DEV Community: Romana Kuts

The Evolution of eCommerce: 10 eCommerce Trends To Expect In 2021

Romana Kuts — Mon, 28 Sep 2020 10:30:29 +0000

COVID-19, economic recession, Big Data and design trends will change the game of retail and e-commerce businesses in 2021.

For most consumers, the events of 2020 make a huge shift in buying habits. For most businesses making sales online is a life or death matter. If your business is the case, here are the e-commerce trends for the upcoming year based on what we already know:

Consumption change

Restaurant, travel, and luxury product sales are up to decrease. Healthcare, FMGC, online services, and everyday product sales – increase significantly. Mainly because people stay at home and load up to make it through the lockdown.

E-commerce will grow

During the 2003 SARS epidemic, China faced serious limitations in traditional sales. It pushed the digitization process. Chinese Alibaba grew 50%. Taobao has become the #1 e-commerce platform in the world. Ever since then e-commerce continued growing. COVID-19 pandemic limits offline sales much more and we expect continuous e-commerce expansion to move even faster.

More expensive advertising

In March, advertisers started noticing an increase in online ad costs. This will require more professional and personalized marketing campaigns.

Smart Marketing

Chatbots, email marketing, lookalike audiences, remarketing and social media will continue to be e-commerce’s best friends. They will become more effective with advanced big data data analysis, personalized experiences, and optimized ad costs.

Design focus

Based on sites from freshly popular industries like CBD and updated big players’ websites: Simplified,minimalist designs that eliminate distractions and make the consumer focus on the product will become a trend in e-commerce design.

Delivery comfort

Flexible shipping options will attract and make clients loyal in this period of time. Affordable international shipping (especially within closely located country areas line European Union, Scandinavian countries, and North America) and immediate local delivery will win the hearts and wallets of the buyers who will get comfortable with purchasing products online.

Reduced cost of entry

Entering e-commerce businesses will be faster and more affordable. Website development companies also go through the crisis and will rebuild their teams to deliver workable e-commerce sites fast. Pricing and timeline would cut. As an example,GTM Plus announced they’d start developing e-commerce websites at 2k within 1 week. Many others will follow.

Offline to online transitions

Products traditionally sold offline will now sell online. Many business owners will be forced to move online to save their companies. Others will see it as an opportunity during the crisis. Whatever the case, it’ll be the best way to reach the customers. E-commerce businesses (such as Shopify companies) will have a lot of work with helping retail stores to go online.

From giant marketplaces to light single-brand online stores.
To maintain their marketing, huge e-commerce platforms will need more commission from sellers. And the marketplace platforms will get too competitive to make enough sales. Single mono-brand niche online stores will get more popular giving small and mid-size businesses a second breath.

Online sales after the lockdown

Many people will become first-time online buyers in 2020. Some will get more used to it. Both audiences will have a significant percentage of those who’ll stick with e-commerce buying after things get back to normal.

As a summary here are the key takeaways:

E-commerce isn’t a short-term spike of profit. It’s here for the long run and people will continue buying online more.
Developing an online shop will get more affordable;
Huge marketplaces will open the way to smaller mono-brand online stores;
Online shopping will get more personalized and automated at the same time;
Small mainly offline businesses still can catch the wave.

While these are the e-commerce trends we can foresee based on the data we already have, 2020 and 2021 seems to have planned a lot of transformation for the world. New technologies and approaches always emerge during the crisis (what a good time 2007-2009 was for iPhones to revolutionize everything?). Will AR/VR and face recognition affect the way people shop online? Will people start saving money, or start consuming even more once it’s over?

No one knows yet, but there will surely be a place for movement. After all, there won’t be more or less money. The crisis is just a transition from ineffective owners to effective ones.

Things to Consider Before Hiring a Software Company

Romana Kuts — Mon, 20 Jul 2020 07:51:21 +0000

In the modern world, the demand for software development services is increasing at an incredible speed. More and more companies working in different fields need software products of high quality.

Among a great number of software development companies, it is quite challenging to find the right agency for your project. Here are 4 aspects that you need to consider before hiring a software development agency.

1. Decide on the type of service

Apparently, you are familiar with outsourcing and outstaffing. According to the outsourcing model, a client entrusts the whole project to the development team. According to the outstaffing model, a hired person performs all the job duties because he or she is officially hired by the client company. However, most usually, a collaboration between customers and software development companies takes the form of outsourcing. Also, there are four types of outsourcing: onshore, nearshore, offshore, and hybrid. The type of outsourcing depends on the country to which a company outsources its software development.

Thus, as you can see, all of the four types have their advantages and disadvantages. The most popular type of outsourcing is hiring offshore teams. The reason is that it gives an outsourcer an opportunity to minimize costs spent on development and still get high-quality services. In fact, approximately 85% of outsourcing customers come from the United States while British companies occupy second place based on the number of outsourcing deals.

2. Choose the right outsourcing country

There are three factors, which you should consider while choosing the outsourcing country: cost, IT-market development, and educational infrastructure. Ukraine is one of the top destinations for outsourcing, along with India, Brazil, Mexico, The Philippines, and China.

Ukraine

Outsourcing to Ukraine has a lot of benefits for potential customers. Ukrainian IT sector is developing very fast because of governmental support of the industry and a great number of skilled specialists. The Ukrainian government actively supports business climate in Ukraine introducing a number of regulations that make doing business in Ukraine much easier. Primarily, the process has been eased by reducing fees and taxes that are paid by the employers.

