When around 1.2 billion children worldwide began schooling from home in 2020, educational institutions were forced to consider better solutions for remote learning. While the Online Learning Management System (LMS) was in existence well before the pandemic, it became an absolute necessity since then.
Schools and universities bought or tied up with Edtech platforms such as Udemy, Coursera, etc., for specific courses or for distance learning solutions. However, adaptability remained a challenge. What exactly went wrong with LMS solutions back in 2020? The biggest limitation was the lack of customization with LMS features. As a result, individual needs were not met and learning remained sporadic for the most part. Adapting from the existing system to the new one posed as one of the most unavoidable challenges for educators and learners. Top challenges with LMS software in 2020
7 important features that are badly needed for an eLearning platform # 1 Course creation tools embedded in the LMS software/platform # 2 LMS features with mobile capabilities # 3 Asynchronous learning facility: Learners have access to learn at their own pace # 4 Gamification features to make learning more engaging # 5 Video conferencing # 6 Message boards/forums for community interaction # 7 E-commerce and subscriptions How can you design LMS software in 2021 to accommodate the above features? # 1 Get into the learners’ shoes There’s no way you can design fantastic LMS software without getting into the shoes of learners. Design thinking will enable you to design LMS features that are easy to use for all the parties: teachers, parents, students, etc. # 2 Consider network connectivity Network connections make or break eLearning. Educators or app developers must focus on native software development and offline-friendly technologies such as progressive web applications. Make the elearning system hybrid in terms of offline mode (document creation/content creation) and online mode (tests, etc.). # 3 Content creation tools Learners need to generate content such as text, drawings/images, audio etc. while teachers need to create videos, tests, quizzes, assessments, etc. Your eLearning software development must include features that will make the creation of content possible in the software itself apart from allowing users to import content from outside media. # 4 Tools that foster community interaction Distance learning software should always be about community users such as parents, teachers, students, deans, principals, etc. ELearning platforms such as Pear Deck, Seesaw or Edpuzzle have features such as linking voice or interactive content into the LMS or Flipgrid allows learners to reflect together and hear each other’s voice asynchronously. Features such as discussion boards, peer reviews, etc., foster community interaction. # 5 High-concurrency Make your elearning software high-concurrency friendly, so when teachers and students are active on the platform all at once or conduct tasks such as uploading documents or video conferencing, the system runs smoothly. # 6 Cross-platform integration Create a distance learning software with cross-platform capabilities like Alexa compatibility for reminders, facilities of uploading any type of media or documents through Pages or MS Word or Google Docs or facilities of conducting an immersive session over a VR device. # 7 Scalability is crucial Remember that a large part of the population of learners may return to schools or colleges in 2021 and 2022. The data that’s collected on an LMS software must be made available or must be adaptable to the traditional software at these institutions. A highly scalable and robust eLearning application will impact learning deeply and engage with learners in a more immersive way. The most crucial factor in building and designing good LMS software is design thinking. App developers must start thinking like learners and teachers. If you are on the verge of getting a thoughtfully crafted Learning Management System Solution, do let us know.
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Digital transformation today is key to creating processes that automate tasks and convert cumbersome work into productive tasks. According to Statista, by 2023, the value of companies that would spend directly on digital transformation would reach a total of US $6.8 trillion. An effective digital transformation strategy involves attaining digital maturity that leads to a considerable reduction of business costs. A mature digital transformation involves process transformation, adoption of digital tools to automate tasks, accounting software, team and collaboration tools, cloud-data storage, data analytics, software to manage sales, CRM, operations, finances, management etc. For example, Salesforce - a cloud-based digital transformation software helps in automating marketing tasks, CRM, team collaboration etc. Similarly, ServiceNow - a cloud-based IT service management (ITSM) platform - helps in inventory management, employee IT support, HR service delivery and even application development. Many digital transformation companies also often recommend SAP for automating business management processes. Microsoft also offers a huge range of digital transformation services and platforms such as Skype (for business), MS Teams Office 365 Groups etc. Digital transformation strategy must keep customers at the centerCustomer acquisition and customer delight must drive any digital transformation strategy. A 2019 IDG Study revealed that 63% of the organizations defined success as an excellent customer experience measured by customer satisfaction scores. Digital maturity equals revenue A recent survey by Deloitte Insights said that there was a direct connection between financial performance and digital maturity. Deloitte’s latest study emphasized that the digital maturity of an enterprise was directly linked with its net revenue and net profit margin. Key aspects of digital transformation An efficient digital transformation strategy involves the following aspects: 1] Centralizing software: Businesses need to have centralized software for the entry of information from each touchpoint, thus saving both time and money. 