'Technology' Bookmarks

Advancements in technology have effectively changed the way we interact with machines. These advancements have successfully upgraded us from desktop websites to mobile apps. Due to this transformation, the importance of smartphones in our daily lives is only meant to be growing in the coming times.

With the continuous advancements in technology, smartphones are no longer just a communication device as they used to be. It has become an inseparable part of our daily routine with its interactive technology medium. Mobile phones with their advanced features and technologies have turned into an easily accessible source of information and services for individual users as well as businesses. 

How Technology Is Changing the Face Of Transportation Industry In And Around The World

Humans have always found new and easy ways to travel the globe and move to new locations. The transport industry has undergone a digital transformation with consistent technological advancements. This change has shifted us from bullock carts to the super-cars and bikes, manual canoes to submarines. With this evolution in technology, the upcoming trend and advancement are yet unpredictable.

Businesses empowered with the latest technologies in the market are able to personalize their services with high accuracy. The growth in  IoT, data analytics, AI, Additive Layer Manufacturing, and electric-mobility, etc. are making a significant transformation in the industry. Technology is effectively impacting the way we use transport and logistics system. The major focus is on providing passengers with faster and cheaper services. The functionalities route planning, real-time tracking, online booking, advance bookings, and payments have enhanced the overall user experience. It has also improved the present transport infrastructure. 

These technologies are developed precisely with a customer-centric approach. The advanced features in smartphone applications for transportation are designed to serve customer needs. Right from self-driving cars to autonomous flying drones, from high-speed bullet train network to Hyperloops, from jets to space shuttles, technology is advancing consistently. The latest features like automatic braking system, built-in Bluetooth features, automatic parking, rear and front cameras for easy parking are adopted widely for providing better convenience. 

Why Smartphone Apps are needed for the Transportation Industry?  

Strengths – 

• With the use of transportation logistics software, business owners find it convenient to keep the record of working time and overtime of employees, assigning new tasks to the employees, as per requirement, maintain payroll records, etc.
• Apps developed for the tourism sectors like Trivago, Goibibo, Makemytrip, etc. provide travelers with multiple options on hotels, transport mediums, and foods at the best available rates and offers. 
• With the help of transportation app development, courier companies can get their customized courier based mobile apps that would simplify their complex processes. Customized courier apps include features like easy tracking, digital signature, efficient management system, push notifications, online payment, and security & transparency. 
• Transportation apps for public transport are smart enough to act as a guide for passengers on their way to different locations. This also provides functionalities like open and closed time of public transport stations, journey planners, real-time departures and arrivals of all the fleets, advanced bookings, payments, etc.
• This technology also includes the ticketing system which has received an enormous response by the passengers for booking flights, trains and bus tickets, etc. 
• With the incessant transformation in the industry, transport & logistics mobile app development provides an adaptive business model to the transport companies with its customer-driven approach.

Weaknesses –  

• Though with the continuous growth of app development in transportation, it comes up with high development costs. 
• As the logistics management software work on the internet, the work process might fail or get disrupted in rural areas with low or no network connections.
• Logistic management systems may offer an engaging user experience for consumers, but eventually, users would always expect and search for more features and services from any application in the market.
• The transportation app development needs a long-term investment as business owners and developers need to come up with regular upgrades and fix compatibility issues to remain in the market. 

Read More About Development Of Smartphone Application.

Ancillary technology consists of providing an organization or system with the necessary support to the operations or primary activities. Ancillary technology in healthcare is used to improve a physician, dentist, or clinician’s operational efficiency by streamlining all the secondary processes. 

Ancillary services, also known as ancillary health care, refer to a comprehensive range of healthcare services that are provided to support the work of the primary clinician. 

Types of Ancillary Technology

Ancillary services in healthcare are classified into three types.

i Diagnostic Services

Diagnostic services facilitate a timely, cost-effective care in a secure environment. It consists of services of Pathology & Laboratory Medicine, Nuclear Medicine, and Radiology. Diagnostic services function in the settings of acute care, ambulatory care, mental health, rehabilitation, and geriatric care. In ancillary services, the primary physician does not have to invest the time and money. The ancillary care providers provide efforts as nurses, technicians, administrators, and technologists. 

ii Deliver / Therapeutic Care

Therapeutic care refers to the secondary line of medical treatment that includes a wide range of services from rehabilitative care to occupational and physical therapies. It also includes maintaining a nurse-patient relationship that is based on mutual trust and comfort which enables the fulfillment of a patient’s physical and emotional needs. Some regular therapeutic care services include massage, speech therapy, and chiropractic services. 

Importance of Ancillary Healthcare Service Providers

The healthcare business does not work the way it used to work a few years ago. All medical providers around the world share similar problems like dissatisfactory quality despite hard work, lack of skilled staff, and rising costs of healthcare, in general. Leading healthcare organizations have tried implementing several fixes like reducing errors, keeping a check on frauds, prioritizing patient satisfaction, adopting the digital approach, and whatnot. Unfortunately, none of them have worked to its full potential; it’s time for a new strategy that transforms the core operations. 

It is necessary to undergo a paradigm shift from a supply-driven system revolving around the patients to a patient-centric system that focuses on patients’ needs. Therefore, instead of focusing on maximizing profits and volumes, it is essential to concentrate on consumer satisfaction and patient outcomes. Moreover, today’s fragmented system needs to be replaced with a system that concentrates on medical conditions and health delivery organizations to maximize the quality of healthcare. 

Ancillary services act as a suitable solution for this problem, as it provides an overarching strategy to transform the overall operations and management in healthcare organizations. It intends to increase the value of care, which enables organizations to become more value-oriented and help them cater to the interests and concerns of the patients. 