More than a half of Ukraininan high school graduates opt for IT-related education. According to data provided by the Ministry of Education of Ukraine, yearly, more than 36,000 students graduate with a degree in tech specialties.

Another obvious reason for outsourcing to Ukraine is a considerable number of IT outsourcing companies. In fact, there are more than a thousand large-, medium-, and small-sized IT-companies with their headquarters in Ukraine.

"The advancing IT industry in Ukraine opens new opportunities for developers, as well as, potential customers."

Ukraine is one of the best options for outsourcing because of its cost-effectiveness. On average, hourly rates for developers in Ukraine vary between $20 and $75, which is cheaper than in other European countries. More and more students in Ukraine opt for IT-related fields, which causes high competition among IT students and specialists. With dozens of tech events held annually (IT Arena, Software Development Forum, AI & Big Data Day, YouthSpeak Hackathon, IT Outsourcing Forum) and a great number of courses, there is a favorable environment for tech and non-tech specialists to improve their skills and thus get ready for the highly competitive Ukrainian IT market.

India

India is another popular country in the world for outsourcing. India has been in the IT industry for approximately 25 years. It has proven to have a great pool of specialists with good technical skills. Usually, in India, customers are offered the lowest prices between $18 and $25 for IT services.

Brazil

Brazil is an emerging alternative to India as an outsourcing destination. Brazil is now experiencing strong economic growth, which attracts foreign investors and IT services customers. The hourly rates for developers in Latin American countries, including Brazil, are between $30 and $50. Cultural and geographical proximity are also factors that attract American and Canadian customers to Brazil as an outsourcing destination.

Mexico

Together with Brazil, Mexico is another popular Latin American country for IT outsourcing. Like in the case of Brazil, American customers choose Mexico as a country for IT outsourcing because of cultural and geographical proximity. Furthermore, Mexico is one of the leading countries in the world based on the number of computer science graduates.

The Philippines

Many American companies choose The Philippines for IT outsourcing because there is a great pool of IT talents in this country. There is a great number of government support initiatives for IT industry development. The third beneficial factor for potential customers is that most of the country’s population is fluent in English, which guarantees effective cooperation between customers and developers’ team.

China

Some companies outsource software development to China, where political and economic environments are constantly improving; the wages of software developers are constantly increasing, which is why, in China, software development services are more expensive than in other Asian countries.

3. Consider the communication process

Effective communication is of crucial importance for the development team. Communication is one of the key factors of successful project completion. Before choosing a software development company for outsourcing, you should decide how your communication process will go to make your collaboration as productive and effective as possible.

Firstly, you need to consider the time-zone difference and the level of English of your potential partners. Apparently, when it comes to offshore or hybrid outsourcing, there may be a considerable time difference. However, it is possible to minimize the negative effects of time difference. Discuss with your development team how you will handle this issue. For instance, you can schedule daily meetings at the same time or agree that, sometimes, the development team will work overtime.

The lack of a proper level of English can also affect the communication process.

"Ensure that the level of English proficiency of your potential vendor is high enough to minimize chances that your communication with the development team will be impaired."

In Ukraine, most IT specialists are well-skilled in English. Most of them (approximately 82%) have an intermediate or higher level of English. Employees at GTM Plus have a good command of English. However, they constantly improve their fluency level by attending our in-house English courses.

While hiring a software development company, you should also pay attention to communication channels. One of the most commonly used tools for communication between the customer and the company is Skype. It’s quite easy to use so that it is an ideal tool for communication. Many customers use G-Mail to interact with software developers because it allows not only to send emails but also to share documents and make appointments.

Some companies also use My Teams that allows you to get your team on the same page of project development, collaborate on files and documents, and get your team secure. Extremely useful tools for supervision and task tracking are JIRA and Confluence. With the help of these tools, you can control the whole development process. Some other useful tools for communication include Slack, WebEx, Hangouts, and Mattermost.

4. Conduct research on companies

Another step to hiring a perfect software development agency for your project will be gathering information about your potential service providers. In this respect, it will be useful to check companies’ profiles on trusted platforms, for example, clutch.co. Moreover, you can read some of their clients’ reviews, which also can be rather informative for you. However, you should not make conclusions about a company’s expertise solely based on its profiles on such platforms.

Conclusion

It might be difficult to find an ideal software development agency. It may take you quite a long time to find the best partner for outsourcing. To find exactly “your” company, you should know where you are now, know your needs, and determine the factor which is the most important for you.

When Staff Augmentation is Best Option for Startups

Romana Kuts — Thu, 25 Jun 2020 11:32:53 +0000

Be it a startup, or a giant company, businesses across the globe are searching for reducing operational and management costs. That is why they often outsource their software development. Some of them even have their in-house engineering teams but are looking to add fresh talents or missing expertise with minimal cost and time spent on recruitment and training. At this point, we can talk about staff augmentation strategy of outsourcing.

What is staff augmentation?

As a brand new model of outsourcing, staff augmentation suggests that the customer adds new members to his already existing development team. The fundamental peculiarity of this strategy is the fact that the development team member is recruited and taught exclusively by the service provider.

Staff augmentation may be an ideal option for those client companies who are looking for reducing expenses on staff recruitment as well as speeding up this process.

