All posts by [x]cube LABS

[x]cube LABS is a leading digital strategy and solution provider specializing in enterprise mobility space. Over the years, we have delivered numerous digital innovations and mobile solutions, creating over $ 2 billion for startups and enterprises. Broad spectrum of services ranging from mobile app development to enterprise digital strategy makes us the partner of choice for leading brands.

Blog, Mobility

Why Mobile App Design Should Be Essential To Your Mobile App Strategy?

July 7, 2016 [x]cube LABS

Mobile is the best way to reach people globally, to fulfill business requirements while focusing on meeting users’ needs and their expectations. So, it is an immediate need for enterprises to have a great mobile app design, which is the first and the most important step in mobile app strategy.

Mobile app design if not executed properly will cost you by driving away your brand reputation and loyal customers. A solid mobile app strategy has countless number of elements that apply to a mobile app design which brings all verticals and horizontals of the business together to meet a common goal. So, it’s necessary to have a thoughtful design that resonates with the business vision and user requirements.

Prioritizing And Opportunities

It’s not possible to implement every feature because to every feature there are backlogs that can’t be avoided. So, you need to prioritize things based on a number of criteria like risk, cost, time, resources, business value and customer need to provide a requirement for mobile applications and the mobile features to incorporate into the design.

Once you are done with the prioritizing things, the next important thing is to document the opportunities in order to determine which app initiatives has brought the highest value to your business and opportunities for future release and improvement. It will also give your enterprise a visibility into mobile applications and keeps you on a track while keeping a watch in what other competitors enterprises are doing.

Prerogatives And Simple Design

Now that you have your objectives, what you need is a simple design considering why and how a user can interact with your app? Designs which are simple, easy to navigate, gives the developer a clear understanding of potential users considering how customers use mobile devices. Every enterprise has a level of custom and standardize development toolbox to meet their objectives and a specific development tool for particular type of applications. There are four types of applications: Mobile Web, Hybrid, Native and Cross-platform having their own set of available tools, so you need to decide on a standard group for each type of application. For the e-commerce companies it is important to design their app which is simple and easy to navigate for their customers to have the best experience. Mobile app needs to have a prerogatives design to communicate the core brand offerings and opportunity to align elements in a broad spectrum, that helps you to introduce your app with an exceptional mobile experience to the users.

For example: Domino’s app has a built-in pizza tracker to track the preparation and delivery process, that allows their customers to keep an eye on what stage their pizza is at and reduce the problem of customers calling up for their order status.

Consistency And Security Standards

The appearance of an app, such as colors, fonts and pixels is important, however mobile design is much more than just visual aspects. While designing a mobile app, you should be more focused on mobile app consistency and ensure a secure way to manage your app support and maintain expectations. By ensuring and evaluating mobile app securely and consistently, you will be able to understand and create tools that satisfies the end user.

For example, reusable components can be used in maintaining consistency, doesn’t matter who is developing and deploying the mobile apps. This will help the mobile app strategy to remain consistent and well organized and maintain a balance between the time, scope and your budget through the organization. A human-centric design will lead to a better outcome and opportunities for business success.

Perfect Platform For Branding

Customers use their smartphones to compare prices and shop on the go, so it’s essential for an enterprise to design the mobile app keeping branding in mind for a great customer engagement. Mobile app design has a major contribution towards mobile app strategy and a perfect design holds the good branding image for your organization, by providing an immediate platform for the global users under one roof.

Customers like to share their experiences in social and by adding social sharing features in your mobile app, where users can share their experiences with their friends, you are tapping into the inherent appeal of sharing via mobile device, which lets brand interaction. Also, by adding a feature like push notifications, help you to keep your user updated and also creates an opportunity to interact with your app. The most important source of information to all the app users is the App-based content. A quality content in the app will help you get a great branding.
The ultimate goal of any organization is to provide excellent mobile app experience to their end users and a great mobile app design is very essential to manage various mobile apps strategies to stand out among your competitors.

Blog, Enterprise Mobility, Mobility

How To Measure The Success Of Enterprise Mobile Apps?

July 7, 2016 [x]cube LABS

Enterprise mobility is not a child’s play. Implementing and measuring a mobile app’s success is nothing different. Measuring an app’s success will enable your enterprise to get a true insight into the development and deployment of your mobile app.

Here are a few critical mobile attributes that should be captured and measured successfully to develop usage metrics:

Revenue vs. Costs

Managing costs and revenue to maximize profit is key for any enterprise. A business can have high revenue, but the costs should be low, it will show profit and is bound to go out of business when the handy capital runs out. Once you know all the important parts of your enterprise mobility strategy, you’ll be able to calculate the qualitative costs against the monetary benefits of the solution, including increased sales and profitability.

App Latency

Latency refers to the total time taken in a request for a response. The basic rule is to optimize to a one-second response time. Along with tracking API latencies, you should keep an eye on the complete response time for apps that are powering the APIs. “Data show that moderately 60 percent of users abandon the transaction or may even delete the app if the total response time is over three to four seconds.” The app load limit refers to the transaction number and calls during a particular time interval. You need not just look at how to grow the app faster, but also how to handle a large number of users at one time. You need to know how to handle drastic changes in load during app usage hinders without compromising on speed.

App Crash Ratio

The basic requirement of any app is its stability. If your app is programmed perfectly, the chances are it won’t crash often. However, app stability also depends on the entire mobile experience including the mobile platform, usage, app type, maturity and more. The average crash rate of an app is two to three percent. Presently, the crash rates of Android 6.0 and iOS 9 are 2.52 percent and 2.70 percent, respectively. Technical metrics help you know if users face problems while using your app. Basing on the the platforms and the devices, make sure you collect the data. Examine crash rates and error by device OS and carrier to sharpen in on issues and finally, make sure to collect performance metrics such as how slow the app is to load.

Device Type

Capturing the user’s preferred device type for an enterprise application will help you measure mobile app usage. It will help you to see how many devices are jailbroken and are a potential security risk. These stats will help you gain an understanding of the average device’s life and software. It shows you users’ device choice for specific apps and also exposes security risks that can be addressed quickly and efficiently.

App Usage

Do you know 50 million apps are downloaded daily and 95 percent of apps are discarded in a month? This is disturbing. It is important to measure how often users are accessing the app, again similar to downloads, whether it’s daily/weekly/monthly. Find out how much time users are spending using the app and by doing so, you will get an idea of the users who are using it frequently and who aren’t. This will reveal which specific group of employees are using your app to improve their productivity. This data will not just help determine how in-app offers would sway mobile app usage rate but also will conclude the functioning of new features and marketing campaigns.

Enterprise mobile apps offer huge benefits such as simpler collaboration, productivity gains and improved sales enablement. But to truly bring in these benefits, you will need to keep your business goals in mind and on course. So, start tracking data to improve your app performance and most importantly take action to resolve the issues and shortcomings of your mobile app to make it a big hit in the market.

Blog, Digital Strategy, Digital Transformation & Innovation, Weekly Insights

Digital Transformation Insights Weekly June 28- July 4

July 5, 2016 [x]cube LABS

Digital Transformation: Key to success of the organization Share on X
Want to try something innovative and worried about failure? Digital Transformation is the answer for disruption. It can help your organization to overcome the fear of failure. Here are few takeaways on how you can achieve success with Digital Transformation. Read more

The Enterprise world is moving from Business model canvas to Digital Transformation Share on X
Digital wave is changing the business. You have to offer a fresh experience to succeed in this disruptive era. Start a new Business model and bring in new ways of thinking. Go along the journey from business model canvas to Digital Transformation. Read more

Three steps to a successful digital transformation Share on X
Finding it difficult to attain Digital Transformation? Pace up and face the competition by strengthening your digital strategy. Embrace digital transformation with confidence and focus on what makes it possible. Here are the Three steps to a successful Digital Transformation. Read more

Digital Innovation: The Bridge between ideas and values Share on X
Innovation: A right medium to drive growth and testing new ideas. It uses your digital channel as a receiver rather than a transmitter where new ideas can be presented with less efforts. Good Growth founder James Hammersley details how innovation can fill the gap between ideas and value. Read more

Digital Banking Transformation: The story of BBVA and Banco Santander Share on X
Transform from traditional banking into digital banking. Change the approach towards the customers. The future of traditional banking seems obsolete. Let’s checkout the banking story of BBVA and Banco Santander. How they indulged Digitization in Banking. Read more

Blog, Enterprise Mobility

6 Things Every Enterprise Mobile App Must Have

June 16, 2016 [x]cube LABS

The amount of effort being placed into mobile app development is staggering. When an app is designed properly, mobile apps become competitive weapons which will provide a business the superiority within the battle for market share. However there is an obvious drawback with major apps: they are not excellent, they may do the task, but they are missing key features that distinguish a really effective and addictive app with a good user experience from a simply “okay” app. If your app is missing any of those features, you would like to rethink however and why you are designing for mobile.

Following are the 6 things that you need to look into before developing an enterprise app

1. Apps Must Work Offline

The reality of being mobile is that, so much too usually, wireless data services are not accessible. Mobile apps that cannot work in offline mode waste the worth of mobility. Apps must work offline to gain or to retain users. Not all the phones are connected to data services. In such cases, an app that works offline is an add on. An offline app’s performance can be snappy, consistent. Almost immediate searches of cached recordsets. And the best part of an offline app is that, it has the potential to add a couple of more hours to the battery life on your phone.

2. Provide User Feedback

Enterprise mobile apps ought to be able to ask the user to rate or comment on app features and functions and also as track user behavior to produce insight into ways in which the app is used and may be improved. In this way, businesses can constantly improve their apps to deliver the greatest value. When users are using two competing apps then they are always comparing between the apps as well. But if your app can cope up with a good feedback, you have got a high chance that you would feel rewarded. Giving importance to the user’s feedback and acting upon it is an essential need for you.

3. Support Customization

App customization could be as easy as permitting the user to pick a “skin” or as advanced as permitting the app’s menu to be organized. This matters as a result of what works within the field is typically not precisely what was planned for. Successful businesses got to be nimble and adapt, which needs their apps got to be even as nimble. Apps must conjointly support customization to support the distinctive options of every device kind, whether Android or iOS. Customizing an app makes an use feel something new, different and the user will be happy to use your app over and over again.

4. Need For A Strong ROI

Measuring the return on investment (ROI) of an enterprise app development process concerns our app directly and depends on which OS it has been developed. ROI in mobile app development isn’t invariably a similar and should not even be proportional to the investment created. the foremost vital issue is to own the goals we would like to attain with our app project outlined from the start. Is it an application for your company? Or is it rather a game to get money? It’s not similar to develop mobile games to earn money than to form a company app to boost your complete and be ready to connect additional directly along with your customers. So it depends on the outset of your app when you are thinking about ROI.

5. App Security

An unsafe app is always a major drawback while developing an enterprise mobile app. The security is the main concern for the users when they use the app. An app with high security is always recommended to build a successful enterprise app. There were numerous reports related to hacking and information leaks. “As per Gartner’s prediction, 75% of mobile applications will fail basic security tests.” The hackers will continue to exploit security gaps in enterprise mobile apps to crack sensitive information. Key point, mobile app security is something developers need to seriously act upon.

6. Allow Updating

Enterprise Mobile apps must be simply updatable not only to fix issues however, additionally incorporate user feedback and supply improved features. These updates must be straightforward to implement across all platforms and devices. Updating an app keeps your customers happy. For a mass driven market, users emerge because the most vital app testers and their discontent should be taken care as early as possible by a mobile app development team. In the modern-day mobile world, keeping up with the competition helps you to improve, innovate your app in a better way. Your competitors and you’re in an exceedingly constant tussle to extend and retain various user base. And to stay at the top it’s essential to serve what others don’t seem to be able to offer to your users. If your contender adds an extra feature within the app and rolls it out for free of charge, you’d would want to do a similar thing, by adding or changing an existing feature in your app.

For many enterprises, developing mobile apps is a great way to spend time and money because these apps help boost employees’ productivity. Through a mobile app, users can accomplish a difficult and time-consuming business process in just a few minutes or even seconds. Still, each and every app comes with challenges. Businesses may have to dig deep into their pockets to come with the money for native apps or sacrifice some practicality to create apps. In conclusion, an app must be easy, perform consistently and the user must feel secure while using an app.

Blog, Enterprise Mobility

Top 3 Security Concerns For Enterprises

June 10, 2016 [x]cube LABS

Mobile technology continues to move forward in all aspects of business, however security issues threaten to slow down the progress. The modern enterprise is waking up to the needs which can be addressed by mobility solutions. Yet the barrier that stands in their way to embrace enterprise mobility is a massive one-security.

For most organizations today, cyber security concern is of top priority on their radar. The most valuable assets that companies own is the information about their business-client records, payroll information, sales data, etc., and the list of the companies who have learnt this the hard way is a long one.

Most security breaches are caused by human error and poor security discipline. For instance, in April 2011, it was discovered that the personal and confidential data of 3.5 million teachers, state workers and retirees in the state of Texas was lying unprotected on the Internet closely for a year. As far as the history of executive management goes, chief executives and IT security professionals do not seem to have a close working history. However, the mammoth security attacks on corporate giants like Google, Amazon, Citibank and JPMorgan have made the CIOs of today to sit up and take notice. Infact it would not be untrue to say that security threats are giving sleepless nights to the leaders of today. As enterprise technology has become more significantly complex and mobile, when compared to what it was five years ago, effective security requires more than a set of guidelines and tactics.

Infact recent research indicates that a single data breach can cost companies up to $7.2 million at an average of $214 per compromised record. This is a warning bell for CIOs to set the agenda as to how IT security should be addressed across businesses. A security breach can lead to serious financial loss, but that is just the tip of the iceberg. It is therefore of utmost importance that CIOs have a clear understanding of security loopholes and be deeply involved in developing and implementing a strategy to combat these threats.

