The AI Surge

The continued interest of businesses and consumers alike in going beyond the norm has spawned the massive rise of Artificial Intelligence globally. Even if we are ready or not, AI is definitely entering our lives and will not stop anytime soon. Be it NLP, ML, or cognitive computing, AI is providing tremendous gains to businesses in improving their sales and marketing functions, and assist in design of new business models.

Some eye-opening stats indicate the way businesses are embracing Artificial Intelligence like never before–

• Gartner predicts that by 2020, almost 1/3^rd of the companies will use AI in some form within atleast one of their primary sales processes.
• IDC predicts that by 2019 (just two years down the line), 40% of the digital transformation initiatives will involve AI capabilities
• IDC also predicts that by 2019, almost all IOT initiatives will be supported by AI capabilities

Be it self-driving cars or digital PA’s, AI is growing and growing fast. 2017 can rightly be called as the watershed year for AI. There are four primary reasons for this statement:

1 – Decreasing computing and bandwidth costs

Chips are becoming smaller and more cost-effective. This means that in all likelihood there will be a chip or processor in every single thing. This reversal of Moore’s Law will be the primary accelerant for increased adoption of Artificial Intelligence the world over. Also the steadily falling bandwidth costs means that faster speeds can be availed of at a lower price.

2 – Data – The oil needed to run AI machine

Any AI system is as good as the data it generates, analyzes and acts upon. Fortunately, with the rise of Social, Media, Analytics, and Cloud (SMAC), the volume and velocity of data being generated from various sources has literally exploded in the last decade. This data is now being harnessed in smart ways by AI systems to improve their performance and provide a better user experience. It is data that enables machine to learn. Instead of models, we now have actual data to describe various conditions to feed into the AI system.

Google’s AlphaGo Beats a Go World Champion

3 – Connected devices

The parallel rise of IOT and connected devices is also a big boost to the Artificial Intelligence industry.  RFID and sensors have enabled transmission of huge amount of quality data among connected devices that can also receive instructions and be programmed for specific actions.

4 – Improvements in Machine Learning capabilities

On its own, data cannot be used much. It needs to be refined and analyzed so that patterns emerge ad trends arise from seemingly random numbers and figures. With Machine Learning, algorithms and models can be applied to extract this advantage from unrefined data. Some examples include –

• Facebook’s DeepFace,
• Google AI platform, AlphaGo that beat a Chinese player in Go, and
• Google X Labs’ Machine Learning algorithm that picks cat videos on YouTube

As evident, Artificial Intelligence will be a significant disruptor across major industries in the world. The key question here will be – Are you already to adapt to the magical world of AI?

Going Autonomous

No more does the idea of autonomous cars seem as a bleak and elusive a dream for mankind. With the rapid development and advancement in technology, and the vast amount of money, time, and brainpower being spent into this idea; it can surely be said that in the forthcoming years, mankind will be blessed with fully autonomous cars. Today we look at a few trending stories in autonomous cars.

Tesla’s Autopilot

Tesla is much ahead in the run for development of autonomous cars and has already gifted the automotive industry with many advancements. For example, in October 2015, Tesla’s autopilot feature was introduced into their version 7 software, and it can very efficiently assist a driver. In January 2016, the 7.1 version software came with another autonomous update called the “summon” feature, which allows the self-parking of the cars without the presence of the driver in the car. Elon Musk, the CEO of Tesla, expects a fully autonomous vehicle to be ready to be used on-road by 2021.

Google’s Self Driving Car

Google self-driving car was a much-talked story of the year 2016. Since August 2012, the self-driving car, developed by Google, has successfully completed driving over 5,00,000 km accident-free. Later on, in May 2014, Google revealed a new prototype which allowed its driverless car to have no steering wheels, brake pedals, and gas pedals; thus making it a fully autonomous version. In December 2016, the technology behind the self-driving car of Google was given to a new autonomous car development company called Waymo. Uber’s autonomous Volvo cars gained much appreciation and popularity, but the autonomous tests were soon put to rest because of an accident in Arizona. But Uber has launched its Advanced Technologies Centre in Pittsburgh which is entirely focused on advanced research into self-driving cars and mapping technology.

Others join the convoy

Apart from these, there have been many other predictions and forecasts regarding the future of driverless cars. By the end of 2018, we can expect to see self-driving taxi developed by NuTonomy in Singapore, Google’s driverless cars back on the market, and a level-4 autonomous driving capacity technology by NVIDIA. Audi has announced that by 2020, driverless Audi’s will be available in the market. Ford will be offering fully self-driven vehicle, to be used by the people by 2021. Similarly, Volkswagen has assured the masses that by 2019, there would be a self-driving car in the market. Tesla’s first fully autonomous vehicle will be made available and ready to be used by the year 2021.

