• Constant demand, not supply: The unemployment rate for IT professionals is very low; this is great news for prospective employees, but not so much for employers and staffing solutions agencies. The demand outweighs the talent at disposal, which many times, isn’t up to the mark.
• Increased Costs: People’s demands are increasing day by day. If one company offers them a certain compensation package, competitors are always willing to give them a tad bit extra. Unfortunately, this is a numbers game; those in the staffing business are hit worst just because of this.
• Freelancing: An increase in work pressure and endless work hours is causing a shift in the work culture for many. People are moving to freelancing and working with multiple companies, rather than sticking to just one. This is reducing the scope for companies to have permanent employees at their disposal, and is affecting the business adversely.

If you run an IT company and someone’s looking to start their career in this field, let them grab this job opportunity. Make sure you treat him well and help him grow with the company. Make yourself indispensible so he won’t be able to leave. Finding talent isn’t what it was a few years ago. Not in the US. Not anywhere.

Reference : https://www.aptask.com/3-challenges-faced-by-it-recruiters-in-usa-today/

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Family, society, and loud advertisements repeatedly guilt them into thinking that it is primarily due to the sedentary lifestyle that they lead and that they should immediately join a gym, or salsa, or zumba or the latest fad.

But is a sedentary lifestyle only to blame?

The nature of work of an employee in a software industry is typically of thinking. The job requires a person to sit down and think what to do and how to solve a given problem. To an outsider, it may seem that the employee just sits and rests for eight to ten hours in a day, and yet is stressed.

According to a study published in Psychosomatic Medicine, scientists conducted an experiment that shows that people burn only three calories more when completing intellectual tasks, such as reading and summarizing text, in comparison to people resting and completing other low intellectual activities, such as memorizing objects.

Yet, they consumed at-least 203 calories more after performing tasks that involve intellectual stimulation than just resting. The body converts carbohydrates to glucose when intense brain activity is involved. This results in a drop in blood glucose and insulin levels that the brain interprets as hunger. The overall number of calories does not change but the glucose levels do. People are therefore hungrier after intellectual activity than otherwise.

This adds up to an intake of excess calories than required in absence of physical activity. When this practice continues over the years, the result is evident in our societies, including beer bellies. This factor is, of course, relevant to any profession or activity which requires deep thinking as a part of its job description. This is one of the reasons for the obesity epidemic that has afflicted working professionals in urban societies. This is also reflected in school-going children who do lot of mental work and feel hungry and require to have some snacks and hence increasing the risk of obesity. This, and a bunch of modern conveniences such as motor vehicles, constant availability of ready made food, and general lethargy combined.

So there’s your explanation, don’t just blame your job but blame the intellectual stimulation that your job provides that’s causing your waistline to expand.

No wonder the snacks table gets wiped out at our office parties.

The post Why Do Software Engineers Gain Weight After a Few Years in the Industry? The Reason May Not Be What You Think. appeared first on Baryons Software Solutions.

For citizens it means that we will have access to good roads, be informed of traffic congestions and have alternate routes available; have demarcated areas for residence and work places; safe, clean, and timely public transport; security systems; garbage mangement without pollution; efficient and transparent government offices; access to healthcare and many other systems. This list is by no means complete but you get the idea.

This is an opportunity for many businesses to join hands with stable IT systems to enable their smooth functioning. How IT can enable smart governance is by providing actionable information to preempt repeat occurences and elevate the problems of the citizens.

A few examples for how IT works with traditional systems are given below:

Smart Traffic Management

Real time maps show congested roads when planning a trip helping avoid those roads and show routes that are less congested. This would be dependent on more options available such as more number of roads available, highly functional public transport system reducing the burden on private vehicles plying for everyday routes.

Smart Garbage Management

Each area will have a designated route for garbage collection. Garbage collection would de divided according to the type of waste generated. The collector would have realtime data on which areas in his/her route are critical to their route and can plan accordingly. After collection, there needs to be adequate number of designated areas where garbage is recycled, upcycled, and disposed while causing minimum pollution for surrounding areas.

Crime prevention

The police and residents to be better equipped to deal with threats. Police stations to get quick alerts when a crime occurs and to have a faster way to arrive at the scene.

Smart City Rider

A person on a trip within city limits would be able to select the starting point and destination in the map. Depending on the type of trip taken, the user would have an option on different filters like road trip, city ride, hospitals, reataurants, service stations, schools, dentists, etc. The results of the search would populate the map with directions. This concept will be adaptable across any city of any country in the world.

