Articles

10 Elements of Landing Pages That Convert

Landing pages are central to successful marketing campaigns; they allow you to target particular customers with particular solutions to particular problems.

It’s easy to confuse what a landing page is because users “land” on many pages. When we talk about landing pages, we mean a page that is entirely dedicated to a particular type of customer. In fact, if we could create a unique landing page for each individual user, that would be awesome.

You might think your homepage is a landing page, but it’s not; users reach your landing page in various ways — directly, via organic search, or backlink. A landing page is normally dedicated to a specific marketing campaign. It is accessed from a link in an email, via social media, or most often via a PPC (Pay Per Click) advert.

Here are 10 elements of landing pages that are proven to convert successfully:

1. Use A Single Call To Action

Your potential customers must know how to move forward with your product or service as early in the experience as possible.

Are they signing up for a free trial? Are they signing up for your newsletter? Are they buying a product? Are they contacting you? Whatever you need them to do, make it clear.

The Hick-Hyman law of UX says the more choices you give a user, the less likely they are to make any choice at all; conversely, the fewer choices, the greater the likelihood that they’ll move forward.

Give the user one choice: click the button, or don’t click the button. A single CTA will out-perform multiple options.

2. Keep Forms Simple

Often, your landing page will need a potential customer’s information. They might be creating an account, setting up a trial, or just joining your newsletter.

If the potential customer is signing up for a trial, by all means, ask for their email address. But you don’t need their cell number, their mother’s name, the street they grew up on, their birthday, or any of that other junk that’s used to profile users.

Whatever the purpose, keep your form ultra-simple. That means as few fields as possible. If you really want it, give the user the option to fill it in later as part of an onboarding process — when they’re already invested — but not on the landing page.

3. Make the Headline Punchy

The first thing your potential customer sees on your landing page is the headline, so make it count.

Half a dozen words are usually more than enough. Your goal is to keep it short enough that the potential customer has read the headline before they realize it.

Often, you’ll want to clarify the statement with more information. That’s fine as a sub-heading after you’ve grabbed their interest, but make sure you grab their attention first.

The headline “Coyote Anvils” is best followed by the sub-heading “You’ll be eating roadrunner for dinner!”

Your goal for your headline is to explain your product or service in 2–3 seconds.

4. Center Your Content Around Your Value Proposition

What makes your product or service stand out? What makes it better than the competition? If you’re not sure, spend some time checking out companies in your space.

Creating a value proposition can be one of the toughest challenges a business faces because you need to put yourself in your potential customer’s shoes. But if you get this right, it will carry your marketing. You need to find the benefits within your product or service, not the features.

Value propositions are best when backed by facts. The “World’s Most Accurate Anvils” is best backed by proof: “9/10 coyotes said they were more likely to hit their target than themselves when using our patented AccuAnvil.”

5. Lists, Lists, and More Lists

You’ve got seconds to engage your potential customer, perhaps even less. One way to grab them is with a great headline, but you have to keep them interested beyond the headline.

One great way is bullet lists with short entries. Short-item lists naturally pull our eyes down the page because our eyes take in the whole line in one glance; we don’t need to read to absorb the information.

The longer you can keep someone on the page, the greater the likelihood they’ll keep looking, so pulling them down the page with lists is a great tactic.

6. Exploit the Zeigarnik Effect

The Zeigarnik Effect says that people remember incomplete experiences better than they do completed ones. This is because when a task is seen as completed, it can be filed away as a memory, but if it’s incomplete, then it remains at the front of your mind.

This is a boon for designers creating landing pages because we can create a situation where the potential customer begins an onboarding process and is aware that it hasn’t been completed — they might need to verify their email address, for example.

The lack of completion keeps the landing page and the product or service fresh in the potential customer’s mind. So when they see that onboarding email, they’ll use it.

7. Proof

Anyone can put up a website. It’s easy. And as a result, potential customers don’t necessarily trust you.

One way you can combat this is with some form of proof. That may be in the form of official certifications, or featured testimonials, or just independent reviews.

It rarely occurs to potential customers that you’re cherry-picking the testimonials and reviews you’re choosing to display, so even if only some of your reviews are good, it’s worth including them.

But be careful not to sound too good. If you post nothing but 5* reviews, people will smell a rat; that 3* review may actually do you a favor by making the 5*s seem more genuine.

8. Predictive Images

Potential customers lack imagination, they don’t have all the facts, and unless your product or service is very basic, they may not fully understand what the product does for them.

Use images to quickly show them what life may be like using your product or service. Paint an appealing picture. If they can see themselves in the image, they’ll grant you a little more time to persuade them in the form of further content.

9. Continuity

How did the potential customer arrive at your landing page? Chances are it was via a PPC link, or if you were lucky an organic search link. However they arrived, they were in a certain frame of mind, with a certain problem they wanted to solve; they aren’t going to take kindly to being diverted onto a different train of thought.

Your landing page has to match the tone, style, and value proposition of your adverts. The potential customer’s experience of your organization begins with the advert, not the landing page, so make sure that you don’t break the spell. If your landing page doesn’t match your advert, you could lose the potential customer altogether — and increase your bounce rate while you’re at it.

Remember: the customer was attracted by something in your advert, so give them the same attractive qualities on your landing page.

10. Drop the Nav

Most sites have a single main menu and a rich footer with links to customer service, contact pages, and so forth. These are detrimental on a landing page because you’ll leak traffic to other, less-focused parts of your site.

Your landing page is a streamlined selling machine. The only link you want on the page is your CTA.

It’s fine to keep legal text and even links to privacy policies — users rarely click those anyway. You can also link to your homepage using your logo. But don’t add any navigation that invites a click, or you’ll dilute all the work you’ve put in.

Source

The post 10 Elements of Landing Pages That Convert first appeared on Webdesigner Depot.

Source de l’article sur Webdesignerdepot

28 avril 2021/par Service comm.

20 Best New Websites, April 2021

Actualités, Actualités

This month’s collection contains a combination of big and bold, and clean and minimal. Although basic minimalism is still trendy, with lots of white space and greyscale type, we are seeing it softened with color. This is implemented differently, ranging from hints of off-whites in images to gentle pastels as section backgrounds.

Playing around with type and using typefaces with a few characteristic quirks is another way minimalism is being tempered without negating the overall effect. Plus, we’ve got some strong examples of type rules being deliberately broken to good effect. Enjoy!

Crusta C

The new website for seafood company Crusta C makes clever use of the company’s simple logo mark ‘C’ with a cutout video effect.

How Many Plants

How Many Plants is a guide to house plants and how to look after them. A good combination of illustration and space gives a friendly but efficient feel.

Out of the Valley

Out of the Valley, make bespoke and prefabricated cabins focusing on natural materials and traditional craft. The subtle changes in background color add warmth to the minimal layout.

Saskia Wilson

Portfolio site for photographer Saskia Wilson. This is absolute simplicity, with a clear grid and nice, bold type to bare minimum text.

Made Thought

Design studio Made Thought has some pretty prestigious clients; for a designer, it doesn’t get more prestigious than creating a new brand identity for MoMA. Their bold aesthetic and approach explain their success.

The Great Lake

For-fun sites like The Great Lake are a great way for web creatives to show their skills. This one from designer and front-end developer Anna Sherruble is visually appealing and has some informative content.

Acayaba + Rosenberg

Architects Acayaba + Rosenberg use carefully curated photography and subtle scrolling animation to pull the user in and create a pleasing browsing experience.

Omexco

Soft colors and a well-ordered grid recreate the feel of a mood board that prevents this site for Omexco from appearing cluttered and overly busy while showcasing multiple products.

Johan Belin

For his own site, digital creator Johan Belin has opted to show off his skills by creating this single-page site instead of simply showing work. This can be a risky tactic, but it works here.

La Nouvelle

A combination of contrasting and complementary color combinations creates freshness in this site for digital agency La Nouvelle.

Found

Found Studio’s website uses a very basic grid layout to allow the work to stand out; varying the typeface, weight, and style within sections of text creates individuality.

CKMS

CKMS is a design and build company. Their site is minimal but with a few nice little touches, like the background color change button in the bottom right corner.

Slow

Slow is a collective of people–largely artists, designers, artisans–aiming to implement and live by the slow movement principles. The design of their site reflects these aims, creating a sense of calm and deliberation.

Anne Frank House

Practical information for visiting the Anne Frank House and museum is combined with historical information and educational resources in this thoughtfully structured and visually engaging site.

Runway

Runway is a platform for publishing open-source, pre-trained machine learning models, as well as for training your own models aimed at artists and filmmakers. If this site aims to make the user want to try Runway, it succeeds.

Fat Free

Fat Free video branding agency add warmth to their minimal site with soft color and occasional illustration.

Pinch

The furniture and other interior products produced by Pinch Design aim for a quiet, elegant aesthetic, and their website reflects that with pale grey and generous spacing.

Sentempo

Digital studio Sentempo manages to achieve glossy without being overdone. The star dividers are a nice detail.

One Year

Many companies, including creative agencies, have come up with ‘what we did/achieved in the last year’ microsites. This one from Context Creative succeeds as a good advert for them.

GT Super

This single-page intro to GT Super font has a certain drama in keeping with the font itself and allows you to play around with the size, weight, and style of the font in most sections of the text.

Source

The post 20 Best New Websites, April 2021 first appeared on Webdesigner Depot.

Source de l’article sur Webdesignerdepot

26 avril 2021/par Service comm.

3 Effective Ways To Improve Your Site’s Carbon Footprint

Actualités, Actualités

At the dawn of the web-era, there was much focus on how environmentally friendly websites were: we’d chop down fewer trees, ship fewer products, and travel less for business.

And because the web was small, any negative impact it had was relatively small. But the Internet’s no longer small, and neither is the impact it has on the environment. The average website uses 211,000g of CO2 per year, watching a video online outputs an estimated 0.2g of CO2 per second, and a single email can cost 50g of CO2.

In the next four years, the tech industry as a whole may use up to 20% of the world’s electricity and be responsible for 5.5% of global CO2 emissions.

The good news is that because websites are viewed many times, even small improvements can multiply into real change.

1. Reduce Energy Consumption

Through electricity use, the Internet generates around the same CO2 as most major countries. That carbon comes from two sources: the devices we use to access the Internet and the servers that host our data.

Computers heat up, and when they heat up, they slow down. Servers are especially vulnerable and use extraordinary amounts of energy to keep cool and functional, which is why Microsoft keeps throwing servers into the sea.

Make It Faster

The faster your site, the less data is used to serve it, and the less carbon it’s outputting; it’s that simple.

Reduce the Number of Resources Used

Everything you load on your site has an impact. You might think that a tiny PNG is too small to really impact your carbon footprint, but over thousands of page loads, its impact is multiplied. Anything you can do to reduce the number of actual files requested will reduce your carbon output. You can use sites like Ecograder to estimate your own site’s CO2 output.

Optimize Images

If there’s one thing you can do to reduce the size of your site, the amount of data that needs to be sent over the Internet to serve your site, and the resulting speed, it’s optimizing your images.

Nothing reduces a site’s footprint like optimizing images. It’s easy and free to reduce the size of JPGs and PNGs with a service like TinyPNG. Offer WebP to any browser that will accept them; it will boost your Lighthouse score and improve your CO2 usage.

Lazy Load Images

Lazy loading images means images are loaded as they are required; images at the top of a page always load, images further down only load when the user scrolls to them; if the user doesn’t scroll to the bottom of the page, they don’t load, saving you CO2.

Reduce The Amount Of JavaScript You Use

Yes, JavaScript is awesome. Yes, it can be hugely beneficial to UX. And yes, it munches on energy like it’s candy.

When a web page loads, it’s done, the total cost is in. If JavaScript keeps running in the background, redrawing the screen based on user interaction — as is the case with a parallax site — the web page keeps using up energy on the device.

Choose a Sustainable Hosting Company

You can reduce the power needs of a site, but you can’t eliminate them. One simple step is to opt for a hosting company that gets its electricity from sustainable sources such as wind power or solar.

Low←Tech Magazine is powered by a server that runs on solar energy and carries a warning that it may go offline. But it’s possible to host both reliably and sustainably. Many web hosts outsource their actual server management, so they have no control over how those servers are powered, but there are plenty of exceptions that guarantee green web hosting. Google Cloud aims to be the cleanest in the cloud industry. For green web hosting, I always recommend the all-round superb Kualo.

2. Be Inclusive

One of the biggest issues with the EV (Electric Vehicle) movement is that we’re replacing cars earlier than we normally would in a rush to move to “clean” driving.

A new EV certainly outputs less than a gas-powered vehicle when driven the same distance. Combine increased use — because owners think they are driving cleanly — with the fact that a new EV has to be manufactured, the minerals for batteries have to be mined (in horrific conditions), and it then needs to be shipped to you, and EVs are not as friendly as they appear — so go ahead, buy that vintage Porsche it’s probably better for the environment than a Tesla.

Support Legacy Devices

The same issue that applies to cars applies to devices. Every time we rush ahead to support the latest iPhone, we leave older generations behind. A device can and should last longer than two years.

This is not to say that you shouldn’t embrace modern web standards. Technologies like CSS Grid are excellent at reducing markup size and speeding up sites. CSS Grid has been well supported for over four years, and even “legacy” devices can handle it. If you can keep a phone for an extra six months, the environmental cost of that phone is reduced by 20%.

3. Help Users Make Good Choices

More and more people are trying to make good choices. We’re eating a healthier, balanced diet. We’re recycling clothes. We’re traveling by bike, and on foot, instead of by car. People want to do the right thing, and they seek out companies that aid them.

Improve Navigation

Anything that you can do to make your content more findable will mean fewer page loads and therefore consume fewer resources.

By improving your information architecture, improving your search accuracy, and improving on-page signposts like bread crumbs and link text, you help users find content faster.

Feelgood Feedback

When the environmental impact of a user’s actions are quantifiable, let them know. Users who care will appreciate it, and users who don’t will ignore it.

Raileurope.com adds a note to any quotation letting you know how much carbon you’ve saved by traveling by train instead of flying.