Here is how ancillary healthcare service providers batter a change in the traditional healthcare management process. 

• It helps clinicians organize into Integrated Practice Units.
• Ancillary services enable physicians or organizations to measure the outcomes and all the coss-to-the-patients. 
• It promotes a shift towards bulk payments for care cycles. 
• Ancillary care providers facilitate the integration of care delivery systems by defining the scope of services and concentrate volume in a few places. 
• These services also play a vital role in expanding the geographic reach of healthcare delivery.
• It helps build a supporting information technology platform. 

Advantages of Ancillary Services

Ancillary care services comprise around 30% of the total medical spending, making it essential for every healthcare service provider. These services help reduce the core workload as all the secondary care is facilitated by ancillary providers. Additionally, these providers are cost-saving and prudent, making them an ideal alternative to the outpatient physician and hospital services.

Let’s discuss some proven benefits of ancillary healthcare service providers. 

1) Administrative Resources

Ancillary services for primary care play a vital role in saving time and operational costs. The providers, instead of operating independently, work for you and receive payment processing, collections, resolution management, and appeals on your behalf . Therefore, they ensure your patients receive the best secondary care, which is essential for acquiring and retaining new patients.

2) Increased Patient Access

Ancillary services enable you to expand your patient reach by connecting you to a wider patient base  insured under worker compensation, group health, secondary group health, auto medical, and medicare plans.

3) Credentialing

Ancillary care allows you to be in a company of well-skilled experts and technicians. These services are certified in providing stringent quality and control standards. They regularly monitor the network to ensure the patients are receiving excellent-quality care. 

4) Education and Support

Ancillary service providers are medical experts too, and readily educate the patients and payers on the advantages of how their services can bear a change in the overall clinic operation.

Challenges in Implementing Ancillary Technology in the Healthcare Sector

Being a broad, multi-faceted industry, it faces a bunch of problems as well, as discussed below.

• Lack of Interoperability

  One of the major challenges in ancillary technology is the absence of compatibility in the computers or systems utilized by ancillary care providers for coding, billing, and monitoring patient care. The setup for communicating and billing with payers and providers is disintegrated, which is a critical factor if the care shifts from the individual patients to a society or population health model. Patient satisfaction, utilization management, and adequate care are some of the major aspects that can affect the service, providing the ability of ancillary care providers.

• Lack of Consumer Ability

  A significant factor that determines the viability of ancillary providers is the consumers’ ability to select the delivery of care. The large deductible of patients is a substantial influence on their decisions on how and where to get the care and how much money do they wish to spend. From the price at which they need an x-ray to the location at which they want to receive physical therapy, consumers nowadays are more conscious and want the best options at the best price.

Read More About Ancillary Technology.

Modern healthcare today isn’t the same as it was even a few years ago. Through a winning combination of science, design, and technology, a digital therapeutics solution can significantly improve the efficiency of the modern healthcare sector. In terms of innovative treatment methods, data collection, and cost-effectiveness,  it has brought about a revolution in the current medical field. 

Healthcare and Technology

With the rapid adoption of innovations and technology, the healthcare industry is reshaping and transforming itself in bigger and better ways. The modern healthcare industry employs a multitude of technological innovations to ensure that the patient receives optimum benefits. It uses a wide range of new technology products and devices such as mobile phones and apps, biometric sensors, diagnostic products for this purpose. Health Information Technology (HIT) is a rapidly evolving field that includes electronic medical record systems, digital order entry and prescriptions, and digital therapeutics applications.

Here are some of the latest technical innovations in the medical field:

• Mobile Health (mHealth) – includes fitness trackers and nutrition apps.
• Personalized Healthcare – includes predictive analytics and clinical decision support.
• Telehealth – includes remote patient monitoring and remote care.
• Wearable devices and sensors that track and capture data and communicate with patients.

As the demand for patient-centric healthcare increases worldwide, the field of healthcare will undergo a further transformation over the years. The rise of digital therapeutics in healthcare has already set off a marked revolution within the medical sector. The future of healthcare seems to be driven by more technologically advanced products that provide better, customized healthcare programs to the patients.

The Emerging World of Digital Therapeutics

A digital therapeutics solution (DTx) helps make use of different programs to offer better treatment to patients. It looks to ensure evidence-based medications and takes into account everything from possible ways to prevent disease, to its treatment, and management. In turn, it ensures that patients receive the care they expect while achieving better health outcomes. 

Challenges Faced by the Healthcare Sector: How to Overcome Them with Digital Therapeutics?

As chronic diseases and conditions are on the rise globally, treatment of these conditions exerts increased demand on health systems. According to Business Insider, the highest share of the USA healthcare is spent on the treatment of chronic diseases. Not only is the treatment of these conditions exceedingly expensive, but they are also highly unreliable. Here, DTx comes into the picture. With the use of available technology such as wearable fitness trackers, this advanced healthcare solution reduces the occurrence of chronic conditions to a great extent.

However, this evidence-based technology faces a few challenges when it comes to further development, as mentioned hereunder:

• Data privacy issues.
• The question of adoption.
• Lack of awareness about digital health programs.
• Standing out from the other health and wellness products.
• The question of reimbursement.
• Refusal from healthcare providers and patients.
• Regulatory approvals.

We will take a look at them in detail below. For one, health insurance companies aren’t going to trust any new technology easily, and it can time to accept the idea citing concern about data privacy and security. Digital therapeutics companies in healthcare thus need to do more to earn trust.

