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Benefits of Investing in Custom Software Development for Your Business in Dubai

The modern day businesses depends heavily on various software applications and digital tools. In fact the operation of today’s business is nearly impossible without utilizing technology. The software applications range from a simple accounts tool to a complex HRMS and a full-fledged complete Business OS (operating system). Different businesses have different needs, different industry sectors have different norms and standards, hence different levels of software complexity is required.

However, one thing is sure that all modern day business are using some sort of software to improve business efficiency. It could either be even a humble email client, like outlook, or MS Excel, these too are software tools. Or it could be a highly sophisticated ERP system or a performance management system to manage thousands of employees and huge business operations. Businesses in Dubai, Sharjah, Abu Dhabi and all around the UAE tend to be early adopter of the modern technologies.

Furthermore businesses and companies from all around the world have presence in Dubai and all around the UAE which raise the competitiveness and diversity of the business landscape in the country. It is the strategic location of the country and its ports along with its highly business-friendly government policies which is and which will keep attracting more businesses, therefore it is important to make your business as much competitive as possible. In this blog we will discuss what are the benefits of investing in custom software development for your business.

Benefits of Investing in Custom Software Development for Your Business in Dubai
Benefits of Investing in Custom Software Development for Your Business in Dubai

The Importance of Technological Advancements in Business

The technology help businesses boost performance and productivity, it streamline internal processes, enhance customer experience, improve product/service quality and it offers better monitoring and tracking capabilities. That is why it is crucial to leverage technological advancements to remain ahead of your competition.

When it comes to the software solutions, there are two distinct ways to do that, the commercial off-the-shelf software (COTS) solutions and custom software development. Both have their pros and cons, businesses are using various different types of software on different levels and with different complexity and sophistication. For example, if you need an email client, you don’t have to reinvent the wheel, you can use any off-the-shelf email client.

But if you need an ERP, HR System, or a document processing system or an intranet application, CRM, or other such tool, then you should seriously consider your requirements, goals and objectives and then decide which software solution type will serve you best. Every business evolved differently, and it is this difference which attracts your customers. This also means that every business have different goals and objectives with exclusive needs and requirements. Which can only be fulfilled with custom software development, the COTS are standardized applications and doesn’t offer much room for customization.

See Also: Step-by-Step Guide to Planning Your Custom Software Development Project

The Importance of Technological Advancements in Business
The Importance of Technological Advancements in Business

Key Benefits of Custom Software Development for Businesses in Dubai

When business owners, managers or decision makers go with the custom software development they are usually doubtful about the impact of this project. Most of the time businesses are reluctant to go with custom software development because it requires much more time, efforts and in some cases initial cost is also higher comparing to available commercial off-the-shelf solutions available in the market. Here are some key benefits of custom software development for business in Dubai, which will assure them higher success and greater impact than the counterpart COTS.

Key Benefits of Custom Software Development: Customization

One thing that businesses can never achieve from commercial off-the-shelf software solutions is the ability to perfectly align the software with their unique needs and ability to addressing to the very unique challenges they are facing. However the custom software development not only personalize the software solution as per your business needs but it also helps you to address the unique challenges you are facing and tend to deliver exclusive advantages which can gain you great competitive edge.

The custom software development project starts with intensive requirement gathering drive, which help the development team to understand all your needs and challenges. That is why the custom software development can deliver more effective software solutions. Furthermore when a software solution is built exclusively for your needs it will also allow you to choose the features, technologies and work flows as per your needs. This also help integrating custom software with your existing IT infrastructure in a nearly seamless manner.

See Also: Leveraging Big Data in Custom Software Development

Key Benefits of Custom Software Development: Customization
Key Benefits of Custom Software Development: Customization

Key Benefits of Custom Software Development: Cost-Effective

It is a common misconception that the custom software development is expensive, however, that is not true at all. It might seem that the initial cost of the commercial off-the-shelf software solutions is less and they can setup immediately, even within a day or two, however, the COTS have recurring cost, which diminishes with long-term cost-effectiveness and even it makes them much more expensive than the custom software solutions. The initial deployment cost of the custom software development is quit higher, it also require a lot of time and efforts to breathe life into an idea.

However, the customized software solutions offers better and cost-effective scalability, customization and very less maintenance cost. There is no recurring cost and you can always get them managed and customized from your internal IT team or any vendor of your choice, thus you are also not limited and stuck to a specific vendor. All these factors results in an exceptionally higher ROI and great future readiness.

See Also: The Impact of Cloud Computing on Custom Software Development [Full Guide]

Key Benefits of Custom Software Development: Cost-Effective
Key Benefits of Custom Software Development: Cost-Effective

Key Benefits of Custom Software Development: Security and Reliability

The security and reliability are few of the most important and crucial factors to consider while deploying a software solution for your business. One of the biggest advantage of custom software development is its ability to let you chose the features and technologies. With the custom software development businesses can chose the top-notch technologies and platforms to ensure highest level of security and reliability. Especially when you want to meet the highest industry standards and regulatory compliances, the custom software development is the best choice.

Businesses can not only customize the features but also the frameworks, platforms and hosting environments which assures highest level of data protection. Any security breach or leak of customers’ data can completely ruin your reputation. As the custom software development involves intensive requirement gathering and rigorous testing which makes your custom software apps more secure, reliable and less sensitive towards common technology challenges.

See Also: Top Trends in Custom Software Development: What’s Shaping the Industry?

Key Benefits of Custom Software Development: Security and Reliability
Key Benefits of Custom Software Development: Security and Reliability

Key Benefits of Custom Software Development: Flexibility and Scalability

In the modern fast-paced business landscape of Dubai, businesses needs are not fixed and businesses have to accommodate for the impact of ever-changing customer needs and technology advancements to remain competitive. The commercial off-the-shelf software solutions can provide a good quick fix to your current needs, but doesn’t offer the flexibility, development and customization that you might be needing in the coming years. On top of that the commercial off-the-shelf software (COTS) are designed for masses hence lack the personalization and ability to customization to address your exclusive challenges.

However, the custom software development on the other hand can offer great flexibility and scalability. Whether you need to address your unique challenges, or you have sophisticated business needs, you can mold the customized software they way you want. As time pass and your requirements changes or your needs grow you can further add more features and increase the capacity of customized software.

See Also: Common Mistakes to Avoid in Custom Software Development Projects

Key Benefits of Custom Software Development: Flexibility and Scalability
Key Benefits of Custom Software Development: Flexibility and Scalability

Key Benefits of Custom Software Development: Seamless System Integration

In today’s modern world, the businesses and organizations have become more sophisticated and require a lot many different IT solutions and software tools. In order to effectively execute a task or to ensure seamless business processes for higher productivity and performance it is absolutely essential that all the different software, systems and solutions work in full harmony by enabling seamless communication between them. This communication means exchange of data, information and instructions.

This is what is called system integration, it also known as integration or third-party integration. The custom off-the-shelf software solutions only provide limited integration capabilities. However, custom software development will enable businesses to build the software to be more compatible with their existing systems, databases, and IT infrastructure which makes them more compatible and integration friendly. Furthermore businesses can also customize them to achieve their integration objectives.

See Also: How to Develop a Custom Software in Dubai?

Key Benefits of Custom Software Development: Seamless System Integration
Key Benefits of Custom Software Development: Seamless System Integration

Key Benefits of Custom Software Development: Higher Productivity

The custom software development help businesses to achieve higher efficiency and productivity. There are several factors that help improving performance and efficiency, such as:

  • Custom software development let businesses build the user-friendly software solutions
  • Intuitive user interfaces (UIs) can greatly enhance user experience (UX)
  • Ability to customize the UI and workflows help employees easily adopt the new system
  • Customized feature help employees get their tasks done with higher efficiency
  • Different user groups can have exclusive features which further enhance their efficiency
  • System integration allow minimizing repetitive work and enhance performance
  • Ability to integrate mobile applications can greatly increase accessibility and convenience
  • Customized features and functionalities help improving workflows and business processes
  • Ability to monitor and track performance offers higher visibility

Businesses can greatly improve employee performance by deploying customized software solutions. That is not all, the custom software development offers businesses full control over the working of all features and help them get the desired outcome which can greatly improve internal processes, workflows and help businesses gain higher productivity.

See Also: Guide to Custom Software Development

Key Benefits of Custom Software Development: Higher Productivity
Key Benefits of Custom Software Development: Higher Productivity

Why Businesses in Dubai should Invest in Custom Software Development?

As I have mentioned above there are several benefits of custom software development which makes it superior from commercial off-the-shelf software solutions. The custom software development help businesses digitalize their internal processes and maximize their efficiency by leveraging the automation.

Furthermore when a software is exclusively designed for your business it will fully align with your needs, internal processes and strategic objectives. This makes it more impactful and productive comparing to commercial off-the-shelf solutions.  Here is why a business in Dubai should invest in custom software development:

  • The commercial off-the-shelf software only partially match your business needs, however, the custom software development enables you to design and develop an exclusive solution which fully aligns with your business needs, integrates with your existing IT infrastructure and it also offers long-term service and support.
  • The development process of a commercial off-the-shelf software solution is slow, it only offers upgrades when a large majority of the users need it. However the custom software grows with business needs, any need can be met immediately either by customization or by adding more features and so on.
  • The commercial off-the-shelf software solutions are provided by a vendor or service provider, which offers very less control over various important aspects of the software. However with the custom software development businesses not only have full control over their data, storage and software but businesses also have full ownership rights for their customized software.
  • The commercial off-the-shelf software solutions are designed for masses and the vendor doesn’t have much interest in your exclusive needs or challenges, in fact the vendor follow the industry standards and market trends. However, the for the customized software solutions you get in touch with the software developers, designers and IT specialists who are designing your software application, thus they have better understand of you needs, concerns and challenges.
  • Although the initial cost of the commercial off-the-shelf software solutions is relatively lower, however, there are several recurring expenses. The COTS offer very limited customization but it is very expensive, moreover the scalability too is very expensive. The custom software development of the other hand have slightly higher initial cost, but in long term have no recurring cost, in fact it offers full ownership rights to the businesses and offer more flexibility, customization and easy scalability.

As the market landscape in Dubai is very competitive and dynamic therefore businesses need higher productivity, lower operational cost and better tools to gain greater competitive advantage. And the custom software development can provide all of these.

See Also: Why Off-the-Shelf Solutions Fall Short: Advantages of Custom Software Development

Why Businesses in Dubai should Invest in Custom Software Development?
Why Businesses in Dubai should Invest in Custom Software Development?

Conclusion

In this modern and fast-paced market landscape in Dubai, where the customer needs are growing endlessly, rapid and sudden change are very common across all industry verticals, businesses need a proactive software development approach to mold and align their tools with the changing and growing needs. The custom software development is the way to design and develop software which are exclusively build according to the business needs and latest industry trends. Furthermore the businesses need to integrate various software and applications in order to improve their operational capabilities and to boost the employee performance. All this can only be achieved with a more flexible and controllable software development method which is only offered by the custom software development. The commercial off-the-shelf software solutions might offer lesser initial cost and are extremely easy to setup, however, in longer run neither they remain relevant nor cost-effective.

The custom software solutions on the other hand has incredible ability to grow as business grows and offer great ROI in long run. In this blog we have covered key benefits of investing in custom software development for business in Dubai and all across the UAE. If you want to learn more about the subject or if you want our help with your next custom software development project, please feel free to contact us through our Contact Us page or leave a comment in the comment box below and we will get in touch with you soon.


How Interactive Kiosks are Enhancing In-Store Engagement and Sales

The retail industry in UAE is huge, there are thousands of local and international brands who have established businesses and retail store chains all around the country. This means a really tough competition, above all the customers in Dubai, Sharjah, Abu Dhabi and all around the UAE are also very demanding. This means if a retail business wants to succeed and grow then they must have to ensure their customers are having an excellent experience at their stores. Retail businesses invest a huge chunk of their hard-earned profit into managing and enhancing customer experience.  Most of it goes directly to the implementation of the technology and digital solutions.

The self-service interactive kiosks are one of the most rapidly growing trend in the UAE. Businesses of all sizes and types are implementing digital interactive kiosks to enhance in-store engagement and sales. That is not all businesses and organizations from all industry sectors are implementing self-service interactive kiosks. In this blog we will discuss how retail businesses can leverage the potential of self-service interactive kiosks to elevate customer experience, enhance customer engagement and to boost their sales and profits.

How Interactive Kiosks are Enhancing In-Store Engagement and Sales
How Interactive Kiosks are Enhancing In-Store Engagement and Sales

What is an Interactive Kiosk?