Don’t Remove the Shipping Rate

Many ecommerce sites offer free shipping, especially above a certain order value; it’s a good way to encourage higher sales. But absorbing the shipping cost implies that there is no shipping. By highlighting the shipping costs, even if they’re not passed on to the customer, you remind them that there is an environmental cost and a financial cost.

You can absorb the shipping rate without implying there is no cost by adding the shipping and then explicitly deducting it as a discount.

Sustainable Web Design Is Good For Business

The fundamentals of good web design are the fundamentals of sustainable web design.

Make it fast and usable, and you’ll also be making it energy efficient. Make it inclusive, and you’ll help the industry slow the ever-growing tendency to consume. Make it transparent, and you’ll help your users make good choices of their own. All of these things are not only good for the environment, but they also result in improved UX and SEO.

Featured image via Pexels.

Source

The post 3 Effective Ways To Improve Your Site’s Carbon Footprint first appeared on Webdesigner Depot.

Source de l’article sur Webdesignerdepot

22 avril 2021/par Service comm.

9 Tips for Better Live Logo Design

Actualités, Actualités

Have you ever wondered why we’re so amazed by motion? A moving image is more likely to grab your attention than a static one. Motion is exciting and attention-grabbing – plus, it allows us to access more information in a short space of time.

For a while now, companies have been experimenting with all kinds of motion and animation in their design choices. We’ve seen the rise of animated website backgrounds or live-playing videos instead of images on a home page. There are videos and 360-degree pictures on product pages to help people get a better view of certain items and immersive AR experiences on apps.

So why has the power of motion not made its way into the logo design landscape yet?

Sure, there are a few examples of animated logos out there, but they haven’t had the same long-lasting impact as animated websites. Perhaps that’s because people don’t have the right tools to bring their animated logos to life?

Today, we’re going to cover some top tips for live logo design.

1. Understand What “Live Logo” Means

An animated logo or live logo can be a powerful tool in a company’s branding strategy. Although there’s more to a company’s identity than its logo, it’s fair to say that logos make a huge difference to how we feel about brands and their identity.

A powerful logo can make an emotional connection with your target audience and help your brand to thrive in virtually any environment. Live logos, or animated logos, bring more attention to the brand image, by helping a customer to focus on the logo’s action. A live logo might tell a story about what the business does through motion, or just be eye-catching.

The level of animation varies depending on the designer, but it can go all the way from a short video presentation to a few simple moves. The Skype logo is an excellent example of something simple, that multiple designers have played with to great effect.

Today, there are plenty of open-access tools helping to create more immersive animated graphics in the logo design world. Additionally, the types of animation available are becoming more impressive all the time.

2. Explore the Types of Logo Animation

The next stage of properly leveraged live logos, is knowing what kinds of logo animation are available. There are plenty of different styles of animation to explore today, depending on the kind of impact you want to have.

For instance, sometimes the animation you choose will be connected to your business. A vehicle company might have a logo that seems to “drive” into the central space on the screen. An electricity company might choose a logo that pulses like an electric charge. This animated FedEx logo is an excellent example of how animation can show what a business does.

Options for animation might include:

Rotation: Make an emblem stand out by moving it to the sides or allowing it to move on its axis. Rotation gives a logo a sense of 3D space.
Appearance/Disappearance: You can make a logo grow on the screen by bringing to life one pixel at a time, or have it dissolve and disappear in a similar way.
Transformation: Your logo doesn’t have to start out in the shape it’s going to achieve. You might start with a seed that gradually grows into a tree-shaped logo for a gardening company, for example.
Replacement: Another great way to tell a story is to replace a graphic related to the company in question with the logo through an immersive animated experience.

3. Set Goals for the Live Logo

If you’re not sure what kind of animations to experiment with, then it’s a good idea to start with some solid goals. Your goals will give you a direction to move in with your logo choices. An animated logo can be a dynamic and modern way to present a brand to an audience, but it’s only going to be effective when implemented carefully.

Let’s look at some of the goals you can choose for your live logo:

Differentiation: While it’s true that animation and live content is gaining more attention lately, it’s still relatively new as an overall concept. With an animated logo, you could help a brand to create a more unique image for themselves, which sets them apart from the other organisations in the same space.
Storytelling: As mentioned above, animated logos can tell a story about what the company or product actually does. In this example for Firefox, for instance, the logo mimics a loading wheel to demonstrate a speedy internet browser.
Brand awareness: Dynamic logos and animations are more likely to capture your audience’s attention than static images. They’re also more of a novel experience, which means that customers might want to share them with other people too.
Memorability: Today’s customers are bombarded by hundreds, if not thousands of logos all the time. They need something special to convince them that one image deserves a spot at the front of their mind. Animation can help to make a business more memorable.

4. Do Your Research

Doing your own research is an excellent way to get some inspiration for a live logo or animation. Ideally, you’ll want to focus on the industry you’re already working in, as this will give you some guidance as to the kind of movement that can attract the most attention from the correct audience.

Watch as intros to brand videos and check out as many live logos as you can. Check out the kind of animations that people use in their videos when they’re showcasing products online. You can learn a lot about what works just by evaluating what other people have done before. Just be careful not to simply copy what you’ve found elsewhere.

The aim of your live animation should be to tell a unique story about the company

The aim of your live animation should be to tell a unique story about the company in question. If you’re not sure how to start with differentiating the image, check out the brand guidelines for the company in question. The guidelines that the company used to choose the right brand colors, fonts, and other visual assets can work just as well for your animation strategy.

Remember, the aim here is to tell a specific story, send a message, or evoke a certain emotion. Don’t make the mistake of designing something that looks cool but doesn’t have much of a purchase. Most human beings will naturally look for the meaning behind the content that they see. If there isn’t anything there, it’ll just lead to confusion.

5. Use Live Logos on Brand Websites

The most obvious way to begin experimenting with animated logos in web design, is to implement live logos into a client’s website. Some companies have a “welcome screen” for their site which uses an animation to introduce visitors to the home page and other navigation options. There are also brands out there who love the impact that animation can have but want to use it more subtly.

In these cases, live logos can be an excellent way to draw the eye to a specific spot on a website, perhaps the area just above the “contact” button that encourages a client to reach out. Crucially, to avoid weighing down the website and distracting visitors, companies and designers will need to make some important choices.

Although it might be tempting to keep the animation looping at all times, just in case someone misses the first round, this requires a lot of extra processing power. Too much animation also makes it harder for businesses to push the focus of their visitors to other points on the website, like landing pages for products, or testimonial pages.

Often, as with most innovative decisions in web-design, the best bet is usually to start small and work your way up. Don’t over-do it with animation on day one. See how the visitors to the website respond first.

6. Find the Right Balance

Animations in a live logo are there to grab attention quickly, and effectively. They shouldn’t go on for too long, or you risk overwhelming your audience before they have a chance to browse the rest of the website or check out other content. A live logo should only be active for a few seconds at most, and in that time, it needs to say something valuable.

Often, the best strategy is to start by building up curiosity, and getting your viewer engaged so that they’re keen to see more. Every frame will count to pull the customer in and make them feel connected to the brand in question.

Make sure that the logo animation is dynamic so that it doesn’t just capture the attention of the viewer but maintain their interest for the full time required. During the motion, the viewer’s brain should be working to figure out what’s going to happen next.

Just like most logo design and graphic animation strategies, the key to success is finding the right balance between clever experiences, and simplicity. You want to do something meaningful that earns your viewer’s attention, but you need to compete with the fact that attention spans are plummeting all the time.

7. Explore Logo Animation in Video

One of the best ways to use logo animation, is to draw interest for a company at the beginning of a video. Video is gaining incredible levels of popularity lately, particularly in a world where you can view video content almost anywhere. Companies are adding videos to their product pages, social media accounts, applications, websites, and so much more .

For the majority of companies, a live logo at the start of a video can help their brand to seem more professional. It’s a reminder to viewers of the brand that they’re learning about with that video content. Plus, a logo at the beginning of a piece of video content can also build on the consistency that companies attempt to create by using the same brand assets in various mediums online.

(Starting a video with an animated logo is great for presentation, but it can also be frustrating to customers in certain pieces of content where they’re looking for quick answers to questions. If an animated logo is more than a couple of seconds long, it may be better placed at the back of a video instead.)

With videos for news reports or announcements where you want to get straight to the point and generate excitement about a new product or service, it can be better to jump straight into action. Ending a video with a live logo keeps the brand image front of mind for the customer for longer, even after the message has ended. On the other hand, ending a video with a logo could increase the chances that customers miss the animation, because they click away from the content too quickly.

If you’re new to adding live logos into videos, consider experimenting with different strategies to see which works best. Different companies might get unique results.

8. Bring Logo Animation to the Real World

Another interesting option for live logo design, could be to step outside of the computer screen for a while. In today’s digitally transforming landscape, it’s becoming more common to see the real and digital worlds converging. Most events and trade-shows come with presentations that rely on digital content, like animated presentations and slide shows.

Depending on the signage solutions available at industry events, companies could even use an animated logo above their booth to draw attention in a cluttered environment. Around 48% of exhibitors agree that a more eye-catching stand or booth is often the most effective way to attract visitors and customers at an event.

Animation and live logos may have started life on the computer screen, but they can appear in much more diverse environments today. Offices could use a live logo in the reception room or lobby to make their on-premises environment more appealing. Retail locations could display ads on digital signage, followed by live logos that work to both separate messages, and keep shoppers entertained when they’re enjoying the bricks-and-mortar experience.

9. Include Live Logos in Brand Signatures

Remember, a live logo doesn’t just have to sit on a company’s app or website until someone discovers it. Sometimes, the right logo can also be a powerful way to “sign off” on a message from a brand or its management team. For instance, email remains to be one of the most valuable tools for business marketing and customer relationship building today.

It’s the third most influential source of content and news for a lot of B2B audiences, and yet, most companies aren’t taking full advantage of what their email marketing software solutions are capable of. If you can display gifs and animated videos in an email (which most software solutions can), then you can also add a live logo to the brand signature.

The important thing to remember is that if you’re going to be adding a signature to a lightweight thing, like an email, it needs to be lightweight too. Don’t make the live logo too long and complicated, or it might prevent the email from loading properly.

Outside of email, don’t forget to consider options for live logos in things like social media profile pictures too. According to experts, around 80% of companies use visual assets in their social media marketing. A live logo is a great way to go beyond the basics with a company’s imagery. Motion grabs attention, and video content is quickly gaining steam on a lot of social media platforms.

Embracing a New World of Live Animation

Designers are only just beginning to scratch the surface of what’s possible with animated logos. For many companies, live logos are an excellent way to capture audience attention and encourage engagement with a brand.

A live logo at the beginning of a video, at the start of an app loading screen, or even at the top of a website can differentiate a company and make them stand out. As technology continues to evolve, and customer expectations continue to expand, the options for live animation could continue to grow. You might even be able to infuse live logos with elements of VR and AR, to impart brand essence in a brand-new digital world.

If you haven’t begun experimenting with live logo design yet, now could be the time to start.

Featured image, via Gav Five.

Source

The post 9 Tips for Better Live Logo Design first appeared on Webdesigner Depot.

Source de l’article sur Webdesignerdepot

14 avril 2021/par Service comm.

Il est temps de mettre votre ERP à niveau ? Guide pour le remplacement de votre ancien ERP

Actualités, ERP & Applications, SAP

Etes-vous satisfait de votre système ERP ? Est-il temps de le mettre à niveau ? Vous avez peut-être écouté les témoignages de vos pairs quant à leur passage à des ERP modernes. Ou peut-être ressentez-vous le besoin de mettre en place de nouveaux processus pour rester compétitif et répondre aux attentes de vos clients, nouveaux processus que votre système actuel ne peut proposer. Quoi qu’il en soit, il est toujours bon d’évaluer en continu les performances du système, d’identifier les axes d’amélioration et d’anticiper les problèmes qui pourraient subvenir.

Le système ERP parfait existe-t-il ?

La réponse courte est « non ». Et même si le système parfait existait pour vos besoins spécifiques à un moment donné, ces besoins évoluent en permanence. Il faut donc garder le contrôle, évaluer dans quelle mesure votre ERP répond à vos besoins actuels et identifier les tendances qui pourraient entraîner des problèmes.

Il est en vogue de qualifier les systèmes installés de « legacy ERP ». Ce qui suggère une ancienne technologie et des systèmes obsolètes. C’est injuste car de nombreux systèmes installés sont régulièrement entretenus, mis à niveau et pleinement capables d’évoluer, de s’adapter, aux nouveaux besoins.

Cela dit, les mises à niveau des ERP sont facultatives, bien que fortement encouragées par les fournisseurs. Il est important de se tenir au courant des corrections et des améliorations disponibles. En cas de problèmes ou tendances défavorables, assurez-vous que votre système dispose de toutes les mises à jour et de la dernière version. Regardez ensuite si votre fournisseur propose des modules complémentaires ou des améliorations qui pourraient remédier aux lacunes constatées. Déterminez ce qu’il faudrait pour mettre en œuvre ces correctifs, en termes d’argent et d’efforts, et utilisez ces informations pour évaluer le coût du maintien de votre solution actuelle.

Votre logiciel ERP vous laisse-t-il tomber ?

En résumé, gardez votre système ERP à jour. Surveillez aussi de près ses performances. Les besoins, les vôtres comme ceux de vos clients, vont évoluer. Vous devez donc vous assurer que votre système ERP peut y répondre.

L’auto-évaluation mentionnée ci-dessus peut vous aider à identifier les défaillances et les sujets de préoccupation, par exemple :

Votre système est incapable de répondre aux nouveaux besoins ou limite les nouvelles initiatives.
Il ne prend pas en charge les nouvelles technologies et normes, ou seulement avec difficulté, à coût élevé et avec des retards. Le fournisseur est lent à intégrer de nouveaux éléments et nouvelles fonctionnalités.
Les fonctions sont difficiles à maîtriser et à utiliser, et nuisent à l’efficacité au lieu de la favoriser.
Le temps de réponse est excessivement lent. Le stockage et la récupération de l’information sont inadéquats, lourds ou ne répondent tout simplement pas aux besoins actuels en constante expansion.
Le système est coûteux et difficile à maintenir et à gérer, et ne bénéficie pas d’un soutien adéquat de la part de votre fournisseur.
Si votre système est vraiment un ancien ERP dont l’assistance du fournisseur s’amenuise, ou dont l’assistance technique se réduit, les programmeurs et analystes compétents deviendront plus chers et plus difficiles à trouver à mesure que le système deviendra plus obsolète et moins fiable.

