Nowadays, technology is advanced and upgraded. For that packaging system has been changed a lot. Due to advanced packaging technologies, modern methods can decrease the amount of waste. The modern techniques focus on the maximum resources and concentrate on waste management. In this way, modern packaging can also save a lot of money. Awareness of the customer is also playing a valuable role in the emergence of the modern packaging system. The modern method of packaging is very much sustainable. These packagings use eco-friendly materials.

Packaging and its relevance:

The packaging is very much essential to protect products that are distributed in the market for sell. There are so many varieties of packaging such as boxes, cans, bottles, bags, envelopes and wrappers as well. Above all, the packaging is one of the main factors for selling. Many companies choose different types of packaging to sell their products through better packaging and designing. We all know that attractive packaging not only grabs the attention of the customers but also ensure the protection of the item and its longevity as well.

So, the modern methods of packaging are very much valuable and it also allows to prevent wastage. The modern packaging system can prevent foods from spoiling and getting damaged before reaching its final destination. So, increased method of packaging can save a lot of money and time as well. It also protects the products and foods.

Some modern and advanced packaging technologies:

Here are some modern packaging systems that can save a lot of money and also eco-friendly. These advanced systems are such as follows:

Refill system:

It is one of the modern forms of packaging. It reduces waste and follows waste management as well. In this system, the manufacturer reuses the packaging materials. So, it allows for less waste production. The wastage is being dumped into the land after production. This particular form of packaging is very much popular and well-known in Germany and other countries. In these countries, beer, milk and detergent are being refilled into the old packaging system. This type of packaging is environment-friendly and cost-effective as well. It offers so many environmental benefits. Nowadays, many companies produce refilled water bottles instead of small water bottles. Many people argue that refilled items are expensive. But if you are looking at the advantages then, you can notice that refillable items are considered as more favoured and beneficial as well.

Flat packaging:

It is another beneficial packaging systems to cut down the wastage. Apart from this, it also reduces the larger and bigger packaging materials. It is also a new concept of packaging. This packaging system is introduced commercially by IKEA. This packaging uses the form or method of packaging that are fabricated in the flat portions. This packaging system can be designed quickly and assembled easily as well. The main advantage of this packaging system is its flatness. This type of packaging is space-efficient and also needs less material. So, it requires less money to produce this particular type of packaging. The storage and shipping charges are comparatively low in this packaging system. For furniture packaging, this package system works better. It is also useful for packaging wares, gadgets, toys and all.

Bulk packaging:

This particular packaging system is also one of the best packaging systems to reduce waste. In this packaging system, the manufacturers do not use small, fancy and also unnecessary items and materials. Apart from this, the bulk package system offers and allows materials to be used on other occasions. Therefore, it is one fo the reasonable methods of packaging.

In the bulk packaging, there are two different packaging methods such as flexible and rigid packaging. Flexible packaging can offer so many flexibilities and benefits than rigid packaging.

Active packaging:

This type of packaging can enhance the lifetime of the product. It also protects the products from damage. The active packaging helps to keep the food intact and extending the shelf-life of the product. The active packaging systems are such as follows:

  • Oxygen scavenger
  • Carbon dioxide scavenger
  • Ethylene scavenger
  • Preservative releasers
  • Moisture absorbers
  • Odour absorbers

Intelligent packaging:

Intelligent packaging is for protecting the food items. It also controls the quality of packed foods. This type of packaging follows these things:

  • Time and temperature indicator
  • Indicator of freshness
  • Pathogen indicators

These all are different advanced packaging technologies. Apart from this, modern packaging offers a simplified design. The biggest shift is to transform into simplified and minimal design. In the simplified designs, the packaging needs bold colours and clean labelling as well. The using of bold colours are very much popular and common in children’s items. Using the same colour pallets also help to identify different products of the same brand. It also helps to make the brand attractive and noticeable.

Cleaners labelling is one of the necessary and convenient matters of advanced packaging. It makes consumers more aware of what they are buying. Clean labelling is used for brand transparency. The user will appreciate this a lot. The clean labelling elaborates on what the product offers.

The modern packaging follows less packaging as the excess packaging can be quite frustrating and it creates a lot of waste. For example, the box of a toothpaste tube has no purpose. It comes to give a better look at the product.

Many companies now switch over recycled paper packaging. It has much less carbon footprint. Many companies and brands use the refill packages instead of bottles and containers. These types of refill packages or pouches contain less plastic than bottles. These pouches also take less space. The packaging is a part of the product and its marketing. For safe storage, proper packaging is important and needed. The reusable packaging system enhances and ensures the safety of the product. Pharmaceutical and food products use smart and advanced packaging method. The smart and advanced packaging system follows the low cost. It is also a smart way to cut down the material cost and manage wastages. These types of advanced packagings … Read the rest

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Corrective Action Software, also known as corrective and preventive action (CAPA) software, is designed to recognize, remove, and lower the odds of recurring adverse events. Adverse events have numerous causes: a manufacturing floor incident, an annual audit, or a customer complaint. Many situations such as these may initiate the corrective action process. Using a modern CAPA system provides companies with several benefits to their processes and error-rates.

Corrective Action Software Benefits

1. CAPA and Continuous Improvement

CAPA is a key element of the continuous improvement process. This process is a vital part of the Quality Management System (QMS), which is designed to consistent meet client requirements and improve their satisfaction with services rendered. Quality Assurance (QA) specialists are tasked with using corrective action software to address adverse events. Some specialists are instructed to take preventative measures to solve problems even before they start. With the continuous improvement process, a company collects quality-related data from all parts of the production and distribution cycles. This feedback from all services related to business operations provides the best chance for CAPA software to address as many discrepancies and adverse events as possible.