The lack of awareness also means that physician adoption can remain low, somewhat the final hurdle to consumer adoption. You need the right marketing strategy and partnerships to bring in more physicians to the fold. 

Then, there is the question of how you can distinguish a digital therapeutics solution from the other products in the health and wellness market. Let’s take the Apple or Google app store – how do you ensure more people download them?

The question of regulatory approval translates to FDA clearance, and given the body’s stringent requirements, many DTx companies look to partner with a pharmaceutical company. 

This brings us to the question of reimbursement, which is vital if we are to see the emergence of DTx. The adoption here will depend on the incentives payers, and DTx companies can partner with pharmaceutical companies to explore the different distribution pathways. For instance, if the DTx company can prove that they can help in better monitoring the patients’ condition, private health insurers might be interested in partnering with them.

Read more about digital therapeutics solution.

The software industry is not only booming in a single direction, rather it is set to cover the multi-directional industry verticals. The health industry has also benefited from the software development industry and there are some mobile applications, which are thriving well. The pharmaceutical industry has stepped in the mobile app technology with the medicine distribution system becoming online.

The rise of Healthcare application has literally changed and helped people quiet amazingly as it helps them saves a lot of time. This is the reason why there are a number of business owners thinking about investing in this application development services with which they can improve the state of healthcare and medical industry quite significantly. It is important that you also take a look at some of the important stats related to it so that you can have a clear idea about how it is going to benefit you by investing in this respective industry.

With the help of medicine app development company, it will also streamline the entire process of medicine delivery app development services which is going to benefit patients acquired significantly. Not only this, but it will also make the entire management of resources easy and allow one to record the different stuff and report without any kind of system issue at all.

With cutting edge artificial intelligence upgrading our lives above mediocrity, voice technology emerges out to be the healthcare stalwarts of the future. From handling follow up calls to medical triage, booking appointments, and even diagnosis, VUI (Voice User Interface) is the perfect combination of medical knowledge with technology and tones of conversation to be the voice of the healthcare industry.

What Is Voice Technology?

Voice-based technology is the future. It is the program that interprets, receives, and carries out the voice commands. It enables the human to interact with technology. Voice-recognition technology is much more than basic voice commands like setting up alarms, providing weather information, and organizing the things in a smart device. It has become a gaining ground to most of the industries for internal and external operations. 

The healthcare industry is continually progressing towards better patient care by integrating digital solutions. Voice search technology in healthcare will have a significant impact on the patients’ care, leading towards personalized care. The process of healthcare voice technology involves interacting with the patient as a consumer and a human at ground zero level. Voice technology goes beyond the transactional Question-Answer session and engages patients in an interactive conversation. 

How Does It Work?

Voice searches help in everything from diagnosis to improving documentation. Below is the step by step process of developing a new voice technology:

Step 1:
The problem statement is given to the voice designers, who now build the texture and rhythm of the conversation.

Step 2:
The focus is on the workflow and the ultimate goal. The content is obtained from trusted content providers to enable a smooth flow of clinical-grade content.

Step 3:
The voice designer drafts a script with dialogues, probable responses from the patients, and the content of the call. Thus, the highly branched decision trees are planned. 

Step 4:
The developer builds the code, and the actor records the responses.

Step 5:
Appropriate tones with the required modulation are selected. 

A voice that would motivate a patient to give up smoking might be different from the one that is dealing with a patient suffering from coronary diseases. The complexity and humanness of the VUI are what differentiates it from chatbots.

You can use the technology for multiple purposes. For instance, the smart voice tech assistant can help to capture clinical notes, while updating Electronic Medical Records and working silently in the background. It allows medical professionals to focus more on the patients than fill up forms. 

Is Voice Technology The Best Fit For Healthcare?

Voice recognition technology in healthcare is a revolutionary approach. Let us understand how it is the best fit for healthcare:

i. Speed

Compared to logging in to a workstation or opening up an app, voice technology offers a much more speedy and efficient way to provide you with the solution. Be it the dosage of the medicine or some quick advice on a health issue, voice search has emerged successful with its speed and accuracy.

ii. Location

Choosing the proper location for placing the smart speaker is essential. If placed at too lonely a sight, fetching it for emergencies may pose a problem, whereas in hospitals, the ambient noises may generate unnecessary responses.

iii. Reliability

Being able to trust the source is essential, and voice tech can help to do just that. Voice apps can help indicate sources quickly, and help people know which sources to trust and which do not. Most voice tech apps work directly with clinicians on the content to ensure better and accurate results.

iv. Compliance and Security

Having an organization’s security and compliance teamwork in a voice project is sure to help in better implementation. Healthcare organizations need to invest in solutions that are HIPAA compliant, and voice-based applications can do what they aim to do while being legally compliant.

Read More About Voice Technology.

Aremarkable increase in the aging population all over the world poses various challenges for the elderly ranging from higher requirements of health, medical care, and social security. This dramatic shift has adverse effects on the age structure of  most of the countries globally. It is the fact that, as people age, older primary care or assistance becomes necessary. 

It is no surprise that the world population is aging drastically. With modern technology advancements, education, nutrition, and healthcare amenities, people all over the world are living longer. The proportion of the world’s population aged 60 years and older is expected to be 2 billion by 2050 (In 2015, it was 900 million). And as per the UN data, the older population of Asia, Europe, and America are expected to proliferate by 2030. 

Other Facts About Older Adults

• Today’s older adults are more diverse than previous generations. 
• They prefer to stay at home and restrict themselves by eating proper nutritious food and lose their desire for food. Few of them do not leave their homes due to fear or weaknesses. Their geographical world starts shrinking gradually. 
• Usually, they lose their ability to live independently due to fear, lack of mobility, and reduced physical activities.
• Lonely people are more likely to report risky health behaviors. Their lives become vulnerable to social isolation and loneliness; which results in chronic health issues like depression, obesity, heart disease, diabetes, visual, and hearing impairment. 