1. Human Error

Though it might not come out as expected but, it is human error and not malicious intent that is the primary cause of critical corporate data breaches. According to Gartner, Inc., more than 99 percent of firewall breaches are caused by misconfigurations rather than firewall flaws. With big money being invested for the protection of data in large organizations, CIOs must wake up to the fact that making fundamental changes in the way security is managed and configured, especially at the network level can actually go a long way in reducing the number of security breaches occurring through human error. It is critical for CIOs to identify ways to reduce network complexity and minimize the risk of human error across the security process thus improving the effectiveness of IT security.

Cloud Security: Cloud computing is not a new term for CIOs interested in executing cyber security programs. In simple words, cloud computing allows companies to outsource their IT infrastructure to a virtual environment which is either on a public or private cloud. Therefore cloud computing serves as an effective strategy to reduce technology costs and redundancies.

2. So What Is It That Blocks The Way?

According to Gartner’s research report, security is the top concern for companies looking at migrating to the cloud. The “lack of confidence” in the security capabilities of the cloud service provider is the top reason why organisations hesitate to take the leap to cloud. Visibility, monitoring, access control etc are among a few security challenges faced by cloud providers. For instance, the disastrous web server failure of Amazon in April 2011 was a breach of service that temporarily brought down the online presence of thousands of its clients.

How will your business be affected if you are not able to access certain data on the cloud? What impact will it have on your customers? How do you make sure your data is not being incorrectly accessed? These are a few questions that CIOs must ask themselves before expanding their dependency on cloud.

3. Mobile Security

As the number of mobile and smart devices accessing critical business information is rapidly on the rise, mobile device security becomes increasingly complicated to implement. The biggest threat here is the device itself. If left in wrong hands, it could be nothing short of a debacle. It is upon the CIOs to prioritize the execution of a policy that strictly lays down guidelines relating to usage and liability of both personal and company owned devices and that foresees the ways and means to combat incoming threats from mobile device usage. BYOD risks, is a high concern of any security manager today as it allows less control than ever on unauthorized access to enterprise data. As enterprise BYOD adoption rates continue to rise, organizations are on the lookout for a tradeoff between BYOD risks and rewards.

There is no getting around the fact that it is infact a formidable task to ensure end to end IT security. It is hard to build a connected risk-aware-culture and it is even harder to change the existing culture. But as the stakes are high, it is highly recommended to have security essentials in place. Measures such as building security into design, controlling network access through monitored access points, centralized device settings and building an automated and unified system to manage and respond to incidents should be implemented to meet the growing cyber security challenges of the day.

Blog, Enterprise Mobility

5 Benefits Of Gamification For Enterprises

June 9, 2016 [x]cube LABS

Gamification is fast emerging game based techniques to boost employees. Enterprises are adding this techniques in the training process to increase the learning engagement and focusing more on satisfying their employee by creating positive competition among co-workers which helps in reducing attrition. Adding interest or fun at work is a good way to create happy and more engaged employees and help enhance workplace productivity.

What Is Gamification?

“A game is a form of play with goals and structure.”– Kevin J. Maroney

Gamification is the process of applying game principles and mechanics into non-game environments. It isn’t about designing games, it’s about adding elements of gaming into a business activity to increase engagement, motivation and participation for better performance management.
How gamification is benefiting enterprises? And the reasons why you shouldn’t delay deploying an enterprise gamification program are-

1. Boost Employee Engagement

Good enterprise gamification is focused more on personalized leaderboards and benchmarks for the employee, which helps employer to use unbiased and accurate information in order to assess the performance of their employees. This will motivate the employee, letting employee know how they are doing. Employees who feel their hard work is valued and engaged in something entertaining are always happier than those who interact a little or not at all, throughout the day. Creating a workplace that promotes fun activities will help maintain a high-caliber workforce. In addition to that, recognition is another element of employee satisfaction and well-being. Gamification allows to monitor which employee has made substantial improvements from last few weeks. Gamification allows you to take notice and recognize those employees who make real progress. Recognition is the key ingredient to be satisfied.

2. To Know The Customers

Enterprise gamification helps organizations to collect accurate customer data. For example; whenever a user visits a website, the platform asks the user to login with a valid email id or social credentials. Each user interaction is associated with clicks, badges, points and achievements which generate valuable customer information and insights for the companies. Once we have generated a large amount of data, it needs to be analyzed correctly which will help the company to figure out how to build a better business and engage in that. Some gamification vendors offer analytics as a part of their product. For example, Badgeville offers the Behavior Analytics software to measure customer engagement, growth, behavior, and user activities. Bunchball has Nitro Connectors, a product that connects their gamification platform to enterprise software such as SharePoint or Yammer to collect activity and behavior from employees.

By implementing gamification, employer will also be able to collect objective performance data, employee’s productivity and gather valuable data for the company. Employees will be rated based on the real, hard data instead of what is being said about them or a post-facto manual leaderboard. Appreciating employee can motivate them to work hard, and this automatically will be shown in numbers.

3. A Vehicle For New Product Launches

Gamification can also be used as a tool to introduce new product in a creative way, like giving a free trial of a new product can let the customer test out the product. Company on the launch of a new product gives a 30-day free trial for the customers to know the benefits of having that product. Also, do an onboarding program like LevelUp by tasking them with assignments where they can earn points and badges upon completion of certain level.

For example: Jillian Michaels encourages users to stay on track with her fitness programs using gamification techniques for a number of fitness challenge. With a multitude of challenges to choose from, users can select a program that’s most closely aligned with personal goals and lifestyle. Each challenge uses its own set of gamification techniques, such as contests and prizes, badges, partner and group challenges. Many companies also give discounts on products in exchange for a person’s email address, for example, if the company’s goal is customer engagement, than offer rewards like 10% off on some items on subscription. However, we also need to make sure it’s for the right audience. Otherwise users might get the 10% off and unsubscribe.

4. Feedback To Solve Business Problems

Companies use customer feedback as a sounding board to make required changes and decisions for future growth. Gamification can be an avenue to crowdsourcing if the company uses the customer feedback and tries to solve the issues. For example: companies like Allstate and GE have turned to crowdsourcing to help them come up with answers to complex business questions.Similar way internal feedback also plays an important role too. When the feedback to employees are given timely and regularly, it gives an opportunity to correct the issues and enhance a sense of control and mastery. For example: If the employee is struggling on a certain measure, can be notified so that it helps in solving the issue immediately. Feedback will help business to understand how they did yesterday and how are they doing today and how those measurements fit with the goals they want to reach.

5. Performance Management

Gamification helps employees to get a sense of progress on their own by creating a sense of mastery, because gamification allows employees to keep a track and record of their work. Also gives work-related satisfaction by giving opportunity for an employee to feel that they are mastering on what they do. Using gamification analytics, the employer can optimize the area of difficulty that an employee in facing at work. When done right, gamification allows employees to track down their performance at work through personal benchmarks and giving rewards for specific tasks which will motivate them and increase the participation.

Gamification in the enterprise has the potential to produce remarkable benefits. It is a tool that has to be managed with great care and needs to be focused on intrinsic motivations of users to leverage more from it and optimize its effectiveness.

Blog, Enterprise Mobility, Mobility

How Beacons Are Helping Retailers

June 6, 2016 [x]cube LABS

As the world of business advances, the competition amongst the retailers is reaching a saturation point. Retailers are finding new ways to reach out to their customers, to keep them engaged in the stores and regulate their buying decisions. Picture this: Whenever a customer walks into your store, they get a notification on their mobile phone – a welcome message, offers/coupons, promotion or a reminder of their shopping list. Isn’t that a delight to your customer and, help you take your business to the next level? All thanks to beacons! Let’s see how this technology helps your business transform.

What is a beacon?

Beacons are small, battery operated devices that enable more accurate location within a limited range. They are attached to a wall or countertop inside a store and transmit small amounts of data via Bluetooth Low Energy(BLE) up to 50 meters. Due to it’s low cost, even small businesses may want to try this new beacon technology.

Reasons to use Beacons

Track movements: Beacon makes it easy to track customer movements around the store and, provide coupons, discounts and information for that department where the customer is. Also, by using beacon technology, retailers can attract customer attention, by sending messages like new arrivals, discounts, rewards, etc.Let’s see how Macy’s used Beacon: Last year on Thanksgiving Day, Macy’s installed beacons in nearly 800 stores, in partnership with Shopkick, a location-based coupon provider, to better utilize on an offline data-driven retail experience. This technology tracks customer movements with their store, push product recommendations and discounts and to inform shoppers about relevant sale items.
Best experience: Meeting up with the customer’s expectation became a priority for all retailers, because there are so many retailers in the market competing with each other. Now this gives a customer the power to informed decisions and creates a need for a business to deliver the best experiences to their customers. For example: iBeacon technology for Apple devices, which are used by the retailers to get an alert on their apps or websites, which detect when someone approaches or leaves a location. So at any given moment they can send messages to the customer promoting their products.
Personal Touch: Beacon collects data based on the shopping behavior and product references of the customer, creating a more personalized experience. Let’s say a customer comes to the store and buys a blue shirt and now, a week later the retailer can send out an offer to the same customer on a black trouser that’ll go along with blue shirt. Retailers have an option to send their message notification automatically on their customer’s smartphones whenever they triggered customer passes by the store. This will increase the chances of getting the customer visit the store. Lord & Taylor used their beacon program for a more personalized approach. They targeted their users based on their shopping history, with specific sections of the store sales, targeting right customers with the right product. Hudson’s Bay Company (HBC), which owns Lord & Taylor, has rolled out beacons at 50 stores in the United States and 90 Hudson’s Bay locations. Using beacon technology, retailers can create an individualized campaigns for each department, focusing more on customer satisfaction which makes the shoppers experience interesting. For example: customers will receive messages in their smartphones with the offer up to 70% off on certain items, in certain departments with some specific code to use.

Engaging Customer: Rule To Follow

Beacons and their related apps can do multiple things, in an automated way, which makes it easier to engage customers for a longer time. The ultimate goal is to build a strong relationship with your current customers, because it is important to let them know, that the effort they made to come to your store is appreciated and valued. More engaging in-store experience can engage current customers using beacons, helping them to navigate through the store and help them decide what to buy and notify them if there is any offers running in the store. This allows a retailer to understand the customer’s behavior and serve them with the information needed. Information that is provided to the customer are accurate and specific to where they are in the store, here contextual information, gives customers access to rich product information such as videos at the right time. For example; GameStop an electronics retailer company is experimenting where, customers can voluntarily wave with their smartphone in front of them to receive some type of offers or information with prominently displaying beacons in stores.

Challenges

When the retailer has multiple stores with beacon technology installed, maintenance becomes one of the most daunting task.
Limited range to target customer. It can only send push notifications to the customers within a location perimeter. For example, if a retailer wants the beacons to broadcast over a large space, they have to increase the range. The challenge here, each time the broadcasting power is increased beacons become less energy efficient, resulting in a faster battery drain.
Use of beacon technology in retail has transformed in-store retail experience and is no longer an experimental technology. Beacon devices brought much interest to retailers as well as customers to take the shopping experience to next level and by the end of year 2016 beacon will soar to new heights.

Blog, Enterprise Mobility, Mobility

5 Tips To Sharpen Your Mobile App Retargeting Strategy

June 3, 2016 [x]cube LABS

“Every contact we have with a customer influences whether or not they’ll come back. We have to be great every time or we’ll lose them.” ― Kevin Stirtz

We just can’t stay away from our mobile devices. Can we? There are millions of apps in the store, which people download every day and you don’t just want your app to be installed, you also want them to use it. So, you got a new user and now what? What can you do to retain that user? How we you make this ongoing process?

Mobile app retargeting is same, like what you do on the desktop, reconnecting with your users in a more personalized way. Retargeting can be a major challenge because users are already familiar with your product, they have already downloaded your app and know what you serve. Here are the five tips for you to run a successful mobile app retargeting strategy.

1. Follow The Simple Re-Marketing Rule

Acquire users ⇨ Get your users to use your app again and again ⇨ Get your users to make transactions.

2. Categorize Your Users

Mobile retargeting should be an ongoing process for any successful business. We all know every user has different motivation based on demographics, reason to install your app, how frequently they use your app, etc. It won’t make any sense if you put all the users in the same campaign, reason being every user has different needs and assumptions. You need to segment your retargeting campaigns to achieve better performance and once it’s done, create unique ads that are relevant to each section and the business objective you’d like them to achieve. Determine the KPIs that can fit into your strategy. Like, what your goal is and what do you want your users to do?

If your goal is user’s engagement, your measuring point should be

Number of app sessions
Retention Rate
Daily Active Users (DAU)
If you want your users to install your app than your measuring point should be
Cost Per Install (CPI)
Retention Rate
Lifetime Value (LTV)

Collect data in all possible ways

Now that you know your users you must know their needs, as well. There are lot many ways where you can get your user’s data to re-reach them. One of the way is to

Keep a track on user actions: Most of the time people have a habit of opening the app and leaves without doing any transaction, like adding the product in the cart and leaving the page or adding it to their wish lists or browse websites. Using a tracking tool, you will be able to track the user’s device id no and use it for retargeting strategy.

For a new customer, ask them to fill in their personal details like, date of birth, anniversaries, phone numbers, email ids, etc. once you get customers email id and other personal details, you can send them greetings for their birthdays, anniversaries or seasonal greeting, also send them notifications keep updating them with your ongoing sales, which you don’t want them to miss.

3. Utilize Media Channels and Re-marketing approach

This kind of approach not only gets you new users but also brings back old users to use your app. Banners are used for an elegant acquisition campaign for the user to visit the app store and install your app. With mobile re-marketing, you’re not only retargeting your user, but also a general mobile-device-user. This way you are able to place your ads in the both platforms: mobile apps and the mobile web. Choose a partner who can adequately segment users, which offers real-time optimization. By this way your retargeting banners will be seen by more of your users in more different mobile app and web.

