Technology – K2B SOLUTIONS – Web Design & Mobile Apps Developement

Online Transactions In The Modern Era – Payment Methods Redefined

k2B Admin — Mon, 30 Jan 2017 21:32:51 +0000

In this high-tech world, the Internet plays a significant role in boosting economic activities ranging from millions of online transactions and communications. The online transactions and communications are generally handled electronically by adopting Information Technology in the workplace or at home. For example: e-commerce, e-mail and e-government.

The Modern Era of Online Transactions

Witnessing the unprecedented adoption of Information technology, around millions of people have started using electronic devices like mobile phones, laptops and desktop computers, for their transaction activities. Because of this, the online transactions are no longer restricted to real world today and its impact on worldwide growth is also rising rapidly.

Most people enjoy online transactions for their various activities such as online shopping, online bill paying and online banking. Nowadays, people spend more time in online transactions than spending time in in stores. The entire eCommerce market has increased over 400% in the last five years and it continues to dominate the commerce industry. Most companies have set up their own eCommerce websites with numerous payment options for secure online shopping and transaction. Their e-commerce sites facilitate shoppers with easy shopping and also allow them to compare prices and products online. This attracts most of the shoppers to prefer online shopping.

Why Online/Digital Transactions?

According to the survey, there are around 137 million Internet users currently available in India, among which 25 million involved in online transactions. Is it also estimated that around 10 million people buy flight tickets online and seven million people buy eCommerce products. Hence, the eCommerce market has expected to reach 30 billion by the year 2015. On the other side, the world of online banking is growing incredibly among the Internet users as they get the freedom to bank at their own convenience. Online banking enables users to manage their financial life much easier and facilitate them to access banking information from anywhere that they have access to the Internet.

Moreover, the online bill payment has extremely grown to become the eminent method of bill payment for paying bills such as electricity bills, telephone bills, Internet bills, Gas bills, credit card bills and Insurance premiums. It has become very popular especially among the Internet-connected households as it provides great comfort to them in paying these bills. As online bill payment provides a secure payments environment, the adoption of Internet transactions is increasing swiftly day by day. People have started managing their bills and assets online to gain control of safety, time and finances.

Wallet Culture

The modern world is seeing a drastic change in the payment methods and the wallet culture is increasing. Many countries like United States, United Kingdom, India, Australia, etc. are moving towards a hassle free payment space where everything becomes digital. Many restaurants and retailers around the world are switching to wallet payments as they help them to provide hassle-free and cash-free shopping or dining experience to their customers. Some of the popular payment wallets are:

Apple Pay
Android Pay
LevelUp
PayPal
Gyft

(Information Buff: Restaurant owners – Here is something that you would love to use)

Even banks are witnessing a tremendous growth in online transactions as there is an increasing number of users log on to the Internet to pay their utility bills. Online bill payments and transfer of funds from one bank to another contributes a 100 percent growth in online transactions every year. Every month, online transactions are growing up by 10 to 12 percent according to the report given by Billdesk, which facilitates online payments.

Digitizing schools and administering in a better way with a CRM system

k2B Admin — Tue, 20 Dec 2016 05:29:16 +0000

“School is a building which has four walls with tomorrow inside.” – Lon Watters

Schools and colleges are the best part of everyone’s life as they help in creating and molding the career making it valuable. The world is moving fast towards space where technology will help almost every industry from healthcare to education. Since education is more important, the focus is more on educating everyone and the technology is used at the full pace here. Many schools started using technology for simplifying everyday tasks, and few tasks have been automated to reduce confusions and hassle. Many schools and colleges started using CRM to optimize and manage their administrative data and tasks.

So, What is CRM?

CRM stands for customers relationship management. It is a term that refers to the business tool that is used to organize and manage all the customers, partners, and prospects information at one end. The data organized and analyzed in the tools helps the companies to understand the business relationship with the clients and also helps in optimize the sales growth. These systems are designed to help organization compile information about the customers from various channels like website, live chat, direct mail, marketing collateral, telephones, etc. Some of the standard features of CRM system or CRM software are:

Marketing automation
Sales force management
Contact center automation
Location based services using geolocation technology

Many education organization has started using a CRM system in one way or the other to optimize and manage data. Tim Copeland, the CEO of DemandEngine said, “CRM can bring so much to the higher education market.” Even though the educational organizations have started using the CRM system, they haven’t explored the full potential of the administrative system. Copeland also added, “Many schools have deployed CRM systems for all the wrong reasons.” According to him, schools and colleges are just using CRM to send more emails to prospective students who are not the actual work of the CRM.

How CRM systems help schools?

Many schools have a misinterpretation that CRM system would waste the staff and the management time as they do nothing the improvise the bottom line as they are only useful for sending emails to potential students. Despite these thoughts, CRMs have started to enter into the hotspot of much educational organization as the management began to see its potential. The CRMs have started helping the schools in various aspects of recruitment, communication, retention, etc.

