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Workplace culture isn't just about cookies and free coffee. It is a rather important aspect of organizing the environment and conditions in which people can stay motivated and creative. And remote work company culture is equally important. 

To build a great team at a distance, you need to analyze the connection between employees, their teamwork traits, and try to see what contributes to their common productivity. Let us share our take on how to build a strong company culture and why it is so important.

Why is Workplace Culture so Important?

The way employees and customers speak of a company directly affect one’s market success. In a remote work environment, building a strong team culture is more difficult, but even more necessary if compared to traditional office management practice. All in all, working without personal contact requires more management and organizational skills. 

The company's investment in remote team culture makes employees feel needed. When an employer invests in the development and welfare of the staff, there is no need for people to start looking for alternatives. This ultimately helps retain talents and build a professional team that is ready to work for a common result.

In 2020, many companies were forced to switch to a telecommuting business model (the team of Axisbits is not an exception). According to Google data, mobility trends fell by 30% compared to baseline. At the beginning of the coronavirus outbreak alone, back in March, the global interest in remote work grew by 15% compared to December 2019. 

In the following years, top managers will surely be concerned with the question of how to build a strong company culture, given the remote format of work. Let’s take a closer look at arising tendencies.

How to Improve Company Culture?

The office culture is usually built with the help of joint corporate parties, training sessions, and team activities. But how to develop remote team culture? This will require more awareness and action. At Axisbits, we are gradually continuing to build a remote work company culture ourselves. Let us share some pro tips.

Pick a centralized communication hub

The so-called virtual office is essential. With profiled software we have today, the only major downside of such solutions is that there is no coffee machine and lunch table. However, this is where random content comes in as a replacement. 

You can draw stickers with the top phrases of employees or use GIFs. If you have a large company, create chats, for instance, in Slack, according to topics. You can also host online Zoom parties on Fridays. Or come up with a quiz of some sort.

Note that a regular messenger wouldn’t be enough if you have a 20+ employee company. It’s best to pick a platform with a user-friendly interface that lets users exchange and manage documents and media, integrate tools (such as Google Docs, Gmail, etc.), and such.

Focus on productivity

The volume and quality of work are much more important than the employee’s online presence throughout the workday. Shifting your focus to clean productivity is about motivating an employee to do more per unit of time. When the employee gets enough freedom of work decision, they can manage his/her resources better. 

He/she becomes motivated to do faster and better, and not to postpone difficult tasks for later. A person adjusts their work routine to personal qualities. Everybody has their most productive hours when they complete tasks with minimal or no edits.

The flexibility in the schedule has made our employees much more productive. And some, having switched to a remote format, opened up in a new way. It's worth starting to practice flexible schedules by setting deadlines and “deadlines for deadlines”. This principle builds a trusting relationship between the company and the employee: people will help out on weekends or close the task outside of working hours.

Have a mission statement

A well-composed and promoted business mission helps a lot in building a strong team culture. Every Axisbits employee knows the common purpose while working on the project because our management isn’t shy to talk about it out loud. All decisions made in the company should be based on the bigger mission. “What’s it all for?” is a question to be asked every day. Why are you doing this, why are you doing it this way and not otherwise?

Trust your team

A person spends a third of his life at work. It is not for nothing that many call their work colleagues a second family. In a trusty team, emphasizing who’s boss and who’s a subordinate is never a good idea. Trust the team. Everyone has their own responsibilities and works for the common success of the business. You will be surprised at how much more dedicated employees become when they feel trusted and respected.

Conduct antizoom parties

Meeting up with everybody from home, wearing a robe and slippers is great. However, live meetups are integral to throw (when the quarantine conditions allow it, of course). At Axisbits, we throw corporate parties from time to time, which always helps to build a strong team culture.

Company Culture Assessment Tools

Now that we figured out how to improve company culture, let's talk about how to measure its effectiveness. In general, you need to assess progress: whether your actions lead to results or not. 

For a general understanding of efficiency, the individual indicators of the behavior of each employee are taken into account. Consider measuring the transformation of the corporate culture based on the following model: training, knowledge, application, behavior change, culture transformation, business impact.

• Indicate the state of culture at hand. In order to reach point B, one must first analyze point A and build a route. Introduce regular surveys on the topic of corporate culture changes. This will help you assess the impact of your efforts.
• Draw up a clear portrait of the perfect remote work company culture. Compose an 18-36-month plan where the fundamental milestones are captured.
• Use mobile tools. Corporate culture boosting efforts must be regular. Brief SMS messages and notifications can remind employees about the main work efficiency, productivity, and quality aspects. 
• Check the knowledge. If people don’t understand where and for what everything is moving, there won’t be any new results. Qualification exams will help how well an employee perceived the training and whether you should provide any additional courses. 
• Introduce a rating. You can create a form where employees would be able to rate certain corporate aspects.

Global changes in corporate culture is a regular work of each of the participants in the process. Even after an inspiring seminar, the fuse disappears and the employee returns to the usual behavior scenario. Especially when no work is being done from other channels. However, regular action creates a new culture.

Bottom Line

We believe that the recipes for building a strong team culture from Axisbits will help your company, as they helped us. COVID-19 and quarantine measures around the world have shown that businesses can be built differently. And no less effectively. 

The fact remains - it’s difficult to achieve success without a built remote team culture in this day and age. It is as important as product development, implementation, and marketing. Create a culture that you can be proud of and that will definitely bring success.

