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Power BI and SharePoint: How the integration works and its benefits

The integration between Power BI and SharePoint can enable seamless data access, analytics, and visualization with custom automations and flows.

Microsoft Power BI is a business intelligence and data visualization tool that allows users to understand, analyze, and interpret business data better and faster than traditional graphs and charts. Power BI users create simple or complex dashboards, interactive reports, and visualizations, making the tool especially useful for salespeople, analysts, IT professionals, developers, and enterprise leaders.

Users can go from examining data to gathering insights from it in a matter of minutes by connecting sources, processing the data, and displaying the outcomes in highly visually appealing reports. Power BI allows users to draw rich insights for a wide range of scenarios thanks to links to a wide range of data sources and types that are continually growing.

Advantages of Power BI and SharePoint integration

SharePoint, available as a cloud-based platform in the form of SharePoint Online, plays an important role in helping Microsoft users manage and access their data. It’s a solution that’s been created with all Microsoft users in mind and that unifies different enterprise processes and documents.

Data collection and analysis aren’t the only things Power BI can do. It also helps present different groups of data as a report, employing visual representations to break down raw information into easy-to-understand insights for employees and decision-makers. Users only get static reports when using SharePoint as a standalone platform. But when connected to Power BI, SharePoint allows users to create dynamic dashboards with real-time data and custom visualizations.

Users of Power BI can share live dashboards with everyone in the business. Some of the Power BI dashboard examples include sales reports, customer analytics, global retail analytics dashboards, etc. This way, managers and business heads can see how end-users are using the SharePoint portal with the help of Power BI. When it comes to quickly retrieve information from SharePoint, Excel, Salesforce, and other platforms and applications, this tool can be really beneficial. Here’s how:

Integration with non-Microsoft solutions: Integrating Microsoft and non-Microsoft platforms to SharePoint and Power BI will make your data more accessible. Power BI connects to 60 popular software packages, most of which are used widely in many mid-sized and large enterprises. For starters, platforms like Spark, Google Analytics, SAP, and Salesforce can be used to pull data into a unified dashboard. At the same time, cloud servers and hybrid systems have access to your data so you don’t need to worry about storing it on devices.

API key generation: Installation is straightforward, requiring little to no engineering or IT expertise. Admins can easily generate an API key and put it into the software; this is especially convenient if your company currently uses Microsoft platforms.

Access control and security: By using Active Directory to set it up, it provides powerful access control and security. Admins can also control which team members have access to specific rows of data on reports based on the position of the employee. Executives, for example, have access to the entire SharePoint reporting data, whereas salespeople only have access to the top ten rows. This saves time by allowing you to create a single report for everyone.

Ease of user adoption: The learning curve for Power BI is straightforward. The UI components for ease of user adoption will be familiar to anyone familiar with Microsoft products. It’s also simple to export data to other systems like Excel, giving users the freedom to work with their data in different environments as needed. Microsoft Teams and Office 365 Groups are both easily integrated with Power BI.

Power BI is fast becoming one of the most popular reporting tools given that it is part of the Microsoft enterprise suite and integrates with data types from both Microsoft and third-party sources. This demonstrates that SharePoint development services will continue to be a popular choice among businesses in the future, while its integration with solutions like Power BI and Power Automate can enable and help scale automation and seamless data reporting and visualizations for businesses of all sizes.

Improve efficiencies and reduce errors in your knowledge management or content management practices with our custom BPA solutions for Microsoft SharePoint and Power BI.

Get in touch.

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Contract management automation with BPA 2022

Businesses can optimize their processes and outcomes by automating contract management, thereby boosting productivity and efficiency, and reducing costs and errors.

Administrative tasks such as contract management often account for a large portion of a company’s total annual costs. These costs can be reduced by introducing technology-enabled automation, commonly known as Business Process Automation (BPA), which can improve workplace operations dramatically. In fact, companies are expected to spend $12.7 billion on these solutions by 2021. By investing in BPA and more specifically, contract management automation, companies can focus better on strategies and initiatives that add business value.

Being legally compliant is one of the most important aspects of a business and a contract management system can help organizations handle contracts more efficiently and in a scalable manner. However, with a large volume of complex contracts to manage, any limitations in existing systems can end up creating losses and liabilities for companies and damage reputations.  

Contract management automation with BPA: How it works

There are several components and stages of contract management, which can be overwhelming and time-consuming in the absence of digitalization. Potential bottlenecks while creating, modifying, executing, renewing, or cancelling contracts using a manual contract administration system can affect relationships with contractors, vendors, and suppliers. Many contracts, however, have unique criteria that demand multi-level approval processes and legal evaluations in order to be efficiently executed.  

With manually managed contracts, issues such as erroneous information or delayed contract execution can affect their approvals and overall business operations, including the company’s ability to deliver or receive services or products. Implementing an automated contract management solution using BPA is the best way to streamline your enterprise contract management system and reduce errors and delays in the process.  

In addition to BPA, automated solutions also employ robotic process automation (RPA) to integrate with existing software/systems and link them to perform workflows and share data as per established business processes. This way, you can adapt your contract management solution to already established frameworks and govern them more effectively.

A fast and cost-effective way to get started with any kind of enterprise automation is to partner with an external solution development partner as compared to building an in-house team. A software development partner will assist you from beginning to end with all that you need, including mapping processes for the proposed solution and providing support, maintenance, and upgrade services for your automated systems.  

While most contract management systems are easy to use and improve productivity in the long run with automated workflows and dashboards, users may take some to learn and adapt to them. This is something an external partner can help your employees with.

How does BPA improve contract management?

Software and custom-built solutions are used in a variety of ways to automate low-value, repetitive business processes, allowing people to devote more time to their key responsibility areas. Companies benefit from a variety of BPA programs that are implemented in the workplace. Contract management software is one such program or combination of programs undertaking processes from contract creation and implementation to completion or renewal.  

The BPA-enabled automated contract management solution becomes a centralized control module that can be used to access, share, and modify all of the company’s contracts. The automated solution may also include an in-built or integrate database to build a repository of contracts which can be further secured with multi-factor authentication or even Blockchain.  

Essentially, the contract management automation system will combine the business logic of the relevant processes with automated form generation and system-wide notifications to minimize human processes and dependencies, and reduce errors. By streamlining the contract management lifecycle, contract management software helps organizations manage legal compliance, vendors, and expenses more efficiently.  

Furthermore, the solution can be integrated with existing digital, SaaS, or legacy systems for accounting, payroll, and human resource management. You can either build a flow involving your existing applications or create a new custom solution from scratch. A custom solution built on a BPA and RPA foundation will also help you centralize data storage and management for better efficiency in processes and automated communication between individual software and systems.  

Conclusion

Businesses can use contract management software to streamline and automate the contract lifecycle in the most effective way. Such a solution enables organizations of any size to develop, administer, and track contracts quickly and easily. According to research, inefficient contract processes can result in losses ranging from 5% to 40% of the deal’s value. By deploying contract management automation, businesses can begin saving money and efforts while improving the efficiency of their contract management processes and systems.