Nowadays, the CRM vendors began to take new initiatives to make their offerings a more reliable and attractive. The following are some of the widely used trends in the CRM technology in education industry:

Cloud-Based Solutions:

Earlier, a CRM system was a software used in a system placed in the organization. The scene has changed now and the system in now available on the web with the help of the cloud servers. Since the system is available in the cloud, it can be accessed from anywhere and anytime and is easy to use as they are streamlining with the new cloud-based features. The major advantage of using cloud-based CRM systems is that it facilitates a bigger storage and data sharing.

Brain Nile, the CEO and CO-Founder of TargetX said, “Centralized data storage is a real game changer.” According to him, many schools are wasting their time using N number of tools to do every task while they have an integrated CRM that does all the work. Cloud-based CRM is carried into the organizations to help them get the full the potential.

Mobility:

The cloud-based CRMs are not only providing web solutions but also mobility i.e. the CRMs can also be accessed from a mobile device either through the mobile browser or with the help of a mobile application that holds the functionalities of the cloud-based CRM. This advancement gives the staffs and the management to work with flexibility and to communication with the students and the constituents.

Jaclyn Esqueda Schmidt, the Coordinator of Marketing and Communications at the GSU Office of Admissions, said, “Recruiters are now in position to help prospective students through the application process, in large part because the necessary materials are immediately accessible via mobile app.” The fact is true that the customers are finding it very easy to attract prospective clients with the help of the mobile app connected to the cloud server.

User-friendly interface and functions:

The CRM software that was developed during the initial stages had bad design and didn’t reach the height as they didn’t help the customers do what they desired to do. This flaw is all because of bad interface and failing functions. The cloud-based CRMs are developed keeping users in mind, and the result was that the system was user-friendly and the system has easy-to-use tools.

Predictive analysis:

Predictive analysis is one of the biggest examples of how CRM is helping schools and the related administrators perform faster. Schools have begun to use the centralized data to predict everything from the student’s applications to the enrollment to the performance. The CRMs are now capable of helping in end-to-end analytics as they have generic reporting system that provides the analytics of the data performance.

Since the CRM systems are available on the web, many web designing companies are adding their expertise to provide a system that has everything as the customers can benefit from them. The analysis system is now equipped with almost everything to help the organization get detailed analysis of every single data in the system.

Final Words:

Joe Burkhart, the Director of Higher Education Solutions at Oracle said, “Schools are now planning and thinking about using a CRM for managing the entire student life cycle.” The primary advantage of using CRM is that it can save hours of administrative time and optimally reduce errors by automating the tasks. They also provide accurate reporting and analytics tools to help make better decisions.

Top 5 reasons why Gamification should be your next target

k2B Admin — Fri, 09 Dec 2016 10:42:05 +0000

Motivation is crucial for everyone. What motivates an employee at work? What motivates a contributor? What motivates a client? What motivates a customer? The answer to all these questions are straightforward and similar – a sense of competition, rewards, and recognition are the main motivators. So, why motivate? Be it your customers or clients or employees, the result is same i.e. motivation directly leads to increase in the production. Gamification is a myth that helps motivate you clients, customer or even your employees.

What is Gamification?

Gamification taps into each of the motivators that keep your people engaged. It is a concept of involving the game mechanics along with the game design techniques in an already existing system like applications and website. This concept helps engage and motivate your people to achieve their tasks and goals. In simple words, Gamification is applying game mechanism and principles to non-game contexts. Many studies proved that Gamification had brought a positive impact on individuals.

The history dates back to 2002 when Nick Peeling, a British-born computer programmer, and inventor coined the name “Gamification.” Unfortunately, it didn’t gain attention until 2010 and only on 2010, Gamification first won its usage as it was referred as incorporating the rewards programs of games into the existing system. Since then, the gamification concept got its attention, and many started deploying it and gained a lot.

Top 5 reasons why should adapt for gamification:

The term Gamification is around for some time, and it started gaining its position in top enterprises and also in some mid-level companies but, the concept of using game tactics is not new to us. For example, we have been using the credit cards that offers reward points for every transaction. The same concept is what modernized as Gamification. It has many potentials but many companies are not either into gamification, or they might have failed after gamifying. The hesitation is because they couldn’t see the expected after gamifying their website or application. Many are waiting for the success of the Fortune 1000 companies as they can mimic the successful company’s story.

As said earlier, the Gamification is the concept that has a huge potential of bringing the profitable return on investment (ROI). There are many reasons why your company should adopt for gamification, but here are top five points for you to shift your gears to speed up the gamification concept

Collect valuable data
Better educational tool
Giveaways made easy
Crowdsourcing helps solve problems
Stay in sync with customers

Collect Important Data:

Gamification platforms are mostly initiated with login credentials i.e. platforms require the users to log in with a valid email ID or social media accounts. The organization will be able to gather important and powerful data about the user which helps to track the user activity in the system. Not only this, the users will be associated with badges, rewards, clicks, etc. which are sure to generate a big data that might be useful for business improvement. Mike Hugos, author of “Enterprise Games: Using Game Mechanics to Build a Better Business” and gamification expert said, “This is the real-time feedback world we live in.”