Another obvious benefit is the fact that a client company gets rapid access to experts skilled in required technologies abroad if they are not available locally or hiring those takes a lot of time and effort.

Prior to hiring a third-party developer, the vendor should analyze his current capacities and determine which additional technical skills the in-house team needs. This model of cooperation might be a perfect fit for startups and small businesses in terms of price and speed of delivery. However, ensure you are aware of possible minuses too.

Weigh pros & cons of staff augmentation

As an augmented team member is hired by the software development provider, staff augmentation reduces expenditures on recruitment, development, and maintenance. Other benefits of the staff augmentation model are obvious too:

The model removes recruitment and legal burden from the client.
With an extended team the development process becomes faster.
The right expertise is accessed at a reasonable price.
You have direct control over the development process.

Although the staff augmentation model has a lot of advantages, it is not a panacea.

Be sure to know the drawbacks of this model.

Due to the fact that clients get new staff members from an outside service provider, there are potential quality risks.
If there are some flaws in the company’s internal processes, the new employees will also be affected.
It can take some time to find the right staff augmentation agency to work with.

By the way, explore how to find a decent development partner in our previous article: https://gtm-plus.com/things-to-consider-before-hiring-a-software-development-company/

When to augment your team?

Staff augmentation may be an option in a great variety of scenarios. Here are the most typical ones:

A company may need to add new team members when the company wants to save up on the recruiting, training, and staff management.
When a company launches a new project and its employees are working overtime. In this respect, you may need to create a new staff to work on your project for an extended period of time.
Another case is when a large project requires talents with specialized knowledge, which in-house employees do not have.
When a product is at a final stage of its development and the product team recommends a company to hire new temporary employees who will test the product before its rollout.

How staff augmentation differs from other models?

Staff augmentation opens one-of-a-kind opportunities for businesses. Unlike the other engagement models, staff augmentation could evolve into managed services or project outsourcing depending on desired ownership level.

Before making a choice about the cooperation model, you need to consider all the possible scenarios to know which type of engagement (staff augmentation, managed services or project outsourcing) fits your project best. Be aware that the model you choose now will have a significant impact on the success of your project in the future.

Prior to making a decision about what model to choose, you should decide what level of responsibility for recruitment, management, and the very project you want to have.

Managed (consulting) services

The managed services model presupposes that the client company outsources on the proactive basis not only the actual development but delegates the control over the whole project including cost and risk management, support, maintenance, reports, and control of the main business factors that can affect the project’s success.

Like other models of IT services provision, the managed services model has its advantages and disadvantages. Let’s start with benefits, which this model brings to you:

Managed services are time-saving for the client company.
With financial simplicity that this model offers, the client pays the vendor for only a preliminary formed complex of services. Thus, it almost eliminates the possibility of any unforeseen costs.
The client company delegates all the management responsibilities to the vendor.

The disadvantages of managed services are somewhat similar to those of IT staff augmentation:

Very often, it is extremely difficult for clients to find highly skilled employees at a reasonable cost. Finally, with this model, the responsibility for any project failures lies on the client company.
The managed services model presupposes some loss of flexibility due to the fact that many managed services providers have the same approach to all their clients.

Project outsourcing

This type of engagement has become rather a popular model of software development in recent years. The main difference between project outsourcing and IT staff augmentation lies in the scope of control over the project possessed by the client company.

While with staff augmentation model, the customer possesses direct control over the team, with the outsourcing model, a customer delegates all his management responsibilities to the IT services providers

The second factor that makes a distinction between this model and staff augmentation is that, in the case of outsourcing, the service provider recruits, trains and manages the development team, which works on your project separately from your company. With staff augmentation, the development team or individual employees work on a project alongside your in-house team.

Project outsourcing has its undoubtful benefits and drawbacks. Like previous models, it reduces expenses on staff recruitment. The second obvious benefit of the project outsourcing model is providing an access to great talent pool that is not available locally. Finally, project outsourcing allows management of the client company to offload its in-house employees.

Project outsourcing has two major disadvantages: the lack of direct managerial control over the development team and the risk of having quality issues.

Conclusion

Although staff augmentation opens a lot of opportunities for your company, you have to consider other models before you make a final decision.

Nevertheless, if you want to bring fresh knowledge and talents to your internal team, if you want to save time and costs spent on training and recruitment as well as reduce the administration burden, staff augmentation will be the most suitable option for you.

5 Reasons to Hire Ukrainian Developers

Romana Kuts — Thu, 18 Jun 2020 06:49:07 +0000

Nowadays, many companies consider offshore development due to a number of reasons such as cost, quality, or expertise. In order to find the right software development partner, the potential customers review, get feedback, and analyze the potential services providers with whom they consider further cooperation. Recently, Ukraine has been among the top countries, and the customers hire Ukrainian developers for several reasons. Let’s discuss all of them in detail.

Reason 1. Market Capacity

One of the biggest reasons to hire Ukrainian developers is its IT market capacity. Nowadays, the Ukrainian IT pool is full of experienced specialists. The talent pool of the Ukrainian IT market is now approaching 200,000 tech specialists; the flow of investments in the Ukrainian IT market is increasing; so, its market capacity is also growing.

Reason 2. Reasonable Pricing

One of the most undoubtful advantages of hiring software developers in Ukraine is the fact that most Ukrainian IT companies provide their services for a reasonable cost. According to Clutch.co, the average rate of Ukrainian IT companies is between $25 and 50 dollars per hour. All software development companies in Ukraine accept payment in different currencies: dollars and euros. That’s why it’s very convenient to outsource to Ukraine.

