Your #WebProject, step 4: Web Ergonomics

In this post, I’ll describe the main ergonomic principles, which are considered one of the important steps in application development. Good read!

During the previous steps, you’ve defined your project, determined functionality, estimated costs, evaluated risks … and you must be looking forward to see your project finally taking shape. But before you begin to draw screens and implement functionalities, there is a fundamental element of your project that you must know best and always have in mind, even in the most technical phases: The End User.

 

 

The End User at the center of your design!       
While this sounds obvious, everything created on the web is meant to satisfy, in the simplest and most effective possible way, the end user’s need. This is where the work of ergonomics comes in. In its widest sense, ergonomics means “the design of a systems which lets a person use it with maximum comfort, safety and efficiency” [The EU Internet Handbook].

Since last few years, in the world of the web, UID, user interface design, and UXD, user experience design are getting more and more importance, because they define the form that your site or application will take and how the user will interact with. These fields of ergonomics themselves covers many skills when dealing specifically with content, accessibility and impact measurement, but let’s concentrate on the main point: the end user’s satisfaction. Many tools and methods exist for end user satisfaction evaluation, but let’s have a look on basic ones.

 

The persona: define the typical user
As obvious as it sounds, it remains a difficult exercise. When the question of the typical user profile is asked to a project holder, most often the answer is “the greatest number of people”. This is obviously the goal that is set, but there isn’t any interface that meets all the specificities of every user. Depending on your target, users of your service will be more or less young, more or less web friendly, will be able to spend 5 minutes like an hour to browse your site, etc.

To respond correctly above question, the best existing technique is “Personas”. Actually it consists of fictional characters creation in order to represent different user’s type that might use your web application or website. To be effective and useful, the fictional character’s profile must be extremely precise: age, occupation, place of life, habit, level of use of technologies, personal and professional environment etc. However, the ideal situation is to interview real users of the application/service and synthesize the characteristics.

 

Scenarios (and task analysis)
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Let’s take again the example of BrightOwl (powered by Xorlogics). The search and validation functions won’t be same for a job seeker as for as companies looking for talents in a specific domain.

In the first case, there is a good chance that the user will try to search job offers by criteria such as location, experience,… when In the second case, the time spent on the interface will be longer with special emphasis on job application process. All these criterias have a major impact on how to provide access to information and facilitate the job application process. You must imagine the most probable and detailed scenarios possible to confront the idea that can help you develop good functionalities and their implementation with the reality.
In order to formalize and validate these ergonomic choices, the next step is to create functional models of the interface.

 

Wireframes
When creating an interface, it’s often dangerous to introduce the graphics part too early in the process. While waiting to see “something beautiful” as soon as possible is legitimate, design can interfere with the rational choice of your web app interface elements.
It sure will be very difficult to get rid of those very nice buttons designed by your web designer while ergonomically, it’s positioning or its use aren’t justified. In addition, if a modification is to be made in the interface after detecting a problem in the user experience, the modification will be much trickier, because it’ll be necessary to review the design of this element at the same time.

 

To guard against this risk, one generally works with an intermediate step consisting in making “wireframe” mock-ups, which make it possible to position and test the various interface and content elements without involving the graphic part or performing integration or development. It is then possible to concentrate on the functional and ergonomic aspect. This step allows a much better design of the interface and can save a lot of time during the development.

 

To find the right balance between function and its graphic representation, the useful and the superfluous are an integral part of the ergonomics work and it’s often by always asking the same question that one finds the right answer: “Will this satisfy the user?”

 

The project need to be as clear as possible, must work without bugs, must be accessible because our main objective is to make the application or website graphically attractive and it’s the work of the web designer … and also the subject of our next article. So stay tuned! 

Your #WebProject, Step 3: Project Planning and Risk management

In this step I’ll be describing the tasks you need to complete in order to establish a solid project planning and risk management using the information you’ve gathered while doing your needs assessment. 

 

The number and type of phases  depends on the complexity and type of the project. For example, for a small ICT project, there are at least four major phases: Requirements, Development, Validation and the Restitution phase.

 

In more complex ICT projects, the number of phases is more important than previously described. Each project manager has its own method, based on existing methodologies and his past experiences, to elaborate a win-win planning. Here’s a short list of tasks you must consider including in your project planning. The goal of this step is to clearly characterize the scheduling of tasks.

 

  • Draw a PERT network chart
  • Attribute task and predict risks
  • Identify the critical path and adjust timelines
  • Estimate costs
  • Develop responsibilities matrix

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This preparation may seem theoretical and not practical for people who work in the field but a good programmed project plan will help you to avoid dead ends. Better deal with risks through alternative solutions during planning your project. It will allow you to earn money on identified risks or to save money when an unidentified risk appears.