An interactive kiosk is a secure touch screen based device which enable customers to perform tasks, avail services, access information and make a purchase without requiring any help from the staff. The interactive kiosks are used to deliver a seamless self-service experience which not only give your customers more freedom and control over their interaction but it also help businesses to improve their operational performance and human resource management. An interactive kiosk consists of a touch screen display, internal computer, a secure enclosure and a management software.

Furthermore there are several features which are very common such as thermal printer and various other kinds of printer, Emirates ID scanner, Credit/Debit Card Scanner, RFID, Document Scanner and various other kind of scanners. Some interactive kiosks also have external keyboard and track pad. However, now a days mostly on-screen keyboard is enough with a properly optimized UI for touch screens. The interactive kiosks can be connected to network via LAN, WiFi or cellular network. Different features, design and type of the kiosk depends on business needs, businesses can also have a customized interactive kiosk for their unique needs.

See Also: Introduction to Digital Signage Kiosk and Smart Kiosk

What is an Interactive Kiosk?
What is an Interactive Kiosk?

How Businesses can Enhance in-Store Customer Engagement and Sales?

Businesses are now realizing that the customers are valuing experience a lot, thus the focus has shifted from selling only products to selling good experience along. This also means that the customer engagements are becoming more important and impactful, the more a customer is invested in emotionally and physically, the more chances are to convert them to a sale and begin a relationship with them which can be leveraged to attain loyalty and build a strong brand image over it. Before we discuss what factors help increasing customer engagements and improving their experience, it is also worth mentioning what factors are countering to it.

For example, the biggest problem a customer faces in retail stores is difficulty in finding the right product and long waiting lines at the cash counters. These two are also main causes of the higher customer churn. The interactive kiosks not only help customers find the right product, but also provide full access to all available items. The self-checkout kiosks help customers purchase an item and quickly checkout without relying on conventional cash counters.

See Also: Payment Kiosk Machine & Self-Service Cash Acceptor Solutions

How Businesses can Enhance in-Store Customer Engagement and Sales?
How Businesses can Enhance in-Store Customer Engagement and Sales?

Where the interactive kiosks are facilitating customers they are also very helpful for businesses. The retail store can use these devices to run their promotions, adverts, marketing and the can easily implement upselling strategies which help them increasing the average sale volume. The retail stores can greatly improve customer experience which ultimately help them building a strong and loyal customer base upon which the businesses can grow and prosper. In this blog we will discuss the key features of interactive kiosks which help retail businesses to enhance in-store customer engagement and boost their sales:

Interactive Kiosk for Retail Business: Quick Service Delivery

In a traditional retail store, the customers usually have to wait for several minutes at cash counters to make the payments. In today’s fast-paced world where the time is one of the most precious commodity, making your customers to wait in long queues will deteriorate their experience. Moreover during the busy hours the long waiting lines are a common sighting at retail stores, during that time offering your customers an alternate checkout channel, much quicker than cash counter could greatly enhance customer experience. The self-checkout retail kiosks are equipped with necessary tools to let customers scan their items and make payments, completely independently.

The interactive kiosks comes in multi-lingual user interfaces (UIs) which are very helpful in a multi-cultural society. Furthermore the on-screen instructions and information also make customer journey quicker and simpler. Customers can also access their reward accounts and redeem them if they wanted to. The interactive self-checkout kiosk for retail also enable customers to make payment with multiple payment methods such as some with cash and some with credit/debit card, they can scan discount vouchers and they can redeem their reward points if they want to. These features greatly increase customer happiness and satisfaction.

See Also: Leveraging Payment Kiosks for Effective Queue Management

Interactive Kiosk for Retail Business: Quick Service Delivery
Interactive Kiosk for Retail Business: Quick Service Delivery

Interactive Kiosk for Retail Business: Better In-Store Experience

The interactive kiosks have bright flashing display often running multimedia content on it which attracts customers and passerby. Businesses can provide access to important information via these self-service interactive kiosks. The customers have endless desires and choices, they tend to compare multiple products before making a purchase decision. That is because there are always multiple options available for the customers, which often make it difficult for them to make a decision. An interactive kiosk can provide customers access to different items along with their descriptions, features and all relevant information and also let them compare both in terms of price and features which help customers quickly take a decision.

The interactive kiosks comes with a very powerful software tool which is integrated with other important systems and databases. This integration allow interactive kiosks to provide real-time data and updated information such as it will enable customers to see if the item is available or not, which variants and what stock is available, how much discount they can get, etc.  Such information can greatly enhance customer experience and increase in-store engagements.

See Also: Dubai Police Acquire Interactive Signage from RSI Concepts

Interactive Kiosk for Retail Business: Better In-Store Experience
Interactive Kiosk for Retail Business: Better In-Store Experience

Interactive Kiosk for Retail Business: Higher Customer Satisfaction

The customers who are using a retail self-checkout interactive kiosk are more likely to be happy and satisfied with their experience. As it is a quicker service channel and it provides easy access to information and content which help customers making their decision quickly. Furthermore these interactive kiosks comes with an intuitive multi-lingual user interface and several other software and hardware based features which are designed to enhance customer experience. A good customer experience means higher customer satisfaction.

The customers can easily access to their inventory, compare multiple products and gain full control over their cart. They can add or remove an item whenever they want during the customer journey. It is worth mentioning that not all of your staff would have full knowledge of all of the products, however, the self-service interactive kiosk can provide full details about any product the customer is looking for. Furthermore the businesses can also personalized customer experience based on their demographic data, purchase pattern and much more. All these features are very helpful and add value to customer experience which translates in customer satisfaction.

See Also: Security Challenges and Solutions in Payment Kiosk Systems

Interactive Kiosk for Retail Business: Higher Customer Satisfaction
Interactive Kiosk for Retail Business: Higher Customer Satisfaction

Interactive Kiosk for Retail Business: Better Inventory Management

One of the biggest advantage of self-checkout interactive kiosks is that they can very capable tool of collecting analytical and statistical data which can drastically improve your management and decision making processes. The interactive kiosk software features smart algorithms which are very capable of collecting business intelligence data and converting it into actionable reports which reports can be integrated in decision making process to make informed decisions. Businesses can not only understand which products or which variants are more in demand, but they can also acquire a deeper understanding of individual customer behavior which can help them personalized customer experience while they are interacting at the kiosk or other channels.

The system can automatically make suggestions for products, add-ons and promotions as per the customer liking and past purchase pattern which can greatly increase the chances of sale and also enhance customer experience and raise their satisfaction. The businesses intelligence data also help businesses to prepare their inventory as per the customer trends and also help them improve the accessibility and visibility of the products which also help increasing sales.

See Also: 8 Benefits of Using Digital Kiosks for Your Business

Interactive Kiosk for Retail Business: Better Inventory Management
Interactive Kiosk for Retail Business: Better Inventory Management

Interactive Kiosk for Retail Business: Boost Performance and Productivity

The self-checkout kiosk, information kiosk, interactive signage and any other interactive kiosks are designed to aid the staff. Most businesses often think that these devices could replace the staff, but that is not correct. The interactive kiosks are meant to enhance customer experience and boost staff efficiency. With the implementation of self-checkout counters, informational kiosks and interactive signage businesses can lift heavy workload from the staff which not only provide a quicker alternate channel but also help the staff to focus more their primary tasks which enable them to deliver excellent customer service and improved customer experience.

The implementation of interactive kiosks at a retail business also help management optimizing the human resource and help them leveraging the full potential of their staff. The interactive kiosks keep customers engaged while providing them all the information they want, businesses can also put videos, photos, and multimedia content to provide more details. This let your staff free from most of customer enquiries and allow them to focus on more productive tasks. High performing staff and a productive operation is a key to long term success and higher profitability.

See Also: Self-Service Kiosks for Effective Queue Management

Interactive Kiosk for Retail Business: Boost Performance and Productivity
Interactive Kiosk for Retail Business: Boost Performance and Productivity

Conclusion

Retail businesses in Dubai, Sharjah, Abu Dhabi and everywhere in UAE knows very well that their customers often have multiple options and they can switch quickly. In fact on bad experience is enough to send your customer to a competitor. This demands highest level of service and high-performing operation. A good customer experience is a key to customer satisfaction, now a days customers tend to prefer businesses and brands who offer them better experience. The interactive kiosks are a great way to enhance in-store customer engagements. Businesses can utilize a variety of different interactive kiosks for different purposes. The information kiosks are usually placed in different sections and the customers can quickly access information about the products in that particular section, they can also explore other sections and get real-time inventory and stock updates, prices, promotions and much more right from the kiosk.

Businesses often put interactive self-checkout kiosks where the customer can scan their cart, make payments, and perform several other tasks and all that is completely self-service. This empowers customers, gives them more control and also help businesses improving human resource management. All these benefits of interactive kiosks can greatly enhance customer experience and boost sales. If you want to learn more about the subject or if you want our help to design a customized interactive kiosk for your business, please feel free to contact us through our Contact Us page or leave a comment in the comment box below and we will get in touch with you soon.

See Also: Revolutionizing Campus Services with Student Kiosks


Step-by-Step Guide to Planning Your Custom Software Development Project

In the today’s technology driven world, the businesses are dependent on software solutions more than ever before. Especially in competitive markets like Dubai, Sharjah, Abu Dhabi and other cities of UAE where the customers are also very demanding and tech savvy the software solutions have become absolutely essential to ensure greater operational efficiency, productivity and performance of the entire business. Where the integration of technology become deeper and raise new needs for software solutions, the custom software development industry have also evolved in UAE. Once software tools thought to be meant for high-value and large-scale enterprises are now in the reach of a startup, thanks to the advancements in the software development tools and technologies, now a days, building a great software solution is not a luxury anymore. Every business can build software tools to drive performance and productivity which can gain them the much needed competitive advantage and help them stand out of the crowd. The commercial off-the-shelf software solutions more often doesn’t fulfill all the needs, hence businesses are turning to custom software development. The custom software development not only offer exclusive solutions and tools that perfectly aligns with business needs but it also tend to offer better ROI in longer run. In this blog we will go through a step-by-step guide to planning and executing your custom software development project which can drive efficiency, improve workflows and processes and enhance customer experience for your business.

Step-by-Step Guide to Planning Your Custom Software Development Project
Step-by-Step Guide to Planning Your Custom Software Development Project

Why do You Need a Custom Software Development Project Plan?

When it comes to deploy a new software solution your project goals could fall in any of the three, operational improvements, customer experience improvement or improved management process and workflows. When it comes to the commercial off-the-shelf software solutions is relatively easier to carry out market research, done a competitive analysis and chose the right tool or solution as per your needs. However, when it comes to developing a custom software, the businesses must have to do in-depth analysis, research and due diligence to ensure the final product will fulfill their needs. Since comparing two or more existing products is easier, you can simply signup for trials or have demos to compete COTS, however, in case of custom software development, there is no product hence your project plan will help transforming your software requirements into a fully functional software solutions. That is why a proper and comprehensive project plan is absolutely essential.

See Also: Comparison between COTS and Custom Software Development

Your project plan will help you understand the following very basic questions that will help you effectively executing your custom software development project:

  1. What technology or tools you will be needing to develop your custom software?
  2. Which department is the project owner and who are the main stakeholders?
  3. Who will be managing the software and who will be the primary users of the software?
  4. What skillset and resources do you need in your team?
  5. What external resources you will be needing?
  6. What your success will look like? What are your success criterions?
  7. How much time is required to develop your custom software solution?
  8. What is your budget limitations? What is the estimated cost including all assumption (if any) you are making to estimate the cost of your custom software solution?

These are just a few questions that will help you align your project with your timelines and budgetary limitations. A project plan for your custom software development project will mainly cover, requirement analysis, ideation, concept, development process, testing and deployment, post-launch processes and obviously documentation. Everything has to be documented properly to ensure an effective and successful project execution.

See Also: Top Trends in Custom Software Development: What’s Shaping the Industry?

Why do You Need a Custom Software Development Project Plan?
Why do You Need a Custom Software Development Project Plan?

How to Setup a Successful Plan for your Custom Software Development Project?

A successful project plan is essential for a successful custom software development project. It is important to understand that a business have to invest a lot of resources, efforts and time to develop a custom software therefore the stakes are very high and businesses must have to make sure that the final product resonates perfectly with the set success factors. Businesses often doesn’t pay much attention to the planning phase, overlooking its importance, which lead to unsuccessful custom software development projects and result in loss of a lot of resources, time and money. Here is a step-by-step guide to planning your customer software development which will raise your success probability to 100% if the plan is properly executed.

