• Business
    5 key features to consider before buying a business computer

    Purchasing a business computer for your company can be a tricky task. Both online and offline stores are swamped with business computers from Dell, Lenovo, HP, Apple, and other great brands. A fast and reliable computer can greatly boost your employees’ productivity and the company’s performance.

    If you’re looking for such computers, here are a few features and specifications that you must consider.

    • Processor (CPU)
      If you need a computer that can multitask smoothly, then you should look for one with more processors. Essentially, a multi-core processor allows you to run several applications simultaneously and ensures a smoother computing experience. It’s recommended that you select at least a quad-core processor for graphics-intensive or heavy database jobs.
    • Memory (RAM)
      RAM is another crucial component that lets you quickly access files while you’re multitasking. A rule of thumb here is that the higher the memory or RAM of the computer, the better it performs. Computer experts generally recommend that you look for one with at least 8GB RAM.
    • Storage space (hard drive)
      Generally, business computers do not require much storage space as employees are not going to use them to save personal photos and videos. But, if you’re going to work with heavy files and software, it is recommended that you select a computer with an inbuilt storage space of no less than 500GB.
    • Display
      If your company is into some graphics-intensive work or gaming, then a display with high resolution becomes quite important. Higher resolution means sharper and more detailed images. But, if you rarely need the computer for such use, then you can opt for any computer with a decent display.
    • Ports and connectivity
      Connectivity is primary for most businesses, so ensure that your computer has as many ports and connectivity options. Some popular options are USB Type-C, USB 3.0, USB 2.0 and HDMI ports, and computers with Bluetooth capabilities so that you can easily connect your Bluetooth devices.

    Popular business computers

    Now that you’ve understood what to look for in a business computer, here are some of the widely-used business computers from Dell, HP, Apple, and Microsoft. Depending on your budget, you can explore some other brands too. However, make sure that you don’t compromise on features that matter the most to your business.

    • Dell® OptiPlex 3050 Micro
    • Dell® OptiPlex 3020
    • HP Elite Slice for Meeting Rooms
    • Apple iMac Pro
    • Apple iMac (27-inch, 2019)
    • Apple Mac mini
    • Microsoft Surface Studio
  • Business
    3 cool apps for engaging employees on the go

    Research states that an engaged workforce always outperforms a disengaged workforce. Satisfied and engaged employees are far more productive. Also, they have been observed to be loyal to their organization. To enable this kind of engagement, it is essential to stay connected. This is where employee-engagement platforms become indispensable. Moreover, most organizations have employees working on the go or remotely, so employee engagement apps become even more useful.

    Slack
    Launched in 2013, Slack came to be known as an email and Facebook disrupter. Based on Cloud, Slack is a mobile-engagement tool and an internal communicator. It helps teams consolidate all their communications in one place. With Slack, employees can be part of channels like groups. These channels can be public or private. The channels here can be used to send messages, files, documents. Plus, Slack lets organizations create channels for specific clients and projects for a more streamlined work process. Additionally, Slack can be integrated with other platforms, like Dropbox and Hangouts.

    Yammer
    Yammer is a social networking app for professionals. It requires a company email ID for login and even has a mobile version. With this app, an employee can get push notifications whenever they are working remotely or out of office. An extension of the desktop app, Yammer lets employees send private messages to one another. Moreover, employees can send and receive photos and documents with OneDrive and Dropbox integrations. Since it is quite similar to personal social media apps (such as Facebook), employees do not need any professional training to use the app.

    Tap My Back
    This app is a tool for employee recognition and motivation. With this app, employees can recognize their team members for their contributions and actions in real-time. Additionally, team leaders can view team information on a single platform. The team leader can check all the actions listed for employees and provide feedback as well. This app lets team leaders check how engaged and satisfied the team members are. This information can also be used to list out goals for individual employees. Tap My Back brilliantly taps into the fact that engaged employees always result in positive outcomes for an organization.

    All these apps are available on Google Play Store and the App Store.

  • Business
    Here’s why employee engagement and its platforms are the need of the hour

    Employee engagement is essential as it ensures that your employees are happy and satisfied. If you’re wondering why you should care about the happiness of your employees, we have the answer.

    An average employee spends the majority of their time at work rather than at home. So, if an employee is unhappy with work, you can rest assured that the company will suffer. But if an employee is happy, they will work with passion, enthusiasm and will be dedicated and engaged with their work and we’ve already seen where that will take us.