 

For this, the best way is to track actions and put them in an action log (tracker) all along the project. You will know your current situation, what you’ve already done and what remains to be done. In addition, you can add to the log the encountered risks and the solutions to the problems. It is important to make some time and follow up on your project; expecting the perfect product on the scheduled delivery date if any follow-up isn’t done is a no go.

 

Few example of risk:

 

    • Risk: The designer is no longer available to create a new specific page.
      Possible solution: Ask the designer for a recommendation, contact a communication agency, ask a Freelance Designer, ask the development provider if he has available resources…

 

    • Risk: wrong choice and recruitment of project / service provider
      Possible solution: don’t rush on the choice of your web provider. Read about their accomplished projects, their portfolio and don’t hesitate to set up several meeting to explain your requirements.

 

    • Risk: facing problem in task attribution
      Possible solution: Since the success of any ICT project is primarily the result of collective work, it can be difficult to individualize the contribution of all those involved, whether decisive or not, direct or indirect. Therefore you must identify, in advance, different teams for the work to be done in order to avoid all misunderstanding and delay.

 

    • Risk: exceeding estimated project budget
      Possible solution: To start any project, you must draw a baseline that lists your company available resources. Establishing the primary balance sheet consists of differentiating the resources, so no surprises will be appear in the middle of your project.

 

Action !

Of course, experience will bring you all the wisdom of previous projects. At the end of the project, summarize the actions, risks and solutions. This could be very useful for future projects or for future versions.

 

Only thing left now is to attack our development stage. This is the longest and therefore the most expensive phase. This is why we must take into account all that we have seen in last two and this step. A successful development of a project relies on serious professional skills such as ergonomics with scenarios of user profiles, wireframes, design, choice of technical staff, tests … but this is another story which I’ll keep for our next article 😉

Your #WebProject, Step 2: Design

This article covers step 2 of your web project. In step 1 we’ve talked about your project selection based on different criteria such as business priorities, needs, time period and accomplishment of your preliminary study.

 

So now you have all the elements to go to the second phase of your web project, which is its design. These are the foundations upon which the project will be based. The project design stage will allow to measure all the perimeters of the project and to monitor its progress, from the initial vision to the final version, while controlling the costs incurred.

 

Right moment to ask yourself: what will happen during the “design phase” of our web project and what should we be based on to succeed in further phases?

 

In the preliminary studies, you have already identified your niche market (= customers or users and competition). You have established the needs of your target as well as all your objectives and sub goals. Now you have to put all this on paper to begin designing the project. The project design is based on several aspects such as planning, communication between the different actors of the project, a deeper cost estimation and risk management.

No worries, we are about to dive into good practices and tips to know about the success of your web project.

 

Project Manager, aka, The Key Player

The project manager has a very important role. He must know the whole strategy on the tips of his fingers and have sufficient powers to put it in place. He must also know the entire information system (site, business application …) and he will be responsible for completing the project. He will focus on the summary of 1st phase of web project to establish key phases of project development.

 

Key features in line with objectives

The main objectives should clearly indicate the direction of the project. In order to illustrate our point, let’s take the example of Bright Owl a HR web application (matching experts with available jobs in life science industry), developed by Xorlogics.

The vision is to facilitate hiring process. The main objective is to offer professionals a clear view of available jobs on the market, and companies the ability to select the best talents available.

 

The objectives and outcomes of the project will be

  • Management / Commercial – decrease of recruitment cost …
  • Marketing – ex: increase job offers / prospect companies, improve segmentation market …
  • Communication – ex: Focus on Bright Owl presentation
  • Sales / Marketing – Ex: Advertising / Advantage for companies and experts…
  • Web Marketing – ex: reaching a traffic base of 70,000 visits at 6 months … SEO, SEM, Social Networks, buzz, viral campaign etc.

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(The objectives and figures are given as an indication and they will depend on your studies)

The objectives serves to coordinate the key phases of the action plan. On the basis of these objectives, the project manager will prepare a synthesis of the overall strategy. The sub-objectives will assert themselves as the project proceeds. It is of course relatively difficult to set targets on a project from scratch, but they have the advantage of giving direction to your project. They can be reviewed and corrected later on if necessary.

 

Intern-extern company communication as an important factor for success

The project manager must interact with each member of the company and future service providers. Only then he can plan his needs/demands for each service. These internal exchanges of information make it possible to understand the needs and difficulties of each party. The crucial point is to receive the information at the right time. The key is therefore to communicate with each person in charge and to have all the useful information to the project, so one must give a dead line to each person in charge.

 

Not only internal but the Project manager must maintain a good relationship with different external providers, in order to give easily his instructions and have the best possible solution. On the other hand, several providers (might be) working together on the project or some part of the project. The project manager must then ensure that these providers communicate easily so that the interactions between the different trades are effective and comprehensible by each. It would be a shame and huge waste of time + resource if a part of project were replicated or reconsidered and rebuilt several times.