See Also: Common Mistakes to Avoid in Custom Software Development Projects

Custom Software Development Project Plan: Step 1. Define High-Level Workflow

The high-level workflow of your custom software development project will help you segment the entire project and understand how each stage transitions to the next stage. It is a common misconception among the businesses in Dubai, Sharjah, Abu Dhabi and in fact all around the UAE that only the launch is the most important stage of a project, however, a good high-level workflow for a custom software development project must look like the following:

Planning –> Designing and Development –> Launch –> Final Delivery –> Maintenance

Most of the time the key stakeholders emphasize much on the launch and delivery phase, while completely ignoring the importance of the previous stages. Which cause several problems and sometimes cause serious issues which require to make major changes in the software which also result in delays and increase the overall cost of your custom software development project. Therefore it is crucial to define a high-level workflow before starting your custom software development project.

See Also: Why custom software is more cost efficient in UAE?

Custom Software Development Project Plan: Step 1. Define High-Level Workflow
Custom Software Development Project Plan: Step 1. Define High-Level Workflow

Custom Software Development Project Plan: Step 2. Define the Scope of Your Project Plan

The scope of the project plan is a pretty vague term, however, it can easily be understood. A good way to define the scope of a project is to first determine the project timeline, importance, and sophistication. Any custom software development project which is meant to last longer than 2 weeks must require a proper upfront plan in order to ensure success. However, some custom software projects might last longer than 6 months, for such projects it is difficult to plan for the entire project, hence the planning could be done for 4 to 6 months chunks. Because in custom software development projects most of the time after six months due to external, internal or some unexpected circumstances will most likely render your estimation inaccurate, if not fully inaccurate there would be some off-set, which must be accounted for. Therefore it is a good practice to plan for maximum 6 months and not longer than that and after 5 or 6 months revisit your plan and set course accordingly as per the current circumstances to ensure success.

See Also: Step-by-step Guide to Develop Custom Enterprise Software

Custom Software Development Project Plan: Step 2. Define the Scope of Your Project Plan
Custom Software Development Project Plan: Step 2. Define the Scope of Your Project Plan

Custom Software Development Project Plan: Step 3. Define Success Factors and Project Outcome

This is one of the most part of a project plan. Every project has a purpose and a business ultimately want to achieve something with their custom software development project, for that they business must have a criteria or expectations which will define the success factors. It is important to clearly define what the success of the project will look like, it could be from functional point of view or from performance point of view or it should be the improvements the software could bring to existing processes and workflows, or customer experience, whatever it is, your success factors should be clearly defined and listed. All the stakeholders must be taken onboard at this stage and all the success factors should be discussed thoroughly with all stakeholders and approval should be taken if needed to ensure there won’t be any surprise at the end for any stakeholder or user group. This cannot be done without considering the custom software development process, and for that most of the time some assumptions are made, which should also be discussed thoroughly with the stakeholders with the possible outcomes to ensure all goals are met and the target is achieved.

See Also: Custom Software Development Progressive Web Apps – Beginner’s Guide

Custom Software Development Project Plan: Step 3. Define Success Factors and Project Outcome
Custom Software Development Project Plan: Step 3. Define Success Factors and Project Outcome

Custom Software Development Project Plan: Step 4. Estimate the Project Workload

This is the time when a proper blueprint of the project has to be written. For that the project manager should engage the development team whether it is in-house team or an outsourcing custom software development partner, the actual programmers, software developers and engineers should be onboard during this phase. As all the requirements are set, the final outcome is defined and the success factors are set, now is the time to estimate the actual workload of your custom software development project. This is the workload involving the software designing and development teams, who will be performing various different tasks. Furthermore the responsibilities of every team or team member can also be divided into individual tasks, and accordingly a timeline is set for each task which then should be accumulated to estimate the total project workload and estimate the time and effort required to deliver a successful project. It is important to take feedback from each individual team member on each individual task rather than asking only supervisor or team leads or managers to give an overall estimation. It is important to understand that the project workload estimation could have significant influence on the cost of the project that is why this stage is important.

See Also: The Key Elements of Efficient Software Development Project Management

Custom Software Development Project Plan: Step 4. Estimate the Project Workload
Custom Software Development Project Plan: Step 4. Estimate the Project Workload

Custom Software Development Project Plan: Step 5. Scrutinize the Estimation

The significance of the estimation of project workload is very crucial for a successful deliver of your custom software project. That is why it is absolutely necessary to scrutinize it thoroughly and repeat it many times if needed. But most of the time when project managers are repeating the estimation or cross-questioning the teams and team members their prime agenda is to minimize the timelines and encourage quicker deliver. However, that is not a correct approach. The project manager should provide full freedom to each individual team mate to let them express themselves freely, however, questioning their feedback will help refining the estimation and will also keep your team motivated to deliver good quality work. Here another important thing to consider is that the custom software development projects are often complex and sophisticated and a lot many assumptions are also made, which sometimes proven to be incorrect or slightly off-set. That is why it is important to keep some room for errors and mistakes and consider some gaps for the unforeseen circumstances and unexpected scenarios to ensure you don’t miss any milestone or even the overall deadline.

See Also: How to Choose the Right Software Development Vendor for Your Business

Custom Software Development Project Plan: Step 5. Scrutinize the Estimation
Custom Software Development Project Plan: Step 5. Scrutinize the Estimation

Custom Software Development Project Plan: Step 6. Setup and Define Milestones

Setting up milestone and clearly defining them is important, it will help the project manager and the development team to track the progress throughout the custom software development project. There could be a high-level milestones marking different stages or phases of the software development process such as design, development, MVP, completion, testing, delivery, etc. Or each of this milestone can further be divided into many more to improve the performance and progress. Some custom software development project teams follow a modular approach where the entire software application is developed in form of different module on a single platform. These kind of project management method ensure each module deliver all the needed features and fulfill all of customer’s expectation. Whatever approach you follow the important thing is that your custom software development project must be divided into several stages or phases with pre-set milestone marking different levels of progress to ensure the development process remains on track which is a key to successful project delivery.

See Also: Importance of Custom Software Development in Dubai

Custom Software Development Project Plan: Step 6. Setup and Define Milestones
Custom Software Development Project Plan: Step 6. Setup and Define Milestones

Custom Software Development Project Plan: Step 7. Resource Forecasting

After estimating the workload, setting up milestones, and defining the success factors now a project manager can easily forecast resources required to deliver the project. As the entire custom software development project is divided into several phases and milestones are set for each phase, now it is easier to accurately forecast which resource or technical team and personals would be needed at which stage. For example, the initially phase is the designing at this stage, the design team would have to lift the heavy load and later on during the development phase only the software developer, programmers and engineer would be working on the project, and very little input would be needed from other teams. Similarly at the testing phase and deployment phase different teams and different resources would be needed, hence there is no need to engage the entire skillset throughout the custom software development project execution. This also help improving the project management and speeding up the entire process. It is important thing to understand that adding more resources to the team or engaging more people at a time won’t guarantee a fast-paced project execution, in fact it will further complicate it and could even slow down the progress.

See Also: How to Develop a Custom Software in Dubai?

Custom Software Development Project Plan: Step 7. Resource Forecasting
Custom Software Development Project Plan: Step 7. Resource Forecasting

Custom Software Development Project Plan: Step 8. Consider Changes and Obstacles

It is extremely difficult to ensure a seamless custom software development project execution, one way or another something will eventually go wrong which could cause revisions, changes and delays. Your custom software development project plan must have room for changes. That is a very simple process, it can be done by holding up a meeting or discussion with all stakeholders from the management and development side and asking everyone of their pinion thus concluding the most obvious things which could go wrong and at the same time defining a strategy and plan of action for mitigation. This step usually referred as pre-mortem session, even if you do not conduct a pre-mortem you should account the changes and delays in order to ensure the project executes smoothly and the deadlines are met successfully. A great way to dealing with such risks is to make a proper list of all expected risks, delays and obstacles along with a realistic mitigation strategy. This list could be very helpful for both the development team and the management throughout your custom software development project execution process.

See Also: 5 Advantages of Custom Software Development

Custom Software Development Project Plan: Step 8. Consider Changes and Obstacles
Custom Software Development Project Plan: Step 8. Consider Changes and Obstacles

Custom Software Development Project Plan: Step 9. Conduct a Thorough Post-Project Review

Businesses operating in Dubai, Sharjah, Abu Dhabi or anywhere in UAE doesn’t usually conduct a post-mortem or post-project review of their custom software development project. One of the biggest reason of neglecting the post-mortem review or post-project review is that the project teams and resources are immediately dismantled and appointed to other tasks as soon as a project got completed or delivered. The post-project review consists of discussion and feedbacks. The discussions and feedbacks are aimed to answer the following few important questions:

  1. What lessons have we learned during this custom software development project?
  2. Was the project successful or not or how much of project goals are achieved?
  3. What actual value or benefits our business will get from this custom software development project?
  4. What went as per expectations, what went well, and how this can be done in future projects?
  5. What went wrong, why it went wrong and what can be done to avoid it in future projects?

These are some very simple open-ended questions and everyone should be able to share their opinion and thought freely. Which can be further processed and analyzed to make them a useable charter for future projects. If the post-mortem or post-project review is ignored your businesses will have to spend time and resources in learning this over and over again. That is why it is important to allocate resources for post-project review in the planning of your customer software development project.

See Also: Advantages of a Custom ERP Software Development

Custom Software Development Project Plan: Step 9. Conduct a Thorough Post-Project Review
Custom Software Development Project Plan: Step 9. Conduct a Thorough Post-Project Review

Custom Software Development Project Plan: Step 10. Service and Maintenance

Here in UAE it is common that large businesses have in-house teams who are developing custom software tools for their needs. However, acquiring services of a professional software development agency is also common for large-scale or sophisticated projects. Small and medium sized businesses usually outsource their software development projects as they usually don’t have sufficient in-house resources to be able to handle custom software development projects. Regardless of the size or industry of your business the either your will maintain the software in-house or you will outsource it to get the technical support and maintenance tasks done. When it comes to outsourcing businesses usually prefer to take AMCs (annual maintenance contracts) form the same software development agency who has developed the software or either they go for another vendor.

See Also: Trends in custom software development in 2022

It is extremely important to include a proper plan for support and maintenance in your custom software development project plan. If you are choosing a maintenance and support service provider other than the company who developed your custom software then you should consider the transition of service requirements to ensure a smoother handover and transition to the service provider whether it is a third-party vendor, outsourcing partner or in-house team. Because it requires a lot of resources and time to handover a complete software solution to a team for maintenance and if that is not done, it could not only cause serious issues but it will also hinder the performance and impact of your custom software application.

See Also: Why the Custom Software Development is Good for Your Business?

Custom Software Development Project Plan: Step 10. Service and Maintenance
Custom Software Development Project Plan: Step 10. Service and Maintenance

Conclusion

Businesses operating in Dubai, Sharjah, Abu Dhabi or anywhere in UAE are turning away from commercial off-the-shelf software (COTS) solutions and leveraging the remarkable potential of customized software solutions. This also empowered the software development industry in the country and further make tailored solutions more accessible all sizes and industries. Businesses are relying on custom software development to drive performance and operational efficiency which help them gaining competitive advantage and customer satisfaction. However, when it comes to developing a customized software solution most businesses overlooked the important of developing a proper project plan before starting the work. Businesses do have project plan but it is not as that comprehensive as it should have to be, which results in a complete failure or partial success. A well-crafted customer software development project plan is absolutely essential to ensure success, as it provides a complete roadmap to transform your unique business requirements into a fully functional software solution which can deliver performance and efficiency as per your goals and expectations.

See Also: Guide to Custom Software Development

This blog covers a complete step-by-step guide to planning your custom software development project and equally beneficial for small, medium or large custom software development projects. Regardless of the size, scope, duration or complexity of the project if you make a plan following the above mentioned steps you can easily execute a successful custom software development project. If you want to learn more about the subject or if you need our help with you custom software development project, please feel free to contact us through our Contact Us page or leave a comment in the comment box below and we will get in touch with you soon.


Why Businesses should offer Integrated Queue Management System Smartphone Apps?