For your business, contract management software could be a wise investment. It can help your company become more efficient, reduce costs, and save time in the workplace.  

Feel free to get in touch to know more and get started with building a custom solution for your enterprise.

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Benefits of remote collaboration with Microsoft SharePoint

Microsoft SharePoint is a cloud-based tool offering reliability and ease of use to both remote and in-office teams. Deploying SharePoint along with Microsoft 365 on the cloud can enable seamless digitized, remote operations for small and medium enterprises.

Many large organizations have moved to remote working systems or scaled up existing systems to enable staff to continue working remotely since the COVID-19 outbreak. Small and medium-sized firms, on the other hand, have a significant opportunity to integrate digitization and digitalization in their operations and, as a result, cut operating costs and enhance efficiencies. Smaller organizations, understandably, may be put off by the time and cost of engaging in enterprise-wide digital transformation.

There are, however, more cost-effective and speedier ways to build remote work facilities for your organization and start with digitalization. This is where Microsoft platforms like SharePoint can help you achieve your goals.

What is Microsoft SharePoint?

SharePoint is a content management system that is accessible online and used to store business documents on the cloud. It also allows you to share and collaborate on data stored in the cloud by allowing you to establish sites and sub-sites for different teams, people, or projects.

SharePoint includes a lot of complex features that can assist you or your team manage business and project documentation with ease.

Given its effectiveness, affordability, and scalability, Microsoft SharePoint has become the platform of choice for remote collaboration and project management in recent years. SharePoint’s collaboration features boost employee engagement, boost productivity, and make centralized data administration easier, regardless of where employees work or where a project is being managed. Let’s take a closer look at Microsoft SharePoint’s features and the benefits they provide.

Features of Microsoft SharePoint

The SharePoint tool included with a Microsoft 365 subscription is a powerful yet easy-to-use productivity tool. The following are some of the most commonly utilized features that make it one of the top knowledge management or content management tools:

Collective or Special Access

SharePoint is a scalable and extremely adaptable platform for working with internal and external resources. Individual team site users can be given different levels of access authorization by a central admin user.

In a real-time setting, you and your team can work on a single file without experiencing any delay. As a result, many content creators and creative developers prefer SharePoint for collaboration on any project.

One of the most important features of SharePoint collaboration is that it allows content to be transmitted freely between sites and sub-sites. It allows people to keep informed about the project without having to sift through countless emails, missed conversations, or video sessions.

2. Content Administration

For every individual or group of professionals who want to increase productivity, content management is a significant task. SharePoint allows you to overcome this obstacle without having to write lines of complex code or buy expensive platforms.

On SharePoint, project or content managers may simply manage numerous projects at the same time. SharePoint makes it simple to publish or update website content such as events, news, blogs, presentation stacks, and more.

3. Managing Projects

You may use a variety of SharePoint functions for task and project management. The tool’s most important feature is that it serves as a centralized storage location for all project-related documents and deliverable files.

SharePoint sites can also be customized in a variety of ways. These custom-built websites can also include daily planners, weekly task organizers, and FAQs.

You may also use SharePoint and Power Automate to construct a workflow to automate functions such as task handover, project deliverable sign-off, approvals, and compile content such as demo presentations and client feedback.

4. Integrated Approaches

Other Microsoft 365 apps help you manage tasks and resources, while SharePoint serves as a central store for your project data.

For specialized use, you can sync SharePoint with applications like To-Do, Tasks, Planner, and Project Online. You can also create reports to give your freelance clients project updates.

SharePoint also allows users to preview files and documents within SharePoint sites and subsites using PowerPoint, Video, Stream, and OneDrive. You save time by avoiding time-consuming processes such as downloading files from SharePoint to create PowerPoint presentations.

Benefits of Microsoft SharePoint

When compared to any other productivity tool for project or content management, SharePoint has a lot of advantages. The following are some of its benefits:

1. Spending Less Money

It’s possible that you’re already paying for it through your Microsoft 365 subscription. Use SharePoint as your primary productivity tool for corporate or personal requirements to avoid wasting money on apps and solutions.

2. Data Protection

Governments and large enterprises entrust their sensitive data to the SharePoint ecosystem. So, without concern about intellectual property theft, you can keep important data on SharePoint to enable collaborative work among remotely located team members.

3. The Ability to Scale

The tool’s scalability helps you to budget your expenses on productivity tools. You can alter your subscription to accommodate more resources and projects if you notice an influx of projects from various clients. You can switch to low-paid options when projects slow down.

4. Templates for Repeat Use

When one project comes to an end and you need to start another, you can use a template to save time in creating new documents or flows. By eliminating repeated development, you can save time and ensure a faster turnaround on new projects.

VBeyond Digital can work with you to set up SharePoint sites, workflows, and asset libraries so your remote teams can reap the benefits of real-time collaboration. More importantly, as part of our SharePoint services, we place special emphasis on ensuring that all industry best practices are adhered to help you derive maximum value from your deployment.

Contact us now to discuss your requirements and get started with SharePoint

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Healthcare Automation: Applying BPA to process and manage data

Business Process Automation in Healthcare allows service providers to adopt a structured approach to data management and communication, and measurably improve healthcare delivery.

Research suggests that maintaining communication between healthcare practitioners and patients leads to improved treatment outcomes in both short- and long-term clinical circumstances. However, ensuring a smooth, continuous conveyance of essential information in a timely way has several obstacles. What’s promising is that these issues can be addressed effectively through technology-driven solutions like business process automation. For some time now, the application of artificial intelligence in healthcare has been in the news. Healthcare automation is a prime example. Automation in healthcare refers to the use of different software and technologies to improve efficiency and accuracy in the delivery of medical services.

Healthcare automation, or the process of automating workflows and data management for healthcare, has been a revolution in improving the delivery of medical services and information and improving outcomes from the doctor and patient interactions.

Read ahead to know how it works and what benefits it offers for healthcare service providers.

Business Process Automation in Healthcare

The efforts for developing patient-friendly telehealth solutions have intensified over the past few years with the rapid growth in mobile device and internet usage. But with the COVID-19 pandemic, delivering telehealth services to patients became a crucial public health necessity. The adoption of automation and artificial intelligence solutions have not only improved healthcare operations by streamlining workflows, but also helped reduce clinician burnout from rising caseloads during the early surge in infections last year.

Building effective telehealth data processing, management, and data-sharing platforms go beyond initial consultations or diagnoses to managing long-term patient care and drug administration. Healthcare providers all around the world are turning to Dynamic Case Management, Document Management (ECM), and Workflow Automation for a unified system that can handle electronic medical records (EMR), prescription information, revenue cycle management, and other functions. With the correct technology, your healthcare business can deliver improved patient care while also better managing operations by connecting diverse material and integrating with core EHR and EMR systems.

Business Process Automation (BPA) is the use of automated systems to enhance or replace human-led processes and repetitive tasks. BPA can result in significant efficiency advantages, saving the business time and money while also reducing mistakes and increasing transparency.

