Articles

The Serverless Database You Really Want

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The dreaded part of every site reliability engineer’s (SRE) job eventually: capacity planning. You know, the dance between all the stakeholders when deploying your applications. Did engineering really simulate the right load and do we understand how the application scales? Did product managers accurately estimate the amount of usage? Did we make architectural decisions that will keep us from meeting our SLA goals? And then the question that everyone will have to answer eventually: how much is this going to cost? This forces SREs to assume the roles of engineer, accountant, and fortune teller.

The large cloud providers understood this a long time ago and so the term “cloud economics” was coined. Essentially this means: rent everything and only pay for what you need. I would say this message worked because we all love some cloud. It’s not a fad either. SREs can eliminate a lot of the downside when the initial infrastructure capacity discussion was maybe a little off. Being wrong is no longer devastating. Just add more of what you need and in the best cases, the services scale themselves — giving everyone a nice night’s sleep. All this without provisioning a server, which gave rise to the term “serverless.”

Source de l’article sur DZONE

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10 Terrific WordPress Plugins You Should Be Using in 2022

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Having the right WordPress plugins on hand can do wonders for your business or online presence. WordPress offers a vast collection to choose from.

There are so many of them. However, finding those that get the best reviews and can do the most for you can be a challenge.

A plugin can give you additional functionality. It could otherwise be difficult or overly expensive to realize with your website by itself. A glance at the 10 top WordPress plugins described below can provide a powerful case in point.

Your website’s purpose or niche will usually dictate the types of essential WordPress plugins you would do well to invest in. The right ones can make your website a genuine powerhouse and, by extension, your business as well.

1. Amelia

Amelia is an excellent choice for beauty, healthcare, fitness, consulting, and businesses that might be saddled down with a manual or semi-manual booking system by saving them and their clients time while eliminating booking mistakes that often occur in those manual systems.

  • Clients can book appointments online 24/7, change or cancel their appointments, and receive reminders of upcoming appointments and other notifications via SMS or email.
  • Amelia enables business owners or department managers to track and manage employee schedules and time off.
  • Amelia can manage bookings for appointments, book tickets for events, and manage group bookings, all at multiple locations. There are no limits on the number of appointments that can be managed.
  • Booking forms can be customized to best serve a business’s needs and match its brand.

Amelia fully supports WooCommerce with PayPal, Stripe, Mollie, and RazorPay payments. Click on the banner to learn more about this time and money-saving plugin.

2. wpDataTables

wpDataTables is a premier WordPress table and chart building plugin that features virtually everything you are apt to need to build any table or chart you want.

Creating a table that is by any definition complex often requires tools that may not necessarily be easy to come by. wpDataTables uses four chart-building engines, one or more of which should suit you perfectly.

They are:

  • Google Charts
  • Highcharts
  • Charts.js
  • Apex Charts

For both table and chart building, wpDataTables can connect you to multiple database sources, including –

  • MySQL
  • MS SQL
  • PostgreSQL

wpDataTables can process data that exists in the commonly used formats and features various sorting and filtering options that allow you to create a host of different table types.

Both tables and charts are editable and responsive and, thanks to the wpDataTables conditional formatting feature, can highlight and color-code critical information.

Click to learn more.

3. Site Kit by Google

While your website’s performance might exceed your wildest dreams, it is more likely that there are areas that need improvement before your wishes can be met. 

Determining those areas can be a challenge, but Site Kit offers a one-stop solution to deploy, manage, and get insights from critical Google tools to make your site a success by making those critical tools available to WordPress.

They provide:

  • stats displayed on your WordPress dashboard from multiple Google tools
  • quick Google tool setup without your having to edit your site’s source code  
  • key metrics and insights for your entire site and individual posts, and
  • easy-to-manage, granular permissions across WordPress and different Google products

Site Kit shows you how many people have found your site, how users navigate it, etc.

Click on the banner to learn more about what Site Kit could do for you.

4. Tablesome –  WordPress Table Plugin With Form Automation

Tablesome is a WordPress form database and form automation plugin that you can use to store entries from WordPress forms to a database. It can be integrated with popular forms – Contact Form 7 DB, WPForms entries, Forminator database, Elementor Form submissions, etc.

After saving, you can:

  • Edit, auto-delete, and export entries to tools such as MailChimp, Google Sheets, Salesforce, etc.,
  • Display WordPress form entries on frontend pages
  • Automatically export contact data using the Mailchimp WordPress Integration

5. TheDock

TheDock eliminates the need to search for just the right WordPress theme by enabling you to create your own – which can be more fun anyway.

Among TheDock’s many features, a few key ones include –

  • A comprehensive, option-rich Design System
  • A responsive design system that ensures your site looks great on all screens.
  • Designer, developer, and editing collaboration support. 
  • Clean, readable code.

6. Slider Revolution

Beginners and mid-level designers can sometimes have difficulty finding ways to WOW their clients with professional-level visuals.

