Blog Tag: Software development

Alexa helps you to customize voice skills and to manage Amazon Echo devices. Using Alexa Skill Kit (ASK) and conference APIs, you can enable it to configure your organization’s skills. There are plenty of Alexa skills that lack reviews as the users don’t seem to return to them. Thus you must understand Alexa the skill’s intent that you wish to develop.

We have brought together a few factors based on the collaborative experience we had with our clients while developing Alexa skills for their Business. It is a generic compilation as it is pertinent to remember that each Business and every use case varies.

Essential factors to consider before developing Alexa Skill

The intent of your action is crucial. It must be purposeful, regularly usable, and stand out.
Daily usage – check whether the Alexa skill can be put to use daily by the users. It can be a simple reminder to get started on a workout routine, medication time, or drink water. It can also be news feed updates or any knowledge enriching updations for them. To make it exciting and engaging, the intent could also be as simple as an excellent addition to a game.

• Timing Is Essential – develop skills that don’t take up much of the users’ time. Else, the users may lose attention and interest. Interaction must be prompt, and response time is essential for any Alexa skill development based on bidirectional execution of instructions.
• Provide Useful and Educational content– The majority of people follow content that gives a better feeling that the time was spent right. So, delivering useful or personalized content is the key. It can also be a catching up session of the information that they might have missed for the day.

Top Alexa skills for your Business

Amazon Alexa helps you accomplish tasks at a workplace by acting as a digital assistant. Using our voice to communicate with technology helps employees stay organized and focus on top priority things.

• To-do List and Appointment Scheduling -Making a to-do list and scheduling meetings and events are time-consuming tasks. It is essential, too, but employees face time deficit to perform other vital tasks. So, developing Alexa skills to make a to-do list and schedule meetings without any physical action saves a lot of time and effort. You can set notifications, and employees can instantly access and edit to-do items with a voice command. It can be done on the go with the Amazon Alexa app on iOS, Android, or on alexa.amazon.com.
• Manage Conferences – Conference management skill development enables users to link Google calendar directly to know the conference schedule time. It can also dial the call for you over a voice command automatically. Just say, “Alexa, start my meeting,” and it will commence the meeting. Needless to spend time digging for all the necessary information needed for the conference.
• E-mail Assistant – Sales and Marketing personnel, or anyone who is mostly on the go, would love to have an e-mail assistant Alexa skill. It helps manage their inbox, informs unread messages and new e-mails. Developing customized e-mail assistant skills can manage multiple e-mail providers. With your voice command, Alexa can read, reply, manage e-mails, and perform your entire mailing functions.
• Smart devices Management – Controlling equipment with voice command is the trend nowadays. No more toggling with several apps to handle each one of your smart gadgets. Developing an Alexa skill for managing home and office equipment lets you supervise and track them with voice commands. It could be your desktop, thermostats, lights, AC, etc.
• Expense Management – Analyze and control your finances with Alexa Skills for your Business. Utilize expense management skills from Alexa to pay bills, schedule payments, track finances, and control expenditure.
• Work Time Tracker – Keep track of your work time spent per-project basis with Alexa skill. Set customized tracker skills by telling her to begin and end time when you have completed your task. Although being a simple skill, it can support you to get things done swiftly and enhance productivity. Additionally, you can find out where hours had gone waste and can tweak your work.

Where is Alexa skills development heading to in the future?

Alexa Echo devices are advancing their usage from time to time. With the present COVID-19 crisis pressing on personal hygiene, hands-free digital personal assistants are the lifesavers. They respond to your questions, implement security functions, operate in-house appliances, and assist with your daily chores.

Alexa is missioned to be the best guiding companion for the visually challenged. It eases activities for senior members in your family who have arthritis, dementia, Alzheimer’s, Parkinson, or any sort of visually impaired disorder. They don’t even have to get up, see or feel it. Additionally, Alexa Echo can be used by elders to kids.

Final thoughts

No matter the size of Business, developing Alexa skills accordingly can help streamline your business operations and boost productivity. So it is best to keep all the points mentioned above in mind before any Alexa Skill development.

We, Tops Infosolutions, are the top software development company in the USA. Our experts can help you develop the AI behind Alexa to build the right custom Alexa Skills and deliver the best-personalized user experience. Reach us at +1 408-400-3737 or drop your requirement to this e-mail id: contact@topsinfosolutions.com

Our big news today is all about TOPS Infosolutions being chosen as a proficient Web and software developer, by one of the popular mediums to promote the IT service firms, TopDevelopers.co.

The recent Press release of the TopDevelopers.co gave us a proud recognition and titled us as a client-friendly and productive web and software developer in the country!

