Monday, November 4, 2019

3 Healthcare Technologies Vital For Today’s Overburdened Medical Providers

If there is one thing common in the world of healthcare, it would be the extreme shortage of medical providers across the board. From local GPs to specialists in literally every field of medicine, there are simply not sufficient numbers of providers to meet today’s needs.

Perhaps it’s finally time for medical providers to look to technology for solutions to this growing problem.

1. Internet of Medical Things – SMART Technology.

Just as the IoT, Internet of Things, has made a grand entry into the lives of ordinary people everywhere, so too can the IoMT (Internet of Medical Technology) vastly improve the lives of patients and the efficiency of medical providers.

In the past, it was left to patient observation to monitor daily symptoms that reflected a patient’s state of health. For example, wearables similar to Fitbit can communicate with providers over an Internet connection everything from oxygen and/or glucose levels in the blood to blood pressure and pulse rates. Patients suffering from a huge number of conditions and diseases can be monitored 24/7 in real-time with IoMT SMART technology. A warning alarm is sent to the provider who in turn communicates with patients – a truly time, money, and life-saving technology!

2. Data Collection and Analytics.

Have you ever wondered why your practice is operating over budget or why you aren’t receiving the payments being billed from insurers? Perhaps you are a large HMO and have noticed that your organization has been overpaying claims consistently. This can add up to a huge deficit year on year. Data collection and analytics such as the medical financial software designed and provided by FRG can run seamlessly in the background to ensure you are not being underpaid or overpaying claims.

In fact, if you are keeping up with healthcare finance news you will see this as one of the biggest issues today’s providers are facing along with insufficient providers for patient needs.

3. 5G Mobile Connectivity and Telenurses.

Just as wearables are able to save trips to the doctor’s office, so too is telenursing an up-and-coming technology at work today. Overburdened hospitals, medical clinics, and private practices are often found to be working staff long overtime hours to meet patient needs. Telenursing and 5G mobile technology are key advances in patient care. Now, it is possible for patients to be assessed by mobile nurses and practitioners from their own home. It’s not only convenient for patients but a real lifesaver for medical professionals. Many things can be diagnosed over the phone or with video conferencing and this is practical on both sides of the coin.

The current thrust of technology is leaning towards easing the burden on an industry that is severely understaffed while helping to analyze and drive cost-related data for greater profitability. It isn’t always a matter of charging more for services but locating areas where money is being wasted or misspent. Technology is thought to hold the solutions for literally every problem the medical industry faces from diagnostics to finances. It will be interesting to follow healthcare news as technology continues to advance.

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Easy Tips To Make Your Office More Appealing To Millennials 

Recently, Millennials have become the most numerous population in the active working field, surpassing Baby Boomers. However, with more youngsters fighting for their financial independence come new struggles for employers.

Millennials bring a new set of rules to their workplace and, although they still rely on strong morals and work ethics, they will easily look for another job if the current one doesn’t satisfy their needs. The new wave workers are not solely motivated by financial benefits and job security but take into account other social factors when looking for new work opportunities.

That being said, employers must cater to their psychological needs as well if they want to keep them motivated and interested in the company. One easy way to achieve that is to think about simple ideas to redecorate working spaces and make them more contemporary-looking.

Offer flexibility.

To cater to the needs of the new generation, you need to start thinking outside the regular 9-5 working hours. Therefore, before investing money in redesigning the working place, you need to keep your employees working for you.

In order to balance their jobs and private lives, most millennials will prefer flexible working hours and the opportunity to work from home. According to various studies and recent research conducted, people who work from home and don’t feel the pressure of coming to the office at a specific hour every morning are 40-50% more productive and even meet their deadlines with plenty of time ahead.

Offer hotel-like amenities.

Once you locked in your workers, you need to offer them a safe, relaxed, and creative work environment to increase their productivity.

Most youngsters are obsessed with healthy food and living an active lifestyle, so consider creating special playrooms and even gyms to make them feel more comfortable.

Gym devices will not only help them blow off steam and release tension but will also keep them healthy by encouraging them to become more active. In the long term, this will also benefit your company which will pay less sick days and medical bills.

Office perks.

Many big companies like Google, Amazon, Microsoft, Apple, and other IT companies struggle to provide the best hiring packages to keep their employees motivated.