Better Educational Tool:

Gamification is one of the creative ways to help your customer know about new product or service that is about the be launched. Similar to how a game works, you can educate your customer to learn about your product with the help of game mechanics. An analyst from Forrester Reseach, Jennifer Wise said, “It’s providing the achievement that’s connected to motivation.” Gamification concept can also be applied to help your employees get educated through motivational lessons.

Giveaways Made Easy:

Companies are not only benefiting from the customers using the gamification concept. They also give back to the communities connected to their business and sometimes industry. RecycleBank, a famous recycling company, give attractive discounts and gift cards to its customer for being green by recycling and using less energy.

Crowdsourcing Helps Solve Problems:

Crowdsourcing is becoming popular with enterprises and many medium and small level companies. Another advantage of having login and data collection on the website is that the collected data can be used as a sounding board. Gamification can be an added benefit to crowdsourcing if companies start using the feedback received from the customer through games and apply the same to try solving the critical problems. Hugos also said, “the notion that any company can be innovative through their internal R&D efforts is an obsolete notion.”

Stay In Sync With Customers:

Gamification not only helps the business improve the activities but also helps remind the customers that the business is still existing and engaged with them. Hugos said, “It’s very easy to gamify when it’s a social environment or when you have a lot of content to keep the engagement fresh.” The game concepts help the customer stay engages with their favorite companies.

Final Thoughts:

Gamification offers making boring tasks, like filling reports, more like playing a game. Many companies of major industry have started using the concept to helps learn and reach heights. Web design and development companies are targeting more on the concept of gamification as it is getting the hotspot in helping businesses get the perfect reach and potential sales.

IoT Is Getting Better With Google Home – An Amazon Echo Like Intelligent Speaker

k2B Admin — Mon, 06 Jun 2016 05:49:21 +0000

The Internet of Things (IoT) is the hot news that is revolving around the Information Technology (IT) and every other industry. It is revamping the space of how we use the day-to-day objects. Internet of Things (IoT) in nothing but a technology connecting every single thing to the web i.e. it connects the devices to a standard cloud from where the desired party can access. All the great tech giants like Google, Apple, Facebook, Samsung, etc. are playing a vital role in improving the abilities of the IoT and making it the strongest technology.

Google, the search giant, is actively entering into the smart home world and without any further surprise, it launched its smart device for the home called as the Google Home. A couple of years back, Amazon surprisingly launched a device called as Echo that acts as an intelligent speaker with voice control features. Many techies expected Google to launch a smart home device after it acquired Nest, the smart home products development company. At the recent I/O, Google revealed Google Home, a smart device that transforms your home into a super home.

What is Google Home?

Google always dreamt of developing a device that offers multiple features to make everyday living comfortable. As a result of serious research, Google recently launched a device called as Google Home which is a voice-enabled smart wireless speaker offering multiple opportunities to perform tasks like listening music, scheduling alarms and more. Many sources revealed that Google Home is just the covered-up version of the Google’s Chromecast, a media streaming device that plugs into the HDMI port on the TV. The Google Home device has LED lights, a speaker, and microphones to offer multipurpose functions. Here are some of the unique features of this smart home device.

Seamlessly enjoy music throughout the entire house
Create schedules in no time with voice commands
Easily manage everyday tasks
Interact with Google for more information
Control your smart devices with your voice

Google Home – IoT is getting better with this smart home device:

Internet of Things (IoT) is changing the world and the Google’s part in revamping the smart home market is stunning in every aspect. Google Home is perfect in every part and here is the justification for the statement.

It adds a sweet touch of fragrance to the home setup:Google home looks like a fresh flower pod used for decorating the house, and it has a very pleasant finish that suits the house of any setup/style. This smart device is cylindrical and has an angled top placed with four LEDs portraying the colors of Google. It has a modern and modular case that comes with a changeable base that can spice up the decor. It is not portable, but it acts as a powerful speaker that can fill up the entire room with strong bass and clean highs.
It controls the house with a single account:Compatible with Chromecast is another advantage of having Google Home. Unfortunately, it doesn’t support multiple accounts (as of now) but it might shortly. Google Home can talk to the Chromecast device to play music, stream YouTube videos and lot more. Another major function of this smart device is that it can communicate with Google to get you the correct information. Google Home is not as good as Echo when it comes to multiple device support and Mario Queiroz, the VP of Product Management at Google admitted that Echo had a wide area of skills but explained, “then you start getting deeper, and it doesn’t work very well, then you’re sort of disappointed. And I think that happens with Alexa sometimes.”
It has everything to control the connected things nut with some restrictions:Initially, Google Home will be working with a small set of applications and home automation devices but in the mere future, Google has planned to expand the device’s compatibility. This smart device uses the Knowledge Graph, a super database that understands million of entities and the relation between them. Quieroz also said he isn’t worried about the setbacks the Google Home has with Amazon Echo and also added, “We’re competing for the feature for feature in most of the areas. And in the areas that matter to the consumer, we’re going to do a better job.”

Google Home, the smart home device will be commercially launched later this year, and it might get a price of few hundred dollars. The tech industry and the general crowd is waiting for this beautiful assistant.