Reason 3. Fast Staffing

When you outsource your software development to other countries, you save a lot of time on staffing. Ease of staffing is a considerable advantage of outsourcing to Ukraine as you don’t have to spend your time and costs on searching, recruitment, and hiring. In other words, when you outsource your software development to other countries, you cast off responsibility and risks associated with recruitment. While launching new products, time is key and that’s another reason why startups augment their development teams in countries with a bigger qualified talent pool.

Reason 4. Variety of Expertise

Apparently, when you are looking for a reliable partner for outsourcing, you want to rely on your potential parter’s expertise. Ukrainian IT specialists are known for their great expertise in Information technologies. According to the rating compiled by HackerRank, a platform for hiring developers, in 2018, Ukrainian devs ranked 11th. Many IT specialists in Ukraine have expertise in the top programming languages, such as Java, JavaScript, Node.js, Scala, Kotlin, Swift, and PHP.

Reason 5. Employees Attitude

The last, but not least important reason to hire Ukrainian ios and java developers is employees’ attitude. Most Ukrainian IT companies are trying hard to create a comfortable working atmosphere and lots of opportunities to develop their skills. Thus, when employees work in a comfortable environment, they are motivated to perform well and have better results.

Possible Concerns with Hiring Ukrainian Software Developers

Some of the greatest concerns you should pay attention to while hiring software developers in Ukraine include. In this respect, you have to choose your potential software development partner extremely carefully. For instance, you can use such platforms as Clutch.co to check companies’ profiles and read their customers’ reviews.

Conclusion

If you want to get a high-quality software product at a reasonable price, consider hiring Ukrainian software developers. Market capacity, reasonable pricing, fast staffing, a variety of expertise, and employees’ attitude are some of the most undoubtful advantages of outsourcing to Ukraine. It’s all about us, GTM Plus, and, if you are looking for a reliable partner, do not hesitate to contact us.

In the Pursuit of Product-Market Fit

Romana Kuts — Thu, 11 Jun 2020 07:40:04 +0000

If you own a startup business, you’ve probably thought not only about how to reach customers, satisfy their needs, but also to make them loyal. So how to make the users love your product? You might have considered multiple marketing strategies, established partnerships with other companies, hired the best employees; however, you should know exactly how to bring a product to market. Only when you understand what needs your potential customers have, you can achieve product-market fit.

What is product-market fit?

PProduct-market fit (PMF) is an interesting and funny concept. There doesn’t exist a single unified definition of product-market fit. However, the root of the concept lies in the degree, to which the product satisfies the market’s and customers’ needs. The term was coined by Andy Rachleff, a co-founder of Benchmark Capital. It was further popularized and defined as the first step in creating a successful enterprise by Marc Andreessen, Sean Ellis, and Steve Blank.

The company has to find the PMF before popularizing the products among potential customers

One of the best explanations to what is product-market fit was offered by Fred Wilson, an American businessman, and blogger. In his opinion, getting product right means finding product-market fit. It does not mean launching the product.

Reaching product-market fit means getting to the point where the market accepts your product and wants more of it

Why to reach PMF?

So, why do you need to find a PMF? The main reason is that you may invest thousands of dollars into promoting a product that nobody will use and value.

You have to know for sure what value your product will bring to people before starting the actual product development

Understanding who your potential customers are, knowing their needs and their solvency will help you to achieve the product-market fit.

Also, PMF changes your business priorities so that you pay more attention to securing your growth capital. For instance, you can hire a VP Sales or expand your sales team. Furthermore, it allows you to switch your attention from product development to marketing.

The third significant reason to find and measure PMF is that it is safe for you to scale up your business. It means that your new products are more likely to meet the needs of new markets.

Myths around product-market fit

Even though the concept of PMF is rather new and hasn’t come into common use, it’s already overgrown with myths. You have to be aware of them not to misinterpret the concept of product-market fit.

№1: Finding PMF is an overnight event

Usually, to make ideally fit products for your market, you have to make several tweaks and reforms. Sometimes, your product may not fit the target market as it doesn’t meet the potential customers’ needs. In this respect, to make your product really useful and valuable to your customers, you should undergo quite a long process, which is described in the next section.

№2: Your product fits market at any time

Markets and customers’ needs are always changing with time. What was popular 50 years ago, is of no use nowadays. Technology constantly improves and automation of processes and other activities is conquering the world; thus, buyers’ needs change as well. If you’ve achieved product-market fit in your market, it does not mean that you will be on the same stage in a year or two. In other words, your target market is not supposed to remain stable. Thus, once your market changes at some point, you need to find a new PMF.

№3: PMF is always obvious

While giant companies, such as Facebook or Twitter, have already taken a stable niche in the market, for small startups just entering the market, it might be somewhat difficult to find a unique selling point. In fact, only a few software development startups will achieve dramatic results within a short period of time. You should look for the indicators of PMF- high customers’ retention, high percent of customers that come back to use your product once again, and a great volume of referrals. However, you’ll never trust them completely.

№4: With PMF achieved, ignore the competition

Even if customers value your product and use it actively, you shouldn’t forget about the competition. Even after you have achieved PMF, you will need a business growth model to keep your enterprise thriving and to build a strong brand against your competitors. In his article, “The Revenge of the Fat Guy”, Marc Andreessen says: “In fact, the best markets are usually the ones in which competition is fierce because the opportunity is big”.