2. Selecting Workflow for Corrective Actions

An efficient CAPA software solution relies on the proper workflow type. Workflow is a system designed to keep business operations running smoothly and on schedule. Some businesses work best when their corrective action process is synced with a single workflow. Others use numerous workflow types and integrate them with different corrective action types. Many CAPA software solutions provide companies with the resources to switch between workflows depending on the events being assessed and handled. These systems can create different workflow solutions for safety events, manufacturing malfunctions, external audits, or customer complaints. This means that this software offers the type of flexibility to route workflow processes in the most optimized way available for each situation.

3. CAPA and Lower Cost of Quality

Measuring and handling quality costs can be a difficult and costly process. Manufacturing and other processes often have many complexities which drive up the costs of ensuring all services, equipment, processes and products pass quality control software checks. A highly-functioning CAPA system can greatly benefit an organization that wants to bring order to the data chaos impacting its operations. Efficient data management processes to precisely identify quality concerns very quickly in all phases of the production process. This is important because cost of quality increases significantly when errors or defects are identified when the product is close to reaching or has reached the customer, such as in global recalls.

4. Corrective Actions Integrated with Adverse Event Data

Entering the same data multiple time wastes work-hours, energy, and software resources that could be diverted elsewhere. CAPA software solutions allow organizations to integrate adverse events with their corresponding corrective actions whenever this is feasible. When associates enter adverse event data, the CAPA system can automatically incorporate information and highlight the most relevant corrective action forms to document and correct the original issue. This process creates a data history that analysts can trace and use in their periodic and auditing reports. Not only does this method save organizations time and resources, it also improves data visibility when it comes time to assess and report on past operational performance.

Image of Qualitech Logo

 

 

 

5. Conducting Investigations and Pre-Corrective Actions

Corrective action software solutions are great for ensuring consistent quality work and products, but not every problem necessarily requires such a corrective measure. Some organizations unintentionally create far too many corrective actions, which can severely limit business processes that may work better with more fluid business decisions. Corrective actions are best used to overcome system problems that are created by a significant adverse event. They should not be used to address minor discrepancies. As most events fall into the category of “minor discrepancy,” they should be immediately addressed and closed. A Corrective Action Determination or Corrective Action Investigation Record can be a very useful tool. These tools allow organizations to conduct “pre-corrective action” determinations to decide if problems should be immediately addressed or if more in-depth investigations should be initiated. Using the Corrective Action Determination process minimizes the amount of corrective actions flooding the CAPA system and saves employees valuable time in creating unnecessary corrective action forms.

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In this journal entry we’ll be looking at the reasons for using a professional web designer. We’ll also look at the process of design, the benefits of using a web designer and how designers compare to website developers.

What Does a Web Designer Do?

A Web Designer’s goal is to create a website that looks and feels like the brand. In other words, a web designer gives your brand an online presence. To achieve this, the web designer follows a planned process of steps in order to arrive at the best results.

The Strategy Meeting

Web designers work with the client to understand their wants and needs for their website. This is typically known as the ‘strategy of the process’. From this, the Web Designer will have an understanding of what the client wants to show and will formulate how they can demonstrate this through the website.

Building a Wire Frame

Once a Web Designer knows what you want and how you want it, they’ll then develop a wireframe of the site. This is essentially an outline of the site to help demonstrate where text or images could go, as well as establishing a basic layout.

Presenting the Design

The strategy is complete, and the wireframe is created; what’s next? Next, is the process of designing the website. The design takes inspiration from the strategy meeting, where what is wanted and needed on the website is discussed and defined. As well as your own branding, understanding your brand is very important and crucial to the site’s success.

Why Use A Professional Web Designer?

There are plenty of reasons to use a web designer and plenty of reasons to give it a go yourself. However, hiring a professional website designer gives you access to more experience, expertise and ongoing training around how to design a website. For example:

Web Design UX

UX (user experience) is something that high level web designers should implement into their design. Website Designers, particularly in Fellow’s case, have a high level of understanding when it comes to user experience. This level of understanding is crucial when making the website user-friendly, fast and reactive.

Strategic Design Process

As well as making the website user friendly for users of the site, designers will also add a strategy behind the project. Instead of just making websites look good, each page will have a different purpose and goal behind it. Moving away from a ‘one-size fits all’ approach typically found on websites such as Wix and Square space, and makes it professional and sharp.

Taking Responsiveness into Account

The responsiveness of a website is crucial to the success of any website in the current digital climate we live in. Most pre-built designs do offer responsiveness, however, custom built designs can adapt branding and story-telling for every device.

Time Saving

As well as all the benefits of a more responsive and meaningful site, it also saves you a lot of time. Designing a site isn’t easy or fast and without experience this difficulty and the associated time factor can rise exponentially.

A Better Looking Website

Overall, hiring a professional web designer can result in a better looking website. Designers are designers because they know what users want to see and how they want to interact with them. And moreover, they know how to achieve this. This comes with time and education, something that can’t be generated off the cuff.

Website Design and Build

Many web designers will work with website developers. This means they can offer a full package website design option. Some companies are only able to offer either design or development, so it’s important to understand what this means when hiring.

The difference Between Website Design and Web Development

A common question asked by clients is what is the difference between a web designer and a website developer? It has a pretty simple answer, web designers create the look of the website whereas website developers build the actual website.

Website Design

As we mentioned earlier in the journal entry, website design is all about the look of the website. A website designer will design the wireframes, understand the brand and create the overall look of the website. They will also use their understanding of UX to make the website easier to use, thus helping to increase conversions. Find out more about our professional web design services here.

Website Developer

A website developer will work with the designer in order to make their designs fit onto the website. A good developer should be able to build an almost 1 to 1 recreation of the designed site. However, it’s important to work with designers who understand website development, as there are some big no-nos when it comes to design and actually building.

What Should You Look for in a Website Designer?

The whole point of a website designer is to understand your brand and your business and implement this into a website. Here are some areas to look out for:

They take an interest in your brand

The designer needs to understand your brand in a lot of detail to represent it. With some sites reaching 1,000s of visitors everyday this can be crucial when building your brands reputation..