Apple CarPlay – A next step in revolutionizing personal driving

k2B Admin — Wed, 18 May 2016 09:59:55 +0000

Transportation is important as the people navigate from one place to another every day. Another important gadget of today’s life is mobile phones as it is considered to be a personal assistance. Smartphones have made people change the way they look at everyday activities, and when it comes to using Smartphones while driving, it is a hard and dangerous task, and even the road rules are strict as it prohibits mobile phones usage while driving. So, what if we need to do something important with our mobile while driving? We have to stop our car on the roadside to use our mobile. As the technology is advancing, many people have a question, “Why the in-car technology is outdated and when will it get the advancement?” Apple Inc. has announced the answer to the most critical issue. And it is none other than the most awaited announcement about Apple CarPlay.

What is Apple CarPlay?

The smartphones have become intelligent to do almost everything, and the in-car technology is also getting smarter with Apple CarPlay. It is a smartphone casting technology that allows the user to integrate their iPhones with the car’s inbuilt head unit with display and is available only on selected compatible brands and models. Without taking the hand out of the steering wheel, CarPlay offers uninterrupted access to the iPhones with the in-dash screen allowing users to use functions like messaging, calls, music, navigation, etc. This infotainment technology helps in secure driving while using the iPhones.

Apple CarPlay – An in-car assistance in the form of your iPhone:

Apple has announced that there are over 100 models available with CarPlay, the infotainment system. Many accidentally mistake that CarPlay is an in-car system that runs on iOS but, it is a connectivity system that acts as an interface between the car’s in-dash system and the iPhone that runs on iOS 7.1 and more. CarPlay will sync your iPhone with the car system via a lightning cable, and it allows you to access you the iPhone via three modes.

Voice – CarPlay enables vehicles will have a dedicated button on the car’s steering wheel using which voice command will be activated using the Siri.
Touch – Cars with the touch screen will allow the touch function. It is more like using your iPhone via the big touch screen.
Knobs and Controls – CarPlay enabled cars with traditional buttons allow you to sync and use your iPhone.

Google’s Android Auto Vs Apple’s CarPlay:

The rivalry between the Google and the Apple has never ended since the introduction of both the systems. Now, the new vision of these tech giants has moved towards the future smart cars residing on Internet of Things (IoT). It is time to know the difference between the two interfaces.

Home Screen:

CarPlay – Same as its home screen on the iDevices like iPhone and iPad, the home screen interface of CarPlay has the square icons and are large enough to touch while on the go, and it has no lists, folders or sub-menus to reduce hassle.
Android Auto – Android Auto has a set of five icons on the bottom of the screen. A double tap on any of the icons will display a list of the card with related applications. This feature adds an advantage of switching between apps without launching the home screen.

Messaging:

CarPlay – It supports Apple’s native messaging system and it can read out messages and can send messages through voice commands.
Android Auto – The Google’s technology supports third-party messaging apps like Skype, WhatsApp, Kik and more.

Navigation:

CarPlay – Apple’s infotainment system uses Apple Maps for easy and precise navigation as many iPhone users prefer to use the branded Apple maps.
Android Auto – It uses the most widely used navigation system, the Google Maps for clean and clear navigation.

Music:

CarPlay – This time the Apple has been on a different side supporting other functional apps like Rdio, Stitcher, Overcast and more while supporting its very own parent app, iTunes.
Android Auto – Like every other service, Android Auto supports Google Play Music and also many other third party services like Spotify, Radioplayer and more.

It is tough to choose the winner among these two as they are likely similar and has almost every feature each other has. But, Apple’s CarPlay has an advantage of having simple designs which are sure to help the users with easy navigation.

Compatible cars and Smart iDevices:

Apple CarPlay is compatible with iPhone 5 and above that at least runs on iOS 7.1 and above. For the people who are aspiring to buy a new car, here is a list of car brands that supports CarPlay and those cars are mostly manufactured in 2016.

Acura
Audi
Buick
Cadillac
Chevrolet
Ferrari
Ford
GMC
Honda
Hyundai
Mitsubishi
Porsche
Volkswagen
Volvo

Click here to get the list of all models that support Apple CarPlay.

Company-bio: K2B Solutions, the top-notch web design company in India, have expertise in PHP, Android, iOS, eCommerce, WordPress and more technologies. We have a very good expert team of qualified professionals who provide customized web and mobile app services to our global clients.

Stop Wasting Time And Start Migrating to Magento 2

k2B Admin — Wed, 23 Dec 2015 10:36:19 +0000

eCommerce industry in one of the most upcoming and developing industry in this fast-moving tech world. But, having one of the best eCommerce store is never easy as the technology and the mindset of buyers always changes. Choosing a perfect content management system (CMS) to make the online store complete is difficult and here comes one great giant to save. It is none other than Magento. What is Magento? It is an open-source content management system (CMS) used for developing eCommerce websites with advanced features.

Magento is constantly improving its features to support the most advanced and useful variants of eCommerce. Recently, They released a beta version called Magento 2 that has incredible features that need to be looked after. It is an open source eCommerce R&D project that is used to improve the functionalities of the core products of Magento. Magento 2.0 is expected to outrace Magento 1 by 20%.

What does the release of Magento 2.0 means?