What does the future of self-driving cars look like?

The future of autonomous cars and vehicles will bring about a new era of personal transportation. Although the traditional IC engines will remain dominant in the automotive industry for a decade or so, sooner than we think, there won’t be need of human interference in automobiles. Massive amount of investment is being made by various automakers in this emerging field. The aim and future goal of various companies are now shifting towards developing a fully autonomous vehicle.

Thorough and extensive research is being done for bringing about advancements in various technical fields that are crucial to the development of autonomous cars. These include web networking, sensors, and software. Ford has been making much gossip regarding autonomous cars when it made a recent announcement where it showed what the future of its company’s automobile looks like. For starters, it was missing the steering wheels, brakes, and gas pedals.

To sin off we can say that disastrous accidents caused by human errors and distractions could be wiped out with the advent of a fully autonomous vehicle that can efficiently react to the environment and roadway hazards.

What Is Wrong The Hiring Policies?

The most inherent problem with IT companies is the hiring process, and with it begins the downfall for most of them.

Recruiters miss out on these basic points.

1.) Transparency on financial interests & conflicts.

Very few candidates realize how much they are worth to a recruiter if they just happen to respond to that InMail. They also don’t realize that a contingency recruiter might get paid different rates by different clients and thus be incentive oriented to not disclose all prospective opportunities upfront, or to sell one opportunity harder than the other.

2.) Transparency on clients & the opportunity.

A surprisingly large number of agency & contingency recruiters claim to work with companies that have never made a hire through them.

Saying “I work with clients like AirBnB (or whatever)” usually means that they remove your contact information from your resume, and cold-email it to the Internal Recruiter or Hiring Manager there.

Likewise, a huge number of recruitment emails are unnecessarily vague on details about the company, the salary, the location, the team. It’s only after investing 30-minutes on a phone call that you learn that the “Senior iOS Engineer” position is actually a 6-month contract consulting for 3-person web design shop in Oracle, Bangalore.

The result? The good opportunities get tossed out with the bad, because the time cost of pursuing every lead is so massive.

3.) Intent filtering & centralization.

 Most source explorers play a guess & check game.

– I guess that this person might be open to new opportunities.

– I send them an inMail/Email/Private Message to check whether or not my guess is correct.

80% of the time you don’t even get a response, and when you do, most of the time the answer is “not interested right now”.

 Thus, a massive amount of time, effort & manpower is spent simply uncovering people who might potentially have the skills for a particular position and are potentially interested in interviewing or at least learning more about an opportunity.

 Even once all that hard work is done, the most common outcome is that they don’t get hired

Let’s say you’re the technical co-founder of a new startup that has had some traction, and there’s a backlog of work piling up. Fortunately, you’ve raised enough money to hire a few engineers. Because you’re probably the sole technical person, you are probably working on recruiting engineers full-time.  This is a bit troublesome you because it’s probably not what you think you’re best at. However, you’re probably doing a pretty good job because:

 1) You’re really good at selling the vision of the company because you’re so vested in it

 2) You have the technical chops and intuition to evaluate people based on some set of internal heuristics you’ve acquired through experience.

 Eventually, things are going well, your startup gets some more funding, and you decide you want to go back to doing what you think is real work. You hire an in-house recruiter to deal with your hiring pipeline full-time.

 This is where things start going south. Because recruiters are, generally speaking, not technical, instead of relying on some internal barometer for competence, they have to rely on some set of quickly identifiable attributes that function as a proxy for aptitude.

 So, what is the solution?

 How can you save your company the hiring costs?

 How can you save your company from hiring the wrong people?

 How can you optimise your hiring and concentrate on the core issues?

Contract Hiring is the answer.

Contract employment offers a variety of benefits for both employers and independent contractors. To receive the full benefits of hiring contract labor, businesses must study the guidelines for the definition of a contract worker set forth by the Internal Revenue Service to avoid paying extra taxes and other fines.

Money Saving

The hiring process, training and benefits associated with hiring full time employees can cost well into the thousands of dollars. Many small businesses do not have the resources to go through this process when in need of workers for a critical but finite project.

Specialized or Seasonal Help

Companies needing a specialized skill set for a finite or indefinite project may not wish to take the time to train new or current employees. They can hire contract laborers already experienced in the necessary competencies. These independent contractors can get the project off and running, supervise permanent employees who possess only the minimal skills necessary, set up project plans and fulfill all project needs in an expedited manner.

