Check out some of the great feedback that we have received from our most recent reviews: “Their diligence and eagerness to get things right and provide the best value are what’s most impressive.” – CEO, Gaming Platform “Their technical expertise is impressive. They made the product we wanted, and they made it even better than we’d imagined.” – Support Analyst, No2fyme “They are ready to provide a solution and give the best they have. At all levels, they have skilled people, whether those are project managers, architects, engineers, or designers.” – CTO, Health Software Company We would like to thank our amazing clients for taking time to review us on Clutch. This recognition would not be possible without you. We are honored to be recognized as a Clutch Global Leader and are looking forward to maintain our standing as a top software development company in 2018.

The post blackrock recognized as Global Leader by Clutch appeared first on Black Rock IT Solutions – Software Product Engineering Services.

This would range from the following:

• Speed limits (recommended vs. official)
• Historical average speed data at a particular time period (averages & time of day)
• Number of stops along the route
• Distance between adjacent stops
• Actual travel times from the location data submitted by previous users
• Real-time crowd sourced traffic data including traffic signals along a particular route

The weightage for historical data from a parameter perspective is significant and other parameters are often correlated with this data. It should be noted here that in areas where there are similar traffic patterns, the algorithms based on extensive historic data analysis will work and shall provide acceptable bus ETA, often without a complex prediction model. However, It is assumed that the commonly used prediction model (by Google, HERE maps) follows a certain pattern and the absence of data or a dynamic change (for e.g. a road crash, traffic signal malfunction, speed limit) from a particular source will result in a less accurate ETA prediction and route planning. Cold start problem is another scenario where there will virtually be zero data to integrate with a known ETA offset in some places with area/region restrictions because of government policies. Evolution of Modern Routing Algorithms The rise in the number of vehicles on our roads has been inversely proportional to the growth of road infrastructure during the past decade. Taking a cue, it had become highly imperative to develop modern routing algorithms integrated to a highly optimized system capable of handling thousands of ETA requests per second with minimal response time.

Let’s have a look at some modern routing algorithms and how they served as a platform and underwent refinement:

Dijkstra’s Search Algorithm is considered to be the foundation from which the modern routing algorithms were built. However, in its basic form this algorithm slows down when working with unprocessed node/segment combination in a production environment.

Open Source Routing Machine (OSRM) which uses a prediction model called Contraction Hierarchies (CH).Though the model is very effective, updating real-time traffic data (by assigning of weightages in a segment) was often time consuming. Any change in the segments would require the model to go through the pre-processing step again for the whole data set, making it difficult to make real-time traffic updates work.

Uber, which used the basic OSRM model for ETA at pickup locations, further developed and optimized this model. The optimized model was called the ‘Dynamic Contraction Hierarchies’ (also called Gurafu), which updated just the applicable segment (the particular road) when a real-time traffic update came in. This significantly improved the pre-processing time (the re-building time required for the dataset to reflect the changes in ETA) , thus making the ETA almost accurate. However, Gurafu is proprietary to Uber. Bringing in ETA Predictability in using Artificial Neural Networks(ANN) In most public transit applications, there will often be multiple sources of data coming mainly from systems handling vehicle tracking, scheduling & operations. The data from these systems are integrated to a centralized server where the data management and processing of business functions happen. The processing will be done by algorithms which need to be fast and responsive enough to provide quick updates to passengers, in case of a change in schedule or a delay.

Artificial Neural Networks (ANN), actually inspired by biological neural networks is a machine learning technique used to perform certain specific tasks like classification, pattern recognition etc. As mentioned earlier, since modern algorithms use the graph-edge-node-weightage concept, ANN is the most preferred technique for ETA prediction mainly because of its ability to pre-process the sudden changes in the road networks. ANN would also be able to predict travel time without implicitly addressing the physical traffic parameters. Basically to make it simpler, in a road network with multiple transit vehicles, the ANN would be undergoing two stages – The Learning Phase and Recalling Phase, both of which will be a continuous, related activity. In the Learning Phase, the model will be trained with extensive current as well as historical data like weather, speed limits, no. of stops, road conditions etc. (this will be an automated process) with an accepted fault tolerance. This is to equip the model for the first run and as shown in the diagram, the learning phase will be a continuous ongoing activity.

