. According to a survey by Deloitte, 1 in 5 customers are willing to pay a 20% premium for personalized products and services. Also, 22% of the customers are happy to share their data in exchange for personalized services. 

Yelp, for example, has been among the first-movers in the space. With over 200 million user reviews, the Yelp app provides authentic restaurant information, listings, and user reviews. Last year, the company began focusing on personalizing its recommendations to improve user experience. It lets users specify several things about their likes/dislikes, food preferences, etc., and offers highly relevant and tailored recommendations that users love. 

More and more brands are adopting this eCommerce trend now. Experts believe that 2022 will be all about personalizing the customer’s shopping experience to reinforce brand loyalty. 

Let us also look at some of the top reasons why consumers are willing to share their personal information with brands:

M-commerce

Using mobile apps to buy and sell products is known as mobile commerce or m-commerce. Nowadays, a majority of customers are using mobile devices to browse different eCommerce websites. In 2021, 72.9% of all retail eCommerce is anticipated to be generated via m-commerce, up from 58.9% in 2017. 

Consequently, all eCommerce businesses need to adapt their online shops to mobile screens. Additionally, it may involve building a separate app for the particular purpose of reaching more mobile buyers. Brands like Sephora and Zara are massively capitalizing on this eCommerce trend. Inditex, Zara’s parent company that owns numerous brands is investing $1 billion to improve its online shopping platform over the coming three years. The company says that 25% of all sales are expected to come from its mobile app by 2022.

Omni-channel Selling

Merely focusing on a single channel for selling your products only shows how meager your customer acquisition efforts are. Having a single-channel presence greatly limits your chances of connecting to your target audience. 

Alternatively, expanding your reach to multiple channels and social media platforms can directly put you in front of your potential customers. According to Google, omnichannel selling strategies drive an 80% higher rate of incremental store visits. For instance, the U.S. retailer Target marked its best-ever quarter in Q2 2020. During this period, the sales ramped up by 24.3% and digital sales soared 195%. And this is primarily due to the integration of digital and physical- omnichannel.

The study below noted the customer retention rates for different brands that used an omnichannel marketing strategy vs. those that focused on a single channel.

Voice Search for Shopping

Thanks to Siri and Alexa, we all are familiar with voice-enabled search assistants. But what you may not know is that these technologies are becoming increasingly popular among users, especially millennials. 

Going by the latest reports, the voice-assistant speaker market is all set to reach $4 billion in 2022. Voice shoppers are anticipated to increase by a whopping 55% and voice shopping will cross $40 billion by 2022. And these prominent statistics only promise one thing- voice search will be an integral component of the future of eCommerce. 

So, if you want to give your eCommerce brand a competitive edge, make sure to invest in voice search technology. You can use voice search optimization strategies to rank for phrases and keywords that suit these voice commands.

Ecommerce Delivery Drones

Essentially, drones are flying robots that can be programmed to fly on their own or manually controlled. In other words, drones depict the future of automation. But you may wonder how do these drones relate to eCommerce?

Well, experts predict that in the coming years, drones can easily replace delivery personnel by delivering orders to the customer’s doorstep. These drones are indubitably faster than humans. Thus, their mass adoption can lead to shortened delivery timelines. Furthermore, they will cut down the costs for companies, leading to greater profitability. So, these drones are among the leading eCommerce trends that can really alter the future of eCommerce.

Amazon was among the first ones to get hold of the concept and apply it to its business model. Consequently, the company announced Amazon Prime Air, an avant-garde delivery system to get packages delivered via drones in less than an hour. Although the concept is not yet in implementation, it is inevitable, considering Amazon’s history of innovation. Apart from Amazon, Dominos and Taobao in China are other leading brands trying to implement the concept. If successful, drones could be used for the delivery of food, medications, books, and much more. And companies using drone-based deliveries will surely get a massive competitive advantage.

AI-enabled Chatbots

For large-scale eCommerce businesses, customer service is a huge part of the trade. Managing tons of customer queries, resolving them on time, etc. is a big responsibility that involves a lot of effort and manpower. But often, businesses are unable to hire hundreds of customer service representatives to take care of that. 

Thankfully, the development and evolution of chatbots in the past years have streamlined the way customer service runs. From answering customer queries to collecting feedback and even suggesting product recommendations, chatbots have simplified customer service. A recent report alleged that businesses spend around $1.3 trillion on customer requests each year. But with chatbots, this expense can be reduced by almost 30%.

The Drift’s 2020 State of Conversational Marketing report identified chatbots as the fastest growing brand communication channel. In 2020, 24.9% of the buyers used these bots to interact with the business as compared to the 13% in the year before.

Integrating chatbots into your customer service is the best way to facilitate faster and effective communication. More sophisticated bots that are powered by AI and ML even help to personalize responses according to the customer’s queries.

AR & VR for Shopping

Online shopping has picked up pace in the past few years. However, even now, many customers refrain from online shopping for there is often a gap in what you see online and what it appears like when it is delivered. But technologies like AR and VR are set to fill this gap. 

AR and VR help to replicate the physical world online. They help the customers to see how the product looks like and how it will fit into their everyday lifestyle. Seeing the product more vividly enables the customers to make smart buying decisions. 

Reports suggest that 71% of the customers are willing to purchase more from brands that offer AR and VR. Furthermore, 32% of the consumers are already using AR while shopping. Currently, IKEA is using AR to power furniture shopping. The company enables the shoppers to view furniture in their homes and see how it would look in the area with 98% accuracy.

These Ecommerce Trends Define the Future of Ecommerce

The eCommerce market is evolving just as swiftly as it is growing. Owing to rapid innovation, the eCommerce landscape may look a lot different in the coming few years. To stay visible and competitive, you must discover new eCommerce trends and solutions that help to acquire dedicated clients and offer a unique shopping experience. 

Currently, it is important to focus on operating in the m-commerce sector as well as building an omnichannel presence. Additionally, leveraging technologies like AR/VR, voice commands, AI-powered chatbots can help you get an edge over your competitors. 

The post Game-changing eCommerce trends to watch out for in 2022 appeared first on Blog.

The demand for digital products and services is growing steadily. But when an organization commits to making a huge time and financial investment in new product development, it needs a reliable IT partner by its side.

Choosing a good digital product development company is not an easy feat. The company you select must be deeply invested in your success. Also, it must be a dependable company as the process will require you to move fast, iterate regularly, and make swift decisions.

Placing the technical development of your digital product in the hands of an external company is a daunting task, especially if your business’s success depends on it. How can you be sure that the development company you choose will offer fresh ideas and execute tasks as per your standard?

In this post, we will discuss a few things you must consider while choosing a good digital product development company. Our primary focus is to help you identify an appropriate fit for your business and product.

Attributes of a Good Digital Product Development Company

A good development company can mean the difference between a successful digital product and a failed one. If you don’t want your IT partner to fall short of your expectations in terms of expertise, quality, mindset, and culture fit, you must outline certain standards for choosing a digital product development company.

Here, we will look at some significant attributes that you must consider during the selection process.

1. They think beyond design and development

When it comes to developing an award-winning product, the capabilities of a company must extend beyond design and development. They must first thoroughly look into the customer’s idea, validate it, and devise a robust product strategy.

A good team will spend time understanding your target audience, business objectives, organizational resources at hand, and any technical limitations. Based on the collected data, they will ensure the viability of your product idea and confirm its market fit. The company will also take into account the entire product development lifecycle, from conceptualization to after-launch support, and provide you with a clear product roadmap.

2. They pay attention to your requirements

While choosing a development company, it is important to find someone who attentively listens to your requirements and responds appropriately. The partner you select must pay attention to your business goals, objectives, target audience, marketing concerns, etc. Consequently, they must devise solutions that address your needs.

Remember, a good company will ask detailed questions about your goals, your business model, the product features you are looking at, etc. The details they get from you will help them anticipate the real problem and suggest potential solutions.