2] Cloud hosting and migration: Cloud-based systems may save up to 50% of storage costs. 3] Automation tools: Such tools reduce mundane tasks and facilitate better management on a daily basis. 4] IoT for better maintenance: Internet of Things (IoT) and Machine Learning today are transforming businesses today and helping in maximizing profits. 5] Inventory management software: This automates inventory management without investing in personnel, leading to savings. 6] Payments and collections management: Such software reduces day-to-day errors. 7] Sales/leads management: This helps in the management of leads and customer experience. Software such as Salesforce CRM etc helps in not only managing leads but also provide valuable insights about customer behavior. 8] Stationary and administration: Document managers and collaboration tools centralize important information, cutting the cost of stationary substantially. 9] Team management tools: Team collaboration tools such as Slack, Asana, Basecamp etc helping in managing tasks, teams and projects efficiently. 10] Shipping and logistics: Apart from shipping and logistics service companies, many other businesses need logistics software for better management and operations. How does digital transformation save costs? Ideally, businesses must aim beyond the obvious digital transformation benefits. However, here are some clear benefits: # 1 Reducing margins of error: Human errors may cause exorbitant losses which can be reduced by digital transformation by up to 90%. # 2 Reducing machine and employee downtime With automation and digitization, you can significantly reduce breakdowns, automate customer care or technical support with the help of a digital transformation agency. # 3 Better negotiation with suppliers Supply chain management is another area that can be organized through databases and automation software. This gives businesses better negotiation power with national and international suppliers better. # 4 Energy costs Digital technology helps in following maintenance schedules and keeping systems and equipment in optimal conditions. # 5 Personnel costs Personnel management can be automated. Things like training, in-house promotions, HR management etc can be automated with digital technology saving costs. # 6 Increased agility Digital transformation makes organizations more agile and accelerates innovations, improves delivery of the projects/products and services and brings in better customer satisfaction. A digital transformation agency can help in shedding a lot of load from the in-house personnel making them more efficient. Today digitally mature companies can engage their customers better. We can help your company smoothly transition through our digital transformation consulting services. Today, every sector and every business needs software. Outsourced software has contributed immensely in automating unproductive tasks, accelerating sales through CRM and analytics and led to business growth. While every industry needs software outsourcing, there are six industries in particular, for whom software development outsourcing has yielded phenomenal results.
# 1 Retail Amid bankruptcies in 2019 and 2020 in the retail sectors, US-based retail stores - Wayfair and Chewy - experienced record results. Wayfair reported two consecutive quarters of profits due to a surge in its online customers. Chewy, on the other hand, posted "record" net sales while its net customer count went up to 17.8 million. This was the result of using software outsourcing for customer acquisition. How has software development outsourcing transformed retail?
# 2 E-commerce E-commerce industry faces challenges such as site crashes, late deliveries or faulty discount codes. Payment checkouts are important points in the purchase journey that need to be smooth. Software outsourcing enables currency integrations, banks/credit and debit cards, payment gateway integrations and payments routed through devices and borders. E-commerce retailers often hire a software outsourcing company for handling and managing customer support, technical support and backend support. How has IT outsourcing transformed e-commerce?
Since more customers are now spending time online, this can be a great opportunity for e-commerce retailers and online marketplaces to leverage from software and delight their customers. # 3 Healthcare The pandemic-induced panic compelled the healthcare sector to re-think its modes of providing services. Though telemedicine has been around for more than a decade, offshore software outsourcing has significantly aided the healthcare sector in recent times. In the first quarter of 2020 itself, the number of telehealth visits had increased by 50% in the United States. In fact, a report states that 69% of patients using telemedicine platforms were treated at home. How has software development outsourcing transformed healthcare?
# 4 Edtech Edtech platforms today are handling online classrooms, student subscriptions, learning tools, questions and quizzes, student-tracking systems, evaluation tools among other things. Software outsourcing further enables the Edtech industry in a variety of ways including e-learning applications. How has software development outsourcing transformed Edtech?
# 5 Travel Despite a gloomy year in 2020, the travel industry is back to booming. Software helps resorts, hotels, travel agencies etc to manage travel information, itineraries and search options for their customers. Travel apps also facilitate in building itineraries and booking accommodation and transport. How has software development outsourcing transformed travel?