Slider Revolution changes all that by bridging the gap between what clients want and what you can provide with its –

  • 200 designed-to-impress website and slider templates
  • 25+ powerful addons and brand new WebGL slide animations
  • ability to import dynamic content from WooCommerce and social media outlets.

7. LayerSlider

More than a simple slider-builder, LayerSlider is an animation and website-building tool you can use to improve any website’s look and feel through eye-catching animations, contemporary graphics, and interactive features.

This is made possible in part through the use of –

  • 160+ website, slider, and popup templates
  • LayerSlider’s modern and intuitive editing interface

Plus, you can count on professional one-on-one customer support.

8. Download Monitor

The Download Monitor plugin helps you sell your digital products by offering a ready solution for tracking file downloads, gating content to generate leads, build your audience, and ask users for personal information in exchange for valuable content.

Download Monitor lets you –

  • add any type of file you need to your website
  • link a page to all your channels and promote your social media networks
  • place ads – and more.

9. Ads Pro – Multi-Purpose WordPress Ad Manager

The biggest ad manager for WordPress, Ads Pro gives you everything necessary to manage and sell ads.

Ads Pro’s admin panel makes managing ads straightforward for you and your users.

  • Key ad features include 25+ ad templates and 20+ ad display options.
  • CPC, CPM, CPD billing and PayPal, Stripe, and bank transfer payment methods are built-in.
  • Geo-Targeting lets you show/hide ad spaces based on countries, provinces, cities, and Zip Codes.

10. Ultimate Membership Pro

If selling content is your objective, Ultimate Membership Pro is the tool you’ll want to take your website and convert it into a powerful content selling platform.

The Ultimate Membership Pro plugin enables you to –

  • Create unlimited subscription levels, including free, trial, and paid member subscriptions
  • Control customer access to content based on their subscriptions
  • Send emails to welcome new members and send notifications and reminders to regular subscribers.

The WordPress plugin directory is already stuffed with almost 60,000 plugins. This guide has been published to narrow things down to 10 top WordPress plugins for your use.

We consulted with experts to create this list of excellent plugins for WordPress. It can help you with content strategy, SEO, site security, and even social media marketing.

Installing plugins and getting the functionality they provide can add immense value to your use of WordPress.

 

[- This is a sponsored post on behalf of BAW Media -]

Source

The post 10 Terrific WordPress Plugins You Should Be Using in 2022 first appeared on Webdesigner Depot.

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What Do Great Engineering Managers Need To Know About Compensation and Equity?

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Today we’re going to do a whirlwind tour of compensation. Hopefully, you’ll learn a bit along the way, and I’ll share an exercise for managers called a compensation review.

What Do You Need To Know About Salary?

  • The largest expense for engineering organizations is usually salary. 
  • Salary is mostly determined by supply and demand. Engineers are fortunate to be an industry with high demand. Companies have to compete based on salary and benefits in order to hire good engineers. 

Structured Pay and “Pay Equity”

Some companies use structured pay. Structured pay is when there is a “system” for determining pay:

Source de l’article sur DZONE

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What Is Test Monitoring and Test Control?

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Introduction

In the field of app testing, QA managers and other senior testing professionals must implement different test management approaches such as test monitoring and control to ensure that the test suite runs smoothly. These essential management strategies are required by the managers to track and align the test progress for optimal accuracy and efficiency.

What Is Test Monitoring?

Test monitoring is a test execution process in which all testing activities and efforts are evaluated to:

Source de l’article sur DZONE

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Case Study: Redesigning Todoist for Android

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Todoist is a to-do list app that 25 million people rely on every day to keep their lives organized. As part of the Doist design team’s goals for 2021, we aimed to redesign the Todoist Android app to take advantage of the latest Google Material Design guidelines.

In this post, we cover the design decisions and processes behind redesigning the Todoist Android app for Material Design. We explore the Design and Android team’s collaboration practices that brought the app update to life, which resulted in winning the Material Design Award 2021 in the large screen category. Let’s get started!

Opportunity

When we started the project, our design implementation on Android was ready for a major overhaul. The last milestone redesign on Android was initiated after the release of the first Material Design guidelines in 2016. Since then the team successfully worked on continuous improvements to the Android app, but we saw the opportunity to improve Todoist on Android on a more holistic level.

We set out to clean up instances of older UI components, colors, and text styles and update them with the latest Material Design components. We observed that some interactions and navigational patterns had become inconsistent with what users were expecting on newer Android devices and were eager to modernize this experience. With new hardware and software changes in mind, we set out to make the experience on larger phones and tablets even better, so Todoist could take full advantage of the latest generation of devices. Material 2 and 3 provided an incredible new framework to rethink the current app experience. With this in mind, we set out to challenge what a modern Android app should look like and innovate on top of the default user experience.