5 steps to finding PMF

So, at this point, you already know the definition of product-market fit in economics, understand its importance, and what myths are associated with this concept. Now, you may ask yourself: “How exactly to find a product-market fit?”. Here is a framework of steps to reaching a product-market fit, which was developed by Dan Olsen, a product management consultant, entrepreneur, and the author of “The Lean Product Playbook”:

1. Determine your target audience

At this stage, you have to use market segmentation which suggests dividing the whole market into small segments that consist of potential customers with similar needs and behavior. You should start with a high-level hypothesis of your customer’s persona to dive deeply in their needs and interests. The most proper way to do that is conducting research.

You have to know who your potential users are, what they do, what are their pains, their values, and what they are trying to achieve

Based on your research, build an image of your high-expectation customer – a person who knows the market and who can evaluate your product fairly. Divide your audience into small segments with similar pains, needs, behavior patterns, and lifestyle. This division will help you create a buying persona (typical customers that will buy your product).

2. Identify your customers’ underserved needs

Understanding the underserved needs your customers have is crucial too.

Before you launch a new product, you have to know what your potential customers are looking for and lacking at the moment. Remember that users don’t want to spend much time and effort on routine activities. They prefer products that will make their lives easier. Thus, even simple apps can perfectly satisfy their underserved needs. A good example would be an application that reminds users to drink a glass of water or exercise.

3. Create your product value proposition

If you want to bring your product to market, figure out what makes your product different from others. In fact, your product value proposition is what you promise to your customers and how it solves their problems.

4. Outline your minimum viable product

The approach of the minimum viable product allows you to identify the core features of your product or service that will be the most valuable to your customers. Based on these core features, develop your product prototype – a demo version of what your product or service will look like. Then, you should test your prototype by demonstrating it to your potential target audience. At this point, you should gather feedback about the product’s demo version and make all the necessary changes.

5. Consider your customers’ opinion

Once your prototype is created and tested, you have an opportunity to get an honest opinion about your products. It’s of extremely importance to ask your customers about what they like and do not like about your product. Also, you could wonder what makes you different from your competitors in their opinion. Get as much feedback as possible so that you can better understand your target audience and implement all the necessary changes to your product. Your customers’ feedback helps you better understand what is missing from your product, e. g. whether it has a user-friendly interface. Thus, you’ll be able to improve your product in the next iterations.

Conclusion

Although the concept of “product-market fit” is rather new to most entrepreneurs, it plays a crucial role in one’s business success. So, PMF is about satisfying your customers’ needs and, put it simply, making them happy. If you want your users to love your product, you should find your product-market fit and try to keep it aligned with the market needs. And remember that it’s a continuous process.

Article has been originally published on https://gtm-plus.com/in-the-pursuit-of-product-market-fit/

Emerging technology trends in 2020

Romana Kuts — Wed, 03 Jun 2020 06:38:57 +0000

The world is developing insanely fast, which means that something becomes trending when something else may become obsolete. With the IT industry, one can claim that these changes happen at the speed of a sound. Based on the technological advancements in 2019 (the roots and rapid development of IoT, the heyday of AI, blockchain implementation, etc.), we can predict what is and will be trending throughout 2020.

Be in the loop about tech trends

No matter if you manage an enterprise or you are a software developer who wants to keep up with the times, you should be aware of the software development trends. Whether you own a startup or a long-existing organization, you want to stay on the market for as long as possible.

Being aware of the latest development technologies that will be popular throughout 2020 and in the upcoming years allows to be competitive in today’s market as well as future-proof your business.

Even if you are a developer with a perspective of new job acquisition, you should have an eye for these technologies. If you are a software development company, you also should have your finger on these revolutionary technologies to select the best candidates for your job.

Blockchain

Blockchain has occupied the leading positions among the growing technology trends in 2020 based on LinkedIn’s research. Having emerged together with cryptocurrency and as a technology to store cryptocurrency transactions, blockchain has grown into something much bigger and became a development .

According to the “Emerging Jobs in 2020” report published by LinkedIn the growing interest in blockchain is associated with the growing prices for Bitcoin. So, what else will blockchain be used for in 2020? The answer lies in the fact that it has a lot of advantages as compared to traditional databases:

All users of a blockchain database have a secured copy of data, which eliminates any inconsistencies.
As data can automatically be corrected and integrated, users have a high level of trust in blockchain databases.
Data in confirmed blocks is very unlikely to be removed or altered once it has been recorded. It prevents any fraudulent behavior with data.

Of course, blockchain technology has a considerable number of disadvantages, such as potential attacks, inefficiency, and large size. Nevertheless, it seems that blockchain will be among the most demanded technologies in 2020.

Cloud computing

Cloud computing technology has been on the rise for a few recent years and seems to remain among one of the greatest software development trends since cloud data storage is more cost-efficient for firms than maintaining their own IT infrastructure. Cloud computing services include not only storage but also video streaming, networking, artificial intelligence development, and standard office applications.

According to research conducted by Gartner, by 2021, more than 50% of global enterprises and firms using cloud computing nowadays, will adopt an all-in cloud strategy, which means that these companies will store all their data in cloud systems.