Travel agencies can increase their sales and revenue significantly by taking the help of a software outsourcing company. # 6 Crowdfunding Crowdfunding platforms help non-profits and startups to arrange funds for their projects. Such platforms need features of an e-commerce portal for enabling donations. How has software development outsourcing transformed crowdfunding?
A crowdfunding platform owner is able to focus on increasing reach and funds by outsourcing its software to a third party. IT software has effectively made day-to-day sales and operations seamless. By automating mundane tasks, businesses today can focus on strategy and growth. If you dream of a business that’s constantly growing and pivoting, As a Outsourcing Software Development company Chapter247 Infotech is the best choice to fulfil all your IT Outsourcing needs. IT companies must deliver projects on time with quality. However, the needs in software development are ever-changing. As a result, it becomes impossible for one company to possess all the skill sets needed to deliver challenging projects. This is where the three IT models become important, namely-
Staff Augmentation Staff augmentation is when a company hires external personnel temporarily to augment its capacity. Such a company may hire people from other companies offering staff augmentation services for fulfilling its requirement. Some common reasons why company choose augment staffing are:
When companies need to execute a whole IT project by using the resources of an IT outsource company, it’s called project outsourcing. This is a more specialized form of cost-effective staffing because it limits the hiring to just getting the job done by a specialized set of professionals. You may focus on their core operations while hiring the skills or expertise of professionals hired through outsourcing. When do companies need IT Outsourcing exactly?
There are many benefits of IT outsourcing services. Some of them are:
Limitations of IT Outsourcing
Hybrid Approach Many times, IT staff augmentation and project outsourcing are blended in a way so as to meet the specific needs of the project within a company. A hybrid approach combines the benefits of IT staff augmentation and IT outsourcing. Benefits of Hybrid Model
Limitations of Hybrid Model
ConclusionOutsourcing in general has helped several businesses post-pandemic. Software and application development requires an updated talent pool - a factor that may not be possible with remote working. As a result, a combination of IT outsourcing and staff augmentation is the future. If you are looking to adopt a hybrid model, or need staff augmentation services or IT outsourcing, feel free to contact us. You may be a React developer, a Vue developer or an Angular developer specializing only in these technologies, but you cannot ignore the constant comparison that the development community keeps making. And for good reason. One is a UI library (React), another is a seasoned full-fledged front-end framework (Angular) and the youngest among them (Vue) may be termed as a progressive framework. Yet, each of these possesses some unique benefits and performance metrics that compel people to analyze the three.
Each of these frameworks is component-based and facilitates the rapid creation of UI features. They can be used interchangeably, well, almost for building front-end applications. However, they are not 100% the same. This is why we decided to create a short guide for you but most importantly a structure for you to help decide on technologies in the future as well. Let’s dig in. License As obvious as it may sound, yet, make sure to thoroughly check its license before using an open-source framework or library. Luckily, React, Angular and Vue all use the MIT license, which is bliss because it provides limited restrictions on reuse, even in proprietary software. However, always go the extra mile and understand the implications of the license before using any framework or software. Architecture Angular Angular framework belongs to the MEAN stack which is today the hottest technology stack for startups. Angular is a complete framework for web application development based on TypeScript and is mainly used for building single-page web applications (SPAs). Unlike AngularJS - the original framework, Angular 2 doesn’t have a strict association with MV*-patterns because it is component-based. The way Angular is structured, there are Modules, Components and Services. In the Angular framework, each component has a Class or a Template that defines the application logic, and MetaData (Decorators). This metadata of the component provides guidance about where the building blocks are that it needs to create and present its view. Another important factor in the Angular architecture is that the templates are written in HTML but they may also include Angular template syntax with special directives to output reactive data and may render multiple elements. Services - a distinct element of Angular applications - are used by Components for delegating business-logic tasks such as fetching data or validating input. While using Services is not strictly enforced, it is always wiser to structure apps as a set of disparate services that are reusable. React React is an open-source, front-end library primarily used for developing user interfaces. This flexible front-end solution doesn’t enforce a specific project structure. A React developer may start using it with just a few lines of code. React is based on JavaScript but for the most part, it is combined with JSX (JavaScript XML) which is a syntax extension that allows a developer to create elements containing HTML and JavaScript at the same time. Effectively, anything that a developer can create with JSX, can also be created with the React JavaScript API. React Elements are more