C’est le genre de problèmes qui peuvent évoluer lentement et passer inaperçus pendant longtemps. Puis, soudain, il devient évident que les lacunes du système causent de graves problèmes - et qu’il faut faire quelque chose.

Combien dépensez-vous pour votre ERP ?

De nombreuses entreprises sont surprises lorsqu’elles font l’analyse et découvrent ce qu’il en coûte réellement pour maintenir leur système ERP existant en place et opérationnel. Cela peut sembler curieux pour les ETI, qui surveillent généralement de très près leurs dépenses. Mais il n’est pas toujours facile de distinguer les coûts directs et indirects associés à l’ERP.

Outre les frais mensuels et annuels versés au(x) fournisseur(s) de logiciels et au(x) fournisseur(s) de matériel, il y a des dépenses courantes pour le service et l’assistance de vos différents fournisseurs de services (par exemple service matériel, conseil ou réseau). N’oubliez pas d’inclure les coûts de mise à jour si vous avez détecté (ou pensez) que des mises à jour ou des améliorations sont nécessaires pour résoudre des problèmes existants ou anticipés, comme indiqué ci-dessus.

Considérez également les coûts internes directs du département informatique, y compris les salaires et les avantages, les locaux, les commodités et les fournitures. Essayez de distinguer ceux qui soutiennent directement votre ERP. N’oubliez pas qu’au moins certains de ces coûts subsisteront après la mise à niveau et le déploiement d’un nouveau système, surtout si vous remplacez un système traditionnel sur site par un autre système sur site. La structure des coûts pour les logiciels SaaS (Software-as-a-Service) basés sur le cloud est différente, mais vous aurez toujours besoin d’un point de comparaison pour prendre une décision défendable. Que cette décision soit de garder votre système actuel, de commencer une mise à niveau ERP ou de poursuivre un remplacement.

Quel serait le coût d’un nouveau système ?

Le coût potentiel du passage à un nouveau système ERP vous inquiète ? C’est compréhensible. Un nouveau système ERP est probablement l’une des plus grosses dépenses en équipement non productif qu’une entreprise fera au cours d’une année donnée. Néanmoins, par rapport aux avantages offerts et au montant dépensé pour le maintien du système actuel, la plupart des entreprises estiment que le coût est tout à fait raisonnable et justifiable. N’oubliez pas de penser en termes de coûts du cycle de vie – le coût total sur une période donnée, par exemple cinq à sept ans.

Lorsque vous examinez le coût d’acquisition et de déploiement d’un système de remplacement, sachez que les coûts du matériel et des licences logicielles ne sont qu’une partie de l’équation. Vous devez également inclure les éléments suivants dans votre évaluation :

La mise en réseau et les périphériques tels que les scanners de codes-barres, les appareils mobiles et les logiciels clients, ainsi que l’assistance.
La conversion et la saisie des données dans le nouveau système, ainsi que les dispositions pour l’archivage et l’accès aux enregistrements historiques.
La préparation aux sinistres, y compris les systèmes de sauvegarde ou de basculement, les ressources de récupération des données, la connectivité redondante et les communications.
La formation de l’équipe de déploiement de l’ERP et de tous les futurs utilisateurs (ce point est d’une importance capitale, ne le négligez pas).
Le développement et la documentation de nouveaux flux de travail.
L’assistance à l’implémentation. Il est probable qu’un certain niveau d’assistance sera inclus dans l’offre du fournisseur principal du système. Mais vous voudrez peut-être faire appel à une assistance supplémentaire du ou des fournisseurs, à des consultants externes, à votre cabinet comptable ou à d’autres personnes pour certains ou tous les éléments énumérés ci-dessus.
La charge supplémentaire pour vos employés pendant le déploiement sous forme d’heures supplémentaires, d’embauche d’intérimaires pour les aider dans leurs tâches habituelles afin qu’ils aient le temps de travailler sur le déploiement, ou de primes et autres incitations pour maintenir la motivation des salariés.

Sachez que la structure des coûts des systèmes SaaS basés sur le cloud est très différente de l’approche traditionnelle d’achat et d’implémentation sur site. Avec le SaaS, il y a peu ou pas de frais initiaux pour le matériel, car il s’agit essentiellement d’un abonnement. Un contrat SaaS inclut généralement une grande partie des coûts de maintenance et d’assistance. De sorte que vos coûts informatiques internes courants seront considérablement réduits. La plupart des entreprises estiment que le coût total sur cinq à sept ans avec un contrat SaaS sera probablement inférieur au coût total de l’achat et de la gestion en interne.

Au moment de prendre la décision de conserver votre système actuel ou d’envisager un remplacement, pensez aux bénéfices que vous pouvez en tirer. Avec une nouvelle solution ERP, vous bénéficierez d’une interface utilisateur moderne, de capacités et de fonctions supplémentaires, et vous améliorerez votre avantage concurrentiel. Tandis que si vous conservez votre ancien système, vous limitez votre capacité à rester agile, productif et compétitif. Bien que vous ne cherchiez pas en premier lieu à réaliser des économies, les exemples de réussite avec des ERP modernes démontrent que les bénéfices du passage à un nouveau système sont souvent moins coûteux et compensent les frais de mise à niveau.

Comment justifier financièrement un nouveau système ERP ?

Lorsqu’elles prennent une décision de cette importance, la plupart des entreprises exigent une analyse coûts-avantages sous la forme d’un retour sur investissement (ROI) attendu. Le côté coûts est facile : additionnez les coûts prévus comme indiqué ci-dessus. Du côté des avantages, il peut y avoir des économies directes sur les coûts informatiques, mais pour énumérer les principaux avantages, l’entreprise doit prévoir comment le système changera l’environnement de travail et permettra d’améliorer les performances, la productivité et le service à la clientèle.

Amélioration des performances : De nombreux projets ERP se justifient par les améliorations attendues en termes d’efficacité (réduction de la main-d’œuvre directe) et de réduction des coûts (y compris, mais sans s’y limiter, la réduction des stocks). Sachez toutefois que le système ne crée pas ces avantages par sa simple implémentation. Le système organise, analyse et présente les données de manière à ce que les responsables puissent mieux utiliser les ressources humaines et prendre de meilleures décisions, et c’est cela qui apporte les plus grands bénéfices. Gardez cela à l’esprit lorsque vous établissez un budget pour la formation des utilisateurs et pour la mise en œuvre de procédures améliorées.
Un meilleur service à la clientèle : Ces avantages sont moins directs, mais encore plus importants. En améliorant le service à la clientèle, vous pouvez théoriquement augmenter les ventes et les bénéfices, accroître votre part de marché et peut-être même augmenter vos marges, car un bon service à la clientèle apporte une valeur ajoutée au client sans ajouter de coût au produit lui-même. Dans certains cas, les améliorations du service à la clientèle deviennent une condition de survie. Car lorsqu’un nouveau ou un gros client attend des fonctionnalités telles que la transmission électronique des commandes ou l’amélioration des rapports informatisés, votre système ERP doit être à la hauteur.
Changements de l’environnement de travail : les systèmes d’aujourd’hui sont conçus pour être faciles à utiliser (l’UX, l’expérience utilisateur, est le mot actuellement à la mode) pour un accès rapide et facile à l’information. Le travail et le flux de travail de chaque utilisateur étant uniques, les systèmes actuels sont hautement personnalisés pour offrir à chacun les écrans et les processus de travail les plus efficaces et confortables. Cette efficacité accrue permettra aux salariés d’en faire plus et de gérer un plus grand volume d’affaires sans avoir besoin d’embaucher. Notez qu’il est déconseillé de justifier le système par une réduction des effectifs. Cela ne se produira probablement pas et la perspective de suppressions d’emplois ne motivera pas les salariés à adopter le système et à contribuer à son succès.

La sélection d’un ERP n’est qu’un début

Tout en suivant les conseils pour évaluer les systèmes ERP, gardez à l’esprit que le remplacement des systèmes existants n’est pas un processus simple ou rapide, mais qu’il vaut la peine car il peut apporter des avantages considérables lorsque l’ERP est correctement sélectionné et déployé.

La question que la plupart des entreprises se posent à ce stade est la suivante : « Combien de temps faut-il pour choisir et remplacer un système existant ? » Il n’y a pas de réponse unique. Cela dépend de la taille et de la complexité de l’organisation, du fait que l’un ou l’autre ou les deux systèmes (ancien et nouveau) soient basés sur le cloud, de la dynamique de l’entreprise et de l’équipe de déploiement, du niveau d’engagement de la direction dans le projet, et du degré de coopération ou de résistance au sein de la communauté des utilisateurs… pour ne citer que quelques-unes des variables. Certains déploiements peuvent être réalisés en quelques mois, d’autres prennent un an ou plus. Un partenaire expérimenté peut vous aider à établir un calendrier réaliste lorsque vous définissez votre plan de projet.

Nous n’avons pas besoin de vous répéter que le remplacement de votre système ERP sera forcément perturbant. S’il n’est pas possible de totalement les éviter, les perturbations peuvent cependant être minimisées grâce à un déploiement bien planifié et géré.

The post Il est temps de mettre votre ERP à niveau ? Guide pour le remplacement de votre ancien ERP appeared first on SAP France News.

Source de l’article sur sap.com

13 avril 2021/par Service comm.

Faurecia choisit SAP SuccessFactors pour développer une nouvelle expérience collaborateur

Actualités, ERP & Applications, Ressources Humaines, SAP

SAP annonce ce jour que l’équipementier automobile Faurecia a choisi SAP et SuccessFactors pour l’accompagner dans la digitalisation de ses processus RH afin de valoriser le potentiel de ses employés tout en leur permettant d’évoluer dans leur carrière de manière proactive.

Avec ses 266 sites industriels, 39 centres de R&D et ses 114 000 employés présents dans 35 pays, Faurecia est l’un des dix premiers équipementiers automobiles mondiaux proposant des solutions pour la Mobilité Durable et le Cockpit du Futur.

Simplifier les processus RH et développer les talents

Le SIRH de Faurecia s’est construit sur la base du développement de l’entreprise et des acquisitions externes, comptant jusqu’à 65 systèmes de paie différents.

Pour offrir un nouvelle expérience collaborateur, Faurecia a décidé de centraliser toutes ses données RH et la gestion de la paie en un unique endroit et une seule interface. L’objectif : promouvoir le développement individuel et profiter d’un panorama complet des processus RH qu’il s’agisse de la formation, la définition des objectifs et l’évaluation des performances des collaborateurs, la gestion des salaires et du personnel.

En choisissant SAP SuccessFactors, Faurecia a fait le choix d’un système collaboratif et accessible qui accompagne le développement du potentiel des collaborateurs par la formation, le management direct et les ressources humaines.

Des collaborateurs acteurs de leur carrière

Grâce à l’implémentation de la solution SAP SuccessFactors, Faurecia dispose d’un accès aux évaluations de performance et aux modèles de compétences de ses employés dans le monde entier, afin de leur proposer des formations adaptées à leurs objectifs et parcours professionnel. Cela offre aux managers la possibilité de mieux accompagner les salariés dans leur développement et leurs évolutions de carrière.

La mise en place de SAP SuccessFactors a permis à l’entreprise de profiter d’une source de donnée unique et d’une solution de paie intégrée facilitant de suivi des processus RH et la gestion de l’architecture du SIRH. Les informations RH sont dorénavant centralisées en un même endroit et accessibles en temps réel. Avec SAP SuccessFactors Mobile App, les managers peuvent organiser des entretiens à tout moment, depuis leur téléphone, avec tous les renseignements nécessaires sur le candidat. Grâce à l’intégration de SAP On-Prem Payroll et de Employees Central, le Groupe bénéficie de données de meilleure qualité et de l’enregistrement automatisé des informations RH.

Très bien accueillie par l’ensemble des collaborateurs grâce à une communication régulière, la solution est aujourd’hui pleinement adoptée par l’ensemble des acteurs de l’entreprise.

« SAP SuccessFactors a complètement changé la manière de promouvoir la formation en interne. Aujourd’hui, les employés peuvent d’eux-mêmes avoir accès au catalogue de formations et être pleinement acteur de leur développement professionnel. Nous profitons également de données plus qualitatives grâce à un système unique pour la paie et pour tous les processus RH facilitant ainsi notre visibilité sur le parcours des collaborateurs », explique Laurent Villemagne, Vice President, Group HR Information Systems & Controlling.

À propos de Faurecia

Fondé en 1997, Faurecia est devenu un acteur majeur de l’industrie automobile mondiale. Avec 266 sites industriels, 39 centres de R&D et 114 000 collaborateurs répartis dans 35 pays, Faurecia est un leader mondial dans ses quatre domaines d’activités : Seating, Interiors, Clarion Electronics et Clean Mobility. Son offre technologique forte fournit aux constructeurs automobiles des solutions pour le Cockpit du futur et la Mobilité durable. En 2020, le Groupe a réalisé un chiffre d’affaires de 14,7 milliards d’euros.

À propos de SAP

La stratégie de SAP vise à aider chaque organisation à fonctionner en “entreprise intelligente”. En tant que leader du marché des logiciels d’application d’entreprise, nous aidons les entreprises de toutes tailles et de tous secteurs à opérer au mieux : 77 % des transactions commerciales mondiales entrent en contact avec un système SAP®. Nos technologies de Machine Learning, d’Internet des objets (IoT) et d’analytique avancées aident nos clients à transformer leurs activités en “entreprises intelligentes”. SAP permet aux personnes et aux organisations d’avoir une vision approfondie de leur business et favorise la collaboration afin qu’elles puissent garder une longueur d’avance sur leurs concurrents. Nous simplifions la technologie afin que les entreprises puissent utiliser nos logiciels comme elles le souhaitent – sans interruption. Notre suite d’applications et de services de bout en bout permet aux clients privés et publics de 25 secteurs d’activité dans le monde de fonctionner de manière rentable, de s’adapter en permanence et de faire la différence. Avec son réseau mondial de clients, partenaires, employés et leaders d’opinion, SAP aide le monde à mieux fonctionner et à améliorer la vie de chacun. Pour plus d’informations, visitez le site www.sap.com .