Don’t panic. It doesn’t mean that Magento is going to discontinued. The support will continue for the next three years i.e. till 2018. The release of new Magento means that there will be no new features addition to the old lad of the Magento family and the version 1 will go into maintenance.

Is it easy to migrate?

If you think it is as easy as eating an apple pie to migrate to Magento 2, then you are completely wrong. The task is not that easy to migrate, and also, it is not that difficult. Confused? Fear not! The process is complicated but not so difficult to do the migration. The power of Magento depends on its community and already the extension and plugins developers have started developing stuff for the new baby, Magento 2. Not only the community developers but also many eCommerce website development companies have started training their developers to learn the art of developing an extension for Magento 2.

Why migration is a bit complicated?

Migrating the core data like products, orders, customers, promotions, etc. is quite easy while the themes need to be restructured as the entire layout of Magento 2 is different from Magento 1. Even the extensions and plugins need to be updated to match the base of Magento 2 configuration. The Vice President (VP) of architecture at Magento Commerce, Alan Kent said, “Magento 2 is worth waiting for”.

What are the changes in Magento 2 compared with Magento 1?

Magento 2 is sure to be a stable shot as it is already promising good results. For many users, data migration is tedious, and troublesome process as Magento 2 has many new things in its package. Here are few changes in the Magento 2 beta’s structure when compared with that of Magento 1.

Magento 1

Magento 2

System Attribute: 131

Database Tables: 333

System Attribute: 129

Database Tables: 296

Some tables names have been changed (ex: CORE_STORE to STORE, CORE_WEBSITE to STORE_WEBSITE, etc.)
Attributes like ATTRIBUTE_CODE is changed

How to migrate to Magento 2? As said earlier, Magento 2 migration is little tedious and will take a huge time to implement complement. Stay tuned to our blogs to learn more about migration. We will hit another post shortly with the steps to follow to migrate your website from Magento 1 to Magento 2.

Fast fix and the important six from the mouth of Sundar Pichai at ‘Google for India’

k2B Admin — Mon, 21 Dec 2015 05:38:29 +0000

India has become a hotspot to many tech giants as many innovators are profound to be from this sub-continent. It is making heads turn with creative innovations and the potential of people in it. India’s PM, Narendra Damodardas Modi visited many tech giants like Facebook, Google, and more to discuss the presence of the giants in India.

Nearly 300 million Indians are using the internet where another 200 million likely to join in early or mid-2017. Google is targeting India as it wants the next billion people along with many women to shape in their hands in the web market. Google’s new CEO, Sundar Pichai is now in India to talk about The internet to everyone single people in India. He said, “It may sound like we’re doing a lot, but in my opinion, we’re just barely getting started. We’ve realized that when we build products for India, they eventually make their way to a global scale. Given that India is on the cutting edge of the mobile revolution, we think that what we build in India will apply to many, many places.”

The Important SIX:

Before hitting the actual SIX, let’s see something interesting about the relationship between the search giant and the land of unity in diversity.

India is the second populous country in the world and Google India is the 10th most visited website in the world.
Android phones have won the hearts of almost every Indian. The operating system is used in 94% of the Smartphone in India.
Google has already started a project to wrap up the internet speeds in India.

The fast fix is over, and it’s time to know the incredibly important six from the mouth of the Indian-born CEO of the search giant.

Internet – It’s for everyone:
The wait is almost over. Sundar gave a sweet to the people of India with a sweet tone saying the internet is for everyone and Google is working hard to bring internet access to everyone allowing them to add their voice to the world of internet.
Bicycle for Women – The internet to rural areas:
Google’s efforts are getting stronger and are planning to bring in the concept of the bicycle for women to the help the women in the rural areas of India learn the internet usage. They are targeting the women across 3 lakh villages in India to get online in the next three years.
Balloons – Internet using Balloons:
Project Loon. What is it? The giant is planning to provide internet connectivity through balloons which have been already tested in countries like New Zealand, United States and Brazil. Every single balloon can provide an internet connectivity through wireless communication technologies like 4G or LTE to a radius of 20KM.
Wireless connection – Wi-Fi in 100 stations:
2016 is going to be fascinating as the tech giant is planning to bring the internet to 100 railway stations across the country. RailTel, the telecom wing of Indian Railway along with Google India is going to bring Wi-Fi to railway stations, and the first to be is the Mumbai railway station.
Android – India to surpass US by next year:
Sundar Pichai also revealed that India will surpass the total number of Android users in the United States (US).
Google Campus – They are planning to hire more:
Hyderabad is now ready for a new Google office, and Sundar added, “It will start hiring more and more new people to its house.” Also, they are going to train more than 2 million developers by partnering with National Skill Development Council.

The Indian-born Sundar Pichai said, “This country has given me and Google so much, and I just hope we can give much more to the country.”

Interesting things you need to know about AWS IoT

k2B Admin — Thu, 05 Nov 2015 05:04:53 +0000

Smart devices are ruling almost everything and the demand for these devices are increasing day after day. People are likely to fall for anything that is sure to be an excellent support for their everyday activities. Artificial Intelligence is taking up the heights since 2005 and is helping every industry with its sharp intelligence. The smart device that reduces the work of human and the devices that communicate in a network are commonly coined as the Internet of Things (IoT).