Artificial intelligence

Artificial intelligence has been one of the top software industry trends in the past decade and it doesn’t seem to lose ground in 2020. AI will be beneficial for computer graphics to create videos and images as realistic as possible. Another artificial intelligence trend, which will be rather popular in 2020, is deep fake. Furthermore, it has the potential to make users’ experience more personalized.

Specifically, AI will help service providers to have a more accurate view of their customers’ needs according to Tech Startups article.

Here are some facts about AI in numbers:

Some pieces of research (for example, by PwC, suggest that, by 2030, the AI’s contribution to the global economy will be approximately 15.7 trillion dollars);
58 million new jobs will be created by 2022 resulting from the increased use of AI;
225% – by this number of percent decreased the Amazon’s “ship-to-click” time due to the use of robots.

Cybersecurity

Among the new technologies trends that will rock the IT industry in 2020, is cybersecurity. As the world is becoming more connected, the need to protect data is rapidly increasing. Thus, more and more companies are looking for effective protection against malware issued by their competitors. According to the IT Security Economics in 2019 Report by Kaspersky, in 2019, more than 50% of all organizations experienced a malware infection.

The demand for highly skilled cybersecurity specialists is expected to grow because of the growing amount of political disinformation cases, as well as, the number of frauds. Research by The New York Times has estimated that, in 2020, the number of unfulfilled cybersecurity jobs will increase to 3.5 million.

Internet of things (IoT)

Another potential 2020 trend is the much-talked-of Internet of things. So, what’s behind its popularity?

The Internet of things has a considerable impact on people’s everyday life; this network of interrelated devices, objects, and digital machines find its use in all domains – from healthcare to architecture, from logistics to education.

Those are the following major 2020 trends in the IoT:

It will be closely related to Big Data.
In the upcoming years, the Internet of things will be strongly related to edge computing, a computing paradigm, which makes data storage and computation more accessible to where it is most needed. Edge computing makes data processing on the Internet of things faster and more cost-effective.
It is very likely that, within the next 10 years, machine learning will become extremely automated with the help of blockchain-like technologies.
The IoT network has been growing very fast and it doesn’t seem to be slowing down. Just imagine: according to some estimates, the global IoT market is expected to grow up to 14 trillion dollars! Likewise, Gartner predicts that, by 2021, the number of interconnected IoT devices will be 25 billion.

PWA (Progressive Web Application)

PWA is a brand-new class of web applications development that allows users to have native web app experience. The main feature that makes PWA a trending technology is that progressive web apps can function even when devices are offline.

With PWA, customers can enjoy their favorite websites using mobile browsers without downloading special programs and apps. In 2020, most PWAs will be written with HTML, CSS, React, JavaScript, Angular, and React.js. Some of the most popular PWAs include Starbucks, Trivago, Tinder, OLX, and Pinterest. To publish PWA on the Google Play store TWA (Trusted Web Activities) could be used.

Mobile Development Trends in 2020

Receiving and making calls and SMS have long ceased to be the main functions of a mobile phone. Nowadays, people use a huge number of mobile applications to communicate, play games, study, have a rest, have fun, etc.

For instance, at the end of 2019, Android users could choose from 2.57 million apps available on Google Play while App Store was the second largest app store offering iOS users almost 1.84 million apps.

Nowadays, using the latest mobile development technologies allows business or organization to get the competitive advantage on the market.

There are two categories of mobile development frameworks: native and cross-platform ones. While native apps development is usually done with frameworks created by the company that owns a mobile platform (iOS SDK or Android SDK), cross-platform frameworks allow using a single codebase for multiple platforms.

A considerable advantage of native mobile applications is that they are fast and compatible with the device’s hardware. On the other hand, cross-platform frameworks are more cost-effective than native development. These frameworks allow businesses to achieve various markets. That is why they are among software development trends in 2020.

Xamarin, Flutter, and React Native cross-platform frameworks are believed to be the most promising trending technologies in 2020.

However, these frameworks also have drawbacks that can’t be ignored.

It is quite difficult to integrate an application developed on cross-platform frameworks with local (iOS or Android) settings. Thus, you may need to use third-party applications and programs.
The speed of the code at the development phase might be low.
While switching to a new platform, you may find out that your previous code is not reusable.
Additionally, building an application with a great user experience is not an easy task as each platform is unique and has its own one-of-a-kind functionality.

Xamarin

Xamarin is an open-source platform framework based on C# programming languages.

It is a revolutionary approach to mobile development because it allows sharing approximately 90% of the codebase among several platforms

Additionally, the Xamarin framework creates a flawless native experience with the help of platform-specific UI components. Another uncomparable benefit, which brings Xamarin is that it allows to maintain and update applications easily only by making changes in the source file. Some of the applications developed on Xamarin include CA Mobile, Novarum DX, Storyo, and Captio.

Flutter

Flutter is another open-source mobile development platform, which aims at creating unique UI experience on different platforms. The framework was created by Google and uses the Dart programming language, which is quite unfamiliar to most programmers. Like Xamarin, this framework allows you to build native-like applications, though it is a cross-platform framework. An undoubtful flutter’s benefit, which makes it unique, is the availability of numerous widgets and an opportunity to create new ones.