Learn more about Axisbits services and workflow.

2021 promises us a real boom in demand for relevant web applications powered by advanced solutions, such as artificial intelligence, and virtual reality. There are over 1.5 billion websites online today. From 1 website in 1991 to 1 billion in 2014 - the development in this area is enormous and the competition is fierce. And only a professional web app development company can help you keep the head above the water and stay trendy. Here’s where it’s important to focus on the latest innovative technologies.

Offline Functionality in Web Development

The emerging web app trends bring new, more convenient solutions and approaches.

Four key PWA technologies right now:

• application shell architecture;
• transport layer security;
• service worker;
• web application manifest file.

The Top Benefits Of Offline Web App Development

A web app accessible offline is perfect for businesses that have to provide services in areas with poor network coverage or simply need to reach a wider scope of user audience. It is also a great solution for in-house use, allowing employees who travel frequently to keep up with their workflows.

Existing cases of applying offline functionality

There are the following vivid examples of the application of ofline technologies:

• Instagram for Android is working on expanding offline functionality to allow people to like content, follow users, and post stuff autonomously.
• Dropbox Paper supports an offline mode, which allows users to create, annotate, and edit documents offline.
• Google Maps uses caching to keep the most recent data intact.
• The m-Health app is especially useful in rural areas. The therapist measures the vital signs of the patient and must enter them into their profile. One case of connection loss can end up most dramatically. This application allows for autonomous work, which helps out greatly both doctors and patients.

Offline performance benefits

Banking, courier services, medicine, online shopping, and any business whatsoever will find offline availability useful and business-boosting. There are a number of advantages:

No need to spend on roaming while traveling.
When traveling abroad with an offline-available app installed, you don’t need to waste money on roaming charges. A user can efficiently work with the autonomous functionality of work applications and not interrupt work even on the road.

Fast loading.
By using advanced caching methods, apps performing offline are usually pretty fast at loading content. This is a real lifesaver in emergency situations.

Energy-efficiency.
It's unpleasant when the phone runs out of power and there is nowhere to charge it. But with a web app, one can easily switch to offline mode and save battery power while working or enjoying a book.

Why Develop an Offline App?

There are countries where there are serious problems with network connectivity. As of March 2017, Africa and Asia (excluding China) remained the countries with the lowest levels of Internet access. But over the period from 2000 to 2017, access to the network nevertheless increased by 7,557.2% and 1,539.4%. And even in the USA, where Internet connection measures are quite developed, 15% of users use applications offline.

A profitable solution

Why develop an offline application for your business?

• users accessing an application without the need for constant network connection are more satisfied overall;
• all-around brand availability boosts user loyalty;
• offline access comes in more than handy when it comes to in-house use for traveling employees;
• availability in emergency situations is a very valuable capability, especially relevant in medical niches.

How To Develop Offline Web Applications

Web browsers can easily cache static resources. They use metadata from HTTP response headers for that. These resources include HTML, CSS, JavaScript assets, and images. Most browser vendors prefer building offline web apps with HTML5. HTML5 introduced a completely different approach to maintaining caching and offline behavior.

How to develop offline web applications in a nutshell? Focus on the following functionality:

• Static assets’ caching;
• Dynamic assets’ caching;
• Lightweight user interface;
• Dynamic user request tracking for timely data synchronization.

Bottom Line

Autonomous operation of website pages and mobile applications is a major trend right. It is convenient for users and beneficial for service companies. A reliable progressive web app development company will help you effectively organize offline performance for any purpose. 

Axisbits specializes in custom software development, including web applications of any complexity. Contact us if you want a seasoned approach to the creation of ERP solutions, eCommerce websites, or startup apps.

Today, practically every business owner sooner or later opts for or at least considers outsourcing options. To outsource web development means to entrust the thing to profiled professionals - nothing more, nothing less. We'll tell you if hiring a remote team is justified in your particular case as well as how to avoid common risks, establish effective interaction, and prepare everything to get the maximum benefit from the outsourced project.

Benefits of Outsourced Corporate Development

Businesses of any scale and purpose have long recognized the definite advantages of software development outsourcing. According to Avasant research from 2019, more than half of companies turn to outsourcing services in the course of their market operation.

According to Deloitte, there are 3 main reasons why companies prefer a remote team of experts:

• Cost-efficiency (59% of companies);
• Focus on profiled tasks and redirecting all the “dirty work” to hired third parties (57% of companies);
• In-house performance boost (47% of companies).

Generally, you are looking at some extensive prospects when you decide to outsource web development. You can hire the best developers without recruiting any staff specialists. Web product development is a great challenge for your remote team. And once they’re done with their part of the project, you can hand it over to your in-house specialists with peace of mind. What are the key benefits of outsourcing web development?

Saving costs

Significant cost savings come from the fact that you don’t have to pay for the office, hire HR managers, and recruit in-house staff. As a rule, an outsourcing team consists of professionals who have to constantly prove their own skills. They have already managed to get their hands on many niche projects. You don't have to train anyone, which is already an undeniable advantage!

Involving true niche talents

You can flexibly hire exactly those experts who will best cope with the task at hand. A wide pool of available outsourcing specialists is a great advantage of its own.