The Recalling Phase implements the weights assigned to a segment during the Learning Phase. In other words, if there is a dynamic change in the real-time traffic data, it’s the recalling phase which re-calculates and transmits the arrival times at a location. Let us take an example of a public transit vehicle plying between Point A & Point B. While moving, the vehicle collects and sends location data to the servers (Learning Phase), which will be the most important variable to analyze the speed and congestion ratio, together with data on weather, stops and signals. These parameters are highly non-linear and the ANN model learns the pattern over time on a particular route. Now when the user queries the ETA of a particular bus on a mobile application, it will be able to display a near-accurate arrival time prediction, with minimum variance since the ANN is trained on the route and to handle specific scenarios. The best part is that, in case of any unforeseen incidents on a segment (road), the ANN model automatically discovers the relationship between the parameters, analyses and processes it before the query results are correlated and displayed.

ANN for transportation is the future. The fact that it suits best for arrival predictions because of its ability to perform well in a non-linear & dynamically changing traffic scenario has drawn quite a lot of studies, tests & implementations around it. ANN together with other models such as Kalman Filter Technique has been implemented in the mixed traffic conditions in India and has derived excellent results. Various sub-models like Recurrent Neural Network models also has been derived to address certain specialized areas in road traffic segmentation. The constant evolution of ANN as a reliable technology has advantages – One, it will drive the agencies to focus more on the data quality side, since ANN heavily depends on quality data for effective output. Two, adopting ANN for improved ETA predictions will be a good motivator for the people to use public transport systems for their daily commute, thus saving our roads from the increasing menace of congestion and pollution. The same information also helps transport agencies to monitor and improve operational performance. Either way, it’s a win-win situation for all involved.

To know more about predictions related to predictive analysis and its application to transportation software please get in touch with our experts: info@blackrockdxb.com

The post Real-time and Near-Accurate Prediction of Public Transit Vehicle Arrivals appeared first on Black Rock IT Solutions – Software Product Engineering Services.

We have an app for almost everything today. It has passed beyond the time when there were apps for every action. Today, it is about one’s mood or state of mind, and depending on which state of mind, you have got an app. If you are sad, apps such as Code Blue, Lantern and the likes cheer you up and put you in a better mood. If you are stressed then there is Happify, Headspace and others to make you feel relaxed. There are tens and hundreds of apps for every state of mind and for every age whatsoever. Why this is important again drops down to “user adoption” and how the modern app thrives to get a hold on to the main screen and stay there for some time.

User experience is the lifeline of an app which helps it see that pinch of success to survive the first 10 seconds without hitting the recycle bin. With around 2.2 million apps on the stores now, it has burnt down to a matter of choice whether to use App A or App B to cater to a particular need. Today, it is not about the idea you have, because that idea would have been recognized into multiple apps already. Rather, it is about how you make it get past that first 10 seconds and give the user what he/she needs within this time frame. That decides the fate and life of the app.

When we design an application, there are a few constraints that we take into account. They can be summarized into:

Getting the Story On-board for every App

Before we even start developing the wireframes, we think that it is important to have empirical knowledge about what we are going to implement. Be it an app that helps your coffee shop to function better or help a couple manage their dates, it’s always wise to get the story from the coffee shop owner and from real couple. At our workplace, we follow the concept of interviewing real users and understand what could help their lives tick with our app. This helps our business analysts eliminate assumptions and deal with real world problems and find solutions for them.

The Cognitive Load and Releasing Frustration

Most apps follow a particular navigation to achieve something. For example, applications such as Facebook, LinkedIn or Twitter have the option to like or share posts just beneath the messages. It would bring down the cognitive load of the user if a new app we built follows the same or similar logic. Anything other than this would imply a new learning curve and could frustrate the user. Getting inspired from some commonly used design logic into our app, could eventually let the user focus on the actual task.

At Experion, we are way past the myth that UX and user designs are different words with the same meaning. User Experience for us starts from the idea, from inception to all the way up the process ladder. Our designs are just a part of the experience it promised to deliver. After all, it is just the user’s feelings and emotions that matter, and if we cannot cater to this fact in the easiest manner possible, we have not created a great app at all.

The Habitat and the Ecosystem We Create

Just open Google.com.

What do you see?

Just a couple of buttons and a search bar right? That’s it. That’s all Google has been trying to do. It wants to search for you what you need at the time. If you look closely, you would still see a few other options too like setting a language, Gmail, images etc. But did you see how prominent they are compared to the core function of search? That’s how simple and focused an app or website should be.