Hot reload is a unique feature that can make flutter the best technology for mobile development in the 2020s

React Native

One should not forget about the widely used React Native framework, on which Facebook and other quite popular applications, such as Instagram, Uber Eats, Airbnb, and 2048 were developed. These applications have been downloaded by millions of users, and it’s not a surprise that businesses will continue to use this framework for application development. There is a great number of reasons why this development technology will be trending in computer science in 2020:

Another benefit, which React Native brings to its apps is the fact that they consume less memory than other applications through 3rd party plug-ins.
In the React Native framework, it is possible to reuse already written code, which makes it much easier to detect and fix bugs.
The framework is regularly updated, so, the new 0.60 version will be more accessible for Android and iOS platforms.
Released in September 2019, the new version has a feature called “Fast Refresh”, which makes apps development even faster.

In spite of the fact that these three cross-platform development apps are trending in 2020, they have some disadvantages for mobile development, which you should take into consideration. For instance, a major flutter’s drawback is that it has a limited library, which means that developers should compile it themselves.

The Most Trending Programming Languages in 2020

The popularity of programming languages changes significantly every year. Some already existing languages find new ways to be applied while new programming languages with very attractive features are coming. Businesses choose which language to use depending on how much it can help to achieve their goals.

It has been estimated that, currently, there are between 500 and 5000 programming languages, which almost equals the number of languages spoken worldwide.

For many years, the top programming language was Java. Even though it’s still widely used, one can say that there are completely new trends in technology.

Some of the top programming languages that have the potential to rule the IT world in 2020 are JavaScript, PHP, Python, and GoLang.

JavaScript

For many years, JavaScript remains one of the most commonly used languages for programming. According to the Stack Overflow survey, 67.8% of all developers used JavaScript in 2019. It’s mainly used in front-end development, which makes it possible to create highly interactive web pages. The active use of JavaScript is strongly associated with the thriving game industry nowadays.

PHP

PHP is a preferred language among website developers, especially beginners. Although nowadays, PHP is outranked by JavaScript and GoLang, it is still among the trending web development technologies for 2020. In fact, approximately 70% of modern websites have been written with this language. It seems that it will remain on the top positions in 2020 because of its large ecosystem, ease of use, and huge developers’ community.

Python

The popularity of the Python programming (development) language is related to its wide range of applications: with Python, you can create mobile and web applications, medical tools, and network servers. What is more, Python is often used for AI development. Throughout 2019, the popularity of Python rose from 5% to 10% and it seems that its rise will continue. Experts say that Python has become so commonly used because its entrance barriers have been lowered significantly.

GoLang

GoLang is one of the newest programming languages; although Google introduced it back in 2009, it was a household name throughout 2019. Its main feature is an active support of multithreading, thus, it is a perfect option for those companies that rely heavily on distributed systems. One of the reasons why this language has been so popular recently is that it has a very small syntax and is easy to learn. GoLang also is a lightweight language, which allows you to develop applications that do not take up much memory.

Conclusion

Since digital presence is vital for businesses today, being aware of the latest software development trends is a must for clients as well as software development providers. Cybersecurity, artificial intelligence, blockchain, cloud computing, and the Internet of things are those trends that will dominate in, at least, 2020.

These technologies have already entered various spheres of economy. For instance, the IoT is now actively used by governments and environmental services to track the consequences of global warming. If you want to move with the times and remain competitive in your field, you should know what is trending and how to use it for your benefit.

Do's and Don'ts in Developing a Marketing Strategy

Romana Kuts — Tue, 26 May 2020 08:27:05 +0000

If you own a business, you’ve probably heard about a marketing strategy many times. Apparently, you may have a general understanding of what is a marketing strategy and why it is important for your business growth. However, not all entrepreneurs know what they should and should not do while developing a marketing strategy. So, how to develop marketing from scratch that will work the best for your business?

Developing Marketing Strategy: Do’s

You have to understand that, in the modern world, digital marketing is much more preferable than the traditional one. However, it may depend on the customers’ needs and their pains because, sometimes, customers make purchases impulsively. It’s quite obvious as most modern audiences spend a great deal of their time on the Internet. That’s why, nowadays, digital marketing is a real solution for big and small businesses. Here are the steps that you should take to develop a digital marketing strategy.

Step 1. Create your customer’s persona

In order to build a good working marketing strategy that will attract potential customers to your product, you have to create your customer’s persona. It means that you should know your audience’s needs, preferences, and pains. Your buyer persona should be specific; that is, you should outline as many specific features of your potential buyers as possible. Your buyers’ personae should be based on research using tools such as Google Analytics or Facebook’s Audience Insights. However, it would be even better if you contact your target audience directly and ask them as many questions as possible. Make sure that you have your own map of empathy for your customers. That is, you know what they know, how they feel, what are their basic requirements, and needs. All in all, a buyer persona is as important as business objectives when developing a marketing strategy.

Step 2. Decide on positioning

Positioning refers to your ability to influence customers’ perception of your product or service. The basic goal of a positioning strategy is to build a solid image of your brand in customers’ minds. A positioning strategy may focus on different aspects of your services such as cost, quality, flexibility, speed, etc.

You should have a clear plan of how to show your product to potential customers, and emphasize your advantages as compared to your competitors.

Step 3. Determine what you want to accomplish

The third step in developing a marketing strategy is figuring out what you want your marketing campaigns to achieve. In fact, there are multiple aims for a marketing campaign. For instance, you may want to build a brand name, to get more sales, or to generate leads. Meanwhile, you have to realize that your goals should be high but achievable.