Solution

The team set itself the goal of redesigning our Todoist Android app and aspiring to make it the best-designed productivity app on Android. The project was ambitious and scheduled to take several months to complete. We set ourselves the following targets while working on the project:

  • Review the current implementation and older design specs.
  • Study the latest Material Design Guidelines and assess what is relevant for our project.
  • Research great Material Design apps and case studies and learn from their execution.
  • Define the new Todoist Android app design language and document the changes.
  • Design and development work together to assess the proposed solution and implementation.
  • Test an early version of the new app internally to gather feedback and make adjustments.
  • Invite beta testers to the new app to gather feedback and make adjustments.
  • Refine the app and address core issues before launching to the public.

Review

The project was kicked off by reviewing the current Todoist Android app implementation, noting down what areas needed to be fixed and what was up to date. While reviewing, we took screenshots of the app implementation for reference. This way we could easily see the current state of the app and compare it to the new design proposals that would be created. Once the review process was finalized, we had a comprehensive overview of the current state of the app and the layout, component, and styling changes we wanted to make.

Study

We continued the project by studying the latest Material Design Guidelines, assessing the components and practices that were most relevant to Todoist.

When the project kicked off in February 2021, Material 2 was the most recent version of their design system. Since Material 2 had already been released for quite some time, we anticipated that design changes to Material would be announced soon at the Google I/O event in May 2021. Rather than wait, because we expected the changes to be iterative, we pushed ahead with our work.

We identified 25 components and UI patterns that we wanted to change across the app. The changes included buttons, forms, menus, sheets, navigation drawer, app bar, system bars, text and color styles, and more. We started by creating a table view in a Dropbox Paper document with the component changes and references links to Google’s Material Design Guidelines.

This components list was a starting point for discussion to plan the scope and complexity of the changes. Close async discussions between the design and development team in Twist and Dropbox Paper comments helped us make decisions about scope and complexity early on and set a solid foundation for the project.

Research

In the initial Material Design study, we also researched inspiring Material Design apps, Material studies, Play Store apps, and Google Workspace apps to learn from their execution.

We started out by studying the Material Design Award Winners 2020 and tested out the products that were showcased. The showcased winners struck a good balance between implementing the Material Design Guidelines while maintaining their own product’s brand within the system. This balance between Google’s guidelines and the Todoist brand was also key for us to get right and so we strived to find this mix across the work we created and implemented in the project.

Along with the MDA winners, we researched the Material Studies that Google produced to showcase what apps could look like with branding and Material Design guidelines applied. It was a great reference to see how far components could be customized while maintaining the core platform principles. The Reply case study in particular offered valuable insight to us as its content type and layout came closest to Todoist. It showcased how components like the app bar, navigation drawer, and large screen layouts worked while being customized.

We continued our research by searching the Google Play store for inspiring app examples. Google Tasks, Press, Periodic Table, and Kayak stood out to us as the level of polish and quality of the apps were on par with the experience we were aspiring to create.

Sometime later in the project when Material You was released (more on that later), we stumbled upon the Google Workspace apps blog post which previewed Material 3 changes that Google was introducing to their own products. It offered a great glimpse at what was to come before the Material 3 Design Guidelines were officially released. This post sparked new internal discussions and further design explorations that we considered for future Todoist Android updates.

Design Spec

As we started to define the new Todoist Android app design language and document the changes, we opted to create a design framework, focusing on creating components rather than designing every screen in the app. This allowed us to consistently apply the design system in the app. We did so by using the previously defined component list that we created during the review and study process.

Core screens from different areas of the app were chosen to demonstrate how the components could be applied. We chose to mock up the Todoist project view, navigation drawer menu, project view edit screen, settings, and project detail view, among others. These screens gave us a good overview of how buttons, forms, drawers, lists, and other components would work together and in different states; selected, pressed, disabled, etc.

During the project, we were transitioning our Doist design system to Figma and started creating our first components in the new Doist Product Android Library. We started by using some components from the Material Design UI kit – Components library from the official Google Figma resource file and added them to our Doist design system. We then continued to build up the Product Android Library file with our Todoist-specific components such as task list & board views, detail views, sheets, colors, typography, etc.

We continued by documenting color and typography changes that were based on the Material Design guidelines. The design team opted to implement a new Design Token framework that would share the same values between our design system and the development implementation. The development team would output the values they had in the current implementation and the design team would analyze which values were needed and which could be merged, changed, or deleted. This informed the new Design Token color and typography system which we then documented and discussed with the team to implement. Later in the project, we were happy to see a similar token system introduced by Material 3 in the latest guidelines which validated our thinking and principles behind the new design system.

The design documentation expanded to hold other edge-case mockups that could sit alongside the design system. We documented different responsive screen experiences between phones and tablets against the previous implementation. Additional sections were created to document the motion that should be used for certain components and screens by referencing existing Material Design guidelines examples or prototyping custom motion in Principle and After Effects. The design spec also touched on haptic feedback that should appear on touch targets, how dark mode should work across the new components, documenting Todoist themes within the new design language, and more.

