Retweeting Made Easy With These 5 Quick Tips

Retweeting, reposting or RTing feature has been changed slightly by Twitter. Cool, isn’t it? So check out how to retweet the right way now:

1.   Manual Retweeting
i.   Copy the entire tweet, including the Twitter username of the person.
ii.  Paste that information into a brand new tweet.
iii. Edit the tweet so it’s fewer than 140 characters.
iv.  Add stuff like “thank you,” “you’re welcome,” “+1,” or a remark about what you liked
v.   Press “Tweet,” and you’re done!

2.   Retweeting With Comment
It’s a better option than manual (auto) retweeting feature. Users can embed original tweet within their own new Tweet and then comment on it (116 characters). It encourages users to share why they’re retweeting in the first place and discourages purposeless manual retweeting.

3.   Embedding a Retweet With Comment on a Website
You just need a screenshot of the tweet (you wish to embed), add it to your blog post, link to the URL of your tweet. So if anyone clicks on the image, he/she will automatically land on your tweet and will also be able to click on your links and the original tweet.

4.   Undoing a Retweet
i.   Just click that retweet icon at the bottom of the original tweet. It will toggle on and off with each click by changing color and the retweet count.
ii.  For Tweet With Comment, undoing would mean that you delete the entire tweet. It is so because it is like a whole new tweet object with its own URL.

5.   Measuring Retweets
In Twitter Analytic, a retweet with a comment is analyzed just as a normal tweet would be.

Happy retweeting!

How Mobile Commerce Becomes a Force Multiplier in Ecommerce Domain?

Though it may not be the reality right now, just as using a shovel (not your hands!) can dramatically increase the effectiveness of your ability to dig a hole, mobile commerce has the potential to be the force multiplier for businesses in e-commerce domain. Accordingly, it will be a strategic priority for retailers of this domain to best serve the customers keeping in mind the type of device used by the consumer (mobile or stationary) along with his location, context and more.

The user experience on mobile devices will also need optimization so that the consumer completes a purchase, gets the best deal and receives a quality product that fits his needs. The size of screens has even hindered the growth of mobile commerce but with the availability of tablets and bigger smartphones, things are expected to change. Another hurdle, when it came to using a mobile device to shop online, was security.As soon as these things start to fall in place, E-mcommerce will soon move ahead. In fact, things are already changing fast as is evident from the facts provided below.

      Mobile Commerce: A Depiction of Past, Present & Future

Here’re a few facts about mobile commerce – how it’s advancing in the present and how it’s expected to fare in the coming 4-5 years.

# PayPal’s research
The spending figure for mobile shopping in 2013 was roughly $102 billion. Globally, mobile commerce is estimated to grow to roughly $291 billion in 2016.

# Digiday Goldman Sachs
By 2018, global e-commerce sales made via mobile devices are expected to reach an astounding figure of $638 billion, roughly the size of the world’s e-commerce market in 2013. Since tablets, not smartphones, will be the primary drivers of this growth, the gen-next tablets with innovative new features such as voice-control, cameras for 3-D imaging, measurements, etc., are expected to dominate mobile commerce sales.

# ABI Research
By 2015, global spend through mobile devices will come close to $119 billion, accounting for 8% of all e-commerce activity.

# EMarketer Report
M-commerce would amount for roughly 15% of all e-commerce sales by 2017. So if online retail sales will grow to roughly $434.2 billion by 2017… a little math says that’s roughly $65 billion would come from m-commerce.

So definitely, the mobile commerce is on the cusp of becoming a multi-billion dollar industry. Keeping that in mind, e-commerce companies/retailers will now have to launch mobile optimized websites facilitating consumers to research products online and execute the shopping transactions and think of much more distinct strategies for all, including – tablet users and smartphone users.

To seize the opportunity and be a part of the upcoming online retail growth revolution in the coming years, e-commerce merchants will have to act faster. A few suggestions:

•   For quick penetration in the ever-growing m-commerce marketplace, pursue aggressive mobile marketing and customer acquisition tactics to win in the long run. It calls for, taking a long-term, strategic view and immediately start investment in mobility, whether it’s mobile responsive websites or enterprise mobile apps.

•   Stay focused on site performance and execution – develop a user-friendly layout with minimal text, large buttons, little scrolling and make checkout as easy as possible from mobile devices. Delivering an experience of hassle-free intuitive shopping and quick checkout is key to conversion.

•   Make customer experiences fulfilling during the holiday period

•   Assure quick delivery of orders despite all odds, even if shoppers place the order at the last minute and delivery networks are congested.

Top Reasons Why Every Business Must Be ERP Ready

There is no organization that is ever 100% ERP ready but ERP readiness helps greatly. It mitigates some of the most common risks, such as budgetary overruns, operational disruptions and misalignment with business needs. But most importantly, it increases the efficiency of business operations by exterminating hassles like those discussed below.