    But, if you’re still not convinced about the importance of employee engagement and still think of it as some modern corporate buzzword, here are some benefits that should completely change your mind:

    • Retainment rates are higher
      Were you aware that almost a quarter of the employees at any organization are at high risk of moving out? Let’s not forget that among these would be highly talented people who would work wonders if they stuck around.
    • Eliminates the cost of hiring and training
      Now, once those people have quit, you’ll need to rehire people. This means you will have to invest in not just hiring but also training a whole new set of people. Also, let’s not mention the disgruntled employees who are now over-pressured with extra work.
    • Full workforce at hand
      Having a full workforce at hand has major benefits. Say someone on your team is sick and takes an off, having a full team means work can be handed off to another team member but if you’re already functioning at half power, you may soon be having an overworked and unhappy team.
    • Improved productivity rates
      Well, if your team is at full strength and working like a well oiled cog in a machine, there’s absolutely no doubt to the fact that you’ll be hitting your targets and achieving high levels of productivity.
    • Productivity breeds profitability
      If your work is getting done on time, you know you’ll be making profits.

    How do you keep the employees engaged?

    Well, there are many ways to do so but since we live in the age of the Internet, you can implement an employee engagement platform. Each employee engagement platform has their own style but a majority of them take on certain things such as daily feedback, company updates, shining the light on spotlights and so on.

    So, ensure you don’t take your employees for granted and ensure that they are happy and engaged!

  • Business
    Top employee engagement platforms for your company

    Perhaps you already know that employee engagement is extremely important for keeping your employees motivated and satisfied and at the same time, boost their productivity. It’s even more crucial to understand that employee engagement platforms are more of a tool that helps keep your employees engaged. That said, it’s about time that you invest in a great employee engagement platform. Here are our top four employee engagement platforms for you to check out and see which one is perfect for your company.

    OfficeVibe

    OfficeVibe allows company owners to keep track of trends and patterns across the organization through regular, honest employee feedback. With OfficeVibe, you will know exactly where and when you’ll have the maximum impact on your company and which managers and teams need your support. Essentially, the platform sends a weekly survey with questions based on their 10 Key Metrics of Engagement to all employees. This includes 120 science-based and interactive questions to help you gauge the performance of your company.

    15Five (Continuous Performance Management)

    15Five is a continuous performance management platform that helps your employees grow and become their best selves. Through its strategic weekly check-ins, the platform delivers more than what a manager needs to maintain visibility. 15Five also has great features like high fives for employee recognition, 360-degree feedback, one-on-ones, and reviews. The platform is used by thousands of companies like Spotify, HubSpot, and Credit Karma to bring out the best in their employees.


    Lattice Performance Management

    Lattice provides an easy way to launch 360 reviews, share regular feedback and praises, facilitate one-on-one meetings, set up goals, and administer employee engagement surveys. It’s a very user-friendly product that makes employees’ work easier and saves time and resources of the HR team. The platform also offers various customization features that can easily adapt to your work culture. Globally, more than 1500 companies including Reddit, Slack, Samsara, and Cruise use Lattice to improve their performance.

    Peakon

    Peakon is not just a survey company, they are into data as well. So, their insight can really help transform your business. Their platform collects employee feedback, analyzes it, and sends insights all in real time. Employees are given the option of submitting their feedback via their computer, SMS, kiosk, or app. The platform can efficiently manage tens of thousands of employees.

  • Business
    4 things you need to know about Gartner Magic Quadrant

    Gartner, Inc. is an advisory firm based in the country. The company works towards providing information, tools, data derived from research, tools, and advice. It also gathers solutions to enable customers to make better decisions on a day-to-day basis. The company has further developed a series of market research studies under the title of Gartner Magic Quadrant. It is one of the major products of the company. Here are a few things to know about the Garnet Magic Quadrant.

    What exactly is the Garnet Magic Quadrant?
    Produced by Garnet, Inc., the Magic Quadrant is a series of publications based on market research. The reports make use of an evaluation matrix for analyzing how tech-based companies are positioned. The series also rates various technology vendors on the basis of certain defined criteria. Along with this, the Quadrant also displays the strengths and weaknesses of vendors. Before the purchase of a particular technology service, solution, or product, the Magic Quadrant can be used for the evaluation of a vendor.

    How does Gartner Magic Quadrant divide various vendors?
    The Magic Quadrant’s evaluation of vendors is based on two parameters: execution ability and vision completeness. The vendors are classified into four quadrants: leaders, challengers, visionaries, and niche players.

    • Leaders
      These vendors score high on both the parameters and are usually ranked at the top of the quadrant matrix. These are vendors with established businesses, strong market positions, and large customer bases.
    • Challengers
      These vendors are nearly close to the leaders in their rankings. Often, these vendors score low on the vision parameter. However, they have the potential to become leaders if they work on improving their future plans.
    • Visionaries
      These vendors are small players with significant visions. However, they often lack the resources for the successful execution of their vision.
    • Niche players
      These vendors are start-ups that score the lowest in both the parameters of execution and vision.

    What are the advantages of using Gartner Magic Quadrant?
    Using a series of researches, the quadrant sets the market. By analyzing this, organizations as well as individuals determine the progress of a specific market domain. This will help businesses to reach their goals by changing their strategies and gain success in their segments.