Smart Security Systems

Homes and commercial spaces to have smart systems that are connected with the Internet to alert and avert security breaches by having autoalert systems in place, alerting both the owners and the police. It can also be used as a decoy by mimicing homes as if it is occupied even when it is not by switching on television, music systems, lights, and other appliances at specified times.

Smart Healthcare

From a hospital perpective, hospitals can have updated systems which relay to their patients about vacancy and availability of doctors and beds. Diagnostic centres can go completely online by having their customers reports and medical history on the cloud accessible by patients at any time and sharing them with their doctors.

If the government has access to diseases treated by heathcare service providers in a given geography, then government can see trends of repeat occurences and come up with better management solutions.

Smart IT Security

If the Internet is to be the backbone of all smart operations, it means a huge amount of data generated and stored in the cloud. A lot of information will be personal and confidential; this means security to protect from breaches should be even tighter than it already is. This gives opportunitites to IT firms to invest and protect their data by using better and hack-proof means.

Smart Natural Resource Management

Conservation and prevention of loss of natural resources needs to be tracked and monitored in a timely manner. Pollution levels for air, water, and land are to be monitored and alerted to necessary parties so that steps can be taken to prevent crossing of threshold levels and alerting government authorities. Action can be taken to mitigate such effects. For example, evacuation of people in case of earthquakes, cloud bursts, floods, fires, etc. can be carried out in advance.

Smart Energy

Consumption can be tracked by consumers to regulate consumption and use alternate means. Government can track consumption to forecast and budget according to the demand to provide for citizens and recommend measures to counter over consumption and for generation.

Smart Schools

Schools to have an integrated system of enrolment, attendance, classes, exams, transportation, staff appointments, online library, video coaching, etc. all managed by a single-sign-on platform. This would help the school keep track of the student’s safety and their learning progress. Schools of the same chain will be able to transfer their students and staff seamlessly.

The Smart City Initiative envisages to create a smart govt.-citizen partnership for managing the welfare of the citizens. Several cities globally have already implemented this idea. India has taken up the initiative across 100 citites. Future citizens will find urban life more enjoyable than what it is now.

Baryons provides several application components and solution platforms which can enable smarter and timely governance. Some of these are:

• Smart school management

• Smart Compliance Audit and Tracking

• Smart survey and data collection

• Smart city rider

• Smart diagnostic labs for healthcare.

• Smart workforce for field force and project personnel management

• eLearning for skill development & workforce productivity enhancement

Some of the initiatives that India is currently undertaking are enabled by organizations, such as:

• Cisco

• IBM

• Dell

• HP and others

Baryons is enthused by Dell’s efforts as can be refered to

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/smart-governance-framework-cities-ravinder-pal-singh

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iOS puts forward an excellent portfolio of design features for mobile apps. Being highly user friendly,

iOS efficiently lays the foundation for capturing user response in best possible manner. Flawless data security has the entire world going crazy for it. With iOS 10 hinting at even more classic features such as 3D Touch in the next release (that is a few months away with the new iPhone and iPad series), you ought to innovate.
Tip #1 – Start for the bigger screen, ALWAYS

iOS development can delve you into vacuum while designing UI for iPad and iPhone screens. Developing multiple templates will stretch time and effort. Most designers start with smaller screens (for the iPhone) and expect to expand the same for the iPad. However, beginning with the larger form factor for the iPad and scaling down to the small screens is easier.

Tip #2 – Have bigger, clearer and responsive buttons

Smaller function buttons for submitting information affect user experience. A user unwillingly taps upon ‘Cancel’ than ‘OK’ because both buttons are closely positioned. In most cases the user (potential lead) will not go back to fill the form again. Even scarier is the payment page where the buyer might pull back than buying again. Have bigger, visible buttons!

Tip #3 – Respect the business objective

Capitalizing upon all offered features in a single app sounds tempting but actually makes no sense. Have a razor focus on the defined requirement and user expectation out of the app. Do not fill it with loud designs, graphics that have no relevance with your objective. Stay committed to a simple form factor design with descent background if the business demands so.

Tip # 4 – Readability with appropriate formatting

Font, Color and Contrast are essential for clear visibility. A perfect combination of all has an arresting impact on the user, luring him to explore more. Most designers overlook this aspect and make a random combination that looks attractive in the beginning, but does not capture the user attention. This has to be rechecked so that the effort put in content development is not wasted because of bad design. Add to it appropriate alignment between words so that they don’t overlap in different screen sizes.