4. Set Campaign with right message and attractive banners

“Content is King!” — Bill Gates

Social media channels like Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and other networks use re marketing as a powerful engine which lets you show your ads either directly in the news feed or in the right-hind sidebar (Facebook). For example; if you’ve ever been on any online shopping site and then you login to your Facebook account, you’ve probably seen so many ads from the same site on the right-hind sidebar. Among all social media, we consider Facebook to be the most powerful engine, because most of the users spend their time browsing Facebook. And we get users in lower CPC (cost per click) rate, which means high competition. In order to do this we need right message and attractive banners.

Facebook only accepts 20% text of the image, that you use for campaign banner.

Your banner size should be 1200 x 628 pixels and twitter it should be 800 x 320 pixels.

Call-to-action here is different, so you can’t use the same UA banners here, because you’re asking your users who already downloaded your app to revisit your app. Use appropriate text which should have all the message that you want to convey.

5. Trace Action

“Tracking marketing is a cultural thing. Either tracking matters or it doesn’t. You’re in one camp or the other. Either you’re analytical and data-driven, or you go by what you think works. People who go by gut are wrong.”— Stuart McDonald

You have to know if the campaigns are effective in generating any output. With the help of potential tracking partner, you must be able track clicks, the amount you have spent and the revenue you’ve made so far with those campaigns in order to analyze the performance. Introducing programmatic methods via RTB, retargeting has become truly unbeatable solution.

Mobile app re-marketing is a powerful tool, you can explore new platforms, methods and strategies. If you find some of your strategies are working, keep creating identical messaging or design and focus on improvements. Mobile app retargeting is still a new thing and there are new ideas and methods that are experimented every day. What methods you want to use to optimize is your call.

Blog, Enterprise Mobility, Mobility

13 Tips To Make Your App Go Viral

June 2, 2016 [x]cube LABS

There are millions of apps available on app stores. The bar for standing out is exceptionally high, which is why it’s necessary for mobile app developers and businesses to have a strong mobile app marketing strategy so that their app gets the desired success.

Here are few strategies to make your app go viral.

1. Create Something Truly Valuable

Unique apps that provide a relevant purpose are more valuable than generic applications with no clear target group. In the world of mobile programming, few developers are able to come up with truly original ideas and execute them well enough to draw a dedicated user base.

Apps should be created keeping the target audience in mind. Apps should add value to the customer’s life, then only chances are there for it to go viral. If an app is valuable to the target audience, then automatically it will generate word of mouth promotion.

In this regard an example can be quoted that of Uber. Uber has made the business of car rental or booking more simpler and safer. Now people need not stand in queue and book cabs. One app does it all. Users just need to download an app and feed their details like location and pick up point. Users can also get an estimate price of the ride. So create an app which will add value to your user’s life.

2. Know Your Audience

Clearly defining your audience makes all the difference when you are creating an app. Creating an app without a clear understanding of your audience is like a chicken without a head.

Envisioning your app also involves preparing your app requirements, which need to include a clear definition of your exact target audience. This usually refers to the special characteristic that your target audience might have, which may include culture, language, age (whether they are kids, adults), the user’s web ability and several other criteria. These characteristics are very important as they help you understand how to convey the app requirements into a set of functionalities that are prioritized within your app as features that are geared towards fulfilling your target audience’s needs.

By getting a clarity on targeted audiences, it becomes easier to capture someone’s attention because their needs and goals are front and centre.

3. Promote Your App Aggressively

Mobile app marketing is a big factor behind the success of any app. Marketing your app is critical, given that there are many mobile apps belonging to the same genre that just differ in name, but are developed for the same purpose and in the same form.

Here are a few ways to promote your app in an aggressive manner

4. Maximize Social Networking Sites

Social networking sites are a large area for mobile app ads. Facebook ads have grown by 500%. This is because Facebook is seen to be a good avenue for app advertisements because there are millions of Facebook users all over the world who visit the site. Therefore, there are more chances for your app to be seen by prospective downloaders.

5. Monitor Your App’s Download Activity

Monitoring the download activity will give you an idea on which platform or blog your app gets more downloads from. Identifying the traffic source will give you an idea over which app marketing avenue is the most effective, and where you should be investing more money.

6. App Store Optimization(ASO)

ASO is the process of optimizing mobile apps to rank higher in an app store’s search results. The top your app ranks in an app store’s search results, the more visible it is to potential customers. That increased visibility tends to convert into more traffic to your app’s page in the app store.

These are just some of the most suitable and simplest ways to make your app popular and make it known to all downloaders from across the globe.

7. Keep The Customer On-Boarding Simple

A 2015 study by PricewaterhouseCoopers shows that more than one-third (33%) of potential customers are lost due to complex and inefficient customer on-boarding processes. The effort put in by marketing departments and sales in acquiring new customers is mostly lost in the process of on-boarding the customers.

Most of the on-boarding processes requires unnecessary details which can be easily organized on the digital front.

More than 60% of the customers abandon signing up process due to its complexity and time consumption. So keep the on-boarding simple and fast by using social media credentials or email ids instead of making your user fill-up a long form.

8. Make It Easy To Share

Apps should be easy to share. The app should support all devices.

Provide the ability to share to several social platforms in one or two taps. Sharing apps on the social platform gives more visibility to the app. If the app is visible then it will garner interest of the users and ensure maximum downloads. Make it possible to post to multiple social networks at one time.

As a business owner, you would want to have an mobile application which is adaptable on different platforms so people can use it on the go, wherever they go, however they go. It is easier to maintain and deploy changes in apps that run across all platforms. Updates would immediately get synced across all devices and platforms. This will save you money.

Place sharing channels that are relevant to the app’s content. If you share the app on a platform which is relevant to your app content, then it will be advantageous. It helps internal communicators and managers decide on the best way to deliver their message. Practitioners and managers should match their choice of communication channel to the intended outcome, for example, whether they wish to raise awareness or gain commitment.

9. Reward Users For Marketing Your App

If you want to encourage a certain behavior, reward it. Inviting friends and connecting with others should be a part of their daily usage. Inviting friends should be a core process in your app, rather than a second thought. Experiment with ways to encourage the customers to invite friends at different points in the app.

Rewarding customers for their referrals can make them feel a little guilty that they are making money off of their friends. The best way around the problem is to also reward the friends who receive their invitations. Rewards could be: extra storage, a free upgrade, free a character, discounts, free themes.

Sneak in secret rewards and surprise people, then watch as the app goes viral.

10. Monitor User Behavior

User behavior of those who download and use app is highly diverse. There are users who like engaging with the apps. They like tapping, pinching and swiping. There are users who will abandon an app if they don’t get what they want. Tracking user behavior can open wonderful opportunities for marketing an app.

It is post launch of the app that mobile user behavior has the most impact on app marketing since this is where users engage with an app. Studying how users behave and interact with an app can help support an improved user experience through a refinement of app marketing strategy.

Essential as air, this feature allows to track users, and get the full information about their behavior. On the basis of this information you might see, in which way to upgrade the app.

11. Keep Your App Fresh

To get mobile users to download an app is a challenge in itself. Keeping them engaged and coming back to that app is an even higher one. The reason is simple – mobile users tend to have incredibly high expectations. They’re quick to delete or simply ignore the apps they’ve downloaded, if the experience doesn’t meet their standards.

So how do you drive app loyalty with new customers and keep your existing loyal customers coming back?

Keep your app fresh by the following methods

12. Dynamic Updates

In the mobile world, change is consistent. It happens fast and it happens unexpectedly. These changes may come in the form of market trends, or they may be changes in user expectations and behavior. Regardless of the nature, adapting to changes and constantly providing a better feel of the app, means you need the ability to make dynamic updates quickly, on the go. This means no waiting for IT, and no waiting for an approval from the app store. Just like the web world, you need the ability to make changes to your app in minutes so that you can respond quickly to the changes and constantly drive improvements that make users happy.

13. Send Relevant Messages

Push notifications and in-app messages have the ability to increase app awareness and drive more app engagement. However, if implemented wrongly, your users will likely see these messages as annoying spam. Include push notifications and in-app messages into your overall app strategy.

Viral marketing is the way app marketers are resorting to win the tough app race. Thus to be ahead on the race, you need to go viral. Being viral is the new vitality.

Banking, Blog, Digital Transformation & Innovation

6 Challenges Banks Face Today And How Digital Tech Can Solve It

June 1, 2016 [x]cube LABS

Digital tech is changing the face of banking at a whopping pace. As per a survey by Celent, 90% of US bankers expect at least a 10% decline in branch numbers over the next 5 years, with 45% expecting the decline to be 25% or more. Branch numbers have declined by 9% in the last 3 years. And banks are gaining new efficiencies and business benefits from embracing digital.

1. Disruption

The biggest threat the banking industry is facing today. What can the banks do when the technology is challenging stereotyped banking models? Payments methods have changed, transferring money has become easy – The idea of Digital wallet or mobile wallet has a major role in changing the traditional methods of banking. According to David Shrier, managing director of MIT Connection Science, “In the last four years, venture capital investment in Fintech has increased more than 600 percent,” They have to compete with the Fintech companies by improving its standards and taking steps towards digitization.

2. Customer experience matters

It’s high time for the customer to walk into a branch to perform banking. Digital banking makes it easy. Two-third’s of the decisions made by the customers are informed by the quality of their experiences all along their journey. It is a tough task to satisfy the changing demands of a consumer. Digital consumer wants the banking experience to be simple and fast. Consumer protection continues to be a major hurdle for regulators in the Digital world. Understanding customers is the foundation to a sustainable advantage in banking. As a result, industries can no longer hold on to the power of advanced analytics to gain feedbacks and rate opportunities that will improve, increase up-selling, cross-selling and develop customer value.

3. Avoiding Compliance risk

Banks have the great opportunity to completely redesign and optimize their bloated compliance processes, building “smart compliance” in the journey of digitized customer. The Financial regulators around the globe are trying to ensure banks perform with a greater level of professionalism and do not allow any illegal activities through their services. And, the fast increase in digital banking services makes it difficult for these banking institutions to be absolutely certain with complying the rules. The biggest advantage of digital banking is the ease with which it can be accessed to engage with clients.

4. Constricting the cost

Modifying the operations and structure of banks for the digital age, consistently changing its cost base, and initiating better cost management procedures can help in decreasing the costs. Banks will have to change the way they are operating, making the model more customer friendly. Banks can see the cost reductions somewhere around 40 to 90 percent by digitizing internal processes with self-servicing capabilities and workflow tools for customers and staff. Self-serve ATMs is one area where we can see a quick cost-cutting gain. Going digital can help the banks do the same duties with less expenditure and less manpower.

5. Bringing Data centricity

Gathering data and using consumer insights can be a key differentiator for organizations hoping to build new relationships. Banks of all sizes will leverage data and technology to help their customers in taking better financial decisions developing the ability in saving money, achieve particular financial goals, increase financial knowledge and better budget management. The cost of collecting data and putting the same to use is highly restricted. The precision of data generation becomes the fatal in this process. With Big data coming into the picture, data gathering and data handling has become a walk in the park. Not only all the data is collected and stored but it is also secured.

6. Pressurizing the time

In this tireless daily life, a minute saved is a penny earned. The enhancement of internet banking services has given some kind of rejoice to the customers in saving time and efforts. Those days are gone where the customers had to wait for a really long duration make a transaction at the bank. Be it opening an account, loan approval, money transfer, the time to apply, time to process, verification etc., all this chaos has been cut down on time. Depositing cheques, money all of it has become so convenient with digitization. It’s really amazing how Internet banking services have grown. Great levels of security and response time have been developed. Finally, Internet banking is no longer an interest, but a necessity.

Banks can reduce costs by up to 50% on a per-transaction basis in the next few years by going digital, according to a study titled ‘Logging into digital banking: Creating access, transforming lives’ said.

When the flaws of banking were considered, it was concluded that banks were limited by legacy systems than financial technology firms, innovation and the ability to be strong. Banking has also struggled by the inability to reach the level of technological expertise needed to develop the products compared to Fintech firms. In other words, it’s about securing the future and not being pulled into a false sense of security based on the back book. Digitizing banks can be a one stop solution for a better banking and for the future.

Blog, Mobility, Retail

5 Ways Retailers Are Using Mobile Apps To Win Customers

May 31, 2016 [x]cube LABS

Retail Strategies That Drive In-Store Traffic

Mobile apps have become essential part of shoppers’ life. We now use mobile to locate a store, get info on products and compare. Before entering a store, shoppers already have the product information and expect the same with store attendants. Therefore, the relationship between mobile and in-store shopping is very much interconnected. Mobile apps present an opportunity for the retailers to enhance the in-store shopping experience, create personalized experiences for them and boost profitability.

Here are 5 ways mobile apps will help you reach your consumers, increase your revenue, loyalty and productivity. And all this while controlling the cost!

1. Shoppers Engagement

Having your store app will help you increase customer engagement more effectively. Sprint, a telecommunication company discovered that one in four people who click on mobile search ads rush to the retail store. Shoppers generally look for promos and coupons. According to a survey carried out by RetailMeNot, in partnership with Omnibus Company, more than 33% of shoppers admitted to being bargain hunters. They often search for online coupons on their mobile devices. Giving away offers will keep your customer updated on your latest deals and discounts. In-store navigation will help shoppers find your products, which make things easier for them. While shopping 90% of customers use smart phones to check product information, product prices etc., For Example, Walmart’s app serves offers on their homepage. One of the app store reviewers puts it, “Easier than (sic) using my computer!!!” Walmart ramps up mobile in-store strategy to save customers time.

2. Upgrade Efficiency And Profit Level

Walmart has a feature on their mobile app called Scan & go, which allows shoppers to scan their products in destined stores and pay at a self-checkout counter. Also, with the help of a mobile app, the retail staffs are able to process a payment from anywhere in the store. Most of the retailers are leveraging mobile apps to boost efficiency and productivity, reducing the chances of a customer to change their mind before checking out, thanks to long queues at the market. With less effort you gain customer satisfaction, generate sales and grow your business. Motorola research determined that by 2017 nearly the in-store transactions can be done using an app or a self-checkout feature on the mobile device of the customer. Customers are always looking for local information like, google search for “near me” and it has grown 2.4X every year. As per research, 50% of customer who look out for local search, visit a store within a day and 18% of those leads to a purchase. As per the survey, 82% of customer consult their phones while doing in-store purchase. Retailers who adopted the digital in-store, took advantage of the mobile technology to enhance customer experience, drive sales, improve customer loyalty and achieve operational efficiencies. Neiman Marcus service app provides customers to personalize in-store shopping experience by bookmarking certain items, and connecting with sales staff. For the sales staff, this allows them to look at the customer’s desires and shopping history, thus giving them a valuable insight to customer queries.