The press release was to honor the notable web and custom software developers whose potential has been evoking new business and brands. The article brings to light the teams with a technical skill set and capability to shape any mere idea into a profit-making business source.

The actuality of intelligent software development lies in the expertise of the teams involved in developing the projects. TOPS Infosolutions is one of the reliable service providers with 8 years of expertise in the core area of software and web development and other related services.

The team TOPS Infosolutions is an in-house team with talents to develop projects from start to finish. Our team work has proudly introduced many successful brands and businesses to the world. Our painstaking measures to attain perfection in our efforts have offered the results and made our client’s choice valuable.

With a team of 150+ dedicated developers, software professionals and technical experts, TOPS Infosolutions, is a well-known name in offering trustworthy IT services. Apart from web and software development, we also provide effective Mobile app development, Enterprise Mobility, CRM Development, eCommerce/Retail Solutions, BLE Solutions, IoT Solutions, ReactJS, AngularJS, NodeJS, as well as Laravel development services. Our clients are much satisfied with our service, and their reviews help us reinforce our brand value and credibility.

Our accumulated awards and honors are not for our promotion, but they emphasize our hard work and signs of motivation to deliver the best result for our clients. Our ultimate aim is to offer our clients an innovative, effective yet receptive technical product that will make them successful eventually.  Our portfolio and our works are the testimonials of our excellent technical knowledge. We interpret the client needs and the business needs thoroughly to get an overall outcome. Our research and learning sessions make our developers sharpen their intelligence in dealing with crises and complexities that arise during project cycles.

Our friendly approach and integral propensity to actively mobilize businesses through technology have gained this appreciation from the TopDevelopers.co, a mention on their press release, which has listed the top and efficient web and software developers in the UK, USA, and India.

TopDevelopers.co is grasping the attention of IT firms for their impartial promotional activities, realistic approach towards the companies and reasonable services that will add to the brand value of their clients. TOPS Infosolutions’ profile on TopDevelopers.co is a productive initiative for our business development, and their process is quite inspiring! The representatives of TopDevelopers are friendly, and the support team is approachable any time. They communicate well, listen to the clients’ plight and make sure that the technical or the non-technical issues resolved in time. TOPS Infosolutions feels that the TopDevelopers.co carries its goals and promises remarkably well and we wish them to continue their excellent service!

Who are TopDevelopers?

TopDevelopers.co is a directory and review platform for IT service providers. They are offering an unbiased service by listing the genuine and highly professional IT firms that can help the service seekers better through quality technical services.  The research team of TopDevelopers chooses the best firms by filtering a vast list of companies and introduces only the competitive names to the businesses, enterprises, and entrepreneurs to partner with. The company has a friendly team of researchers and a hassle-free communication system. They provide the listing service for various technologies and services, which makes it a one-stop destination to find your perfect technology partner.

Choosing an outsourcing partner for your next mobile app is everything but easy. First, there is endless number of mobile application development companies out there. Try to Google, ‘mobile app development company’ and you’ll understand what I mean here. Apparently, Google is the best place to look for an app development company.

With so many companies showing up in Google search results, it’s easy to get lost. However, don’t lose your hope already. There are some neat tricks and after a little scrutinizing to the parameters, which I am going to present by means of this blog, you’re going to run out of quality mobile app firms to choose from.

Preps

One of the major problems with firms looking to outsource mobile app development is this that they start searching and approaching firms without gaining any intelligence into the market or perfecting their app idea. This anomaly makes them an easy target of fraudulent app developers that disappear somewhere upon the receipt of payment.

Gathering intelligence

You’re not the only firm looking for an app development company. There are many on the same trail. The only difference is this that many of them are not doing this for the first time. With mobile development getting larger every day, every firm wants to make money out of it. No doubt, there are so many companies out there, confusing the hell out of you.

When you approach a company over a cold online search, it expects you would have done some sort of research. When it realizes you did not, they are going to either over-quote you or won’t take you seriously.

I would recommend going through a few YouTube videos and a number of blogs to get a basic understanding of mobile app development before running the hunt.. While the pricing varies greatly from firm to firm and geographies, you should get a fair estimation how many hours it will take to bring the app to the market.

In addition, you can meet some local mobile development companies in your area to gather intelligence.

Shortlisting the firms

As I said, the internet isn’t short of companies that stuff “mobile app development company” in their webpages. However, not every company that stuffs the keyword to manipulate Google search algorithm in its favor develops mobile apps. So are mere vectors to actual companies. Beware! these agents disappear as soon as they get their commission.

Nevertheless, it’s not hard to tell an agent from an actual development company that specializes in mobile app development.

Tip: Remember, a website shows only the best of a company. If you want to learn the truth, look elsewhere.

