Is Responsive Design The New Mantra Of Business Success?

Responsive web design (RWD) is big in Tampa, Florida, as it is in the other parts of the US. Ever wondered, why are your competitors taking so much interest in the model? Have you ever considered giving a 'responsive' twist to your own business website? If you haven't yet, you should. And NOW. Read on to know why.

What is Responsive Web Design?

It's not that only software startups or tech firms need to invest in online presence. Whether you are a popular beach-side bistro or a startup hoping to capitalize on the Tampa Bay area's budding medical tourism industry, taking your brand online is an absolute necessity. You will need to develop a digital marketing strategy to gain that exposure. And your website is central to that strategy. It acts as a digital brochure providing an in-depth description of your services and products and other information about your business. At a timewhen more than 50 percent of users access websites through their smartphones, building a traditional website is not sufficient. Businesses, both established and start-ups, have to take on the challenge of making this information available on the go, from a plethora of connected devices. And RWD enables businessmen to provide a 'hand-held website' to their customers.

So how RWD does help? A traditional website design that looks great on a desktop may not fit into a mobile screen. Users have to constantly move the screen and zoom in and out in their attempt to navigating the site. Most of your visitors won't take this trouble and would instead hop on to the next available choice (and that would certainly be your closest competition). RWD is a design concept that offers a comfortable browsing experience to your visitors.

RWD and Your Business

RWD enables the website to 'adjust' to the device in use so that the user can comfortably browse through the pages. However, this is the primary, but not the only purpose. It also allows for changing site layout dynamically. For example, you can make the call-to-action appear on top of the site to make your visitors see your offer right after opening the page. It also helps you to leave out certain information that you do not consider important for your mobile audience. All these play a key role in boosting sales conversions.

In our hyper-connected world, the right website will quickly yield dividends for any organization, be it a big name in its niche or a fledging business. Your business in Tampa (Florida) needs responsive web design in order to appeal to its target. Believe us, the growth resulting from this change will be well worth your money spent.

Choosing The Right Technology For Your Web Application

Every day a host of new startups begin their – hopefully long – journey in Florida. Some have the backing of good venture capital, some don’t. Some boast top technological knowhow, some do not. But the majority of them share one common trait – all of them have to manage with a limited human resource. Only a few companies can afford to start their maiden venture with a big team. So what about the rest? They simply have to leverage technology to overcome this lacuna. Now there is a problem – most of the enterprise tools and applications have been developed with the big establishments in mind, and hence are not suitable for the start-ups. And therefore, these new players have no choice left but to use customized tools and apps programmed to meet their specific business needs. And with this, web application development has taken a new, interesting turn in Florida.

Developing your own tools and applications is rife with their own unique challenges, but you must undertake it. You need to choose the right technology to implement the right solution. Here is how to proceed:

Understand Your Requirements

Evaluate your ultimate business goals. Write down exactly how you expect this application to help you achieve that. Also identify your business' problem areas that you want to overcome with this solution.

Break Down Your Requirements in Small Modules

Divide your application requirements into modules based on business logic. Forget about implementation at this phase.

Identify the Solution Type That Best Suits Your Requirements

Now that you have a clear idea about your requirement, plan the core modules of your solution. This, in turn, will give you a clear idea of exactly what type of application you need. For example, if you have a predominantly market or product specific requirement, you surely need an e-commerce application. However, if your primary requirements are related to content delivery, then what you need is a good content management system (CMS) application.

Web applications can help start-ups overcome a lot of business hurdles in a competitive business space. With more and more start-ups turning to technologies to manage their day to day operations, web application development is big in Florida. Do you think a customized app can be the answer to your business management needs? Then get your own application built from the scratch. But make sure to partner with a trusted name in the market.