This automation may take a variety of forms and can deliver outcomes for businesses across sectors and across all divisions inside those businesses. BPA is most successful when your employees’ time and abilities are spent on enhancing the quality of services and improving business strategies instead of repetitive, low-value tasks.

Applying BPA to healthcare information processing & management

The above are just a few of the remarkable ways in which automation may significantly improve patient communication processes, resulting in extraordinary improvements in productivity and freeing up more time for caregivers to provide more critical therapeutic services.

BPA can be used in the healthcare industry to link applications and handle multi-departmental operations. Here are some examples of specific and important use cases:

Management of EHRs (electronic health records) and EMRs (electronic medical records): automatic data transfer to new platforms and systems, medical record updates

Backup database creation and maintenance to decrease downtime

Vendor, contract, buying, inventory, and material management

Integrate third-party lab reports and diagnoses

Access to accurate, essential information for specialists

The time it takes to manually extract and input data has typically resulted in significant delays in communication between doctors and patients. Even a few days’ delays can be the difference between saving a life and a patient opting to proceed with a screening follow-up.

Automation may significantly reduce the amount of time required for data entry and extraction while ensuring zero mistakes in the process. The sooner doctors get confirmed and accurate patient data, the sooner they may share it with patients or use it to provide timely treatments.

Proactive patient communication improves engagement and satisfaction

Business process automation systems in healthcare organizations can be used to provide automatic registration links and information to patients via channels such as automated emails. Some companies also send regular automatic reminders through text messages or phone calls at predetermined intervals.

Most of these activities would have taken enormous amounts of time and effort in the absence of digitization and automation. Using automated solutions, therefore, enhances patients’ experience and simplifies final outcomes such as payment collections by providing transparent data to them on costs and services rendered.

In the end, most of these advantages simply translate into enormous cost savings for any type of healthcare organization. These savings, of course, immediately contribute to increased income for clinics, hospitals, and other relevant, licensed entities in the healthcare business.

Conclusion

A well-run organization must always examine business processes and look for ways to improve them. It should also look to regularly analyze, update, modify, replace, or eliminate any processes that are a bottleneck to operations and business goals. This process management is based on obtaining, monitoring, and analyzing a number of indicators, as well as educating and updating managers on a regular basis.

In a world where telehealth is becoming a necessity to provide timely care to vulnerable groups, it’s only natural for healthcare organizations to adopt and capitalize on the enormous benefits of business process automation in their industry. Given the current trends and an ongoing pandemic, it’s reasonable to argue that the global healthcare business must head in that direction to ensure effective care for everyone.

The fact that these desirable outcomes share a similar denominator in time savings and cost savings only emphasizes the importance of BPA in healthcare. The favorable outcomes speak for themselves, and the most hopeful thought is that the technology will only get more sophisticated with time.

Get in touch to leverage the power of automation & analytics, and digitalize business functions.

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Role of AI in cloud infrastructure to streamline digital workspaces

An AI in cloud infrastructure can boost efficiency and security by creating a smart and intuitive IT ecosystem. Its plethora of features allows businesses to maximize the benefits of cloud computing for a better customer experience.

With a recent emphasis on digital workplaces and remote employees, Artificial Intelligence (AI) is rapidly taking the lead in automating formerly manual procedures and opening up new deployment prospects. Regardless of your sector, it is important to be informed and up to date on technology innovations that may enhance your operations model. Cloud is one of the fundamental technologies upon which this new digital workplace is being constructed, assisting in the execution of a wide variety of digital initiatives in organizations of all sizes and sectors.

Businesses must adjust their goals and adapt fast in order to remain relevant in today’s digital environment, as many firms have come to rely on digital workplaces to integrate their in-house, remote, and contract workers.

Let’s take a look at the role of artificial intelligence in cloud computing and how an AI-enabled cloud system helps in creating a secure digital workspace.

Integrating AI in cloud infrastructure to streamline work

The primary technologies driving the digital workspace, such as artificial intelligence, big data, cloud computing, and the Internet of Things (IoT), are beginning to merge. This convergence is being driven by organizations’ rising desire to access, utilize, and exploit data gathered via intelligent applications and SaaS platforms. Indeed, one could argue that data is the foundation of the intelligent digital workplace.

This has all been made possible by easy and affordable access to cloud computing, which, since it is always on and constantly connected to everything in the organization, can access and analyze all of the data contained in all of the many repositories across the enterprise. The unifying thread that holds everything together is data on the cloud, without which a robust digital workplace is not possible.

Furthermore, AI has the potential to boost productivity by unifying related workflows for employees to carry them out faster and reduce time in entering and tracking data manually. In marketing, for example, AI and automation technologies may assist in identifying difficulties or gaps in process execution, tracking campaigns, and optimizing campaign performance. AI can assess processes and alert marketers to any problems in real-time, address them, and optimize processes to improve outcomes.

Real-world application of AI with cloud

Cloud computing enables you to advance your business intelligence by providing simple and cost-effective access to complex data analyses. Location-based and spatial analytics may be simply added to uncover previously unseen patterns and correlations between assets, people, locations, and events.

Artificial intelligence allows you to extract insights from unstructured data such as photos, video, and audio, as well as anticipate trends and offer consumer suggestions. And visualization tools enable you to display data to consumers in a way that allows them to make sense of it more easily and quickly.

The pandemic has highlighted the importance of improving employees’ digital resiliency in order to deal with any future interruptions, and the digital workspace plays a significant role in doing so. The digital workplace, according to IDC, is a “connected, secure work environment that is independent of place or time.” The cloud is one of the foundational technologies upon which a digital workplace is constructed, allowing access to cloud-based front ends for old applications as well as new cloud-native applications.

The importance of user experience in your transformation plan

Digital transformation cannot be successful unless an organization’s people are engaged, informed, and given the tools they need to execute their jobs. However, all too frequently, the employee experience falls to the bottom of the priority list. CIOs must prioritize digital workplace efforts if they want to improve resilience, security, and productivity.

Conclusion

The advent of artificial intelligence has given rise to several misconceptions, but the advantages to society and industry far exceed the concerns. As a result of breakthroughs in digital transformation during COVID-19, many sectors now perceive a dependence on automation and robots as unavoidable in order to achieve improved efficiency of manual chores and increased productivity on human-led strategic work.

As the world prepares for hybrid work, artificial intelligence will be a vital component to its success, serving both employees and customers. This futuristic workplace is made possible via the cloud. With enhanced digital workplaces and new models for operations, businesses must ensure that their cloud transformation plans can support tomorrow’s increasingly dynamic ways of working.

That’s where VBeyond Digital comes in. From developing the right strategy, implementing technologies, to dedicated support and maintenance, we serve as an end-to-end partner for your cloud and process automation.

Reach out to us for a consultation.

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Applying machine learning to process automation

Implementing machine learning in process automation can provide various advantages to businesses. Here, we look at its use cases and benefits for enterprises.

The practice of applying Machine Learning (ML) models to real-world situations through automation is known as Automated Machine Learning. It automates the selection, construction, and parameterization of machine learning models in particular. Since then, Artificial Intelligence (AI) and its subsets have become clever additions to the field of automation, attempting to tackle problems that go beyond simply taking over repetitive tasks.

