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What Dominant Travel Apps Teach Us: Travel Application Leaders

The mobile phone industry dominates the market in terms of online interaction of users. The reasons are a personalized experience, cheap mobile data and of course, mobility.  Therefore, it is vital for companies to incorporate quality features in their travel apps in such a populous business environment.

The example of dominant travel apps can be taken here to identify the essential factors that can convert a regular travel app into an excellent travel app. Some important aspects of travel app development can be understood by reviewing some of the industry’s leading apps of 2019 and Chatbot solution.

Dominant Travel Apps

AirBnB: AirBnB started with a revolutionary idea of enabling locals to offer hospitality services to travelers across the globe. Guests are provided access to AirBnB databases and Chatbot for enterprise where they can view available rooms as per their preferences and use keywords for specific locations such as ‘close to cochin port’ for easy exploration. The hosts only need to have decent spare rooms, good food, and a will for hospitality. The service covers approximately 81,000 cities in 191 countries across the globe and it also offers personalized experiences and tours at specific places across the globe. The app has over 50 million downloads which show its popularity in the industry.

Google Trips: This is a travel organizer app from Google and Mobile app development that needs no introduction. It is a new entry in the travel industry that boasts more than 500,000 downloads. The app is available on Android and iOS platforms and facilitates both online and offline access and works as a travel planner that allows customers to plan their schedule and scout places. Since it is from Google, customers only have to sign in with their Google accounts to access its multiple features.

Tripadvisor: This is one of the top companies in the travel industry. The company is popular among customers worldwide and boasts more than 100 million downloads and is available in both iOS and Android.The app is known for its authentic customer feedback and reviews. The app offers everything from flight bookings to hotel bookings along with a wide array of additional services such as comparing airfares, tariffs, and discussions on Trip Advisor forums.

Culture Trip: This is a relatively newer addition to the list of top global travel apps but the user reviews reflect the quality of services facilitated by it.The app has more than 100,000 downloads and features a variety of services including wishlists, guidance from locals and insider recommendations.

Lonely Planet: It is also a new entry in the field but loved by its customers. The app is available in different variants as per the specific needs of the customers. Some examples are Guides by Lonely Planet and Trips by Lonely Planet.The app is focused towards providing wholesome travel solutions including services such as city guides, offline access, wishlists, and currency converter along with some unique features like audio phrasebooks that allow customers to use and translate local phrases for better communication.

New enterprises willing to enter the industry must consider the features of the industry’s leading apps and try to incorporate those in their travel app development process. Here is a detailed explanation of a few features that a travel app must have to get customers’ attention and add value to their services.

Flights, Hotels, and Cab Booking Facility: Almost every leading travel app features various types of booking facilities as it offers maximum convenience to the users. They do not have to switch platforms for flight, hotel or cab booking. Some of those apps also feature a loyalty program that offers special discounts to members. In addition, partnering with airlines, hotels and cab companies increases the visibility of a travel app as it gets multiple platforms for the promotion. It has a wide scope for Mobile app development in Singapore.

Specific Filters for Popular Spots and Attractions: In today’s day and age, finding attractive locations and vacation hotspots across the globe should not be an obstacle for a customer. A travel app that features filters that can segregate popular places in a travel destination is loved by customers. In addition, integrating wishlist or ‘suggestions from locals’ feature to the filters allows customers to prioritize their visits as per their schedule and/or preferences.

Integration of Users’ Personal Account to their Social Media Accounts: Maintaining users’ personal accounts on a travel app is a great way to collect organic data. This helps in understanding users’ behavior and their lifestyle. In addition, authorizing registration through social media accounts of the users will speed up the process and help the business gather more data through users’ social media profiles. Since the majority of mobile users are also active on various social media platforms, sharing their status or media through a travel app will promote the app as well.

Navigation: Once they arrive at the destination, many travelers wish to explore the place on their own for a genuine experience. This may seem an expensive feature and in fact, it is one but it adds sophistication to the app and convenience for the user. Google offers Google Maps SDK both for Android and iOS.

Multiple Payment Gateways: This is another great feature as the customer can prefer his/her payment method. In many parts of the world, plastic money and online payments are preferred over cash payments. However, the security of online payments is still an issue across the globe. A travel app that is inclusive in nature must facilitate payments from the channels that are accepted worldwide. Some of these channels are Paypal, Google Wallet, Amazon Pay, Paytm, and Apple Pay. This enables customers to use their preferred payment method without the chance of a failed transaction.