Access to Business Data Information
There are business processes and practices that have become obsolete and need a major overhaul. This is the key to doing business faster and for that you most certainly need immediate access to key business data. So if your company is still relying upon spreadsheets for key performance metrics like orders per day or sales to date or is doing manual reconciliation of data, it is time that you do away this practice or update it.

ERP could be your best friend. It gives a holistic view of business operations at any time and furnishes all the information that is required to do a job more effectively. For example, sales representatives should be able to view a customer’s full transaction history and more proactively improve renewal rates while increasing upsell and cross-sell opportunities.

Dealing With Complex IT Systems
It takes time and money to update business software. So it’s no surprise many businesses run outdated versions of their business software. The IT management could be nightmarish or even more worsened if you have multiple systems across your business. Moreover, customizing these systems, integrating them and maintaining them with patches and upgrades can be complex and costly.

ERP technology can give you the agility to respond to changing business needs rapidly. That’s why selecting the right ERP provider is critical.

Inventory Management (if you have any)
It is imperative that staff has easy access to sales, customer data all the time as it ensures smooth business operations and that the right amount of products is in the right location at the right time. Otherwise, it can create serious problems across your company, for instance, if a customer calls to inquire about an order and employees can’t track it to see if it’s been shipped—or if it’s even in stock—your company will start to develop a poor reputation for reliability and service.

An ERP system empowers the staff in every department, gives access to up-to-the-minute information and most importantly the confidence while answering any of the customer queries regarding order, shipping status, payment status, service issues, etc., without checking with any another department.

TRAITS TO LOOK FOR IN YOUR ERP PARTNER
While a good ERP systems could provide a strong foundation for industry-specific and vertical customization and ensure optimization for your industry’s unique requirements, challenges, and quirks, only a good ERP partner could provide it.
So you should be looking for an experienced & knowledgeable ERP PARTNER with a strong technical support team. Your ERP partner should have a deep understanding of your business needs and should be willing to help you with the following:

Map out the ERP implementation process
Maps out the process for complete business optimization and to ensure the alignment with a proposed business solution that addresses your business’ key challenges.

Maximize its value
Understands your business requirements and help you customize your ERP solutions to help you get the most out of your investment.

Stay involved
Help the employees with better managing organizational changes that come with implementing an ERP application. They train them to take advantage of the benefits of having a fully functional ERP solution.

Mobile Business Apps Trends in 2015

Mobile business apps continue to evolve in 2015 and the reasons are obvious. Mobile devices have made everything more accessible offering the kind of ease and convenience that wasn’t there before. Besides, they are productive, efficient and help business owners and customers alike. Furthermore, mobile-supported practices and protocols are easy to implement.

Having said that, would you not be interested to know what’s trending in Enterprise Mobile Apps in 2015 and how to make its best use.
Listing down the top mobile app trends of 2015:

Emphasis on Use of Analytics

While many app developers make the mistake of not having helpful mobile properties and in-app analytics in place, it is a strict no-no.

Having a solid data monitoring system will help save time, gather useful information and analyze business and increase efficiency and revenues in 2015. If taken seriously,  this is one of those 2015 enterprise mobile app trend that will help you improve your business every step of the way.

Emphasis on ROI & App Monetization

Although native development technologies gives a natural and intuitive user experience, HTML5 and other multi-platform app development tools are more resource efficient, so using them is recommended. This would greatly help to earn ROI, if an app is to be developed and maintained for three different operating systems considering that the number of enterprise mobile apps are on a continual increase.

So it is recommended that in 2015 a thoughtful app monetization strategy is devised to make the best use of multichannel application platforms that support both – native and HTML5 applications.

Improved User Interface (UI)

The user interface of Enterprise Mobile Apps will evolve from passive screens to proactive context-aware notifications in 2015. Such apps will use sensors and web services to anticipate user needs and provide the relevant type of interaction (e.g. touch, voice control) as needed; all making the screen a less significant part of how we interact with mobile apps.

Data quality

The data quality has emerged as a big issue and enterprises are most likely going to employ best available data quality solutions in 2015.

As enterprise mobile apps typically include information from multiple systems (e.g. ERP, CRM, etc.) on a single screen and dealing with obsolete or wrong information (all that comes under data quality) on small touchscreens is frustrating for users, firms will use integration platforms to match and duplicate data across multiple sources, thereby allowing users to work more effectively.

App Performance

App performance will become the critical element in 2015.

So such apps will be made that could work offline and are more responsive. This will ensure that users continue to work even when there is limited or no network connectivity.