What is IoT?

Internet of Things is a collection of physical objects that are embedded in things like electronics, circuits, sensors, smart devices and many other that communicate with each other to store and share data. In simple words, Internet of Things is a network in which either objects, humans or animals can transfer data with each other without any need for human-human or human-machine interaction. The name Internet of Things (IOT) was coined by a British entrepreneur, Kevin Ashton in 1999 when he was working Auto-ID centers that deal with the network of RFID connected objects.

AWS IoT:

Cloud computing is one of the most popular and hot topic since 2008 when Microsoft Azure was made available. Since then, the cloud is playing an important role in the significant aspect of almost every industry. A couple of weeks back during the re:Invent conference that happened in Las Vegas, Amazon’s CTO Werner Vogles introduced a new service entering the world of cloud and the Internet of Things business. It is none other than the Amazon Web Service Internet of Things (AWS IoT). As the other players are just warming up for the competition, Amazon came up with a demolishing punch in the form of AWS IoT. It is sure to be a huge win for Amazon as the service promises many things in every aspect.

What is AWS IoT?

AWS IoT comprises the concept of both cloud services and the Internet of Things (IoT). It offers a two-way, secure communication between the Internet of Things like Smart devices, sensors, actuators, electronics and many other and the Amazon Web Service (AWS) cloud. This service opens up many possibilities for collecting telemetry data from all connected devices using which one can analyze the behavior of the recorded data. AWS IoT will be integrated with other services like Amazon Kinesis, Amazon Machine learning, Amazon S3, Lambda and Amazon DynamoDB to develop IoT applications.

How AWS IoT works?

Pic Source: https://aws.amazon.com/iot/how-it-works/

AWS IoT is more than what you expect:

AWS IoT is not just a cloud service but more than that which allows customized actions via other Amazon services. Here are some interesting facts that makes AWS IoT the better competitor when compared with other services that are way behind.

AWS IoT not only involves data and information but also uses devices that interacts with the cloud and other internet enabled devices
Many companies like Intel, Microchip, Texas Instruments, Broadcom, Avnet, Arrow, Marvell, Mediatek, and SeedStudio are ready to offer Internet of Things (IoT) starter kits that works fine with AWS IoT hardware components.
AWS IoT provides one of the most robust, secure transmission through the cloud offerings.
AWS IoT has a rules engine that lets users define a single or a set of rules that controls the process with specific filters that route data between devices.
This system also allows the cloud to interact with the connected smart and other devices even if they are offline using device shadows.

Marketing Aspect: Comparing RFID and iBeacon

k2B Admin — Tue, 08 Sep 2015 06:44:54 +0000

Everyone is witnessing that the world is moving towards a generation where people tend to stay connected using the smart devices. And it officially proves that Smartphone and smart devices like communication devices, artificial intelligence (AI) devices will be a paramount staple of next generation people. Concepts like virtual reality, augmented reality are being adopted by leading tech and gadgets giants such as Apple, Google, Samsung, Sony, Facebook and the list continues.

To make marketing communication even better, devices like radio-frequency identification (RFID) and iBeacons are been implemented by people for their related market. These devices are short communication devices that help achieve the desired marketing goal. What exactly are RFID and iBeacons? Here are the self-explanatory answers.

What is RFID?

RFID otherwise called as Radio Frequency Identification uses electromagnetic fields to transfer files wirelessly. It also automatically records the tags attached to the transported objects. These tags have electronically stored information that might be of help in future transmissions. RFID is optimally used in Automatic Identification and Data Capture (AIDC).

Radio-frequency Identification tags are used in industries like pharmaceuticals to track the medicines throughout the warehouses and also in automobile industry during the production of the autos which helps to monitor the progress of the process in the assembly line. Not only these two industries but also in many other industries, this RFID tags play a significant role in the tracking process.

What is iBeacon?

Apple has always been the pioneer in creating new devices to support everyday needs of the ordinary society. As one such invention, the iBeacon is now becoming a hot machine to make intercommunication possible.

iBeacons are low-powered energy device that transfers universally unique identifier to the nearby receiving devices like iPhones, iPads, and even Macintosh. These devices are Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) devices that broadcast exclusive messages in the form of machine receiving signals. iBeacons are used in industry like shopping, travel, communication, information technology, etc. and in places like shops, bus stops, airports, railway stations, etc.

Comparing RFID and iBeacon:

As the result of iBeacon technology been added to the iOS7 a couple of years back, many marketers and retailers have started testing the low energy device for their business needs and many of us also witnessed iBeacons been used in places like airports and shopping centers to transmit tiny messages.

About another remarkable device called RFID, Ben Davis from eConsultancy said, “Radio frequency identification (RFID) has been around for yonks, the tags only transmit information, to an RFID reader (an NFC-enabled phone or tablet such as an Android can be used as a reader, but for an iPhone a separate reader is required).”