An easy way to scale

Expand your project without expanding your staff. Even with the smallest in-house team at hand, you can easily complete a full-cycle large-scale project while avoiding tons of regular extra expenses.

Reducing risks

With a remote software development outsourcing team, a contract is drawn up, the budget is taken into account, deadlines are set, or a penalty in case of non-compliance. A responsible project manager will help you minimize lots of the underlying risks.

Getting rid of excessive work

Outsourcing is a great chance to focus on the essential business processes while all the small or niche-specific stuff is handled by dedicated specialists. Software development outsourcing can ultimately help you distribute tasks in the most proper way possible.

Accelerating workflow

Outsourcing often serves as a great project cycle shortcut to speed things up. You should outsource web development if you want to accelerate organizational and development processes since outsourcing teams usually work in accordance with a time-tested development methodology.

How to Make Outsourcing Successful

How to make your cooperation with the outsourcing team for the development of a web project successful? We give 7 topical tips to help you avoid mistakes.

☝️ When to chose Small, short-term project, that need to be completed as soon as possible Requirements of the project are all set in stone No opportunity to monitor the project progress too closely ✅ Pros ⛔ Cons Full cycle project Development Different business philosophy and morale Control over costs and time Non-absolute control over an outsourced priject Focused strategy on what matters The difference in time-zones Access to talented IT professionals

High quality costs money

If you are looking to outsource a complex, narrow-profiled part of the project or an extensive scope of cumbersome work, be prepared to pay accordingly. Especially, if you are turning to a specialized outsourcing agency. The reasonable payment for services, however, usually guarantees a high-quality result. 

Keep in mind that freelancers always set cheaper rates, but not every individual worker by far copes with tasks reliably and efficiently - at the level required by the company. A team of web developers who have extensive experience and have already worked with companies in a field similar to yours, though, is a completely different case.

Setting clear goals

Clearly defined goals and needs in terms of a particular project set the groundwork for successful results. Make sure to keep this moment well-managed if you want a hired outsourced team to meet your expectations in the long run.

Try to check which companies your intended outsourcing team has dealt with - analyze what results they have achieved. Do you like the style of the developed web projects, do you consider them successful? Do you want to cooperate with such an agency? You should have a wide range of choices and never make hasty decisions.

Establishing communication

When it comes to outsourced business development, the major nuance is setting up interaction with the hired third party. Work scheduling, time zones, accessibility for communication are the key factors that are important to consider and establish a convenient interaction for everyone. A couple of tools that would help you successfully organize the process: InVision, Moqups, GitHub (where people share design assets and code pieces), Slack, Toggl.

Speaking your mind

Constant feedback is vital to managing an outsourcing team. And you probably don't need any project cycle surprises. Ask questions, explain tasks additionally, and try to establish regular personal involvement in work.

Assigning a Project Manager

Only a qualified Project Manager should be the one to oversee the process of developing a web product by an outsourcing company. A dedicated specialist from your side should monitor and adjust work processes, communicate with the team to clarify all the nuances, and translate the necessary information to the upper management in time. A reliable specialist from your staff will also make sure to properly line up the expertise an outsourced team has been building outside your company so that everything matches your needs.

Starting small

If possible, don’t entrust large-scale, business-defining projects to a new outsourcing team at once. Start small - let the contractor handle some extra tasks you don’t have time for, adjust communication, and see whether you like to work with them or not. It’s always best to lay the proper foundation for further cooperation.

Pros and Cons of IT outsourcing ✅ Pros ⛔ Cons Keeping developers is not your concern Risks connected to sharing the company's data Large talent pool, high quality and lower rates Code ownership issues Reduced risks connected to unexpected quits Expertise built outside your company Making a deal

The contract sealed beforehand will help you better define all the project details and monitor its progress. The deal should include and outline the main goals, project requirements, optimal budget analysis, and deadlines. A timely discussed contract should help you protect the in-house data you have to share with the contractor and you can also avoid code ownership issues by outlining your specific rights and requiring to upload the project code to your server.

Top 10 Mistakes

And now for the main mistakes that you need to avoid when working with a remote team.

#1: Superficial selection

Never make business cooperation decisions without thoroughly researching the market and studying the contractor - their experience, reputation, and past projects. You can find out the opinion of companies for whom the team has already developed projects. Choose at least 5 prospective teams for remote work. And don’t hesitate to request a developer portfolio and CV of some sort.

#2: Underestimating the cost

You should know the scope of your possible payments beforehand. Calculate everything down to the cost of potential rework. You should be careful about investing in outsourced work on a web project. And if saving costs is your only motive for recruiting a team remotely, it's best to ditch the idea.

#3: Unclear expectations

Forget about vague requirements and ambiguous expectations. Try to write everything down in the deal as clearly and specifically as possible, and don’t forget to delve into the process of outsourced corporate development personally and control your contractors.

#4: Fixed payment choice

The fixed price looks safe, but it's not always the best choice. Software development is a creative process that may fluctuate during an ongoing project. On top of that, the price for fixed projects is initially higher. It is difficult to calculate every detail in advance, although the closest approximation is a must.

Note also that with a fixed rate, you will have few opportunities to refine the project, improve it, you are limited in variability. All in all, you may well settle for a fixed price if we are talking about a small project. For a large-scale project, however, this is not the best option.