Machine learning is one form of applied AI that is now being used in Business Process Automation (BPA) and Robotic Process Automation (RPA). Machine learning is the use of artificial intelligence to enable systems to learn and make decisions without being specifically programmed to do so. In RPA, ML can move robots beyond repetitive process execution and enable them to perform jobs that previously needed human decision-making. Artificial Intelligence skills may also be used to improve data integrity, give structure to unstructured and semi-structured data sources, increase business insights, and improve automated execution.

In this blog, we’re taking a closer look at the role of machine learning in automation.

Machine Learning in Process Automation

The applications of machine learning are expanding rapidly to help organizations and society solve real-world issues. ML works on the basis of encapsulating a vast quantity of data (or knowledge) into some form of a mathematical model. The model may be used to solve issues by using the knowledge it contains.

Machine learning can be applied to a wide range of problems where large amounts of historical data can be used to predict or make decisions in specific areas. It should be highlighted that, unlike constructing an algorithm, it is based on the creation of a knowledge base. However, the ML technique is particularly efficient in dealing with such problems.

Process automation has evolved to provide solutions to assist, simplify, and expedite processes. It all started with robotic process automation based on automating step-by-step workflows in a single platform or application. RPA has transformed the way people work today, with millions of bots working alongside humans.

The majority of RPA implementations make use of software bots that automate operations based on pre-defined or established criteria. As corporate processes became more sophisticated, artificial intelligence technology such as machine learning began to impact how bots might accomplish more. With the inclusion of ML, bots continually learn from human activities, emulating human cognition to a great extent. The more training and learning supplied, the closer machines can get to reading, visualizing, learning, and thinking like humans.

How to apply machine learning to process automation

The simplicity with which a workflow or process can be automated is RPA’s biggest strength. However, it has a restriction in that it cannot be automated if it requires decision-making supported by knowledge application. This is where machine learning comes in; it assists in the creation of a knowledge base based on past data, which is then used for decision-making and prediction.

Integrating Machine Learning with robotic process automation can result in strong automation solutions. Many RPA software suppliers are striving to include this functionality inside the tool itself in order to broaden its capabilities. However, because ML is a new subject, it needs the expertise of engineers with extensive knowledge and abilities in order to construct correct ML models.

Improving the Execution of Automation

Algorithms for machine learning can also be used to improve the delivery of automated services. Algorithms can be used in computer vision, for example, to teach robots how to detect and interact with onscreen fields and components. Machine learning models are also employed for error management, and recursion is frequently used to minimize code complexity and optimize robot runtime.

Another growing use of machine learning in automation is task mining. In this case, robots are taught to assess daily task information obtained from employees in order to create process maps and recommend procedures for automation based on the maximum return on investment (ROI.) This application can be a mixed bag since it needs extensive training to reach the proper balance between ROI, degree of effort, and overall suitability for automation.

Attended Automation

Attended automation, also known as Remote Desktop Automation (RDA), is when robots work alongside people to augment their job or help them make better decisions. Machine learning may be used to absorb data from several sources in real-time, allowing robots to assist humans in determining the optimal next step in their workflow.

Machine learning may also be integrated with other cognitive skills, such as Natural Language Processing (NLP), to allow robots to emulate the easier decision-making inside a human’s workflow, bringing us even closer to end-to-end automation.

Conclusion

From the above breakdown of process automation technologies, we can surmise that investing in machine learning to augment BPA and RPA can provide various advantages to businesses. It is a powerful and continuously evolving technology, and its ramifications will only grow in the future years. As a result, it is a worthwhile improvement over manual processes and a crucial step towards helping your teams become more productive. Machine learning algorithms can help to reduce risk and eliminate the cost of operating clunky, outdated software.

Reimagine business efficiency with automation and data solutions built by VBeyond Digital.

Get in touch to speak with our experts.

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The components and benefits of building a digital workplace

Building a digital workspace has been among the top priorities for organizations over the last few years. Being future-ready with digital transformation is all about improving existing systems to match current business needs and future growth goals.

Creating an efficient digital workplace that helps employees be productive is among the top priorities for scaling businesses. Organizations also need to find the right balance between adopting technology that empowers employees and streamlines processes and workflows without encumbering their teams with too many tools. According to KissFlow, nearly 44.3% of employees said that more digital tools complicate everyday business operations.

So it’s safe to say that organizations need a selective, yet essential, set of tools to maximize the efficiency of their digital workspaces. But which ones are right for your business needs?

Though there is no one-size-fits-all answer to this, it’s better to have an overall idea about what works for your enterprise digital transformation and building a collaboration-driven workspace in 2022 and beyond.

Components of a digital workspace

Adopting cloud

Moving your enterprise infrastructure to the cloud, either in phases or in a lift and shift manner, is an essential step towards digital transformation. With remote work only proliferating, adopting cloud will become virtually mandatory for organizations.

An up-to-date cloud system gives organizations digital storage and an inter-connected work platform with the necessary availability and performance at almost all times. Since you can access cloud applications from any device at any time, employees get unlimited flexibility to work both within the office and from home. Additionally, cloud computing also provides reliable data backup solutions to ensure business continuity.

Hybrid work communication tools

Organizations need to maintain the right balance of remote and on-premise work as things are slowly getting back to normal. While remote working still is a preferred work culture of over 51% of knowledge workers by the end of 2021, the need for a hybrid workspace will rise in 2022.

The hybrid-enabled communication system is a must for businesses to monitor work progress, share new ideas, and streamline workflow. These tools include the latest video-conferencing platforms, content and document management systems, etc. that improve collaboration for both on-premise and remote employees.

Artificial Intelligence

Artificial intelligence (AI) has been the biggest driver in making IT systems more versatile. Now the question is, “What is the future of enterprise AI?” From cloud implementation to on-premise tools, experts are finding new and innovative ways of making AI-powered automation more sophisticated and result-driven.

Incorporating the latest AI-enabled solutions allows organizations to delegate repeating and scaling workflows to a business process automation system. It also gives your human resources more time to add value in their roles without being weighed down by unproductive tasks. Understanding the latest innovations and use cases of AI in enterprise automation and adapting them can give you a significant competitive edge.

Data security

With the digitization of business, protecting mission-critical data is of utmost priority for businesses. Creating a secure digital workspace not only helps in business continuity but also builds trust among customers.

Organizations must adhere to the latest enterprise data security guidelines to set a benchmark for data protection. The best way to do so is to work with a reliable IT partner that can provide an efficient and secured IT ecosystem. Incorporating business continuity software also helps organizations protect mission-critical data from sudden data loss and external malware attacks.

Making digitization part of the work culture

Just like your IT infrastructure, your overall work culture also needs a complete overhaul in 2022. Future-ready enterprises must explore new possibilities to find the right balance of remote and on-premise employees while ensuring business efficiency.

The best way to get started is by adopting flexible workplace policies, which includes:

Defining set hours for both office and remote employees.