Users’ Feedback/Ratings/Reviews: Modern customers rely heavily on ratings, reviews, and feedback provided by other customers. This also helps is creating awareness and offer genuine information about a place, hotel or a service provider. Although an ideal travel app should contain brief information about the hotel, restaurants and cafes, the reviews and ratings can add authenticity to the information.

For instance, the deciding factors in one of the travel app leaders, Trip Advisor is its reviewing system. Reviews provided by the customers have been helpful to many and therefore, customers trust Tripadvisor.

Offline Access: This is an aspect ignored by many travel app development agencies. The app must be accessible without internet and certain features such as wishlists, reviews and descriptions about places and hotels should be available without the internet. While it is true that navigation and payment are only possible with the Internet, but the app must also provide access to basic features in the offline mode.

Notifications for Deals and Offers: Customers and budget travelers are always looking for discounts and deals. An integral feature of a travel app is to inform the customers about the latest and trending deals. This is possible through real-time notifications for reduced prices, cash back, exclusive offers, and membership programs.

Apart from these features, the company has to be mindful of critical factors such as safe transactions, choosing the right app development agency and overall cost of app development.

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How Workforce Automation has Reshaped Various Industries?

Automation is much more than robots powering factories and manufacturing plants. Although this indeed is the best example of workforce automation, the concept can be applied in all modern businesses. Whether they be small or large, whether they belong to healthcare, real estate, or the education sector, workforce automation principles can be applied to some of the other tasks in order to save both time and resources.

According to statistics, the finance sector holds the most potential for automation, with around 80% of all tasks having a possibility of automation. Learning and development lag behind in this respect, with only 12% work having a potential for automation. On average, every sector, every industry can automate around a third of its workforce.

The need for automation has always been there. In order to save time, resources, and effort, and smoothen over the operations of any sector, automation has proved to be an effective solution. The degree of automation, however, differs from sector to sector, as stated before. Over the years, automation has seen a rise, owing to AI and other revolutionary technologies that have aided the adoption of automation in the workplace.

Automation in the Workforce Today

Workforce automation today takes a lot of forms. Starting at the smallest step possible, when we see something that is to be done repeatedly, we naturally look for automation alternatives. Finding something that needs to be done more than once, which also adds value to the process, is a prime use case of workforce automation.

With the development of cloud-based platforms, workforce automation has become much more reachable to all businesses. Contrary to the past, where automation meant having expensive servers and having a team of experts on standby to maintain them, automation today involves cloud-based technologies, where the need for physical servers is eliminated, thus shaving off a large portion of the cost. This makes workforce automation tools and Mobile app development in Singapore accessible to small and large companies alike.

Examples of Some Common Workforce Automation

Workforce automation today has crept into all industries imaginable. Whether it be a small business or a large one, some or the other kind of automation is being used by everyone.

The smallest form of automation. Email marketing is one form of workforce automation that is used by even the smallest of businesses. Nowadays, one can find products in the market that allow you to tailor your email marketing campaign to your needs. Without any human intervention, these kinds of workforce automation products can be used even at the lowest of levels to save time and resources.

Healthcare Industry

When it comes to workforce automation in healthcare, there is a 29% potential for automation, as studies by EY report. Of this, nurses and other technicians, which form an integral part of the workforce, can be automated to an extent of 33%.

Cloud-based workforce management solutions, such as GE Healthcare, and WorkForce software provide easy automation services for all use cases. These workforce automation solutions help you cut costs, comply with regulations, and control excess costs, without any human intervention.

Manufacturing Sector

Perhaps the best example of workforce automation and Chatbot development comes from the manufacturing sector, with robots being used to automate all manufacturing processes. Although this might seem utopian, this is more than just a possibility now. With technologies such as AI and machine learning powering the equipment of today, automation in manufacturing, with the aim of replacing human labour with machine labour is getting incredibly close to fruition.

Education Industry

On paper, the learning and education sector presents the least potential for automation, but the numbers are significant enough to consider this thought. Reforming how education is delivered, using the principles of workforce automation, has been talked about since a long time. Nowadays, Enterprise app development company workforce automation products, which are a step above the conventional teaching aids used, are being deployed, to replace human labour with machine labour. Although the age-old debate of humans vs. robots as teachers still remains, it is to be seen how the advent of technology can bring about a change in this mindset.

Real Estate Sector

The real estate spans sectors ranging from finance and marketing to property management. The question ‘how to automate your real estate businesses’ is a frequently asked one, and workforce automation in this sector has boomed.

Products like Thoughtonomy, and their real estate automation solutions, provide services such as automatic real estate listings management, client and buyer background checks, and finance automation.

What the Future Holds for Workforce Automation?

