3 BENEFITS OF TOURISM MOBILE APP DEVELOPMENT

Tourism is big in Tampa. Two years back, in 2014, 5.9 million tourists spent the night on the Pinellas side of the Tampa Bay area. The sector is an important job-spinner too – it provides employment to a whopping 1.14 million Floridians. No wonder, the city's IT firms are keen on aligning their products and services to the travel sector. And since we are living in an app-driven world, it is hardly surprising that tourism application development has become a big business in Tampa. If you are looking to make it big in the hospitality sector, you must invest in the right app. Here are three ways that the right tourism app can boost your business:

Services that Can Keep Visitors Coming Back

Forget the printed travel brochures or a responsive website with basic information; if you really want to mark your presence, give the users the power of mobile app. Right from planning a trip to safely making it back home, mobile apps ease the lives of travelers by offering the following services:

E-commerce – Hotel reservation, buying flight tickets, international banking transactions, and shopping.

Security – Emergency calling, access to local and international agencies, emergency medical services.

Navigation – Access to maps and GPS services for route planning.

Social Communication – Chatting, reviews, status and photo uploads and more.

Proximity Marketing – Alerts on deals and discounts available nearby and admission to contests.

Informational Apps – Updated information on local attractions and places, calendar of events, and more.

Communicate, Showcase, Engage

Leverage the latest in mobile technology, such as geofencing, to quickly reach out to the tourists. Channel them toward your business by sending engaging, actionable messages, flash sales, event information, local news and more. Showcase the best of what your property/ service has to offer along with a GPS-powered turn-by-turn direction, in-app FaceTime and more.

Reduce Costs

Your app will not only enable you to cut down printing and mailing costs associated with creating travel resources for visitors, but also help you make some quick bucks by monetizing the app with ads from local businesses.

How to make it big in Florida's thriving travel sector? Although there is no thumb rule, a tourism app definitely gives you a good head start. Hire a competent firm that will address the application development needs for your Tampa - based business. Such a firm can help you create a killer app that will help to attract and retain visitors.

MOVING YOUR BUSINESS DATA TO CLOUD? DO IT RIGHT

The small to medium-scale businesses are eager to invest in cloud solutions that are easy to use and provide enough savings potential. You are in luck if your business is located in Florida. When it comes to reliable and cost-effective IT support, Tampa being the booming IT hub in Florida will live up to your expectations. However, if you've already decided to migrate your enterprise's data to cloud, you need to do it the right way. Here are three tips to help you out: 

 

1. Switch to New Databases

When migrating to cloud, always consider new databases instead of looking for the same database you use on-premises. Switch to new databases like NoSQL and SQL instead of what you've been using in your data center. You also need to leave scope for changes to your applications related to your database. Also, consider changes to database admin and operational skills.

2. Consider Data Volume

Moving your enterprise data to cloud doesn't imply you'll upload petabytes and terabytes of information to public clouds. For preliminary data transfer, you may have to ship physical drives to your cloud provider. This might involve a lot of time and energy, and hence you do need to plan it well. Collaborate with your provider to ensure that the initial data uploads are done right.

3. Take Governance and Data Security Seriously

Both governance and data security is the key to the success of data migration to the cloud. It's essential for everything including applications, information, storage and network. Needless to say, you need to be extra cautious about this aspect when going cloud.

When looking for IT support in Tampa, hire a firm that helps you cut back on costs and mitigate business risks. And, to make the most out of the data migration process to cloud, make sure you define your data at the initial stages, have a rock solid plan and look for new database models that best suit your business needs.

Should An SMB Consider Server Virtualization?

According to Techaisle, a global IT research firm focused on SMB, server virtualization penetration among the SMBs has increased from 41 to 54 percent in two years. Currently, this penetration stands at 88 percent among the midmarket businesses and there will be an additional 7 percent growth by 2016. However, server virtualization is still considered as a ‘new technology’. But, those who are already using it have realized its efficiency and capabilities and have even looked up at it as a game-changing technology. Florida, being one of the SMB technology hubs, has incorporated virtual IT solutions in Tampa, Miami and other places. Even if the cost of virtualization licenses is high, ignoring the benefits of this technology is hard.

When you compare the virtualization research of 2013 with that of 2015, you will find that SMBs mostly opt for off-premise virtualized servers. The rate of such adoption has increased to 45 percent in just two years, which clearly highlights that the remote management of infrastructure resource is gaining momentum.