We often intend to build an app that tries to satisfy everybody. I mean everybody big or small. We pull in a lot of controls and functions and cram the user’s world. The app thus become a maze of search and find for a user who might have opened the app just to order his/her favourite pizza when hungry. To make it worse, we dump all the controls in the home screen with the same dimensions.

See, we get it. We need an app or a website that covers all possible use cases. However, there is a way to achieve it and stuffing the available real estate is the last resort a developer should use. In Instagram for example, it is an array of image tiles from which you can select the image you want to zoom into. So simple, isn’t it?

Often, we tend to forget that most users do not go beyond 2 minutes to do what they would love to get done from apps. Of course, I am not talking about music or video streaming apps here. The habitat that we create should help the user get their things done in a flick so that they can resume to their most important tasks.

Not the last things first if you can help it
Joe got late one day and missed his office cab. He decided to download the app of a local cab service in town. After installing, the first thing the app asked was to login or signup and didn’t allow the user to navigate to the services unless authenticated. Now, being new to the app, the user had to sit and register which took at least 5 minutes to set up.

Now, is this normal?
Why do you need to log in if all you require is to hail a cab and travel from say place A to place B? In the real world, if you need to catch a cab, do you need to fill up a form, submit your documents, and submit a photograph for id?

The apps we use should help us achieve what we need to get with minimal user inputs. While signing up for an app might be seen as something that is not uncomfortable, it might not be so for someone such as Joe who is in a crisis and wants a solution without hurdles. Otherwise, the last thing one would do to an app the first time they use it would be to un-install it. If you get what I mean.

The post User Experience: Considerations before choosing the best UX path? appeared first on Black Rock IT Solutions – Software Product Engineering Services.

Best Custom Software Development Company
Best Mobile App Development Company
Best iOS App Development Company
Best Android App Development Company

Clutch is a ratings and review firm based out of Washington, D.C. covering mobile application development companies and custom software development companies around the world. Their intensive methodology and research process examines companies on a multitude of qualitative and quantitate features, ultimately relying heavily on verified client reviews from past and present clients. Clutch analysts conduct real-time phone interviews with clients to gather information on how each company performs, so that future buyers can evaluate companies based on this information.

We have been pleased that our clients have agreed to review us on Clutch. Currently, our Clutch profile boasts several positive reviews. Below are some excerpts from our most recent Clutch reviews:

“Experion’s commitment and quality of work was very good, and I am very satisfied with their services. If we express our requirements clearly, we’re always successful. blackrock is one of the best software partners we’ve had.”

“blackrock is a great extension to our development team, saving us from having to recruit and manage developers with completely different skill sets from our own.”

“The reason for our project’s success is the strong project and product management professionals on Experion’s team.”

“All of the top companies covered in our India research have proven their ability to deliver quality results in a very competitive market,” said Amber Dewey, Business Analyst at Clutch. “With our thorough evaluations, we have found that these companies are passionate about their work, serious about satisfying their clients, and dedicated to delivering innovative results and solutions on a consistent basis.”

We are the only company from Kerala ranked among Top 5 in 4 different categories, and that makes us really happy.

The post blackrock ranked among Top 5 Software Development Companies in India appeared first on Black Rock IT Solutions – Software Product Engineering Services.

Blockchain as a technology (BCT)/software protocol has a lot to offer to the financial services realm. A major attraction for BCT within financial services is its ability for disintermediation, a cost-saving mechanism for most sector players. Blockchain trims down a need for costly infrastructure requirements that aid in transaction processing.

Before we begin, let us look at what is meant by Blockchain technology.

As per industry definitions, Blockchain is a distributed digital ledger (DLT) that allows transactions of value to be recorded and verified electronically over a network of computers (called nodes/blocks) without being managed by a central ledger. Data is encrypted inside each block to protect it from fraud /hackers. All data/transactions within the blocks are cryptographically encrypted.

Blockchains are more trustworthy than conventional centralized systems because each transaction on the chain is verified/validated by the participating nodes/blocks and also encrypted cryptographically. Any change/duplication of data in one of the nodes is synced with the other nodes and this leads to transparency. As per a recent article published in the Medium, Blockchain’s decentralized, open & cryptographic nature allow people to trust each other and transact peer to peer, making the need for intermediaries obsolete. (*Source:Medium)

So how will Blockchain prove to be a transformational force for the financial services domain? Let us check out a few scenarios:

1. International Payments: Global payment volumes have been rising with the passing years. Along with this rise is the increase in infrastructure and processing requirements along with the need for quick settlements. Security, of course, is important as it always has been. Transaction costs are another challenge. Competition from non-banking players is seen as a forceful change in the payments scenario.