Experience in Website Design

This might sound pretty obvious; however, it is important to check and make sure they do. Some designers and companies out there think it’s the same process as designing a brochure, which it is not. Whilst some print designers can transfer their skills into website design, and vice versa, this is not always the case.

Do they work with a website developer?

You need to understand whether they already have a developer as this can create a much smoother website creation process. If not, do they know anyone who can develop their designs.

Rounding Up: Why Use a Professional Web Designer?

A website designer brings a range of benefits, including experience, education and developers. Designers help give you more time and create, in general, a better and faster … Read the rest

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If you are a business owner, your website is absolutely one of the most important tools you have in your arsenal to get more – and better – clients and customers. So what separates a good website from a bad website, or a good one from a great one? Here are 10 qualities that a great website will need.

1  Navigation

The website design should be easy to navigate and the menu items should easily accessible from any page. The viewer should always know exactly where they are on the website and have easy access to where they would like to be. A site map is a great idea and will be used if available. This sounds elementary but most websites could be improved in this area. Remember, there is a fine line between an interactive menu and an annoying one, so functionality should be the idea.

2 Visual Design

People are visually oriented creatures, and utilizing great graphics is a good way to make your website more appealing. Your website has about 1/10th of a second to impress your visitor – and potential customer – and let them know that your website – and business (by proxy) – is trustworthy and professional. However, it’s important not to go overboard with too much. Scrolling text, animation, and flash intros should be used sparingly in your web design and only to emphasize a point for maximum effect.

3 Content

This is the backbone of your website. Not only does your content play a major role in your search engine placement, it is the reason most visitors are seeking from your website in the first place. Your website text should be informative, easy to read, and concise. Well thought out web content and copy will do more than anything else to make your website design engaging, effective and popular.

4 Web Friendly

No matter how informative, beautiful, and easy to use your website design is, it’s useless unless it’s web-friendly. It is important that your web designers know the keys to making your website work on all the major browsers, and that they utilize meta tags, alt tags, are fully versed in SEO (Search Engine Optimization). Many factors effect your search engine placement and visual appearance of your site, so make sure your web designers know their stuff.

5 Interaction

A truly effective website design engages your visitors immediately and continues to hold their attention through EVERY page, as well as influences them to contact you. This is called ‘conversion’, and is probably your website’s ultimate goal. Again, there is a fine line between ʻinteractionʼ and ʻannoyanceʼ, so the level of interac- tion should never outweigh the benefit.

6 Information Accessibility

Not all visitors to your website are interested in, or have the time to peruse the entire site. They may need to access only a phone number or address, or just a certain bit of info. For this reason itʼs important to place key information in plain site, in an area thatʼs easily accessible. Weʼve all had the experience of not being able to locate some needed information on a website, and the result is always a frustrated visitor. The experience is annoying at best, and a disgruntled visitor wonʼt stay on your site very long and is unlikely not to return, much less do business with you.

7 Intuitiveness

A great website anticipates what your visitor is thinking and caters directly to their needs, and has elements arranged in a way that makes sense. If a visitor is searching for one of your products or services on a search engine or directory where your site is listed, it’s important that your website have a landing page that is directly relevant to what they searched for rather than forcing them to filter through all of your information. Remember, the shortest distance between two points is a straight line.

8 Branding

Your website should be a direct reflection of your business and your brand. Your visitor should immediately make a visual connection between your logo, print material, and brick-and-mortar location. A website that does this not only contributes to the memorability of your branding, but adds a level of credibility and enhanced image of that of your overall business.

9 Turnaround Time

The number one complaint of website design customers is the time it takes to get the site up and running. Unfortunately, a firm that takes unusually long to complete your website is par for the course. The longer it takes to complete the website, the more business – and value – you lose. A website that isnʼt on the web isnʼt and working properly isn’t going to bring you any business!

10 Conversion

Your website can be the most important client generator your business can have, and must place the primary emphasis on bringing in new clients and making additional services available to existing clients through increased awareness of all the services you offer. Providing them with the tools they need to do business with you in an easy and enjoyable way will increase your website conversion and bring you the kind of success you seek.

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What is Software Maintenance?

Before discussing the importance of software maintenance and why it is essential for your business, let’s briefly understand what it is.

Software maintenance refers to modifying, updating, and managing software after its release. It involves various activities to ensure the software system’s continued functionality, reliability, and usability throughout its lifecycle. In other words, the secret sauce keeps your software thriving and evolving in the ever-changing digital landscape.

Software maintenance can essentially be categorized into four areas:

  • Corrective Maintenance: It aims to resolve issues that affect the software’s performance, stability, or security.
  • Adaptive Maintenance: It involves modifying the software to accommodate hardware, operating systems, or third-party dependencies changes.
  • Perfective Maintenance: This includes adding new features, optimizing code, improving user interfaces, or enhancing system performance.
  • Preventive Maintenance: By conducting preventive maintenance, software developers can reduce the likelihood of future problems and ensure the software remains robust and secure.

Why is Software Maintenance Important for Your Business?

Software Maintenance is a long-term process that may run for 15-20 years.

Hence, understanding the benefits and necessity of investing in software maintenance.

Top Benefits of Software Maintenance:

  • Bug fixing and issue resolution

Software maintenance entails tackling bugs, errors, and defects that crop up as time goes on. These issues can lead to unexpected behavior, crashes, and security vulnerabilities. By actively engaging in software maintenance, developers can swiftly address these concerns, resulting in improved stability and usability of the software. It’s a proactive approach to ensure your software stays in top-notch shape. 

  • Performance optimization

Through software maintenance, you can fine-tune your software and boost its performance. This involves optimizing code, database queries, and algorithms and fixing memory leaks and other performance bottlenecks. By enhancing the efficiency of your software, you can provide users with a seamless and responsive experience, ensuring their satisfaction and engagement.