Employer Satisfaction

One of the main benefits, next to cost savings, for hiring contract labor involves the ease of separation. If an independent contractor does not fit in well with the company culture or is not performing to the satisfaction of the employer, the hiring manager can terminate the relationship with little or no paperwork.

Benefits to Contractors

Independent contractors make their own hours, decide when to work and who to work for. They do not depend on the success of a single business to produce income and meet their financial responsibilities.

Hiring is important.

Take the smarter way!

The Best Of 2017 So Far

In 2016, users downloaded around 149 billion mobile apps to their connected devices. In 2021, this figure is expected to grow to around 352 billion app downloads. Searching for best-selling apps on the app store can be cumbersome.  Whether you require a great music app or messenger app, there are always plenty of options. We have curated our list of the best 5 apps of 2017. Go ahead try these on your smart devices –

1. Solid Explorer

Android Play Store

Apple Store

File managers are very common, however Solid Explorer is unique because of its rich features and easy accessibility. It boasts of latest functions for managing and browsing your files, on your phone. It is integrated with cloud services such as Google Drive, Dropbox and OneDrive and FTP servers. So you get an awesome all-in-one solution for superior file management on your smart device.

2. Brave

Android Play Store

Apple Store

Brave Web Browser is a free, fast and safe web browser for smartphones and iPhones. It’s an ad-free browser. Hence, you don’t have to be troubled by annoying pop-ups. You need not install any other extension or have concern about in-app subscriptions. Truly, it’s really a fast browser and comes in very handy while on data plan or roaming. Get this browser today and make your web browsing a much smoother and richer experience on smartphones.

3.Gboard

Android Play Store

Apple Store

The keyboard app from Google is an awesome utility in terms of both features and functionality. You may view it as a simple addition, however having a Google search button directly on your keyboard is incredibly useful. It makes the entire experience of using your smartphone more methodical. It comes in handy, especially while you are in a serious discussion or writing a long report. Besides, you can customize your keyboard with different themes or images. The regular features of emojis, GIFs and glide typing are included in this app. Write swift, type accurate on your smartphone with Gboard.

4. Critical Ops

Android Play Store

Apple Store

Critical Ops is the latest generation of first person shooter games and it’s one of the best. In this game, you’ll battle terrorists in a wide variety of urban-oriented levels .You can play as the terrorist too if you want to. A strong online multiplayer community enables you to play with your friends as well. It’s still a work in progress, but it seems to hit all the right notes for a MMO game and is being updated frequently to elevate the user experience further.

5.YouTube Kids

Android Play Store

Apple Play Store

This app is a must-install app if you have kids in your family. Generally, children love to watch too much videos on YouTube. However, not every content on YouTube is appropriate for them. Google has come up with a kid-friendly app which has an easy interface. It helps to filter out the inappropriate stuff and ensures that they only see what is proper. A word of caution though – No filtering system is flawless, so parents need to supervise.

Thank us later for introducing you to these amazing apps!

The Digital HR

SAP ERP is proven to improve the productivity of the business, lower down the cost and helps in making the strategic business decision. Its new version upgrade released in 2016 makes it more powerful and robust than before. By integrating SAP, you can streamline and automate a major portion of the core HR processes. Right from workforce management and payroll processing to recruiting and time and attendance, SAP seeks to bump up employee engagement in your organization.

Features of SAP

SAP ERP is one of the most powerful enterprise planning software available in the market today. Though it has many competitors in the market, still it has managed to retain its most popular and sought- after position. The main reason behind its popularity is its ability to sync together different business operations in an efficient way. Once installed, it can integrate human resource, customer relationship data, finance, business sales and services, procurement and logistics easily.

How does it affect HR process?

“Human Resource isn’t a thing we do. It’s a thing that runs our business.”

Human resource department is the backbone of your organization. This department has to manage different kinds of data like payroll records, personnel files, administration, compliance records, etc. The SAP HCM (Human Capital Management) module helps you to automate the core HR services.

Some of the ways SAP HCM has a lasting impact on your HR function include –

• Consolidate the HR data

SAP helps to consolidate and streamline the core HR and payroll processes with its cloud- based technology. The insightful reports further help to develop and execute strategies that ultimately benefits the business.

Apart from that, streamlining the legal and corporate compliances at the local level helps to provide the best results for the business.

• Find and manage talent

One of the primary functions of HR is to recruit the right candidate for the job. SAP helps to find, source and manage all kinds of external talent, including independent contractors and flexible talent pools. With its cloud based technology, talent optimization has become easier than before.

