How Chatbots, AI and IoT Development will revolutionize your Business Growth?

By | Date posted: | Last updated: March 8, 2022
ai IoT Development

Today every aspect of the company is supported by digital tools. Digitization has changed all industries. It has been proven not only to increase productivity and efficiency, but also revolutionized the way of communicate with customers and sell products. We show you the current and future trends such as IoT, AI & chatbots to stay up-to-date.

Chatbots – Communicative user interface

Chatbots enable a completely new type of interaction between humans and machines or software programs. Until now, programs for business administration still required some prior knowledge – that will gradually change.

As different as the objectives of today’s chatbots may be, they all have one thing in common: As a dialog-based user interface that is capable of natural-language command input, chatbots are changing the way people use computers. They make using applications on computers, tablets and smartphones as easy as communicating via WhatsApp or Facebook Messenger. Chatbots are already planning appointments, making ticket reservations, and helping with online shopping and travel bookings. Typical future tasks for chatbots include

  • Accept service requests and create tickets
  • Configure products
  • Record, process and archive accounting documents
  • Enter orders
  • Accompany maintenance tasks
  • Provide customer information
  • Manage inventory
  • Bookkeeping by announcement

Chatbots can also be used to capture, categorize, and save data on the go and initiate further work steps. The advantage is that the user does not have to know in advance how the process works. Rather, the bot guides the user through the respective process in a dialogue. In this way, users get to the information they want faster with less effort and can make transactions more easily.

There are additional advantages when chatbots communicate via audio. This means that the user has hands free and can receive help from a service bot.

Why AI chatbot development for business growth?

With artificial intelligence (AI) processes such as reinforcement learning and other forms of machine learning, a dialog-based user interface will in future be a largely independent. On the way there, the main aim is to improve the error tolerance in speech or text input. So far, humans are far superior to the computer in this regard. But even if human has learned a lot, a chatbot alone does not create a fully automated process. Rather, the first thing is to define clearly defined areas of responsibility and services that a bot can cope with at the required speed and quality.

In the case of a chatbot solution for accounting, for example, an account bot then downloads and archives the account statements. The cash flow, on the other hand, is monitored by another bot specializing in this. It registers irregularities, such as a missing payment, and, depending on the amount of the outstanding amount and the status of the customer, either triggers a dunning process or notifies an employee who clarifies the incident. Regardless of the area of application, every chatbot requires deep integration with the company’s databases and transaction systems as well as a target-oriented structure of the dialogue. And only the combination of the services of different chatbots leads to consistently automated processes.

Artificial intelligence makes ERP virtually invisible

Automation and structuring of “Big Data”, improved customer experiences, productivity increases and much more. Profound technological changes such as Artificial Intelligence (AI) mean that the ERP system in companies is changing into an intelligent, integrated business solution. The AI intervenes in processes and structures of the software – it automates, optimizes and plans independently. Check out the guide how AI and IoT is transforming the future of website design.

Cloud technologies, open interfaces, intelligent technologies – such solutions are increasingly blurring the boundaries between transactional and analytical areas in companies. AI controls all operational systems and automates a number of activities along the value chain: order calculations, the optimization of delivery dates and use of materials or logistics planning. AI-based applications will bring added value for medium-sized companies, especially in the area of goods procurement, such as predictive requirements planning. But AI also does a great job in bookkeeping and accounting by automatically opening up relationships between data and thus providing a sound basis for decision-making.

As a result, ERP is increasingly becoming a hub for the management of business processes and, at the same time, acting more invisibly and automatically than ever – thanks to IoT and machine-to-machine communication. In addition, the usability of ERP itself is significantly improved because the new systems derive specific recommendations for action from the data.

The Internet of Things – Added value in customer service

The Internet of Things (IoT) can play an important role in providing proactive value-added services to customers. They offer manufacturers an interesting opportunity to directly monitor products from their production, completely without intermediaries such as consumers or dealers.

Connected smart devices can collect valuable data from which you can derive additional service offers in order to offer customers added value. Basically, the Internet of Things enables you to expand the services you already offer and to increase your overall effectiveness and productivity.

If you are looking for any type of Software development services, CRM solution, ERP solution, AI chatbots, AI development, IoT development, web development services, web application development services, Please explore our web development services. We are also providing website maintenance, custom application maintenance, mobile application maintenance, website support services and more, please explore our website maintenance services.