Here, Nutrition Sites Come Into The Picture

To meet the comprehensive needs of the older adults at their aging stage. They encourage older adults to remain social with other community members. Nutrition Sites are nothing but a resource for the entire older community to develop a social support system as well as empower them by developing a positive environment.  They play a vital role in helping the elderly to provide a nutritious meal, encourage social networks, and live happily. 

“The sole purpose of senior meal centers is to provide nutritious value accompanied by social enrichment which builds up seniors’ feelings of self-worth at their aging stage.”

Nutrition sites are a common platform for all individuals above the age of 60 to have an active, healthy, social, and independent life. Senior citizens visit nearby nutrition sites as individuals or in a group to enjoy meals along with other social recreational activities. Nutrition Sites are also known as Senior Centers, Senior Meal Centers or Congregate Meal Sites. They can be considered as an ideal community center to connect and engage the older adults for their well-being. 

Senior Centers Offer

• Resources to improve senior citizens’ health and wellness
• Opportunities to connect with older adult community members
• Environment to develop a positive attitude towards life 

These centers are recognized by the Older Americans Act (OAA) as a community focal point to promote the well-being of senior citizens. There are well-established standards and programs administered by the Administration on Aging (AOA) to run nutrition sites successfully.

So How Transportation Technology Benefits Nutrition Sites

i) Fulfillment And Independence

Independent life depends upon the ability to perform daily routine tasks on their own. Nutrition sites can help older adult community members to live independently by integrating transportation technology solutions such as providing smartphone apps for transportation purpose and home-based food delivery service, building confidence among the seniors to live independently. 

ii) Promote Safety And Security

Many seniors find the individualized service, provided by the nutrition sites more appropriate and safer for transportation, as few seniors may feel uncomfortable to get into any strangers’ car. Thus, customized technology solutions of senior sites facilitate the sense of safety and security among the senior citizens to travel from one place to another. 

Read More About How Is Transportation Technology Revolutionizing The Nutrition Sites For The Seniors.

ow is the pet industry throughout the world doing? The answer is pretty clear. It is growing. According to a report, Americans spent around $72 billion on their pets in 2018. As pet owners around the world give importance to their pets’ health and happiness, this industry has opportunities to grow. Moreover, with new technologies and advancements, there is no indication of this industry slowing down any time soon.

Today, not only offline, but online platforms are also popular for selling pet medicines and other pet care items. In this post, I will discuss the impact of e-commerce in the pet industry, especially the online pet medication market. 

So, without further ado, let’s start the discussion.

The Practice Of Online Shopping For Pet Drugs & Pet Care Items

E-commerce has become very popular in the pet care industry these days. The gradual boom in online buying for pet care products comes from buyers of all ages. Therefore regardless of specific consumer demographics, the opportunities to sell pet drugs online can be seen everywhere. If you want success in the pet business, you must have a strong presence on all the platforms, whether offline or online, via social media, website, or reliable retailers.

Together with online and offline shopping, also known as an omnichannel model, can provide a profitable path forward to all the pet business owners. A successful pet business owner offers people exactly what they need for their pets, including pet medicines and other prescribed or suggested items like therapeutic pet food products in retail shops or online or through a blend of both.

The Trend In Pet Supply Sales

The pet supplies that are popular both offline and online platforms are:

• Pet Medicines
• Pet Foods and Treats
• Pet Luxury Items
• Pet Clothing and Bedding Essentials
• Pet Toys

And there is no doubt that pet medicines have a high growth potential among all the pet care supplies in this industry. The number of licensed animal healthcare organizations is increasing, and most of these are offering medicines both in retail shops and online stores at competitive prices. Moreover, veterinarians are also selling pharmaceuticals. And these veterinarians have the advantage of persuading decisions of the pet owners, especially for the items that require prescriptions. Simultaneously, many prescribed drugs and ethical products are being moved to the over-the-counter section. Thus undoubtedly, both physical and online pet pharmacy stores have made the pet industry a dynamic market to run a business. 

The Future Ahead

The success behind the pet care business online and the growing demand for online pet medicines are involved with two key elements, convenience and choice of customers. Therefore, the pet industry should give importance to the e-commerce channel to meet the increasing demands of consumers of today’s digital age. Few business owners can specialize in a broad array of specialized pet items like healthcare products, pet accessories, and organic food. However, directly selling products online can not boost the growth of the pet industry. Launching a user-friendly mobile app is a wise decision, as well.

A smart app for pets is not just for watching pets on a mobile device. It is an intelligent solution for tracking pets’ locations, checking their health, having an eye on their activities, and much more. Even adopting a pet can be possible through an app. This trend of smart apps usage for taking care of pets is spreading throughout the world. This has become possible because people who have immense love for their pets will always want to give the best to them. And this is something an entrepreneur can capitalize on. When a pet business owner can provide some extra beside selling pet care products, that brand simply stands out in a competitive market.

Read More About Emerging E-Commerce Market For Pet Drugs Online.

Medical adherence, in simple words, means following the guidelines of your medical prescription strictly. In all types of illnesses, medical nonadherence plays a significant role in the healing process, especially in cases of chronic diseases.