#5: Priority - short-term partnership

A long-term perspective is certainly more reliable and profitable when it comes to software project outsourcing. By establishing long-term business relationships with the team, you will be able to achieve various results together and stay one hundred percent confident in your contractor. Only with time teams form a good idea about the nuances of your company's work, about the prospects and features of development, about all the pitfalls.

#6: Underestimating the communicative role

It is essential to build a structured communication pyramid, establish close interaction, even despite possibly different time zones and language barriers. Make it as easy as possible for all project participants to interact.

#7: Not hiring professional managers

You surely need a qualified, experienced project manager who will work on your behalf, timely adjust the development process, delve into the workflows, and effectively interact with the team for the benefit of your business. In case you don’t have your own in-house specialist who would be available to fit the outsourced manager’s shoes, you can turn to a company that provides dedicated project managers to help you out.

#8: Lacking a technical specialist in the company

You need a tech-savvy person on your team who will delve into the technical documentation and control the process.

#9: Underestimating product quality assurance

Testing the finished software is paramount in any project. That is a sure way to boost product quality and reduce business undermining risks.

#10: Lacking attention to cultural differences

Consider the cultural background and mentality of your outsourcing team. It's great if your specialist spends a month with remote employees in order to maximize the situation and establish effective interaction.

Conclusion

We recommend you outsource web development if you want to scale your project, unload your staff for more relevant specialized tasks, hire the best specialists without spending money on office rent, or straining your HR team.

It is important that the outsourcing team consists of professionals in their field who have proven their advantages. You need to keep your finger on the pulse, interact with the contractor so that the team hears your wishes in time, and make proper adjustments.

At Axisbits, we employ seasoned professionals that fully developed tons of web projects. We will carefully analyze your business situation, take into account all your wishes, and implement a successful web project that will boost your profits. Contact us right now.

Machine learning is all about computers learning human behavior patterns. That may sound a bit creepy, but in fact, it has nothing to do with AI-powered terminators. Since its inception in the late 20th century, this technology has found practical application in many modern industries. Successful businesses tend to grow, especially in the era of the global market, when they have access to billions of potential customers. The math is simple: more customers = more data. How to handle and analyze this information flow? Well, there are different ways, but machine learning offers the most sophisticated and cost-effective solution by applying algorithms that determine the most relevant “if-then” programs automatically. As a result, data collected in the past helps the machine predict the most likely future outcomes.

Machine Learning as a Service (MLaaS)

What is Machine Learning as a Service? This concept refers to modern cloud computing services that offer machine learning tools to other businesses. Thus, developers can use the successful developments of tech giants such as Amazon, Google, and Microsoft to help other businesses put machine learning into practice. 

Logo Company name Platform
Amazon AWS Machine Learning
Google Google Cloud Machine Learning Engine
Microsoft Microsoft Azure Machine Learning Studio

So how do businesses benefit from this? Convenient and efficient pre-built AI software fully hosted by the providers makes it possible to enhance every aspect of your business through self-taught analytical tools, machine deep learning and natural language processing algorithms, automated customer interactions, machine learning cybersecurity, etc.

5 Key Machine Learning Challenges

The advantages of machine learning implications are quite obvious. But what about the challenges you might face when developing an AI/ML-powered app from scratch?

Achieving Effective Weights in ML Algorithms

To achieve the most accurate and generalized outcome over multiple iterations, the algorithm must decide which results to accept and which to reject. With each new iteration, it becomes more difficult to filter out results. To reach the convergence minima, it is important to constantly adjust the weights, which serve as a kind of "limiters," as the model progresses. Let's imagine a sculptor working with different tools as the work progresses. At first, he uses heavy hammers and chisels, but when it comes to sculpting fine details like facial features, he uses the finest tools available. 

In the context of machine learning models, weights are the tools that need to be tuned more and more accurately as the convergence approaches. A back-propagation algorithm evaluates the performance metrics after each iteration and decides which weights need tuning. Eventually, the minimum is reached at which the training data is narrowed down as much as possible and the model can be successfully applied to similar types of data.

Choosing the Loss Function

The choice of the loss function determines how the machine learning model will converge to useful data for further practical application. What do we call "loss" in this case? This is a metric that shows how far the neural network has deviated from its goal after another iteration. Accordingly, the lower the loss, the closer the model is to the minimum point where training data becomes the most useful for subsequent implementation and analysis. Initial processing of training data is characterized by a sharp drop in loss, but it slows down with each iteration. This is because data is getting closer and closer to convergence.  

The rate and limit of further descent along the convergence curve will largely depend on the chosen loss function. For example, we can use The Mean Absolute Error or the Root Mean Squared Error loss functions. The MAE tends to normalize “outliers” (data that deviate significantly from the mean), while RMSE focuses on large errors so it can be useful in investigating the usefulness of the training model and how consistent it is.

Implementing Learning Rate Schedules

Just like a sculptor can quickly turn a stone into something resembling a human silhouette, any machine learning model learns at a fairly high speed in the beginning. At this initial stage, the sculptor only prepares the stone for further detailing, while the model identifies major trends and generalizes potential relationships. Just like weights should be tuned as the model progresses, the learning speed should also be slowed down to concentrate power on recognizing emerging data connections. 

However, when adjusting the learning rate, keep in mind that if the rate is too low or drops too early in a training session, the system may recognize some weak local connections as a general trend. Conversely, if the rate remains high for too long, the model may come to a false conclusion and miss out on some important general relationships. There are machine learning libraries like Keras that allow you to adjust the learning rate schedules automatically based on the number of iterations or the time spent. Although configuring learning rate schedules manually based on some previous experience is also an option.