Step 4. Understand the market funnel

As soon as you’ve figured out the end goals of your marketing strategy, you have to grasp the concept of digital marketing funnel. This concept includes the stages through which customers go before making a decision to purchase a product. Digital marketing funnel includes:

discovery: people learn about your product;
research and consideration during which your potential customers want to learn more about your products, proactively search for reviews and other information, compare your product with competitors’ ones;
Purchase;
Customers’ return, and loyal customers.

Step 5. Choose tactics, tools, and channels for promotion strategy

Once you know exactly your audience, how you want your audience to react on your product, and how you want to position it, you may start using specific tactics that will help you reach your end goals. There are multiple channels, which you can use to implement your promotion strategy. Apart from widely used social media, you can use partnership opportunities or referral platforms for advertising.

What you shouldn’t do while developing a marketing strategy?

There are several mistakes startups usually make, that are crucial for their marketing strategy. Once you’ve done all do’s, don’t forget to check your strategy for don’ts. They may dramatically affect all the efforts for the perfect strategy.

1. Do not start until you have explored your audience

Prior to starting your marketing campaign, you should know who is your target audience. Being specific about your target market and target audience gives you an opportunity to send the right messages to the right people. For instance, if you are a software development provider, you have to know what are your potential customers’ needs (ex. To get high-quality products at a minimum cost). Only then, you can start building your message.

2. Do not spend much cost at the beginning of your marketing strategy

One of the biggest mistakes of many service providers spending too much costs at the beginning of one’s marketing campaign. Developing a content marketing strategy is a long and complicated process. There are high chances that you will try out several marketing strategies before you actually know what works the best.

3. Do not post too many articles at once

Of course, you have to always post fresh content; however, too many articles at once will play a low-down trick with you. It would be much better for you to post several articles during a couple of weeks so that you have enough time to promote them on social media.

4. Do not put too much effort into blogging

Indeed, blogging may be an effective marketing tool, you need to provide various types of content to your audience. You can include infographics, social media posts, create podcasts or YouTube videos, and much more.

5. Do not focus too much on selling

While the end goal of your marketing campaign is to sell your product, emphasize in your content marketing what benefits your potential customers will have from your product.

Conclusion

A marketing strategy is one of the key elements of your business success. A good working marketing strategy is what will help you to raise your brand awareness.

Having your customer’s persona, a positioning strategy, and an effective marketing strategy will significantly increase your company’s chances for success!

Mobile Development Strategy Checklist

Romana Kuts — Mon, 18 May 2020 12:49:38 +0000

The term ‘mobile development strategy’ relates to how you align the development of your software to your business needs.

In other words, an effective mobile development strategy is what aligns the latest mobile technologies, your business goals with customers needs so that they have the best experience.

Remember, mobile development isn’t just about creating mobile applications for smartphones, it’s about doing any type of development for any type of mobile device. At the same time, mobile development strategy implies not only app development but also the responsiveness of web platforms on mobile devices.

Nowadays, more and more people tend to use mobile phones instead of computers. This is why it is highly important for any business to switch to mobile development.

As a matter of fact, according to LaptopDiscovery, in November 2019, the mobile market share was 52.03% whereas the desktop market share was 45.17%.

It means that more and more people now prefer using their smartphones for communication, shopping, watching videos, etc. instead of using laptops. Therefore, if you want your business to stay alive, you need to make it present in the mobile industry.

So, now, let’s consider how to plan your mobile app development strategy:

Step 1. Outline the company’s overall strategy

Identify your company’s mission, vision, goals, and targets. It will help you to understand how your app will meet your customers’ and company’s needs.

Step 2. Identify your target users

Developing a business plan for mobile app also requires a thorough analysis of your target customers. This analysis should be based on their age, gender, preferences, needs, and pains. For instance, if you want to launch an app for learning new languages, your audience will consist primarily of young people motivated to learn new foreign languages.

Step 3. Analyze your competitors

One of the most important elements in the app development business plan is an effective competitor analysis. Due to the fact that app stores are crowded by numerous applications of similar types. By analyzing the apps that have the same purpose as yours, you will know what are their strong and weak sides.

Step 4. Decide on a type of app you want to create

Choosing the type of app you need is one of the most significant stages of app development. Keep in mind that native apps support only one platform while hybrid apps can work on several platforms but with limitations on the functional side.

Step 5. Decide on development methodology

You can choose between two methodologies: Agile and Waterfall. If you stick to the Waterfall methodology, you decide on the parameters of app development at the very beginning and develop the app step by step, but it’ll take longer until you’ll see the first prototype of the working app. With Agile methodologies, you can develop several sections of an app simultaneously and introduce changes at any stage of the development process.

Step 6. Create an effective marketing strategy

The last, but not least, point in mobile strategy is marketing. If you want to make your app visible, think about the platforms that you want to target, and how you will measure the convergence. For instance, in the case of app development, your tools will include the number of downloads, sales, app analytics, etc.

There are a lot of tools that will help you to promote your app. One of them is app store search optimization, which makes your app visible to the users. With the same aim, you can use search ads in app stores. You can also use such a tool as AppMachine, which will help you to advertise your app among your clients. Finally, one of the most effective and powerful tools is social media advertising (Instagram, Facebook, TikTok etc.).

Without an effective and thought-out mobile development strategy, it would be impossible for your business to become visible online. Thus, before you decide to create an app for your business, elaborate a step by step strategy that will make the process planned.