Contacts presse :

Daniel Margato, Directeur Communication : 06 64 25 38 08 – daniel.margato@sap.com
Pauline Barriere : 06.13.73.93.11– presse-sap@publicisconsultants.com
SAP News Center. Suivez SAP sur Twitter : @SAPNews.

The post Faurecia choisit SAP SuccessFactors pour développer une nouvelle expérience collaborateur appeared first on SAP France News.

Source de l’article sur sap.com

12 avril 2021/par Service comm.

Qu’est-ce que le data management ?

Actualités, ERP & Applications, SAP

Les données jouent un rôle clé dans le fonctionnement des entreprises. Il est donc essentiel de leur donner du sens et de déterminer leur pertinence parmi la multitude d’informations générées par les systèmes et technologies qui soutiennent nos économies mondiales hautement connectées. Les données sont omniprésentes, mais inutiles en tant que telles. Pour exploiter toutes les formes de données et les utiliser de manière pratique et efficace dans les chaînes logistiques, les réseaux d’employés, les écosystèmes de clients et de partenaires, etc., les entreprises doivent mettre en œuvre une stratégie, une gouvernance et un modèle de data management performants.

Qu’est-ce que le data management (ou gestion des données) ? Le data management consiste à collecter, organiser et accéder aux données en vue d’améliorer la productivité, l’efficacité et la prise de décision. Compte tenu de l’importance accrue des données, il est essentiel que toute entreprise, indépendamment de sa taille et de son secteur d’activité, mette en place un système moderne et une stratégie efficace de data management.

Petite infographie qui illustre les principaux éléments du data management

Le processus de data management comprend un large éventail de tâches et de procédures. Par exemple :

Collecte, traitement, validation et stockage des données
Intégration de différents types de données émanant de sources disparates, notamment des données structurées et non structurées
Haute disponibilité des données et restauration après sinistre
Gestion de l’utilisation des données et de l’accès aux données par les collaborateurs et les applications
Protection et sécurisation des données en garantissant leur confidentialité

Pourquoi le data management est-il important ?

Les applications, solutions analytiques et algorithmes utilisés dans une entreprise (c’est-à-dire les règles et les processus associés au moyen desquels les ordinateurs résolvent les problèmes et exécutent les tâches) reposent sur un accès transparent aux données. Fondamentalement, un système de data management permet de garantir la sécurité, la disponibilité et l’exactitude des données. Mais ses avantages ne s’arrêtent pas là.

Transformer le Big Data en actif à forte valeur ajoutée

Les données trop volumineuses peuvent être inutiles, voire nuisibles, si elles ne sont pas gérées de manière appropriée. Toutefois, avec les outils adéquats, les entreprises peuvent exploiter le Big Data pour enrichir plus que jamais les renseignements dont elles disposent et améliorer leurs capacités prévisionnelles. Le Big Data peut les aider à mieux comprendre les attentes de leurs clients et à leur offrir une expérience exceptionnelle. L’analyse et l’interprétation du Big Data permet également de mettre en place de nouveaux modèles de gestion axés sur les données, tels que les offres de services basées sur l’Internet des Objets (IoT) en temps réel et les données de capteurs.

163 zettaoctets de données en 2025 (IDC)

80 % des données mondiales seront non structurées en 2025 (IDC)

Les Big Data sont des ensembles de données extrêmement volumineux, souvent caractérisés par les cinq V : le volume de données collectées, la variété des types de données, la vitesse à laquelle les données sont générées, la véracité des données et leur valeur.

Il est bien connu que les entreprises pilotées par les données disposent d’un avantage concurrentiel majeur. En utilisant des outils avancés, les entreprises peuvent gérer des volumes de données plus importants provenant de sources plus diversifiées que jamais. Elles peuvent aussi exploiter des données très variées, structurées et non structurées ou en temps réel, notamment les données des dispositifs IoT, les fichiers audio et vidéo, les données du parcours de navigation sur Internet et les commentaires sur les réseaux sociaux, ce qui leur offre davantage de possibilités de monétiser les données et de les utiliser comme véritable actif.

Créer une infrastructure de données qui favorise la transformation numérique

On dit souvent que les données sont le moteur de la transformation numérique. L’intelligence artificielle (IA), le machine learning, l’Industrie 4.0, les analyses avancées, l’Internet des Objets et l’automatisation intelligente requièrent d’énormes volumes de données ponctuelles, exactes et sécurisées.

L’importance des données et des technologies axées sur les données n’a fait que se renforcer depuis l’apparition de la COVID-19. De nombreuses entreprises ressentent le besoin urgent d’exploiter leurs données de manière plus efficace pour prévoir les événements à venir, réagir rapidement et intégrer la résilience dans leurs plans et modèles de gestion.

Le machine learning, par exemple, requiert des ensembles de données extrêmement volumineux et diversifiés pour « apprendre », identifier des modèles complexes, résoudre les problèmes et assurer la mise à jour et l’exécution efficace des modèles et algorithmes. Les analyses avancées (qui exploitent souvent l’apprentissage automatique) requièrent également de gros volumes de données de haute qualité pour pouvoir générer des informations pertinentes et exploitables qui puissent être utilisées en toute confiance. Quant à l’IoT et l’IoT industriel, ils s’exécutent sur un flux constant de données de machines et capteurs à 1,6 millions de kilomètres par minute.

Les données sont le dénominateur commun de tout projet de transformation numérique. Pour transformer leurs processus, tirer parti des nouvelles technologies et devenir intelligentes, les entreprises doivent disposer d’une infrastructure de données solide. En résumé, d’un système de data management moderne.

« La survie de toute entreprise dépendra d’une architecture agile centrée sur les données, capable de s’adapter au rythme constant du changement. »

Donald Feinberg, vice-président de Gartner

Garantir la conformité aux lois en matière de confidentialité des données

Une gestion appropriée des données est également essentielle pour garantir la conformité aux lois nationales et internationales en matière de confidentialité des données, telles que le Règlement général sur la protection des données (RGPD) et la loi californienne sur la protection de la vie privée des consommateurs (California Consumer Privacy Act ou « CCPA ») aux États-Unis, et répondre aux exigences de confidentialité et de sécurité spécifiques du secteur. En outre, il est essentiel de mettre en place des politiques et procédures solides en matière de data management pour satisfaire aux exigences d’audit.

Systèmes et composants du data management

Les systèmes de data management reposent sur des plates-formes et intègrent une combinaison de composants et processus qui vous aident à tirer profit de vos données. Il peut s’agir de systèmes de gestion de base de données, d’entrepôts de données, de lacs de données, d’outils d’intégration de données, d’outils analytiques, etc.

Systèmes de gestion de base de données (SGBD)

Il existe différents types de systèmes de gestion de base de données. Les systèmes les plus courants sont les systèmes de gestion de base de données relationnelle (SGBDR), les systèmes de gestion de base de données orientée objet (SGBDOO), les bases de données in-memory et les bases de données en colonnes.

Petite infographie des différents types de systèmes de gestion de base de données

Système de Gestion de Base de Données Relationnelle (SGBDR) :il s’agit d’un système qui contient des définitions de données permettant aux programmes et aux systèmes d’extraction de référencer les éléments de données par nom, plutôt que de décrire à chaque fois la structure et l’emplacement des données. En fonction du modèle relationnel, le système SGBDR gère également les relations entre les éléments de données qui améliorent l’accès et empêchent les doublons. Par exemple, la définition et les caractéristiques de base d’un élément sont stockées une seule fois et liées aux lignes de détail des commandes clients et aux tables de détermination du prix.
Système de Gestion de Base de Données Orientée Objet (SGBDOO) :il s’agit d’une approche différente de la définition et du stockage de données, développée et utilisée par les développeurs de systèmes de programmation orientée objet (SPOO). Les données sont stockées en tant qu’objets, entités autonomes et auto-décrites, plutôt que dans des tables à l’image du système SGBDR.
Base de données in-memory :une base de données in-memory (BDIM) stocke les données dans la mémoire principale (RAM) d’un ordinateur, plutôt que sur un lecteur de disque. L’extraction des données étant beaucoup plus rapide qu’à partir d’un système basé sur disque, les bases de données in-memory sont couramment utilisées par les applications qui exigent des temps de réponse rapides. Par exemple, les données qu’il fallait auparavant compiler dans un rapport sont désormais accessibles et peuvent être analysées en quelques minutes, voire quelques secondes.
Base de données en colonnes : une base de données en colonnes stocke des groupes de données liées (une « colonne » d’informations) pour y accéder plus rapidement. Cette base de données est utilisée dans les applications de gestion in-memory modernes et dans de nombreuses applications d’entrepôt de données autonomes dans lesquelles la vitesse d’extraction (d’un éventail de données limité) est importante.

Entrepôts et lacs de données

Entrepôt de données :un entrepôt de données est un référentiel central de données cumulées à partir de différentes sources à des fins de reporting et d’analyse.
Lac de données :un lac de données est un vaste pool de données stockées dans leur format brut ou naturel. Les lacs de données sont généralement utilisés pour stocker le Big Data, y compris les données structurées, non structurées et semi-structurées.

Gestion des données de base (MDM)

La gestion des données de base est une discipline qui consiste à créer une référence de base fiable (référence unique) de toutes les données de gestion importantes, telles que les données produit, les données client, les données d’actifs, les données financières, etc. Elle garantit que l’entreprise n’utilise pas plusieurs versions potentiellement incohérentes des données dans ses différentes activités, y compris dans les processus, les opérations, l’analyse et le reporting. La consolidation des données, la gouvernance des données et la gestion de la qualité des données constituent les trois piliers clés d’une gestion des données de base efficace.

« Une discipline basée sur la technologie dans laquelle l’entreprise et l’organisation informatique collaborent pour garantir l’uniformité, la précision, l’administration, la cohérence sémantique et la responsabilité des ressources de données de base partagées officielles de l’entreprise. »

Définition de la gestion des données de base par Gartner

Gestion du Big Data

De nouveaux types de bases de données et d’outils ont été développés pour gérer le Big Data : d’énormes volumes de données structurées, non structurées et semi-structurées inondent les entreprises aujourd’hui. Outre les infrastructures basées sur le Cloud et les techniques de traitement hautement efficaces mises en place pour gérer le volume et la vitesse, de nouvelles approches ont vu le jour pour interpréter et gérer la variété de données. Pour que les outils de data management puissent comprendre et utiliser différents types de données non structurées, par exemple, de nouveaux processus de prétraitement permettent d’identifier et de classer les éléments de données en vue de faciliter leur stockage et leur extraction.

Intégration des données

L’intégration des données consiste à intégrer, transformer, combiner et mettre à disposition les données à l’endroit et au moment où les utilisateurs en ont besoin. Cette intégration s’effectue dans l’entreprise et au-delà, chez les partenaires et dans les cas d’utilisation et les sources de données tierces, pour répondre aux besoins de consommation de données de toutes les applications et de tous les processus de gestion. Les techniques utilisées incluent le déplacement des données en masse/par lots, l’extraction, la transformation, le chargement (ETL), la capture des données de modification, la réplication des données, la virtualisation des données, l’intégration des données de streaming, l’orchestration des données, etc.

Gouvernance, sécurité et conformité des données

La gouvernance des données est un ensemble de règles et de responsabilités visant à garantir la disponibilité, la qualité, la conformité et la sécurité des données dans toute l’organisation. Elle définit l’infrastructure et désigne les collaborateurs (ou postes) au sein d’une organisation dotés du pouvoir et de la responsabilité nécessaires pour assurer le traitement et la sauvegarde de types de données spécifiques. La gouvernance des données est un aspect clé de la conformité. Alors que les mécanismes de stockage, de traitement et de sécurité sont gérés par les systèmes, la gouvernance des collaborateurs permet de s’assurer que les données sont exactes, correctement gérées et protégées avant d’être entrées dans les systèmes, lorsqu’elles sont utilisées, puis lorsqu’elles sont extraites des systèmes à d’autres fins d’utilisation et de stockage. La gouvernance détermine comment les responsables utilisent les processus et les technologies pour gérer et protéger les données.

La sécurité des données est bien évidemment une préoccupation majeure dans notre monde actuel constamment menacé par les pirates informatiques, les virus, les cyberattaques et les violations de données. Bien que la sécurité soit intégrée dans les systèmes et les applications, la gouvernance des données garantit que ces systèmes sont correctement configurés et administrés pour protéger les données, et que les procédures et les responsabilités sont appliquées pour assurer leur protection en dehors des systèmes et de la base de données.

Business Intelligence et analyses

La plupart des systèmes de data management, sinon tous, incluent des outils de reporting et d’extraction des données de base, et beaucoup d’entre eux intègrent ou sont fournis avec de puissantes applications d’extraction, d’analyses et de reporting. Les applications d’analyses et de reporting sont également disponibles auprès de développeurs tiers et sont presque toujours incluses dans le groupe d’applications en tant que fonctionnalité standard ou en tant que module complémentaire facultatif pour des fonctionnalités plus avancées.

La puissance des systèmes de data management actuels réside, dans une large mesure, dans les outils d’extraction ad hoc qui permettent aux utilisateurs disposant d’un minimum de formation de créer leurs propres extractions de données à l’écran et d’imprimer des rapports en bénéficiant d’une grande flexibilité dans la mise en forme, les calculs, les tris et les résumés. En outre, les professionnels peuvent utiliser ces outils ou des jeux d’outils d’analyses plus avancés pour aller encore plus loin en termes de calculs, comparaisons, mathématiques abstraites et mises en forme. Les nouvelles applications analytiques permettent de relier les bases de données traditionnelles, les entrepôts de données et les lacs de données pour intégrer le Big Data aux données des applications de gestion en vue d’améliorer les prévisions, les analyses et la planification.