3. Product Availability

It is disappointing for a shopper when they reach your store and find the product out of stock. You lose your potential customer and also their loyalty, a reason why most of them avoid a store visit. Having your app on a smartphone provides product information and will have a quick access to up-to-date inventory in the store, as many of your customers are depending on their phones to purchase products. If you provide a quality app, you are providing a consolidated cross-channel experience. According to MasterCard, customers who shop both online and offline with a specific retailer buy 250% more on average. Mobile apps not only provide information to shoppers, it also helps your store manager to keep a track of the inventory and make effective inventory decisions. Resulting in reducing stock-out situations, manager will know the amount of stock that should be in the store. For instance, Mobile apps will give real-time alerts to your store manager, of any pending stock, overstock situation, immediately. Keeping this information in-hand, managers plan and take decisions like, to request a back-stock pull, overstocked inventory can be moved to another store, or request for additional merchandise. With the help of Local Inventory Ads, Sears Hometown and outlet stores saw an increase of 122% in store visit by showing actual store inventory App users. “Mobile computing/mobile BI is not only becoming more pervasive in and across organizations, it’s becoming much more mature and advanced,” said Howard Dresner, Founder and Chief Research Officer, Dresner Advisory Services, and author of the 2013 Wisdom of Crowds® Mobile Computing/Mobile BI Market Study.

4. Customer Feedback

Today retail industry has become highly aggressive acquiring new customers, retaining them, gaining customers trust and growing their business while generating revenue. It is important for retailers to deliver the right products, keep interacting with customers to know their needs, keep them engaged and deliver personalized content. Start giving options like, live chat with an associate to know more about the product, you’re likely engaging your customer. In the end ask for their feedback.Nowadays, people rely more on product reviews and rating, before buying any product. This will improve the conversion rate by providing your customers with other customer reviews and ratings. Based on Cisco’s research, that the 63% of online shoppers consumers purchase depending on the ratings and reviews displayed on websites, so that it will have a sizable impact on their purchase decisions.

Sephora, the beauty and body-care retailer, consider in-store mobile behavior as a major opportunity. Their app allows in-store customers to scan the products to view the product reviews and other key information.

“In retail, you can’t think about the mobile phone as a threat. You have to think of it as a magnet to draw that client to your store”—Bridget Dolan, VP Interactive Media, Sephora

5. Add A Layer Of Excitement

Parkway Parade is a shopping mall partnered with Sprooki. Their mobile app has an option for customers to pre-purchase using smartphones and also motivate retailers. When customers receive any alerts of the shopping mall, they will open the app and make a purchase and services on the spot, using their phone and they can pick the product immediately from the store. While CVS Caremark and Walgreen’s app allows users to get refills and make orders to collect, at the same time they also look at deals in the store. This feature will add more confidence about shopping and help customers keep a track of the products they want. To make shopping more entertaining British shoe retailer Clarks rolled out an interactive, iPad-based system which help measuring children’s shoe sizes. The app creates a pleasing heat sensor image of the child’s foot, trying on new shoes is now more appealing to children and easier for parents.

Mobile apps are transforming the retail market. For a retailer, a mobile app is no longer a choice but necessity

Blog, Enterprise Mobility, Mobility

5 Ways To Optimize The ROI Of Your Mobile App

May 30, 2016 [x]cube LABS

A recent report published by Gartner predicts that mobile apps will generate a revenue of $77 billion by 2017. The mobile app ecosystem is fast expanding beyond the smartphone generation. The future shall see mobile apps becoming more and more pervasive into our daily lives. With breakneck competition, apps which fail to gain users or retain them are missing out on mobile revenue. The key to make your app profitable is to boost app usage.

We outline 5 best practices for driving user engagement and increasing the RoI of your mobile app

1. An Improved UI: For any app developer, user satisfaction is the hallmark of success. To create an ingenious app experience, one should focus on a human centric design approach. Often there appear bottlenecks in the UI which impede a smooth app experience for the users. The trick is to use app analytics to identify where your users get stuck in the flow – That is where your hold-ups lie! Diagnosing these bottlenecks and eliminating them will help you create a fluid and engaging experience for your users.

2. Audience Segmentation: To receive positive returns on your app, you must make sure that your Average Revenue Per User (ARPU), the average revenue that app users generate over their lifetime is greater than your Cost per Acquisition (CPA), the average direct cost to acquire a user that generates the ARPU.

So, How Do You Get There?

This requires audience segmentation that can identify specific attributes and generate targeted, personalized campaigns to interest those audience groups.

One way is to run push-messaging campaigns to reach out to users who haven’t opened your app in a while and re-engage them. Running in-app messaging campaigns can be effective towards directing users to desired events and providing them personalized offers.

Test your marketing campaigns for frequency, timing, offer, content, and audience to identify scope for improvement before actually submitting your app to the App Store.

3. Enable Social Sharing: Social media sharing is that part of the user engagement process which no mobile app developer can do without. Make sure you push social sharing enough for your engaged users to talk about and share their experiences about your app and spread the digital word of mouth. The more your app is shared, the more will it catch the attention of potential users. Build your social media presence by integrating sharing buttons in your app and using in-app messages to prompt users.

4. Reward Your Customers: The best course to drive engagement is to make your users feel special by offering them mobile rewards. These offers can be run either in-app or through push notifications and can include a wide array of options such as rewards programs, customized offers, and mobile coupons. Rewarding customers is a way to show them that their loyalty is recognized and appreciated.Targeted incentives such as rewarding a user who has reached a certain level in your gaming app with bonus credits, coins etc.

5. Leverage The Benefits Of Mobile Analytics: Firms aiming to harness the vast business opportunities should understand that traditional marketing rules do not apply to mobile app promotion. You should be able to pick and choose the right metrics depending upon the custom needs of your business and monitor them on a regular basis. Metrics such as those listed below can be used to full advantage to get insights into your mobile app performance, to identify and eliminate unproductive channels. Consequently they can be improved to ensure positive returns

User Acquisition Cost- The exact amount spent to acquire a single user
User Retention Rate- The number of people coming back to re-use the app after first use
Screenflow- This metric records the order of the screens followed by the users while navigating through the app.
Average Session Length- The average session duration per user indicates the level of engagement driven by the mobile app.
User Lifetime Value (LTV)- It depicts the revenue that a user generates over its lifetime.

Therefore, with the right mix of app analytics,an outstanding UI design and carefully targeted marketing campaigns, mobile developers can hit the bull’s eye and eventually maximize their app RoI.

App Marketing, Blog, Mobility, User Acquisition

5 Tips To Boost Your Mobile App User Acquisition Strategy

May 27, 2016 [x]cube LABS

User Acquisition is the art of building a brand

In today’s competitive world, millions of apps are published on app stores, each jostling for some space on your mobile screen. In fiercely competitive app stores, it is challenging to get your app visible and get users. So, you need a matchless user acquisition strategy to make your app a success. Here are 5 ways you can refine your mobile app user acquisition strategy and get the desired RoI from your app

1. Know your user

“The more you engage with customers the clearer things become and the easier it is to determine what you should be doing.”–John Russell

It is important to know that there are millions of mobile users with varied needs & wants. Plan what type of users you want to target or who can be your users to bring revenue for your business. You have a final product ready – test your app, do a soft launch in order to run bug free app. Soft launch is very important to fit with your product in the market. This data will help you improve your ad’s text and graphic creative to acquire new users. Do a survey to know why they downloaded your app, you will find the reasons. Don’t stop at the first survey, keep this going for more insights. In order to run any business we need to acquire users. By users we mean quality users which will help you in increasing revenues. For that you need to know the right audience.

2. App Store Optimization (ASO)

Recently, at Google I/O, Ankit Jain reported that “For the average app, search actually makes up the vast majority of installs.” App Stores, be it the iOS or Google Play Store have become the current shopping windows. It’s a the first thing all users will look into and your app needs to look good to get the conversions. Your keyword pick should be effective, so that users are able to find your app. Keywords plays an important role here, however, it needs to be changed over time. Every day similar apps are out on the app store to compete with. At the same time you also will have to set a campaign to get app installs, which would influence app ranking from the amount of traffic that the app gets on a daily basis.

3. Shape up your channel and behavior

We use different channels to bring the traffic like Facebook, Twitter and ad networks. An effective app acquisition strategy is a combination of organic and paid campaigns which brings users for your app. It is also important to keep monitoring which network is bringing more traffic, based on which you can plan your future investment. These segments allow you to track details like action taken, campaign, and other attributes that will give you a deeper understanding of how your organic and paid tools are performing.

4. Track Every Action

“Sometimes the best discoveries are the result of simple observations”
–Dr. Seyed Reza Agha Seyed Hosseini

Analytics tools allow us to track more than just downloads, when a user downloads your app the story doesn’t end there. Tracking the user’s actions can be more efficient for your long term business plan. For example; a user can download your app and never open your app (not all downloads turns into users). In this case you are getting users, but no quality users which doesn’t end up serving your purpose. Once you get the user, you should focus on retaining them for a longer period of time. You also need to track how many users are checking your app, session length and other behavior.

Analytics tools will provide you with granular data and help you track user behavior minutely. You will know how the users are engaging with various features of your app, the time spent on it and the frequency of app usage, along with other key details.

5. Measure Lifetime value (LTV) of Users

Like I said, we just can’t acquire users for our app but we also need to look for quality users. LTV will let you measure ROI, as it tracks down how much a user is worth to your business. Do a soft launch, once you have strong data, your focal point should be on getting high LTV users. For example; you are running two campaigns from two different channels. From campaign 1 you are getting the number of installs, on the other hand from campaign 2 very few. You may think campaign 1 is only performing, however now it’s time to check the LTV. It may turn out campaign 2 users are more active and making more in-app purchases. This clearly means campaign 2 is giving high ROI. To measure LTV you need to consider-

Average Revenue Per User – How much a user is worth to you?

Retention – Level of engagement with your app?

Virality – How likely are they to bring in new users for your business?

“People don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care.”
–Theodore Roosevelt

Focus more on quality over quantity, because they are the one who will bring in revenue and be the voice of your app. Always experiment with new ideas or ways to reach new users. And keep the funnel flowing!

Blog, Digital Transformation & Innovation

5 Winning Tips For Successful Digital Transformation

May 26, 2016 [x]cube LABS

Businesses today are under an aura of transformation, driven by emerging technologies. With companies like Uber, Airbnb, SalesForce and many others in the picture, the moment of truth is here. These digitally revolutionized companies call for a change. Marketers and entrepreneurs now need to understand how to engage their customers and meet up with their demands of staying connected round the clock.

In this world where information is available on a single tap devices, digital transformation encompasses every idea that has a minor digital aspect. Starting from an early phase being digitally reactive involves being tactical on every transaction that forms the backbone of online business. Following this and moving to being digitally strategic is the next big step. This involves being digital in processes like selling your products and services to thrive against competitors. After attaining this stage with your USPs in place comes the ultimate stage of transformation, where the innovation of your business drives trends and fashion in the industry.

To complete your journey through these crucial phases, few winning tips to keep in check are described below. If you are a marketer or an entrepreneur, these tips are your spot on methods to follow.

1. Know your customer

Before you plan out your strategy or hire a resource team, knowing and analyzing your customer will lead to building a strong foundation. It is critical that you know what your target segment thinks, what are they looking for, what attracts them the most and what is your go to strategy to keep them engaged. Building buyer personas will help you with representations of your ideal customers. Framing a story of these customer journeys can easily help you identify the how’s and why’s behind a particular action. As a strategist, you need to map out the customer journey and identify his needs step by step to form a rock solid plan for your business goals.

2. Develop your team

For the smooth sailing of any strategy in process of going digital, building your team is the first step. A team that comprises the knowledge of both aspects – marketing and technology is what you are looking for. Serving just one aspect of your plan will lead to an incomplete fulfillment of your goals. A resource who knows marketing with a sound knowledge of technology will prove to be your best pick amongst the lot. Digital transformation is a path full of surprises, to deal with the newness, having stability in your high-performance team is essential. Your organization goals, objectives and fashion will change, therefore find people who are comfortable with uncertainty and have a variety of paths to cater too. In short, hire omnivores.

3. Keep the ‘learn as you go’ attitude

Being open to changes and having the learning attitude is a plus. Having the shared vision of an outcome helps to get to your objective efficiently with a variety of ideas in place. Let’s be honest here, you will never be able to enter a consumer’s mind and understand his pain point until you hear him out. Aren’t open to learning. Keeping your solution in focus and trying to develop content on it is not the right way to go about digital transformation. Rather, keep a clear mind, ears open and adapt the change.

4. Experimenting

Innovating new ideas and experimenting, has always been a key factor in digital transformation. Taking risks — which is the core of experimenting — can make you feel uncomfortable, which is why you tend to avoid it. Taking risks puts you in a position to possibly fail, it also creates the opportunity to do something great, something that’s far better than what you are doing now. Digital always has the benefit to trial and error and you can always learn something new. Experimentation integrates learning opportunities into the full scale execution of your plan.

5. Integrate your culture

More than forming a dedicated team for transformation, it is important that your employees accept and adapt to the metamorphosis. Going digital comes with changes in every department and process the foundation of your business. If the culture of your organisation is not digitally sound, you probably will have things the hard way. Train your staff for the right digital experience and let them have the roller coaster ride for fun.

Testing and learning is your step to digital strategy. Analysing all your steps to form a strong thesis should be inherent in your culture and you will have it all the easy way.

It’s time for digital!