Now that we’ve adopted automation, we are only going to adopt it more. The potential for its use in sectors far and wide is huge, and some of those use cases have been discussed above. As time progresses, more and more complex applications of workforce automation will surely come up. Technologies such as machine learning are expected to act as the catalysts for these complex use cases, with newer forms of smart automation being made possible due to these technologies.

The combination of AI,mobile app development and machine learning is sure to provide some exciting workforce automation opportunities and chatbot solutions in the near future. As software learns, it becomes even more adaptive, thereby widening its range of complexity of tasks that it can achieve. As time passes, one can only expect workforce automation to reach dreamy heights. Accessibility, and complexity, both are bound to increase, and it is only for the better.

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Plant Productivity System: Why Manufacturing Companies Should Opt One?

Boosting productivity remains one of the main goals of any manufacturing organization. Traditionally measured as the total units of output per unit of input, productivity represents the amount of useful work produced for the effort put in.

When it comes to manufacturing or mobile app development company, productivity is the total sum of the various number of factors, including employee efficiency, equipment, and process efficiency. Therefore, it makes sense to calculate your current productivity levels before you go about trying to increase them.

Here, we talk about how to figure out your current productivity levels, how to increase them, and what can plant productivity system offer you in this regard.

How to go about Calculating Plant Productivity?

A step by step procedure to calculate plant productivity in the manufacturing system is described below. Before you try and increase the levels of productivity at your manufacturing floor, it is essential to follow these steps and figure out where improvements take place.

Getting the Definition of Productivity Right

Productivity is not about how much you pay your labour; it is about how much the labour gives back to you for what you pay them. Therefore, the focus on labour costs per product when calculating productivity. Chatbot development helps in measuring productivity of any organisation.

An efficient productivity calculation should be able to tell you your ability to take raw material and churn out useful products, and not a set of costs related to a single part of the process.

The formula to measure productivity remains as simple as this-

Productivity= (total output units)/(total input units)

Get Multifactor Productivity into the Picture

Instead of focusing on productivity as a single concept, divide it into factors that affect the process. For instance, consider a plant that produces motors, plant productivity is the total sum of the raw materials productivity, labour productivity, and capital productivity.

A plant productivity index of mobile app development in singapore that focuses on more than one factor is bound to give you the bigger picture and deliver more scope for improvement of productivity.

Try Not to Overlook Crucial Parts of the Process

While calculating plant productivity, we often tend to forget two significant factors. These are the production time and the role of employees other than those working on the floor. Measuring the unmeasurable, in some respects, thus becomes essential when calculating plant productivity.

Time is a crucial aspect of productivity. For example, if one manufacturing company takes three days to ship out an order, and the other takes a week, their productivity will inevitably differ. So, time is an instrumental factor while calculating productivity.

Strategies For Improving Productivity

Once we know what is meant to improve and where we can design appropriate strategies and methodologies to improve plant productivity. Subsequently, we also talk about plant production system, and why manufacturing companies should opt for chatbot solution.

Strategies For Improving Plant Productivity

Examining the existing workflow. Procedures, tools, people, processes, and technology- everything comes under the workflow of a system. Analysis of this workflow is the first step towards improving plant productivity.

Develop plans for improvement of business processes. Working with project managers, and discussing problems with people that know what is happening at the manufacturing floor is the next step. Systematic evaluation of performance and analyzing all appropriate changes subsequently follows.

Update your tools. With the advent of technology and mobile app development, it has become easier to get more high-tech, smarter tools for machining purposes. While these machines may be costly initially, their long term benefits outweigh the initial costs, and it becomes more productive to get high tech machines even if we have to spend more,

Maintenance is important. New equipment, as described above, can boost productivity in the long term, but it also requires proper care and support. Lack of maintenance can result in declining productivity levels; therefore, adequate importance to maintenance should be given to keep plant productivity at healthy levels.

Plant Productivity System, and their Importance for Manufacturing Companies

Plant productivity system are tools that help you get more performance out of your manufacturing plant. For instance, PulseNet Productivity System by Softrol are great tools when it comes to making the most out of your plant’s performance.

Plant productivity system can perform a range of functions. From monitoring and managing people, to keep a close eye on machine performance, these system reduce human intervention and help manufacturing companies save resources. These system also provide real-time feedback and progress reports to help you monitor every aspect of the process.

Why Plant Productivity System?

The variety of benefits provided by plant productivity system and Enterprise app development company is unmatched. Reducing human intervention to save both time and money directly leads to an increase in productivity for plants and manufacturing companies.

Real-time information on operators, machines, and their throughout is collected, analyzed, and then presented for the maximum potential increase in productivity.