Qu’est-ce qu’une stratégie de gestion des données d’entreprise et quelle est son utilité ?

De nombreuses entreprises se sont montrées passives dans leur approche de stratégie de data management en acceptant ce que leur fournisseur d’applications de gestion avait intégré dans leurs systèmes. Mais cela ne suffit plus. Avec l’explosion actuelle des données et leur importance accrue dans le fonctionnement de toute entreprise, il devient indispensable d’adopter une approche plus proactive et plus globale du data management. D’un point de vue pratique, cela implique de définir une stratégie des données visant à :

identifier les types de données spécifiques utiles à votre entreprise ;
attribuer des responsabilités pour chaque type de données ; et
définir des procédures régissant l’acquisition, la collecte et la gestion de ces données.

La mise en œuvre d’une infrastructure et d’une stratégie de gestion des données d’entreprise offre notamment l’avantage de fédérer l’entreprise, en coordonnant toutes les activités et décisions à l’appui de ses objectifs, à savoir offrir des produits et des services de qualité de manière efficace. Une stratégie globale de data management et une intégration transparente des données permettent de décloisonner les informations. Elles aident chaque service, responsable et employé à mieux comprendre sa contribution individuelle à la réussite de l’entreprise, et à adopter des décisions et des actions alignées sur ces objectifs.

Évolution du data management

La gestion efficace des données joue un rôle clé dans la réussite des entreprises depuis plus de 50 ans : elle permet d’améliorer la précision du reporting, de repérer les tendances et de prendre de meilleures décisions pour favoriser la transformation numérique et exploiter les nouvelles technologies et les nouveaux modèles de gestion. Les données représentent aujourd’hui une nouvelle forme de capital et les organisations visionnaires sont toujours à l’affût de nouveaux moyens de les exploiter à leur avantage. Ces dernières tendances en matière de data management méritent d’être surveillées et peuvent être pertinentes pour votre entreprise et votre secteur d’activité :

Structure de données : la plupart des entreprises disposent aujourd’hui de différents types de données déployées sur site et dans le Cloud, et utilisent plusieurs systèmes de gestion de bases de données, outils et technologies de traitement. Une structure de données, qui est une combinaison personnalisée d’architecture et de technologie, utilise une intégration et une orchestration dynamiques des données pour permettre un accès et un partage transparents des données dans un environnement distribué.
Data management dans le Cloud :de nombreuses entreprises se sont mises à migrer tout ou partie de leur plateforme de gestion des données dans le Cloud. Le data management dans le Cloud offre tous les avantages du Cloud, notamment l’évolutivité, la sécurité avancée des données, l’amélioration de l’accès aux données, les sauvegardes automatisées et la restauration après sinistre, les économies de coûts, etc. Les solutions de base de données Cloud et base de données en tant que service (DBaaS), les entrepôts de données Cloud et les lacs de données Cloud montent en puissance.
Data management augmenté :c’est l’une des dernières tendances. Identifiée par Gartner comme une technologie au potentiel perturbateur d’ici 2022, la gestion des données augmentée exploite l’IA et l’apprentissage automatique pour donner aux processus de gestion la capacité de s’autoconfigurer et s’autorégler. Le data management augmenté automatise tout, de la qualité des données et de la gestion des données de base jusqu’à l’intégration des données, ce qui permet au personnel technique qualifié de se concentrer sur des tâches à plus forte valeur ajoutée.

« D’ici 2022, les tâches manuelles de data management seront réduites de 45 % grâce à l’apprentissage automatique et à la gestion automatisée des niveaux de service. »

– Gartner

Analyse augmentée : l’analyse augmentée, une autre tendance technologique de pointe identifiée par Gartner, est en train d’émerger. L’analyse augmentée exploite l’intelligence artificielle, l’apprentissage automatique et le traitement du langage naturel (TLN) pour rechercher automatiquement les informations les plus importantes, mais aussi pour démocratiser l’accès aux analyses avancées afin que tous les collaborateurs, et pas uniquement les experts en Big Data, puissent interroger leurs données et obtenir des réponses d’une manière naturelle et conversationnelle.

Découvrez d’autres termes et tendances en matière de data management.

Synthèse

L’information est dérivée des données et si elle synonyme de pouvoir, cela signifie que la gestion et l’exploitation efficaces de vos données pourraient représenter une formidable opportunité de croissance pour votre entreprise. Les responsabilités en matière de data management et le rôle des analystes de bases de données (DBA) évoluent vers un modèle d’agent du changement, qui favorise l’adoption du Cloud, exploite les nouvelles tendances et technologies et apporte une valeur stratégique à l’entreprise.

Solutions de data management et de bases de données

Découvrez comment SAP peut vous aider à gérer, administrer et intégrer vos données d’entreprise pour disposer d’analyses fiables et prendre des décisions avisées.

Publié en anglais sur insights.sap.com

The post Qu’est-ce que le data management ? appeared first on SAP France News.

Source de l’article sur sap.com

8 avril 2021/par Service comm.

15 Useful Tools & Resources Worth Checking Out

Actualités, Actualités

As a web designer, you face plenty of challenges, both good and bad. One of the bad ones is to suddenly find out that you’re either in danger of missing a client’s deadline or will be unable to meet it at all.

A missed deadline could be due to something beyond your control and no fault of your own. There are measures you can take to avoid what you do have control over. Such as not having the right design tool or design resources to do a task that has to be done.

An ounce of prevention can definitely be worth a pound of cure in this case. Before starting a project, make sure the tool or tools you will be using will be up to the task.

The 15 design tools presented here are the tops in their respective categories. You should be better able to handle whatever is thrown at you.

1. Be Theme

Its more than 200,000 sales to date have certainly established the BeTheme multipurpose WordPress theme as an all-time favorite among web designers.

In truth, “multipurpose” doesn’t do BeTheme justice. Users might argue that “all-purpose” would be a more accurate description.

Be’s 40+ core features give web designers plenty to work with in terms of page-building tools, design aids, design options, and special effects.

Most notably:

The Muffin Builder, which when used with other core features, makes building a website quick, easy, and coding-free;
The Admin Panel/Shortcode Generator combo gives all the flexibility designers need;
BeTheme’s 600+ customizable pre-built websites could well be the star of the show. They cover 30 business sectors and all the popular website types, they are customizable, responsive, and feature cool UX features, and they can get any project off to a rapid start.

Click on the banner to learn more about Be’s other core features.

2. Timezy Booking Software

Timezy will help you create a booking environment that works best for your business by allowing clients and customers to book your services as easily as possible. You can then integrate Timezy into your website to streamline and speed up your booking operation.

Clients and customers can book appointments online 24/7;
They can receive real-time email notifications and reminders;
Timezy can be integrated with Zoom;
You can reorder steps on the booking form to fit your needs;
Timezy can be used to manage employee assignments and schedules, vacations, and special days.

If you lack a website of your own, Timezy will provide you with a modern web page you can customize to fit your brand for clients to book appointments at any time.

3. wpDataTables

wpDataTables is the top-selling and most powerful WordPress table and chart-building plugin on the market. There are other good ones, but their table and chart-building capabilities quickly become inadequate as you go down the list of what wpDataTables can do that most others cannot.

wpDataTables key features and capabilities:

The ability to create interactive and responsive tables and charts;
The ability to create frontend editable and easily maintainable tables and charts;
The ability to rapidly process massive amounts of data that come in various formats and from various sources;
The ability to build tables and charts using real-time data.

You can also brighten up or improve a table or chart’s readability by highlighting or color-coding key information.

Click on the banner to find out more about what this plugin can do for you.

4. LayerSlider

LayerSlider is not for sliders only. This multipurpose WordPress tool can also be used to create eye-catching animations and engaging content.

Add a little spice to a stale website;
Create popups with stunning effects to interact better with visitors;
Avoid coding, since LayerSlider is drag and drop.

This popular design tool has been assisting web designers for nearly a decade and serves millions of active monthly users.

5. Amelia Booking Plugin

Amelia is a user-friendly WordPress booking plugin you can use to manage your appointments and events on a single platform.

Clients can instantly book, change, or cancel appointments online 24/7;
Employees and customers can manage meetings, appointments, and events from their own dashboards;
Amelia can be integrated with Zoom to conduct training or consultation sessions;
Amelia can also create packages of services with discounts and validity periods.

Amelia can service multiple business locations.

6. Uncode – Creative Multiuse & WooCommerce WordPress Theme

With its more than 80.000 sales to date, Uncode has become one of ThemeForest’s all-time best sellers.

You can create custom layouts and designs with Uncode’s Dynamic Content feature and use them as templates for category pages;
Uncode features the WooCommerce Product Builder, custom Checkout, Cart, My Account, Quick-View, etc.

Uncode has a comprehensive library of tutorial videos and a showcase of user-created websites that is well worth visiting.

7. Total WordPress Theme

Created with perfection in mind, Total is nonetheless an extremely user-friendly WordPress theme.

This drag and drop website building tool’s extreme flexibility allows users to create any type or style of website;
The WPBakery page builder is accompanied by an assortment of custom modules;
Total is RTL and Translation-ready and easily integrates with WooCommerce;
Total is developer-friendly.

Click on the banner to learn more.

8. Dr. Link Check

Dr. Link Check saves you the inconvenience of having to periodically conduct a manual search of your site for broken links.

Dr. Link Check inspects for:

Broken links and improper URL formatting;
Blacklisted malicious content links;
Websites that do not contain any valuable content, including ad-only sites.

Dr. Link Check publishes downloadable daily, weekly, or monthly reports.

9. Mobirise Website Builder

Mobirise is not only a top tool for creating fast, responsive, user-friendly websites. It also has the advantages of being offline. Mobirise is also free.

Factors that contribute to Mobirise’s excellent performance include:

Google Amp and Bootstrap 4 frameworks;
Professionally-crafted website templates, popups, sliders, and eCommerce features;
Mobirise is all drag and drop.

Click on the banner to download your very own copy.

10. 8b Website Builder

When a website builder is fast, free, responsive, user friendly, and Google-friendly as well, it is certainly worthy of consideration.

The 8b website builder:

Allows you to create websites at home or on the go on any device;
Features templates and website sections designed to get projects off to a rapid start;
It gives your site a Google ranking with a couple of clicks;
It can be hosted wherever you want.

Download your copy now.

11. WHATFONTIS

WhatFontIs, with its database of more than 700K commercial and free fonts and font-finding AI functionality enables you to identify fonts from images you upload.

This top-of-the-line font-finding tool:

Identifies an uploaded font 90% of the time;
Gives answers in seconds;
Identifies cursive fonts (the letters in the image must be separated);
Displays 60+ similar fonts for each uploaded image.

12. Litho – The Multipurpose HTML5 Template

Litho is a responsive multipurpose Bootstrap 4 HTML5 template that gives startups, design agencies, and other businesses an ideal website-building starting point.

Litho’s features include:

Cool selections of ready-made home pages, inner pages, and template blocks;
Page styles for portfolio, shop, and blogging sites;
Sliders, banners, forms, and other creative design elements.

Litho offers 5-star professional support.

13. XStore – The Most Customizable WooCommerce Theme Ever

XStore may be the best tool anyone could have at their fingertips when looking for a fast and easy way to create a high-performance eCommerce website – for only $39.

XStore’s key features include:

100+ customizable ready-to-go shops;
$500+ worth of premium WordPress plugins;
A Single Product builder and a Header builder.

14. Goodiewebsite

GOODIE’s web development platform assists clients who are eager to get a professionally-coded website quickly up and running.

GOODIE’s services focus on:

Web designers seeking a development partner;
Startups looking for ways to test their ideas and concepts;
Small businesses seeking an online presence or improvement of an existing one.

GOODIE’s specialties include 1-10 page, WordPress, and eCommerce websites.

15. Heroic Inbox

There are several excellent reasons for letting Heroic Inbox manage your business’s departmental email inboxes.

They include:

Encouraging efficient staff collaboration on email assignments and responses;
Helping staff members accomplish and maintain Inbox Zero status;
Tracking key team performance metrics.

Two key Heroic Inbox features are its smart workflows and a fast and friendly UI.

Every web designer owns a toolbox of tips and tricks they use in their website building projects. Even when a toolbox is superbly stocked, it is always challenging to keep it up to date. Doing so requires maintaining a knowledge of the latest and greatest web design resources and tools—some of which you may need to meet ever-changing industry demands.

This article features the top tools & resources for designers and agencies for 2021. Choosing one or more of them could not only help you stay on top of your game but could even make your day.

Source

The post 15 Useful Tools & Resources Worth Checking Out first appeared on Webdesigner Depot.

Source de l’article sur Webdesignerdepot

31 mars 2021/par Service comm.

The Most Comprehensive Grammarly Review Ever

Actualités, Actualités

Who is Grammarly for? Can a grammar checking tool like Grammarly replace a human editor and proofreader? Is the Grammarly checker worth it? Are the Grammarly free checks sufficient for me, or should I upgrade to Grammarly Premium? Should I install Grammarly on Chrome? How effective is Grammarly for Word? Is downloading the Grammarly desktop app worth it? You have questions…all of which we’re going to answer.

I have been using Grammarly regularly for proofreading my documents and emails since 2015 and have witnessed its evolution as a product firsthand. After checking over three million words during this period, I can confidently say that Grammarly has come a long way. Raising $200M in total funding at a valuation of $1B+ so far, and with more than a million downloads per month, Grammarly is now a top-1000 website by traffic worldwide.

I write a lot, so Grammarly has been my go-to writing assistant for correcting passages and enhancing my writing. I first tried the Free version, and in May 2020, I upgraded to the Premium version, finally! Grammarly Premium is a great tool that takes care of most of your writing, proofreading, and plagiarism-checking needs for intensive work.

