Entrepreneurship, Technologies
The December holidays are the perfect moment to look back and celebrate the best things that happened this year. Or in the case of Scio, celebrate all the technologies that manage to make our lives a little easier in 2021, which is why we are taking a look into one of the most surprising tech resurgences: the QR code and all the solutions it brought to us during the pandemic.
It can’t be denied that, for a moment, the idea of receiving information just by scanning a picture sounded like something out of an old Sci-Fi novel. And for a brief period at the beginning of the New 10’s, QR Codes (and the whole idea of “Augmented Reality”) seemed to offer a preview of that exact future.
It didn’t turn out quite like that, sadly. Although it had its particular applications, QR’s never lost a certain “novelty” vibe, a gimmick that most of the time brought more complications than true convenience.
On one hand, the need for a special reader capable of recognizing these codes (which not many phones at the time included right out of the box), and a stable Internet connection to actually check the content was already a high barrier in 2011.
And on the other, integrating QR’s in any kind of visual design, like in an advert, was always difficult, because they almost never mesh well with any composition, so it’s easy to let them overshadow every other element of the image.
So QR Codes, although an interesting idea, looked like an artifact of the smart device boom of the 2010s, and by the end of the decade, the world seemed ready to leave them behind.
What happened, then?
If we look closely at this Google Trend graph, we can see how the search term “QR Code” had its first sudden popularity spike in years. The date? August 22nd, 2020.
We all know why. Thanks to the pandemic, we were forced to take distance from everyone else, and a lot of our normal interactions had to fall back on technology, forcing us to look for quick solutions in a time we couldn’t do anything else.
This graph is about the United States only, by the way. If we look at a worldwide trend, well…
We can see a noticeable growth signaling that QR codes maybe are finally here to stay. But beyond the pandemic, what does this resurrection means, and why has this technology becomes part of our daily life?
A story of highs and lows
These codes have an interesting story, because their popularity has never been uniform, and it has suffered a somewhat fluctuating implementation for the last 30 years.
Let’s not forget that “Quick Response Codes” have been around since 1994, as an invention of the Japanese automobile industry, used to codify the biggest quantity of information possible, while compatible with the notoriously tricky kanji alphabet (at least in regards to software).
This huge amount of info in every code (inspired by the grid of a Go board) made QRs codes popular, and little by little it started to see some applications beyond tracking auto parts: virtual business cards, instant Wi-Fi connections, and even the aforementioned Augmented Reality.
And even after this tech didn’t seem to have a bigger impact among consumers, it never really went away, becoming an expected feature of many smart devices which, along with better mobile Internet connections, made QR codes singularly well-positioned when the pandemic demanded quick and trustworthy solutions.
By condensing a lot of important info or giving a quick link to elsewhere without any direct contact, things like menus, information about attendance capacities at any place, or any change of services announcements could be conveyed through a QR code, making them an important tool to take care of our health.
And this late adoption doesn’t show signs of stopping; just as we can’t imagine a near future without medical masks or anti-bacterial gel, QR codes are now a normal part of our daily interactions in many places, probably on their way to becoming a normalized and accepted means to interact with our world.
That’s why we celebrate a technological solution that we took for granted at some point, or whose real value needed a very specific context to shine: when the distance between us became a necessity, a simple code and a camera gave us a way to keep parts of our daily life functioning.
Agile Methodology, Customer Experience, Mobile, Nearshore, Outsourced Engineering Team, Product Development, Technologies
When building any kind of company, there are steps you must take that will do the most to ensure your success. These steps are especially lucrative when building a company that works for other companies such as the ever-growing industry of software-as-a-service. It may be difficult to know on your own what are some of the ways you can ensure success in your software service company. To make it simpler for you, we have compiled a couple of the ways that you can see to it that your company has the best shot of success.
Keep it simple
Because software is often self-serve it is best to keep it simple and easy to use considering the majority of business owners aren’t computer geniuses. Making it more user-friendly will mean that more people will want to use your software for their business. Keep it simple, tidy, and user-friendly.
Never stop improving
O
ne way that a lot of software service companies fail is that they become complacent with their software. A good software service company listens to their customers and continuously improves and updates its product to make it work even better and smoother. Monitoring what the consumer is saying allows the software service company to cut out unnecessary functionality which ties into the “Keep it simple” rule.
Offer several different packages
You should always have more than one package available where the first and lowest functioning one is basically free. From there you can increase the price per software based on customer needs, usability, willingness to pay, and ROI.
Display a path to profitability
Oftentimes a company will not be profitable simply because they invest their resources to sustain growth. Good service software companies must show that they plan to be profitable in the next few years and that they have a path to profitability. The best way for a company to achieve this is to hit profitability every couple of years before reinvesting.
Offer the perfect mix of services
Offering the right amount of services can be difficult for a company but it is highly lucrative to the success of a said company. On one hand, they increase revenue and reduce churn rates whereas on the other hand they reduce margin and increase deployment time and cost of sales.