Everyone knows waiting in long queues could be so frustrating, whether it is a bank, a hospital, a retail store or a government office, the long waiting lines bother everyone. The long queues are not only wasting your customers’ valuable time but are also very frustrating for your staff. Long waiting lines and crowded waiting areas deteriorate customer experience and also engage your staff in activities which doesn’t produce much value and hinder productivity of your branch or business. In order to enhance customer experience and improve performance businesses started adopting to modern queuing practices and deploying digital queue management systems. A token management system or queue management system is a combination of hardware devices driven by a powerful smart software engine. With the passage of time the queue management systems also evolved and become more effective and impactful. Now a days a queue management system is not limited to just reducing the wait time, but it can offer a plethora of features which help businesses improving customer journey and their staff performance. In this blog we will discuss how integrated queue management system smartphone apps can great enhance customer experience and branch performance.

Why Businesses should offer Integrated Queue Management System Smartphone Apps?
Why Businesses should offer Integrated Queue Management System Smartphone Apps?

What is Integrated Queue Management System Smartphone App?

An integrated queue management system smartphone app is a mobile application developed exclusively for allowing users to interact with the queue management system even remotely via the internet. The integrated queue management system smartphone apps are developed for both Android and iOS, now a days’ hybrid mobile apps are also used. The word integrated here represents various different types of integrations of the smartphone apps with other systems, tools and databases. It usually depends on the nature of business and services you want to offer through your queue management system smartphone apps, however, there are certain features which are very common such as integration with the customer database to allow quick sign-in, integrating with other branch data, Google Maps, appointment booking portals, customer portals, or even with customer service center. Businesses often integrate queue management system smartphone apps with their CRM or customer feedback system too, to collect valuable customer feedback data. Thus the integrated queue management system smartphone apps can be used to offer a multitude of services and information to improve customer experience and it is also a type of paperless queue management system.

See Also: What Is Virtual Queuing? A Guide to Virtual Queues

What is Integrated Queue Management System Smartphone App?
What is Integrated Queue Management System Smartphone App?

What are the Benefits of Integrated Queue Management System Smartphone Apps?

Every business have unique needs and different way to handle certain things, same is the case with the queue management systems as well. Every business have different challenges and different strategies to handle those challenges which is the foundation stone of a unique business identity. It is this uniqueness that attracts most of the customers and help businesses established a unique brand identity which stand out of the crowd. When it comes to the integrated queue management system smartphone apps, every business have different preferences, however, there are certain traits of these smartphone apps that can greatly benefit a business by enhancing customer experience and by driving performance and productivity. Here are the key benefits of an integrated queue management system smartphone app:

Integrated Queue Management System Smartphone Apps: Remote Sign-in and Virtual Queues

Enabling your customers to sign-in remotely from their smartphones or any other online channel for the waiting lines is one of the most effective feature of an integrated queue management system smartphone app. With the rise of technology different platforms has emerged over the time and become very popular among the people for example, the WhatsApp. Now a day’s almost every business is holding a WhatsApp business account. Similarly the smartphone apps have become a crucial part of customer services, many industries have made smartphone apps and industry standard over the past few years. Businesses operating in Dubai, Sharjah, Abu Dhabi and other cities of UAE are increasingly developing their smartphone apps to improve customer experience and customer service. The integrated queue management smartphone apps allow customers to sing-in for the virtual queues with just a few taps on the screen. The customers can sign-in and get estimated time, which allow them to plan their visit in a way that they can get served instantly as they arrived at the business. Hence minimizing the customer wait time to almost none. This remote sign-in features makes integrated queue management system smartphone apps the most ideal solution for modern day queuing.

See Also: World’s First WhatsApp Queue Management Solution

Integrated Queue Management System Smartphone Apps: Remote Sign-in and Virtual Queues
Integrated Queue Management System Smartphone Apps: Remote Sign-in and Virtual Queues

Integrated Queue Management System Smartphone Apps: Better Waiting Experience

The customer experience is one of the most crucial factor in customer satisfaction and customer loyalty. The customer satisfaction and customer loyalty are absolutely essential for a stable and long term growth. The integrated queue management system smartphone apps can offer features which can greatly enhance customer experience and help raising customer satisfaction. Moreover the virtual queue management system can enhance the business processes  by leveraging digitalization and automation. When it comes to customer wait time, there are two different wait times, one is the actual wait time as per the clock, and the other is the perceived wait time. The perceived wait time is what our brain thinks is the waiting time, to understand this phenomenon think of driving on a busy road, we usually think traffic flow is quicker in the adjacent lane, however, in reality that is not true. However, this impact on mood and similarly in the waiting areas the perceived wait time also impact the customer experience in the waiting areas. However, with the help of the integrated queue management system smartphone apps businesses can not only reduce the customer wait time but they can also improve customer waiting experience as well. The smartphone apps is integrated with the queue management system which allows it to provide highly correct estimation of the wait time which prevent the impact of the perceived wait time and the live queuing information and alerts help customers to plan their visit according to their turn so they don’t have to wait much. This greatly improve customer experience and increase customer satisfaction.

See Also: Queue Management System and Predictive Waiting Time

Integrated Queue Management System Smartphone Apps: Better Waiting Experience
Integrated Queue Management System Smartphone Apps: Better Waiting Experience

Integrated Queue Management System Smartphone Apps: Appointment Booking Features

The integrated queue management system smartphone apps also allow customers to book an appointment as per their convenience. The modern queue management system smartphone apps comes with in-built appointment booking module and moreover these apps can be integrated to an existing appointment booking portal to enable customers to book appointments from the apps. The appointment booking module will allow users to view the queuing data and also any future bookings for example if they want to make an appointment for the next week. The integrated queue management system smartphone apps are built on smart algorithms which have ability to access and analyze the live queuing data as well as historic data. This enables the apps to estimate the waiting time and overall footfall based on historical data present this information to the customers so they can chose the right day and time with less waiting time expected. The integrated queue management system smartphone apps also have ability to send reminders, alerts and notifications to remind customers of their appointment and furthermore it can allow the service agents to directly communicate with the customers and push information to their dashboard regarding any change or update in the schedule. Such features help improving customer experience and ensures the customer gets the fast-track service.

See Also: Why Bank should Integrate Appointment Booking System with a Queue Management System?

Integrated Queue Management System Smartphone Apps: Appointment Booking Features
Integrated Queue Management System Smartphone Apps: Appointment Booking Features

Integrated Queue Management System Smartphone Apps: Branch Locator

Most of the businesses have multiple branches, especially in large cities like Dubai, Sharjah and Abu Dhabi there could be several branches within a 20 to 30 minutes of drive. The integrated queue management system smartphone apps can fetch data form all branches and analyze it in real-time and based on historical data and current customer flow they can accurately estimate the wait time at each branch. Furthermore the smartphone apps are also integrated with Google Maps which enable them to find the customer’s location and suggest them the branches that are closer to them with them and have shortest expected wait time. All this information can be shown to customers as well and allow them to compare different branches and sign-in to the branch which is most convenient for them. Furthermore some businesses also allow customers to shift their ticket form one branch to another based on the current customer flow and queuing speed. The integrated queue management system smartphone apps not only provide branch location but can also provide full contact directory which makes it easier for the customers to directly call or contact the relevant staff if they have any query regarding the service they want. All these innovative features significantly improve customer experience and raise their satisfaction.

See Also: Queue Management System Features you Need for Modern Queuing

Integrated Queue Management System Smartphone Apps: Branch Locator
Integrated Queue Management System Smartphone Apps: Branch Locator

Integrated Queue Management System Smartphone Apps: Better Staff Performance

The integrated queue management system smartphone apps doesn’t only streamline customer flow and enhance customer experience but these apps are a great tool to improve staff performance. With the help of integrated queue management system smartphone apps businesses can have more control over the customer flow and it also allow them to effectively implement their queuing policies. Most of the customers will only arrive when their turn will come or is about to come. This help minimize the load in the waiting area and prevent crowd formation. The busy waiting areas put extra stress on the staff and deteriorate their performance. When the customer flow is good and the waiting areas are not crowded the staff can focus more on their primary tasks which makes them more productive and also improve their performance. The queue management system itself can provide a great performance monitoring and tracking metrics which are also very helpful in improving staff performance. Furthermore the integrated queue management system smartphone apps enable a direct communication channel and provide more control to the service agent which help them improve customer flow and deliver good quality service.

See Also: Impacts of Queue Management System on Employee’s KPIs

Integrated Queue Management System Smartphone Apps: Better Staff Performance
Integrated Queue Management System Smartphone Apps: Better Staff Performance

Conclusion

A queue management system has become an essential for a modern business. Whether you are a bank, hospital, government office, HR office, retail business, educational institution or any other organization in service sector. If you are serving your customers at your premises, you need an effective customer flow management system to ensure your customers will get a good customer experience. The integrated queue management system smartphone apps are a significant leap forward in improving service quality, performance and customer experience. Businesses can leverage the features such as remote sign-up, virtual queuing, customer alerts and notification system, appointment booking and data insights to greatly enhance customer experience. A good customer experience will help you increase customer satisfaction and make your customers loyal which is essential for a long term and stable growth. The innovative features and valuable insight for both customers and service agents can greatly improve productivity, performance, and customer experience and service quality. Happy and satisfied customers and high-performing teams/branches means high profitability and help businesses raise their overall ROI for deploying queue management system. If you want to learn more about integrated smartphone apps or if you need our help to build and deploy customized queue management system smartphone apps for your business please feel free to contact us through our Contact Us page or leave a comment in the comment box below and we will get in touch with you soon.

See Also: Why Virtual Queuing Has become an Essential Part of Modern Queue Management Systems?


Streamlining the Waiting Experience: How Queue Management Systems Improve Patient Flow

The hospitals, clinics, medical and health facilities have to deal with large footfall, overcrowded lobbies and waiting areas on regular bases. The patient often have to face long waiting time which makes them more frustrated and make it difficult for the staff to deliver a good experience. The poor queue management or queuing policy can lead to dissatisfaction and distrust which can severally harm your clinic, hospital or medical facility’s reputation.

Furthermore it is important to consider that when patients are visiting any healthcare or medical facility, they are already in stressful condition, if you hospital or clinic is failed to deliver them a good experience they will get more stressed, that is why an efficient queue management system is needed. The patient experience mostly depends on how quickly they get served attended and then the next important thing is how the staff handle them. If you have crowded waiting areas and unhappy patients, the staff will have a lot more work to do, which will definitely hinder their performance.

Altogether these all factors will harm the patient experience and will add to their dissatisfaction which is very bad for your reputation. In this blog we will sum up how an effective queue management system can streamline the patient flow at hospitals, clinics, laboratories, and healthcare facilities.

Streamlining the Waiting Experience: How Queue Management Systems Improve Patient Flow
Streamlining the Waiting Experience: How Queue Management Systems Improve Patient Flow

See Also: 3 dimensions of Queue Management System for Hospitals

How Patient Queue Management System is Different from other Queuing Systems?

The queue management system is a very complex tool and it is built on a highly smart AI-based algorithms, this complexity allow it to effectively implement a business or organization’s queuing policy. Now if we talk about an ordinary queue management system it is used to facilitate multiple customer routes, include a variety of different services and sets of priorities, etc. When it comes to the patient queue management system the important thing to understand is that the patient who are visiting hospitals, clinics, medical facilities or healthcare establishments are mostly anxious, stressed and in sometime could be in pain.

This demands all healthcare facilities including hospitals, clinics and testing facilities to ensure all patients receive adequate service based on their condition too and also as quickly as possible. No one wants to wait in long queues at hospitals, clinics or healthcare facilities, neither patient nor their families, everyone wants to get the treatment or service as quickly as possible. Therefore the waiting time is the most crucial factor in queuing management which can only be minimized when the patient flow is streamlined and the entire system works with highest level of efficiency and efficacy. This is what makes patient queue management system slightly different from regular queue management systems.

See Also: What are the Different Types of Queue Management System?

How Patient Queue Management System is Different from other Queuing Systems?
How Patient Queue Management System is Different from other Queuing Systems?

What are the Important Features of a Patient Queue Management System?

Businesses and organizations operating in Dubai, Sharjah, Abu Dhabi and other cities of UAE are using a variety of different queue management system depending on their needs and industry standards. However, for the healthcare sector the queue management system should include most modern features which can help them to improve patient flow, their journey and also the performance of the staff to ensure a better patient experience. Usually hospitals, clinics, and other medical facilities doesn’t implement a customized queue management system which is exclusively designed for the healthcare industry.