In this article, I’ll explain what Grammarly is, its features, what it does (functions of all versions and products), the pros and cons of using Grammarly, my rating of Grammarly, who should use the Free version, and who should use the Premium version and the difference between the two. I’ll also explain how to use Grammarly properly. I’ll then compare it with other popular tools and suggest which ones suit your needs. In the end, I’ll leave you with my final assessment and FAQs.

What is Grammarly?

Grammarly is an online digital writing assistant that checks for a range of English grammar and spelling mistakes. It also helps enhance the writing through its excellent context-based clarity suggestions (Premium version).

Grammarly is a writing aid that checks not only for spelling slights, grammar rules, and clarity issues but also identifies the tone of the writing to provide relevant instructions through its Error Cards. It also has a plagiarism checking tool, which is available with the Premium version.

Grammarly employs AI (Artificial Intelligence) and NLP (Natural Language Processing) to check the content for all possible syntactic and semantic issues. Although it has an extensive database, it is still incomparable to human proofreading and professional editing, especially when it comes to understanding the context of the writing.

Grammarly Overview For Beginners – Compatible, Accessible

Grammarly is astonishingly easy to use, primarily due to its compatibility via the Browser Extension/Add-on, from which you can use it on millions of websites. Moreover, its other product forms, i.e., the Online Editor (Web App), Desktop Application, MS Word/Outlook Add-in, and the Grammarly Keyboard for iOS/Android, make it accessible everywhere.

How Does Grammarly Work?

It automatically detects issues in the content in the Desktop App, the Online Editor, and the browser (even in Google Docs, which is in Beta at this time) via its add-on. Yet, for the MS Word Add-in, you have to click the Grammarly button to activate the app. Grammarly explains all detected issues via an Error Card that contains relevant information for each item. You can implement it by clicking the suggestion, ‘Ignore’ the problem, or ‘Add to Dictionary’ (in case of a spelling issue). You can also provide feedback (if you think that the suggestion is wrong). The Free version checks only for spelling and critical grammar mistakes. The Premium version also reveals a ton of advanced ‘Clarity Issues.’

The Tone Detector helps you estimate the entire document’s tone, which can be valuable for many writers who target a particular audience, e.g., formal writing for the business audience.

Limitations of Grammarly (For Beginners)

Grammarly, overall, excels at almost all the things it does, and therefore the free version is recommended for everyone. Grammarly provides a generic readability score. Advanced grammar checks like the clarity checker, the plagiarism checker, and many other features are not available for the free version.

Grammarly is dominant amongst its competition, but it doesn’t solve all English language problems. It is useful at picking syntactic mistakes but still misses significant semantic errors, which can be a problem for people who are not particularly adept at English — as they won’t notice these slips.

The Good	The Bad	& The Ugly
Ease of use – simple, intuitive, and efficient interface	English language only	Tad expensive (notably the monthly subscription at $29.95 per month)
Context-based grammar checking	Not 100% accurate (primarily misses linguistic bloopers)	No free trial for the premium version.
Fantastic grammar checker	Business account starts at three users and charges per number of users (can be a bit expensive for small businesses)	Only one account (license) for the premium version. You can use it on up to five devices.
Convenient tone detector	Insufficient as a standalone tool (doesn’t do everything)	Incomplete sentences can sometimes go undetected
The insightful error cards are instructional and productive (they help you to improve your writing)	Unlike ProWritingAid and Hemmingway Editor, it doesn’t provide much information about the whole passage, Grammarly’s scoring is generic right now	No substitutes are suggested in many cases. Example: synonyms, rephrasing suggestions for the intricate text, etc.
Integrates well with MS Word, Outlook, WordPress, emails, social media, and millions of websites	The free version is limited to fundamental grammar and spelling mistakes	Cannot determine contextually incorrect sentences (it cannot perceive the meaning of the written document)
Knowledge-base	The premium version identifies repeated words but sometimes doesn’t provide a suitable alternative to use	Short on vocabulary suggestions (not as competent as the free thesaurus writing tool)
The Grammarly keyboard is available for Android & iOS for FREE	Free version shows the number of advanced clarity mistakes but doesn’t tell you what those mistakes are and where they are	The formatting tool is rudimentary. You have to write in another text editor and then import it to the Grammarly Editor to format your writing accurately
Personal dictionary	Google Docs is not supported yet (in Beta).	Restricted to English only, and it also doesn’t translate other languages as Ginger does.
The adjust goal option allows you to customize Grammarly’s feedback.	It can miss simple semantic issues, which sometimes can be caught by text editors like Google Docs and MS Word.
Formatting remains the same if you import/upload a document, but it changes if you copy/paste.	Plagiarism Detector is not available for the free version.
Weekly writing stats (sent to user email) can help you identify your problem areas	The browser extension can malfunction, i.e., opening and closing the Grammarly editor within a website (sometimes) duplicates the content
Option to download the detailed performance statistics as a PDF	Sometimes Grammarly doesn’t catch all mistakes on the first try. You have to refresh or scroll to let it run again and see if it finds new issues
Grammarly blog teaches English grammar rules, writing techniques, and more
Context-based checker is more accurate than competitors
Provides rephrasing suggestions for complicated sentences
The premium version excels at catching inconsistencies

Who Should Use Grammarly?

Free:

Everyone

Despite being limited, Grammarly (free version) is a phenomenal tool. Therefore, I would heartily recommend it to everyone. It’s free, and it’s convenient.

The free version should be everyone’s go-to tool for proofreading social media statuses, tweets, and comments. It is also crucial for editing all sorts of short-form writing, such as emails. Professional writers can also use the free version to catch typos and basic grammar mistakes.

Premium:

Professional Writers
Authors
Bloggers
Students
Businesses that require extensive writing
Marketers/Advertisers
Content Creators
Editors and Proofreaders

Apart from all the necessary features offered in the Grammarly free version, Grammarly Premium provides several other valuable elements such as an advanced clarity checker and a robust plagiarism checker. All these help you enhance your writing effectively.

Grammarly Premium is a helpful tool for people who are already adept at English as it still requires plenty of work on catching semantic errors. Businesses and Professional writers who do intensive writing should give the Premium version a go. From writing, editing, and proofreading to plagiarism checking, it is almost an All-in-One solution (though not a substitute for a human proofreader – at least yet).

Who Shouldn’t Use Grammarly?

Free:

Students
English Learners

People, especially students who cannot learn from their mistakes, should avoid relying on Grammarly as it can hinder their learning process.

Granted, Instructional Error Cards and Weekly Writing Stats (emailed to the user) can pinpoint your weak points, but educating yourself from there on is entirely up to you.

Just like ‘Auto-correct’ hinders people’s ability to learn proper spellings, Grammarly can do that for learning grammar rules.

Premium:

Amateur Writers
Infrequent Users

Grammarly is an excellent tool, but it still makes slips, which can be misleading for amateurs who don’t have a solid grip on the English language. Therefore, if you are not proficient enough in English, you should only subscribe to Grammarly Premium if you can remember that it is not a replacement for a human teacher or a proofreader. Or, you can continue using the Free version, which is competent enough to check fundamental grammar and spelling oversights.

Furthermore, businesses and professionals who are infrequent users can stick to the Free version if they feel they will not be making the most of the Premium version.

Grammarly vs. Basic Text Editors

A comparison with basic text editors will illustrate Grammarly’s true potential:

Microsoft Word

Microsoft Word is the most popular and feature-packed text editor. It includes a basic grammar and spelling checker that catches typos in real-time. However, MS Word is very limited in its grammar checking capabilities.

I’ve written many articles using Microsoft Word, which were considered error-free by the text editor. However, when I put the same documents in Grammarly’s Editor, there’d always be some critical mistakes caught by the Free version and some clarity or consistency mistakes pointed out by the Premium version.

Grammarly finds inconsistent punctuation that MS Word missed.

Google Docs

Google Docs is another mighty text editor, which is free to use. It also has numerous features, including spelling and grammar checking. Google Docs’ grammar and spelling check software only flag issues with an alternative in its database; otherwise, it ignores them. It auto-corrects the obvious spelling blunders. It can also pick missing determiners (articles) better than Microsoft Word. However, once again, when compared to Grammarly, Google Docs falls far behind in exposing slip-ups.

Grammarly in Google Docs.

Google Docs performs a little better than MS Word when it comes to punctuation, yet it is incomparable to Grammarly, which is in Beta for Google Docs.

How to Write Better With Grammarly

Grammarly proofreads content written in English (American, British, Australian, and Canadian) and gives detailed performance statistics. Weekly Writing Statistics are emailed to the user account, and you can download a complete PDF that extensively illustrates your performance.

From scoring to pointing out all mistakes and amendments, Grammarly doles out a comprehensive document that you can use to improve your weak areas. Grammarly can function as your teacher in this regard if you learn from these mistakes and try to improve your performance, especially in areas pointed out by the software.

Try Grammarly for yourself.

All Grammarly Products

Grammarly is available in the following product versions:

Grammarly for Business (3 or more users)
Grammarly @edu (for Educational Organizations/Institutes)
Grammarly Premium
Grammarly Free

All these versions are usable in the following product forms:

1. Online Editor

Grammarly’s web application acts as an online editor to upload a document, copy/paste content, or write directly. It has a 4MB size-limit and a 100,000 characters-limit (about 60 pages). When you upload a file, a pop-up tells you that your document formatting will restore when downloaded.

Grammarly’s interface for the online version and the desktop app is identical, and it is outstandingly intuitive and accessible. A dedicated writing assistant panel on the right side contains valuable information and choosable options. It also lists and categorizes all the errors found.

A bar at the bottom contains a few formatting options and some length-related info about the passage.

2. Browser Extension

Typing in any online text editor activates the ’Grammar and Spelling Checker’ when the extension is on. It underlines (in red) all the issues in real-time. Hovering over the problem pops up an Error Card that contains corrections and more information about the mistake.

You can use the Grammarly icon at the bottom-right of online text editors to activate or deactivate the tool. This option is beneficial because sometimes you want to check your content but don’t want distractions while writing. I recommend turning on the extension after you have completed your draft and now want to begin the editing phase. You can also open the Grammarly editor within a website for added convenience.

The Grammarly add-on is available on all popular browsers – Chrome, Firefox, Safari, Edge Chromium, etc. And it is compatible with millions of websites and the web versions of many desktop applications, including WordPress, emails, social media, work platforms, and many more. Grammarly for Google Docs is in Beta right now. The Grammarly extension also gives you the option to ’Show Definitions and Synonyms via Double Click,’ which works like a dictionary within any website.

The Grammarly icon within your text editors tells you the total number of issues found on the Grammarly pop-up. However, you have to scroll through the document and find those problems yourself. It is not as efficient as the online Editor. The extension only shows the critical issues inside your online editor. It gives you the option to open the online Grammarly Editor to see the errors pointed out by the Premium version. The browser extension also works slower for lengthy content. It is convenient but only for short-form writing.

3. Desktop Application

The desktop application, like all other products, is online only and doesn’t work offline. An internet connection is necessary as Grammarly uses its database to process the document. The desktop app is identical to the online editor.

4. Microsoft Word/Outlook Add-in

You can integrate Grammarly into Microsoft Word and Outlook through their Add-in. Unlike other Grammarly product forms, the MS Word Add-in activates when clicked — otherwise, it stays dormant. When enabled, a right panel appears with suggestions, Error Cards, and statistics, just like the Online Editor and the Desktop App. Grammarly has no character limit for the MS Word Add-in.

5. The Grammarly Keyboard App

You can download Grammarly Keyboard for both Android and iOS through their respective stores. Now available for iPad as well, it is easy to use as it works like the auto-correct feature available in the smart devices. It gives suggestions when Grammarly encounters any grammar or spelling lapses.

Grammarly Pricing Plans

Grammarly is a tad expensive when purchased as a monthly subscription, which costs $29.95 per month. The quarterly ($59.95) and annual ($139.95) subscriptions offer better value for money. Through its weekly newsletter and other channels, Grammarly presents discount offers to its free users from time to time, which you can avail yourself of to get an even cheaper deal for the Grammarly Premium subscription.

Grammarly Pricing Plans for Premium Version – Monthly, Quarterly, Annual

Free

Grammarly Free is limited but still adequate for many as it gives you critical grammar and spelling checking capabilities. It is usable in all product forms.

Premium

Grammarly Premium, along with Spelling and Grammar Checker, offers an advanced Clarity Checker, Plagiarism Checker, and experimental Tone Detector. All Grammarly features are available for the Premium version.

Business

Grammarly for Business offers all the Premium features for three or more users. It also gives you an admin panel to customize your experience. You can add a personal dictionary, among other things, which will be accessible to all users. Grammarly for Business includes:

Individual accounts
Admin panel
Centralized billing
Team usage stats
Priority email support
Single sign-on

Grammarly Business Pricing Example

Grammarly @Edu

Grammarly @Edu is also an available option, of which educational institutes and organizations can avail themselves. It caters to a large number of accounts, as it targets students.

Grammarly Features

UI

Grammarly has hands-down the best interface among all the writing assistants. It is incredibly intuitive and user-friendly.

Compatibility

Grammarly integrates with millions of sites and text editors. It is also compatible with MS Word (both for Windows and Mac) and Outlook via an Add-in. It is still in Beta for Google Docs.

Grammarly is incompatible with some desktop apps, but you can use Grammarly in their web versions.

Supported Document Formats

For products where you can upload text documents, the supported document formats are: .docx, .rtf, .odt, .txt.

Languages

Grammarly is restricted to English only, including American, British, Canadian, and Australian English. Grammarly doesn’t support foreign language phrases, translation, etc., at the moment.

Grammarly Functions

Spelling Checker

Grammarly checks for spelling mistakes based on context. It is excellent at differentiating between commonly misspelled words. It can also tell Common and Proper Nouns apart (in most cases).

Grammar Checker

All Grammarly products on all plans help you check for grammatical errors and syntax issues in the provided document in real-time.

Plagiarism Checker

The Plagiarism Checker is not available for the free version. When I inquired about plagiarism in hard copy, patch plagiarism, and ProQuest, here’s what Grammarly Support had to say:

“We teamed up with ProQuest to provide even more accurate plagiarism checks: currently, Grammarly’s plagiarism checker searches major proprietary databases along with over 16 billion web pages. You can check ProQuest libraries here http://www.proquest.com/libraries/academic/databases/.