As we previously mentioned, millennials are not only financially motivated to apply for a certain job and remain in the hiring company for years. Apart from money, they will also look for flexible schedules, gym subscriptions, gift cards, and a friendly working environment.

One easy way to keep your employees satisfied and encourage team building is to sponsor a Friday lunch or even opening an in-house cafe that provides healthy and fresh food choices such as sandwiches, soups, salads, and gluten-free desserts.

It is well known that one of the most common ways of expressing one’s personality in the millennial culture is through clothes. Therefore, stiff dressing codes don’t appeal to youngsters anymore, so consider adopting a more casual one. After all, if people will feel more comfortable wearing certain clothes at work, they might also feel more motivated and productive.

Consider wild decor.

Millennials love stepping outside the social norms, and designing a creative working place is one way to keep them coming to work. Forget about boring cubicles and adopt a common working place, similar to the ones you will find in business hubs.

For instance, Amazon invested millions of dollars into its latest headquarters in Seattle, designing a stunning workplace complete with an indoor Amazonian jungle. There are over 40,000 different plants brought from all over the world and plenty of working areas and meeting places that will stimulate the workers’ creativity.

You can also opt for green, natural decors in your office in the shape of plants or live walls made of moss and aerial plants.

You can even bring the universe one step closer by investing in space-themed art pieces, and decorative pieces like telescopes from opticsandlab.com and astronaut suits.

Include sustainable elements.

Last but not least, millennials are strong environment advocates and appreciate when the companies they work for get actively involved in reducing pollution and raising awareness about climate change. Small features like environmentally-friendly furniture made with recycled materials and energy-efficient technologies will score you big points in the eyes of your workers.

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Tips For Starting A Small Business

Anyone can become an excellent entrepreneur, there are no limits. You do not even necessarily have to own a college degree, a fortune, or even previous business experience in order to start something that can become a huge success.

However, you need a solid plan, a lot of patience, as well as the drive to see it through. Make no mistake, you will not become rich overnight!

Starting point.

If you are thinking about starting your own business, there are a few steps you have to go through, so you will not end up with a lot of wasted time, money, and energy. First of all, you need to ask yourself why do you want to start a business?

The answer to this inquiry can guide what type of business you want to start. If you simply need some extra money, you can just start a side job. However, if you desire more freedom, it may be time for you to leave your nine-to-five job and go on a different path.

So, once you find your reason, you need to answer a few more questions so that you can figure out what kind of business is more appropriate for you, and also if you have what it takes. You need to acknowledge your skills and passions. Also, what is your area of expertise?

You also need to know how much money you can spend, taking into consideration that most new businesses fail. What is the necessary capital? Decide on the type of lifestyle you want to live.

Also, most importantly, are you even ready to become an entrepreneur? When thinking about these answers, you need to be brutally honest, as it will create the foundation for everything you do from now on. If you are not honest, your business is likely to fail before it even begins.

The business idea.

If you already have a killer business idea, you are in luck. However, not everyone is so lucky, so you will need to do a little brainstorming. Think about what advancement in technology is about to come, and how it can affect the current business landscape. Think about applying your skills to a new field.

Many companies do things one way because that is the way things have always been done. In such cases, a fresh approach can make a lot of difference. If you have a business idea that is not new, you can think about how you can create something cheaper, better, and faster.

You can also consider items that are currently being used around the house, or for a particular category of people. Do you have an idea about improving these items or their usage?

For example, these bike lifts are now being made after someone’s idea about improving motorcyclists’ lives. You can also talk to other people, ask advice from other entrepreneurs, research ideas online, or use any other methods you find useful.

Market research.

This is a very important step once you decide on the type of business you want to start. You need to know if anyone else is already doing what you want. Therefore, it is essential to do some research on your potential rivals.

This step is important because it breaks down the objectives that you need to complete. You can conduct interviews face to face or by phone. You can also use questionnaires or surveys. Do not make the mistake of using only secondary research, only research, or interviewing only people you know.

Feedback.

Allow people to interact with your service or product and find out what their take is on it. Another set of eyes can show you an issue you might have missed. Also, these individuals will become your first brand advocates, even more so if you listen to their feedback and if they like what you are selling.

By launching a product, receiving feedback, and then adapting before you push out the next one, you can continually improve and ensure that you remain relevant. Solicited or not, some of that advice you will receive will also be good. Some of it will not. For this reason, you should have a plan on how you receive feedback.