Design Implementation

At Doist, the benefit of the squad is that cross-team collaboration is built into the make-up of the team. Designers, developers, support, and product managers work together in a squad to deliver the project. This close collaboration from the start is key to bridging the gap between scope, estimations, design, development, and delivery. The squad discussed their findings on a daily basis and came up with the best plan of action together.

Designers started by creating components in Figma and shared them with developers in Dropbox Paper. We used screenshots to document the current implementation next to the new designs and linked to the default Google Material Design components. This allowed the team to compare all references in one place. Developers shared their feedback, adjustments would be brainstormed together as the designs were iterated.

Designers on the project would share their work in progress on a weekly basis with the rest of the design team in a design review Twist thread. Here details about the designs were discussed, alternatives mocked up and bigger picture plans made. Design reviews brought up topics like FAB (Floating Action Button) placement, theme options, accent color usage on components, consistency with other platforms, navigation options, and shadow elevation. After thorough discussions and alternative mockups were presented, the design team aimed to find the right balance between Material Design and Todoist brand guidelines. The development team, also part of the design reviews, gave their feedback on the solution and raised technical complexities early on.

Eventually, the design was stabilized and consistencies updated across components and mockups. The design spec was kept up to date so the development team could always review the latest designs in Figma.

Testing

As soon as the development process started, the Android team provided early screenshots and videos in Twist threads while they were implementing the design spec. This practice allowed us to review the app implementation early and often. Designers could review the development work and share feedback in Twist, which resulted in getting the implementation to a high quality. Alongside Twist discussions, the team set up a Todoist project to track ongoing issues and fix bugs. Designers logged new issues, developers would solve them and share the new implementation for designers to review.

When the team had the first stable version of the Android app, we shared it internally at Doist to get more insight and feedback. Other Doisters could access the redesign via a feature flag that could be turned on in the app settings and test the new version for however long they wanted. The feature flag system allowed people to give us early feedback on the design decisions we made and report bugs. Feedback was submitted by the wider team through a dedicated Twist thread and designers and developers could discuss how best to address the feedback during the active project implementation.

After we refined the app implementation further and addressed early feedback we opened up the app update to our beta users. Here users had access to the new Android redesign and were able to give us feedback. Our support team gathered feedback and shared it with us in a dedicated Twist thread. The squad aimed to analyze every comment and looked for patterns where we could make tweaks and improvements to the user experience.

As part of these tweaks, we made changes to how the bottom bar and navigation drawer worked. Some users reported frustrations with the way the new bottom navigation and menu drawer worked. In its first implementation, the drawer was half raised when opened and had to be swiped up to be raised again to see the full content list. This was an issue for some users as it was slower to get to the content below the list. So we decided to fully raise the drawer by default when opening. We also made it easier to open the navigation drawer by sliding up from the bottom app bar. This was a small shortcut but it enabled users to get to their content faster.

Material You

While we were in the testing phase and about to wrap up the project, Google unveiled Material You, and sometime later the Material 3 Guidelines were published. With the newly announced resources, we went back to study the latest guidelines and references we could find to see where the Todoist Android app redesign fits in and which adjustments we might need to make now or in the future.

Dynamic Color was a big new feature that was announced as part of the Material You update. As Todoist supports many different themes the Material You Dynamic Color feature seemed like a good fit for our product. We decided to prioritize this feature and implement Dynamic Color light and dark themes as part of our Todoist theme settings options.

To implement Dynamic Color, the development team started off by creating a demo prototype that utilized the Dynamic Color system and showcased how we could select from a range of color choices that the system defined based on the wallpaper choice. From there, we tried to incorporate system behavior in our design mockups. We designed a range of different color mockups and components to see which ones could fit with which components. We then came up with a color system that worked for the Todoist app and the new themes. These new Dynamic Color themes would sit alongside our current theme options in the Todoist app settings. From here users could choose between Dynamic Color Light and Dark themes.

Along with Dynamic Color, the team also created a customizable bottom app bar, allowing users to set up the app in a way that’s most convenient to their workflow. The location of the Dynamic Add Button can be changed to the center, left, or right corner of the screen. The order of the Menu, Search, and Notification buttons can be rearranged to best fit the ergonomics of the user’s dominant (left or right) hand and optimize their navigation patterns.

Launch

As critical beta feedback was addressed and stability tweaks were made, the squad felt ready to release the new Todoist Android app to the public. The team logged the issues that could not immediately be addressed for future reviews and updates.

The design and marketing team readied the launch by creating What’s New banner artwork and copy that are displayed within the app when launching the update. The Doist marketing team also created release notes and shared the app update announcements on our social channels. The brand and product design team worked together to create custom image assets and copy that summarised the project work in a simple and beautiful way.

What’s Next: Material 3

After a successful launch of the redesigned Todoist for Android app, Google contacted Doist to announce that Todoist was selected as the Material Design Award 2021 winner in the Large Screen category. The team was excited to be recognized for their hard work and it felt like we achieved the goal we had set out to accomplish.