Dealing with Innate Randomness in a ML Model

Speaking of the pros and cons of machine learning algorithms, it is worth noting their stochastic nature. Although machine learning models are primarily trained to be applied later to process similar data types, it is impossible to get the same result even when working with the same dataset in practice. The thing is that data never enters the model in the same sequence, since the algorithms process and develop data randomly.

If a plane deviates at least 1 degree off course, it will be hundreds of kilometers away from its destination in a few hours. In pretty much the same way, minor changes to the initial assumptions may ultimately lead the model to a different convergence, although its course would still be adjusted to the general dataset along the way, as opposed to the airplane.  Therefore, the less consistent the dataset, the more the randomness will affect the course of the model's development. It's important to consider that cleaning and labeling data will help minimize the impact of innate randomness to some extent. 

Achieving Insightful Dissonance in a Dataset

The primary objective of machine learning algorithms is to detect non-obvious correlations, that is, dissonances between diverse datasets that may carry fruitful insightful relationships. However, if the data is too diverse and inconsistent, any connections may turn out to be false and non-reproducible. In this case, the entire model should be reconsidered. On the other hand, if the data is not diverse at all, and convergence is too easy to achieve, the model won't be able to form flexible neural connections to reveal useful insights in more complicated training sessions. 

Axisbits Is Your Machine Learning Development Company

Our company is happy to offer your business vast expertise in the development and integration of ML-based solutions. We successfully deploy machine learning technologies and provide machine learning consulting for many industries worldwide, including healthcare, eCommerce, education, fintech, gaming, and entertainment. What services do we offer? The sky is the limit! You'll be offered expert assistance with everything related to artificial intelligence and machine learning: 

• Natural language processing;
• Intelligent security;
• Predictive maintenance;
• Personalized targeting;
• Computer vision (pattern recognition);
• Big Data analytics.

Machine learning will help you solve the unsolvable and reveal new insights you would never know about. Are you ready to make your business strategy entirely data-driven and customer-oriented? Feel free to contact Axisbits! Leave an application in a few clicks and we'll reach you out with a real offer ASAP! Our machine learning development team is always ready to take on challenging projects and deliver them on time!

Our world is becoming digital! Whether we like it or not, the reality is that every business is being pushed into the digital era, and B2B is not an exception. The grand technology evolution took B2B to the next level where certain tools and technologies serve to promote business prosperity. Every business owner is learning that B2B software solutions in B2B customer support are not just the positioning strategy advantages, they are the foundation for any successful business now.

What Is B2B Business Development?

Business development is an integral word combination that means exactly what an entrepreneur, a brand owner, or any manager is supposed to do one way or another - developing the business!  In terms of B2B, we know entrepreneurs face exclusive challenges B2C usually avoids.

B2B software solutions are used:

• to simplify the management process;
• to collect, analyze and manage customer data that can be accessed anytime, anywhere;
• to optimize all operations and automate tasks;
• to provide uninterrupted customer support;
• to minimize sales loops and circles;
• to stimulate business expansion and prosperity.

B2B Solutions and services

Every B2B entrepreneur needs IT-solutions such as CRM, ERP, B2B e-commerce marketplace platforms, and Software as a Service (SaaS) to run the business effectively.

For example, SaaS sales models handle software as a commercial instrument that is adopted by big businesses. The software products that help to boost the business growth, provide high conversion and low churn rate immediately top the market.

Here are some services B2B businesses can benefit from:

• Course Management System (CMS) or Learning Management System (LMS). This is a software product used for operation, tracking, recording, and, in some cases, the creation of educational courses and programs.
• Container booking, cargo tracking, and shipping apps. With the help of these software products, it is easy to run a B2B business for a logistics industry from anywhere in the world. Customers use cloud-based IT-solution for container booking, and they can track it down the road and easily get information about any updates. Customers can write reviews about the transporter. Transporters can create websites where they download all the important information about their services: documentation, reviews, feedback, schedule, and so on.
• Fleet management. Managing the full life cycle of commercial automobiles can be quite challenging. A fleet management IT solution gives B2B entrepreneurs relevant information about their vehicles and they can manage and control their drivers and dispatchers at the touch of a fingerprint. 
• Real estate property management software and other marketing automation software B2B entrepreneurs can adopt to run their businesses effectively.

What Are the Benefits of Developing a Portal for a Business Environment?

A B2B portal is simply a place where B2B sellers and buyers come together and do business. All the services, apps, developments, and expansions are compiled in one complex, which is called a B2B portal software.

Benefits of portal software development for B2B:

• the data is protected, including passwords;
• UX/UI tools for product visualization in the catalog are used;
• buyers can use any online payment system convenient for them;
• IT solutions are combined in a full circle to automate all the business processes;
• documents are downloaded into the system and available;
• business deals and operations are transparent;
• transactions are made around-the-clock.

B2B Software Solutions: 5 Ways to Improve and Upgrade Your B2B Customer Support

High-level customer support service is important for B2C businesses, but for B2B it is not the focus, right? Wrong. B2B business is also client-oriented, and it is highly important for B2B entrepreneurs to improve their customer support service.