Production data is usually stored on site, and your team members are managing the system, rather than experts at some other location.

With regular feedback and reports, you can instantly figure out where you need to make a change to boost plant productivity.

Plant productivity system, thus, are great tools to utilize when it comes to boosting productivity. With so many options available today, there is bound to be something for all kinds of manufacturing companies. Analysis, data storage, and subsequently boosting productivity using data at hand becomes more comfortable with plant productivity system.

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The Common Features of a Workforce Automation App

Workforce management is a set of processes that focus on improving and optimizing the productivity of employees in a business. This is a holistic approach that covers every operational area of business. From employee management to operations management, this includes every single operation on a day-to-day and hour-to-hour basis.

Besides the customization, a few common features must be present in any workforce automation app of any mobile app development company to ensure effective management. The common features of the architecture of a workforce automation app are explained here.

Workforce Management

The most prominent must-have feature of a workforce automation app should be effective workforce management. On average, 70 percent of a business’s total operating cost is spent on employee salary and benefits.

In such a scenario, an enterprise app development company has to ensure that its employees’ productivity is at its best and they are not wasting their time and skill on mundane tasks. A capable workforce automation system ensures proper workforce management along with reduced labor costs as less human intervention and micro-management will be required.

Data Collection

A workforce automation app collects data from each and every business operation and utilizes it for scheduling and forecasting. The data is derived from everyday operations such as employee attendance data, employee timing data, human resource management data, and business operations data.

The abundance of data collection points at various levels of operations allows the app development agency to gather vital information about the processes and suggest and execute a plan of action accordingly.

Scheduling and Forecasting

This is another core feature of a workforce automation app. This includes basic schedule building and timetables for specific operations. For multisite operations, the app can calculate the same and share the data with other departments for hassle-free management.

The software examines and compares past data and other relevant factors to calculate current staffing needs. This is more than just guesswork as the app uses current and past data and calculates the number of employees required for a particular project along with the estimated time frame. In short, the app must have scheduling features such as scheduling optimizations, defining positions and departments,Chatbot solution, multisite support, and automatic scheduling.

Forecasting is also an important feature that is closely related to scheduling. The data used for scheduling is also used for forecasting future needs. This can be history-based forecasting, user-controlled forecasting, and predictive algorithms.

Employee Management

Employee management is a vast area that covers aspects such as request scheduling, change/exchange of shifts, automated employee training, etc. These operations require covering almost every facet of relevant employee data such as timing, compensation, benefits, rewards, performances, etc.

Nonetheless, these features require tracking and attendance tools including clocking and in and out monitoring. Some advanced features such as biometrics and compliance management are also available.

These features minimize human intervention and add more security to the processes. Insights gained by these metrics help decision-makers draft policies that are in-line with their business objectives and company vision.

Analytics

Employee analytics is more than just statistics as many companies are implementing workforce management software that can gather data about the employees to know their true potential. Managers can further assign tasks to the employees whom they see fit for the job.

Workforce management software must also be capable of data analytics that includes organizing and characterizing sophisticated employee data.

The data is utilized for presenting detailed employee performance as well. Such data is helpful for HR managers, Chatbot for enterprise and decision makers for predictive and prescriptive analysis along with evaluating employee potential and tenure. Human resource departments in the companies go through a lot of troubles due to tons of manual work.

As a result, they are also turning to data collection and management to deal with matters such as turnover, overtime, and headcount. Employing data analysis helps in making well informed and effective decisions.

For instance, managers may notice a high employee turnover rate in a department. There might be several reasons for the problem such as management issues, low employee engagement, etc. Here, analytics can be of great help as it can precisely address the pain points and the company will have more time for developing a solution.

Information Security

Employee analytics can also add a great deal of security to the employee database as these are usually an easy target for hackers. Companies that rely on paper files and offline/online data storage mediums are always vulnerable to data theft. A workforce automation software should come with tight security measures such as data encryption and multi-factor authentication to keep employee information safe.

Workforce automation applications save time for both the employees and the company. It results in better management of the workforce and resources along with reduced costs. This can create an ideal and agile working environment where efforts can be focused on more urgent issues whenever necessary.

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You are Never Late to Invest in Healthcare Appointment Apps

In the healthcare industry, many aspects are managed at a manual level including scheduling an appointment/seeing a doctor or completing paperwork. The processes are not user-friendly and they require a lot of time and effort on both sides. Additionally, a large amount of money and people’s well-being remains at stake as well.

In this facet, technology and mobile app development has emerged as a life-saver as it can save time

 and offer ease-of-use to the consumers. Such a scenario has enabled both new and experienced players in the industry to offer automated healthcare solutions.