Adherence Challenges

Medication adherence can be a complicated process to get a grasp of. It depends on numerous factors throughout the course of care. These factors are related to the patient, supplier, treatment type, and healthcare system. They can be classified as the following categories for easier understanding:

i. Patient-Related

Most of the patients do not have a sufficient understanding of their diseases to follow a strict yet beneficial medical adherence. This is also affected by the general lack of medical literacy. In many other cases, patients are not fully involved or invested in the decision making process regarding their health plan. Patients are often biased towards certain medical procedures due to their existing beliefs based on previous experiences or anecdotal evidence. Patients’ loss of motivation during the course of treatment for their chronic illness also triggers medical nonadherence. In developing countries, there are several other factors like low socioeconomic status, inability to pay for medication, and lack of transportation that adds to the overall nonadherence.

ii. Physician-Related

Most of the doctors aggravate the nonadherence by prescribing a complicated regimen of drugs to patients. They often fail to explain the severity and adverse effects of not following the prescription. Not understanding the financial burden of a patient, doctors prescribe an expensive therapy plan to a chronic illness ridden patient who can’t possibly follow it for a prolonged period. Lack of communication between a care provider and a patient causes this barrier that effectively lessens the adherence in patients. Studies have shown that less than 20% of the doctors directly communicate with their patients in the case of the first hospitalization.

iii. System-Related

A broken health care system affects the adherence by not allowing a lot of patients the ease with which they can afford or access their prescription plans. Poor technological availability for health-related information means that the doctors can’t effectively communicate with patients regarding their adherence issues. Our health care systems are often overburdened with a large volume of patients being catered to by a single physician. This leads to less communication and poor assessment of patients. The system largely affects the time spent between a care provider and a patient which in turn, acts as a knowledge barrier. 

Digital Tools For Improving Medication Adherence

1 Mobile Apps

Mobile apps these days serve patients in a myriad of ways to improve medication adherence. Systems like Nomi collect patient data and identifies patterns. The system sends text messages directly to patients as a reminder prompts to take medicines. Other systems also allow healthcare providers to monitor patients between visits. It compiles patient-reported data, identifies symptoms, and connects to clinicians with the relevant data. Another similar product, Drive, streamlines the patient education and adherence programs. It uses gamification tools, behavioral psychologies, and loyalty marketing to improve medication adherence.

2 Smart Pill Bottles

These medical adherence devices can track when patients take their medications. It is done either through sensors in the bottle cap that detect when a bottle is opened or through sensors in the bottom of the bottle that can identify the weight of the pills and calculate if the patient was adherent. Smart bottles come with apps or as standalone products.  One caveat is for patients who take multiple medications. The cost of smart bottles can go up fast in those cases. These devices can track when a pill is taken from inside, but they cannot correctly identify whether the medication was taken by the patient. Smart pill bottles sold by companies such as PillDrill, EllieGrid, AdhereTech, and others are designed to remind patients of their medication courses and makes significantly improves their adherence to the courses.

Read More About Medication Adherence Panaceas.

Over the past few years, the logistics industry has been witnessing a sudden growth. With the advancement in digital technology, companies are leveraging the latest innovations and thereby evolving continuously. Who would have thought that the logistics and cargo industry would get digitized.

The increasing mobility demand has emphasized challenges like investment, volatile oil prices, and dealing with emissions. Thus, the industry has developed a transportation system that is capable of meeting the future needs of the economy as well as society, all thanks to mobility solutions. Mobility Solutions in Supply Chain and Logistics aim at improving both the efficiency and safety of transportation, combined with enhanced environmental sustainability.   

With that being said, in this post, we will discuss how mobility solutions in logistics are transforming the industry. Let’s get started. 

Why Choose Mobile App Development For The Supply Chain?

With the growing competition and peer pressure from the manufacturing industry, the supply chain and logistics sector need to pick up the speed. 

As per various B2B and B2C organizations, the e-commerce sector has a direct impact on customer satisfaction and retention. This suggests that the logistics and supply chain companies need to provide greater speed, flexibility, and reliability to maximize the service levels for the merchants and retailers continuously, as, in the end, online retail is the key driver for business growth. 

Let’s take a closer look at the key reasons behind choosing mobile development for your logistic business: 

• A strategically designed mobile application will integrate fleet management solutions that will allow streamlining the entire logistics process, including real-time tracking of goods. 
• Mobile development helps operators to detect movement of the fleet and provides information about their location. 
• The supply chain management apps will provide more support to your business in numerous ways.
• With features like navigating customers through GPS, finding the best route to a destination become easier via real-time traffic analysis. 

Mobility Solutions That Make A Difference In The Supply Chain Business

One can capitalize on mobility solutions in terms of optimized transportation networks, higher conversions, and better supply chain visibility. Here are some ways in which Mobility Solutions in Supply Chain and Logistics is making the difference. 

1 Efficient Data Management

Supply chain management apps can help companies make use of important data for strategic research and development. With significant demand for supply chain and logistic services, you get a decent volume of business data to analyze and handle. Mobility in supply chain is the primary factor for your company to logically manage the auto-generated data and utilize them for making informative and data-driven decisions.  

This will give you a clearer picture of the performance of your business, which you can later analyze to make potential improvements.

2 Generating And Stimulating Product Demands In Real-time

When we talk about the logistics services, it involves a plethora of things, such as packaging, pick-up, storage, maintenance, management, and transportation of  the inventory, among others. This is why online retailers are highly dependent on logistics and supply chain companies. 

As a result, they are adopting an omnichannel business model in a hope that they will be backed by a logistics company. 

Having mobility in supply chain will allow you to address the growing demands. You can leverage this to take your business ahead in the race.  