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Mobile Website Vs. Mobile Application – What fits best for your business?

By | Date posted: | Last updated: June 8, 2021
Mobile Website vs App

In times when almost everything is controlled via the smartphone, it is imperative to adapt your website to the size of a cell phone. If you did not do this, the website, which is still displayed normally on the laptop, would be confusing and hardly usable on the smartphone. This adapted form of a website on a smartphone is called a mobile App or mobile website. In contrast to or in addition to this, there are of course the classic apps. But where exactly the differences, as well as the advantages and disadvantages of these variants, we will clarify below.

What do I need?

First of all, one should ask oneself what goal should be achieved. Would you like to expand your classic website and also optimize it for the smartphone or should an app enable additional functions? A look at the target group also helps to decide whether a mobile website is sufficient or an app provides a useful additional benefit. Developing an app that in the end offers nothing more than the information that is also on the website does not make much sense. The range of functions is decisive here, as are the devices on which the software is to be used.

Mobile websites with responsive web design

As already mentioned, these are similar to normal websites, just adapted for a smaller screen. This is necessary so that important fields or menu bars do not slip. A badly presented website on the mobile phone is left immediately by the user. To avoid such problems, you can use the possibilities of responsive web design.

The contents of the website remain the same and adapt to the respective size of the device. Images, texts and videos are always organized and rendered meaningfully or displayed. The whole thing can then be extended by call-to-actions, especially for smartphones. For example, a customer can click on the phone number stored on the website and call it directly with a smartphone. This type of programming is particularly useful if you don’t want to expand your website, but just want a smartphone or tablet-friendly version of your site.

Standard and Professional Mobile Application for added value

In contrast to the mobile website, an app is much more complex to program. Also, these are distributed via the respective app stores and must be downloaded to the end device by the user. After the download, the user can usually use the app without an internet connection and always has it as a small icon on the smartphone without going into the browser – the app is always present.

However, an app should only be developed if you want additional functions for your existing internet presence. An app must, therefore, be well thought out and offer real added value. The customer is only ready to download it if the customer benefits from it.
You should also be aware that an app must be advertised separately. Unlike the mobile website, this cannot be found or downloaded via the browser. The customer must therefore consciously search for your app in the respective store. But here too, of course, various so-called App Store Optimization measures can be taken. We would be happy to advise you separately on this topic.

Conclusion

To ultimately be able to make a decision, it is important to know your target group and to know what benefits the application should have. A mobile website is less complex than programming an app. Additional functions, which may promise the customer additional benefits, are only possible with the classic app variant.

Also, you should consider that the mobile website makes sense in all cases so that customers always have the best possible view of your website on their smartphones. An app, on the other hand, is an extension and also more expensive. In some cases, however, it is extremely used to offer customers the best possible performance thanks to additional functions.

If you have any questions about the different variants of app development or would like to know which method is most suitable for your project, Contact Us. We are happy to assist you. If you are looking for a web development, website maintenance service, website design service and other related web development services, please explore our Web Development Services!

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How Drupal 9 UI/UX Design Can Improve Conversion Rate & Reduce Bounce Rate of Website?

By | Date posted: | Last updated: May 6, 2021
Drupal Web Design Service

Introduction

The digital landscape is evolving constantly, and hence there is a rising demand for content management systems(CMSes) while the organizations are trying to keep pace with the customer needs. Without customized experiences, responsive websites, and easier interactive elements on your sites, users take no time to chuck you out and go to your competitors. Hence businesses are amping up their efforts to improve the users’ digital experience and to optimize the conversion funnel all around and achieve their business goals.

In this blog post, we see how Drupal 9 can reduce the bounce rates of your websites and improve your conversion rate optimization(CRO).

Current Status of Drupal CMS

With over one million users worldwide, Drupal is one of the most popular and comprehensive open-source content management systems used by small enterprises, government organizations, and complex monoliths alike. Drupal 9 is the newest version released in June 2020 and it is the culmination of efforts of numerous contributors across the globe who came together to create an innovative platform that’s designed for everyone to use. Check out the guide on why choose Drupal CMS Development over other CMS for your business website.

If we take a closer look at Drupal 9 updates, we find that it’s all about innovation and not features. It doesn’t offer any new features but provides a leaner, more secure system with APIs that are easier to work with. It also entails a new front-end theme that enhances Drupal web design services and also collates community-driven improvements taken from the Drupal Product Survey 2020.