See Also: Queue Management System Features you Need for Modern Queuing

Virtual Queuing Features and Remote Channels

The inclusion of virtual queuing and remote channels is one of the most important feature for the patient queue management system. The virtual queuing is a modern form of queuing which enables the patients to remotely sign-up for the queues even if they are not at the facility. The patient queue management system integrates remote channels such as mobile apps, online web portals, SMS, WhatsApp, etc. This allow the patient to sign-up even prior to arriving to the hospital or clinic or any healthcare facility. Furthermore the queue management system can also allow the patients to view the current queuing status and the system can also share live updates with estimated queue time.

All these features help patients to plan their visit and also minimize the wait time. Since the patient have full view and live coverage of the ongoing queues, they can easily plan their visit and arrive only when their turn comes. This feature can literally minimize the waiting time to none and help improving the patient experience. The queue management system mobile apps and online portals can greatly enhance patient experience and help reducing the workload of the staff by preventing crowd formation and empowering them with additional administrative control.

See Also: What Is Virtual Queuing? A Guide to Virtual Queues

Patient Queue Management System: Virtual Queuing
Patient Queue Management System: Virtual Queuing

Third-party System Integration

The patient queue management system is not limited to virtual queuing and appointment booking tools, but it can also be integrated with patient data and other third-party systems using secure web services or APIs. The integration help offering a personalized patient experience. The patient queue management system can analyze the patient history and provide them most suitable time for their appointment, it can also give suggestions to patients about available or alternate doctors or even the schedule as per their needs which makes it easier for patient to choose the most convenient time for their visit. If the patient are at the hospital, clinic or testing facility, the patient queue management system can provide them the accurate wait time for their particular service based on the previous data and current queuing stats.

The patient queue management system can be integrated with mobile apps, appointment booking portals, and internal management system which allows it to provide the real-time updates about any change in schedule and help patient book the right time for their visit. Based on patient’s history and current service request the patient queue management system can automatically set the priority level for the patient and put them on the right queue. All these features not only enhance patient experience, but also help reducing wait time and improve overall patient flow.

See Also: Must have features of Queue Management System

Patient Queue Management System: Third-party System Integration
Patient Queue Management System: Third-party System Integration

Announcements and Notification Center

When a patient sign-up for the queue either using virtual queuing or on-premises ticket dispensing interactive kiosks, they patient queue management system should be able to send them alerts and important queuing information. If the patient are signing up remotely or booking an appointment, the patient queue management system should provide continuous alerts and notifications. These alerts and notifications can be sent across multiple channels, for example, the queue management system mobile app can have push-notifications and in-app alerts along with live queuing information and update to keep patient informed. There should be alerts after short intervals to ensure the patient didn’t get late or miss out their turn.

When the patient are at the hospital, clinic, or medical facility there should be large digital signage displays with live queuing information displayed on them. Furthermore the audio announcement system and patient calling should be provided. Along with that the SMS alerts can be very helpful, because in such situations people tend to spend time on their mobile phones, so the SMS can quickly alert them. Furthermore since the patient queue management system is integrated with central information center and any other relevant third-party system, it can identify if any change is made in schedule or any delay is expected, and automatic alerts can be configured to update the patients about these changes.

See Also: Manage Patient Appointment and Journey with Queue Management System

Patient Queue Management System: Announcements and Notification Center
Patient Queue Management System: Announcements and Notification Center

Data Collection and Reporting

The patient queue management system software can collect a wide range of business intelligence data from as simple as number of patient to AI driven deep insights, based on your requirements. As a patient queue management system is also a digital system so it can collect data from each and every touch point of the customer journey. This data can help hospitals, clinics, and medical facilities to improve their patient journey, highlight the areas of improvements and monitor performance. Since the patient queue management system offers multiple channels hence the data can also be collected from and integrated channels. However, the important thing is that the system should be able to collect valuable and accurate data which can be later analyzed and converted into actionable reports which can guide management in making informed decisions.

The patient queue management system also offers in-built analytical tools which can further enhance the reporting and help management produce customized reports as per their needs and share different data types with different decision makers and stakeholders. The patient queue management system can also collect patient feedback. Multiple channels can be utilized to collect patient feedback such as on-premises tablets/kiosks, mobile apps, online portals, etc. The patient feedback is very important and can help management further improve their services and processes to align them with the patient needs.

See Also: 6 Benefits of using Queuing System in Hospitals

Patient Queue Management System: Data Collection and Reporting
Patient Queue Management System: Data Collection and Reporting

Conclusion

Patient and their families coming to hospitals, clinics, laboratories and other medical facilities are already anxious and at an un-easy position, which means they want to get the treatment or service a quickly as possible. In such situation waiting in long queues or in crowded waiting areas can further deteriorate their experience. That is why healthcare sector is rapidly adopting and implementing modern queue management systems to enhance patient experience and to drive performance. When it comes to a patient queue management system there are tons of different queue management systems available in Dubai, Sharjah, Abu Dhabi and other parts of UAE.

This can be very frustrated for the management or decision maker, therefore we have enlisted the important features and aspects of an effective patient queue management system in this blog. A good patient queue management system is exclusively designed for the healthcare sector to cater to their unique business needs. A patient queue management system can greatly minimize average patient wait time by improving patient flow and automating several processes. If you want to learn more about the subject or if you want our help to design and implement a customized queue management system for your healthcare facility, please feel free to contact us through our Contact Us page or leave a comment in the comment box below and we will get in touch with you soon.

See Also: What is Queue Management? Beginner’s Guide to Queuing Systems


How to Design a Modern Performance Management System?

The overall business landscape have drastically changed over the past decade, with the rise of smartphones, internet, social media and digital communication, the way business are building and nurturing their relationships with their customers have completely changed. In the modern fast-paced and highly competitive market environment it is crucial for a business to adopt to modern practices, methodologies and technologies. The performance management system is no exception at all, if you will compare the modern performance management system with the performance management practices just around a decade back, the present day performance management is totally unrecognizable. The modern performance management systems are designed with an aim to support every organization’s unique internal culture, minimize the influence of bureaucracy, increase transparency and maximize the impact of the performance management and human resource programs. Dubai, Sharjah, Abu Dhabi and other emirates of UAE are witnessing continuous growth, which is attracting more businesses and raising the competition. The governments are also turning toward a modern UAE government performance appraisal system in order to ensure excellent services for the citizens. Furthermore the rapidly changing market trends, and ever-increasing customer demands are compelling businesses to utilize their resources at the maximum potential in order to ensure stability and growth. That is what make performance management system a game-changing tool.

How to Design a Modern Performance Management System?
How to Design a Modern Performance Management System?

What is a Modern Performance Management System?

The major difference between the traditional and modern performance management system is that the old method relies on annual reviews, the modern methods offer more frequent reviews, better performance data collection and analysis, and include software tools which makes the employee performance management process more effective and impactful. When the employees doesn’t have a proper communication with their managers, they are blindfolded and couldn’t know if they are progressing in the right direction or not. Another biggest difference between traditional and modern performance management system is that it focuses on the people and help managers maximizing their potential. However, the traditional performance management system focus on what has been done in past, and have no visibility of the future at all. The software aided modern performance management system is more integrated, robust, responsive, and reactive and can easily be incorporated in the modern work flows.  The modern performance management system offer a more contextual and comprehensive performance data which help managers and employees to identify the problems and help them set course for the future to achieve the excellence. The modern performance management system doesn’t only focus on the monetary incentives, but it offers in-depth employee development programs, it is more engaging and empowering, and help building trust on the performance management process.

See Also: How to Design a Modern Performance Management System?

What is a Modern Performance Management System?
What is a Modern Performance Management System?

What are the Characteristics of a Modern Performance Management System?

Businesses should be aware of modern performance management trends. Because in order to implement a modern performance management system you must understand what the characteristics of a modern performance management system are which distinguished it from a traditional performance management model.

  1. Digital Transformation: The biggest advantage of a modern performance management system is that it enables digital transformation by implement software based solutions and tools. The performance management software help automating several tasks driving efficiency and accuracy in the process.
  2. People Focused: The modern performance management systems focused on both the high-performing employees as well as the low-performer. It offer a great balance between the accountability and the development, which encourage all employees to perform better and also help low performers to achieve their goals while rewarding high-performing employees.
  3. Continuous: The modern day employees want more frequent and instant reward, they don’t like the concept of waiting for an entire year. A continuous performance management system offer continuous communication, frequent reviews (biannual, quarterly, and even monthly), continuous feedback and frequent one-on-one meetings.
  4. Transparent: Most of the business leaders and the employees don’t trust on traditional performance management system due to several factors. However the modern performance management system offers more transparency, it provide more accessibility to performance data and can keep the record of all past data, meetings, and reviews.
  5. Adaptive: The modern performance management systems are great and offer castigation which enables them to adopt to changes in trends, needs and even allow businesses to implement customized performance management strategies and policies. The ability to integrate with other systems and collect performance data from multiple sources make them more adaptable.

See Also: Benefits of Implementing a Modern Performance Management System

These are the essential features which distinguishes between traditional and modern performance management system.

What are the Characteristics of a Modern Performance Management System?
What are the Characteristics of a Modern Performance Management System?

Step-by-Step Guide on Designing a Modern Performance Management System

Now that we understood the difference between traditional and modern performance management system and its benefits as well, let us dive into the actual process of designing a modern performance management system which resonates with your organizational culture and performance needs.

  1. Identify Your Needs: It is important to understand the needs of your organization. Every business have different priorities, different challenges and different culture, this is why it is important to identify your needs. You will have to review the current performance management model and then do some brainstorming to identify the needs of your new strategy.
  2. Chose The Purpose: Once you identify your needs, you should chose the primary purpose of your modern performance management system. There are five major purposes of implementing a performance management framework, accountability, organizational alignment, cultural alignment, development, and recognition. You should prioritize each one as per your needs.
  3. Understand the Workflows: Understand who is making decisions and how decisions are being made. How the information are flowing, what communication channels you are currently using and what you are planning to use in future. Understand how you are currently defining roles, goals and objectives and how the success should look like.
  4. Performance Fundamentals: No matter what performance management model you want to use, the performance fundamentals are the same, reviews, feedbacks and goals. Implement mechanisms to make reviews fair and transparent. Implement SMART goals, focus on accountability, development and alignment and lastly implement continuous feedback model.

See Also: How the HR should select a Performance Management System?

If you follow the above steps you can easily identify your needs and the scope of your new modern performance management system. There are two ways to implement a new performance management system. First you can acquire a ready-made commercial off-the-shelf solution, or the second and more effective way is to acquire a professional software development agency in Dubai, such as RSI Concepts and let them build a customized performance management system as per your needs.

Step-by-Step Guide on Designing a Modern Performance Management System
Step-by-Step Guide on Designing a Modern Performance Management System

How to Analyze the Effectiveness of your New Performance Management Model

Once you implemented a tailor-made modern performance management system you will definitely witness improvements, however, in order to analyze the effectiveness of your new performance management system you can perform a thorough analysis using the following steps:

  1. Start with market research, understand your industry trends, and set the performance benchmarks for your industry.
  2. Set and enlist organizational goals and objectives and accordingly set the individual goals that you are planning to achieve with your new performance management system.
  3. Based on your organizational goals and objectives define how the success should look like for individual goals, also classify performance in three categories, high-performer, low-performer and average performers.
  4. Now compare your design of performance management system and its success measures with this performance management model based on industry benchmarks.
  5. Now try to minimize the gap between both performance management models and you will get a most efficient performance management system.

This analysis will help you improving your design of modern performance management system and it will help you maximizing the impact of your performance management program.

See Also: 5 Challenges in implementing Performance Management System

How to Analyze the Effectiveness of your New Performance Management Model?
How to Analyze the Effectiveness of your New Performance Management Model?

Conclusion

Implementing a modern performance management system can greatly improve your employees’ performance, engagements and help you increase retention. When the employees and managers both trust on the performance management models and tools they tend to perform well and it also help elevating their morale which is absolutely essential for productivity and efficiency. There are several modern performance management systems available in the market, however, it is highly unlikely that any off-the-shelf performance management software can fulfill all your needs and produce the desired results. That is why we recommend going for a customized performance management system. In this blog we have discussed the difference between a traditional and modern performance management system, we also discussed how you can design a perfect performance management system which will empower your management and workforce. If is important to critically analyze the performance management model that you are building for your business. You can revise your model many times before reaching to the optimum results. If you want to learn more about the subject or if you want our help to design your new modern performance management system for your business, please feel free to contact us through our Contact Us page or leave a comment in the comment box below and we will get in touch with you soon.

See Also: Why Custom Performance Management System is more Effective?