powerful than DOM elements and are the smallest building blocks of React apps. React components are building blocks that determine independent and reusable pieces to be used throughout the web application. Vue Used for developing user interfaces and SPAs, Vue is an open-source Model-View-View-Model front-end JS library. Called a progressive framework, it is used with other tools for front-end development. Vue’s popularity is owing to its versatility, high performance, and its optimal user experience on a web application. With Vue, a developer mostly works on the ViewModel layer for making sure that the application data is processed in a manner that allows the framework to render an up-to-date view. Vue’s templating syntax combines recognizable HTML with special directives and features. The syntax lets a developer create View components. Now Components in Vue are reusable, self-contained and small. The SFCs or Single File Components with the extension .vue have HTML, JavaScript and CSS so that all the relevant codes stay in one file. In larger Vue.js projects, SFCs are usually recommended to organize code. To transpile SFCs into working JavaScript code, you need tools like Webpack or Browserify. Purpose and Scope Angular Angular is best suitable for large-scale and advanced projects. These may include but not be limited to:
React React comes from the family of the MERN stack - a technology stack known for building sophisticated business applications. React becomes a powerful tool when used along with Redux or MobX or any flux patterned library. React is best suited for the following projects-
Vue Vue is best suited for solving short-term problems because Vue has an affordable and quick learning curve. It can integrate with existing code blocks easily. Vue may be required when: 1] You need development projects of web apps with animations or interactive elements 2] Prototyping without the need for advanced skills 3] Applications requiring seamless integration with multiple other apps 4] Faster launch of MVP Performance and Development Angular Some highlights in Angular’s performance are: 1] Has seamless third-party integrations for enhancing the functionality of the product/application. 2] Provides a robust collection of components leading to simplified art of writing, altering, and using the code. 3] Its ‘ahead-of-time-compiler’ bestows faster load times and security strength. 4] The MVC model helps in curtailing queries in the background by allowing separation of views. 5] Facilitates the use of dependency injection as external elements for decoupling components that make way for reusability and ease of management and testing. 6] Reduces the initial load time of a webpage by splitting the tasks into logical chunks. 7] Fully customizable designs. 8] Facilitates the compiling of HTML and TypeScript into JavaScript - leading to the faster compilation of the code much before the browser starts to load the web app. React React is comparable to Vue when it comes to performance because both have the same architecture i.e interaction with DOM. The performance of React web development can be assessed as follows: 1] Supports bundling and tree-shaking - a feature crucial for reducing the end users’ resource loads. 2] Offers better control over the project due to one-way data binding support 3] Can be easily tested and monitored 4] Best for complex applications that require frequent changes Vue Incredibly fast is the phrase that’s most attached with Vue. Some of its performance metrics are:
Benefits of Angular, React, Vue Angular 1] Well-documented understanding of templates, forms, bootstrapping or details about architecture, components and interaction between components 2] Smooth two-way data binding 3] MVC architecture 4] Built-in module system 5] Significant reduction of the initial load time of a webpage Popular applications built using Angular Youtube TV | PayPal | Gmail | Forbes | Google Cloud React 1] Flexible code due to its modular structure. Saves time and cost 2] Facilitates high performance of complex apps 3] Easier to maintain code during React front-end development 4] Supports mobile native applications for both Android and iOS platforms Popular applications built with React Tesla | AirBnB | CNN | Nike | Udemy | Linked-in Vue 1] Small size facilitates easy installation and download. 2] When properly harnessed, Vue can be reused 3] Vue.js allows updating of elements in a web page without rendering the whole DOM since it is virtual. 4] Requires less optimization 5] Stimulates web application development and allows the experts to separate template-to-virtual DOM from the compiler 6] Proven compatibility and flexibility 7] The codebase remains light regardless of the scaling of the application Popular applications built with Vue Gitlab | Spendesk | Behance | 9Gag | Wizzair | Nintendo Community Support and Learning curve React JS library is created by Facebook that enjoys a large community of coders and developers offering solutions to the biggest problems. Angular has a large community of developers who have answers to the most challenging and weirdest cases. Vue too has a decent ecosystem and enjoys all the right characteristics of React library and Angular framework. When it comes to the learning curve, React is the quickest to learn and adapt followed by Vue and Angular. Final thoughts From the point of view of front-end development, React will be the quickest to learn in 2021. Both Vue and React are lightweight, intuitive and perform flawlessly. If you have any feedback or question, do drop us a line in the comments section. If you wish to hire reactjs developers, do feel free to contact us. As a ReactJS development company, Chapter247 built scalable web and mobile applications across industry verticals. |
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