Drupal 9 and the new front-end theme

Drupal 9, the new avatar of Drupal is definitely the future-ready CMS with innovative and intuitive solutions with cutting-edge features and easy upgrades to empower users.
With no major new features, Drupal 9 is reinforcing Drupal 8’s priority to overhaul its user experience and be much friendlier for agencies, content creators, marketers, and not just website developers. In a way, gone are the days when Drupal was all about development-first and design treated as second fiddle. Now it’s all about usability and accessibility thereby, providing great digital experiences to the users.

Drupal 8 was having Bartik as its default theme, which hasn’t got an update since 2011. The need for a new default theme in Drupal has been on cards for quite some time now.

The new design Olivero is simple, flexible, and expected to address the limitations of the current theme Bartik and to support Drupal’s web design services.

How does the new front-end theme Olivero better?

Drupal’s backend has been growing all the while and it is one of the robust systems, however, the front-end theme Bartik has many out-dated features. The new default theme will create the best first impression of Drupal web design and reflects the modern backend that Drupal sports under the hood.

The new theme Olivero is

  • Simple – Clutter-free. All the colors, effects, and visual elements that are heavy and irrelevant would be a thing of the past now.
  • Modern – Support for modern browser features and interaction modes
  • Flexible – Multiple options for the front-end developers to choose from
  • Focused – No heavy distractions for the user like higher contrasts, negative spaces, and any other elements that mar the users’ attention
  • Accessibility – WCAG AA compliant and hence all the elements would be accessible to everyone.

Drupal 9 Olivero UI/UX Design Components

Drupal 9 UI/UX components would improve the user experience because all visually appealing websites have one thing in common – a modern, flexible, and accessible theme.

1.Color Palette

Websites would look more beautiful with the new theme color scheme.

  • The base color is set to bright blue.
  • Neutral gray to counter-balance the layout and other design elements
  • A combination of darker and lighter colors to enhance the accessibility and highlight the design elements in the layout.

2. Typography

The base font size in the body is 18px and adapted to smaller viewports as well. Consistent line-height and spacing have been maintained when setting the scale for typography.

3. Header & Navigation

The header section reflects how flexible the new theme is. It incorporates seamlessly, all logotypes and titles. It also comes in multiple versions to choose from and turns into a hamburger menu once the user scrolls down.

4. Sidebar Region

A single and beautiful sidebar aligns to the right of the website’s main content area and the content team displays related posts and other utility blocks.

5. RTL(Right-To-Left) text direction support

Drupal 8 already has multilingual support and this gets even better with the new frontend theme in Drupal 9 UI/UX Design services.

The new theme also supports the latest functionality like embedded media, layout builder, and more. The web design system parts like color palette, typography, and animation are so minimal making Drupal 9 the most beautiful CMS ever!

How does Drupal 9 web design drive conversions?

User experience is one of the many yardsticks to measure your website’s CRO. When a customer visits your website, its the theme that defines what your site looks like. The layout, styles, typography, buttons, color palette, and a lot more decide how easy it is for the user to navigate across your website. They build your brand’s identity by improving the visual appeal of your website. Many experts believe that beautiful themes indeed make beautiful websites.

With the new theme, Drupal web designs provide unparalleled design experience creating professional, innovative, and highly customized solutions. Drupal web designs are more in line with the modern content management systems and are also responsive catering to various devices. The theme can also contribute to the smooth user’s interaction and improves the usability of your website. This eventually translates into better conversions and reduces the bounce rates of your websites.

Other Features

Here are some of the other capabilities that are added to Drupal 9 that could improve conversions. The following updates reduce the clutter, improve the speed, performance, security, and scalability of the websites reducing the bounce create, improving the conversions, and increase your business revenue.

1. Backward Compatible

The last upgrade from Drupal 7 to Drupal 8 is still haunting many as it consumed time and created fatigue. Hence the Drupal community learned from their past mistakes the hard way and made the new update buttery smooth. Drupal 9 is compatible with its predecessor, Drupal 8 and hence you will be able to use data, modules, and configurations created on Drupal 8. This won’t impact the performance of the system in any way and hence Drupal web designs will remain clutter-free and faster to load.