First of all, do not jump to conclusions. Take the time to digest the information you received. Thank for every advice you get, be it positive or negative. If nothing else, you will surely gain respect. Also, make sure you search for the grain of truth. Just because you received negative feedback, it does not mean that the entire service or product is bad.

If you hear the same thing from several people, you should start seeking out the patterns. Another important thing is to listen with curiosity about what a customer has to say. You will give him or her a sense of power, and leave the impression that they matter to you. Last, but not least, ask questions.

Find out why someone likes or doesn’t like your product, or what could you do to make it better. You know what they say, two heads are better than one, and who knows what great ideas you might get for a truly successful business?

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Why Power Backup Is A Must For Commercial Buildings

When it comes to running a business, it’s always important to have a plan in hand. Whether it is about how you intend to run the business (a business plan) or what your contingency plan, like should there be an unexpected interruption that can hinder your business.

One such unforeseen incident is a power outage. Commercial buildings host a variety of businesses on their platform leaving them responsible for a continuous supply of the basics – electricity, water, and other facilities. Electricity being the lifeline of businesses today, can you imagine what happens when there’s a power outage and how this can affect businesses within? The most immediate result is a halt in daily routine and loss of profit/revenue as an after effect. In fact, ITIC, a mutual insurer, reported that 98 percent of organizations say one hour of downtime costs over $100,000.

Many commercial businesses are investing in a simple power back up – the generator. A must-have in almost all buildings and businesses alike, commercial power generator’s benefits are limitless. Thus, a continuous supply of electricity is made available on site despite power outages. This helps mitigate disturbances that are caused owing to a lack of power supply that could potentially affect business profits and maintain safety on-premises too.

Effects of a power outage on commercial buildings.

Blackouts in commercial buildings can cause serious issues in businesses like:

  • Loss of revenue
  • Safety issues owing to IT challenges
  • Security risks
  • Lack of trust from customers of all types of businesses
  • Unturned Inventory
  • Decreased employee productivity
  • Damaged equipment owing to power surges

The list can be endless. Whether your commercial building houses retail stores, medical facilities, financial corporations, and the likes, every business is dependent on electrical power. In 2016, the Amazon website was unavailable to customers for 13 to 15 minutes. This short lapse in itself cost Amazon, $2,646,501 in revenue. This shocking figure demonstrates the impact a power outage or lapse can have on a business. Commercial buildings must invest in having a proper contingency plan in place that protects businesses against losses that can occur during unplanned power outages.

Why invest in commercial generators?

A generator, typically powered by mechanical energy like gas, petrol or diesel, can protect your business interests by providing an electric current when the regular power grid is disrupted. A power failure can happen due to bad weather, animals tampering with power lines, a blackout or even scheduled maintenance. Whatever the reason, it is important as a commercial building to ensure generators on-site are in fully working condition and maintained. Cold seasons can bring about difficulty in starting generators, this shouldn’t be the case and during maintenance, it must be brought to notice that there are techniques like adding an oil preheater to ensure a smooth start.

A commercial building can benefit from investing in a generator for the following reasons:

1. Seamless running of lights and HVAC.

A commercial building can have heavy footfall with customers bustling in and out making purchase decisions and transactions. Most people appreciate having lights on in stores to avoid dark corners and complete visibility of surroundings. It is also worth noting, most buildings have facilities like heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC), etc. that aid in the general environmental comfort of the building. Having a generator on-site can ensure these work seamlessly despite power interruptions.

2. Keeps computers, systems, and communication ongoing.

Electronic devices can get damaged with the surge of electricity that passes and leads to loss of critical data. Generators in place help keep online systems, electronic devices, including computers in fully working conditions eliminating chances of loss of data. Should there be refrigerators stocked with perishable goods, top quality generators like the Able brand generator, ensures continuity of power preserving stock? Hospital facilities are heavily reliant on electricity for their coded life systems and emergencies. A commercial building housing medical facilities need a steady flow of electricity.