Maximizing Efficiency: The Benefits of Implementing a Queue Management System

Every business wants efficient operation, whether it is some internal process or a customer facing environment, the efficiency is essential. When a business has efficient work flows, processes and even the teams, they tend to produce more and better outcome with whatever resources they have in hand. That is the reason in order to generate value and drive profits a business needs efficiency in every aspect of the operations. Now when we talk about the customer facing environments, the biggest challenge is to adopt and implement modern queue management system to make customer flow efficient and improve customer experience.

Whether you are operating in Dubai, Sharjah, Abu Dhabi or any other part of UAE you must be aware of the fact that every customer have too many choices, you one mistake and you can lose them to your competitor. Furthermore the customers are also very demanding and they tend to switch service provider very quickly. Even just a single bad experience is enough to make customer the switch. Studies and market research have revealed that it is 9 to 25 times more expensive to acquire a new customer comparing to selling to an existing customer. That is why customer experience and customer satisfaction is crucial for a business success.

See Also: What are the Different Types of Queue Management System?

Maximizing Efficiency: The Benefits of Implementing a Queue Management System
Maximizing Efficiency: The Benefits of Implementing a Queue Management System

What is a Queue Management System?

A queue management system is a tool which consists of software and hardware parts and it is used to manage the customer flow and customer experience. The queue management software is a server application which is connected to an interactive self-service ticket dispensing kiosk or queuing kiosk. It is also connected to digital signage screens and audio announcement system. Some businesses also use dynamic counter plates which can also be managed through the queue management system.

Furthermore the hardware part of the queue management system includes a ticket dispensing kiosk which allow your customers and visitors to interact with the system and issue them token numbers. There is a digital signage screen, which displays live queuing details and keep your guests informed about the current activities on each service counter. A business can have multiple signage depends on the premises size. Similarly the audio announcement system is also hardware part powered by in-built multi-lingual audio announcements module.

The counter plates are also connected to the queue management system via network and can display the counter number/name along with the current ticket number. These components form a standard queue management system with basic configurations. Businesses can add more software and hardware components to enhance the features of the queue management system.

See Also: From Chaos to Control: How Queue Management Systems Can Improve Your Business

What is a Queue Management System?
What is a Queue Management System?

What are the Drawbacks of Poorly Organized Customer Flow?

A poorly organized customer flow have many drawbacks, it doesn’t only affect your customers but it will also have a negative impact on your employees and their performance. Which will translate to low productivity, poor growth, bad business reputation, higher customer churn rate, lower conversion rate and in the long run it will damage your brand image. When the queues or waiting lines are not managed properly the very first effect is extended wait time. When the customers will have to wait for longer period of time, they will be frustrated and annoyed.

This will cause many other problems such as line jumping, customer complaints and more fraction in customer journey. When the waiting lines are not managed efficiently they employees also suffer, they will have to deal with customer complaints, they will have to manage the queues by themselves and they will have more workload, it will also distract them from their primary tasks which will undermine their performance. The customers will reach to the counter in stress and they will be unhappy, this will result in poor interaction with the service agents, and it will also make it difficult for the service agents to satisfy the customer.

Long waiting lines, and extended wait time will result in higher customer churn. When employees will fail to improve their performance despite putting all efforts, they will leave too. Higher employee turnover will cause several other problems, higher customer churn rate will damage your business’s reputation.

See Also: The Concept of Queue Management and Crowd Control

What are the Drawbacks of Poorly Organized Customer Flow?
What are the Drawbacks of Poorly Organized Customer Flow?

What are The Benefits of Implementing a Queue Management System?

There are several benefits of implementing a queue management system, but it is important to understand that there are different types of queue management systems available in the market. You must have to choose the right solution that suits your needs and business type. However, one of the best way is to hire a well-reputed queue management system provider such as RSI Concepts and ask them to build a bespoke tailor-made customized queue management system according to your needs. Here are some of the benefits of implementing a queue management system:

Reduction in Customer Waiting Time

When the customer flow is well-organized, they queuing process is automated the customer wait time will automatically reduce. By implementing a queue management system businesses can automate several queuing process. The ticket dispensing is automated, the customer flow is managed by the smart algorithms of the queue management software, and the employee performance is also improved. A queue management system can automatically take decisions, and set customer route according to the historical data and the live queuing data, which is why the customer wait time is optimized.

Furthermore the queue management system also help improving customers’ waiting experience by reducing the perceived wait time. It keep customers engaged and distracted from the waiting by frequently making audio-visual announcements and updating the digital signage. Furthermore the queue management system can also play multimedia content, adverts, promotional and marketing content on the digital signage which also help increasing customer engagement and help optimizing the perceived wait time.

See Also: How Queue Management System can Boost Productivity and Profitability?

Reduction in Customer Waiting Time
Reduction in Customer Waiting Time

Improved Employee Performance

When a business implements a queue management system the employee efficiency and performance is significantly improved. Without a queue management system the employees will have to adhere to several other tasks, most of which are not productive. Manually managing customer flow, especially during the peak-hours can greatly undermine the employee performance and it also have toll on service quality. However, with a proper queue management system in place the employees don’t have to worry about many things and they are free to focus on their primary and more productive tasks.

This not only boost employee performance but also greatly reduce their workload. When the employees work under a balanced workload their satisfaction increases and they tend to perform better. The queue management system automate several queuing processes, and it also offers dedicated service agent dashboards, which can also lift up a lot of workload and help service agents in many tasks. Businesses can significantly improve employee performance and service quality by implementing a queue management system.

See Also: Top 8 Benefits of Using Queue Management System

Improved Employee Performance
Improved Employee Performance

Enhanced Customer Experience

The customer satisfaction depends on customer experience and service quality, better experience results in higher customer satisfaction index. When a business implements a queue management system it automates several queuing processes. When the customers know that their tokens are issued by computer operated system, they have more trust over the system, and it assured them there will no favoritisms, no line-jumping, no intervention from the staff, whatever token is issued to them they will be served accordingly.

Furthermore the queue management system keeps customers and visitors engaged and help diluting the effects of waiting and reduce their stress. This will improve their waiting experience. As the service staff is also aided by the queue management system, they are also more welcoming, fresh and prepared for the customers. This all results in a better customer interaction with the service agent and also tend to improve the service quality.

Implementing a queue management system greatly improves customer experience and results in higher customer satisfaction which help your business building a strong brand image and reputation.

See Also: Queue Management System for Trucks and Logistic Centers

Enhanced Customer Experience
Enhanced Customer Experience

Real-time Monitoring and Remote Management

One of the best advantage of implementing a queue management system is that it offers real-time monitoring and remote management features. Businesses often have multiple branches where they deploy a queue management system, and even in case of only one office the real-time monitoring dashboard and capabilities to manage the system remotely are some of the most productive features.

Usually there is a central location or head office where the top management resides, they want to monitor the queuing activities and stats to take timely decisions. The queue management system is a centralized software system which connects all branches and parts and enable real-time monitoring. The branch manager, or the senior manager at the head office or any other user with adequate access can monitor the live real-time queuing data and stats.

Furthermore it is very easy to implement the queuing polices and strategies across the entire business, remotely from the head office. Businesses can also set automated alerts and notifications for the managers and supervisors to enable them to be more reactive towards the customer footfall and help them improve the customer flow by keeping them up-to-date all the time.

See Also: Qualities of a Good Mobile App for Queue Management System

Real-time Monitoring and Remote Management
Real-time Monitoring and Remote Management

Collect Business Intelligence Data

The data is the backbone of modern fast-paced markets. Every business who wants to succeed should be able to collect, analyze and utilize the business intelligence data in order to generate value and productive outcomes. A queue management system can provide a wealth of highly accurate and valuable business intelligence data. The queue management system can collect queuing data, system usage stats, waiting time trends, customer footfall trends, employee performance and KPI metrics, and it can also collect direct customer feedback which can be incorporated in several internal decision making process to improve strategies and overall performance of the business.

The queue management system can also be integrated with third-party tools and central information center which enables it to collect data from various sources, and it also allow the queue management system to provide business intelligence data for other systems and tools. Businesses can analyze the queue management system data and customer feedback using in-built analytical tools, or they can extract it in form of various intuitive report formats such as summary reports, trend reports and much more which help them utilize the business intelligence data at its full potential and maximize the overall efficiency and performance of the business.

See Also: Efficient Queue Management System Qualities

Collect Business Intelligence Data
Collect Business Intelligence Data

Conclusion

In modern fast-paced markets where the markets are subjected to subtle and rapid changes, a business needs a proactive approach to deal with up-coming challenges. Managing customer facing environments and maintain a satisfactory customer experience is one of the most challenging task a service-based business ever faces. Poorly organized waiting lines and long queues can have devastating effects on a business. Pool queuing strategy and manual queue management can results in poor employee performance, low service quality, and unhappy customers.

However when a business implements q modern queue management system, they can greatly improve employee performance, customer experience and consequently customer satisfaction. A queue management system offers many features which can help improving the customer flow and minimizing the customer churn rate. In this blog we have discussed what a queue management system is and how businesses can benefits from it.

If you want to learn more about the subject or if you want our help to build you a tailor-made queue management system for your business, please feel free to contact us through our Contact Us page or leave a comment in the comment box below and we will get in touch with you soon.


Why Custom Performance Management System is more Effective?

In the fast-paced business landscape it is extremely important for a business to utilize its resources at fullest potential. Businesses operating in Dubai, Sharjah, Abu Dhabi and anywhere else in UAE are well aware of the fact that the markets in this country tend to change very quickly, the customer demands are also increasing endlessly. That is why businesses all around the UAE give a lot of attention to performance management system. The performance management is one of the primary task of the HR department and that is the reason HR leaders and businesses are ready to invest a lot in performance management systems and programs.

There is another strong reason for investing in performance management system which is the adaptation of agile processes and methods. When businesses adopt agility, a gap is formed naturally between the managers and the employees. Most of the time the business leaders and managers failed to implement proper people management practices which results in dissatisfaction and distrust among the employees and undermine their performance and productivity.

Why Custom Performance Management System is more Effective?
Why Custom Performance Management System is more Effective?

The modern day employees are also more concerned about their personal development and growth, they want more frequent feedback from their managers which help them improve their skills and productivity. There has been several surveys and studies all around the world which suggested more than 80% of the business leaders lost faith on the traditional performance management practices and annual appraisal processes. Almost similar percentage of employees also express their distrust on traditional performance management methods. Therefore a modern, digitalized and technology based performance management system is needed.

Basically a performance management system is a software tool, which can provide a continuous performance monitoring tools and analytical data and allow both managers and employees to access valuable performance management data in a very intuitive and interactive manner. Only a modern digital performance management system solution can fulfill the needs of the modern businesses. In this blog we will discuss why a custom performance management system is more effective for your business.

See Also: Customizing Performance Management Systems for Diverse Workforces

Only a modern digital performance management system solution can fulfill the needs of the modern businesses.
Only a modern digital performance management system solution can fulfill the needs of the modern businesses

What is the Difference between a COTS and Custom Performance Management System?

Before we discuss what is the difference between a custom and COTS performance management system it is important to understand that a performance management system is a software which is used to streamline and improve the performance management processes such as one-on-one meetings, acquiring feedback, appraisal, developing personal development and training programs and other such tasks. For any HR department it is their prime goal to retain and sustain a skilled workforce and ensure other business functions can get the required talent and skillset. The performance management system is built on a powerful analytical and statistical engine, along with smart algorithms and AI software tools which makes it more efficient, impactful and effective.

When it comes to acquire a new software tool there are two options, one is hiring a professional software development agency like RSI Concepts and have a tailor-made solution which matches 100% of your business needs. The second option is to quickly implement a cloud-based solution or acquire a ready-made performance management software. Both the ready-made and cloud-based solutions are COTS software, it means Commercial Off-the-shelf Software. The COTS are not designed for a single business or a specific set of users, in fact they are general purpose tools which are designed and available to a mass audience ranging from a few hundred to millions of users.

See Also: Choosing a Performance Management System A Buyer’s Guide

What is the Difference between a COTSand Custom Performance Management System?
What is the Difference between a COTS and Custom Performance Management System?

What made Custom Performance Management System Superior and a Better Match to your Needs?

Whenever a business needs a software solution and they decide to go with a commercial off-the-shelf software or COTS they usually seek to match as much of their needs as possible, on an average a good COTS solution will meet your 80% of needs. That means you will have to make compromise for the rest of the 20% of your needs. That is one of the major reason business prefer to have a tailor-made custom software solution because a custom software solution is capable of meeting 100% of your needs as it will be exclusively designed for your needs.