  • Security updates

In the ever-changing landscape of cyber threats, software vulnerabilities can be an open invitation to malicious actors. That’s where regular maintenance acts as a shield to protect your software from their prying eyes. You can stay one step ahead of the game by diligently applying security patches, updating libraries, and implementing robust security measures. Neglecting maintenance, on the other hand, leaves your software vulnerable to security breaches, data leaks, and other alarming security incidents.

  • Compatibility and interoperability

As technology advances, operating systems, browsers, and hardware platforms change. Software maintenance ensures that the software keeps up with time and remains compatible with new environments, devices, and versions of dependencies. With maintenance in place, users can enjoy uninterrupted software usage without compatibility issues holding them back when they upgrade their systems or embrace new hardware releases.

  • Adaptation to evolving user requirements

Software maintenance allows developers to connect with the users, gather feedback and analyze user behavior. Armed with these insights, the developers stay equipped to incorporate new features or enhancements to meet changing requirements, which fuels user satisfaction and long-term success.

  • Regulatory compliance

Software maintenance becomes a crucial ally in ensuring compliance in the ever-changing landscape of regulations and industry standards. Maintenance keeps your software on the right side of the law by actively addressing compliance-related issues and adapting to evolving regulations. Neglecting compliance maintenance can lead to detrimental legal and financial ramifications.

  • Extending the software’s lifespan

Embracing software maintenance breathes new life into your software, ensuring its relevance and value withstand the test of time. Regular updates and improvements allow your software to embrace new technologies and gracefully cater to evolving user needs. This sustains its usefulness and keeps it ahead in the competitive market.

  • Cost-effectiveness

Embracing software maintenance services ensures the smooth functioning of your software and proves to be a cost-effective choice. By addressing issues proactively through regular maintenance, you prevent major problems that can be far more expensive to fix. Timely bug fixes, performance optimizations, and security updates shield against extensive damage and minimize downtime, ultimately saving you valuable resources.

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Your website is the representation of the products or services that you offer. It’s the place where most people will interact with your business. It only makes sense if you come forward, interact with your audience, and satisfy their needs.

Even if you do offline marketing or activity, it will most likely send users to your website. Whether it’s about purchasing the product or leveraging services to make bookings or getting contact details.

When it comes to web designing, it consists of a multitude of variables like layout, content, graphics, search engine optimization, and conversion rate optimization. While web design is a significant and essential part of your promotional efforts, many businesses forget that it’s just one part of an overall digital marketing plan and should be consistent in look, feel, and purpose with your other marketing efforts such as PPC – Pay Per Click advertising.

Your website is a great marketing tool that offers several benefits.

In this digital era, many businesses and brands have realized the importance of digital marketing and have started redesigning their websites as well. But let me be honest, this will not boost your rankings in search results, but it will surely decrease the bounce rates (the metrics that show how many users leave the website within seconds without any interaction).

Previously, the websites were designed to fulfill only one or two aspects of digital marketing needs. However, digital marketing services have made people aware of the modifications for the necessary things on websites. As the best digital marketing company, we know how to use web design as an effective digital marketing strategy.

Impact of Web Design on Digital Marketing Strategy

important of web design on digital marketing

A well-designed and well-maintained website acts as the heart of your business operations and marketing efforts. After going through several factors of the digital marketing plan, your website can help you meet all of those marketing and business goals efficiently.

Search Engine Optimization

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is the biggest reason for a website redesign. However, many people think that website design elements don’t uphold all the ranking factors that contribute to better rankings. Whenever there’s a major update from Google, its impact affects rankings. People tend to redesign their websites.

To understand the bridge between web design and marketing, have a look at duplicate content. The digital marketing strategy is aligned with Google’s algorithm. Whenever you develop a website or write content for that, ensure that your content is not duplicated. Because Google hates duplicate content and penalizes the website for that.

This type of content duplication will be found in e-commerce website design where the products with similar content descriptions with minor differences in specifications are displayed on the same page. This appears duplicated in the eyes of Google or any search engine. You can avoid this content duplication by having separate pages for each product with a similar description which eliminates the doubts about duplicate content.

If we look at the back-end design of a website, we generally don’t add the Meta description, Alt tags, and the like. These are the elements of SEO; therefore, it’s necessary to incorporate them within your design.

Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO)

Web design leaves an impact on conversion. A better design can lead to better optimization of the conversion rate. The look of the website represents how reliable your website might be, and this relates to its authority. That’s why two areas should be considered – authority and simplicity.

Now, the design should be kept simple but with high functionality. It’s not easy to accomplish the task, but if you make the design complex for achieving high functionality, it will slow down the website speed, and if you keep it too simple; users will not find it interesting, and eventually, you will end up losing customers.

You must maintain the balance between simplicity and functionality. So, none of the elements remain affected. If you are considering the conversion rate of your website, you need to ensure your design is simple enough to satisfy UX but complex enough to satisfy CRO.

 

User Experience (UX)

Whenever you plan to design a website and brand image, always keep users in mind. Make sure your website is user-friendly; otherwise, you will not gain traffic.

As we know, the design of the website has a huge impact on the UX for your visitors. Whenever you design a website, make sure users find it easy to navigate and click all links on your website, and ensure the website loading speed is fast. The website should be displayed properly even if it’s opened on the web browser.

If your website consists of large images, then it will slow down your website. Thus, it will create a negative impact on UX.

Analytics

importance of website analysis

With a website, you constantly need to review it. There is no such thing as a perfect website. It will need to constantly adapt, change, and be optimized to perform how you want it to.

It’s important to ensure that your website is set up in such a way that you can effectively collect the data you require. With the potential of Google Analytics, a website designed with such an infrastructure can effectively record the necessary information. However, it does require customization to your tracking and some advanced techniques to ensure you are able to achieve the measurement you desire.

With analytics, you can easily measure the success of your new website and digital marketing strategy as a whole.

Branding

It hardly takes a few seconds to spot the bad website. Users will not tell you the technical faults or drawbacks, but they can judge you on the basis of web design. If they get any negative feelings about your website, it will affect your branding hopes.