Internally, designers and developers continued to study and discuss the Material 3 updates. The design team started exploring mockups and design changes inspired by Material 3 and Google’s Workspace app updates. Some of our current Todoist explorations include changing the FAB styling, updating the app bar, further removing elevation shadows, and more. Here is a preview of what a future Todoist update could look like.

We hope these insights into Doist’s design process and collaboration practices have sparked your interest. Thank you for reading and stay tuned for future design updates!

Takeaways

  • Study the Material guidelines, Material Design winners, Material studies, and Google Workspace apps to make informed design decisions when designing your next product or app update.
  • Evaluate which Material Design components and practices are right for you and implement them into your product.
  • Carefully balance the Material Design guidelines with your brand guidelines to create a unique and consistent experience between your product and the platform it lives on.
  • Collaborate with your Android developers early and often to ship app updates efficiently and increase the design implementation quality.
  • Use design components and build a design system along with practical mockups to create an efficient design spec.
  • Consider how the latest Android features fit into your product and which have the most impact on your users before deciding to implement them.
  • Test and review builds with your internal team and external beta users to get valuable feedback and make adjustments before releasing them to the public.
  • Create announcement artwork to showcase your latest app or feature update along with a clear description to share in-app and on social media.

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7 Approaches To Testing

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Originally published on August 17, 2020

This article will be interesting for IT directors, product managers, project managers, and anyone who wants to understand the processes of project quality assurance better.

Source de l’article sur DZONE

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How to Build a Strong Brand Reputation

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Most of us are concerned about our public image, right? It matters a lot how people see and think of us. Export the same sentiment to a brand instead of a person. That’s what brand reputation is all about!  

Yes, it’s that simple – the public’s perception of a brand constitutes its brand reputation. And since the internet plays a significant role in public perception nowadays, a brand’s online reputation essentially drives brand perception.

If we come at it from a slightly different angle, it’s the sum of all ideas and emotions a customer or client associates with a brand while interacting with it at any stage. It includes everything, from what kind of customer services they get when purchasing goods or services to after-sales services the company provides. Reputation management is usually done via social media, emails, and online chats.

(Remember, you shouldn’t confine brand reputation only to a brand’s customers or end-users. It includes all stakeholders’ opinions of a brand. It can be anyone from customers to retailers and shippers to manufacturers.)

In short, brand reputation is the most vital intangible asset for any organization striving to make it big in today’s cutthroat market.

What’s The Importance Of A Strong Brand Reputation For Today’s Businesses?

It wouldn’t be wrong to say that nothing affects every stage of the marketing and sales funnel, like a brand’s reputation. Whether it’s awareness, interest, evaluation, commitment, sales, or reputation, a strong brand reputation will only supplement it.

Recent research reveals that about 94% of consumers say that their likelihood of frequenting a business increases if it has positive reviews. Conversely, 92% say that their chance of patronizing a business decreases if it has negative reviews.

Now, let’s look at various factors that make working on your brand reputation important.

Market Trust

Strengthening brand reputation earns your business the trust factor, making your brand a more viable choice for existing and prospective customers. It helps them place their faith in you, believing that your brand is here to thrive and fulfill any promises it makes.

Moreover, it’s a fact that people prefer buying goods and services from a brand that enjoys a solid reputation, especially if people in their social circle use its products.  

Higher Sales

You can’t be far from the truth if you believe brand reputation only yields intangible business gains. It lends you tangible improvements as well, most importantly, in the form of higher sales volume, which translates as higher profits.

All this can’t be achieved without the push from a strong brand reputation, helping the brand carve a niche for itself amongst tough competition.

Customer Loyalty

When a brand succeeds in earning a higher trust level and a positive reputation, the customers are more likely to remain loyal. And, will continue to buy products and services from it, refuting various incentives by the competition, such as discount packages & low prices.

Customer loyalty also leads a brand to a host of other fringe benefits, i.e., demanding a premium price after some time.

Competitive Edge

One thing is for sure, the level of competition in the market is always going to soar higher and higher. And it’s almost impossible for a business to make its way through it without a competitive edge. That’s where a positive brand reputation can make a business’s life easier.

Having the edge over the competition means your potential for catching new customers increases exponentially, helping your brand claim more of the market share.

Word of Mouth

Happy customers remain one of the most significant assets of a brand, especially in this digital era. They serve as brand ambassadors, and if they’re happy and satisfied, they’ll pass the word on, advocating for the brand for free.

It not only leads to increased brand awareness in the market, but it also paves the way for a business to improve its sales and profit margins over time.

What Are The Best Strategies For Managing Your Brand’s Reputation Online?

We’ll keep our focus on the ones proven to be the most effective, starting with:

Staying Ahead of The Curve

Being proactive is among the primary requisites for today’s brand managers. They should be thinking ahead of their competitors and the target audience. While branding online, the margin of error is relatively low, and any slipup can lead to a ripple effect in nullifying the brand’s positive image.