Commit to the success of your customer
One of the most important things to remember when growing a software service company is to sign new customers as well as commit to grow and secure its recurring revenue from previously signed customers. To accomplish this, the company must be monitoring its customer’s usage levels continuously as well as send them customer satisfaction surveys and product updates among other things.
These are just a few of the major points to remember when you are trying to build a successful and profitable software service company. Along with these, you will find that you discover things that work for your company and your specific product and what does not.
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Agile Methodology, Customer Experience, Technologies
Need to test your app?
Software development can be complicated, often involving a high level of knowledge and expertise. And even for those with development experience, working out all of the issues within an application to ensure that the client is provided with an acceptable solution can be difficult. It is for this reason that many software development companies use a QA or quality assurance team for testing apps. Here are the best practices for quality assurance in software development.
What is Quality Assurance (QA)?
In essence, QA is simply a means of making sure that the demands of the client are met with a high-quality product. Assessing the quality level is typically the job of the team member that is filling the QA role. The primary goal for a quality assurance professional is to ensure that the end product is not hindered by any defects introduced during the development phase. In most cases, software that has been developed for a client will be given to the QA analysts for testing before it is deployed.
Why are QA Best Practices Important?
There is an array of reasons that utilizing the best practices during software development is important. First and foremost, the QA role will have an arsenal of automated tools that help in working out issues within the software. These tools can be used to assess scripts, validate applications, and provide an overall structure for the engineering workflow.
Another thing that makes the QA role valuable is their understanding of the code that is being used in the application and this can help them to identify trouble spots that must be worked out before delivering the product to the customer. Once the QA department has discovered a section that may be problematic, they can review the code and make educated decisions on the steps that should be taken to remedy the situation.
QA Leads to Lower Development Costs
It is no secret that software development is a time-consuming and expensive process. Any unwanted delays or coding issues can end up costing significant amounts of money and may deter clients. And while some may argue that it can be expensive to retain personnel for QA purposes, their role within a software development company is vital. After all, it is always better to provide a client with software that has been thoroughly checked for quality issues, than to give them a program full of glitches.
In Summary
There are few roles in the world of software development that are as crucial to the success of the final product as that of a QA professional. By allowing the QA team to test code scripts before they are received by the client, you will help to ensure that the software will function correctly once it has been deployed. In addition, the QA role can actually lower costs by detecting issues before they are noticed by the customer. When you are having an application developed, make sure that it has been put through the proper quality assurance steps. A new tendency is to stop separating the QA role completely from the Developer role, so developers themselves test the software and help maintain automated tests up to date, achieving the required testing and making sure no issues are kept before delivering the solution to users.
Customer Experience, Nearshore, Outsourced Engineering Team, Product Development, Project Management, Technologies
Every business, big or small, has a great number of activity going on at all times and has a lot of things that they need to keep track of. This is why businesses ranging anywhere from a large chain to a singular freelancer can benefit greatly from a business management software. A business management software is a software or set of programs that has the ability to perform certain business operations as well as the ability to measure and increase productivity. When you are first starting out you may be trying to keep it all in a spreadsheet or, if you’re a freelancer, you may just try to keep it all in your head. As good an idea as this may sound at first, it will likely end up in chaos and your business will suffer for it.
Why Business Management Software is so important!
One of the biggest reasons that you will need a business management software in place is the previously mentioned measurement of productivity. When you are beginning a new business endeavor it is crucial that every employee or component of the business be working at optimal productivity. If your employees or you yourself are taking the time to do the tedious tasks that the software can do, you will be wasting precious time that could be applied to more important tasks. By using the software in place of manual labor, you will free up a lot of time to spend on customers and building your business!
This software will also help employers and business owners to see what their employees are doing with the ease of just a few clicks. This is through the calendar that makes it possible for employees to check in. You can also assign a project to any given employee and track it through this same software. This means that you won’t have to chase down the project leaders to find out the status of a project!
You can also save important documents through this software. Because it can bog up computers when you have all of the documents saved on your hard drive you have limited options. One option is to have external hard drives. However, it can take a while to go through multiple external hard drives when you are looking for a specific document. This is where a business management software comes in handy. Once documents are created they can be automatically saved into the software and they will be in arm’s reach whenever you need them!
How to choose a Software Solution?
Overall, there are multiple ways that a business management software can help your business to grow and succeed. They can be a pricey software but they are definitely worth it if you find the right one. A good idea would be to choose one that has a free trial and allows you to take any data with you when you leave if you decide not to proceed with them. This will allow you to make an educated decision on what you want in your management software. Having this software in place is definitely something that you should do as early as possible to get optimal use out of it.
An even better choice is to invest in a custom business management software because that means that it will be tailor made for your specific needs and wants. This will make it even more helpful for you and your business. When you’re thinking about your business, you will want to get the best software possible and that is custom software in most cases!