This is why the website must evoke positive vibes among visitors who consider the website as a trusted source of information that adds value to your branding initiatives.

Whenever users land on your website, they will develop a perception of your brand … Read the rest

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You may ask yourself why seek help updating your current company website? Yes, your current company website looks outdated compared to the competition but does a credible, compelling website design really matter? Reluctantly, you seek out a design firm to give your firm’s website a facelift, but you are not completely convinced that a new design will generate new business. Despite your skepticism, a plethora of studies show a well-built website will generate better customer traffic and an improved user interface will increase conversion – generating new business at an exponential rate. But how? How can something as superficial as your company’s website design impact the success of a business? There are many reasons why a well designed website will attract your ideal customer and prompt dialogue with your firm. The following highlight the five key components that a web designer should keep in mind when designing a website:

Navigation
Possibly the most important part of a website is the navigation. The navigation of a website can make or break a site, which is especially true for robust websites with many pages. Website navigation typically includes a navigation bar or list of labels that differentiate the pages of the website. Good navigation should be easy to find and comprehend – making for quick and easy travel throughout the entire website. When designing navigation, web designers sometimes get carried away with designs and fancy typefaces. In most cases, over-simplified navigation maximizes ease of use for a wider range of customers. A good tip is that your firm’s website navigation should be so intuitive even your grandmother can understand it.

Brand Consistency
If your company has a logo and that logo is utilized frequently in print materials (i.e. business cards, pamphlets, letterheads, etc.), then the logo, logo/brand colors, brand messaging and imagery used for print must be carried over into the website design. It is important for your customers to be able to recognize your brand in all forms of communication so they associate your brand position and promise with your business. Often when the visual communication changes with a brand, it can cause customers to feel uncomfortable, which can cause them to create a negative association with your company.

Reading Patterns and SEO
Most people are comfortable reading a web page the same way they read a book, from top to bottom, left to right. Web designers also take this into account when designing for a website. Many designers make sure to place the most important information on the upper left hand column. This will help get the message across more effectively for website visitors who could be current or potential customers. But what many people do not know is that placing important information in these areas of a website also improves search engine optimization (SEO). When you include important company-related keywords into the html-based text, search engines such as Google and Bing are able to crawl your website easily, increasing your search engine placement and giving your website and firm more overall visibility.

Content
The content of your site is important for reasons besides the fact that it literally communicates your company’s brand position and promise. There are other very important elements that are considered when a copywriter creates the content and the designer creates the complementary visual environment for the content. Making the message short and to the point, yet warm and welcoming (depending on the industry) helps the reader to remember the message easier. Also, when there is too much text on a page, the page becomes visually cluttered making it more difficult for a reader to physically read the page, let alone remain interested in reading the page. By streamlining the content, the designer is then able to insert the text into their design, which typically includes plenty of negative space. This empty space lets the reader’s eyes rest so they do not tire of reading.

Trust
Building trust among your customers is extremely important, but will not happen unless you really get to know them and what they value. Marketing tactics can act as a dialogue with potential customers, which will be a great way to discover more about your clientele’s needs. By strengthening dialogue with customers, you can implement what positively resonates with them in your new design. By making your website look more welcoming and trustworthy to visitors, you will see the traffic to your website increase, and an improvement in new business leads through website conversion.

Website design is a great way to create a user-friendly environment where people come for helpful tips and best practices. If a website is designed and managed properly, customers will continuously return to your site and do business with your company.

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Do you want to create a business for 21st century people?

Well, you got to do it the 21st century way, through smart technology and solutions.

To stay at the top of the market, you need solutions that are specially created for your business. The software solutions that are tailored to improve your business processes, manage data efficiently and empower you to make data-driven strategic business decisions.

So, if you feel your business is getting outdated and your processes are getting monotonous, you need to invest in software now.

Let’s further understand in detail the importance of software in business.

What is a Software Solution?

A software solution refers to a program that helps businesses or individuals automate time consuming and recurring tasks. Often, a software solution is designed to streamline business functions such as accounting, human resources, marketing, managing customer relations, and more.

No matter if you are a startup, a business enterprise, or a remote team of freelancers, your business needs software.

Investing in a software empowers businesses to bring automation and efficiency in their processes. Different types of software solutions also help businesses to deliver better customer service, get ahead of the competition, indulge in strategic planning, and scale their business to new opportunities.

Let’s understand the importance of software and why you should invest in software in detail.

  • Automate Routine Tasks

Automate Routine Tasks

Without software, your team is probably wasting their time and effort in completing repetitive tasks that can be managed easily with technology. Automation can save your resources, and you can delegate them to more meaningful and strategic tasks, which also contribute to their personal growth.

Examples of Task Automation with Software

Without software, your HR team is spending a lot of time manually calculating the payroll of each employee. This includes complex calculations of bonuses, making PF and tax deductions, cross-checking their working and absent days, etc. When done manually, this may lead to a lot of calculation errors.

But if all this is done with HR payroll management software, all these calculations will be automated and will be done absolutely without any errors.

  • Deliver Better Customer Service

Customers want the best-in-class service and they just hate to wait for it. But your employees cannot be available all the time, especially when your organization operates in different time zones. So, here messaging or auto-respondent software can make it easy for you to be available and respond to your customers, even when you are not available. You can assure your customers that their query has been considered, and you will get back to them.

  • Get an Edge Over Your Competitors

One of the main advantages of software for small business is to gain efficiency and beat your competitors. Investing in an updated software solution will give you an edge over your competitors in terms of technology and processes. Then, if you offer better customer service, your chances of becoming a market leader in your domain are higher.

Example of Gaining Advantage Over Competitors through Software

Your sales team can use customer relationship management software to get a better understanding of their prospects and their buying behavior. This will help your sales reps to draft a personalized sales pitch or marketing campaign to convert prospects into a client. This is one of those benefits of business software that can take you ahead of your competitors and help acquire more customers in the market.

  • Gain Efficiency

By implementing software, you can speed up your business processes and make your teams more efficient and productive.