3. Security at all times.

Almost all properties have CCTV installed for security and vigilance. In a commercial building, where there is a mix of businesses or even one type of business, CCTV usage is critical. It ensures a daily recording of people entering, exiting and of all activities that take place. Should there be a theft, suspicious activity, fire or any type of incident that could jeopardize the safety of people in the building, CCTV cameras allow to keep eye on such things. An extended power outage can cause a lapse in these images being recorded. Such downtime can prove to be a window for several serious offenses to take place, like theft. Even if you had an emergency alarm in place, without electricity, even this wouldn’t work. If it is a tall story building, imagine getting stuck in an elevator without electricity? How long for?

Installing a silent standby generator can keep all businesses running seamlessly until the normal power supply is back.

In Conclusion: Invest and put your mind at rest.

There are many reliable, efficient and pocket-friendly standby generator brands. A reliable and top quality brand will ensure a smooth installation, all the way till maintenance. Many businesses are slowly but surely including standby options in their contingency plans to avoid costly outages. Discuss with a generator dealer about the generator type, transportation, installation, and routine maintenance plan to ensure needs are met. Having a maintenance plan in place ensures businesses across the building are supported during short or long power outages. Some generators also come with smart solutions like remote start systems and easy connect ATS plug. Make sure to go through all product specifications and features to see if it matches your power requirements.

Another recommendation is to read through the warranty terms and conditions to understand coverages and durations. In case there is a faulty product, as a commercial business, you can return or exchange the product within the specified period. Budget early and spend on a generator, rather than spending millions to recover that which is lost.

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Sunday, November 3, 2019

Generation Agile: 10 Tips How To Lead Effectively A Newly Outsourced Development Team

In our market today, successful teams are those that adapt, grow, and thrive in the rapidly changing tech scape. Consumer demands are evolving, technology is growing bolder, and industry leaders are adapting. Agile, as the name suggests, is modeled with adaptability in mind.

Agile project management and team leadership are best showcased by leading a team of developers in completing software development projects. Agile can also be applied across numerous other industries as an effective project management approach.

Agile At A Glance.

Agile is here to stay. In the 13th Annual State of Agile survey that was conducted, around 97% have cited to be implementing Agile methodologies, with most having used for 3 to 5 years. Scrum is the most popular Agile methodology, with Jira, Microsoft Excel, and Microsoft Project, being the most popular tool to be used in Agile project management. And most importantly, 46% of those use Agile methods extend the practice towards managing outsourced projects.

Advantages of Agile Management.

So why is Agile project management methodologies that popular?

It’s adaptable. 

One of the basic tenets of Agile software development is responsiveness to change and working on what is identified as most important at a given iteration. Priorities can change for any given iteration, and the development team, with the support of the team leaders, adapts accordingly. 

It’s versatile.

One of the basic tenets of Agile software development is responsiveness to change and prioritizing the most important at a given iteration. Priorities can change for any given iteration, and the development team, with the support of the team leaders, adapts accordingly. 

It’s efficient.

Agile management implements rapid cyclical iterations, where each iteration focused on a specific requirement for the project. Each iteration covers the entire development lifecycle from design to comprehensive quality control and reviews as outputs are developed. These iterations are time-bound and with progress reviewed by both the team and the client. These rapid iterations ensure that there are tangible outputs that as the project progresses. Agile development team adaptability ensures that any changes along the way are incorporated into the iterations, reducing the impact on the project as a whole.  

It’s flexible.

The rapid and cyclical work iterations enable clients and team leaders to be more flexible with releasing the project. The more traditional approach is to ensure all requirements identified at the start of the project has been developed, then release the product to the market. With agile, the project can be released in stages and with sufficient functionality to be usable. Adjustments can be made along the way, but releases still push through. 

It’s proactive.

Traditionally, all the project requirements, timelines, designs, and deliverables are defined and hashed out before starting development. In contrast, Agile development teams approach a project by breaking down requirements into iterations and phases. They then build functionality and features as they iterate through the project. Less documentation and planning are involved at the start but the project incrementally grows in this approach. 

However, there are challenges when employing this leadership team development approach.

  • It’s not easy to learn or adapt when starting a project.
  • Lack of a clear understanding of how to best apply Agile methods and processes.
  • Agile methods and processes do not fit the current work culture.
  • Challenging to predict the outcome of projects.
  • Adapting to scale.

How to Lead a Team of Developers the Agile Way.

Agile software development teams are not only popular but are effective in producing high-quality products. To lead such teams can be a challenge. Here are a few tips on how to best lead a team the agile way.