 

Estimations and cost calculation

In order to anticipate the investment, the project manager must have knowledge of the state of the art. That is to say that he will contact the different providers. He can make an initial estimate of the company’s external costs and make a choice. In addition to that, the project manager must know the standard internal costs and integrate them into its cost forecast.

 

How to make the right choice of providers?

good cheap fast - webapp

Several points to remember:

  • The most expensive is not necessarily the best: Price is an unreliable indicator. An expensive provider is not synonymous of quality.
  • The cheapest is often not the right solution: An aggressive trade policy on costs (tariffs) is often synonymous with poor quality. It is not absolute but we must be aware. Several problems can subsequently arise for the sustainability and management of the project.
  • Your usual provider is not necessarily the best: You are used to working with a provider. It gives you complete satisfaction. Very well, continue to work with him, but do not hesitate to meet other providers. Some may be cheaper to equal quality or they will have other skills you did not know exist.
  • Offshoring isn’t dangerous at all! I can literally write down a list of outsourced projects very well conducted by Xorlogics. Relocation can be very interesting to cut labor, management and equipment cost and taxes.

 

To understand the establishment of a web project, the project must be seen in its broadest sense. The web strategy should be thought as a pyramid. Let’s start with the basics, build solid foundations and do not burn the steps. Burning the steps, going in the wrong direction or not communicating well can put the project at risk.

Be pragmatic: you have a lot of ideas for your project, that’s normal. Start by setting up the heart of your business. The functionalities that will make your customers adhere to your product and which will bring you what to develop the rest, will be your priorities.

 

And last tip: do not sink into the fashion effect. Don’t get fool by the “trend”. Ask yourself if your application really need to interact with the latest social network? Is this a real need for your users? Even though social networks are very popular lately, they are not yet an obligation for all web applications. If you have to integrate them, then you have to know how to make the right network choice and know when to use them.

To finish, it is often common sense, listening and creativity that will be the best guide in designing a web application.

Next week we’ll talk about the preparation and risk management. So let’s meet next Sunday 😉

Your #WebProject, Step 1, Think before Acting

 

Every new project and every web project is often born of a good idea. This seems trivial, but the idea is not enough, as good as it may be. What we want to start with is the willingness to look for better web application, a better way of working for your business. The willingness to concretize this idea will bring a set of reflection that will form a vision. This vision must always accompany you and force you to accomplish your project.

 

This vision must be communicated with your associates and the people involved in your business. Reflections, exchanges, brainstorming and different points of view will help to develop a strategy that will support your vision. Once this vision is well established, the strategy will be endowed with a multitude of business spheres to be taken into account and evaluate. I’ll try to explain in a series of articles the stages of development and management of a web project, from its definition to its lifetime. I would point out that this article series is based on our experience and that you have certainly had other experiences, so do not hesitate to discuss with us.

 

Ok, I have a “vision” what should I do after that?

So the first step is defining your project. Defining a project does not mean having only one project. Let me explain myself, you have a HR business in Brussels; and imagine that your vision is to use the web to increase your turnover. Very well, several choices will present themselves to you. For example, this can be a collaboration with LinkedIn to present your company and offers (the biggest professional network) or an online website specific to your niche. So there are a multitude of possible projects, some are viable, others not; some are more urgent, others less.

 

So you noticed that a vision with a simple reflection already brings several possibilities of projects. Each project will have its own overall objectives. If we plan to set up a showcase site, it will certainly aim to inform people, to present your company, present its offers (…) or to be simply present on the web. It’s up to you to set your goals for each project, or you’ll have a set of overall goals and sub goals.

Do not forget, we are always in the reflection phase because once the objectives are fixed, next step will be project selection.

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How to select your project?

Project selection is a crucial step. As we have seen, a large number of projects can quickly appear.

An objective analysis can eliminate most projects or at least prioritize the most important projects to get a positive and rapid ROI. Each project is likely to be quantified by its scope; which can be evaluated in terms of time, functions and cost.

 

For this, it is necessary to establish an economic reflection for each project. Economic thinking involves understanding the world around us. It is a strategic, technological and competitor watch that must be perpetually set up, with a fine and realistic analysis. Rumors about your competitors or overestimating yourself are your worst enemies.

 

Do not hesitate to ask the help of consultants in your company like the marketing service for your market or even better the help of external consultants to have a 360° market view. Often this goes through in the form of a marketing and financial estimation plan. These will be good indicators of the viability of the project and its profitability. You will have the scope of each project, their usefulness and potential.

 

You have selected the project that is most cost effective and urgent. The second phase is the design of this project and the implementation of the tools that will allow its realization and its improvement.