Example of Gaining Efficiency Using Software

While onboarding new employees in your organization, you can use HR software to intimate other departments such as IT and admin about the new hires. This will quickly initiate the process of setting up designated systems, and other things that the admin needs to issue. Moreover, it will save HR, IT, admin, and the new hires’ time, and they can immediately start their work as soon as they join the organization.

  • Expand and Scale Your Business

Expand and Scale Your Business

Software makes it easy for your business to scale and expand in terms of manpower as well as location. Investing software allows businesses to increase their bandwidth by adding more members, locations, roles, etc. This becomes more important, especially when businesses are moving towards cloud infrastructure, scaling in terms of storing and accessing data has become more convenient.

Example of Scaling Your Business Using Software

For example, if a food chain outlet is implementing restaurant management software, it should look for software that allows them to add more restaurant locations. The software should offer an overview of the combined sales, inventory, orders, etc., from all the locations of the food chain. This will help business owners to manage multiple locations efficiently and eventually expand to more.

  • Generate Reports for Business Strategic Planning

Remembering every tiny detail of your business, especially what happened a few years, months, or even days ago is not possible for anyone. But the software always remembers everything. Therefore, it can instantly generate reports on any given parameters, that can help you in making business strategic decisions based on facts and true numbers.

Example of Generating Reports Using Software

For example, if a CEO wants to know about the employee attrition rate in the organization, he/she/them does not need to personally check with all the managers how many employees have resigned from their team. Rather, the CEO can just use HR software to understand how many employees have left the organization in the past year, from which teams, and during what time of the year. The employee attrition rate will provide the correct numbers with precise detailing.

Conclusion

There is great importance of software for a business such as automation, gaining efficiency, expanding business, and more. A software ensures that there is optimum utilization of your resources while reducing your cost, time, and efforts. So, businesses must ensure to invest in a software that understands their needs, helps them to grow, and make strategic business decisions.

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Cloud-based solutions are rapidly growing. As the benefits of cloud computing keep emerging, more brands are turning to retail execution software for a variety of processes.

Point solutions have been popular for some time. However, as brands’ tech stacks grow increasingly larger, more field teams are experiencing the drawbacks of needing to juggle their work across multiple platforms. Because of this, all-in-one solutions are quickly proving to be the stronger option for teams that value agility and integration in their workflows.

The all-in-one model isn’t just a novelty. It offers several advantages over single-use solutions for all CPG brands. Here are six ways investing in this kind of retail execution software can improve your workflow and make you a better asset to your retail partners.

 

Accessibility

The things that will benefit you are often in line with what is best for your retail partners as well. The usability of an all-in-one platform is significantly higher than having reps bounce from one platform to another constantly throughout their day. In turn, brands that have better ease of use when it comes to their reporting platforms tend to have an easier time sharing those reports with their partners.

The prospect of having to train employees on multiple platforms can turn brands away from single-application models. Workers could easily mix up various applications, leading to errors. Even if these mistakes don’t impact a brand’s bottom line, they can harm the customer experience.

Any software slip-ups during the workday mean a higher potential for missed growth opportunities. If employees don’t have to stop and think about what app they’re using, however, it will create a smooth, professional experience. Since all-in-one solutions are more accessible, employees can get used to them faster. As a result, all-in-one solutions are a better business model for retail.

 

 

Cost Reduction

All-in-one solutions are also more affordable than their single-use counterparts. You may think that prices would end up being the same, since, in the end, you’d use the same amount of programs. While you may be able to find similarly-priced options for both approaches, all-in-one solutions provide several cost benefits.

All-in-one models offer increased productivity since users don’t have to switch back and forth between programs. This ease of use saves time, and time is money. Employees will be able to work faster, accomplishing the same work in a tighter schedule.

A centralized suite also means a simplified pricing model. Straightforward pricing is easier for your brand to understand what they’re paying in the end, vs. having to calculate the total cost of multiple applications with different pricing models or billing cycles.

Compatibility

One of the leading issues of single-use applications is that not all software integrates together. The various aspects of selling at retail are connected, so incompatible software doesn’t make sense in the retail world. All-in-one field execution software, on the other hand, ensures compatibility through all processes.

With this model, users can be sure all their functions work seamlessly together. Single-use solutions make you spend extra time finding integratible options. This process can limit your choices, and you may not be able to find complete compatibility at all.

With an all-in-one model, it’s also easier to introduce new services. If an advanced feature comes out for one of the applications, you don’t have to worry about the update causing compatibility problems. Since upgrades apply to the entire suite, they won’t harm one function in favor of another.

 

Security

Security is a priority for all cloud-based solutions. Any breaches in your field execution software’s security could mean field teams lose critical data or money. Thankfully, all-in-one solutions offer safety advantages for both you and your clients.

It could be challenging to find a security solution that works consistently across multiple apps. Security measures that work wonders on a point-of-sale program may not do the same for a separate scheduling tool. With an all-encompassing execution software solution, this wouldn’t be an issue.

This approach allows for consistent security measures across the entire suite. Finding and implementing an all-encompassing security solution will be a much more straightforward process.

 

Scalability

One of the most prominent benefits of cloud-based execution software is its scalability. If you plan on expanding your business, you’ll need a software solution that can also grow. All-in-one retail execution software offers greater scalability than other models.

With an all-encompassing solution, you don’t have to update each application individually. This quick scalability ensures consistent and timely performance upgrades, increasing productivity and profitability.

With all-in-one field execution software, you can scale it almost instantly, making it a more versatile solution for brands of all sizes.

 

Better Data Collection

Data collection is one of the pillars of modern business. To improve the usefulness of your analytics, you need to gather more and varied information, but this can come with a few challenges. With more data points, the process of gathering or organizing things can take longer.

All-in-one retail execution software offers both diversified data and a more straightforward way to gather it. This model encompasses more processes, giving you more information, but it also provides a single pipeline for it. Analysts could get robust stats from just one execution software solution.