Team Management

1. Define your goals and objectives.

It is best to start any project with everyone having the same goal. Each agile team works on a specific feature or tool that is a part of the 1 system. They must be empowered and have ownership of their assigned features. Their successes are theirs as much as it is the entire group. As a leader, your priority is to ensure everyone on your team knows and understands the goal of the entire project. You need to ensure that everyone is working towards achieving it. 

2. Manage both team and individual tasks.

The most critical aspect of Agile software development is the consistent and continuous delivery of defined requirements. Great Agile teams are those that can provide consistent velocity in delivering quality outputs. As a team manager, your most essential responsibility is to ensure consistency and quality in delivered outputs for the project. And managing tasks, and managing them well, goes a long way to ensuring this happens.

A few tips to managing tasks:

  • Track EVERYTHING! From todos, ideas, technical debts, issues, research, all of it!
  • Ensure that everyone is tracking everything that they will and are working on.
  • Ensure everyone has access to and is using the same platform for tracking their tasks.
  • Review and revise your tasks. Breakdown large tasks into smaller and more manageable ones. Take note and monitor dependent tasks.
  • Only work on tasks when it is at its simplest complexity, otherwise, revisit the previous tip.
  • Assign and breakdown tasks according to how your developers perceive them.  

3. Encourage and support collaboration within and among teams.

A great team leader ensures that developers will have minimal impediments in their work as possible. This requires leaders to collaborate and communicate with the different teams and departments (design, operations, and product managers) to flesh out as much of the needed details before development starts. Another attribute of a great leader is the capability to encourage and support collaboration amongst your teams.  

4. Make your teams compact and diverse.

Agile software development teams are small and compact, usually numbering around 5 to 9 per team. Compact teams help ensure streamlined communication and collaboration within the teams, which then leads to better performance and output. Teams also need to comprise of members that are skilled across the development stack. This ensures that teams are independent and capable of managing and developing their tools for the entire development cycle.

Communication

1. Build and sustain communication lines.

Communication is key to any group dynamic. As the leader, you need to build a communication line with and among your teams. Choose a platform that everyone can diligently use. Encouraging open communication within teams will help smoothen collaboration and improve their productivity.

2. Regularly check in with your teams.

Because teams are working on their features and tools, project and team lead need to regularly check in to ensure everyone is up-to-date with the progress of the project. This can also be an opportunity for teams to communicate their concerns, blockers, and ideas that may affect them, other teams, or the project as a whole.

Regular check-ins are also great when monitoring the performance and health of the teams. Leaders can use the following metrics to measure team health.

  • Cycle time of tasks
  • Number of accepted points per contributor
  • Number of accepted stories
  • Number of outstanding bugs
  • Number of introduced bugs
  • Delivery date shifts
  • Average daily production deployments

Quality Control.

1. Establish a quality control process.

The agile method ensures that projects are broken down into iterations and phases. All teams are expected to deliver quality outputs for each iteration based on identified requirements and design. Each iteration goes through the entire development process from design to deployment. It is important to include quality control processes in each iteration to ensure the quality of outputs that the teams are delivering. 

2. Prioritize and manage your technical debts.

Technical debts are tasks, features, action points, or improvements that need to be done but have been sidelined to complete product deployment. Technical debts are unavoidable in software development projects. It is the project leader and team leaders’ responsibility to ensure that technical debts do not pile up and end up being the only thing that the developers are working on.

Great Agile team development leaders can space out the process of addressing these technical debts and ensure that they are continuously paid. Just like any task, leaders also need to review and, when necessary, break down these technical debts to actionable tasks. 

Capacity Building.

1. Encourage continuous learning.

Software development requires developers to continuously learn and practice their skills. Leaders are the ones that anticipate team needs and future projects. Leaders should encourage teams and individuals to continue developing and building on their skills. Not only will they improve themselves but will also improve the productivity, efficiency, and capabilities of the team as a whole.

2. Be a mentor.

Leaders are all about keeping the big picture in mind, but also helping the individual to grow and develop. Great leaders and great mentors. They groom their developers by providing constructive and helpful feedback and advocating for best development practices. They contribute to building the capacity of their developers by delegating tasks of increasing complexity. They also encourage peer programming for better technical guidance. Overall success is measured by the success of the individual.