2. New Versions of Symfony and Twig

Drupal 9 uses Symfony 4.4. Twig 1 also got upgraded to Twig 2. The new upgrades can only translate into higher performance, improved developer experience, and enhanced security.

3. Drops the Deprecated Code

Drupal 9 won’t support any deprecated code in Drupal 8. Drupal 9 sanitizes the code and removes any out-of-date code from the Drupal 8 website to ensure a smooth upgrading experience.

4. Cut-down Third-party Dependencies

With all the deprecated code removed by Drupal 9, its load of dependencies will get significantly lighter. This ensures longer security support for your website.

Wrap-up

The “nothing new in Drupal 9” opinion isn’t entirely accurate. There may not be any new paradigms of development but it is recommended for enterprises to upgrade to Drupal 9 sooner or later to create engaging digital experiences and deliver tangible business results. Also, there are no painfully disruptive changes if you choose to upgrade to Drupal 9. Drupal designs created by Skynet Technologies are scalable, secure, and most notably,power-packed and built for high-performance, far beyond the designs created by other Drupal web design companies.

If you are looking for a Drupal Web Development, Drupal Commerce Development and Other Related Web Development Services, for more information, Please Explore our Drupal Web Development Services! We also provide Drupal Website Maintenance Services, Drupal Migration and Drupal Application Security Audit. For More Information, Please Visit Our Drupal Maintenance Services!

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Top Key Factors to consider before Drupal Migration and Security Updates!

By | Date posted: | Last updated: March 8, 2022
Drupal Migration

Drupal CMS is the best choice for developing enterprise-level websites. Drupal has got a highly dedicated and efficient community, constantly innovating and carefully understanding the needs of users. With each version, Drupal is making big and forward-looking changes to overcome any technical impediments, address critical security issues, and elevate the business with new innovative features.

The long-anticipated Drupal 9 is finally here, promising to be one of the important additions to web development. If you are familiar with Drupal 8, you must already be aware of the major innovations in the 8th version. It entailed access to a large library of modules, templates, tools, and various components, making website creation and management structured and effortless. This was a powerful and flexible framework supported by a vast open-source community and the architectural features can be leveraged by all regardless of technical abilities.

The latest version is a natural progression of Drupal 8 as it is built on the same codebase, adding new functionality to the current framework making the transition smooth and seamless keeping up with the innovation model. If you are wondering about the need for migrating from Drupal 8 to Drupal 9, we would recommend you do it primarily due to security reasons but the need doesn’t end here. Besides reducing security vulnerabilities, this upgrade gives other competitive advantages to your business. Check out the complete guide on Drupal Migration.

Migration to Drupal 9 would be your last big migration and the Drupal community is promising a continuous innovation cycle delivering new capabilities once in 6 months. This makes any future updates significantly easier.

Drupal 8 to Drupal 9 migration

Drupal 8 birth wasn’t easy in retrospect. However, migrating to Drupal 9 from Drupal 8 migration is not as complex and cumbersome as the previous migrations. First, you upgrade to the latest version of Drupal 8 – could be Drupal 8.8.x or 8.9.x. Remove any deprecated code or contributed modules before upgrading to Drupal 9. Remember that Drupal 9 is just a cleaned-up version of Drupal 8. It is built on the same codebase with deprecated code removed, backward compatible, and third party dependencies updated. Ensure Drupal 9 custom code compatibility first, and then update the core codebase to Drupal 9 before you run update.php.

Drupal 7 to Drupal 9 Migration

There are nearly 70% of Drupal sites that are still on Drupal 7 and the primary concern is the discontinuity of community support with the end-of-life(EOL) announcement for Drupal 7. Drupal 7 to Drupal 8 or Drupal 9 migration means adapting the existing site into a new site as many new core modules and functionalities are added which are different from the previous versions.

Many are left wondering how the major lift looks like to jump ahead of Drupal 8? Even with the release of Drupal 9, we advise you to upgrade your Drupal 7 sites to Drupal 8 first. This is because Drupal 9 is just an incremental upgrade of Drupal 8 without any big surprises or massive swaths of new code. Websites that jumped on the Drupal 8 bandwagon before Drupal 9 release could benefit from a simple upgrade path instead of a heavy migration lift.