Which employees may work remotely on a given day.

How and when employees should communicate with each other.

Setting times when employees must be in the office.

Incorporating a reliable remote work monitoring system.

Organizations must start implementing official policies on remote working to better communicate their vision and framework and implement them fairly all across.

Moreover, organizations should also evaluate these policies periodically to maintain the utmost efficiency. Incorporating these factors will definitely help your business achieve desired results from their digital workspace with the benefits which we are covering next.

Benefits of a digital workplace

Collaborative work culture: The right digital tools empower employees to communicate and work alongside their colleagues no matter where they are. Collaborative work culture is the next big thing for improving business efficiency and productivity, and technology helps you achieve it the right way.

Automation brings freedom: Automating repetitive business functions gives human resources freedom from redundant business tasks. It also gives them ample opportunities to focus on their core competencies for better business outcomes.

Improved customer experience: Technologies like AI became a game-changer in improving customer experiences by enhancing engagement. As more customers prefer online shopping over traditional one, improving customer experience is the biggest factor in improving relationships and repurchase opportunities.

Business agility and competitive edge: A digitized enterprise infrastructure makes your business processes more agile and accurate compared to your legacy system. Right utilization of cloud computing, business process automation, and AI results in creating an agile work culture where human and technology works together to achieve maximum efficiency.

VBeyond Digital can help you digitize your enterprise

Building a digital workspace has become a priority of organizations in the last few years. Today, it’s all about improving existing systems to be future-ready and maximize the value out of modern enterprise technology.

VBeyond Digital helps you design a robust digital infrastructure from the ground up and improve your existing systems to maximize efficiencies. Our plethora of IT services helps the organization achieve its desired efficiency and automation capabilities.

Reach out to us today.

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Role of AI in BPA and RPA

From an AI perspective, RPA and BPA solutions differ greatly in terms of their scope, use cases, and build. But together, they can power highly efficient enterprise solutions and enhance business operations.

Business process automation (BPA) and robotic process automation (RPA) have opened new doors to improve business efficiency and accuracy. With every passing year, automation technologies are getting more sophisticated to perform more complex organizational tasks.

Throughout this journey, artificial intelligence (AI) has played a crucial role in making automation solutions smarter, more accessible, and user-friendly. However, its functionality significantly differs in BPA and RPA technology, making it the key determinant to understand differences in their functionality.

In this blog, we are comparing robotic process automation and business process automation from the lens of AI. It will help you design your future automation strategy with optimum AI utilization.

What’s the difference between RPA and BPA?

Before getting started, here’s a quick refresher on RPA and BPA.

RPA, or robotic process automation, is a software-based automation approach where the system builds, deploys, and regulates virtual “robots” to perform human actions and complete individual tasks. Simply put, these are smart software that performs everyday repetitive business tasks without human intervention. Classic examples of RPA include automated employee onboarding, inventory management, chatbots, etc.

Business process automation refers to the use of technology to automate a variety of complex business operations to streamline workflow and replace manual labor. BPA is the overall digital transformation of an organization where we delegate non-critical business tasks to technology.

BPA can automate various business functions such as HR, marketing, supply chain management, process optimization, etc. Unlike RPA, BPA orchestrates a variety of complex tasks throughout the various departments and nodes within an organization and automates them from start to finish.

To sum it up, RPA uses software robots to perform individual business tasks while being a part of the overall automation system under BPA.

With a quick introduction out of the way, let’s look at how AI enhances BPA and RPA services.

Role of AI in BPA and RPA

According to McKinsey, about 18% of overall business activities can be automated using currently existing automation technology. With the rapid advancements in technology, we’ve witnessed a dynamic shift in business operations. Workflows of modern enterprises are becoming more streamlined and efficient due to AI-enabled automation.

But how does it function in BPA and RPA systems?

Here’s how:

AI is designed to mimic human intelligence while RPA isn’t. AI uses smart algorithms to find errors in the system and adapts itself to avoid the same errors in the future. RPA does an excellent job at carrying out repetitive business tasks that need no technical know-how. However, it cannot adapt and learn from the errors and make changes accordingly.

Combining AI and RPA, also called hyperautomation, gives you the best of both worlds. You can leverage both the efficiency of RPA and the smart insights of AI. For instance, let’s say your business is using RPA to screen for job applications in terms of work experience, qualifications, and relevant skills. An AI system can help you optimize the process by notifying potential errors in the RPA system that might lead to losing an ideal candidate.

In both BPA and RPA, AI can augment the core functions of your solution. In RPA, AI appears largely in one or two steps before the RPA elements kick in. For example, during the discovery phase of building a solution, AI can help in process mining to help developers build an accurate process framework. Another example is where AI assists in reading documents or images, and then passes the information to software robots.

How AI capabilities drive BPA

Machine learning makes business process automation solutions smarter and more streamlined. It can help orchestrate, manage, and optimize process in complex industries where multiple levels of decision-making are involved.

Consider manufacturing, for instance, where machine learning can connect various machines in the assembly line as per a complex process, feedback, and correction framework. Here, a command given from a central hub can operate the entire manufacturing system without human inspection of every machinery, or identify gaps in the process and course correct.

With that said, here are a few additional key functions where AI-enabled BPA can help your business:

Retail and e-commerce: Using sales and marketing analytics solutions built with machine learning can aid teams in consumer sentiment analysis, demand forecasting, price optimization, consumer segmentation, providing customer recommendations, customer service, detecting and preventing fraud, and more.

Banking and Finance: In finance and banking, machine learning is used to power complex solutions for credit scoring, risk analysis, fraud detection and prevention, trading exchange forecasting, and other applications.

Healthcare: In healthcare and life sciences, machine learning is applied to increase diagnostic accuracy, identify at-risk patients, optimize costs of insurance products, and more.

Human Resource Management: Apart from the usual applications like automation workflows in every-day HR operations, machine learning can be applied source candidates with very specific skillset combinations, manage, analyze candidate profiles to look for things that are not in the resume, or to improve engagement by analyzing retention and attrition rates, and more to guide decision-making at each step.

To delve deeper into the applications of machine learning, Natural Language Processing (NLP), which is a subset of it, allow businesses to create virtual customer service platforms like chatbots or voice enabled assistants that can address customer queries 356×24/7. Such platforms can be customized and fed with data that allows it to have human-like interactions and find the most relevant answers for customers.

As AI interacts efficiently with other enterprise technology, it can streamline work across the various departments in your company. It improves your BPA system significantly, allowing your human resource to focus on more crucial and mission-critical tasks.

Final Thoughts

From an AI perspective, RPA and BPA differ greatly in terms of their utilization and dependency. I hope this blog gave you some clarity on the use of AI in the automation process so that you can design a robust AI-enabled automation ecosystem.

Speaking of which, VBeyond Digital designs BPA and RPA solutions keeping in mind the unique business needs of an organization. With our customized BPA and RPA solutions, we help you make your digital transformation more result-centric and future-ready.

Get in touch with us today.

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The developer’s guide to best practices for AI development

Developing a robust and future-ready AI system comes with many challenges and responsibilities. Understanding the best practices for AI development can help developers create effective and compliant AI systems for their business.