The Comparison:

iBeacons use Bluetooth technology and RFID chips use radio frequencies to transmit data and information.
iBeacons allow two way communication between the iBeacons and the Bluetooth enabled iDevices.
Whereas, the RFID tags are more of active and passive tags. These tags just transfer tiny information to the RFID reader and there is no two-way communication possible.
iBeacons require Bluetooth enabled devices to send and receive informations while the RFID tags can transfer information to NFC enabled mobiles phones like Android phones.
iBeacons cannot be attached to any device but RFID tags can be attached to devices and products for more convenient communications.

The Aspect: Which device is more apt for Marketing?

Marketing has been a plane source of every growing and established business. Without marketing, a business cannot withstand. The following points are sure to explain the use of both the devices with respect to marketing, especially retail.

RFID in Marketing:

RFID chips help the most in retail marketing as the remote scanners scans the products and their location to keep track of the quantity. RFID tags are majorly used in the following areas of retial marketing.

Inventory Tracking:
The task of tracking the on-store inventory is a hard task as the individuals need to scan the bar codes of each product to find the stock left. But, RFID tags or chips automatically scan the product details and can send information like the stock left, expiry date, etc. to the RFID scanners. It helps avoid unwanted human errors and also reduce human costs.
Security:
Shopkeepers commonly face the shoplifting problems. To avoid such problems, the old school style was deployed i.e. the shopkeepers employ a resource to look manually after the customer. This process was costlier when it comes to big shops as the owners need to employ number of resources to avoid shoplifting. RFID chips helped a lot to reduce shoplifting and the employment cost. An alarm is triggered if a shoplifted product crosses the scanner.

iBeacon in Marketing:

After the launch of iBeacon devices, the marketing campaigns have become modern and innovative as the devices connect the online and the offline world. Apple explains the proximity marketing this way:
“Your iOS device can alert mobile apps when you approach or leave a location with an iBeacon. iBeacon uses a Bluetooth low energy signal, which iOS devices detect. In addition to monitoring location, an app can estimate your proximity to an iBeacon (for example, a display or checkout counter in a retail store)”.

The following are some of the area in which the iBeacons become the major part of the organization’s marketing.

Beacons as a Guide:
Marketer or organizations now use beacons to guide people in their premises i.e. Beacons now acts a personal guide in larger places. One major place where beacons are used as the guide is the famous Antwerp Museum. The Rubens House offers visitors with tablets that has an application that helps them to start their tour and direct them in the correct path of the museum. This application helps the visitor to take a complete museum tour without missing anything.
Beacons in Retail:
Offers and products alert are directly pushed to the customer’s mobile devices like iPhone , iPad etc. But, the individuals should have the beacon supported applications on their phone or tablet and with Bluetooth switched on. Here are some of the major retailers who use beacons in their marketing strategy.
- Macy’s: Beacon devices are used in this major US department store to help in-store customer to find the now-running offers in the store.
- American Eagle Outfitters: This store uses a app called Shopkick that welcomes the customers with the greeting message, rewards, deals and discounts when they enter into the store
Beacons in Events:
Beacon devices also started supporting annual events. Pause Fest, an annual digital event in Australia deployed around 50 beacons all around the event premises to display the event analytics and to enhance festival experience. The mobile application triggered information when the user or attendee enter the proximity location, This helped people in the event to get customized notifications when they move around the event premises.

Not only the above but also in many other industries, beacon devices started supporting marketing campaigns. When analyzing the advantages and disadvantages of both the devices, one could come to a decision of choosing the iBeacons over that of the RFID chips as the beacons device can send and receive signals i.e. two-way communication. Beacons are sure to lend an helping hand in marketing your service or product.

iBeacon – What it is going to do to travel in late 2015 and early 2016?

k2B Admin — Tue, 21 Jul 2015 09:03:24 +0000

Smartphone usage keeps on increasing day by day, and the demand for new technologies gets heads up every minute. The smart technology giant, Apple has decided to step its feet onto its very own device called iBeacon. Since the launch of the iOS 8, Apple is trying to improve or upgrade the use of iBeacon devices.

What exactly is a iBeacon device and what does it do?

iBeacon is a low powered transmitter running with the help of Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) technology. It communicates with the nearby iDevices running of iOS 7 or above. iBeacon devices communicate with each other and deliver tiny, useful information to the desired user. This information can be that of a hotel menu, occasional offers and more.

These simplified and very efficient devices not only transfers data but also receives useful information (say, if the user is in a shop, then these iBeacons records the total duration spent by the user being inside the shop/store) from the users. They are also useful in making smart payments and tracking goods of the logistic industry. These are not only the things but also there are many possibilities of this device being the next useful thing in the smart world.

How will iBeacon support travel?