    Are there any precautions to take against using Gartner Magic Quadrant?
    Always take a note of the date on which the Quadrant was developed. This will help to avoid analyzing an outdated quadrant, which may lead to inaccurate results. Also, ensure that there are more companies of the specific domain regarding which information is sought. The more companies there are in the quadrant, the more complete will the end results of the quadrant be. Furthermore, make sure to analyze the main geographical market. The quadrant contains world-wide data. This makes it difficult to look for local data.

  • Business
    Why you should invest in a business intelligence and analytics system

    Business intelligence is the process in which strategies are incorporated to analyze the existing data of the business by deciphering trends and patterns to make better decisions for current operations. Business analytics, on the other hand, is the strategy to continue exploring and interpreting data to drive future operations. Although the differentiating line between business intelligence and business analytics may appear confusing, all you need to know is that while business intelligence focuses on past and current data for present functioning, business analytics is all about the prediction for better future plans by analyzing the present data. 

    Here we have listed some perks of using the business intelligence and analytics system:

    • Easy data storage and usage
      Business intelligence and analytics tools help bring the stored data to use for the company’s growth. It enables companies to analyze and track trends and use them for their growth with ease. 
    • Profitable planning
      The results obtained using the system can help brands come up with user-centric campaigns resulting in high engagement with the target audience. The interactive dashboards that are a part of these tools help translate the collected data into intelligible plans for the brand or the company’s growth. A better analytics strategy leads to higher growth.
    • Financial control
      Business intelligence and analytics tools can also prove to be useful in not only creating but also launching campaigns and programs. The company can make use of these tools by creating target audience specific plans, adjust budgets, and manage cash flow to optimize finances. The advanced technology helps in developing campaigns that work for the company and make marketing strategies cost-effective.
    • Analytical insights can help reduce expenses

    Data insights generated at the corporate and departmental levels can help identify cost-avoidance opportunities and cases of spending that are wasteful.

    Some of the most trust-worthy business intelligence and analytics tools are a complete mix of many factors. They are user-friendly, easy to use and understand, and can be easily shared by the company’s internal system. A few popular business intelligence tools are Datapine, Microsoft Power BI, Tableau Desktop, Sisense, Dundas and Zoho Analytics. A few noteworthy business analytics tools are Python, Apache Storm, Splunk, SAS, R, and Excel.

    Although both these terms are often used interchangeably, business intelligence and business analytics stand for different functions. With the increased amount of data available in this day and time, both prove to be an important part of data science and play a crucial role in the current and future functioning of companies. The combined use of both business intelligence and business analytics complement the other and result in maximum goal achieving. 

  • Business
    What is business intelligence and how it differs from business analytics

    Every day your business is generating diverse and an enormous amount of data. In order to make better, smarter decisions, rectify past mistakes and problems and become more profitable, you need a way to turn your data into actionable insights. This is where business intelligence (BI) comes in. Business intelligence, or BI, business analytics, and data analytics are all data management solutions employed to understand past and present data and generate insights from them. 

    It is important to know that over the years, BI has significantly matured to include more processes and activities to help boost the performance companies and enterprises. These processes include:

    • Data mining
      Discovering trends by making use of databases, statistics and machine learning
    • Reporting
      Providing the analyzed data to stakeholders so they can make informed decisions
    • Performance metrics and benchmarking
      Comparing present data to past data to track performance against goals
    • Descriptive analysis
      Making use of preliminary data analysis to learn what happened
    • Statistical analysis
      Making use of results from descriptive analysis to further explore the data using statistics like how a particular trend occurred
    • Data visualization and analysis
      Converting data analysis in the charts, graphs, and histograms to easily understand and explore them 
    • Data preparation
      Compiling several data sources and preparing them for data analysis.

    Business intelligence vs business analytics

    It’s quite common to ask what is the difference between BI and business analytics, or is there any difference at all? Here’s where it gets tricky. There is no clear distinction between the two, but both, BI and business analytics are highly connected when it comes to resolving business issues, providing key insights on historical and contemporary data, and making future decisions. Some business experts state that business analytics focuses on predictive modeling and advanced statistics to assess what will happen in the future, while BI concentrates on the present moment of data, making the decision based on the lastest available insights. 

    Confused, right? Let’s try to understand in more simple terms:

    Business intelligence
    BI is concerned with what happened in the past and how it happened to bring about the present moment. BI only identifies huge trends and patterns and is not concerned about why those things happened. BI is for current business operations and it applies to all large scale companies to run current business operations.

    Business analytics
    Business analytics examines why things happened in a certain way in the past and identifies the factors that contributed to those events. It then makes use of this data to predict what will happen in the future and change business operations and improve productivity.