Blockchain technology has great hopes pinned to it in the form of savings in transaction costs involving intermediaries as well as the time lags associated with the transactions. Real time payments with reduced settlement risks are another possible outcome of Blockchain implementation. This is in addition to lessening the threats to data safety, privacy and similar limitations.

2. Asset Management: Global asset management is cumbersome when it comes to clearance and settlement practices. Blockchain promises to simplify processes, bring down costs and delays. Blockchain implementation can speed up decision making, protect data sensitivity and provide much-needed transparency to transactions. This is in addition to simplification in the KYC, client onboarding, trading processes.

3. Trade Finance: Trade is an area that is largely prone to theft and fraud dangers. Documents involved in a trade process such as invoices, Letter of Credit, Bank Guarantees and Bills of Lading are not free from the dangers of forging. This is what Blockchain adoption can eliminate. Since it is a peer to peer network, middlemen are cut off, bringing down instances of cost and time savings. Asset tracking can be made simple as each asset is linked to a generated serial number within the chain. Another instance of the technology making trade finance simpler is in the execution and maintenance of Smart Contracts.

4. Investment Banking: It is said that Blockchain technology could save millions of dollars for investment banks. This includes a huge savings in office infrastructure in addition to savings involved in reconciliation processes, enhancement of data accuracy, transparency in dealings and auditability (Source: Accenture Report on Investment Banking 2017)

5. Capital Markets: Capital markets include a global network of financial institutions that act as trusted intermediaries. Such intermediaries possess volumes of isolated data, leading to challenges in the form of data inaccuracies, processing delays and resultant errors. What the Blockchain can do is to bring down the number of intermediaries and in the process, eliminate many of the earlier roadblocks. Capital markets also gain a number of benefits such as faster clearance and settlements, easier compliance requirements, and the operational efficiencies resulting from a mix of all these benefits.

6. Financial Inclusion: For the many nameless people on the planet, Blockchain can be a way to financial inclusion and creation of own identity. This way they could make more money by selling their wares directly to people who matter, without ever having to go through meddlesome intermediaries. An example is the Blockchain connecting several mobile wallet providers for quick services to people who are in need for money transfers and payments, yet not in a financial network.

7. Insurance Claims: A trusted technology such as Blockchain is the most suited for transformation of the insurance industry. The onus would be on increasing transparency to the entire process. The end-to-end process of insurance starting from customer evaluation down to claims processing is now covered by a haze of mistrust and formidable costs, which prevents even the most eligible parties from reaching out for cover. This is true globally, and is what Blockchain technology can correct. Smart contracts linked to Blockchain can enable a dynamic pricing policy for premiums.

8. KYC Process: Blockchain creates an internal identity process that is aided by storing data in the form of blocks and making this data tamper-proof using a hash format. This ensures greater data security, identity management and fraud prevention in transactions. Banks can be a beneficiary of such automation of KYC, leading to customer experience and loyalty.

9. Banking in general: Though banking as a whole cannot be overthrown by disruptive technologies including Blockchain, there is a greater chance for the industry to undergo a sea change as a result. More transparency, faster processing, cost reduction, bringing down cyber risks plus mediation and central controls will change banking scenarios for the better. Since Blockchain operates with blocks/nodes that are tamper-proof, all transactions that take place in the peer-to-peer network are relayed throughout the blocks and verified. A way forward for banks is to start testing the waters internally by automating back office functions, and gradually extend it to outside operations.

Challenges to Implementation
Blockchain technology needs agreement between the different parties/functionaries as well as regulatory approvals before it can be fully adopted into the various financial service realms. Infrastructural expenses can be another hurdle to adoption as legacy systems can be costly or even suicidal to interrupt, even for a few minutes or hours. Process and people changes are also an essential part of implementation, and this is not often an easy thing to accomplish.

Conclusion
Blockchain will definitely bring about a big wave of transformation into the financial services sector, with focus falling on Payments, Trade Finance and Banking. It may not eliminate intermediaries and banking altogether, but is poised to make the scenario much more customer-friendly and trustworthy.

The post How Blockchain Technology Transforming the Financial Services Sector appeared first on Black Rock IT Solutions – Software Product Engineering Services.