3. They are agile in their approach

When we say agile, we would like to highlight the importance of business flexibility. A digital product development company must be flexible enough to readily embrace change as your business evolves. Essentially, it involves the ability to scale, rapid adoption of latest tech trends, offering varied price models, etc.

The company must be able to adapt to your business plans and quickly scale as your business evolves. Also, it must stay on top of the latest technological trends and updates. We are living in a fast-paced world where tech is constantly upgrading.

Additionally, the company should offer different pricing structures to choose from. They must be able to provide you with the pricing structure that best suits your business requirements and project scope.

4. They are transparent in their dealings

Every good association is based on open and transparent communication. The best software development companies will seldom proceed with an idea or concept that they believe will lead to a poor experience. Instead, they will openly discuss their concerns and take time to devise the best and most appropriate solution to the problem.

In other words, the company will not agree to every idea you suggest and develop a faulty product. Instead, they will work hard to innovate and find the best solution that fits the needs of the users and the market.

5. They move fast

A good digital product development company does not wait until the product has reached its final stage of completion before releasing it to the public. Instead, they release a minimum viable product (MVP) for the users to test and provide valuable feedback.

The IT industry is highly dynamic. And in digital product development, speed to market is crucial to determine the viability of the product. Thus, it is important to choose a company that regularly releases an MVP to gain user feedback. This will help them to improve the product’s functionality through fast sprints and speedy innovation.

6. They are innovative and solution-oriented

In today’s highly competitive scenario, your digital product must be truly remarkable to stand out. And this involves offering an intuitive user experience that closely aligns with your business’s objectives.

A brilliant digital product development agency is driven by an innovative mindset. Whether it comes to implementing different features or creating UI/UX, a good agency always comes up with fresh and inventive solutions. It can think outside the box and deliver a solution that is customized to fulfill the precise user requirements.

Things to Consider while Choosing a Digital Product Development Company

1. Experience and reputation

Before inking any partnership, make sure the chosen company has hands-on experience working on similar projects in your industry. For instance, if you are looking for a digital product in the automotive industry, it is impractical choosing a development company that specializes in Fintech solutions.

Similarly, if your requirement involves working on large-scale projects with distributed teams, a company with no experience working with remote teams will prove to be a detrimental choice. 

2. Technical expertise

When choosing a digital product development company, inquire about the partner’s technical proficiency. Make sure the company works with a full-fledged team of designers, developers, testers, and analysts that possess wide-ranging expertise in multiple frameworks and languages.

If you are looking for a specific skill set, you must shortlist vendors who have a proven track record of working in that area. Also, make sure they are competent enough to offer you maximum leverage from their experience in using different tech stacks.

3. Previous products

Another important thing to consider before finalizing an agency is looking at their previously developed product solutions. This is the best way to confirm their knowledge of specific technologies, experience working with different domains, countries, etc.

In case their previous projects are missing the ‘wow’ factor, then there isn’t too much hope that your product will be developed any better. So, carefully review the shortlisted company’s portfolios and compare them to make a good choice.

4. Good communication

Do not go for a team of geeks that sit in a dark room and perform coding, distancing themselves from the rest of the world. Make sure to choose a company that not only possesses good technical skills to build the product but also decent communication skills.

This will save you from the effort involved in gathering regular updates from the company. They will keep you in the loop throughout the process and conduct regular discussions and meetings to ensure the product optimally meets your business needs.

5. Company Size

This is another significant consideration to keep in mind. If the company you select is too big and only manages large-scale projects, it may not pay adequate attention to your precise needs. Alternatively, if the company is too small it may lack experience working with big projects.

Choose a company that is similar in size to yours. This way, they will pay proper attention to your requirements and will be able to scale the development team up or down, based on your needs.

6. Cultural Fit

Many times, the company you choose follows a peculiar set of values and business ethics that negatively impacts the product quality. Besides, it may also hamper communication and result in delays in project delivery.

To build an enduring relationship with your digital product development company, you must find a partner that follows a similar business culture as yours. Make sure they are open to suggestions and hold transparent dealings that do not cause any miscommunication or unmet expectations.

7. Pricing

Pricing must never be the first criterion while selecting a development agency. However, it plays a crucial role in the final decision-making process. Everyone wants services that are not particularly cheap but cost-effective. So, make sure to clarify your project goals and scope in the beginning and come up with an approximate budget.

Mostly, the pricing depends on the engagement model you select. For instance, if you have a long-term project with dynamic requirements, it is best to opt for a dedicated development team. On the other hand, if you require a development team just for a short period, hiring them full-time does not make much sense.

So, sit with your chosen team to discuss the pricing strategy. Ask them for a clear breakdown of pricing that enlists the approximate charges of each phase of the project. This will help to avoid any inaccuracies and troubles later on.

8. Client reviews and testimonials

Before finalizing your choice of the company, ask for reviews or testimonials from previous clients. These testimonials will give you a fair idea about the experience and expertise of the company along with their commitment.

You can even get in touch with the previous clients to know about the company’s professionalism and dealings. Finally, choose a company that has excellent reviews and ratings with optimally satisfied clients.

Team Structure of a Digital Product Development Company

For gathering a better understanding of the potential development company, you must inquire about the team members who participate in your product’s development. Building a digital product from scratch requires a list of professionals apart from software developers. Here is the team structure that you must look for in your chosen development company.

Project Manager

The project manager acts as a link between the client and the development team. He is in charge of planning and execution. He administers all the processes, delegates the tasks among other team members, and ensures that everyone stays on track.

Software Developers

Software developers are the ones who perform the actual coding. Front-end developers take care of the customer-facing elements whereas back-end developers work on the core functionality of the digital product.

UI/UX Designers

They are responsible for developing innovative and user-friendly designs that determine how the users interact with the product. These designers control the look and feel of the product while focusing on its usability and functionality.

Business Analyst

A business analyst researches your business requirements, evaluates the business model, and ensures its alignment with technology. He also evaluates what works and what does not and sets the direction for business development.

Tester

A tester tests the project to identify any bugs and glitches and gets rid of them. He ensures that the product meets the quality standards before it is released to the users.

Solution Architect

He determines the tech stack that is best suited to a specific project.

Such a team that includes all these specialists will ensure to deliver a product that is unique, innovative, and viable.

Finding a Reputed Digital Product Development Company

Seek word-of-mouth recommendations

Word-of-mouth recommendations are among the most reliable ways of finding a good digital product development company. You can seek recommendations from your business colleagues. Alternatively, you can seek help from your connections on LinkedIn, Twitter, or even Facebook. All these are professional platforms that can be immensely beneficial in seeking great references.

At the same time, make sure to consider the specific aspects of your industry. A service provider that has developed your colleague’s product may not always be the right fit for your needs.

Conduct extensive online research

Even if you have got some recommendations from your colleagues, it is always a good idea to look into the company’s credentials online. Nowadays, several online platforms and directories can help you identify the top companies in your industry. For instance, you can use Clutch, a review platform that rigorously scans all clients before they can submit a review. Thus, the information on Clutch is genuine and unbiased.

Apart from that, some other platforms where you can look for a good digital product development company include:

• Google
• LinkedIn
• Special Directories, such as GoodFirms, CrunchBase
• Quora
• Special Events

Moving on, looking at your chosen company’s website can help you gain an idea about their work. You can check out their completed projects and past clients to confirm their skills and capabilities.

Closing Thoughts

Digital product development is a long and complex process that may take months to complete. So, it is important to partner with a company that understands your business goals and takes a holistic approach to development.

The aforementioned points will help you locate the best digital product development company and get the ball rolling in the right direction.

The post What to Look for in a Digital Product Development Company? appeared first on Blog.

That said, agile frameworks are widely used for in-house development. This is because agile projects rely heavily on proactive collaboration between teams. And given the extensive amount of coordination required in each project, many companies think that approaching an offshore development agency and building an agile team in a distant land wouldn’t be feasible.