Being agile means moving from a conventional and traditional management style to a more dynamic and agile team roles and methods (pun unintended). Agile development management teaches responsiveness, interpersonal relationship skills, and adaptability in leadership team development. Once you know your needs and management style, the way to hire a team of developers for your project will be easier.  

Learn, grow, and be the best Agile Development Team leader you can be!

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Friday, November 1, 2019

3 Strategies To Revitalise Your Business

The greatest painters in the world stole from their predecessors. The finest writers of our generation are eternally indebted to those that have gone before them. In the wellspring of the arts, thieves are the kings of the future.

So why shouldn’t the world of business hold the same principles?

If you’re a budding young start-up hoping to hit upon a great business premise, then here’s our top tip – steal (ideas) from the best.

That’s right, nick USPs like you’re a member of Fagin’s child army, but instead of passing them off as your own, blend their best elements to create an end product that’s unique.

Use every business you research to feed the beast of your creativity, and pretty soon you’ll find your most lucrative niche.

To give you a helping hand, we’ve put together a few of our favourite businesses, all of which have maintained their success for a decade or more. Give them a peek and let the inspiration flow.

SNS Group.

The SNS Group are a rarity in the communications agency world – a long-lasting company that’s consistently updated its image. Established in 1988, they’ve moved from strength to strength creating magazine, staff portfolios, instructional videos and other titbits of visual content for companies like SPL, Asda, Sky Sports and the Scottish Daily Mail.

Based in Glasgow, the secret to their success is clear – they’ve moved with the times. Their evolution to become a multi-service visual media and content provider has slowly but surely added new strings to their bow, making them a first-class proposition in a crowded marketplace.

JD Wetherspoon.

Riding on a wave of controversy over his promotion of Brexit, JD Wetherspoon’s owner Tim Martin’s expert business acumen is usually lost in a sea of political bluster. Yet the continued success of the Wetherspoon’s pub franchise is one of the true triumphs of the high street.

The presence of Wetherspoon can be felt in almost every city or town centre, offering cheap pints and budget food. In July 2018, the company turned over £1.69 billion, a marked increase on profits from 2017. A large part of their profits relies on how easily they’ve become a feature of the United Kingdom, refurbishing established buildings and maintaining their uniqueness to create a pleasant drinking environment unlike other budget venues.

Dyson.

When it comes to household appliances, fewer names are bigger than Dyson. And while it’s become a huge global entity, it was originally created by James Dyson in the United Kingdom in 1991. There’s every chance that you’ve got a Dyson product in your home or place of business, whether it be a vacuum cleaner, air purifier, hand dryer, heater or hair dryer.

The Dyson name has become synonymous with quality, marking itself as a supreme manufacturer in its field. It goes to show how effective marketing can make a huge difference to the perception of a product.

That’s our list. Hopefully they’ve give you a dash of inspiration. What companies do you think stand out from the pack? Let us know in the comments below!

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6 Awesome Tools To Make Your Startup Smarter In 2020

by Gaurav Gupta, Founder of Square Boat

Startups are all the rage these days with innovative minds coming up with novel ideas and transforming them into reality. But wanting to materialize a product or service and sustaining its operations are two different things. Although help comes in the form of diligent teams and reliable investors, in order to come at par with established names, a startup needs to rope in useful tools and resources which can standardize things. Such tools not only help bring order to the day-to-day work but also cut down costs drastically and speed up the time to market which are two very critical considerations for every startup.

There are a plethora of such tools available online and they’re customized to suit different operations. From recruitment to CRM, project management to marketing, there’s a tool for everything be it for managing work, tech stack, etc.

If you’re running a startup and looking for some handy tools, picking the right ones might be somewhat of a challenge. But that’s where we come in! We’ve conducted extensive research and compiled a list of the 6 must-have tools and resources that can make your startup smarter in 2020. Join us as we list down the coolest features of some of the most useful tools you can utilize this year.

1. Amazon Web Services (AWS).

One thing that every business definitely needs is reliable, flexible, and easily scalable web hosting. Today, there’s only one platform offering such a service, and that’s none other than Amazon. Amazon Web Services, also known as AWS, is a web hosting service that offers over 90 facilities like content delivery, database storage, and much more along with world-class scalability and flexibility.