5 Pillars Of It Consulting Services

In the field of management, information technology (IT) consulting refers to a discipline focused on providing organizations with advice on how best to use their various IT assets to achieve their business objectives.  It's not only the big ticket companies that avail these services, even small and medium businesses hire consultants to guide them in all matters relating to IT. A good case in point is Tampa, where IT consulting firms serve both big enterprises as well as SMBs. If you are a start-up with a well-defined growth plan, and if you are keen on making the most of your IT assets, a consulting firm can help you in the following five ways:

By Providing Information

Consultants will furnish you with accurate, up-to-date information. They would typically want to know exactly what ways you are planning to utilize the information, and accordingly gather the relevant data through market and attitude surveys, cost and feasibility studies, and competitive structure analysis of an industry or a business. 

By Solving Your Problems

Every businessperson faces different types of challenges that may range from procuring a component to changing the company’s branding strategies.  IT consultants explore the context of these problems and offer the most practical solution in a way that does not interfere with the company's existing policies or affect the employee morale.

By Offering a Diagnosis for Your Existing Issues

IT consultants are expert diagnosticians. While offering their diagnosis for a problem, they consider several internal factors such as a client's financial health, the technology the client uses, the behavior of non-managerial members of the organization, and the external environment.

By Making Recommendations Based on the Diagnosis

Based on their findings, IT consultants submit a report summarizing their findings and recommending what the client should do. The report, at the core, provides a step-by-step action plan aimed at improving the diagnosed problem.

By Assisting With the Implementation of Recommended Solutions

Consultants also help to translate recommendations into actions. In coordination with the management, they help to install a recommended new system. Generally, they suggest necessary actions only for those areas where the company is willing to do things differently.

Your IT assets are expensive, so you must make the most of them. An IT consultant can tell you how. Cities like Tampa have shown how even SMBs can gain from the IT consulting services. Why not follow suit and optimize your IT infrastructure for your business growth? 

How Cloud Solutions Are Changing The Mobile Workforce

The last couple of years have witnessed Florida emerge as an important technology hub in Florida. There is little wonder that the city's IT firms are trying to reap the maximum benefits out of the situation. The IT companies in Florida are leveraging numerous tools to improve their performance. Cloud-based applications have a significant impact on a company's mobile workforce. Based on the findings of IBM, workspace hosted on the public cloud shall increase by 44 percent in the next few years. Read on to learn how cloud applications are changing the dynamics of the mobile workforce.

Mobile Security

Today, employees do not differentiate between company-owned devices or their employees’ personal mobile gadgets. This only makes digital devices more vulnerable to virus and security attacks. This is the reason many businesses are using the cloud application gateway to protect their business data, while offering their employees the liberty to work from anywhere, anytime.

Effective Teamwork and Collaboration

Cloud-based applications allow employees to log into their devices and work from any corner of the world. With the workspace housed on the cloud, staff members can work in collaboration, ensuring effective teamwork. Files are easy to download, documents are easy to share, and data can be modified no matter what device the employees are using.

Email Management

With the incorporation of cloud to an office suite email, all authorized employees can stay in constant touch through emails. They can share calendars, plan subsequent meetings, and even manage their corporate emails with cloud-based solutions. No longer do businesses need to perform boring and tedious tasks such as upgrading or installing add-ons because all such aspects will be managed by the service provider. Employees can spend more time on strategic actions and do away with routine jobs.

The integration of cloud applications is a digital boon for the IT companies in Florida. Businesses should seize the opportunity and make their mobile workforce more productive and efficient to gain a competitive advantage over others.

What Value Does Managed It Services Have For Businesses In Florida?

Managed IT services have grown exponentially in terms of value for Florida-based businesses. Traditional monitoring and support services form the main functions of these managed IT service providers in Tampa and other places comprising the Florida Tech Corridor. Most of the managed service firms have an efficient consulting team in place that enables companies to simplify the way technology is purchased. These firms can also customize the process to meet the unique business needs of their clients.

What Is the Scope of Managed IT Services?

Managed IT services excel at providing businesses with comprehensive coverage as well as continuous delivery. They provide efficient support services and monitoring. This includes infrastructure support, application services, advisory services, and cloud design and development.

How Do Industries Benefit?

With the aid of managed services, companies based out of Florida can expect to reduce the cost of their operation by almost 40 percent. When a business employs managed services, they experience improvements in the handling of their surge capacity; the process becomes smoother and the possibility of glitches in their operations deceases. Business risks are also reduced considerably. It is the job of the managed IT services to ensure that there remains a flexible resource pool that excels at providing exact skill-sets which the business requires to control expenses related to development and research.