Everyone can benefit from this streamlined but well-rounded data gathering solution. It offers helpful insights for brands, developers and researchers alike.

 

All-in-One vs. Single-Use Solutions

Single-use software is ideal for businesses that only need to solve one problem. However, brands very rarely have only one problem to solve, which is why they end up with so many solutions. Since brands need the functionality to solve multiple problems at once, the best way to meet this need is with all-in-one retail execution software.

This type of field execution software provides advantages not just to the reps using it, but to their managers, retail partners, and the entire brand as a whole. All-in-one triumphs over single-use solutions in nearly every category, so as time goes on, it’ll certainly become the norm.

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In a business of any size, certain types of software are needed in order for time-consuming tasks to be carried out automatically and without the involvement of a human operator. And by implementing effective pieces of software programmes that can carry out these tasks, employees can be freed up to switch their attention to other duties.

Whether it’s a platform designed for simplifying the process of managing an e-commerce website, storing large amounts of data, improving communication between employees, strengthening internet security or creating different types of documents, software solutions appear in many forms, all with the sole purpose of improving the efficiency of a business.

In this blog, we explain the importance of having software solutions tailored to your business and consider a number of ways that software development problems can be solved.

What are bespoke software solutions?

For many businesses, a software solution may be an off-the-shelf programme used to fix a simple problem and improve the speed or quality of a process. However, in some cases, an off-the-shelf solution may not meet the needs of a business. Instead, the business may require a solution that has been developed specifically for them.

Also known as custom or tailored software, bespoke software solutions are programmes that are created for a certain user or purpose. In a situation where a business would benefit from a programme that is designed to perform multiple tasks on command or automatically without manual human input, bespoke software solutions are likely to be the ideal option.

What are 5 common solutions to software development problems?

As software development can be a complex process, many different problems can arise. However, problems with software development are generally caused by one of several core factors. Below, we’ve highlighted five of the most common solutions to software development problems:

Clear communication – Although it has a relatively simple solution, many problems during a software development project arise when there’s an issue with communication between the client and the software developer. It could be that the client isn’t being clear on the software’s fundamental purpose or how they want it to look or work. But if these key details aren’t being properly communicated to the software developer, it’s likely that there will be significant problems with it, leading to money and time being wasted somewhere along the way.

Software developers should start a project by speaking with the client at length about exactly what they want. Then, during the process of creating the software, both parties should stay in regular contact to ensure that any and all questions are answered to prevent any unexpected problems from arising.

Maintain a grasp of initial purpose – It can be difficult to complete a software development project if its original purpose has become lost. In some cases, an extensive list of problems can lead to the software developer going off on unexpected tangents or the client seeing a new benefit to the software that is totally different to the original brief.

In order to stay focused on the task at hand and avoid unnecessary time and money being spent on additional problems, the software developer should remain in communication with the client. Between them, they should agree to deadlines and target dates for when certain parts of the software project will be completed.

Perform extensive testing – Whenever software is being created, frequent testing should be done to check that it’s working correctly. By doing this at regular intervals, the developer can check that nothing is causing any damage to the software, and if for any reason it shows any issues, they will know that it was more than likely caused by a change that was implemented since the previous check.

This approach would be advisable for any process involving software development, and it would also benefit a software consultant when finding a solution to a problem. Without an emphasis on testing, the consultant may fix the problem after implementing several changes, making it difficult to understand the correct solution.

Set realistic deadlines – During any software development project, it’s likely that a deadline of when it will be completed and ready to go live will be decided. Unrealistic, premature deadlines can cause major issues further down the line, causing developers to rush through the process of creating the software. When this happens, some areas of the software may be unfinished or there could be unidentified problems with the software, and if there’s no contingency time for processes like testing, bug fixing and implementation changes, there may be significant problems.

Poor time management is also likely to cause problems during the process of initiating software solutions. As such, both software developers and software consultants should insist on working within a timeframe that reflects the work they’re carrying out as well as additional tasks that are needed.

Understand software requirements – Before an effective software solution is implemented, the software consultant performing the fix should first speak at length with the client to understand their requirements. By having a thorough explanation from the client, they can gauge what exactly the problem is and what they want from the solution.

The software consultant should then check the software themselves to see whether what the client said matches up with it or if they need to consider other changes to fix the problem. Between the information from the client and a first-hand assessment of the software, the software consultant will have all they need to determine a quick and effective solution.

What does a software consultant do?

A software consultant is equipped with all the knowledge, skills and experience to assess a business’ processes, requirements and potential shortcomings to identify a form of software that could improve their efficiency and effectiveness. They can then use information from the business and observations they’ve made to create a tailored piece of software.

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Software Solutions can be game-changing to your organization. Whether you provide a service or product offering or want to enhance the in-house efficiency of operations and workflows, a well-designed software solution can offer a world of difference.

In this blog, we provide an overview of an important but often less-spoken-about stage of software development –Solution Design.

What is a software solution?

In a fundamental sense, software refers to programs that perform a particular set of tasks. A software solution is a broader term – it could encompass not just the custom code or program that’s written to accomplish particular tasks but also interact with other pieces of software, technology components, and systems.

A software solution is typically custom-built or configured to solve a specific customer problem. It could include:

  • Custom software development
  • Customized Assembly of multiple software products
  • Custom implementation of existing software platforms or products

All-in-all, a software solution is one that holistically addresses the customer’s business needs or problem statement with a set of technology components that are designed, configured, and developed to work in tandem with one another.

What does solution design refer to?

Solution Design is the first step towards the eventual physical deployment of any solution. It’s a blueprint for what needs to be built out.

Solution Design serves as an overarching reference for the entire project setting, including the direction for and expectations from the implementation phase.

As no solution can be built without proper design and architectural guidelines, the exercise of Solution Design plays a pivotal role. It lays a strong foundation for building a scalable and robust solution.

What to look for in a solution design?

Look for a holistic Solution Design that addresses the solution from a functional, technical, and UI/UX (user interface/user experience) standpoint.