Gladly, that is not the case. There may be a few trials, but with the right preparation, you can easily work with an expert agile offshore development team and develop innovative solutions. Here, we will talk about how to leverage an agile framework while working with an offshore software development team and the many benefits of doing so.

Introduction to Agile

In a short span, agile has become synonymous with productivity and innovation. It is a project management practice that breaks down big projects into smaller and more manageable bits, often referred to as iterations. This makes it possible to assess the direction of a project throughout its lifecycle and deliver optimal client satisfaction through continuous delivery.

Moving on, the agile philosophy is embedded in various methodologies and frameworks. The most popular methodology is Scrum that is preferred by 84% of the agile teams.

On average, the size of a Scrum team is 7 members. Fundamentally, the team comprises a Scrum Master, a Product Owner, and Developers. Because Scrum does not involve any subordinate teams or hierarchies, it is an excellent methodology for offshore development. The team can easily strategize and plan out their activities ahead of time, offering more flexibility to all involved parties.

Benefits of Agile Software Development

Agile helps software development companies to improve and streamline their development process by quickly identifying and adjusting issues.

1. Faster Time-to-Market

Agile greatly increases the time-to-market by dividing the project into smaller iterations. After every iteration, you can choose to launch your product to begin building a user base or test your MVP.

2. Flexible Approach

The entire methodology is based on accommodating changes. It quickly responds to the dynamic user requirements and shifting market trends. So, even if there is any mid-project idea, agile can embrace it to improve the quality and relevancy of the end product.

3. Cost Control

Agile is all about paying for what you need. Thus, if halfway through the development cycle, the client realizes that the features he had initially requested are no longer valid, he can choose to omit them. This will allow him to launch the product sooner and pay much less.

4. Risk Management

With agile, the product can be used and tested in the initial stages by the stakeholders and users. This helps to identify any pitfalls in the development process and take action accordingly.

5. Quality

The agile methodology ensures rigorous testing at every stage. This not only ensures superior product quality but also reduces time spent on evaluating the quality of the product as a whole.

Agile Development and Offshoring – Overview

Once your project’s idea, vision, and purpose have been ironed out, it’s time to move to the next stage: choosing the best software development team.

Broadly, there are three types of agile software development teams that you can choose- onshore, offshore, and nearshore. Onshore means hiring a team that resides and operates in the same region as you. Nearshore implies hiring a team in a nearby country. And lastly, offshore means hiring a software development team from a foreign location. An increasing number of organizations are leaning towards hiring an offshore software development team.

How to Manage an Agile Offshore Software Development Team?

Sometimes, outsourcing agile development to geographically distributed teams creates more complexity, making it challenging for the teams to communicate and collaborate. However, following the below-mentioned agile offshoring practices can help to streamline the process.

a) Define the Scope of Work

Before you begin working with an offshore software development team, it is important to create a Scope of Work (SOW) document. Essentially, this document contains all project milestones, a list of deliverables for every milestone, timelines, and the reporting scheme.

Based on the SOW, the entire project is categorized into smaller tasks called iterations that need to be achieved within the specified deadlines. In simple words, the document serves as a reference point for the client as well as the development team. It makes it easy for the involved parties to approach the development process in a streamlined way and even change the priority of different tasks, based on user feedback and other external factors.

b) Create an easily navigable product roadmap

Once the SOW document is created, you need to divide each task by specific time intervals to develop a strategic product roadmap. This roadmap offers a comprehensive view of all requirements needed to fulfill the original product idea.

The primary aim of a product roadmap is to provide a clear picture of the development process to all members of the offshore software development team. But it must be noted that this is a flexible document that can be altered through the course of development, depending on the feedback, user requirements, and other outside factors.

c) Ensure Effective Communication

As stated above, regular and effective communication is the key to the success of the agile methodology. Thus, when working with an offshore team, you must promote regular short meetings to improve collaboration.

Some of the most common meetings that are common for Scrum offshore development include:

• Sprint planning and review meetings: These meetings help to assess the project’s progress and compare it against the Sprint goal defined during the planning stage. The team discusses any pending tasks from the Sprint backlog and prepares for the next Sprint.

• Release planning meetings: In these meetings, the release plans are created. Such plans include detailed information to take the project from point A to B. It also lists any potential risks and ways to mitigate them.

• Regular stand-up meetings: These are regular 15-20 minutes calls held every day. Here, the team can chalk out the specific actions that need to be performed on that particular day.

• Retrospective meetings: Such meetings enable the team members to reflect on their working culture and suggest any changes or improvements.

All these meetings can be conducted on various platforms, such as Slack, Skype, Zoom, Google Meet, and even WhatsApp.

d) Conduct regular demos

This is an excellent practice that helps to improve collaboration among the team members. A demo is fundamentally a demonstration of the intermediate result achieved at the end of each iteration. It enables the product owner to assess the project’s performance so far and deliver constructive feedback on the same.

During this demo, all team members come together to analyze the results of the last iteration, pinpoint the positive and negative points, and devise smart solutions to address issues. The step involves heavy collaboration among the involved parties, and thus, improves future outcomes.

e) Invest in collaboration tools and technologies

When it comes to managing an offshore software development team, collaboration technology plays a crucial role. There are plenty of collaboration tools that enable agile teams to streamline their work processes and maintain an easy flow of information.

Although collaboration tools cannot entirely replace the concept of sitting and working together in the same vicinity, they sure help to enhance teamwork. The most common collaboration tools include Trello, Wikis, JIRA, and Slack.

f) Stick to common agile standards

Typically, the agile methodology focuses on using some common practices. These include certain coding standards, continuous integration, and smart bug tracking and design patterns. With an offshore software development team, concentrating on these practices become more important than ever.

Additionally, make sure that you use a source code service that ensures seamless communication and cooperation between the onsite and offshore teams. When implemented correctly, a source code service helps to uncover the project vulnerabilities, design flaws and even verify the vital security controls.

Key Benefits of Working with an Agile Offshore Software Development Team

When working with an agile offshore development team, you can benefit from the following:

A pool of talented IT professionals

With an offshore team, you get unrestrained access to highly skilled and talented software developers who are updated on the latest technologies. These experts bring a lot of experience and expertise to the table, making your project quality-driven. With them, you can be assured that your project is in the best hands.

Reduced operational costs

Having an in-house agile team translates to high operational costs. With such a team, you would have to spend on a proper in-house working setup, insurance, employee benefits, hardware cost, and much more. But with an offshore team, you simply need to pay a single-time cost without any additional or hidden charges.

Time to focus on core business operations

This is one of the most underrated benefits of working with an offshore development team. You get more time to focus on your core business operations without worrying about the ongoing projects. You can delegate the work responsibilities to the Agile Project Manager and have more time to improve your business’s strategic aspects.

Time-efficient

Often, if a project takes too long to complete, it loses its effectiveness. With an offshore team, you get a team that possesses expert know-how on delivering superior products within shorter deadlines. Besides, they ensure continuous delivery and flexible response that makes the project more time-efficient.

Tips to Make the Most of Your Offshore Agile Software Development Team

1. Make the most of the time difference

The time difference is the most common issue that arises while working with an offshore software development team. But it is important to use this time difference to your advantage and make the process more efficient. Let’s understand this with an example.

Say a London-based company is working with an offshore development team in India. Now the time difference between the two regions is approximately 5 hours which makes the overlapping working hours very short. However, you must look at it this way: when the London team begins its working in the morning, the Indian team is already way ahead in their schedule. And, there is adequate room for conducting daily stand-up meetings to check in on the team and evaluate progress. So, if you can leverage the time difference effectively, there will practically be no barriers.

2. Stay Abreast with the Latest Tools and Practices

Agile processes depend on continuous integration and thorough unit testing after each iteration. So, to ensure seamless collaboration between your onsite and offshore teams, it is important to use efficient tools.

If you are introducing any new tools in the process, organize an expert demonstration for the team members. This will ensure smooth onboarding without any hassles later on.