When you look for an app development company in Texas, you will encounter three types of websites: development companies in Texas or operating in Texas, a website that lists such companies, for example, Clutch and GoodFirms, and education websites teaching you how to develop an app.

Is outsourcing abroad safe?

While outsourcing development to a firm in the states is a much safer option, a mobile development company easily charges anywhere $100-$150 per hour in the US, which isn’t affordable unless you’re fine spending upwards of $50000 in mobile development alone. On other extreme are mobile developers in Bangladesh and the Philippines that are ready to work for less than $10 per hour. If you are looking for a balance between cost and quality, you can pick East Europe and India.

I personally prefer India as developers there are much more fluent in English than developers in Europe. Also, it’s easier to find a development company in India that is ready to work for less than $40/hour.

Check Portfolio then Crosscheck

Most of the development companies demonstrate their portfolio on their websites. If a certain website you shortlisted do not, it’s ok to ask for it. Most websites have a contact us page to contact the administrator.

Once you have hands-on the portfolio, try to contact the companies whose portfolio has been shared with you. It’s easy to find their contact info as long as their websites have a contact us page. Don’t be shocked if you find a few companies that fail to recognize the developers. In the mobile development market, ‘fake till you make it’ is a common mantra.

I’ll suggest you drop such developers already and go with only those developers whose portfolio you could validate. Credible mobile development companies won’t hesitate from sharing the info about the client they worked with unless an NDA is involved.

Raise an inquiry

It’s time to contact the shortlisted development companies. At this stage, you do not have to share any info about your idea or the app. Just let them know that you’re interested to work with them on an app. Most of them, will contact you back within a couple of days to gather ideas and details for the app you are looking to develop.

Commonly, development firms expect the interested parties to share their contact information on their website from the contact us page. A few firms also offer you free estimation or consultation on request.

A word of caution!

Do not share any details of the app or your ingenious app idea unless the development company has signed a Non-Disclosure Agreement (NDA) with you. Once they have signed the document, they are under legal obligation not to disclose any info about the app to anyone. NDA will give you creative and technical freedom to share your thoughts with all the shortlisted companies.

Passing the info is important for development companies to understand the scope of your work and translate into the number of man-hours required and, ultimately, cost.

Negotiate the cost

Once the shortlist is ready, try to negotiate the cost for the number of features available. Most of the development firms are more flexible with pricing if you commit them long term development plan or give a handful of references. You will be negotiating with more than one firm at a time so keep a tab of the price you last negotiated with a firm.

You can make the final decision once you have all of their prices. It’s apparent to go with the lowest price but there are more factors to consider. A major one is a features-to-cost ratio—the greater the ratio the better the deal you’re getting.

Remote Team

You will be working with a virtual team sitting somewhere on the globe. Most firms let you interview and select the members of the cloud team. Remember, you’re going to pay them hourly. So this may occur to you: you don’t need the most efficient person who can deliver the maximum in minimum time. A senior developer will help you make most of the hours you’re going to pay for. However, they are costlier.

A balanced team is consists of a couple of senior developers and 5-10 junior developers working under the command of a supervisor. Selecting candidates for your team is a one-time process. Most companies to cut down chaos allot you a single point of contact, mostly a team leader or a project manager, depending upon the size of the project.

In case you find the developers not up for the job, it is better to look elsewhere probably for a higher cost.

Go Agile

This goes without saying but most new companies looking to develop a mobile app rush through their apps development cycle and try to stuff more features that it can take. This rush leads to the development of an app with half-baked features and too high a cost.

The biggest benefit of going agile is that new features are added gradually. So you have more time to test the features of an MVP. In addition, the developer will bill you for only the features he added, which will help you keep costs in check.

Hire TOPS Infosolutions

If you are looking for a mobile app development company that works with a global clientele and has presence in various countries, there is no better app development company but TOPS Infosolutions.

Frequently Asked Questions

Do you practice the Agile App Development Process?
Indeed we do. The most significant advantage of going agile is that you can add new features progressively. So, this gives more time to test the features of an MVP. Additionally, we will bill you only for the added features, which will significantly keep the costs in check.

How secure is my app during the development process and post that?
We follow strict ethics when it comes to confidentiality. We encourage our clients to sign a Non-disclosure agreement (NDA) which entitles us to be under legal obligation not to disclose any app-related information to anyone. So, you need not worry about it.

Will You Maintain My App Post-Launch?
We support maintaining your app post-release. Our developers at Tops are available around the clock to offer maintenance assistance.

What will be the cost involved to develop an app?
The cost varies according to the various features and aspects that your application demands. The timeline and workforce allocated also play a significant role in determining the cost. To know exactly how much it would cost for development, drop us your requirement, and our experts will get back within 24 hours with a free quote.