The best way to cope with such a situation is to embrace the mistake quickly and be upbeat enough to resolve the issue immediately rather than have a wait-and-see attitude.

Be Specific About The Deliverables

Social media has played a phenomenal role in educating today’s customers, making them very intelligent and demanding at the same time. It has opened up infinite mediums and channels to get alternatives for almost everything.

That’s why brands need to be very specific in delivery time and after-sales services to avoid earning themselves a bad name in the market. Most experts recommend the “under promise and over deliver” approach to avoid disappointing your customers.

Establish Yourself as An Authority

If you have complete faith in your offerings as a business, knowing that you’re the best in the market, you better be loud and clear about it. It will help you catch immediate attention from your target audience, increasing your brand awareness and your potential to bag more sales and revenue.

Let’s talk about the quality of the product as an example. If you believe that the quality of your product is the unique selling prospect, you must let people know about it. Flaunt this factor with full force, vigor, and authority.

It will help you establish your brand in the market as an authority, and your target market will start looking up to you for the best and the latest on it.

Be Consistent and Assertive

As they say, consistency is the key. If you do it right, your brand reputation will go beyond the lifespan of your brand. People will relate to your brand positively even after your business shuts down.

However, this demands the next level of consistency from your business. You have to make sure you deliver your best in all aspects of branding your business, from the quality of the products and services to the level of customer service you offer.

It doesn’t work well if you outperform your competition by miles for the first time and then step back from delivering those high service standards. You roll your sleeves up and get to compete yourself if you believe you’re outdoing your competition so well.

Deliver on Your Promises

You cannot overstate the significance of delivering on your promises if you want to make the most of your brand reputation. Nothing brands your business better than a bunch of happy and satisfied customers.

And, delivering on your promises consistently is the least of what you need to do to win over your customers to the level they turn into your unofficial brand ambassadors.

Value Feedback

It would be best if you realign your thinking this way. 

Who are you producing your products/services for? Your clients/customers, of course!

What if it’s not working well for them?

Redo your product/service to the requirements and likings of your customers. Otherwise, your business will earn you nothing but a bad name in the market.

You have to realize the importance of listening to your customers, gathering customers’ opinions about what’s not working for them and what areas they would like to see improved. 

Learn to accept and respect your customers’ grievances, praises, issues, tips, or any feedback they give you about your product or service.

You’ll upscale your brand’s reputation considerably if you start doing this.

How Can Influencer Marketing Help You Grow Your Brand’s Reach

Influencer marketing is the concept of branding your business through influential people and opinion leaders in the industry rather than engaging your business directly in doing so. They also brand indirectly, setting a practical example rather than advocating verbally for it.

Research reveals that 94% of marketers using influencer marketing find it highly effective, potentially increasing the ROI 11% times higher than conventional marketing.

Brands that indulge in influencer marketing associate themselves with influential personalities resonating with their message, driving it across their target market in a manner that a large number of people develop an affiliation toward it.

Influencer campaigns help brands tap into an existing community comprising their influencer’s dedicated followers, compelling them to tilt toward a brand they use. Most of us have observed how renowned YouTubers, Tiktokers, and bloggers proactively advertise different brands to their followers.

The increased penetration of a rapidly growing number of social media platforms also helps the influencers garner a solid following and significantly impact the communities that follow them.

They are like a part of the family for their followers, who value their opinion and try to imitate them in what they do and how they do it.

Conclusion

With the competition getting steeper every passing day, earning the trust and business of your target market is becoming a challenging task for most companies. It makes branding even more imperative.

Make a great customer experience your top priority, also keeping a focus on the customer and employee retention and customer feedback to establish yourself as a customer-centric brand. 

Though it might take some time, it will surely help you grab your target market’s attention and respect in the long run. Once you achieve that, you’ll see sales and profits soaring accordingly.

 

Featured image via Pexels.

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SAP accompagne la transformation du groupe Kering avec des solutions technologiques innovantes

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Le groupe Kering renouvelle sa confiance en SAP pour ses activités finance, retail et supply chain, avec la mise en place de solutions de nouvelle génération ayant comme cœur l’ERP S/4HANA for Fashion.

Kering est un groupe mondial de luxe qui regroupe un ensemble de Maisons emblématiques dans le monde de la couture et de la maroquinerie, telles que Gucci, Saint Laurent, Bottega Veneta, Balenciaga, Alexander McQueen et Brioni. Kering est également présent dans le secteur de la joaillerie avec les marques Boucheron, Pomellato, DoDo et Qeelin. Enfin, le groupe a créé en 2015 Kering Eyewear, une entité dédiée à la lunetterie haut de gamme et sport. Kering comptait en 2021   plus de 42.000 collaborateurs pour un chiffre d’affaires annuel de 17,6 milliards d’euros.