3. Build Trust between Teams

If your offshore team members are only given the responsibility to code up, they will seldom feel inspired and motivated to deliver their best. To improve engagement and their contribution to the project, provide them a sense of ownership. Make them feel like a partner and help them understand the business context.

4. Apply Consistency across the Entire Business

Sometimes, when your business grows, you may have to work with multiple agile offshore teams located in different regions. In such a scenario, the key to success is to maintain consistency across all channels.

Make sure the developers in all teams follow the same processes and guidelines. Create a standardized roadmap and implement it across the company to avoid roadblocks.

Partner Up with the Right Agile Offshore Software Development Team

Partnering with an expert and experienced agile offshore development team offers several benefits. However, several factors must be considered while selecting a partner that will precisely meet your requirements.

Applying the aforementioned tips will help you narrow down on your prospective partners and make the best decision for your company.

The post How to work with an Agile Offshore Software Development Team? appeared first on Blog.

Today, 71% of the companies across the world use agile approaches. And most of these companies have successfully raked in 60% more profit. Also, the agile adoption success rate is 42%, while the success rate for the Waterfall approach is 26% only.

So, if you expect better efficiency and more streamlined business operations, you must adopt agile in your organization. The methodology enables you to make the development process more responsive and adaptive as it involves frequent iterations.

That being said, finding a good and experienced agile software development team is a challenging task. To hire an agile software development team, one must understand the different agile team types and roles of each individual.

In this article, we will guide you through the process of hiring a good agile software development team. We will also talk about the structure of the team along with the roles and responsibilities of each member.

Overview of Agile Methodology

Essentially, agile methodology is an approach to software development where demands and solutions evolve through the collective effort of cross-functional and self-organizing teams, enabling recurrent customer feedback and course correction as needed.

The methodology focuses on flexibility and adaptability to ensure better responsiveness to dynamic business needs. And in doing so, agile addresses the challenges faced by the traditional Waterfall approach of delivering digital products over long periods, during which the customer requirements change drastically, making the digital product obsolete.

12 Principles of Agile Software Development

The main difference between a traditional software development approach and an agile approach is that the agile team does not necessarily have an idea of the end product. They don’t focus their efforts on achieving a specific look for the final product or even the tools they are going to use to attain that look. Instead, they concentrate on the continuous delivery of valuable software that satisfies the client.

Essentially, the agile methodology is based on 12 principles. These principles enable the agile team to maintain a continuous flow of communication between the team members.

1.  Satisfy the customer through timely and continuous software delivery

2.  Welcome changing customer requirements, even late in the development phase

3.  Frequently deliver the working software, often with shorter timelines

4.  Business stakeholders and developers must collaborate at every step of development

5.  Motivate, support, and trust the people involved in project development

6.  Encourage face-to-face discussions and interactions

7.  Measure progress solely based on working software

8.  Focus on sustainable development

9.  Pay attention to technical details and design

10.  Keep it simple

11.  Self-organizing teams encourage good design, architecture, and practices

12.  Regularly find ways to become more effective and fine-tune behavior accordingly

Benefits of Partnering with an Agile Software Development Team

Improved Product Quality

Organizations that use agile tools improve their product quality by 42%. The agile development team holds frequent meetings and involves customers in the development process. This enables them to deliver a high-quality product that precisely matches the customer’s needs and expectations.

Faster Time to Market

With an agile software development team by your side, it is possible to meet the client’s requirements faster. The team will make sure to deliver a project in shorter terms. They will leverage time-boxed, fixed schedule sprints to deliver new features swiftly and frequently, thus improving the overall time to market.

Adequate Flexibility

When you hire an agile software development team, the entire problem is divided into various small components that can be developed and tested with the users. So, in case something does not work as expected, the approach is quickly modified to get back on track.

For instance, if some function proves to be non-cost-effective, it can be easily replaced on the go. Similarly, if the client is not satisfied with a particular part of the project, it can be modified to yield the desired outcome.

Reduced Overall Risks

Agile teams practically eradicate the chances of complete project failure. The entire software is developed in sprints. This helps to implement changes as and when needed. Thus, the entire project can be adapted to the client’s needs and preferences which greatly reduces the overall risk.

Also Read: What is Digital Product Development? Everything You Need to Know

Different Approaches to Agile Product Team Structure

The key to the success of agile methodology is that each team member communicates with the others intensively. They are all aware of each other’s tasks and responsibilities. They can help each other throughout the process, and even exchange tasks, if needed. The goal is to make the most of every individual’s capacity and skills.

Moving on, agile software development requires a special type of team. Let us look at the three types of team structures that are typically used to conduct the agile processes.

1.      Generalist

A generalist team comprises individuals who possess a broad skill set to perform a variety of tasks related to software development. These individuals know a little about a lot of things. Owing to their versatility, they can handle various tasks associated with software development and even switch roles with their colleagues.

Typically, a generalist team is responsible for the end-to-end development of the entire project or a specific feature.

Suitability: This team structure is best for small projects that have a clear tech stack requirement. It usually works well in the sales industry where professionals can use their skills and knowledge to sell across different company sectors.

2.      Domain Specialist

As the name suggests, a domain specialist is someone who possesses expert knowledge in different technical and creative areas. In this team structure, every individual specializes in a specific niche and is responsible for the tasks that fall under that.

Such a type of agile team is adept at delivering highly innovative and complex software solutions. The team structure is more prevalent in big agile teams where there are adequate people to work for every specific domain.

Suitability: This team structure is best suited to highly niche and complex projects.

3.      Hybrid

A hybrid team structure is a combination of the first two: generalists and domain specialists. Each specialist present on the team will be responsible for his specific domain whereas the generalists integrate the different components and make sure that the project is viable as a whole.

With this team structure, the development process is outstandingly effective. The structure leads to improved teamwork among the members, superior-quality products, and a greater sense of ownership.

Suitability: This team structure works well for all kinds of projects, including highly complex ones.

Key Roles in a Typical Agile Software Development Team

The agile methodology aims to make the entire product development process more flexible and transparent, which in turn, improves the product quality and time to market. And for this, there is a clear distribution of job roles and responsibilities within each development sprint.

If you are looking to hire an agile software development team, you must know about the key roles in an agile team structure that are as follows:

Product Owner

A product owner is the voice of the customers. He clearly outlines their requirements and ensures that they are met throughout the product development lifecycle. He stays in constant touch with the development team, offering valuable insights on what features need to be prioritized to deliver optimal value to the end-users.

Project Manager (Scrum Master)

The project manager is responsible for overseeing each aspect of the process. He brings the team together and ensures everyone stays on track. He is responsible for delegating work to each member, organizing the communication sessions, tracking progress, and compiling documentation. Lastly, he also serves as a link between the customer and the development team.

In Scrum, the project manager is often called the Scrum Master.

Team Member

This is a very broad term that comprises various roles across different industries. For instance, the agile software development team may comprise frontend and backend developers, UX programmers, testers, QA analysts, and more.

On the other hand, the requirement may also necessitate a digital marketing team that may include content writers, SEO specialists, PPC managers, etc. All these people together can form a team in the agile team structure.

Business Analyst (BA)

Not every agile team requires a BA. However, having one is always beneficial as such a person can help to mitigate risks associated with the business. A business analyst stays on top of market trends and helps the development team to modify the product, making it much more competitive and cost-effective.

Stakeholder

Although not directly involved in the agile development process, stakeholders often play a crucial role in shaping the final product. They stay in constant touch with the product owner, product manager, and development team to streamline the development process. They also provide valuable feedback that may greatly influence the final project outcome. Typically, stakeholders include investors, senior company professionals, and end-users.

Typically, an agile team comprises up to 10 members to manage the various aspects of development. However, a bigger agile team structure may also include roles like enterprise architects, subject matter experts, independent testers, etc.

Characteristics of a High-Performing Agile Software Development Team

A Cohesive Outlook

A successful agile team comprises motivated individuals who all share the basic fundamental values. Every team member respects each other, and at the same time, eliminates the risk of other members getting burned out. They all focus on persistent improvement and conducting self-analysis and deliberately working to improve their abilities.