• Improved productivity and ROI

Now, there is no need to worry about significant HR data as SAP solutions help to keep it at a single place. This in turn, help a business man to focus on its core activities and neglect the other areas to the concerned department.

• Have a clear picture of your workforce

With a single HR system record; a business can have a clear picture of its entire workforce. Based on that he/she can drive workforce planning (“planning how many people together can help to achieve the results?”, “what’s the revenue from a single employee?”, “is ROI on human capital greater than ROI on working capital?”)

• Amazing reporting capabilities

In a traditional HRMS, reporting is based on the manual feeding of information by HR staff. This leads to inaccuracy and errors creeping in. With SAP HCM, the entire process is automated. Also the rich interactive reports that management uses is accurate and up-to-date. Users can also create custom reports easily without the need for deep technical knowledge.

With these benefits, the SAP HCM module comes across as a real value booster for your organization’s HR functions.

Apple Re-invents Again- iOS 11 features:

Apple constantly keeps updating its features and it recently announced iOS version 11. Buzz is that it allows for a better user experience and has improved features compared to the previous version. With Apple, you can expect the best time and again.

So, what can the user expect from iOS 11 on their iPhones and iPads?

We bring you the pivotal features from Apple’s recent press release, and tell you how it is going to to affect the common Apple user.

And here they are!

A New Look to the App Store:

Apple is completely redesigning its app store. It seems more focused on presenting fewer, high quality apps instead of a list of applications to dig through. There’s a new section dedicated to games, and an entire new recommended section of apps. This should definitely make finding the right app much more easier.

A Revamped Control Center:

Control Center currently allows you to make small tweaks to your phone. You pull it up from the bottom of the screen to put your phone in Airplane mode, toggle Wi-Fi or activate the flashlight and so on. With this update, you should be able to control more by adding favorite shortcuts for smart lights in your home, your Apple TV remote, a voice recorder, your activity and much, much more.

 Better Siri:

Apple has promised to spur up Siri in iOS 11.It is going to allow you to ask Siri to speak translations, a feature that Google Assistant already offers on Android. Siri will also automatically play music that you like, if you ask her, based on past listening habits. Siri will also use your interests to provide relevant news inside the revamped News application, will make calendar suggestions as you book reservations inside Safari and can suggest places and names of movies as you type in iMessage.

Drag & Drop Features:

iOS 11 brings support for dragging and dropping items between applications. On an iPad, you might drag a photo from your photo album right into an email. Apple hasn’t talked much about drag and drop on the iPhone, but developers have reported the option exists in early iOS 11 code, so expect to hear more on that. Multitasking on the iPad will take advantage of drag-and-drop creating a more powerful experience than ever before.

Payments on iMessage:

It will let you use Apple Pay to send money right to another person through iMessage. It’s linked with your debit or credit card, too, so there’s no messy configuration required. Likewise, you can request you friend or roommate on iMessage for the money he owes you for last week’s beer.

The features seem well justified keeping in mind the UX concepts. Hopefully, it will cement Apple’s position further in the market.

What do you think?

Excited yet?

Source: Apple Website

The Uberisation Of Work Force

Pune-based Persistent Systems recently took a step away from the industry practices by including several freelancers and consultants in a team that worked on a short-term project, a trending new idea that’s steadily gaining popularity in the global technology services space.

It’s called the ‘gig economy’ or ‘Uberisation’ of workforce, where talent works on a demand-supply model, moving across projects and organisations as per the demand and their interest areas.

Talent on demand, the sharing economy, “Uberisation” of the workforce – call it what you will, but there is one thing everyone can agree on: the app-driven labor market is spreading like wildfire. Combining real-time data, mobile payments, instant gratification and dynamic pricing, this emerging model is still in it’s infancy but growing quickly.

Much of the growth in the freelancer workforce is due to the emergence of numerous technology platforms aimed at connecting employers with on-demand talent. Portals such as Elance and Toptal have millions of users around the world, and technologies such as Gigwalk and Twago have made freelance talent much easier to find and hire. A growing number of sites are offering freelancers for all types of services from grocery shopping to legal services and medical care. As a result, millions of new on-demand workers are now available. According to the Freelancers Union, the US alone has 53 million freelancers, and tens of millions more are spread out across the world.

Technology alone isn’t driving the growth of freelancers. Workers are also motivated to supplement the income of their full-time positions, and many simply enjoy the freedom of being a contractor. The traditional stigma of being a contractor is lessening as many choose to take on freelance assignments to gain new skills, work on interesting projects and advance their careers.

According to a freelancer’s union study:

• 80% of non-freelancers say they are willing to work outside of their primary jobs to make more money

• 65% said freelancing as a career path is more respected today than three years ago

• 36% of moonlighters who have a primary job – 5.1 million people – have thought about going completely independent.