Blog, Digital Strategy

5 Tips To Create Successful Digital Customer Experiences

May 25, 2016 [x]cube LABS

With a myriad of digital services available today, customer experience acts as a potential asset. This can be the KPI to differentiate and evaluate certain factors in an organization for a better marketplace. We’re looking at a tech-savvy generation who have the power to choose. Studies show that 80% of consumers today are ready to pay more for a better experience., Here’s where you gotta do something about it.

A key point to keep in mind is that enhancing consumer experience opens door to loyalty, user satisfaction, consistency in buying, referral increase – reducing your customer churn and increasing sales! Therefore, keeping a focus on this parameter has now become way too important.

With all the pressure from the industry, it is essential to differentiate yourself and stand out. Here are five key tips to create successful digital consumer experiences for you

1. Be A Good Listener

You might not be that person to follow the traditional methods of marketing believe in the power of digitisation – listening and interacting with your users makes it more personal and attains goodwill from your audience. We’ve come a long way to know making assumptions and trying to solve a problem will not lead to right answers. Understanding and keeping an open-mind will help you understand your user journey better. It is important that you touch all the pain points of your user to analyse where the actual problem lies. So, be a good listener to learn as much as you can from your user. He is your best teacher.

2. Analytics Is The key To User Behavior

Technology has blessed us with an extremely powerful tool of analytics wherein you can track your user journey at every single step! Tracking your user from the sources he visits your app/website, the pages he clicks on, the duration he stays on a particular page, the bounce rate of a goal, etc. will develop a strong analytical framework of what your user does. Today the need of consumer experience is such, that you need to understand what they are looking for. In this manner, you will be able to make your digital tool contextually intelligent and personalized.

3. It’s All About Learning

You need to build your strategy by mapping your learnings from the consumer. Start off by knowing your target audience and what they are looking for. It is important that you decide on your objective targets before you set a plan. Remember, a strong and crisp plan comes with a well built strategy – knowing where you are headed will prove to keep your audience in focus. This could bring in increasing profitability, gaining more market share, increasing ratings – all by the process of boosting consumer experience. With a clear direction, you have your game-plan set.

4. Experimental

After having your game plan set and steadily moving, constantly experimenting and testing will give you different perspectives to work with. Regular content maintenance, matching needs, testing different vertices, speaking to consumers, etc provides a great base for your strategy to be in check. There are a number of innovative ways to enhance consumer experience out there, perhaps, you might just come up with something completely new!

5. Monitor Touchpoint And Centralize Knowledge

The benefit of unifying all of your customer service information into one single knowledge-based system is a huge weapon for your business. Many organizations implement a centralized knowledge-base of information to benefit from being instantly updated with information. This ensures regular feedback from all experiments across all channels. For instance, mobile, social media and email channels implies that your users are getting consistent answers to their questions. This will also reduce them to escalate further information, proving to be user friendly.

We have entered the customer’s era – an age where the focus is more on users. The perception of a customer has intense impacts on businesses today and the importance of better user-experience is changing dynamics of the current marketplace.

Announcements, Blog

PurpleTalk’s Venture Nukkad Shops Bags 22nd Annual Communicator Awards

May 20, 2016 [x]cube LABS

PurpleTalk’s home grown retail technology venture Nukkad Shops has bagged the prestigious “Silver Award of Distinction” in the 22nd Annual Communicator Awards 2016. The Communicator Awards is a leading international awards program that recognizes outstanding ideas in marketing and communications. Winning entries for the awards are selected by the Academy of Interactive & Visual Arts (AIVA) based on merit of achievement and quality of craft. An exhaustive evaluation by the AIVA later, Nukkad Shops was adjudged the winner in the Integrated Campaign 2016 – Business to Consumer category.

Earlier this year, Nukkad Shops was declared the best product in the Consumer – Early stage segment 2016 , at the 25th anniversary of the HYSEA Hyderabad Summit and was also adjudged the winner of the NASSCOM 10K’s Get in The Ring Challenge for innovative startups.

Founded in April 2015 , Nukkad Shops aims to be the largest (virtual) retail chain in India by offering comprehensive technological, strategic and leadership solutions for small to medium sized retail businesses. These solutions empower retail businesses with efficiency, competitiveness and increased profit.

Nukkad Shops was created with the objective of helping typically low tech, neighborhood retail stores a platform to digitise their inventory, leverage mobile as a platform as well as leverage technology across their operations to make their business more efficient and profitable.

With an initial funding from PurpleTalk and close involvement from the leadership team, Nukkad Shops is poised to achieve significant growth with their retail tech solutions for the SMB segment in India.

Announcements, Blog

[x]cube LABS Becomes One of the First Certified Google Developer Agencies

May 19, 2016 [x]cube LABS

[x]cube LABS is one of the the first 13 companies globally to be certified as a Google Developer Agency. This recent recognition from Google further testifies [x]cube’s leadership in the mobile & digital technology space and provides great motivation for the team to continue delivering further innovation on Android and Mobile platforms for our clients.

On achieving this distinction, [x]cube LABS’ CEO Bharath Lingam said, “We’re very excited that Google chose to recognize us with this certification. [x]cube LABS is very motivated in its mission to bring today’s employees and consumers the digital experiences they love. This recognition will act as a shot in the arm for us and further propel us to raise the digital engagement level of today’s enterprises by introducing new workshops, playbooks, and platforms so that the digital enterprise becomes an immediate reality rather than a grainy vision for the future.”

The certification from Google came after an exhaustive evaluation process. As a developer agency [x]cube had to qualify on a number of factors including proven expertise in the use of Google technologies and a successful track record of developing high quality apps.

As a Certified Google Developer Agency, [x]cube will now receive dedicated support and access to Google’s latest products and APIs.

Blog, Digital Transformation & Innovation, Weekly Insights

Digital Transformation Insights Weekly May 11-17

May 19, 2016 [x]cube LABS

4 key pillars for driving digital transformation Share on X

There are four clear pillars or areas to look at for driving Digital Transformation. They are Customers, Employees, Operations & Products. When it comes to Digital Transformation it helps to have an all up mental model to work from. The more you can model and map out your Digital Transformation, the more effective you will be. Read more

4 Key Digital Transformation Challenges That Can Be Solved With a DAM Share on X

Digital transformation is a process of reinvention centered on wholesale re-evaluation of how to put the customer at the very core of your business. But there are practical challenges that you face in transitioning to being digital-first and in managing how the customer actually experiences your brand. This is where the power digital of asset management (DAM) comes in. Read more.

How to Develop Your Strategy for Digital Transformation Share on X

The power of digital transformation is so strong that it is changing the business landscape. Digital transformation refers to how companies leverage digital technologies to change a business model, provide new revenue streams and create value-producing opportunities. What should be your strategy for Digital transformation? Read more

Why Leadership Is Critical for Digital Transformation Success Share on X

Organizations now form digital acceleration team by making it someone’s half-time job, and hiring one other person. If you have talented individuals who are extremely strong,then you can leverage upon their talent. Read more

Successful Digital Transformation Requires Transforming Culture & Management Practices Share on X

Digital transformation is not business as usual.You can’t have successful digital transformation without transforming management practices and culture. Digital transformation transforms power structures. Read more

App Marketing, Blog

4 Key Mobile App Metrics To Track Your Apps Success

May 5, 2016 [x]cube LABS

Designing and launching an outstanding mobile app is only the first step in the journey to a successful mobile app. Nearly 22% of apps downloaded are never used more than once. Mobile app developers often find profits elusive despite bringing in a high degree of innovation to the table. The vast number of mobile apps coming up every month have led Gartner Inc. to predict that less than 0.01 percent of apps will be considered a financial success by mobile app developers by 2018.

Therefore it is of utmost importance that app developers measure the right metrics to optimize their apps.It is essential that users not only discover value in the first use of the app but also sustain their attention so that the app becomes a part of their life. Enterprise mobile app metrics can be divided into the following four broad categories

1. Performance Metrics

These metrics focus on the user experience of the app.

App Crashes: App crash rate is measured as the average number of crashes per app loads.The typical crash rate is 1-2 % but can vary depending on the type of app, its maturity etc. App designers should target keeping the crash rate at minimum.

API Latency: API latency refers to the round-trip time taken between a user request to an app response. Ideally the response time should be optimized to 1 second or less.

App Load Per Period: This metric is critical because it is related to the number of transactions over a certain period of time and essentially measures how your app handles sudden changes in load without degrading performance.

2. User/Usage Metrics

They give an insight into the user demographics.

Monthly Active Users/Daily Active Users: It is a broad metric that denotes the user base of the app and it’s trends.(whether it’s growing or shrinking)

OS And Devices Metrics: These metrics tell you how your key users use your apps – on what devices (smartphones, tablets, IoT devices) , what OS version etc.This helps app developers know where to focus their efforts.

3. Engagement Metrics

These metrics depict the level of user engagement your mobile app is driving.

Session Length: The time period between app open and close is known as session length. The more your users are engaged , the more time they will spend on your app and hence higher will be the session length.

Session Interval: The time between two user sessions which denotes the frequency at which your app is being accessed.

4. Business Metrics

These metrics give an insight into the revenue flowing in through the app or business generated through it.

Acquisition Cost: The cost of acquiring your customers through paid campaigns,organic searches on the app store or referrals and whether it balances the value generated by the users after experiencing the app.

Transaction Revenue : It indicates the value of transactions supported over the mobile app.It relates to m-commerce transactions such as travel,shopping etc.

Abandonment Rate : The rate at which transactions initiated through the mobile app are abandoned by the user. Abandoning a transaction could result out of several reasons such as app crash or if the user changed his mind etc.

It is important that these mobile app metrics are tracked and monitored on a real time basis, derive insights from data and then optimize the features of your app to ensure higher user lifetime value, retention, and an increased frequency of usage.

Digital Technologies in Telecom Industry

Energy & Utilities

6 Applications Of Digital Technologies In The Telecom Industry

April 25, 2016 [x]cube LABS

With the advent of new age digital technologies, the global scenario has undergone a radical transformation with industry after industry joining the digital bandwagon. Needless to say , the telecom industry has not remained untouched either. Marrying together the right strategy and process design with digital technology has resulted in the emergence of new business models in the telecom sector.

Here Are 6 Ways Telecom Companies Can Leverage Digital Technologies

1. Smart Metering

Smart Meter Systems are electronic measurement devices which operate by transmitting information wirelessly to communicate information for billing customers and operating their electric systems. They are based on a two way communication and data system commonly referred to as Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI). The advanced billing requirements of organizations today and the host of benefits that a smart metering system brings along with it such as improved outage restoration and reduced estimated billing and billing errors , have together paved the way for smart meters to emerge as the one stop billing solution across a wide base of consumer segments.

2. Infrastructure Management Using IoT

Gartner predicts that Internet of Things (IoT) would swell up by 30% in 2016 to include 6.4 billion connected devices. IoT has a pivotal role to play in terms of infrastructure management in telcos. It serves as an intelligence platform to achieve significant energy savings and provide an improved workplace experience. Contrary to the traditional approach of devices functioning in isolation , IoT provides a unified console to manage several devices connected across the telecom network in an integrated manner.

3. Digital VAS (Value Added Services)

Telecom service providers are today able to provide an enriched single-window experience to consumers for discovering digital content related to information, services, news,entertainment and much more. The field of digital VAS is today expanding to provide solutions to suit each and every end user’s requirements. The more traditional versions of SMS based value added services are giving way to digital infotainment services, mobile advertising, mobile TV and much more.

4. Outage Management Systems

Modern digital outage management systems implemented in the telecom industry today can accurately predict size and duration of outages,raise alarms,calculate estimated restoration times and manage crew assisting in restoration.They combine the functionality of the geographical information system(GIS), Automatic Meter Reading (AMR) and Interactive Voice Response(IVR) to make effective outage predictions and implement network tracing.

5. Unified User Profiling

It enables telecom operators to come up with a common platform to analyze huge volumes of user data with the help of analytical engines. It plays an extremely important role in several areas such as customer relationship management,customer segmentation, developing business practices to influence customer behavior in specific segments and managing the entire customer cycle from customer acquisition till churn and retention.

6. Business Intelligence (BI)

Business Intelligence solutions are widely adopted by telecom majors for reporting, dashboards and analytics to include capabilities such as predictive analysis,data mining,forecasting and optimization.The adoption of BI in telecommunications goes a long way towards improving core operations,identifying market trends and establishing forecasts. It also has several useful applications in product development, financial asset management, campaign analysis and service fulfillment.

The strides made by telecom companies in digitizing their operations has enabled them to bring new products, services, customer segments and geographies and build a culture of sustainable growth and create renewed enterprise business models. Going digital has opened up a plethora of opportunities for telecom to transform into a truly new-age industry.

Blog

Digital Enterprise News Weekly

March 18, 2016 [x]cube LABS

The Economic Essentials Of Digital Strategy Share on X

With immense number of disruptions happening in each industry, no wonder business leaders are worried. Forward-leaning companies define a meaning for risk-takers, immersing themselves deeply into the world of attackers to explore technologies. Angus Dawson, for McKinsey, writes about the essential steps to be taken to formulate a digital strategy. Read More

How 3 Companies Embraced Their Digital Transformations Share on X

Everyone is rushing for change. Maybe you should too. But how? Your answer – learn it the right way! Make your digital customer your center. And well, you always have live examples. Ilan Mochari talks about how huge giants like JPMorgan Chase, AmerisourceBergen and HarperCollins and their ways to break through digital transformation. Read More

Taking Digital To The Next Level: From Incrementalism To Disruptive Innovation Share on X

Technology has evolved. And so has its acceptance. Business leaders now value the emerging technologies and realise their necessity. But, there is still a gap that stops them to reach the digital revolution. And that is where startups with smart minds come in. Joe McKendrick for Forbes talks about how to take it to the next level and achieve disruption. Read More

How CIO’s Can Drive Digital Innovation Through Collaboration Share on X

We have heard of success stories of how enterprises have become successful through digitisation. The ANZ Bank, Disney, Build-a-Bear are a few examples. As a CIO, your focus is on the strategic plan of the company, and this can be achieved through a new way – collaboration. Phil Weinzimer for CIO tells us about the competencies of digital innovation and how to achieve them for a win-win situation. Read More

Digital Business Means Platform Business Share on X

Technology is in transition. Today’s CIO realize that traditional static infrastructures will not help take the organisation from one milestone to another. Rather, innovative systems treated like platforms is the solution to this. Dave Aron writes for Express Computer and gives insights on what platform business is and how to implement it. Read More

Blog, Healthcare

mHealth: Redefining Healthcare

March 4, 2016 [x]cube LABS

In 2015, we saw healthcare space changing drastically, from a fee-for-service to a value-based service system. Earlier, providers used to get paid for doing procedures but under new health-care regulations they are paid for treatment outcomes. Thus, the providers and healthcare networks are moving from old siloed systems to a much more collaborative one.