The artificial intelligence (AI) industry is predicted to grow by 33.2% between 2020 and 2027. The rate at which we apply AI technology in everyday business scenarios is growing exponentially. From a developer’s perspective, it means they need to stay updated on the latest AI technologies to create the most efficient IT ecosystem for businesses.

Among all the technological advancements, the basic principles of ethical AI development remain the same. Developers must adhere to these principles to make a robust AI system that checks all the boxes of transparency, fairness, and efficiency.

To help developers, here are some of the best practices to follow for each component of your AI solution, across the development life cycle:

1. Ensuring transparency in AI development 

Transparency in artificial intelligence refers to the user’s ability to monitor the internal workings of an AI system to find possible flaws and make the AI more reliable and trustworthy.

Here are a few tips for you as a developer for making your AI more transparent and manageable:

Following strict AI governance protocols is the first step in ensuring high standards in AI application development. 

Incorporating LIME (Local Interpretable Model-agnostic Explanation) helps in providing easy-to-understand explanations through advanced algorithms. 

Developers can design the AI system using the “transparency by design” philosophy that promotes the importance of transparency while overcoming AI-related challenges. 

Another great option to boost your AI transparency is using the decision tree model. Here, AI developers can observe a chain of decisions along with its branches in the AI system to make AI more governable at every step of application development.

2. Improve AI accountability

The decisions made by an AI system are prone to errors due to multiple factors like improper data input, errors in programming, human interventions, and errors during scale up/down. Making AI accountable means tracing the AI decision to an individual or a step in AI decision-making.

Here are some best practices to make AI decisions more traceable:

Create a comprehensive periodical AI auditing mechanism to observe and mitigate unwanted results from the system. These auditing practices should focus on avoiding unfair biases in the AI algorithms.

If an error occurs that causes grievances to a person, companies should have their own redressal system to remedy and compensate for the wrongdoing. An efficient and humane redressal system is crucial to building strong trust among people associated with your business.

Most importantly, businesses should identify activities with critical decision-making that cannot be delegated to an AI.

3. Overcoming bias in AI

An ideal AI system must provide fair decisions for every individual within and outside the organization. From an ethical perspective, it must be designed to mitigate bias towards gender, race, culture, and other social factors by monitoring historical data inputs and the lack of diverse data in the first place. With that said, here are some best practices to make AI fairer: Firstly, you need to identify people that are most vulnerable to biased AI results. This includes people using the AI system and those who are affected by the system, both directly and indirectly.  A context-centric AI algorithm helps you mitigate the biases in AI results and helps developers identify possible discrimination due to errors in data entered previously. The best way to mitigate biases in general is to understand that we can classify an individual into multiple overlapping categories. Helping your AI system acknowledge these nuances in terms of age, gender, race, etc. helps in setting a clear context for decision making.

4. Security

Last but certainly not least, security is the biggest concern for designing a robust AI system. It is more important now than ever before as over 50% of organizations in India have faced some sort of cyber attacks in 2020 alone.Here are some best practices for building trust among your customers with a secured AI system:Inspect your IT vendor thoroughly. Make sure that your AI partner follows the latest security protocols at the time of signing the contract.  Make sure that your vendor adheres to these security policies and keeps its promise of protecting sensitive business and individual data. A regular follow-up is strongly recommended. Partnering up with international standardization authorities like International Organization for Standardization (ISO) helps developers to design a safe and efficient AI system. Adhering to the latest standards of ISO 27003 at all times is crucial for designing an enterprise-level AI system with utmost security.

Final Thoughts

Developing a robust and future-ready AI system comes with many challenges and responsibilities. It needs keen attention to the details and knowledge of the latest AI trends to get it done correctly. We hope these practices help you in the AI application development process to give you a much-needed competitive edge.

VBeyond Digital helps you achieve more with your IT infrastructure with state-of-the-art, bespoke application development, implementation, and maintenance services.

Reach out to us today.

This blog was created by referring to a handbook on developing Artificial Intelligence solutions published by GIZ India, and co-authored by experts from KOAN Advisory and Digital India Foundation. To learn more about the guidelines and frameworks for ethical AI development, you can read the handbook here.

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Advantages of using Azure DevOps Services

Microsoft Azure DevOps is the best tool for rapidly developing & deploying applications and software in-house to enhancing operational efficiency and delivering superior customer experiences.

Microsoft Azure has significantly grown its customer base, especially among small and medium businesses (SMBs). As of 2021, it has over 145 million active users compared to 75 million active users in 2020. Some of the key reasons for its exponential growth are its versatility and cost-effectiveness.Azure DevOps is among the many extensions of its various services that focus on smart planning and improving collaboration among teams to provide the best customer experience. In this blog, we are inspecting DevOps as a whole, what Azure DevOps is, and the advantages of using Azure DevOps services for your business.Make sure to read the blog till the end to learn about the various tools from Azure DevOps that make the development process even more efficient.

What is DevOps?

DevOps, by definition, refers to people, frameworks, processes, and technology that enhances an organization’s ability to rapidly develop and deliver applications and service. Moreover, DevOps is also a guiding principle for technology and delivery of business value that focuses on improving products/services and evolving their capabilities for customers at a greater speed than is achieved through traditional software development and infrastructure management processes.

From an enterprise team’s perspective, DevOps allows departments like IT development, quality management, and security to work collaboratively and provide the best products and services for final purchase. Before DevOps, these departments used to work in silos with little to no interaction with each other. The DevOps system helps organizations bring these departments together for better interaction and better solutions for businesses.

The key benefit of DevOps culture is high-performance business practices and tools that drive better collaboration among departments. Designing better products and enhancing customer experience becomes so much efficient with agile development to achieve business goals.

With that brief refresher on DevOps, let’s look at how Azure DevOps helps organizations in streamlining and managing application development in the best possible way.

What are Azure DevOps services

Microsoft Azure DevOps helps organizations to make software development more agile, accurate and secured with collaborating teams, processes, and technologies to maintain the dynamic software development life cycle. It provides services like version control, reporting, requirements management, project management, automated builds, testing and release management so that organizations can efficiently design a robust application on a digital platform.

Here’s how Azure DevOps helps you manage the software development life cycle.

The most prominent use case for Azure DevOps is for deploying on-premise software and applications using its cloud computing platform. With various useful DevOps services working in tandem with a cloud system, it ensures unlimited scalability and efficiency at all times.

But what are these Azure DevOps services that make it so special? Let’s take a look.

Services offered with Azure DevOps

Azure Boards

Azure boards work as an excellent planning tool with interactive backlog management powered by customizable Kanban boards. Developers can store their application ideas, from minor updates to major overhauls in the system, in Azure boards with efficient traceability.

Azure Pipelines

Azure Pipelines help you streamline your software development by creating an online platform to build, test, and deploy an application in the language of choice. For businesses looking for agile software development on a secure platform before its widespread application, Azure Pipelines work as CI/CD for any platform.