Future Of Mobility Solutions In Logistics And Supply Chain Industry

Mobility solutions in supply chain and logistics is truly transforming the industry with the latest innovations. From UAVs for online fulfillment to autonomous mobile robots in cargo yards and warehouses, logistics and supply chain industry is enduring a significant transformation. 

According to experts, the industry will lean more on to artificial intelligence and machine learning to make the process self-orchestrated and completely autonomous. A fleet of delivery trucks using an algorithm could increase the efficiency in warehouses and cargo yards. 

We will have to wait and see how the industry molds to the latest trends and innovations to shape a better future.  

Read More About Mobility Solutions.

Warehouse Management System (WMS) is the cornerstone of the logistics system. A WMS constitutes an internal system of the logistics companies, which is highly configurable to control and manage aspects of storage, distribution, others. A robust WMS is what an organization needs for efficient and productive operations, which includes inventory balance, manage materials, pickup process and auditing.

If you are lacking an effective WMS, then it is impossible to achieve an extraordinary functioning logistic system. An effective WMS involves using a customized set of solutions for smooth workflow and not just the data or storage handling procedure.

Importance of WMS

Warehouse management process is important to meet the most primary business objective, which is to keep the operations cost low as possible and maximize the profit margin.

Read on to know why warehousing and logistics is important for your business –

1. Inventory Control and Management

The common challenge of most businesses is to maintain the accuracy of the inventory. An effective WMS will help you manage the inventory in a fast, easy, and efficient way. You can improve the accuracy of the inventory by decreasing the order cycle time and improve the order fulfillment. WMS will help you decrease the inventory level by tracking every aspect of the inventory using real-time information.

Not only you will have better knowledge of what is in the warehouse but you can also better track any changes required. You can better serve your clients as WMS facilitates quick response to customers’ demands and queries.

2. Centralized Location
A warehouse management system saves huge time and cost by getting a centralized storage location. Storage, shipping and distribution are much easy if you have a centralized location as you can overcome the production gap. Not only you can be in quick reach of your supplier but also the target market. So, you can have a continuous flow of goods in and out which determines the firm’s logistics supply chain system.

The centralized location of logistic warehousing gives you the opportunity to have security stocking. It means you can fulfill customer’s orders on time and deliver the right product at the right time.

Key Features of WMS

-Warehouse Designing
Logistic warehousing ensures additional storage and optimized inventory allocation. You can customize not only the workflow but also handle any variations in seasonal inventory.

-Real-Time Capabilities
It is essential for a business to obtain real-time information, which mandates an advanced warehouse management system. To enable real-time inventory processing and improved accuracy you can leverage integrated hardware and software programs.

-Picking Process
Warehouse management system process has a huge influence on the supply chain’s productivity and is because of the order picking an element. Warehouse workers can better perform the pick-and-pack tasks by wave picking, zone picking, batch picking, and other functions. Packaging is much more comfortable now as the modern 3Pl logistic companies can package all our products if you are selling the same products to different customers under the same brand.

Benefits of WMS in Logistics

There are several benefits you can gain by choosing and implementing the right WMS for your logistics business. Some of them are listed below-

❖ Optimize Your Process
You can leverage the versatility of excellent warehouse management systems whether it is equipment automation or tracking barcodes, or smart scales. A good warehouse management system will seamlessly optimize your business process.

So, you can align the operations with the business goals, establish key performance indicators, implement equipment automation, and gather real-time intelligence on the ongoing process.

❖ Improve the Supplier and Customer Relationships
An efficient run logistic warehouse monitors buyer’s behaviors, fluctuations in demand and supply, order accuracy errors and others that reduce the delivery lead time. Eventually, you can attain 100% client satisfaction and achieve high sales numbers. Together with the feature of the centralized locations, you can also eliminate any friction with suppliers.

Read More About Warehouse Management System.

The rise of the on-demand economy has completely changed how the delivery and logistics industry operates in India. Thanks to the ubiquity of smartphones and on-demand delivery apps, moving something from point A to point B is just a push of a button away.

You order a dress online and can get it delivered the next day. Through Swiggy you can order food from your favorite restaurant and get it delivered within 30 minutes at your doorstep!

The need to be served instantly has led to the rise of many on-demand delivery startups in India who are capitalizing on this essential need. More players are joining the race as the Indian logistics market is set to reach US$ 307 billion by 2020.

In particular, the on-demand food delivery industry is set to earn a revenue of US$3,080m in 2018. The e-commerce related logistics segment will grow at a CAGR of 48% and stand at US$ 2.2 billion by 2020, according to KPMG.

In light of such huge potential, let’s check out 10 of the most talked-about on-demand delivery startups in India.

• Shadowfax

1. This startup is a notable success story in the on-demand delivery space. Founded in 2015 by Vaibhav Khandelwal and Abhishek Bansal, the venture recorded gross revenue of Rs 34.07 crore for 2017.
   
   The duo started their operations focusing on food delivery, but have expanded the service portfolio to include groceries, pharmacy, and other items. It has also moved into the B2B industry covering over 70 cities across India.
   
   The company offers 100% mobile activated deliveries utilizing their strong network of 7,000+ delivery partners and over 400 vehicles. The on-demand logistics solution provider enables food deliveries for over 1,000 restaurants across India. It recently acquired business assets of NuvoEx, an e-commerce-focused logistics business, for an undisclosed amount to expand its operations into more Indian cities.

• Jugnoo Delivery Services

You can find Jugnoo offering their on-demand delivery service in over 40 cities of India. The company uses innovative ways to pick up, load, deliver and unload a wide array of products.