Our deck- “mHealth: Redefining Healthcare” will help Healthcare practitioners & decision makers in understanding the potential of Mobile in the Healthcare industry, boost patient satisfaction & improve treatment outcomes.

What Are The Factors Fueling mHealth Growth?

Find out the key technology enablers and business factors that’s driving adoption of Mobile in Healthcare

What Are Popular mHealth Solutions?

Patient engagement, Remote patient monitoring & Physicians productivity are ushering a new wave of improvement in Healthcare.

Major Challenges In Healthcare Industry

What are the biggest barriers to mHealth adoption?

Opportunities In Mobile Healthcare

Why patients & physicians are adopting mHealth apps? What does the future have in store for Healthcare

mHealth: Redefining Healthcare from [x]cube LABS

Blog, Enterprise Mobility, Weekly Insights

[x]insights Weekly- Enterprise Mobile News & Insights 09-15 February

February 16, 2016 [x]cube LABS

Enterprises need to work with startups for digital transformation & innovation Share on X

Enterprises are struggling to leverage digital tech for transformation and innovation. Even when they have sound strategies, intent and resources to do so. Mark Raskino, VP & Gartner Fellow, in this blog for Gartner, notes the problem lies in risk-taking ability and culture, and advises enterprises to partner with startups. Startups built on minimum viable product development, design thinking and exploratory culture, which digital transformation & innovation projects so require, can help an enterprise in leveraging digital to the core. Read More

The key to enterprise mobile app success Share on X

Enterprises are building mobile apps to streamline processes, gain efficiencies and boost productivity. However, the success of the enterprise apps depends on employee adoption. Unless there is higher usage, enterprises will struggle to get RoI from their app. So how to boost employee adoption of apps? Employee empowerment is the key.

The secret to Digital Transformation in Enterprises Share on X

Digital is here and happening. Almost all enterprises, big and small, are looking to leverage digital technologies to gain new efficiencies and execute disruptions. However, enterprises needs more than embracing technology for digital transformation. In this article for itbusinessedge, Arthur Cole, gets us expert insights and tips on how enterprises should go about managing digital transformation.Read More

Data Not Just Design the Key in Creating Personalized User Experiences Share on X

User experience is key to the success of any digital product or digital driven service. The new-age user expects not just awesome experiences but also highly personalized to his needs. In this opinion piece for Wharton, authors not that good design has become table stakes. However, the secret for creating delightful user experiences lies in data-driven personalization.Read More

GSMA Announces First Internet of Things Security Guidelines Share on X

GSMA on Tuesday published its first security guidelines to promote secure development and deployment of Internet of Things services. The guidelines, backed by mobile industry leaders and infrastructure partners, aims to ensure best practices in data security and mitigating cybersecurity attacks.Read More

Blog, Enterprise Mobility

The Why, What And How In Creating Your Enterprise Mobile Strategy?

February 12, 2016 [x]cube LABS

A Recently Published Survey Of Over 400 Global Executives Reveals That

» 73% agree that mobility will impact their businesses as much as or more than the web did in the 1990s.
» One-third of the participating executives cited mobility as one of their top two priorities, while 75% put it among their top five.
» 59% say that their company has implemented a centralized company-wide strategy, while 58% say that their mobile strategy is moderately developed.

Mobility has become very big. It has transformed how businesses interact with customers and is now disrupting the way people, processes and the technology infrastructure interact within the ecosystem. What is really compelling though, is the speed and scale at which mobility is being adopted and its emergence as a key strategic initiative. Businesses, at whichever adoption stage they are at, know that there is massive potential with mobility ready to exploit. But, they need a clear mobile strategy that can provide solutions that best fit their needs and that can help them realize their business goals, transforming them into a lean, agile and innovative digital enterprise.

In this blog post, we discuss the need, key elements and major challenges in designing and implementing a long-term, sustainable mobile strategy.

What Is An Enterprise Mobile Strategy?: An enterprise mobile strategy is a framework that encompasses business, technology, projects, people and processes into one unified sphere. It integrates mobility as a technology with the rest of the ecosystem to allow organizations to define and practice its mobile engagement. A mobile strategy aligns mobility efforts with business goals, lays out a roadmap for its successful implementation, enables achieving near and long-term goals, provides policies and best practices for governance and helps in accurately measuring its success. Moreover, it also gives you flexibility to tap future technological advancements and adjust your strategy in accordance with the shifts in the business environment.

The Need For An Enterprise-Wide Mobile Strategy

As per a survey by Netcentric strategies LLC, around 92% of participants find developing an enterprise wide mobility strategy very challenging to somewhat challenging. Why is this so? Most organizations consider mobility solutions as an extension of their IT infrastructure. Moreover, we also see many adopting a need-basis approach rather than a holistic approach with a well-defined strategy. The lack of an enterprise-wide mobile strategy, ultimately, limits their ability to realize the full potential from their investments in mobile devices and apps. Lack of a robust mobility strategy can lead to poor adoption rates, lower engagement, higher hidden costs and failure to achieve a desirable ROI. Whereas, creating and executing a mobile strategy offers numerous benefits, such as:

Leveraging your existing enterprise technology like ERP, CRM, etc., and integrating the existing IT infrastructure to derive optimum results
Improving adoption rates by focusing on user-centricity Enabling enterprise-wide adoption–connecting people, products and processes
Maximizing productivity by speeding up responsiveness to employee needs and process requirements
Making the organization more agile and responsive to customer needs and, thereby, boosting brand perception
Maximizing results and returns from investments on mobility solutions by widening its scope and coverage
Allowing businesses to create sustainable and clear policies for mobile engagement
Bringing dexterity into the ecosystem to absorb dynamic shifts in the business environment

Enterprise Mobility Adoption Stages

The need for an enterprise mobile strategy is required when businesses transition from stage 2 to stage 3.

Key Aspects Of An Mobile Strategy

The process of creating a holistic mobility strategy for your business will involve five key aspects: Objectives, Users, Technology, Governance and Measurement.

Objectives: It is important to define from the very beginning the objectives, both short-term and long-term, for adopting mobility in your enterprise. Every objective should be laid out in as much detail as possible. Some of the popular objectives behind adopting mobility are boosting productivity, reducing response-time, faster resolution to customer complaints and cost-efficiency, etc.
Users: Businesses need to identify the target groups for mobility implementation. Who are your users? Customers or employees? What are their expectations? What are their training requirements? How will you integrate mobile technology with your existing processes to meet the expectations of the target group?
Technology: The trickiest part to enabling mobility is to select appropriate and accurate technology architecture. The challenge is to create a technology plan that not only serves your present requirements but that will also potentially evolve for tomorrow. What is your device policy? What about your UX/UI design policies? What are your backend requirements? How can your existing technology be leveraged? And most importantly, how do you robustly secure the newly built system?
Governance: The governance or management policy can be the difference between a failed and a successful mobile implementation. Therefore, it is important to clearly spell out the management policies and procedures, ranging from devices to application building and usage rules, to be followed in the new mobile regime. Which devices will be allowed? How will access to sensitive data will be controlled and monitored? What is your app development approach?
Measurement: A good strategy should provide you with the right tools and metrics to evaluate or assess its deliverables. How much money have you been able to save after your mobile initiative? Which channels are adding to profits? What is the customer satisfaction level? How much additional work-time your employees are getting?

Each aspect when considered separately will require you to answer many questions. Each answer will inform the next step towards a holistic mobile strategy.

Steps Towards A Mobile Strategy

Define Business Goals: State the purpose of enabling mobility in your enterprise. What are your high-priority business goals? What type of apps will help you reach those goals? Look outside as well as within your organization to identify opportunities for mobile.
Prepare Mobility Roadmap: Once you have a set of business goals that you wish to achieve through mobility, the next step is to find desired mobile devices and apps that will help you reach those goals. For each mobile solution, you need to build a case summary that lists key benefits, functions, target users and target beneficiaries, etc. Prioritizing these mobile solutions based on your set business goals will evolve into a mobility roadmap.
Do User Workflow Analysis: Any mobility solution will replace an existing workflow process. Therefore, it is important to do a comprehensive analysis of the existing process before it is mobilized. This will not only help you improve the existing process but will also help you measure the impact of mobilizing the particular process and justify the costs.

Key Questions to Answer
Mobile Platform/Device/OS selection	MDM or MEAP? Smartphones or Tablets? Company sponsored or BYOD? iOS or Android or BlackBerry or All?
System Integration	How will mobile apps overlap or be distinct from existing channels? How will it connect with the back-end?
Mobile App Development	Full client, rich client or thin client? In-house or outsourced development? Native, HTML5 or Hybrid? UI and UX specifications, etc.
Security Policy	What are your policies and procedures for securing mobile applications, user authentication, data protection and server applications?
Supported Devices	What are your supported devices? Can you create a charter for handling supported devices and future devices?
Wireless Connectivity	Do you have access to steady, high-speed connectivity for all users and security for your wireless networks?

Prepare a Technology Blueprint: Designing a technology blueprint has several facets, including deciding on a mobile platform, OS and device selection, device procurement strategy–company sponsored or BYOD,–core mobility architecture, mobile app development strategy, security policy, app and device management strategy and wireless connectivity requirements, etc.
Set Out A Budget For Mobility: Many organizations make the mistake of combining a mobile budget with IT, which often results in confusion and at times pushes mobile investments down the priority ladder. You need to create a separate budget for your mobility efforts. What are you planning to invest today, in the next six months and in the next few years? Breaking up the budget for processes, departments, etc., will enable you to build an accurate ROI model.
Draw An Implementation Roadmap: The mobile implementation roadmap will allow you to assess the current state of mobility in the organization, to compare it against the business goals, and to set up the timeframe and work process to realize it. Since an implementation roadmap requires the identification of risks and dependencies and the entry and exit criteria of each mobile project to be well defined, it can help you to monitor and manage each project effectively to achieve the overall strategic goals on time.
Build A Mobile Center Of Excellence: Mobility serves the requirements of various stakeholders of the system. To accomplish this, build a Mobile Center of Excellence with people from diverse domains and expertise to unify and centralize the many voices. . The MCOE will institutionalize best practices for mobility, bring consistency into the integration process, define policy and procedures for use and access of mobile solutions and look for opportunities for further adoption of mobile initiatives, etc.
Do Test Deployment: Pick a particular process or mobile opportunity to test your mobility plan. Implement it and see how it turns out. Analyze and document the deployment to understand success and failure points. Fine-tune your mobile strategy based on the test deployment experiences. Then,expand it to an organization-wide rollout.
Monitor, Evaluate and Review: It is important to constantly monitor and assess your strategy based on the feedback collected from various sources. Any deviation has to be immediately corrected. There should be a calendar for the review process for each element of your mobile environment.

Experts Speak

“For businesses which are exploring mobility for the first time with their employees, start by “building something which may not be mission critical, but is fun.” For example, providing employees with an app that allows them to order food from the cafeteria.”

Cimarron Buser, VP Of Business Development At Apperian

“The focus for businesses should be on questions such as whether the apps will be for internal or external use, and what platforms they’ll be using it on. “Remember that when you’re building an app, people will actually have to use it,”

Ken Daniels, Senior Director for Strategic Alliances in Enterprise Mobility at Samsung

“Whatever mobile apps the organization chooses to build for its employees or customers, it’s crucial to make the apps easy to use. Most people are already trained to use their mobile devices for consumer apps which have a high ease of use and they “expect their enterprise apps to be on par.”

Prat Vemana, Director Of The Velocity Lab And Global Mobile Strategy At Staples

Our Recommendations For A Successful Enterprise Mobile Strategy

Draw A Vision: Involve all stakeholders to draw a vision behind the mobile adoption. Determine the scope, allocate resources and establish policies to govern it.
Lay Down The Technology Blueprint: Clearly spell out the policies on device management, app development, system integration, security and compliance. Communicate the blueprint with others.
Keep Users At The Centre Of Your Strategy: The success or failure of your mobile efforts depends on your users. Their need and expectations must be met. You must provide them with a rich experience. A Center of Excellence will help you meet the requirements of users.
Get Ready For The Change: You are not only adopting a technology but also a practice. There will be resistance to change. You need to pick a bunch of people who will act as trendsetters and involve them at a very early stage. Communicate and co-ordinate your efforts, sharing initial success with others to help motivate them.
Monitor To Evolve: Creating a mobile strategy and implementing it is just the beginning. Monitor, evaluate and review to measure its performance. Revise in response to failures. Then, repeat it.

To Conclude

Mobility is no longer a choice; it’s a necessity for business. Implementing mobility in an enterprise involves substantial upfront investments and efforts. Given the amount of money and efforts involved, it makes perfect sense to optimize the deliverables and results through enterprise-mobility solutions to maximize ROI. A robust enterprise mobile strategy can help you achieve just that by engulfing and integrating processes, functions and people. Moreover, it also provides you with a long-term strategic vision and brings flexibility into your mobile efforts to manage any shifts in the business environment. In the words of Eric Schmidt, Former CEO and current Executive Chairman, Google, “Mobile is so important; put your best people on mobile. If you don’t have a mobile strategy, you are no longer relevant.” We couldn’t agree more.