Additionally, you can run these applications using Linux, Windows, and macOS and deploy the final applications on Kubernetes or any individual host.

Azure Repos

Azure Repos adds unprecedented flexibility to your coding by enabling a collaborative development system. It’s a powerful Git hosting platform with efficient code review to find errors early on. With a social media-like communication system, developers can communicate efficiently to solve technical issues in programming.

To sum it up, it works as a free repository for programming ideas, where collaborative development takes the front seat.

Azure Test Plans

Testing is the most crucial part of application development. Azure test plans help you simplify the process by providing a manual and exploratory testing platform. It allows you to micro-manage the entire developing process at every stage. User can identify the errors in coding and notify it to others to take immediate actions.

A simple and interactive interface of Azure Test Plans helps you design your software compatible with across web and desktops throughout your organization.

Azure Artifacts

Azure Artifacts offers a universal package repository where developers can share crucial programming tools like Python, NuGet, npm, and Maven throughout your team using public and private sources. With so many options for designing business applications, organizations get limitless flexibility and control over software development using any programming tool of their choice. Moreover, you can also integrate these packages in your CI/CD pipelines to further improve the ease and scalability of DevOps processes.

Now that we’ve covered the key factors you must know about Azure DevOps, let’s look at its various advantages for your business.

Advantages of Azure DevOps

Access to the latest features: Once Azure DevOps get deployed in your system, you don’t have to worry about what’s new, as DevOps provides access to new technology every three weeks.

Flexibility: All the DevOps tools mentioned above ensure limitless flexibility for your application development. It’s the biggest reason why Azure DevOps is ideal for businesses of all sizes.

Works with multiple cloud systems: Azure DevOps is not limited to Azure cloud only, as you can run it with equal efficiency on AWS and Google Cloud services as well.

Don’t worry about upgrades: Being a Software as a Service (SaaS) platform, users don’t have to worry about constant upgrades to the system, which makes it ideal for companies that use the CI/CD model for app development.

Build your end-to-end Azure infrastructure

Microsoft Azure DevOps is a valuable asset for businesses that seek a quality DevOps system to provide an exceptional experience for users and customers alike. For SMBs, Azure DevOps can be a game-changer with efficient programming that promotes a collaborative work culture.

If you’re planning to get started with a robust DevOps infrastructure, VBeyond Digital is more than happy to help you with our expertise in Azure cloud systems and DevOps management.

Reach out to us today.

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Improving hiring outcomes with talent analytics

Talent analytics helps both large and growing enterprises improve hiring strategies, efforts, and outcomes to target and acquire the right people.

Filling up the skill gap is becoming more challenging for organizations in the post-pandemic job landscape. A recent global phenomenon, termed “The Great Resignation” , is the large-scale churn of employees as a record 4 million people in the U.S. quit their jobs, with around 10.9 million open jobs recorded by the end of July 2021. As the nature and scope of work changed drastically over the last couple of years, scouting for the right talent and managing the workforce demands a significant overhaul to ensure efficiency. According to Hyperight, 87% of organizations are struggling with filling the skill gap in their workforce.It has become a game-changer for businesses by making the recruitment process transparent and scalable and providing more control throughout the recruitment process. In this blog, we will look at various functions of talent analytics and how to use it to improve your hiring outcomes.

What is talent analytics?

Talent analytics help organizations and HR managers process unstructured data generated during the recruitment process across various touchpoints, to gain crucial insights that can help them optimize processes and speed of outcomes. The recruitment process can then be redesigned and executed to ensure better utilization of time and money with the right strategy. However, traditional methods of recruitment involve a lot of guesswork and arbitrary metrics to measure hiring success.

Talent analytics removes the guesswork from the process and provides accurate insights on which organizations can plan their future recruitment strategies. These decisions include keeping acquiring and retaining the best talent, improving employee engagement, streamlining recruitment processes and channels, and setting benchmarks to evaluate recruitment success.

Here’s how talent analytics helps organizations make the recruitment process more scalable and flexible:

Analyzing demand for a job profile: Talent analytics provides insights on current job aspirants in your target market looking for a particular job role with competitor analysis.

Evaluating brand awareness: Understanding your brand awareness gives you a clear picture of ways to attract prospective candidates with the right strategy and channels.

Ensuring outreach: Talent analytics tools provide crucial insights like bounce rate, click-through rate, conversion rate, cost-per-hire, and engagement to optimize your digital recruitment.

Generating insights from audience response: Talent analytics use advanced recruitment measures like A/B testing for job description and social media engagement metrics to understand the audience’s response.

Now that we’re familiar with the capabilities of talent analytics, let’s look at one of the early stages of getting started – defining benchmarks to ensure the quality of recruitment outcomes.

Let’s see what these benchmarks are.

Benchmarks for talent analytics

Job segments: Your organization’s industry vertical or segment plays a major role in measuring cost-per-hire, the time to hire, and employee satisfaction. Generating segment-centric data gives you quality insights on recruitment in your niche.

Past results: Learning from your past recruitment experience is the best way to find out what works for your hiring process and what doesn’t. Organizations can use past data to predict the changes in hiring trends and upgrade the hiring process to make it future-proof.

Job departments: Hiring process complexity differs between individual and group job roles. Having a clear perspective on job position and key roles help organizations to further refine recruitment metrics.

Current market scenario: Real-time hiring factors like economy, trends, inflation rate, and nature of the job can significantly affect your hiring insights. It’s always recommended to keep these factors in mind while processing historical data.

Location: Even though we’ve witnessed a border-free work environment in the post-pandemic world, location still plays a crucial role in recruitment metrics. Understanding the local economy and employment trends in your target market/geography allows you to better track your hiring success.

Guidelines for effective talent analytics 

Set hiring goals

Your hiring goals will keep on changing with time. It’s important to understand the new challenges in hiring, like choosing the right medium, allocating the right budget, and designing the right strategy. Working with a strategic approach while setting your hiring goals helps reduce guesswork from the start of the process and makes each step more result-driven.

Know your cost-per-hire

Cost-per-hire is a crucial factor in designing your recruitment strategy and it varies with the individual business. Before implementing your hiring strategy, it’s important to consider all the internal and external costs. You can incorporate technologies like an applicant tracking system (ATS) to understand how much you’re able to spend to hire an employee.

Optimize the recruitment program

Implementing the right hiring strategy is not enough. You need constant monitoring to find any shortcomings or waste of resources. Observing the hiring process on the key metrics takes the guesswork away and gives you more control over the process to improve at any point during your hiring campaign.

Timely reporting

Last but certainly not least, timely reporting of your hiring process is crucial to maintaining an effective recruitment system. Reporting not only gives you historical data to plan your future strategy, but it also helps in understanding your company’s growth as a whole.

Role of technology in analyzing hiring success

Technology is one of the biggest efficiency drivers for HR and recruitment processes. Rather than delegating the entire responsibility to a human, organizations can speed up each stage of the overall program using digital tools with added accuracy. Nowadays, organizations opt for software as a service (SaaS) and customized tools to automate and analyze recruitment processes to make them more streamlined, result-driven, and information-rich.