As far as challenges of adoption are concerned, it 34 percent of SMBs state that high cost of virtualization licenses has been a major obstacle behind global implementation. Moreover, the projected saving is still not achieved because management of virtual servers is difficult.

Despite these challenges, one cannot deny the fact that server virtualization helps to migrate from physical servers. The smaller energy footprint for the entire data center helps to minimize the number of servers, networking gear and the server racks. So, SMBs can save a lot of money because they do not have to own a data center, and can rather use a co-location facility. One of the significant advantages of virtualization is the disaster recovery management. It has software to automate the failover during disaster.

This is a step for SMBs towards cloud computing because servers and its underlying hardware are all virtualized. So, by integrating these IT solutions in Tampa, Miami and in other parts of Florida, SMBs will experience further growth. And that must not be ignored!

Why Your App Should Have Push Notifications

Push notifications in your mobile app come with a plethora of benefits, and are a means to engage your customers and drive quality traffic. If you want to know more about push notifications and mobile application development, Tamp-based IT companies are there to add to your knowledge. These notifications provide valuable information or updates to your customers even when the application is not used. It could be anything from a new feature in your shopping app or a viral post in your social media application. We will walk you through with three of the most important benefits of including push notifications in your application.

More User Engagement

Most of the mobile apps today have a wide user base. They are downloaded, but are not frequently used. This means that they are buried amongst other applications downloaded on a user's smart-phone. Push notifications engage users with up-to-the-minute and relevant news or information, thus improving user involvement and recognition.

Reaching Your Customers Directly 

When your customers use push notifications, they are actually allowing you to market your products or services to them right away. For example, a burger store having poor sales on Mondays can expect to improve business if they send out a push message offering a $5 discount on a certain order of  say two burgers with a soda.

More Read or Acceptance Rate

Did you know that push notifications have better read rates than email marketing? Email marketing has a very poor read rate. According to Constant Contact, this number stays below 15 percent. Read rate of push notifications, on the contrary, is much higher, at about 50 percent. Even click-through rates are  twice as higher than emails.

Push notifications are not as intrusive or annoying as the other marketing platforms, provided you send out an interesting and relevant message. According to a recent Responses, Mobile Marketing Engagement Study on 1,200 US customers, 57 percent have downloaded app and 68 percent of them have enabled push notifications on their apps. Needless to say, users don’t find the notifications as intruding.

So, if you're looking for application development in Tampa, IT firms there have the knowledge, resources and competence to include the push notification feature in your app.  All you need to do is find the right IT solution provider.

Top 4 Reasons Why Small To Mid Level Companies Should Go for VCIO Services

If you start counting down your small to mid size company expenses, the list might roll out of the doorway, especially with experts like CIOs drawing $150,000$ to $250,000 a year. But, you need these services to stand out in this crowded online trading arcade, right? Of course! But do you really need the CIOs? If the possibility of an alternative to this situation interests you, then let us suggest you the VCIO services. Basically, it means a Virtual CIO, a phenomena that is creating a lot of buzz among the IT service providers in Tampa, Orlando and other parts of the US. But the million dollar question is, can it help your small or mid size business like a CIO does? Well, let us explore what it offers to get that answer.

What is A VCIO?

Virtual chief information officer services are designed to offer you the same functions and solutions that you expect from a conventional CIO, but without costing a fortune. As the technology changes, so does the demand cycle. Therefore, now small and mid level companies are in the spotlight to either distinguish themselves or die out losing exposure and attention. But, paying for quality solutions of CIO professionals drains their revenue and limits their progress. VCIO services work under the banner of MSP and it has proven to be efficient in shouldering all the responsibilities without piling up the charges. Now that we know what VCIO is, let us check what they offer.

Strategic Planning

Obviously, your run-of-the-mill CIO also takes care of that. But, by selecting VCIO services, you are actually getting a whole team of professionals by your side. Your business strategy would be segregated and designed by different professionals to ultimately fit together as the 'big picture' you are looking forward to see. Surely, you understand the benefit of having more than one head thinking about your business benefits through strategy development. And trust us, it is the only way to make sure that the plan comes together.

Transparency and Control

VCIO services follow strict report sharing protocols with clients for complete transparency in process. So, actually you get to have full control over business ideas and technology choices for your company.

Raised Security Standards

Having not just one or two, but a whole team of professionals taking care of your technology requirements translates into high security facilities. Your sensitive business information and important client data will not be breached when VCIO solutions are improving your technology standards and usage strategies.

