2020 has been a tough ride for the world. The pandemic has closed down countless businesses or led them to a crisis, leaving many unemployed. Now, more than ever, automating processes, and cost-cutting has become a burning need for companies of all sizes, and financial literacy and smart money management — for people globally. We have already written about fintech trends for 2020 and the years to come. In this article, we will give a brief overview of the most interesting fintech companies, startups, and apps (in our opinion) that represent these trends. They all have one thing in common — revolutionizing financial services. …
The competition on the web and especially the mobile app market is fierce. According to Statista, in the second quarter of 2020, there were a staggering 2.7 million apps on Google Play, 1.82 million available for download on the Apple App Store, and 450,000 on Amazon Appstore. Apparently, some of the low-quality apps are constantly removed by these platforms, but the overall number will be only growing in the foreseeable future. There are a few models of revenue generation for applications: pay per download, paid premium features, and selling ad space. The average app price is slightly over a dollar in the App Store. In the third quarter of 2020, consumers all over the world spent $ 19 billion on mobile apps there, so this provider outperformed Google Play with its 10.3 billion revenue. On average, people are using more than 30 apps on their smartphones per month, which constitutes from 30 to 50 % of the apps they have installed. …
Like a conductor in an orchestra, a project manager makes sure everything is planned, executed, and closed properly. This person is a bridge between the team and the stakeholders. The scope of responsibilities includes project team, resource allocation, and business outcome. Setting goals, choosing the right methodology, progress control, and adjusting to change are among the main functions a PM performs. There is a huge variety of projects in IT — from web and mobile app development to network configuration and security. Information technologies are virtually in all spheres — manufacturing, entertainment, healthcare, education, etc., which adds complexity to software project management as it often requires obtaining industry-specific knowledge. …
They say, just starting is already 50 percent of the success in any endeavor. However, in software development, it’s the stage that precedes the project’s start that is critical for business outcomes, especially to startups as they often only have a raw concept. The Discovery phase aims to answer key questions:
Let’s have a look at the process of the Discovery phase, its deliverables, and types of projects for which it is an absolute must.
The pre-development stage, first of all, aims to eliminate financial risks for the client and make the development process as predictable and smooth as possible. All project goals and requirements are gathered and analyzed from multiple perspectives: optimum architecture, user interface, functionality, etc., and, consequently, the best implementation strategy and deadlines. Mistakes with planning may cost too much and sometimes are very hard to fix at later stages, which can lead to considerable delays with an MVP launch. Unfortunately, to many businesses, it means failure. …
EdTech is the combination of hardware, such as interactive projection screens, and software, e.g., classroom management systems, aimed to improve both teaching and learning processes, and educational outcomes, respectfully. Although educational technology is relatively new — it originated in the early 40-ies and was represented by first flight simulators, it has already demonstrated excellent results and looks extremely promising both to end-users and investors. …
2020 demonstrated how helpless humankind could be when facing an epidemic. It is clear now that healthcare systems in many countries need to be transformed. And this transformation is impossible without leading-edge technology as the challenges are enormous. Like many other spheres, healthcare is undergoing a digital revolution. Data Science, Machine Learning, and Artificial Intelligence will be dominating the healthcare software development sphere in the decades to come. They will help create unprecedented products and systems that will save and improve the lives of people globally: software for hospitals, such as digital workplaces for healthcare professionals, drug prescription assistance, medical staff training, coordinating care and health information exchange; for patients — healthcare chatbots, virtual medicine apps; for device manufactures — medical apps for users, cloud solutions for data storage and management; for pharmaceutical companies — systems for drug testing and medication guidance, etc. …
This notion is closely connected with the on-demand or “access” economy — the activity of providing easy and fast availability of goods and services to consumers through technology companies and online marketplaces. However, in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic, it is not only the simplicity and speed that people desire. Safety is the new hot word, and information technology platform for receiving services in a new hassle-free way for users, and the distance between them and the service providers has decreased. The latter also got the possibility to build a robust online presence and connect to the target audience directly. Technology companies are another key component in this process as they develop customized solutions to best cater to consume promises to deliver it through countless apps that serve as a bridge between businesses and consumers. Although things will never be the same again for many industries, innovation is unstoppable. …
Introduced by Microsoft in 2002, .NET is a huge and one of the most versatile platforms for developing mobile, desktop, web applications, services, IoT, and games. It embraces multiple tools and technologies, as well as 32 coding languages, both front-end and back-end, including C# , managed C++, VB.NET, Visual COBOL, IronPython, IronRuby, and more. It also boasts a systematic ecosystem for developing applications, QA, reengineering, and migration
Before 2016, .NET could only be used for Windows. However, the newly released .NET Core version is cross-platform. You can find a comparison of the .NET Framework and .NET …
“Fintech” describes the new technology integrated into various spheres to improve and automate all aspects of financial services provided to individuals and companies. Initially, this word was used for the tech behind the back-end systems of big banks and other organizations. And now it covers a wide specter of finance-related innovations in multiple industries, from education to crypto-currencies and investment management.
While traditional financial institutions offer a bundle of services, fintech focuses on streamlining individual offerings, making them affordable, often one-click experience for users. This impact can be described with the word “disruption” — and now, to be competitive, banks and other conventional establishments have no choice but to change entrenched practices through cooperation with fintech startups. A vivid example is Visa’s partnership with Ingo Money to accelerate the process of digital payments. …
The notion of MVP, which stands for Minimum Viable Product, was first introduced by Frank Robinson in 2001 and gained popularity thanks to Eric Ries and his book The Lean Startup in 2011. The definition of MVP is quite vague in different sources. However, we can single out two main categories — low-fidelity and high-fidelity. Each of them has a different purpose. Low-fidelity MVP is just a concept — not software or a fully blown website, which helps to understand what problems the user wants to solve, and how effectively the solution can work. There are following types of low-fidelity MVPs — customer interview (asking potential users questions about crucial aspects of your future product ), blogs (writing about the future product and getting feedback from your target audience), forums (analyzing and participating in discussions related to your product), split testing (comparing two or more versions), landing page(the initial stage of brand communication), explainer video, paper prototypes (sketches or user interface), the “fake door” (getting users to sign up for a nonexistent product to check demand), audience building, ad campaign (exploring market validation), micro surveys (one or two questions about the product). …
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