As a wise man once said, all good things come in time, so let’s connect next Sunday for the next article 😉

10 Gartner forecasts that will mark the IT in 2020

On the occasion of its Symposium / ITxpo (CIOs and senior IT leaders annual gathering) from 16 to 20 October in Orlando, the research firm Gartner announced 10 tech predictions for 2020. Gartner analyst reveled tech insights to help next gen IT teams and help to develop business.

One of the strong massage Gartner highlighted during the Symposium / ITxpo was the rapid adoption of augmented reality, web browsing, increased digital capabilities. According to the consultant, many users expect that companies, universities and governments implement these changes in near future.

10-gartner-forecasts-that-will-mark-the-it-in-2020

 

These are the 10 short-term forecasts announced by Gartner during its annual conference:

 

    • By 2020, 100 million consumers will shop in augmented reality environments
      Augmented Reality, known as the integration of digital information with user’s environment in real time, “will cover data”, told Daryl Plummer – analyst at Gartner. For example, when you enter a supermarket, “information on the various products will float in the air in front of each of them,” so consumers can check virtually before buying them. The AR will also be used in online shopping. Gartner predicts that by 2017 one in five global leading brand will be using augmented reality. Today, viewers can already see AR applications in football televised games, with new indicators displayed on the screen during games.

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    • By 2020, “We will talk more with robots than with our spouses
      More concretely, for IT managers, this shift interactions to the voice exchange means that within four years, 30% of web browsing sessions will be done without screen. This is what is already being used by Alexa voice service of Amazon, and Google Home with the Echo device. But Gartner predicts that by 202 room-based screenless devices such as Amazon Echo and Google Home will be in more than 10M homes “This growing need for voice communications to interact with the Internet raises many questions” statement given by Aren Cambre, who heads a research group on Internet technologies at Southern Methodist University. “So far, all data representations have been designed for visual display,” he added, but it is not known yet how this will work non-visual interaction to use the services. “For example, how will a student ” see “his notes with Alexa? Or, how will he be authenticated? These are some important questions that we need answers before any shifting.

 

    • By 2019, 20% of brands will abandon their mobile applications
      “The applications shall be no more first class marketing support for major brands,” said Daryl Plummer. For many Gartner clients, already, apps were not up to the expectations of companies,” he added. “In addition, the app stores are full of apps, and it is very difficult to find a truly exceptional or indispensable app.” Plus in many cases, the maintaining cost of app is still higher than the profit. “Companies will turn more towards the mobile Web or will call on” Progressive Web Apps” just like Google. “When the user connects to a website from a mobile device, a framework will be downloaded in their mobile, and the next time they sign in, the app will work instantly,” said Daryl Plummer. Updates will be automatic. Don’t panic, the Apps are not going away, but “we get kind of in a post-app era,” he added.

 

    • The companies will use algorithms that will aim to “provide constructive help to the billions of worldwide workers”
      This system will work as a virtual assistant and by the end of 2017 the algorithms will allow commercial organizations to increases in profit margins by alerting employee’s behavior positively.

 

    • By 2022 the value of blockchain-based organizations will exceed $ 10 billion
      Blockchain, a public register of financial transactions, will enhance and promote the development of “major EU trading operations.” Because it helps to increase transparency and trust in transactions, blockchain technology will promote the development of large “ecosystems”.

 

    • By 2021, 20% of all individual activities will involve at least one of the top seven digital giants
      According Gartner, these 7 companies are Google, Apple, Facebook, Amazon, for the United States, and Baidu, Alibaba and Tencent, for China. These companies will be leading in IoT adoption and implications. This means that consumers will depend more than ever, on the large IT services companies via sensor based devices from these digital giants. Not only business but by 2020, 20% of homes will dispose more than 25 IoT and connected home solutions as well.

 

    • Investments in innovation won’t be cheap at all
      Gartner estimates that for every 1 dollar spent on innovation, it will take 7 dollars for its implementation. Especially because data centers have not been modernized, and it may have to resort to new and unknown technologies such as machine learning. “This also means that IT service providers will have to develop and modernize their skills to use these new technologies,” said Daryl Plummer.

 

    • IoT data will cause a slight increase in demand for storage
      The Internet of Things will produce a lot of data, but by 2020, the additional storage demand will increase by less than 3%. Indeed, most IoT data will not be stored, and algorithms will know what data should be saved.

 

    • By 2022, the IoT will save $ 1 trillion per year for consumers and businesses
      As a business, saving maintenance, services and consumables coasts is one of the biggest goal. For example by using sensors (IoT devices) it is possible to predict when it’ll be easier to predict material maintenance etc.