Depuis quelques années, le groupe est engagé dans un ambitieux projet de transformation digitale, tant au niveau corporate que de ses marques.

Cette transformation en matière d’innovations et de technologies passe notamment par l’harmonisation des fonctions corporate et par le déploiement de services partagés pour les marques afin qu’elles puissent rester dédiées à leur cœur de métier, la création. Dans le même temps, cela implique une simplification et une rationalisation des systèmes d’information (SI) afin d’atteindre l’excellence opérationnelle et de contrôler les coûts.

L’IT joue un rôle clé dans cette transformation de l’organisation. La DSI de Kering a en effet pour vocation de proposer des solutions communes à l’ensemble des entités du groupe. « Nous nous focalisons actuellement sur trois fonctions clés, explique Nicolas Gauthier, Group Chief Information Officer chez Kering : le retail, afin de proposer le bon produit, au bon moment, la supply chain, avec comme objectif une livraison toujours plus rapide des produits et enfin la finance, afin de soutenir les équipes. »

Afin d‘accompagner cette transformation, Kering a choisi un ensemble de solutions SAP innovantes. « Nous voulons mettre en place une plate-forme permettant de se doter de processus plus efficaces, d’effectuer des échanges de données en temps réel et d’harmoniser nos modèles opératoires. Notre système SAP est probablement l’un des plus importants du marché, avec une instance couvrant trois domaines, trois régions et soixante pays. Il est interfacé avec tous nos systèmes, magasins et entrepôts. »

Aller vite dans la construction de la nouvelle plate-forme SAP

Kering a ainsi sélectionné le meilleur des solutions SAP pour répondre aux besoins de ses métiers. Le groupe a en ligne de mire l’adoption de l’ERP SAP S/ 4HANA Retail et Fashion, accompagné d’une interface utilisateur ergonomique s’appuyant sur la technologie SAP Fiori. À cet effet, il a renouvelé son partenariat stratégique avec SAP. « Nous devons aller vite, afin de respecter le rythme de transformation fixé par le groupe », explique Nicolas Gauthier.

Mais l’organisation doit également faire face à d’autres challenges : savoir insuffler ses principes et bonnes pratiques dans le nouveau système d’information (SI) SAP, être capable de déployer ces nouvelles solutions sans impacter les opérations courantes tout en créant un système respectueux de l’environnement. « Du point de vue technique, toutes nos solutions sont conçues pour avoir un impact minimal sur l’environnement. Nous publions d’ailleurs un rapport incluant une évaluation de l’impact environnemental de nos activités. Du point de vue métier, nous essayons de mettre en place dans notre ERP SAP des processus capables de réduire l’empreinte carbone du groupe Kering. »

Kering a dans un premier temps travaillé sur les fonctions finance. « C’est le cœur du SI, sur lequel se connectent le retail et la supply chain », analyse Nicolas Gauthier. Le core model finance a été déployé avec succès dans les principaux pays du groupe (dont la zone EMEA), et ce pour toutes les marques.

 

 

Savoir rester à l’écoute

Le succès du projet repose sur une recette éprouvée : « Nous restons très proches des utilisateurs. Nous écoutons tous nos interlocuteurs, afin de délivrer la solution attendue. Nous utilisons également des méthodes de développement agile et nous construisons nos solutions étape par étape, afin d’éviter tout effet tunnel. Enfin, nous nous challengeons en continu, en évaluant le taux d’adoption et l’utilisation des solutions que nous proposons aux métiers. »

SAP est un partenaire qui accompagne et propose les innovations qui donnent corps au projet de transformation de Kering. « SAP a un rôle à jouer pour nous aider à implémenter notre vision, non seulement, sur la partie technique, mais en apportant également des idées nouvelles sur la manière d’adresser certaines problématiques métiers. Nous avons noué une relation très proche, nos experts parlant avec leurs experts, nos managers avec leurs managers. La qualité du service premium Max Attention est un élément déterminant du succès de la transformation de Kering qui nous permet de bénéficier de l’entièreté du potentiel et de la valeur des solutions SAP ».

 

 

 

 

The post SAP accompagne la transformation du groupe Kering avec des solutions technologiques innovantes appeared first on SAP France News.

Source de l’article sur sap.com

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Competition: Win One of Four Free Online Passes to MUXL

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The fourth edition of MUXL (Mobile UX London) conference kicks off on the 21st of March, and you could win one of four free passes to the five-day digital event.

Running from the 21st of March to 25th, MUXL is a digital festival of UX and design, entirely online, meaning you can attend remotely from anywhere in the world.

The digital festival is themed around design systems, human-centered design, service designing the future, and UX psychology. MUXL features talks and live panels Q&A Monday – Wednesday, interactive workshops taking place on Thursday and Friday, with global networking opportunities throughout.

Speakers include senior UX researchers, managers, design strategists, and designers at companies including Google, IBM, Microsoft, Disney, and more…

MUXL is an excellent opportunity for UX designers of all levels to improve their skillset, make connections, and find inspiration.