Accountability and Ongoing Improvement

A high-performing agile team focuses on rapid iteration to deliver the utmost value to the end-users. Such a team will seldom hesitate to take complete ownership of their actions and continue to learn from their failures. They never stop experimenting and evolving to broaden their skillset and witness growth and development.

A Culture of Excellence

A good agile team strives for excellence in everything. This helps them constantly improve themselves and provide high-quality products to their customers. They never settle for the ordinary and are always driven to set new standards for performance and achieving incredible results. All team members also participate in community activities and team development techniques to identify new areas of growth.

Self-Organizing

An experienced agile team is able to manage themselves without having to be constantly guided by a team lead or project manager. It does not imply that the team members do not require any guidance. It only means that such a team understands a concept and works in continuity as long as they have all the required resources. Also, a good agile team is self-driven and willing to take up new challenges at every stage.

High Level of Collaboration

A strong agile team possesses the ability to collaborate with each other, regardless of their strengths and weaknesses. Each team member plays his/her part to improve the process and achieve multiple goals. Collaboration in the team is best attained when all expectations are clearly specified at the beginning of the project.

Conclusion

If you have a unique product idea, you need to hire an agile software development team that can turn it into a tangible reality. A good and experienced team is not only streamlined in structure but also ensures smooth and successful implementation of each project. Their job is to ensure that everything goes as per customer requirements and no resources go to waste. A strong agile team encourages knowledge sharing and creates a dynamic environment for the overall growth and development of each member.

Looking to Hire an Agile Software Development Team?

Get In Touch Today!

The post How to Hire an Agile Software Development Team? Know About its Structure & Benefits appeared first on Blog.

According to a report by Gartner, IT spending worldwide is anticipated to increase by 4% and reach $3.8 trillion. Organizations are supercharging their digital efforts to thrive in the competitive marketplace, thus leading to an increase in digital product development spend.

The advancement in technology has created a whole new era of digital products and services. From creative design tools, video games, email services, video streaming apps to AI-powered voice assistants and messenger apps, there are innumerable digital products that are not just complementary to their physical counterparts but are native to digital.

Digital products are developed using digital product development principles. These principles follow a very different approach and can be a game-changer for businesses of all sizes.

What Is A Digital Product?

Essentially, a digital product is anything that you interact with via a digital medium. It is a product that can be sold online but does not have a physical form. For instance, web elements, software applications, templates, guides, e-books, data and research, music, etc. are all examples of digital products.

That said, people often find it hard to distinguish between digital products and digital services. A digital product is something that is sold to the other party. A product’s existence is independent of the buyer and seller. A digital service, on the other hand, involves a process and helps to develop a relationship with the customer. For instance, a digital service may include teaching the tricks of software development to someone or even selling a web page template.

Nowadays, most organizations offer digital products and services in combination with each other. This helps to develop a sustainable and lasting commercial relationship with the customer. And this is why it gets difficult to distinguish between digital products and services.

So, if an organization sells a website template along with frequent updates, support, design tweaks, and other additional elements, it becomes a digital product-service hybrid.

Purpose of Digital Product Development

Digital product development helps to create an efficient growth process that grabs consumer attention. It engages them with a seamless user experience and persuades them to make a purchase. In other words, digital products delight and engage consumers to a point where they feel organically inspired to become product advocators.

The process leverages actionable data, consumer analytics, marketing techniques, and design thinking principles to develop a product that satisfies the unmet needs of the consumers. It improves the consumer experience and keeps them coming back for more. That is the true purpose of digital product development.

Digital Product Development Process

The digital product development process is all about creating a product that engages the users and provides value. But how does a digital product come to life? How does it go from an idea on paper to virtual reality? Is there a set roadmap to digital product development or do companies reinvent the wheel every time they get a new idea?

Thankfully, several organizations that have plunged into the process have offered helpful insights. Although every digital product is different, certain predictable steps need to be followed. Here, we will look at a 7-step strategy for successful digital product development.

Discovery

This is the first and foremost step of digital product development. Often, many organizations and product developers skip this part. As a result, they become attached to a solution that doesn’t fit the market needs.

Essentially, discovery is the process of identifying a problem to be solved. It seeks to uncover the pain points of customers and envision a solution to those pain points.

Sometimes, developers believe that they already understand the problem and overestimate the value of addressing that problem. But missing the mark here can make your digital product fail. So, it is imperative to take time to fully understand a problem or a need that is present to devise an optimum solution.

But what is the best way to discover a problem that needs a solution? Although there is no right answer to this, you can try to use the following techniques:

• Research the ongoing trends: Consumer trends keep shifting. Staying on top of these trends can lead you in the direction of product brainstorming. These trends can be plant-based diets, fitness, Eco-friendliness, supplementation, etc.

• Address your personal problems: If you are facing a problem, chances are that others might be facing it too. Stay alert in your daily life and look for problems that can be addressed by a digital product.

• Find a way to improve an existing product: Many times, the problem you encounter may already have a digital solution. But if you find a better and more efficient way to solve that problem, you could be onto something. Additionally, you can create a variation of an already existing product with a unique selling proposition (USP) attached to it. For instance, you can develop an economical or a more luxurious version of an existing product and attract the consumer.

Also Read: 5 Best Tips to Find the Right Offshore Development Team for your Project

Idea Screening & Research

The primary objective of this stage is to brainstorm all possible solutions to the problem identified during the discovery stage. It involves creating a robust strategy to build a product with market demand.

Identifying solutions to develop into products can take several forms. For instance, you can try any one of the following:

• Brainstorming: It is best to turn to people with industry knowledge and expertise for an internal review. This will help to ensure the viability of the solution.

• Consulting an Agile Team: Talking to an Agile team can help you understand the technical side of things. They can also help to build a POC which is crucial to check the feasibility of the idea.

• SWOT Analysis: SWOT stands for Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats. The product owner along with the Agile development team can conduct a thorough analysis of the idea to ensure that the strengths and opportunities override the threats and weaknesses.

At this stage, you must also conduct extensive research to ensure that your idea is worth a shot. At the research stage, the product owner needs to:

• Research the market to understand the target audience

• Conduct a strategic competitor analysis

• Estimate product-market fit

This will help to align the digital product strategy with the precise market needs and expectations.

Architecture and Prototyping

After the ideation, it’s time to move forward to determine the look and feel of your digital product.

Prototyping helps to create a non-functional model of the solution that enables the stakeholders and investors to visualize the final product. It is the initial attempt to introduce UI/UX visually. Typically, prototypes are created with basic features and limited functionality. Their purpose is to attract investors and get feedback on the product.

Once you have the prototype, you can run tests with the target audience and your team. This will help to find out how the real users react to the product.

The stage will also involve customer journey mapping and feature set identification. The product features you integrate will make or break your business. So, while enlisting any product feature, pay attention to its originality and the problem that it will solve.

Product Development

Upon the completion of the prototyping stage, it is safe to proceed into full-scale development. If you work with proper procedures, this stage should be straightforward.

You begin with developing an MVP, i.e. Minimum Viable Product. As the name suggests, it is a product that integrates the bare minimum functionalities required to address the problem. The iterations will depend on the initial response.

The best way to approach digital product development is through Agile implementation. Agile development enhances the pace of product development and focuses on iterative development while boosting communication and collaboration.

The Agile approach is much better than the waterfall approach as the former enables quick-to-and-fro movement across the development cycle as new user requirements come up. That being said, many organizations are also adopting a hybrid approach that involves a mix of waterfall and agile technologies. This approach lets businesses customize the methodology to match the precise requirements of the project.

Testing and Quality Assurance

Rigorous testing and quality assurance seek to determine the viability of the new product. It helps to reduce ambiguity around its success after launch.

Typically, the stage involves two market testing strategies.

• Alpha testing: The test engineers within the digital product development company use and judge the product based on its performance. In case of any issue, the product is suitably tweaked before the final launch.