 

    • The use of fitness trackers will expand
      By 2020, Gartner estimates that 40% of employees will be able to reduce or cut off their health care expenses by wearing a fitness tracker.

 

Sources:

Cloud and a Successful Project Management

Cloud and a Successful Project Management

The world has already moved to the web, but what about you and your work? Gone are the days when one managed its work with a paper and pencil, whiteboard, erasable markers and post it on your office walls. Save MS Word documents and spreadsheets in a folder on your computer belongs to the past.

According to research firm IDC, the cloud sector should see its business grow by 15 to 20% per year by 2018. The hosting of computer data in the cloud has changed the situation, either for users as for developers. Today, the most successful project managers have transferred their teams and processes online. Online project management, collaboration software and backup systems in the cloud can accomplish the job more efficiently and gets better results.

 

Here is how digital project management is improving thanks to the cloud:

 

  • Team up and get transparency of entire work:
    When you organizing your projects and tasks in an online project management tool shared with your team, the different players can easily follow the progress of the project. Everyone can find out project’s progress, the slowdown factors and the deadlines. You give your team the information they needs to strengthen their effectiveness.

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  • Easy access to important information:
    By bringing all of your documents, images and information in a storage tool or project management based in the cloud, your colleagues can download files where and when they need it – without even bothering you. And insofar as they will no longer have to wait 24 hours to get a response from you in their e-mail, work moves faster.
  • Real time communication and reporting capabilities:
    Collaboration tools and online project management tells you the exact status of the project at a specific time and the overall project progress so you stay informed of everything and may contact the participating executives, based on real time obtained information. Controlling costs is one of the most important benefit of a project management tool because you don’t need to organize any special meeting to talk about the progress of ongoing project, since you can track its evolution via your project management tool.
  • Calendar integration and Workload management:
    An important member of your team has taken a few days off unexpectedly? This type of situation can cause considerable delays in your project delivery. A project management software including Gantt charts provides easy way to remedy this situation. All you need to do is to consult your Gantt chart to see if you can afford to wait the return of your missing crew. If so, rearrange the tasks on the chart to display the new deadlines and notify this change to the team. But if you cannot wait, reassign the task to someone else and as all stages of the project were accomplished by the original user in the online management tool, the replacement will have all the information to continue the work where it was left.
  • Monitor progress:
    The work and comments are stored in one location, so you can connect to check as many time you want. Needless to advance arguments such as “He or she said that …” or “I did it my responsibility …”, as everything is clearly centralized in a single location and accessible to all tracking is a child game.

A project gets not only easier but much more organized thanks to the cloud-based project management tools. As there’s no on-site deployment you can get easily your hands on them!

Custom vs. Off The Shelf Web Application / Software

We live in a world where the custom is becoming more fashionable in comparison to “off-the-shelf” whether it’s in clothing, real estate, or tech field. People want to be different and want different things from each other. And let’s accept that we all are hunting for innovation. For ex, the moment I am writing this post, I’m having a coffee in my customized mug just because it’s different ;). But that’s not the point. Since few years, we are noticing that big and medium-size companies are developing in-house or contacting third-party vendor for the development of customized software/apps for a specific group of users within their organization to address their needs and maintain a better workflow.

 

As a CEO, it can be challenging to balance your company immediate needs with long-term growth. Many challenging questions arises and one of them is about company’s software needs. But when starting their business, many companies, adopt off the shelf software due to their cheap cost but realize later on that it’s not responding to their business needs and leading to blank areas in their day to day tasks coz of low customization. More the company extend their business, they realize the difficulty to reach their targets. So they find their self in a situation where they must invest in custom designed software or application development in order to reach their business goals. Companies will then design software which’ll keep the company’s infrastructure, branding and implementation needs in mind. Owning their own custom web application / software, tailored to their organization activity is a real asset for their business. It can be a real time saver and enables any company to distinguish itself from its competition. Building custom enterprise web application or database driven website can bring a host of benefits. Its production can cost you a lot, in terms of that significant energy, resources, and time but the ROI isn’t negligible.

 

Let’s have a look on pros and cons of custom web apps / software.

 
The pros of custom web apps / software development The cons of custom web apps / software development
Provides specific features that off-the-shelf software doesn’t provides. Higher cost at the beginning of project
Solution 100% customized to meet the needs of everyone while improving company processes Deadlines are usually longest for development and implementation
Easy integration and interfacing to existing facilities. Requires significantly more resources to design and thus come with an inherently high amount of costs and risks.
Make possible for company to distinguish itself from its competition via innovating Project risks: the result is not guaranteed by definition since one starts from scratch
Business gets a remarkable increased efficiency Low quality of software if one choose the wrong Software Development Company
Your team to work faster and smarter because software are specifically designed with company’s needs in mind Company has to cover all costs associated with the development process of custom software.
Makes easier to achieve company objectives Control of the most complex project where the client support will be crucial
No extra cost of recurring license or limitation in the number of users

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Good news for you is that companies specialized in software design (such as Xorlogics) are responsible for creating, implementing, monitoring and maintenance of the software. So Administrative management is thereby reduced for you, and this will allow you to focus and improve contacts with your customers!!
So if you have any question or concerns regarding a custom web application / software for your business, or you simply need help defining your project, just contact us so we can guide you from inception to implementation!!