Analytics in AoT

The advantage of AoT is that you can aggregate data from multiple devices and make comparisons across time and users, leading to better decisions. Big Data Analytics analyzes huge volumes of user-generated data in order to support long-term use cases such as predictive maintenance, capacity planning, customer 360 feedback and revenue protection. AoT meanwhile, points to the collecting and compressing of massive amounts of low latency, short duration, and high volume machine generated data coming from a wide variety of sensors, to support real time use cases such as operational optimization, real-time ad bidding, as well as fraud and security breach detection. (*source: Dell EMC)

Example

The example of the Smart Parking and Smart Routing Services feeding new data to AoT, illustrated how this provides a very different view of parking and traffic activities.

Smart Services not only find a static answer when the question is asked, but will continue to actively maintain a best choice throughout the journey in respect of dynamic changes in parking bay availability. AoT adds entirely new and original data sets, which have not been available from traditional sources, from Smart Service requests and outcomes. Some examples of the data available from the above use case are:

1. Starting and destination geo-location shared by the citizen.
2. The true total demand for parking including requests that were unfulfilled.
3. The routes used.
4. The journeys abandoned due to non-availability of a parking bay.

The example of the Smart Parking and Smart Routing Services feeding new data to AoT, illustrated how this provides a very different view of parking and traffic activities.

The computing capacity of ‘Things’ has grown exponentially over the last few years and this has resulted in a change in the way data is analyzed. Many of the early IoT applications were about collecting data from ‘Things’ and sending them elsewhere for analysis. But now the increased computing capacity of ‘Things’ allows complex computation to run on-site. This new trend is referred as Edge computing, as part of the work happens right at the edge of the network where IoT connects the physical world to the Cloud. Edge computing is not just limited to data processing and computation on IoT devices. The vital part of it is a strong and seamless integration between IoT and cloud. Edge computing preserve privacy, reduce latency and is robust to connectivity issues.

Internet of Things is useful only if the “things” are smart, and this will happen through the Analytics of Things. Companies that have taken a data-driven approach are making a lot more progress when compared to traditional businesses. Many large companies are investing in IoT edge analytics as it is the answer to maintenance and usability of data.

The post Analytics of Things: Unleashing the Power of Connected Devices appeared first on Black Rock IT Solutions – Software Product Engineering Services.

Cloud Computing & Mobility

Cloud Computing and Mobility are the two most important game-changers in the healthcare arena. With more and more hospitals moving to the Cloud, storage and access to patient data becomes much easier than before. Mobility enhances remote monitoring and also provides value addition from the information angle. Mobile access makes quality physician time an achievable goal compared to the past. Moreover, mobile apps are being accepted as valuable tools that influence patient health and outcomes.

AI & Chatbots

Artificial Intelligence is the latest buzzword in healthcare. AI makes use of historical patient information to deliver informed decisions and interactions that mimic the physician’s brain. Chatbots use AI based technology to interact with patients in various phases of diagnoses and recovery to accelerate their move towards wellness. IBM’s Watson is already creating waves in the medical field by quickly and accurately diagnosing as well as offering treatment options to cancer patients.

Wearables

It is estimated that wearables are going to be universally adopted by most of the population in the near future. The number of wearable units to be shipped by 2021 is estimated to be nearly 100 million as per reports from a well known research and consulting firm.

Blockchain

Blockchain is a more exciting technology term that we are slowly getting used to. Blockchain implies the presence of a distributed ledger framework, with each block/node comprising of a computer that stores and records transactions occurring in the chain. This means that what transpires as a transaction in the chain cannot be duplicated without the knowledge of all blocks in the chain. This becomes important in healthcare because of the security aspect. An example would be the storage and entry of patient details, such as their medical history or payment details.

IoT

Internet of Things (IoT) is sure to have multifarious applications in healthcare, considering the huge volumes of data to be transmitted to and fro from devices. IoT has endless possibilities in medical services such as remote monitoring, device sensors, and patient outcomes. Though the volume of data collated by sensors and devices can be huge, raising a big challenge to healthcare institutions, IoT cannot be ignored for the larger benefits it can offer to the healthcare space.

Security

Regularly occurring security breaches in hospital information systems make it imperative for healthcare providers to invest in reliable security processes and systems. Financial and human resources are often the barriers to achieving cyber security in healthcare. This calls for wise decisions on spending.

