Tech Friday

First and foremost, you must know the formula: set specific goals and step-by-step think through the journey. You can surely do it yourself or follow our recommendations to make it a bit easier and avoid common mistakes. 

We assume you already have a clear picture of what you are going to sell, who the target audience is, and what's more important, you've already decided that it will be an online store. So, what's next? 

We've been dealing with ecommerce for a while now. That's why we have come up with an essentials kit to launch an online store. In short, it includes: 

• domain name & hosting, competitors analysis;
• design and development;
• promotion and marketing.

Looks plain and simple, right? Now let's dive a bit deeper. 

We'll start from the beginning and share some tips on the domain name and hosting.

This item comes as the first on the list and for a good reason. Hosting is the place where your online store will dwell, and the domain name will be its address. Which one to choose depends heavily on your budget and plans. If your online store is relatively small, then a $3 per month fee may be sufficient. If the ecommerce business grows, it will be necessary to reconsider the hosting plan.

As to the domain name, it's usually the actual name of the online store. Yet, if it's already occupied, you'll need to think of something else. Our experience shows that in ecommerce, this problem can be possibly solved in three ways:

1. You can try and buy out the online store domain name. As the practice shows, it's actually an option and not that expensive. 
2. Play with the name by adding an extra word or hyphen. 
3. Finally, you can always think of a different name. 

Going further to competitor analysis, research the main competitors' activities taking these actions:

• Find companies with similar business models and products with the help of Google and Amazon.
• Poke around social networks to find more information about their brand and communication style.
• Create your competitor list, including basic info like their shop name, website, strengths, weaknesses, social following etc. In a perfect world, you should select 5-10 competitors.
• You should include data on their: market share, main differentiators / unique value-add, price points, shipping approach, etc. 

To reveal some specific elements of your competitors’ approaches, you might consider adding more sections to your competitive analysis:

• Features on competitors' websites (search tools, product images, design/layout, etc.)
• Customer experience elements (cart abandonment strategy, customer support, mobile UX, etc.)
• Social media approach (channels, frequency of posting, engagement, etc.)
• Content marketing tactics (blog topics, content types)
• Marketing tactics (types of promotions, frequency of discounts, etc.)
• Customer reviews (language used around products, recurring complaints, etc.)

If you managed to do all mentioned things - well done, the preparatory stage is finished (as well as the first part of our “How to start an online store” podcast). 

Hello everyone! Anytime you work with technology, you need to learn to harness the benefits and minimize the downsides. Today we keep on speaking about AI advantages and disadvantages. 

NO SLOWDOWN

AI computing power bypasses humans in speed and quality of work. It is stronger in modeling and forecasting, combining large data sets. AI reduces the time of reviewing insurance claims. It takes days for an insurer to come up with a decision. An artificial intelligence mechanism can cope within minutes.

FEWER CHORES

For households and basic tasks, AI assistants can understand and synchronize data between all the devices like phones, cars, tv, and even fridge. Thus, it is possible to control them from any point.

AI-powered smart homes not only make life simpler and more dynamic but help to save money and reduce water and energy consumption.

BETTER FORECASTS

Meteorologists can trace potential severe storms faster by analyzing clouds movements with the help of AI.

Researchers use computer vision and machine learning to detect coming cyclones in real-time. This functionality allows us to prepare for natural disasters. Besides, the weather determines the best time to plant and harvest crops.

BETTER RESOURCES DISTRIBUTION

AI can reduce the power consumed by houses and machines. Whereas, machinery lifetime and efficiency are likely to increase. AI can run the most profitablе appliance algorithm.

For instance, indoor air control improvement relates to AI sensors usage. They adjust and maintain the desired humidity and temperature in the room.

LESS DISEASE

An AI wearable device can monitor a person 24/7 and ensure fast diagnostics and disease prevention. Image-based artificial intelligence can help doctors reduce the time they spend studying data of a patient.

AI algorithms can help doctors assess risks for health. They will be able to know the side effects that various medicines can have beforehand.