So, how can your organisation adjust to the opportunities of the growing on-demand economy? First, the answer begins with adaptability. Consider flexible workers for roles you traditionally fill with permanent employees. Freelancers are no longer viewed as supplemental talent only; they may be the best-quality workers for your roles. Second, it’s also important to recognise that more companies are competing for their services. That means you will need to expand your employer brand strategies to directly target freelance workers.

Five tips for engaging and retaining freelance talent

• Make your brand stand out – Highly desirable freelance workers have options when it comes to their choice of employers. When developing your employer brand strategy, consider how it helps you attract the best freelancers.

• Leveraging freelancers as ambassadors – By encouraging freelancers to spread the word about your company, you can tap their extensive network for both contingent and permanent talent. Consider how you can add them to your ranks for company ambassadors.

• Maintain a talent community – Retain freelance talent and intellectual property by establishing a talent community for them. It’s easier to keep great talent than to go out and find it.

• Be a talent ambassador – Can permanent-hire requisitions submitted by managers be filled by freelancers? Work with business leaders to determine how alternative work arrangements can address their needs.

• Embrace a compliant approach – A growing number of regulatory bodies are cracking down on the mis-classification of contractors and freelancers. If you are not sure whether you are compliant, consult and expert for advice.

Xamarin- The Developer’s Best Buddy

It is highly likely that your user base will be using multiple operating systems to download, view, and use mobile apps. Be it iOS, Android, or Windows, your company needs to create separate apps for each OS type. The immediate disadvantage for your company is apparent – late time to market and prohibitive costs make this a loss-making proposition

This is where cross-platform app development comes in as a savior. Apps from cross-platform development platforms like Xamarin are compatible with mobile, tabs, iPads, iPhones, and Blackberry. Now that’s an amazing USP to pitch to any customer organization, right?

Why Xamarin?

Xamarin is a technologically advanced cross- platform mobile app that offers the user native like experience. It also provides the developers advantages like fast coding, cost-efficiency, and a lot more. No wonder that Xamarin has emerged as a hot platform with 1.4 million developers across 120 countries. It is the favorite for 15,000 companies in diverse fields like hospitality, energy, and media.

Features that make it worthwhile for developers

• With Xamarin apps become easy to update

One of the greatest benefits of Xamarin is its ability to make the required changes and updates in a relatively easier manner. The new features (support for pre-compiled screens, preview support for Universal Windows, Android Material Design) provide the user a truly native experience to the users.

• Xamarin has a huge user base

Xamarin has a huge community base. Community expertise and availability of anytime support lower down the complexities involved in the project and make it successful. Therefore, it is a current preferred app development platform for app developers.

• Provides seamless integration

For third party interface, API is important and Xamarin is capable of binding various API and UI using its different technologies. Moreover, it has a portable class library that enables the developers to share code across the different mobile platforms in a hassle-free manner.

How does it benefit the web developers?

Xamarin makes the task of web development easy and stress- free. Here’s how:-

• It offers the benefit of C#

Managing code for cross- platform apps is not a cakewalk. The task requires domain knowledge and expertise with native mobile app development. Fortunately, Xamarin supports C# language for programming, which itself is a native language for Microsoft operating system. It helps to utilize the advantages of native UI and access to device- specific features. It also enables native performance, thus, driving up the user experience of a mobile app user.

• OS-agnostic app logic

Multiple app logic components like web service calls, input validation, and backend- frontend interaction are coded just once in C#. As much as 2/3^rd of this code can then be used across multiple mobile OS. This helps in providing advantages in terms of shorter development cycle, lesser iterations due to bugs and errors, and faster time to market.

Developers are increasingly relying on Xamarin for their cross- platform mobile app development needs. In an age where Gartner predicts almost 268 billion app downloads in 2017, cross- platform app development through Xamarin is certainly the correct path to take for developers and business owners alike.

Designing with Lean UX methodologies:

Before you get down to designing any product – ask yourself who are you designing for and what experience do you want your users to leave with once they interact with your product or service?

Lean UX helps you add the “experience” to design. Every stage of design is broken down into smaller components to ensure that every aspect of user interaction and experience is taken into consideration while designing and developing any technologies.

Why follow a Lean UX methodology:

With organizations and startups soon adapting to agile development, it is necessary that even UX follows a similar quick process that captures all the iterations and implement user feedback on the go.

At GoodWorkLabs, we aim at providing UX design services that trigger customer retention and user engagement on your digital products. We follow a thorough and Lean UX design process as below: