A few years back, Microsoft Dynamics CRM was the go-to platform for businesses requiring efficient customer relationship management. Though it isn’t necessarily one of the most popular Microsoft technology solutions ever, it did have a fair share of successes in its long run till 2016. Microsoft Dynamics CRM is now Microsoft Dynamics 365 – a revamped version of the old one with the latest features, and focusing on improved customer engagement.
 

Microsoft Dynamics 365

 
The Dynamics 365 is basically a repackaged bundle of the best of what Dynamics CRM had to offer. It officially replaced CRM in November 2016, and is now considered one of the best business solutions from the tech giant catering to tens of thousands of businesses across the globe far better than its predecessor ever did.

The Dynamics 365 Suite comprises 6 apps including:

• Dynamics 365 for Sales
• Dynamics 365 for Marketing
• Dynamics 365 for Customer Service
• Dynamics 365 for Field Service
• Dynamics 365 for Project Service Automation
• Microsoft Dynamics Social Engagement

Businesses can purchase these apps separately as per their needs or under the Engagement Plan along with other ERP applications.
 

What makes it better than its predecessor?

 
Both platforms share an almost identical design architecture. So what makes Dynamics 365 capable of serving businesses better than the already reliable Dynamics CRM you ask?

Because 365 comes with enhanced features.

The Dynamics CRM was originally designed to assist enterprises as a Customer Relationship Management tool that can carry out customer-facing operations like sales, customer care, and marketing. Dynamics 365 essentially combines the CRM applications with its ERP products thereby dissipating silos of both internal and external information.

This way, a business using Dynamics 365 would be running all front-end and back-end operations from one single platform. Microsoft also provides great support to the Dynamics 365 platform imbuing it with even AI and machine learning capabilities. It enjoys as much demand as ASP.NET development services today.
 

Features exclusive to 365

 
Better integration – Microsoft ensured improved integration capabilities in Dynamics 365 enabling it to deliver great productivity and accurate information. Another great benefit is that Dynamics 365 apps can be easily integrated with the data from over 600 million LinkedIn users as the tech giant had acquired LinkedIn a few years ago. The Microsoft Relationship Sales feature of Dynamics 365 enables users to build relationships with the right people on LinkedIn.

Additionally, Office 365 and Power BI can also be integrated with Dynamics 365 granting businesses accurate insights on their performance.

Better interface – The new interface of 365 was unveiled by Microsoft back in 2017. Known as the Unified Interface, the interface was designed with a mobile-friendly look and an emphasis on standardization across apps i.e. the apps will deliver optimal performance across devices of all types and screen resolutions.

AI/ML capabilities – The October 2018 release of Dynamics 365 introduced Dynamics 365 AI for Sales – a feature that leverages machine learning to deliver data-driven insights that can help businesses make better decisions. This also allows the suite to automate various business processes thereby allowing users to focus on issues of greater importance.
 

Conclusion

 
There are still many businesses that rely on Dynamics CRM to handle customer relationship management. Considering the fact that the extended support for Microsoft Dynamics 4.0 ended by April 2018 and that the support for CRM 2015 would cease by 2020, businesses should consider upgrading to Dynamics 365.

There are also businesses that rely on custom software development services to tailor-make CRM software as an alternative to Dynamics 365. But getting a custom CRM solution that rivals the capabilities of Dynamics 365 is just wishful thinking at this point unless a business is fine with investing tons of money into developing a bespoke solution. The bottom line is that Dynamics 365 is a worthy investment for modern businesses that realized the value of customer relationships.

Flutter is becoming a hot topic now apparently. The open source mobile app development framework developed by Google is getting rapidly adopted by mobile app development companies evident from the increasing rate at which Flutter apps are popping up on Google Play. Considering the fact that the framework’s first stable release, Flutter 1.0, was on December 4^th, 2018, this can be seen as a rapid growth.

One major reason behind Flutter’s increasing demand could be the fact that it actually makes cross-platform app development work. Flutter facilitates much easier cross-platform mobile app development i.e. there’s no need to develop iOS and Android apps separately with Flutter. Only a single codebase is needed for both platforms. But this is just one of its many benefits.

App developers who want to develop or improve their apps should be aware of everything Flutter can do, including its benefits.

Though it does have a fair share of cons, in this blog, we will be exploring only the major advantages of using Flutter for app development.
 

Faster app development

 
Many developers vouch for the fact that mobile app development is much faster with Flutter without compromising app quality. Faster app development with Flutter is also attributed to one particular feature of the framework called ‘hot reload’. With ‘hot reload’, any changes in the code are instantly reflected on the app. This allows the app development team to add features and fix bugs faster.

The feature also facilitates better collaboration between designers, developers, and testers allowing them to do quick experiments and test out ideas on the go. Not all changes can be ‘hot reloaded’ however but the feature has seemingly made Flutter a great choice for many companies offering enterprise application services.
 

Single codebase

 
As mentioned before, Flutter is a great cross-platform app development framework requiring the developers to write just a single codebase for an app that can run on both iOS and Android. The framework doesn’t depend on platforms. Though the developer can have the same app on both iOS and Android, it’s still possible to distinguish between them.
 

Lesser testing effort

 
Because one app can be on two platforms with Flutter, the QA & Testing process would be faster. The testing team won’t have to put a lot of effort to test both the iOS and Android versions of the app. They essentially have only one app to check.
 

Faster apps with better UI

 
Flutter apps have been found to be particularly faster providing smooth, seamless scrolling experiences while in use. Thanks to the framework’s built-in widgets, advanced APIs, and scrolling & navigation features, developers can create apps with stunning, immersive user interfaces.
 

Great option to develop MVP

 
Due to its cross-platform nature and its capability to speed up development, Flutter is a great choice to develop a Minimum Viable Product (MVP). It essentially gives a functioning app to a business quickly and at reduced development costs.
 

Close ties with Fuchsia

 
Fuchsia, a capability-based OS that Google is currently developing, turned a lot of heads ever since in appeared on GitHub in 2016. It’s based on a new microkernel called Zircon, and is reportedly capable of running on many platforms – from embedded systems to mobile devices and personal computers. Now it’s been revealed that Fuchsia’s UI and apps are written with Flutter. The official release of Fuchsia will trigger big changes in app development, and developers with hands-on experience with Flutter will be able to capitalize.
 

Conclusion

 
Flutter certainly is one of the most intriguing mobile technologies available today. Though many organizations are still hesitant to embrace it, the framework is slowly gaining momentum especially after the reveal of its ties with Google’s Fuchsia. Flutter could be the future of mobile app development, making even smaller businesses capable of affording mobile apps on popular platforms.

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Considering the phenomenal growth of open source over the last decade, it wouldn’t be surprising to know that open source technologies are now commonly used in traditional on-premise systems. But traditional on-premise systems are slowly going obsolete today as the cloud dominates.

Businesses are now investing in moving their workloads to the cloud which will require the usage of certain specific tools. This is where open source comes in. When shifting to the cloud, it’s best to start with great management tools. There are cloud-compatible open source tools specifically designed for resource management. Many companies also prefer open source software development to custom-build a tool that fits perfectly well with their business ecosystem.

This blog lists a few effective open source cloud management tools that will make things easier for a business migrating to the cloud.
 

OneOps

 
Rhymes well with DevOps, doesn’t it?

That’s because the tool was built around the concept of DevOps and is ideal for a multi-cloud architecture. Released under the Apache 2.0 license by Walmart Labs, OneOps is officially described as a cloud management cum application lifecycle management platform. As such it rivals popular tools like Chef, Puppet etc.

OneOps is useful for all clouds that leverage OpenStack cloud environments be it public, private, or hybrid. It also goes well with Microsoft Azure services or AWS. With OneOps, a business will be able to create virtual instances, maintain them, and configure security settings in addition. But that isn’t all it can do with its biggest feature being facilitating application migration from one cloud to another.
 

Docker

 
It won’t be wrong to assume that Docker is the world’s most popular container technology. The open source technology is already considered a premium standard as a platform for container development as well as deployment.

With Docker’s open source orchestration services – Machine, Swarm, and Compose, organizations will find container management much easier and more effective.

• Machine – To automate Docker container provisioning. Facilitates integration with Apache Mesos granting capabilities of bigger-scale.
• Swarm – To scale container-enabled applications with a pool of container hosts. Can be used to resolve cluster management issues including scheduling.
• Compose – To link containers together so they function as a group. Makes managing widely distributed container clusters easier.

Kubernetes

 
The most dominant force to be reckoned with in the container management sector for public and private clouds, Google’s Kubernetes is a celebrated open source container orchestration system with its open source framework even adopted by many tech giants including Microsoft.

With Kubernetes, organizations can distribute their containers across a cluster of cloud machines while the technology efficiently deals with scaling and service management issues. Kubernetes is compatible with a plethora of cloud and data center services including Azure, AWS, and Apache Mesos.
 

Apache Mesos

 
Mesos, another open source tool, is also a great option for cloud management. What makes it unique is that it also makes it easier to manage traditional hardware and software along with clouds akin to how a single computer is managed. It’s sometimes referred to as a ‘distributed systems kernel’ that facilitates effective management of thousands of servers using containers. Mesos complements large, distributed databases like Hadoop.
 

Conclusion

 
Over the next couple of years, new cloud computing technologies and trends will emerge and several approaches your organization uses now may require drastic changes. Additionally, there will be advancements in open source technologies to consider as well; like when the advent of the MEAN stack led to the slow decline in demand for LAMP development services.

The complexity of open source cloud management tools is likely to go up a notch in the coming times. This means organizations should keep themselves updated on how things are changing around their business’ cloud ecosystem to figure out optimum approaches and the rights tools to derive the best results.

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The consistent growth of smartphone usage, the emergence of Agile and DevOps, new trends in mobile app development among other factors brought forth a change in software testing practices in general. This subsequently impacted mobile testing as well considering the fact that the modern world we live in is unquestionably mobile-driven.

Statista’s report that over 52% of all worldwide online traffic in 2018 came through mobile phones is a testament to the influence mobile devices have in our day-to-day lives.

Though mobile testing is technically software testing, there are fundamental differences particularly in the testing approach and purpose. People now see their mobile devices as useful personal assistants – a source of information on almost everything which means a great user experience can make a world of difference. If one app fails to grant them a good experience despite serving its purpose, users are likely to seek better ones that are more convenient and user-friendly to use.

This means mobile app testing should not be just about finding and rectifying bugs. It’s about ensuring that the experience will delight target users. Thankfully, modern mobile testing trends are centered on mobile UX. Let’s explore those mobile app testing trends that are already turning heads this year.
 

The Agile – DevOps Ecosystem

 
Both aren’t new concepts, and many software development companies were willing to invest in an ecosystem that combines the best of both Agile and DevOps. But by 2019, this trend garnered a great amount of positive reviews owing to its capability of reducing development time. The combination has also been particularly beneficial for testers and QA professionals.

The combination presently recommends planned use of test automation for even more benefits. As automation demands requirements verification, configuration of toolsets for integration and delivery, automation frameworks etc. it can be efficiently implemented in an Agile ecosystem that facilitates collaboration among the teams involved.
 

Performance testing to Performance engineering

 
User experience is one of the most important factors that determines the success of a mobile app in a competitive market. To ensure better UX, performance testing has been undergoing a slow transformation into performance engineering – something which is garnering praise from the testing community. Performance engineering is how many companies make sure that the components of an app and its network are functioning properly in addition to offering testers better automation opportunities.
 

Open source tools are adopted more

 
Open source testing tools have been helping testers across the globe for many years. But they have never been adopted like they are being adopted now. Though open source tools are generally perceived as cheaper alternatives to proprietary tools, this isn’t always the case. Regardless, open source testing and management tools are proving their mettle in more ways than one.

Open source testing tools are chosen for their versatility allowing testers to cover everything from web apps to various kinds of mobile apps – native, web, and hybrid. Some of them also come with code libraries for popular programming languages, and are both customizable and adaptable. Though the security of open source tools is questioned by many, a number of large organizations embrace open source services – a testament that their pros outweigh their cons.
 

Embracing IoT

 
In this era, people use a number of connected devices with or without knowledge popularly referred to as the Internet of Things. Gartner forecasts that there will be more connected devices in the world soon estimating the existence of over 20 billion connected devices by 2020.

As IoT gains momentum, companies investing in IoT are trying to figure out how to address the questions raised on the security of the new technology. Considering the increasing security threats to IoT, QA professionals will have to put in more effort to perform static and dynamic testing on IoT devices.

At present, IoT testers are finding it a challenge to establish security priorities, and to define ideal testing tools and conditions. But IoT’s rapid growth leads us to assume that the security aspect will definitely improve considerably this year. It’s now easier to find a reliable application management services company that can help organizations handle IoT apps and tools.
 

Conclusion

 
QA experts, testers, as well as developers may find the seemingly unstoppable rise in the number of mobile devices quite unnerving. But this is the future we used to read about years ago. It’s here and it brings with it a number of trends that open up new challenges for mobile app testers. It’s now vital to understand testing trends and how a cohesive testing strategy can ensure quality that meets the changing standards of mobile users.

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SharePoint has successfully completed 17 years as one of the world’s most popular intranet platforms and one of the most widely adopted Microsoft technology solutions among enterprises. With SharePoint, organizations can build intranets with great business and team collaboration features. Even after all these years, Microsoft is still betting on SharePoint to stand its ground…and it is.

SharePoint has been augmented by the tech giant with various enhancements for the past couple of years, garnering praise from the community while accelerating the demand for SharePoint development services. Surprisingly, however, not all opinions on SharePoint are positive. It could be the polarized opinions that are making many business decision-makers doubt the platform’s corporate intranet capabilities.

To dispel such doubts, we will explore the major pros and cons of SharePoint intranet in this blog.

Fact: SharePoint has a rich set of features and out-of-the-box capabilities

Pro: SharePoint’s sheer number of features is itself a big merit of the platform. The features can ensure workflow management, enterprise-wide collaboration, content and document management etc. The users essentially get to complete their tasks faster and with much less effort. AI-fueled content collaboration and personalized experiences tailored with the help of AI makes SharePoint a fantastic tool for enterprises.

Con: The number of features can be considered a con of SharePoint as well due to the fact that it can make things quiet messy. For starters, it will be harder for a business to determine what all features of SharePoint will suit their needs. Not prioritizing them and enabling them all will result in an intranet that would do more harm than good; hindering user activities being the best case scenario.

Fact: SharePoint offers deep customizability

Pro: Not all businesses rely on SharePoint’s out-of-the-box features simply because of the fact that said features may not fit a specific business context or meet a specific business objective. However, SharePoint intranet can be appropriately customized – embedding corporate branding, developing custom add-ons, building solutions to perform specific activities etc. As a matter of fact, it’s quite simple to create a unique SharePoint solution that covers a range of processes. All it takes is a set of smart templates and a few clicks.

Con: The customizability of SharePoint is certainly a great merit. But such customizations tend to demand a lot of time and investments. Intranet customization is not something a business can achieve in a fortnight. In addition, the deeper the SharePoint intranet is customized, the bigger the bill.

…which brings us to our final assessment for now.

Fact: SharePoint comes with at least 3 deployment approaches each with different pricing models.

Pro: Commonly chosen SharePoint deployment approaches are on-premises, cloud, and hybrid. Back in the day, SharePoint existed on-premises only. So organizations were required to invest in infrastructure and licenses. Soon after, service charges were added to the bill.

But the advent of the cloud allowed Microsoft to diversify their offerings with a number of cloud plans with varying price tags. SharePoint owners could choose their own pricing model aligned with their budget capabilities.

Con: Just because they get to choose their pricing model doesn’t mean the bill would be any lesser. Cloud intranets do cut intranet costs substantially. But SharePoint deployment itself requires investments. On-premises model requires investments in infrastructure, licenses, and customization. Cloud intranets are more reasonable but come with monthly subscription payments. A hybrid model is a mix of both meaning the organization has to invest in both on-premises and cloud SharePoint.
 

So is it a good idea to use SharePoint?

 
The answer to this question, to a great extent, depends on the size of your business, the collaboration your business needs, and obviously your business’ budget for intranet setup. SharePoint intranet is absolutely beneficial for medium to large-sized businesses with multiple teams and offices. Setting up SharePoint would be easier for businesses with a well-rounded IT infrastructure that complements the business’ growth potential.

There are SharePoint experts who can help your business deploy and leverage SharePoint effectively. Though not as big an industry as ASP.NET development services, SharePoint development still has great demand across enterprises who believe in the collaboration-productivity relationship.

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