Another great advantage of a custom performance management system is that it can provide a great competitive advantage. Furthermore the custom performance management system is exclusively designed for your business, so you also hold the ownership rights for the product. This will free your business from vendor-dependency. Businesses can manage, customize and upgrade custom performance management system in-house as well as they can choose any vendor to do so, as the entire software tool and its resources such as source code, databases and integration tools are handed over to the business who will be using it.

See Also: Performance Management System: Best Practices

What made Custom Performance Management System Superior and a Better Match to your Needs?
What made Custom Performance Management System Superior and a Better Match to your Needs?

Here are some key advantages of choosing a custom performance management system over a COTS solution:

Custom Performance Management System: Effectively Implement Strategy

It is important to understand that the performance management is a very flexible concept. Every business has a unique organizational culture so does the strategy to implement different performance methods. It is due to the preference which every business have different from the other. These preferences are based on the business goals, strategic objectives and their desire to improve certain aspects of the performance. For example, some businesses might prioritize the technical competencies and some might want to focus on behavioral competencies and so on.

See Also: The Role of Performance Management in Employee Engagement

Along with that for a different set of employees the KPIs are different the desired outcome is different, hence the strategy and focused performance aspects would be different. Furthermore there are different performance management methods and every business would have different choice, on top of that most business leader prefer to use a combination of two or more methods to implement their own unique performance management strategy. That is the reason the commercial off-the-shelf software solutions can never fulfill all of your needs. Furthermore the COTS are built as per industry standards and offers more rigid framework.

However, a custom performance management system can offer you more control, flexibility, freedom and customization which enable you to effectively implement your own unique performance management strategy. You can utilize in-built templates and configurations wizards to setup your own customized KPIs, OKRs and performance metrics as per your needs. This allow you to laser focus on your prioritized aspects of the performance management which can greatly improve the impact and outcome.

See Also: The Risk of Poor Performance Management and How to identify it?

There are different performance management methods and every business would have different choice
There are different performance management methods and every business would have different choice

Custom Performance Management System: Easy Integration with Data and Third-party Systems

The entire performance management system depends on collecting, flow and analysis of the data. It is extremely important to understand that if data collection would be easier, the outcome would be more accurate. That is why most modern performance management systems have ability to automatically collect data. Businesses can manually upload data too or they can use dedicated dashboards to input the data but it is important that uploading data or integration and automated-data collection is as per the needs of the business. The IT infrastructure of any organization is a very complex eco-system, it develops gradually and evolve as per the needs and changes within the organization or due to the impact of external factors.

See Also: Performance Management Trends in the Digital Era

This means there would be a lot of different system some of which might be integrated already with the central information system. There could be a lot technology platforms and different vendors that a business is using to form their IT infrastructure. When a new software application is deployed in such environment the biggest challenge is integration and communication between different third-party systems and tools. Since the commercial off-the-shelf software are usually standardized tools, hence integration could be a big challenge, it could be very expensive and in some cases it could be impossible.

However, the customized performance management system is exclusively built for your needs, so all these problems are already accounted for. All these challenges can be dealt effectively and with convenience when you have full control over the structure of the software that you are building. That is why the customized performance management system are more effective in integrating with third-party tools and databases, which allow them to easily attain automation and built innovative features to minimize the effort and workload of the users. Even in case of manual uploads or dedicated dashboard to input data the customized performance management system is much more effective and far superior to any COTS solution in the market.

See Also: Which one is better Standalone VS Integrated Software?

Easy Integration with Data and Third-party Systems
Easy Integration with Data and Third-party Systems

Custom Performance Management System: Get Customized Features and UI

Similar to performance strategy implementation, the features of the performance management system also require customization if you want to align the system with your needs. The biggest problem with the commercial off-the-shelf performance management software is that they are built according to the industry standards and only follow standardized procedures and processes. Which is helpful but sometimes it could be a hurdle instead of support. The custom performance management system software is exclusively designed as per your requirements hence there is no such barrier or limitation. You can customize each and every feature, process, SOP, protocol and even the reporting formats and designs.

See Also: Linking Performance Management to Business Outcomes

For any performance management system the ultimate goal is to collect performance data, drive reports from the data and then take informed decisions to maximize the probability of the success. There is another most important aspect which is the user interface (UI). Most of the businesses doesn’t focus much on it, however, it is extremely important aspect of any software application. With the custom performance management system you can customize the GUI or UI as per your requirements, you can have your customized branding, and even functionalities can be customized and labeled as per your needs which can greatly enhance the efficiency and efficacy of the performance management system. The stock or off-the-shelf solutions doesn’t offer such customizations.

See Also: How to Customize Performance Management System

Get Customized Features and UI
Get Customized Features and UI

Custom Performance Management System: High Scalability and Easy Upgrade

Whenever businesses are acquiring any software solution, the scalability and ability to upgrade it in future are the two most important aspects to consider. The commercial off-the-shelf software comes with several restrictions and limitations. Similarly the commercial off-the-shelf performance management system could be easier and quicker to deploy but down the road it will pose more challenges. Furthermore these software are usually cloud-based and comes in different tiers and plans which are designed to target a specific size or industry. Hence if you need some features which are not available in your plan you might have to subscribe for additional plan, which will be more expensive and at the end of the day most of the features comes with expensive plan might not be useful for your business.

See Also: The Future of Performance Appraisals: 6 Innovations and Changes [Quick Guide]

The markets evolve very fast, the customer demands could change over the night, and business need to be very vigilant and responsive towards such changes, which is usually not possible with the commercial off-the-shelf solutions. Furthermore these applications take ages to develop and build new features, there are several challenges for the vendor to upgrade them. Businesses keep growing and after sometime scaling up these software would cost you a lot. The custom performance management system is completely free from all those limitations and restrictions. You can customize it whenever you want, you can scale it up or downsize it whenever you need and without paying even a single dime.

Furthermore you can also customize your custom performance management system to add new features or to make changes at a nominal cost unlike the COTS which incurs hefty fees and charges for such requirements.

See Also: 5 Challenges in implementing Performance Management System

High Scalability and Easy Upgrade
High Scalability and Easy Upgrade

Custom Performance Management System: Cost-effective and High ROI

When we compare the initial cost of the commercial off-the-shelf solutions and the customized software applications, the COTS apparently looks more cost-effective. However, that is not true at all. The COTS can be deployed quickly but won’t be able to fully match your 100% of the requirements, however, the custom performance management systems have higher initial cost but can fully aligned with your requirements and fulfill your 100% of the needs. In order to compare the cost we will have to look at the ROI over a longer period of the time. The stock or commercial off-the-shelf solutions have regular subscription charges which you will have to pay on monthly, quarterly or yearly bases as per your plan. You will have no control over the software vendor, the vendor will own the application and in some cases your data is also stored at vendor’s server which is not as that secure.

However, the custom performance management system is exclusively designed for your business, the vendor doesn’t have the ownership of the application, instead you will own the ownership rights of the software and you will also own all the software code, resources and the entire application which will be handed over to you. You can have full control over your custom performance management system, there is no vendor dependency, you can chose any vendor or even in-house team to maintain and upgrade your software. Your data will be hosted with you or at the server/cloud of your choice which offers better security. There will be no subscription fee or hidden charges, the customization will be very cost-efficient and if you calculate the ROI over an extended period of time the custom performance management system will cost you less than half of a reputed commercial off-the-shelf performance management system.

The custom performance management system have longer life-cycle which can be further extended by making few changes and iterations, but in case of COTS you might have to acquire a completely new software after a few years.

See Also: The Impact of Performance Management on Organizational Culture

Cost-effective and High ROI
Cost-effective and High ROI

Conclusion

Businesses operating in Dubai, Sharjah, Abu Dhabi or any other emirate of UAE knows that very well that the markets here are very competitive. The overall government policies and environment is very investor-friendly hence the competition will keep rising in future too. Furthermore the customer demands are also skyrocketing and the market is subjected to rapid changes. In such environment if a business want to maintain a steady growth it is extremely important for them to have a proactive performance management strategy.

The modern day employees need higher engagements and the business leaders also want more productive and effective tools to maximize the performance and productivity of their organization. That is why businesses deploy performance management systems which are mainly a dedicated software application designed to streamline the performance management processes and aid management in performing performance management tasks.

When it comes to acquire a performance management system software, businesses have two way, one is finding a suitable commercial off-the-shelf solution and quickly implement it and the other is slightly longer path, which is to develop a tailor-made and fully customized performance management system which is exclusively designed for the business by keeping in mind all the needs, requirements, and existing IT infrastructure.

In this blog we have discussed several aspects of performance management system and tried to highlight the aspects which make custom performance management system more superior, effective and impactful then its counterpart, the commercial off-the-shelf performance management software. If you want to learn more about the subject or if you want our help to develop an exclusive tailor-made custom performance management system for your business, please feel free to contact us through our Contact Us page or leave a comment in the comment box below and we will get in touch with you soon.

See Also: How to Develop Custom Performance Appraisal System in UAE?


Best Features of a Digital Queue Management System for Banks

Banks offer crucial financial services for individuals and businesses which are essential for our modern societies. If you are living in Dubai, Sharjah, Abu Dhabi or anywhere else in UAE, you must have visited a bank either for account opening or for business purposes. If you recall your last interaction with a bank, how was your experience at the branch? I am sure it was not as pleasing as it should be. The biggest problems at banks is the large customer influx, a customer might have to wait for 30 to 45 minutes for a service which can be delivered in 5 minutes.

Obviously your appointment at bank is not something which you should expect to be enjoyable or entertaining but at least it should be comfortable, convenient and friction-less. This means that there are still some flaws and problems with the banking sector which are impacting customer experience. The average wait time for a typical bank service is around 20 minutes or in some cases even more than that, which cause stress and frustration. A digital queue management system solve all those problems and it also helps improving customer experience.

Best Features of a Digital Queue Management System for Banks
Best Features of a Digital Queue Management System for Banks

What is a Digital Queue Management System?

A queue management system is a combination of tools and strategy to improve customer flow and maximize the performance of the customer service centers. The early form of queue management systems was first-come-first-serve based waiting line. Then businesses started sorting them in multiple waiting lines. Later on technology is introduced to the queuing systems. The digital queue management system is the latest form of customer flow management systems.

A digital queue management system also consists of some digital tools (software and hardware) and a queuing strategy which help banks to significantly improve the customer experience, maximize their branch productivity and profitability and it also help improving staff performance. A digital queue management system also help businesses meet the ever-increasing customer expectations and it also collects valuable business intelligence data which is very helpful for businesses.

See Also: What are the Different Types of Queue Management System?

See Also: Paperless Queue Management System

What is a Digital Queue Management System?
What is a Digital Queue Management System?

Here are the key features of a digital queue management system for a bank:

Digital Queue Management System: Reduction in Customer Wait Time

Customer wait time is one of the major cause of customer dissatisfaction. A digital queue management system is a very capable tool which can greatly reduce customer wait time and it also help improving customers’ waiting experience. Customers can sign-in using multiple methods which makes it very easy and convenience. Once customers are singed-in they are issued a ticket number which is their position in the queue. The customers are allowed to wait freely either in the waiting areas or even outside of the bank premises. The queue management system can also communicate with customers using SMS or WhatsApp or any other channel.

It sends them live queuing information, alerts and notifications which prevent customers from missing out their turn in the queue. Furthermore the digital queue management system also have a digital signage screen, usually more than one screens are placed on strategic locations to ensure every customers can easily view information on these screens. Along with queuing information, multimedia content can also be played which help diverting customer’s focus form waiting time. The frequent audio announcements also keep customer engaged and reduce the stress of waiting.

See Also: How Queue Management System can Boost Productivity and Profitability?

Digital Queue Management System: Reduction in Customer Wait Time
Digital Queue Management System: Reduction in Customer Wait Time

Digital Queue Management System: Customer Journey Transformation

A digital queue management system has an AI (artificial intelligence) based very powerful software engine which make it more effective and efficient. A digital queue management system is a customer journey transformation tool. It can enhance customer’s entire visit even from pre-arrival to post-service activities, a digital queue management system effectively improves the entire customer journey. Furthermore a digital queue management system is capable of collecting customer behavioral, statistical and performance data which enables it to take instant decisions on the bases of real-time queuing situation.

A typical bank have multiple services which they are offering at their branches, some service counters are exclusive for certain services some are for general services and furthermore there are also customer classifications and priority levels that the bank has to accommodate. It means that the bank has a very complex queuing strategy. A digital queue management system not only help banks implement their strategy but it also improving it. It can automatically route customers to the right service counter and as per their priority level or any other parameter that is applicable it manages the entire customer journey and ensure maximum efficiency, smooth customer flow and less wait time.