First step in #Cloud? List of questions you must ask your Cloud Service Provider before moving to Cloud

Services based on the cloud computing model are gaining more and more importance and changing considerably the way companies used to manage their data. Some see it as a practical solution for automatic storage, others a way to guard against data loss, and others, the way to have constant access to their data.  Cloud computing can be considerable as one of smart beneficial adoption for companies, such as storage on demand, cost savings and multiple servers etc.

 

Studies have revealed that over half of companies adapting cloud computing resources have significant improvements in their productivity, plus, studies conducted by the Cloud Industry Forum shows that 90% of UK and European companies run at least two cloud services. However, it is not enough to register with a provider and to migrate data on a remote server and then passively enjoy the savings. Certainly cloud has its advantages, but companies must learn about cloud transition challenges before taking any further step in its direction.

 

A cloud failure is a good example of critical problems that any organization may face when operating cloud services. Cloud failures can make data inaccessible for companies or can even be a cause of valuable data lose. As a business, what can you do to prevent data loss? And what questions entrepreneurs should ask before choosing any cloud solution? Here below is a list of important you must ask any cloud vendor before signing the contract!

 

    • Who is responsible for my data?
      Although data centres belong to the provider of cloud services, the ultimate responsibility of the stored data will usually attached to the client. Therefore, if data is lost for X reasons, this will certainly be the company, not the provider, who will be held accountable.

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    • Your Cloud solution allow access 24h / 24, 7/7 … 365 days a year?
      Your company operates in real time and is based on your computer data: customer files, emails, accounting and important administrative documents … In case of a disaster such as, computer crash, virus or damaged hard drive, you won’t have enough time to save all you documents & files before the economic damage and data lose due to this accident.
      You’ll be happy to know that cloud is the ideal solution allowing you access to your data anywhere any time. But is this so sure?
      Before outsourcing your data in the cloud, check its availability rate, in other words, it’s the number of hours or days of maximum uptime guaranteed by your cloud provider. Time out break, whatever its duration, can result in a loss of money for company. This availability rate is a percentage and it is the third figure AFTER the point that matters. A guaranteed uptime of 99.9% may sound interesting on paper, but on the whole year, this can leave you with a service downtime of about nine hours without violating its obligations. A guarantee of 99.999% instead will turn in equivalent to only five minutes of downtime per year.
      So we advise you to avoid hosting below 99.995% (hours per year)!

 

    • In case of natural disaster, can you cloud provider save immediately all your data WITHOUT loss?
      You must ask cloud provider, what type of restitution method will implement upon the occurrence of such incidents. Can you recover all your files on a simple demand? How quickly and what format?
      Insist your provider that you get ALL of your data on demand, whatever the reason, within a reasonable time and in a format your servers can read! You should know that most cloud services includes a backup by default. It remains significant to Carefully Consider the provider’s backup policies by checking the data retention time (this allows you to recover your data as They Were at a Particular time).

 

    • Your data are “in the cloud” but where exactly?
      Do not let anyone play with your data privacy! To guarantee your data confidentiality, check in which country they are hosted. The jurisdiction of certain countries allows their different services to have a free access to your data. Therefore, if you host your data in Europe, America or Asia, you are not subject to the same legislation. The Privacy Shield ( “Personal Data Protection Shield”), the agreement regulates the use of personal data of European citizens by companies on American soil, was validated by States Member last July 8 but leaves many gray areas in practice.

 

    • What are the security measures in place to protect your data?
      All Cloud providers have invested in higher or lower security measures to protect against external attacks. Do not hesitate to meet your future cloud service technical service and to ask them directly about security measures.

 

    • What level of support is available?
      One of the most important points when choosing a Cloud partner, it is the level of service it offers, also called SLA (Service Level Agreement). Small businesses will be more dependent on advice and expert assistance on such matters in comparison of large groups. Big organizations have indeed the possibility to set up a public or private solution and manage it alone which is too complex and time-consuming for small structures.
      Dependent firms of this type of technical assistant need to determine what kind technical input they can reasonably expect from their cloud service provider. This assistance will focus mainly on maintenance and automatic updates of data. The choice of supplier is therefore essential on this aspect, which could make the difference between successful deployment and rollout to loss, where the customer is unable to take advantage of the tools at his disposal.