• Beta testing: A group of target users use the product and provide unbiased feedback on the same. The issues identified are addressed before a public version of the product is released.

The tests help to ensure the quality of the digital product and identify and eliminate any defects.

Launch

Once the MVP is ready, it’s time to hit the market. Essentially, a digital product launch implies putting your product on the market and offering customers their first crack at your solution. You can take several different approaches to launch, including a soft launch, a hard launch, or a dark launch.

You will also require a powerful pre-launch strategy to grab the attention of your target customers. For instance, you can build up some hype around your product by creating teasers, social media campaigns, landing pages, email marketing, and other promotional campaigns.

Remember, the market launch isn’t as simple as it may seem. The process will involve varied activities to entice your target users. In the initial stages, you have already figured out your user persona. So now, it’s time to roll out effective marketing strategies that may include leveraging social media networks, influencer campaigns, referrals, digital advertising, and more.

Support

The post-launch support and maintenance phase is crucial. It is what separates successful products from the average ones. Typically, the phase should include the following:

• Gathering and analyzing feedback: Your customer’s interaction with the digital product will provide valuable insights to improve your offerings.

• Determine the optimal price: The customer feedback will also help you find out whether the product price is a little too high or low.

• Scale-up marketing efforts: In order to reach more customers, you must work on marketing your product on different platforms.

• Continuous testing: At every step of growth, you must validate your old hypotheses and your new ones to make the product as practical and viable as possible.

The following steps will help to adapt your digital product to a dynamic environment and shifting consumer needs.

Important Principles of Digital Product Development

As a responsible digital product development company, you must adhere to the following principles.

• Design for the end-user: The user must be at the center of product development. You must focus on his needs and pain points while approaching development.

• Understand the ecosystem: In today’s competitive era, it is important to stay abreast with the latest trends in technology and consumer patterns to develop products that hold up.

• Create data-driven and scalable products: Make sure the product is based on actionable data and not gut feeling. Also, identify and eliminate any potential holdups that may arise due to a sudden surge in demand to ensure product scalability.

• Address privacy and security challenges: Complete security and data privacy should be central to product development.

• Build for sustainability: You must develop products for the future. Opt for a product that contributes to sustainability and gives back to the local communities.

Effective implementation of the digital product development strategy can help business organizations develop a product that people love. While approaching the development process, it is important to focus on innovation while delivering value.

The post What is Digital Product Development? Everything You Need to Know appeared first on Blog.

We want our people to feel empowered to voice their ideas and be heard. We celebrate different perspectives and viewpoints. And this has made us what we are today!

Pranay Mathur, CEO, Wedigtech

We want our people to feel empowered to voice their ideas and be heard. We celebrate different perspectives and viewpoints. And this has made us what we are today!

We are WeDigTech, a caring, compassionate, and innovative growth company that seeks to reimage a healthier future for all our employees, our customers, and our stakeholders.

At our company, we believe that building a culture that is inclusive and welcoming is important to keep the people focused on their goals. It is important to what we can achieve as a company. We actively recruit people coming from diverse backgrounds to create a supportive workplace. We ensure that all employees get a sense of value, opportunity, and belonging at WeDigTech.

Our equitable and inclusive work culture has always led to more innovation and better performance. Over the years, we have built a flat organization where each team member is empowered to innovate, make good decisions, look for opportunities, and take pragmatic risks. Throughout the company, we have established a strong culture based on honesty, ethical conduct, and desire to do the right thing.

Our People Are Our Greatest Asset

At WeDigTech, we cherish our people. We know that to be an industry leader, you must put your people above everything else. And that is exactly what we do.

We have a workforce that is highly representative of our users, and a workplace that creates a strong sense of belonging for everyone.

We have a responsibility to build an inclusive and respectful community, which is shaped by the experiences our people have every day. We ensure that our personnel feel respected, valued, and that they are treated fairly. Sharing, offering feedback, questioning, and debating, all with complete respect and kindness is core to our culture and key to our mission. This culture helps us to establish trust and openness we need to make informed decisions and have an impact in the world. We seldom tolerate any threats, harassment, discrimination, bullying, or any negative behavior against anyone.

At our company, we have always tried to create a motivating environment for everyone. We understand that talented people need to be challenged within their careers to stay driven. And thus, we offer our people adequate flexibility to work with a variety of roles so they never have to leave the company.

One of the reasons why our people stick through is because we provide ample scope for professional development. We empower our people to continued learning so they can play to their strengths and position themselves to maximize their influence.

Cornerstones of Our Organizational Culture

Our organizational culture is built on flexibility, innovation, and collaboration.

We understand the need for a flexible schedule to unleash creativity and achieve better productivity. Thus, we let our people explore how they like to work and give them complete liberty within the environment to approach work in a way that suits them best.

We have fostered a culture that emphasizes an environment of constant innovation. Our people strive for excellence by finding unique ways to address a problem.

For us, collaboration is key. We encourage every person to cooperate with each other and act as a team. This helps to build a sense of community and even drive efficiency.

We Foster an Environment of High Performance

Putting our faith in our people, providing them with regular training, and clearly communicating our vision to them has helped us achieve a high-performance culture at WeDigTech.

Regardless of the position, we always motivate our people to show leadership and courage when it comes to inventing and disrupting. We are committed to ensuring that all our employees clearly understand expectations, are appreciated for good work, and are constantly challenged to grow. Most importantly, we make sure our people are emboldened to use their specific strengths in everyday operations.

We want our team to have faith in the company’s mission along with a sense of safety and trust in one another. We understand that nurturing a joyful, healthy, and secure team environment will pay huge dividends in terms of performance.

We Emphasize Freedom and Responsibility

Freedom and Responsibility go hand in hand. Responsible people need the freedom to thrive. And our company model provides adequate freedom to all our team members so they continue to learn and grow in their own designated fields.

We empower our people to take decisions and act upon their choices. And this gives them a sense of responsibility and ownership of their roles and goals. When every person in the organization is accountable, it ensures a sense of appreciation for the contribution of each individual.

Some reasons we think freedom is important:

• With the huge growth in technology and innovation, present-day working culture requires employees to be highly adaptive and take up initiatives in their professional lives.
• Freedom is empowering and liberating at the same time. When people are given the freedom to work in their own style, the workplace becomes much more rewarding and productive.
• Freedom is important to establish a high-performance culture where every individual can act with responsibility.
• Every single person at our company has the potential to exceed expectations. It is only when they are released from shackles of conservative policies, procedures, and approvals, will they feel free to channelize their inherent potential.
• Lastly, to nurture a culture of innovation and creativity, employees must be given a comfortable environment where they can be themselves. We give them complete freedom to make mistakes and learn from them. Because learning that is derived from an experience goes a long way in making an impact.

Living Our Core Values

Our focus on core values makes us stronger. These values are not just something that serves as pretty wall hangings at our company. Our people use them all the time, whether they are brainstorming new ideas, identifying the best solution to a customer’s problem, or recruiting candidates. In fact, it is one of the things that make us different from the rest.

Our values also help us attract, engage, and retain the best people in the industry. And it ultimately helps us grow sustainably and deliver on our WeDigTech strategy.

Integrity

Success is built on trust and integrity. We motivate our people to act with integrity and take complete ownership of their actions.

Innovation

We are committed to getting better every day in all that we do, as individuals and as teams. We encourage innovative ideas from every employee and act on them to gain a competitive advantage.

Respect for All

We demonstrate respect and courtesy for all. We honor the differences that each employee brings, and we strive to include every different perspective in our solutions for a vast customer base.

Team Spirit

We believe in working as a team to unlock each individual’s hidden potential. We unify people to help organizations pursue their loftiest goals and solve their trickiest challenges to harness immense success.

Excellence Driven

We have built a setup where each team member is driven to achieve excellence. By better understanding our customer expectations and constantly working to innovate, we strive to become the best.