Now let's switch to the Disadvantages of AI

FEWER WORKPLACES

AI will impact more than 95% of jobs either by displacing or complementing them. Moreover, the effect will be uneven for various industries. AI will hit harder laborious areas such as manufacturing, agriculture, and logistics and cause a decline in manual work.

NO ABSTRACT THINKING

What comes instinctively and without any specific preparation to humans is hard for robots. Artificial intelligence is mindless.

LACK OF ETHICS

Morality or fairness measurable for a machine is hard to design and convey. AI can hardly be taught what is right unless the engineers provided this concept.

To prevent disastrous outcomes, we need to realize the relevance of ethical principles.

MORE SLOTH

People let AI think on their behalf since there is no need to learn something or memorize. One can always ask a machine.

Dependency on a machine is a matter of individual choice. This technology needs to be used wisely to avoid abuse and unwanted consequences. At Zfort Group we know how to apply AI.

How can your company take advantage of Big Data? Reach out to Zfort Group to get expert consultation.

That’s all from us for now. For a detailed version, you are welcome to check the dedicated article.

Until next time! Bye!

We are Zfort Group, thanks for joining. Today on Tech Friday we’ll go through the pros and cons of AI as a distillation of the dedicated article. 

Let’s start with the main Advantages

LESS ROUTINE

Artificial intelligence automated our day-to-day work and surpasses humanity in meticulous tasks. The robots can assume work related to analyses, subtle judgments, and problem-solving. AI at work decreases the workload, empowers humans to upgrade their skills. Free from monotonous work, employees can focus on the creative aspects of their jobs.

LESS RISK

AI capabilities for dangerous tasks reduce the risk to human well-being and safety. Artificial intelligence technologies help to overcome limitations. It can help to predict wildfire threats and fight it with the help of drones. Modern AI-driven robotics and autonomous underwater vehicles access to the seabed. Marine ecosystem data sheds  light on the variety of species. AI-powered robots  handle radiation. They can deal with a catastrophe and remove pieces of debris, especially after disasters.

NO BRAKES

People need to have refreshment from time to time.  AI-powered machines reinforce humans. They won’t get tired, bored, or distracted. Artificial intelligence-based robots will not need a break. Once programmed for long hours, they will work 24x7.

NO HUMAN ERROR

Physiology, fatigue, stress, emotions, aging hinder decision-making. An overly-stressed doctor or pilot of a falling plane might make a fatal mistake. AI computers are error-free (if adequately programmed, of course).

Eliminating costly errors leads businesses to higher output. Customized AI can improve the decision-making process. Its set of algorithms uses nothing but already collected information. Our AI Development Company can help you to unlock the power of artificial intelligence for your business.

We wrap up here, be sure to tune in to the next part of this podcast.

Bye!

Hello, this is TechFriday. It’s great to have you with us again!

Today we’ll talk about what’s possible with AI in business, learn about innovative use cases and products.

Artificial intelligence is not an imaginary future. It is here and now. AI is more than auto-complete in our search engines, more than self-driving cars. Artificial intelligence enables machines to sense, comprehend, learn, and act.

First off, AI can be divided into two categories - weak (narrow) AI and strong (wide) AI.

The one existing in our world today is weak AI. It means teaching a computer to perform one task, no matter an easy one or complex. A chatbot answers questions, personal assistants organize and maintain the information; Google map routes calculate different options for the most effective way, recommendation engines usher users to choose specific products and services. Weak AI can outwit humanity only at a particular task, but nothing else. Even much simpler things are beyond its powers.

At the opposite extreme, a more extensive simulation of humanlike intelligence is strong AI. Capable of behaving wisely,  from driving a car to answering abstract questions. It can replicate human cognitive skills, apply data from one field to another. Strong AI is supposed to be aware of itself as a person and experience consciousness. Strong AI is still a theory, like science fiction, but already controversial in its moral values.

Artificial intelligence technology can help you to build up agility, decrease costs, promote productivity, lessen setbacks, and cut failures. AI innovations will bring more value with less input, driving sustainable growth to the company.