Blog, Enterprise Mobility, Weekly Insights

[x]insights Weekly- Enterprise Mobile News & Insights 01-07 February

February 8, 2016 [x]cube LABS

Successful Digital Transformation Calls For Comprehensive Organizational Commitment Share on X

Market disruptions are leading businesses to transform into digital enterprises. Now, on their way to digital transformation- should companies take a piecemeal approach or endeavor for an organization wide change? Tech Crunch’s Ron Miller in this story reports how enterprises are looking at big picture from the first day. Rich with expert views and industry cases, this piece touches upon on the need for clarity of vision, thinking the big picture, understanding digital trasformation as a people’s issue and how to get there.Read More

What it takes to be a successful digital enterprise? Share on X

Businesses are thinking digital. Not just as a technology but also as catalyst to disrupt markets and innovate. In future, every business will be digitized. But what it takes to be a digital enterprise? Management Guru Ram Charan, in this article for Economic Times, gives his take on characteristics of a successful digital enterprise. He lists a mindset focussed on ‘end-to-end customer experience’, platforms that solves unsolved problems and create opportunities and top leadership with ambitious imagination etc., among many things that businesses who want to be a leader in the digital world must imbibe.Read More

Internet Of Things: Moving from Hype Cycle to Useful Solutions Share on X

Internet of Things was a much talked about technology in 2015. Connected cars, smart homes, industrial IoT- there was enthusiasm all around connected. But how many enterprises have moved beyond the vision and deployed IoT in practical ways. Not many. This article from bestthenews.com offers you a roadmap and practical tips on converting IoT ideas into real solutions. According to the article, IoT vision is OK but applications are the real thing to push adoption. Secondly, IoT vendors must make it easy for enterprises to deploy IoT by cutting costs and making RoI attractive. and in the end, it asks businesses to go beyond analytics and look at actions and responses.Read More

What CIOs need to know to get started on an enterprise IoT project Share on X

Unlike other technologies in the past, experts say, CIOs will be treading in a new territory for IoT. There will new choices to make, understand new concepts and develop new relationships with vendors. Senior Writer Nicole Laskowski in this article for techtarget talks to various experts and puts forward a roadmap for CIOs to get started on their IoT initiative. She delves on IoT strategy, platform vs. point solutions and relationship between business & IT in deploying enterprise IoT project.Read More

Enterprise Mobile Apps Gaining Momentum in 2016 Share on X

Enterprise mobile apps have considerably gained huge traction in past few years. However, the growth has been less than expected owing to back end issues, security and privacy concerns. Todd R. Weiss in an exhaustive report for eWeek finds that mobile app development in enterprises is gaining momentum in 2016 with companies like The Boston Globe, SAP, Caraustar etc., planning to develop and deploy more apps.Read More

Banking, Blog, Stats

8 fascinating stats on Digital Banking

February 4, 2016 [x]cube LABS

Technology is transforming the way we Bank. Every process from customer service, information delivery to banking operations is continuously evolving . To be updated is the need of the hour. So, here are 8 key stats in digital banking space which you cannot afford to miss.

1) Contactless will continue
	‘Faster Payment’ transactions by 2024. Source : Payments UK
2) Omni-channel presence
	Of Bank executives noted the importance of a bank’s digital omni-channel presence to its customer retention. Source : BizTech
3) Digitization
	Of bank executives called digitization a high priority. Source : BizTech
4) Disruptive force
	Of bank & capital market CEO’s say that an increase in competitors- traditional & new will be disruptive force over next 3 years Source : BizTech
5.a) Mobile wallet
	Of the top 11 retailers will announce a mobile wallet Source : Carlisle & Gallagher
5.b) Mobile wallet
	Of the top 10 U.S. card issuers will announce a mobile wallet, with at least one of the credit union associations announcing a mobile wallet that can be leveraged by any of their members. Source : Carlisle & Gallagher
6) Security Issues
	Of financial institutions percieve a lack of customer awareness & security concerns anaam to diye diyechi……s top barriers to security Source:BizTech
7) Cyber attacks
	Of banks say greatest technology concern is having a strong technology infrastructure to protect against cyber attacks. Source: BizTech

Blog, Internet of Things, Retail

5 Factors Driving IoT Adoption In Retail

January 19, 2016 [x]cube LABS

As per a survey by Zebra, as high as 96% of retailers are ready to make changes required to implement Internet of Things in their stores. Over 65% percent of respondents already have implemented IoT solutions and another 26% are planning to deploy it in the next 12 months. So what’s leading retailers to invest big dollars and embrace IoT in their stores. Here are 5 factors that are making retailers at high street go high-tech

1. The Informed Customer

Shoppers today are more informed than ever. They access product information, compare prices and seek reviews before making a buying decision. Traditional retail shops lacked the environment to get real-time information access which IoT promises to offer taking physical retailing closer in experience to online retailing.

2. Ubiquity Of Mobile

There is an explosion of mobile devices like credit card readers, mobile POS solutions, Sales enablement devices and apps for the retail industry. Earlier working in silos, IoT promises to help build a unified ecosystem, controlled by smartphones & tablets, integrating various devices and apps to accentuate the various possibilities.

3. Cloud & Big Data

There have been major advancements in key tech enablers to IoT like cloud computing and big data analytics helping retailers to store vast amount of data and share it across systems. Moreover, big data empowers them to process data emanating from various sources, transform it into insights and drive better decision-making impacting shopping experiences.

4. Reduction In Cost Of Sensors And Processors

As per a Goldman Sachs report, the cost of sensors have come down from an average 60 cents from $1.30 in the past 10 years. Similarly, bandwidth and processing costs have declined in the range of 40X to 60X making it more affordable for retailers.

5. Omnichannel Experience

Shoppers love the ability to compare products, buy a product and receive delivery anytime and anywhere. In their quest to stay ahead of customer expectations, retailers are leveraging IoT to offer omnichannel experience.\

Internet of Things has the potential to once again disrupt the retail space just as web and mobile did in the last decade. However, this time it is for the advantage of physical stores as they get the tools and data to go one up above online stores. Amidst the wave raised by Internet of Things, retailers need to reimagine their business by blending new technologies with old shopping charm to succeed.

Blog, Enterprise Mobility

[x]Insights Weekly- Enterprise Mobile News & Insights 08-14 January

January 14, 2016 [x]cube LABS

How Organizations Are Solving The Leadership Puzzle For Digital Transformation? Share on X

Companies are taking to digital transformation initiatives to leverage and integrate new technologies like mobile, cloud, analytics and Internet of Things. However, the role a digital transformation leader in such initiatives is huge. So who should lead digital transformation in an organization? CIO, CTO or a CDO? A study by the Economist Intelligence Unit reveals some interesting insights on how organizations are deploying varied different approaches like appointing two digital transformation leaders, outsourcing digital processes etc. Read More

Why Retailers Are Betting Big On The Internet of Things? Share on X

Internet of Things is gaining traction with people showing great appetite for connected devices and enterprises adopting it to transform themselves. Retail stores too are investing big in IoT to gain back the lost space to e-tailers. Barbara Thau in this article for Forbes identifies the reasons behind retailers excitement towards connected things and how they see a great opportunity in IoT to reinvigorate their stores, redefine shopping experiences and push revenues. Read More

Solving Cloud Management Challenges In The Enterprise Share on X

Cloud has brought many critical business benefits to enterprises like scalability, flexibility, cost-effectiveness etc. However, cloud has led to growth of shadow systems putting data at risk. John Purrier, in this interview for itproportal, provides deep insights and best practices on solving cloud management solutions and ensuring that information is secure in a cloud adopted infrastructure.Read More

Creating A Testing Center Of Excellence Share on X

Testing is critical. More so in today’s world where user experience is central to success. In spite of enterprises spending a large chunk of their project budgets, testing doesn’t get the priority it deserves. Mark Summers, in this article for CIO, spells out the importance of a Testing Center of Excellence (TCoE) in innovation, managing disruption and providing consistent quality experience to users. He also delves deeply into TCoE and provide 4 steps to building one. Read More

How To Balance Mobile Device Privacy Vs Security Share on X

Security is often in conflict with privacy. More so in a BYOD environment where users own devices. Enterprises have a huge task bringing the right balance between mobile device security and user privacy. Any attempt to track location of a device or to prevent unauthorized access using antimalware may be viewed as intrusion by employees. Entry of IoT and wearables is just making the task tougher. Lisa Phifer in this techtarget blog suggest measures like assessing the privacy landscape, securing business assets, bringing mobile device privacy to policies and leveraging transparency to balance privacy and security in the organization. Read More

Blog, Enterprise Mobility

7 Defining Trends In Mobile Technology For 2016

December 31, 2015 [x]cube LABS

2015 turned out to be a huge and impactful year for mobile technology. With increased integration of devices and a phenomenal increase in the number of smartphone users, 2016 is going to be even bigger.

Analysts predict a much more extensive demand for mobile apps and solutions among enterprise in 2016, fuelling an optimistic growth curve for app development companies and mobile solution consultants.

Here’s our take on what would be some of the defining trends in the mobile technology space for 2016

1. Internet of Things (IoT) Will Connect Over 35 Billion Devices

As more and more devices get connected and there is a steady improvement in the links between different gadgets/equipment and mobile apps, 2016 promises a tremendous potential for IoT. Wearable tech is not the only thing that can change your life – even your vehicle, electronic devices, hardware and home tools will witness transformation. Analysts predict a substantial increase in the number of devices connected to the internet (mobile especially) – while Gartner puts it at a whopping 35+ billion by 2020, ‘the INQUIRER’ envisages a 285% increase. By 2020, 250k connected vehicles are likely to hit the market.

According to a Gartner study, “the IoT will bring into the digital security architecture dozens of new platform options, hundreds of variations on hybrid IT/IoT integration, new standards per industry, and a new view of an application… and IT leaders will need to balance digital business requirements with digital security realities.”

The increasing demand for connected objects – home improvement tools, domestic appliances, toys, and home security systems – will make smartphones/tablets a hub of information and communication. So, be prepared to usher in the new era of digital disruption.

2. From Gloves To Jackets, Anything Can Be A Wearable

Fitness, sports and healthcare sectors continue to be benefited by wearables. With big players like Motorola and Intel entering the fray – especially in the Android segment, companies are now spending millions into improvising their wearables. Move over smartwatches and fitness bands – now anything from your gloves and socks to jackets, sneakers and caps can be converted to a wearable device. Consumers can probably expect better, efficient, useful and cheaper wrist-wear with long-lasting batteries, more sensitive touch screens and better sensors.

Having undergone a major makeover, the redesigned version of Google Glass boasts of better battery life, faster processor and improved connectivity. However, this version is available only for enterprises and is not up for grabs in the commercial marketplace for individual users, yet. Nevertheless, companies which experimented with connecting Glass to healthcare, retail or other industry segments will likely see a greater impetus and reap major benefits in 2016.

3. AR will Witness Tremendous Growth in New Sectors

Though relatively in its nascent stage, Augmented Reality is expected to witness a rapid growth by 2020. According to Industry analyst firm CCS Insight the amount of AR and VR devices sold will rise from 2.5 million this year, to a whopping 24 million in 2018. It forecasts that the market will be worth more than $4billion.

[Tweet “AR and VR devices sold will rise from 2.5 million this year, to a whopping 24 million in 2018”]

Another study puts the revenue generated by AR apps in just two sectors – enterprise and entertainment – at a phenomenal $1+ billion each year. So, it’s not just gamers and movie-goers who will enjoy the AR/VR experience. Even in sectors like retail, transportation, real estate, hospitality, healthcare, and architecture, AR is likely to see innovative application and growth.

Oculus Rift is not the only thing to be excited about; other VR devices that aim to deliver a richer experience of the world around us are likely to flood the market in 2016. With the biggest players in technology investing millions of dollars into developing AR devices (Google Cardboard, Hololens, HTC Vive, Samsung Gear VR, Magic Leap, etc), AR ceases to be a distant dream and is all set to take the consumer world by storm.

4. Beacons Will Change The Way Companies Engage With Customers

Location-based customer communication is not a new concept but with increasing deployment of beacons in retail industry, more retail stores – big and small alike – started exploring their potential to target customers with timely push notifications. We cannot ignore the way this trending technology is influencing a consumer’s shopping behavior and experience.

It’s now the turn of hospitality, advertising, airlines, and sports sectors to leverage beacon tech in a big way and revolutionize the way businesses engage with consumers at a personal level but in an unobtrusive manner.

With shrunken hardware, improved Wi-Fi and Bluetooth technologies, beacons are the way to go as they certainly provide the essential tools to entice customers. The BI Intelligence report indicates that beacon technology has the potential to drive $44 billion in retail sales in 2016.

[Tweet “Beacon technology has the potential to drive $44 billion in retail sales in 2016.”]

5. Businesses Will Focus on Consumers & User Experience

Companies will be forced to make their presence felt in the mobile space in years to come. As consumers are increasingly turning to their mobile devices to carry out transactions, you’re likely to be swept aside in the tide of digital disruption if you’re not already prepared.

Mobile-centric solutions will become inevitable for all businesses, and conversion rates & ROI on mobile will significantly increase. With users on the go, mobile searches are believed to convert better than searches on laptop/desktop for many verticals.

The current tech environment is conducive for the development of varied mobile apps which needs to be the focus of enterprises this year. Consumer apps have increased user expectations and their demand for better UI and UX elements. So, enhanced user experience, consumer-centric approach, and unique products & designs will be key to ensuring stickiness and loyalty.

6. Security Architecture & Enterprise Mobility Will Go Hand In Hand

As enterprises are increasingly encouraging BYOD, the complexity of handling security threats and challenges is one area that needs focus. Traditional security measures of blocking attacks and rule-based security will prove useless in today’s era of Cloud Services and Public API platforms.

With more companies letting employees bring their own devices to work, accessing company-wide data and syncing it with their devices, sharing files over unsecure networks poses a serious threat to security. It’s, therefore, essential for enterprises to think of new and effective ways of managing enterprise mobility and ensure that its security tools work well across devices, operating systems and networks.