E-Billing
Paper-based billing leads to unnecessary wastage and reduced efficiency. Electronic payment methods speed up billing, cut down paper wastage and associated costs, all the while improving storability. Digital payments also enhance patient experience. Physicians can now concentrate more on patients, avoiding the undue time spent on paper-based/manual documentation.

The post Embracing Technology for the Future of Healthcare appeared first on Black Rock IT Solutions – Software Product Engineering Services.

Traditional Software Development

Earlier methods of software development including waterfall were not focused on agility/speed. These methods lay emphasis on task completion and ignored the need for speed. The development process was separated into phases, testing being the final one. One phase could not overlap the other, or precede it without the other reaching completion. There was plenty of documentation to maintain as well. The result was a slow-paced process that was not user-friendly. Often, requirements had to wait till the next release cycle. The process was by no means an iterative one.

Agile Methodology

Agile methodology was born as a result of the frustrations that arose from the less flexible and cumbersome software development methodologies. A group of disgruntled software leaders who felt short-changed developed the agile methodology as an alternative method that achieved results faster. There are different methods to agile, and scrum is one. In agile, software development process is highly iterative, embracing speed. Then, there are hybrid methods that combined the traditional with agile. Software delivery was slowly undergoing a sea change.

The Birth of DevOps

Agile led to the concept of ‘Continuous Integration,’ ‘Continuous Delivery’ and ‘DevOps’. DevOps is a combination of the two words Development and Operations, indicating a merger between coding & operations. Developers working in tandem with customers are prepared to change ideas and work, based on real-time monitoring from the production environment. Testing is a parallel activity. This creates a paradigm shift in the traditional software development methods, leading to a faster time to market and faster user adoption rates.

Concept of DevOps

DevOps is more focused on outcomes that eliminate siloed working. Collaboration and communication leads to more predictable outcomes. Changes would be accepted and integrated into the product immediately. It brought developers closer to users and other stakeholders. The new method focuses on speed and value add to the user. Quality is enhanced as a result of the enhanced collaboration and communication. As per the 2015 State of DevOps Report, organizations using DevOps implement software 30 times more frequently and with 200 times lower lead times. Their failure rate is 60 times lesser, and they recover 168 times faster.

Success Factors

1. Standardized processes and measurement methods – DevOps will be successful once you have consistent processes and metrics in place. Inconsistency in maintaining records, delivery timelines and processes can cause roadblocks for DevOps outcomes.

2.Metrics Since DevOps is more about outcomes and not about the process itself, we have to ensure that the right outcomes are achieved. Measurement becomes top priority. While speaking about metrics, everything becomes important, right from people, processes, to the technology to user experience.

3. Agility- Another factor important for DevOps is speed. Since speed can only be achieved through automation and minimum levels of human intervention, tools become important. Repetitive tasks that can be minimized need to be deployed using matching tools. All processes, right from development, testing and implementation should have automation integrated for speed.

4. Continuous Feedback- Without a continuous feedback mechanism in place, DevOps is bound to fail. This is because quality enhancement depends directly upon accurate and timely feedback. For DevOps to succeed, it is important that there is a standard feedback mechanism.

Business Benefits

1. Agility- DevOps ensures a greater go to market speed and decides the agility of the enterprise. Faster deployment leads to a faster time to market and possibility of user acceptance. This ensures growth.

2.Customer experience – An obvious outcome of DevOps is enhanced customer experience. This is a combined result of collaboration and communication that eliminates uncertainty. End result is a software product with quality, and this ensures greater customer satisfaction.

3.Alignment with business goals- As DevOps aims at creating value, an alignment with organizational goals is imperative. This means that there is no ambiguity within teams and departments as to what the business wants to achieve. This helps business growth.

4. DevOps is digital transformation – DevOps is an important step in the direction towards digital transformation. By giving businesses the power to be agile, secure and hi-speed, DevOps paves the way for true digital transformation to be achieved.

5. Cultural shift – DevOps in combination with cloud computing can save enterprises millions of dollars in infrastructure and speed.

Conclusion
DevOps seems to be here to stay. It could be a current fad, but we cannot deny the fact that it is something that adds a lot of user value. As per a CapGemini report, 60 percent of the organizations surveyed have implemented DevOps-oriented approach or planning to do so in the next 24 months. It could be sometime before it is adopted on a wider scale by all businesses, but for now, the future seems bright for DevOps.

The post How DevOps Revolutionizing Software Development for Greater Business Agility appeared first on Black Rock IT Solutions – Software Product Engineering Services.