Fun

We have managed to develop a creative and enjoyable workplace where having fun is always prioritized. This encourages enthusiastic contributions from each member, thus making the workplace stimulating and rewarding.

Our values are our foundation. It helps to empower everyone working at the company to understand the responsibilities they have. It describes the general guidelines we must abide by as well as the high standard we must hold ourselves to.

Here is a complete our complete culture slides to know more about how do we believe and what makes us tick.

What Our People Say About Our Culture

From our people and technology to diversity and giving back to society- take it from our employees on why they love working at WeDigTech.

“One of the best things about working at WeDigTech is the network. The company has given us anincredible platform to collaborate with the best minds in the industry and brainstorm innovative ideas. I love that we can actively engage in topics that are important to us and discuss them with each other. People coming from diverse backgrounds freely share their ideas, knowing that everyone will value their thoughts and opinions.”

Suman Khatri (Technical Manager)

“Been with WeDigTech for 6 years. The culture at the company is respectful, fast-paced, and results-driven. Every single person on the team is considerate of the needs of others. There is very healthy competition and active discussions that help to bring out the best in people. It is also a very fun place to work.”

Kamal Kumar (Technical Manager)

“As someone who loves technology, WeDigTech has been a great organization to work for. The entire management has been really focused on changing the culture. The company has also done a great job supporting customers and employees through the challenging times of COVID-19.”

-Bishal Mahapatra (Associate Project Manager)

Final Words

As a people-centric organization, we take pride in our unique culture. We aim to attract the best talent at all ranks and across all disciplines. WeDigTech is where you can bring your real self to work and be proud of what you do. 

The post Life at WeDigTech and The Culture appeared first on Blog.

The new website has been built to provide the best user experience possible, with improved navigation and functionality, as well as allowing customers to explore the entire services selection that WeDigTech has to offer. By encompassing our company’s vision for growth and expansion, this new website is a good fit. The website will highlight all relevant information about our key services: digital product innovation, agile development teams, and on-demand specialized IT services. In addition to the above, the website is designed to provide knowledge about the latest technologies and trends, case studies, whitepapers, and technical blogs to help prospective / existing clients and technology talent to engage with WeDigTech’s thought leadership.

On this launch, Pranay Mathur, Founder & CEO says that – “With this revamped website, our vision is to create a knowledge and collaboration environment for startups and enterprises seeking digital product development, along with thought leadership on various technology fronts with the most sorted and relevant information about digital product development and know-how that helps saves time, cost and effort, offering maximum performance, scalability and security for growth-based technology development. WeDigTech offers a free consultation to its clients about all its offerings.”

WeDigTech offers agile development in Node.js, React, Python, Angular, VueJS, PHP/Laravel, React Native and Flutter for Web and Mobile apps development, Digital Product Innovation, Product Designing, Quality Assurance, Agile Development, DevOps and is now expanding its offerings into the blockchain, salesforce, AR/VR, and ML/AI.

About the Company
WeDigTech is a software product development firm situated in Jaipur, Rajasthan (India), with an emphasis on assisting startups and businesses in launching innovative mobile, web, and IoT solutions with quality and speed. With our conceptualization, UX/UI, Cloud, and App Development expertise, we specialize in offering bespoke solutions. Our focus as a team of technology and business specialists is on offering high-value, cost-effective solutions in a timely way, as well as express services that help businesses succeed by increasing productivity. We execute technologically innovative solutions that allow our clients to stay ahead of the competition, starting with platform and tool selection.

The post Press Release – WeDigTech Launches New Website appeared first on Blog.

Pandemic has changed the e-learning impact overall in the world. We all are aware of it already. It has impacted the education system whole, whether you see the students studying in schools, colleges and universities. Every single person has adopted online learning being a student, employee, housewives and many more.

Now learning has become so easy, one can access it from anywhere and anytime.

And most importantly studying and working from home has been a great advantage, people have extra time to enhance their skills or get expertise in particular fields.

One can leverage this opportunity to start something new by learning the required skills and start their own online business.

One can leverage this opportunity to start something new by learning the required skills and start their own online business.

‘It’s worth making the investment if you want the top people to stay longer and do their job better’.

— Derek Hann, Chief Learning Officer, PayPal

Source — Click here

How can Corporate take advantage?

It’s time to take the opportunity seriously instead of worrying about it. Time to level up your skills and especially of your team members. Being a CEO or owner is itself a big responsibility and at the same time being a leader is more important than that.

Looking out at this situation is a depression in whole, your team members need motivation and by empowering them to upgrade their skills and get expertise will boost up their confidence which will impact their performance & productivity for sure, and this directly impacts the performance of the whole enterprise and environment.

Providing training, which is accessible online would be such a positive experience for all the members of the team, where everyone is trying to travel less and here they can learn and work together from anywhere and anytime.

Impact on the Customer Experience

Now when your customers are spending more time online so at the same time they expect more, their demands are high and when you look in the market the competition is on peek. Now, what can you do? Hire more people who have these required skills and spend more time on them to get comfortable in the environment.

Ok! Let’s suppose for once you hire but then who knows and predicts the all-time market demand. How many times will you hire and fire?

What other solution you can take on?

Train your existing employees as per the market demand and the trends as well. Try to keep upgrading their skills, as it will take less time to spend as they are already comfortable in the environment and this will also boost up their confidence to perform more effectively and efficiently.

Let see what market stats says regarding the adoption of E-learning in upcoming years –

Specifically in enterprise & Corporates!

The corporate e-learning market could increase by $38.09 billion between 2020 and 2024.

Statistics Source: techjury.net

So still thinking? The research is already done.
There will be .. oo NO!!

There is a big boom in the market right now.

Impact of e-learning in various enterprise/corporate

IBM saved approximately $200 million after switching to e-learning.

Statistics Source: techjury.net

E-learning has actually impacted big MNC’s and adopting this on time can create a big impact on SMEs as well.

Expected Impacts on –

1. Employees

E-learning has a direct impact on employees as employees are the heartbeat of an enterprise, need to take care and nourish them timely otherwise it will impact in other ways to an enterprise.

Ensure to keep their skills on the peak as per the new technologies and trends required and demanded in the market and make them learn and tend to have expertise in the particular field. Which will indirectly benefit your business.

2. Customers

With the change in trend and technology, there is a direct impact on the demand of customers in the market. Businesses need to make sure to keep customer satisfaction on priority if there is a goal to be in a stable position in the market.

I hope you all are already aware of the fact of competition level in the market, if still, we tend to perform with old technologies then we are losing the power to be on the top.

Benefits of adopting e-learning in your enterprise/corporate

Corporate e-learning takes 40% to 60% less time to complete when compared to traditional learning.

Statistics Source: techjury.net

E-learning can be beneficial in many ways, depending on how effectively and efficiently an enterprise is willing to take over.

1. Cost Efficiency

Is it more cost-effective than the traditional one?

Is this statement right? How?

Of course, it is.

The simple difference is business’ saving the money of the trainer’s salaries and cost of systems and equipment required for the physical training.

Virtual training has come up with breakthroughs in saving all this amount and investing in other aspects. E-learning solution is not very cheap but affordable for all the enterprises, at least it’s a one-time investment for sure less than the traditional one.

2. Increase Learning Involvement & Development

Already discussed above, the development of employees and team members is one of the reasons and the most beneficial advantage of e-learning solutions which enhance the skills and knowledge.

3. Stay Competitive

Healthy competition always makes you strong and gives you the strength to improve and give better results by performing efficiently.

Working on the latest technologies in the market can take your business on another level and easily compete with your strongest competitors.

4. Increase Business Growth Opportunities

So basically all these benefits are interconnected, see if your business is adapting some cost-effective solution and then investing in another aspect and improving performance by getting hands-on new technologies through learning new skills and developing and after that keeping the high-level competition can, fortunately, increase your chances of getting more opportunities with high growth and success.

5. More Convenient & Productive

No time boundation tends to be more convenient in learning.

Online courses are so easy to access nowadays, just one click anywhere and anytime.