7. Simplification Will Be The Key To Success

Right from building apps to improving security measures, from infrastructure to technological systems, from functionality to scalability – enterprises need to aim at simplifying stuff. This not only ensures flexibility both to consumers and developers but also positively impacts the app development process.

Integrating software and applications with cloud-based services has given rise to ‘serverless computing’ and will surely help enterprises move away from CapEx model to OpEx model in the ensuing years.

With Cloud becoming the most secure way of storing data, more enterprises are going to migrate data from their servers/data centers to cloud and leave the security aspect to providers. Similarly, using Public APIs and Open Source software will not only help companies increase scalability at a lower cost but also enable small businesses to grow rapidly.

So, based on the predictions, do we believe that these trends are going to be game-changing for mobile technology? Yes, 2016 will be huge for enterprises and will make them a cut above the rest provided they are ready and willing to gear up and ride on this new wave of digital disruption, and be part of the immense growth curve.

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[x]Insights Weekly- Enterprise Mobile News & Insights 08-15 December

December 16, 2015 [x]cube LABS

How to realize high RoI from your predictive analytics investments?

Enterprises are embracing predictive analytics with big dollar investments. However, most often, businesses struggle to realize top business value from their investments in analytics with the tools remaining shelf ware. what’s the solution? Companies need to approach analytics with a new mindset. In addition to ensuring strong business support and focusing scarce skills on tackling right challenges, organizations need to develop an insight driven culture to leverage predictive analytics to its fullest.Read more

6 steps to success for speciality retailers to leverage digital and grow faster

Specialty retailers have a great opportunity in leveraging digital to boost customer engagement, brand loyalty and sales. However, most brick and mortar retailers are struggling to adopt digital fully. The major problem-where to start? To succeed in digital, retailers have to shift to a new mindset and culturally transform organizations. It starts with picking the right people, focussing on customer experiences as much as on operations, invest in best technologies, reward customer loyalty and explore new revenue streams.Read more

Shadow IT offers benefits and here’s how enterprises can make most of it?

Enterprise are fast embracing cloud and reaping benefits of it. However, enterprise cloud computing has also paved the way for shadow IT. As per a survey, a staggering 86% of cloud applications used in businesses’ are without the approval of IT. While shadow IT poses serious security challenges, it also has several upsides with potential to create business value. IT has to securely embrace shadow IT to realize these benefits. To make most of it, guidelines about what is okay and what is not is the right approach.Read more

Enterprise wearable tech: 10 innovative applications in improving customer experiences

Wearable tech has gone mainstream in enterprises. Businesses’ are leveraging wearables in many areas. However the biggest possibilities of wearable tech is in customer service encompassing customer engagement, experience and satisfaction. And enterprises are leveraging it innovatively to impress their customers and build loyalty. From customizable shopping paths, personalized product recommendations to boosting staff responsiveness- there are many novel use cases employed to better customer service.Read more

Big Data in healthcare: 3 applications to improve clinical decision making

Healthcare has been an early adopters of big data. Storing volumes of data, processing and harnessing insights to drive decisions is helping providers improve treatment care and patient satisfaction. And physicians are making use of big data tools innovatively and across the care model. From patient generated data to helping providers remotely monitor patients, gleaning over set of historical data for precision medicine to wise analysis-there are new applications discovered everyday.Read more

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[x]Insights Weekly- Enterprise Mobile News & Insights 01-07 December

December 9, 2015 [x]cube LABS

How to create an infrastructure strategy that supports modern enterprise mobility needs? Share on X

While most discussions and strategies on enterprise mobility revolves around mobile devices and apps, the infrastructure too plays a key role. More so as you go deep into mobility ecosystem where end user, the content consumption patterns and seamless experience across devices becomes the focus of strategy. Enterprises should now consider building an infrastructure that is capable to keeping your mobile capabilities up and delivering the essentials. The first step is to build a robust infrastructure strategy. Read more

Tips to deploy enterprise mobile apps at scale

Deploying one app is easy. Managing multiple apps is quite a challenge. Mobile application management (MAM) and enterprise mobility management (EMM) systems are there but they can help you to a limited extent. What next? Practices like adopting a scalable cloud model, publishing app in enterprise app store, fine tune self service and simplifying mobile authentication along with other steps can make managing many apps easy.Read more

Million dollar investments in cloud doesn’t matter if your cloud sucks

Enterprises are investing millions of dollars in their enterprise cloud strategy. However, network, a vital component to the success of cloud is still the missing link. To make their cloud a success, enterprises need to consider the location of his user and the possibility of different networks in use. And ensure that same performance is delivered across locations. But how to solve the puzzle?
Read more

How GM, Whirlpool etc., are leveraging Internet of Things to make their supply chain smarter?

Internet of Things is disrupting processes and functions resulting in cost-effectiveness and higher efficiency for enterprises. Supply chain and logistics too is not remaining untouched by it as companies embrace IoT. And the application of IoT is across industries from car manufacturer GM to consumer product manufacturer Whirlpool. By making innovative use of sensors, RFID etc., these companies to exert better control over their processes and take intelligent decisions.Read more

Enterprise Mobile Strategy: Time to go beyond “there’s an app for that” approach for success

We have witnessed massive explosion of mobile apps. First in consumer space and now in enterprises. There was a time when ‘going mobile’ or ‘building an app’ was recipe for success. But in enterprise mobility 2.0, CIOs and other mobile leaders, need to integrate their mobile projects with overall business strategy. They need to think of apps that transform processes rather than just mobilizing them. That’s how you would be able to put a strong case for your enterprise mobile project and gain higher RoI.Read more

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[x]Insights Weekly- Enterprise Mobile News & Insights 24- 30 November

December 1, 2015 [x]cube LABS

Welcome to [x]insights weekly! Here we bring to you a weekly roundup of news, views and insights, that you are interested in from the mobile world. From enterprise app development, big data to Internet of Things- we have it all covered here.

The CIO who fails in mobile will lose his job.

Mobile has changed the way people shop, access information and take buying decisions. And this is impacting businesses in a big way fundamentally shifting their approach and compelling them to reimagine their strategy. The current business environment calls for enterprises to be at the top of their mobile game to succeed. To win the battle, CIOs have no choice but to get their mobile strategy right and think mobile as a catalyst to digital transformation and market success. It’s simple- succeed in mobile or lose your job. Read more

How to secure your Internet Of Things?

While Internet of Things is going mainstream in its adoption, security remains its key concern. How to ensure data integrity and consumer privacy in an environment wherein hundreds of devices are interconnected and continuously emanating data? The security threat-if not addressed to customer perception- may result in loss of millions of dollars pouring in by companies. Dealing with network connectivity threats, on-device data security, device isolation and other steps is necessitated to strengthen IoT security. Read more

Leverage cloud to sharpen your mobile strategy

Enterprises are adopting mobile to boost employee productivity and keep them connected anywhere, anytime. However, devices and apps are just the first step to mobility. The real value of enterprise mobility can only be achieved when it is responsive and contextual to user needs. PBX is relic. Today you need cloud to keep pace with the changing business environment and your employee needs. Read more

Mobile & Wearables: Where should CIOs focus on?

Mobile is completely embedded in business. The latest entrant, wearables too have serious use cases in business. And many enterprises like healthcare, manufacturing etc., are employing it to their advantage. In the current scenario, CIOs should focus on ascertaining how they can mix different tech and tools to optimize benefits, understand how mobile, wearables and IoT etc., is changing the work-style of their users, build a foundation for tech enabled change and be bold to experiment with new ideas to see what works. Read more

9 cyber threat predictions in 2016

These are challenging times in the digital world. Enterprises are not just adopting technology but building ecosystem connecting various devices, apps and networks. The scale is getting bigger and bigger. And with it the challenge to strengthen your security. In 2016, business are predicted to face threats around ransomware, attacks on wearables, infiltration on automobile systems, attempts to exploit weak cloud environments, sale of stolen data and integrity attacks on financial sector. Read more

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PurpleTalk- Where Growth Happens

November 25, 2015 [x]cube LABS

PurpleTalk culture is characterized by its fun environment, open-minded, employee-friendly policies and inclusive decision making. The objective is to ensure that we create a conducive environment for technology innovation, encourage out of the box thinking, continuous learning and individual development.

While as an organization we think we are doing a good job at it, what would be better than a hard fact check ? So we asked our employees what has been their experience with PurpleTalk and this is what some of them had to say..

Interested to join the PurpleTalk Team ? Check out our current openings.

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[x]Insights Weekly-Enterprise Mobile News & Insights 17- 23 November

November 24, 2015 [x]cube LABS

How IOT driven real-time maintenance is changing the game?

Preventive maintenance is good but suffers from a major shortcoming- it is based on accepted practice rather than on real conditions. But all that is changing as manufacturers leverage IoT for real-time maintenance. Data emanating from their products is helping them predict maintenance issues remotely, diagnose it and improve customer experience. Read more

5 tips in building enterprise apps that your employees will happily use.

Enterprises are significantly spending on building mobile apps for their employees. However, many of them fail to inspire usage resulting in losses. Understanding your brand, thinking design and user experience and other critical elements play a major role in inspiring app usage and boosting its success.Read more

3 ways big data is transforming healthcare

Big data can be a real game changer for the healthcare industry. As quality of care becomes the focus, big data analytics can help hospitals and physicians in driving innovation, enabling real-time innovation, creating better patient-physician engagement and enhancing security. Read more

Plentiful options but how to select the right cloud provider?

Creating the right cloud environment is paramount for enterprises seeking to seize new opportunities offered in the digital economy. The market today offers a range of choices in enterprise cloud computing. However, it is important that the right cloud provider is chosen. While service offerings is blurring with most of cloud providers, it is the experience of the provider that is emerging as a differentiating factor for building a cohesive cloud environment.Read more

What it takes to become a digital enterprise?

Enterprises seeking to transform into a digital enterprise are hitting in the dark and struggling to find the right path. From ‘where to begin’ to ‘Have we reached there yet’- the questions capture businesses’ digital dilemma. While there is no ‘a one size fits all’ solution yet but still there are 6 strategic factors that can take any enterprise to their destination in the digital landscape. And there are 6 signs also to tell you whether you are becoming a digital enterprise.Read more

Blog, Enterprise Mobility

Top 6 Mobile App Strategies For Your Brand

November 19, 2015 [x]cube LABS

Nearly a third of the apps are downloaded and abandoned. Users don’t return back to it. There are ample cases of low budget mobile projects setting records as well as high budget mobile apps failing to deliver. More than technology and money, success of an app depends on its strategy. Here are 6 mobile app strategy tips to ensure your app realizes its goal

1. Think user

Build a mobile app user persona based on his personal and professional data. Think of his interests, motivations, challenges and frustration. See how you can add value to his life.

2. Solve a problem

How you can solve his challenges or cater to his needs with your app. The problem should be big enough for your mobile initiative to be feasible. You can alternatively look to provide a better solution to existing problem like Google did with its search engine. You can also seek to adopt an existing solution to your niche area like Airbnb and LinkedIn have done.

3. Accentuate the experience

Users want their apps to be as good as the personal apps they use. Create simple yet delightful experiences. Plan the app navigation in such a way that he gets access to the entire app in shortest possible way. Personalize experiences by monitoring his behavior and browsing history.

4. Leverage the best technology

Pick the platform where majority of your users are if you are constrained by budget. Check if cross platform app development will serve your purpose. Build in social media integration, device hardware access, device integration features if the app functionality demand.

5. Sell value

Instead of selling the software, sell its value proposition. Create a crisp value proposition and use it as a promotion message for the app. Heavy budget marketing can just give you the initial boost and sustain it till the cash is flowing. But once marketing stops, your app will begin to fade away. It’s the value proposition only that will keep it alive in the long run.

6. Re-engage

It is not just enough to get huge downloads. You would also want your user to use your app frequently. And that doesn’t happen on its own. Users need a reason to use your app again and again. Refresh content, interact via messaging, gamify to boost re-engagement.

Mobile apps are for human. Apps that better serve your user interests become long-term companions. So focus on him/her while building your mobile app strategy and reap the benefits.

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[x]Insights Weekly-Enterprise Mobile News & Insights 10-16 November

November 17, 2015 [x]cube LABS

Enterprise mobility trends predictions for 2016

2015 has been an excellent year for enterprise mobility with wider adoption, cutting across industries, and many innovative deployment of mobile tech in business. In 2016, enterprise mobility consisting of mobile, wearables, cloud, big data and Internet of Things will be prominent tech force with integrated computing as the strategy. The lines will blur. And with it, mobile will replace desktop as primary computing platform, enterprises refocusing on apps and increasing focus on mobile security. Read more

3 ways big data can improve quality of home healthcare

The Affordable Care Act has put tremendous pressure on providers to reduce readmissions and keep costs in check. Under the new policy, healthcare providers can leverage big data to improve their home-based healthcare services and address new challenges. Big data can help in constant monitoring of patient-diagnosis of diseases, keep it in check and prevent hospitalizations and emergencies. Read more

How to reduce cost of risk by governance at app level?

Enterprises implementing cloud systems need to implement governance at all levels. However, most businesses implement governance at physical infrastructure and virtualized cloud, ignoring the app level putting their data to risk. App level governance can help you to cut down cost of risk associated with unauthorized and malicious app usage in addition to providing other benefits.Read more

How mobile app testing can save your app from draining your customer’s device?

One thing is clear – customers don’t like apps eating up battery life of their devices. Secondly, apps don’t perform well on low-battery devices. So one of the prerequisites for the success of your app is – low battery consumption and performance. Mobile app testing can help you detect battery-related issues of your app and address them before it becomes your customers’ and your businesses’ nightmare. Read more

Now robots to rev up brick and mortar retailing, cut $450 billion ‘out of stock’ loss

Speed, automation and analytics have been the major reasons behind internet retailers eating market share of high-street retailers. However, things are swiftly changing with automation and analytics making their way to physical stores. A retail robot launched last week seeks to bring shelf auditing and product analytics to the stores helping them reduce $450 billion annual loss worldwide due to out-of-stock items and empty shelves.Read more