Customer support software solutions specifically constructed for B2B can improve and upgrade the customer support process and consequently positively influence the business growth.

The best ways to improve and upgrade B2B customer support:

Time is not an issue.

The customer support process, when optimized and automated due to IT software solutions, saves time for both sides of the business deal. 

Trust.

All the data is protected when special software solutions are used. It means business customers trust their partners when they know that their passwords, financial numbers, bank accounts, security codes, or other sensitive business information is protected.

Self-care privilege.

Customer support software provides clients with relevant information about their business partners, which they can find and learn on their own. The B2B software solutions help entrepreneurs create and store the collection of data based on their previous experience and cases so that business customers can easily reach the information they are interested in.

Partnership and collaboration.

B2B solutions help business representatives collaborate and work together as a team to provide customers with the information and service they need.

Analytics and consolidation of customer information.

Business entrepreneurs should know their customers, and a B2B business is not an exception here. Software solutions help to collect, track, store, and unify information about business customers.

In conclusion, it is obvious that in the growing digital world businesses have come under tremendous pressure to offer high-level services to very demanding customers. Therefore, to keep the power and ensure business growth, B2B entrepreneurs should consider software products as the only solution and option. And, of course, we suggest turning to professionals - in this case, to software and website development companies. An experienced and respected B2B portal development company will create a software product taking your ideas, specifications, and requirements into consideration. 

Today AppStore contains more than two million applications, and Google Play has the same number. Despite this abundance, people are installing fewer new applications. The most often used apps are instant messengers, and this trend is increasing. So why not communicate with customers right there using the benefits of chatbots?

Here are the main reasons why your business needs a chatbot:

• If the operators of your call center or technical support are already communicating a lot with clients via phone, email, or messengers, and the load is so large that it requires the automation of the process;
• When a company has simple, often repetitive business processes, their automation will increase the efficiency of employees’ work;
• If the services of the company are working around the clock, seven days a week, a well-tuned chatbot will reduce the costs you would need to spend on maintaining a large call center by solving standard issues and only redirecting complex cases to live operators;
• If your company's activities are aimed at a young audience. In the case when the target audience is 35+, it is probably not worth spending efforts on implementing a chatbot that is probably not worth the effort yet. It is better to wait until communication via messengers and bots becomes more familiar to your audience;
• When the assortment of the company consists of technically complex products that require consultation;
• If your operators receive recurring orders (ordering pizza, taxi, etc.);
• In the case when the product catalog has an accessible structure and is easy to sort into categories and subcategories, as well as offer related products.

Benefits of Chatbots

The demand for bots is growing every year. In 2020, up to 80% of enterprises choose this effective way of communicating with customers. Chatbot business benefits are clear.

Provides effortless customer service management

Chatbots allow conveying interesting information to each customer. Using data about the visitor, you can develop personalized offers, promotions, and discounts for those products that are important to them.

Many users are tired of the huge amount of information dumped on them on many resources. That is why they will be glad if you get rid of the stream of "special offers" that are proposed to everyone.

Provides 24/7 instant customer service

Chatbots are able to help in placing an order and answering technical questions of the buyer. Chatbot development will save you from the need to maintain a support service, at least at night.

Complex questions that a virtual assistant cannot answer can be entrusted to the competent specialists and everything basic level left to the chatbot, which will work around the clock and free of charge.

Efficiency bomb!

With the help of simple manipulations (for example, surveys, obtaining certain data about customers, and so on), the chatbot is able to facilitate the process of choosing a product as much as possible. This is especially important for those visitors who are visiting your online store for the first time: they may get confused by the navigation, not find the desired product and leave unhappy. A bot advisor will help them.

The chatbot also collects and uses information about existing customers: their location, purchased products, various demographic characteristics, and other features. This helps to simplify a repeated purchase, to create a personal offer (a discount, or a gift, taking into account the client's status). This increases loyalty, and the customer feels special.

Sets your conversion rate on fire!

Using a chatbot shows that you care that the visitor leaves happy and receives answers to all questions. The customer understands that all this is done for their convenience and certainly appreciates such treatment.

Enterprise chatbot development provides an opportunity to collect feedback from customers (and take appropriate measures: correct errors and quickly resolve certain issues), which is also very important for a successful business. Without a virtual assistant, you might not know anything about a problem. Not all failed buyers leave feedback - more often, they simply go to other sellers and never come back.

Improves business branding

The more you focus on innovation, the better your business is perceived by potential and repeat customers. The bot minimizes problems and ensures the highest level of customer satisfaction, which is the surest way to promote your brand!

How to Create a Chatbot for Website

The whole process consists of the following 4 stages:

• Define a goal. Write down what the online chatbot should do: help you manage the company or accompany the client through the sales funnel. After that, clearly indicate the list of functions within the chosen direction. All further work depends on the thoroughness of this stage. Think about a portrait of the average person who will communicate with the robot, including the sentences they can use and questions they may ask.
• Choose the place where your customers are located. If you have made up the portrait of your client, then you know exactly where they prefer to communicate with you - on your company's website or through a social network.
• Choose a way to create the chatbot. There are only 2 ways - creation from scratch and using special services. Accordingly, the functionality will either be 100% adapted to the specifics of your business, or you will have a limited number of settings at your disposal.
• Configure and run the bot. But before that, write down the algorithm of its actions, upload the database with answers, and test it. Polish everything up before presenting your bot to potential clients.