Please note that Grammarly catches verbatim plagiarism and slightly modified text that can be classified as unoriginal. As comprehensive as our algorithms are, significantly rephrased text oftentimes can’t be traced back to its source.”

Note: I checked this document with both; Grammarly Plagiarism Checker is not as robust as Copyscape, but it’s catching up fast.

Tone Detector

It detects a variety of tones based on the context of the given passage.

Grammarly Tone Detector

Clarity Checker

Grammarly checks for advanced issues for the Premium, Education, and Business versions. The Free version checks for limited conciseness; the rest is available on the Premium version only.

Grammarly Support

Grammarly offers support via its extensive, well-written, and user-oriented knowledge-base. Grammarly also provides support via email (24/7 for the Business version) if you can’t find a relevant answer in the knowledge-base.

Moreover, the Grammarly Blog teaches, among other useful things, the proper use of grammar in English.

Grammarly Blog

The Grammarly Blog teaches the rules of English grammar and gives tips on writing. It also specializes in teaching about the most common blunders, which are also a strong suit of the application.

Detailed Performance Statistics

You can view the ‘Statistics Summary Card’ by clicking the ‘See Performance’ button. Or you can download the detailed statistics via the Download PDF Report option. These statistics are in-depth and contain exhaustive information regarding the whole document, including your score, errors, reading time, speaking time, and more.

Grammarly Performance Stats

Adjust Goals

You can customize Grammarly’s feedback according to your needs. This option gives you an adjustable chart where you can set your preferences according to your needs. It helps with the document’s tone, the difficulty level depending on the target audience, and more.

Grammarly Adjust Goals

Get Expert Writing Help

Grammarly gives you the option to get your work checked by experts. It’s a particularly convenient option for those who cannot or do not want to rely on their proofreading skills better than finding and hiring someone yourself.

Grammarly Expert Writing Help

Is Grammarly Really Free to Use?

Grammarly has a free version with a powerful-enough spelling and grammar checker. It is available in all product forms – Online Editor, Browser Extension, Desktop Application, and Word Add-in. The Free version checks for up to 150 grammar rules.

It is superb at uncovering elementary grammar fallacies due to its context-based checking, powered by its robust AI and NLP software.

The Free version doesn’t show clarity issues. It reveals the number of clarity issues in the content, but it doesn’t tell you what and where those issues are.

Is Grammarly Premium Worth The Cost?

The Premium version shows advanced grammar issues such as clarity, conciseness, dangling modifiers, squinting modifiers, monotonous sentences, intricate text, split infinitives, and many more. It checks for over 400 rules of English grammar, far more than the Free version. Grammarly Premium also has a plagiarism checker within the interface, which is mighty-enough for online plagiarism checking.

Grammar Checks

When you run some text through any version and product form of the app, Grammarly will process the document for the following:

Sensitivity
Determiners
Voice
Conciseness
Conjunctions
References
Nouns
Fluency
Word order
Spelling
Conventions
Syntax
Variety
Formality
Pronouns
Prepositions
Verbs
Numerals
Punctuation
Modifiers
Consistency
Correctness
Clarity
Delivery
Readability
Engagement

However, Grammarly will not point out many of these mistakes for the Free version. It will only tell you the number of such problems in your content.

Grammarly Checklist

Grammarly Free in Action:

Let’s see some examples.

Verbs

Grammarly detecting the wrong form of a verb.

Context-Based Checking

Grammarly Context-Based Checking

Capitalized Words

Grammarly detects unknown words, and if you capitalize them, it considers them proper nouns. It can also miss the incorrect use of a term if you spell it correctly and put it within commas.

Grammarly while dealing with proper nouns, capitalization, and unknown words

Phrases vs. Sentences

Grammarly can differentiate between phrases and sentences. Therefore, you can write headings and subheadings in the form of expression.

Grammarly differentiating between sentences and phrases

Multiple Mistakes in One Sentence

Grammarly catching multiple mistakes in one sentence

Determiners

Grammarly pointing out the wrong determiner-article use

Incomplete Sentences

The Grammarly algorithm is not good enough yet at recognizing incomplete sentences. Grammarly is far from perfect, as evident from these examples. Google Docs suggested ’was because’ for the last line instead of ’is because,’ but Grammarly missed that.

Grammarly can miss incomplete sentences.

Grammarly is only making one suggestion that the article use may be incorrect here in the below image.

Cannot detect incomplete sentences (sometimes) if other issues exist

Grammarly suggests you change the first line in the below image because it believes it’s caught a sentence fragment. You accept the suggestion, and it becomes the second line, which is, again, a sentence fragment, according to Grammarly.

Grammarly ‘sentence fragment’ suggestions

Sometimes, the suggestions are right as well.

Grammarly recognizes sentence fragments in some cases

Punctuation

Comma

Grammarly is a sniffing-hound-on-steroids when it comes to commas — both missing and wrong ones. It pinpoints the exact location where you should place a comma in a sentence. Whether it is between clauses, a list of items, or something else, Grammarly knows if you have missed a comma or placed a wrong one. It also exposes the famous “Oxford Comma.” Grammarly now points out any inconsistent punctuation (curly vs. straight commas, for example) in your articles.

Grammarly pointing out the missing Oxford Comma

Hyphen

First, it points out the missing hyphen. Once you rectify the error, it points out the wrong capitalization. Grammarly works in steps for multiple errors in a sentence.

Grammarly catching a missing hyphen.

Semi-colon & Colon

Grammarly catches the incorrect use of the semi-colon & colon.

Period

Grammarly points out a missing period

Missing Apostrophes

Grammarly can catch missing apostrophes

Grammarly Premium in Action:

Apart from correctness that checks for critical grammar mistakes, the Premium version has options to check for clarity, delivery, and engagement, along with many more correctness checks.

Clarity

Clarity check is not available for the Free version; all other versions of the app have it. It catches linguistic issues that a fundamental grammar checker cannot reveal. These include dangling modifiers, split infinitives, misuse of passive voice, intricate text, inappropriate colloquialisms, etc.

Text Inconsistencies

Grammarly Premium can detect inconsistencies and gives you the option to select one form if a word has been used inconsistently in the same document. It can also detect inconsistent punctuation, for example, curly and straight commas.

Grammarly Premium identifies text inconsistencies.

Rephrasing Suggestions

For unclear or complicated sentences where there might be an issue of a dangling modifier or something else, Grammarly suggests an alternative way to write the same sentence.

Grammarly Premium giving rephrasing suggestions

Wordy Sentences

Grammarly can also note if you have used many unnecessary words in a sentence. If there are more words and less content in a sentence, then it suggests you rephrase it. This option can help you make your content non-fluff.

Passive Voice Misuse

Grammarly is so-so at deciphering when the passive voice is right to use and when you should avoid it in a sentence. My experience is that, more often than not, it will recommend that you rewrite a sentence if it detects passive voice use anywhere.

Grammarly – always – detects passive voice use.

Intricate Text

Grammarly exposes unclear and hard-to-follow sentences in the written piece. Sometimes it gives alternatives (if one is available in its database), but usually, it only tells you to rephrase the sentence to make it more understandable.

Monotonous Sentences

If you continuously write similar sentences in a passage, Grammarly will detect these sentences’ monotonous nature and advise you to rephrase them.

Grammarly detecting a monotonous passage

Sound Confident Suggestion

Grammarly suggesting alternatives to sound confident

Politeness Suggestion

Sound more diplomatic with Grammarly!

Delivery

Grammarly Premium catches informal sentence structure like a preposition at the end of a sentence. Some other informalities include inappropriate colloquialisms, split infinitives, etc.

Grammarly points out informality.

Engagement

Grammarly Premium points out overused words and suggests using an alternative here, but sometimes it doesn’t provide suitable options like the Thesaurus Writing Tool.

Grammarly suggesting engaging alternatives

Most of the time, the suggestions are worth considering, though.

Grammarly is suggesting more engaging alternatives

Grammarly Free vs. Grammarly Premium

The Grammarly Free version catches all critical issues as it checks for 150 Grammar Rules to determine errors in a document. The Premium version looks for over 400 Grammar Rules and detects far more problems than the Free version.

I wrote an article and checked it through both the Free and the Premium versions. Here is the difference between how the stats of both look like before making the suggested changes:

Original Stats (before checking with Grammarly Free)

Original Stats (before checking with Grammarly Premium)

After editing another article and making the suggested changes, here’s how the Free version stats look like:

Grammarly Free Stats

After editing the same article using the Premium version, the stats look like the following:

Grammarly Premium Stats

Grammarly vs. Human Proofreader

Grammarly is a marvelous tool, but it is incomparable to human proofreading. Grammarly cannot detect the sense and meaning of the written text. It catches blunders using English language and grammar rules as efficiently as a machine can. However, some mistakes can slip through Grammarly if there is no syntax error, but just a linguistic or semantic misuse.

Grammarly didn’t suggest anything for a nonsense sentence

Grammarly is not an alternative to human proofreading

Pros of using Grammarly in 2021

Context-Based Grammar Checker

Grammarly is evolving with time and has gotten pretty accurate in identifying common mistakes. Its extensive database helps Grammarly recognize errors based on the context.

Real-Time Grammar and Spelling Checker

Grammarly scours the whole text for errors when you provide it a written document. Thankfully, it also checks for blunders as you write or edit your text in any product form – Chrome Extension, Online Editor, Word Add-in, Desktop App (Windows and Mac), and the Grammarly Keyboard for iOS and Android.

Accessible Interface and Robust Editing

With Grammarly, you get a highly-efficient software, which is not only a phenomenal editor but also incredibly easy to use.

Customizations – Set Goals and Personal Dictionary

You can customize your Set Goals and your Personal Dictionary with the ‘Add to Dictionary’ feature in the Error Cards. This element is convenient for proper nouns and personal vocabulary (even words from a different language).

Tone Detector

Based on your Goals, Grammarly, through its tone detector emojis, cautions you of your tone – the vocabulary and phrasing you are using. You can adjust goals keeping in mind your target audience and choose the most appropriate words to use.

Clarity Checker

Apart from basic grammatical mistakes, Grammarly helps you fix linguistic oversights. It tracks down a wide range of slip-ups, including dangling modifiers, intricate text, split infinitives, passive voice misuse, redundancies, and many other slips. In essence, the Clarity Checker elevates the level of your writing.

Plagiarism Checker

It is a bonus in all senses of the word. It might not be essential to the app, but it certainly assists users. Grammarly plagiarism checker is not the absolute best in the industry, but it does the job swiftly. It checks plagiarism across 16 billion pages on the internet and ProQuest’s database.

Error Cards

Error cards are compact, simple, and instructional. They serve their purpose elegantly. Any shortcoming that you experience in Grammarly’s usage so far is due to its still-not-so-extensive database. Error cards also fall short when it comes to giving suggestions due to this very reason. Otherwise, they are usually handy.

Free Version

You can proofread, remove typos, and analyze the content quickly via the app’s free version. You can also use it before buying the Grammarly Premium subscription.

The Grammarly Keyboard

Supported on both Android and iOS, The Grammarly Keyboard App functions like the auto-correct feature. It gives real-time suggestions about the proper use of grammar and spellings in the written text. Grammarly is now available for iPad and supports hardware keyboards as well.

Grammarly Support

Grammarly provides customer support via its extensive database and email. By now, almost all popular queries have a database entry. Furthermore, the Grammarly Blog assists with learning English grammar rules.

Knowledge-base

Grammarly has amassed a plethora of information in its database, which helps run the application smoothly. This knowledge allows the app to identify problems based on the context. You will find accurate solutions for most common issues, thanks to its extensive database growing with time.

Grammarly Blog

The Grammarly Blog focuses on teaching people English grammar rules and common mistakes in their writing. There are dedicated articles for each item; separate sections cover different punctuation like Commas, Hyphens, etc.

Writing Stats

The weekly writing stats sent via email and the downloadable detailed performance stats PDF give you comprehensive feedback on your writing. This feature helps you pinpoint your mistakes better than anything else available in the market.

Insights

Grammarly Insights are the real-time feedback that the application provides regarding your writing. It bases it on your Set Goals. You can customize this feedback according to your needs, which can be amazingly valuable if you cover different audiences. Insights also include the reading time and speaking time, which is particularly useful to Vloggers, YouTubers, etc., who can quickly determine how much time their script will take on the video.

Reliability

Grammarly is the most popular and best-in-class digital writing assistant tool, growing exponentially both in features and number of users, indicating that it will provide the best services to its customer base.

Grammarly is notably popular among professional writers, bloggers, publishers, marketers, and businesses, showing that Grammarly has a demanding clientele to please. Therefore, their standards are supposed to be (and they are) higher than the competition.

Product Investment

Having more than a million downloads per month and being a top-1000 website by traffic globally, Grammarly has raised $200M in total funding at a valuation of $1B+ so far, which speaks volumes of its success, investors’ trust in the product, and its projections.

Cons of using Grammarly in 2021

Free Version is Limited

The Free version identifies only critical grammatical errors, typos, and limited ‘conciseness.’ Moreover, it only lists the number of total advanced clarity issues in the text with an ‘Ad’ that keeps asking you to buy a Premium subscription for these issues. It also doesn’t support plagiarism checking.

Premium Version is a Tad Expensive

The biggest drawback of Grammarly is that it is a tad expensive for many. Grammarly Premium can be a costly subscription at $30 per month if you don’t have much writing to proofread.

Semantic Issues

Grammarly is good at picking fundamental grammar mistakes – even context-based grammar issues, but it still cannot understand what you have written. If you write a nonsense sentence with no grammatical fault, Grammarly will consider it a correct sentence. It can also happen with incomplete sentences.

Insufficient

Grammarly is a mighty grammar checker but lags behind when it comes to rating the whole document. Its scoring is based on mistakes and length of words and sentences only, unlike some other tools that provide a more comprehensive text scoring. Grammarly is also not an alternative to human proofreading as it can’t understand the meaning of the written content.