Key highlights of the platform are:

  • It is spread across 44 availability zones within 16 geographic regions around the world. So whatever be your location, AWS has you covered.
  • It offers multiple backup methods including AMIs and EBS snapshots.
  • It provides the right tools for any disaster recovery plan.
  • It is flexible, scalable, and extremely reliable.
  • It offers Pay-As-You-Go pricing
  • It is highly secure.

2. Aha!

Basically a marketing planning tool, Aha! also lets you chart your product roadmaps by setting a product strategy, collaborating with the product and engineering teams, and creating visual roadmaps. It focuses on mind mapping and takes creative visualization a level higher.

Key highlights of the tool include:

  • It integrates seamlessly with Google Analytics, Microsoft Azure DevOps, Jira, Rally, Microsoft Teams, Salesforce, Zendesk, and Slack.
  • It lets you track and share the ROI of key campaigns.
  • It lets you clearly identify which activities are the main contributors to your acquisition goals.
  • It lets you manage campaigns and visualize marketing programs.
  • It allows you to publish your plans as images, PDFs, or secure web presentations.

3. Mighty Networks.

Despite doing good work if you don’t use the right channels to popularize it, it is of no use. In today’s social media-driven world, you need tools that can take your products to the right groups and communities. You need to engage in discussions and create the need of your products in order to tap into the right customer circles. Mighty Networks simplifies building a digital community where you can post events and publish content. It is a customizable, widget-driven, API-first community platform that enables users to discuss and connect under brand names. You see how this can benefit, don’t you!

Key highlights of this platform are:

  • It lets you create polls and questions to engage with people
  • It allows you to start direct one-to-one or group chats
  • It lets you create a private, secure alternative to a FB group that you own and control
  • It allows you to organize people around activities, causes, or creative pursuits

4. Deputy.

When you’re heading a fast-paced startup, you can’t waste time managing everyday activities. Why not make a tool do it? Deputy includes an impressive suite of features like PTO, payroll, employee scheduling, attendance management, and much more to help you manage your teams effectively. All you need to do is feed the relevant information into the tool and it will take care of all the work.

Key highlights include:

  • It lets you schedule staff based on budget, availability, and training.
  • It lets you track employee time through an efficient time tracking feature.
  • It builds the premise for smooth workplace communication.
  • It integrates seamlessly with your existing payroll, POS, and HR software.

5. Trello.

In the world of free tools, Trello is probably one of the winners. It is a task organizer tool that helps you sort your team’s development efforts efficiently. With Trello, all aspects of product development can be centralized in one location for your entire team to access. This can include code components, product specs, marketing plans, etc. Trello also makes project management easier by allowing you to assign tasks to the right people, receive status updates, and track milestones.

Key highlights of this tool are:

  • It allows you to add comments, attachments, and more directly to track-able cards.
  • It stays in sync across all your devices.
  • It allows you to interact with your teammates from anywhere.
  • Trello boards, lists, and cards enable you to organize and prioritize your projects in a fun and flexible way.

6. Glasshat.

The most important thing that your website needs to catch the public eye is a good SEO ranking. And hitting the bull’s eye with SEO is not a child’s play. But why worry when you have an awesome tool like Glasshat at your side! Glasshat is an extremely efficient SEO tool that helps you plan your digital marketing activities. Not only does it prepare a list of activities for entrepreneurs, but it also makes them aware of which activity they should be picking up in which order to make their startup successful.

Key highlights of the tool include:

  • It lets you start with as little as one keyword for which you want your site to be ranked.
  • It analyzes your website and auto-suggests keyword ideas.
  • It crawls your website quickly to generate a list of things you can do to rank your website higher.
  • Its machine learning algorithm collects and analyzes thousands of data points across your competition for every keyword you want to rank for.
  • It allows you to filter SEO actions by category, keyword, page URL or simply by the time it takes to complete it.

Wrapping it up.

That’s it for this list folks! We worked pretty hard to get all that information for you and each of these tools is sure to help your startup become much smarter in 2020. We hope you’ll be able to take away some real pointers from this list and start using some of these tools to ease your operations and management. If you think we missed a great tool, feel free to let us know in the comments section.

 

Founder of Square Boat, Gaurav Gupta was one of the earliest software developers at SlideShare-LinkedIn which was followed by working for companies like Naukri.com, Educomp, Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, etc. He is a techie not only by profession but also by passion and believes that going online is the future of education.

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