5 Questions To Ask Before Developing An iOS/Android App For Your Business

There is no denying the fact that in this era of smartphones, mobile apps are the new digital marketing platforms essential for all businesses. Not only global enterprises but start-ups too are adopting mobile apps as a part of their business strategy. But before investing in iOS or Android application services for your business, you must have a sound knowledge of all the factors that play a part in the development of a mobile app. You must also take into consideration whether your customers will download your business’s app or not.

As an entrepreneur, you must ask yourself these five questions to decide whether your business requires a mobile app or not:

      1. Do Your Products and Services Fit Into a Mobile App Design?

Although many B2C businesses in the e-commerce sector have successfully integrated mobile apps into their strategy, it does not guarantee an instant success for all enterprises. You must evaluate the possibilities of success of your business on the mobile platform before jumping into a conclusion that you need to launch a mobile app.

      2. How Will You Acquire Customers?

Whether you design a paid or a free mobile app, it may be difficult to convince the customers to download your application. You will have to make sure that the app solves particular problems that your customers face. If the app can connect to your customers and meet their requirements, they will most definitely download your app.

      3. Are You Aware of Your Customer’s Preferences?

Before your mobile app development team starts working on your business’s mobile application, you must get a clear idea about your customer’s expectations from the app. Even while the mobile app development is in progress, you must always consider your customer’s preferences.

      4. Should Design be Your Priority?

With the numerous applications competing in the mobile marketing platform, your business’s mobile app must stand out in its design to make a place in your customer’s smartphone. If your app has intuitive interface controls and smart transitions, it can catch your customer’s attention.

      5. Is Your Business Ready to Handle the Increased Traffic?

Before developing a mobile app, integration with pre-existing infrastructure and backend systems is important. You must also consider whether the existing systems of your business are capable of handling the increased traffic and additional transactions.

Once you answer all these questions, you can decide if your business is ready to step into the mobile world. You can build your mobile application in-house, or contact an iOS or Android application services provider for the purpose. Take a methodical approach, and you will be able to identify a successful mobile strategy.

3 Main Principles Of Responsive Web Design

Web design has always been the essence of any successful marketing campaign. Whether it is the landing page of your website or a multi-product e-commerce store, it is the design that counts. Responsive web design (RWD) companies in Tampa, Florida are, therefore, embracing the latest trends and making every effort to stay ahead of their competitors. They are giving their best shot to improve user experience and help clients get more business through good design. Your website should be viewable on all devices such as desktops, laptops, smartphones, and tablets. No matter how high your site ranks in the search engine results pages (SERPs) or how much marketing dollars you spend, poor design will never convert. So, what does it take to create an RWD that converts? Here are three basic principles of RWD that you must follow:

1. Smooth Navigation

Your mobile visitors must easily find the information they are looking for, and this is possible when your website has super-easy navigation elements like menus, bars, and buttons. You need to understand how navigational elements differ from one device to the other. Smartphone screens are getting bigger with time, and therefore the touch screens of these phones require smooth website navigation for enhanced browsing experience. The same rule applies to a computer and a tablet.

2. The Design Flow

With a smaller device screen, your site’s content will fill more vertical space and anything below goes down. This is known as the flow. It may be a little difficult to understand initially, especially if you are familiar with points and pixels. However, it will start to make sense once you get the hang of it.

3. Min and Max Values

If the content fills the entire width of a mobile screen or tablet, it looks great. However, if the same content takes up the whole width of your laptop screen, it will neither look right nor make sense. This is where the importance of min and max values comes into play.

Be it a small business in Tampa, Florida or a big corporation that operates worldwide, embracing responsive web design should be the mantra if a company wants to enjoy improved conversions. Make your website more adaptive to device screens and design it to enhance user experience.

Healthcare On The Cloud

As compared to other sectors, the adoption of cloud computing in healthcare has been slow in Tampa. But not anymore. The recent years have seen many hospitals and small practices embracing cloud computing. This has been a boon in disguise for Tampa’s IT solution providers. Many of them now offer health-focused cloud solutions as healthcare data has entered a new era.

How Do Cloud-Based Data Management Systems Work?

With the implementation of electronic health record (EHR) system becoming compulsory, healthcare organizations need to choose between a cloud-based and a client-server-based system. In a cloud-based system, an organization’s data is stored on the external servers and can be accessed via the web.

In client-server systems, data is stored on an on-premise physical server, which necessitates physical proximity to access this data. As mentioned above, the healthcare sector has used in-house servers for a long time, but it is now increasingly switching to the cloud. One may attribute this increased interest in the cloud-based healthcare data management systems to the increased patient loads in the hospitals and the healthcare professionals' eagerness to provide faster and more flexible services to their patients. To maintain the speed and quality of their services, the healthcare industry has to depend a lot on the latest mobile technologies and use a bevy of web-based applications. The cloud facilitates an effortless and secure transfer of a huge amount of data to multiple locations so that large numbers of people can access them regardless of their location and the devices they use.

Need For the Right Cloud Partner

When it comes to using the cloud for storing and transferring sensitive patient data, healthcare facilities must comply with stringent regulatory standards. This calls for collaborating with a reliable cloud service provider. The right partnership ensures a smooth transition to the cloud, allowing healthcare organizations to focus on what matters the most –saving lives. With so many choices regarding the IT solution providers in Tampa, it can be challenging to find the right cloud partner that is perfect for your business. Choose carefully and choose the one that can best support your business strategy.

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.