Conclusion

Do you need a chatbot for your business? We don't even doubt it. You just need to decide on its format. The Axisbits team knows how to create a chatbot for website for small, medium, and large businesses. Feel free to contact us by phone or chat on our website for any questions.

With its limitless amount of information, the internet is a highly useful tool that you can use to create and develop your business. However, the successful extraction of useful information from any website is not an easy task whatsoever. In most cases, you have to use the copy-paste method or download your files in a specific format imposed by the website of your choosing.        

Web Scraping helps to simplify the extraction of important information from said resources. Besides, it transforms your data through syntactic conversion to more user-friendly formats.

Parsers are used for accurate and inexpensive extraction of structured information clusters to a local file. Most websites contain an enormous amount of useful data in their HTML and XHTML codes. Still, this data format is not suitable for using it on any local resources.

Thus, Web scraping automates and simplifies the process of accumulating data.

How do web scrapers work?

Web scraping gathers and accumulates information and transforms it into a digital spreadsheet. The process itself is done automatically by activating the code that sends GET requests to the required site. A dedicated algorithm goes to the main page, follows the internal links, and collects the specified divs' content. Eventually, you will receive a CSV file that contains the meticulously categorized data you need.

Web scraping software uses the hypertext transmission protocol to access a specific site or opens pages of interest in a web browser. More advanced web scraping tools can render the entire website, including CSS and Javascript elements. The parser then extracts all data selected by the user in a CSV or Excel file. Also, some parsers can export data in JSON or XML formats that can be used for APIs.

Some advanced options can be added to ready-made parsers, such as scheduling cleaning, JSON export, etc. The creation of a custom web parser requires a sufficient level of expertise in programming. The more functions you want to include in your parser, the more knowledgeable you have to be.

Also, you can use the browser's plugins, applications, or cloud-based services like DaaS. Some extensions include interface themes, ad blockers, messengers, etc. They are easy to use, and you can install them without any complications. However, their functions are limited if used outside your web browser. 

The user interface is different for each program. Some of these utilities can only be interacted with through a minimalistic interface and a command-line input. Others can have a user-friendly interface that can display an entire website. 

Local parsers will heavily depend on your CPU and RAM performance, making your computer considerably slower. Besides, if your parser is set to work with an immense number of URLs, it can trigger the limitations that were set by your internet provider. 

Cloud-based parsers work on the external server. Due to this reason, you can freely use your PC while the parser is gathering data. You will receive a notification when your scrape is ready for export.

Benefits of web scraping

After you get the information you want, you can use it how you see fit. It is the key benefit of using any web parser.

Parsers can be used for web indexing, mining, and in-depth data analysis. They are useful for online monitoring and comparing prices, observing competitors, and other business-related purposes.

Every website is a rich source of information, so many successful companies worldwide (Amazon, Walmart, etc.) collect and analyze it to make effective marketing decisions.

Web scraping projects are used for gathering data about the global financial and the stock market and trading. This process is crucial for the creation of a successful economic model. The data collected from e-commerce websites have a wide variety of practical uses. You can develop the most effective marketing strategy and decide how it will be integrated into your business model by analyzing it. Moreover, you can change your pricing policy according to your target audience's feedback. Therefore, it will simplify your work with leads and make your CRM system more effective.

Conclusion

The success of a business is dependent on the accuracy of the information. It is critical to have unrestricted access to the most up-to-date data. It provides the basis for effective decision-making. Thus, the usage of web parsing gives you a significant competitive advantage.

If you want to implement this software into your business model successfully, we strongly advise you to leave it to the professional web scraping services. Contact Axisbits to get the most useful data and improve business processes using it so that you are always one step ahead of your competitors!

A capability for the prompt analysis of large amounts of digital data is a tool that largely determines the success of modern financial institutions. Any market participant needs to understand why the world's largest banks are investing heavily in this area.

To state the immediate answer - it is to increase its productivity and responsiveness, and also the efficiency and validity of the decision-making process. However, the benefits of adopting data science-driven automation do not stop there. In this article, we examined the top 9 data science use cases in the banking and financial industry. 

Data Science in Finance

Big Data, AI, Machine Learning - these terms are linked inextricably with several data science disciplines aimed at ensuring the timely making of optimal business decisions based on processing previously unimaginable amounts of information in real-time.

The world's largest banks operate terabytes and even petabytes of valuable customer information every day. Refusing to use these data and the opportunities provided by their analysis means abandoning one of the critical development vectors. Banks' motive for employing data science in finance is clear: they strive to increase efficiency to the possible limits. The introduction of technologies based on data science provides:

• Increase in the loyalty of customers through personalized financial management and promotion of the offers most relevant for each of them;
• A well-developed system of data science risk analysis and prevention of fraudulent activities, capable of self-training;
• Higher profitability and productivity of operational processes;
• Increase in the efficiency of employee knowledge and skills development;
• Possibilities for tracking the productivity of personnel and monitoring "toxicity" within the team.

According to Celent, in 2019, banks invested $270 billion into developing their technology stacks and introducing innovations. It is expected that by 2022, this volume would grow to over $300 billion. Impressive numbers, are they not?

Top 9 Data Science Use Cases in Banking

Let us analyze the most important cases for the introduction of data science in banking and finance. Keep in mind that many of these cases are interconnected and co-dependent.