Still, AI initiatives planning should be viewed through the lens of particular business powers rather than technologies. A thorough review of business goals and internal processes is crucial in getting the most of AI. With the toughest business problems uncovered, it will become clear which component needs an AI to deploy - scale, decision-making, personalization, or energizing some legacy systems. This strategy will lead your business to the sort of future you want.

At Zfort Group, we’ve developed extensive expertise in the artificial intelligence area. For more than 20 years, we’ve been helping various companies to build intelligence into their products and reinvent their businesses. If you want to gear up for the future with AI, hit “contact us” on our website.

This is all for now. AI pros and cons coming up soon! Catch us next time!

Hello, today, on TechFriday, we are talking about Big Data analytics. 

In itself, Big Data is just a massive chunk of meaningless data. Until it is processed and crunched into structured sets.

Recent stats show that companies using Big Data have grown from 17% to 50% since 2015. With the boom of big data, more and more industries adopt Big Data technologies. How?

Let's begin with Healthcare. How does this sector stand to benefit from the implementation of big data analytics?

The fundamental concept lies within the development of electronic health records. EHR is a system that collects and stores data related to an individual's health. It contains the patient's disease and ailments' history, all the hospitalization records and doctor visits, laboratory tests, vaccinations, examinations, allergies, or any other related facts. Many experts claim Blockchain to be a good technology choice for EHR: it fulfills completeness of data, its protection, and verification.

Combining Blockchain with Big Data and AI makes it possible to use millions of EHR's for detecting hidden dependencies between a disease along with other side-factors as social, territorial, age-related, demographic, etc. The synergy of these three rising technologies allows creating a diagnostic system of a brand new quality level. 

Now let's switch to Retail.

Big Data contributes to retail business automatization. On average, managers spend half of their work time on goods reevaluation, which still isn't accurate enough due to human factors. In addition, who can guarantee that the process operates seasonality, stock available, supply and demand structure, competitors' activities, etc.? That is why large retail chains switch to automatized price reevaluation using Big Data technologies. 

Using this method, Amazon is adjusting its prices every two minutes. Big Data also plays a big role in making strategic decisions when developing a new entity. By analyzing competitors' locations nearby, transport access, potential customers' income rate, their habits, and preferences, it gives a comprehensive idea of the territory's commercial potential for future business. 

What about Law Enforcement? Big Data algorithms are applied in cybersecurity. They detect suspicious activities before they occur and alert companies about potential fraud. Nowadays it’s a must for many businesses to take care of enterprise data security. 

Big Data analytics also helps the Police to combat criminal activities. Predictive policing presupposes software with statistical data. It can predict in what geographic areas there is an increased chance of criminal activity and guides the Police in their decision-making.

How can your company take advantage of Big Data? Reach out to Zfort Group to get expert consultation.

That’s all from us for now. For a detailed version, you are welcome to check the dedicated article.

Until next time! Bye!

Hello everybody!

In our previous TechFriday episode, we’ve discussed what a typical PoC is and how to build it. The Proof of concept in software development is not the same.  The thing is that they serve different purposes. What does it mean?

Chances are you will face unpredictable challenges when developing a product for an existing enterprise or enhancing it.

Proof of concept in software development is needed to resolve technical issues, find a particular answer to a question, or test new features.

Like, how a particular integration can be achieved.  As a result, you understand if your software development idea can be performed and which technologies can help you do that most effectively.

In software development, PoC is a must because:

1. You save time and money if the concept won’t work or have guarantees that the idea can be put into life.
2. You choose the right technology from the very beginning. 

Imagine you need to introduce new technology to cut costs in your company. Everyone knows it is a good motive, yet, there is a question if software development can solve it. 

Or: you work at an insurance company, and it would be great to save time and effort spent on every car insurance case examination. Integrating a solution powered by Artificial Intelligence will ensure this optimization. Proof of concept in software development can project and plan this. 

If the proof of concept shows that the idea is doable, you can proceed with a prototype, then MVP, or even start developing a product. 

Zfort Group has been a software development leader for decades now and can consult for proof of concept or produce one. We can develop a proof of concept for a number of domains, such as fintech, insurtech, logistics, Internet of Things, healthcare, etc. 

That's all for today. Thank you and stay tuned for the next episodes of TechFriday.

Hi all, 

In this Tech Friday’s episode, we’ve talked to Marvin Liao, an Early Stage VC Investor, former Partner at 500 Startups. He’s now in the frontline of the startup ecosystem helping teams to survive. 

You can read the full interview on our blog. And here, we have some key ideas highlighted for you.

The first, and most positive news is that VCs continue investing their own money, unlike many startup accelerators which have put their funding on hold. So, there’s no need to panic, as you’re still able to raise money.

Another important idea Marvin has shared was that nobody actually knows how long the crisis is going to last. Assuming we get a handle on Coronavirus, and we get a better perspective on what's happening and if there's a recovery in summer, then the market will come back in September. If we don't have a handle on this, it might be not for a good while. 

The market is gonna shut down for a long time. A lot of folks are just not gonna be spending money. There will be deals being done, but the valuations will come down a lot. The market from the fundraising perspective will come back in September, assuming the overall economy will go back to normal. And if it doesn't, it'll slowly come back in 2021.

A vital thing every startup founder has to concentrate on, is looking at the cost structure. Putting the hiring process on hold, accounts receivables, etc. Any sales that you can try to push to close, if you're fundraising, close whatever you can, close right now. So it's a combination of bringing new money in from either present investors or new customers. 

Well, all advice comes regarding managing the money you have right now.

Process optimization won’t include any new partnerships and opportunities. A crisis is more about managing what you have right now. Don’t extend and attract any new obligations and collaborations. Focus narrowly.

Along with struggling economic sectors like restaurants, travel, offline entertainment etc., there are industries experiencing growth: anything related to remote work, remote education, remote companies in general. 

If you look at Zoom, they've done incredibly well! Then, Slack has become so critical for so many companies. Whether you're publicly traded or a private company, anything that helps remote work or infrastructure is good. Even gaming as well, a tool for entertainment. Being locked in a house for 2 to 3 weeks or longer, you can see core work functional products, software products, like Loom, video products, Figma, etc. Products have become much more mission-critical today. So looking at these sectors, from an investor’s perspective, might be a good idea now.

Telemedicine is undoubtedly a growing trend and we'll start to see the real use case of telemedicine. For a  lot of other companies, it's not as clear they'll make it. Pretty much bullish about that space, even there are a lot of competitors. It's a very good thing from both investors and customer's perspectives.

Another positive impact is that more and more companies are going to realise that good software can be created by distributed teams. There are cases already; there are companies already successful with their fully remote and distributed teams like Close.io, GitLab, GitHub, Buffer, Zapier, InVision. There's a lot of very good software companies. And the reality is that a lot of Silicon Valley companies in the last one or two years have become 100% remote. That will happen to many other companies in the post-Coronavirus world. Most startups are remote by default now, and it's a growing trend.

Hi All,

 Today on TechFriday, we are going to talk about the steps to make your PoC effective.

In our previous episode, we’ve rounded up the tools to introduce your idea, proof of concept, minimum viable product, and prototypes.

Decided to start with a PoC? We’ve prepared some tips to ease the flow:

1. Define the goal of your project.

At the early stages, you should have a clear picture - what needs your product solves. Then analyze the market, identify competitors, and ensure your offer is better in a certain way.

2. Organize a team.

Have the right people assist you during all the production stages, from planning to analyzing potential clients' feedback to improve the proof of concept.  At Zfort Group, we have expertise.

3. Don't neglect the testing.

Have your potential clients test the product. You'll discover some possible mistakes as well as it'll help you realize if you are moving in the right direction. Also, dealing with your target audience will help you set success criteria to measure its productivity.

4. Document your PoC.

We recommend having everything you do documented. It helps analyze the feedback and decide on the next steps. It's essential for keeping the team well-informed of the entire process.

5. Make a presentation of your PoC.

Having your idea communicated can hardly be overestimated. It would help not to lay out the facts and figures but also elaborate on the proof of concept goals, the big idea behind it, and the audience's needs.

This is it for now! Thanks for listening. Soon, we’ll talk about the peculiarities of proof of concept in software development.