Recruitment analytics SaaS is pre-designed software that provides a variety of tools to measure employment success using key metrics mentioned above. Key functionality of these tools includes generating real-time insights from multiple channels/touchpoints to enable better decision-making. Some examples of recruitment analytics SaaS are Erecruit, Phenom, Yellow, and IBM Watson Recruitment. These tools are prime examples of plug-and-play software designed and maintained by a single company.

The other way to approach talent analytics to by building custom solutions that give you complete control over its functionality and enhancements, while delivering personalized insights on custom metrics. These applications are usually designed from scratch to accommodate an organization’s unique recruitment processes, industry-specific metrics, and more, and overall help you do more with an enhanced user experience.

VBeyond Digital brings years of experience building custom solutions for recruitment firms and HR processes and can help you build powerful and customized talent analytics solutions using the latest tools in data science. Whether you want to customize your talent management SaaS platform with RPA and BPA or build customized software from the ground up, we have you covered.

Get in touch with us today.

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Boost customer engagement with marketing content automation

Content automation helps brands to use branded content for campaigns and optimize them to drive better customer engagement and improve conversions.

As digital becomes the primary channel for customer engagement for consumer businesses, the competition to draw and hold user attention has gotten fierce. While large businesses have bigger budgets, large teams, and more elaborate processes at their disposal, smaller, growing businesses are unable to generate or manage marketing and streamline content in the same volume or speed. This is where technology, automation, and process expertise can help SMBs derive greater value from their marketing operations.

SMBs can trade large teams for faster and more focused data-driven tools to personalize and target their audience with greater granularity. Research suggests that 80% of consumers are more likely to engage and do business with brands that offer personalized experiences. By using custom platforms for content automation, measuring the performance of different campaigns and channels, SMBs can use a wealth of data to iteratively optimize their processes, resulting in high-impact campaigns that deliver the full value of digital channels for their brand.

What is content automation?

Content automation, which is a part of marketing automation, refers to technology that leverages business process automation (BPA), robotic process automation (RPA) data, and analytics to perform repetitive tasks and workflows pertaining to branded content management. Automated tools allow marketers to assign a predefined set of rules or criteria to different events, based on which the system takes a fixed action.

For example, consider an online direct-to-consumer (D2C) brand offering subscriptions for personal grooming products that have an average life of about 3 months. Using an automated system, the brand can send customers a personalized email at the end of 30 days to get their feedback and ensure smoother conversions at the time of renewing the subscription. Subsequently, they can also automate renewal reminders to customers days before their subscription ends, combining it with personalized recommendations to upsell or cross-sell items based on the products they are currently using.

Bigger enterprises derive value from digital marketing by regularly publishing a large amount of marketing content made and distributed by large marketing teams. With content management automation, SMBs can compete better by increasing operational efficiency and grow their revenue faster by switching to more data-driven processes and methods of creating, delivering, and optimizing their digital marketing campaigns.

Streamline and optimize customer engagement with content automation

Since the COVID-19 pandemic, more and more SMBs and D2C brands have directed their marketing activities towards digital, thus opening up the possibilities of using content management and content automation for multi-level targeting across the customer journey. Automated data-driven systems help marketers attract and engage customers more effectively by personalizing their interactions with them across various digital channels.

Data-driven, automated systems can collect and target campaigns to strategically viable customer segments and channels, replacing scale by helping brands craft more customized messages to their audience. While larger enterprises generally focus on driving engagement metrics such as impressions, clicks, views, and shares for their digital campaigns, SMBs usually focus on maximizing conversions through personalization. According to a study, 53% of marketers saw conversions and revenues increase by more than 10% after they started personalizing campaigns.

Automation also enables brands to pace their campaigns and optimize campaign parameters, using patterns to find the ideal allocation to achieve desired outcomes, such as maximizing ROI on ad spend. With automation, B2C and D2C marketers can also assign actions to specific triggers based on audience behavior. For instance, if a customer abandons the cart during checkout, it can trigger an automated action wherein a follow-up email or text message can be immediately sent to them with a discount to increase the chances of converting them and preventing lost sales.

Further, campaign managers and marketers can refine their targeting based on data on how audience segments react to different messages and content. Automated campaign analytics further enable them to modify their strategy for converting leads after nurturing them. This way, brands can also target their leads during off-times such as holidays or weekends and avoid losing out on conversion opportunities.

How can your business make content operations more efficient?

Global digital ad spending in 2021 surpassed 2019’s pre-pandemic figure by more than $120 billion, setting new records. As e-commerce and D2C brands continue to grow exponentially, both established and growing consumer businesses are increasingly looking for solutions that help them derive maximum value from their marketing spends.

Businesses can leverage tools like Microsoft Power Platform, SharePoint, and Microsoft Dynamics 365 to build more customized and flexible marketing workflows than with simple plug-and-play SaaS platforms. For instance, using Power Platform, they can automate the curation and distribution of social media and inbound marketing content such as blogs and holiday sale landing pages by automatically adding RSS feed items to selectively publish or share content on specific social media platforms.

Further, by integrating Microsoft Dynamics 365 to SharePoint and creating automated flows on Power Automate, marketers can create a cloud flow using any existing templates such as:

Creating a list item in SharePoint when an object is created in Dynamics 365

Creating leads on Dynamics 365 from an Excel table, and more.

Using connectors on Power Platform, marketers can send automated emails to customers through Microsoft Outlook 365, curate content from their Medium site, or post and share on Twitter, Facebook, and other social platforms based on specific triggers at a fixed cadence. This helps marketing teams and operations not only create and automate lead/customer engagement campaigns on email or social media but also monitor and optimize them in real-time.

VBeyond Digital works with businesses from across various industries to help them build, deploy, and manage bespoke solutions that help them streamline their digital operations, reduce costs, and maximize business impact.

Are you interested in a content management solution to leverage digital media channels for better customer engagement and conversion? Reach out to us at and we’d be happy to assist you.

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Benifits of Cloud Based Analytics 2022

Cloud based analytics have simplified generating actionable insights from unstructured data. Incorporating it into your IT system makes it future-ready.

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Benefits of Artificial intelligence in Retail startups and e-commerce.

https://www.vbeyonddigital.com/cloud-and-artificial-intelligence-in-retail-e-commerce-retail-startups/

Cloud computing and Artificial intelligence in Retail startups have become an integral part of their B2C brands for digital transformation.

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https://www.vbeyonddigital.com/ai-and-cloud-computing-whats-the-fuss-about/

Significance of AI in cloud computing for businesses.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) in cloud computing has been the biggest game-changer for businesses during the era of digital transformation. Let's look at how cloud AI benefits businesses.

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AI-powered automation has become more available than ever before, and many organizations, including SMEs, are starting to utilize it to its right capacity to gain a competitive edge.

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Benefits of hybrid work | Business process automation for hybrid work

In the dilemma between re-opening the office and continuing working remotely, the shift to hybrid work models could be the right option for many organizations. Adopting modern enterprise platforms can make hybrid workplaces even more streamlined and efficient.