1. Risk analysis management

Risk management is one of the most critical aspects of the provision of financial services. This discipline is vital to the safety, reliability, and profitability of a company's day-to-day operations.

A variety of risks arises from the need to interact with competitors, investors, regulators, customers, and other institutions. They differ in importance and the potential for monetary losses. Accordingly, the first steps in reducing risks within banks are identifying, prioritizing, and monitoring them.

By analyzing gigantic volumes of information on customers, loans, insurance results, and other market operations, modern algorithms based on machine learning and risk management data science methodologies independently improve risk assessment models, gradually increasing institutions' responsiveness and profitability.

2. Customer data management

By accumulating customer information, you can build a behavioral profile to determine the most appropriate sales promotion methods further. Having comprehensive information about the client and the history of the company's interaction with them, experts can identify significant trends and predict future behavior with a high degree of accuracy. Moreover, data science helps to automate this process and free up valuable employees' time to solve more critical and creative tasks.

3. Fraud detection

Machine learning algorithms allow timely detection and suppression of fraudulent operations related to bank cards, accounts, transactions, and so on. For example, you can highlight new accounts from which suspiciously expensive purchases are made. Banks are also implementing systems for monitoring abnormal transactions based on behavioral profiles. For example, if a customer suddenly orders a transaction that does not fit into their typical behavior, banking algorithms may request additional confirmation to complete it.

4. Personalization

Data Science for banking creates opportunities for organizing effective customer interaction through personalized marketing. By analyzing the array of accumulated information, self-learning algorithms compose individualized offers that will be most interesting for this particular consumer. In turn, the company benefits from expanding the range of offered products and services, as well as increasing sales.

5. Customer base segmentation

Segmentation helps you to serve multiple customer groups better. Groups are distinguished based on behavior and other principles, using logistic regression, clustering, etc.

6. Designation of customer lifetime value

The ability to assess customer lifetime value (CLV) at the very beginning of the interaction with them allows companies to move from focusing on quarterly profits to the customer relationship management strategy that has already demonstrated increased long-term profitability. Dividing customers into groups based on their CLV allows you to focus efforts on improving the quality of service and increasing overall staff productivity properly.

7. Real-time analytics

High quality real-time predictive data analysis allows businesses that use its power to track all changes in the market. Today, banks that do not skimp on the introduction of innovations track transactions, changes in credit ratings, new legislative initiatives, and thousands of other factors affecting market conditions and react almost instantly.

8. Monitoring customer feedback

Machine learning algorithms and techniques enable you to analyze customer experiences, creating a foundation to improve the effectiveness of service strategies and product offerings.

9. Automation of communication with clients and the expansion of communication channels

Mobile communications, social networks, e-mail, instant messengers - a successful company must communicate with its customers through any channels convenient for them. This is also true for financial institutions.

Chatbots, electronic assistants, expert systems – today, a wide variety of automated means of interaction with the consumer allows you to relieve the company's staff from routine tasks and increase communication efficiency.

Data Science for Banking: There are no Universal Recipes

Like any other company, when introducing innovations, financial institutions solve a set of internal tasks: collecting data, attracting specialists, building a technology stack, identifying effective marketing solutions - preparing all those plans and methodologies that will be implemented in the targeted business processes.

At the same time, it is difficult to say what will "play" in the case of a particular bank, and what will not justify the costs. How not to fail? t is necessary to design the processes initially in such a fashion so that it is possible to measure results clearly. It is crucial to define cost savings or profit increases relative to what was before the integration of new methods. Anyway, an economic model can be calculated in almost any case.

On average, data science tools show results in a short time frame (if you do not take into account direct infrastructure expenses). Analyze tools that can improve processes, try them, test hypotheses to see if they work or not. After that, decide upon the viability of launching the project.

Software Development VS Data Science

Software developers mainly create products in the field of data science, while data scientists analyze the data. Data science is nothing new, actually. For decades, humans have processed information using computers to predict changes in stock market trends, weather, and other phenomena.

The differences between software development data science and data science itself lie in the process, outcome forecasting methods, tools, and infrastructure. Does a data scientist need to be able to code? Not really.

Differences between Software Engineering and Data Science Projects
Software Engineering Data Science Project Feasibility Generally known upfront whether a project is executable Might not be known until late project phases Focus Delivering functioning software systems Delivering actionable insights Longest Phase Development (coding) Data preparation Scope Largely defined by stakeholders and product managers Somewhat define-able by stakeholders and product managers but also needs to be uncovered based on what the data scientists discover Task Estimation Task completion time is generally estimate-able The time required to deliver many steps are unknown Progress Tracking Somewhat definitive through metrics like number of features or story points complete More ambiguous. Example: Being 50% done with a model doesn’t mean anything Knowing it works Mostly binary. Software either works per the specifications or it does not (e.g. the user interface loads or it doesn’t) Many shades of gray. Given a model, one person can say it is working and another could say it is not. Both can be right given their frame of reference according to Data Science Project Management

Conclusion

In this article, we briefly reviewed data science use cases, which provide the fastest and most noticeable result, including the introduction into the banking sector. One thing is sure: the methodologies and tools offered by data science can improve the accuracy of risk management, customer service quality, as well as automate and accelerate many business processes, increasing the overall efficiency of the company. To keep pace with the times and increase profitability, it is important to adopt new methods and algorithms for working with information on time.