Tickets are available now, but we have four Festival Passes to give away, and all you have to do to be in with a chance of winning is make sure you’re signed up for our weekly newsletter before the 14th of March. And don’t worry if you’re already a subscriber, you’ll be automatically entered into the draw.

We’ll select four winners at random on the 14th of March. Good luck!

 

Featured image via Pexels.

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8 Proven Ways to Turbo-Charge Your Productivity

Have you been feeling a little unproductive lately? Well, you are not the only one. Of course, we all want to be as productive as possible at work, but that’s not always the case.

According to recent research, we are fully productive for less than 3 hours a day. Stress and poor planning are just two of the reasons why. And this is true in all work environments. No one is exempt from this problem, from employees in central offices to freelancers or managers working from home.

That’s why we have researched and selected the eight best ways to increase your productivity at work. In our search for solutions to boost creativity, we have come across numerous promising approaches and tips that you can use. Here are the best tips you can follow to get the most out of a workday:

1. Plan your Tasks

I can safely say that there is nothing more important than efficient task planning. Planning your tasks can free you from stress and procrastination. Planning everything before the day even starts is probably the best approach.

This is also where time management comes into play. Think about it. How often have you been more productive after setting a specific time frame for a task? You need to plan for the project at hand and then map each workday.

The more you plan your projects and workdays, the more productive you will be. However, it would help if you tried not to spend hours and hours planning.

2. Minimize Distractions

So you have successfully planned your tasks. That should be enough to be productive, right? Well, unfortunately, no. Whether you work in the office or from home, numerous things can distract you daily.

Distractions are ubiquitous, from a colleague wanting to chat about last night’s game to TV at home. When you minimize such distractions, you become better at what you do.

Of course, it’s not always easy to resist temptation. But if you do, you’ll spend more hours focused and engaged in your task. The same goes for leadership positions. You can ask your employees to turn off their cell phones and minimize chats.

We all feel the need to check our phones or chat with our colleagues. This is precisely why the next tip is crucial to your productivity.

3. Take Regular Breaks

According to psychologists, taking regular breaks at work will help you minimize stress and thus improve your performance. Whether you work from home or at headquarters, relaxing and social breaks are necessary. But that’s not all.

As we mentioned earlier, regular breaks are a smart way to avoid distractions. If you know your next break is coming up, you will not need to chat or look at your phone.

This will help you maintain a high level of concentration. On the other hand, if you do not take regular breaks, your performance will continue to decline throughout the day.

4. Stop Multitasking

Once you have scheduled your tasks and breaks, it’s time to think about the actual work process. Contrary to what many believe, multitasking does not make you more productive.

Conversely, multitasking can decrease your performance, drain your energy faster, or even damage your brain. This is another reason why planning is so important. You should always try to engage your brain with one task at a time.

5. Optimize Workplace Conditions

This is one of the most efficient but often underestimated ways to increase productivity. Ensuring that the working temperature is between 20-24 degrees C (68 and 76 degrees F) will help you stay concentrated for more extended periods.

This will also save you a lot of time, whether at home or in the office. On the other hand, if you feel cold or hot, you will be distracted. Therefore, you should think about the working temperature before you start working.

6. Enough Sleep is Key

It’s not news that sleep deprivation can affect our performance. And that’s not just it. Lack of sleep leads to a massive decrease in:

  • Ability to concentrate
  • Working memory
  • Mathematical capacity
  • Logical reasoning

So sleep is crucial to our overall well-being. According to the National Sleep Foundation, you should try to get between 7 and 8 hours of sleep a night (for adults between 18 and 65).

It becomes evident that getting enough sleep is one of the best ways to increase your productivity at work.

7. Communication is Crucial

Communication is essential, especially for those of you who work from home. You should always have a conversation with the people you live with during your breaks. This can also help you avoid distractions during your work hours.

Try to make everyone around you (including yourself) understand what closed, and open doors mean. This will help you increase your productivity while communicating sufficiently with your loved ones.

The same goes for people who work in offices. You should always try to engage with your colleagues during breaks. Remember that feeling part of a group and sharing your experiences is the key to increasing your productivity.

8. Avoid Social Media

Our last tip is one of the hardest to follow, especially working from home. You may think that this is not a problem for you. Recent studies show that we spend an average of 145 minutes on social media every day. Of course, it’s not a bad idea to cut down on that time.

But, even if you do not, you should try to keep any engagement with social media outside of your work hours. This will help you focus on your tasks and get you one step closer to your goals.

Wrap Up

Keep in mind that we all get stuck at times when working on a project. The more you worry about it, the more stressed you will be. It’s essential to take care of yourself and your mental health. In any case, we hope you will find it easier to increase your productivity now that you have read our tips. All you have to do is follow them.

Featured image via Pexels.

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Source de l’article sur Webdesignerdepot

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