Progressive managed IT service providers in Tampa and other parts of Florida tend to make innovation a reality with excellent speed, and drive revenue. They ensure that users enjoy unlimited access to hard-to-get, professional quality resources, which may be customized as per the needs of the business. Every company that hires managed IT service providers also receives a service level guarantee with amazing customer support.

Be Careful Of 3 Mistakes Of Mobile App Development

Businesses have rightly realised that if they want to reach out to their customers in this competitive market, development of a mobile application is the ideal way. According to Google, mobile traffic is now surpassing the desktop traffic in the USA. So, if you want to target customers of New York, Chicago, Detroit or Tampa, then the custom application development process should meet the required necessities. Usually, developers follow a long development cycle as well as testing stages before launching the mobile app. But in spite of those checks, some of the applications fail. Here are some of the reasons behind the failures :

Wrong Platform Selection

Of course, there are quite a large number of mobile platforms available in the market, but the most popular of them are iOS and Android. As a developer, you need to understand the value of each one keeping in mind the market you are targeting. For instance, if you are using iOS, you can generate greater revenue in the USA because iPhone apps are very popular. But if you are targeting the global market, then Android should be the selected platform. Unfortunately, many developers fail to comprehend this difference and end up selecting the wrong platform, which affects the success rate of the apps.

Ignoring Mobile UX

Many developers tend to forget that functionalities of a mobile app are very different from a website, whether it is in term of scope or size. This is a mistake that you must avoid because an app store like Apple disapproves of such designs. So, developers should always create an app which is easy to understand and is highly customizable. If you want to create a mobile version of the desktop app, do not copy the desktop design because that decreases the chances of the app getting accepted.

No Market Strategy

Unless you market the app, there are lesser chances of getting recognised, no matter how awesome, unique and well designed it is. There are thousands of apps being released every day. If you want to find a place for yours then a strategic market plan for targeting the audience is significant.

If you are looking for a company to develop such custom application development in Tampa, Philadelphia, Denver or anywhere else in the USA, make sure you consult with the team on these factors before hiring. Mobile app development mistakes can cost your business dearly. So, craft the right road-map for the success of your app. 

On The Lookout For A Managed Security Service Provider? Consider These Attributes

Of course, your corporate data is your biggest asset. It consists of customer details, financial information, sales figures, and more. You must, therefore, go the whole hog to protect your online systems that store these data. There are many start-ups or mid-sized firms in Tampa that don't have the resources to create a foolproof security system in-house. Tying up with a managed service provider (MSP) and outsourcing your data protection tasks to this strategic technology partner may be the answer. Your MSP partner will be responsible for keeping your data protected from unauthorised access. But how do you choose the right managed service provider in Tampa, which is an emerging IT hub and have no dearth of technology firms? Find out by reading our tips. 

Bank on Referrals

As with any personal investment decision, referrals tend to be the best way to find an ideal tech-partner in your city. Customers who have availed a company's services and are happy with it would generally recommend the service to others. 

Look For Global Experiences

As far as managed data security services are concerned, global experience carries significant weight. A powerful global exposure provides a company the knowledge of best practices.

Check Track Record

Firms that have a proven track record always have positive testimonials from happy customers. These reviews are therefore a great way to judge a firm's past performances. So while researching the market, visit the recommended company's sites to check what their previous customers have to say about them.  

Check Their Internal Performance Metrics

A well-defined service performance metrics in place indicates that the firm in question aspires to exceed expectations in delivering their services. This means they believe in forging a long-lasting partnership. Such firms typically assume the full ownership of the project and work with utmost dedication.

Given the competitive nature of Tampa's business landscape and the sophisticated nature of cyber-threats, it has become crucial for businesses to opt for managed service partnership for the safe storage of their mission-critical data assets. As long as they choose a managed service provider wisely, Tampa businesses can keep their IT infrastructure safe and sound, and keep on thriving. A mistake in the choice may mean just the opposite. So remember our tips and choose right.