Robotic Process Automation (RPA) is a new technology type that is used to replicate human actions interacting with a computer system. RPA can be used to automate tasks that are otherwise handled by a human, involves time, routine, and high volume work. When combined with machine learning (ML) and artificial intelligence (AI), RPA can be used to deal with varied and challenging business scenarios. The origins of such automation can be traced back to excel macros and screen scraping technologies, using which tasks were automated to a fairly good extent. But this had its own set of limitations and still required considerable human intervention and effort. A similar concept is also used in the case of test automation. Tools such as Selenium allows the recording of user actions and playing it on-demand to test an application. Over the past 4-5 years the technology for process automation matured and tools such as Blue Prism, Datamatics, Pega, etc. evolved, making RPA very popular. These tools are business friendly and requires involvement from IT to deploy the software.

Typical Use Case

Take the example of a customer support center which collates enquiries from end customers. For a company with global operations, this is typically a 24×7 task with a dedicated process team receiving customer emails, acknowledging these mails, allocating the enquiries for follow-up, and lastly, updating information in a CRM application. The above set of processes are repetitive, mundane, effort-intensive and mostly rule-based. When considered for RPA, each of these steps can be configured for the tool to handle with very little human intervention. Once deployed, these software robots can sieve through email inboxes, send acknowledgements upon email receipt, assign enquiries to relevant customer support staff and update the CRM application.

Benefits of RPA

Cost, quality and time are three aspects which are difficult to be improved simultaneously. RPA achieves this end to the best possible extent. It automates mundane and manual tasks, with efficient computer programs or software bots. With RPA, RoI is quick, quality unmatched and there is time saving in addition. Unlike traditional automation techniques, the biggest advantage of RPA is that it does not require any complex programming skills. RPA tools have business-centric interfaces with drag & drop, visual elements making it easier for enterprise adoption. Since the existing IT applications/ infrastructure is untouched, the extent of change management required for deploying the process is also minimal. Since high volume, low-value processes are automated, the need for additional human resources (and associated overheads) is limited when RPA is adopted. Software robots can take over such tasks, whereas cost-intensive human resources can be repurposed to handle core business tasks or drive new business initiatives.

Going Forward

The future of RPA will be closely linked to Machine Learning (ML) and Artificial Intelligence (AI), where rather than handling tasks based on rules, robots will be able to learn and think while handling tasks. The process would then be called cognitive robotic process automation. (CRPA) For example, consider the business scenario where robots are required to receive unstructured data, in different formats. Using ML & AI, robots can be made to learn these formats, interpret unstructured data and then perform automated tasks. This will take RPA to the next level, where human intervention is more or less eliminated to the fullest extent, while handling tasks from start to finish. blackrock recently completed a project where invoices received from different sources are handled using RPA. In the first stage, data from client invoices in the form of PDF files, scanned images, etc. were extracted using software robots. The data is then interpreted & matched against payments made, entries posted into financial accounting software and finally consolidated into daily reports. The project was carried out by the Digital Transformation business unit of blackrock which provides customized solutions to clients within emerging technologies such as RPA and ML/AI.

The post Exploring the Power of Robotic Process Automation (RPA) appeared first on Black Rock IT Solutions – Software Product Engineering Services.

So what is a Blockchain?

A Blockchain is plainly what it sounds like to us, a chain of blocks, except that the blocks are digital nodes (computers) of stored data connected to each other cryptographically. You may ask what is very exciting about this. The answer is that this chain of computers with data is a tamper-proof system nobody can mess with. The data can be anything related to a transaction, such as a contract, bank approval, invoice or certificate of origin. The information stored in one block cannot be altered without the same getting altered in the other blocks. This means that the chain is a very secure place for transactions involving assets of value.

Another feature of Blockchain is that there is no one centralized authority manning it. This makes the chain a more difficult one to manipulate. In addition, all transactions within the chain are permanent and cannot be changed or removed, so each block has a complete understanding of what transpires in the chain.

An interesting fact about blockchain is that the participants need not be known to each other. This is one aspect that allows business users to conduct their transactions with confidence using the chain. Basically, it is the permanency of the data, confidentiality of the participants and the transparency offered simultaneously, that creates such a confidence.

Why is Blockchain technology so refreshingly promising?

Blockchain technology does not isolate itself to a few industries such as fintech and banking, but is showing all the needed signs of being a universal application of technology similar to the internet. This makes it something to look forward to greatly.