See Also: What are basic features of Queuing System?

Digital Queue Management System: Customer Journey Transformation
Digital Queue Management System: Customer Journey Transformation

Digital Queue Management System: Boost Branch Efficiency

A digital queue management system is not just designed to reduce the customer wait time. It is a very powerful tool which can help improving several processes and have huge impact on the overall efficiency and performance of the entire bank branch. The digital queue management system automates several processes and customer journey steps. For example, the customer sing-in is completely automated, customers can utilize the interactive kiosk to sign-in and get the token number or they can utilize any supported virtual channel to sign-in and get a digital token or e-ticket. Furthermore everyone is served only at their turn, there is no chance of staff giving importance to any customer, this not only help improving the customer flow but it also help gaining customer trust.

Furthermore there are no disputes, line jumping or any such problem that is associated with manual queuing. This means that the customer flow is entirely managed by the queue management system and the staff doesn’t have to involve at any stage. This not only speed up everything but it also help reducing the employees’ workload. When the staff works under balanced workload they tend to perform well and deliver high-quality service which improve branch performance. The employee have more time to focus on their primary tasks and they don’t have to worry about queuing problems which save a lot of time and also help reducing the service delivery time and resultantly customer wait time. All these improvements help boosting branch efficiency, employee performance, reduce human resource cost and ensure satisfactory service delivery.

See Also: 7 Features of Queue Management Software

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Digital Queue Management System: Boost Branch Efficiency
Digital Queue Management System: Boost Branch Efficiency

Digital Queue Management System: Collects Business Intelligence Data

A digital queue management system is capable of collecting highly valuable business intelligence data from each and every customer touch point throughout the customer journey. Since the entire customer interaction digitally managed, collecting statistical data is much easier. For example, the queue management system can provide comprehensive insight to the customer flow such as which services most customer are choosing, what is average customer wait time, what is average service time and which employee is performing better and at which stage the customers are waiting longer than expected, etc.

A digital queue management system is also capable of collecting customers’ behavioral data and compile it in form of easy-to-understand reports which help management understand customer behavior trend, performance trends, footfall trends and many more useful insights. A digital queue management system can collects a wealth of business intelligence data which can be very useful in decision making processes and help management evaluate their queuing strategy, customer journey and various other processes that can directly impact the customer experience. Furthermore a digital queue management system can also facilitate customer feedback collection and help banks collecting valuable customer feedback.

See Also: Importance of Queue Management System for Government and Public Offices

See Also: How to Implement a Queue Management System at an Airport?

Digital Queue Management System: Collects Business Intelligence Data
Digital Queue Management System: Collects Business Intelligence Data

Conclusion

Banks offer most important financial services which are integral for our society and businesses to work. Whether you visit a bank in individual capacity or for your business, visit to a bank is inevitable. Banks also know that very well, hence they are always investing in innovative solutions and technologies to ensure their customers and visitors have an excellent customer experience. The overall UAE market in general is very dynamic, vibrant and versatile, for customers there are so many options to choose from. This is what makes customer satisfaction crucial for banks. If a bank wants to obtain customer loyalty then they must have to level up their game at customer experience and customer service.

A digital queue management system is a perfect companion for banks who want to improve their customer experience. It help banks automate several customer journey processes and improve employees’ performance without compromising the customer satisfaction. In fact queue management systems are known for delivering highest customer satisfaction in all customer-facing environments. In this blog we discussed what a queue management system is and what features it offer which can help banks achieve maximum productivity, performance and customer satisfaction.

If you want to learn more about the subject or if you want our help to transform your bank branch with our customized queue management system solution, please feel free to contact us through our Contact Us page or leave a comment in the comment box below and we will get in touch with you soon.

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Characteristics of a Good Employee Appraisal System

The employee appraisal is the most important aspect of performance management. Every business wants to increase its performance, with the limited resources in hand every business wants to generate more outcome with limited inputs. That is why business adopt various workforce optimization methods and implement performance management strategies to improve the outcome and minimize the operational cost. This can provide businesses with a great competitive advantage and help them grow and achieve its goals.

The employee appraisals are extremely important as it will help businesses identifying any areas of improvement by evaluating employee performance and measuring the effectiveness of the employee. The employee appraisal system is a great tool for workforce optimization and performance management it help businesses implement their performance management strategy and align employees with the mission of the business by leveraging the employee performance data and various techniques that are designed to evaluate employee performance.

Characteristics of a Good Employee Appraisal System
Characteristics of a Good Employee Appraisal System

What is Employee Appraisal System?

The employee appraisal system is a combination of tools, strategies and methodologies which are used to measure the employee performance against a pre-set goal, and employee appraisal help setting up the goals for future and provide guidance for employee development and training programs. The employee performance appraisal provides a framework for the mangers to identify the areas of improvement, highlight the causes of failure and success and from future performance strategy.

Businesses and organizations in Dubai, Sharjah, Abu Dhabi and everywhere in UAE are investing heavily in employee performance management solutions such as employee appraisal systems. We have witnessed this trend increasing since past five years. The actual reason of deploying an employee performance appraisal system is to unlock the true potential of the employees, enable them to perform at their best and achieve the highest organizational efficiency which drive growth and long term success.

See Also: The Future of Performance Appraisals: 6 Innovations and Changes [Quick Guide]

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What is Employee Appraisal System
What is Employee Appraisal System?

Here are the characteristics of a good employee appraisal system:

Employee Appraisal System: Objectives

For any employee performance management strategy the most important point is to clearly define and communicate the objectives to the employees. An employee performance appraisal system does the same. It help management clearly define objectives which aligns with the organizational high-level goals and objectives. The employee performance appraisal system provide specialized tools which help management create objectives that are well-defined, aligned with mission, easy-to-understand, achievable in timely manner, and can be communicated to the employees.

The employee can easily understand what success will look like, it help them understand what business/employer is expecting from them and what has to be done from their side to create valuable outcome. The employee appraisal system not only help making objectives quantifiable but also help managers to correlate the objectives with the employee’s skills, experience, capabilities, and resources they have along with a complete historic background of past performances which is a great way to set goals and expectations for future. The systematic approach and specialized tools of employee appraisal system increase the success rate.

See Also: Performance Appraisal System for the HR Department

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Employee Appraisal System: Objectives
Employee Appraisal System: Objectives

Employee Appraisal System: Reliability

The trust and fairness is the main driver of the performance, if the employees think that the appraisal process is not fair or if the think the employee appraisal system is not reliable they will lose morale which can kill the performance and productivity. The employee appraisal system ensures transparency and fairness in the process and help gaining employees’ trust. The reliability is the key component to introduce transparency and gain employees’ trust. The employee appraisal system is a digital tool which offer intuitive features and empower both employees and the managers.

It ensures that the performance metrics and data used for appraisal are valid, reliable and accurate. Usually the data is related to the employee’s progress toward the assigned goal, how much time it took them to accomplish the goal, and the status of the goal, all this data is stored in the system along with complete historic accomplishments of the questioned employee. The employee appraisal system can also provide contextual data which also help managers understand employees’ certain behavior and decisions they take during the performance cycle. Employees and managers trust the system when they have access to accurate and reliable data.

See Also: Modern Methods of Performance Appraisal

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Employee Appraisal System: Reliability
Employee Appraisal System: Reliability

Employee Appraisal System: Standardization

Standardization is one of the most important characteristic of employee appraisal system. Obviously every business and organization is different from each other, even two businesses who operate in same domain, have same products and services and same targeted audience could have greatly different internal processes, procedures, strategies and methodologies. However, when it comes to employee appraisal the main difference occurs when the managers took two different employees to assess who belongs to a same employee set/class or category.

For example if the assessment is required for two computer programmers who work on Native Application Development within the team, the assessment process, methods and criteria should be exactly the same for both of them. In manual practices and traditional appraisal methods, the managers have too much influence on the process hence the personal bias or emotions can hamper the quality of the assessments made by the same manager. The employee appraisal system completely remove this from equation, it standardize the evaluation criteria, performance metrics.

Furthermore it provides a comprehensive framework which make employee fully aware of appraisal standards, process, and decisions hence everyone knows how their success is being evaluated. The standardization can greatly increase employee trust on the appraisal process.

See Also: Beginners’ Guide to Appraisal System

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Employee Appraisal System: Standardization
Employee Appraisal System: Standardization

Employee Appraisal System: Communication

The communication is the backbone of any performance optimization or workforce optimization campaign. For the employee appraisal the communication is most crucial component of the process. The employee appraisal system help businesses and organizations to enhance communication between the employees and managers using specialized tools and unconventional methods. The managers must communicate the goals, objectives, mission and vision and the criteria of appraisal to each and every individual employee. If the employee doesn’t know about the system or doesn’t have clear information about any process or step, they will lose trust form the appraisal process which can easily kill productivity.

The employee appraisal system help integrating employee feedback at various stages, especially in goal setting process. When the employee and managers have shared vision about a particular goal the employees tend to perform well and their motivations and morale raises. The employee appraisal system strengthen the communication between the managers and the employees with more frequent feedbacks, discussions and interactions which help identifying and rectifying problems that employee might be facing and also help managers to correct course in order to ensure success by the end of the appraisal cycle.

See Also: Employee Evaluation and KPIs for Better Employee Performance

Employee Appraisal System: Communication
Employee Appraisal System: Communication

Employee Appraisal System: Development

The employee development is most important aspect of any employee appraisal system. Businesses and organization always want to minimize the employee turnover rate. This is essential in order to develop a highly skilled and experienced workforce. But if your employee keep leaving the organization, then you must have to bear the additional training costs, onboarding costs, time wasted in integrating a new employee and obviously the delay in the work, sometimes when the employees from key position left they could hinder the performance of the entire team or department, especially in startups, SMEs and very specific businesses.

Every employee wants to grow, everyone wants to improve their professional skills and every single employee wants to learn new things which add value and increase their worth as an employee. However, most of the time the employees are confused about selecting a right career path and the managers too rely on guessing while selecting a career path for an employee or designing a personal development plan .However, the employee appraisal system provides in-depth understanding of the employee performance, their capabilities, skills and ability to grow.

That is why with the employee appraisal system managers can design more effective and attractive employee development plans which help them raise employee satisfaction and reduce the employee turnover.

See Also: The Role of Performance Management in Employee Engagement

Employee Appraisal System: Development
Employee Appraisal System: Development

Employee Appraisal System: Training

When it comes to training, businesses often focus on the employee training. However, the managers’ or evaluators’ training is also very important. The evaluator and managers who are conducting the appraisal should also be well-trained in principles and processes of the appraisal along with the employee appraisal system tools. The evaluators and managers should be trained and provided with sufficient knowledge which enable them to effectively design and conduct appraisals. Conducting appraisal interview is a very crucial part of employee appraisal process, the evaluator or manager must have proper training to be able to conduct those interviews. Apart from that the employee training is the core of the employee appraisal process.

Every business or organization have such employees who just need a little training or polishing in order to unlock their true potential. But the question is how to identify those employees and how to design the training programs for them. The employee appraisal system provide insight to employee behavior, it provide highly accurate employee performance data and provide a greater understanding of employee’s skills and capabilities which are essential to design effective training programs. Effective training will help businesses achieve higher productivity and it also help gaining employee trust and loyalty.

See Also: Appraisal Methods in Performance Management System

Employee Appraisal System: Training
Employee Appraisal System: Training

Conclusion

Performance management, workforce optimization, employee appraisals, training programs and various such activities are a part of any growing organization. Every business wants to generate as much outcome as possible with the limited resources and inputs. High performing teams and employees are a great asset of a business and can provide a much needed competitive advantage as well as help boosting performance, profitability and growth of the business. That is why businesses conduct employee performance appraisals. However, when it comes to employee appraisals, it is a very sophisticated and crucial process. That is why businesses in Dubai, Sharjah, Abu Dhabi and all around the UAE uses specialized tools such as employee appraisal system in order to make the appraisal process more effective and efficient.

The employee appraisal system helps setting and communicating goals and objectives, it improves communication, it increases transparency and help businesses gain employee trust and satisfaction. In this blog we have listed some key characteristics of employee appraisal system, if you want to learn more about the subject or if you want our help to design and implement and customized employee appraisal system for your business, please feel free to contact us through our Contact Us page or leave a comment in the comment box below and we will get in touch with you soon.

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