Tip # 5 – Graphics for the Retina Display

Images are impactful and should be used optimally. Don’t just fit them anywhere on the screen. Based on their relevance with the text, position them accordingly. Also, their resolution and aspect ratio have to go in sync with the Retina Display specifications. Any mismatch will make the pictures blurred.

This was just a glimpse! iOS is an ocean worth exploring. Stay connected.

The post Recasting your iOS mobile app development roadmap! appeared first on Baryons Software Solutions.

E-Learning started as an alternative mode of delivering small scale tutorials and has emerged into a valuable tool for workforce development and conducting courses of superlative professional significance. Digitalization of business processes is doing exceedingly well, and so as Online Learning. Not just a website for uploading tutorial videos & PDFs, E-Learning portals are smarter and faster than ever before. Check out these business advantages:

Greater Coverage

The primary driving factor is its ability to cover larger audience. If backed by high streaming connectivity, E-Learning sessions can reach out to thousands of students concurrently. This brings in greater cost advantage over F2F classroom sessions.

Students Prefer It

Firstly, E-Learning is as cost effective for students as it is for providers like you. Students need not migrate to major cities to pursue the course and face extempore costs. Similarly, course providers save a huge sum by not spending on physical classroom infrastructure. Direct access from homes has let the students take up any course in their time of convenience.

Secondly, E-Learning sessions can be easily recorded or downloaded for further reference. This is a greater relief since recollecting the session via memory will surely miss points.

Thirdly, there are large numbers of courses with different duration and timings to choose from. Students greatly benefit from this flexibility.

Higher Student (customer) Retention

Online courses are commenced faster. Also, flexible payment options encourage students to take selective subscriptions. If course quality imparted properly, students coming back for long duration courses can be achieved easily.

Better Analysis and Higher ROI

E-Learning portals can be integrated with CRM & Analytics tools that deliver deeper insights on student feedback and their willingness to recommend peers. Also, any queries can be instantly looked into and resolved. Total number of students benefited, return value for every course and the demand forecasting of a course or instructor can all be analyzed, leading to higher ROI.

Lesser physical storage, almost null

Thousands of printed sheets, classroom maintenance, power backup, etc. are all eliminated from the budget. E-Learning lets you focus on the quality of the training content and conduct more courses in lesser time. All you need is a working web connection driven by higher bandwidth.

Optimal Experience

E-Learning can boost your business if fed by interactive UI design, uninterrupted streaming, and integrated system for incoming queries and response process. Thus, focusing on the quality of learning portal can leap profits.

The post Still rethinking about E-Learning? appeared first on Baryons Software Solutions.

Establish an Exclusive Network

Your ‘Internet of Things’ string is more vulnerable to cyber threats in a shared network. It becomes easier for the hackers to crawl to your devices through other mediums. Get an exclusive network for your IoT setup. It will resolve most issues. Network segmentation can have a significant benefit.

Difficult password is more than necessary

There is a reason when websites urge for a tough password. Passwords are one hacker friendly tool if not taken seriously. Avoid using common combinations of names, letters, etc. Get a complex combination of letters, special characters and numbers that don’t make any literal sense.

‘John@123’ can be easily decoded but ‘vrtnmd@-_2w34’ can’t be. Note the difference. Also, have different passwords for all devices. This will add more layers to security.

Automated Backup, always!

When ‘iCloud’ tells you to enable automatic backup of data, it has a deeper understanding of potential risks which you don’t anticipate. So better adhere to it. In case you lose a device, cloud backup lets you access all data on alternate devices and clean everything on the lost device. Before a stranger gets hands on to sensitive business data, act wisely.

Lesser devices, leaner network

Lesser devices is the key to safe play at getting the best out of your ‘IOT’ channel. Use devices according to the requirement and avoid adding more just for the sake of it. Subsequently, expose your IoT system to minimum networks. Disconnect devices when not in use and ask for a selective enabling / disabling of devices in the IoT network. Not everything has to be connected every time.

Get Deep Packet Inspection (DPI) on priority

A SSL certificate defines data files that digitally bind a cryptographic key and Deep Packet Inspection lets you decrypt this communication. For a better assurance of confidentiality, critical data sets leaving the network can be checked upon. Unlike home users, IoT channel of business importance will benefit from it.

And define your data capturing approach

It takes time but predefining what data would be captured and exchanged amongst what devices will have a more impactful privacy statement.

Facing any more issues with your IoT? Let’s diagnose now!