Any transaction with value can be based on a blockchain model. Within the blockchain, addition of a fresh transaction will be considered as a new block and recorded as following the previous transaction. All industries will find a potential use for this technology, considering its enormous prospects for transparency, safety and security. Accountability is another added gain from the chain.

Challenges of the traditional supply chain

1. Transparency/visibility across the chain – A biggest traditional supply chain turn-off is the lack of a greater transparency throughout the chain. There is no guarantee for fraud prevention because of this absence of transparency. Delays cannot be tracked or controlled beyond a certain limit, leading to trust issues. Also, ways to know about the origin of a food item or produce is quite limited. When we buy organic food, do we know whether we are paying our hard-earned money to buy genuine organic material? The answer is a big no.
2. Unpredictability / Volatility – Supply chains are vulnerable to external environment changes, leading to delays and cost escalations. This too, is a big challenge for stakeholders involved.
3. Reduced customer experience/Mistrust – Supply chains, due to their volatile nature and lack of transparencies, creates mistrust among customers.
4. Financial Risks – Supply chains are most prone to financial risks involving pilferage, theft and other losses due to uncontrollable and controllable factors such as calamities, low shelf-life of goods and so on. This can be detrimental to customer confidence. Moreover, there are issues with payments. Paper based invoices, banks and such other components can greatly increase risks of fraud, non-payment and consequent delays that create significant losses for businesses.
5. Reduced efficiencies – Since the traditional supply chain is managed by processes that involve human errors, paperwork and other regulatory pressures, efficiencies are reduced to a great extent. Payments are dependent on processing speeds and document approvals, which escalates time to market.

How Blockchain can help overcome traditional supply chain challenges

Blockchain will grow to be the most promising technology for the traditional supply chain. Being decentralized, the chain does not owe allegiance to any single controlling authority. Each transaction (here a movement of goods, it’s receipt or delivery) is indicated as a new data block, and payments released automatically at the creation of these blocks.

Since the blockchain is a very transparent structure, fraudulent activities are a remote possibility. And since transactions are intimated to all participating blocks and reviewed by all relevant parties, trust is of the highest order. For this reason, this technology has the scope to become the numero uno choice of operation for future supply chains. Retailers and CPG businesses have already taken note of this point. Moreover, validation of individual transactions makes blockchain something to vouch for, though it may still be too early for us to assume that the technology is the ultimate answer to all supply chain woes.

Blockchain can provide the below benefits to supply chain participants

1. Enhance visibility and traceability– Often, there is no way that the shippers can access information on the whereabouts of goods they shipped. End users such as retailers are also at a loss to gain insights on the origin or quality of the goods purchased. This weakness of the traditional supply chain is mitigated when it is based on blockchain technology. The digital records in blocks allow individual participants to identify the exact origins of a particular product, be it food or otherwise. In a recent report, Business Insider stated that Walmart uses Blockchain technology to trace its individual goods back to the farm where the product was purchased.
2.Reduced Volatility – To an extent, the volatility and unpredictability involved in a supply chain is reduced significantly if it is blockchain-based. This is because the stakeholders are informed of changes if any, to transactions that are relevant to each of them.
3.Rise in Customer Trust Levels – Blockchain-based supply chains gain the trust of participants and enhance customer experience. This is obvious, considering the transparent nature of the chain as well as the enhanced security. Product traceability causes end customers to be well-informed about the product origins, which eliminates or considerably reduces incidents of counterfeit and fake goods as well.
4. Reduced Financial Risks – Risks involving loss of goods, delay, theft and pilferage are considerably reduced as timely warnings reach the participants who can consistently track the transactions involved over the chain. Blockchain payments are real-time, and invoices are digitally tokenized, leading to reduced losses due to duplicate invoices, non-payments or delays.
5. Savings on cost – Because of reduction in chances of delay and loss, costs involved in such cases is brought down significantly. This leads to huge savings for businesses involved.

Conclusion

All the above are important gains; however, the greatest gain is that blockchain provides accountability in a large measure to supply chain owners/participants. It might take time for the technology to establish deeply. There may be delays in closing certain gaps and loopholes, but it is certain that blockchains are here to stay. Supply chains are luckily, to benefit from all this.

The post Transforming Supply Chains using Blockchain Technology appeared first on Black Rock IT Solutions – Software Product Engineering Services.