Apart from bikes and vehicles, you can get your items delivered even in auto rickshaws cutting down the cost. Jugnoo doesn’t only deliver normal items like other on-demand delivery startups, they also have some unique services like wedding card and tiffin delivery and collection of cheques, documents, address verification and more.

1. You can almost send anything using their app which provides real-time GPS tracking of the driver with ETA and other details. The startup aims to provide a seamless delivery service to both consumers and businesses.

Read More About Top On-demand Delivery Startups in India Transforming Logistics.

Commuting is a common activity that unites people from all walks of life. Whether you are commuting for your job, dropping your children off to their schools, or going to classes at the other end of the city, commuting is an imperative part of the daily lives of most people. And with the growing percentage of the population using public transportation for commuting to various places has become difficult, time-consuming, and frustrating for people to use this service efficiently.

The convenience factor of the public transit system has started dissipating, and people are looking for solutions to this problem statement.

Metro Transit App has quickly grown to be one of the most reliable systems to depend upon because of its smart approach to this problem statement. Bringing back in the convenience factor into the mix, metro transit app benefits daily commuters and people planning or scheduling trips in a tremendous way. But before we discuss that, let us see what are the challenges faced by commuters in their day to day commute.

Challenges Of Scheduling And Planning A Trip

There is a multitude of challenges faced by people when it comes to scheduling their  commutes, which are mentioned hereunder: 

• Standing in long queues to get a ticket.  
• Facing relentless traffic. 
• Being late to reach your workplace. 
• Searching for a suitable transportation medium.
• Booking your tickets way before your planned date. 
• Fitting in all the plans in the number of days available.
• Spending a long span of time arranging the tickets. 
• Not getting any updates about the trip. 
• Finding booking options that are relevant to your plan.
• Fragmented information.

With the help of the Metro Transit app, all of these challenges ease out because of the different helpful features the app provides. Such as easy ticket booking, optimum route details, real-time alerts, stops available, trip pass and easy payment options. All this helps the commuters to stay on top of their traveling schedules. 

Metro Transit app features

The metro transit solutions are up to date with the latest demanding services and integrating technology. Using this app, passengers can receive real time alerts of their trip and check the arrival & departure time on their stop location. Metro transit is a one stop solution where commuters can access accurate and reliable information at their fingertips. 

Some of the standout features of the Metro Transit App are as follows:

1 Trip Pass

A mobile ticketing system allows the passenger to book a pass valid for several days or trips. Regular passengers can get their weekly, monthly or quarterly passes to avoid booking the ticket on every ride. The trip pass can be booked with the software and they get the pass details in digital format on their application.  

2 Online Payment

Passengers can transfer their money into the metro transit app wallet and book tickets conveniently. Various payment gateways like mobile wallets, debit cards are also available. 

3 Live and Offline Maps

While users need to be online to access the ticketing passes and payment, the live maps can be accessed both online and offline. The platform enables users to get an overview of particular lines, stops arrival and departure times in one go, with their current location in check.

Read More About Metro Transit App.

Imagine a company filled with employees who are free from all the worries related to security and inconvenience during their office commute! This has become possible now, thanks to the Employee Transportation Management System.

In metro cities, plenty of office goers work in dynamic shifts, meet clients, and project deadlines. Most of them waste a significant amount of time in finding public transport or waiting for their pickups during office commute. Standing in queues for a long time or having no clue of the arrival of pickups leads to their anxiety and worries. As the employees are the most important for every company to drive its growth, they should be worry-free during their office time. Only then their productivity will be improved. 

Nowadays, some companies have understood the importance of their employees. Therefore they have started relying on Employee Transport Management Solution. Why?

Before answering this question, let’s have a look at how people around the world commute for work and what sort of problems they are facing.

The Work Commute Scenario of People Around The World

There are various modes of commute popular among employees around the world, such as

• Bus
• Train
• Auto rickshaw
• Cab
• Metrorail
• Ferry
• Personal vehicles  

Even though flexible work schedules and work from home have been introduced in many companies to fix the commuting issues,  the average commute time for the people work around the world has only increased in the last few years, thanks to the traffic congestion in most parts of the world. 

Commuting Crisis

Commuting is not just the worst part of the day, and it also affects the health of employees. 

Following are some ramifications of a long commute:

• A long commute increases neck and back pain incidents 
• Event a 10 miles long commute can increase the blood pressure of your employees
• Daily commutes of around 15 miles can make employees less physically active and prone to have obesity and unhealthy waist size 
• A long commute is linked with a higher level of subjective health complaints 
• A long commute increases exposure to harmful air pollution  
• A long term commute increases the risk of divorce by 40%  

Commute not only affects employees but also hampers your business. Here are some common consequences of long commutes: 

1 Missed Workdays

It is proven in many studies that long commute hurts employees’ health. So some of your employees may take sudden leaves owing to their ill-health due to the long commute. This can cause delayed project delivery.  

2 Difficulty in Hiring 

49% of employees want to work near homes, states a survey conducted by Clutch. It means you may face difficulty in hiring those good employees who need to commute long to reach your office.  

Commuting Opportunities

To say goodbye to these commuting crisis, advancement in transportation technologies have changed the way people go to work and come back home every day. From introducing connected and autonomous vehicles to offering ridesharing services, transportation technology has helped in boosting the development of daily transit. Furthermore, Employee Transportation Solution (ETS) has also started resolving employee transport problems to a particular extent and come out as an important office commute platform.

Why is ETS considered as the essential office commute platform? The answer lies in its features and benefits. Let’s talk about that.

Read More About Employee Transport Management System.

In the first part of the article series, we discussed what is accessibility, why it is important and its benefits. In this article, we are going to dwell more into web accessibility.