Affordable Solutions

One of the best features of the virtual CIO services is its feasibility. With these services backing your company, you can forget about bleeding money to pay a CIO's salary. That money would be better spent on new ventures for quick and continued growth of your company.

So, take another look at your monthly expenses and select a VCIO IT services in Tampa, Orlando or in any other place for a quick business turnaround. Getting quality solutions for your small or mid-sized company is easy now. All you have to do is to make the right decision.

Device Mesh Has Set The Ball Rolling in The IT World

According to the research and advisory firm Gartner Inc.’s Vice President David Cearley, we are heading toward a new 'post-app' era, in which we are going to live amidst a 'device mesh' — the web of wearable and mobile devices and Internet of Things (IOT) sensors that people use to find information or communicate online.  The big question is, how are tech-firms going to reap the advantage of this emerging technology trend? It is beyond any doubt that device mesh will open up new horizons for the players in the technology field, as, according to Gartner, a growing set of endpoints beyond traditional mobile devices are going to revolutionize the 'connection models'. This will not only prompt the emergence of greater cooperative interaction between devices, but will also subsequently cause a 'merging of the physical and virtual worlds'. It's needless to say that starting from development through implementation and support, the IT services will have to evolve to cope with the change. By 2018 there will be about 6 billion 'connected things', and the one thing people won't be able to do without is rigorous IT support. Tampa, a thriving technology hub in south Florida, is all set to capitalize on the new opportunities that digital mesh is likely to trigger.

The Post-App Era Is Not the End of Apps but a New Beginning for Tech Firms
 

The device mesh, which is a spin-off from the IoT, ‘will ultimately tie-in augmented and virtual reality as well as experiences that are always on’, the Editor-in-Chief of the tech news website ZDNet, Larry Dignan observed. In this post-app era, virtual services will be a reality.  They will become invisible services, running in the background, connecting the different devices and supporting data-exchange without the end user even being aware of the whole process. Consumers will no longer have to bother about the compatibility and functionality of the apps. So how do they come to know about technical issues and how do they report and repair them? This will not be a problem as the future IoT devices are expected to be capable of sending service requests and receiving it instantly. As a result, support services will have to become more intelligent.

IT decision makers across the US have already started to align their service offering to the post-app-era requirements.  The highly flexible and adaptive IT support segment in Tampa is no exception. Tech-firms here are exploring the ways of evolving their offerings to address their clients' needs when automation becomes widespread and apps become 'invisible'.

Three IT Outsourcing Trends to Watch Out for in 2016

The ever-evolving IT outsourcing landscape is braced for bigger changes this year. If you are a start-up contemplating expansion and growth, you must invest in the right IT solutions. Tampa-based firms can help. But, before outsourcing your software development projects, network maintenance or any other tasks to a third party, let's have a look into what trends are ruling the market and what are not.

Hybrid Cloud Is Making Its Way into the IT Scene

Striking the right balance between private and public cloud solutions will be one of the priorities for the companies in the upcoming days. With hybrid cloud – a combination of private and public cloud – they aspire to address multiple IT concerns relating to IT governance, data security, data and system integration, and system portability. Against this backdrop, more and more IT companies will be hired to help businesses to take a smooth transition from traditional data centers to a more open and flexible system. According to research reports, by 2018, at least 50 percent of global IT spending will be on cloud, and over 50 percent organizations will either create or partner with industry-leading cloud platforms.

Rise of Bimodal IT

Bimodal IT is set to become big in the upcoming days. It refers to the simultaneous handling of two IT delivery models. The first deals with the back-end systems, is more traditional in nature, and addresses the safety and accuracy aspects. The second mode, on the other hand, focuses on speed and agility, and is geared toward innovation and development.

If rapid innovation is what is in your mind, the adoption of bimodal IT can be your best bet. The model enables the businesses to gain some leg-up in the competition, though they might be required to give up some control around architecture and infrastructure.

A New Generation of Service Providers Emerge

Big ticket IT companies, such as Cisco, are no longer content with just selling products. In an effort to capture a bigger market, they are also offering services around their products. Emulating their big brothers, the smaller firms are ramping up their managed services capabilities. As such, the upcoming months will see more vendors in the digital technology sphere including ITO, BPO and cloud service providers to enter the market with product-driven managed services. The businesses keen on building a digital presence will turn to these IT firms.

Given the tectonic shifts in the digital technology landscape, businesses, especially the start-up ventures, should invest in the right outsourced technology firms. Some providing IT solutions in Tampa are good candidates for consideration. You can count on them to help you embrace the trends, and align your IT strategies with your business strategies.