Limited Vocabulary

Grammarly has a limited vocabulary in its database so far, which leads to inaccurate synonym suggestions at times. The Thesaurus Writing Tool, another free digital writing assistant, has an extensive vocabulary due to its vast Thesaurus.com database and offers far more vocabulary suggestions and alternatives.

Alternatives Not Provided for Every Issue

For many suggestions like Intricate Text, Split Infinitives, etc., Grammarly doesn’t provide an alternative. You have to rephrase the sentence yourself. Grammarly only points out bloopers sometimes, which can be a little frustrating for amateur writers.

Not Supported Everywhere

Grammarly is not supported everywhere yet. The most prominent places are Google Docs (in Beta at the moment – which doesn’t include Grammarly Premium corrections and the Pop-up Grammarly Editor) and desktop applications. However, it works on the web versions of these desktop applications via its browser extension.

Insufficient Formatting Options in the Editor

Grammarly Editor is imperfect for writing purposes. It is incomparable to authoritative text editors like Microsoft Word and Google Docs. So you have to write your text in another editor and import it in Grammarly for proofreading if you want proper formatting of your document.

Irritating and Aggressive Advertising

Grammarly wants you to upgrade all the time. When using the Free version, you’ll get constant notifications to upgrade to Premium to check for issues that are not available in the Free version.

Only One Language Supported

Grammarly doesn’t offer support for languages other than English. There is also no option available for translation like Ginger.

Only One Account for Premium

The Grammarly Premium account gives you only one license for use on up to five devices. It is an obstacle for people with multiple accounts for different purposes. Grammarly Premium is already expensive, so buying two licenses is not feasible for the majority.

Top 5 Free Grammarly Alternatives 2021

Grammarly stands out as the most prominent and well-received tool when you compare all popular digital writing assistants. It has been endorsed and appreciated by countless publishers and writers. Grammarly has become a top product in the digital writing industry with its robust marketing and significant NLP and AI improvements.

Grammarly Inc. has secured enough funding as of late 2019 to improve its natural language learning database to enhance its AI-based application further. Keeping all this in mind, it is evident that Grammarly is dominating the market. Still, there are a few products that come close for one reason or the other. Here are the top 5 Grammarly alternatives in 2021:

ProWritingAid

Pros: Long-Form Writing (Books, etc.), Writing Insights, Separate Checking of Issues, MS Word Add-in, Efficient Browser Extension

Cons: Short-Form Writing, Fewer Errors Detected, Not for Amateurs, No Free Version

ProWritingAid is considered a worthy alternative to Grammarly (notably for long-form writing – books, etc.), but it falls far behind Grammarly for short-form writing.

ProWritingAid is accurate, feature-rich, and integrates well with apps and websites, but the interface is not as user-friendly as Grammarly’s. It also reveals fewer issues as Grammarly has advanced context-based grammar checking capabilities.

ProWritingAid offers better pricing and value for money (Premium is $60 per year, $70 with Plagiarism Checker), and it also has a Lifetime Plan. However, it doesn’t have a free plan like Grammarly. The Online Editor has no word limit, unlike Grammarly’s 60-pages or 100,000 character limit.

ProWritingAid provides many options/tabs to check for each issue separately, handy for longer articles or books. However, it is not as user-friendly for short writing pieces.

It also presents a better analysis of the whole document and provides a lot of information regarding your writing, which you can use to improve your writing style.

ProWritingAid has an easy-to-scroll-through panel at the right-side that contains corrections and suggestions, which you can use to see all issues without scrolling the entire document.

ProWritingAid has the following tabs to check for each issue separately:

Grammar
Spelling
Overused
Readability
Cliche
Sticky
Diction
All Repeats
Echoes
Thesaurus
Dialogue
Consistency
Pacing
Pronouns
Alliterations
Homonyms
Transition
Acronym

Ginger

Pros: Keeps Formatting, 60 Languages & Translation, Built-in Dictionary, Browser Extension, Free Version

Cons: Fewer Issues Detected, Fewer Insights, Interface is just OK, no MS Word plugin

Ginger is also a notable competitor of Grammarly. It has a free version, and it integrates well with different websites. However, it doesn’t have an MS Word plugin. It is also not as accessible due to its clunky interface.

Ginger is not as powerful as Grammarly, but it is still a decent alternative. Ginger’s annual subscription is $89.88 (cheaper than Grammarly’s).

Ginger keeps the original formatting of the text document, which is pleasant. It also has a Translator within the app that supports 60 languages. Also, there’s a built-in dictionary, which you can use to find alternatives to overused words.

WhiteSmoke

Pros: Cheap, Integrates with Platforms, Gimmicks – i.e., Templates, etc.

Cons: Interface is awful, Fewer Mistakes Caught

WhiteSmoke is cheap to use, but it has a horrible interface. It integrates with many platforms, but it is incomparable to an advanced tool like Grammarly. It has some useful gimmicks like templates for specific writing purposes, i.e., Sorry, Thank You, Condolences, etc.

The annual subscription of WhiteSmoke costs $79.99. However, it is not advanced enough to be considered better value for money.

Thesaurus Writing Tool

Pros: Free, Vocabulary suggestions on hovering the cursor over a word, Blog

Cons: Editor is dreadful to use, Ruins Formatting

Thesaurus Writing Tool is a free-to-use online text editor powered by Thesaurus.com. You can copy/paste or write directly in the Editor. It doesn’t retain the original formatting, which makes it a bit uncomfortable to use. Just click on the ‘Check for Grammar’ button, and it will work its magic. It also has a dedicated blog that teaches you how to write better.

The Thesaurus Writing Tool is unimpressive when checking grammatical errors, but it is highly potent in vocabulary suggestions. Its interface is simple but insufficient. Hover over any word, and it will show you a vocabulary card with a lot of synonyms. Clicking on any suggestion will replace the original term with the selected item. The replaced word gets a yellow underline. An undo option is available if you are not happy with your word selection.

Hemingway App

Pros: Free, Information about Text, Text Readability Score

Cons: Ruins Formatting, Fewer Mistakes Caught

Hemingway App is yet another incredible tool that is quite capable and straight-forward. It is convenient for analyzing your document as it scores the content based on its readability. It has a free web app and a paid desktop app. You can copy/paste into the online Editor or write directly, but it messes up the formatting.

Hemingway App identifies the use of passive voice, adverbs, and difficulty of reading. It recognizes long sentences – even the easy-to-read ones – as complex, which affects the document’s grade.

Final Verdict: Grammarly Review 2021

Using advanced NLP and AI, Grammarly free is hands-down the best and must-have writing, editing, and proofreading tool for everyone that checks for spelling and critical grammar mistakes. Easy to use, compatible with most popular products, and trusted by millions of users, Grammarly instantly elevates your writing everywhere; statuses, comments, emails, documents, tweets, you name it! Trying out the free version before upgrading to a premium plan also makes sense.

Grammarly Premium is a more robust and advanced tool with numerous amazing features like an advanced clarity checker, tone detector, and plagiarism checker. The Premium version is unparalleled when complemented with knowledge of the English language and some other tools. However, it is insufficient as a standalone tool because it can make slips (especially semantic ones).

I highly recommend Grammarly Premium to professionals (freelancers, writers, bloggers, authors, publishers, and editors) who require intensive use of the app. Similarly, Grammarly for Business is a good investment if your team does intensive writing. Non-intensive users should stick to the Free version as it suffices.

Aa one user said, “Grammarly Premium helps you sound like a pro, or at least helps you avoid looking like a fool!”

FAQs About Grammarly

Is Grammarly a good app?

Yes, Grammarly stands out among its competitors as it has advanced context-based grammar checking capabilities, thanks to its up-to-date natural language processing and artificial intelligence.

Is Grammarly Premium worth it?

Yes, for the most part. However, it is a tad expensive for many. It is suitable for professionals and businesses that have lots of writing needs. It identifies several advanced grammar issues that the Free version only counts. However, it is not a substitute for human proofreading as it can make linguistic mistakes that a human can easily find.

Is Grammarly supported in Google Docs?

It is in Beta at the moment. So, it should be available shortly. At the moment, it is imperfect as it only specifies the number of errors. You have to scroll the document to find those mistakes (underlined red) on your own. It has already started working in the comments, though.

Is Grammarly supported in Quora?

Yes, Grammarly works with Quora.

Is Grammarly supported in Medium?

Yes, Grammarly is available for Medium.

Can Grammarly replace a professional editor?

No, it can’t. Grammarly can make simple semantic mistakes because it doesn’t know the meaning of the written text, so it cannot replace a professional editor. It is only suitable for catching syntactic issues.

Is Grammarly supported in Microsoft Word?

Yes, a plugin is available. It is an efficient plugin as it gives similar options in Microsoft Word as it does in its online editor and desktop application. Grammarly is now available for both Windows and macOS versions of MS Word.

Is Grammarly available for Mac?

Yes, Grammarly’s desktop app is available for macOS. Grammarly is available for both Windows and macOS. Grammarly for MS Word is also available for Mac now.

Is Grammarly supported in WordPress?

Yes, it is supported. You can use Grammarly in WordPress via its browser extension.

Is Grammarly supported in Gmail?

Yes, it is. You can edit your email using the Grammarly browser extension within Gmail. However, it is not the best solution for lengthy content. For extended text, the Online Editor, the Desktop App, and the MS Word Add-in are better options.

Does Grammarly work offline?

No, it doesn’t. Grammarly uses its database to run the app, so an internet connection is necessary.

Does Grammarly help you improve your writing?

Yes. If you read the weekly stats, detailed performance stats PDF, and Grammarly Blog for grammar rules and writing tips and try to implement them in your writing, Grammarly can significantly improve your writing capabilities.

Is Grammarly Safe and Secure?

Yes, Grammarly is quite safe, as Google verifies it. Moreover, Grammarly is as secure as any other site that uses SSL/TLS encryption. It is also reliable for plagiarism checking as it doesn’t violate your privacy.

What is the Grammarly cancellation refund policy?

You can get your money back if you are not satisfied with the Premium subscription by contacting Grammarly support within ten days.

Is Grammarly a reliable checker?

Yes, Grammarly outperforms its competitors. Yet, it cannot surpass a professional human editor.

Is Grammarly available for Android/iOS?

Yes, it is. You can use the Grammarly Keyboard to edit your text for grammar and spelling errors by installing the Grammarly Keyboard app from the Play Store or the App Store. It works like the auto-correct feature. Grammarly is now available on iPad as well.

Check out Grammarly for yourself.

This article contains affiliate links to products and services. We may receive a commission for purchases made through these links.

Source

The post The Most Comprehensive Grammarly Review Ever first appeared on Webdesigner Depot.

Source de l’article sur Webdesignerdepot

29 mars 2021/par Service comm.

20 Best New Websites, March 2021

Actualités, Actualités

This month’s collection of the best new websites launched or updated in the last four weeks features color, and more color, and then — just for good measure — a bit more color. Yellow is a hue of choice, but you’ll also find burnt orange, rich purples, and greens and blues in equal measure. What is missing is the tech-blue of years past, replaced with something altogether more Mediterranean. Enjoy!

Cevitxef

This site for Cevitxef ceviche restaurant in Bilbao creates drama with oversized text, heavily styled photography, white on black, and lots of movement.

Katarina Markina

Katarina Markina’s portfolio site is bright, bold, and full of character.

How & How

Digital design agency How & How keep things light and clean for their own website.

Caleño

Caleño makes non-alcoholic distilled spirits. Their relaunched website is bright and joyful, reflecting the character of the brand.

Staffan Sundstrom

Art director and photographer Staffan Sundström has a simple portfolio site that matches his work’s calm, minimalist aesthetic.

Modyn

Modyn is a product design agency with a focus on mobility. The flexing of logo text and occasionally other elements adds a nice touch to an otherwise simple design.

Letters from Venus

Letters from Venus celebrate people living abroad and the cultures that embrace them. An asymmetric grid creates light and space.

La Manna’s

La Manna’s makes giant pizza slices and pizza cake slices. Their site has a larger-than-life feel with a nod to the 1970s.

Singita

Singita is an ecotourism and conservation brand based in south and east Africa. High-quality photography and a warm, terracotta-based color scheme create an inviting ambiance.

MAD

Digital product design agency MAD has gone for an app-like feel to their website. There is some nice user interaction, and they stay just the right side of cutesy.

Peak

Another non-alcohol drink, Peak, has chosen the healthy angle, with further emphasis on the social. The site is colorful but minimal.

The Hiring Chain

The Hiring Chain website is part of a campaign encouraging businesses to offer employment to people with Down Syndrome. The centerpiece is a video, but the about information is clearly presented appealingly.

Stykka

Stykka’s aim is to digitize the design, manufacture, and buying of furniture. The site has a very light feel, with a simple type and good use of white space.

Crappy Explanation

Crappy Explanation is a fun microsite from design agency Zajno that links to various playlists in Spotify. As a promotional piece, it’s well done without being too flashy.

Platform Seven

Platform Seven offers career mentoring for young people. The site is well structured with a strong narrative flow and a positive feel to the color scheme.

Moth Drinks

This time the drinks are alcoholic: Moth does classic cocktails in a can. As holding pages go, this makes a statement with its black and white graphics and masking effects.

Nêô Sephiri

Nêô Sephiri is a facial oil produced from melon seed grown in the Kalahari. A nice blend of simple illustration and atmospheric photography underlines the nature angle with this product.

The Bold

Digital design studio Bold’s own site has some pleasing transitions and scrolling animation, teamed with fresh colors.

PlantoMax

PlantoMax produces medicinal cannabis from plantations in southern Europe. This is a glossy site, taking a clear step away from the usual hippy image of cannabis.

Orsolina28

Orsolina28 describes itself as a hub for dance training and creative development. Its setting in the Monferrato hills in northern Italy provides some great photography. The inline links to video are a nice touch.

Source

The post 20 Best New Websites, March 2021 first appeared on Webdesigner Depot.

Source de l’article sur Webdesignerdepot

22 mars 2021/par Service comm.