A healthcare mobile app which is also full of user-friendly features can be a great way to ensure profitability in the healthcare app development industry.

There are multiple startups in the healthcare domain that entered very late and acquired the majority of market share quickly due to their range of services and popularity among users. Some examples of leading healthcare apps are mentioned here.

WebMD

Already popular as one of the most preferred symptom checkers, WebMD has launched its own app. WebMD has been trusted by users for online consultation of almost every kind of healthcare-related symptoms. It has extended its reach even farther and is trusted by millions of people across the globe.

In contrast to the website, the WebMD app is innovative in every way. It includes medication reminders, habit and fitness tracking, first aid tips, drug database, and a section for educational content as well. Users can also schedule appointments with a physician.

The app interface is easy and intuitive and all the advice and recommendations are reviewed and qualified by experienced doctors for authenticity. The app is available on both iOS and Android platforms and has more than 500,000 downloads.

Medscape

This is another quality addition in the healthcare app development segment from WebMD LLC. Medscape is a reference app both for doctors and patients. The app focuses on delivering clinical news for self-medication through more than 6,000 drug brands including a variety of Over the Counter (OTC) drugs and prescription medicines.

The app includes features such as drug-interaction checker, specialty-specific calculator, pill identifier, etc. Users can also watch videos on drug intake procedures and avail discounts on medicines. The app also provides access to the community of clinical advisors for discussing real cases.

The app has over 5 million downloads worldwide and it is available on both Android and iOS.

ADA – AI Doctor

Development in the field of artificial intelligence is going to be the next big step in the journey of humanity. ADA is an AI-powered doctor application designed to reduce pressure from healthcare professionals. The app was developed by a London-Berlin based startup and it took 6 years to build.

ADA asks simple questions to its users and compares answers from databases to find the most relevant solution. Once the issue is diagnosed, the app provides advice on the next course of action. The advice can be related to either self-medication or seeking professional assistance.

The application boasts more than 100,000 users and is available on both Android and iOS.

Doctor on Demand

This is a quality app from Doctor On Demand Inc that facilitates medical appointments. The app allows users to book appointments within minutes without having to wait for hours in waiting rooms. The app makes video calls directly to the doctor or therapists and users can schedule appointments as per their availability and preferences.

In addition, according to the situation, doctors can also ask questions about the symptoms and prescribe specific measures such as lab tests for more information about the subject matter as well. The app claims to have 24/7 availability of doctors and scheduling immediate meeting in the case of an emergency. The healthcare appointment app is completely free and one can easily check the doctor’s fee before booking an appointment. The app has more than 100,000 downloads till date and its user-base is increasing at a rapid pace.

Talklife

As the name suggests, this is a conversational app that offers a safe space to people so that they can express themselves. This is more than just a talking app as it can be quite helpful in dealing with depression, behavioral disorders, self-harming tendencies, etc.

Among all the modern lifestyle issues, mental health problems and stress are the ones that are causing major harm to society. People do not discuss their personal or professional issues even with their family members due to the fear of being judged.

This is a dangerous situation where both the individual and his/her family are affected. Talklifeprovides a safe platform where people can create a virtual help group and share their problems with fellow users who feel the same way or who have already been through similar situations. This is a relatively newer addition in the healthcare app segment that has over 100,000 downloads only on the Google Play store.

Fitbit Apps

Fitbit is a popular wearable tracking device that tracks biological indicators to diagnose the state of basic health and fitness. The device has a display panel that shows the recorded information. However, to record the information and compare it to the previous records, the Fitbit app is also there.

The app is there for maintaining a database of the recorded information. Apart from the basic Fitbit device app, there are other Fitbit apps available as well. These are Fitbit Plus – Health Coaching, Fitbit Coach, and Fitbit Finder. Fitbit app has several useful features such as heart rate monitor, GPS tracker for monitoring the distance covered, LOG for workout and other activities, etc.

Despite being known as a general fitness tracker, the data derived from the app can be used as a tool to assess the level of physical fitness or the gathered data can be utilized to diagnose medical problems.

Fitbit apps are available on both the Google Play store and App Store, and it has more than 10 million downloads on Android. Chatbot development helps in communication.

Mobile technology is rapidly changing the healthcare industry by facilitating seamless interaction between consumers and health care providers through numerous touchpoints. This is the future of the healthcare sector were making appointments for diagnosis, tests and consultation will become a thing of the past as healthcare apps will dominate the industry.

If you are looking for Mobile App development & Chatbot Solutions, drop us a line at enterprise.affle.com