Flexibility tends to increase in productivity of employees, which motivates them to perform better.

6. Sustainability

E-learning solution ensures to keep less waste or no waste at all. No paperwork for assignments, tests & notes.

All important pdf, videos and all can be stored and accessed at one place anytime and anywhere.

Not ignoring the electricity note here, but according to the statistics provided by the eLearning Industry, e-learning is by 90% more efficient than traditional courses in terms of energy consumption and by 85% more efficient in terms of carbon dioxide emission.

Conclusion

According to a study, the global eLearning market is going to be a 275 billion USD industry by 2022. Choose the best E-Learning mobile app solution to develop a strong and interactive e-learning platform from the leading mobile app development company in India and start generating revenue.

Partner with the company who supports you in considering all the important factors needed to take care while or after development to convert your billion-dollar business idea into a Profitable Business.

Get in touch with Our Expert Team, and our e-learning consultant will help you to launch your e-learning application or Contact us directly to get your best e-learning app solution.

The post Why corporate should adopt e-learning for their staff? appeared first on Blog.

Online Learning is the Future 

Online learning is one of the booming industries of this day and age. It is also quite possibly the future of Learning and Development on a global level, especially in the light of these unprecedented times. 

The Indian online education industry will grow from 1.6 million users in 2016 to 9.6 million users by 2021, according to the KPMG report. 

E-learning and online education have become one of the foremost influential business models for different industries. Modern online learning systems and solutions should be designed and delivered in the right way with a perfect platform in order to empower businesses and help them attain the cutting edge. To start with, first decide the niche you want to teach, research your audience needs, create an online product to solve a major learning requirement, and then either create your own or pick a robust and customized platform. 

Content Relevancy

This particular factor is very important to build a healthy e-learning community. 

According to research done by our experts around one-third of their survey respondents, who are professionals in Learning and Development, find the relevance of content E-Learning platforms to always be a challenge.

Not keeping relevancy can highly impact the user experience as it can lead them to abandon or never return back to the particular platform.

It is essential to fulfilling the purpose with which they have arrived, as we all know there are many other options available in the market. 

The user will be active only if he gets the relevant content as per his expectations, otherwise, it takes 2 secs to return back.

With good audience research, you will get to know the interest of your audience.

For Example – If the user is studying or working in the Real estate industry then the content is supposed to be like Promotional Marketing in Real Estate and Construction Management and not be like Introductory Human Physiology.

Simple tactics to measure your content flow –

1. Get Feedback From Your Users

Keep feedback and review option in your app, so that users can easily share their opinions. Through this, you will be able to know if there is any positive or negative feedback about content relevancy.

2. Conduct A Survey

Conducting surveys can actually show you the exact flow of your content and also know about other aspects of your app.  Add each section in the survey like – rate app UI, UX, Content relevancy, Navigation, etc.

3. Check Your App Uninstall Stats

Tracking the uninstall rate of your app can give you the exact ratio. As content relevancy is one of the major factors responsible for uninstalling the app. To get the accurate response, add the short feedback pop up asking the reason for uninstalling so that you can fix it.

User Experience 

User Experience plays a vital role in every app. This we already know but here we will get to know how it impacts specifically an e-learning app.


It is always suggested the e-learning content should be crafted towards guiding the learners to better user experience. A pleasurable, appealing, and inspiring user experience ensures that learners interact, engage, and enjoy with your e-Learning platform. 

How quickly the user can navigate the page and how well the content has been paired with the graphics and features is an example of good user experience. Poor user experience is when the user says “What do I do now”? 

An example of a Mobile app designed for great user experience and the visual appeal is AirBnB mobile app. It is easy, fast, and enjoyable to explore, you just need to scroll and tap on the information. Functions are basic and clear and you can use this easily on the move.

While on the other hand, bad user experience is where users can’t find what they want.
For example, too much content and less navigation, absence of relevant buttons and dropdown and the longer form, etc. 

A mobile app with a bad user experience will surely lose visitors and potential lead. It should offer the visitor exactly what they want quickly and let them access the content without any hassle. 

Product Development 

Then there is a need for an easy and customized platform that provides various learning techniques. For this, you have two options. Either get developed your e-learning solution from scratch or get an E-Learning solution from the best app development company. 

Your best bet would be an end-to-end App-based E-learning Platform which provides a complete solution to launch your e-learning facility. With the help of a platform that already comes with the basic essential features along with some advanced features for excellence, you will be able to get the most out of your users with minimal invasiveness.

On the other hand, developing an e-learning product from scratch would be extremely time-consuming, not to mention expensive, which sometimes doesn’t justify the benefits accrued.

Subscription Model 

With a subscription model, you’re entering into a long term arrangement with your users who are committed to using your app for a prescribed duration of time. With this, you’re ensuring a steady flow of income from the users and you’re secure with the recurring revenue accruing from the app.

Benefits of adopting a subscription model

1. Attract More Customers

A subscription model is an add on value to your business. It gives the user a reason to trust and as your business grows, the user is willing to pay and keep the engagement by sharing his reviews about your business which helps in increasing the new customer rate. 

2. More Reliable & Consistent Revenue Stream

This is the most interesting perk of this model for every business. Eventually, now your users are active subscribers and as long as they continue getting expected results, they will keep the payment on a scale. The only thing to keep in mind is to keep it flexible, adopt changes as per your user’s expectations. 

3. Increase Customer Retention

Customer relationship is the most important aspect to focus on, no matter which business you are in. So if the user is active and enjoying the access without any regret, it lets them come again and again. Your content is supposed to be the addiction for them, which keeps the retention rate high.

4. Helps In Creating A Marketing Base

Adopting subscriptions can give a lot of benefits, one of them impacting marketing as it gives you a lot of information about your user. With this data, you can easily track your user activity and send them the latest updates & offers on their mobile screens also follow them on social media where they spend most of the time. 

Adopt any of the Subscription models for your community platform –

1. ContentWise – Charge for the particular course or learning lesson.

2. Time-Based – Charge on monthly, quarterly or annual subscription.

Adopting this model not only monetizes your platforms but also secures your customer base with a community of co-operative users, who are keen on engaging and learning together.

Live Classrooms

Let’s face it, lectures are always boring for most people. In order for a class to be effective and in order for the instructor to make an impact on the learners, there has to be interaction and engagement. This is where live classrooms find their relevance. An E-learning solution app can be personalized as per specific business requisites. 

As virtual learning has its own world now, in this live classroom feature is an identical experience.

It keeps the environment engaging and interactive, as learners can have live chat and questionaries at the same time.

With live classroom features, online live sessions can be conducted to make learning more interactive and engaging. This feature enables real-time face-to-face interaction with high definition video. Key Features that make eLearning platform interactive are Live Sessions & Webinars, Video, Audio, PDF Contents, and free & paid memberships, etc. 

Marketing Ideas 

No matter how great your app is, it is promotion and advertising that make a difference. Innovative marketing ideas create awareness about the app among the targeted customers and help to promote the product. 

Here are various ways to market and promote your community

1. Social media

2. Public Relations

3. Press releases

4. Launch party

5. Guest blogging

6. Interview with local newspapers

7. App Store Optimization

8. Search Ads

9. Influencers/Celebrity endorsements

10. Traditional Advertising

Always remember, a user-friendly and quality product requires minimum marketing efforts because a satisfied customer automatically promotes the product through word of mouth. 

Conclusion

According to a study, the global eLearning market is going to be 275 billion USD industry by 2022. Choose the best E-Learning mobile app solution to develop a strong and interactive e-learning community from the leading mobile app development company in India and start generating revenue. 

Partner with the company who supports you in considering all the important factors needs to take care while or after development to convert your billion-dollar business idea into a Profitable Business. 

Get in touch with Our Expert Team, and our e-learning consultant will help you to launch your e-learning application or Contact us directly to get your best e-learning app solution. 

The post Create an E-Learning Community with Human Element and Grow It to Million Learners appeared first on Blog.