The post A secured Internet of Things (IoT) channel stays a challenge appeared first on Baryons Software Solutions.

Single point of storage – no multiple software tools needed

ERP systems are cornerstones of processing and extracting volumes of data captured from different users, each assigned a distinctive role.

For example, retrieving admission results and calculating scholarship for deserving students can be performed on a single dashboard by the authorized users. Faculty and Accounts can be instructed and asked for exclusive information while you process this info into an exclusive report on scholarship.

Command and monitor from the mobile

Staff including teachers can mark their attendance from the mobile app. The entire data updates itself to the ERP system. The Principal being the authorized user can monitor from a mobile. This is just an instance of asking for information and getting it updated instantly from the mobile.

Detailed analysis as and when asked

ERP tools are tuned to perform automatic reporting of fetched data. So, the next time all teachers update their class’ results, you being the authority can get in depth analysis of the overall performance of the school with just a tap. Total no of students who passed / failed, toppers, best performing teacher, class, etc. can all be retrieved within minutes.

Quick information exchange with connected departments

The Transport department and the Faculty can share attendance information of all students through their respective devices. Similarly, the Accounts department can access employee attendance from the common dashboard and calculate any deductions, bonuses, etc. Taking a leap, parents can also be included under separate department who can access their child’s performance and other information from the tool.

Accuracy and Transparency

Student attendance captured in multiple systems (such as Faculty / Accounts) results into duplicity. A centralized system with various views for different departments eliminates such inconsistencies and the information changed by one user updates for everybody automatically. This could be immensely instrumental in catching data frauds and illegitimate manipulation.

An ERP system for an institution can handle complex relationships effectively. Managing dynamic data and retrieving valuable information out of it can troubleshoot many issues.

Ultimately, it’s the developer approach that lays the foundation for a faultless solution.
What’s more with School ERP? Know here

https://www.baryonssoftsolutions.com/solutions/education-erp/

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Whatever business sector you may be in, however well established your product line may be, your current and would-be customers will be interested in checking your business and its offerings on the Internet, simply because it is one of the easiest ways to do so for your customer.

These are a few reasons that your business needs to be visible on the Internet. There are various ways that your business’ online presence may be felt, namely, having a website, an ecommerce platform and having social media presence, website advertisements, such as Google Adsense, blogs, featured articles.

Having a website indicates what your business is all about, what are the vision and mission values that the business stands by, what is your product line, who your previous customers are, and what kind of customisation (if any) can your product/service achieve in helping your customers attain their goals.

An ecommerce platform focusses entirely as a point of sales for your customers. It should ideally have a category-wise product listing, details of the products, a shopping cart function, a contact number and email in case of ny queries, and a payment gateway. As these are basic functions that many ecommerce sites have, an attractive feature could include discounts and bonuses, shopping points, membership benefits, home-delivery options, etc.

Social media presence points to creating content in such a way that ultimately points the customer towards your ecommerce platform either directly or indirectly. The most popular sites being FaceBook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube. It could also include sponsored articles on popular traffic-heavy websites. All this would be amiss without using the trending “#” usage. E.g. #usercontent. The content created could be from a specific products or method to industry-wide practices that an interested party could gain information from.

What are the benefits of having an online presence?

Low cost for being online 

With increasing rents and costs of outlets,  banding, maintenance, inventory, and staff costs, owning and running a brick and mortar business is much more expensive than having an online presence. A business with a store needs to have an online presence in terms of their own website, social media presence such as FaceBook, Twitter, etc. because it is not as expensive to set up and even lesser to maintain.

Wider market reach 

A large number of people google search for information about a product or service they are interested in to look for their availability online and for cheaper deals before stepping into a shop. Thus a business must ensure it is among the top search results in popular search engines like Google, Bing, etc. With a physical presence, your sales, depends on footfalls, i.e., people within the vicinity of your business. But by going online, potential customer numbers explode to everyone who has a phone with an internet connection.

Enable a closer relationship with your customer 

Many customers, both satisfied and dissatisfied, rely on venting their thoughts online rather than call the customer support number simply because it is easier. All the more reason to have a feedback form in your website and dedicated support staff to address them. In case of FaceBook as well, it would be prudent to have your company page monitored to address and assure your company’s mindfulness to your customers. After all, brand building goes a long way in retaining loyal customers as feedback received and implemented is valuable in their minds.