As the world is moving towards globalization, many entrepreneurs find it difficult to gain competitive traction by cutting down the cost, optimizing work efficiency and great customer service. So, is it feasible to gain profit and boost sales in a limited time? Actually NOT – but YES, if you opt for offshore development outsourcing company. This will reduce your internal costs while enabling your company to focus on its core competencies. As the world is moving at a very fast pace, it is unlikely to design the spectrum of technical software. So, it is sensible to outsource some of the business processes while keeping intact your business processes. On a brighter note, outsourcing software development will help you to flourish and gain advantage even during weak economic climate.

Factors that contribute to the decision to outsource include:

• Less labor cost and improved output
• Lack of vertical domain expertise in certain business tasks
• Accessibility of extremely knowledgeable offshore business specialists
• Freedom to concentrate on core business concerns

Top Software Development Companies are already aware of ways to improve performance of your offered IT assets and hence strives to cater you with the tailor-made solutions.

Let’s dive in deeper to know how outsourcing software development can do wonders for your business:-

1. Keep costs lower

Small, Medium or Large every business looks to save buck whenever possible. At the end of the day, the sole goal is to make profits by optimizing the best business process. When you outsource your projects, Software Development Company will refine your processes which ultimately save your time and money. They will create the perfect system model and flow chart that improves company operations, customer service efficiency and sales performance. Your costs are reduced almost immediately through the following innovative techniques:

• Reliable optimized sourcing
• Focused operational excellence
• Tailored operating model integration
• Measurable sales and service optimization

This analytics can facilitate you to grab new opportunities while avoiding pitfalls that could derail your success.

2. Benefit from greater expertise

Think about it: If you are bound to hire an employee from limited area, would it provide the best chance of finding the expert in the world of IT? IT outsourcing company employs experienced IT experts who specialize across many IT domains. This shared knowledge ensures that, your business always have the latest and the most effective technology on the market and is up to date on trends and threats in IT industry. Thus they will have the expertise to support your IT operations and give you the best results. You will always stand tall amongst competitors and always be laying one step ahead if and only if you put the right feet forward in choosing the perfect IT outsourcing Software Development Company.

3. Focus on core business

Your organization may be of different domain and IT might not be your core competencies. In such case, outsourcing is always considered by the companies who wish to keep the process independent from the core of the company. They can throw good ideas around and develop better strategies that are not clouded by the company itself. This will enable you to refocus on the business activities that are important without sacrificing quality. By allowing a qualified outsourcing company to take care of your projects, can also free up your resources to concentrate on the areas that make you successful and grow. The key here is to trust the company you hire and making sure you receive reports and live status updates on projects.

4. Improves Productivity

Outsourcing the projects helps in improving productivity by enabling communication, collaboration and knowledge sharing that enables the employees with the innovative thoughts. Nevertheless, true efficiency and business assistance can only be understood when this multifarious technology is appropriately designed, implemented and maintained. The most excellent practices and complete experiences around development implementing and maintaining such system enable IT service provider to successfully deliver these productivity improvements.

5. 24×7 Availability

In the digital and technological world, security and cyber attacks can happen at any time, which means projects must be monitored and provide alerts as emergency can arise anytime. If you are opting for IT outsourcing software development company, they can take on all this head-ache and issue by being available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. What more can anyone want? IT team will provide continuous monitoring that can aid you in preventing problems before they can cause harm or result in long spans of server or network downtime. IT experts can conduct fixes and updates anytime around the clock so as not to hamper your business productivity.

6. Access to the latest technology and trends

Since IT experts spends most of the time in learning new skills and improving existing techniques and strategies , it is fair that they can bring world-class knowledge and experience to your organization on a continual basis. This includes tried and tested procedures and processes, documentation and more structured methodologies. In addition, you will also be comforted by the fact that your provider will be constantly upgrading, patching and replacing systems when necessary.

7. Extra level of flexibility and scalability

Flexibility is another main positive thing towards IT outsourcing route. It is all because you can scale up and down quickly when any modifications are needed. Also keep in mind that they can take temporary projects when needed, which saves you from having to purchase your own tech just for the sole purpose. By selecting the best outsourcing IT Company as your partner, your clients can benefit from a solution that is customized for its requirements.

The Bottom line

To cut operation costs and improve productivity, the top priority of every business is to have supreme use of the latest trends and technologies prevailing in the market. In this technological world there have been swift innovations in software platforms. Hence hiring an IT consultant would be a much enhanced and wiser choice to lead you and your business to the right path. Find out more about outsourcing software development and scale up your productivity with TOPS Infosolutions.

p.s: We have been featured as Top 25 Software Development Company on SoftwareDevelopmentCompany.co