 

    • What about the general conditions?
      It is recommended that companies take enough time to read the small print at the bottom of the contract, since they often contain essential clauses that could have important implications later on. For example, a standard contract often will state the level of compensation that a client can benefit if the service guarantees are not met, as well as information about data recovery procedures.
      The contract should also explain what happens to the data of the company at the end of a contract. The last thing a customer needs to know is that the supplier has not totally erased its data at the end of the contract, which can be cause of potential threats.

 

If you have asked yourself these questions and you got all your answers, then you are on the right path for a successful cloud project and finding a serious supplier with whom you can maintain good relation for years, knowing that your data will be safe and always available when you need it.

State of Technologies at the end of 2016

2016 is almost hitting its end so we thought it’s time to look back at the biggest trends in tech. This blogpost summarize forecasts of trends in Big Data and Data Analytics presented in Forrester and Gartner Reports. It’ll provide you a clear picture of the evolution of Big Data, predictive analytics, IoT and cloud computing market.

 

 

  • Big Data

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It has been a quiet revolution. What is trendy are the growing scale, sophistication and analytics of data. Nowadays data is not just a back-office, accounts-settling tool anymore and the Data Science is not an isolated concept. It is gaining importance in all business sectors and even within all functions. It’s increasingly used as a real-time decision making tool. Moreover, data from social networks, governments or the companies themselves are being analyzed in real time to improve efficiency. Plus thanks to Deep Learning, analytical tools will progressively become more intelligent, autonomous and intuitive in upcoming years. Their operation will gradually move closer to the way of a human thinking, so the unstructured data, such as emoticons used by online users, will be collected and analyzed more quickly and deeply.

 

  • Self-Service Analytics

We are living in a world which is flooded with data captured from multiple sources such as corporate databases, sensors, IoT and this trend keeps increasing. In front of this rising data, organizations are innovating new tools and ecosystems to be able to translate and capture useful information from this data. One of the biggest challenge for Data Scientists is the focus on Analytics and the real-time analysis to make major decisions. To compensate the lack of qualified specialists, and in order to save time, companies will keep investing in data analysis through the Self-Service Analytics tools. With that being said, we’ll keep seeing apparition of innovative tools and other ecosystems for self-service analytics. Plus social networks will develop their own analytical tools. To remain competitive, Data Analysts will therefore have to increase their efforts and inventiveness.

 

  • Public data sources

In the US, for instant, the aggregated health data is now open to the public through the National Center for Health Statistics of the CDC. Without any long wait, many other countries will most certainly follow the same direction. Consequently, these data can now be freely exploited by companies. Besides health, other areas should also soon open access to their data. These open data will give companies gold opportunity to adapt their products, services for niche markets.

 

  • Internet of things:

Over the past decade, the world has become increasingly hyper-connected. We live in an environment where the Internet and its associated services are accessible and immediate, where people and businesses can communicate with each other instantly, and where machines are equally interconnected with each other. IoT will continue changing everything, including ourselves in upcoming years. It’s not a bold statement, consider the impact it already has had on education, communication, business, science, government, and humanity. Clearly, the Internet is one of the most important and powerful creations in all of human history. IoT represents the next evolution of the Internet, taking a huge leap in its ability to gather, analyse, and distribute data that we have been turning into information, knowledge, and, ultimately, wisdom. The worldwide Internet of Things market spend was worth $591.7 billion in 2014 and will grow $1.3 trillion in 2019 with a compound annual growth rate of 17%.

 

  • Cloud Computing:

Due to high costs of infrastructure and administration, data centers are often one of the first business areas that companies consider switching to a cloud service. So an organization’s decision to move their IT to the cloud is gaining importance. Most organizations are planning to shift select capabilities there, and many already have. The decision is often influenced by technology trends, except cost saving benefit, the cloud data center is much simpler to organize and operate and, because it is simple, it scales well. In other words, the larger you make it, the lower the costs per user are. My personal opinion is that organizations will soon get rid of their traditional data warehouse and invest in their next generation data warehouses which will be placed in cloud.

 

For each business, the convergence of IT is an important part of their sustainable growth. All business have come to realize that an integrated IT industry will enhance the competitiveness and creativity of their economies and fuel the sustainable growth of the global economy. Businesses around the globe have been unveiling their innovative strategies for the IT industry. IT technologies have already brought a dramatic change to our lives and will continue to surprise us. We are convinced that in this new era of hyper connectivity, IT will maintain an economic growth worldwide.

 

Sources:

Magic Quadrant for Business Intelligence and Analytics Platforms

National Center for Health Statistics

State of the Market: Internet of Things 2016

From #BigData to #IoT, The Key Technologies of 2020

“Innovation, by definition, is unpredictable”. A Gartner study predict the impact of new technologies in the professional world. There are 47 main technologies that’ll help companies to industrialize the process of innovation. Here below we’ve resumed the most important and trendy ones.