Hello, and welcome to the series of podcasts dedicated to Proof of concept!

More and more businesses start not with an MVP or prototype. They present ideas with a PoC. Let’s see how it works.

 Behind every business, there is an idea. How can you tell it will work out? How to attract investments, resources, and expertise to a project.

Any investor wants to see a comprehensive concept, financials, and sound reasoning to invest in your product.

That is why Chief Innovation Officers (CINO), business owners, CEO's, Project Owners, and start-up owners turn to the proof of concept.

PoC presentation contains the product's core goals, functionality, design, and unique features. It shows how to put the idea in place and for what kind of target audience.

Proof of concept is applied in many industries. In software development, POC is used to test new technology or functionality. Here at Zfort Group, we can assist you in developing one.

A prototype is the project's next step. It implies a working POC model that can be tested. The prototype has the full functionality that investors or potential clients can try. It serves the two primary goals. To win more investment and to detect and fix bugs.

After that goes MVP, its main goal is to launch a business and collect real-time data from the competitor's data. MVP entails minimal functionality aimed at the product's end-users. MVP can identify the project's financial success.

That’s all for now! If you want to find out how to keep your PoC effective, listen to our next episode.

Today on TechFriday we are going to talk about big opportunities in insurance. You’ll learn all you need to know about Insurtech and discover inspiring success stories of the top 10 Insurtech companies in 2020.

So, what does insurtech mean?

As you've probably guessed, the word comes as a combination of "insurance" and "technology". It means, Insurtech extracts value from old school insurance but has a hands-on approach to create convenient and unbiased insurance products.

AI, Big Data, Internet of things catalyze InsurTech growth. As an Insurtech AI Development Company, here at Zfort Group we see a huge leap our clients are making toward a cutting edge insurtech that goes hand in hand with the customers’ reality. 

Why is this happening? Living in the technological world, Insurance consumers see no point in navigating piles of paperwork anymore. They are not willing to deal with sales agents driven by commissions instead of the customer’s best interests.

As a result, insurers all over the world evolve and reinvent themselves. Now the whole industry cannot afford to stand still. So, how does instrutech work?

Well, Insurtech works from the customer’s pocket: its platform is a gadget; its connection is the Internet; its priority is customer convenience. Clients research, compare policies and buy online personalized products based on their individual interests without any approximate client groups.

Social networks, wearable gadgets (from GPS tracking of cars to the activity trackers on our wrists) help Insurtech companies to receive relevant information in real-time. Then insurtech AI refines data sources, makes it possible to choose the perfect program for the specific customer. Insurance tech space gives customers better conditions based on their own traits.

This way, Insurance tailored to the specific customer's needs and behaviors put them in charge of their own fees. As a result, customers enjoy lower insurance premiums. What's more, insurance technology reduces insurance claim processing time. It ensures immediate communication with the insurer at any time. Here are some examples of insurtech companies breathing new life into the insurance business.

• The first one is Trov, one of today’s digital insurance leaders. Headquartered in San Francisco, Trov operates in 5 countries and has raised $114m of funding. AI tech powers the company to offer its white-label insurtech platform for mobility, retail, rental, and finance. For example, one of Trov’s recent product launches was a personal auto & mobility insurance app designed to align with auto-owners’ needs.
• Another example is ZhongAn, China’s first online-only insurance company, based in Shanghai. It has become the country’s largest insurtech business with a total market capitalization of HK$38.5 billion. The company aims to reshape insurance by applying Big Data analytics.
• Next comes Lemonade, an insurtech company providing policies for homeowners and renters. The total funding amount counts at the moment $480m. Lemonade uses chatbots to process claims and underwrite policies. It strives to move away from paperwork and bureaucracy. For instance, a few years ago, Lemonade handled a claim in three seconds, setting a world record in the insurtech world. The business positions itself as insurtech driven by social good. A user can select a non-profit organization to receive funds from the unclaimed premiums.

Surprised that insurtech is so diverse? That’s not all. For more information, you are welcome to check our articles WHAT IS INSURTECH and TOP 15 INSURTECH COMPANIES IN 2020.