Mitigate loss of business 

As there are multiple avenues for creating brand value for your product/service on the Internet, there is a higher visibility which increases the brand recall in a large number of would-be customers. Engaging customers is a good way to building faith and get them to try out your product/service. Offers and promotions are a good way to entice first-time buyers. With exposure to online and offline customers, it would make a significant impact on the bottom line.

Accessible and easy display of your products 

Online product catalogs provide a handy reference for visual appeal to the customer before they order them online. Customers prefer to view their products and read reviews before purchasing them. The earlier apprehension of not buying unseen products has been reduced to a large extent for FMCG products, apparel, everyday products. It is handy to have your product catalogue listed

The post 5 Reasons to Have an Online Presence for Your Brick-and-Mortar Store appeared first on Baryons Software Solutions.

With this knowledge in mind, would it not be beneficial to have a mobile app tailored to position your product/service in a secure, yet easy-to-reach way.

6 reasons for your business to be mobile ready

Customer Engagement: The fact that each customer can download an app, requires an effort, however minimal, on the part of the customer to check out the product/service and allows the customer to verify that the promises made by advertising are indeed true and hold up to scrutiny.

Point of Sale: A mobile app, like its counterpart—the website, of a company allows the customer to browse through the various offerings, choose their preferred product, and buy it immediately. A customer instantly connects to the product and can buy what they want without further delays or leaving a gap between ‘want’ and purchase, making it wholly beneficial to the company.

Ease of use: Some of the best designed apps have minimal number of pages for their customers to navigate from the homepage, browsing and adding the product to their shopping cart, and to the check out counter where it connects to an online payment gateway. The structure and design of the app has to feel intuitive to a first-time user of the app; the user should feel guided to the next step of the process by the app without feeling encumbered by the navigation. Otherwise, the customer may give up after the second or third attempt.

Visibility: Having a mobile app announces that you are serious about connecting with your customers in their preferred way in a way that they would be comfortable in judging whether your product falls within their requirement or not.

Customer profiling: Based on the customer’s usage of your app, you will be able to glean information based on previous purchases, age, preferred products, marital status, browsing history which will give you an advantage of what kind of products to pitch to them in the future. All this will result in continued customer delight.

Legitimacy: Having your mobile app in Google Play Store and Apple Store adds a legitimacy to your company and its products. These are the most popular and trusted platforms for launching your app and uploading them is very easy and costs only $5 for uploading an app into the Google Play Store.

Learn more on how easy it is to get your app up and running on the Google Play Store and the Apple Store

For Google Play: http://www.instructables.com/id/Publishing-an-Android-App-to-the-Google-Play-Store/

For Apple Store: https://developer.apple.com/library/ios/documentation/IDEs/Conceptual/AppDistributionGuide/SubmittingYourApp/SubmittingYourApp.html

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Before plunging at the model, learn what you could fall prey to:

You may lose control over the outsourced staff

Excessive dependency on the vendor for staff augmentation can impact direct control. Consider a case where the project has a hybrid team model including resources from your company and the vendor. Any ignorance in standardization of policies can create conflicts on parameters of working routines, delivery commitments, etc. Thus, a centralized model has to be implemented to sustain sync between all team members. Remember, you are paying for the outsourced staff that follows your policies minus the grievances.

You end up closing the agreement in haste

Especially in cases where the need for resources is purely extempore! Just for the sake of saving the project, you want more resources at any cost and unwillingly commit to policies that don’t complement the requirements. A fine example where you agree for a different holiday calendar for the outsourced staff while your own client follows a different schedule is a common instability.

This is a classic case of Immediate Resource hiring versus assured longevity.

Leaked information and lost confidentiality

You can’t get qualified resources to work without providing complete access to the systems, current team dynamics and the overall procedure followed in your company. As the project progresses, your new staff may derive speculative conclusions out of the sensitive information often shared by the internal employees. The company’s exact organizational structure, grievance handling, actual working procedure versus pitched to the client, etc. are all vulnerable info to put you under scanner.

Inflexible services sharing

Either everything or nothing is a primitive practice but sadly many of us are still entangled. Outsourcing all functions to the vendor can devalue your credibility in taking crucial decisions. Keep some key processes in your control such as working hours, performance monitoring and above all, the decision of extending or shortening an employee’s role in the project. Let the vendor control payroll processing and related issues.

As the first step, look out for an adept staff outsourcing or augmentation company with substantial experience in managing resources. Probe as much as you can and let the company analyze your project life cycle.

By explaining your expectations in detail, a long lasting deal could be executed.

Looking for qualified consultants? Let’s get started! 

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