We would recommend you to do the heavy lift of the Drupal 7 to Drupal 8 migration before November 2022 when both the versions reach their end-of-life. Do the simpler Drupal 8 to Drupal 9 upgrade later.

But if you intend on jumping straight to Drupal 9 instead of Drupal 8, you’ll still have to manage the migration planning, deal with the tools and paradigm shifts, and consider platform requirements. Several challenges are bound to occur since the codebase is significantly different. But the process is not that tedious if you follow the right way to go about it.

When to migrate to Drupal 9

Whether you choose to migrate via Drupal 8 or straight to Drupal 9, you should start the Drupal 9 migration to as soon as possible. You need to plan and execute a major platform migration before you face any security implications related to the end of Drupal security support for the older versions.

If your website is upgrading from Drupal 7, you’ll need to do some information architecture work to prepare for the migration to either Drupal 8 or Drupal 9. Once you are on Drupal 8, the upgrade to Drupal 9 is minimal. You need to take care of the code deprecations but there aren’t any major content and code migrations to worry about.

Security Issues

Drupal 9 promises enhanced security. The older Drupal 7 version may soon lose the attention of the community putting security at bay. Both Drupal 7 and Drupal 8 versions will reach the end of life in November 2022. That means there are higher chances of security breaches as the security team may avoid hustling with these older versions.

A study from 2018 found that 63% of the Drupal sites that were hacked had outdated versions. This could put your business in jeopardy and your data be exposed. So make sure that you manage the security implications of both the versions with a due note on the end of life clause.

Time Matters

It is advisable to migrate to Drupal 9 as soon as it is possible considering that two major versions of Drupal are reaching their end of life. If you are still using the Drupal 7 version and want a smooth transition, it is advised to migrate to Drupal 8.

Things to consider while upgrading to Drupal 9

The migration process typically involves

  • Analyzing the source code
  • Identifying the content to be migrated
  • End-to-End Testing
  • Rollback and Re-testing
  • Release to Production

The first thing is to plan and hire expert technology partners who can ensure a seamless migration.

1. Migration Version Compatibility

The next thing to do before you consider migration is to take stock of all your existing contributed modules and check if your hosting environment is compatible with the updated requirements of Drupal 9.Use Drupal Module Upgraders and Update Status check that can recommend changes to modules for better compatibility with the latest version.

2. Keep your Drupal website updated

Stay current on the latest version of Drupal 8 to ensure seamless compatibility with Drupal 9. By doing this, you will have all the latest features of Drupal 9. Drupal 9 has new features that have been added incrementally to Drupal 8.

3. The state of Contributed Modules

The major pain point in Drupal 8 adoption after it was released was that so many contributed modules in Drupal 7 were not upgraded to Drupal 8. So make sure your contributed modules are kept up to date. Most contributed projects resolve Drupal 9 version compatibility issues gradually, while also keeping Drupal 8 compatibility.

4. Install Upgrade Status or Drupal Check

These provide a report on the list of what deprecated code you still have. Run this on your website to know the current status. Deprecated code is something that is no longer relevant. Any Drupal 8 module without deprecated code will continue to work with Drupal 9. The modules with deprecated code need to be updated or it will stop working with Drupal 9.

5. Configuration and web content Transition

The core migration module introduced in Drupal 8 is best suited for configuration transition. They will be exported as the file format and imported into the Drupal 9 version. Media assets can be copied manually into their respective folder structures. The themes have to be structured manually too.

For low-level complex entity structures, you can use a contribution module to copy the content easily from one database to another database. And for complex structure entities, you may need to create a custom module corresponding to the existing structure to read the data.

Conclusion

Migration to a while new version may seem daunting but are you willing to be left behind the pack? To keep up with the current competitive benefits, it’s imperative to build perfect digital experience for your website users. With the constant innovations in technology, you need to find the right tools and expertise to help you sail through the migration seamlessly and easily.

Need Help Upgrading to Drupal 9?

At Skynet Technologies, we’ve designed, built, supported and updated hundreds of Drupal websites. As Drupal specialists, we’re members of the Drupal Association.

Whether you want to upgrade/migrate to Drupal 9, add new features, fix a bug/problem or maximize security protection website, our team of Drupal Web Development and Drupal Website Maintenance experts can guide you as per your requirements.

If you have any questions or would like to know more about how Skynet Technologies can help your business to reach one step ahead, Reach out us through below form & We'll get back to you soon!