There is a myth that it is difficult to make a website and web applications accessible. Though it requires a proper planning and execution, but still making websites accessible is not that difficult.  In this article, we are going to discuss about 7 guidelines which will help you to make your web products more accessible and accepted by a wider audience.

Before we jump to the guidelines it is necessary to understand a few basics things about web accessibility. Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) is a vision by World Wide Consortium (W3C) whose main aim is to improve web accessibility for disabled and visually impaired people. These people often require some form of assistive technologies to help them like screen readers or braille hardware. People with low to medium visual impairment have a hard time reading the content if it has low contrast or too small to read.

To make sure that our websites are compatible with this hardware and accessible to all visually impaired people certain measures are needed to be taken care of. WAI has published a guideline called Web Content Accessibility Guidelines, which can help in achieving good web accessibility. WCAG guidelines have 3 levels of compliance:

• Level A (Must have): This is the most basic level of compliance in WCAG. Few basic things included in this level are providing text alternative of images, websites should be navigable by using keyboards (used in case of screen readers) and not using color as the only medium of communication, it should always be used along with some label, icon, pattern or shape.
• Level AA (Should have): This is the most desired level of guidelines and most of the accessible websites consider this level for their platforms. Few basic things included in this level are having good readable text along with good contrast ratio and support for interface zoom
• Level AAA (Good to have): This is the highest level of accessibility and not required in most of the cases. It requires sign language for audio content which is a bit difficult in all cases to put in place.

Read More About Web Accessibility.

Technology has evolved over the years, a century ago, it was the machines, industrialization, and factories. Then came the internet, about three decades back, and it completely transformed our lives. Before this, did you ever imagine being able to connect on a real-time video call with a relative staying seven seas across the world? Or did you ever think that now with a few buttons you could call yourself a chauffeur at any time in the night? Today, practically you can get grocery, medicines, laundry, food – anything under the earth with a few touch points on a small screen – these are on-demand services.

Just like human life has evolved over time, on-demand services to have evolved drastically. The concept is now not just limited to a handful of industries. Many industries and professions have taken to this model to further their own growth and provide better service to their customers. One among them, and probably one that is better placed to thrive on this model than the others, is the salon and beauty services industry.

Emergence of the Beauty On-demand Concept

The beauty industry has rarely been short of customers and the interest is only picking up in this millennium. It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say that the generation of today is perhaps even more interested in physical appearance and presentability than its predecessors.

The primary reason why on-demand services have become such a vogue is that people are trying to make routine activities quick and time efficient. On-demand taxi services came up to save people the time and troubles of waiting in line for a cab. On-demand food delivery services gained prominence because they saved the travelling time to and from the restaurant as well as the time spent waiting for a table. Similarly, the idea of a beauty service at home has come into being for the purpose of minimizing the time spent by customers for availing beauty services.

The Reason Behind the Exorbitant Demand for ‘at Home Beauty Services

In the US, approximately 28% of all hairdressers, cosmetologists and stylists are already working as independent contractors in the beauty industry that is worth nearly $46 billion! The beauty industry thus presents an ideal environment for on-demand services to thrive. The situation is no different in other parts of the world as well. Thus, there has been a major spike in demand for beauty salon service at home and it looks likely that the on-demand model is here to stay in this sector.

Undoubtedly the major reason for the newfound demand for beauty on-demand services is the time efficiency that such a service offers. Customers can avail of the salon service at home without wasting any time traveling. The beautician would visit the customer’s location and provide the service just like he/she would at a regular salon.

Booking an appointment at a salon is often a hassled process too. Firstly, it isn’t a 2-minute job as it may seem to you. You may not get the appointment at your preferred time and would have to tweak your schedule to accommodate it. And if your schedule is too cramped to make room for the appointment, as is often the case, you would have to postpone the appointment or allocate your very limited leisure time for the purpose. And both these options are not ones that you would accept with glee, are they?

Besides, during peak hours at the salon, you would usually find yourself twiddling your thumbs or playing games on your phone in the waiting area. The waiting time may run up to an hour or maybe even more!

On-demand salons provide most, if not all, the services that you could avail of at a regular salon. Manicures, pedicures, massages, professional makeup services, beauty treatments; you name it and they have it! So the customers are basically not missing out on a service if they prepare to avail of it at home. Customers are also often unaware of better deals available at other salons. With an on-demand service marketplace, customers can check for best offers and hire the corresponding service provider.

What the Future Holds for On-demand Beauty Services?

The success of on-demand apps across various industries tells us that the market and potential are massive for any on-demand service. Just take a look at what Uber and Airbnb managed to achieve in their sectors! When you take an attractive and much-in-demand commodity or service and make it instantly accessible for anyone, you will only achieve positive results. Beauty services are no exception to this rule.

Besides, the massive the valuation of the industry means that there is ample room for a plethora of on-demand beauty service providers to co-exist and succeed. As more and more businesses begin to infiltrate this market, its growth would pick up the pace and there will be a larger pie for everyone to share.

Recognizing the massive potential of beauty on-demand, the investors to haven’t shied away from pumping in the money, as is evident from the initial funding received by the startups listed in this article. So new entrants would likely have the interest of multiple investors, provided they have the right product.

The beauty industry and the on-demand service concept are truly a match made in heaven and the future for on-demand beauty services would most likely be far better than its already fruitful present. The industry is only going to head in one direction – upwards!

A number of startups have already shown the way for the others to follow and have also proved how lucrative the on-demand beauty service industry is. However, the deal-breaker between competitors in this sector is going to be technology and the quality of mobile apps in particular.

Read More About On-demand Beauty Services.