It should comprise and may provide:

  • The defining of a functional feature set or scope,
  • A technical solution approach and architecture.
  • Guidelines for designing the user interfaces,
  • Completely functional and technical specifications with a full-fledged visual prototype.

What to look for in a solution design team?

Solution Design teams should possess strong technical and functional skill sets and knowledge. They should leverage this to design an optimum and practical solution.

Teams that engage in Solution Design teams should possess strong technical and functional skill sets and knowledge. They should leverage this to design an optimum and practical solution.

Teams that engage in Solution Design and Consulting often deliberate on various “build” versus “buy” (or a combination of both) options for the solution. They will take into consideration several factors, such as:

  • Functional and non-functional requirements
  • Budget and time constraints
  • Ease of maintenance
  • Scalability and more

Unless there’s a suitable off-the-shelf software product or solution readily available to use (while also being operable within existing constraints), it’s often advisable to go for a customized or tailored software solution. In this case, solution designers take up the job of designing the solution from the ground up.

How does solution design promote project success?

Good solution design is essential for the success of a project. Solution Design helps in the following six ways:

  1. Acts as a one-stop reference and guidance throughout the project for various stakeholders that are involved with the solution implementation
  2. Maps the business requirements to multiple aspects of the solution to be built out
  3. Provides a functional outline and technical architecture for the solution
  4. Offers clarity to developers on what to build, to the testing team on what tests to run, and to the client/customer on what to expect from the end product.
  5. Develops estimates for the cost, as well as timeline and resource requirements for the project
  6. Acts as a baseline for change control

That was a quick introduction to Solution Design in the context of software solutions. In subsequent blogs, we will go into the details of what comprises an actual Solution Design exercise, and what its outputs include.

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Choosing software for your business can be a daunting task, if not scary. Many business owners and managers know they need a new software system, but something is holding them back.

WHAT PREVENTS YOU FROM UPGRADING YOUR SYSTEM AND/OR PROCESSES?

  1. Are the choices overwhelming?
  2. Is it the time needed to make the correct decision for your business?
  3. Is it the time needed to switch to a new software solution or change a process?
  4. Is it the fear of making the wrong decision?
  5. Is it a combination of all of these factors or others?
  6. Is it another unlisted concern that is holding you back?

These are legitimate concerns. In an effort to help ease them, I will attempt to provide guidance in navigating these concerns. I cannot give you a roadmap that will pinpoint the exact software for your business because every business is different with unique circumstances, and no one software system fits every person or company. Also, all guidance in this blog series is based on my time in the industry helping companies manage the onboarding process. These steps are only suggestions; depending on your business, parts of steps could move or merge.

ORGANIZE YOUR SOFTWARE SEARCH

Over the course of this three-part blog series, I’ll discuss steps for finding the right software system for your team and company. Throughout the strategy, I recommend that you record your information in matrix format somewhere, such as a Google Sheets or Microsoft Excel spreadsheet.

List software solutions providers down the y-axis and your requirements across the x-axis. Additionally, break your groupings into essential, conditional and nice-to-have features. (See Step 2 for more about these distinctions.) This could allow you to track left to right, up to down the best and most appropriate options for your company.

PLANNING YOUR STRATEGY

The strategy I will follow is a six-step process I call Planning Your Strategy. The steps are as follows:

  1. Know Your Objectives
  2. Prioritize Your Needs
  3. Create a Software Vendor Short List
  4. Validate Your Short List (a.k.a. Make Exclusions)
  5. Evaluate Your Choices
  6. Make the Decision and Negotiate

STEP 1: KNOW YOUR OBJECTIVES

Define your criteria and know what you’re looking for. You must know what the software solution needs to accomplish, know your pain points (problems the new software solution is solving), and know the value of the solution (quantify the solution in terms of time, money or benefits to the organization). Remember to record your criteria in your designated spreadsheet along the x-axis.

It might be important to involve your team early on. They are the ones using the current software system (if one exists), know its failures, deal with the pain points on a daily/weekly basis, and must learn the new system. Furthermore, remember that change can be intimidating for most people. So, to help your team welcome in the coming change, involve them in the decision-making process, and add their needs to the list of requirements. Additionally, they should be involved in testing out the new system to ensure it functions better than the current solution.

As you develop the team, consider the following questions:

  1. Who will do the evaluations?
  2. What is your timeline?
  3. Who is the final decision maker?

STEP 2: PRIORITIZE YOUR NEEDS

No software solution fits all employees or companies. Every software system has trade-offs. In some cases, multiple solutions are required to meet your needs. In this case, you might want to make sure these software systems can interface with each other, which can sometimes be a simple add-on to most software solutions or it can be more complicated. If it is more complicated, please consult industry colleagues facing similar issues or the software supplier, if applicable. Keeping all of this in mind, I advise you to prioritize the needs of your company by determining the most relevant features as either essential, conditional and your nice-to-haves.

ESSENTIAL

These are the must-haves, such as optimization, cutting, scheduling/tracking, capacity planning, easy machine management, etc. If the system doesn’t have these features, the system is not feasible for your company.

CONDITIONAL

These features aren’t mission critical, but would enhance the productivity of your business, such as an e-commerce feature, shower door configurator, or barcode scanning. (Of course, depending on your company, you could argue that the features I just listed are essential.)

NICE TO HAVE

Company doesn’t need this feature to buy the software, but this feature would be nice if they existed, such as an accounting or CRM (customer relationship management) package.

Within Step 2, there are multiple questions you could ask yourself, including but not limited to:

  1. What do you need the software to do?
  2. How easy to use should the software be?
  3. What’s your budget?
  4. What reports do you need the solution to develop?
  5. How scalable should the software be: One facility or connecting multiple facilities?
  6. Do you want a cloud-based system or on-premises system? Windows versus Mac? SQL Server or Oracle? (More on this in Parts II & III)
  7. Do your vendors have any requirements they need met?
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