 

Big Data: 

bigdata

The collection of massive data has become a major issue, especially in an era where governments are increasingly on the lookout for personal information. As we’ve all seen in the strategy of Facebook addition of smileys to the simple “like”, the personal data represents an economic value and holding such data may well be a powerful output for the government. Experts have predicted that in 2020 there’ll be 10 400 billion gigabytes of data that’ll be shared every month on the web. This is why the analysis of massive data is a key technology for companies in competition and these business analysis can be helpful for their business strategy to improve management / client relationship.

 

The sensors: 

sensors

The global sensor market is estimated at 154.4 billion dollars by 2020. This figure is explained because of its multiple use, either for the water management, energy management, the analysis of chemical and microbiological pollutants, inventory control in industries or activities tracers in the health field.

A new market is developing around the sensors: biosensors. The biosensor is an analytical tool consisting of an organic compound that allows the connection between biological material and the transducer, which transform the biochemical signal into quantifiable physical signal. It serves in particular to health, environment, safety and food field. It is estimated that sensor market will reach 2.78 billion dollars in 2020.

 

Autonomous Robot: 

Autonomous Robot

Robotics is considered one of the 9 industrial solutions. From a kitchen blander to a human size robot, robotics certainly has a bright future in the new technologies market. As predicted by many experts, robots will soon replace humans to do repetitive or dangerous tasks. For example, when it will be to visit the disaster site or rescue missions, we will send robots instead. However, there’s still a lot to work on robotics before they can perform to any unexpected situations. This is why investments are growing to make it completely autonomous.

On environmental issues, various robots are set up as Diya One of Partnering Robotics for purifying indoor air or Xamen who unveiled a surveillance drone in 2015 to inspect industrial facilities. Robots like Nao will attend everyday life of the older persons. And other will help in the driving area as Valeo, which takes care of parking.

One of the main issues will be the “Sense and Avoid” or “See and Avoid” so that robots can evolve while adhering to the laws of robotics, on which the European Parliament is currently working. The park of “service robots” will reach $ 20 billion and is estimated at 18 million units by 2020. These include agricultural and logistics robots that will get a significant share in the market.

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Artificial Intelligence: 

artificial-intelligence

Biggest dream of AI is to copy and perform exactly like human intelligence, may be in a much better way. A dream slowly becoming reality … or not. Meanwhile, the current IA operates on 3 stages: perception of the environment, a decision that involves the reasoning and learning and environment-oriented actions.

More and more AI is used within the services but it’s also as key elements in decision making support in medical diagnostics (IBM Watson) or in the financial markets sector (algorithms of high frequency trading (THF)) . Thus, 40% of transactions on the stock markets are generated without human intervention. Some AI are also capable of providing decision support such as VITAL algorithm, the Board of Directors of Deep Knowledge Ventures, which participates in investment decisions by analyzing balance sheets of potentially interesting companies. A BBC Research has estimated the global market for intelligent machines (expert systems, autonomous robots, digital support systems) to $ 15.3 billion in 2019.

 

The 5G Infrastructure: 

the-5g-infrastructure

By 2020, the infrastructure of the 5th generation will replace 4G. Faced with the development of the IoT, M2M and environmentally friendly services, it is essential to go beyond 4G. 5G will ensure the continuity and quality of the user experience anywhere anytime. The main quality of 5G compared to 4G will be speed. “As the IoT revolution gets underway, 5G networks will be able to handle the hundreds of millions of devices and sensors that will join the network” says Roger Entner, expert on 5G wireless networks. With this new infrastructure, it will be possible to quickly respond to the challenge of energy efficiency and ensure connectivity with massive data objects Internet

Currently, the European Commission has set up the 5G Infrastructure Public Private Partnership consortium which aims to support the development of 5G standards and strengthen European industry to successfully transition to 5G. The EU is associated with many countries drivers of mobile, broadband including Japan and South Korea. The latter announced that it would invest $ 1.5 billion to deploy the 5G services. A partnership is also planned with China: China’s Huawei has announced an investment of $ 600 million in the development of 5G. What more we can ask for?

 

Internet of Things: 

iot

According to the Institute of Audiovisual and Telecommunications in Europe (IDATE), in 2020 the Internet of Things will be made of 85% of connected objects, 11% of communicating terminals and 4% will be dedicated to M2M (Machine-to -Machine). The global market for the Internet Of Things will reach 1.525 trillion euros by 2020.

 

All these technologies are game changer and will make our future even brighter. Most of us aren’t well-equipped emotionally and culturally to have this much technology entering into our lives but we’ve to embrace them now before it gets too late!!!

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