Design Approach

Mobile apps must be designed to have compatibility for multiple platforms to keep up with the ever-increasing number of devices in the market in 2015. While the biggest demand is still for iOS apps, Android has also shown tremendous growth and your apps should reflect that, if you wish to be successful and accessible.

Diverse Choice but Select Executions

To give users seamless functionality and good navigation, an app design will have to give endless possibilities of features and options in 2015. So making a cool, unique and fun app, but that is not overloaded with excess features will be trending.

M2M communications

Using M2M communications will help in the following:
•    Generating timely, actionable data
•    Speed up decision-making,
•    Streamlining supply chains,
•    Understand customer demands, and
•    Bring new products to market quickly

So more and more companies are planning to add sensors and networking technologies to their products to find new ways to gather powerful insights. In fact, M2M communications are also being currently used in media & agriculture industry. While farmers use them to automatically adjust the composition and amount of fertilizer needed based on data from satellites and ground sensors, advertisers use these to enable billboards to display personalize messages to passers-by according to data collected from their mobile devices.

Geography

Geo-fencing features in enterprise mobile apps could help to track data based on customer location and this is another latest trend on a rise in 2015.

In a nutshell, those enterprise mobile apps will be the greatest hits that give 100% user-satisfaction because users are looking for functional apps that are directly usable, serve a specific function and concentrate on a few basic features that work seamlessly – rather than a huge app that does a million things at once.

Emerging Trends in ERP

Is your organization using ERP? Most likely, “Yes” – so the transformations in its use, implementation and market dynamics are surely going to impact you. In 2015, you must watch out for these emerging trends that will most likely influence how your company uses ERP – whether you are implementing it for the first-time, upgrading it, or opting for a complete makeover.

The main drivers of ERP’s transformation will be cloud, social, mobile and big data technologies. These will most likely morph Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) into on-premises and cloud-based business applications with built-in analytics providing mobile access.

Highlighting a few trends that point out to the “ERP of Future”, starting 2015–

ERP Will Go “Social”
Social media data helps in understanding customer preferences and product improvement. Besides, much could be gained from the type of customer engagement and retention that comes from social media integration. Consequently, ERP will go social, a trend that we are already witnessing.

IoT, Big Data Analytics & Wearables Will Hugely Impact ERP
While Internet of Things (IoT) will minimize human interaction and transfer data over a network feeding it into a cloud-based ERP applications for analysis, big data analytics tools will help reap actionable insights from that data. As these technologies will integrate with ERP systems, businesses will make better use of under-or-un-utilized data besides analyzing new sources of data.

Also, wearables focused on a host of applications in the workplace are expected to be available. For instance, Augmented Reality enabled Google Glass will enable hands free operations for the benefit of both techies and tech corporations.

Availability of Mobile and Cloud-based ERP Products Will Surge
At present, not all ERP buyers have moved to the cloud.  A recent Gartner survey found that a whopping 79% of ERP buyers are not likely to move to cloud in the near future, indicating that at present there is not much traction for the cloud. And though it is taking time, ERP will continue to “deconstruct” into a dispersed environment of loosely coupled applications that run mostly in the cloud. Consequently, ERP vendors will have to add web, mobile and cloud functions to their products to keep pace with market demand and so, more such products will be available.

Verticalization Will Surely Thrive
Businesses need solutions on a more personalized, individual basis that includes industry-specific functionality. It calls for verticalization – wherein ERP products tailored to the unique needs of specific industries will have to be created.

First, it will bring down the cost of ERP software because ERP products will be most appropriate for specific verticals. Second, it will minimize the need for third-party customization solutions. It will also help ERP vendors design ERP products with more user-friendly interfaces, easier implementation and simplified screens.

ERP Buyers (Smart & Informed Buyers) Will Increase
With respect to ERP software, why vendors are quickly adapting to changing technology and user-requirements?

Primarily, because ERP software is no longer exclusive to larger corporations. Small and mid-size businesses are also implementing ERP platforms to ensure operations run smoothly right from the beginning. Though it is because of the growing influence of cloud-based ERP systems, these buyers know that this is for their good in the long run.

They know, for example, core ERP user features like dashboards and reporting tend to work well ported to mobile devices and so want to have those tools available as key to achieving the desired return on investment (ROI) for their ERP implementations. Keeping in perspective their future business growth, buyers will increasingly be engaged in the software selection process more deeply than ever before.

Consolidation Will Continue
Enterprises have turned more sophisticated. Keeping up the pace, ERP technology has evolved. So while earlier it was a single, on-premises system for tracking, manufacturing resources, orders and finances, in future – it will explode in an array of applications and the trend will continue.

As technological advancements continue to affect ERP, we will be witnessing a major revamp in the architecture of the ERP software system and its delivery models. So ERP vendors, owners and businesses will have to boost up the efforts to adapt to these changes quickly making informed business decisions and remain – competitive and profitable.