As said, iBeacon is the fastest growing communication device that operates on Bluetooth Low-energy (BLE) transmission technology. iBeacons are sure to be useful to many industries from healthcare to retail industries and also in education and entertainment.

iBeacons in the travel industry is sure to be a game changer since the future of iBeacon and travel industry is wide open and can take up anything new. The major question will be, “How it will help travel industry?” Here are some notable examples which state how useful the iBeacons will be to the travel industry and the people sailing around it.

iBeacons – Airports: Installing beacons in airports helps the traveller to identify easily their boarding points and even the way in which they are intended to travel in the airport. Plus, the beacons placed near the security checkpoints might help the passengers in a hurry and at risk of losing the flight.

iBeacons – Railway Stations: Beacons are sure to help the passenger with the information like train delays, the track they should be on and more.

iBeacons – Railway Station Subways: The beacons will receive information about people running down the subway to catch their train and will deliver to the beacon at the train controller end. This act avoids any hassle in the railway stations.

iBeacons – Travel Agencies: iBeacons will serve travel agencies by using the data acquired from the past and also the public data to send personalised offers to the passengers.

What is going to be next (late 2015 and early 2016) in iBeacon? – Predictions:

There are many developers and programmers working hard on developing some useful applications that might enhance the use of iBeacons and also to simplify daily tasks. Listed below are few predictions of iBeacon’s service to the travel industry.

iBeacons are sure to be used as a local map to guide tourists to reach their desired destination in the city.
iBeacons might throw offers of the shops while strutting down the streets of the city.
iBeacons will be a guide in finding your bus or train

Not only the above stated but also many other things, iBeacons are sure to be your intelligent and personal guide.

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iBeacon – A device that helps nearby people with required information

k2B Admin — Mon, 25 May 2015 09:51:10 +0000

As the creator of many new and advanced devices, Apple Inc. has never failed to impress people with their inventions. Its inventions are mostly considered as the gadgets of the future. The iDevices have become one of the most important day-to-day gadgets used by many common citizens. The leading Smartphone maker has gained much recognition from the top leaders of the web and mobile markets.

We know that they do everything different and the same happened with the new device called iBeacon. As stated by Apple, it is a low-cost transmitter device that notifies the presence of it to the nearby iOS 7 or above devices.

What is iBeacon technology?

As said earlier, it is a low powered transmitter used for communicating with iDevices running on iOS 7 and above. This device is similar to that of a Bluetooth device, and it compromises of two portals: one is the device (hardware), and another is an app (software). The hardware/device communicates with the app installed on the iDevice running on iOS 7 or later and sends tiny information according to the configurations made.

iBeacon operates on Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) technology commonly known as the Bluetooth Smart. To transmit a unique identifier that can be picked up by the smart app, this device uses Bluetooth low energy proximity sensing. There are many versions or many models of iBeacon devices like USB sticks, Bluetooth 4.0 USB dongles, tiny coin cell devices, etc.

How iBeacon works?

iBeacons communicate with other iBeacon devices with a unique, responsive code that acts as identifiers. The app recognizes the device presence and receives signals with tiny information that might be useful for the users. We know that the device acts on the Bluetooth technology, so the distance is limited, and it is categorized as follows

Immediate: a few centimeters range
Near: a couple of meters range
Far: Greater than 10 meters range

iBeacons are normally used to simplify payments and also to provide with on-sight offers. Later, they were designed to offer many causes supporting many industries across the globe. It also helps is gaining useful data like how long the user in the store and also the idea of their item interest which they are likely to purchase. The logistics industry also gains the advantage of using iBeacon devices to track their goods.

When was iBeacons launched and how much was the cost?

Apple’s products are reportedly launched during the mid time of every year (say June, July, August, and September) and the same happened with the launch of iBeacons. They were launched in mid-2013, and many experts reportedly said that iBeacons are sure to help the retail industry with payment options and also with on-store offers.

A report from Apple said that the iBeacons were activated across US on 254 Apple retail stores. Later on 2014 many hardware developers manufactured different variants of iBeacons and they were priced at $5 to $35 and even more. iBeacons were also modified to be used with Android devices running on Android 4.3 and more.

Which devices are compatible with iBeacons?

Even though iBeacons is an Apple product, they were compatible with other products too. Here are the list of devices and OS that are compatible with iBeacons

iOS devices with Bluetooth 4.0 and running on iOS 7 and above
Macintosh running on OS X Mavericks and above
Devices running on Android 4.3 and later
Windows phone running on Lumia Cyan update and above

How 2015 is going to be for iBeacons?

iBeacons were on the roll from mid-2013 but haven’t gained much in the last two years. But the gadget gurus and the tech gigs predict that this year (2015) if going to be the year for the iBeacons to show its real worth.

The Co-founder and director of Apadmi, Howard Simms said, “iBeacons can give customers specific information, deals and advice depending on where they are in the store, the time of day, their purchase history or based on other mobile behavior. This personalization of a consumer’s retail experience will be used to drive people back to the high street as customers discover how they can engage with retail stores in innovative and personalized ways.” He also added, “iBeacon technology will give developers and retailers the ability to target consumers on a more specific level than ever before. Large amounts of data will be generated through using such technology and this will assist with businesses’ strategic decision-making and enable companies to mobilize their marketing and sales teams accordingly.”

Virgin Atlantic, a British airline firm is conducting a test of iBeacon devices in Heathrow airport. Their test focuses on pulling out the user’s mobile boarding pass directly for inspection when the passenger is moving towards the security checkpoint. Not only this airlines nut also Waitrose and Tesco are testing this device in their stores.